5 Aatrox tips

Before I get into it, I would like to point out I'm a full on aatrox main and have 500 ranked games under my belt as him. I am writing this very serious post so I could invite more people to try him out and understand him better. Disclaimer- I am not the best at this game. I am only Plat Elo. But I started playing this game this season and got placed in bronze 2 and climbed all my way up. Right now I have won 300 and lost 220 games as Aatrox.

1. Use Aatrox's level 2 and try to win lane. If you play your cards, you can almost certainly hit 2 before your enemy laner because of your e. With the minion advantage you can almost guaranteed get a level 2 or level 3 kill. I kid you not I went on an 18 game first blood streak in the gold ELO.
2. Your q is your bread and butter ability. Not your w but your q. It offers so much utility. Best way to utilize is not to engage with it tho but instead think of it as a sticking to your target mechanic. Sure the knockup is really important because it helps you stick to your target. As I say that make sure to save your Q. If you are close to your target try to save it until you can get a clean knockup. Plus the more health you have lost the less damage your abilities will do to you.
3. Alot of people will tell you that a general rule of thumb is to blood thirst on less than 50 perc and blood price on more than 50 perc health. However, that is just a guideline. For example in teamfights unless you have your third w proc on I would advise against using blood price. Once you sustain through most of the spells and cooldowns targeted on your team and you feel it is safe to do so you can switch to bloodprice.
4. Unless you are behind. Mid game a giants belt is all you need for defense. Trust me on this. I have went through all these build paths. But a giants belt is all you need. My reasoning - mid game alot of people will not focus you down during a dragon fight - its natural they will go for your carries. Unless you get completely focuse the only person that can delete you is the enemy mid laner. And giants belt helps absorb that initial burst. You can sustain through an entire fight if not properly focused with just a giants belt. If you check in most of my matches I will have all these offensive items but just one giants belt even sometimes during late game.
5. There are ways to utilize your ult. If it is safe to do so or is a guaranteed kill then you can use this combo on an enemy adc or apc. Have your 3 w proc ready. Q ult R (blade active) and E if you have a clear shot. You will guranteed burst down a squishy. But if there backline is crowded and there is a chance I will get CC locked if I dive in I tend to make sure that someone else on my team hard engages. And If I dont have that then I use my ult e and q to kite off the enemy engage onto my backline. That is I try to stay in the backline but dont absorb damage but instead help put out more damage onto the enemy engager. One final note: I tend to play a relatively squishy aatrox. That works out for me though. My sample build is Blade-Hydra-Maw-Merc-LW-RANDUIN. I can peel really good for myself and carries and out put alot of damage.

-Another thing I prefer Maw over spirit visage. Granted I do not revive with alot of HP and also tend to have less HP but I get alot more AD through the passive and stats and also a sheild that again saves me from one of my biggest counters (burst) and really amplifies my under 50 percent health healing. I hope this helps.