League of Legends (LoL) Question: Did the recent Aatrox buff actually make him a lot stronger? Or am imaginin

As an avid Aatrox player, I can assure you that this buff did absolutely nothing to his early game (the bit where he needs to be on top of his game). This change also does not make him any more durable. All this means if that later game, you don't have to wait around on him as much to be useful. His passive will generally be up for most major team fights now, making him slightly more reliable.

Now if they could give this treatment to Zac.

I don't think it changed that much. He's probably a little more reliable around lvl 11 since his passive comes up sooner and mid game is when a lot of skirmishes and team fights happen. Other than that he's still the same champion. Maybe you just needed the confidence of a buff to succeed. :P