@Phreak: You have GOT to be kidding me with this.

Regina George·2/3/2015, 6:45:24 PM·8 votes·1,844 views

Ahri already IS squishy. She's one of the frailest champions in the game. Even Annie has an Armor/MR shield. Cassiopeia builds fairly tanky with (RoA/Seraph + Rylai's). The point of the changes is to actually EXPOSE the squishiness. Her W puts her in Equilibrium Strike range. GOOD.

See, here's the thing about Ahri now. She's really mobile. She has medium-speed medium-range skillshots. She also has non-skillshots with very short range. You know what's cool about that? She can skirt around medium range poking with skillshots. She can also use her high mobility to get into close range and put herself at actual risk to land her reliable damage. Sounds like an actual weakness! She's in range of Equilibrium Strike if she wants to do more than poke. And then skillfully use her movement speed buffs and dashes (with long cooldowns after) in order to succeed.

Sounds a hell of a lot better than, "Well, now it's after 6 minutes, her core weakness is gone."

Also, increasing the mana cost of Q DOES affect her early game: If she can't simply spam Q on cooldown for immense sustain and easy wave clear, she's going to have less overall sustain and forced to walk into autoattack range to last hit more often.

Ultimately, it's always tricky dealing with reworks, either small- or large-scale. I'd consider Ahri's total changes now a small-scale rework. Ahri now:

Is much more mobile than before. She's arguably the most mobile mage in the game who can't dash over walls before level 6.
Has a medium-range poke pattern as well as a short-range all-in pattern that uses multiple rotations of spells (as opposed to Fizz just REQW'ing you, Ahri Q-R-E-W-R-Q-W-R-W) supported by a lot of mobility to keep her in the fight (as opposed to something like Jax who just tanks you until he gets multiple ulti hits)

Ahri no longer: * Hits you with her entire kit from out of your counter-attack range and then dashes away

And of course, any time a champion "no longer" does something, everyone who's attached to it gets really scared, because a specific thing their champion used to do doesn't exist any more. But really, Ahri shouldn't be hitting you with non-skillshots while dodging everything you ever do. If she's hitting you with non-skillshots, you should be able to hit her back. Ahri's power is in getting to choose when those windows are. That's always been the core power of Ahri: Her ability to choose those windows and if she chose wrong, say "Oh crap" and burn her other two Rs backwards.

I know is this quite long, but this is just part of how Phreak justified the Ahri nerfs on PBE (this was taken from Reddit). He thinks Ahri is SO ridiculous and SO safe, while champions like Gnar, Lee Sin and Zed are just laughing their asses off. These three are just as mobile or even more mobile than Ahri, they deal the same/more damage than her, they are RESOURCELESS, and don't even get me started with their build paths and free stats.

I'm sorry, but I just don't understand this kind of reasoning, it is literally, giving me a headache.

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/2ul5us/the_recent_nerfs_to_ahri_on_pbe_are_not_the_way/

38 Comments

Retillin2/3/2015, 6:58:03 PM8 votes

The last few times I have seen Phreak take to the boards to argue the rationalization of Riot's balances has just made me shake my head. It's gotten to the point where I don't bother to read his posts. I know they are going to either be a full on lie, a total flip flop when you call him on it, and/or so snarky that it seems he is trying to put down the person he is talking to. He has kinda become a bit of a jerk. And maybe it's just me, but he's not someone I would want to hang around with.

straight4free2/3/2015, 6:48:32 PM5 votes

Gnar, Lee, and Zed will be gutted eventually.

Until then all we can do is wait.

InSingedWeTrust2/3/2015, 7:24:11 PM2 votes

Quit trying to make Ahri happen. It's NOT going to happen.

Llanite2/3/2015, 8:16:17 PM2 votes

As much as I hate Zed, Ahri is MUCH more mobile/safe than Zed could ever get.

  • Ahri has 3 ranged harass at very short CD and separated escape. Zed has only 2 (Q+W) and if he uses W to harass, he loses the escape.
  • Ahri R has 3 charges, some people can't utilize this, but she can blink 3 times/ dodge 3 skill shots. Meanwhile, Zed can only blink once, and you know where he would end up at.
  • Zed is melee, Ahri is ranged who can safely farm/harass without much retaliation.
Killer X 122/3/2015, 9:35:25 PM1 votes

I agree with the damage reduction on the w and the increased mana cost on the q, but the range nerf on the W doesn't make much sense. If you are going to reduce it, then go from 750 to 650, not 600. Annie and Cait can still auto attack her outside of range of her w lol. Its like they want you to have to commit a bit harder with Ahri, which is fine, but i think a 150 unit range nerf is rough, esp since its calculated for each sphere individually.

Narasimha2/3/2015, 11:38:00 PM1 votes

Gnar, Lee Sin and Zed are just laughing their asses off. These three are just as mobile or even more mobile than Ahri, they deal the same/more damage than her,

Gnar. Mobility. Damage. Pick ONE. He doesn't get both at the same time. Seriously, you can complain about a lot about Gnar, but thats something thats just a fact. If he can kite, he's not going to be doing too much damage. If he can hurt you, then he can be kited.

AHeroNamedHawke2/3/2015, 8:17:07 PM1 votes

She is more mobile than Zed

Out of all ins she has her Q movespeed on a third the cooldown of Zed's W, and during all ins she has 3 dashes vs his 2 blinks with set locations

Zed can technically travel farther, but where he goes is far more limited

Kuroi862/3/2015, 8:22:59 PM1 votes

These three are just as mobile or even more mobile than Ahri, they deal the same/more damage than her, they are RESOURCELESS, and don't even get me started with their build paths and free stats.

Actually no, I will get you started on build paths and free stats. Comparable mobility and damage, no real issue there personally. Zed and Lee Sin are not resourceless so you can just drop that. Gnar is all twisted up in his rage and transformations, that is a whole headache of balancing right there. Build paths and stats seems to be the place to go from here.

AetherKingdom2/3/2015, 9:08:43 PM1 votes

Yes because gnar lee sin and zed all have 58% win rates .