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Aphelios is very unimpressive

Garen is adopted··3 votes·1,615 views

I looked into some video of streamers playing him and well, all he does is shooting with different on-hit effects, and place a heimer turret but much worse. I mean, it seems like someone took some udyr or jinx rework ideas, looked into some other champsion abilities, and decided "hey let's make this an new adc champion"

Like he does not seems like someone weilding different weapons, Jinx herself does that much better, she had 3 weapons and all of them are unique, not just like aphelios "this weapon does heal, this one slows and this one gets some extra range" Also despite being a "high skill champ" you can't even decide when you upgrade his skills, all you upgrade is his attack damage or attack speed, or whatever is last stat. He is not even that unique, he is just forced be unique, but there are a lot of champions that do things like him. for ex: Jinx can switch her weapons, and her weapons are acutally different, her rocket launcher is a hard hitting aoe nuke with every auto, when her pewpew is a rapidfire machine gun, she have zap which zaps things. Udyr literally just have effects on his autos, basically Aphelios kit summarized but not overcomplicated with no other reasons but "to be a unique hard skill champ". Gnar he's forced to take a certain set on skills in certain situation and he have little control if he take it or not, basically like Aphelios ammo but reversed because he fills it instead of waste.

Overall all Aphelios does is to aplly some effects on his autos, nothing new, unique or awesome, not even hard skill about it, even streamers figured most of his combos in day 1, pretty sure silvers and gold players will learn the "big combos" in like a week of playing him.

Honestly I had some hopes for him to show in gameplay a champion that is expert using different weapons in unique ways and switching them regullary during a teamfight, but all he does is hitting things with some bonus effects on top of bullets, i think his boomerang is the most unique thing in his whole set and that's honestly a waste, another great character story and potential wasted on an umimpressive gameplay just to artifically make him a "high skill champion hard to learn" and so on.

14 Comments

toby mcteague4 votes

Honestly, the out of recent champion releases, Qiyana is the most satisfying to play.

Senna has a hundred lines on her passive, but its just free stats. Her Q is boring, her ult ult is just eye candy and nothing interesting, he E is just your typical snare. Her W is the only thing thats somewhat interesting and adds a new mechanic into the game.

thefatlazycat1 votes

her W is the root and her E is the camouflage field, not too important bu you might've wanted to know

Garen is adopted1 votes

{quoted}

Honestly, the out of recent champion releases, Qiyana is the most satisfying to play.

Senna has a hundred lines on her passive, but its just free stats. Her Q is boring, her ult ult is just eye candy and nothing interesting, he E is just your typical snare. Her W is the only thing thats somewhat interesting and adds a new mechanic into the game.

I acutally enjoyed Yuumi, and still enjoy her even if I do not suggest taking her in rank unless you have an premade. She acutally bring something new and the way I looked at supports at the very begin of games "a living ward that stays and heals, and ocasasionally poke" and yeah that was my mentality when I was playing Sona after losing several 1v1 with a varus I think (I talk literally when i started playing league), that cat is fun to play, is not really broken, if you want to negate her healings you always have items for her, but probably is a little harder to deal with her than with soraka, but unlike soraka, if the adc falls there is 90% chance than yuumi falls too.

HommeGoujon3 votes

last stat is Armor penetration I think.

iiGazeii3 votes

The inspiration of his design was to make a champion who has a high skill ceiling, but it isn't about lightning reflexes or perfect aim or masterful combos. His skill ceiling is all about knowledge, understanding what weapons you have and the situations that combo makes you strong in. Optimizing the range you're fighting in and looking to push your advantages is the key here.

It's not just about using what you have in the moment, but planning ahead for what's coming. If you're looking to take a dragon, making sure you have Infernum to gain lane priority or Crescendum for maximum DPS on that dragon takes careful management of your ammo.

Garen is adopted2 votes

{quoted}

The inspiration of his design was to make a champion who has a high skill ceiling, but it isn't about lightning reflexes or perfect aim or masterful combos. His skill ceiling is all about knowledge, understanding what weapons you have and the situations that combo makes you strong in. Optimizing the range you're fighting in and looking to push your advantages is the key here.

