Ahri Build Guide by xDanielWang

Introduction

If you are looking at this guide, the odds are that you want to learn how to start playing Ahri or start playing her better (Free week op ^^). Or you just came here because the title said something about Foxfire Ahri and the title was unique.

I'll be honest, that #1 ranked Ahri guide by LaCorpse is really, really nice. It not only looks amazing but it also has superb information. I would not say that I am competing with her for the #1 ranked Ahri guide on Mobafire, however, I would say that I am merely sharing my experience so that Ahri readers can get a second viewpoint to make their in-game decisions.

This is my first guide and I hope that you will find this Ahri Mid guide somewhat useful :) (it's still a work in progress!) Also I suck at formatting so bear with me, I'll try my best.

Please upvote this guide if it helped you in any way. My build is my personal preference; I give my opinions on my items, and I'm not forcing you to build anything, so please don't downvote just because you disagree with my build. However, if you would still like to downvote, don't just click the red down arrow, please tell me in the comments why you downvoted; I am open to your opinions as long as they are well thought out, not "hi derp. ur guyde sux cuz i luvz so-and-so item and this rabadons item is relly ****peh. -1 frum meh nub, l2guide" and I would love to improve this guide from any suggestions that you may have (as long as it's not like derpasaur's comment above)! :)

L0re

Warning: The following will not help improve your Ahri gameplay. That means that if you're in the loading screen or something, then you should probably skip this. But if you're not scrunched for time, I guess you can read this lore that is super important for all Ahri masters.

Unlike all them other foxes in Ionia, Ahri was actually a magic fox. She eventually got bored of eating rats and yordles and other fox stuff so she wanted to be a human. One day she saw a big human battle with a lot of dead guys and stuff. So with her superior decision making skills, she decides to head towards the battle, you know and nearly die and stuff. So this dying guy gives Ahri his "magical essence" and Ahri turns into a human. Seems legit. On top of that, she also learned English immediately and decided she wanted to kill more humans instead of all the "f***ing yordles" -TheOddOne. So she goes and kills a bunch of humans. But eventually she learns that killing is wrong, and when the Institute of War is like "yo, we can keep you in human form if you stop killing all these guys and fight with us" and Ahri is like "yea sure". So now she can kill guys without them actually dying. Oh yea, and now she kills females also.

You're probably wondering why she has 9 tails instead of 1 tail. Well, I have to guess that Riot wanted her to resemble a ***iho more, which is this Korean-myth-thing-monster. [Edit: wtf I honestly can't believe that's censored. The word is k u miho]. Then more Koreans will play LoL instead of Starcraft, since LoL now has Korean-myth-thing-monsters and Starcraft only has Battlecruisers, Zerg-lady, and Day 9. You know what, Day 9 actually beats Korean-myth-thing-monsters.

Quote:
"When I was released, my passive used to be called Soul Eater which was actually the name of Nasus's passive and IDK how Riot screwed up on that one." - Ahri

Pros / Cons

Awesome, you made it past the first chunk of text. Or you just skipped it, iunno doesn't really matter to me. Here's a lineup of Ahri.

Pros Built in sustain Super mobile Punishes enemies out of position Really good harass Strong ganks! Spirit Rush for epic chasing and escaping One of the best SINGLE-TARGET CC's in the game Charm will stop enemies from tower-diving Epic Foxfire Ahri skin Super sexy foxy fox lady

Cons Naturally squishy No huge burst like Veigar or LeBlanc Getting stunned will probably mean death Falls off somewhat late game (like most AP mids) Gets nerfed a lot Will be banned sometimes in high elo People don't like it when I go AD i haz random filler textz here i haz random filler textz here congratz u found secret message.

Masteries

For Ahri, you generally want to go 21-0-9 for tons of damage and mana regen/buff extension.

Runes

Runes are based on what you prefer. They're also expensive. :(

Magic pen Reds are basically the only viable thing for casters. They help get rid of the enemies' pesky magic resistance and helps you do more damage. Everyone always builds MR runes so you might as well make them all useless.

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Mana regen for more early game harass. I usually take these so I can use abilities more in the early game without being completely dependent on blue buff.

For health which helps a bit for survivability; extra HP never hurts

For some armor, pretty self-explanatory; Helps a lot for late-game. (although it's not as useful early game because you're most likely going up against an AP) These are ideal if laning against AD Casters mid.

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Ability Power per level for a slightly stronger late game presence; they give nearly 3x the AP of Greater Glyph of Ability Power at level 18

Good for laning phase to soften those pokes received

MR per level runes give slightly more MR at 18, if you feel you need more MR later

*Note - although the MR runes got nerfed a while ago, they are still a viable choice, just not as good as before.

Personally I take a hybrid of AP flat blues and AP scaling blues.

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Flat AP Quints are generally the best way to go for AP Mids. Increases your damage output, and when is that ever bad?

Summoner Spells

Flash and Ignite are your friends. Ignite will add that extra bit of damage to your burst to and can make the difference from your enemy escaping with 15 health followed by a table flip, to a nice and solid kill.

Ahri already has 3 dashes with her ult, why take Flash? Flash will help you escape from a gank pre-6 or when your Spirit Rush is on cooldown, or for the desperate situations that require 4 flashes. It's saved my life countless times. Definitely a must-have.

[*]

This also works well on Ahri because getting stunned in a teamfight will get you killed, and you will be sad because you never got a chance to use your ult to escape, and your team will die and get mad, and your nexus will blow up. Works really against teams with heavy cc.

[*]

You can also take an Exhaust for those 1v1 duels or chasing someone with the slow. I wouldn't recommend it because you already have that Charm.

[*]

This is okay if your enemy can burst you down instantly. Not recommended though generally, but fares well if against Veigar, LeBlanc, or other heavy bursters.

[*]

You can take Teleport if you are going top for some reason to get back into lane faster. Not recommended since you will basically be down a summoner in your lane.

