Abilities and Combos
The Weapons
Even among the diverse League of Legends roster,
Aphelios stands out as one of the most unique characters. Instead of your standard Q-W-E-R ability set,
Aphelios has an arrangement of 5 different weapon types, each with their unique attacks and active abilities. For clarity purposes, I will define some key definitions below:
- Off-Hand Weapon: the off-hand or secondary weapon is the weapon that
Aphelios can swap to by pressing W. When
Aphelios casts Q using his primary weapon, he will (often) employ the secondary effect of this weapon. At game start, the off-hand weapon is
Severum, the Scythe Pistol.
- Passive Effect: the effect each weapon has on
Aphelios's basic attacks.
- Active Effect: the ability that is tied to each weapon. In other words, this is the result of pressing Q.
- Secondary Effect: the bonus effect that occurs when an off-hand weapon contributes to an active ability. This is often, but not always, equivalent to the weapon's passive effect. Exceptions are highlighted below.
The Basics
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-- Passive Effect: Calibrum, the Sniper Rifle grants bonus attack range. This allows you to outrange the vast majority of champions, giving you the ability to fight and trade from a safe distance.
-- Active Effect: Fires a long-range bolt that applies a Moonlight mark to the target upon contact. Attack a target afflicted by Moonlight to consume all active marks and deal bonus damage.
-- Secondary Effect: When in the off-hand position Calibrum, the Sniper Rifle applies the Moonlight mark to all enemies damaged by the active ability. |
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-- Passive Effect: Severum, the Scythe Pistol grants on-hit Life Steal an a small overheal shield. This weapon serves as the defensive anchor of your kit, bolstering sustain and survivability.
-- Active Effect: Grants a small burst of movement speed for a short duration. During this period, Aphelios continuously attacks the closest enemy champion within his range.
-- Secondary Effect: When in the off-hand position Severum, the Scythe Pistol heals Aphelios a small amount for each enemy damaged by the active ability. |
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-- Passive Effect: Gravitum, the Gravity Cannon attacks apply a minor slow to enemies in addition to marking them. This weapon is good for chasing down kills or catching people out.
-- Active Effect: Roots all enemies that have been marked by Gravitum, the Gravity Cannon.
-- Secondary Effect: When in the off-hand position Gravitum, the Gravity Cannon applies its mark to all enemies damaged by the active ability. |
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-- Passive Effect: Infernum, the Flamethrower deals AOE damage in a cone that extends behind the attacked target. This weapon allows you to output massive damage to multiple enemies at once.
-- Active Effect: Fires out a cone-shaped projectile wave that tags enemies it contacts. After a short delay, Aphelios attacks all targets again with his off-hand weapon's secondary effect.
-- Secondary Effect: When in the off-hand position Infernum, the Flamethrower deals AOE damage beyond its target in an identical fashion to its primary effect. |
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-- Passive Effect: Crescendum, the Chakram attacks linger for a small duration upon striking their target. In exchange, manually contacting this weapon's attack resets Aphelios's auto cooldown. As such, this weapon works best at close range when the cooldown can be easily refreshed.
-- Active Effect: Deploys a small turret that activates when an enemy steps into its range. The turret then applies the secondary effect of Aphelios's off-hand weapon to the nearest target.
-- Secondary Effect: When in the off-hand position Crescendum, the Chakram grants Aphelios a bonus Chakram for each enemy struck. These Chakram amplify the damage of Crescendum, the Chakram basic attacks. Auto-attacking will prolong the during of the bonus Chakram. |
The Ultimate
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Moonlight Vigil launches forward a large circular projectile that can pass through minions. Upon contact with an enemy champion, a circular AOE effect activates in a small area - locking onto enemy champions caught in the radius. After a short delay, all champions that were hit by the ultimate receive an auto attack alongside a bonus special effect that corresponds to Aphelios's current primary weapon. The effect of each weapon is highlighted below: |
- Using
Moonlight Vigil with
Calibrum, the Sniper Rifle applies an empowered mark onto all enemies struck. This mark functions identically to the usual
Calibrum, the Sniper Rifle secondary effect and is consumed upon auto-attacking any foe with the mark. This is a very powerful use of
Aphelios ultimate because it allows you to get off a high-damage single-target strike from an incredible range.
