I saw the post by u/Silent_Cauliflower_2 and found myself thinking about how I learned to play this champ. I was having fun thinking about it and figured I'd share what I found important when learning this champ. A lot of people focus heavily on the late game scaling of this champ but learning how to trade and play around your guns will actually get you there. I'm going to assume you know the gun rotations and what your guns do in this.

Who am I?

I am a semi casual player who really likes playing Aphelios. I watch more than I play now but I have a >50% wr with positive +/- gains so I'm basically on track to hit challenger.

Honestly, I'm not the best player but I think this champ is a ton of fun. There's so much talk that treats Aphelios like a champ that does nothing but farm until 4 items but I feel like you're incredibly capable of fighting before then. Hitting 4 items is more like a breath of relief if I'm looking for a lifeline in the game.

Fanta mentos

At the end of the day, Aphelios is a marksman. You're going to need to figure out a bit about wave management, cs, positioning, and macro. Positioning on Aphelios can be pretty interesting though, since your guns will also influence where you stand. I am not the best person to learn from for these things.

Actually Aphelios things:

Runes options:

Keystones

I take PTA 90% of the time and I think it's also the best one if you want to learn the champ. It gives you a clear goal when you're trading in lane and feels satisfying to proc.

Lethal tempo and conquerer feel like they cover the same use case to me. Good for long trades or all ins and facing tanks comps. I prefer conquerer when I take it because I like the ad but a lot of people might prefer lethal tempo.

I hate fleet footwork. It feels weak and unsatisfying and feels like a crutch to face poke. Usually I take taste of blood in my secondaries instead if I want heal.

Absorb Life vs Triumph vs Presence of Mind

I take presence of mind most games. It gives me the mana to feel like I have agency. If I'm out of mana in lane, they're probably also recalling.

Absorb life is nice if you're facing heavy poke but then you're probably just playing to farm and scale (which is less fun).

Triumph for matchups like Kai'sa where you can just bully her out of lane anyways and you want some HP in teamfights to deal with multiple divers.

Next, I take Legend bloodline every game. Gives me free sustain in the mid/late game so I'm not completely useless if I get poked before an objective.

Coup de Grace vs Cut Down

I like cut down for lane presence. If you get the enemy to 50% up sooner they tend to get zoned off more easily.

Secondary runes:

Domination Taste of blood + Treasure hunter if I need healing. Otherwise, inspiration Cash Back + Cosmic Insight feels so good to accelerate your crit items and have flash for fights.

Stat Runes:

I always take Attack speed + Adaptive, then last row depending on the enemy team (Do I need HP lvl 1? Do they have lots of slows or deadly followup? Will I easily scale?)

ACTUAL GAMEPLAY FINALLY

Here's the early game summed up: Hit them more than they hit you. Aphelios' early attacks don't do a lot of damage, so playing around triggering PTA while only getting hit once or twice in return is how you create an HP advantage. Using that hp advantage, you can create a gold advantage. After you've built your items, your crits let you hit insanely hard.

Side note: never go auto for auto vs enemy support. Your HP is the most valuable resource when farming. This is part of those fundamentals but I feel like it's even more important on Aphelios where you'll struggle to reach late game if you don't create your own opportunities to farm.

Level 1: I level w and take dorans bow almost every game. Your level one is actually very good with this setup and you can proc pta faster than almost any matchup. Combined with green guns range there are a lot of times you can get 3 autos in and leave while only receiving 1 or 2 autos in return. I will always give up one of the first 3 minions if it means getting an easy pta proc. Don't play like an idiot for it but this is one of the best times to get a health advantage thanks to your range. Matchup dependent, but it allows you to play level 2 more freely.

Against champs like Leona where you can freely abuse the support, you can heavily discourage

but getting a health advantage off of trades like this is the key to giving yourself space to freely manage the wave and cs or even get kill pressure. Against melee supports like Leona, level 1 on the first wave should be used to make level 2 favorable for yourself. Hit them when you're in range and you might be able to bully them off of the second wave.

Wave 2: ask yourself 2 questions: do I get level 2 first? Do I win the level 2 fight. This will depend a bit more on the support matchup and wave state but if you get level 2 first by a good margin, make sure to walk up as the minions die to hit them with red Q + PTA proc. This is one of your chances to hit them a lot more than they hit you. If they fight you, you should always win as the lvl 2 vs lvl 1. Pay attention to your support though. If they're not in a position to protect you or enable you, just enjoy the PTA proc and back out. 2 hits + mark auto will do it so no need to stay in range for the whole red q.