The rest of the summoner spells are just not viable on Ahri.

Spells/Abilities

The order you want to prioritize leveling your skills are as follows:
> > >

Spirit Rush is your ult. You should always max ults first (exception being Janna maybe)
Orb of Deception is your long-range primary poke/harass and you want it to be as powerful as possible.
Fox-Fire comes closely after. Leveling it up does not increase the mana cost and it does more damage. The reason I max this after Orb of Deception is that the range is fairly low, but still scales better than Charm.
Charm is, imo, a 1-point wonder. Putting 1 point into charm provides Ahri with a very nice medium-range stun. Leveling charm up will slightly increase the damage and increase the duration of the stun/taunt/whatever-you-want-to-call-it. 1 second is enough, as that's all you need for pulling off your full combo. However, at least scaling it makes the taunt longer, so that's good.

This is Ahri's passive. It's not going to completely turn around a game, but it's nice to get some built in sustain. When you see the passive is up, toss an Orb of Deception down a minion wave for maximum sustainebiliteh. Try not to waste this on a Charm or something unless you have full health. This is basically the only reason why Hextech Revolver is not 100% mandatory.

This is a solid spell that is useful throughout the game. It takes out a chunk of health from your enemy and will make them sad. Orb of Deception synergizes well with your passive. If you hit the enemy at the very tip of the orb, both procs will occur simultaneously. They can't dodge that! U Mad squishy mid enemy? Max it first for a small nuke of damage. The true damage part of it is always nice against enemies who stack tons of MR. Play enough so you understand the range of this spell and learn to smartcast it. It will change the game.

Ahri's W. Use this after following a Charm for some nice burst. It has a 5 second cooldown max level, so spam this during team fights and hope you're close enough for the fires to lock on. Max this second. Some people are experimenting with maxing this first, but I don't recommend it unless you're against a champ that needs to be clsoe range to do damage ( Katarina). All 3 of these little flames procs the 35% slow on Rylai's Crystal Scepter for lulzy chasing and escaping

Ahri's E and provides some much needed cc. Oh, it's a stun right? Wait, the enemy is forced to walk towards you? LOL! This has a variety of purposes, see an enemy out of place? Nope, Chuck Testa. Now he's mindlessly walking towards his death. They're foolishly trying to tower dive you? Nope. Charm and watch the tower murder him. Spirit Rush down and need to run away? Hit 'em with a Charm and watch them slow down for some much-needed escape time. Teamfight? Try to hit the ad carry and follow up with Orb of Deception and Fox-Fire. It's a lovely spell and you will sometimes have people raging. Like your Orb of Deception, you should aim to smart cast this when you are familiar with the range. This is basically what makes Ahri useful late game. Late game Charm on AD carry = Won teamfight

Kekeke, this will hit 3 people with a ton of damage. Save this for the end of teamfights or escaping from lost teamfights. A Small team fight occurs. All 3 enemies run away with 100 health. NOPE. You're Ahri. Spam that R and Triple Kill! No sweat on forehead. Oh no, you are being ganked by 4 people because you are 19-0! NOPE. Spam that Spirit Rush and dash to safety. Oh no, there's a small wall behind you and an enemy is closing in! NOPE. Spirit Rush over that wall. They Flashed? Spirit Rush back over. Flawless Victoryyyy! It's okay to blow all 3 dashes to run away. Remember, it is not worth seeing if you can escape without using your ult. Just use it, the cooldown is not that long. When you're laying on the floor dead, you'll probably be regretting that you were so stingy on the ult. When your ult is on CD, you are super vulnerable and should be extra cautious. Try not to start a fight with a 15 seconds cooldown on your ult.

Items

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If you saw the item build in the cheat sheet all the way up there ^^^ you might be a bit confused on why it's weird. It's a personal preference. Also check out the other item builds at the very top. Those are just examples of what item route you can take. Of course, you can mix and match and get an Abyssal Scepter on the first item path, or a fast Will of the Ancients instead, etc.

The purchase order is not staple. Sometimes it will be better to get 1 item before another. You will learn the circumstances as you play more. But this is just a helpful guide to assist you :)

Aight, Here we go!

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Core Items

Season 3 revolutionized the world of Boots. Boots now have 25 less move speed, but every champion now has 25 more move speed. What does this mean? Well, boots are now a whole lot less important. You can get away with delaying purchasing boots for longer. But most of the time, I still start out with Boots of Speed on Ahri because that 25 bonus move speed is crucial to dodging skillshots and are extremely important against champs like Karthus, Cassiopeia, or Brand. It also plays a huge part in escaping early ganks. Also, starting Boots of Speed allows me to also start with 3 Health Potions for sustainability.

Doran's Ring was changed in Season 3, albeit slightly. Personally, I think it's on the same level as the Doran's Ring in Season 2. I usually get Doran's Ring for mana regen, since it's cheap and I usually don't build any other mana regen items. Get a Doran's Ring under these conditions: 1. You want early game mana regen 2. You are facing a very hard match-up 3. You are losing your lane and want to get back in the game. 4.You are stomping your lane and want to stomp it even more.
Getting a ring will make you a lot stronger when you buy it, but since there's no upgrades, you need to sell it later and get better items. Don't just buy a ring whenever, since in the end, you will lose gold.

Generally I get Sorcerer's Shoes for that Magic Penetration, but if I'm laning against someone with high burst and cc such as Veigar or LeBlanc, Mercury's Treads are a must-have.
I'm starting to like this item more and more, but I only get it under specific circumstances. It's amazing at giving you sustain, and in combination with your passive proc, you'll heal a ton of health. It builds into Will of the Ancients, but you can get that late, since Hextech Revolver's spellvamp is sufficient enough early and mid game. Really useful for pokey champs or champs that have built-in sustain ( Vladimir, Mordekaiser). Not so good against champs that can 100-to-0 you ( Veigar, LeBlanc). Note: Hextech Revolver is most effective if you have a blue buff. Ask your jungler if he is willing to donate the 2nd or 3rd blue buff. If he's a jungler that relies on blue buff himself ( Fiddlesticks), you might not want to get Hextech Revolver.

