Riot wants to change Ahri sometime before Patch 8.7

Riot is planning some significant changes for Ahri in the coming patches, according to the company’s recent post on the official League of Legends forums.

Her circumstances are strange because, in terms of power, the balance team thinks she’s just fine. Her issues are more specific, and not related to her in-game performance like most champions that require some work. In this case, Ahri’s W isn’t engaging enough to coincide with the rest of her kit.

More importantly, her “effect on the game is too flat relative to how she’s performing.” Meaning, even when she’s fed and performing in lane very well, she struggles to carry games as much as most other mages and assassins.

On the other side of the same coin, no matter how far she falls behind, she always manages to remain useful. Riot thinks her “highs should arguably be higher,” and her “lows lower.”

Her charm and Q have both become staples of her kit, and it’s unlikely that either ability will be removed or changed too heavily. Perhaps the AP ratios on both abilities will be increased, and their base damage lowered at later levels. This would make her scale higher with items, forcing her to perform well to carry her team. Likewise, by not lowering early game base damage as much as lategame base damage, she can retain her already healthy laning power.

The only ability that will probably be mechanically changed is her W, which is a damaging ability that is simply activated and then deals damage for you without having to do anything else. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Riot add more AoE damage or utility to her kit through a new ability, or perhaps it will remain the same ability but with added mechanics.

For instance, Riot may force you to hit the key again to activate the damage, or you’ll possibly only be able to activate it after damaging a champion. This would add another element to her kit and make the player use abilities around power windows rather than just whenever they like.

These upcoming changes are expected to go live sometime between Patches 8.5 and 8.7 in a couple months.

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