On Reddit, a player posted his opinion on the rework Aphelios
Riot hyped Aphelios as a champion with “one of the highest skill ceilings in the game”. As we now know, it’s simply not true. Aphelios’ kit works pretty much on its own, making it simple to play, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s definitely a far cry from what he should be. Aphelios as he is now can probably be fixed with just some number tweaks (i’m looking at you, Infernum) but i want to share my ideas on how to change his kit to make him closer to what he was promised to be.
There are 3 problems that we need to get through:
- Aphelios has basically no control over which weapon he uses. On paper, it means that he has to plan ahead to achieve the optimal combination of weapons before he actually needs them. In practice, it forces every weapon to be decent in every situation, otherwise the champion feels troll when you don’t have the optimal set of weapons. Which brings us to the 2nd problem.
- It doesn’t matter which weapon you have (unless you have Infernum, but lets pretend that it has already been nerfed and is on par with his other weapons). You can approach any situation with any combination of weapons and you’ll be just fine, which riot showed us in his champion trailer. But what’s the point of having 5 weapons if they are all just going to be jack-of-all-trades? Solving the first problem allows us to make his weapons more situational, giving each weapon an actual identity.
- His ultimate. It’s just a skillshot that does damage and sometimes heals you or slows your enemies. Seriously riot? You’re going to tell us that this champion is insanely hard to master, and then you just give him a simple projectile ultimate? Aphelios’ ultimate needs to be changed completely.
After pointing this out, the solution becomes obvious, if a little boring. All three of these problems can be solved by changing Aphelios’ ultimate to allow him to change his main hand weapon. True, it’s not very unique, but so is a skillshot that just does damage. So here’s my proposition for Aphelios’ new ultimate:
R: Lunari’s Arsenal
Aphelios discards his main hand weapon, getting access to his entire arsenal. Aphelios cannot attack or use abilities, but he can move. Pressing Q, W or E causes him to equip a weapon from his weapon queue (i.e. if your main hand weapon is Calibrum, and your off-hand weapon Severum, you will discard Calibrum, after which your Q will equip Gravitum, your W will equip Infernum and your E will equip Crescendum). Swapping to a new weapon with your ultimate enchances it with Faith (more on that later). Aphelios gets access to this ability on 6th lvl, it’s cooldown decreases on 11th and 16th lvl.
Changing Aphelios’ ultimate means that he no longer has a big finisher type ability, but it would allow him to adjust to any situation by changing his gun, while getting some bonus effects. This means that we can make his weapons more situational without making you feel like you’re useless because a teamfight started while you had a wrong weapon combination.
With that out of the way, here’s how I’d change his weapons. These are mostly minor changes, with the exception of Infernum, which is pretty much a new weapon. But before that, I want to introduce a term I’m going to use a lot from now on: Off-hand attack. An off-hand attack is an attack made using you off-hand weapon (duh!) that is triggered by hitting an enemy with an ability. This attack deals % of Aphelios AD as damage (scaling with lvl), can critically strike and triggers on-hit effects. Now then, here are my proposed weapon changes:
Calibrum, the Rifle
- Calibrum’s attack range is increased by 100 units (giving Aphelios 650 total attack range). Hitting an enemy with your Q (Moonshot) or using Calibrum to perform an off-hand attack marks the enemy. If the marked enemy is out of your attack range, Aphelios can right click that enemy to root himself in place for a short time while he takes aim. The further the enemy is (still global range) the longer the aiming takes. It’s also shortened by attack speed. After Aphelios takes aim, he strikes the target with an off-hand attack, consuming every mark and dealing bonus damage for every mark consumed.
- Calibrum Q: Moonshot stays the same.
- Faith bonus (triggered when you swap into Calibrum with your R): The first time you make an attack that consumes a mark for the next few seconds, you deal bonus damage based on target’s missing health (missing health % scales with R lvl).
These changes keep Calibrum as a safe, poke weapon, while adding a mechanic for executing a low health, escaping target, as long as you can land an ability on him to mark him. If you shoot too early and the target survives, Aphelios’ self root gives the enemy a chance to escape, meaning Calibrum isn’t very good at chasing escaping enemies. Keep in mind, you cannot consume a mark if the target stays in your attack range, thus preventing you from utilising Calibrum’s Faith bonus.
The root mechanic also fixes Calibrum’s interaction with his Crescendum Q: Sentry. The time Aphelios takes to aim at a target allows an enemy to destroy the sentry without being attacked from a global range 3-4 times, which can feel unfair.
Severum, the Scythe Pistol
- Severum’s attack range is decreased by 50 units (putting his total attack range at 500, alongside champions like Lucian, Kindred or Sivir). Dealing damage with Severum heals Aphelios by % dmg dealt. While below 50% HP, Aphelios gains bonus attack speed while using Severum.
