"People ship Senna with Thresh, and that's weird because she's married already" Yeah, that's the most problematic part of that. Not the fact that Thresh captured her soul and tortured her for like ten years or whatwver
Aphelios isn't really that hard to play, but he does try way too hard to have a unique kit, up to include a custom UI, which makes him feel a lot more complicated than he actually is
I realized pretty quickly that his "complexity" was overrated. the hardest part is just memorizing what all his weapons do. From there he isn't very hard, at least for your average low to mid rank game.
@@abdelkaderayech4913 if you wanna be super tryhard you can arrange your weapons not in a preset order but in a response to gamestate. For example, a big team fight is happening so maybe I want blue gun. We just got baron so I will save green gun to help seige, etc. Also, knowing every single combination for the two weapons is fairy diffuclt to keep track of even f you know what each weapon individually does. There are 20 gun pairs plus you need to be aware of what gun is coming next. You can also do some cool combos if you are low on two weapon ammos at once. You can q on main hand and off hand, swapping to the next two weapons and then q with those two weapons, giving 4 basic abilities with the only cooldown being the weapon change animation.
Both Aphelios and Allune don’t feel present enough. There’s so much potential for a dynamic between the two of them, but Aphelios isn’t allowed to be a character since he’s mute, which means that Allune just talks to a wall the whole game and can’t say much of interest.
@@GM-cw9qr Then Riot's logic is terrible because we already have a somewhat one-sided duo with Nunu & Willump. Willump is at least allowed to make noises, Aphelios doesn't get much outside of, "hAaH!"
@@dafroakie9984 i meant in Aphelios's case its voluntary silence, he cannot speak because che chooses to get help from alune instead of speaking, Willump on the other hand straight up doesnt know how to speak, thats why he is allowed agency in voice
Complete agree with you on Aphelios visual design. I wish he looked more like a lunari rogue, but homeboy looks like he's ready for prom. On the other hand, because Aphelios is mute and I am an adc main, hence I have main character syndrome, it feels like Alune is talking to me and I am Aphelios and I think that's kind of fun, like she's a Link companion
Its kinda funny actually. To be a decent aphelios player just go with an auto attack setup. He may have a super complex kit but in the end he is an auto attacker. That and red white let's fight
@@lotus8847 the reason he's always placed low in tier lists is because people think like this. if you wanted to just auto attack someone then there's obvious options that are much better at that. he relies on his weapon combos to not get outtraded by every other adc. he relies on his versatility to not get outclassed by every other adc. if you are not using his combos or optimizing his versatility then why would you play him
@@chokonnit7337 I guess I should have explained things better. Aphelios is an autoattacker, no matter what weapon you use. I didn't mean to imply that his weapon combos arent useful. Of course every weapon has its perpouse and knowing when to use each makes a great aphelios player but you can't amply gravitum slow with auto attacking (well you can with ult but I digress). And its actually the other way around, some aphelios get stuck because they overcomplicate him. (I talk by experience)
@@lotus8847 are you saying you cant apply the slow with autos? i want to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume theres some extra typo changing what you mean since thats just wrong. saying aphelios can be good without gun management and combos is like saying draven can be good without catching axes. yeah you might have a good game if the enemy team plays with their monitor off but it will never be consistent. what makes something good is the ability to be good most of the time. aphelios cannot be good if you do not optimize his passive because you miss out on too many opportunities to do things like red green into purple for an early trade or wasting guns to have blue for dragon
"You know, sometimes bot lane is like a subway sandwich. It's got all this like random bullshit in it and at the end of the day it just kinda fuckn sucks." Poetry for the ages
Weird how seeing all these videos about how Aphelios has so much confusing design choices yet the first time I try I immediately understood what was happening. Plus he became a favorite ADC character for along with Jhin so playing him more does definitely help. Also the art of Nick as Aphelios but his 5 guns are Nerf guns is perfect.
In lor, The veiled Temple show that alune is actually having a normal body in that temple and when aphelios arrived there, He has a ghost-like body just like alune when she is in physical world
Agree with the friend shipping take. A lot of people just feel like they're driven to die on a hill built upon personal horniness when it comes to romantic ships, which is like, ugh ok, that's what you spend your energy on? A lot of times it just feels like doing it for the sake of it without really thinking about it, which is fine and all but some are really hellbent on it.
Yeah that's what it feels like with sett and aphelios like people just immediately like the idea of them being together that they forget any logic behind It ( like the fact that they are from completely different regions and might not actually be attracted to each other or even interested in a relationship)
the drinking a poison to channel a spiritual power is actually the original basis of dionysus worship in pre-ancient greece, they thought that drinking wine and getting drunk (as well as other shit like getting high off mushrooms) was them taking on dionysus's spirit. its also pretty similiar to the norse berserker, who would wear nothing but the skin of a wolf or bear or boar then get high on mushrooms so they could take on the spirit of the animal they were wearing. so aphelios's drink is also kinda like. it should be a drug or alcohol or sum but they just made it poison which. kinda!
The biggest issue I have as a person who plays League infrequently at best is the lack of clarity in what Aphelios is capable of at any given time. Other ADCs can be easily explained by my friends in voice chat in a couple of sentences, but aphelios has a bunch of conditional stuff that complicate matters SO Much
all aphelios does is auto attack you, he has lifesteal as a passive basically, and every so often he throws down a turret his ult is just a wide skillshot which deals some damage Like, occasionally he has a secondary effect that changes depending on what gun he uses, but in exchange for 5 different ones, they aren't allowed to do very much, so for the most part you don't really have to worry about his abilities, just treat him like a regular ADC, with sort of a mini miss fortune ult kinda when playing him, you only have two active abilities, q and ult, the q is the only thing that changes drastically, so he sort of has 5 fairly ok basic abilities, but he can only use 1 per fight pretty much, and an ultimate actually the nice thing about him is you only have to worry about 2 cooldowns, his q and ult
I really like Aphelios and all his weapons and agree that's he's easier than he appears but the ways and intricacies his abilities can work with each other is still completely insane. Like flamethrower spread to gravitum root. Or ult with sniper with bonus chakras. And that part still goes over my head.
