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9 points for you to read if you complain about Ahri.

Evenstar·3/31/2017, 6:12:17 AM·7 votes·1,879 views

When you compare the likes of Ahri to other AP Mids, and you find that you're salty about her. Let me tell you why you need to stop complaining about her.

  1. Compared to the other mages/AP Assassins on the rift, Ahri has significantly less damage to boot and works for every point of Ability Power she can invest in to carry a game. It is true that compared to your standard AP Mages and AP Assassins, her damage is lower because she depends on a few rotations to deal any major damage. Ahri wins her trade and fights by attrition, with a bit of burst damage. She is a kite mage, kite mages operate like ADCs who kite. What's the similarity? They both deal DPS in quick succession, which leads me to my next point.

  2. When you have a favorable trade with Ahri , resulting in her blowing Spirit Rush or summoner spells to escape... DO NOT chase after her, especially if it is an unwarded area. It's as simple as saying one does not simply chase Singed at top lane. Remember how Ahri wins her fights by attrition? That is how Singed accomplishes that too. You're basically being lulled in to a trap. Sometimes forcing your opponents to blow off their summoners/escape spells is much more valuable than getting 300 golds. You've essentially forced them to return to base, and you get 1-2 wave of minion advantage. THAT IS STILL ADVANTAGE

  3. Why is Ahri 's winrate so high? Simple, the rest of the meta champions have been nerfed, so Ahri gets right back in to the meta easily. Does winrate mean everything? No. It doesn't mean Ahri hard carries a game by herself, nor does it mean Ahri wins 54% of her matches all by herself either, (should have properly worded this). It just means Ahri's kit has withstood the test of time for seasons and that she continues to remain stable. This is a sign of actual balancing. In comparison to meta mids, ie: Zed, Yasuo, Talon, Syndra, Fizz for example, all of these champions pop in & out very frequently and visits the balance office often because their kit has problems.

  4. So, why isn't Riot listening to those asking for Ahri to be nerfed or the ones asking for Ahri's 20% charm mechanic to be reverted? It's simple. Ahri's kit has a high skill ceiling, but low skill floor. She is your gateway mobility mage to learn, but doesn't have complicated mechanics to pick up or hard to adjust skillshots, compared to someone like Azir . Here's the thing, Ahri has the least outplay potential among the pool of assassins, a Zed blinking back and forth between his shadows is definitely more eye catching than Ahri darting around, and a Katarina bouncing around daggers is certainly flashier than 3 flashes per .75 seconds + a summoners spell. Among mages, a Cassiopeia or Annie flash stunning a group of targets is probably more worthy of a cheer than Ahri jumping on ADCs/Support for a kill. When you put Ahri's kit to its fullest potential, it leaves you wanting more. You will think, oh wow, didn't know Ahri had THIS MUCH potential, but you're not exactly hitting the the ceiling of her kit yet. THAT, results in people understanding that Ahri requires more skill than anything to make an impact, despite what players even some like Redmercy/Phylol claim that Ahri takes zero skill to play. Which now brings me to her 100-0 potential.

  5. Ahri 100-0ing a target is a complete myth. Unless you've given her a few kills, which results in a champion snowballing, and that happens with EVERY SINGLE CHAMPION out there, Ahri will not 100-0 you. If you are even in scores, she will spend every minion, every gold, every single thing about her trying to catch up to you because if she doesn't, she is basically asking for a harder late game.

  6. HERE'S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND OUT OF SO MANY OTHER POINTS. Ahri_ players excel at reading their opponents._ You are at the top of your Ahri games when you pay the necessary respects and understanding towards your opponent. An Ahri that takes her opponents lightly is a dead fox. All of Ahri's matchup even against mid mages with the lowest win rates are even. Talking about whom Ahri counters, even Immobile mages like Lux Velkoz Viktor Xerath Ziggs TwistedFate SyndraLissandra will absolutely screw her despite her mobility. Why? All of these champions have some form of AoE ability to limit where she treads, some have click-on hard CC. Some don't even need to land skillshots to smack her senseless. Have you ever played Ahri and danced around a Ziggs throwing bombs? Have you ever played against a Lissandra hard cc-ing you? Have you ever fought with Xerath whom mindfucks you with his deceptively long range Q or trying to outrun/outdash a Velkoz Ultimate that constantly slows you for a long time? Better yet, have you ever experienced how it's like to outmaneuver Kassadin Leblanc Zed Yasuo ? These guys will make you miss your skillshots from time to time that you absolutely don't wanna deal with them, it's a feelsbad moment for Ahri. Back to the main point about Ahri players excelling at reading opponents. What happens when an Ahri is unsuccessful at reading her opponents and is outwitted? She stays away from you, and this is the same for targets like Yasuo & Zed, you rape these guys and they'll be scarred for the remainder of the match, until they can catch up to your level and score. An Ahri that has been brutally punished is a traumatized fox, she will never go near you because she gets obliterated in a matter of seconds. Trust me on this, all mobility players behave this way. Why? Because they have nothing but mobility to outwit, outplay their opponents. When outsmarting and outplaying fails, they cave in horribly. Ahri has safety you say? Well, let me tell you something, for every dash Ahri spends getting closer to you, she is lowering her safeness. And if you perfected your skills in sidestepping, avoiding her skillshots is ezpz. This means she has nothing more but a 5 cd Q to fallback on. What do you do in that 5 seconds of window? YOU PUNISH HER. Overall, what does this mean for you? It means you need to learn how to read Ahri to be one step ahead of her game. Period.