This gives you a health boost, which is also nice to have, along with some decent ability power. It also gives really nice Magic Penetration, and if you get one early along with Sorcerer's Shoes, then early game, you'll basically be doing true damage. That's just crazy. Haunting Guise was considered an early game item in Season 2 because you couldn't upgrade it into anything and had to sell it to get something better. But in Season 3, you can upgrade it to...

A new Season 3 item. This item on Ahri. It's good. By upgrading it from Haunting Guise, you get a massive AP boost, along with an incredible passive. Dealing single-target spell damage to an enemy will burn enemies for 5% of their health in magic damage, and it will deal 2.5% if it is a multi-target spell. Why is this item so good on Ahri? Fox-Fire counts as 3 single-target spells. Yep, that's right. It will do a whopping 15% of the enemies health if all 3 Fox-Fires hit. But wait, it get's better. It will do double damage to targets if their movement is impaired, such as slows or stuns. Man, I wish there was an item that slowed enemies whenever I do spell damage, amirite? BAM. Rylai's Crystal Scepter. Spells will proc both Rylai's slow and the double damage Liandry's passive. So with Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Liandry's Torment, Ahri's Fox-Fire will do 30% of the enemies health from burn alone. But alas, it is 30% in spell damage, not true damage so Magic resistance is taken into account. If the enemy has 100 MR, then it will do only half the damage.
Now I will admit, these stats are very misleading. The passive on Liandry's torment does not stack, so in a nutshell, it does a lot less damage then it seems.



The new DFG is pretty sweet. Since it does damage based on percent current health it is best to use it when an enemy is at high hp. The 20% increased damage is also pretty amazing as it makes your combo do more damage. After getting this, you should be scaring the enemy ad or ap carry with your ability to pretty much 1-shot them. I would consider this item pretty core on Ahri. An assassin item for an assassin champion.

This item is amazing on AP Casters, such as Ahri. It will save your life many times if used properly. Don't get it too early though, since the armor is a lot better for late game than early game as your enemy will most likely be doing magic damage. The active alone counters the kits of so many champions. A simple click of the active will make Karthus's ult, Brand's ult, Fizz's ult, Caitlyn's ult fizzle out and become useless. It's quite the item, highly recommended.

Once you build this sucker, your damage will send the enemy running as soon as they see you. It gives a TON of AP and AP = tons of damage. If all goes well, you will have this around 17-20 minutes. This is arguably one of the best AP items in the game and your enemies won't have that much magic resistance yet. This is your time to dominate. It increases your damage by an insane amount, so basically, BUY THIS.

Next, I grab a Rylai's Crystal Scepter. This works really well on Ahri. Reaaaally well. It gives you a lot of health for some tankiness and survivabiliteh so you can stay in those small duels for longer times. It gives you AP and AP = tons of damage. It gives you a slow. Your Orb of Deception, Fox-Fire, Charm, and Spirit Rush (every single skill) will apply the slow which will: 1. help your teammates chase down the runners in teamfights, 2. help you chase down the runners in 1v1s, and 3. help you run away with 3 enemies on your tails; simply toss out an Orb of Deception behind you and they won't catch up to you ^^. I recommend trying to get this every game. If you're really good at this game, you should get it first since you want your teammates to get the kills when you gank (instead of yourself) and the slow will help them greatly. But that's seen in higher elo play and not seen in low-elo games, when everyone (except maybe the support) is trying to get a kill for themselves.
*See Liandry's Torment for information on Tons of damage.*


This item got nerfed the same patch that Morello's Evil Tome got buffed. I'm not going to lie, this item works really well on Ahri's Orb of Deception. If you are looking to stay in lane longer, then feel free to grab this. If you are going for this, don't get 3 Doran's Rings (1 is fine), and get an early Hextech Revolver. Definitely get this item if your team has 2 AP solo-lane champions; it works extremely well. It provides a loooot of sustainabiliteh and it's definitely a great item against poke heavy champions. It's not so good against champions that will kill you regardless of your current HP. In all honesty, if I'm the only AP on the team, I will get this item last, if at all.

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Wait, you think my item build sucks??

(jk, post a comment with good reasoning and I might change it)

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These items are situational. Get them when the situation arises. Usually I will replace WoTA or Liandry's with one of these items if I need to get some.


This item got reworked in Season 3. A passive replaced the active, so it's kinda easier to use. But it's only effective against champs with super high hp regen. Get it if you are facing some freakish enemy combination of Sion, Dr. Mundo, and Vladimir or something. It kinda works as a blue buff, but it costs a lot of money. I don't recommend it.



This item is good for when the enemy is stacking a bunch of Magic Resist. The magic penetration will go through almost half of their MR and is really good because the enemies will have wasted their moneyz buying that Force of Nature that isn't doing all that much. Lululul.
Wait, a sec, I'm receiving an update.... Force of Nature was removed from the game? Whatttt? Since the #1 item for MR got removed, this item isn't as necessary. If the enemy team has a Runic Bulwark, then it might be worth picking this up.

Provides you with a lot of Magic Resistance and a nice chunk of Ability Power. The Magic Resistance will heavily reduce the damage from your enemy and it will give you some nice tankiness, especially for early game.The aura is super nice and reduces the Magic Resistance of nearby enemies by 20. It basically straight-up counters Aegis of the Legion. Very viable on Ahri and consider starting to BUILD it early if facing a super burst enemy mid. Highly Recommended. If you're going to get this, get it early. (rush it, skip dorans)

This is a really cheap item and an amazing active. Removes all CC from you which will likely save your life. This will cancel crowd control, even suppresses, from various ults such as Warwick's Infinite Duress, Malzahar's Nether Grasp, Skarner's Impale, Amumu's Curse of the Sad Mummy and basically any other crazy cc that people find annoying. If you buy it, just make sure you use it! Don't build this too early. You can buy an early Negatron Cloak for early game MR, but you don't need to buy it early unless you're facing a Warwick jungler, Malzahar mid, or anyone else with very dangerous abilities mid. (Example: don't build this early if there is an enemy Urgot bottom lane, you're rarely going to see him until late/mid game.

