League of Legends - Aurelion Sol: Does He Fit In The Meta?

Hello lads! Today our LoL elo boosting team will talk about the newest champion in our favourite game, Aurelion Sol. Since this badass space dragon has clear strengths: great wave clearing, terrifying roams and is great at moving in the same directions for extended periods. He is usually played in the jungle or in a solo lane.

Aurelion Sol in short

Aurelion Sol has three balls passively moving around him, scaling with AP. His Q is pretty similar to Anivia’s Q, as it fires an orb that increases in size as it travels, and remains on the battleground until it leaves the circle. This orb can be interrupted by silences, roots, snares, and hard cc’s.

His W increases the size of his circular ball and doubles its damage while consuming mana. During our duo queue elo boost sessions we realized that most of his damage comes from his passive and W, so try to always keep the best position when fighting to maximize your dps.

His E has a passive and an active effect. For the passive, Aurelion Sol acquires movement speed simply going in the same direction without taking turns. When the extra movement speed stacks are capped, he can use the active part of his E, flying for a long distance over walls and obstacles, like a glorified Shyvana’s ultimate. During our lol duo queue boost sessions we saw how this spell allows him to make a lot of plays across the map, making Aurelion Sol a great ganker. He can use his E even after losing his stacks.

His ultimate is similar to Xerath’s Q, with an added knockback effect and a slow lasting 4 seconds. His optimal build should feature mostly tanky items since he already has decent base damage with his passive and the W. On top of that, he has low AP ratios and low burst damage.

How to Play Aurelion Sol in the Mid lane

When playing this space dragon in the mid lane, keep in mind that you will be pushing your lane constantly, so the enemy jungler will often try and gank you. According to our Lol elo boosting team this is a double-edged sword, since Aurelion Sol can also decide to simply gank another lane after pushing mid. His E and Q allow him to perform excellent ganks with a long-range stun.

Ideally you want to build Aurelion Sol as an AP bruiser. Going for Rod of Ages as your first item is a good idea, thanks to the AP and tankiness it provides. Another excellent item is Rylai’s Crystal Scepter, so your balls will slow the enemies all the time making him a threat in extended team fights, like Azir or Karthus.

About lane match ups: our dragon performs poorly against assassins with multiple gap closers, namely Leblanc and Fizz since it’s hard to hit a Q or a R from a short distance. Aurelion Sol relies on positioning and kiting during fights, so he is vulnerable to all-ins. On the other hand, during our lol duo queue boost sessions we saw him dominating versus medium-range immobile mages like Karthus or Azir, since he outranges them and can safely poke with his Q.

Jungling as Aurelion Sol

Well, jungling with Aurelion Sol is quite the experience. His clearing times are pretty good actually, but you will need to kite the camps in order to deal damage with your balls - it just takes some practice, maybe try it in some normal games first. Kiting aside, he doesn’t consume a lot of mana clearing the jungle and his ganks are exceptional, especially thanks to his E long range - it’s even longer than Zac’s E! On top of that, he comes charging in with high movement speed and a stun, with effective results.

His ganking strength makes him an excellent jungler according to our lol tier list. For the same reason, he can kill the Rift Scuttler in a few seconds, just like Rek’Sai.

However Aurelion Sol has a few downsides in the jungle. He is weak in the early game, vulnerable to invades, and doesn’t have any form of sustain, so smiting the red buff early is a priority. He can be ruined by aggressive early game junglers like Nidalee, Lee Sin, or Shaco since they have faster clear times and are excellent duelist. He usually out scales them later on, and after level 6 his clears are much safer.

The best build we have seen during our lol duo queue elo boost sessions is Stalker’s Blade into Runic Echoes, achieving an incredible movement speed on top of the slow from his smite. He can basically use the Q forever. If you want an alternative build, you can try the Cinderhulk enchantment. Sure, less damage but more AoE consistent damage in team fights - still a viable choice, but we prefer the Runic Echoes.

In the top lane

Finally, let’s talk about the top lane. If you like jungling with Aurelion Sol and the Cinderhulk build, try to play him in the top lane as a tanky split pusher rushing Sunfire Cape. According to our lol boost team, he would be great in this meta where we see a lot of squishy split pushers.

He can also build Dead Man’s Plate to have an even higher movement speed with his Q and extra tankiness for team fights. Think of him as a high-speed Nautilus: he can dive in a team fight with his E dealing AoE damage with Sunfire and his kit that relies on consistent damage. His base damage is quite high: 97 damage per tick of his passive at level 18, increased up to 147 with his W up to almost 300.

Long story short, this tanky build is surely viable, but suboptimal; however our lol boost team feels that in this split pushing meta it can really shine. Keep in mind that in the top lane Aurelion Sol can easily get ganked because he pushes all the time, and the top lane isn’t forgiving at all - it’s way longer than the mid lane.

If you like our content, check our site in the next days for more guides and articles. Keep an eye out for our incoming lol tier list if you want to see how Aurelion Sol will be placed there!