I really like you showing the fan arts every video. They are amazing and the time you show them for is also good for looking at all of them without the (small) inconvenience of stopping the video :)
I'm still wanna see (maybe LOR gonna bring this to us now that the existence characters are gone) more characters of Lunari and Solari who bring us MORE Like, give us a Solari priestess who is just fascinated with their fate and THE GLORIOUS SUN, but someone who isn't the ASPECT OF THE SUN, maybe someone who is in this balance of getting radicalized or seeing the nuance between day and night. Or just a villaness who endorses Leona acts Give us a Lunari who really is the voice of them, who defends the little camps they have, who will make raids to Solari farms and temples, a rebel cell leader. Because Aphelios is the assassin, he kills the Solari, but... He has (naturally) really little to talk about it. And it almost make him and Alune less "fighters of the Lunari" and more like "weapons of the Lunari"
I dont feel like there is a real balance between solari and lunari, because Aphelios is the only one who is born and rise as a lunari, Diana is just a foreigner who got adopted by the Solari cult (even tho she is now the Aspect of the Moon) and Zoe didn't give a damn about her cult, familly or even faith as she left as an Aspect.
I just wanna say that whenever I watch people play Aphelios that the way he hops around when he's switching guns reminds me of Gru from Despicable Me for some reason.
I was playing da moon boi one game when a viego turned into me. He died as aphelios in like 5 seconds then put in chat "HOW DO YOU PLAY THIS CHAMP!?!?" To which I say "COLORS!"- from local apheios player
I agree Aphelios isn't hard to PLAY but he is hard to play well, optimizing his dps output takes a lot of work, learning which guns to combo take a lot of work and how to fix his gun order takes a lot of skill. Every gun combo has a different playstyle and it feels very rewarding to play after learning it all
My take on the Settphelios thing as someone who IS into shipping both friendships and romances, I never got the hype for them either. I get it, the hot-headed brute and the suave, calm assassin, red and blue, hot and cold, but if I want a ship like that, I'll just go for Caitlyn and Vi, or if I really want two dudes and a really out there pairing I'll find a way to ship Kayn and Rhaast. Idk, maybe I'm a sucker for wanting to stick close to canon and props to anyone who doesn't give a shit about that, but I just never saw why they took off so much. Still fine with anyone who ships it or anything else (as long as it's not p*do shit or be*stality), don't know how some people think another person not agreeing with your ship is a personal attack, it's not, calm down
it is primarily because they released so close to each other, two hot anime boys released right next to each other, both of them lacking lots of connections to characters in the wider world, it sort of just came about because of convenience more than anything
13:40 THIS. I'm an ADC main who has played quite a lot of aphelios, and I feel like this is the biggest misconception about him. people assume that because of the custom HUD and the pdf file passive he's some super difficult character that you need to be giga brained to play, but realistically all of his weapons have immense synergy with eachother and they're all good in team fights, so does the fact that he has all of these mechanics really matter when all you need to do is press Q=>W=>Q and then auto attack people until they stop moving? If you play ADC and you haven't given aphelios a try, please do because as long as this misconception stands the only thing it does is make people assume you're some super smart player and they won't understand what you can actually do, so you're basically playing a normal ADC but you can just get away with way more than you're supposed to with psych. warfare.
I think the reason people are so extreme about Sett and Aphelios is because it was a ship that gained a lot of traction even before Riot themselves started taking notice. Like, there was no lore reason for them to exist, but because we didn't have a single gay male character at the time (the closest being the guys that Varus possessed, which are not playable characters, nor even shown in any form), TF and Graves were known to be a thing, but Riot didn't seem willing to move forward with queer men at the time, so people relied on shipping both them and SettPhel. I assume that the reason why Riot themselves went forward with that is because they thought... "well, why not?" After all, when you think about it, there isn't much to do with either of these two lorewise, right? Sett is the boss of his own fighting pit, so his story is done, he is done and happy, so he is basically a NPC... that is playable. Aphelios, even if he manages to find Diana, afterwards, he'd just become one of her "minions" as the story is more focused on her, so why not push these two characters that have nowhere to go towards each other? The community likes it, and it brings a lot of engagement. I also like how Riot slowly tested the waters, first time they did something was by having Aphelios show up in Sett's Chinese New Year skin splash art, which made people go crazy already, then they allowed them very discretely in the corner of a Pride Month art (was made by a third party, but Riot has those arts changed when they want), then Spirit Blossom happened and people went insane. And since Spirit Blossom is technically canon, as those are actual Ionian spirits that somewhat mirror living people in Runeterra, why not just do the damn thing in the main universe? And so they did.
If it's not a bump in editing difficulty, you could spread the fanart over the video for bits when you said something worth saying but nothing visually interesting was happening on screen. Which I imagine happens with some frequency because the points with a breather in-game are the points where you have time to easily formulate sentences.
with the SettxAphelios ship i wouldnt say theyre trying to make it canon, more like theyre letting the fandom indulge in the shipping giving them content, theyre never gonna be canon ( at least in the main universe)
I agree, I see most of the content being indulging the fandom, like Zed in Withered Rose Syndra's recall. Tho the same was true for Kat and Garen for a long time until the comic came out, so stranger things have happened.
I love these videos, I just hate that my favorite champs are at the second half of the alphabet meaning I have to wait a while to get to the champions I like. 83 weeks until Ornn. Almost half the time for him to get a new skin.
Hi Hi! As someone who does really ship settaphl (they are my favorite LoL ship) it really comes for at least me, Aphelios needs someone like Sett, I mean I know we have Diana and Leona for the moon and sun, but Sett really could help Aphelios, Sett is this big bubbly brute and Aphelios is this calm and quiet demeanor man who only has his sister in his life. For me I could see Sett help Aphelios see he isn’t just a weapon, just like how Alune has been trying to do. And they are just cute together lol, their hypothetical and actually dynamics pull at my heart strings, especially for Aphelios being my favorite character. And Aphelios is always traveling since he is after Diana and he would probably need someone like Sett for his connections, and I feel like a romance could blossom from there :)
I sorta don't care for the non canon Setphel ship, but it kinda rubs me the wrong way that this ship only exists because they are hot and no other reason. It's not like Aphelios is a foil to anything, he has the personality of a paper weight, anyone can be shipped with Aphelios and work as a couple.
As someone who likes them as a pairing, my personal experience and with others who also ship them really hasn't been focused on them being "hot". I personally am a girl who likes other girls, so them being pretty boys really doesn't do much for me. It's moreso like an opposites attract kind of thing, one of the oldest and most popular tropes in shipping. The big, hot-headed, punch first think later himbo with a heart of gold, and the quiet, stoic, think way too much emo boy who does a lot for his people and neglects what he himself wants. A red and blue, cat and dog, sun and moon-like dynamic, with both having a close tie to family in their lore which is what motivates them to keep going (Sett with his mama and Phel with Alune), and both being victims of prejudice who fought/fight their oppressors (Sett for being a "half-breed", Phel for being a Lunari). Sett could help Aphelios see himself as less of a weapon and more as a person who also deserves happiness, and I think that's what we like to explore most in their dynamic. And there is a way for them to meet given that in Phel's frozen-in-limbo-for-3-years lore, he was on his way to search for Diana in Ionia. I don't know if Riot will actually go with that or not, but it would be a pretty easy and lore consistent way for them to do it if they wanted to.
