With the Lunar New Year approaching, dragon-themed champions in League of Legends have garnered significant interest from players. Alongside the newly released Little Fire Dragon Smolder, Aurelion Sol is also eagerly anticipated for a power buff or new skin to enhance the festive atmosphere. Riot seems to understand this as they buffed Aurelion Sol significantly in patch 14.3 and introduced the Spirit of Bloom skin for this character.
This upgrade had an immediate effect as Aurelion Sol achieved a 57% win rate just after the 14.3 patch update. This can be seen as a positive sign since Aurelion Sol is not a particularly favored champion in League of Legends. The timing of this character’s power increase, right before the Year of the Dragon, adds much more festive spirit to the game.
However, Aurelion Sol’s joy was short-lived, lasting only 12 hours before Riot Games heavily nerfed this character in the subsequent patch. The nerf was so severe that all important stats for Aurelion Sol’s Q and W abilities were significantly reduced. For instance, the cooldown for the W skill at level 5 is longer than the ability’s cooldown at level 1 previously, while the damage increase for the Q skill has been drastically cut.
The nerf seemed aimed at erasing Aurelion Sol, leaving many players dissatisfied with Riot Games. It’s important to note that Aurelion Sol’s new stats after the nerf are even worse than those in the previous 14.3 version. Many players find it hard to believe that Riot Games could approve such unreasonable buff/nerf cycles while balancing Aurelion Sol.
Aurelion Sol’s recent case may serve as a major lesson for Riot in champion balancing for League of Legends. For fans of Aurelion Sol, this is undoubtedly a tough version as their favorite champion is treated poorly by Riot and currently holds very little power.