The wait is over: Riot has just released Aurelion Sol’s champion reveal . The dragon is a mage with insane damage and engage potential. He has no escapes, which makes engaging on him very easy.
The star dragon’s passive is “Center of The Universe” which puts three balls around him that orbit his body. These balls do damage to whatever they hit. He is going to constantly push waves with this, making him easily ganked.
His first ability is “Starsurge” which is a skill shot similar to Anivia’s “Flash Frost.” Sol shoots out a tiny star that stuns and damages enemies caught in its vortex. He can travel alongside the skill shot, causing it to increase in size and do more damage. Use this along with his passive to clear waves and engage in fights and will most likely be the ability that you’ll want to max first.
“Celestial Expansion” increases the damage and range of your passive, causing your balls to reach even farther. It takes mana to keep up, just like Karthus’ “Defile.” Once you run out of mana or toggle off the ability, the balls return back to Sol.
I don’t think Riot has ever had a normal ability on a champion quite as powerful as “Comet of Legend.” Passively, Aurelion Sol gains movement speed when he travels in one direction, and loses speed when making turns. It reminds me of how characters move in Dota 2, where you don’t have 360 degrees of free movement. What really makes this ability amazing is its active, which allows you to “fly” over all terrain in one direction. He loses his passive while in flight and any enemy damage will send him right back down to the ground. It’s like a slower, interruptible Tahm Kench ultimate in a normal ability. This is going to have a very high cool down, or this dragons going to be stupidly over powered.
Aurelion Sol’s ultimate is “Voice of Light,” which shoots a laser that slows and damages the enemy. Anyone inside his aura gets flung away and gets knocked up. It’s a simple spell to use, but mastering it is going to be hard. I expect to see many first-time dragons screw up a team fight by throwing an enemy too far away.
None of the numbers to Aurelion Sol’s abilities have been released at present, but his basic skills look amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a League character seem quite this powerful at launch. If his numbers and scalings are up to par, I see him becoming an instant pick when he gets released in a few weeks. Though Ao Shin may be gone, he lives forever in the stars.
