Aphelios, the Weapon of the Faithful, was released in patch 9.24, and he has been receiving nerfs ever since. And in the upcoming patch 10.6, Riot is also planning to nerf him once again.
Lead Gameplay Designer for League of Legends Mark Yetter tweeted about their plans for the upcoming patch 10.6. And it seems like they are targeting Aphelios once again.
Since his release in patch 9.24, he has been nerfed in patches 9.24b, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4 and will get nerfed in patch 10.6. He only escaped from his nerf cycle in the patch 10.5.
Aphelios was designed to be a complex champion, but it turned out real quickly that he is not hard to play somewhat hard to play against. Most of the time, people don’t know what to do against him or what his ult will do in most of the team fights. Even in many pro games, players are not able to figure out what his ultimate do.
Despite some nerf in patch 9.24b, Aphelios was dominating the Korean challenger ladder and other solo queues in patch 10.1. As a result, Riot nerfed him three times back to back in patch 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4. And he only escaped from nerf in patch 10.5 as he has below 50% win rate in patch 10.5.
Currently, Aphelios has a 49.6% win rate and a massive 14.12% pick rate, according to op.gg. His win rate may be below 50%, but his massive 14.12% pick rate clearly shows how dominant he still is despite all these nerfs. As a result, Riot is planning Aphelios nerfs in the upcoming patch 10.6.