Hello there! This is my second guide which I decided to write in celebration of Ahri Free Week! Ahri, along with Anivia, is my favourite champion. She has strong invade with her passive telling her if someone is there. She does a huge amount of damage. She has a ranged taunt. She has deceptive damage output... but most of all, a huge amount of mobility. In this guide, I hope to explain who you need to focus down, what you need to do, and how you need to play!

Ahri has a strong lane. That's a fact. And it's probably strong enough without an early game focused runes and masteries setup. This is just what I like, you could easily use more early game focused runes and masteries by taking everything mage-related in Offensive Masteries, and taking more flat AP in Runes, and maybe Flat AP Quints. However, I like this set up myself; It helps Ahri's mobility, and her ability to poke. Ahri's mobility is very strong, so... why not make it stronger? With this move-speed focused set up, you'll easily be able to capitalize on the mistakes of an enemy. As for the summoners, many people like Ignite. Some people like Exhaust. I like Teleport, because it allows for stronger ganking. As soon as you hit 6, tell your bot or top lane to put a ward in the bush furthest away from your team's tower. This way, you can jump down there with teleport, hopefully just before the other team gets their 6, giving you a huge power boost over the enemy. Although, Ignite and Exhaust are both still strong choices. (I'm currently experimenting with Exhaust/Ignite; Strong kill potential, but don't use it against champions you need to utilize your range against, such as an Annie.)

Now, when it comes to Ahri, you need to assess the situation when it comes to your skill order. A majority of lanes you will want Q, to either counter their push, against Morgana for example, or you'll want to shove it to the enemy tower, against someone like a Ryze, who has weak early pushing potential. Ahri can be played Top Lane, and in Top Lane, you'll want to max W. It's a low mana cost, sure fire hit spell, so you won't be wasting anything like you might if you max Q, and spam it a bit much. Although, you can alternate between the two; For example, against Poppy. Poppy's major weakness is true damage, so prioritizing Q is strong against Poppy, but these are rare examples; Just assess the situation, and you will be fine.

Ahri has many build options as a champion, and everything in her build is interchangable in order, or just an entirely different purchase. Against someone such as LeBlanc, for whom I need early MR, I will go Double Doran's, Merc Treads, Abyssal. This gives me plenty of MR to stand toe-to-toe with LeBlanc, and often out-trade. Against an all out farm lane, you may want to aquire some more Mana Regen, through a third Doran's Ring. It will delay your build somewhat, but it's worth it to be able to rake the lane with Q and counter-push that flippin' Morgana. Although it is a rare case, it can be good to just pick up whatever you can. What I mean by this is... Say you are playing Ahri, around level 16, build filling up nicely. You don't have enough gold for a Deathcap; You're 500 off... but you have to contest Baron. What do you do? Buy something cheaper! For example, get your Rylai's, or your Void Staff. Whatever you need; If they have lots of AD, get your Zhonya, if they're running double AP, make sure you get another Negetron (Even if you need to build something a bit strange later game.) Again, as Ahri, assessing the situation is key.

So, you now have a basic understanding behind Ahri's primary mechanics; Situationalism being key, setting up traps, and early lane dominance. Now it's time to look at the gameplay side of things...
It's early laning phase, and you're against ______. ______ might be a problem a bit later on, so try and stop that; Rake the creep wave whenever you have spare mana (But keep enough mana in the works for a charm in case of a gank.) to deter him from some creeps. When his creeps aren't low on HP, harass him with auto attacks. Don't look to zone without ward coverage, though. When you've gone B, you're back in lane, and you have ward coverage, you look to zone ______. If they come in for creeps, give them a quick taste of E Q W. Lead with E to line everything else up, Q so they take the true damage from the return, then W because it will hit them, all the while moving toward them so that W definately does hit them and not the creep wave. Then, resume farming. Rinse and repeat until you have no wards, then just play passively and farm until you can go B again, get more wards, and continue the lane dominance.
Mid game, Ahri is very strong. ______ is, too, though, and a bit tanky for you to be able to pick them off. What do, Bahanima, what do? Easy! If a tower is down in mid, camp bot lane, and pick off one of their members, perhaps the support when they go to ward. This is where teleport comes in to play; You can teleport behind them, and gang up on their support 1v3 (Provided the bot lane understands the plan.), and then if they contest Dragon (Assuming you're all in a position to take it.), they run the risk of being charmed into 5 people who can easily peel and kill them, making it even harder for them to contest Dragon. Do this whenever Dragon is back up.
Late game, and Ahri's poke is coming in to play. But ______ has tanked up a lot, and is poking for a fair bit of damage. All you need to do is land 1 charm when someone comes too close, and they can't protect or seige a tower any more. But ______ has a similar CC, so be careful of that too, when going in for the heroic charm. When it's baron time, do much of the same as Dragon; Camp for the support to ward, pick off, assume position to take Baron, seige their base with this godly power. Rinse and repeat as long as the game goes on.
Team fighting is a tricky, but rewarding, subject for Ahri. Wait for your initiators to... well, initiate, then charge in from a slightly different angle with your ult. Pick out an enemy squishy, preferably one that hasn't used their abilities yet, and is waiting for their time, and eliminate them with a quick E Q W, with your team's help, of course. This way, we aren't killing someone off who has already done their job; For example, don't bother with killing Brand after his rotation is used up; He doesn't have much damage afterward. Kite for cooldowns, reposition, perhaps juking into bushes to make the enemy team forget about your existance altogether, and pick someone else off, preferably the AD Carry, or if they aren't already gone, the Support, or an AP Carry with sustained damage, such as Cassiopeia or Ryze. That's basically the idea of it!

Ahri is a high skill high risk high reward champion, with many more subtleties than I have underlined in this guide. I'm a good Ahri player, but no Froggen, so watch some videos of the pros playing Ahri to get a really good feel of her place in a team; I learn Ahri and Anivia, my two favourite champions, from Froggen, for example! It's highly recommended you do something like that. Well, have fun out their on the Fields of Justice, and may your pick offs be juicy, your CS be aplenty, and your lanes be easy! Good luck!


P.S. One more thing: When playing Ahri without any friends on Skype, I mix the volume so I only hear Voice Sounds, and Sound Effects, and go on a Youtube Repeat version of FFX's Zanarkand - A Fleeting Dream. Look it up, it's fitting when you mix your in-game volumes just right!