A Solution to the Issue of Aurelion Sol

Hello everybody, my first real post on this board, I felt it was about time. I’ve been playing this game on and off for approximately four years, and to this day I still think my favorite champion concept is Aurelion Sol. I mean, what’s not to like? A basically deific dragon that can create and destroy stars on a whim? Absolutely phenomenal! However, when he was released I was...well, to put it bluntly, underwhelmed. Aurelion just felt...boring. He didn’t have that same gravitas you’d expect from a creature of his caliber, and this has nothing to do with the fact he can be killed by a hamster with a blowgun, gameplay will be gameplay. What I mean is that he feels unsatisfying to play, his playstyle revolves around simply moving to position the miniature stars floating around you to do most or all of the work for you, with a little bit of input from you in the form of your other, equally underwhelming abilities.

I believe I have found a fix for this problem. I propose a small mini-rework to Aurelion Sol, nothing extreme, no need to do a complete overhaul, there’s just some tiny things that need fixing:

For one, dial back the damage of his W, just a tiny bit. Bear in mind, this is necessary to compensate for a change I will propose and explain later. Nobody enjoys just suddenly looking at their health bar and going “oh all my health is gone” because Aurelion Sol was in the same zip code.

The other change I would suggest may seem somewhat more wild, but hear me out on this one. Swap his Q and his Ultimate. Let me explain. Currently, as it stands, even with the small adjustments to the recast time of Starsurge it still feels weak and extremely unsatisfying. Even when you create a gigantic, lane-eclipsing star, it just feels like it doesn’t do anything except provide a momentary stun. It also makes Aurelion completely reliant on his W and Ultimate for damage, as the damage of his Q is negligible. I believe his current Ultimate would make a much better replacement for his Q. Tone down its numbers of course, but breathing fire (even starfire) is something dragons are supposed to do naturally, as naturally as we humans produce saliva. This would make Aurelion far more consistent in his lane, as he would actually have some potential to at least survive fights. Let’s face it, as it stands, in combat Aurelion Sol has two abilities of value right now, and one is either wasting value, or entirely reliant on the other, by which I of course mean his R-W combo. This is why I suggested dialing back his Celestial Expansion’s power, to make a Q version of Voice of Light more easily balanced.

Now of course, this raises a new question. If his Ultimate is his Q now, surely his Q has to be his ultimate, right? Well for one I’m not about to swerve you with a surprise “actually no”, because that’s exactly the case. Aurelion Sol’s Q has all the makings of an excellent ultimate, if tuned better for it. Now, I won’t pretend I know how to make it feel Ult-worthy, but I have seen the creative team at Riot succeed at this before, and I have faith in all of them to fill in the blanks where I don’t have the necessary knowledge to.

I feel as though this change would perfectly mend Aurelion Sol’s issue of just being a plain unsatisfying champion to play, and much better sell the fantasy of “star-creating dragon god,” instead of “sassy blue lizard who stands around all game.” Please, just give it some thought perhaps? I really do love this game and this champion, and want to see both improve, so at least examine Aurelion after having read this and give it some thought.