When a massive update like Teamfight Tactics 10.12 is released, the main focus is naturally on new champions, new traits – classes, and the compositions surrounding them. However, history has shown that not everything new is immediately powerful; instead, old champions and compositions often emerge as the dominant forces post-update.
Aurelion Sol, with the Guardian playstyle, is the clearest example of this. Do you think champions like Teemo, Gnar, or Urgot are the real threats? Compared to Aurelion Sol – Guardian, they are merely ordinary pieces on the board. Just look at the fact that the “Dragon God in armor” gives players a 77% chance to reach the top 4, a 46% chance to secure first place, and an average ranking of 2.84 to understand.
Just days after the 10.12 update, Riot Games had to urgently nerf both Aurelion Sol and the Guardian trait significantly. Riot Mortdog, the lead designer for Teamfight Tactics, has confirmed this, and this action from Riot has received overwhelming support from players, as no one wants to face an unstoppable force like that.
Riot Mortdog: “I just looked at the data after the 10.12 update, and the game is quite balanced, with many creative compositions and multiple ways to win… Except for one thing that is out of control, so we made some hotfixes today.
The shield amount for Guardians at the 6-champion combo has been reduced from 55% to 50%.
Aurelion Sol
This champion will now have a 1-second energy lock after using its ability.
Ability damage has increased from 80/150/750 to 110/150/750.
The energy drained from small ships has increased from 10/25/50 to 15/25/50.
At first glance, it seems that Aurelion Sol has been buffed, but in reality, the 1-second energy lock after using its ability will significantly reduce this champion’s continuous damage output. It becomes even more severe when this champion has Guardian Armor because a slower ability means fewer shield activations from this trait. In summary, while the damage has increased, Aurelion Sol’s survivability has been relatively heavily reduced.
This will open up more counters to this dragon, especially units with high damage like Jhin, Jinx… to take down Aurelion Sol. Perhaps Riot Games should conduct more thorough testing of their changes to avoid the hassle of releasing a new patch only to have to fix it like this.
