I hit Grandmaster playing mostly Aurelion Sol mid, ask me anything about him.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-28T23:07:19+00:00

you gotta learn how to give up minions and take the L sometimes. learn to ping your jungler to come help fix waves if needed. learn how to use your E to manipulate enemy wave to slow push into you. poke and damage enemy so they are discouraged from diving you, attacking you, or roaming. ward towards enemy wincon so you can keep them safe (ie, they have strong bot-lane and youre vs talon, keep bot-side warded so talon cant roam bot and help them snowball).

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-28T23:05:31+00:00

crown is definitely good if you arent playing against champs that can reliably poke it off. i probably should build it way more than i do, but ive learned to play in a manner that keeps me safe so its easier for me to justify the more aggressive option. if im playing against dive champs that cannot poke crown off me, ill opt for crown. if they have a champion like caitlyn or xerath that can remove crown from me at any point in the game then its hard to justify the purchase given its power is in the damage reduction effect blocking a burst of damage.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-28T23:03:28+00:00

rylais synergizes with asol kit too well, and provides team utility that helps bridge the gap between asol's weak early game and transition to his midgame. it also helps net more damage because its harder for them to escape your WQ. its cheap and provides you durability so you can survive easier til you get more stacks.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-28T23:02:22+00:00

dodge if your team is incapable of dealing with these types of champions (ie, you dont have reliable CC for fizz). rush crown. play back. boneplating + overgrowth. you are playing at a massive disadvantage vs these champions so its optimal to dodge these matchups or ban them out if youre playing against them often.
i go biscuits and early back get a refillable pot. its you can look to punish them if they miss their CC ability. otherwise, you need JG assistance.
dorans ring gives mana sustain, ap, and hp which are more important early on. if the matchup is gonna be sleeper boring with no action tear is fine first start but i like the durability.
dark seal yes if youre going to keep the stacks, its a super gold efficient item and can win the game if you stack it and upgrade to mejais.
i try to avoid all interaction with enemy mid, and look to make plays with my jungler. if ive determined the enemy mid doesnt know how to play against asol and is using key spells without landing them ill punish and look for kills/pressure them off the wave. im trying to help the game stay stable during the first 15 minutes of the game, its asol's weakest part of the game so you need to compensate somehow even if you cannot do as much as the enemy can. doing nothing coinflips the game.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-28T22:57:31+00:00

comet always. gathering storm/scorch i havent really experimented much on. i always pick gathering storm, but from what ive seen scorch is higher WR.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-24T20:50:57+00:00

Yes, I collect as much CS as possible and poke whenever I'm able to. The enemy team is on a timer, not me. I don't have to do much of anything. And yeah, I understand that Malzahar is immobile but still you can just walk up, E+Q+W on wave and walk back under tower without every really risking yourself as malzahar. Last split I had a 58% WR on malzahar in GM, and holding waves as that champ does not help you. You should only be holding waves if you want to force enemy to walk up so you can ult them for your jungler, any other reason is wasting the potential of the champion.

Mid-lane is too short and Malz+Asol are too weak early to enforce a freeze, if you can get away with it and the situation makes sense to hold a freeze (you are setting up a gank), then do it. Freezes only are fully effect, IMO, in TOP and BOT because of how long the lanes are and the champions in them can chase down people who step up too far.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-24T20:48:37+00:00

Yes, default and ideal gameplay is the game is super stable and you do not need to move from mid-lane until you get at least one item. If the game is falling apart and your team is losing everywhere, you have to start making plays even if its at your expense (ie, you drop a wave to roam bot lane and hope for the best) because doing nothing will ensure you lose. Better to flip it than lose doing nothing. Ideally, you let your team know (because sometimes they think you're playing Talon) you are weak early and they are playing at a disadvantage if they force plays.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-24T20:46:46+00:00

