Star in the Making: Aurelion Sol's Place in the Meta

Definitely Not Ao Shin Aurelion Sol is Riot's newest champion (A ranged tanky DPS mage tank jungler), and now that he's been live on the PBE for a few days, his niche in the meta is quickly being carved out. With his kit's natural strengths laying in waveclear, roaming, and moving in one direction for a long amount of time, it's only natural he'd find a home in the midlane and the jungle. (And top.)

The Champion

In brief, Aurelion Sol has a trio of AP-scaling balls that constantly orbit him at no cost. His Q produces an Anivia Q-esque projectile that grows larger over time, and doesn't disappear until it leaves his ball-circle. (Therefore, he can make it grow bigger by moving with it. Note that when he is silenced, stunned, rooted, etc., his balls disappear.)

His W makes his ball-circle expand in circumference and deal double damage, but drains mana.

His E has a passive and active component- passively, he gains movespeed when moving in a straight line and doesn't make any sharp turns, though he retains all bonus movespeed if he turns directly around. When the stacks max out, he can activate his E to take flight in a very long line, passing over all terrain and gaining sight over walls. Note that once the stacks are maxed out, he can always cast his E, even if he loses his stacks.

His R is a Xerath Q that knocks back enemies close to him and slows all enemies hit for four seconds, decaying over time.

The inherent damage granted by his passive and W means that he deals considerable damage without any AP, and his sustained, low-burst kit means that building him tanky is a must.

Midlane

Aurelion Sol is constantly pushing the wave thanks to his passive, meaning that good awareness of the enemy jungler is a must. Aside from that, his shoving lends itself to another core part of his kit- roaming. The combination of his E and Q allow for very potent ganking, leading to a massive, undodgeable stun. Midlane Aurelions typically build Rod of the Ages first item, thanks to the tankiness it grants. His other core item is Rylai's Crystal Scepter, as it causes his balls to slow enemies on contact. Aurelion is built around positioning and kiting, and when done correctly, can bring levels of teamfight damage similar to Azir or Karthus. 

Theoretically, Aurelion would suffer against Assassins such as Fizz or LeBlanc due to their multiple gap closers - once they're inside Aurelion's ball-area, they can easily dodge his Q and R, leaving him a... dragon in a barrel? They can kill him easily. However, he's very potent against Mages or the aforementioned Azir and Karthus, as his active W's range is massive and allows him to harrass much more persistently than them. Additionally, the nature of his Q makes it very effective against immobile opponents.

Jungle

Jungle Aurelion is both difficult and hilariously easy at the same time. His clears are decent, but require constant kiting to keep his balls in the right areas to hit the camps, and his W is almost entirely useless while jungling. Aside from that, however, he's not very mana intensive when played correctly, and his E allows for ganks from angles that could only be achieved by a Reksai, Zac, or Nocturne prior to his release. The passive movespeed granted by his E is also a great boon, and his kit has a hard CC, allowing him to brutalize the poor Rift Scuttler with ease.

However, he is weak in his early clears and has no sustain, dealing almost no physical damage to lifesteal from. A decent enemy Nidalee, Lee Sin, Elise, or anyone that can clear faster than he can without losing all of their health can invade and kill him if he's caught off-guard, though his ultimate provides a significant self-peel. 

In the Jungle Aurelion builds a Stalker's Blade with Runic Echoes, as the movespeed and slow granted by the blue smite and the movespeed boost from Runic Echoes allow him to keep his Q running until he hits the edge of the map.

Cinderhulk Tank Aurelion isn't very popular, but could very well work, as Aurelion's kit does lend itself to getting into the middle of the enemy and dealing sustained damage while pumping out CC every few seconds.

Toplane

Building off of the theoretical CinderSol, a Sunfire-rushing split-pushing monster could possibly be one of Aurelion's homes in the current meta. With items like Dead Man's Plate granting him the necessary movespeed to build his Q to absurd sizes, going full tank with a build similar to Nautilus may be very good on Aurelion Sol. As he has fairly high base damages (A level 18 Sol with no AP's passive does 97 damage per hit. His W passively boosts that damage up to 147, doubling it to nearly 300 while active), the Starforger could make a very convincing tank, utilizing his E to just dive into an enemy team and sit there as they all burn within his ball-ring.

Of course, all this means nothing if you manage to die to early ganking, and thanks to toplane's much larger distance between the turrets, your passive could very well just get you killed. A lot.

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