@@yazzy1666 I dunno, the ship doesn't work for me. Where would they have met? Why would Sett notice someone like him while his main focus is running the fighting pit and providing for his mom. I'm not against a character being gay, so long as it adds to them. Aphelios is just not all that interesting on his own and I don't think he really should be paired with anyone. Take for instance Varus. The back story of the lovers tied to the darken plays out well as all involved have their place in the story and influence each other in different ways. In contrast even the voice line in the spirit blossom pairing seems off as having Alune always around makes things awkward. I mean, don't let me ruin your fun, just offering my two cents on the point.
@@yazzy1666 @yazzy1666 there are so many opposites attract tropes in league and its always the same emo/introvert x hot headed/extrovert and I personally see Sett being with someone more caring to balance out his aggressive nature and Aphelios as ace since he seems to be religious and his sister is also basically always with him.. I can imagine how romantic relations would be awkward (this is just my head canon) and as far as we know Aphelios doesn't really have a personality outside of looking emo and doesn't talk and none of his skinlines really explored his personality and while you can argue spirit blossom, spirit blossom characters are not the runeterra characters. I'm a sucker for mlm romance so long as there's a seeable possibility
@@Exoantook the words out of my mouth this ship is insanely odd to me i don't see sett being interested in someone like aphelios like you said he's only focus is on running the fighting pit and providing for his mother likewise aphelios doesn't strike me as someone who would be intrested in a relationship let alone with someone who he has never meet or know he's only focus is on protecting his people and fighting for his faith and (this my personal observation) possibly trying to find a way to reunite with Alune (with how close their lore described their relationship to be i can imagine that being separated from his sister isn't very pleasing), like that's another thing that i don't really like about the ship wich is how out of character they make the characters act i know aphelios doesn't have much personality to work with but i can't imagine that someone who is very divoted to his faith and mission would be that head over heals over a stranger he never meet before (wich is how shippers tend to write them they write aphelios as if he's love sick and straight up obbseesd with sett) , something else that actually bother me is how people priorities this ship over aphelios and alune's relationship they priorities a ship that was born out of pure coincidence over aphelios realationship WITH HIS OWN SISTER WHO IS ACTUALLY A IMPORTANT PERSON TO HIM i keep trying to find fanfics that explore the twins realationships and i only found a few i can count on one hand because the majority of fics were just sett x aphelios smut and romance (idk if sett's mom receives the same treatment sett is honestly not a favourite of mine) that's how much people are prioritising this ship even in the heartsteel universe (the only universe where Alune isn't trapped and she and aphelios aren't separated) she was awfully neglected and not given any interactions with her brother this ship is very odd and dosent suit the characters and is basically impossible riot should seriously stop trying to make it cannon it isn't working
Also a lot of his lore feels tought out last second. He has a sister because whatever, he needs a flower drink to contact the spirit realm because whatever, the flower makes him mute because whatever. None of this things affect him as a character they feel just, unsurprisingly, overcomplicated
With as major as this flower juice is supposed to be to his character, the severe lack of it in any part of his kit just feels...Like they made the lore after they made the champion's kit/design.
i saw an idea where someone proposed giving him an actual e ability where he drinks more juice which increases his damage and attack speed but takes more damage
"He has a sister because whatever" Pantheon is a warrior because whatever Illaoi is religious because whatever Viktor is a cyborg because whatever Irelia is a dancer because whatever Incredible how that works right? Throwing "because whatever" at the end doesnt invalidate an important part of a characters story. I agree with you on the flower but alune is not "whatever"
@@raptorxrise5386 The other characters have those aspects as core to their character. The sister exists as part of the champion because ???. If you took the sister out of the equation you would go from a mute, gun-toting moon assassin with a backseat driver, to a mute, gun-toting moon assassin.
@@BoneWalker His entire story doesnt work. Without alune you have a random lunari kid that likes to play pretend with random weapons. She is both his main power and motivation.
quotable quote around 11:53 "ya know, sometimes botlane is like a subway sandwich. Its got all this random bullshit in it, and at the end of the day it just kinda fuckin' sucks" That perfectly summarizes my feeling of playing ADC; a fantastic quote, i'm keeping it. Support, on the other hand, is pretty nice
Aphelios is definitely hard to be good with, but he's not a hard character in of itself to play. People just don't like reading. Or even slightly thinking compared to most other marksman who have less to keep track of.
Also I feel like a reason your forgot about the ult(myself included tbh) is that it automatically unlocks when you hit six it’s not like other champs where you put a point into it
I think the biggest issue with CertainlyT champs isn't that they have counterplay options, but they also have built-in methods to make the counterplay pointless.
This is why we need to bring back the Homestuck shipping system Standard shipping (heart) Friendshiping (diamond) Rival/Enemy dynamic (Spade) Mom friend trying to stop 2 people from fighting (clubs)
With Aphelios, I always get the feeling that the Designers where just trying to push limits more than actually making a good champion. His kit deviates so much from the rest of the cast, and is seemingly a comnbination of many ideas glued together, he can basically mimic every type of adc. His design and lore I find kinda lacking tbh, both his appearance and his story are on the low end of mid for me.
I think it's fair that it's "Aphelios" and not "Aphelios and Alune" because other duos, like Kayn and Rhaast, Annie and Tibbers, Swain and Raum, Ivern and Daisy, etc. are only called the name of the one you control / play.
Real reason Nicky did this in Alphabetical order was to delay playing Zeri as long as possible. Also to bring my opinion on shipping: Pantheon and Soraka. She's literally the only god he actually likes. I have spoken
I don’t love playing Jhin (though I’ve never put in effort to try), but everything else is 4 outta 4. Great lore, amazing visuals, excellent design and unique gameplay.