- Using
Moonlight Vigil with
Severum, the Scythe Pistol heals
Aphelios for a moderate amount of HP. Contrary to popular belief, the ultimate healing does not change by striking more than one enemy - a single target will provide the full amount. Hitting multiple targets will still provide slightly more healing from the
Severum, the Scythe Pistol auto attacks, but the biggest misuse of this ultimate is trying to land a long-range AOE snipe. Usually if you find yourself needing to use this ultimate it is because you require immediate sustain, in which case it is best to simply ult the closest target.
- Using
Moonlight Vigil with
Gravitum, the Gravity Cannon causes all struck enemies to be hindered by a strong slowing effect. This lets
Aphelios layer some solid
Crowd Control, as he can use the
Gravitum, the Gravity Cannon ultimate basic attack to follow the slow with a short root. This ultimate shines when setting up plays - oftentimes you will find yourself using this to start a fight or support a gank effort. It should be noted, however, that this ultimate scales very poorly, and is often the ultimate you least want to be forced to use in a mid-late game teamfight.
- Using
Moonlight Vigil with
Crescendum, the Chakram grants
Aphelios 3 additional Chakram. As an example, if you strike 3 enemies with
Moonlight Vigil, you will gain 6 Chakram total - 3 base + 3 from the auto-attacks. If you find yourself starting off a teamfight with plenty of
Crescendum, the Chakram ammunition, this ultimate is
Aphelios's bread and butter.
Crescendum, the Chakram is your highest damage tool, so getting to start a fight with extra Chakram spikes your attack damage significantly. Contrary to the other ultimates that encourage flexible timing, if you want to commit to a Chakram blade storm, maximize your value by using this ability as early as possible.
Combinations to Look Out For
As this is a beginner guide to
Aphelios and words have dominated quite a bit of the analysis already, I will not be breaking down all 10 possible weapon combinations or presenting an "optimal" weapon cycle. The power of each combo varies depending on factors such as team composition, item thresholds, and overall game state and thus we cannot apply a one-size-fits-all mentality. Besides, as you get used to
Aphelios and develop a comfortable playstyle, you might find that you prefer using some weapons over others, which is completely fine! Nevertheless, I do want to provide a quick introduction to some of my favorite weapon arrangements and patterns.
1. "Red/White Don't Fight!"
Most long-time League players are more than familiar with the above phrase. "Red/White don't fight" was a simple yet popular expression developed to help players understand when to avoid fighting
Aphelios, and for good reason. In case it wasn't clear, red/white represents the combination of
Severum, the Scythe Pistol and
Crescendum, the Chakram.
Even at face value, these two weapons have strong synergy.
Crescendum, the Chakram's strength lies in its raw combat power, a boon that is counteracted by the fact that
Aphelios must fight at close range to capitalize on his auto-refresh. This often means that
Aphelios will be more vulnerable to incoming damage when he fights with
Crescendum, the Chakram. Pair this with
Severum, the Scythe Pistol, a weapon designed to sustain throughout combat, and you have a lethal duo that offers high damage output with high survivability.
This combo becomes even more harmonious when we introduce abilities to the mix.
Severum, the Scythe Pistol Q grants you a burst of movement speed - allowing
Aphelios to weave in and out of the fight at will. When
Crescendum, the Chakram is off-hand, this also generates extra Chakram to add to his rotation.
A typical fight with red/white will often look as follows.
