@Riot, Trying to understand balance better

EvilRabbitt·Mar 23, 2015·3 votes·348 views

No accusation, I swear. I'm just really curious and baffled as to why Ahri's W range is shorter than her auto attack? I can understand the ulti, because you use that line up your Q/E/W blast combo before dashing back out and you want to be point-blank so you can't miss. But Fox-Fire (W) is part of lane mostly. This is directed to players as well. Trying to understand this still, and I know it's a late question. Put @Riot because someone messaged me and said that notified them to look or some such. =)

4 Comments

TehNACHOMar 23, 20151 votes

It's to counterbalance her strengths.

As of her Q rework, Ahri is one of the stronger and safer kite mages in the game. Instead of knee-jerkingly nerfing her kite mage qualities, Riot counterbalanced this by forcing her W range to be really short. This means Ahri's kite mage qualities are still just as powerful, but if she really wants to extend into her other jobs (rotation/assassin mage), she needs to actually get in close and forego her kiting qualities.

AetherKingdomMar 23, 20151 votes

They wanted to remove her insane safety.

Sailor MintMar 23, 20151 votes

Look at the bigger picture, a lot of things were changed. And to be completely honest, Fox-Fire felt really underwhelming in Season 4.

[Buff] Fox-Fire's targeting system has been improved and will now attempt to acquire a new target if the original target is going to die from other Fox-Fires

[Fix] Casting Fox-Fire no longer interferes with Ahri's basic attack animation
[Buff] Slightly reduced the time between spell cast and the missile firing
[Fix] Fixed a rare bug where Ahri's third Fox-Fire wouldn't deal damage while her passive was active
[Revert]~~40/65/90/115/140 magic damage ⇒ 50/80/110/140/170 magic damage~~
[Buff] Fox-Fire's rotation speed has been increased by ~30%. This means if Ahri's hitting a champion with Fox-Fire at maximum range, she won't have to wait as long for her other Fox-Fires to rotate closer.
[Nerf] ACQUISITION RANGE 650 ⇒ 550

Since Fox-Fire's range is calculated from the foxfire to her target, 550 Acquisition range is roughly equal to 600 skill range (i.e.: Spirit Rush), slightly shorter than a 550 range basic attack (it's complicated).

They lowered the acquisition range, but made the Fox-Fires rotate faster. Even before the change, you needed to walk dangerously close to your opponent to use all 3 charges. Overall, it's easier to use all 3 Fox-Fires reliably at the cost of losing some cheap reliable ~700 range harass.

EvilRabbittMar 24, 20151 votes

I didn't know all that happened. I only saw the acqui range decrease. I also thought the notes said 700-->450, is that not whats in the game? And the only reason I'm sad about the foxfire is that it makes Ahri's Sniper/Diver Assassin playstyle into Snipe-to-Dive. =/ I miss it. Used to be able to w in the between the melee minion waves while they were behind their ranged and smack em with foxy =(. Oh well, got buffed enough and thanks for explaining.