Ahri is coming!
Ahri ASU Revealed in New LoL Dev Post
It was revealed not too long ago that Ahri's ASU would be hitting the rift sometime early 2023. Of course, fans had hoped to see the upgraded mid laner at some point this year still, but with the amount of skins the ASU team sure had their hands full.
In the most recent dev post a lot of new information was revealed regarding the ASU. What has been improved, what has Riot worked on over the last few months and what can fans expect of this mid lane mage come 2023.
ASU For Ahri - Keeping Her Sustainable in the Future
Ahri is one of the older champions in League of Legends and therefore her animations and her spells haven't aged all too well. The ASU will fix that, and also work to make Ahri more sustainable in the future and easier to make new skins for her – though that sure hasn't stopped Riot from making Ahri skins before, eh?
Art is our secondary focus, with the goal of bringing an older champion up to modern day standards. Each ASU is customized to what that champ needs and will therefore vary in scale. But we’ll generally update the base champion and all 1350 (and below) skins
We won't be getting any gameplay or ability updates for Ahri, since those would fall under the categories of CGU or VGU, but you knew all of that already, right? So let's jump into the details of what Riot has updated on Ahri in regard to her model, the art and the skins.
Narrative, Animation, Concept - What Has Riot Changed on Ahri for her ASU?
Ahri will be receiving some new voice lines once the ASU goes live and for those of you who played through Ruined King: A League of Legends Story and got to see a new side of Ahri, then you're in luck, because the narrative team decided to use post-ruined king Ahri and continue her story from there.
The narrative team felt it was more interesting to have her grow, rather than the pre-Ruined King Ahri that merely running from the pain of her past. So, get ready for some new narrative design on Ahri once the ASU drops.
Of course, we also have to look at the animations and how they've changed. In the dev post the animation team took us on a deep dive into Ahri's tails. Sounds weird, but it's true. Making her tails look fluid, fluffy and also keep the fantasy of Ahri being a nine-tailed fox was a challenge for the team.
To truly sell the fantasy of the Nine-tailed Fox, the tails also need to respond to player input. We therefore worked very closely on the in-game simulation system and applied live simulations on each of the tails at all times.
To give Ahri a little but more of a unique look and feel they've even had her tails adjust according to the abilities she's using. Her tails now form a heart when charming an opponent. It's a cute addition and a great little detail for Ahri mains to enjoy.
- Get the perfect monitor to see how beautiful the Ahri ASU really is
The Best Ahri Skins
Of course, we also have to look at Ahri's overall concept. While the team has wanted Ahri to look like a graceful Vastaya, they also wanted to lean into her more feral side and show off both of those. Therefore, they've added in parts of her appearance in 'A New Dawn' as well as that from 'Ruined King: A League of Legends Story'.
So, there is a lot to unpack here, but it seems that the ASU team is working hard to give us new voice lines, new VFX and visuals, as well as new art and skins for Ahri. Are you ready for the ASU to drop early 2023?