Hi, I am Oromiselda and I have been playing LoL for about a year. I have always preffered to play solo lanes and have been trying out different things on Aatrox during the last few days.

This is my first guide I have ever made, the reason I make one now is that I felt like there wasn't any Aatrox guide out yet that really captured what he was good at, and what he was not good at. I explain all of my item picks in the notes. Please read the gameplay section if you want to, I think that is where the biggest difference is made and not in the items.
I hope this will help someone.

Pro's

Ridiculous sustain, if he is able to auto attack something
Considerable amount of CC
Very strong steroid ultimate
Second life passive
Scales really well of off attack speed

Cons

Must auto attack to stay alive
Can get easily kited if he does not hit his E's
Needs attack speed before he becomes tanky or a damage threat

Laning phase

Most of the time you will spend in Blood thirst stance, because the sustain it provides at the moment is just to good to pass up on. It gives you the opportunity to completly bully your enemy out of lane. You just need to hit minions to sustain and harass him with E. If your opponent steps forward to much or you hit a good E, you can engage with your Q and get a few hits of. He will probably run off after this trade, leaving you to heal back up with W.

Maximum damage: stack up your Blood well to full and your Blood price to three. This way, your next attack will deal additional damage and you will have higher attack speed, which may lead to a second Blood price proc if you hit your Q knockup.

Team fights

Although it is tempting, try not to dive into the enemy with your Q. You may think you are immortal now with all of your sustain, but if they land any peels on you and you cannot auto attack someone, you will die really fast.

What I found worked best; wait for the enemy to engage on your backline, Q their engager and start shredding him down, while trying to position you between him and their backline. With the help of your BotRK you will be able to take him down relatively fast. Your Blood thirst and spirit visage will help survive the damage that they will throw at you and you can soak up alot of their cooldowns while at the same time peeling for your backline.

Their engager will probably die without causing many problems for your backline, while the rest of your frontline and you zone the enemy backline. Once their tank has died your Q has probably come of off cooldown and you should still be healthy, use your Q to engage on their backline and cleanup.

Note: try to always keep your Blood well filled, the extra attack speed is very important.

Use of your ultimate

I advise you to use your ultimate when you are at less than 50% health, combine Massacre with Guinsoo's gunblade proc and Blood thirst to heal for insane amounts.