Ahri set for overhaul in League patch 10.18 to “create better gameplay”

The poster child of League of Legends, Ahri, is set to receive some nice buffs on League Patch 10.18. The Nine-Tailed Fox could weasel her way into the meta with changes to her kit, as Riot aims to “create better gameplay” for Ahri mains.

Ahri has fallen out of favor in League’s mid lane. AP assassins haven’t really had a place for a long time ⁠— it’s either been control mages, marksmen, or tanks. However, Riot are trying to carve out a new place for League’s poster child in Patch 10.18.

The Nine-Tailed Fox is set for a mini-rework in the next update. Riot are aiming to “create better gameplay” for Ahri mains, by making her kit less clunky to use, and open up her windows to punish enemies.

“We have some light mechanics upgrades coming to PBE for Ahri. Aiming to get these into the 10.18 patch. [They] should amount to very small buffs, but focused on creating better gameplay primarily,” lead gameplay designer Mark Yetter told players on Twitter.

“[We want to give Ahri] more flexibility and control of her movement speed to open up new small combos and outplays, and more incentive…for trading with champions.”

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Riot are achieving these goals two-fold, primarily with a rework of Ahri’s passive. The old healing passive on Ahri’s Q has been moved to her new passive, Vastayan Grace. The heal will be more effective, but will only proc on enemy champions. She can still stack charges off minions.

Ahri isn’t losing her old movement speed passive though. It’s moving to her W as an active effect. When Ahri casts Fox Fire, she will gain a burst of 40% extra movement speed, decaying over 1.5 seconds. This should help her create more reliable trading windows.

Fox Fire will now also deal double damage to minions below 20%, making it a reliable tool to push waves out with. To counterbalance the increase in power, Ahri’s W mana cost is going up to 55 at all ranks, and the cooldown is being increased by one second too.

Kayle buffs in League Patch 10.18 target weak laning phase

Ahri isn’t the only champion Riot have their sights set on in League Patch 10.18. Kayle is also set for some changes to help her thrive in the laning phase, instead of just hard scaling to level 11 and 16.

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“[Our goals with Kayle are to give her] more active laning where trading with the enemy laner is a more available option over pure passive play,” Yetter added.

To do this, they are unlocking her E’s power early. It’s cooldown will now scale down with ranks, and the mana cost is being totally removed. The missile speed is also being increased to give her some instant power.

Because of the removal of her E mana costs, the mana refund on Q ⁠— which helped Kayle keep her resources up ⁠— is also disappearing. The mana cost on her W is also increasing, which should increase the punishment window for enemies if Kayle misplays.

League Patch 10.18 is set to go live on September 2. Both the Kayle and Ahri changes are available for testing on the PBE.