PROS:

Insane Lifesteal
Can be quite tanky
Powerful Duelist
High Sustain

CONS:

Squishy (Not naturally tanky)
Can be quite useless if behind (Building AS/AD)
Easily Kited
When behind it can be really tough to get back into the game

Some newer players don't really get why some items are better for some champs and others aren't. This applies especially to Jungle upgrades because they simply always stick with the one that others told them to, but in reality they really don't know why. Let me tell you what these do and why they can be good/bad:

Stalkers is probably the way to go for the "hardcore" ganking junglers because of the powerful ganks he can pull off. With the stalker's passive (chilling smite) it can slow the target for 20% of their move speed, which combined with your (or teammate's) general cc can easily get you a kill.

Ranger's is more for farming junglers because of the aoe damage it gives and the 15% health/mana it gives when you use the smite. Use this on Aatrox when you are behind because you were shutdown early or getting counter jungled. Don't use this when you are ahead, because you should always take advantage of leads.

Poacher's knife is a BIG giveaway to the other team that you are counter jungling them. Which the other team can take advantage of and kill you when you are doing so. So that is the reason why people don't really run this.

Skirmishers can be useful in those 1v1 fights so this item can be quite beneficial when you are ahead or you are a dueling champion like Aatrox. With the damage reduction of 20% it can really help you take out their ad carries.

This should of given you a general idea of what the jungling items do and how they may correlate with the champion you are playing. I just personally like forcing Duels so the Skirmisher's passive really helps me. But for those who prefer ganking (Stalker's) or those who prefer a farming play style (Ranger's) can adapt to something different.

Bruiser

Brusier Aatrox is the "meta" way of playing Aatrox, giving him powerful sustain and damage but also with a decent amount of Health and general tankyness. This is when he can initiate fights without getting blown up instantly and can still get in your enemy's faces and knock them all down. Building things like a spirit visage with Botrk can really help your sustain and tankyness.

Glasscannon

Glasscannon is a very fun way of playing him if you are fed, the idea of this is to build as offensively as possible without any means of getting health. The crazy amounts of damage you can put out can really get your enemies re-thinking, the next time they engage upon you. Building this like Bezerker's greeves, Infinity edge and even phanton dancer can help.

Tank

Tanky Aatrox is a playstyle and role that I really love to play. Seeing a 4k/5k health Aatrox that still has a somewhat medicore sustained damage, lifesteal and Attack speed is absolutely frightening. Warmogs is generally one of the best items because you can gain all your health back without having to "find" and lifesteal minions. Engage fights all you want while being a powerful cc tank that never seems to ever die.
AP
AP Aatrox is fun to play but can really, like REALLY screw you over. Your E and R scales off AP so when you do get ahead you ult will be like an aoe veigar ult without the AP passive. It can work well sometimes but usually it is a really ridiculous idea. I don't recommend it in times when you want wins, but when playing casually, it can be the real definition of fun.

Blood Well

This passive isn't just a G.A built into a champ, but also an Attack speed buff (Aatrox gains 0.3 / 0.35 / 0.4 / 0.45 / 0.5 / 0.55% bonus attackspeed for every 1% in his blood well). As shown in the Wiki, if you constantly have max blood well, your attack speed you gain at earlier to late game is absolutely insane. I have seen people play very passively to try and not pop the passive. I find this as a bad idea because you passive is the very reason why you should be going balls deep into the enemies and if you can control the fight it can easily be a kill. So don't worry about popping your passive, because you will always still be that lifesteal monster.

Dark Flight

This ability is classified as a dash so it can be interrupted with almost like ANY cc. So becareful with it when running away from a thresh or like a morgana. It can also be used as an interruption against a Nunu or a Katarina. Scales off 60% AD + 250 at max rank which is always handy.

Blood Price/Thirst

Blood Thirst - Your ultimate lifesteal ability in your kit. With having your heal scale off the ability rank + 25% AD can add up to quite a high number.
Blood Price - Scales off 100% AD, and having every third attack (along with Attack speed) can do so much damage it can sometimes take out half the health of an unexpected adc.

