A couple of days ago, Riot Games released a teaser about the next champion. They have mentioned that the champion’s kit cannot be compared to any existing champions in League of Legends
This statement intrigued the community, considering the designer behind would be CertainlyT, who is infamous for crazy and overloaded kits on most champions he designed.
Most champions can be summarized quite quickly, but Aphelios is unlike others.
Aphelios cycles through five different weapons, each with its basic attack. Aphelios will always carry two weapons, the main hand weapon, and an off-hand weapon. He can swap to the off-hand with his W ability. He cannot choose which weapons to equip at any given time. The weapons have 50 ammo each, and when a weapon runs empty, it will switch to the next one in line. Empty weapons go to the end of the line to recharge.
Aphelios has three buttons: Q/W/R. W will swap between his main hand and off-hand, leaving him with two abilities (Q/R). Each weapon has it’s own Q ability, which has bonus effects depending on the off-hand weapon. All five Q’s cost mana and ammo, each has a separate cooldown. (It is possible to Q, swap weapon, then use the other Q immediately). The Q ability is automatically learned at level 2, and it becomes stronger throughout the game.
Aphelios’s ultimate is called Moonlight Vigil. It sends a bomb forward that explodes on the first enemy hit, damaging nearby enemies. Then, Aphelios follows up with enhanced basic attacks from his main weapon against all enemies caught in the explosion. The ability is automatically learned at levels 6, 11, and 16.
Since the abilities are automatically learned, the Aphelios player will put his level up points into stats instead, such as Attack Damage, Attack Speed, and Bonus Armor Penetration.
The five weapons are Calibrum (poke/harras), Severum (sustain), Gravitum (utility), Infernum (AoE/waveclear), Crescendum(close-range DPS like a boomerang). Each weapon will have specific abilities to enhance the capabilities of the weapon, allowing for a mixed playstyle.
Due to the complications with his kit, he will be deployed with a custom HUD to make it easier to track everything. His HUD will show the current primary hand weapon, and it’s ammo, the off-hand weapon, and it’s ammo, the Q cooldown of the off-hand weapon, the next weapon received after the player runs out of ammo and a cooldown indicator for R.
The original design from CertainlyT had 25 weapons in the kit of Aphelios. Thankfully, it was reduced to only five weapons; otherwise, it would be close to impossible to master this champion.
The latest champion release of Senna proved to be quite impactful for the ecosystem of League of Legends; the champion outperforms most current champions in the games due to massive utility and scaling provided by the kit. Will Aphelios follow the same route and be pick/ban status or will he be too hard to master?
