Aurora ARAM Build and Guide

Updated for patch 26.21. Ability details come from Riot’s official game data for this patch; ARAM balance numbers come from the League of Legends Wiki’s champion data.

An Aurora ARAM build is a drain-mage path: Riftmaker and Cosmic Drive keep her hopping in and out of a fight she never fully leaves, and her spirits heal the rest. The Howling Abyss gives her 95% damage taken and 20 bonus Ability Haste, with damage dealt at 100%.

Her patch 26.21 kit set the order, item by item, from the first point of Health to the last point of Magic Penetration. We didn’t look at win rates.

How is Aurora changed in ARAM?

Aurora picks up two buffs that matter and one that doesn’t (the Attack Speed line, if we’re being picky). She takes 95% damage and gets a flat 20 Ability Haste before she buys a single item, while damage dealt stays at 100%. Attack Speed goes to 102.5%, which for a champion who attacks mostly to pull spirits is a rounding error. The haste is the interesting one. Across the Veil is a 22 second cooldown at rank 1 and The Weirding is 15, and both are escapes as much as damage, so a free haste chunk means more hops per fight on a map where there’s nowhere else to go.

Why does Aurora fit the Howling Abyss?

Riot’s patch 26.21 data on her kit:

• Spirit Abjuration (passive): her spells and attacks exorcise spirits from enemies she damages; the spirits follow her and heal her.
• Twofold Hex (Q): a missile that curses enemies hit, recast to pull the curses back toward her, damaging anyone along the way. Cooldown 9/8.5/8/7.5/7.
• Across the Veil (W): a leap that turns her invisible on landing and grants Move Speed for a short time. Cooldown 22/21/20/19/18.
• The Weirding (E): a blast that damages and slows, after which she hops backward. Cooldown 15/14/13/12/11.
• Between Worlds (R): a leap with a slowing shockwave that leaves a zone she can teleport across, edge to edge. Cooldown 140/120/100.

Spirits need enemies, and ARAM supplies five of them at all times. On a crowded lane Twofold Hex curses several champions at once, the recast drags the curses back through anyone standing in the line, and every one of those hits pulls a spirit that heals her, so a champion with no recall to fall back on carries her own sustain. The Weirding’s blast hits a group and then hops her out of reach, and Between Worlds on a narrow lane is a zone the enemy team has to stand in whether they like it or not. The problem? She’s a 550-range mage who has to be near the fight to pull spirits, and ARAM assassins get to pick when they arrive.

What should an Aurora ARAM build focus on?

Items that reward staying in combat and moving while doing it. Four items and boots.

Riftmaker leads. Each second she spends in combat with champions, Void Corruption adds 2% bonus damage, capped at 8%, and once the cap is reached she gains Omnivamp on top of the spirit healing she already has. Void Infusion converts 2% of her bonus Health into Ability Power, so the 350 Health on the item and the Health from everything after it pay twice. Long fights are her kind of fight.

Cosmic Drive next. Spelldance grants Move Speed for 4 seconds after she damages a champion with magic damage, and Aurora damages a champion every few seconds. That’s Move Speed on top of Across the Veil’s own burst, plus 25 Ability Haste (stacked onto the 20 the mode already gives), 350 Health for Void Infusion to work with, and 70 Ability Power.

Rylai’s Crystal Scepter third. Rimefrost slows enemies by 30% for 1 second on ability damage, so the curse pull, the blast and the ult shockwave all leave people crawling. For a champion whose plan is to hit, hop out and come back, a slowed enemy is a safe enemy. Another 400 Health feeds Riftmaker too.

Shadowflame last. Cinderbloom makes her magic damage Critically Strike against enemies below 40% Health for 20% more, and a target that’s been cursed and blasted over a long fight is usually under that line. It adds 110 Ability Power and 15 Magic Penetration, and Sorcerer’s Shoes bring another 12 Magic Penetration for the same reason (Magic Resist gets stacked late in ARAM).

How do you play Aurora on the Howling Abyss?

• Curse the clump. Twofold Hex curses every enemy it passes through, and the recast damages anyone standing between the curses and Aurora.
• Hop backward, not sideways. The Weirding always sends her backward, so face the enemy team before you cast it.
• Keep spirits flowing. Spirit Abjuration heals from spirits pulled by her damage, so poking between fights is healing between fights.
• Use Between Worlds as a wall. The zone slows enemies inside it and lets her blink across it, which turns a narrow lane into her side and theirs.
• Save Across the Veil for the assassin. Invisibility plus Move Speed is her one true escape, and it’s 22 seconds at rank 1.

How do shopping and Mark work for Aurora?

In practice there’s no base to walk back to. You shop at the fountain when the game starts and after each death, so finish Riftmaker’s components in the first trips, since Void Corruption only works once the item is whole. Health relics are less urgent for her than for most mages (the spirits do that job), though picking one up before a fight is never wrong.

Put simply, the two summoner spells you load in with are the two you keep. Mark snowballs an enemy and lets her dash to them, and Aurora already has three dashes of her own. Does she need a fourth? Not really. Flash covers the one scenario her kit doesn’t: all three hops on cooldown with a Zed landing on her.

Is Aurora good in ARAM?

Yes. 95% damage taken and 20 bonus Ability Haste land on exactly the two things she wants, more hops and less damage between them, and a crowded lane feeds her spirits faster than any Rift matchup. Funny enough, her weakness here is the same as on the Rift: champions who punish dashes or stop them outright.

Those champions are named in the Aurora counters guide. The LoL roles guide explains what a mage-assassin hybrid does for a team, every item above has its full entry in the items database, and her cosmetics are on the Aurora skins page.

Real talk, the Aurora ARAM build is Riftmaker, Cosmic Drive, Rylai’s Crystal Scepter and Shadowflame with Sorcerer’s Shoes, and the job is to curse the group, hop out, heal off the spirits, and come back.

FAQ

Is Aurora buffed in ARAM?

Yes: damage taken is 95% and she gets 20 bonus Ability Haste, while damage dealt stays at 100% (Wiki data, patch 26.21).

What items does the Aurora ARAM build use?

Riftmaker, Cosmic Drive, Rylai’s Crystal Scepter and Shadowflame, with Sorcerer’s Shoes.

Why build Riftmaker on Aurora?

Void Corruption adds bonus damage for each second in combat and grants Omnivamp at full strength, and Aurora’s hop-in, hop-out pattern keeps her in combat for a long time.

How does Aurora heal on the Howling Abyss?

Spirit Abjuration pulls spirits from enemies her spells and attacks damage, and the spirits follow her and heal her. On one lane there’s always someone to pull from.

How was this build chosen?

From her patch 26.21 ability text: a mage who stays in combat and keeps moving wants Riftmaker, Cosmic Drive and a slow. No win-rate data was used.