Pick this up if the enemy AP is fed. I don't know why he would be fed. You're Ahri, ffs. Maybe it was a jungle Fiddlesticks or something. Anyways, Banshee's Veil provides some nice Magic Resist, mana, and blocks a spell every 45 seconds; that's always nice to have in handy. If you see an enemy with a Banshee's Veil's passive on (a blue circle around them), throw out your Orb of Deception first to get rid of the passive, and follow up with a Charm, and hopefully, score a kill.

Provides a blend of Armor and Magic Resistance. It's useful if no one on the enemy team is extremely fed, and everyone on their team is about even. Also, it revives you, so you can do a bunch of damage, die, come back, and do more damage. It's good for the people starting out because it's a good replacement for people who have trouble remembering to use their Zhonya's Hourglass or Quicksilver Sash's actives. However, it's still vital to learn to use those actives, so try to refrain from buying Guardian Angel every game if possible.

A really nice item for solo queue if your jungler is not giving you the blue buffs. It will keep your mana healthy while spamming abilities, provides cooldown reduction, and some nice Magic Resist. Not bad at all. Don't get me wrong, this item is still good even if your jungler is giving you the blues. Doesn't give as much AP as it used to, and heavy AP is what Ahri needs to be successful.

Kind of a bit Very trolly on Ahri; I guess you can build this if you get focused by 5 people every single teamfight, or there is a really fed enemy who does true damage, such as Darius. By getting this instead of a Zhonya's Hourglass, you lose out on a lot of damage. Grab this if your awesome solo queue team decides to auto-lock 5 hyper-squishy champions. But hey, League of Warmogs OP.


Get ready for a huge chunk of text. You can skip it, but here we go...

This is a questionable item on Ahri. It gives you a lot of health for tankiness, some mana and some ability power. Many semi-tanky AP mids, such as Ryze or Morgana will get this fast because it makes for a very smooth laning phase. However, I believe that in order for Ahri to be successful, she needs to assassinate the enemy quickly. The Rod of Ages will not help in assassinating due to its 10 minute stacking time, which will probably finish by the end of mid-game if you rush it, and the only significant benefit is that Rod of Ages will only help you stay in lane longer. That's why I take a quick Rabadon's Deathcap instead of Rod of Ages.

If you are aiming to play passively or need some tankiness, you can take this. However, Rylai's Crystal Scepter gives enough tankiness and a very nice slow that is helpful late game, unlike Rod of Ages. Also, after level 18, the passive from the Catalyst the Protector in Rod of Ages becomes useless. In essence, between Rod of Ages and Rylai's Crystal Scepter, RoA ends up giving a slightly larger mana pool for less OOM (which during late game, shouldn't be a problem, unless you don't recall for around 5-10 minutes and go spammy McSpam Spam, especially if you have blue), 310 more health (which again, can be taken out quite easily by a champion who's designed to do damage, i.e. everyone but a full tank or support) for the cost of a slow that can be utilized by every single one of Ahri's skills for chasing, running away, and scaring enemy champions with that extra cc.

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As you get better, you will learn of different items that apply to different situations. It is your job to pick the right items in specific situations, not mine, since it's impossible to have an all-in-one build that counters everything. For instance, don't get a Void Staff if they have no MR. Get a Warmog's Armor if they have a bunch of true damage. Each game will be different.
*Note: If you are planning on getting a Deathfire grasp or Morello's evil tome late game, it would be a good idea to get Kage's Lucky Pick before you get some Doran's Rings. If you are going to get either of the late game items, you might as well get Kage's Lucky Pick early and earn a bunch of extra gold on the side, which put into perspective, is a free champ kill (300 gold) every 10 minutes :) You will sacrifice a bit of your early game with delayed Doran's rings and a delayed Rabadon's deathcap, but you will have some more gold later that may make a more powerful late game.
Lol I left this section in here so you can nostalgia over how nice and fun Season 2 was. Ooh well, it's still amusing to think about how different S2 was.

Matchups!!

Aight, here's a general guide on how to face different match-ups. Note: These will be for people somewhat new to LoL. It is much less accurate for people above 1500 elo etc. Not all of the match-ups are listed, only the ones that I have chosen to do. I will gradually add to this list over time.

>Akali

>Anivia

>Annie

>Brand

>Cassiopeia

>Diana

>Fizz

>Kassadin

>Katarina

>LeBlanc

>Lux

>AP Master Yi

>Mordekaiser

>Morgana

>Ryze

>Talon

>Twisted Fate

>Veigar

>Vladimir

>Ziggs

>Zyra

Akali
Difficulty:9 Important Items: Abyssal Scepter, Rylai's Crystal Scepter
The main thing to keep in mind when facing Akali, is that her strength before lvl-6 is really low. You need to take advantage of this and deny as much cs from her as possible. If you let her free-farm, then she will destroy you in the mid-game with her insane burst. She's extremely scary after level 6. For every time you use a dash to escape, she also has a dash to chase. It might be necessary to purchase an early pink ward and put it in lane to spot her in her Twilight Shroud.


Anivia
Difficulty:6 Important Items:Damage
Anivia is a somewhat hard champion to play, so you won't see a lot of her. But that doesn't mean that the random guy you're laning against is bad at her. Just make sure you dodge all her Flash Frost (it moves really slowly) or you'll get stunned and take massive damage.(There's almost no excuse to get hit by it randomly in lane, if you do, you deserved the damage) Also, if you stand in her Glacial Storm or have recently been hit by Flash Frost, her Frostbite nukes you for double of its damage, so try not to fight in her ultimate or right after being stunned. Lastly, click on her to check if her Rebirth is up. Do NOT turret dive her if her passive is up. A common anivia combo is to put a wall behind you, then Flash Frost you when you're trying to run around the wall. I recommend you don't fall into this trap.


