The Complicated History of League’s 200 Years Champion | League of Legends 

Any chance to get a video on neutral abilities? Abilities that has the same effect on both allies or enemies such as Kindred's R, Anivia's W as well as Bard's E and R and how, as of recent, whenever Riot ships a neutral ability, it is no longer truly neutral and comes with an advantage for the caster such as Mordekaiser's R.

ADC main here: Aphelios is...fine. He's simple enough to play at least passably in the same way that every ADC is playable on the same base set of mechanics. His problem is he asks waaaay too much of players for not enough value. A legitimately well played Aphelios who manages his guns, cooldowns and ults correctly is strong. Other champions for less than half the work get to be broken.

bro when aphelios was released I was literally reading his abilities from the wiki and taking notes. I was not taking notes in my online classes but i was taking note on what this champ does.

Aphelios did actually have something removed- He used to be able to consume his Calibrum mark at global range, but now it has a range limit. A very long range limit... but a limit.

4:10 Except he did, they took out the infinite range on Calibrum's mark and limited the number of mini chackrams you could stack.

He recieved 56 nerfs while getting 2 buffs for ultimate 1 for his AD in Q and 2 buffs to lethality on E with some hp buff when they gave all adcs that buff during 10.11 patch

10:06 "This is Aphelios 2, now with 50% less 200 years of game design experience." That made me laugh way harder than it should have.

The one thing I think you should add about release aphelios, is that you couldn't see his off hand weapon by his health bar so there was even less visual clarity

What happened to Brother Aphelios? Easy. He got jumped by an AP Rengar otp, and acquired PTSD.

Even though there are other adcs that demand less from the player, to get even better results than aphelios, i just can’t find myself playing a different adc. The amount of creative freedom his kit gives me is unmatched. Maining aphelios currently on soloq is probably not the smartest thing to do, but aphelios is a truly unique character that has given me some of my best moments on the game.

I love Aphelios, even when he's strong, he isnt as toxic as Yone or Akali

My most-played champion-now this does put a smile on my face. He's one of the few champions where when I do well, I feel like I deserve to. Few things in this world are more satisfying than getting off the perfect double-swap combo while keeping your rotations infact.

He's not hard to 'play'. He functions like almost any other ADC. He's just hard to understand and know what to do. He's the anti-auto-pilot gameplay champion. With Aphelios, you need to plan what your rotation is going to look like (much like what items you're going to build, but on the fly) and be constantly thinking "I need to waste this weapon first". And also know what combination is good for what situation. He's a lot like Gnar in that regard. I think that's a pretty cool thing. When I play him, I'm always thinking: "I can't fight now, I have bad dueling weapons" "I can do an objective, I have good dps weapons" "I can set up a gank, I have good utility weapons" "I can't teamfight now, I have bad weapons for that" "I need to waste this weapon asap or else I can't fight this" "In a few seconds I can all in him with my next weapons" Literally like Gnar thinking "gonna transform, need to fight" or "fury running low, can't fight". Aphelios is cool if you like thinking and planning while playing. I enjoy it. OH and if by accident you mess up your rotation, you need to know how to fix it. "I need to hold this weapon so that I can fix my rotation". Good luck doing that if you're playing on auto-pilot.

The fact that Aphelios manage to only have three buttons on such an overloaded kit, means Chogath’s entire kit can be cramped into one button

I adore Aphelios. Beautiful edgy design, incredibly fun to play, and his lack of popularity makes me feel special everytime I lock him in

I don't even get mad when I am against an Aphelios, even when he's good. Instead, I just groan because I have to remember everything he does. ...or I just play Voli jungle. 🐻‍❄🤙🏻

This is the one I have been waiting for so long. Aphelios is my absolute favourite champion. Even if Aphelios got nerfed too much, as long as you understand his skillsets, you’ll still do well.

I think what happened to him is basically what happened to Azir. Incredibly complex for their combos and the high learning curve, but the mastery of the two champs are worth it. But of course, just like with Azir; Riot found a way to f*ck them both up with 2 million nerfs. Mind you that hes still okay rigjt now, but no where near as strong as when he was released.