  7. Here's one common mistake that players make when facing Ahri. BEING PASSIVE IN GAME If you let Ahri farm all game, even during your pre-6 laning phase, you are letting a time bomb tick. Guess what Ahri hates? Aggression. Guess what she's weak at? Counter pushing. Guess what Ahri needs? CS. Have you had a Malzahar push your entire lane? It is disgusting, Ahri will feel bad for missing out on a few cs under turret. Have you had even crap mids like Karma force you away from CS? It's disgusting too. Have you experienced a Lux Anivia Cassiopeia or Orianna smack you with large aoe pre and post 6? It's pure terror. What do all of these champions do? They go HAM on her. And mind you, these are SMART HAMs. People ensure their lanes are warded so Ahri's jungler can't give her a hand.

  8. Lastly, what happens when you get ahead of Ahri ? If you are a mage, you invest in AP items, not silly defensive stats like item 1057 or item 3010 . Grow some balls and get item 1058 you'll need it like any other mid lane mages anyway. If you're an AD Assassins, what do you get? You get a item 3134 or item 3133 What if you are an AP Assassin or some unconventional bruiser going mid lane? You get item 1038 item 3057 item 3044 Who the hell invests in a item 3001 item 3155 when you are ahead? What happens when you get the items above? You start hitting harder and forcing her to either die or be smart and return to base. What happens when the fox gets tired of being smacked around? She invests in defensive items to survive, that's when she's in a loss. What happens when Ahri is investing in defensive items? That means she loses out on AP offensive items which cater to her damage. Simple, isn't it?

  9. ANOTHER IMPORTANT TIP BE AS CUNNING AS THE FOX Ahri spends all game trying to outsmart you, it could be luring you away from lane in to the river bush, it could be baiting you to chase her in her own jungle. Apply all of that dirty tactics against her too. No one says dirty tactics are a form of cheating anyway. You do whatever it takes to spank her hard. Ahris are like Yasuos, they think their mobility will save them every time shit hits the fan. That is why some Ahri players are so willing to facecheck brushes even if it meant their death, because they have a fallacy that they can resort to their mobility to run away. Go inside a bush, when you see her, unload every single shit you have and listen to her groan loudly as she dies. Ambush her, period.

TL;DR of the 9 points you need to get make every Ahri feel traumatized

  • Understand that Ahri players don't win by braindead gameplay. All Ahri players to need to learn to read their opponents, this is a number one requirement because Ahri's matchups are all either even or slightly unfavorable. THIS MEANS YOU NEED TO DO YOUR HOMEWORK IF YOU FIGHT AN AHRI.

  • Invest in offensive items when you get ahead of Ahri. A traumatized Ahri is an Ahri that will spend the entirety of the game avoidiong you and trying to catch up to you by items and farm. And if they don't, she's basically an unimpactful mid laner outside of her mobility.

  • Be cunning, be the sly little Fs that you are. Get that Ahri player tilted for all I care. If you can't beat them the righteous way, then you might as well play their little dirty game. Set up ambushes and baits. GET HER TO CHASE YOU IN YOUR OWN FOREST.

  • For the love of all that is holy, learn to dodge skillshots. Period, doesn't matter if it's Ahri or anyone else. If you wanna git good, then bloody dodge and quit whining like the bronze babies that you are. Stop saying can we have a reasonable discussion just because of Ahri's winrates. You look dumb son. You don't need to be on Korean bronze level to dodge, just learning to dodge occasional skillshots is already enough.

