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Is Ahri quite weak or just seems like it compared to ADCs?

Maximus Paine·9/1/2016, 6:47:09 AM·1 votes·1,056 views

Hello guys,

I have a couple of months playing and I'm looking to expand my champion pool. I have gravitated to ADCs and like to play Ashe and Jinx. I'm preparing for the day I need to choose a secondary role for draft games. I have been looking to play Mid with some sort of ranged champion that handles as close as possible to the ADCs I've been playing, so as to

I have heard many suggestions in another post I made and Ahri came out as the one with most mentions. I tried Ahri this last week and liked her play in general and found the abilities easy to use. However, I felt she didn't deal much damage. In early game I found her to be dominated by Lux (another possible pick). One test of power I do in a custom game is killing a dragon solo. Ahri with three items couldn't kill a dragon without dying herself, while Jinx with 1 or 1 1/2 items kills a dragon and barely loses HP.

The question: Is Ahri weak or is that what we should expected from a Mid-lane Mage and it's unfair to compare her to Jinx and Ashe?

Thanks for the input.

19 Comments

TehNACHO9/1/2016, 7:18:13 AM5 votes

Okay you need to understand a few things about Ahri first.

She is not an ADC. Ashe and Jinx are hyper carry ADCs that are slow and immobile, and generally lack true Burst potential. However, once they meet a certain threshold, output ridiculous amounts of DPS. On the other end, Ahri sits in a weird spot in the middle of okay DPS synergistic with her kiting play style and okay Burst potential if you play your Assassination just right. In trade for her weird damage niche, she's outfitted with an insane amount of mobility for a Mage like herself. Her forte is not power, it's flexibility and offering you options. She's a jack of all trades: capable of doing so many things, but not necessarily the best at any particular thing. You'll never appreciate Ahri if you compare her in a 1 to 1 stat test in a very specific scenario against a certain champion, she almost will always underperform at another champion's strengths. However, once you realize she's capable of so much more than most champions, you ought to appreciate her better.

Also, pitting a Mage against the Dragon is literally the most unfair comparison you can make. The vast majority of Mages are literally unequipped for fighting any Dragon at all in the first place.

So to answer your question. She's actually a rather solid mid laner in general, and one of the champions above her in Mid Lane is Yasuo, making her the third best Mid Lane Mage in the overall category according to champion.gg. She's the opposite of weak, she's statistically very powerful. As for expectations of a Mid Lane Mage, she's capable of almost everything all Mages are typically capable of (Burst Potential, Ranged Poke, Wave Clear, etc.) but she doesn't do anything in particular too amazingly. She breaks the standard mold of a Mage slightly in that she's hyper mobile. Other than that though, she's a special case in terms of Mid Lane expectations. Finally, it's extremely totally unfair to compare her directly to Ashe and Jinx. Ashe and Jinx share enough traits that it's fair to compare them to each other, but Ahri is her own champion with her own unique skillsets and outputs. Direct comparisons literally do not work, and the majority of them make Ahri look straight up inferior which is just wrong.

DarkRitual9/1/2016, 4:59:06 PM3 votes

Ahri is squishy. She deals good damage when she gets her full spell rotations off, but has problems when trying to duel someone who gets in her face if she misses her Charm.

Requiemsfire9/1/2016, 8:38:23 AM3 votes

Her mobility, true damage and charm sets her apart from adcs. Also Ahri's burst damage is much higher than that of an ADC's while an ADC will provide superior sustain.

Doctor Jarvis9/1/2016, 6:52:18 AM2 votes

Ahri is supposed to be a kiting mage, using her abilities not necessarily to deal the raw damage that an adc is allowed to do, but she has a very potent cc tool and lots of ways to skirt around the edge of a fight while still dealing the damage she was meant to. Her damage is lower than other carries in the game certainly, but her goal is to make up for it with her great kiting ability. With that said Ahri has fallen out of the meta in favor of heavier hitting mid laners like Kassadin and Cassiopeia, but that doesn't necessarily mean she's bad.

MavenSong9/1/2016, 6:54:53 AM2 votes

Ahri has a slight bit less damage than other mages but has a lot more mobility. She isnt weak tho, she just has a bit of a trade off. She can easily pick some squishy off tho. She just needs items.

Comparing damages is hard. Ahri is more burst while Jinx/Ashe are sustained

Akali Kami9/1/2016, 6:52:09 AM2 votes

An ADC's primary source of damage is through auto attacks (Right clicking) and you do constant sustained damage. Mages generally have much lower scaling on their auto attacks and as such, they only gain benefit from Ability Power to their auto attacks after surpassing their base Attack Damage. That is why a mage cannot kill a Dragon as easily as an ADC/Fighter can. Mages generally do most of their damage in short bursts due to cooldowns and being spell/ability based, but do a lot of said damage within that burst period (With some exceptions to champions who do a combination of burst and damage over time).

I hope that clarified things a little bit.

Edit: Also forgot to clarify, some characters do more damage than others at various points in the game. For example, if you were to compare my main (Akali) to someone like Leblanc. Leblanc does a lot of damage right as soon as she hits level 2. Akali doesn't get a noticeable spike in damage until she hits level 6. Conversely though, Leblanc's core itemization doesn't have an early power spike as opposed to Akali's.

ADC's in general usually don't do much damage early but they scale up mid-late (with some exceptions such as Draven) but at the same time, there are characters that can easily delete a full health/full build ADC because that's what they excel at and that is their role. Ahri is such a champion due to her strong burst, mobility and crowd control.

LitAF9/1/2016, 9:18:07 AM2 votes

As an Ahri main, I'd say shes in a pretty good place right now. Sure she might not be able to one shot like some mages Syndra Veigar but her mobility levels the playing field. She can be in and out of position and thats why I love her. Also theres no point comparing her(a mage) to hyper carry ADCs like Ashe and Caitlyn.

Trolljimu9/2/2016, 1:47:44 AM1 votes

ahri hard counters lux

Depárt9/1/2016, 6:52:40 AM1 votes

Comparing a mage/assassin to an entire different class that fill entirely different roles.

Post invalid for any discussion.

TyroneWatermelon9/1/2016, 8:29:56 AM1 votes

No no NO NO DOnt start