Counter Guide

How to Beat Aurelion Sol

Matchup Guide · Evergreen · 3 Counter Picks

Aurelion Sol breathes on you from a screen away, and every second of it makes the rest of his game stronger.

He's miserable to lane against because the trade never feels even. His beam keeps burning as long as you stand in it, each hit on a champion feeds the Stardust that grows every spell he has, and once he's stacked enough he can fly across a lane and back before you've crossed the river. What he doesn't have is a way to stop you once you reach him. He can't move while he's beaming, and the flight he relies on to get out gets grounded by the first stun it runs into. If you're wondering whether he's worth a ban this patch, he's on our solo queue tier list.

Matchup Snapshot Aurelion Sol, the Star Forger

Where You Meet HimMid lane

Damage TypeMagic

Why He Is FrustratingScales forever off your health bar

MobilityOne long flight

Biggest ThreatBreath of Light [Q]

Hardest CounterYone

What a Counter Needs

A way to reach him while he stands still to beam
Hard crowd control for the moment he takes off

Patch 26.18 Matchup Data

Who Beats Aurelion Sol on Patch 26.18

Best Picks Into Aurelion Sol

Yone1,628 games56.3%
Fizz931 games56.1%
Katarina816 games54.4%
Vladimir433 games53.8%
Xerath691 games53.0%

Picks Aurelion Sol Beats

Mel638 games38.9%
Orianna601 games39.1%
Ryze480 games42.3%
Nasus446 games43.3%

Win rates are for the champion listed, in the mid lane against Aurelion Sol. They come from Nerfplz's own ranked solo queue games on Patch 26.18, Silver and above, 27,944 Aurelion Sol games in all. Only matchups that show up in at least 1% of those games are listed.

Aurelion Sol Overview

Strengths: What Makes Him Dangerous

Breath of Light [Q] never lets go. It's a steerable beam that ticks eight times a second, and every full second on the same champion adds a burst of extra damage and more Stardust (the burst also scales with your maximum health once he's stacked).
He keeps getting bigger. Cosmic Creator [Passive] turns every Stardust stack into more range, more area and a higher execute on his spells, and it never resets. He earns it from the beam, from champions who sit in Singularity [E] and from takedowns there.
Astral Flight [W] covers huge distances. It's 1,500 units to start and grows with Stardust, and a takedown shortly after damaging someone gives most of the cooldown back (he can cast everything else mid-flight, too).
His teamfight tools are wide. Singularity [E] drags everyone inside toward the middle for five seconds and executes whoever sits at the center on low health (epic monsters are the only exception).

Weaknesses: Where You Get In

He's rooted while he beams. Walking cancels Breath of Light [Q], so on foot he has to choose between damage and moving.
The beam doesn't go past the first thing it hits. A minion in the line takes the full damage and you take the leftover splash.
His escape can be shot down. Any stun or root that lands during Astral Flight [W] knocks him out of the air.
Falling Star [R] is slow to land. It strikes 1.25 seconds after he casts it, and it's down for two minutes at rank one. Once he's got enough Stardust it turns into The Skies Descend [R], which takes even longer (two full seconds).

Countering Aurelion Sol

You only need one of these to have a real matchup:

Get into melee range. Up close he can't walk and beam at the same time, and there's no knock-back in his kit to push you off.
Hold your stun for his flight. Astral Flight [W] is how he escapes and how he engages, and one immobilizing effect ends it either way.
Punish him before the Stardust piles up. His early spells are the weakest they'll ever be, so the first ten minutes are where lane gets won.

Already locked into it without one?

Playing Into Aurelion Sol Without a Counter

Keep a minion between you and him. Breath of Light [Q] collides with the first enemy it touches, so a caster minion in the way soaks the main beam and the burst that comes with each full second. Step out of the line rather than trying to outlast it.

Watch for Astral Flight [W] going on cooldown. Until it's back (22 seconds at rank one) he's got no way out of a gank, and that's when your jungler should come mid.

When Falling Star [R] shows up on the ground, move. You've got over a second before it lands, which is plenty to walk out of the circle.

Best Aurelion Sol Counters

Each of these beats him a different way. We'd start with whichever one you already play in mid.

Yone Grounds the Flight

Yone has two ways to close the gap, and Aurelion Sol can't stop either of them. Soul Unbound [E] throws him forward (it even goes through walls), and when it ends he snaps back to his body, so he can commit to a trade without committing to staying there.

Fate Sealed [R] is what wins the fight. It reaches 1,000 units, stuns everyone in its path for a second, and a stun during Astral Flight [W] drops Aurelion Sol out of the air. Don't spend your ultimate until he tries to fly away. Spirit Cleave [W] shields Yone as it lands, which buys a little room against the beam on the way in.

Fizz Shrugs Off the Beam

Nimble Fighter [Passive] takes a bit off every single hit Fizz takes (a flat amount, capped at half the hit). That doesn't do much against a big nuke. Against a beam that splits its damage into eight small hits a second it adds up quickly, and early on it takes a real share off each one.

Getting in isn't hard for him. Urchin Strike [Q] dashes through his target, and Playful [E] makes Fizz untargetable for most of a second, long enough to hop out of a Singularity [E] or sit out a Falling Star [R] (it takes 1.25 seconds to land, so you'll see it coming). After six he's got Chum the Waters [R] from 1,300 units for the kill.

Xerath Outranges Him

Breath of Light [Q] tops out at 920 units. A fully charged Arcanopulse [Q] reaches 1,450, so Xerath can hit him from places the beam can't touch (charging it slows Xerath down, so pick the spot before you start). Shocking Orb [E] flies 1,125 units and stuns longer the further it travels, and it's the cleanest answer there is to Astral Flight [W]: land it mid-flight and he falls.

Itemizing Against Aurelion Sol

Everything he does is magic damage, so magic resist won't be wasted. Mercury's Treads add tenacity too (30%), which shortens the stun from Falling Star [R]. Banshee's Veil is for mages, and it's best spent on that same stun, since against the beam a spell shield only stops the burst. Maw of Malmortius does the job on AD champions. Force of Nature fits anyone tanky enough to use it, because his damage arrives as lots of small magic hits.