Annie
Difficulty:8 Important Items: Abyssal Scepter, mercury treads
Like Anivia, most players at this level do not abuse her to her full potential. Check for her stun by clicking on her. If you over-extend, she has the ability to burst you down instantly. Be careful when she hits level 6, as that is when Annie can basically 1-shot anyone. But be warned, if Annie is played right, she over-powers Ahri.


Brand
Difficulty:7 Important Items: Boots
He's a pretty common choice at this level. You need to dodge his Pillar of Flames and Sears. His early game is kinda scary and it will be hard to cs without being hit by his pillar. I would recommend getting a fast Zhonya's Hourglass and whenever he ults, use the hourglass and his ult will be harmless.


Cassiopeia
Difficulty:7 Important Items: Damage, Boots
Try to dodge the poison she tries to drop on you. If you get poisoned, try to stay away from her for a bit because she can have a huge burst with her .05 cooldown Twin Fang. It will take practice, but learn to dodge her Petrifying Gaze whenever it looks like she is about to use it. This match-up is purely based off of skill.


Diana
Difficulty:9 Important Items: Abyssal Scepter, survivability.
QQ I hate laning against Diana. After she hits 6, she easily outtrades Ahri. That's a bad thing. But rushing an Abyssal Scepter will help you lessen her damage, and maybe even win trades. That's a good thing. Some pointers in this match-up: Learn to dodge her Crescent Strike. It always shoots form the right, so know where you could move to dodge it. It takes practice, but eventually you'll be able to dodge them (kinda). Her pre-6 is really weak, so abuse it! Keep auto-attacking her and using spells agaisnt her. If you let her free-farm up to lvl 6, I promise that you will regret it!!


Fizz and his troll pole
Difficulty:9 Important Items: Abyssal Scepter
He is a counter to skillshot-Ap mids such as Ahri. Facing him will be a nightmare. He will use his troll Playful / Trickster to dodge everything and once he gets all up in your grill, you'll be taking massive damage.



Kassadin
Difficulty:9 Important Items: Abyssal Scepter, mercury treads, rylais crystal scepter
This is one of the hardest match-ups. The first thing to keep in mind is to rush Abyssal Scepter as fast as possible. This means that when you finish the item, you should only have 1 doran's ring and/or boots, max, as items. Once you get Abyssal Scepter, then congrats, Kassadin can no longer 1-shot you starting at lvl 6 and you can actually win trades. Kassadin has one of the weakest pre-6 laning phases in the game so Take Advantage of it. Auto-attack him as much as possible, freeze the lane, and deny him cs. Then after lvl 6, continuously shove the lane so if he roams to other lanes, he loses out on cs to the tower. Following his roaming to counter-gank is also highly advised.


Katarina and her resets
Difficulty:7 Important Items: Damage
Katarina is a very common pick in Season 3. There are 2 things to keep in mind while playing this match-up. 1. Her early game is weak and that is your main opportunity to press your advantage. Pre-6, her only form of damage will be Bouncing Blades harass and make sure to look for opportunities whenever her skills are off of cooldown. 2. Don't use Charm unless you're positive you can hit her. With Charm being your only CC, it is vital to stopping her ult, Death Lotus. As soon as she jumps on you and starts ulting, you need to use your Charm ASAP. Then you can easily turn the exchange into your favor.


LeBlanc and her stupidly good early game
Difficulty:10 Important Items: Abyssal Scepter, mercury treads, rylais crystal scepter
She is probably my worst nightmare as Ahri. She has a slow, snare, and silence. Ouch. Get Mercury's Treads, it's a must vs. LeBlanc. She does incredible amounts of damage to you in the early levels (I've been 1-shotted at level 2 before) so I suggest playing it safe and tower hugging for a majority of the early game. Her silence will prevent you from escaping with Spirit Rush, and I can't tell you how frustrating that is. Just play it safe in the beginning and remember: she is nearly useless late game compared to you. Her lane clearing is really awful, so after you hit level 6, you can push the lane and then gank top lane or bot lane.



Lux
Difficulty:6 Important Items: Boots, Mouse
This lane is pretty skill dependent. The person who dodges skillshots better wins the lane. But after level 6, Ahri has the potential to seriously outplay Lux. Pretend both sides just hit lvl 6 and are sitting at about 60% hp. A full combo by either can kill the opponent. For Lux to start her combo, she needs to hit her snare, which isn't easy. For Ahri to start her combo, she needs to hit her charm. But Ahri has 3 dashes that helps her 1.dodge the lux snare and 2.hit charm easier. If you see her miss her snare at lvl 6, just all-in her and you can probably grab a kill. Pre-6, you need to dodge her Lucent Singularity. Moving backwards will usually NOT dodge it. Instead move to the side or even forwards.


Master Yi
Difficulty:7 Important Items: Damage, sustain optional, Morellonomicon optional
There's a few things to keep in mind while facing Master Yi. It is basically impossible to kill him when he is channeling his Meditate. However, you have this nice ability called Charm and it instantly cancels his insane healing. Since Charm is so important in this match-up it is advised that you save it for cancelling Meditate unless you need it to escape or if there is potential for a kill. Another thing to note is that his only real damaging move is Alpha Strike. It does a lot of damage, but if it's on cooldown, feel free to run up and harass him, since he won't be able to do anything. If he alpha strikes a minion, he will end his alpha strike where the minion was. Try to time your abilities to hit him as soon as his alpha strike ends. Master Yi naturally pushes a lot, so communicate with your jungler and ask for ganks.


