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It’s that time of the week for the Aurelion Sol thread. I’d like to draw attention to the unfair treatment Riot has been giving to this champion relative to his peers.
Let’s first look at the justification for his most recent nerf in 11.15:
“Aurelion Sol is toeing the line in Elite play, and he’s finally put his claw right over it. Slowing him down accordingly.”
Now, by Riot’s justification, Elite play is defined as Challenger, as seen here
Let’s have a look at the data preceding this patch. Aurelion Sol doesn’t even have enough to show up on lolalytics in challenger. The closest we can get is d2+, in which he has a 54.60% win rate and 1.37 pick rate. 0.21% Ban Rate. By Riot’s framework this has him lined up for a nerf due to win rate, fair enough. So how do you explain Kennen? His midlane winrate for the same patch is actually higher than Aurelion Sol’s, sitting at 54.67% with a 0.42% pick rate. Higher Ban Rate, sitting at 0.34%. What did riot do on this patch? They buffed the champion.
Thundering Shuriken Base damage increased to 85 / 130 / 175 / 220 / 265 from 75 / 115 / 155 / 195 / 235. AP ratio increased to 80% AP from 75% AP.
Now let’s look at these two champions in 11.15:
Aurelion Sol – 52.64% Win Rate, 0.99% Pick Rate, 0.15% Ban Rate
Kennen – 56.17% Win Rate, 0.80% Pick Rate, 0.77% Ban Rate
In 11.16
Aurelion Sol – 54.27% Win Rate, 0.94% Pick Rate, 0.13% Ban Rate
Kennen – 55.31% Win Rate, 0.85% Pick Rate, 1.23% Ban Rate
As we can see, Kennen mid is comparable statistically to Aurelion Sol in the mid lane, yet he receives buffs while Aurelion Sol receives nerfs. Admittedly this isn’t Kennen’s primary role, but if the statistics are enough to trigger Aurelion Sol being nerfed why does Kennen escape them? One has a kit perceived as problematic, one does not. Statistics do not matter.
Now if you’ve read this far you’ll have noticed the major flaw in the data presented: it is D2+, whereas Riot’s framework focuses on Challenger for elite play, right?
So let’s look at Challenger for the same period.
11:14:
Galio – 60% Win Rate, 4.73% Pick Rate, 2.05% Ban Rate
Twisted Fate – 59.80% Win Rate, 4.59% Pick Rate, 0.70% Ban Rate
Malzahar – 58.56% Win Rate, 1.67% Pick Rate, 1.16% Ban Rate
11.15:
Galio – 54.77% Win Rate, 4.87% Pick Rate, 1.27% Ban Rate
Twisted Fate – 53.64% Win Rate, 4.07% Pick Rate, 0.48% Ban Rate
Malzahar – 57.89% Win Rate, 2.81% Pick Rate, 1.15% Ban Rate.
11.16:
Galio – 54.46% Win Rate, 4.97% Pick Rate, 1.61% Ban Rate
Twisted Fate – 50.19% Win Rate, 4.07% Pick Rate, 0.56% Ban Rate
Malzahar – 51.26% Win Rate, 3.15% Pick Rate, 1.53% Ban Rate
Worthy of note is that Malzahar was nerfed in 11.14 so this could be a delayed response to the changes. Twisted Fate is an interesting one, could be a statistical anomaly or could be a drop due to Dark Seal changes & changes to other champions in the meta. Galio has consistently been meeting the nerf framework and should be changed if the balance team has consistency. There are other picks in challenger worth mentioning but I selected 3 just to highlight the data for comparison. Obviously, the data I have available is limited, but as Riot very rarely provides anything useful on this front it’s all we have to work with. I’d love to see some actual statistical clarification from Riot on this matter.
So why does this matter? Asol’s winrate for the current patch is already sitting back at 57.03% in D2+, granted it is early days and this should normalise back down with more games, but my concern is that he will meet the nerf threshold again soon and will receive more nerfs. This is, and I cannot stress this enough, NOT A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM. All nerfs do is lower his play rate and piss off his playerbase, until Riot actually addresses his fundamental kit problems he will continue to be stuck in this vicious cycle of nerf – lose players – nerf. You can go as far back as you like, his winrate has always been high because of the core kit. Nerfing him time and time again just makes the champion feel like ass to play.
I am PLEADING for someone to actually acknowledge this champion and his mains exist. This treatment has been going on far too long and is actively killing the already small playerbase for this champion. This champion needs large-scale changes to be actively balanced in a way that satisfies the playerbase.
As an aside, I've seen a lot of suggestions that Riot should swap Aurelion's E and R. This is not a good idea. His E as an ultimate ability is positively underwhelming (literally just pick TF instead), and his R as a basic ability is too strong in terms of gank setup. It would be better to remove his E and reassign his power budget to turn him into an actual battle mage if roaming is such a big issue.
EDIT: Just a quick note to add at the end here, it isn't my intention to rally for nerfs to these other champions, but rather promote discussion about the inconsistencies applied to Aurelion Sol's balancing. I love this champion and want to see some work done to actually fix it.
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