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Possible Ahri Nerfs + Analysis

Emerald Fang·8/23/2018, 3:47:03 AM·2 votes·20,369 views

Ahri's winrate is quite high right now in ranked and I think that might be due to her powerful burst (while still maintaining a safe range). I have a couple of suggestions that may help her power in the early-game, while still granting her mid-game and late-game power that she thrives on.

  1. Vastayan Grace Slight Change: "When Ahri hits an enemy champion with an ability she gains a 8% stacking movement speed bonus per champion, plus 4% for each extra hit on the same champion (per ability cast). The movement speed lasts 1.5 seconds."

This change would reduce her slippery characteristics in the lane phase. She wouldn't have as much movement speed to dodge abilities (similar to most mages) but she would gain MS on even one ability hit (which would be a compensation of sorts). In teamfights she can get quite a bit of extra MS to catch her opponents. Hitting a Q onto 3 enemy champions grants up to 36% movement speed for 1.5 seconds.

  1. Q base damage reduced out, AP ratio increased. Base damage increased in, AP ratio slightly decreased. 40/65/90/115/140 (+35% AP) magic damage out, 40/65/90/115/140 (+35% AP) true damage in 10/40/70/100/130 (+50% AP) magic damage out, 60/75/90/105/120 (+25% AP) true damage in

This change does a few things. Firstly, it reduces the amount of influence Ahri has early-game and makes it a bit easier to deal with her in lane. Rank 1 Q's are significantly less effective, although the true damage will compensate a bit and she'll have some extra power, allowing her to ignore MR better (making her immune to a quick MR buy early on). Mid-game, the magic damage will catch up to her old values (with the +15% AP) and the true damage base will be higher, but the ratio will be significantly lower. This means she will deal more overall damage mid-game, but less true damage.

2 Comments

ExcessiveProtest8/23/2018, 8:35:53 PM1 votes
  1. Honestly, targeting the speed is rather pointless after the changes: it only kicks in after hitting an ability, and for a rather low amount already. Against melee, they usually have gap-closers, negating the speed increase/decrease. Against mages, the overwhelming majority have higher range than her, and again the speed only procs after she lands a spell, all of which means if they haven't hit her back already they're going to miss regardless. She's not getting close to teamfights without Ult dashes, making the increased speed redundant. Additionally, having the speed increase with the number of hits would either require refreshing the duration, making it a possible buff, or applying it for the remaining duration, which would mean a 36+% boost for... 0.5 seconds or so.

Tl;dr: There really isn't enough power in the current passive to use it for rebalancing, you could probably outright remove it and there would be minimal difference. Actually, please do remove it, I still sometimes check it by accident when I'm looking for healing power.

  1. I have to strongly disagree with changing the ratios: the true damage return is meant to punish people for getting hit on the telegraphed backswing. With those AP changes, you frontload the damage in mid-late game when items kick in, rewarding players less for landing the harder part (after applying penetration, since she targets squishy enemies). If anything, lowering the first ratio and increasing the second would reward the opponent more for dodging at all, but true damage buffs are something that should never be done lightly.

As for the base damage changes, I can see the concept, but that may end up being a serious hit to her only waveclear, since she always maxes it first. Considering the Charm buff was at least partially done to address her mana issues after the mage changes, 30 less damage may very well hit hard enough to prevent her from functioning at all if the enemy decides to shove lane. It shouldn't end up being that big an issue, but 15 mana and 0.4 seconds didn't seem big either, and Lux mains can attest that waveclear is a delicate issue.