The damage has been nerfed so hard so much that it's basically worthless by this point. As an enchanter I'd much rather have Aery buff an ally with the 80+25% AP shield, rather than be wasted on the worthless 40+10% AP "attack".
The discrepancy is even worse once you start factoring in late game defences.
So, you've never expirienced the moment when you auto attack an enemy but they survive with low af hp, and then your aery flies at then and kills the enemy
If Aery's damage component gets removed, damage over time effect champions like Rumble and Malzahar, along with poke champions like Jayce won't have any keystones that are good on them.
If we can get Deathfire Touch back as a keystone, Aery's damage component can go.
Aery is important to enchanter laning trades... if it lost the damage component completely, it'd be a massive massive nerf to enchanter vs tank support laning.
I like Aery on Zilean so I have more supportive abilities with the shield, but it's always on cd from hitting enemies with a bomb when I boost my ally. It'd be nice if the shield was more reliable, because it's often more important in such situations.
Besides I can already have Scorch for poking.