On a similar note to why isn't Alune included in the champion name, why isn't Skaarl included in Kled's champion name? Also can we stop shipping characters purely because they released one after another THERE'S ZERO ACTUAL CHEMISTRY INVOLVED.
basically how I treat Aphelios' weapon q's green = hehe pokin' time red = cs + panic press because people are in my no-no zone, funny t-pose purple = I hate this just as much as the enemy hates it blue = *carl wheezer moan* white = why can't i just have this forever
Y'know what? I feel like being a sociopath today and try and argue that Aphelios has a better kit than Jhin. Yeah. Why? Congruence. I think. So, one of the primary reasons people like Jhin's gameplay design is because it's just extremely satisfying to hit that fourth shot, that fourth grenade bounce, that fourth ult round, that... regular long-range snare. And you know what? I agree! It's awesome. It's made very well, the impact is orgasmic. But at the same time, I'd argue outside of that and highlight reels, Jhin is also kinda wonky. Like, what's the deeeeal with the traps? You have them but you basically always forget they even exist. I swear I've used them as glorified vision tools for the majority of the time. They're just un-satisfying to hit, unless you're *really* trying to set up a goddamn C4 trap in some bush, and they are also very inconsistent. That's no Caitlin trap, for sure. So, frankly, they sorta just exist there, barely even thought of. His grenade is very cool. It's a good tool in lane in particular, allows you to potentially build to some good chip damage with some set-up. But other than that? You'll barely be in a position to trigger that satisfying fourth hit. 1v1 it's literally impossible, in teamfights maybe it's gonna happen due to circumstance and not actual planning, in mid game? I guess you can farm with it. Cool. It sorta just gets demoted to being damage filler in-between shots and that's it. His ult is also kinda wonky, won't lie. It's purpose, I imagine, is primarily to pick off stragglers after a fight or to engage enemies from a safe distance. At the same time, it doesn't really achieve either goal all too well. The fourth shot of the ult it perfect for the first purpose due to the missing health damage, but the rest of the bullets are just kinda there. They don't so much allow you to execute a target with precision as much as, almost, reset your pressure. I guess it allows you greater safety of engagement from afar, sure, but Jhin doesn't really have other tools to make that approach all that efficient, outside of his snare. After using your ult in such a capacity you'll just have to waddle into the fight on your own two awkwardly, with nothing to do. It just doesn't flow in my mind at all, doesn't make for a coherent "game plan" of what Jhin should do in a fight or outside of it. At the same time, these tools also aren't so versatile and applicable so as to cover numerous situationd, they're pretty specific if one tries to make the best use of them. Jhin, honestly, feels pretty awkward. Aphelios at least leans into the thing that I said about congruence and versatility. Each of his tools has a specific purpose, but not too specific to the point where one would have to optimize the hell out of it for maximum impact. His guns all have different effects and actives, all can combo into each other to some degree. It's still not perfect, it is still janky, but I think it helps convey a more focused idea of what Aphelios is supposed to do. The only thing that holds him back is the fact that you cannot control the rotation of your guns, you simply have to memorize and work with it. And I know it's for balance, I wouldn't know how to limit him myself otherwise, but it still sorta diminishes that fantasy of always having a correct tool for the job and the satisfaction of picking appropriately and using combos to executer the intended effect. Aphelios, for all his faults, I would genuinely describe as a better design in terms of feel. And that's the heresy, you heard it here.
Being good at playing a certain character in a video game is valuable, but I think I'll take the 200+ collective years of professional game design experience.
"People ship Senna with Thresh, and that's weird because she's married already"
Yeah, that's the most problematic part of that. Not the fact that Thresh captured her soul and tortured her for like ten years or whatwver
that's the best part
Thresh, the only champion with a canonical Wifesteal stat.
@@xolotltolox7626 oh my God
Are you kink-shaming?
And also not the fact that Thresh is a fcking skeleton and he is dead
Aphelios isn't really that hard to play, but he does try way too hard to have a unique kit, up to include a custom UI, which makes him feel a lot more complicated than he actually is
I realized pretty quickly that his "complexity" was overrated. the hardest part is just memorizing what all his weapons do. From there he isn't very hard, at least for your average low to mid rank game.
@@crr4482 hardest part is arrenging ur weapons . There's a certain pattern to follow . Wich weapon u have to consume first and all that
@@abdelkaderayech4913 thats true but to be honest in the lower elos I play at i've gotten away with no planning or forethought at all.
@@abdelkaderayech4913 if you wanna be super tryhard you can arrange your weapons not in a preset order but in a response to gamestate. For example, a big team fight is happening so maybe I want blue gun. We just got baron so I will save green gun to help seige, etc. Also, knowing every single combination for the two weapons is fairy diffuclt to keep track of even f you know what each weapon individually does. There are 20 gun pairs plus you need to be aware of what gun is coming next. You can also do some cool combos if you are low on two weapon ammos at once. You can q on main hand and off hand, swapping to the next two weapons and then q with those two weapons, giving 4 basic abilities with the only cooldown being the weapon change animation.
@@MIKAEL212345 red and white are the best tower taking weapons he has
Both Aphelios and Allune don’t feel present enough. There’s so much potential for a dynamic between the two of them, but Aphelios isn’t allowed to be a character since he’s mute, which means that Allune just talks to a wall the whole game and can’t say much of interest.
The thing is, Kayn and Rhaast exist already. So maybe they felt as if this duo had to be different in some way.
@@GM-cw9qr Then Riot's logic is terrible because we already have a somewhat one-sided duo with Nunu & Willump. Willump is at least allowed to make noises, Aphelios doesn't get much outside of, "hAaH!"
@@dafroakie9984 i meant in Aphelios's case its voluntary silence, he cannot speak because che chooses to get help from alune instead of speaking, Willump on the other hand straight up doesnt know how to speak, thats why he is allowed agency in voice
what exactly do you want a mute character to say?
@@tofupowda ...I don't want him to be mute. That's my point.
Complete agree with you on Aphelios visual design. I wish he looked more like a lunari rogue, but homeboy looks like he's ready for prom. On the other hand, because Aphelios is mute and I am an adc main, hence I have main character syndrome, it feels like Alune is talking to me and I am Aphelios and I think that's kind of fun, like she's a Link companion
I am a aphe main to so I agree so much
"I feel like frindshipping is far more interesting than romantic ones"
Most based comment I've heard in a while, we need some more bromance!
