For years, Aphelios was known as League of Legends‘ “200-year champion” due to his notoriously complicated kit with several different effects among his five weapons. But Riot Games might have made something even greater with the introduction of Hwei, the game’s newest mid laner.
In a match on the League PBE test server, Hwei’s designer Myles “Emizery” Salholm managed to show off just how destructive Hwei can be, especially when he is combined with the firepower from Aphelios’ arsenal of weapons.
At the 20-minute mark of the match, the two teams seemed to be two equally strong forces colliding, with an even amount of kills, gold, and dragons for both sides. But as Emizery’s team kicked off a teamfight, everything began to break loose as Hwei and Aphelios began to position themselves for a possible game-shifting battle.
To their dismay, the skirmish began to tilt towards their opponents as teammates began to drop one after the other, but luckily for them, the enemy team grouped together perfectly as they continued to chase for kills into the river. This gave Hwei the chance to land a well-placed Crushing Maw ability, which pulled the four enemies back into each other.
Afterward, Hwei cast Devastating Fire on the four players, while Aphelios launched his Moonlight Vigil ultimate ability for an ungodly amount of damage in less than two seconds. It also didn’t help that Hwei was also armed with the new Stormsurge legendary item, which has a passive that strikes an enemy with lightning after two seconds. If the target dies to the lightning, they detonate and damage a large area around them as well, giving it the potential to be one of the deadliest burst items in the late-game.
Aphelios and Hwei are both two of the most complicated champions in the game, but when mastered, they can be two of the hardest champions to deal with. Hwei’s various damage abilities, utility, and crowd control allow him to become a Swiss Army knife for a team composition, while Aphelios remains as a massive late-game damage threat that can obliterate a whole team with a quick rotation of his spells with the right items.
Summoners can try Hwei out on the League PBE now or wait until he hits live servers for Patch 13.24 on Wednesday, Dec. 6.
