Ahri passive QoL request!
Background
I've been an on-and-off Ahri player since early S2, and I really like the reasoning behind her passive rework several patches ago - for the unaware, it used to be "9 stacks -> next spell has 35% spellvamp," and it's now "9 stacks -> next spell heals 2(+Ahri's level)(+9% AP ratio) hp on hit."
What's really nice about it is that it used to mean you would only ever want to use Essence Theft to proc the spell you've leveled most, because it would do the most damage and thus heal for more. Now - in theory - you can cast it with any ability regardless of what you're leveling.
The Problem
In practice, what ends up happening is that you only ever want to use Q to proc Essence Theft. Q has the potential to hit WAY more times than any other ability. W hits up to 3 times. E hits only ONCE. Q hits the number of targets in a line x2. If you're near at least 2 targets then Q is automatically the best choice.
Regardless of what ability you level or what your build/playstyle is, when Essence Theft is ready, you have to stop casting spells. The only way to get its full value is to wait for a line of minions and cast Q at them. Got an opening for a clutch Charm? Guess you gotta waste your passive. Enemy's close enough for some good Foxfire harass? Guess you gotta waste your passive.
This wouldn't be an issue if her passive was easier to prepare, but excluding her ultimate, it is literally impossible to go from 0 stacks to a full proc in a single line of casts. Casting QWE and hitting the maximum number of times gives you 7 stacks of Essence Theft. You have to actually cast Q or W a second time in order to get a proc up.
The payoff is totally worth it - casting Q through a bunch of minions restores a buttload of health - but if you cast anything but "Q at minions" then all that work was for nothing.
This was marginally less of a gap in the previous iteration, because spellvamp applies for 1/3 strength on AoE abilities; in practice, since Foxfire and Charm are single-target abilities, each hit would heal 3 times as much as a similarly-leveled Q hit.
Proposed solutions!
Option a): Change Charm's interactions with the passive.
-Maybe change it so that Charm can't proc Essence Theft? That way, you won't waste the "heal a bit of health per hit" effect on your single-hit ability that happens to be the cornerstone of the entire rest of your kit.
-Or instead, maybe give Charm a bonus effect if cast with Essence Theft - say, you heal a % of your target's current health? That way, the decision of which spell to proc your passive with becomes more meaningful.
-Or instead, maybe make it easier to charge the passive in the first place by having Charm grant 3 stacks (instead of 1) upon hitting a champion? Because let's be honest, one stack makes basically no difference.
Option b): Change the passive's healing behavior.
-Maybe have it grant 3x the healing effect on champion hits? Foxfire prioritizes champions, so the decision becomes more like "Do I want to try to hit lots of targets with Q, or hit my lane opponent a bunch of times with W?" It also makes it suck less to proc the passive with Charm because you'll almost always want to hit champions with it anyway.
-Or instead, maybe increase the heal effect against Charmed targets? It means a clever player will wait for 8 stacks of Essence Theft, then Charm the enemy champion (for 9 stacks, a full proc) and cast Foxfire for big wins. It means it still sucks to waste the passive on Charm, but oh well.
Conclusion
Ahri's passive rework was a step in the right direction, but there's plenty of room for improvement, and there are plenty of options that would offer satisfying, meaningful gameplay decisions for the Ahri player.
Because right now it frankly feels reeeeeally crappy to accidentally cast W or E when you've got an Essence Theft proc up.
