So, as of my time covering League of Legends Worlds 2022, I've shamefully been sucked back into League of Legends. Honestly, it started as an effort to create a working build for one of my favorite characters, Lillia, but now I'm trying out new things with new characters as they come. Aurelion Sol was always another favorite character of mine, but his kit sucked. Thankfully, they reworked his gameplay and now he's a Damage-over-Time Monster with a capital M... If you know what to do. Thankfully, I've spent the time losing and winning matches to figure out what he needs and I'll pass that info on to you if you play.
Aurelion Sol's new kit and level order
So let's go over Aurelion's kit and how to effectively level it up, as well as what everything does.
First, here's the skill priority in terms of leveling: Q>R>E>W
I'll go over why for each below.
Passive: Cosmic Creator
"Aurelion Sol's damaging abilities grant Stardust, permanently improving his abilities. Each ability's bonus is listed in its respective section."
This passive is what makes the new Aurelion Sol dangerous. Many of his abilities chip stardust off of his foes, permanently stacking and powering up his abilities by degrees over the course of the game. What that comes out to is that Aurelion Sol will start off weak and then become absurd by mid-to-late game if you play him right. Specially it increases the following attributes of each ability:
- Q - Breath of Light: Increases burst damage
- W - Astral Flight: Increases max flight distance
- E - Sigularity: Increased circumference of active ability and life percent execution threshhold
- R - Falling Star / The Skies Descend: Increased size of both abilities. Gathering Stardust turns Falling Star into a single use of The Skies Descend. You must gather 75 stacks of Stardust for each use of The Skies Descend, then it becomes Falling Star again.
Q - Breath of Light (1st priority leveling)
This is Aurelion Sol's main damage dealer, so level it first. He channels a beam that burns the first enemy hit and, if kept on the enemy for a full second, causes a burst of damage. If the enemy is a champion, the burst generates a stack of Stardust. This will be your main tool for pelting enemies, killing minions, and turning most things to cinder. Just bear in mind that when not in Astral Flight, Aurelion must be stationary to keep using this, although he can turn the direction of the fire while it's active like a turret. It also slows his flight down when deployed while in Astral Flight, but the slowdown isn't terribly damaging. Most importantly, know when to shut it off. You can channel for as long as you have MP, but you don't want to drain yourself out or get caught sitting still with it in a fight you can't win.
W - Astral Flight (4th priority leveling)
This is a major part of Aurelion Sol's kit, but level-ups are negligible to it, so only level it when no other ability is available to level. Simply put, this ability lets Aurelion Sol soar over terrain in a straight direction until deactivated. While flying, Aurelion Sol can use other abilities and Breath of Light's cooldowns are turned off. Moreover, if he gets a kill or assist after using Astral Flight, its cooldown is removed and he can do it again immediately. This is pinnacle in chasing fleeing enemies and killing off remnants after a teamfight. You can also use it to ambush enemies from the jungle. It can just barely be used for escapes as well, but nearly any damage stops it, so try to time it between enemy abilities if you are going to try to make an escape from a fight. Otherwise, you'll be a sitting duck.
E - Singularity (3rd priority leveling)
This is Aurelion Sol's most important tool for gathering stardust and getting kills. It forms a circle that vacuums enemies and minions in, doing stacks of damage over time. More importantly, if any enemy is under a certain threshold of health in Singularity, it will finish them off automatically. The threshold starts at 5% of max health and increases as Sol gets Stardust, so it becomes one of his deadliest attacks fast. However, the biggest deal about this is that if minions die in the Singularity, they grant Sol Stardust. Effectively, this can be used to get a stack of six or seven Stardust from any minion wave. Use Breath of Light with it to chip enemies down and you'll be executing foes caught in Singularity en masse. Also, you should generally deploy this as your starting attack and go from there as its displacement features are a huge part of setting up the rest of Sol's combos.
