[12.4] koog's complete Aphelios guide (2024)

If you've made it this far in the guide and actually still somehow want to learn more about Aphelios, I am absolutely impressed, and you're pretty cool (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞

In this section I'll list a bunch of miscellaneous tips to get some extra value out of Aphelios' kit. Even if you think you know your way around Aphelios, I would be very surprised if you didn't learn at least something new in here. If you can master all of these, you'll be well on your way to having your entire team spam ping you after a fight wondering what the hell you just did (in a good way or a bad way).

3 GUN COMBOS

For the most part, Aphelios has access to two abilities and his ultimate at any time. However, when you are at 10 ammo or less, you can actually use 3 guns in conjunction, giving you access to 3 gun passives and actives in a short powerspike.

Severum + Crescendum + Calibrum

The reason this 3-gun combo is so much better than just Severum + Crescendum is because with the regular combo you can only deal huge damage with your Crescendum basic attacks. With this 3-gun combo, you can fire your bonus chakrams at enemies you apply Calibrum marks to with either Sentry, Moonshot, or Moonlight Vigil, Calibrum. In my opinion, this is when Aphelios spikes hardest in his default gun rotation. Try to keep Severum at 10 ammo or less until you can take advantage of this powerspike.

Crescendum + Calibrum + Gravitum

When you are at 10 ammo or less on Crescendum in my default gun ordering, your last Sentry turret will allow you to apply Gravitum to enemies it marks. This last Sentry turret is unique in that Aphelios can root enemies and keep them in range of the turret, allowing you to continue shooting them with the Calibrum marks applied by the turret, or use a Moonshot Moonlight Vigil, Calibrum combo while they are rooted. Keep in mind that you will get this combo at 10 or less Crescendum ammo. If you want a regular Crescendum + Calibrum Sentry turret that shoots chakrams, stay above 10 ammo.

Severum + Calibrum + Gravitum

This is probably the easiest and most consistent 3-gun combo you can use. If you get Severum down to 10 ammo or less, landing 1 tick of Onslaught will guarantee a root from Gravitum. This is because after Onslaught ends, you will swap Severum for Gravitum and then you can consume the Calibrum mark to apply Gravitum and then follow up with Binding Eclipse into a Moonshot. This combo catches most people off guard and can lead to some pretty devastating early trades, or even a kill if your support can follow up correctly.

Infernum + Crescendum + Severum

If you're going with my optimal gun ordering, you should end up with this 3-gun combo once per game. You'll have 3 ways to get a huge amount of bonus chakrams with this combo - using Duskwave on a big minion wave, Onslaught, and Moonlight Vigil, Crescendum. Most of the time, just using two of these should give you more than enough bonus chakrams. Using my ult in this clip was definitely overkill, but in a closer fight, using all 3 and getting potentially 20 bonus chakrams might be worth it.

Calibrum + Gravitum + Infernum

This 3-gun combo only really works if you have Runaan's Hurricane around mid-game when the enemy team is grouping. You land a Moonshot on an enemy, consume the mark, ideally Runaan's Hurricane will proc and apply Gravitum to 3 enemies. Wait for them to group up, use Binding Eclipse and then follow up with a Moonlight Vigil, Infernum. If I had Flash up, I could have even followed that up by flashing in and finishing them off with Infernum basic attacks and Duskwave. This combo is pretty situational, but can set you up to win a teamfight all on your own.

Calibrum Mechanics

Calibrum mark basic attack reset

Similar to Caitlyn's headshot basic attack reset mechanics, Aphelios can reset his basic attacks on enemies marked by Calibrum. Doing this can help slightly optimize your DPS if you're hitting multiple champions. One nice advantage of this is if you stand at max basic attack range with calibrum and shoot Moonshot at an enemy, you can sneak in a basic attack before the Moonshot lands and then immediately consume the mark because it resets your attack timer.