7:31 I've never in my life seen so much skill in one nida player

I've been an Aphelios main since day 1 of League. I am a massive nut for Magic Arsenals, a niche which no other game except League has ever properly executed on. Aphelios has been good since the day I started (season 10 around patch 6, 8, or 12) and has remained around the same power level. However, I believe there's on factor people really don't respect about his story, that being his numbers namely his MR (which used to be the lowest in the game) make the experience of learning him unnecessarily polarizing. There are numerous edges and things that make no sense in his kit that add to people not wanting to play him extensively. I remember when he got his changes in s11 I had 2 friends try him, hype him up, and subsequently drop him. Small things like his passive stats makes people think (or ask), his weapon rotation confuses and frustrated people, and important mastery mechanics like knowing how to use his Chakrams effectively complicate him further. I love this champ, frankly I'm not an ADC main, I'm an Aphelios main; I vastly prefer any other role over bot, but he is only viable in that role most of the time due to those weird hangups (like his MR). I'm actually really happy that the stigma of his power is fading since for a really long time any clip I got or shared was met with "200 years hehe xd". I appreciate the fact that videos like this are actually talking about him properly, and hope for more content in this style.

Although Aphelios is partly CertainlyT's child, I think it's a misconception that he is a 200 years champion. Even though looking at some 200 IQ Aphelios play might look intimidating, he is in his core a traditional marksman through and through. He isn't a 200 years champ in that he doesn't have a tool handy for every occasion in contrast to stuff like Viego, Yone, Akali, Irelia etc. Aphelios has a lot of tools but can only utilize a couple of them between long intervals. Yes he has a root and slow, a 1500 range skillshot and 650 range AAs, extra lifesteal, AoE attacks, Super Melee Mode and Turrets, BUT, he can't lifesteal while doing AoE damage from 650 units while using chakrams, turrets, slowing you and rooting you in the process. His kit was relatively well gatekept in terms of features because you need to cycle through them properly, however the devs went too far with the output of each of these features. There was a time when having flamethrower meant you use blue ulti, No question, no thinking, just press R and you can probably one/two shot 3 or more grouped enemies. His numbers were just too high and that made it look like the champion had an insane kit, when in reality he was a walking statstick with simplistic strengths and weaknesses to each stance.

I think the fact that aphelios is restricted to 2 guns at a time is what keeps him from being an overloaded nightmare like the other 200 years champs. Aphelios may have like 20+ different abilities but he only has access to 2 passives, abilities, and ults at a time. And really its only 1 ult (you gotta choose cant have both) and the only way to have access to both passives is with good use of crescendum and gravitum.

I'm addicted to this character. You give up consistent power to pull off the greatest clips and escapes if you are good enough

FINALLY SOMEONE WHO AGREES THAT HE WAS OVERTUNED NOT OVERLOADED THANK YOU VARS

Have you considered doing a video regarding knock ups/airborn vs other CCs. I find it interesting how knock ups are the only form of CC other than supression that is not affected by tenacity.

I live in constant fear that Riot's gonna rework him and change his kit and I'm gonna have to learn what he does all over again

Aphelios is the most fun I've had playing league, i wish he can just get buffed a bit more tho cuz wow his winrate is abysmal

I believe the other thing that made him so overpowered before all those nerfs was how well he synergized with the old death's dance. Aphelios could outheal the damage of 2 carries once he got death's dance. And death's dance also made it almost impossible to oneshot him.

Thanks for making all the details about what happened to Aphelios.

That's also about my take on Aphelios' story. I never felt he was overloaded despite being able to combine his weapons in so many ways by the simple virtue of him having no dashes. Besides having some lifesteal on Severum he's as vulnerable to divers and assassins as any other hypercarry. Of course he was stupidly overtuned on release but as you mentioned, he never needed to lose any of his gameplay mechanics in order to get to a more or less healthy state.

I think the big problem with Aphelios is that he can handle any situation he wants to, provided his guns are managed well. If they are, his versatility is the highest out of probably any champ in the game. Even with less than optimal guns you still have a minimum of two approaches to literally any situation you encounter. That carries a lot of power that most champs don't get access to, and most players can't utilize to the fullest extent.

Aphelios is my go to ADC and I absolutely love him, his kit is just so much fun. For me personally he is one of the best ever designed champions. But please Riot stop nerfing him bc of pro play presence :')

Your videos always make me want to play FE Radiant Dawn again

Honestly Aphelios is my favorite champion, I actually enjoy how complex he is because I feel like a beast when I pull off a good combo with him

Love the random fire emblem music

Dude I always recognize your BGMs, you took this one from Radiant Dawn :D

aphelios calibrum (green gun) mark had global range but it was reduced shortly after (so it's the only thing that was removed from his kit) also i want to add that his passive that grants him AD/AS/lethality are his base stats but the player decides how he distributes them (aside from lethality of course) to make it more clear, he has very low AS per lvl and low AD per lvl so that he can compensate with his passive and get a little more stats when he maxes them (it's more like you squeeze the stats into one category and make the other starve) and finally his base numbers are low compared to other champions but the problem was with him doing a lot of basic attacks and these basic attacks can crit and lifesteal which riot didn't prepare for (for example insta proc PTA or stacking half the conqueror stacks with red Q) things like that made him deal so much damage without having high numbers in his abilities

I love aphelios i picked him up at the end of season 11 and hit diamond for the first time. I love how his weapon management works it's one of the most enjoyable things about him. All hail remmacs

Thumbnail: what happened to aphelios? Me who one trick him: a lot happened, what exactly do wanna know?