R - Falling Star / The Skies Descend (2nd priority leveling)
Aurelion Sol's coup de grace is a cast that takes a second before a star drops, damaging enemies and stunning them in a circular field. For Falling Star, ever enemy Champion hit generates five Stardust, making it great for stacking if you can hit multiple targets. After leveling Sol's R once, you begin collecting Stardust specifically for it, and when you get 75 Stardust from that starting point of collection, it becomes The Skies Descend, which may be the most overpowered ultimate ability in League of Legends right now. The size of the circle doubles, knocking enemies that are hit in the circle into the air and sending out a shockwave that hits enemies in an absurdly wide radius outside the main circle for light damage. Make this one count. Once you use it, you have to get 75 more Stardust to use The Skies Descend again.
Aurelion Sol Runes
For Aurelion Sol's runes you'll want to prioritize things that help him get past a weak early game. For this I've found the Inspiration tree and particularly First Strike work best. When you attack an enemy Champion, First Strike gives you extra damage for three seconds and then gold for the damage you did while it was active. Pair this with Magical Footwear to rid you of the cost of basic boots and Future's Market to get ahead on buying important items. Then you can use either Cosmic Insight to reduce cooldown of Flash and Ignite or Approach Velocity to get close to enemies affected by Singularity or Falling Star quicker.
For the secondary tree, I suggest Sorcery. Manaflow Band is a must-have to overcome Sol's MP issues at the start of the game and filling it with Singularity or Breath of Light is very easy. For the second pick, you have a few options. Scorch will give you a little extra damage, Gathering Storm will make your late game even stronger, and Transcendance reduces cooldowns on your abilities at certain level milestones. Basically, you want to alleviate the pressure of Sol's sad and weak early game as much as you can.
Aurelion Sol's Items
The name of Sol's item game is "Melt Everything That Moves". I feel that in the current meta of League where recovery and tank items are super strong, Aurel can be stronger. Fore me, the core of his kit should be Liandry's Torment and Demonic Embrace. They provide percent damage over time that pairs deliciously with Sol's own kit. Sol doesn't really need Magic Penetration with all that DoT percent damage, so go with Ionian Boots to reduce his cooldowns, then add Hextech Alternator if enemies are using shields or Morellonomicon if they are healing too quickly.
If you feel mean, go for Cosmic Drive for a boost of move speed that will help you stay on enemies no matter what they do. You can also use Zhonya's Hourglass if you're being targeted by burst Champions like Zed or LeBlanc. As long as you get to Liandry and Demonic Embrace, few things will withstand Breath of Light and Singularity for long.
Aurelion Sol tactics
The name of Aurelion Sol's game is constantly deploying Singularity to erase minions for Stardust and erode champions who try to pressure him. Always use it at your starter for anything, even above Falling Star / Skies Descend. Here's why: Enemies will always try to run to the nearest edge of Singularity. Drop Falling Star on the edge you think they will run for and you will stun them into being sucked back in. Then light them up with Breath of Light.
Particularly, with Skies Descend, always aim to get as many targets in the circle as you can. You only get to use this ability like two to three times per game and it can turn the tide of an entire fight if you use it well.
Finally, save Astral Flight for the end of the fight to chase down enemies that try to flee or make sure you get away from a bad situation. Reducing its cooldown after a kill means you can spam it in a winning situation to run down any remaining foes and then move towards a lane or objective if you don't need to go back to base to heal.
Only use Astral Flight to engage if you know an enemy is alone and you can kill them or a teamfight has already begun and you need to be part of it. If you can't get a kill, Sol has very little means of escape afterwards.
So in essence, Sol's ideal combo is as follows:
E - Singularity > R - Falling Star / The Skies Descend > Q - Breath of Light > E - Astral Flight
Final thoughts
Aurelion Sol is strong right now and I suspect he will get a nerf pretty quickly. To what degree, I don't know, but he's absurdly powerful and can steamroll the late game if you play it cool during his early, weaker state. Try to avoid enemies that can jump you and keep you under pressure. Banning Fizz or Zed is viable, but you'll also want to avoid Vi, Hecarim, Xin Zhao, and Lee Sin to name a few. That said, based on what I've laid out above, I've had a blast with Aurelion Sol. Maybe you will too. Have any issues with my build and strategy? Let me know in the Chatty below. Otherwise, good games and good luck!
