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Ahri Changes

Aspex··4 votes·900 views

I have some mixed feelings about these new Ahri changes.

Her Q's movement speed being removed is a huge blow, it takes away so much of her mobility and her ability to run from enemies. Now it feels like another arbitrary skill shot that's only benefit is it comes back, like a shiny Sivir Q. Ahri is so slow without it, you can make so many plays with that extra movespeed, please don't take it away.

The W damage buff is very nice, now it feels like a legit ability, but the extra delay and cooldown are not so nice. This ability is pretty weak as it is, and making it come up less frequently is not the best thing for her.

While I'm not a huge fan of the damage nerfs on her E, I really like the idea of the reduced cooldowns on Ahri's other abilities when she ults. When playing her on the PBE however, I found that the ult would expire before I could use all the extra dashes. I think just having the 3 plus the cooldown reductions would be awesome, a good middle ground.

Sorry if I'm totally out of my depth here, but I really like Ahri the way she is and I had to say something about these changes.

19 Comments

Me Is Gaggy6 votes

If they're going to change her Q movement speed, I think it would make more sense to make it give her move speed only when she hits a champion with her Q. If she's just clearing a wave, then she doesn't need it as much.

Aspex1 votes

That sounds pretty good actually

Toppien3 votes

ah i see how it is riot, first you sell all the good skins then nerf the champion to the ground...

[slayer-jinx-unamused]

ChompyWulf1 votes

Not much of a Nerf. Q and E were her only half decent spells, and with better W numbers there's a reason to actually use it now while it's been garbage for a LONG time.

ModKnightsKemplar2 votes

Not out of your depth at all, imo. This is a great thread for gameplay with some very good, constructive feedback.

I looks to me like they are pretty decided on Q movespeed coming out of her kit, though; do you think that a bit more base movespeed would help with that, since you said she's so slow without it? Is there any compensation that would make you okay with that change?

Ahristocats5 votes

Ahri was changed from an assassin to a classic mage at the end of season 4 because riot deemed her old playstyle binary

To make her unique and different from other mages they gave her bonus ms on Q (huge one) and called her a "kite mage"

I'm glad this is being reverted because nothing feels good about playing Ahri anymore, i stopped playing her since they moved her from an assassin to a mage, and i would be realy happy if she gets her damage amp once again

Binary or not, that's TONS of mages or assassis play, hit a skill-->death or not Veigar Zoe Taliyah Anivia Diana Evelynn

so why not ahri?

ModKnightsKemplar3 votes

I feel like charm is a good bit easier to land than any of the cc on the champs you put there. That would be my main complaint. I'm acutely aware that there is a significant difference between my experience and yours; is Ahri one of those champs that is consistently stronger at lower elos? Can't remember, but it would make sense to me if she were.

Ahristocats3 votes

Then they should fixe charm being easy to hit I would prefer that than having a "kiting mage" with no high moment at all but just overall being safe

Bisaknosp1 votes

since when is charm easy to hit? if you put yourself in front of your enemies maybe but in teamfights that means certain death xdd easy to flash easy to dodge imo

ModKnightsKemplar1 votes

I got ahri in aram recently.

She falls squarely into a camp of champs where I was going "this champ is too damn easy to play for how much she does." First game recently with her and I was a major player on my team.

That's fine; some champs should be easy to play. But the payoff was surprisingly large for a near first-time ahri player.

2Charmnot2Charm1 votes

With a team comp like this vs theirs how can you NOT win that? https://i.imgur.com/1lLMtlk.png

ModKnightsKemplar1 votes

I mean, we were definitely going to win that one either way.

But I still find her incredibly easy to play compared to the pay-out.

Aspex3 votes

More base movespeed would definitely help a bit, but I'm pretty set on that Q, it just makes her so much faster and more mobile. She's able to use it to get good angles for her other abilities and to dodge skill shots in lane. I'm kind of peeved that Riot's probably going to remove it, it might turn me off the champ for a while.

SniperShiva3 votes

The main issue I've seen people comment about Ahri was her safety. As in, she's "too safe to use." The main reason why Riot seems to be getting rid of the mechanic is because of this. However, the problem with Ahri's safety does not lie in her Q but rather her ult.

Her Q MS boost is rather negligible when you consider that she has to momentarily stop to cast it. The problem with her safety lies in her triple dashes, rather than her having a MS boost. She is able to be so safe because she has 3 dashes and a flash that will allow her to put significiant distance in btwn her and an enemy. Not saying that having a triple dash ult is a bad thing, but perhaps the safety nerfs should go into her ult instead.

I feel like her Q mechanics are kind of distinctive on Ahri. She's one of the few champs with access to such an interesting tool. It allows her to reposition in the middle of fights, which allows her a better chance of catching both hits on her enemies, and is a large source of her team fighting and laning power. It's more powerful in laning than in escaping. Think of it as being similar to Kalista's passive, except the repositioning is on a longer CD and less sudden. While I'll grant that Ahri was not created with this mechanic, it has nevertheless become distinctive to her playstyle.

The problem of safety, as I just said, lies in her multicast ult as a safety tool, and a way to fix that is to do a general increase the CD btwn ult casts. In order to encourage it used as an aggressive tool it's damage could be increased a little, OR if it's cast in the (general) direction of an enemy, this CD time is decreased. Personally I prefer the latter.

Honestly, maybe a base MS inc. could work as a way to fix this lost MS, but I dont think that would be as sufficient an answer to the main problem cited, her safety.

ModKnightsKemplar1 votes

I really like that idea; maybe you don't get your next two dashes if one of them doesn't do damage? There's an idea in there that could be really good for her kit, I think.

I can attest that there have been several times that Ahri was losing a fight with me, but it just feels like you can't ever kill her because of those dashes. She just runs and there's no way you can catch up (I was playing old Swain, typically, back when Ahri was more popular).

stealthfox942 votes

The things is, they need to find a happy medium with Ahri. IMO she should be 50/50 mage/assassin. The Q MS thing always felt kinda gimmicky to me. The W buff is great, it was one of the most useless abilities in the game.

Nanuk Pihoqahiak2 votes

Honestly, I don't get why they didn't just make it so she gains the movement speed upon hitting an enemy champion, and balance from there. I get the frustration of her always gaining movement speed whenever she throws the thing, but at least she'd be more punishable if she wasn't properly harassing with it.

EDIT: And I'm saying this as someone who has seen every iteration of Ahri. The movement speed while her Q is out is pretty cool. It might have been A LOT of extra power at the time, but it's something cool that I personally believe should be preserved on her in some way, shape, or form.

Taliyah Rocks1 votes

My guess is that they want to remove some of her safety (bonus ms when using Q) but in exchange give her more potential power when using her ult properly.

I really hope they'll go with that itteration, bonus damage when charmed feels bland, plus they already tried it in the past with very little satisfaction.

But those new ult changes seem great, they'll give her incentives to take risks, and reward her when she succeeds.

HalcyonDweller1 votes

Arguably, the power her Q gave her to run away from enemies WAS the problem with it. She had too much safety.

I wish they could have preserved the movement speed but made it conditional, instead of having to choose between free movement speed or not there at all.

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