It hard not see how good that thresh is

This is my first time when Vars is giving an example, I can't understand a single word. Well done Aphelios.

5:00 not only that, on those shapeshifting champions, but ALL of the multiple form, 6 ability champions have one thing in common: they have one main form. meaning the other forms are always just addons to the main form, they help round and complete the champion out aphelios is completely different in that each weapon works as its own champion, when combined with the second hand weapon. like, he's so different than nidalee and elise, cause like, at the end of the day, they're human characters. a long range ability, a heal or stun, some more dmg/utility, then they swap and go all in in monster form and back out in human form. their main way of playing, the bread and butter is always human form, same with jayce cannon form aphelios is truly the most unique champion

From what aphelios do to what happened to aphelios.

I remember the summer a couple of years ago when I decided to pick him up. I put some time into him in order to master him just to see him get nerfed 10 patches back to back until he was unplayable and I felt like my time has went to the void.

You used to not be able to see his guns and he would get auto attack resets off blue marks. The latter allowed him to basically infinitely repeat marks with his turrets because every auto from them applied a stack (it had a larger range too). In lane, that mechanic basically gave him more range than caitlyn and was basically a combo that you had to accept was going to take half your hp.

5:14 my musician heart. It burns :cc

As someone who has over 700k on aph, I do like his current build, but I remember the old aphelios build (before mythic). IE, hurricane, phantom, death dance, and mortal. Those days were fun and while the new items are great, I’ll never forget the old days.

They took away Aphelios' infinite attack range on Calibrum Q/R/Turret- That's certainly something at least

i think it would be better if Aphelios' visual model changes color when he switches his weapon that way I can know for sure what weapon he is using. Though he has the symbol indicator on top of his healthbar, most of the time I dont know what symbol it is or what weapon it is indicating

the pain i felt when vars begins counting aphelios abilities and the number kept growing. As always solid script writing and narration.

You could say his development has set him back 100 years

aphelios actualy had a global aa range with the turrets, wich was removed

The infernum one shot thing is basically gangplank that’s wat happens when something crits and does splash damage

My nerd brain and gamer one felt satisfaction at these kinds of analytical yet balance seeking discussion about any particular topic (in this case, gaming and things encompassing it that produced highlights), please make more videos!!!!! ❣️

In the beginning I never witnessed the OP 1v9 Aphelios, so I didn't think he was this unstoppable beast. I've had friends who used him and I thought he was one of the funnest adcs to support as a Braum main. So many doodads to stack my passive on :D. Also, remember when riot said they wanted Aphelios to be the Yasuo of adcs? LOLOLOL. I also don't think winrate is the best indication of how good a player is. Not anymore at least.

Nice video, I was starting to wonder if I'm the only one who thought of aphelios that way. Seeing those old clips from launch aphelios... I can't help it but think riot does insufficient internal testing for characters. They rely too much on PBE, how come no one noticed they gave an ability quadratic scaling and no one thought to try it against a bunch of target dummies before the character was even announced.

Even though he can't do it all at once, I find it difficult to swallow a champion that can play like Ashe, Jinx or Caitlyn while having a built-in bloodthirster while having the ability to go on melee against divers and come out on top. He can go from water to wine, then from wine to beer, then from beer to milk making him so versatile it is hard to justify playing other marksmen over him unless he is extremmely weak.

