~January 03, 2012
SO I've made alternate build, which will get its own mini section that explains slight differences in possible playstyle. I will be play-testing it a bunch more to really determine how well it works.
To see it, click the second Ahri image.

-added new build option
-added new builds section
-changed some details in Item's section

Hey all. This is my Dominion guide. It is going to be short but its meant to help you play Ahri as best as possible. I apologize if there are spelling or logistic mistakes, I haven't proofed this yet.
Second build is for Summoners Rift.

This guide is about getting rank 1 every dominion match. It isnt about getting the highest kills, or highest caps. It will however get you both of these if your playing properly. This is going to be about not dieing a lot and playing safe and at a distance. Also playing tanky. Of note, you are going to want to be doing a lot of solo work here. You want to pick people off, and stop people. You may lose out on getting the kill if you're with an ally.

This will maximize your overall usefulness to your team. You will have high caps, high neutralizes, and high kills.

For proof of concept check my record below
I have gotten 1st place 10 dominion games in a row so far, and it hasnt broken yet. Also of note, this is my first time playing Ahri.

Pro's
+ High mobility with Spirit rush
+ High survivability
+ True damage
+ 1st place material
+ Snowballs easily and early

Cons
- Huge mana problems, if your doing well all your deaths will be due to no mana
- CC does its job on her
- Can lose a kill to an ally
- May lose her target
- You may lose to burst Ahri's 1v1 if you both hit all your skillshots

These could be altered beyond what I mentioned.
You can choose between
Seals: Vitality Greater seal of vitality DefenseGreater seal of defense

Dominion often has heavy AD use, so I would personally go with def runes, but HP is also a good choice.

Glyphs: Shielding
Cooldown works amazingly with Ahri, but if you need more defense you can go scaling mdef runes

Marks and quints are more or less set. Move speed would work, but the starting ap is very helpful.

Masteries:
Pretty basic here. I grab the general ap masteries, and then dip into the defense try for some hp. You will have +808 bonus hp at the end of this at level 18. That is of course if your not using hp runes. This hp will be what makes you better then the rest.

Summoners:
I grab ignite and heal. Ignite is nice to finish people off so you can deal with someone else if your in a 2v1 situation.
Heal makes it so your basically have an additional 500 hp, which is just great.

Simply, Q is an amazing move. But your W isnt to be ignored. Most builds skip levelling it until you have to, or level it entirely instead of Q. I would say for dominion, the best best is to split them up a bit. You will harasser more with Q then W, so I'd level it first, but if your fighting a lot of gap closer, melee type people you might want to focus on W, as it does more damage, and works best at close range anyways.

Your Q moves to wherever you are. You will have to position yourself to make sure it hits on its way back. If you move enough you can make it nearly always hit twice.

Order
W, E, Q or E, Q, W or Q, W, E

Simple.

First of all to kill someone you will need to poke them. You want to shoot out your Q and then run. Throw your E, Q then run. Use your fox fire, and run. The longer you have that they havent hit you yet the greater your advantage when you go in for the kill. If you dont get this poke in, you arent at a loss, but you may wind up having them escape. You wont be able to burst people down as well as other builds so if you arent good at using charm to keep them with you, you may wind up losing them.

In the jungle, or with no minions to take the Fox fire hits, you want to open with it. Why? Because you can get its cooldown started as soon as possible. Now you then follow with Q to add to the damage. If your good at skillshots you should not use your charm. Save charm to get a free 2 seconds of taking no damage. This means if your facing a tryndamere you should use it when he is at melee range. If its a ranged character, then you will want to hit them with it a lot earlier of course.

If there are minions around, you will want to use fox fire only when the enemy is close to maximize the hits to them.
Note- You want to apply rylai's as soon as possible. this will let you kite for longer, and thus whittle down your cooldowns and their health.

What about R?
Use it when you have to, and not a part of your rotation. If your on cooldowns and think 1-2 R's will kill them then use it. If you need to get in range use it. If there are 2+ champions around, use it. Use it to maximize the total damage you can deal, and to save yourself.

Start with a and . Proespectors will net you 200 hp, 30 ap, and 7 mp5. The hp is unreplaceable, and the ap will get you to 50-55 ap at lv 3. The mana regen is also needed as you WILL have mana problems if your game goes well. Your next purchase will be to upgrade your boots to . Your next purchase should be a , don't buy a until you've gotten this item. This added hp will make you far tankier then your enemies think, and you should start to dominate most 1v1's. Finish up your and move towards building a . At this point we move into situation items.