Blades of Torment

Your ranged poke ability that scales off 60% AD/AP. It can be quite strange to use at first because it shoots a cone that is inverted. It slows your enemy by 40% for 1.75/2/2.25/2.5/2.75 seconds which means it can be used to catch enemies that are running away,

Massacre

It fills you blood well up with each strike when active (Bonus AS) - Bonus Attack Speed (40/50/60%) - Magic Damage (200/300/400 + 100% AP) Usually people activate it before a fight to junp it and get the attack speed and range, but so many people don't realize how much damage your AOE ult can do. So you should Jump in on them and ult when they are in range of it.

What is Jungling? As a beginner may ask, is a very common question that many of those people may want an answer to. Well, Jungling is basically when you go around the jungle quadrants to kill the monsters that spawn and to also help laners win their lanes. Now, with jungling, there is a hell of a lot more to it than that, the main things that split average junglers to good junglers are these following factors: Map awareness, Habit of warding, Patience, knowing how to play as/against a champion and focus. We will get to that soon, but before that, one thing people need to understand is that Jungling is never the same. If you play one game as Aatrox jungle, the next game will never be the same because there are so many different variables that can just change in a split second.

Map Awareness: This is one of the reasons why I personally feel that getting out of lock screen is so important. As you can pan around the map extremely quickly and can see what is going on around you and around others. This is pretty much to constantly pay attention to what is going on around the map and ALWAYS check your minimap every few seconds.

Warding (You need a habit of constantly warding because vision is one of the most important things in this game. Drop down wards whenever possible, so every back when you get your items always try your best to invest some gold in a green or pink ward. If your laners aren’t warding with their one trinket do it for them, because that can simply decide whether or not they are going to survive the next gank they take. Ward dragon constantly, ward baron when reaching a later stage of the game, ward jungle entrances/exits and also just ward in places where the enemy is most likely to go. For example you can ward the river so you can see where the enemies are rotating or roaming. If you are playing as a counter jungling champion ward the enemy jungle so you can kill them/warn teammates whenever they are there. If you are a jungler like nautilus ward your own jungle in case of incoming counter jungles.

Knowing the champions: (This is one of the parts when I say jungling has many variables. Say if you are playing Warwick and your opponent is playing lee sin, the main things about this matchup is that you can’t counter-jungle as well as he can, you can’t gank until lvl 6 while lee can gank well as early as lvl 2 and he is a lot more aggressive than you are. So every champion has their advantages and weaknesses but you personally need to understand the matchup and co-ordinate your team to your playstyle or their playstyle.

Patience: (This is another important thing with jungling because you always need to remain focused and go in or go out in the right moments. Take Zac as an example, if you jump in too early in a teamfight, your team are probably too far to react and thus your jump was unexpected by your team which can lead to your death, if you go in too late, your team is probably getting too low from the 4v5 and thus you lose that fight and they can take baron or finish the game. Same goes for ganks and the early/mid game. You need to be able to have patience in terms of waiting for the right moment to gank a lane but also realize the situations where that moment won’t come and thus, you should back off and farm.

Focusing: (Stay alert and stay focused because the moment you don’t pay attention to a simple thing, like forgetting dragon is back up, so your enemies take it before you, you don’t realize the jungler is going towards your laner, so they die from him, etc. So those the main factors of being a good jungler.

Jungle minions and smiting them:
Gromp- similar to the thornmail effect and the damage scales 5% of your health, important if playing tank jungles in the late game
Blue buff: Gives you 25% of your mana, not needed unless you need the mana
Wolves: Spawn a spirit that grants you vision in the quadrant of the jungle that you smiting them in
Raptors: You get the oracle buff to be able to spot enemy wards around you
Red Buff: you get 20% of your maximum health back
Krugs: First hit stuns monster, and then every 6th hit stuns monster
JGB1 Dragon buff: 1st – AD/AP bonus by 6%
2nd Team’s damage to turrets by 15%
3rd Team’s movespeed by 5%
4th 15% more damage to minions and monsters
5th Doubles all previous bonuses and also make enemies burn for 150 true damage
Baron: Gives your team AD/AP based on the game time, and also buffs the minions you are near


STARTING ROUTES (Can be altered)
-Gromp-Blue-Red (This start can be used for those champions that require mana or want to smite red after the clear for the health to gank)
-Krugs-Red-Blue (This start is the way to go for most AD or offensive champions, as you get the red buff on the second camp.

