Ahri Build Guide by KyuubiKitsune

Introduction to myself

Hi I'm KyuubiKitsune (which means 9 tails fox in Japanese ;D) and this is my first guide ever so it will not be super great, but i will do my best to give it organisation aesthetics and all most that is necessary (if not all) for a good guide. Please don't be afraid to comment, either positively or negatively, i want to hear ALL comments in order to improve my guide. I haven't played Ahri that much (like 25-30 games), but i got obsessed with her from the first day she came out. So lets get started with Ahri...

Introduction to Ahri, The 9 Tails Fox

This is a guide about Ahri. She is a very mobile assassin mage-AP carry, that has light CC (mostly one person CC with Charm, but also some AoE slow with Rylai's Crystal Scepter). She is also REALLY fun to play with (so funny watching the enemy mid QQing all the way home :D). More on her playstyle later. I have made two builds for Ahri. The first build gives her a ****load of damage to just 2-shoot down that fed (paper) Teemo, while also being able to devastate their tanks with the true damage from Orb of Deception. The second build gives her a lot more survivability to face strong bursts like that fed Twitch, Or that Brand with 800 AP, and also giving her some damage(but in my opinion not enough as she is an assassin)

EDIT: Found out that her passive is name Essence Theft in game but due to the name was Soul Eater and they changed it recently MOBA hasn't changed it yet so if you find Essence Theft it's her passive i just couldn't make the icon appear with that name

Pros / Cons

Pros:
Very good harass
Totally grate CC if Charm and Orb of Deception is combined with red buff/ Rylai's Crystal Scepter
Great mobility
Pew pew your enemies down with the speed of light
Great escape capabilities ( Spirit Rush, Flash in 2nd build)
Great chase capabilities ( Spirit Rush, Exhaust in 1st build, Flash in second)
Essence Theft owns any lane especially mid
Great ganking capabilities ( Spirit Rush)
One of the best ults in game
Really sexy with those 9 tails

Cons:
A little squishy with the 1st build (but comparing to her damage its a fair trade)
Very VERY vulnerable to CC
Targeted a LOT
A little mana hungry to trigger passive early game (trying to counter this with my Seals, Rod of Ages and Morello's Evil Tome)
A little short ranged compared with other mid champs such as Brand, Caitlyn, Lux etc.

Summoner Spells

For summoner spells i grab Exhaust and Ignite, exhaust for that NOOOOO ESCAAAAAPE moments and ignite for early damage and to ruin that Fiddlesticks i may be laning against and the enemy team's support ( Sona, Soraka, etc.). This is for the first build (which is my personal favorite), for the second i get Flash and Ignite for more mobility, when Spirit Rush is on cooldown.



OTHER VIABLE CHOICES


HealSome take it,i personally don't like it but its ok to help with that Karthus ulti or Ignite or to save an ally's *** from the above.I've also seen it work on others so it's viable tho not prefered.
GhostGood considering you have a natural flash (ult), but you are rather slow so may not catch that Vayne that has a Phantom Dancer if she flashes away.
ClarityDon't want those mana regen runes? Want to replace them with Armor or AP runes? Then clarity is for you. It's also for people that cant manage their mana pool.
TeleportMeh i don't really, but if you think it's gonna work feel free to grab it instead of Exhaust on 1st build or Ignite on the 2nd build.


SUMMONER SPELLS TO AVOID

SurgeI've seen this a LOT on Ahri, my opinion: No just no its useless on Ahri because she doesn't need that attack speed and the AP it gives it just not high enough... Let that Teemo take this spell ;) It would make you look SO great with that growth it gives... too bad :(
PromoteThis is for the support or Caitlyn, your Orb of Deception is far more than enough.
ClairvoyanceI've seen this on Ahri... it failed miserably, also it's name sucks and i had a hard time writing it correctly without copy-paste.
SmiteWell Ahri = NOOOOOT jungle. Enough said.


MEH-EH SPELLS THAT ARE ONLY SITUATIONAL

the MEH-EH spells are those i NEVER get and probably none does but you may like them. They are half way from MEDIUM to BAD in my GOOD-BAD summoner spell scale and are mostly troll spells.