Boots:
These have grown to be my boots of choice as I feel more useful when I have them. They counter her abysmal movement speed- you will buy these if you feel you will have to be running around more then you'd like
These will get your precious cooldown reduction, which means higher damage output and greater mobility with more use of I have been buying these about 50% of the time, if I think I will need more combat oriented play.
I personally don't use these as I feel the benefits of the other two outweigh the damage. Also this guide isn't about being the highest dps possible.

Tanky items:
VS AD- This will get you cooldown reduction an 99 def. It also counters your mana problems you will be sure to have if your going long without basing. you might want to grab if your going to grab this. You will be able to escape nearly any enemy. If the enemy team is AD heavy, you will love buying this. You want to pick up the chain mail first.

VS AP- ignore mdef and move onto something else.. Okay..fine you might have trouble with a few of the bursty ap's
this could be really good but I haven't personally tried it to see the results. Ap's aren't as common as AD's in Dominion, and they have never really been an extreme threat to me as you can charm them for 2 seconds.

works if your dealing with malzahar, or even leblanc

this gets you damage and magic resist, so you could do worse

More HP- I have recently tried this out, and it definitely works, you will have 2900 hp or so which feels awesome. The cooldown reduction is great, and all in all is a decent choice. You will feel bad for picking up a philo stone endgame though. You might want to consider picking philo stone up after you get your giants belt. Make sure you use the active to chase or escape when needed.

AP items:
This is my go to additional item. You often wont have the time to build another big item so this is probably the greatest bang for your buck.
Cooldown reduction you could need depending on your boots. I might grab this after I've obtained my core items.
same as above but far better if you can use the active effectively. This has recently been moving into my item rotation before will of the ancients.
If you somehow have the money to grab this, it wouldn't hurt. But CDR will help survivability more.

So how do you do it?
Start-
Take mid. You can take top fine but you do not want to die Taking mid will ensure this. there are two possible outcomes for top.
1-Your team is winning when you get there. You then can wipe the floor with the remaining person and get a free kill or two.
2-your team is losing when you get there, or has lost. In this case, you can either once again destroy whoever is there or play it safe and poke. Ahri has decent aoe damage, so if they are all low health you can easily take 2 of them down yourself if you aim well. What you want here is at least 1 kill. This will get the ball rolling. You need to ensure you have the gold to upgrade your boots when you go back.

Remember to grab health relics. You will need them to replenish mana, and yes you will need to grab them every chance you get. Also try to get a mobility boost as well, so you can escape a gank.

After giants belt-
Now you wont be walking at a abysmal 355 movement speed and will be tanky. You should now be able to solo nearly any champion. You will want to take the closest points to your base if possible. or pick off people who are neutralizing points. She is a master of defeating people at a neutralized point. You wont have to push lanes to take turrets. With 2 rounds of poke you can dive them and instant kill them if they are playing defensively.

Funfact- Fox fire can often fire through the bottom barrier at top. You can actually spike someone from safety with QWE.

Endgame-
Assuming you've done well, you will now be able to win 2v1's or at least get a kill and escape. Remember to always grab health relics and position yourself so you will get it during any fight. Here is were you will build a additional item not in the core. Base it on what you think is needed for you to continue, or start dominating.

Just some posts I made about how to counter some things- this was in response to some ap champions and me saying She doesnt need mdef

Poppy charges at you, devastating blows you. You then spirit rush away, charm, Q, W, spirit rush away some more. You have now done about the same damage poppy has to you. At this point you can escape if you are close to a speed shrine, or fight it out if you think you can land your skillshots. If you built frozen heart, poppy's auto attacks will be a joke, and thus she can only effectively damage you on her devastating blow every 2.4 - 4 seconds. While you will get some level of health back on your spells, and will be running away the entire fight, strategically towards health relics. That is worst case scenario. A better case scenario would be you getting the drop/poke on her before she can get near you. If she ults someone else, your dead >.> But my guide mentioned that you should be doing a lot of solo play, which means she has to ult you.

