Is League of Legends' Aphelios a Difficult Champion to Play?
Aphelios has a really complicated set of skills when you look at them for the first time—but is he really that complicated? Let's break that down and find out.
Published December 1, 2022.
The Weapon of the Faithful
If you've ever seen the skill list of Aphelios, or gotten him in an ARAM while he was free to play, then you know how complicated his toolkit appears. His passive gives him 5 powerful weapons, the game starts with the W and Q abilities unlocked, and level-ups work differently too. But, once you've taken the time to understand how he works, he's actually easy to play and is super versatile.
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Pro Tips for Playing With Aphelios
Playing Aphelios is all about cycling through the 5 weapons granted to him by his sister Alune as his passive. Each weapon has its own perks for poking, crowd control, wave clear, or damage boosting, and he is equipped with 2 weapons at any time. Using basic attacks against enemies will use up the ammo in the main-hand weapon, causing Alune to switch out that weapon for the next gun on the list.
Save your secondary weapon as the one you'd like to deal damage with or initiate with, and cycle out your main-hand weapon until you have the combination of weapons you want to work with. When using different combinations of weapons, Aphelios can come head-to-head with just about anyone. Without weapons, he is slow and has no dashes, gap closers, or escapes.
If you're not planning on playing Aphelios very often, the short answer is yes, he's difficult. His unique level-up system and tool kit are not very intuitive, making him a very challenging champion to play. But, if you're willing to learn how each of his weapons works and how they can be used in synergy, then Aphelios is actually not very mechanically demanding and can handle many diverse situations.
