Aurelion Sol: The Star Forger Returns! - MMOGames.com

There is a new champion coming to League of Legends! That means a whole new set of abilities, new lore, a release skin and a totally new dynamic added to the League. I have to say this champion release has been the most exciting one in a long time- it rivals Gnar, Illaoi and even Jhin for me. This is for a number of reasons- but mainly just because Aurelion Sol is a dragon.

Now the call for a “non-humanoid” champion has long been heard from the mouths (or fingertips) of summoners, and finally it has been answered. The only other dragon presences in League up until now have been the Dragon jungle camp and Shyvana’s ultimate ability, and many have felt it has been lacking. Also, with an over-saturation of humanoid champions, many have longed for more variety in the shape department. With one fell sweep of a mighty, clawed hand: Riot Games has satisfied us all with Aurelion Sol; The Star Forger.

Aurelion Sol’s kit is the second reason why I am incredibly excited to play him. It includes a few relatively simple abilities that will be easy to grasp, as well as multiple entirely new mechanics and concepts to bite your teeth into! The most radical thing about Aurelion Sol is his passive- he has three “stars” constantly orbiting him dealing damage on each pass through minions, monsters or enemy champions. This add a totally new mechanic to get your head around- making positioning in relation to enemies extremely important in order to take advantage of this constant, free damage. This passive even applies effects such Rylai’s slow and Liandry’s burn making these items a must-buy.

His Q ability functions largely like Anivia’s ice ball- it moves in a target direction until it reaches max range or you reactivate it at which point it detonates- dealing damage and stunning. It has a much wider radius however and grows in size, damage and stun duration the further it travels within a circle around Aurelion Sol.

This means that by using this ability, and then his E (a flight ability travelling over all obstacles a huge distance), plus a high movement speed, you can in theory keep growing this “sun” from one side of the map to the other. This is a very interesting interaction and I’ll be fascinated to see if players respond well or if it turns out to be a flop.

The Star Forger’s W ability is relatively simple- it merely increases the radius of his passive and makes it deal extra damage. Again positioning will be extremely important here. The passive part of his E means that, when travelling in a straight line, Aurelion Sol’s movement speed increases.

Additionally he can only cast his “flight” (active) part of the ability when he has 100 stacks generated by movement. The stacking part of the ability seems somewhat obsolete as it is very easy to stack this up when moving in a straight line, however this will be a rare and important movement tool as the cooldown will be high.

Finally, his ultimate is simply a blast of damage in an area in front of Aurelion Sol that also knocks back any enemies within the radius of his passive. This is one of the simplest parts of his kit and provides another source of huge damage as well as fairly formidable Crowd Control.

In my opinion Riot has outdone themselves here. This champion has been years in development and it really shows. From the clean-cut and crisp look of all of his abilities, to the way in which all of his abilities perfectly reflect his lore and personality- this is a huge success.

So… Where to play him?? Well in all honesty Aurelion Sol is the kind of champion that would probably work in every role except ADC. He scales off Ability Power and Riot has named him a “mage with sustained damage” as opposed to a burst mage. This is a refreshing change from the classic model of Assassin-style mages that just one-shot people and it will be interesting to see how teams adopt this and form compositions around it. The fact that Aurelion Sol has free, constant Area of Effect damage coming from his passive means that he would be an obvious choice for the jungle- all of his damaging abilities are Area of Effect and he has perhaps the best ganking tool in-game in the form of his flight plus Q to stun in a huge area. However he will also fit comfortably in the midlane and support roles, and even toplane, as his wave clear and roam potential are off the charts.

Of course in his current state Aurelion Sol is likely to dominate any game he is in as Riot is prone to deliberately releasing a champion that is tipped towards being “overpowered” in order to get people to play them. However I do think that Riot has done an incredible job of giving us something that is a welcome breath of fresh air- a new look, new interesting abilities and interactions and a whole new playground to experiment in, in the form of a celestial dragon.

In terms of competitive play it will of course take a while for the pros to get used to playing him and begin to incorporate him into their team comps. However I do predict that we will see Aurelion Sol on the pro stage some time during the Summer Split of the LCS. His kit and the possible huge advantage it will give, even just in terms of being unexpected, will be all too enticing I think.

This is by far the most exciting release in months and I highly recommend giving him a go as soon as he hits live servers. I for one will be breaking my long-standing rule of buying a champion before I have tried them out. I need that head start.