Mordekaiser
Difficulty:7 Important Items: Hextech Revolver, jungler
This guy is really annoying. His shield is frustrating. He clears waves really fast. Getting an early Hextech Revolver is a good idea because lanes will be pushed fast and you don't want to get low enough where he can kill you with his Children of the Grave. Call for a gank because he naturally pushes and has no escape abilities. A lot of this match-up is based off jungler.


Morgana
Difficulty:6 Important Items: Boots
A pretty even match-up. She's pretty tanky so it'll be hard to kill her. However, it's hard for her to do damage to you. She relies on hitting her snare, and dodging it is a must. Her Dark Binding snare is a skillshot and it moves really slowly, so if you get hit by it, you deserve to have your health get chunked. If she snares you and the enemy jungler is hiding in the nearby brush, consider yourself dead. The snare lasts for up to 3 seconds which is an insanely large amount of time. If you have a good chunk of HP when she uses Soul Shackles you, you can Spirit Rush out to break the chain, then Spirit Rush back in to do a nice amount of damage. Remember, her cooldowns are long so don't be afraid to go in after you see her miss a Dark Binding. Don't stay too close to Morgana when she is after level 6, as you won't be able to escape her ult. A very important tip to keep in mind is this: Whenever Morgana ults, you can use 1 or 2 dashes from Spirit Rush to break the chains, and then use the remaining dash to jump back onto her to deal a lot of damage. That way, you won't get snared and half her ult will be useless, while doing massive damage to her.


Ryze and his lack of skillshots
Difficulty:9 Important Items: Abyssal Scepter
I'll admit it, he counters you. But that does not mean you can't put up a good fight. Do your best to farm and try to stay out of his range. He has very low kill potential, but you will find yourself constantly low on health from his spammable Rune Prison, Overload, and Spell Flux combo. Build some spell vamp from Hextech Revolver and do your best to outplay him. That's about all I can say. Getting early Magic Resistance will be very helpful.


Talon
Difficulty:10 Important Items: seekers armguard, Zhonya's Hourglass, Ninja Tabi
Lol glhf. He hard-counters you. He jumps on you and silences you with a single Cutthroat, and he deals a ton of damage to you before you even have the chance to use your spells, not to mention the stealth from his Shadow Assault renders your skillshots useless and bursts you for even more damage. Build a lot of armor; Zhonya's Hourglass is really good. I have a AP mid armor rune page set up against AD casters like Talon or Zed. The one thing that you have going for you is that Talon's scalings drop like a rock late game.


Twisted Fate
Difficulty:5 Important Items: Moar Damageee
A good Twisted Fate in the right hands is deadly. He is a hard champion to play right (I know from experience). Luckily Ahri is pretty strong against him. He's very squishy so a few Orb of Deceptions can usually force him out of lane. E>Q>W comboing him twice pre-6 has a pretty high kill potential. After level 6, you instantly becoming way stronger than him at trading. Honestly, a full combo at lvl 6 will likely kill him right there. However, when TF turns 6, he instantly becomes a problem for your other lanes. Let your teammates know when he hits 6 by simply typing in chat. Keep on pushing the lane after lvl 6, so if he tries to ult to the other lanes, he will miss out on minions to his tower.


Veigar
Difficulty:9 Important Items: Abyssal Scepter, mercury treads
For this guy, grab Mercury's Treads instead of Sorcerer's Shoes. That tenacity could easily mean the difference from escaping that stun or taking massive damage from his Dark Matter. At level 6, he has a huge burst. Try to stay out of the range of his Event Horizon. If you find yourself inside of the stun, don't foolishly run into the wall anyways. Just run around the inside and try to dodge his Dark Matter. Due to recent patches, you can't Spirit Rush through his stun anymore, which is a major annoyance. However, you can still Flash. One thing to keep in mind: If you don't build magic resistance, he can 100-0 you at any time after level 6 largely due to his Primordial Burst. I strongly recommend getting an early Abyssal Scepter.


Vladimir
Difficulty:8 Important Items: Hextech Revolver
Get a early Hextech Revolver. He has a lot of sustain so you want to match that sustain and heal back the damage he does from pokes. Since he is cooldown based, try to attack him right after he uses his abilities on minions. His Sanguine Pool is really frustrating, but he isn't that difficult to play against. Be warned, a fed Vladimir will be very hard to kill, as he will not only get more damage, but also more health. I'll be honest, Vladimir is really hard to kill due to his Sanguine Pool (umadbro). Focusing on ganking other lanes might be your best bet.


Ziggs
Difficulty:8 Important Items: Boots, Mouse, Health Potions, not dying pre-6
Ziggs can either be really hard or decently easy. I've played against Gold Ziggs that straight-up destroyed me in lane. His lane poke is much stronger than yours, and dodging his bombs is critical to not having to go heal at the fountain every 2 minutes (even though it can be really hard). Generally you want to outpredict Ziggs and force him to waste all his mana, then you can zone him. Levels 1-5 is extremely though for Ahri. Things look up when you reach level 6. Since Riot was nice enough to give Ahri 3 dashes as an ultimate, you can do some serious outplaying. Use it to dodge his ult, his Q, his mine field, his charge, basically everything. Dodging his ult is the most important though. So basically, you want to try to dodge everything 1-5, then if he isn't fed, you can beat him post-6. Hitting Charm is REALLY important in this matchup.


Zyra
Difficulty:8 Important Items: Boots, not dying pre-6
A good Zyra is somewhat difficult to play against. Pre-6, if you try to walk up to her and use your E>Q>W combo, then she can get her own combo off on you and easily out-trade the damage. After you hit 6, you unlock the potential to actually beat her. Use Spirit Rush to dodge Zyra's snare, and her ult. After that you can use use remaining dash[es] to go up to her and get a free combo off, which generally spells death for Zyra. Note: You basically have to dodge her snare post-6. If you don't she has a pretty good change to get a free ult off, and then you'll die. Second Note: When she dies, get ready to dodge her passive thingy. Run around circles and it'll be hard for her to hit it.


Match-up section to be continued...