-Early plays: Krugs-Raptors-Red (Smite Krugs and red) (This is the way of jungling I use most with champions like, Lee Sin, Jarvan, Rengar, Kha’zix and a few more, I personally find this extremely good for those early lvl 3 ganks on nearby lanes)

-Double Jungle: Bot starts Gromp, you and top start blue then move to wolves, you take big monster top takes small. (This is used for an early advantage for your team, as you clear faster without losing health, top gets lvl 2 and better items before the enemy does and your bot gets an exp bonus but loses a bit of health. This can be used extremely effectively if your team knows how to abuse their lead)

Extra things to take note of
Sometimes as the jungler it is better to give your buffs especially blue to your fellow laners. Even if you do use a lot of mana, giving the blue buff to like an Ahri or Karthus is a better idea. Ward the enemy buffs or pay attention to the enemy mid laner if they are leaving towards to the blue buff. Use that moment to kill them or take it for yourself.

Jungling in general (For Dummies)

Now every champion is different in the jungle and that is what makes every champion so unique and weird to play as. Aatrox is weird one, he is quite squishy early on but has the sustain to deal with it. One tip you should take note of is to use Blood Price when your health is above half and then switch to Blood thirst when your health is below 50% because the amount of health you steal when you do so is a lot higher and thus, you are clearing camps faster and also sustaining yourself to keep doing so.

Things about Jungling: Make sure you constantly farm up so do don't fall behind but also try to apply as much pressure as you can to lanes. Your goal as playing as a new (or old) champion in the jungle is to find the PERFECT combination between farming and ganking. For example, some champions (warwick) can't gank really well pre-6 because all he can do is walk up and attack which means he farms more than he ganks pre-6. On the other hand, champions such as lee sin or shaco should try to gank more than they farm, simply because their early game ganks are extremely strong and they won't be able to do as well in the late game. So it simply is trying to take advantage of what and how your champion reacts or responds to certain stages of the game.

Make sure you try to keep as many camps cleared all the time, I mean, if you can clear most of your camps maybe all and still dish out really efficient and time-worthy ganks you are doing an amazing job already. Whenever you are thinking of ganks you should always take note of a few things, if your top laner is asking for a gank and you at red side doing blue don't go there after you finish your camp. The amount of time it will take for to reach is there is probably the same if you just clear gromp or scuttle and head mid/bot and also get them ahead. If your top really needs a gank, sure, give one to them but all I'm saying is to evaluate the amount of time something will take and then evaluate how much you and your team will get out of it. So no random ganks and ganks that aren't thought out. Always know what and why you are ganking and make sure the gank is successful.

A quick thing about ganks. People tend to go in on ganks when your teammate or the enemy goes in on each other, which is wise and I can see why they are doing so, but realize that a more efficient and effective way would be to make sure your teammate knows you are there and go in when your enemy is about to take a CS or trying to land something like a Zed W-Q combo. Why? Because in lower elos people tend to focus way to much on getting that CS or landing those skillshots because things like that (CS) aren't exactly something they are really used to. Which leads on to them paying to much attention to the CS so they loose concentration on whether some is ganking or not.

Constantly warding is one of the most important aspects of the game because you always need to know where your opponents are at. If bot lane is missing, people think about them going to dragon or maybe doing a rotation. Putting a ward or two bot side can make that big thinking process into a small and a lot more better one because it simply concludes it with the information that the wards are giving. Having information on the enemy jungler is vital to your success so then you can setup counter ganks and getting your team to push/defend certain areas of the map.

The way I recommend playing jungle is to play in a way that influences your opponent's mentality. I can't really make a definite conclusion to how to play seeing as though I'm fairly low in terms of ELO but I can definitely form a base opinion and idea of the way I do things.

For example taking an Early Dragon or a Mid Baron can easily change how some of your opponents think or face this game. Aatrox can take early dragons because of his sustain, so say if you start blue side krugs->raptors->Red then gank bot and kill one/two and drag straight after, you can absolutely put your enemy/enemies on tilt or on their bad side of thinking. Imagine yourself playing competitively in Top lane against a Riven. You and her are quite close in terms of power and you are trying to get a kill on her and she is thinking of the same. Then you see/hear that bot lane got destroyed (First blood and another kill) and they took a dragon. In that moment some people (Especially in lower elo) will respond mentally or verbally in a very "toxic" or a negative way which can impact their team and themselves so badly that they can start fights or arguments among them which can easily cost them the game. Ever seen the guy on your team that flames and gets mad at people because they simply can? Well this strategy is simply a trigger to those inner emotions on the opponent's team to cause them to tilt or do a lot worse.

