Hello there, I am SopTop(in-game SopTop12), and I am an off-meta, loving, casual League of Legends player. In this guide today, I will show you how to play a champion I am quite new to, Aphelios, more specifically, a lethal version of him. But first, let me go over exactly WHY I wanted to make this build. Alright, story time.

So, back in the far, far away land of early 2020, my friend had just introduced me to a game called League of Legends. I had heard of the game at the time so I thought, "Eh, why not?". One time while playing with my friends, I noticed that a new champion had just been released. His name was Aphelios. He looked pretty cool and like something that I would be down for playing, but I had seen many things online saying that he was the most complicated and hard to learn champion in the game at the time, so I decided that he might be to hard for me at the moment, with my low skill level and 0 understanding of League's mechanics yet. Fast-forward a little bit to January, 2021, and I have just gotten a champion shard for Aphelios, and as I sat there pondering whether I should try him out, I realized this was the same champion I had been so interested in almost a full year ago. I then proceeded to buy him and play him, and don't get me wrong, I was having lots of fun, but something just seemed... off about the way he played like. It wasn't a standard ADC. It was special. I decided to do a little more research on Aphelios but came to no conclusion. "Oh well," I thought. "at least I'm having fun." But then the thing that changed it all happened. I went into a game with the wrong runes. These runes happen to be very similar to the ones that I ended up using for this build, and during when we were loading into that game, I had a Jimmy Neutron level Brain-Blast. I will build full lethality. I went 28/17 that game, and that's when I knew that THIS was what I was feeling while playing Aphelios, it was the call of the off-meta that I love so much! I have been enjoying playing this build with my friends and by myself alike. And today, I finally decided to share this marvelous idea with the world. But before we get into how to play this rollercoaster of a build, I just want to give a quick disclaimer.!!DISCLAIMER!! Do NOT play this build in a ranked game. It will result in flaming and probably a 9X report. I only recommend doing this kind of stuff in casual games, and I will not be responsible for it if somebody gets banned for doing this in a ranked game. Without any further ado, lets take our 5 guns, 50 shots and Duskblades and dive right into it!

