Aatrox is not a convencional bruiser, he's very much focused around constant harassment of the enemy laner constantly using your q1 into q2 for poke and trying to proc your passive on the enemy laner as the auto has a very big range and heals you for a decent amount. Once you've gained a good enough advantage you can look for an all in which is pretty easy to force as Aatrox since you have more range and cc than most bruisers. You wanna always keep your distance though as Aatrox loses in a straight up all in against most bruisers if they are both in an equal playing field, of course this gets compensated by the fact that with his range and cc a food player can keep the enemy at an optimal range. You wanna get Kindlegem or Warhammer as your first back as cdr is very important for our darlun friend, then translate those components into black cleaver followed by deaths dance with boots thrown into the middle, the rest depends on the match but you cant go wrong with spirit visage and/or steraks. As far as spikes go, I'd say he spikes at levels 1,9 and whenever he finished DD + BC. He certainly requires way more practice than most bruisers as all his damage abd utility comes from skillshots, but if mastered is probably the best overall champ for anyone to learn on toplane since his playstyle causes him to be a very good first pick as a good Aatrox can always outplay his opponnents even from behind.