aphelios is in my opinion one of the most satisfying champs in the game to learn and play, being aware of his limits and executing plays on the edge of that limit is incredibly satisfying. people with no experience tend to call aphelios difficult but once you have a few games and get a hang of the gun order youll find hes actually not that complicated and a very simple yet versatile champion which when you have the hang of can be very fruitful and allow you to climb very easily

Severum auto attacks heal aphelios for a percentage of the damage it deals and this healing is converted into a shield when its in excess of his max health

Severum Q shoots at the closest target in the range(prioritizing champions) and he gains movespeed while active, it alternates between severum autos and your offhand weapon and the effects differ based on what your offhand weapon is such as:

Infernum (blue): attacks deal damage behind the severum target
Gravitum (purple): attacks apply Gravitums slow
Calibrum (green): attacks apply moonshot mark
Crescendum (white): attacks grant chakrams

Calibrum auto attacks have 100 bonus range

Calibrum Q is a line skillshot that places a mark upon connection with an enemy and reveals them, this mark is consumed with the next basic attack against that target (1800 range, marker in game) this basic attack will use the current offhand weapon aphelios has (when calibrum is applied using other weapons the next basic attack against the marked target will consume all marks) the basic attacks effect differs based on the offhand weapon:

Severum (red): attack heals aphelios based on the damage
Gravitum (purple): attack applies Gravitums slow
Infernum (blue): attack deals damage behind the severum target
Crescendum (white): attack grants chakrams

Gravitum auto attacks slow enemies by 30%

Gravitum Q works on these slowed targets that the auto attacks create and removes the slow and replaces it with a root that lasts 1 second and deals damage (very satisfying to confirm a kill with it)

Infernum auto attacks split into 4 small bolts behind the target that deal damage to enemies hit

Infernum Q is a cone skillshot that attacks all enemies inside the cone with your offhand weapon and the effects differ such as:

Severum (red): attack heals aphelios based on the damage
Gravitum (purple): attack applies Gravitums slow
Calibrum (green): attack applies moonshot mark
Crescendum (white): attack grants chakrams

Crescendum auto attacks are faster depending on the distance between you and the target as you can only attack once you catch the chakram. Aphelios can accumulate up to 20 chakrams from using his abilities which last 5 seconds or until crescendum is depleted (attacks against champions reset the 5 second timer on the chakrams) the more chakrams aphelios has, the more damage they do per auto

Crescendum Q is a turret that is untargetable and lasts for 20 seconds but when an enemy enters its range this is reduced to 4 seconds, this also makes the turret targetable, requiring 2 ranged auto attacks to destroy. The turret automatically attacks the closest enemy in its range with the current offhand weapon. The turret also grants sight of its surroundings so you can place them in bushes as mini wards if necessary

Aphelios R is a wide line skillshot that attacks enemies hit with the current main weapon (not offhand) and deals damage to all hit, the effects are

Severum (red): heals aphelios based on level

Gravitum (purple): applies Gravitums slow but at 99% effectiveness and roots for 1.35 seconds instead of 1

Calibrum (green): applies moonshot marks to all enemies hit and the next basic attack against one of the marked targets consumes ALL marks and deals more damage based on the number of marks

Crescendum (white): grants chakrams 5 chakrams

Infernum (blue): deals extra damage splash after the initial damage and also increases based on the amount of champions hit

ideal gun order is red white green purple blue and you get this by dropping red twice first

so every time you get red, you use that up first and when the order is as stated above you just use the oldest gun first

When deciding which runes to go on aphelios you have to think about many things with lane being the most important of those. You have to take into consideration both the enemy ADC and Support.

Generally into any poke support at all you should go fleet footwork regardless of the adc HOWEVER if you have an engage support and the adc paired with this poke support is a scaling pick like yourself, you could benefit from taking PTA to help with kill pressure in lane and maybe taking long sword + 3 pots to minimise the poke from the support.

Another scenario is youre playing into a scaling pick again but they have an enchanter as their support, you could either go conqueror to maximise your late game potential and hope to outdamage the enemy ADC OR if you have an engage support you could take PTA to potentially snowball the game early and win before the enemy adc has any chance of scaling into the game.

Another scenario is when you again are into these scaling picks like yourself but you both have the same type of support then you could run the risk of taking pta for more lane pressure but you could open yourself up to being outscaled late if you dont end up carving that advantage early and snowballing properly so choose wisely

in 90% of games aphelioses aim is to be the hyper carry late which means surviving lane with minimal damage this requires taking fleet and having an enchanter to shield you and when that late game rolls around, to enhance you so you have more uptime.

Somestimes however aphelios has free lanes in which he can still be a massive damage dealer late which would benefit from conqueror more as it amplifies his damage and his lane wont suffer.

Another potential scenario is you have a free lane but you have an engage support, in these lanes it can be beneficial to take PTA to enable all-ins to be much more fruitful in lane and hopefully net you an advantage through lane that doesnt compromise on damage much late

Created from my own 100k mastery worth of games and by studying lck,lec and lpl