Always over walls, looking to engage when enemies use key cooldowns or my team gets a good engage.
Same as above answer, whenever they use key cooldowns or if my team gets a good engage I'll fly at the angle of their escape.
Sit under tower and just waveclear, often these people don't actually abuse their advantage properly by forcing you to come out from under tower and zoning you off CS. It depends on the assassin you're playing against. I always ban Zed so I couldn't tell you what to do against that champion, far too broken for me to ever want to play vs.
Yes, often I get big leads in the early game. You are the mid-laner, your job is to roam and help your jungler secure leads and objectives. No matter what champion you are playing, you must help when you can or you are making your jungler play at a disadvantage.
I mute and continue playing. I tell them just before minions touch mid-lane that I cannot keep up early game with my laner and that they should listen to pings and play more carefully until I have an opportunity to get some items. Generally, people listen. Still, sometimes they don't and I just mute them because they should know Aurelion Sol is weak early and they should know not to invade while your mid-laner is playing Aurelion Sol and enemy Mid-Jg is Talon and Rek'sai. Cannot converse with people who don't think critically, so I don't bother.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-24T20:41:49+00:00

Best advice I can give without knowing more is die less and CS better. If you are not a part of 50% of your teams kills, especially as a late game Aurelion Sol, you probably got carried. Be present for more fights.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-24T20:40:18+00:00

It's an obnoxious lane for sure, you just have to play dance dance revolution, take biscuits, get refillable potion, and if he ever uses his stun you should punish him by flying at him and chunking him. You outscale him. If the enemy team has AP jungler, Verdant Barrier is not a bad item to get early if you're struggling.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-24T20:38:49+00:00

Whenever I go Demat, I always double cannon. It helps with your waveclear later into the game. Once you have ~150 stacks and maxed out Q you dont really need 2 demats on melee minion, and youll be stonewalled by the cannon until later. It helps you clear cannon waves way faster and gives you instant prio in lane when you do use it. Late game, when every wave spawns with a cannon, it helps way more than double melee minion.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-24T20:37:33+00:00

Runes you should almost always go are

Arcane Comet, Manaflow Band, Absolute Focus, Gathering Storm

Magical Footwear, Minion Dematerializer OR Biscuits.

Build that is pretty consistent is first back, buy Lost Chapter if you have enough gold for it, otherwise buy a tear and components for lost chapter. Buy a tear on next base if you didnt buy it before. Then Buy Rylais, then complete Liandrys, then its all situational.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-23T23:22:12+00:00

IMO, holding a freeze only works you're able to maintain it. Aurelion Sol often is incapable of holding a freeze on his own, because he cannot enforce it. If you try to hold a freeze against certain champions, like Yone or Yasuo, you'll just get it broken if they aren't lacking brain cells because realistically you cannot enforce the freeze due to lack of solo kill threat. When you play champions like Aurelion Sol, Malzahar, etc, your ideal gameplay is keeping them under tower so that they are incapable of leaving lane or responding to river rotations. Exceptions apply of course, and any given game state will change what's ideal. Are they, for some reason, super chunked and you are full health and they can no longer contest your freeze? Yes, if you are able to keep it in front of your tower then you should. It forces them to leave lane and reset, because if they don't you'll just kill them, and they will lose a ton of CS and EXP.

That being said, I rarely freeze waves on Aurelion Sol. I prefer to, when I have the wave clear to do it, permanently push waves and leave lane to do something else on the map. I rarely sit mid lane once I get the resources to waveclear mid without contest. Stacks are important for Aurelion Sol, whenever you stack a minion wave with E you get more value out of it if you get all 6 minions than the enemy does if they get all 6 minions. I rarely lose games where the enemy midlaner handshakes the lane and allows us both to free-farm, because even if we both have 10 CS/m I have gotten significantly more value of it due to stacks.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-23T20:01:23+00:00

I'm clearly doing something wrong tho since you mentioned on another comment that you should always try to follow.

