League of Legends Shows Off New Aphelios Gameplay

Aphelios is the latest champion to be released in League of Legends and also looks to be the most complicated one yet. The Lunari champion has five different weapons he cycles through, each with their own active and passive effect, and he can use two of them in tandem to unleash powerful combos. A full breakdown of his abilities was revealed weeks ago to introduce players to what Aphelios could do before he appeared on the live servers, but Riot Games' new gameplay spotlight is one of the easier ways to make sense of what the champion is like.

The video seen above was released by Riot on Wednesday as part of its usual Champion Spotlight segments that precede the release of every champion. We see Aphelios using each one of his five weapons – the Calibrum, Severum, Gravitum, Infernum, and Crescendum – as well as their unique abilities. A few different combos utilizing weapon pairs' synergies were presented to show how Aphelios can pick apart enemies near and far.

This gameplay spotlight is helpful if you've never seen any Aphelios gameplay from streamers and YouTuber who played him on the PBE, but more so than any champion, this one's probably going to take some practice before players are well acquainted with each of his weapons and how they work together. There are only so many weapon combinations you can have considering he's got five weapons and one in each hand, but knowing when to use them in battle and managing your dwindling ammo counts to have the next one ready at the correct time will probably be the hardest part of Aphelios to master.

Even Riot said itself that Aphelios is one of the champions with the highest skill ceilings possible, so expect to be spending some time with Aphelios before you get a grasp on his moves.

"Most champions can be summarized relatively quickly, but Aphelios isn't most champions," Riot said in its primer for Aphelios which should definitely be read multiple times even if you're not playing as Aphelios since you'll have to play against him. "Learning to wield the Weapon of the Faithful demands discipline, focus, and mental acuity, so consider this primer your first test of faith along the path to mastering a champion with one of the highest skill ceilings in the game."

Aphelios should now be available in League of Legends for 975 RP or 7,800 Blue Essence.