Aurelion Sol ADC (With Proof)

So! I am on the PBE and play a lot of Aurelion Sol since he came out- because hooooly hell, this guy is Riot's magnum opus. Everything a space dragon beyond mortal comprehension should be. Just.. Amazing. I love his character, I love his look, and I love his kit.

I HATE how he plays as a mage. Dive in and hope your team follows up? PFFFFFFF like they'd bother. You aren't Kog'maw. Azir has the same problem, sadly. There's also the issue of kiting more than one target with your W up- if they get in close, you have to greatly reduce your damage (a whole 50%!) to even hit them with your passive, with your W becoming pretty tough to hit and your E being completely shut down. How did I solve it? ADC mode!

Essentially, this shifts Aurelion's ROLE and PLAYSTYLE. As a mage, he plays as a teamfight controller. You are such a huge hitbox and CC threat, combined with intense sustained damage, that you HAVE to be focused first. There are going to be assassins in your business, and you only have your ult up so often.. You go from feeling really strong and influential to feeling useless very quickly, as there's not much one can do while dead.

As an ADC, Aurelion brings an odd mix to the botlane. He's best paired with a support like or - either someone who can hold their own in the botlane and engage for/with you for some wombo, or a sustain champ that can make sure you never die in the process of a ballsy play. He does NOT build flat AD or flat crit- he builds a wacky hybrid setup, which I'll share shortly. Essentially, what this does is fill the literal gaps in his kit! While you won't always be able to perfectly position your W, Aurelion Sol has an auto attack range of 550- on level with Vayne, Ezreal, Miss Fortune, etc. This syncs up perfectly with his Outer Limit- anything INSIDE that, you can hit. Anything trying to get close, you can toggle it off and double your damage on. Anything trying to escape, you can follow- and since they're running, and not hitting, your E means you will catch up, somewhat like Vayne's Night Hunter. Additionally, Aurelion has a very responsive auto attack animation, like Azir when not attacking through a soldier. This means most of his attack speed pause can be spent moving, positioning, kiting, not dying! Like AP aurelion, this is still an important part of gameplay- but as things won't always stand in your W, it means you're doing damage even when the other team isn't cooperating.

Now that I've covered why I like the IDEA of Aurelion, let's talk about what has worked for me.

(Not in that order) as a full build. I've won and lost with it, but I just find it lackluster. Short version: Meh. Long version: Aurelion lacks synergy with the full crit build, and I can't figure out why. I thought adding 'boom' to his sustained 'boop' would be amazing, but as stated- it's just kinda meh. You can try it, but I'd suggest..

( / ) ( / ) ( / ) THIS as a full build, with the first two in that order and the following in any order. Always rush Guinsoos, starting Pickaxe then grabbing Blasting Rod for near-perfect farm and harass potential. Once you have Guinsoos, you need to start thinking way ahead- ask yourself 'am I going to snowball and end before level 13'. If the answer is yes- skip Nashors, build Phantom Dancer, then Rylais if really needed/really ahead. If no- grab Nashors and buckle up. This is gonna be awesome.

As for the choices I list: PD vs Rylais, you pick PD for games where you have an assassin or ADC trying to duel you. It's a very potent 'nope' button- remember those responsive autos? If someone jumps on you, tag them immediately and keep autoing them until you can get a good Q off. PD will keep you alive! Seriously! If you're not having to duel, but instead want to keep from getting focused down in general, rush the Rylais. Now, Frozen Mallet or Iceborn Gauntlet- preference, honestly. I would honestly prefer Frozen Mallet but Iceborn brings more wombo to the table- so I build that more often. Last, but not least, boots. ALWAYS pick based on the situation, I've built Tabi and mercs a few times. If you don't need those- skip penetration boots, AS boots, CDR boots. Swiftness for navigating teamfights, Mobis if the game is more of a spread out series of skirmishes- you can help turn fights around the map with mobis and your E.

As a bit of an afterthought- for masteries, I take a very plain ADC 18/12 with Fervor. For Runes, I run 72 health, 4.6% crit, 5.7 AD, 1.9% AS, 3% LS, and 8 MR. That's 1 crit quint and 3 crit marks, with the AS coming from 3 glyphs. I will swear by that 'high' crit for this pick, it causes some WILD swings in early skirmishes and it's far more noticeable than the 1 crit mark I usually run- especially once you grab rageblade!

Anyway, that's it! I'd like to hear your thoughts on this fantastically fun-to-play build- and also, give a shoutout and thank-you to Brofresco for inspiring me to play around with this idea!