[Gameplay Update] Aurelion Sol, The Star Forger

Hey all! Another 15-minute design experiment, this time with Aurelion Sol. All constructive feedback is appreciated!

The goal of this gameplay update:

• Give Aurelion Sol himself more to do that simply boop people with stars (you should feel like a star-creating dragon more frequently).
• Expand on the caster-like nature that a Star Dragon implies.
• Make him more accessible to non-Aurelion Sol mains through some more caster-like mechanics, while preserving the things that make him unique (roaming, star mechanics).
• Create new opportunities for new and existing players to feel good about.
• Appeal both to people who prefer traditional casters and people who like the unique star-based gameplay.

Additionally, please remember that this is a 10-15 minute experiment intentionally. As a result major changes like complete gameplay pattern shifts are off the table, as the time allowed isn't really suitable for large-scope changes and gameplay balancing.

With that in mind, let's dive in.

https://i.imgur.com/GtYayUJ.png

#Center of the Universe [Passive] Ability Description: Aurelion Sol is constantly orbited by three Stars, each doing a full circumference in 5.25 seconds, and beyond them exists an Outer Limit affecting his damaging abilities. This outer limit is always visible to Aurelion Sol as a faint line.

Design Notes: No changes here, save that the outer limit is made visible to help newer players judge Celestial Expansion (and thus flatten the steep learning curve for Aurelion Sol by a this mandatory memory tax).

https://i.imgur.com/GtYayUJ.png

#Moment of Creation [Q] Active: Aurelion Sol creates a star at the target location after a short delay, dealing damage to enemies struck. The star then begins to orbit around him at the range it was at when created, completing three full rotations before fading (this rotation path is visible as a very faint circle around Aurelion Sol). Enemies struck take damage based on Aurelion Sol’s current star damage.

Stores up to 3 charges. 1 second static cooldown between casts.

Design Notes: One of Aurelion Sol's big issues is that he feels too passive for a self-absorbed, all-powerful Star Dragon, so letting you actively create stars to add to your universe is a way to hone in more on the creator fantasy, while also adding some cool ways to set up for teamfights, long-range poke, and general caster-style play. Letting you stock up on charges means that you can really become a terror in teamfights when you unleash your own little universe. And no, I didn't remove your baseline CC -- take a look at the new E.

https://i.imgur.com/GtYayUJ.png

#Celestial Expansion [W] Passive: The damage of Aurelion Sol’s stars increases.

Active: Aurelion Sol pushes his passive stars farther out, increasing their damage and speed. Stars created with Moment of Creation gain damage and speed, but are not moved.

Design Notes: This one sees almost no changes, because it's a strong ability that lets you manipulate the heavens, like any good Star Dragon should. To minimize confusion with moving stars, self-created stars don't adjust in their distance, but they do still empower themselves.

https://i.imgur.com/GtYayUJ.png

#Voice of Light [E] Active: Active: Aurelion Sol breathes out a wave of pure celestial power, slowing and dealing magic damage to targets hit and knocking them backwards towards his outer limit if they’re within 600 units.

Design Notes: This is the replacement for your baseline CC, offering a little more safety and a little more uptime feeling like a celestial dragon. Reducing the area and damage means we can afford to make this a basic ability without too many balancing tweaks needed elsewhere, and since it serves as your slow and your safety tool there's some encouragement not to simply save it for safety every time.

https://i.imgur.com/GtYayUJ.png

#Comet of Legend [R] First Cast: Aurelion Sol shields himself and begins to fly in the target direction, creating a brilliant star as he travels. The effect instantly stops if the shield is destroyed.

Second Cast: Aurelion Sol stops and sends the star surging forward a short distance, dealing magic damage and stunning enemies struck based on the total distance traveled.

Design Notes: Aurelion Sol's star-following, nearly global roam is a standard of his kit, and needed to be preserved in some manner. Making it an ultimate felt like a good change since his core pattern is a bit better at sustaining itself now (and a bit more active), so we could still get that great feel of a grand celestial dragon crashing down on his puny mortal foes and unleasing the force of his majestic creation. The shield helps give you a bit of safety on arriving, but also serves as a way for attentive enemies to stop you from using this to escape.

https://i.imgur.com/GtYayUJ.png

#Self Analysis

I think there are some major issues left to solve here. Chief among them that simply dropping your Q at your Outer Limit is probably the optimal way to play, which feels pretty shitty, and otherwise one lone orbiting star on a 5.25 second rotation feels useless a lot of the time. Unfortunately that probably means that the pattern I have here doesn't ultimately work, although I think there's some value in keeping a "create your own star orbit" mechanic in some way, and I think shifting the R to baseline and the Q/E combo to the ultimate could ultimately be a good move.

It might honestly be worth removing the passive entirely in favor of a Q that lets you place a ring of stars at a set orbit, giving a bit more downtime to the stars but a bit more control over them. That would open up another ability slot, which could be interesting.