People that talk a lot in the All Chat tends to be those who like to express and show what they are going through or what they are about to experience. Take advantage of people who do that (If it is their Jungler, even better) and try to force them to tilt or start the all time famous "Blame and Flame". This doesn't mean to be a complete douche bag and start calling them bad or verbally abusing them in any way. A while ago I read a book called "The Art of War" By Sun Tzu (A Chinese General) and what he said was "You can achieve goals without even having to fight", Which in my perspective means that you can win a war/battle by only attacking your enemies mentally.

"Allow him an outlet, through which escape is possible. If you push him into a corner with no chance of retreat it will cost you, as he will fight with desperation of one who has nothing to lose" This can apply to Lol as well, because it can prevent your opponents from catching up from a comeback or outplay caused by their desperation to survive or win.

It is something that I sometimes do even though I'm more passive in the Jungle. The Art of Counter Jungling is to be able to Predict where the enemy jungler is, what they are doing and how you are going react upon the enemy jungle based on the situation that both you and they are in. Usually these predictions are formed by what you would do in their shoes, whether or not you can see them or not. For example if you see bot gone and their jungler is nowhere to be seen in the earlier stages of the game, they probably are doing dragon. Say if the enemy Jungler on red team is visibly backing you have their red warded (The red is up) they are most likely heading there so you can tell bot to help you quickly secure a free dragon.

In most games i don't tend to counter jungle as Aatrox and the furthest i would normally go is to go and put a few deep wards down.

Winning a game isn't always just be simply playing the game. Having a decent mindset is just as important because playing multiplayer games like this can really impact the way you think and react.

There is a term out there that is often used and it is called "tilt". Originally used in Poker as a definition for those who are overcome by their emotions and start playing poorly. In Lol it pretty much is the same thing, seen a lot of my friends including myself that tilt because we let our emotions overtake reality in games. This game involves so much emotional and mental strength it is stupid, that is why i tend to call this game "The game of a Psychological Warfare". Tilting can really make you do horrible because you simply can't get the problem out of your head. Learning to adapt and adjust your emotional problems and troubles can be a hard and rough journey but it definitely is a goal worth reaching.

Also as a Jungler if you loose a game it is simply your fault, realizing this and adapting to this can really help you win more games because it is implanting into your brain that you aren't stuck in ELO hell (as many say) but just chilling at a position with people at your skill. So always go into a game with the mindset that you aren't god at this game and just accept the facts that if you loose it isn't your team's fault. This will lead on below:

ELO hell and the facts
From my personal experience ELO hell is a term used by many players. For those who don't know what this term defines as, it simply means a person or persons is supposedly "stuck" in an ELO because their teammates aren't at a level of skill where you can win your games. As said above, some people just choose not to accept the facts but to blame others for their mistakes without looking at your own.

Some people are blinded by variance in this game which causes them to jump into conclusions and end up saying something like "I'm stuck in ELO hell, because my teams always do bad and are terrible". When you should be thinking "I'm stuck in this ELO because I clearly aren't good enough to advance forward". Which is something I usually do after loosing a game because it basically helps me overcome the fact that I lost. So many people complain after a defeat and that is one reason why tilting exists and it can also hurt others because the player simply pointed a negative statement verbally.

You can never teach a player to be a lot better at the game to climb the ladder if they don't have to mindset to. If the play the blame n' flame game, the first thing they need to learn is to not play that game. Disclaimer: This might sound exaggerated but it is the sad truth. People that try their best to teach and guide players that are stuck in ELO hell won't succeed in a good standard because you are simply teaching them how to run before walking. Why? Because just learning how to overcome the facts will take longer than to learn how to play the game well.

Thank you for reading my quick Aatrox / Lol Psychology guide. I hope you learnt something and enjoyed what I had to say, just always remember to be a nice person and train yourself to obtain a better player's mentality. Enjoy your day!