League of Legends lead gameplay designer Mark “Scruffy” Yetter outlined a series of light mechanical updates coming to Ahri and Kayle on the Public Beta Environment.
The balance changes, which Riot aims to launch in time for Patch 10.18 next month, focus on “creating better gameplay,” according to Scruffy.
Riot is updating Ahri’s passive ability Vastayan Grace, her Orb of Deception (Q), and her Fox-Fire (E).
First and foremost, the developers are removing Ahri’s innate movement speed bonus on her passive. Whenever Ahri landed two ability hits against a champion within 1.5 seconds, she gained a 20 percent bonus movement speed for three seconds. In Patch 10.18, this will no longer be the case. To compensate, Riot is adding a new innate passive and changing its name to Essence Theft.
Whenever Ahri hits an enemy with one of her abilities, she gains a charge of Essence Theft and can gain up to three charges per ability cast. Upon reaching nine charges, Ahri’s next ability that hits an enemy champion heals her for 30/60/90/180 (based on level) (+27 percent AP).
To go alongside this change, Riot is removing Ahri’s passive on Orb of Deception (Q). In Patch 10.18, she’ll no longer be able to heal with her Q. Together, Ahri will have one large heal, rather than the per-hit heal on the live servers.
Riot is also changing Fox-Fire, increasing its cooldown from 9/8/7/6/5 seconds to 10/9/8/7/6 seconds, as well as its mana cost from 40 to 55 at all ranks. But it’ll now also deal 200 percent damage to minions below 20 percent and grant a burst of 40 percent movement speed decaying over 1.5 seconds.
The goal of these changes, according to Scruffy, is to give Ahri “more flexibility and control of her movement speed to open up new small combos and outplays,” and “more incentive and heal reward for trading with champions.”
As for Kayle, Riot’s proposed changes are on the lighter side of things, focusing on her numbers.
In Patch 10.18, Kayle will no longer refund mana on champions hit from her Radiant Blast (Q) and the mana cost of Celestial Blessing (W) will be increased from 70 to 110 to 90 to 130. The cooldown on her Starfire Spellblade (E) will be reduced from eight seconds to eight to six seconds, its mana cost will be lowered from 50 to 70 to zero, and its missile speed will increase from 2,000 to 5,000.
The goal of this is to give Kayle “more active laning where trading with the enemy laner is a more available option over pure passive play,” Scruffy said.
All of these changes are expected to hit League’s PBE shortly before they release on the live servers on Wednesday, Sept. 2 for Patch 10.18.
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