Fitting their expensive cost, five-cost units can be some of the most complicated champions in all of Teamfight Tactics. Fiddlesticks has a handful of very specific activation conditions, Syndra requires you to have units on the bench, and Aphelios has multiple weapons. Set 8 is all about making these heroes as strong as possible, so if you want to make your Aphelios a true threat, you need to pick the best weapon. But which is that best weapon?
Related: All Gadgeteen items in Teamfight Tactics (TFT) Set 8
Types of Aphelios weapons in TFT Set 8
Whenever you purchase an Aphelios unit and place him on the board, you get the option to choose between three different unique weapons. These are Duskwave, Binding Eclipse, and Onslaught, which each have their own specialties.
- Duskwave: Aphelios releases a wave of energy that does 45 base AP. This attack marks each enemy hit as “targeted,” and after a delay, Aphelios will shoot again, doing 200% AD to those same units. This is a solid damage Ability that scales well with Attack Speed.
- Binding Eclipse: Aphelios casts on the largest group of enemies, doing a baseline of 160% AD and 45 AP. This also stuns all targeted enemies for 1.5 seconds. This Ability is great for extra CC.
- Onslaught: Aphelious attacks six times at once over 1.75 seconds to the two closest enemies. It deals 270% AD and 45 AP. This Ability prefers doing burst damage on fewer targets.
Which Aphelios weapon is best in TFT Set 8?
If you want the Aphelios weapon that’s most likely to help you in a fight, choose Binding Eclipse. It works so well because most builds have multiple carry units anyway. It still does decent damage, and that 1.5-second stun can be invaluable.
The other two options are hardly useless, though. Duskwave is a great way to do a lot of damage to a good chunk of the enemy team. If you have a bunch of other CC in your team (say Urgot, Janna, etc.), more damage is more useful. Stack attack speed items on an Aphelios with Duskwave, and he’ll be unstoppable.
Onslaught is a lot more conditional, and many players just find it way too weak compared to the others. Unlike Binding Eclipse and Duskwave, Onslaught does lots of burst damage to only two units. However, this Ability has a really long wind-up, and also could make your team work too slowly through the front line. They are often the closest units to a back-line Aphelios, after all. Onslaught simply doesn’t have the same utility and max damage across all enemies on the board.