It's not just about using what you have in the moment, but planning ahead for what's coming. If you're looking to take a dragon, making sure you have Infernum to gain lane priority or Crescendum for maximum DPS on that dragon takes careful management of your ammo.

or i can just play udyr and press Q if i want dps or R to clean the wave, big macro play right there, again aphelios is artifically made more difficult than he should be just to the sake of him being difficult, cause otherwise people wouldnt even bother playing him when he offer nothing, if you want a champion that can get higher range and clean fast waves, Jinx Q does that for you without planning ahead anything more than like 40-60 mana, she can do basically anything Aphelios does, except heal on-hit, with a much "minimalist" kit and easy to understand and apply. Why should someone think "I need to do 50 auto attacks, no less and no more until dragon spawn" that is not about planning your actions and see ahead the events that would happen to play according, it is just stupid design. I see no reason to take him over someone than Jinx or Kai'sa, those are both easier to play, are more rewarding and even if in theory not, in practice they can do much more than him, kai'sa have the mobility and sustain plus some sick damage, jinx have literally half of aphelios kit but just better and scales better than him with his free stats choice per level and auto leveling skills.

Playing him doesn't even feels good tho, his weapons animations seems like a joke that do no damage (I don't say they dont do game, but none of animations acutally says "this shot hurt" and are more like a punch on the shoulder, they should focus to change a little at least their sound effects if visuals not, for it's kit is anyway alerdy to late to change and he will not see probably much play anyway after his first month on rift)

thefatlazycat1 votes

artificial difficulty isn't that bad, personally I think more champs should have it

iiGazeii2 votes

If Aphelios was the same as other champions with similar weapons, I'd agree with you, but during his limited windows, he's better than other champs at that thing.

His waveclear with Infernum is near-instant. His range with Calibrum is easily over 600. His DPS with Crescendum is insane. His root with Gravitum is consistent and has a hefty duration. The Severum healing is massive.

He's overall stronger than other ADCs at everything, he just doesn't get to pick what two things he's good at.

Garen is adopted2 votes

{quoted}

If Aphelios was the same as other champions with similar weapons, I'd agree with you, but during his limited windows, he's better than other champs at that thing.

His waveclear with Infernum is near-instant. His range with Calibrum is easily over 600. His DPS with Crescendum is insane. His root with Gravitum is consistent and has a hefty duration. The Severum healing is massive.

He's overall stronger than other ADCs at everything, he just doesn't get to pick what two things he's good at.

jinx range is up too 800 with her Q maxed i don't know what you mean by he's better than other champs, he's not better at anything than another certain champions. Please inform yourself before leading missinformations, the only thing he offer and other adcs do not is he had more options, options that do not even depend on him most of times cause if he just wasted slow gun he can't just chase down someone. Picking Aphelios over any other adc is like piking omnistone, does that rune bring something better than other runes? hell no, it just gives more options, if you get lucky you get what you need, if not you just have to wait, meanwhile a poke support in the other side of map is melting your hp with her aery/comet when you think how to proc dark havrest with 600 range. Aphelios may offer more, but you have no much influence of what he offers you, cause if you really want a weapon in a certail interval of time you have to either miss a lot of farm, or hard push enemies without a real reason just to get that rotation you want.

And again his skills are no better than others adc, Ashe is much better at cc-ing someone with slows and root, Jinx still get the higher range, when Cait outrange aphelios with Calibrum without anything special (650 range tho), Heimerdinger have much better turrets, kog/vayne/xayah even kaisa have better dps than Aphelios that offer just pure speed, which is meangliess compared with the combination of speed and percent damage/cc they do at same time without getting a special rotation or planning much ahead, but if they are not enough, try a melee battle of yi and aphelios, as a demerit yi can use alpha strike just once, when aphelios can use all his abilities but remain in Crescendum. no matter how overloaded Aphelios is, he did not excel in any parts of his kit, there are adc with better range, better cc and better sustain, even better dps if you give them enough time, but most of them don't need dps when they can just burst you nowdays, like who would win, 3 crits from Cait/Kai'sa all ing-you with a max of 4 attacks but hitting every single spell or 10 Crescendum?

If you think he's op you did not really tested him, do not forget in pbe most population is silver and gold, so it is only normal any streamer or even decent players will do well with him, that and getting fed fast may trick you into thinking he's overpowered but any champion can be as dangerous in low elo. As reference there I was playing Yi adc https://i.redd.it/mqweohphlx041.png, apparently I was doing pretty great, despite being a melee champion against a poke support with a stun, and vayne, I didn't even build tabi even if it was a rule for that game but still managed to win, why because Yi is so overpwoered after the 15 nerfs he got in last 5 months!? No, because the enemies have no idea how to play around he, get easy scared and maybe are not even playing seriously, that's like aphelios, he's new, most low elo players probably have no idea what he's doing, in their mind he's just autoing and can't really tell what effect he have even if there are visuals to tell apart, there's not really a way to tell what he is doing withtou reading his kit, not to say most elo players can't play either macro or micro, they are like "we fight or we don't fight" without counting the situation they are in, the advantage they have or disadvantage, their powerspikes and so on.