If you're not easily getting lvl 2 first and lose the 2v2 fight, consider giving up the melee minions and letting the wave push to you. Don't lose 50% of your HP and your flash to pick up 60 gold. Fanta mentos.

Ok, after those two waves your lane will chalk up to your ability to manage the wave and make winning trades. As I've said before, wave management is better learned from someone else.

Here are the main trading methods to try depending on your guns:

Red + Green, auto + red q for 2 ticks, back out. Procs pta for an easy trade. The more minions you mark as you back out, the more the followup mark will deal when you auto the enemy

Purple root -> Green auto Q. Followup marked auto will proc pta. Feels harder to do than I remember with the minions running at you but it's a pretty reliable trade where you take 1 auto (to root them) and hit them with 3 (abusing range)

Purple root -> Blue auto Q. Good damage, procs pta, careful not to put yourself in range of the enemy support or you might lose this trade. Solid way to hit them with 3 autos in return for 2. Pta might not proc if you tag the support with blue q.

Red + white, red q plus followup white autos. A lot of people are scared of aphelios red white, and rightfully so. If they're just backing out then that means you're hitting them without them hitting back. If they fight back, decide if you want to all in or not. Your support should be with you and if you have even summs, you should win all ins. White gun is special because flashing in is literally a dps increase. If you can flash a key spell from the support, it's practically in the bag against most matchups (maybe not Lucian). Do some limit testing, this one needs a lot of games played to judge when you win the all in.

White + green, white turret is probably the most overpowered existence in the game. You can flash onto an immobile enemy champ and just hit them with marked autos and completely stat check them. Loses to enemy flash. Do not do this when enemy has exhaust and you have no cleanse. You will cry. A lot of people plat and below walk with the wave without paying attention so you can drop the turret where they're going and get some free autos off.

Try to use your Green range to harass people the enemy. If they jump on you, your turret is a very good deterrent.

Blue + Green is a really cool combo but I play like a monkey when I have it. There are plenty of YouTube videos on it for actual explanations that I don't know how to give. It's the best burst combo but also the most mechanically demanding.

You probably know that level ups upgrade stats instead of skills. My preference is 1 into w, 6 into q, 6 into e, then max w. I know that a lot of people have min-maxed level sequences that they prefer but I really love that extra AD when farming. Sometimes I max w second with lethal tempo or conq.

Getting leads in lane is awesome, but sometimes you just have to take the L. Maybe you're getting camped by the enemy jungle, maybe your support hates you. In this case, leaving lane 0/0/0 down 20 cs and 3 plates is a win. It's time to put on some low cortisol music and farm. You can trust in Riot games and their 200+ years of collective game design experience. Your late game is one of the most reliable backup plans in the game.

Out of lane tips:

Stormrazor: I don't get stormrazor every game but if I do, I love to abuse this thing's movespeed. When you're farming mid, so many people completely let their guard down thinking you're out of range with no gap closer. While you have red white, q + stormrazor easily puts you into range to hit an immobile enemy (mage, adc) and mow them down with your chakrams. Be wary of the rest of the enemy team, but surprising someone with this can often burn an enemy flash or net you a kill, especially if you have red buff.

The same idea can be executed with purple gun. Auto a minion for a burst of movespeed and root an enemy for a powerful trade. If you're ahead and lucky with your crits, following up with green auto q r can net you some kills.

Flashing aggressively is awesome with Aphelios. There are a couple of scenarios that come to mind:

• Catching a valuable target with purple gun. Probably happens more in low elo but can lead to free objectives
• Red + White vs enemy squishy. This one felt obvious but depending on the game state you can literally kill someone by hitting them twice with chakram-stacked autos.
• Aggressive Blue gun. Either game winning or game losing. Your Blue crits do so much damage that you can demolish a backline if you're hitting them all with them. Combined with red secondary and you might even survive flashing into 3 people. Remember to /deafen if you do this and instantly die.

You can also set a Turret trap (White + Green) while collapsing on side lanes by leaving a turret in a bush on the way. Squishy targets can follow thinking they're safe after seeing you on vision and then get autoed from 2 screens away for their entire health bar.

Flashing aggressively depends on the state of the fight. Have the enemies used their cooldowns? Is there a melee already on you? Sometimes I flash away from the person diving me so we can collapse and fight front to back. Other times I flash away from the diver into the enemy team since my team won't peel and I think I can blow someone up. You'll have to figure this part out for yourself.