If you want a certain champion listed, just ask for it in the comments and I'll get around to it.

Gameplay

Farm good, but trade damage good too

Okay, the game starts up. First of all, you probably need to leash your jungler. This means that you should launch an Orb of Deception as soon as the blue buff or red buff spawns (depending on where your jungler decides to start). The top or bot lane should be doing the most damage to the golem/lizard, so feel free to go back to alne after a few auto-attacks. If the jungler want to start at wraiths or wolves (since they spawn a few seconds before the buffs), launch a few auto-attacks on them after your jungler starts to attack. Just make sure you don't accidentally last hit one, especially the big one, because your jungler will probably either rage at you or sarcastically type "..." in chat to convince your team that you obviously need go back to the Proving Grounds.

Now you stroll back to your lane, which most likely is mid. This means last hitting. Don't constantly auto attack the minions. Auto attacking will push your lane outwards, and you will be forced to be closer to their turret in order to continue last hitting. The enemy jungler can stroll behind you, and you'll probably die from an deserved gank. Also, a pushed lane will mean that your jungler cannot gank from your side. Double-lose.

Feel free to push hard if they don't have a jungler, or if the game is approaching mid game. And use your Orb of Deception for harassing since it does quite a chunk of damage to them (or unless you like to see an empty mana bar for some reason). Getting the enemy low enough with your Q sets up for a early kill for your combo.

Using a full combo of Charm, Orb of Deception, and Fox-Fire will drain about a third of your mana instantly, so try to refrain from doing a full combo unless you are sure you won't completely miss everything (mainly depends on hitting Charm).

Keep on harassing them. Try to keep their health low. You need to play Ahri a looot, but eventually you will be able to tell when a E>Q>W> Ignite combo will be able to secure the kill. It's not worth it if they still survive. Overall, I can't stress how important it is to obtain every creep score.

It is very important to note that pre-6 might be the only time you can press your advantage against certain champs. If the enemy is an Akali, Veigar or a Kassadin, do whatever you can to totally ruin their laning phase. Seriously, I mean it. If you let these guys farm freely, once they turn 6, you're going to be in a whole world of hurt.

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Midgame

Now you've hit level 6. Your über ult is now up. Hopefully your laning opponent will have somewhat medium-ish health by now (given that you haven't already killed him/her yet). This takes many Ahri games worth of experience, but you should be able to tell if you can kill the enemy laner with one huge burst.

People that are not familiar with Ahri will not know how high your kill potential is at 6. This is your chance.

Your burst should look something like R>E>Q>R>W>R> Ignite, and at 6, it should pretty much garen-tee a kill. By starting with a Spirit Rush towards your opponent, you can jump out of a minion wave and land a secure Charm. After level 6, you want to start constantly ganking the other lanes due to Ahri's advantage of high mobility/strong cc ganks. Push your lane hard and start roaming.

When you both hit 6, your laning opponent is probably now either much better than you, or much worse than you. If they are now stronger than you, you need to focus on helping your other lanes get kills. It will help your team much more than getting constantly wrecked by your laning opponent.

The odds are, for the majority of low-elo or normal games, wards are not be frequently used. Top lane should be vulnerable for an easy kill (check if the enemy top has Wriggle's Lantern for the free ward first,(s3 edit: lol can u remember when top laners used to buy that) or ask your top if the enemy has laid a ward). If you want to gank bot, go through your jungle if you are Blue team, or go through the enemy jungle if you are Purple team. Keep on ganking.

Important note! Using your ult for damage is not always the best choice. Sometimes if you are ganking and you see the enemy is running back to their tower (since they obviously see you via ward) use your ult to get closer to them faster to get a kill! If you save your ult until you catch them, you might not actually catch them. Sure you waste the damage portion of the Spirit Rush, but if you get a kill, it doesn't matter. Although if you do this, please be fairly certain that you can get the kill, wasting it for nothing would be bad~

You want to ensure that your lanes end up winning, so your AD carry, such as Vayne or Graves can demolish everyone in team fights. Ahri is unbelievably good at small skirmishes (3v2's or 3v3's that happen often bot lane during a gank), and you should have a pretty nice score by now. If you happen to fall too many levels behind your team (i.e. 2 or 3), farm in a safe spot that will not get you ganked by the opponent.

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Late Game/Teamfights.

You do significantly less at this point.
Generally you want to just spam out everything during the huge teamfights. COoldown Reduction is vital now. You should save your Spirit Rush for either running away or chasing down the fleeing enemies. Using Spirit Rush at the beginning/middle of the fight will just cause the enemy team to run away, and you will lose your chasing/escaping tool.

However, if you completely dominated up to this point, then your damage should be nothing to sneeze at. It should be completely possible to insta-gib the enemy ap or ad carry with 1 combo. In doing so, you can easily win teamfights, and in other words, the game. That's why it's good to get fed in the mid game.

Hopefully, the other members of your team should be fed due to your consta-ganking during midgame, and you should win. Note that initiating a fight by landing a Charm on a squishy enemy carry, not the tank, will almost ensure that your team will win that fight or score at least one kill as long as everyone is paying attention and focusing the right target.

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Just some tips/tricks

Buy Wards. They will save your life many times. Ward the enemy wraith camp and the bushes by mid if you can; not the long ones right next to you - the small circular ones in the river; they provide vision of the enemy coming from either lane and cover vision on the small area from the C shaped bushes to the bushes on the side of mid lane. Pick up wards if you have spare cash when you recall.