- Severum Q: Onslaught stays mostly the same, each of the attacks is an off-hand attack (both the ones made with Severum and Aphelios’ secondary weapon)
- Faith bonus: Aphelios gains a shield (shield amount scales with R lvl).
Decreasing Severum’s attack range by a whooping 50 units means that Aphelios needs to put himself in danger if he wants to regain his health, rather than doing so from a comfortable distance. Bonus attack speed helps Aphelios heal just enough damage to survive during a close fight, while a shield from his Faith bonus keeps him afloat long enough to get some healing going after you swap to Severum with R.
Severum remains a good choice if you want to heal outside of combat, during the laning phase or between teamfights. It’s also a great tool for buying time before your jungler comes to turn around a losing fight, or to survive while you’re being targeted by the enemy team in a teamfight.
Also keep in mind, the number of off-hand attacks you make with your Q: Onslaught scales with attack speed, meaning if you use it after dropping below half health you will make some extra attacks due to your bonus attack speed.
Gravitum, the Cannon
- Gravitum’s attacks inflict a decaying slow on your target.
- Gravitum Q: Eclipse roots and deals damage to every enemy affected by Gravitum’s slow in your attack range. Make an off-hand attack against rooted enemies.
- Faith bonus: Aphelios’ next attack with Gravitum deals AOE damage around the target and inflicts an increased slow (slow % scales with R lvl) on damaged enemies.
Making Eclipse’s range no longer global and forcing Calibrum to aim before shooting a marked target makes it possible for Gravitum’s ability to provoke off-hand attacks like every other ability in Aphelios’s kit without creating a game breaking combination between these two weapons.
Gravitum is Aphelios’ only source od CC. It’s good for chasing enemies, kiting and escaping.
Infernum, the Flamethrower
- Infernum’s attack range is decreased by 100 (that’s a total of 450 range, only 25 more than Graves’). Infernum’s attacks do only 80% AD damage. Whenever Aphelios attacks an enemy with Infernum, a cone of fire appears, stretching from Aphelios to the end of his attack range, centered on the attacked enemy. This cone deals base dmg + 30% AD (keep in mind, all numbers are subject to change) to every enemy cought in it. If Infernum is used to make an off-hand attack, this damage is instead dealt in a radius around the target, instead of in a cone.
- Infernum Q: Duskflare (new ability, name is a subject to change) Aphelios charges his weapon, creating an AOE column of fire (think Xerath’s Q). The longer he charges, the further it reaches (up to Calibrum’s attack range), the thicker it is and the more damage it deals. Make an off-hand attack against all enemies hit.
- Faith bonus: Aphelios gains an attack speed bonus for a few seconds.
A completely new weapon, this time working somewhat like a real flamethrower. It deals less AOE damage compared to live version and has a decreased range. This version is deliberately made weaker than the current Infernum, because the live version is simply too good in every possible situation.
Infernum remains best at pushing the waves, having a built in AOE damage and an ability perfect to blast the entire minion wave at once. It also can do quite some AOE damage in a fight while blasting a single target with increased damage.
It’s much more dangerous to use it in a lane due to decreased range, allowing enemies to punish Aphelios if he’s pushing too aggressively.
Swapping into Infernum gives you increased attack speed (you can swap to your off-hand weapon and keep that bonus) allowing you to quickly push a lane or deal a big amount of damage to a nearby attacker.
Crescendum, the Chakram
- Crescendum’s attack speed is dependant on you target’s proximity (like in live version). Using Crescendum to make an off-hand attack creates a temporary copy of Crescendum that increases damage dealt to the target of your attacks (like in live version). Every additional copy of Crescendum deals slightly less damage then the previous one.
- Crescendum Q: Sentry remains mostly the same, but with decreased range. Sentry’s attacks are off-hand attacks.
- Faith bonus: Aphelios makes 1/2/3 (scales with R lvl) off-hand attacks using Crescendum against the closest enemy.
Crescendum remains the strongest single-target, close-range weapon. Getting a few free Crescendum copies when you swap into Crescendum with your R allows you to start dealing serious single-target damage instantly, without the need to swap your weapon using your W and use that weapon’s ability to summon them.
Notice that Crescendum’s attack range isn’t decreased. That’s becouse the weapon is already punishing you for attacking far away targets, hence no need to punish it further.
Decreasing attack range of Sentry provides more room for counterplay for Aphelios’ opponents. Also note that interaction between Calibrum and Sentry is made less oppressive due to Calibrum’s aiming mechanic, as stated earlier.
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Thank you for reading my post. I hope you found my ideas interesting. If you have any propositions, critique, questions or you found a problem with my proposed changes, please comment down below.
Edit: Keep in mind, this post is just a “what if”. Its not an open letter to riot begging them to rework a frashly released champion, despite what the click bait-ish title might suggest.