With
Crescendum, the Chakram as your starting primary weapon:
Moonlight Vigil to stack early Chakram as quickly as possible
- swap primary weapon to
Severum, the Scythe Pistol and activate Q to find a good position
- swap back to
Crescendum, the Chakram and start to attack high priority targets
- when needed: switch back to
Severum, the Scythe Pistol for quick healing or another Q reposition
2. The Tiktok Combo (Green/White)
The Tiktok combo - which I have named due to the popularity of this weapon duo for generating social media clips - consists of the
Calibrum, the Sniper Rifle and
Crescendum, the Chakram paring. It consists of a classic long-range short-range one-two punch, with a fun highlight-worthy synergy.
One of the massive downsides of playing ADC, especially carries like
Aphelios, is the inability of the role to create space in a fight. We lack a major disruption or CC tool (
Gravitum, the Gravity Cannon is not nearly reliable enough to count as a significant lockdown for a 5v5 brawl) on the role that benefits most from clean time to hit. This combination combats what would otherwise be a major carry shortcoming in a quite unexpected fashion.
The strength of green/white lies in
Crescendum, the Chakram's Q. With every other weapon pair,
Crescendum, the Chakram's active ability often feels like wasted ammunition. Off-hand
Calibrum, the Sniper Rifle, however, works wonderfully with this turret, since it replaces the turret damage tick for the Moonlight mark. This lets
Aphelios himself supply damage to the turret from a safe distance away. This effect only gets stronger as
Aphelios gets more items, to the point where an unaware enemy can often find themselves struck down before they even realize they are being attacked.
A typical fight with green/white will often look as follows.
With
Crescendum, the Chakram as your starting primary weapon:
- find a zone or angle that might become a liability once the fight starts - this is often a potential enemy flank spot or path where you might want to move towards for shelter
- drop your
Crescendum, the Chakram turret by pressing Q to secure the nearby area
- swap to
Calibrum, the Sniper Rifle to attack foes from a safe distance away
- if an enemy activates your turret, swap to
Crescendum, the Chakram and change your target focus to this enemy - this gains you Chakram stacks and forces opponents to destroy the turret or take massive damage
3. A Balanced Loadout (Red/Blue)
If you want to know which weapon pairing, in my opinion, comes with the greatest balance, flexibility, and general usefulness, look no further than
Severum, the Scythe Pistol +
Infernum, the Flamethrower.
Dealing damage is certainly a key part of playing ADC in League of Legends, but it is far from your only responsibility. The AOE bolts from
Infernum, the Flamethrower let
Aphelios farm quickly and efficiently, while the sustain from
Severum, the Scythe Pistol ensures he is always ready to make a play. So while many ADC might find themselves struggling to clear large waves, prep for objectives, and/or ward off enemy poke - red/blue lets
Aphelios juggle all of these tasks with relative ease.
That's not to say this duo cannot also shine in a fight.
Severum, the Scythe Pistol Q is great for finding optimal angles by which to launch powerful AOE strikes on multiple targets.
Infernum, the Flamethrower Q, meanwhile is not to be taken lightly either with this loadout, as it leverages AOE damage with AOE healing - letting you continue to fight unheeded. A last cool tidbit worth mentioning is that the AOE healing from
Infernum, the Flamethrower Q works just as effectively on minions. Find a decent-sized wave with this loadout and watch your health bar heal right to full at just a single button press!
A typical fight with red/blue will often look as follows.
With
Infernum, the Flamethrower as your starting primary weapon:
- begin dishing out AOE damage by striking the closest target
- once in danger, swap primary weapon to
Severum, the Scythe Pistol and pop Q to reposition
- swap back to
Infernum, the Flamethrower and focus on lining up your strikes to damage multiple targets
- use
Moonlight Vigil as a judgment call - if you see the opportunity to splash multiple targets: fire off an
Infernum, the Flamethrower strike - if you can't find a good multi-hit and need some
Life Steal: fall back to a good old reliable
Severum, the Scythe Pistol healing frenzy
Hope this guide has helped you learn and/or inspired you to play
Aphelios! Good luck on the rift fellow summoners, take it easy everyone!
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