Aurelion Sol Mages and Dragonsoul
Aurelion Sol has been the best AP/SP (Ability Power/Spell Power) Carry for patches, and this guide will teach you how to play him!
This is what the level 8 comp could look like:
Aurelion Sol is a Dragonsoul Mage; therefore, you need at least 3 mages to make him work because his second cast will deal 50% bonus damage if his targets were already hit by his first cast.
Depending on Chosen and Spatulas, you can play this comp with 3-9 Dragonsoul and 3-7 Mages.
Leveling Pattern:
A typical game would look something like:
- Level 4: If you feel strong, you can pre-lvl at 1-4 or lvl at 2-1; else, natural at 2-3
- Level 5: 2-5 and make 10g; else, be sure to keep a winstreak. 3-1 if you just want to losestreak
- Level 6: 3-2 and roll a bit depending on how strong the lobby is compared to you
- Level 7: 4-1 and roll if needed (1 Aurelion Sol with DSoul/Mage and items will already kill many units)
- Level 8: 4-5 if healthy and staying above 30g; 5-1 otherwise and all in
- Level 9: Go 9 when your board is fully upgraded and you have the HP and gold
Item Guide
Aurelion Sol items
Best in Slot Items:
- Jeweled Gauntlet: Gives SP and enables Aurelion Sol’s spell to crit.
- Guardian Angel: Because Aurelion Sol is your only damage dealer, you don’t want him to die before he casts. This item will allow him to cast at least once.
- Hextech Gunblade: Heals Aurelion Sol by 33% of his spell damage and absorbs the extra healing into a shield up to 300. In most cases, this will mean Aurelion Sol healing to full life every time he casts due to his high damage output.
- Note: The reason why you should prefer a Jeweled Gauntlet over a Rabadon’s Deathcap is because the Mage and DSoul trait already give enough SP. Therefore, making his spell able to crit is preferred and better.
Substitute Items:
- Rabadon’s Deathcap: Gives a lot of SP to boost Aurelion Sol’s damage.
- Infinite Edge: Grants Aurelion Sol critical strike chance and +1% critical strike damage for every critical strike chance above 100%. Only make this item if you have a Jeweled Gauntlet on Aurelion Sol!
- Giant Slayer: 10% bonus damage to his spell and +90% if the enemy has more than 1750HP. Good vs Brawlers, 3* units and 2* legendary units. Make this item if you can apply the +90% damage often in your lobby and if you end up with many bows/swords.
- Hand of Justice: This item gives either +40% dmg or 40% healing from her damage at the start of each round (when a new round starts, the effect gets reset and applied anew).
Make this item if you don’t have any rods to make Jeweled Gauntlet. - Luden’s Echo: This is a good item to save HP early and mid-game. Only make this if you started with too many tears to save HP. (not a good item later on!)
- Blue Buff and Spear of Shojin are both about equally good on Aurelion Sol with Shojin being slightly better.
Make either one if you don’t end up with better offensive/defensive items and have too many tears.
Support and frontline items:
- Ionic Spark: Reduces nearby enemies’ magic resistance to increase your whole comp’s DPS.
- Chalice of Power: This is straight up Ability Power boost to 3 units, using up your tears and cloaks.
- Zeke’s Herald: Same as Chalice of Power but grants Attack Speed instead.
- Warmog’s Armor: Gives the user 1000HP; good on Swain, especially if he has a mage spat.
- Dragons Claw: Reduces incoming spell damage by 60%. Best defensive item against SP.
- Bramble Vest: Negates bonus damage from crits and deals 80/100/150 magic damage to all nearby enemies if the user gets hit by a Basic Attack (once every 2.5 seconds).
Good if the whole lobby has IE and/or JG. - Titan’s Resolve: Stacks up to 25% by being hit or inflicting a crit, at which point the user increases in size and gains 25 Armor and Magic Resistance. Good on Swain and Annie.
- Zz’Rot Portal: The wearer of this taunts nearby enemies at the start of the fight and spawns a construct to fight after dying. Good to change the focus of enemy units, such as Assassins and Lee Sin.
- Locket of the Iron Solari: This gives 5 units a shield of 300/350.
Make this only with your spare rods and chains because Aurelion Sol uses up at least 2 rods and 1 chain! - Statikk Shiv: With the recent changes to Statikk, which reduces enemies’ magic resistance, you can also slam this item early if you have too many bows and tears, as bows are not that great for this comp. (it is better to play Kayle or Slayer with bow drops)
- Redemption: Heals every ally by 800 if the wearer dies.
- Sunfire and Morellonomicon are not that great for this comp because Aurelion Sol should burst enemies down and Swain already has the anti-heal debuff integrated in his spell! They do not stack!
Moreover, both items use either a chain or rod, which you will need for Aurelion Sol’s core items! Otherwise, Morellonomicon is a great item and can be used by Sejuani or Morgana.
Carousel Priority
Early Game (Stage 1 and 2)
There are many boards you can play for early game.
Some examples would be:
Mage
Twisted Fate 2* is a decent item holder.
Can use Veigar as an item holder, too.
Cultist
Use TF or Vladimir as your item carry (Vladimir 2 star is very strong with Aurelion Sol items)
Play 6 cultists if possible; otherwise, can add Mages.
Sharpshooter
Use Nidalee or Tristana, depending on chosen and 2*, and fill out traits like 3 warlord/2vg/3dsoul/2brawler
Fortune
Darius is a good item holder.