I feel like this was league attempt at "an invoker like champion." and if that's the case I'm fairly happy. I also feel a lot of his problems came from the fact his numbers ment he could do what so many other champs can do but better. He could have Caitlyn's range but he didn't have her low attack speed so he was a better bully, he he had Ashe's slow and cc or Jinx's AoE. But with all the numbers being brought back he Doesn't really do those things better and doesn't have, for example, the agency in lane Cait has or Jinx's ability to bulldoze a team fight of one kill or Ashe's... well Ashe is just garbage. I just think its nice he's starting to feel more of the jack of all trades he's supposed to be and not just stealing identities from other champs now

I think Aphelios is way better designed than most people think. Yeah he has 5 different weapons but he can´t use all of them at the same time making it a bit wierd but okay. And msot importantly on a basic level he is immobile, squishy and has a lot of damage (kinda what you expect from an adc)

"what he can do is limited by the two guns he's currently using". This is why most Aphelios guides point out that he's at his strongest with

I still feel like calibrum ult should have the old range it had and keeping the rest as the current range. This one is more of a for fun idea for aphelios that makes it a little more complicated. This is for only his gravitum. The idea is gravitum now has stacks and at 1-2 stacks its a 0.75 root, 3-4 stacks would be a 1-1.25 root, then 5 stacks would give it a 1.25 stun. the numbers can change but I thought it would be a cool thing to have in his gravitum kit. it would make it alot more complex which isn't needed and doesn't need to be added but just a cool concept of an idea.

Great video as always, but as a music nerd and an Aphelios nerd, I had to point out that Crescendum is pronounced like the music term "crescendo" (like creSHEndo, emphasis on the "e"), since it takes its name from that term. Well it also takes it from "crescent" because Moon I guess, but Rioters have been pronouncing it how I explained. I just really like weird words and this one in particular...

Hey Vars, I have a cool video idea Tank busters like vayne Kog or Fiora, how efficient they are How they affect the tank role Situations they are bad in etc. Would love to see a video about that

difference w/ Aphel is that while he has a lot of stuff...they all are more or less connected to the same output. they pretty much all have to do with his AA, or skill shots. The other stuff just adds some bonuses onto those two things. His issue was pretty much just dmg bc thats the big and pretty much only thing he can do. He feels confusing and overloaded...but all he really does is right click in different flavors. The different flavors aren't that hard to balance on their own but if they are ALL strong then he's an issue. Giving him 5 different ults is where i'd draw the line tho especially since it procs a BUFFED passive effect instead of just giving a free AA on every target... Hey at least Calibrum doesn't make the next AA global anymore

I feel aphelios is really rewarding to play once you master him, he can do a lot and turn many fights around, actually 1v9 late game champion. I don't like picking him into assassins but I feel he is really good into the champions I hate, like Draven, Lucian, Vayne and Jinx

Would love you to do this for azir aswell!

If you play aphelios and know to keep one few ammo before fights, you technically have access to 4 different sets of abilities in that one fight

The part when you say they didnt remove any gameplay from him ( 4:16 ) is not real Infinite range calibrum passive is prime example but i remember a few more.

10:08 So 100 years of collective game design experience?

200 years brought him into this world and 200 years can take him out.

I have to say that in my opinion Aphelios is one of the most well designed champions in the game. There is complexity to his kit for sure, but it is what you pointed out in the video: mostly inflated numbers and some oversights like calibrums infinite range and the infernum ult interactions. The beauty of Aphelios kit lies simply in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of his individual weapons. Each weapon is powerful but not overpowered and enables a certain playstyle. Calibrum gives you range for quick trades, Gravitum gives you cc for a potential all in, Infernum gives you a boost to dmg and additional aoe, severum gives you sustain and movement speed and crescendum gives you close quarters dmg capacity. If you get what makes the individual weapons strong and play around that, he is relatively easy to counter. If you allow him to control the space and get ahead, then you are in for a treat and a slaughter like with any good hyperscaling adc. It is a kit that grants benefits for playing smart and that can be countered by playing smart. It enhances skill expression on the highest level, but also supports a plethora of playstyles. You can play him aggressively and with an engage supporter to dominate the laning phase. You can play him passively and scale up with an enchanter or a poke supporter. You can play him as a lane bully given the right settings. He shares this tendency with Thresh, who in my opinion also falls into the highest tier of design. He too can express a lot of playstyles and is useable and suitable for most situations. This versatility makes him better designed and healthier for the game than lets say a Soraka, who just heals for infinity and has barely any way to be punished if you cant counterpick her. Most broken champs have one mechanic that just breaks the game and that all the nerfs and balance changes need to revolve around. Gwens protection field, Nilahs experience boost, Yones no consequences E. All these abilities either leave no room for counterplay or are built around exploiting game mechanics. If a champ is only recognized by literally one ability then we find poor design in my opinion.

4:10 Aphelios was able to shoot over the whole map with white q but that was taken away

4:18 Holy Shit That Penta.

