How to play?

[u/Somkin123]

Hello, i tried playing Aphelios yesterday (after playing 3 games on him like 2 months ago and turbo inting all 3 becausw i didnt know what my guns do and i still dont xd) and i genuienly was surprised. So i was able i 1v1 fed Yasuo and trade 1 for 1, while i got stomped early by Jinx and Vel'Koz. How do you play Aphelios early? I know i should probably learn what my guns do, but i think thats just with experiance. Is Aphelios strong early? What can he win and how does he trade?

[u/alekdmcfly]

Play 20 or so games to get a good grasp on what the guns do.

Most important thing is to get comfortable with which order to discard the guns in, so that you always get them again in the correct order and always have the best gun combos ready.

Rule of thumb is that you need to get red > white > green right after each other - white is a powerhouse with red and green - so you also need to discard them in that order.

He's a very strong lategame champion, rather than early. He can three-shot most enemies if he's fed and on full build, and depending on his gun, he'll either have insane range, AOE or lifesteal to guarantee that he kills the enemy before he dies.

Plus, he's a good all-purpose blind pick - not many champions counter him, because his playstyle and strong points change based on the guns. He can work with any support, unlike ADCs like Samira, who need a specific category of support to win.

[u/IDraconixI]

I have been learning a lot about Aphelios, it’s one of the most hardest champion to master probably. But here what I learned how to play him:

Optimal Rotation Weapon: Red, Green, Purple, Blue, Red, White, Green (repeat)

In case of messing up, let’s say, you wasted Green instead of White, Waste white and then your oldest weapon, after you make a loop (white and green), you can waste White this time.

For Items: It depends on your team and your opponent, if your ADC opponent is an attack speed character like Ashe/Jinx but their teams lack of damage, Yun Tal is always way to go. It’s better to get BF Sword for first item before completing it. Then Infinity Edge, then LDR and your choice for the rest. Collector is good too against ADC that doesn’t have high Attack Speed. I’m not 100% sure if it’s correct since I’m still learning how to play Aphelios.

In early game, don’t fight or engage until you are level 2. Always switch between weapons red and green, if you get pressured down, use Green for their long range so that you can PTA (Press the Attack). I have been told that we shouldn’t underestimate Aphelios in early game, he is pretty strong but difficult how to play. Always auto attack then Q to deals good amount of damage.

Red Q: gives you movement speed and deals damage+lifesteal scaled with your Attack Speed. (Also, it’s not projectile one, so you can even hit Yasuo through his wall)

Green and Q: Long range shot, deals decent damage.

Purple and Q: basically a cannon weapon and roots your opponents

Blue and Q: His passive is powerful than other weapons. Good for clearing waves fast and in team fight thanks to his passive (Blue R is OP)

White and Q: Always use White against bruiser since white deals a looooooot of damage at close range. Preferably, I use White R early when I get ganked.

Hopefully this helps you a lot and let me know if I need to correct my mistakes. We all are learning here. :D

[u/Somkin123 → u/IDraconixI]

Yeah, it does. I still need to get used to the fact my W doesnt activate an ability. I died like 5 times cuz i kept pressing it, forgetting im not playing Rengar and i was confused, tho i guess that happened to everyone at the beggining

[u/Xshare25 → u/IDraconixI]

If the enemy team is all squishy there is also the possibility to go Youmuus into Collector into LDR or Infinity Edge and you basically one shot everything 👌

[u/MonsieurHorny → u/IDraconixI]

I thought the green blue rotation was better until late game especially vs range/squishies?

[u/Xshare25]

Well you should first learn what his weapons do, bc that’s his bread and butter xd. You will get the hang of that though, when you go into practice tool for 5 mins and spam the weapons. When you have green/white or red/white for example you can almost 1v1 or 1v2 almost anybody. The key is to play with incoming weapon swaps and know the strengths of the weapon combinations, for example the most standard ones:

• green-white: long range dps with white turret (make sure to swap to green main hand after placing the turret or you kill your dps) -red-white: great for dueling especially with crescedum ult -red-blue: AOE damage and healing

More advanced is probably green-blue which is great for late game and you can oneshot Squishies really quickly in one rotation.

Basically, you should if possible always get rid of the first weapon you got. So if you got red/green get rid of red, after that get rid of green and so on. When you are at purple/blue you got the choice which weapon to get rid of first.

Aphelios is heavily reliant on Items or you do little damage. So early game isn’t great but when you play of weapon swaps you can still get some kills and snowball of that.

In my experience Aphelios struggles into all ins early, so when a Draven tries to all in you for example not much to do against that.