League of Legends has officially introduced the new champion Aphelios, along with his abilities kit. Aphelios will be an extremely complex champ, possibly the one with the highest skill ceiling according to Riot. The new LoL champ brings five weapons that you as a player must learn.
Who is Aphelios? The new champion Aphelios was teased a few days ago. He will come to League of Legends as an AD carry (Marksman). The teaser indicated that he can change his weapons “like the cycles of the moon”.
Through the introduction of his kit, we now know what the developers meant. Aphelios has five weapons that he rotates between during the game, each with different properties and abilities. You can take a look at the weapons in the new trailer:
When is Aphelios coming? According to the kit reveal from Riot, Aphelios will be released with patch 9.24. According to the US site Dexerto, the specific date is December 10, with a testing phase beforehand on the PBE.
Aphelios Skill Kit
What can Aphelios do? In addition to his five weapons, Aphelios has three abilities:
- Q ability: The weapon-dependent active ability. Automatically learned at level 2 and becomes stronger over the course of the game.
- W ability: Switches between primary and secondary weapon
- R ability (Ultimate) “Watch of the Moonlight”: Sends out a moon bomb that explodes on the first enemy, deals damage, enhances Aphelios’ attacks, and triggers additional effects depending on the weapon. Automatically learned at levels 6, 11, and 16.
Aphelios increases attack damage, attack speed, or armor penetration upon leveling up as he automatically learns his abilities.
Aphelios’ Weapon Kit – 5 Weapons to Master
What are these weapons? Riot has showcased all five weapons in the ability reveal. They each serve a distinct purpose and fulfill a specific role:
- Calibrum, the Rifle
- Role: short-range attacks (“Poke/Harass”)
- Moonshot (Q ability): Skillshot that deals damage to the first struck enemy and marks them.
- Watch of the Moonlight: Further attacks with Calibrum mark the targets.
- Calibrum is used to deal targeted damage to enemies to prepare for a gank.
Marked enemies can be targeted from anywhere on the map with a right-click, causing them to take damage from the secondary weapon (or another weapon other than Calibrum) and trigger nearby marks.
- Severum, the Scythe Pistol
- Role: regeneration
- Charge (Q ability): Increases movement speed and fires both weapons at the next enemy.
- Watch of the Moonlight: Provides healing
- Severum helps Aphelios stay alive for a while in the lane or during a teamfight.
- Gravitum, the Cannon
- Role: support
- Eclipse (Q ability): All enemies affected by Gravitum are immobilized.
- Watch of the Moonlight: Slow effect becomes stronger
- Gravitum serves as a support weapon to slow down enemies.
- Infernum, the Flamethrower
- Role: area damage/Waveclear
- Blast (Q ability): Fires a flame burst that deals damage and hits enemies with the secondary weapon.
- Watch of the Moonlight: Attacks after the ultimate create damage circles instead of cones.
- With Infernum, your ability damage increases and you can effectively attack more targets.
- Crescendum, the Chakram
- Role: DPS at short range
- Watch (Q ability): Places a tower that shoots the next target with the secondary weapon.
- Watch of the Moonlight: Increases damage of follow-up attacks.
- Crescendum is unique. The weapon is a boomerang that must return to Aphelios before he can attack again. Abilities and follow-up attacks that hit increase the damage of normal attacks for each enemy hit.
How does switching work? Aphelios continuously fights with two weapons, one in the primary hand and one in the secondary hand. These come with 50 shots of ammunition. Once empty, the weapon is swapped out.
He then receives the next weapon in line and his now empty weapon goes to the end to recharge there. So, by switching between primary and secondary hand, you have limited control over when which weapon reappears. You only change the order.
Aphelios will be extremely difficult
What makes him so difficult? Due to the rotation of the weapons, you must always keep an eye on which weapon is empty and when it will return. This requires planning so as not to go into battle with the wrong weapons or adaptability to show the best possible plays with the available weapons.
Aphelios will have his own UI, showing his abilities, ammunition, and the next weapon.
According to Riot, one needs “discipline, focus, and sharpness” to master Aphelios. The learning curve of the champion will be “one of the steepest”.
This is what players say about it: The reveal of the abilities has also been discussed on reddit by fans. The reactions here are mainly surprise and slight amusement over the complexity:
If a champion has more preparatory reading than my university courses …
Identical64 on reddit.
Ah, yes, I understand. what
Pentragos on reddit.
No one has tested the new champion yet. However, players expect that he will mostly lose in the lower tiers while he will perform well among professionals.