So, now you know the backstory of this build, its time we get to learning how to play it. So first we are going to go over Aphelios abilities and how he works.
First of all, lets start off with his passive: The Hitman and the Seer.
Now, Aphelios isn't like all of the other gir-...champions, because he doesn't level his ABILITIES, he levels his AD, attack speed, and lethality up with each level, while gaining the ability to use his Q at level 2 and his R at level 6 (they level themselves up[). We of course level up lethality first in this build, with AD second, which leaves attack speed for last, but don't worry, there is more to this passive. Aphelios has 5 guns, each of them doing a different thing. There is Calibrum, the Sniper Rifle, Severum, the Scythe Pistol, Gravitum, the Gravity Cannon, Infernum, the Flamethrower, and finally Crescendum, the Chakram. We're gonna tackle these all one by one, starting with Calibrum, the Sniper Rifle. Alright, lets get going.So, as you would expect, Aphelios's sniper rifle acts like, well, a sniper rifle. It has significantly ]more range than his other weapons, along with a second passive that, (while sniper rifle is in main or off hand) makes him track any enemy he hits with an ability, allowing him to attack any enemy he hit with his off-hand weapon. And I mean ANY enemy. Yup, that's right, this thing is GLOBAL. Pretty insane for chasing enemies down.Alright, onto Severum, the Scythe Pistol. Alright, this gun right here is gonna be your favorite in this build, you'll see why when we get onto his Q, but for now, let me just run you by on what this ones passive is. Passively, Aphelios restores from 3%-20% of the damage dealt by this weapon, making it great for some extra sustain in lane. Additionally, any health that this restores past Aphelios's max HP will be converted into a shield that last for up to 30 seconds before going away. Gravitum, the Gravity Cannon, here we Gravi-Come (I'm sorry) . Gravitum is another one of the better guns in Aphelios's arsenal in my opinion, because of its passive and active. But for now we'll just go over its passive. Basically, whenever Aphelios shoots somebody with this gun, the target becomes slowed by 30% which decays over a couple seconds. I think that this passive is good due to it being light crowd control on a character that doesn't have any other. However this is the only passive for this weapon, so on we go to Infernum, the Flamethrower.This bad boy has some insane AoE damage packin, so lets take a look. Infernum, the Flamethrower's passive is that each time you auto attack somebody, you deal damage in a small cone behind the target. These bolts can crit, which in addition to the normal crit effects, makes the spread of bolts much wider. This passive does reduced damage to minions.And now, last but maybe least, Crescendum, the Chakram. So this one is arguably the LEAST usefultool in his kit with this build (but it certainly isn't bad!). The reason for this isn't really that its bad, it's just worse than the others. Crescendum, the Chakram's passive is that it acts like a boomerang, in the sense that you cannot attack again until the Chakram has returned. This is why it's not great with this build, as Lethal Aphelios is more-so a burst assassin that can eliminate enemies from afar, not one to get close-and-personal. The second passive this gun has is that whenever you use an ability and this is in the off-hand slot, it will add another Chakram to you auto attacks, which deal additional damage.Phew! Welp, That's that and now we can go onto even more info (yaaayyy!)Alright, Now we are moving onto his REAL MOVES! But before I get into all that, I should probably explain how Aphelios's weapon cue works. So first, his E. So you see, Aphelios does not HAVE any E. What do I mean by this? I mean that Aphelios[/color] has NO E. Instead, he has a slot in his HUD (image of HUD below)that displays whatever weapon he will get next. You can also ping this upcoming weapon to teammates. Aphelios's W swaps his main-hand weapon to his off-hand weapon (E.G. switching Calibrum to Severum), allowing for some play-making with some fast swaps.The HUDK, now were out of of the boring stuff, and slidin on into the cool stuff. In this category we will be going into Aphelios's Q and it's variations. But don't you worry, we haven't forgotten about a special someone.So, like you would expect, Aphelios's Q has 5 different versions, one for each gun. We will once again be going through these one-by-one, giving small details and tips for each one. Lets start off with Calibrum, the Sniper Rifle. Moonshot, Calibrum's Q, is a long range (and I mean LONG) skillshot that applies the passive of [/color=cyan]Calibrum[/color]. This is very good for rather poking someone down in lane, or just sniping some poor soul who thinks he can escape you. Up next, Severum, the Scythe Pistol's Q, Onslaught. Onslaught is an AoE area of PURE PAIN around Aphelios that lasts 1.75 seconds. This ability is the reason this build can one-shot (well, technically it's several shots, but...) the ADC. With almost 1500 DAMAGE at full build, this move truly carries the build. But what exactly IS "This move"? Well, over 1.75 seconds, Aphelios gains 20% movement speed, and auto-attacks around him 12 whole times, swapping between his main-hand and off-hand weapon while doing so. Alright, moving onto another great ability, Binding Eclipse. Binding Eclipse is Gravitum, the Gravity Cannon's Q, so, naturally, it is a crowd control ability. When you activate this ability it does 2 things. 1: Expunges and deals damage to all enemies with Gravitum's passive on them. More importantly: 2: ROOTS all enemies who had the passive on them! Overall, this is a great ability and gun in general, because not only is this hard CC on a very squishy champ, but it also is very good in tandem with other guns (E.G. firing a Moonshot, then being able to Binding Eclipse a target from afar)Overall, this is a great ability, and one of the ones that is a lot better in this build as you can practically get someone to half-health with an auto-attack and this alone. But anyways, lets look at our favorite firey boi, Infernum, the Flamethrower! The Flamethrowers Q is Duskwave. How Duskwave works is when Aphelios presses Q, and everything in front of him dies. Oh you want more than that, OK. Um... it applies the passive of your off-hand weapon so it good in synergy with things like Gravitum, the Gravity CannonI guess. I don't know this one is pretty self explanatory. But, that does NOT mean that it is a bad ability by any means. It has some huge damage with this build and definitely has some one-shot potential, just not much to say about it honestly. Alright, now onto one that has quite a bit to say, but in reality isn't great. Crescendum, the Chakram's Q is Sentry. As the name implies, Aphelios places down a sentry turret, which last up to 20 seconds, and attacks any enemies who come within a certain radius of it. These sentries have 6 health and will take 3 damage from auto-attacks, but 4 damage from AoE abilities. It also takes 4 seconds off of it's duration each time it attacks an enemy. This ability can be good with things like Gravitum, the Gravity Cannon because of its slow, or even Calibrum, the Sniper Rifle because of it's global range. But usually with this build, it's not anything to special.But now that that's out of the way, it is time for somebody very special, who we've have been taking for granted this whole time! Alune is back for revenge in this build, reliving the old day of getting a Penta-kill with 1 R!

THE SOULS BOY, THE SOULS
Dark Harvest: Innately, Aphelios has high DPS, but one day I thought: "Huh, Aphelios doesn't really have a way to execute low targets with ease" so now here we are with The Collector, Dark Harvest and Coup de Grace. Overall Dark Harvest is just an easy scaling tool, so try to proc it as much as you can while laning.



THE FAST
Predator: This is more of a situational keystone, one that you really only wanna opt for if your rather:

1: Planning on ganking a lot.