Using Calibrum Turrets Properly

Now that we know how Calibrum marks basic attack reset mechanics work, we can learn how to properly use Calibrum Sentry turrets. If an enemy is within both Aphelios' range and a Calibrum Sentry turret's range, you can repeatedly spam basic attacks on the enemy and constantly perform basic attack resets. However, this only works if you have Calibrum as your main gun. In the first half of this clip, you can see how I can't consume the marks until the chakram returns to Aphelios. In the second half of the clip, all of my basic attack resets are flowing properly and my DPS is significantly higher. (If you have the audio on you can probably tell, but all you really have to do is spam right click or attack move them once the turret is on top of them lol)

Calibrum Q-Flash

You can use Moonshot and cast Flash while it channels to reposition where your Moonshot is fired from. This can be useful to get your Moonshot around minions or to get some extra distance on it.

Calibrum Q-Ult

You can use Moonshot and cast Moonlight Vigil, Calibrum while it channels to deal high single target damage. You can consume the Calibrum mark that Moonshot applies before Moonlight Vigil, Calibrum applies its mark.

Abusing Calibrum & Gravitum mark duraition

The mark that Calibrum applies lasts 4.5 seconds, which is kind of a ridiculously long time. You can use this time to keep your Conqueror stacks up, wait out shields, Bone Plating, Undying Rage, etc. If you have the Calibrum Gravitum combo, you can also abuse the duration of the Gravitum mark which lasts 3.5 seconds. This means that if you land a Moonshot on someone with this gun combo, you can root someone 8 seconds later or even longer depending on the travel time of your attacks. You can use this time to wait for your team to get in position to follow up and chain their abilities with yours.

Duskwave Mechanics

Despite what I said earlier and what the indicator actually looks like, Duskwave does not strike in a cone. Its hitbox is actually a triangle. This means that the edges of its hitbox extend farther than aiming it directly at a target.

Another thing you may not have noticed about Duskwave is that it strikes in its hitbox from right to left.

What all of this means is that if you're trying to tag an enemy with this ability at max range, you actually want to aim slightly to the left of them so that the edge of the hitbox just barely hits them. This is especially important in lane because most of the time you will have Binding Eclipse to follow up on any Duskwave you hit.

Crescendum Mechanics

Keeping Chakrams Alive

You can normally keep your bonus chakrams from disappearing by either getting more bonus chakrams or by hitting someone with a Crescendum basic attack, but there is actually another way to extend their duration.

You can use any ability or your ultimate to prevent your bonus chakrams from running out for an extra 1.5 seconds. This is extremely useful because you should be trying to keep your chakrams alive as long as possible as having the bonus chakrams can make the difference between winning and losing a fight.

Turret Tricks

You can place Calibrum Sentry turrets over pretty much any wall in the game. This will take most people by surprise and let you open fire on them with Calibrum marks.

Placing Calibrum Sentry turrets in unwarded bushes can also catch people off guard and let you get a ton of free hits on them before they even know whats going on. I've found this to be particularly effective when placing the turrets in unwarded bushes in the river when fighting for an objective.

Miscellaneous Tips

- Try to always use a basic attack before using Onslaught or Infernum for extra damage.

- If you are saving ammo for 1 last Q ability use before a gun runs out of ammo, you usually want to save 2 ammo instead of 1, especially if you are holding onto Gravitum. You need the extra Gravitum shot to actually apply Gravitum before you can use Binding Eclipse. The extra ammo also helps you do the basic attack > Onslaught combo and the basic attack > Duskwave combo.

- You can't use basic attacks or Q abilities right after you run out of ammo with a gun, but you can actually cast Moonlight Vigil while Aphelios gets a new gun. It will use the Moonlight Vigil corresponding the the new gun Aphelios is getting. This can help fill the gap in your DPS if you run out of ammo during a fight, or hit the enemy with a surprise heal from Moonlight Vigil, Severum or quickly getting a bunch of bonus chakrams from Moonlight Vigil, Crescendum, for example.