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Unpopular opinion: Aphelios isnt as hard to play and master as riot thinks.

lolipopevelynn·11/27/2019, 2:47:53 AM·29 votes·14,651 views

He is certainly unique and not newbie/idiot friendly, but he isnt the hardest champ mechanically. Lee and kat are still above him mechanically by a pretty far margin.

Hear me out before the inevitable fangirl downvotes. He basically has only 3 buttons to work with. Q, W, and R. One of which does nothing except switch weapons and act as a passive, so really Q and R is the only two abilities to focus on mechanically. The champ has alot of different effects for different situations but its just a Simon says game when you really look at him. A memory game. If you study what each of his weapons do then from there its just a matter of pressing Q and R. Its not mechanically hard to do at all once you know what his weapons do.

There is a champion similar to this playstyle already. He is calledUdyr . Im not saying he is as easy as udyr, but the concept is the same. Each of his abilities are good depending on the situation, but instead of choosing what abilities he can do its RNG. The RNG aspect of his kit is what makes him more complicated than most champs because he cant just CC or wave clear when he wants. But this is artificial IMO. The RNG of his weapons force a difficulty rating on him in order to overload the living shit out of his kit.

Also ammo management is nothing new since graves rework. His high ammo count is another artificial skill gate to prevent you from swapping weapons too frequently to get the weapon you want.

79 Comments

BigFBear11/27/2019, 2:39:24 PM15 votes

I think it's more about decisionmaking (weapon combinations) than mechanical skill.

ModKnightsKemplar11/27/2019, 4:05:49 AM12 votes

but he isnt the hardest champ mechanically

He was never supposed to be mechanically challenging. He's supposed to be "big brain" because you have to account for changing variables throughout the game that you can only somewhat control.

It's fine if you think that's also not true, but I don't see the point of trying to sell him as something that no one said he was.

Illabethe11/27/2019, 3:31:14 PM8 votes

Try it before you critique it.

The micromanagement on his kit practically requires 1 1/2 brains to function for live combat. Making decisions for farm purposes aren't that hard, but actually doing combat is another thing entirely.

Also, switching his weapons is nothing like Udyr at all. It impacts his ult, and each combat fight you're wanting to get off 2 sequential Q's and know how two to three on hit effects impact the weapon you're switching off to.

You're never going to pull off the team stuns or 1500 range Infernum procs without significant brain processing power.

DartExplosion1011/27/2019, 2:50:24 AM7 votes

all you have to do is remember which weapon does what, and figure out which ones synergize best. other than that there isnt really a lot of mechanical skill involved

Sire Hippington11/27/2019, 5:18:13 PM5 votes

Hard to play is not always a matter of mechanics

his mechanics are rather simple, but he still is rather hard. You need to always be aware of waht weapons you have, what comes next, how much amo, how is the CD on your secondary skill, what bonus effect would currently apply to your ult and so on, which is quite a burden of knowledge and makes it really hard to do well with him without experience. but beyond that, you also have the fact that he is an immobile carry with not to much range and little defense and only sometimes CC, who has to adjust positioning and playstyle to his weapons. Target choice and positioning in teamfights is alot more complicated for him than for the average adc, and that's the point most player struggle with already as adc. His mechanical requirements are low, but the amount of required knowledeg, tactical skill and planning goes definitly beyond your usual LoL champ.

P.S. there is no RNG for him, the weapons have a set order that can change base on how you use your wepons(aka which of the two active ones you empty first), which is a big part of the planning skill involved with him. A good aphelios can manage his weapons so that he has his desierd teamfight combo ready when dragon comes up for example.

Doge202011/27/2019, 6:29:01 PM5 votes

I agree with BigFBear’s comment. Riot’s comment of this champ being hard to play isn’t in a mechanical way, like Vayne or Riven, they mean he is hard to play mentally. The way his kit works makes you think a lot about what you do. He is still like other ADC’s in his “just right-click lol” but he requires lots more thinking about how he fights.

In a recent video, AnkleSpankin mentioned that Aphelios makes him think more than other ADCs. He is challenging mentally not mechanically.

NelsieLisnen11/27/2019, 3:29:10 PM3 votes

I think by now people, at least those that saw how he plays out realize that he's not as demanding as stuff like Yas, Ryze, Azirs etc. Reasons?

  1. You always start on the same 2 weapons, rifle + sickle. So the early weapon combinations are already more streamlined than if you could pick your starting weapons.

  2. His mechs are easy to understand and responsive. Changing between your available guns is almost seamless and auto switching is really fast.

  3. Most combos are pretty good. Just some are slightly better for different situations than others.

  4. I think he already has a definitive off-hand weapon, and that's his Gravitum. The utility and multiple ways to apply your cc marks are invaluable at pretty much every stage of the game. Plus it seems like a must for fighting with chakram, since it's better the closer you are to your enemies.

Hi im 1211/27/2019, 1:37:24 PM2 votes

people who think lee and kat are mechanically challenging lmao

WoollyWitch11/27/2019, 12:22:26 PM2 votes

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