  • Ahri is at the most balance phase of her League life now. She went from being that annoying foxy beech to becoming a stable grown lady. Unlike some other adolescent like Zed or Fizz who gets called to the principal's office rather frequently. Ahri graduated from the league's balance academy and moved on for most parts. She still visits the academy for some life lessons from her Rito lecturers. Maybe she gets knock down a bit but she comes out with a new meaning for life in League. She's decided she's not going to be beech who wants to suck the life force out of anyone with her 20% dmg amp Charm and instead decides that she's going to make a living by becoming a part time volleyball coach with her Orb of Deception. Get it? So don't go asking for the 20% dmg amp because it divides the Ahri group of players and makes Rito's balancing a nightmare. It is not the best thing about her kit. move on please. Rito set up to design her as their premier Kiting Mage, Ahri is now a successful model for Kiting Mage. She is now the face of the Kiting Mage brand. She's making an earnest living. See? Ahri doesn't use her beauty for slutty gains. (Feel free to make a model poster with Ahri's face in it. Maybe Salvatore Ferragamo? Idk, I don't know much about fashion. Miu Miu might be nice, it's pronounced as Myo Myo btw)

Am I writing all of this because I main Ahri? Noooooooooo. Far from that. At one point, I was an Ahri one trick. I played Ahri since 2012 all the way up till 2016, before deciding I had enough of her being a competitive pick. A lot of people think I clock in at 125k mastery points at her and assume I am an Ahri fanboy. Nooooooo. I started playing various other mid laners since 2015. In fact I've always played other mid laners but I find myself going back to Ahri because her skill ceiling left me craving for more. But with recent champions being designed to have higher skill ceilings, I eventually found my interest in others, there also other champions whom I can love and like not just because of their design, but their lore and personality. Ahri became bland to me by that point.

Why does this need to be said? Because one less champion that Riot has to screw up in balancing is another appropriate direction Riot takes in creating a healthy game. If you are an Ahri main, just know that I'm not trying to defend your beloved Fox. My time with her was great, we screwed several times during my varsity years but we've moved on. So if anyone wants to diss your fox, you show them this thread and tell them why they can't judge her. As the bimbo saying goes - "You know my name, not my story".

And if someone downvotes this thread without reading, you tell them... If you spend all that time playing league and getting shouted at by your mom, you certainly can make time to read something educational. It took me an hour and a half to write this, it takes you 30 minutes to read it. 30 minutes is equivalent to a dragged out AI game. It's not much. Be like Tyler1, he has a life outside of league and goes to the gym to get ripped, and he is hot AF. Except you don't have to carry weights, you just need to make time to read an article and get a life outside of league to be attractive to any human being on earth.

34 Comments

Sasogwa3/31/2017, 7:44:21 AM6 votes

{quoted} nor does it mean Ahri wins 54% of her matches.

Uh, but if she has 54% winrate it means exactly that, doesn't it? http://i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/018/489/nick-young-confused-face-300x256_nqlyaa.jpg

Evenstar3/31/2017, 6:50:14 AM2 votes

Oooooh, here comes the downvotes.

Talinis3/31/2017, 7:06:32 AM2 votes

The reason why certain champs like assassins hit the patch notes a lot and others such as ahri don't depends on a lot of things. It does not necessarily mean that one's kit is better and more "balanced" than another. The thing about ahri is she is a jack of all trades, master of none. She is good at a very many things, but is not a master of any (or shouldn't be). When the meta shifts, because she is a jack of all trades, she is still viable in most metas, but because she is a master of none, means she (shouldn't at least) become a super dominant part of that meta. This is why fizz and a lot of other champions bounce in and out. When the meta favors what they are good in, they are in, when it doesn't, they are out. And when they are in, they can tend to be dominant because the meta favors THEIR THING. Meanwhile a jack of all trades should be good but not overly dominant which means less focus, but to counter, can shift from meta to meta and still be decently good in all.

To put into another perspective, it's much easier to notice something that has "too much of one thing" rather than slightly too much of multiple things. Take for example Fizz and Ahri. Say each is supposed to have 20 points of power put across damage, mobility, range, cc, tankiness. Now for Fizz, say his power distribution is something like 10 damage, 6 mobility, 1 range, 2 CC and 1 tanky. That's 20 points. But when you get 100% bursted by fizz instantly, it will seem like OP even though he gives up many other areas to do so. Now take Ahri. Supposed to be 20 points. But instead you have 7 damage, 5 mobility, 5 range, 4 cc and 0 tanky. She has 21 points, over the power budget. But when you play against her, it FEELS more fair and that you are simply getting outplayed, when really you are just getting outstatted slightly in multiple areas which gives the advantage. This is why some nerfs are simply, Vi loses 5 MS. When you are a jack of all trades, that literally means you should be a master of none and right now some of her power points are slightly too high for where they should be. Now for league, there are many many things that go into power budget but I hope you get the point.