ReviveOMG that CC killed me but i have another chance... AHRI IS BACK BABYYYYYY...
GarrisonWanna get my Capture Point? Eh?? Wanna wanna??? Try this on per size *WOOOOOSHHHHH*... come try now if you wanna
CleanseThis is for AD carries but its decent for that Sion- Garen- Veigar- Cho'Gath- Lux team for the "you can't catch me nana nanana" moments, but i think her ult is enough

Skill Sequence

Now for skills...
Orb of Deception
I definitely max out Orb of Deception first, because its the main poke/damage/harass/farm tool she has and its generally her best spell (apart from her ultimate OF COURSE). This spell doesn't need much explanation here, it speaks for itself.I will though analyse it further more
in the playstyle section.

Fox-Fire
I love the harassing abilities of this spell in mid and its HUGE damage if all 3 Fox Fires hit the same target. So lets say you are mid with Akali and she comes close to hit you with Mark of the Assassin you immediately pop Fox Fire and she takes AT LEAST 120 damage (AT LEVEL ONE) plus an Orb of Deception in her *** and then she leaves with that OMG face crying to her mommy, because she lost half her hp trying to cut a ridiculous 60-100 damage from you. Also this is a great tool to proc that passive with lower mana cost (it costs 60 mana at level one while Orb of Deception costs 65 at level two) if no champ is nearby to harass him with Orb of Deception to get that passive proced in the same time (otherwise its just not worth the mana using it just for minions)

Charm
This spell has GREAT CC and its the second reason Ahri is such a good turret diver.It also is one of the best 1v1 initiation tools, with this you can kill someone before he can deal you ANY damage QQ all the way through the game.It can also save lives (yours or you allies').The reason i max it last is because of the HUGE mana cost it has (WTF 110 at lvl 5???) so you can afford casting it at low levels when you wont need that much CC if you have enough AP.

Spirit Rush
Ok this is one of the best ultimates in the entire game... 3 dashes let you escape, chase, DAMAGE, dodge, jump over and annoy almost anything and anyone in the game.As with all ults (except Poppy's) I take a point whenever available (levels 6, 11, 16). Cooldown is totally ridiculous so feel totally free to use it.

Runes

Runes
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration 9	Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration 9	Greater Glyph of Ability Power 6	Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power 3	Greater Quintessence of Ability Power 3

Rod of Ages

Runes
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration 9	Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration 9	Greater Glyph of Magic Resist 6	Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power 3	Greater Quintessence of Ability Power 3

Masteries

Masteries

1/1

4/4

4/4

1/1

2/2

4/1

4/3

1/4

3/3

1/1

1/1

3/3

1/4

Improved Recall

Summoner's Insight

Flash

Executioner

Items

Now for the REALLY hard part.


FIRST BUILD (PERSONAL FAVORITE)Max pew pew lazor powa to blast'em down like baby Teemos. Also got some mana and HP from Rod of Ages.The guys that have seen the "old" version of my guide saw i had a Void Staffand Lich Bane on my first build, instead of my current Morello's Evil Tome and Rylai's Crystal Scepter .Well i tested a new build and it worked totally great, even better then the older one i had, so i decided to replace the old with the new. I was playing a game and saw that I was going to be able to finish my items, so i decided to test another build that i had in mind for quite some time (the current 1st build). The results: 20-9-19 (I had some early deaths from a couple of mistakes and a LOT of ganks, also some underfarm). To explain the new items i get the Rod of Ages mostly for the mana it provides and less for the hp (I consider RoA as a core as it is really important early game). The Rylai's Crystal Scepter Is so better than I thought it was (i wasn't using it much on Ahri before this update of my guide). Everything it gives is so useful: The slow? Makes you chase like a boss combined with Spirit Rush, The HP? Makes you 3k hp... OMG SO FRIGIN UNDYING, YOU BECOME IMMORTAL WITH THAT SPELL VAMP The AP? Speaks for itself... so what are you going to lose? Will of the Ancients This is just divine on Ahri ---> 25% Spell Vamp + 35% from passive = a GODLY 60%!!! (imagine hitting a large minion wave: Full HP with one click on Q). Morello's Evil Tome Very precious CDR, which makes your ult have a whopping 35 sec cd with Blue Buff, maxing your CDR (40% CDR is the limit, you have 39% with blue and masteries), good mana regen and an ok 75 AP, also makes Q being able to hit as fast as your auto attacks. Rabadon's Deathcap All explained in one word: OWNAGE


