[2019] Aphelios will have his numbers melted instead of getting meaningful gameplay changes and that's just a shame

Now, I'm not an Aphelios apologist, I just think it's a shame that yet another interesting champion will have their sh*t gutted instead of meaningful downsides being added to their kit. His big 'weakness' is that he can't choose his weapons, so he can't always have the best one for a given scenario. Unfortunately that really doesn't matter right now because everything he does synergizes so well with everything else he does. You'll never say "aww crap I can't use sevrum here, I'll heal too much" or "gosh dang if only I didn't get so much range with calibrum". There is always an optimal way to play a given weapon no matter the scenario.

What I propose are some meaningful downsides added to each weapon. Not just numbers nerfs or stripping his kit of mechanics, but actual downsides that forces certain guns to be bad in some scenarios.

Keep in mind that I'm not a game designer, so my specific suggestions might not be the best, but don't let that discredit the idea in general. Here are some things they could do:

• Calibrum: Autos interact with the first target in their path. The idea is that you'd need a clear line of sight to benefit from the huge range bonus

  • This allows enemies to body-block the shots giving a clear weakness in cluttered settings

• Severum: Lose 50 range while this is equipped. The idea is that you must trade the safety of the heal and shield for the danger of being closer to your target

  • I actually thought this is how the weapon worked when it was introduced. It's called a scythe, looks like a melee weapon, and doesn't utilize projectiles (passes through windwall for example) so clearly it's 550 range ^{wait wut}

• Gravitum: Gravitum already has the downside of not interacting with other weapons. This weapon seems fine.

  • If you wanted to add a downside anyway, perhaps something like comically slow auto projectiles could work, like Soraka bananas. Seems unnecessary imo but would work thematically
  • I think it would be hilarious to have like two or even three autos in the air coming at your target just because your attack speed is normal but they travel so slowly lmao

• Infernum: The main target takes significantly reduced damage from your autos. The idea is that aoe autos should not be universally better than regular ones (higher damage AND hits multiple people without a mana cost)

  • This indirectly buffs the splash in comparison and adds depth to target selection. You could potentially deal more damage to a squishy by attacking the frontliner in front of them for example.
  • You could say Jinx also gains aoe AND damage with her rockets, but don't forget that her rockets actually cost mana!

• Crescendum: Your crit damage negatively scales with distance from the target. The idea is to play more heavily into the "go melee to melt face" by actively punishing ranged use of the weapon.

  • Right now, no one uses the chakram in close range. They just get like 20 stacks from aoe sh*t before relying on the 363% ^{what the f*ck} bonus AD for autos which can crit. So if you have 150 AD with an IE and 20 stacks, it doesn't matter that you're at max range since you're doing 1563 f*ckin damage per auto anyway
  • The critical damage would scale linearly from 0% of your critical muliplier at max range (550 units) to 100% of your critical multiplier at 50 range. The reason it's not when at 0 range is because then you'd uh be inside your target.
  • If you're at max range (550 units), your autos deal 0% of your critical multiplier (making that previous example 544 damage instead of 1563).
  • At 250 range away, you'd deal 50% of your critical muliplier (would be 781 damage instead of 1563)

You could argue that these add even more complexity to the champ but to that I have two points. First, wasn't this champ heralded as a big brain mfer, that only Gods could hope to master him? Second, you wouldn't necessarily need to know these things if you're playing against him, you could just understand that he's not good in every scenario anymore.

Anywho that's just my thoughts on it. Lemme know if you have better suggestions for interesting limitations to for his individual weapons.

Inb4 "his weapons deal 2% of the damage they do now"