I want to expand my top lane pool of champions and have always liked Aatrox's kit but the few times I tried him, I didnt do all that well. So Im looking for Aatrox players advice on how to play/build him, or should I invest my time into a different champion? Should he be built with lots of as/ls or more as a bruiser?
Aatrox is a blast to play But...
As others said he has some majors issues and needs to be reworked. He is either a glass cannon or a bruiser that can do no damage. If you do not snowball hard you are going to have a lot of problems with him mid and late game as he will never catch up. He has some decent utility in team fights which can work really well if you have the right comp but you really need a team that works with him. I look at aatrox as more of a niche pick rather than someone you would want to main but as I said earlier he is really fun to play. I would rather play a fiora over aatrox any day of the week in ranked que. Aatrox has a 47% win rate right now in ranked and has been under 50% since his nerf and thus is due for a rework/buff in the future. Start playing him in normal and see how it goes.
I would say no he is not viable. His laning isn't great since he loses every trade but relies on sustain to outlast his opponent. He gets zoned very easily but is a great duelist if he can pick a favorable opportunity. He has trouble sticking on targets but deals a lot of sustained damage. He's a solid splitpusher but thats pretty much all I have. Much better choices IMO if you want a top laner.
Thanks for the tips, do you usually max his poke first or the toggle ability? Sorry I dont know the names, Im not that familiar with Aatrox
I max his E first for the wave clear/poke. W second for the sustain. Max Q last because it doesn't benefit much from levels anyways.
is aatrox in the meta? no
can you play him and carry solo q? yes
just because a champion is not in the meta doesnt make them unplayable meta champs are just champs pros deemed strong this patch and so everyone swarms them
My personal opinion is that glass cannon Aatrox was never viable, we just didn't know how to play against him correctly at the time.
Bruiser Aatrox gets the best of both worlds, with the fantastic early game damage of the glass cannon build combined with the tankyness of a mid/late game bruiser. There may be better options, particularly with the amount of ranged vs melee matchups that are happening, but taken on his own Aatrox is very viable in top lane.
To be honest, I forgot he was a champion.
if u have 
and 
too then buy him.
my tip to you:ur not suppose to max a lvl with aatrox.for examlpe dont go q,w,e,e,e,r,e,q,e
go something like q,w,e,q,w,r,e,q,.....
and try to get bt and botrk,they help alot.
Ah, the fun times of playing explosion aatrox with item cooldown and then building divine sword and infinity edge for a golden Aatrox. RIP.
Yes, he's still viable, as a bruiser/frontliner. DIve the carries for fun and profit. Randuin's, guardian angel, and spirit visage enhance him efficiently to make him insanely hard to put down. Remember; you only need attack speed and flat AD to stay alive and continue pissing people off. You don't need crit or armor penetration (ghostblade is still useful for reasons), and three out of your four abilities do magic damage. The fourth you'll only turn on for the quick burst anyway, so black cleaver is out of the picture as well.
Particularly with the removal of all items sources of grevious wounds. If you get fed you can go around oneshotting people for fun, but I wouldn't advise it since he doesn't snowball well and can quickly be turned around on.
BORK, Hydra, BT, zephyr, ionian, and ninja tabi are all useful for a variety of different reasons.
The reason he's not in the meta is because he's very hard to balance damage output vs. damage resistance, and smarter players may just ignore him in favor of other targets if he's too tanky.
He also falls off pretty badly in midgame.
Aatrox can still top decently, but his doesn't scale well into the late game at all. His ratios are Bonus AD, so you have to choose between building glass cannon or bruiser that deals no damage with spells. His in-lane sustain is great, plus he brings great initiation and CC. I personally build him bruiser.
Example Build: Botrk, Hydra, Randuins, Spirit Visage, Mercs, (Last item depends on whether you need more tank stats or damage).
A bonus of Aatrox is that he deals mixed damage. His autos are obviously physical, but his E (which is his main harass tool) deals magic damage while scaling with AD.