Play this if you get early fortunes!
Note: Katarina can also use Aurelion Sol items, but make sure to have a good frontline because she casts slow.
Kennen with Keeper
Kennen is also a viable item holder, especially with Keeper and Aatrox to pull units, which are in the corner into his ult.
Mid Game (Stage 3 and 4)
Be sure to be lvl 6 at 3-2 with 30g+, and depending on how strong you are compared to the lobby, you can decide to roll a bit here (if you can, avoid rolling because you want to save gold for Aurelion Sol and lvl 8).
If your early game was bad and you managed to losestreak all the way to stage 3, you can sell your chosen at 3-2 and roll it down for a stable board.
If you were winstreaking up to after carousel in stage 3, you can also level to 7 at 3-5 and keep the tempo and winstreak. Otherwise, level to 7 at 4-1 and roll a bit if needed.
It’s always preferred to have a board containing Mages or DSouls to make the transition into your endgame comp easier.
Note: If you have one of those boards at lvl 7 4-1 you can rush level 8 to roll for Aurelion Sol 2 star!
● 6 cultists with either Vlad or TF carry
● Kennen Keeper with GA and 1 Aatrox
● 5-7 Mage with at least 1 Aurelion Sol with items
● 6 DSoul
Cultist
Mage
6 Dragonsoul + Mage
Late Game (Stage 5 and beyond)
Usually, you level to 8 at 4-5 or 5-1 depending on your gold and when you want to roll for your endgame comp.
4-5 for when you have a lot of gold, even after leveling to 8 or if you stay above 30g to add in 1 unit (not rolling); else, 5-1.
Once you have Aurelion Sol 2* with a strong enough frontline, allowing him to cast, you can decide to go lvl 9.
There are 2 main variations in playing this comp: respectively, the 7 Mage and the 6 DSoul version.
7 Mage version
Note: the reason we don’t corner Aurelion Sol is due to Aatrox being a popular unit! If there is no Aatrox to pull your Aurelion Sol, you can corner him.
Also, make sure to position him on the side that is further away from the enemy carry because he ults the farthest unit!
7 Mage with Mage spat
5 Mage with Aatrox+Sejuani
Aatrox pulling units into Aurelion Sol ult and Sejuani stunning the whole enemy teams is also a very deadly combo! Drop Morgana if no Mage spat and add in as lvl 9 unit.
6 DSoul Version
Lvl 9 board with 6 DSoul and 5 Mage + spat
Lvl 9 board with 9 DSoul + spat
Remove Morgana if you are lvl 8
Note: Don’t frontline Aurelion Sol if you don’t have a GA on him!
The reason we frontline Aurelion Sol is to give him the DSoul proc that gives a lot of SP and AS for a faster and deadlier dragon beam.
You can also backline vs Kennen and Lee Sin or if the enemy has too much cc on their frontline.
Positioning Considerations
Aurelion Sol:
- Mage version: Backline corner opposite (diagonal) of enemy carry.
- DSoul version: Frontline with GA for faster cast and opposite of enemy carry
Aatrox:
- Mage version: Frontline on the opposite side of Aurelion Sol to pull enemy units from the other corner that Aurelion Sol is not targeting or to pull assassins jumping on your Aurelion Sol.
- Dsoul version: Frontline next to Aurelion Sol to pull units to him.
Swain: Be careful of enemy Sett and Lee sin!
Azir: Put your soldiers in the corners to bait enemy Aurelion Sol and Aatrox ults and to prevent enemy Lee kicking your units out.
Counters
- Sett: Sett does more damage the more HP the unit he dunks has! (Swain after ult = high HP)
- Lee sin: Aurelion Sol without DSoul buff casts very slowly; Lee can kick your core frontline units out of map.
- Aatrox: can pull your Aatrox into the danger zone!
- Shroud of Stillness: increases Aurelion Sol’s max mana by 35%, slowing Asols cast.
- Wrong side: Aurelion Sol is hard countered if he is using his spell on the wrong side because he casts to the farthest unit. Not being able to kill the enemy carry in his first cast will lose you most fights.
What to do when heavily contested
Pivot to
Don’t try to win the game but live longer than your opponents!
Chosens
Playable Chosens:
- Swain
- Aurelion Sol Mage or DSoul
- Any Mage or DSoul chosen (the higher the cost, the better)
Note: Keeping a 1 cost DSoul Chosen is ok if you have a DSoul spat, which will allow you to play 9 DSoul 3 Mage at lvl 8!
Tips
- If you have GA on Aurelion Sol, you can frontline him for a faster cast.
- Positioning Aurelion Sol in the middle backline is not bad if you aren’t sure which enemy you are facing next because people tend to corner their carries and stack 1 side.
- Use your other ranged units, target dummy, and Azir soldiers to bait Aatrox pulls.
- Target Dummy and Azir soldiers are good to block Lee Sin’s kick in the corners to prevent your unit from getting kicked out.
About the Author
Hey, I’m ZL, a TFT Player from Austria mainly playing on the EUW Server.
I’ve always been one of the first players to reach Challenger on a new set because I’m quick to learn and adapt to new metas.
Because I’m also a Software Engineering Student, I’m mostly playing decay games after 2 weeks into a set and doing TFT Coaching in my free time.
On rare occasions, you can also catch me streaming at www.twitch.tv/re_zl.