Balance team's wish to make Ahri popular is ruining the champion for the 1-trick ponies
And it also removes her identity and skillfloor.
Hey there, I've been an Ahri 1-trick pony since I've started playing the game(Jayce patch). I played her during the good times, when no one played her, to the bad times, where her popularity and banrate went nutts(probably gonna be in 5.2).
Ahri has clear and important weaknesses
Now let me explain what I mean in the title. With every patch that followed 3.13(Charm amp patch), Ahri became easier and easier to play, the buffs mainly targeted her early game, her major weakness. Ahri is traditionally a weak early game champion because she is gated by her mana, she had a hard time against early bullies, and her kit works way too well with her ultimate, meaning that she is a bit of a lackluster without it. I'm sure we can all see what happens if Riot tries to take away the weaknesses of a champion just so that she becomes popular.
Early, abandoned assassin Ahri
So let's start from patch 3.13, where Ahri was made an assassin, the changes came, many people left her because she couldn't just DFG people to death without losing, getting fed on her became harder, due to harder laning phase, you became a bit more gated by the mana and without landing your charm, it was harder to all in people. All in all, Ahri was hard to play during the laning phase, people abandoned her, later in the game she was as good as ever and didn't require much skill, since you could just DFG people to death if you are moderately fed. I must state, learning Ahri's laning phase, learning how to conserve mana and killing someone pre-6 felt awesome. It was really rewarding to master Ahri, especially since most people gave up Ahri, because she wasn't freelo.
First buffs
Then here came the attempts to make her easier. Patch 3.15 Ahri got 20 extra mana and 0.75 mana/5, it is really meaningless, but an acceptable quality of life change. Ahri was in a decent position, despite the meta being anti-Ahri(hello Lulu, Kayle, Braum, LeBlanc, Yasuo), she had about 49.5% winrate, 6% pickrate. So whoever decided to take Ahri into ranked, probably put some work into her and found decent success.
Ahri in a good spot, Riot gives her special privileges
I think Ahri mains can agree that she was in a perfect position, people who were known for their Ahries picked her sometimes competitively. When I say Ahri main, I'm not talking about people, who abandoned her, claiming to be Ahri mains, never played her when she wasn't considered top tier, crying daily on the League forums for buffs. Even the meta shifted in her favour, she got an indirect buff with Athene's nerf and Riot announced that Ahri is just below top tier, so they are buffing her to be played competitively. Honestly, I don't know how many other champions got this treatment, I think exactly 0.
Patch of downhill
Dreaded patch 4.12 came, Q -15 mana and 0.05 AP ratio. The mana buffs meant that Q became spammable, you no longer needed to hit every Q to do well in lane. You could miss majority of your orb and be carried by your passive and low mana costs pre-6. For first time in 1 year Ahri became pathetically easy to play and to have success with. This pretty much destroyed all the work of the 1-trick ponies and mains, who put something into her. You no longer needed the basics of Ahri to do decent, you got through laning phase, you DFG-d people, they died. That's how most Ahries played I've seen. While for the 1-trick ponies the mana buffs were somewhat meaningless, we don't spam as much, we tried to only use Q, when we were 100% sure we gonna hit it, we knew how to use the passive exactly in our favour. Even the 0.05 AP ratio buff was only needed if you were behind or built Chalice, which most competent Ahries didn't do. The buff was not needed since an Ahri with 2 dorans, and a fiendish codex cleared the caster minions at lvl 9 beforehand.
Ahri is easy to play, identity fading
So as far, Ahri's identity as a weak laner started to fade, she was able to spam, able to sustain up. If you got through laning phase in one piece, the game after getting a DFG was never hard, since most of the time bot lane is totally defenceless against a DFG Ahri that's not behind.
5.2 changes are in the wrong direction
Then patch 5.2 came. I understand that Ahri is a really popular champion and therefore, they want Ahri to be played competitively, but the direction the balance team is aiming for is just really sad. In competitive, you can't really have a champion that has a low impact, when their ult is down, their ability to skirmish frequently is a must most of the time. I think we can all agree, that pre-5.2 Ahri was indeed weak during skirmishes without Spirit Rush. The new orb grants Ahri the ability to position herself during fights, giving her an easier time to land her charm, she can even stay around during skirmishes, significantly improving her scrapping potential without her ult up. You basically don't really need your ultimate anymore, you can be a big deal without it.
Ahri the bully
But this wasn't the only huge change. The Q grants so much movespeed, that Ahri herself became a bully of some sorts. Her trades can be insane, you can't pop in and pop out landing autos on her anymore, while she can auto you, use her orb and run away from retaliation. Her laning phase became abusive, especially vs skillshot champions.
Ahri is not what she used to be, Identity is almost direct opposite
Pre-5.2 and especially pre-4.12 Ahri was a champion, who had a weak pre-6 compared to most mages, she was more ultimate reliant, than most champions and she was a force to reckon with post-6. Post-5.2 Ahri lost her identity, she is almost the exact opposite, she became a lanebully, she is not a sitting duck without her ultimate, the only trait that still matches is that she is a beast post-6.
Riot should have waited before buffing Ahri, if buffing her at all
As a final note, the Ahri changes are rushed. In fact, I don't think she needed any changes after the removal of DFG. Yes, she wouldn't be played in the LCS, but it would have increased her skillfloor, what I think Ahri desperately needed.
Morale of 1-trick ponies
I understand that most part of League's community loves playing Ahri and likes her as a champion in general, but if you really wanna play her, you should play her when she is labelled as weak. Aimlessly asking for buffs and buffing her just pushes Ahri into a bad spot. As I've said, she is way too easy to play and doing well with her doesn't feel as an accomplishment anymore.
Tl:dr
Riot tries to make Ahri popular, so they give her mana buffs, that are useless for mains, but helps whoever didn't put practice Ahri. The mana buffs lower Ahri's skillfloor, so she becomes too easy to play. Patch 5.2 buffs were not needed and is completely the opposite of Ahri's identity, nullifying her weaknesses. Only reason Riot buffed her because they want her popular, she is still easy as F to play because she is currently too strong.
