Hello and welcome to my S3 Ahri guide.

Ahri is one of the most intresting mages I have ever played. She has a big range of magic attacks that at first glance seem rather weak when you look at the stats and the small stacks of ability power. But even with such small numbers she still deals quite a nice amount of damage. Especially when you're able to land all your skills.
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Pro's:
+ 'Lots of damage in a short amount of time.
+ Able to kite with help of Rylai's Crystal Scepter
+ A solid mobility
+ Good against Mres Tanks.

Con's:
- Short in range, easy target for Close range on-hit burst champions like Annie and LeBlanc
- Only mobility source has a long cooldown.
- Rather fragile

Let's have a closer look on the abilities and why I chose this specific order to level them.

I start with Orb of Deception, which is your main source of damage on Ahri. It has the same number of base damage as Fox-fire does except that it deals the damage twice, with the second hit ignoring any kind of resistance. It's a good way to poke your enemies as well as hoarding in health when your Essence Theft is triggered.

Charm is Ahri's set-up move. It's one of the best CC's in the game when it comes to catching enemies. As long as it hits. If it does, theres no way you can miss your Q and you'll get a free poke off the enemy. Keep this one at level 1. There's no need to increase the duration of the taunt yet as it's possible to cast all your spells on the target in that little time. If you are counterpicked by the likes of Ryze or LeBlanc Try to only poke them with this ability as this is the one with the largest range. This is also a good ability to lure your enemies away from their turret.

Fox-Fire is your other source of damage though it's not as mayor as your Q. Though the single-target procs well with Rylai's Crystal Scepter and makes it the perfect combination to either kite, or run away from an enemy as it will not slow you down when you cast the ability.

Spirit Rush is your mobility. Use it with caution. You can either use it to catch up with distant enemies that are running away while low on HP, or use it to avoid being caught yourself. If you're planning on turret-diving your oppontent make sure you have Flash ready to make your escape. (Do not turret-dive champions with silences or on-hit CC effects. You'll usually end up dead without accomplishing anything.)

To maximize my damage output I put most of my mastery points into AP and magic penetration as well as damage boosts. I would not put a point in Spellsword as you're not planning on building much AP on Ahri. Instead you can spend this point into Wanderer for more mobility or Artificer to reduce cooldowns on Deathfire Grasp or Zhonya's Hourglass if you're planning to building that item. Also take the Runic Affinity to let given blue buffs last longer onto you.

Core Items
The core of this build will be made from four items.


Sorcerer's Shoes is for the Magic Penetration and mobility of your champion. These boots can make a big diffrence in damage output of your champion.

Will of the Ancients is your item for survival, although it's not too important to rush this item when you got Hextech Revolver

Rylai's Crystal Scepter is your kiting item. It gives a nice amount of health and each Fox-Fire will slow down your enemy for the full amount of 35%. This item can also be easily used as an escape-tool as Fox-Fire will not slow you down while you're running.

Liandry's Torment also proc's well with your Fox-Fire and it's passive will be doubled by Rylai's Crystal Scepter. This item also gives a nice amount of AP as well as magic penetration to significantly increase your damage output.
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Late Game items
At this point you will either improve your offensive abilities, or build a little bit more defensive.

Offensive items:

Void Staff is a really good item on Ahri to have for some more damage against your enemies and not very expensive either.

Deathfire Grasp is a good item to buy if you need that extra CDR, and if you're up against a tank that is trying to counter your true damage. This item will help you tear down hard-to-kill champions. (Focus the main source of damage first before going after tanks.)

Against AP:
Apparently your enemy mage has become quite a threat.

Banshee's Veil is the most defensive option in this case. Since it's a mage you're up against you want to block it's CC as much as you can. After all you're Ahri, you want to go where you want without being stopped during your ult.

Abyssal Mask is the more offensive option in this section. It grants another bonus for lowering the enemies' Mres and is also helpful for other allied champions that might build AP. As well as some more ability power.

I don't often build Quicksilver Sash on Ahri. Banshee's Veil is usually the better option. But sometimes, there is the moment that you want to pick for yourself what kind of CC you want to block. Some enemies wait for others to remove the Banshee's Veil passive before they cast an ability. This item shows most of it's worth against Malzahar and Warwick. Perhaps if you finish your build you can build it into Mercurial Scimitar but that is only if you entirely finished your build.

Against AD
Apparently Bot lane failed or you're up against a new meta on mid. The best way to counter this is with Armor.

Again, Zhonya's Hourglass is the offensive option of your build. 100 AP as well as a decent amount of armor to fight against an AD. And also an active to avoid some incoming CC or damage. Just make sure you time it correctly. You don't want to end up with an entire enemy team awaiting your effect to wear off.