So again, Aphelios is no stronger than any adc, most of them are much better in few domains than really matter than he is bery situationally in 5 of them.

iiGazeii2 votes

His range with Calibrum is 650, same as Cait. Landing that gun's Q makes his next auto have infinite range. Even Cait's follow up shots have limited range.

His slow with Gravitum is 30%, decaying over 3.5 seconds. Ashe's slow is 20-30%, and only lasts for 2 seconds. She also can't follow up with hard CC unless she uses her ult.

His turret isn't comparable to Heimerdinger's. He only realistically gets two out at a time, and they fire the autoattacks of his off-hand weapon, letting him effectively use two weapons at once and set up his other weapon's procs. It's not just raw damage.

I never said he was OP, and I don't think he is. I think people are painting him as this generalist, master-of-none champion, but that's simply not the case. He's on par or better than other options when he has the right combination of guns, so mastering his kit and knowing what you're capable moment to moment gives you the potential to outperform other ADCs.

And I agree, he is like Omnistone. Omnistone generates a ton of value if you're able to think on your feet and use several keystones in a row. If you can't proc them, you lose out to people with consistency, but using it optimally gives you more than any other keystone could provide.

Garen is adopted1 votes

{quoted}

His range with Calibrum is 650, same as Cait. Landing that gun's Q makes his next auto have infinite range. Even Cait's follow up shots have limited range.

His slow with Gravitum is 30%, decaying over 3.5 seconds. Ashe's slow is 20-30%, and only lasts for 2 seconds. She also can't follow up with hard CC unless she uses her ult.

His turret isn't comparable to Heimerdinger's. He only realistically gets two out at a time, and they fire the autoattacks of his off-hand weapon, letting him effectively use two weapons at once and set up his other weapon's procs. It's not just raw damage.

I never said he was OP, and I don't think he is. I think people are painting him as this generalist, master-of-none champion, but that's simply not the case. He's on par or better than other options when he has the right combination of guns, so mastering his kit and knowing what you're capable moment to moment gives you the potential to outperform other ADCs.

And I agree, he is like Omnistone. Omnistone generates a ton of value if you're able to think on your feet and use several keystones in a row. If you can't proc them, you lose out to people with consistency, but using it optimally gives you more than any other keystone could provide.

Well agree, and arguing about it is kinda pointless, but just 2 finals thoughts that I think is better to know.

  1. infinite range means nothing most of times, he still needs to hit them before get that one auto with infinite range, which means they need to be in his range, in best scenario he baits a flash and get the kill.
  2. he have decaying slow, when Ashe slow is the same for that duration, that means his slow is stronger at the impact, but become weaker and weaker untill become null, unlike Ashe that mentain same value for the entire time. (or that is how those 2 should work)
BBKong1 votes

I do like the Omnistone comparison even if I think the rune should be deleted. The pure randomness of the rune vs the controlled randomness of Aphelios is what makes the difference.

I actually played him a lot on PBE and pretty much got exactly what you're saying. The 50 ammo makes it so you can't just swap guns 4 times in a single fight, unless 2 of your guns were low on ammo which enemies can see and play around, AND you won't get an incredible amount of use out of the low weapons either even if that combo is VERY strong. It takes setup.

I think the issue is that when Riot said he has an insanely high skill ceiling people expected a Lee Sin with mechanical complexity, which he really doesn't have. He's very easy to play but it's gonna take time to get used to doing the right combo in the right situations, and setting it up in advance before the fight starts by managing ammo. At the very core, mechanically, he's a REALLY easy champ. Might seem like a little silly of a comparison but I'd compare him more to Singed than Riven - one is difficult mechanically, the other one isn't, both have really high skill ceiling for entirely different reasons.

That's my take on it. I like the champ overall, he's a bit overloaded but nothing incredibly awful, and he gets fucked by the mobility in the game nowadays so I didn't even think he was very broken. Too bad I don't play ADC if I can help it. He'll be niche, but some people are gonna love him (like how people love playing Aurelion Sol or don't, regardless of power level).

makkii1 votes

{quoted}

If Aphelios was the same as other champions with similar weapons, I'd agree with you, but during his limited windows, he's better than other champs at that thing.

His waveclear with Infernum is near-instant. His range with Calibrum is easily over 600. His DPS with Crescendum is insane. His root with Gravitum is consistent and has a hefty duration. The Severum healing is massive.

He's overall stronger than other ADCs at everything, he just doesn't get to pick what two things he's good at.

After reading up on him and seeing him play im convinced that an attack speed CDR build would allow him cycle through particular combinations quickly and efficiently

ThunderCraft1 votes

heimer turret but much worse.

HaHAha turret is boosted aphelios is super stronk

everyone is building him wrong by using the suggested items tho

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