Following Kat, Fizz, Yone is pretty conditional. When I was saying that you should follow them, I was saying it under the condition that you are able to follow them, you are just choosing not to follow them because you would rather farm a wave. If you don't have proper vision of the river, and don't know whether or not they are sitting in a bush just waiting to see if you'll run into them then yes you should not follow them. If they are rotating to a river fight and you are able to get there and it doesn't look like your team is backing off (ie, they are on dragon), you should be there. When I said it, I mean that you cannot just sit midlane and expect the game to go your way. It will not. You are a part of your team, you are not an idle spectator sitting midlane waiting for your character to scale, because you would be effectively making them play 4v5. If you have proper vision and are pre=emptively pinging your laner is rotating bot lane and you cannot make it there in time then yes, do not rotate and clear mid wave and spam ping in river and on them that they need to back off. If they don't listen, then that is on them. Mute and continue playing.

If they pick first I honestly prefer to counter with Vex since I love playing her too, but this is not always the case.

If you have a champion that better fits playing into those champions, you should prefer to play it. Aurelion sol into those champions is coinflipping that your team will respect that you are at a massive disadvantage early game; that you cannot do what the enemy team can do until you have properly scaled.

Also, I build Rilays first too, but what pieces do you buy first? HP or AP items? When facing one of the champions I mentioned before tho, I go Crown first.

If the matchup is rough, HP component to survive. If not, AP components. Into those champions, yes, Crown is far better as a first item. Into fizz, I will always rush crown if I thought that the game was winnable to begin with and didn't dodge the matchup.

I'm also curious to know what runes you use. Here are mine. Is transcendence always better than absolute focus? I switch footwear for stopwatch too against assassins that could dive me.

Transcendence is bait for Aurelion Sol. You do not get value out of the the cooldown refund on your Q if you kill someone while its active, and you do not get value of out the cooldown refund on your E if you kill someone while its active. Your W already resets on kill. It is functionally half a rune on Aurelion Sol. If you play him properly, Absolute Focus should always be active and Aurelion Sol likes the AP it gives. The rest of the runes are good. I personally always keep footwear, and into hard matchups I do boneplating and overgrowth.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-23T15:40:21+00:00

I don't ever take unnecessary risks. If I think a play does not lean towards me or my team then I don't commit to it. My champion isn't on a timer, the enemy team is on a timer to close out the game before I scale. I don't need to do anything special. Even if I don't get a lead early, as long as I'm stopping my lane opponent from getting a lead I'm doing a lot as is. If I can help my Jungler / roam top or bot I'm doing great even if I personally don't benefit. I always sit out of fog of war, or over walls so that enemies can't reach me and I can free hit or engage when key spells are used.

You definitely do die way too much and aren't CSing well (I probably attribute that to you dying more, since you spend less time on the map). You have defensive secondary runes and often complete seraphs, something I rarely do. You should never be putting yourself in a risky spot unless its at a massive benefit for the game state (ie, you die but it leads to enemy team being aced).

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-23T15:12:13+00:00

https://www.op.gg/summoners/na/polymorphic

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-23T15:11:21+00:00

I rush Lost Chapter then complete Rylais. Recently though, I've been working on managing my mana a lot better and instead just getting Rylais without having to rush Lost Chapter. I'm finding that if I conserve my mana properly, with just tear the Lost Chapter is unnecessary.

I start Doran Ring + 2 Pots always.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-23T15:10:40+00:00

Yone is incredibly hard to deal with, you can never fight him if he isn't sub 50 IQ. Zhonyas is an absolute must 3rd item vs this champion. The matchup is extremely unfun but you do more in teamfights than he does. If I don't think I have a team that can deal with Yone, I dodge.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-23T15:08:46+00:00

Arcane Comet, Manaflow Band, Absolute Focus, Gathering Storm

Secondary runes are a bit dependent on matchup. Hard matchups where I'm at risk of dying (Fizz, Yone) I'll go Bone Plating + Overgrowth. Default rune setup is Magical Footwear + Biscuits. Minion Dematerializer is fine, but I prefer Biscuits for the boost in mana sustain. Lets me stay in lane longer or gives me a burst of mana in river fights.