Kassidin- nothing you do besides merc treads can counter silence. BUT if you throw charm out as he uses it, you can effectively nullify the silence duration if you hit. You will be more tanky than he is, and be able to take his initial burst with ease. He also most likely wont have wota so you will heal during the fight, and you have summoners heal for even more health. You also can outrun him, if your know how to juke as he will have lowish movement speed and can only jump every 4 seconds. Outrunning him mean you can get to health shrines first, hit movement shrines first, and effectively kite him to death, or escape.

Shaco- Range him. He will deceive, you shoot your ball then run backwards. If your lucky you hit him, and also got out of melee range. His boxes are hard to counter regardless of gear, but if your building mdef simply to counter boxes... your doing it wrong. You can ignore trap boxes by simply staying in lanes, or on turret point. And in battle boxes can be destroyed easily enough. Of course the option of just buying an oracles extract works too. In a 1v1 you should virtually always come out on top, considering an even fight.

My point is, it isn't always about gear to counter a champion. positioning to get health relics and speed shrines, and using brush can make all the difference.

Note-You can substitute exhaust for promote if your more confident in your map awareness and escaping abilities.

This is meant primarily for solo laning. This doesn't mean you have to go bot however.
The goal of this build is to whittle down your opponent while laughing as you can regen nearly everything they deal to you. You also are a master of escaping, including ganks.
This build is not meant as a 1st place build. This is a slightly different playstyle that still uses the tanky aspect previously mentioned.

Strategy:

If you go top, make sure you grab mid. This is a requirement, as you will be a lot weaker then the other champions due to the lack of the 200 hp benefits of prospectors. At the point you arrive you will either be able to mob up whoever remains, or have to fall back. If you fall back, this is where you will excel. You will be pushing the lane, using the minions to get to the turret.

Now, the great thing about this setup is you will regen past all ranged harass you receive, while regening back all your mana. You will be able to occupy 2 people at a turret alone easily enough.
NOTE: If you are able to occupy 2 of the enemy team you are winning. You have now given your team a 4v3 advantage.

If you go bot, you will be pushing minions. you want to hit the enemy champ as much as possible, and get your minions to their turret. At this point, you will almost certainly have 1 of 2 things happen.
1-You take the turret through sheer minion wave spam
2-you get ganked
If you are ganked, you will want to use exhaust to escape, or fight if you think you can handle it. If you brought Promote then you will have to rely on your Spirit Rush to escape. If you survive the gank without being damaged much, you have officially wasted 2 of their champions time, and given the rest of your team an advantage. As soon as you can, you will of course want to upgrade your boots and get your kindlegem.

Reminder:
NEVER stay bot all game. NEVER stay in any solo lane all day, regardless of it begin top or bot. You should be getting really good farm at bot, so use it. You can even be ahead of some people in gold, so make use of it to defeat people. You can escape easily with shurelia's so there is no reason to not make your way around the map to help your allies like normal.


ITEMS:
Shurellia's- you upgrade to this a bit later then normal, to make use of the gp5 as long as you can. You have to make use of the active. I managed to escape a 4v1 at my turret, and kill the enemy udyr due to this.

Void Staff- Only grab this if the enemy has built some form of magic resist. You will have something almost 50i spellpen, so a champion with no items will only have something like 10-30 magic resist at best. Thus reducing that by 40% only nets you -4, to -12 magic resist.

Eleisa's Miracle- If you need tenacity, grab this. You may think it sucks, but it is absurdly cheap, and efficient for its stats. You can even skip shurelia's until later to grab this if needed.

The final item is a choice more or less. If you need a specific defensive item grab it. Use your guesswork and decide if you need anti ad/ap, or possibly more damage. Spell vamp isnt a bad choice for this build.

Play like a basic AP. You have mana problems so get blue buff from the jungler. If you cant get blue, then build a frozen heart, rod of ages, shurellia's, or morello's to make up for it. Make sure you gank as often as possible as your charm is a great gank material move.

Shurelia's get philo stone early game instead of dorans. Frozen heart for high AD teams, RoA is another build early item.

Ahri is incredible in dominion if played well. I have never lost to a tryndamere, and can often engage in a 2v1 and live without the help of a turret. She is all about damage maximizing and keeping on the move. If you shoot your spells and stand still you will lose.

Thank you for checking out my guide, its my first one ever, so I expect it is missing things, and isnt very readable.

Please try out what I have said before you vote. Don't base it on preconceptions of what you think is wrong.