2: Are in a heavy CC matchup with somebody like Morgana, Swain, or even with somebody who can run away fast like Pyke or Blitzcrank.

Or 3: WANT TO BECOME THE FASTEST MAN KNOWN TO HUMAN-KIND.



BULLY THE ALREADY CRIPPLED
Cheap Shot: This one is good as a tool to add a little more damage onto those sweet, sweet Gravitum, the Gravity Cannon shots. It can also work if you have a support or jungle with any crowd control.



MMM, TASTY
Taste of Blood: Another one of the essential runes if your going lifesteal. Same concepts as the others. But watch out, because this one has a cooldown to when it procs. So just make sure that's up before trying to slurp up some HP.



WHERE DID YOU COME FROM
Sudden Impact: ONLY DO THIS WITH Prowler's Claw! It just gives you a little bit more lethality upon dashing, so if you aren't planning on grabbing a Prowler's Claw, don't take this one. You can also use it right when you are ganking, then use your Prowler's Claw on an enemy who is just out of your range, or over a wall.



WANNA SEE MY COLLECTION?
Eyeball Collection: Overall, you just take this one because it's better than the other two, because this one gives you AD, and the other 2 give you some extra vision. But hey, if you really need that vision, take a Zombie Ward I suppose.



THE BEST HUNTER OUT THERE
Ultimate Hunter: Ultimate Hunter, for pretty obvious reasons, is the preferred rune for this build, due to extreme ultimate CDR, which is one of the core moves in this kit.

QUICK HUNTER
Relentless Hunter: Keep getting kills, keep getting faster. It's as simple as that. This one is pretty much exclusive to THE FAST build, I wouldn't recommend taking it otherwise.

THIS HUNTER IS PRETTY GOOD TOO
Ravenous Hunter: It gives you some more lifesteal each time you get a kill, so it empowers your Severum, the Scythe Pistol a little bit more, and paired with a Sanguine Blade, it can add up to quite a lot of lifesteal.CONQ STACKS GO BRR
CONQUERER: This is only a keystone I advise if you are planning on going down the lifesteal path, as it is pretty much the only thing you would need this rune for. Good in tandem with Ravenous Hunter. Try to proc as much as possible in a 1v1 situation.



CLEAR YOUR MIND
Presence of Mind: This one is a pretty flexible rune, and if you wanna take Triumph or even Overheal, then you do that. I just personally take Presence of Mind as I think that Aphelios uses a lot of mana, so some regen on that might be nice.



EASY MONEY
Triumph: Triumph is a pretty good rune if you want to have some better teamfights due to the HP restore, along with some free money each time you get a kill.



EVEN MORE LIFESTEAL
Legend: Bloodline: Well, the title kinda says it all, even more lifesteal. If your going Ravenous Hunter, Triumph, or Sanguine Blade, this one might be a good call.



ELIMINATE THE WEAK
Coup de Grace: If you've seen my other guides, this one won't be to surprising, as it's pretty much used in every lethality set, but just in case, I'll go over why its good quickly. So its good together with Dark Harvest for more low HP enemy damage, and it helps get off easier executes. Yeah that's pretty much it.



SEVERUM 2, ELECTRIC BOOGALOO
Overheal: Honestly yeah, its just your Severum, the Scythe Pistol's passive, it gives you a shield if you heal past the maxim HP. But the shields DO stack, so you're practically getting twice the amount of shielding.A NICE SECONDARY CAPE TO GO WITH EDGE OF NIGHT
Nimbus Cloak: Ghosting into lane can be a great technique for ganking, and this just makes that strategy even better.



MAKES THE FAST DO MORE FAST
Celerity: This one just buffs every movement speed bonus you have, so basically it just makes you even faster

SNEAKY
Duskblade of Draktharr: So, why Duskblade of Draktharr, instead of something like prowlers claw? Well, personally I take Duskblade of Draktharr because I think that it has much better teamfighting capability, which is good since early-mid game you don't have much of that capability. Additionally, it gives you some more CDR, which means more ults, so that's good.



DASH ON AN ADC
Prowler's Claw: Now, the title kinda implies what I think about this item. IT'S GREAT! A free dash on an otherwise immobile champion is incredible. It also grants EVEN MORE lethality stacking because of its mythic passive. A good way to use this is to try and close the gap with enemies who are rather just out of range to be killed, or someone over a wall. Overall, great item, I just don't use it as much because of situational matchups.



FUNNY GUN HAHA
The Collector: Alright, lets get the obvious out of the way. This is a great item that really makes up the majority of your kills due to its passive, which if you don't know, EXECUTES champions below a certain threshold of HP



METAL BOOTS ARE UNCOMFORTABLE
Berserker's Greaves: This one is just some attack speed as this build is very much lacking in it. But it is pretty good, as the number of Onslaught strikes relies on what your current attack speed, which mean this will be good to buff up that.