Altho this champ came out like 2 years ago. So little part of community knows what 10% of his kit does lol
Its kinda funny actually. To be a decent aphelios player just go with an auto attack setup. He may have a super complex kit but in the end he is an auto attacker. That and red white let's fight
@@lotus8847 but good thing about him is he really pays off if u know how to play him, otherwise he is just another adc
@@lotus8847 the reason he's always placed low in tier lists is because people think like this. if you wanted to just auto attack someone then there's obvious options that are much better at that. he relies on his weapon combos to not get outtraded by every other adc. he relies on his versatility to not get outclassed by every other adc. if you are not using his combos or optimizing his versatility then why would you play him
@@chokonnit7337 I guess I should have explained things better.
Aphelios is an autoattacker, no matter what weapon you use. I didn't mean to imply that his weapon combos arent useful. Of course every weapon has its perpouse and knowing when to use each makes a great aphelios player but you can't amply gravitum slow with auto attacking (well you can with ult but I digress).
And its actually the other way around, some aphelios get stuck because they overcomplicate him. (I talk by experience)
@@lotus8847 are you saying you cant apply the slow with autos? i want to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume theres some extra typo changing what you mean since thats just wrong.
saying aphelios can be good without gun management and combos is like saying draven can be good without catching axes. yeah you might have a good game if the enemy team plays with their monitor off but it will never be consistent. what makes something good is the ability to be good most of the time. aphelios cannot be good if you do not optimize his passive because you miss out on too many opportunities to do things like red green into purple for an early trade or wasting guns to have blue for dragon
"You know, sometimes bot lane is like a subway sandwich. It's got all this like random bullshit in it and at the end of the day it just kinda fuckn sucks." Poetry for the ages
Weird how seeing all these videos about how Aphelios has so much confusing design choices yet the first time I try I immediately understood what was happening. Plus he became a favorite ADC character for along with Jhin so playing him more does definitely help.
Also the art of Nick as Aphelios but his 5 guns are Nerf guns is perfect.
aphelios mains rise up
@@raeste.claire7093 ye
You know eventually your gonna have to play Seraphine
Hopefully she is changed to her LOR version by then (Nicky will get to her in about a year or 2 i say)
Watch him play lor for Sera and Kata"s reviews
What if he just skips her and doesn't mention it at all
Seraphine? is that a new rune or something?
@@elnchousona skin
Amazing fanart segment! I especially liked the one in the bottom right. I can't wait to see what kinds of stuff will be drawn for your A. Sol review!
4:45 “the poison, the poison for aphelios, the poison made specifically for aphelios, aphelios’ poison”
Imagine if they made a skin where they swapped these two’s roles
It reminds me of DOTA 2 persona
So it'll be Definitely Not Aphelios
That’s a cool idea for a legendary tbh
Reverse Annie exists. There's art of reverse kindred. Give us reverse aphrlios lol
In lor, The veiled Temple show that alune is actually having a normal body in that temple and when aphelios arrived there, He has a ghost-like body just like alune when she is in physical world
Agree with the friend shipping take. A lot of people just feel like they're driven to die on a hill built upon personal horniness when it comes to romantic ships, which is like, ugh ok, that's what you spend your energy on? A lot of times it just feels like doing it for the sake of it without really thinking about it, which is fine and all but some are really hellbent on it.
Like Sett and Aphelios
Yeah that's what it feels like with sett and aphelios like people just immediately like the idea of them being together that they forget any logic behind It ( like the fact that they are from completely different regions and might not actually be attracted to each other or even interested in a relationship)
the drinking a poison to channel a spiritual power is actually the original basis of dionysus worship in pre-ancient greece, they thought that drinking wine and getting drunk (as well as other shit like getting high off mushrooms) was them taking on dionysus's spirit. its also pretty similiar to the norse berserker, who would wear nothing but the skin of a wolf or bear or boar then get high on mushrooms so they could take on the spirit of the animal they were wearing. so aphelios's drink is also kinda like. it should be a drug or alcohol or sum but they just made it poison which. kinda!
Don't worry Nicky, its natural to forget that a champion has an ability. For example, its hard to remember that Rakan has a Q.
or that rell has a q
@@pensuls7595 or that Rell even existed
tristana has a Q :p
Most of people even forget Yi has W E and R
@@cominksuadnyana4980 no no no no no no no people know about the w, im sure they love the towerdives with it
The biggest issue I have as a person who plays League infrequently at best is the lack of clarity in what Aphelios is capable of at any given time. Other ADCs can be easily explained by my friends in voice chat in a couple of sentences, but aphelios has a bunch of conditional stuff that complicate matters SO Much
all aphelios does is auto attack you, he has lifesteal as a passive basically, and every so often he throws down a turret
his ult is just a wide skillshot which deals some damage
Like, occasionally he has a secondary effect that changes depending on what gun he uses, but in exchange for 5 different ones, they aren't allowed to do very much, so for the most part you don't really have to worry about his abilities, just treat him like a regular ADC, with sort of a mini miss fortune ult kinda
when playing him, you only have two active abilities, q and ult, the q is the only thing that changes drastically, so he sort of has 5 fairly ok basic abilities, but he can only use 1 per fight pretty much, and an ultimate
actually the nice thing about him is you only have to worry about 2 cooldowns, his q and ult
The fanarts are great. I love when a series like this has some sort of trend for each episode.
I really like Aphelios and all his weapons and agree that's he's easier than he appears but the ways and intricacies his abilities can work with each other is still completely insane. Like flamethrower spread to gravitum root. Or ult with sniper with bonus chakras. And that part still goes over my head.
I really like you showing the fan arts every video. They are amazing and the time you show them for is also good for looking at all of them without the (small) inconvenience of stopping the video :)
The biggest difficulty honestly with Aphelios is making sure you're rotating the guns properly.
I'm still wanna see (maybe LOR gonna bring this to us now that the existence characters are gone) more characters of Lunari and Solari who bring us MORE
Like, give us a Solari priestess who is just fascinated with their fate and THE GLORIOUS SUN, but someone who isn't the ASPECT OF THE SUN, maybe someone who is in this balance of getting radicalized or seeing the nuance between day and night. Or just a villaness who endorses Leona acts
Give us a Lunari who really is the voice of them, who defends the little camps they have, who will make raids to Solari farms and temples, a rebel cell leader. Because Aphelios is the assassin, he kills the Solari, but... He has (naturally) really little to talk about it. And it almost make him and Alune less "fighters of the Lunari" and more like "weapons of the Lunari"
Love seeing the fan art! It’s not disruptive and it really gives my a sense of community! Keep up the great work
Saying if you dont like jhin you’re a psychopath is kinda ironic lmao
I mean, I love Jhin... as a character. But his gameplay is too awkward for me. And i main ADC.