• Learn the A-move. If you press "a" and left-click on the ground, your champion will start walking there and start attacking any enemy it encounters along the path to the place you clicked. Great for last-hitting if the closest minion to you is almost dead and you don't want to risk clicking the wrong one. A-move is even better for chasing low-hp enemies through bushes. Everyone knows that everyone loves juking. By pressing "a" and clicking on the other side of the bush, you will stop moving and start attacking them if they try to juke. A great skill to have, it will help you get many kills.
• Charming an enemy that is chasing you will slow them down a bit for you to escape.
• Buy an Oracle's Elixir if you notice the enemy team has a lot of wards, and you aren't dying much in your game. Your teammates probably won't get an Oracle's Elixir in low-elo play, but if there's a more tankier champion that does not die often, recommend that they buy Oracle's instead. If you're level 30, and your teammates ask you what an Oracle's Elixir is, proceed to flip your table because you're probably going to lose.
• If it's a crazy 1 hour+ game and your build is maxed, spend your extra gold on all 4, I mean 3 elixirs in the consumable section of the shop. ( Elixir of Fortitude, Elixir of Brilliance, and Oracle's Elixir)
• For laning phase, you need to last hit. Seriously, man. It's impossible to stress enough how much creep score matters. 15 cs = 1 champ kill. That's just 2-3 waves.
• Save your Spirit Rush for the end of a teamfight for escaping or chasing.
• The best way to get better at Ahri is to actually play her a lot. You will be able to judge her burst better, and that will cause more enemy deaths ^^ Practice, practice, practice
• Call your MIA's/ss. You need to alert your teammates of potential ganks. Yes, your teammates will rage at you if you don't call MIA and they die. Even if you recall or gank another lane, just say MIA to alert your teammates that you don't know where the enemy mid is located.
• If it's mid-game and you want to gank, push the minion line to your opponent's turret, and step back so he can't see you. When the minions come back, step back in and push the minions to the enemy turret again. Step back. Repeat this several times. Eventually he will stop calling MIA's to his team, and you can go gank a lane easily. If you've pushed your lane hard, you might as well mess with his head. It will be harder for him to last hit under a turret, and by stepping back, you are also protecting yourself from enemy jungler ganks.
• Try to harass enemies with auto attacks in early levels as much as possible. Just be sure to account for minion aggro since they will start attacking you as soon as you do damage to the enemy. They do a surprising amount of damage to you at early levels.
• Ahri's early game is relatively good compared to other AP mids. Sometimes, your only advantage will be before your enemy hits 6. You must attempt to deny minions from them and harass them by playing aggressively and making them fear getting close to minions. These enemies include Katarina, Veigar, and Kassadin, to name a few.
• Other times, your enemy will have a waay better early game than you do. Focus on staying alive and getting to level 6. Then, keep on ganking other lanes.
• Are you getting tower-dived? Charm.
• Smartcast your Orb of Deception and Charm after you are familiar with the ranges! It will help your game sooo much by getting rid of the delay of clicking :O
• Keep calm and hit your Charm
• Her deathnoise will make the enemy team "distracted" so feeder Ahri is a legit build.
• ^ That was a joke.
• This is an epic videogame music playlist I use for playing League (or surfing the internet). It is epic. It will help you do better. I got it from Scarra's stream --> http://vip.aersia.net/vip.swf
• This is my current videogame-music playlist I use for playing LoL http://grooveshark.com/#!/playlist/XDanielWang+LoL+Playlist+Aersia+V2/79523343
  Feel free to use it or make your own playlist and copy some of my songs over :D

Time for Screenshots showing how cool this guide is!

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Change log

6/14/12 Guide created
6/15/12 Fixed some coding and grammatical errors, made it look a lot prettier, changed RoA description
6/16/12 Added in a bunch of coding and fixed grammar, spelling errors, added even more reasons behind not getting RoA
6/17/12 Expanded on Masteries section, made guide a bit prettier
6/18/12 Highlighted important information in tips/tricks
8/1/12 Added a champion match-up section. Will be completed on a later date. Also changed the title because the Foxfire Ahri skin is out.
9/23/12 Improved champion match-up section by adding a bunch of new opponents.
12/6 Season 3 editing. To be continued.
12/25 MERRRRRYYYYY KURISU-MASUU!!! I checked the guide today and it was ranked #2!! An awesome present, mobafire community :) You guys are awesome~~ Added Liandry's Torment, updated a lot of descriptions for Season 3, added more to match-up section
1/16 A lot of minor edits throughout January. Fixed descriptions, added info, etc.
2/14 Added a table to the matchups, since that's super sexy
3/12 More information added. Good stuff.
4/27 More Match-ups added to match-ups section.
5/1 Added the most important section in the guide, the L0re. Also minor touch-ups throughout the guide.
5/14 Finnaly got a comment after what feels like ages (shoutout to Albo1125). Promptly added Ziggs and Zyra to match-up section.
5/21 Commence operation Make guide totally kick-***. Begin!

Outro

This was my first guide. I know the formatting and coding is really rough, but I tried my best to provide an opinion for anyone wanting to learn Ahri.

If I see that a lot of people like this, then I will continue to patch up the format, add more details, and expand on the champion match-up section. Feel free to comment any criticisms or questions and I will try my best to answer. I'm sorry for any typos, I don't like the font used for typing this stuff and it's somewhat hard catching mistakes.

Ahri is my fav champion and is a major reason of why I love League of Legends so much. She's awesome and I hope that you, too, can be awesome with her. Just don't be too good or people will think she is op and start banning her :( heheh Good luck and Have fun ^^

1/3/2013 - 50,000 views! :)
1/20/2013 - 100,000 views!! <4
3/31/2013 - 200,000 views!!! ^____^ daniel izzzz dumb this is supposed to say <3 l2type noob l2guide lets see how long it takes for daniel to find this(1/20/13) i just found it..... zzz anyways, it's supposed to be <4 because <3 is like so last year (3-31-13)
Shoutout to Jhoijhoi for her awesome guide on making guides! It helped me a lot :) I aim to make more in the future~

Shoutout to xAustinKx! He's the master-mind behind most of the coding and attractiveness~ He helped revise many spelling mistakes and helped make the guide beter overall <3

Questions or comments? Just say it in the guide discussion down below! I check for new posts every 3 or so days so feel free to ask away! Every comment will receive a reply :)

An upvote or +rep is always appreciated!