YAY SOFT BOOTS FOR MY POOR TOES
Ionian Boots of Lucidity: This item is pretty simple as well. Just some CDR, so you get a little bit less cooldown on your ult. Nothing special. And if your going Duskblade of Draktharr, I don't recommend these boots, as Duskblade of Draktharr is already giving you enough CDR.



SONIC'S SHOES
Mobility Boots: These ones are another THE FAST build exclusive, so if your not for that, get outta here. Alright, this one is one of the core parts of your kit as THE FAST, so you wanna be gettin these on your 1st or 2nd back. This gives you +100 movement speed while out of combat, so if your just chillin in river and the passive comes up, time to book it to mid.



VAMPIRE SWORD
Sanguine Blade: Alright, we're starting to get into the good stuff. Sanguine Blade is a pretty great item on Lethal Aphelios, as it gives you not only lethality, but also Physical Vamp, which means that your Severum, the Scythe Pistol will be empowered with even more healing to you. This items decently high price is definitely worth it.



FUNNY BOW HAHA
Runaan's Hurricane: Well, it's no surprise that Runaan's Hurricane is a good item on Aphelios. It makes all of your projectiles multi target, so with things like Severum, the Scythe Pistol's Q, or Gravitum, the Gravity Cannon's passive, it's no big surprise I recommend this item, even on a lethality build.



EVERYBODYS FAVORITE CAPE
Edge of Night: This one is pretty good for crowd control heavy matchups. If your up against someone such as Morgana, Lux, or Thresh, you may want to consider this one.



GOTTA GO FAST
Youmuu's Ghostblade: Activate it at the same time as your predator and mobility boots and you'll be ZOOMIN. If you aren't building THE FAST, then just activate it when rather trying to chase someone down, or just get to lane faster.



MOVING CONTROL WARD
Umbral Glaive: This one is pretty simple. Like the title implies, its a moving control ward, and your carrying it around. Good against enemies who have really good warding.



The general gyst with a lot of these items is that they are rather a lethality item, or the are just good on Aphelios

Pros

+Insane damage lategame +Enemies wont be expecting it +The element of surprise +Can play multiple roles

Normal Aphelios is a lategame hyper-carry, the same applies here. It takes a hot minute to get built up, as early game you probably wont be getting many kills due to being pretty bad at 1v1'ing in your early levels. But late game you'll be takin these kill dozen a dime like it's no big deal. Just play for the lategame and all will be A-OK

Cons

-Very squishy -Bad early-game -Team won't believe -Has several counters -cant cut down tanks

Aphelios, being an ADC, is very squishy, and if he is mid, this problem becomes even more apparent. You can see this especially in matchups with people like Akali, or Kassadin, as they both have very high burst damage, along with MUCH more mobility than you will at any time.

I feel like this will be a question a lot of you may want to be answered, so here we go. Alright, we're gonna take this from mid to top, and who I perma ban on them.
MID: I would recommend rather banning an assassin like Akali or Zed, or a high burst damage mage like Veigar or Anivia. Mages can easily burst you down which is bad, but in my opinion the assassins are even worse with their high mobility, damage and flexibility in terms of what they can build. My perma ban is therefore Talon, as I think he is one of the best examples of a high damage, high mobility, high roaming potential assassin that I can think of.ADC: This time around, we'll be going over a ban for a support and for an ADC. Lets start off with the ADC. For this role, there's quite a few champ considered to be OP in the current meta. It's primarily mixed damaged champs, or full crit champs. I personally recommed banning Kai'Sa, as she has some of the most high burst in the game currently, along with much more mobility than you do. For the support, CC heavy supports have been heavily dominating this meta currently. For this reason, I always ban Thresh. Alternatives to this, for pretty much the same reasons are Pyke, Blitzcrank or Seraphine

Alright, first of all, I'm gonna give credit where credit is due.

Thank you to https://twitter.com/baixuehuli for the Chibis in the headers. (WARNING: NSFW CONTENT!)

Second things second, thank you to the MOBAFire community for being so kind and supporting me as a creator so far, I appreciate y'all. If I'm being honest, I wouldn't have stuck it out to make this guide if I didn't know that all of the kind people on this website wouldn't like it. So yeah. Thank you guys for being so nice, although I wouldn't mind any criticism for this guide, as I am trying to improve on guide making in the future.

Anyways, this is just my third guide, so it's not gonna be perfect, but I hope that this help you in your Lethal Aphelios journey.

Alright, have a fun time with this one, like I did.

Signing out,

-SopTop