After having buffed Aurelion Sol significantly in Patch 14.3, Riot Games has walked back on most of the changes due to “overshooting” its targets for the champion. League‘s two lead designers, Phroxzon and Phreak, both apologized for making Aurelion Sol “too strong of an early laner.”
Aurelion Sol has seen numerous changes as part of Riot’s attempts to make him work. Second only to Ryze, he’s had many ups and downs and Riot’s most recent attempt to prop him up a bit has proven to be a complete disaster. In Patch 14.3, ASol Q and W were enormously empowered with reduced mana costs, higher damage, and lower cooldowns. Now, the company has walked back on some of the changes, with the game’s lead designers apologizing and admitting their faults. Phroxzon and Phreak commented on the changes on X and YouTube in detail. “We overshot on balance and we own that,” Phrozxon said on Feb. 9.
In the Patch 14.3b hotfix, Aurelion Sol’s W cooldown changes were completely reverted, whereas his Q retained a slightly lesser buff than it received in League of Legends Patch 14.3. His W’s bonus damage to Q was nerfed compared to Patch 14.2, which Phreak deemed as “directionally correct” decisions. The reason for leaving the stacking buff in is Riot’s realization that ASol players should be rewarded for being proactive in lane through more stacks and not raw fragging power, Phrozxon explained in his post on X.
“We’re open to being wrong and that Asol players prefer a more passive style, but that’s the reasoning for the changes at least and we’ll monitor from here,” Phrozxon wrote, and stated he still believes ASol is stronger than in Patch 14.2 even with the nerfs. Phreak, on the other hand, took full responsibility for the mistakes regarding ASol’s buff. “I screwed up here pretty badly, and I’m sorry,” he said in a YouTube breakdown of the hotfix and the upcoming Patch 14.4.
Phreak, like Phroxzon, believes ASol is nevertheless stronger than in Patch 14.2—unlike many in the community who thinks he’s now even worse than before his buffs. On u.gg, the champion sits at over 53 percent win rate in Emerald and higher, which is a good indication of ASol’s strong position in the current patch.
