Welcome, and thank you for reading my guide! I'm Nekostn or Talon Du Coutéau on the OCE server, and I have M7 on Aphelios with around 400k Mastery Points at the time of writing this. I've been an Aphelios one trick since his release, and love everything about this champion from his design to his kit and playstyle! I've written this guide to share my experience and hopefully help others to learn how to play him well. :)

+ High Damage Aphelios is a scaling champion, and hits his powerspike after his 2 core items Infinity Edge and Runaan's Hurricane. Once you know how to play him well, his scaling beats most other ADCs and champions in general.

+ Fun to Play The main reason I love playing Aphelios is his unique playstyle, which makes him more fun to play than other ADCs (in my opinion) given the variety of his weapons. I've seen Jhin mains play Aphelios as a secondary ADC, so if you enjoy playing Jhin you might also enjoy Phel's kit/playstyle.

- Low defense and mobility With no dashes and his Severum Q being his only source of movement speed, Aphelios is extremely vulnerable to engages and ganks.

To be updated as I haven't read any questions yet c:

[P] The Hitman and the Seer


Calibrum
Moonshot

Severum
Onslaught

Gravitum
Binding Eclipse

Infernum
Duskwave

Crescendum
Sentry

At the beginning of the game, you will start off with Calibrum, the Sniper Rifle and Severum, the Scythe Pistol. The following will show my ideal weapon cycle, although it may not be the best option depending on the situation.

Start of game:
-> -> -> ->

After initial cycle:
-> -> -> ->

This cycle allows you to utilise Aphelios' most powerful combos, which I'll explain below.

Aphelios' best weapon combos:

+
Onslaught allows the stacking of multiple Chakram especially when used in an enemy minion wave, then you switch to Crescendum, the Chakram and auto the enemy champion while you're as close to them as possible to quickly apply the damage of all Chakram.

+
The idea is to place the Calibrum Sentry in a location where the enemy is (or is about to walk to), so the sentry applies multiple Calibrum marks which allow you to safely attack them from an extremely long range. This combo is very useful in crowded teamfights or to zone the enemy off.

+
Using Duskwave while your secondary weapon is Gravitum, the Gravity Cannon allows you to have an AoE attack that additionally slows everything hit by 30%, then switch to Gravitum, the Gravity Cannon to root everything hit. This combo is mainly useful for following up on an ally's CC, chasing enemy champions or setting up a gank.

While these are his main combos, others can still be extremely useful depending on the situation. Once you get experience after playing a couple of games, you will get to know when is the right time to use which weapon and its active ability/Q. ^^

With Moonlight Vigil, you need to be able to quickly decide which weapon you want to use it with. Keep in mind that its range is quite short (compared to release) and travels quite slowly.

is useful when there are one or more low health enemies trying to escape, and the mark lets you attack them from a long range.

should only be used when you're on low health and need to heal quickly, as it doesn't do anything else.

is in the top 3, as rooting multiple champions at the same time could be very important for an engage or disengage. For maximum effectiveness, wait around 1 second before you root them with Binding Eclipse to make use of the 99% slow it applies.

is no doubt the best ult to use in a teamfight, when everyone is grouped up. It does more damage depending on how many enemy champions are caught in it, so try to hit as many as possible.

is effective if you're going to be in melee range with enemy champions for a short amount of time. It's good to use Onslaught or Duskwave immediately after in order to stack more Chakrams, but even just the ult should provide you with enough damage.

In almost all matchups, you'll want to play safe and just scale until at least level 6. However, if the enemy bot lane also has a weak early game and you manage to hit level 2 before them, you can engage with your support using Onslaught, Moonshot and Calibrum, the Sniper Rifle for high damage.

Otherwise, use Calibrum, the Sniper Rifle to poke the enemy while healing and gaining the shield from Severum, the Scythe Pistol.

After you get your first 2 core items Infinity Edge and Runaan's Hurricane (also Berserker's Greaves), you'll start to deal much more damage and be very useful in teamfights. If a teamfight is about to happen, ensure you have the right weapons equipped for the best result.

Late Game is where Aphelios shines the most, as his weapons and abilities synergise very well with his items once he reaches full build (or near it). Like most ADCs, the main idea is to stay in the backline while dealing as much damage as possible using your different weapons, but Onslaught and Crescendum, the Chakram lets you deal a high amount of damage in close range as well.

Knowing how to maximise the effectiveness of your weapons just comes with experience, so don't worry if it takes a while to remember what each weapon does as you'll get the hang of it eventually! Practice Tool is helpful to practically learn each combo and the range of your abilities.

Thank you for reading up to this part! Sorry if I left out anything or was unclear on specific topics, this is my first time writing a guide and would love feedback on what you enjoyed/what you think needs to be improved. If you have any questions, feel free to message me on League (my username is in the About Me section) or on Discord (CrimsonDagger#1020)! I hope you found this guide even a little bit useful, and good luck playing moon boi! ^^