A Breakdown on the Ahri Changes
I'm going to try and be as unbiased as possible here. I want to create a thread with all the numbers to show people exactly what the changes for this new Ahri are, relative to her current self and compared to her Season 3 self. I'll start out by bearing my personal bias to you all - I think these changes are bad for Ahri. Her assassin archetype was both fun and unique, and turning her into a kiting mage is a boring and overused style with her kit. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, here are some notable differences and numbers for you:
Season 3 vs Season 4 Ahri: (Note - the numbers in her Season 3 kit were deemed overpowered due to her use of DFG in conjunction with charm to act as both a high damage mage as well as an assassin). Therefore assuming the removal of DFG, a mage Ahri would need equivalent numbers to this kit to remain balanced.
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Passive was spell vamp. The stacking mechanic still existed, but the spell vamp was changed to it's current form which gives more health if she hits multiple targets. This came mostly as a rework for Ahri to receive most of her sustain from Q rather than W/E/R due to how spell vamp works significantly better on single target spells.
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Q dealt slightly less damage than it's current iteration. (2.5% scaling difference per travel path, total of 5% total difference if both land). Q also cost 15 more mana at all ranks.
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W dealt significantly more damage than it's current iteration. Approximately 20% more base damage at all ranks, and 16% more in scaling to a single target. (More specifically, this was due to her 2nd and 3rd foxfire dealing 30% of it's base damage and scaling rather than 50% of it's base damage and scaling. The actual base and scaling itself was not touched, so the first foxfire hits equally).
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E dealt the same damage as it's current iteration, but the mana cost at all ranks was changed to 85 (35 mana higher at rank 1, scaling into 25 mana less by rank 5). Note that this means until level 14, Ahri is spending 35 more mana per charm. It isn't until she is level 17 that she is actually spending less per cast. Many would consider this a net nerf, considering the amount of time is spent below level 17 in a game. I'll leave that open to your interpretation.
Another huge aspect of E was added as well, which was the 20% damage amplification at all ranks for 6 seconds. This was a massive change to Ahri and it meant if her charm landed, her Q and W would deal 20% more (a large portion of that as true damage). Thus, assassin Ahri was born.
- R dealt 15 more damage at all ranks (base) and had 5% higher scaling per charge (amounting to a total loss in 45 damage and 15% scaling on her full ultimate at all ranks).
Whew. I'm tired now, but I'm not done. Now lets look at the PBE changes and compare them to Season 3.
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Movement speed on the Q. Big burst in speed that decays quickly until the orb returns. Total duration is about 1-2 seconds. She retains the 2.5% scaling on travel resulting in a 5% net gain in damage from Season 3 on her Q.
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+10/15/20/25/30 base damage on W. Scaling not touched, still 30% damage on consecutive hits. This brings the base damage in line with her Season 3 counterpart, but it leaves the maximum damage in scaling 16% lower. Net change: 16% scaling at all ranks to single target.
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20% damage amplification removed. +15% AP scaling at all ranks, +0/0/0/0/20 base damage. Net change: confusing as hell. Will discuss.
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Ult not changed. Net change: loss in 45 damage and 15% scaling over 3 charges.
The following is my opinion, take it with a grain of salt:
The movement speed on Q is a quality of life change. It will make her more slippery in combat, but it will not help her chase down targets. It's intended to make her kite better (like: Azir/Xerath/Ziggs) and is essentially her compensation for having shorter range than those champions. Riot expects us to get up into the fight to deal our damage and use the movement speed to escape. Personally, I'd rather take a champion like Xerath and deal the same damage from complete safety rather than relying on higher mobility to hopefully dodge skillshots or a Jarvan ult, but what do I know (I guess).
W Loses 16% scaling and E gains 15% scaling. The 20 base damage I essentially ignore because we aren't going to be seeing it in play until level 18. The benefit of ranking E is far less than ranking Q or W. The main difference is that you now have to land both your E and W to overcome the loss in stats, but the E is more controlled than the W and so has a hidden benefit. I'll call this a wash because it's hard to tell exactly which is better, and it's purely situational for most cases.
5% less scaling and 15 less damage for all charges on R. Does the 5% scaling on Q make up for this? You can certainly use it more often. You would have to land your Q 3 times on your intended target to make up for the loss in scaling, the 45 base damage would still be missing. I'll call this a wash because the last point is what ignited these changes in the first place, and it doesn't make any sense regarding the context.
This game does not need another kiting mage. We already have plenty, and Ahri's archetype is both unique and fun as an assassin. These changes bring her back as a kiting mage with an overall 20% loss in single target damage. The charm was buffed to promote her assassin synergy with DFG, the W and R were nerfed to compensate for synergy with DFG. So why, when you remove DFG, does the damage amplification on charm need to be removed? Are you afraid that Ahri will deal too much damage to targets that are not charmed? Because those changes are all fairly similar to her live values since you loaded her 15% W scaling into her E instead. Personally I don't think 30 extra damage at level 13 on her W is going to suddenly shift her to 'overpowered,' but the movement speed on her Q could make her annoying as hell. It's an unnecessary change that will not even benefit her assassin archetype.
TL;DR - Nobody wants another kiting mage. Ahri was a unique character and they're turning her into a Kalista/Xerath mix. We already have plenty of champions just like her. Let her be an assassin, remove the movespeed on Q and let her keep the damage buffs and give her back the 20% amplification on charm. Feel free to tweak balance from there, but at least let her keep her archetype.
