Hello :)
My name is Stain and i have been playing aatrox for about 2 seasons and have about 750k mastery points on him. While im defintely not the greatest on him i believe that i have enough knowledge to atleast help new player snd guide them in a direction so they can succeed on aatrox. So this guide is mostly for newbies.
I will try to update the guide over time so it stays fresh and updated. I am very open to criticism and will take them in mind whenever i make revisions.

I'm currently D3 and started ranked in S12 where i placed gold and then gradually went up a rank since then. I am trying to push for masters this split. I am also handless with no mechanics so if you try to watch my vods dont expect much.I used to stream on twitch but stopped for a little while. But if i ever do decide to play on twitch again.
https://www.twitch.tv/thestaintoblame
Discord: Stain2025

Lastly massive credit to this guide
https://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/14-4-aatrox-mega-guide-6m-master-1-worldwide-mp-otp-589188
It has helped me alot when making this for matchups and some macro knowledge so go defintely check it out.

Pros
No mana
Aatrox uses 0 mana so dont worry about wasting mana or any resources.

Amazing Blind Pick
Aatrox actually has little to 0 bad matchups and if they are picked you usally have a way around them. Melees will get bullied by your poke and all ins, and aatrox is one of the best melee top laners to deal with ranged due to his Q e range poking them out and csing.

Disgusting snowball potential + Teamfighting
Aatrox is one of the One Man Army top laners and with a lead he can very quickly snowball and wreak havocs onto every team fight. His aoe makes him an amazing teamfighter and can shred backline while distrupting them. His ult gives him bursts of movement speed allowing him to chase down targets. Overall an amazing frontline to have.

Sustain
Aatrox has great sustain in fights and will drain tank alot of damage only amplified by sundered sky. Although he doesnt heal much off minions but otherwise champion fighting his healing will usually come on top.

CC on multiple abilities
Aatrox of course has 3 knockups which can cut someone's dps down very hard and cancel windups channeling etc. His w counts too i guess (its a dogshit ability)
Cons
Falls off later in the game
Aatrox will fall off late game as he wont do as much damage since he has no max health damage apart from his auto attack passive. However he will still be a major threat in teamfights and a nuisance. Just dont really exepect to 1v3 alot when everyone is lvl 18 and has full items.

Higher than most skill ceiling
There has been alot of controversy with aatrox being show boated around as skillless when it simply isnt true. While his skill certainly has gone down with profane and sundered he's still very reliant on hitting abilities and very much in laning phase if you miss out on 1 q sweetspot it can be very likely that the enemy will walk away with little health and theres a free kill. Especially due to this slower very telegraphed q animations you will have to play teamfights a bit smart. Contrary to popular beliefe aatrox cant literally walk into 5 people and come out unscathed unless he's giga fed and the team you're playing against are literal bots.
But other than that aatrox is a very strong pick right now and will be for quite a while so i do recommend you pick him up in your champ pool.

Level 1-3
This is aatrox's worst part of the laning phase. His cooldowns are extremely long and you will almost never get prio into any champion. You want to just try to cs and let them shove to you. You want to angle yourself so that when you q you hit the laner and not the minions as you dont want to have the wave crash into their tower. Aatrox can easily be run down at this level if he's not careful. Some easy info that people should already know when trading is to fight back whenever your bone plating is proced in a favorable position etc. Never trade too much health for cs early game, and try to punish them when they cs unfavorably.

4-6
Level is when your q's deal damage and you start to hurt them. Hopefully the wave is near your tower where you can start properly punishing the enemy and zone them from cs by poking with q's or all inning. Your best time to trade will be when your wave is crashing or crashse so you can poke and harass before a new one arrives. You can still be run down however and the cd's are still a bit long.

6+
You have no unlocked your ultimate. Aatrox ult is a very good fighting ult as it heavily boosts his stats. If you are confident dont be scared to just pop ult and run your laners down since your q's will hit like a truck at this point. Dont waste e while you have your movement speed boost however as you can likely get in q1 range with it and then you may use your E on q2 or q3. Of course make sure your enemy doesnt have their escape route like a dash. Using your ult to burn their flash/ghost is completely fine aswell. Once you hit level 9 your Q is maxed out and has a relatively low cooldown. This is where you are free to poke the laners out and this is where aatrox shines in the laning phase.

(Im not really a macro expert so take this with a grain of salt)
You are going to want to keep your lead up by taking resources off the map with either waves or jungle camps. Never wander about wasting your time since you always want to be proactive in the game. You as a top laner will obviously want to be on the opposite side of the objective that is spawning so that you can force pressure so that people will have to answer to you. If you're running teleport you can split until you are needed to teleport into the teamfight. However if you're running ignite you want to shove the wave into tower as fast as you can before roaming to the objective. Ignite is a 1v1 spell and thats the tradeoff against teleport. If you take this spell you must win lane or coming for objectives later on will be hard to play with.
Within teamfights you are also the frontline and sometimes the initiator. You will do your best to not get bursted down instantly and peel for your team if there is a threat to your carry. Dont overstay for fights if your team isnt covering with you. Your job is to distrupt enemy backline as best as you can while drain tanking everything.
When you're behind, do not ego, you will just be a cc bot that will peel and tank damage for your actual carries.

This is when aatrox becomes less of a threat and a nuisance. All you will do is peel for your team and drain tank team figthts. This is by far his worst time of the game. You will do nothing but hope you can peel enough so your team cluthces out the fight.