@@lv4715 he is just, Not a good adc at what adcs do, he plays more like an assasin/catcher than a marksmen
I dont feel like there is a real balance between solari and lunari, because Aphelios is the only one who is born and rise as a lunari, Diana is just a foreigner who got adopted by the Solari cult (even tho she is now the Aspect of the Moon) and Zoe didn't give a damn about her cult, familly or even faith as she left as an Aspect.
I just wanna say that whenever I watch people play Aphelios that the way he hops around when he's switching guns reminds me of Gru from Despicable Me for some reason.
1:46 I felt that. When he said " *AHUGNH* " , I felt like I was watching Home Improvement again lol
Aphelios is one of my favourite characters, and he isn't has hard as people make it to be
"Botlane is like subway, it has all this random bullshit in it" WDYM RANDOM NICKY! YOU MADE THE SANDWICH!
I was playing da moon boi one game when a viego turned into me. He died as aphelios in like 5 seconds then put in chat "HOW DO YOU PLAY THIS CHAMP!?!?" To which I say "COLORS!"- from local apheios player
Lol that's great
I love the fanart segments
im ngl, im an aphelios main but GOD did i also forget about his ult existed for several games when i first started off
I agree Aphelios isn't hard to PLAY but he is hard to play well, optimizing his dps output takes a lot of work, learning which guns to combo take a lot of work and how to fix his gun order takes a lot of skill.
Every gun combo has a different playstyle and it feels very rewarding to play after learning it all
as a person who makes art, Keep the fan art section it's great and it's really awesome seeing talented artists
YOU FORGOT APHELIOS HAD AN ULT LMAO
I was wondering why you didn't use it for an easy kill on that Kog'Maw in the first game
My take on the Settphelios thing as someone who IS into shipping both friendships and romances, I never got the hype for them either. I get it, the hot-headed brute and the suave, calm assassin, red and blue, hot and cold, but if I want a ship like that, I'll just go for Caitlyn and Vi, or if I really want two dudes and a really out there pairing I'll find a way to ship Kayn and Rhaast. Idk, maybe I'm a sucker for wanting to stick close to canon and props to anyone who doesn't give a shit about that, but I just never saw why they took off so much. Still fine with anyone who ships it or anything else (as long as it's not p*do shit or be*stality), don't know how some people think another person not agreeing with your ship is a personal attack, it's not, calm down
I agree with you 100% i really don't see a reason for sett and aphelios to meet and romance in base lore
it is primarily because they released so close to each other, two hot anime boys released right next to each other, both of them lacking lots of connections to characters in the wider world, it sort of just came about because of convenience more than anything
"What are you doing with that flower, stepbrother?"
13:40 THIS. I'm an ADC main who has played quite a lot of aphelios, and I feel like this is the biggest misconception about him. people assume that because of the custom HUD and the pdf file passive he's some super difficult character that you need to be giga brained to play, but realistically all of his weapons have immense synergy with eachother and they're all good in team fights, so does the fact that he has all of these mechanics really matter when all you need to do is press Q=>W=>Q and then auto attack people until they stop moving? If you play ADC and you haven't given aphelios a try, please do because as long as this misconception stands the only thing it does is make people assume you're some super smart player and they won't understand what you can actually do, so you're basically playing a normal ADC but you can just get away with way more than you're supposed to with psych. warfare.
7:48 ok nobody would expect this lol
Fanart segment rules, we love our artists.
always great to see the fanart
I think the reason people are so extreme about Sett and Aphelios is because it was a ship that gained a lot of traction even before Riot themselves started taking notice. Like, there was no lore reason for them to exist, but because we didn't have a single gay male character at the time (the closest being the guys that Varus possessed, which are not playable characters, nor even shown in any form), TF and Graves were known to be a thing, but Riot didn't seem willing to move forward with queer men at the time, so people relied on shipping both them and SettPhel.
I assume that the reason why Riot themselves went forward with that is because they thought... "well, why not?" After all, when you think about it, there isn't much to do with either of these two lorewise, right? Sett is the boss of his own fighting pit, so his story is done, he is done and happy, so he is basically a NPC... that is playable. Aphelios, even if he manages to find Diana, afterwards, he'd just become one of her "minions" as the story is more focused on her, so why not push these two characters that have nowhere to go towards each other? The community likes it, and it brings a lot of engagement.
I also like how Riot slowly tested the waters, first time they did something was by having Aphelios show up in Sett's Chinese New Year skin splash art, which made people go crazy already, then they allowed them very discretely in the corner of a Pride Month art (was made by a third party, but Riot has those arts changed when they want), then Spirit Blossom happened and people went insane. And since Spirit Blossom is technically canon, as those are actual Ionian spirits that somewhat mirror living people in Runeterra, why not just do the damn thing in the main universe? And so they did.
If it's not a bump in editing difficulty, you could spread the fanart over the video for bits when you said something worth saying but nothing visually interesting was happening on screen. Which I imagine happens with some frequency because the points with a breather in-game are the points where you have time to easily formulate sentences.
with the SettxAphelios ship i wouldnt say theyre trying to make it canon, more like theyre letting the fandom indulge in the shipping giving them content, theyre never gonna be canon
( at least in the main universe)
I agree, I see most of the content being indulging the fandom, like Zed in Withered Rose Syndra's recall. Tho the same was true for Kat and Garen for a long time until the comic came out, so stranger things have happened.
Forgetting Aphelios have an ult is a certified hood classic.
I love these videos, I just hate that my favorite champs are at the second half of the alphabet meaning I have to wait a while to get to the champions I like.
83 weeks until Ornn. Almost half the time for him to get a new skin.
Hi Hi! As someone who does really ship settaphl (they are my favorite LoL ship) it really comes for at least me, Aphelios needs someone like Sett, I mean I know we have Diana and Leona for the moon and sun, but Sett really could help Aphelios, Sett is this big bubbly brute and Aphelios is this calm and quiet demeanor man who only has his sister in his life. For me I could see Sett help Aphelios see he isn’t just a weapon, just like how Alune has been trying to do. And they are just cute together lol, their hypothetical and actually dynamics pull at my heart strings, especially for Aphelios being my favorite character. And Aphelios is always traveling since he is after Diana and he would probably need someone like Sett for his connections, and I feel like a romance could blossom from there :)
I sorta don't care for the non canon Setphel ship, but it kinda rubs me the wrong way that this ship only exists because they are hot and no other reason.
It's not like Aphelios is a foil to anything, he has the personality of a paper weight, anyone can be shipped with Aphelios and work as a couple.