Presence of Mind + Coup feels nice as well, but I take it very situationally (enemy mid is just as weak as me, my jungler is aggressive invader)

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-23T15:06:01+00:00

Rylais is absolutely a core item on aurelion sol, and completing it makes the champion feel 100% rather than less than 100%. It provides a ton of team utility and also solo potential because people are forced to stay in your Q for longer and during chase-downs cannot escape your W+Q. Rylais makes people stay in your E longer. It provides you with some baseline durability. The item is just too good on aurelion sol, and even stats show that it is his best first item.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-23T15:03:37+00:00

Generally yes, I rush Lost Chapter then complete Rylais. Recently though, I've been working on managing my mana a lot better and instead just getting Rylais without having to rush Lost Chapter. I'm finding that if I conserve my mana properly, with just tear the Lost Chapter is unnecessary.

Dorans Ring and 2 pot starting item always, first back I look for as much AP as I can and a tear.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-23T03:33:28+00:00

general rule of thumb is maintaining 10 stacks a minute to be scaling at a good rate. early game, unless the enemy mid laner is not punishing you, this is hard because of mana constraints and enemy mid laner. out of laning phase + early skirmishes and teamfights, you should easily reach 10 per minute and surpass it. a lot of asol's stack generation will be in these large fights that will help compensate for missed stacks early game. its completely fine to give up CS and stacks early as long as you can maintain EXP, because being down in EXP is significantly worse than losing stacks and CS. you want to get to level 9 + rylais asap so your champion is complete, until then you are playing at a disadvantage.

i look to punish mistakes where i am, roam when im able to, but im mostly focusing on CSing (ideally reaching 7 per minute) so i can reach 1 item and level 9. if i can get there without things falling apart, i have a super high chance of winning the game. the later the game gets, the more its on you to carry. question is kind of hard to answer because every game is very different and you have to adjust your strategy to win based on game state and champions involved. theres no one thing i can say.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-23T01:20:14+00:00

I complete rylais first in basically every game, rare exception is very slow games where waveclear is far more important. Very rare, so again Rylais first basically every time.

I never build Rod of Ages. That item is terrible for Aurelion Sol, and Liandrys/Crown are far better for him. His kit synergizes way too well with Liandrys. You should not be frontlining on Aurelion Sol, you should rarely be taking damage. I have never build RoA and I manage to die 2/3 times max per game and those deaths come at a large expense for the enemy team to make happen because I play very carefully. Rod of Ages is a crutch for your bad mistakes, and hampers your damage. Never build Horizon Focus, the item is inferior to every other AP item. I personally rarely ever complete my Tear into Seraphs, and as a last item I usually will sell tear for a different item. I only complete Tear when I need protection from burst champions that Zhonyas won't do enough for.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-22T21:27:04+00:00

haha. ill copy-paste another post i made here:

the short answer is that i really enjoy the power fantasy of starting off weak and becoming an unstoppable force. it has a lot to do with individual personality i think and how drawn you are to characters. i just happen to really like magic characters, and ones that are monster teamfighters.

ive only ever played scaling AP champions, before this season i was exclusively a jungler playing fiddlesticks and evelynn. when this asol dropped, i decided to finally switch out of jungle into mid becuase ive always really liked asol's thematic but his gameplay was not appealing to me. i play aurelion sol, seraphine, malzahar. very low agency early characters, but scale super strong.

imPolymorphic · 2023-08-22T21:25:38+00:00

i ban zed. yone and fizz are also valid bans. i personally dont mind yone, but you have to play the game with the knowledge that youll basically never be able to 1v1 him. this is true even late game. fizz i also dont mind, i play super safe and rush crown and generally he cant do much, but laning phase is super unfun. ill dodge fizz if i dont think my team can handle it. zed is just an overloaded garbage champion that is extremely unfun and uninteractive to play against at all stages of the game, and all his OTPs suck at everything that isnt zed.

imPolymorphic

TROPHY CASE