Balancing a game like League of Legends poses a considerable challenge, particularly with a recent surge in Statikk Shiv builds causing frustration for the balance team despite multiple nerfs to both the item and the champions exploiting it.
Just a few days ago, LeBlanc reemerged as a dominant pick, this time as an AD top laner, despite significant nerfs to Statikk Shiv. However, the balance team swiftly intervened to prevent pro players from abusing this build during the World Championship 2023.
Leblanc OTP cooks up another Statikk Shiv AD build for Ahri
However, the notorious LeBlanc expert, Bobqin, has now developed a potentially stronger build for Ahri. This has raised concerns among the development team, especially since the previous LeBlanc build had led to substantial nerfs.
Even after LeBlanc’s top lane build became practically unusable, Bobqin experimented with the same approach on Ahri. Since her AD and attack speed scaling hadn’t been nerfed like LeBlanc’s, it became an ideal candidate for this unconventional build.
League of Legends developers have joined in and urged Bobqin to refrain from creating these unconventional builds, but he continues to innovate.
Despite initial skepticism about the viability of Statikk Shiv and its off-meta builds, Bobqin demonstrated its effectiveness on Ahri within a short timeframe. The high mobility offered by Ahri’s ultimate, the ability to easily trigger Trinity Force’s Spellblade, and a reliable crowd control ability in her charm make AD Ahri a potentially superior replacement.
Given that further changes to the Worlds patch are likely impossible now that it’s live, AD Ahri may become a viable and open choice for players at Worlds 2023. If it gains popularity, she could become the next defining pick in the meta, filling the gap left by LeBlanc.