I wish Aphelios had more personality because as he is right now he's so.... BLAND 💔
As someone who likes them as a pairing, my personal experience and with others who also ship them really hasn't been focused on them being "hot". I personally am a girl who likes other girls, so them being pretty boys really doesn't do much for me. It's moreso like an opposites attract kind of thing, one of the oldest and most popular tropes in shipping. The big, hot-headed, punch first think later himbo with a heart of gold, and the quiet, stoic, think way too much emo boy who does a lot for his people and neglects what he himself wants. A red and blue, cat and dog, sun and moon-like dynamic, with both having a close tie to family in their lore which is what motivates them to keep going (Sett with his mama and Phel with Alune), and both being victims of prejudice who fought/fight their oppressors (Sett for being a "half-breed", Phel for being a Lunari). Sett could help Aphelios see himself as less of a weapon and more as a person who also deserves happiness, and I think that's what we like to explore most in their dynamic. And there is a way for them to meet given that in Phel's frozen-in-limbo-for-3-years lore, he was on his way to search for Diana in Ionia. I don't know if Riot will actually go with that or not, but it would be a pretty easy and lore consistent way for them to do it if they wanted to.
@@yazzy1666 I dunno, the ship doesn't work for me. Where would they have met? Why would Sett notice someone like him while his main focus is running the fighting pit and providing for his mom. I'm not against a character being gay, so long as it adds to them. Aphelios is just not all that interesting on his own and I don't think he really should be paired with anyone. Take for instance Varus. The back story of the lovers tied to the darken plays out well as all involved have their place in the story and influence each other in different ways. In contrast even the voice line in the spirit blossom pairing seems off as having Alune always around makes things awkward. I mean, don't let me ruin your fun, just offering my two cents on the point.
@@yazzy1666 @yazzy1666 there are so many opposites attract tropes in league and its always the same emo/introvert x hot headed/extrovert and I personally see Sett being with someone more caring to balance out his aggressive nature and Aphelios as ace since he seems to be religious and his sister is also basically always with him.. I can imagine how romantic relations would be awkward (this is just my head canon) and as far as we know Aphelios doesn't really have a personality outside of looking emo and doesn't talk and none of his skinlines really explored his personality and while you can argue spirit blossom, spirit blossom characters are not the runeterra characters. I'm a sucker for mlm romance so long as there's a seeable possibility
@@Exoantook the words out of my mouth this ship is insanely odd to me i don't see sett being interested in someone like aphelios like you said he's only focus is on running the fighting pit and providing for his mother likewise aphelios doesn't strike me as someone who would be intrested in a relationship let alone with someone who he has never meet or know he's only focus is on protecting his people and fighting for his faith and (this my personal observation) possibly trying to find a way to reunite with Alune (with how close their lore described their relationship to be i can imagine that being separated from his sister isn't very pleasing), like that's another thing that i don't really like about the ship wich is how out of character they make the characters act i know aphelios doesn't have much personality to work with but i can't imagine that someone who is very divoted to his faith and mission would be that head over heals over a stranger he never meet before (wich is how shippers tend to write them they write aphelios as if he's love sick and straight up obbseesd with sett) , something else that actually bother me is how people priorities this ship over aphelios and alune's relationship they priorities a ship that was born out of pure coincidence over aphelios realationship WITH HIS OWN SISTER WHO IS ACTUALLY A IMPORTANT PERSON TO HIM i keep trying to find fanfics that explore the twins realationships and i only found a few i can count on one hand because the majority of fics were just sett x aphelios smut and romance (idk if sett's mom receives the same treatment sett is honestly not a favourite of mine) that's how much people are prioritising this ship even in the heartsteel universe (the only universe where Alune isn't trapped and she and aphelios aren't separated) she was awfully neglected and not given any interactions with her brother this ship is very odd and dosent suit the characters and is basically impossible riot should seriously stop trying to make it cannon it isn't working
The lux was such a friend.
Also a lot of his lore feels tought out last second. He has a sister because whatever, he needs a flower drink to contact the spirit realm because whatever, the flower makes him mute because whatever. None of this things affect him as a character they feel just, unsurprisingly, overcomplicated
With as major as this flower juice is supposed to be to his character, the severe lack of it in any part of his kit just feels...Like they made the lore after they made the champion's kit/design.
i saw an idea where someone proposed giving him an actual e ability where he drinks more juice which increases his damage and attack speed but takes more damage
"He has a sister because whatever"
Pantheon is a warrior because whatever
Illaoi is religious because whatever
Viktor is a cyborg because whatever
Irelia is a dancer because whatever
Incredible how that works right? Throwing "because whatever" at the end doesnt invalidate an important part of a characters story. I agree with you on the flower but alune is not "whatever"
@@raptorxrise5386 The other characters have those aspects as core to their character. The sister exists as part of the champion because ???. If you took the sister out of the equation you would go from a mute, gun-toting moon assassin with a backseat driver, to a mute, gun-toting moon assassin.
@@BoneWalker His entire story doesnt work. Without alune you have a random lunari kid that likes to play pretend with random weapons. She is both his main power and motivation.
quotable quote around 11:53 "ya know, sometimes botlane is like a subway sandwich. Its got all this random bullshit in it, and at the end of the day it just kinda fuckin' sucks"
That perfectly summarizes my feeling of playing ADC; a fantastic quote, i'm keeping it. Support, on the other hand, is pretty nice
Aphelios is definitely hard to be good with, but he's not a hard character in of itself to play. People just don't like reading. Or even slightly thinking compared to most other marksman who have less to keep track of.
Also I feel like a reason your forgot about the ult(myself included tbh) is that it automatically unlocks when you hit six it’s not like other champs where you put a point into it
The fan art section is great
Acknowledging others talents and art is always worth it!
The poison he drinks affects his throat the worst, so it's complicated and somehow it makes sense simultaneously.
I only cameback to this channel just to rewatch godzilla unleashed: monster intos
Love the fanart segments!
I enjoy the fan art segments. Do things you love, they're not intrusive.
I love the fanart section pls keep it
"This feel one sided "
THIS IS wha have been saying for a long time. Let Sett be SETT and Aphelios be Aphelios!!!
People be like "subway sucks" my brother in christ YOU made the sandwich, also i liked your video
Dont know if you'll read this, but the fanart segment is awesome, love the series and all your videos and style. Mid ivern vid someday?
I love the fan-art segment do not remove it D:
Nicky if you remove it I will make all the demons in your walls stop paying rent!