I'm not an ADC player myself, the only ADCs I play are Jhin (my main ADC) and Aphelios. That being said, I rarely get a negative KDA on Aphelios. I guess part of the reason is because I mained Jhin? With Jhin you need to carefully position yourself and that's one thing you want to do with Aphelios more than any other ADC.

the man did it

I started the game as an aphelios main. I saw that 200 yrs video by score eSports and learnt that his hud is different to everyone in the game and he just looked damn cool...to say the least he is still my fav ADC But yeah I stopped playing ADC... cuz ADC 2022 XD

Midlane pressure? The reason fiddle was nerfed was the toplane tank build, lol.

when are you gonna talk about irelia rework retrospective, also i really enjoyed the background song on this video i wonder where its from.

He needs just a 2 base ad buff to be viable in solo q

Reminds me of an invoker type hero

200 years has passed that's why.

I don't know why they nerfed Aphelios at the start of 2024. They completely gutted the Attack Damage he gets from Leveling his Q. So now he only gets a total of 27 AD from maxing out his Q. He was already at a 47% winrate. Why is Rioting still nerfing him!?! Meanwhile, Marksmen like Miss Fortune get to do an insane amount of damage while keeping their overtuned kit.

which music is playing at the outro?

10:32 this part kind of makes me hope the same thing will happen to genshin and artifact system :)

What skill is in the middle during 12:20?

I feel like Aphelios is like a ranged, complicated Udyr

Well at the beggining his turrets and infernum r was broken af but not now. People just dont understand what to do against aphelios

"the wave has a different color based on the main hand weapon" [laughs in color blind]

For me Aphelios has the same issue with Kalista: he is much more vulnerable in soloQ environment than any ADCs/champions in the game. The same way few people know how to play around Kalista’s amazing laning phase, objective control and teamfight initiation, few know how to work with Aphelios’ guns. Like, skirmishing when he has blue - purple guns, force 5v5 when he has fucking green - purple, or won’t go pressure bot for platings when he has red - white. Shit like these happens even at the highest ranks. Also, most of the time standard immobile, squishy, late game ADCs like Aphelios are gonna be food for assassins.

Hey Vars can you do a Fiora's rework video in the future. Like talking about how she got reworked what insipiration of the design. Also the main part is why she has no champ teasers, events, spotlights, gameplay preview, new voice lines like GP's rework before her and after her rework every champion that got full VGU reworked until the latest one received everything. The champs that got a full VGU in order starting form gangplank are: Gangplank 2015 Fiora 2015 Poppy 2015 Shen 2016 Taric 2016 Ryze 2016 Yorick 2016 Warwick 2017 Galio 2017 Urgot 2017 Evelynn 2017 Swain 2018 Irelia 2018 Aatrox 2018 Akali 2018 Nunu & Willump 2018 Kayle & Morgana 2019 Morde 2019 Panth 2018 Fiddle 2020 Voli 2020 Mundo 2021 In this list of champions that recieved full VGU only Fiora has no Champ Spotlight, Champ tease trailer, New voicelines, New recall animation, new emotes ctrl 1/2/3, mini events. Yup that's Fiora i'm just really curious or somewhat jealous/delusional like it's haunting me just thinking about it even though it's already 7 yrs. add to that still having no legendary regardless of how popular she is, while Yone got his legendary in less than a year of release. Almost all of Top lane champs has a legendary or 2 already, so how about Fiora? Thanks love your videos!!!

honestly he is the most fun adc for me to play with i like switching guns even if one is not ideal for the current situation you can make it work i know more marksman require less and i mean like much less effort to get the same if not better results but his gimmick to me at least make it worth the effort i put on him

I have no idea how he works and I'm the absolute worst adc you'll ever see...I wanna main him !

He’s so fucking cool though. I started playing right before Viego came out so I never experienced crazy Aphelios. I just want him to be useful again

Udyr has had more than 2 forms well before 200 years did, but everyone forgets about the Dyr.

Just wanna point out that 99% of the 200 years clips were just him using infernum (aoe damage) ult. The main problem was his numbers tbh.

Aphelios is super strong in pro play in the hands of top tier adc s that can manage to play despite his low range. Then his spells make him really strong

I am fairly sure I have a 20% winrate on Aphelios (cant remember since I already uninstalled the game) but I dont care bcs the champion is SO FUN and SO COOL and I will stick with him forever

APHELIOS?! HOW MANY YEARS?!

I still hold firm that Viego is the least overloaded of the most recent champs like he is simple to understand he is just almost stat stick ish.

It was when Akshan came out I asked myself if I treated Aphelios too poorly