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Ahri's Nerfs-A Look At

The Mom·5/26/2017, 6:20:59 AM·6 votes·1,188 views

So Ahri has some long awaited nerfs coming her way, but what do they accomplish, and what could be the repercussions of them?

The Changes W: AP ratio down from 40% -> 30% E: AP ratio up from 50% -> 60% R: AP ratio down from 30% -> 25%

The Good

Flat out this is a damage nerf. This will probably affect her early and maybe her mid game. With her W and R doing less damage, Ahri will be forced to wait longer to go in for the kill, meaning she will have to get her opponents lower before going all in. Additionally to that, players facing Ahri may have more time to realize to recall or to sustain themselves back up before she can kill them. With the nerf to W, this also puts an interesting dilemma on what Ahri should max second. If she maxes w, she'll get her base damage out of it, but lose out on charm duration. If she maxes E second she's get more charm duration, but will feel the lower damage output from her w. Overall if Ahri can land her charm consistently, it won't matter what she maxes with the buff to E's ratio.

The Bad

To Ahri mains and people that understand her success conditions, this nerf may not be impactful enough to them with the E buff compensation. These nerfs may also force Ahri to just playing safer, a frustration point from players that go against her. With her W and R having lower ratios, it may be better just to waveclear and ult away whenever a situation hits the fan. When late game comes around, the nerfs may plateau and being combo'd by Ahri will still result in a gray screen.

Final Thoughts/Opinions

I feel like these nerfs are good, but at the same time I don't think they will be enough. I have a feeling Ahri will be back around for the hammer, to some that is a blessing, to others like me, this could be worrisome. Either way we will find out what happens with Ahri in 7.11.

13 Comments

NineTailedMystic5/26/2017, 8:43:51 AM5 votes

With the nerf to W, this also puts an interesting dilemma on what Ahri should max second. If she maxes w, she'll get her base damage out of it, but lose out on charm duration. If she maxes E second she's get more charm duration, but will feel the lower damage output from her w. Overall if Ahri can land her charm consistently, it won't matter what she maxes with the buff to E's ratio.

W Rank 5 post nerf (All 3 fires on same target): 224 + .48 AP, 5s CD

E Rank 5 post buff: 200 + .6 AP, 12s CD, 2s Charm duration

At 200 AP they both deal 320 damage, so that's the break point. I feel that E max second will become more common, if not the meta skill order which is disappointing as Ahri's versatility is a big selling point for her.

Overall, I feel that the nerfs are a little harsh as she loses a lot of damage if hits multiple targets with her E and R, but they're not the end of the world as her single target burst isn't affected that much. She loses minimal damage damage at 200 AP and only about 100 late game in a single target burst, but it's going to be a bit harder to pull off multikills on her.

In addition, I feel that these nerfs do not hit the part of her the actually needed nerf, and that is her safety. Yes, W and R did a lot of damage even if Ahri missed her Q and E. However, W R Ignite kills only happened on weakened squishies and cost Ahri her ultimate and Ignite, both of which are very important to her. I feel that Ahri has such a high winrate because its easy to not feed on her due to her Q MS allowing her to escape situations easily and frequently without having to use her ultimate which is critical to her doing anything but being a Charm bot. She simply isn't punished enough for failing an all-in or playing too aggressively because of the Q MS, and there's no harsher penalty than death which is what the MS allows her to escape.

If people want to focus on this "Kite Mage" aspect of Ahri, they should opt in to buying Rylai's instead of having an in-kit kiting tool that's only been a pain in balancing her, while trading off her burstier aspects.

What I don't understand is why people say to make Ahri reliant on her E to do anything. I've seen suggestions ranging from less damage on all abilities but amped to be higher than before when hitting a Charmed target, to Charm's duration being based on distance rewarding max range Charms. I find that these suggestions are awful. Why? Because it will turn her into a second Nidalee. Nothing but fishing for spears (Charms) until she hits one and annihilates her victim and using her mobility to jump (Spirit Rush/Q MS to run) away at any given sign of danger. And we all know what happened to Nidalee.

Rexxiee5/26/2017, 7:18:11 AM2 votes

Her charm probably needs .2 or .3 ratio increase, she shouldnt be overall losing damage, only if she doesnt hit the charm.

Kivolan5/26/2017, 6:41:33 AM1 votes

Still don't understand why they don't just revert idiotic buffs / changes that weren't needed.

Coughcough movement speed on Q cough

alfavhunter5/26/2017, 12:20:56 PM1 votes

how to nerf and buff ahri

Q no longer gives move speed

if R hits the same target 3 times (all 3 ult charges) ahri gains 1 more charge but it deals 0 damage with no fire animation for hitting targets

what this does

it nerfs her escape ability or ability to kite, but it buffs her ability to chase a target back to the level it was with Q ms buff if she is using her ult aggressively, while also not increasing her damage

this change would be done on top of the current ones

Fondling Gems5/26/2017, 5:45:29 PM1 votes

For those interested in exact numbers is varies between how many people she is hitting with W and R:

The damage difference for single target is 21% AP scaling reduction. 2 Targets is 42% scaling Reduction. 3 Targets is a whopping 65% AP scaling reduction.

Also note that W could be cast 2 times for every time she can cast E, so if we look at her sustained damage there is a 37-95% AP scaling drop which is quite significant.

Glîtchy5/26/2017, 7:22:47 AM1 votes

I don't mind R's damage nerf, as it's an escape

ShadowNol5/26/2017, 7:02:23 AM1 votes

Yes please!