Guardian Angel is another option for this kind of events. It gives defense and a second life. Though I'm not the biggest fan of this item when it comes to the passive. But that second chance might give you a bigger chance on survival. This item is just like Zhonya's depending on the correct timing.
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The boots Enchantments:


Here we have the enchantments on boots. All of them have their own pro's and cons. My own preference goes to Enchantment: Alacrity because this enchantment gives me a solid movement boost.
Enchantment: Furor might give a faster amount but that means you'll have to rely on spamming Fox-Fire and Charm in order to accelerate. Good for if you have to escape often or kiting an enemy.
Enchantment: Distortion Improving CDR on [Flash] and if you decide to pick [Ghost] as your second summoner spell this item will give great benefit.
Enchantment: Captain I wouldn't buy this item for Ahri, this item is very supportive and perhaps good for if you want to enforce pushing by accelerating your minions. But that's about it.
Enchantment: Homeguard I'd only buy this enchantment if I would use Teleport as summoner spell, as well as if I have to be quickly back into the battlefield. Or perhaps because the enemy pushed you into your base.



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Last but not least

Be sure to buy Sight Wards whenever you have the money for it. You don't want to get ganked while you're diving in for a kill.
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Why won't you buy Rabadon's Deathcap!? It's one of the most important items on a Mage!
Becaue Ahri doesn't stack much AP as I stated before. As well as the only spell that stacks immensely is your second Fox-Fire and this one has a cap on it's damage of 280 (with the core items you already got damage output of 246 on your second hit which means you're almost at the cap already). Therefore it's better to build onto penetration. Which also makes Ahri a good counter vs tanks that try to counter her with Mres.

"Gee Yuki, even though you're into building Ahri full magic pen, why do you even have AP runes instead of full Magic Penetration."

For the early game ability power. It makes your abilities a bit stronger during the early game, and so you'll do quite a decent amount of damage when you got your Sorcerer's Shoes. A good way to start. Next to that I use magic pen. marks because these benefit the most when it comes to penetration runes. And the mana regen runes give me that good sustain early game as well as making them scale, so I will prevent from lacking mana too much.

Reccomended spells:


Your Spirit Rush might give you a lot of mobility. But I would reccomend to always pick flash on Ahri. It's your ulti, so the cooldown is rather high. In my own preference I want to keep at least one of the two spells off cooldown, to always have the certainity to escape.


Ignite is always a good choice on mages and for finishing off enemies. Also a good way to prevent your enemy from healing. And given the upgrade in your mastery you gain additional offensive stats while the spell is on cooldown.

Good alternative options:

If you spam a lot and often find yourself low on mana this is a proper alternative. The new update made Clarity even more useful than it was in season 2


Along with Flash gives you even more mobility on the field. If you're going for this combination it would be smart to take Enchantment: Distortion to improve your CDR.


Rather this spell instead of Heal because most mages you will face on mid use Ignite for their secondary summoner spell. It's a good spell if your opponent deals DoT like Cassiopeia or Talon and they just letting you go because they know you're already dead. Barrier will help you prevent it, even with a heal block.


A free card heal + mana restoration in base while still being able to get back quickly into your lane. Though you will probably hold out better with Clarity. Although, if you would combine this spell with Enchantment: Homeguard (and your team or you are warding quite a lot) you can bring out alot of suprise ganks with high certainity of obtaining a kill.

Decent Choices

The supportive version of Barrier as this skill will heal all your allies near you. Downsides are the weakening effects afterwards as well as easily countered with Ignite


'Lot's of CC? Perhaps this is your choice. However, it would be better to let your Banshee's Veil do the work. Besides, Cleanse does not block out Malzahar and Warwick as these ults won't let you use cleanse at all. Though Cleanse has short tenacity bonuses afterwards Quicksilver Sash removes almost every kind of spell thrown at you.


Deny the AD carry with this spell. It got quite a nerf so against fighters it's weaker. And it's a decent spell to catch your enemies with.

Bad choices

Why would you, the only way this spell would be useful is when you're about to lose the game and you can quickly skip the 1 minute waiting time at the end of the game. Perhaps with Enchantment: Homeguard you would move extremely fast due double mass speedboost. But I see no other reason to get this spell at all. Besides, if you die alot, this spell would only make the enemy gain his kills faster.


No, just no. Why would you even.

Any suggestions on how to improve this build or guide?

Do not hesitate to add a comment at this guide. I try to made this guide as good as possible. I'll try to answer your questions when something seems vague.

Have fun playing Ahri.