Lets Talk: Ahri

Look, we get it: Ahri is a problem. Not a huge problem, but a problem nonetheless. Though she is a problem, I think it's important that we talk about some serious misunderstandings here rather than a clear cut circle jerk. "Wahhh, Ahri main crying so that his champ doesn't get nerfed" is probably what most people are going to assume coming in. While she is one of my mains, I'm just here to dispel some... misguided thoughts, if you will.

So, to keep this short and sweet, lets jump right into it. First things first, lets get rid of some incorrect line of thinking:

• Ahri's numbers are in no way high enough to warrant any nerfs to numbers

• Ahri is a purely skill shot reliant champ, but that does NOT mean she has a HIGH skill cap. in fact, she has a very moderate skill cap

• Ahri's core problem is the movement speed on her Q and that is one of 2 things that should be addressed

• Ahri's ulti CD might be a little TOO low (40s lvl 16 40% cdr)

Suggestions:

• Tie her movement speed to her ultimate. It can be an ultimate passive where she gets a movement speed boost for hitting a champ. There could also be an internal CD tied to the passive where it only procs on the same champ every 5/4/3 seconds based on ultimate rank. However, she cannot use this passive if she's already used her ultimate. Or, this passive can be completely removed. I'm indifferent to it on Ahri, either way.

• Her mid and late game ultimate timers can be increased slightly capping at around 50 seconds cd. Any higher could still be detrimental to her as most ultimates in this game cap at 60 cd come late game anyways

Now that all of that is out of the way, lets clear up some other misunderstandings. The above suggestions is the ONLY thing that has to be looked at for Ahri. Ahri has one of the lowest burst and number scalings on most of her abilities out of all mages. I won't go too far into detail explaining anything, because anything I have to say as to why her numbers shouldn't be touched has already been said.

On that note, the reason why a champion like Ahri can have such a high winrate is because of her kit. Ahri doesn't have the most mechanically intensive kit, nor is her kit confusing to use. As a matter of fact, Ahri has one of the most linear, easy to use and easy to understand kit in the game. You don't have to be a master at Ahri to be good at her -- all you have to do is be good at hitting skill shots. That is the ONLY requirement needed to be good at Ahri.

Due to how fluid her kit is, it gives players an easy time playing on Ahri. Also, unlike binary kits like Garen, she has so much flexibility in her kit that she can adapt playstyles fitting to any game. Most, if not all, matchups against Ahri is skill matchups; albeit those she hard counters. And lets face it, your statistics is taken from Plat+ games... think about how EASY it is for a Plat player to pick up Ahri. If they made it to plat, picking up Ahri and doing well with her is a task that is in no way difficult -- at all. It takes around 15 games playing Ahri to become more than efficient at her. I literally can't think of any champion that's so well rounded, easy to use and safe all at the same time that comes even close to Ahri.

So before you go throwing play rate and winrate around, just remember that she isn't the ONLY champion to boast good winrate numbers from the time she was made. Those numbers don't paint the whole picture.

Until Riot figures out what to do with her Q passive and you aren't banning her, then you can deal with her till then since she isn't worth your ban slot.