Riot Games has unveiled Aphelios as the next champion to be added to League of Legends’ roster. The character’s bio recently became available, in a move that’s slightly surprising, given how Senna was set loose on live servers just last week.
Even more interestingly, Aphelios is a marksman, just like Senna. While it’s likely that it will take a while before Aphelios is pushed to live servers, his addition will likely shake things up even further for marksmen in League of Legends.
League of Legends Aphelios
The Champion Roadmap from October describes the then-unknown marksman as “mastering diverse weapons of faith, swapping through them like cycles of the moon”. Adding to that is a passage from his very bio that calls his blades “an arsenal of mystical weapons”.
As far as Aphelios’ origins are concerned, he was “born during a rare lunar convergence, when the physical moon was eclipsed by its reflection in the spirit realm”. Both he and his twin sister Alune “were celebrated as children of destiny by those of Targon’s Lunari faith.”.
Aphelios takes five weapons into battle setting himself apart from other champions in League of Legends. Each weapon has its own basic attack and Q ability, Aphelios always carrying a main weapon and an off-hand weapon to which he can switch using his W.
He can’t, however, pick and choose which weapons he uses, cycling through them instead as the 50 Moonlight (ammo) each one comes with gets depleted. As depleted weapons go to the back of the queue to recharge, Aphelios can, in some capacity, alter the order in which weapons cycle by switching them with W and depleting the chosen weapon of his current two.
In terms of abilities, Aphelios only has to deal with the Q and R buttons. Each Q ability has its own separate cooldown and applies effects depending on the off-hand weapon. The Q ability is automatically learned at level 2 and becomes progressively stronger as the match goes on.
Aphelios’ ultimate, called Moonlight Vigil, fires ahead of him a moon bomb that explodes on the first enemy hit, damaging nearby enemies. His attacks then become enhanced against all enemies caught in the blast. R is also learned automatically at levels 6,11 and 16.
So, what does Aphelios do with his level-up points, then? They go into three stats: Attack Damage, Attack Speed and Bonus Armor Penetration.
You’ll find a detailed breakdown of each of the five weapons’ abilities alongside a snapshot of what the champion’s HUD will look like in the Aphelios Kit Primer over on the League of Legends website..
League of Legends’ 9.23 patch is now out. With a bit of luck, it won’t be long before Aphelios becomes available on the Public Beta Environment.
The same October Champion Roadmap also reveals that Apehlios will be followed by a “more straightforward, accessible juggernaut” coming “out of the Ionian underground”.