Dude predicted heartsteel 6 months early 😂
I think the biggest issue with CertainlyT champs isn't that they have counterplay options, but they also have built-in methods to make the counterplay pointless.
That's what Phel's HUD Looks like? wow.
Friendshipping >>> romantic relationshipping
I think the Sett+Aphelios thing started as a joke that BrickyOrchid8 made iirc
No, the fanart section is great!
Okay yeah, friendshipping is a really good concept
I like seeing the fanart too, so never fear!
Fan art segment is great, 100% keep it
This is why we need to bring back the Homestuck shipping system
Standard shipping (heart)
Friendshiping (diamond)
Rival/Enemy dynamic (Spade)
Mom friend trying to stop 2 people from fighting (clubs)
+1 good to see people still appreciate the classics
People that say subway sucks...dude you chose the toppings on the sandwich
I forgot Aphelios have an Ult- NickyBoi 2023
I wonder if they were thinking of balancing the *WHOLE* champion on the phases of the moon or just specific weapons being better based on it.
"give me one more game and ill have the guns learned" bra you couldnt even remember u had a ulti
Nicolas..... THE ULT BUTTON !
I remember the first time I saw someone play aphelion, I thought it was a league of legends spin off or something, because I couldn’t recognize the UI
With Aphelios, I always get the feeling that the Designers where just trying to push limits more than actually making a good champion. His kit deviates so much from the rest of the cast, and is seemingly a comnbination of many ideas glued together, he can basically mimic every type of adc. His design and lore I find kinda lacking tbh, both his appearance and his story are on the low end of mid for me.
Glad to hear Nicky is playing adc Ashe and not Imperial Mandate Ashe support next Casual Champion Review because if he did I’d unsubscribe
Fan art section is amazing :)
Let it be included
I think it's fair that it's "Aphelios" and not "Aphelios and Alune" because other duos, like Kayn and Rhaast, Annie and Tibbers, Swain and Raum, Ivern and Daisy, etc. are only called the name of the one you control / play.
Didn't think pressing ult would be such a mental blockade
then again it is aphelios you are playing this week.
Wowee! I only need to wait something like 80 weeks till we get to my favorite champ: Ornn!
Awesome video, loved the adc content. Would be cool to see Ashe next!
Real reason Nicky did this in Alphabetical order was to delay playing Zeri as long as possible.
Also to bring my opinion on shipping: Pantheon and Soraka. She's literally the only god he actually likes. I have spoken
I like the fan art section.
10:10 "Like a kpop boy" Ohhh nicky... you called it
Aphelios feels like his mechanics were lifted directly from an FPS that doesn't actually exist.
Aphelios gaming
Also love your vids Nicky, keep up the good work!
I was expecting a 1h video for Aphelios
Mercury is in retrograde aphelios is hitting his power spike 😰😰😰
I don’t love playing Jhin (though I’ve never put in effort to try), but everything else is 4 outta 4. Great lore, amazing visuals, excellent design and unique gameplay.
On a similar note to why isn't Alune included in the champion name, why isn't Skaarl included in Kled's champion name?
Also can we stop shipping characters purely because they released one after another THERE'S ZERO ACTUAL CHEMISTRY INVOLVED.
Take a shot for every time Lux uses de ? Ping
basically how I treat Aphelios' weapon q's
green = hehe pokin' time
red = cs + panic press because people are in my no-no zone, funny t-pose
purple = I hate this just as much as the enemy hates it
blue = *carl wheezer moan*
white = why can't i just have this forever
Y'know what? I feel like being a sociopath today and try and argue that Aphelios has a better kit than Jhin.
Yeah.
Why?
Congruence. I think.
So, one of the primary reasons people like Jhin's gameplay design is because it's just extremely satisfying to hit that fourth shot, that fourth grenade bounce, that fourth ult round, that... regular long-range snare. And you know what? I agree! It's awesome. It's made very well, the impact is orgasmic.
But at the same time, I'd argue outside of that and highlight reels, Jhin is also kinda wonky. Like, what's the deeeeal with the traps? You have them but you basically always forget they even exist. I swear I've used them as glorified vision tools for the majority of the time. They're just un-satisfying to hit, unless you're *really* trying to set up a goddamn C4 trap in some bush, and they are also very inconsistent. That's no Caitlin trap, for sure. So, frankly, they sorta just exist there, barely even thought of.
His grenade is very cool. It's a good tool in lane in particular, allows you to potentially build to some good chip damage with some set-up. But other than that? You'll barely be in a position to trigger that satisfying fourth hit. 1v1 it's literally impossible, in teamfights maybe it's gonna happen due to circumstance and not actual planning, in mid game? I guess you can farm with it. Cool. It sorta just gets demoted to being damage filler in-between shots and that's it.
His ult is also kinda wonky, won't lie. It's purpose, I imagine, is primarily to pick off stragglers after a fight or to engage enemies from a safe distance. At the same time, it doesn't really achieve either goal all too well. The fourth shot of the ult it perfect for the first purpose due to the missing health damage, but the rest of the bullets are just kinda there. They don't so much allow you to execute a target with precision as much as, almost, reset your pressure. I guess it allows you greater safety of engagement from afar, sure, but Jhin doesn't really have other tools to make that approach all that efficient, outside of his snare. After using your ult in such a capacity you'll just have to waddle into the fight on your own two awkwardly, with nothing to do.
It just doesn't flow in my mind at all, doesn't make for a coherent "game plan" of what Jhin should do in a fight or outside of it. At the same time, these tools also aren't so versatile and applicable so as to cover numerous situationd, they're pretty specific if one tries to make the best use of them.
Jhin, honestly, feels pretty awkward.
Aphelios at least leans into the thing that I said about congruence and versatility. Each of his tools has a specific purpose, but not too specific to the point where one would have to optimize the hell out of it for maximum impact. His guns all have different effects and actives, all can combo into each other to some degree. It's still not perfect, it is still janky, but I think it helps convey a more focused idea of what Aphelios is supposed to do.
The only thing that holds him back is the fact that you cannot control the rotation of your guns, you simply have to memorize and work with it. And I know it's for balance, I wouldn't know how to limit him myself otherwise, but it still sorta diminishes that fantasy of always having a correct tool for the job and the satisfaction of picking appropriately and using combos to executer the intended effect.
Aphelios, for all his faults, I would genuinely describe as a better design in terms of feel.
And that's the heresy, you heard it here.
Being good at playing a certain character in a video game is valuable, but I think I'll take the 200+ collective years of professional game design experience.