Most champions should not be jack of all trades champions, you need to have a mix of all different kinds, especially when league has 120 different champions. It doesn't mean that Ahri's kit is superior. It simply means it's doing what it was designed for and most champions kits DO THAT, but meta shifts can put extra emphasis on their strong points, which shows more than it would on a jack of all trades which means they are more likely to hit the patch notes when they are "balancing" the meta.

Also, win rate isn't everything but it IS when she is in so many games (basically highest played mid) with a high win rate to match. So many players playing the champion means newbies should be dropping the rate and counter picks should be rampant, dampening the win rate against the better players higher win rates. For ADCS, it's a bit different when there are few played in a position. For mid, who has a LARGE amount of different champions played there, it is a big issue.

{quoted}

Well said my friend, when compared to various other champions, Ahri isn't the best at anything, just good at it. Assassination? Zed does it better. Burst? Viktor Xerath has plenty of those. Reliable CC? TwistedFate Annie got them. Mobility? Leblanc Ekko are mobile. Strong true damage? Velkoz has an easier time landing all his true damage than Ahri.

Essentially, what Ahri has in a good kit that covers every situation, she lacks strength in one aspect and she has to sacrifice damage for mobility and vice-versa.

Which is why I think Ahri doesn't need a big nerf, just a few adjustment.

Lastly, comparing a jack of all trades to multiple different champions and saying, well, X does this better than Ahri and Y does this better than ahri and Z does this better than Ahri, so that means she is balanced is horrible logic. Each of those champions do better in their particular area than ahri BECAUSE they give up more in other areas than ahri. Take for example Fizz. Ahri has range. So if everything else was the same, and you gave fizz equal points in damage to make up for the lack of range, then it is balanced. Not, Fizz does more damage than ahri so she should be balanced because she has less! The only way the argument flies is if you compare a top down 100% power budget comparison to another champion. Taking each champion's strong point and not taking into consideration their weaknesses is very poor. Take for example your Viktor comparison. Viktor has more burst!!! Yes, but Ahri has way more mobility. It goes back to the power budget comparison I did earlier. If you want to counter that Ahri is balanced, make points that aren't so silly.

And yes, jack of all trades can become overpowered. It usually happens when everyone else keeps getting nerfed so that their power levels become closer to others. So now instead of, my mobility is only 8/10 of the meta, now it's 9/10 comparatively while they have too high of compensation in the rest of the kit (because it was balanced for 8/10). Usually it means that the stats are too high across the board but usually riot will just nerf one area bigger instead of all areas slightly.

Eedat3/31/2017, 6:29:27 AM2 votes

"Kite mage" is a completely made up class. Most mages kite. Most ADCs kite.

"must be strong because everything else got nerfed"

Lol nope. Straight up BS. Has has a solid 52-54% win rate for over two years now

http://www.leagueofgraphs.com/champions/stats/ahri

TakeAGuessNerd3/31/2017, 6:31:25 AM2 votes

Well said my friend, when compared to various other champions, Ahri isn't the best at anything, just good at it. Assassination? Zed does it better. Burst? Viktor Xerath has plenty of those. Reliable CC? TwistedFate Annie got them. Mobility? Leblanc Ekko are mobile. Strong true damage? Velkoz has an easier time landing all his true damage than Ahri.

Essentially, what Ahri has in a good kit that covers every situation, she lacks strength in one aspect and she has to sacrifice damage for mobility and vice-versa.

Which is why I think Ahri doesn't need a big nerf, just a few adjustment.

Xavanic3/31/2017, 6:47:01 AM1 votes

Last time i was aggressive against ahri as anyone, she killed me 12 times before 20 minutes, once she picked up the first kill she killed me every time i got to lane, she does TOO MUCH DMG, like her burst is overall much easier to deal out then any other assassin, and her skills are up far more often then say someone like talon or kata And fyi, her q missle speed is WAYYYY to fast for mid elo to dodge, properly, like legit, its the fastest boomerang skill in the game from what i've seen

Tarzeus3/31/2017, 6:35:56 AM1 votes

Except when I ult as velkoz she dashes away to freedom... EVERY SINGLE TIME

Evenstar3/31/2017, 6:14:51 AM1 votes

Whoops, looks like the board screwed up my formatting. WIP.

Edit: Nah, it works just fine.