SECOND BUILD, NOT IN MY LIKES BUT ITS A MORE "RANKED" BUILD AND MANY ARE ASKING FOR IT IN OTHER GUIDESMake Ahri ---> Tankahri you just cannot die while also having a quite a bit of magic damage.
You may have noticed that the 2nd build has 30 or so more AP than the 1st, that is not accurate in paper. You will see that you will have about 600 ap, maybe more, but i repeatTHIS IS NOT ACCURATE NUMBERS!. Anyway Zhonya's Hourglass gives you armor and cool active. Lich Bane gives you mr and some ms. For rest of items look above in this chapter, at the 1st build.


OTHER VIABLE STARTING ITEMS
+ Boots of Speed + Health Potion---> dodge those annoying skillshots ( Piltover Peacemaker, Pillar of Flame, Light Binding etc.)
+ Sapphire Crystal + Health Potion ---> spam that passive to get on their nerves also makes Rod of Ages faster tho i believe its not that good


SITUATIONAL
Banshee's Veil: for that LeBlanc or Veigar etc.
Guardian Angel: if they target you a lot
Abyssal Scepter: to counter those mages and gain bonus damage for your team with the aura


ITEMS TO AVOID
ANY TANK ITEM ---> ahri is not tank and with my build she has ALLLL the survivability she needs.
Deathfire Grasp: Bad item for Ahri, tho some like it, i don't. In fact i only buy this for Veigar and none else.
Archangel's Staff: Tho very tempting for most mages it's NOT for Ahri, she doesn't need all that mana and even if it gives tons of AP Ahri will get those from elsewhere

Ahri's playstyle

Ahri is super good in and hard at the same time in positioning which is key to her success but it's made SO much easier and fun with Spirit Rush (this ulti is just a miracle). What you have to do is harass in mid but be careful not to be harassed too much (your passive makes harass to you almost useless). Harass until you get your ultimate, then lure them into a Charm and pew pew your ult in their faces. You could kill them earlier for First Blood which is easy with Ahri due to you get Charm at level 4, so same combo but instead of ult click anything you have in his face and do it piano style... in team fights toss Q and E here and there from afar, waiting for all CC to be blown, because if you join first they will ALL CC YOU FIRST and there goes bb little Ahri, instead wait for their CC to go on cooldown and separate the squishy carries away from their teams and kill them with the speed of light. After go help your team finish off the tanks and hard to kill stuff. If there are supports separate them first so they cant help their team so you get free killz and help your team all in one (supports are E -> Q -> W -> dead by Ahri)then sneak behind their carries with Spirit Rush, forcing them to flee then chase them and BAM, tho you need to be careful not to challenge to hard for you to kill enemies like that fed Caitlyn or Ezreal (Ezreal is hard to kill only if gone the Auto Attack way, if gone skillshot based way of damage he is not a champ for you, but a pile of gold ---> ult ult ult = you can't catch me nana nanana). Gank as much as you can to help other people meet progress and gain some assist gold for you too. This is all you have to do and if you do it correct it's "gg easy game".

Summary

Well this is it 2 different ways to build Ahri, both dominate the game. Do any NON-TROLL comment i want to hear your questions and suggestions and don't hesitate to downvote it if you don't like it, ask me anything i will explain it and if you think this is not good then i deserve a downvote.Thank you so much for watching this guide and I'm looking forward to making an Ezreal guide. Ezreal used to be my favorite champion... now that Ahri is here he comes second *Ezreal lets a tear slide through his cheek :'(*

Special thanks

I want to thank JhoiJhoi for her How-to-make-a-guide guide which can be found here JhoiJhoi's guide to making a guide. I want to credit this girl for 50% of my guide... girl you saved my guide from disaster :D