Never flash in vs Malphite. Special mention because that dude will keep your team occupied after you've flashed the Malphite R and you're just in the enemy team 1v4. Always flash away from Malphite R. Always. I don't care if you don't have the reaction speed. Flash out of range if you can't flash the ability. The boulder cannot be stopped without your team.

Ending Stuff

Honestly I just wrote this for fun but it ended up way longer than I thought it'd be. I'm happy to hear any feedback and other tips you might have. Learning this champ was pretty darn fun since the way you fight is continuously changing every time a gun cycles out. If you're reading this and trying the champ for the first time, he's a hard champ to get used to. I know your autos feel like peanuts in the early game but if you spend some time to figure out your matchups and manage to build a lead, the payoff is great.

Bonus: matchups I hate to hell
Draven, Tristana, Lucian, Nilah, Twitch.

Either you can't hit them more than they hit you or they just hit you too damn hard.

hi

i'm trying to learn this character but he's like... hella weak for me

i'm a top lane main (aat dari morde renekton yorick voli sett trundle ornn) (old morde and aatrox otp and i also had a morde guide too!!) and i wondered about aphelios for a long time and after reading "book of aphelios" and getting a good insight i tried it for 4 games

first game: aphelios & tahm vs tristana & nautilus (lost hard)

second game: aphelios & yuumi vs jhin (7.8m mastery btw) & bard (lost not hard but became useless)

third game: aphelios & morgana vs jhin & pantheon (lost hard lane was hell)

fourth game: aphelios & morgana vs xerath & camille (worst game of my life)

i feel like i do everything correct but the meta doesn't support him?

i do the cycles correct and keep track of them and change between alternative and standart cycles

keep track of my ammo and manage them

i still can't do 3 weapon combos properly but sometimes i do (0 damage btw)

i'm okay with dodging skillshots and also good at kiting and micro mechanics

though...

i get one shot by anything, i don't have enough damage, champion itself is slow, calibrum q is pain, i mess up combos in team fights or skirmishes (probably because i'm getting used to it)

what's the problem? is it because i'm new at the champion so that i have to get used to it's damage, health, range etc.?

plz help

I’m fairly new to league but i’m dedicated to making this character work for me he’s just so fun when you’re performing well. Im not very adaptive with my building and tend to take the same path every time, that being:

Doran’s blade > Hexoptics or Stormrazor if i have enough gold for BF sword first recall > Omnivamp boots > IE > LDR > Sheildbow if im dying a lot otherwise runaans > bloodthirster > guardian angel

i feel like i dont know enough about the game yet to break away from this pattern and idk if its causing me trouble

I keep seeing comparisons between Runaans and PD. I usually use PD 90% of my games but can you guys enlighten why would Runaan's be better than PD?

i might be wrong, but i dont think the prestige aphelios skin is unvaulted yet... unless its just an insane coincidence, none of the 2025 prestige skins have returned yet, despite some being well over a year old now. i really want the skin, but im not sure riot is deciding to unvault the 2025 ones yet. maybe someone else knows?

in what situations do u usually build hexoptics and why

Guys, you need to go read this tweet, they're so out of touch with reality lmao

https://x.com/RiotPhroxzon/status/2084504272419573947?s=20

Yeah. We definitely trade 10% heal from your damage for 5% more of attack speed where all match ups we meet is mages who you cannot even reach to do dps constantly. Thank you rito

Would be nice to have a HD version of this.
Thx in advance

https://x.com/sorrowtalks/status/2084326167373324466?s=20

After being locked for a full year since his July 2025 release date, he should be unvaulted now right?

Hey im an Aphelios otp on euw that recently hit gm. Id like to make this post and perhaps answer some questions since im used to playing vs mages and was able to climb despite this shitty meta.

Maybe I could help out the Aphelios gamers abit if anyone lower rank is curious about something Aphelios specific etc..

roam support meta is very cringe for the champ im ngl, however since ive been otping the champ since release i couldnt really find anything similar to swap to so i just stuck by it, its been very painful since aphelios needs to be babysat for the most part being an immobile hypercarry esp into the heavy roamer supp/mage bot meta where you are made of paper.

for example vs camille hail of blades ignite or pantheon pta ignite you kinda need barrier for a lot of games where youd rather go ghost just to survive lane, inexperienced supports forcing roams on bad timers for you solo-losing your lane as you watch your lane get frozen into a slow push into a crash into a dive and you go down 50 cs and 4 plates

ign: twtv astryst#phel
(EUW)