Question about Syndra's ult in 6.9

Hey guys!

I posted this in the bugs board, but thinking about it, that might have been inappropriate, so I moved over here to pose it as a question instead :P

Is Syndra's ult hard capped at 7 spheres? I was able to get up to 8 out at once, but it never showed an 8 on the ability icon. If it IS hard capped, can I ask what the point of her changes was? I thought that having moar spheres=more damage, but with the change to her Q at max rank, it seems to be a pointless change.

I'm also pretty bade at this game, so I apologize to whoever lays this out for me :)