The highly-anticipated Aurelion Sol rework is now available on League of Legends’ public beta environment (PBE).
While the changes to Sol are extensive, it’s actually a humorous easter egg that’s captured the eyes of the community. On Aurelion Sol’s Storm Dragon skin, there’s a 1% chance that instead of the regular ultimate (Falling Star / The Skies Descend) animation where Sol crashes a star into the ground, we are instead greeted with Storm Dragon Lee Sin crashing into Runeterra.
This can be seen below courtesy of Skin Spotlights. Funnily enough, Lee will disappear if he hits a target but if the Sol player is unfortunate enough to miss everything, we see a short animation of Lee lying motionless on the ground before disappearing. Hopefully, this is suitable motivation for Aurelion Sol players to stop missing their abilities.
Riot is no stranger to adding small interactions to the game. True Damage Ekko has a different greeting for his fellow band members, for example. However, it’s rare for Riot to add an easter egg like this that has a visual component. This is likely because one of the driving philosophies of the design team is visual clarity – maintaining consistency across skins so players’ reactions aren’t thrown off by unrecognisable VFX.
On live, Aurelion Sol is one of the least-played champions of the 162 currently available to pick. In many ranked divisions, Aurelion Sol is picked in less than 0.5% of games. Though he’s far from the oldest champion, it was clear that something had to change in The Star Forger’s kit to make him more palatable to the wider player base.
Sol has changed a lot. His characteristic spinning orbs have been removed in favour of an ability that allows him to breathe flames on enemies continuously. He also has a stacking mechanic, building up stardust that upgrades his abilities and enables him to use his more powerful ultimate, The Skies Descend.
There is no official release date for the rework yet, but considering its presence on the PBE, it’s likely to hit live within the next couple of patches.
