An Introduction to Aphelios
About me and Aphelios
So my IGN is scaling rn, i've been playing League for 2 years on the EUW server. I am silver but i hope that won't deter you from reading this guide.
I think a lot of people are unnecessarily scared of Aphelios because of his "complex kit", while he is one of the more enjoyable ADCs out there.
I belive his early game is perfectly fine compared to other ADCs and he is a ticking time bomb as he is scaling to his insane late game.
Aphelios needs a little more attention and thought than other adc because his guns changes how he wants to look at a fight.
This is just to maybe convince you to try Aphelios out and see if you enjoy him.
Explanation of his Kit
I will try to explain his kit in a simple manner without too much unnecessary information that will not do much more than confuse those who are new to Aphelios. I put in the screenshots for those who want to gain a deeper understanding.
His guns
- Calibrum (green gun)
- Severum (red gun)
- Gravitum (purple gun)
- Infernum (blue gun)
- Crescendum (white gun)
Calibrum, the Sniper Rifle really simple here, you gain an extra 100 attack range. If you mark someone with an ability you gain the ability to shoot a long range AA with your off-hand weapon. Your Q
Weapon Abilites
Severum, the Scythe Pistol gives a small amount of passive lifesteal which is useful for lane. Your Q
Weapon Abilites
Gravitum, the Gravity Cannon attacks and abilities apply a short slowing effect which you can turn into a root using Q
Weapon Abilites
Infernum, the Flamethrower It basically applies a titanic hydra passive that crits and also hits enemies it goes trough. A little lackluster in the earlygame but hits like a literal tank mid/late. Its Q is a cone where enemies hit gets hit by an AA of your off-hand weapon. Its AA are really good for waveclear and Its Q oneshots waves a little later in the game.
Crescendum, the Chakram Is the pop-off gun, if you play it right while holding this gun you will be able to put out much more damage than you are supposed to. This gun has two passives that increase your dps, you gain more attack speed the closer you are to the target and you are able to stack up chakrams that do bonus damage on your AA. Its Q puts out a small turret that shoots automatically with your off-hand weapon, a little lackluster with anything else than Infernum and Calibrum.
His Ultimate - Moonlight Vigil
His ultimate shoots a wide skillshot that will hit the first target and enemies who are close. The effect of what the ultimate does depends on the gun in your main hand.
Calibrum (green) - Marks and deals damage to all targets hit, allowing you to shoot one long range AA to one of the targets, the shot will do more damage if you have multible targets marked. To be honest i almost never use this one, wouldnt advice you to do so either unless you are trying to finish someone off.
Severum (red) - Heals you for a flat amount, the healing not changing with amount of champions hit. Good to use to survive a dive or if you just need some hp.
Gravitum (purple) - hits all targets with an empowered slow and the root will last for 0,35 seconds longer. You can use this as both a catch tool and an engage tool in combination with your root.
Infernum (blue) - All targets hit takes an inital damage and then splash the Infernum passive around themselves. This is what you see in most montage plays and what birthed the 200 years meme, this ultimate's damage is very bad in a dual but in teamfights its insane.
Crescendum (white) - my personal favorite and most used, Crescendum ultimate gives you a base of 5 chakrams + 1 for each champion hit. If you have your green or red gun to stack up chakrams before using this and stack up 8-10 chakrams your damage is insane at any point in the game. Good to use in almost any circumstance, in a dual or in a teamfight, if you can stay alive to use those chakrams you will annihilate the enemy.
Gun Order
this is a little hard to understand at first but you get the hang of it after a few games. The thing is that Aphelios original weapon (green>red>purple>blue>white) order isn't optimal. A more optimal weapon order is red>white>green>purple>blue, this is because you want white between red and green, and purple and blue together as these makes the best combinations.
The way in which you obtain this specific gun order is really simple, all you have to do at the start of the game is use your red gun first and then use the guns in the following order until you reach white/red, where you use up red again and then you are in the order. So to walk you trough it: use up red, then green, then purple, then blue, then red, then white. the way i remember to do this is remembering i always want red>white>green, so i always use red before white, and white before green, and always purple before blue
If you fall out of the order its simple to get back. Lets say you used up blue before purple (something i do a lot), so your weapon order is red>white>green>blue>purple. All you have to do then is make sure you use blue before you use up purple, and same with all the other guns.
Gun Combos and Interactions
Here i will cover the most useful gun combos you will have if you use the gun order above.
Blue/Purple - This combination is good for catch and waveclear, blue Q>purple Q deals a good amount to a wave and lets you clear quickly. Blue Q has a longer range than your AA so you can use it to hit someone with a Root by suprise, you can also root multible enemies close to try to create distance.
Red/White - really good dualing power with this combo, i think the best for earlygame. This is because red Q stacks chakrams for your white gun, at base you get 4 chakrams which is more than enough to out-damage your opponent. If your support hits some CC you can run in with your red Q, stack up your chakrams and switch to your white and try to stand as close as possible to deal really good damage.
White/Green - this is my personal favorite combo as i have killed so many without them expecting it. The power comes from White Q's turret, it will tag an enemy for you to land a long range AA and give you one chakram. This allows you to throw down the turret and AA from long range if they don't focus on it. Late game you two-threeshot anyone who isnt a tank so it only takes a second or two of them not noticing the turret before they are dead, without any possibility to damage you back.
Teamfights
Its hard to tell you what to do as Aphelios in teamfights, it is so dependent on your strength, ally and enemy teamcomp, and most of all your guns. I would advice to start with trying out the gun combinations above, as they have the biggest potential to do damage.
Runes (Loadout)
i used to use
- Lethal Tempo
- Conqueror
Summoner Spells
Im a scrub so i just go with
- summs
Skill Path
Its very simple here, ive always just go Q max into E max into W max (AD max to Lethality max to ATK speed max). Of course you can do something else but this is the most popular.
- Skill Path
Aphelios
Builds
Aphelios' builds are pretty simple, as with many ADCs nowadays. ATK speed doesnt feel as good as AD on Aphelios in my opinion, so you can choose to sacrifice
- Item Set 1
Matchups
- Breakdown
Closing notes
I just made this on a whim, this site seems really cool and good-looking so i really wanted to contribute. I have never made a guide before or anything of the sort but i hope anyone found it atleast a tiny bit useful as i had actually much more fun than i thought i would making this. i thought it was going to be an hours work but ended up spending a whole day on this. Even though i am silver do i think i have pretty good insight in the game and its champions.
Credits goes to Remmacs, he is amazing on Aphelios and his youtube guide which i urge you to check out, was a huge inspiration of this guide. Also his stream as i linked at the top.
Screenshots were taken from the League of Legends wiki's aphelios page