Hi I am a Gold II player on the NA servers with a little too much free time so I decided to make a guide. I got Ahri when she was flavor of the month during Season 3 World's and still kept playing her after her nerfs. My patience was rewarded after her latest buff. I think she is a top tier mid lane with a high skill cap and is a lot of fun to play. She has a lot of burst with the true damage from her Q and the magic damage amplification from her E. She has one of the best crowd controls in the game and she scales well.

The guide right now has the core information, I'll finish it when I find time. Leave any questions in the comments and I will try my best to answer them.

Pros

• A true damage spell that's AOE and doesn't have a 40+ second cool down
• Good burst with DFG
• Good Mobility with Ult
• Good sustain with passive and low mana cost on Q at max rank
• Good wave clear
• Scales well
• One of the best crowd controls in the game with E

Cons

• Skill shot dependent
• High Skill cap
• Compared to other assassins burst isn't that great
• Early game burst isn't that great
• Only escape is ultimate
• She was made for koreans, of course she is going to be hard to play

I run the listed rune page as a default, it pretty much gives you almost everything you need. I sometimes replace the armor runes with scaling health and the scaling AP blues with scaling MR for some matchups. You can honestly mix and match your seals and glyphs with whatever you want along as you have magic pen reds and flat AP quints.

I prefer 21/9/0 because Ahri doesn't have that much mana problems anymore and if I go in I want to come out top. You can go 21/0/9 if you are extremely confident and want to spam spells all days. Regardless I find it important to include a point in butcher because last hitting is extremely important.

It should R->Q->W->E. Your E is basically a one point wonder though sometimes I put another point in it for specific match ups. Q is your main damage tool that is why you max it first. There were times where people maxed W first in certain matchups, but with the buff to Q there is no reason to do that anymore.

Passive:Essence Theft

It use to give you spellvamp after hitting an enemy nine times. Now after hitting an enemy nine times it gives you a percent of your AP for every enemy you hit on your next ability. The best way to maximize this during the laning phase is right when your opponents minions meet your minions. This way they are in a straight line and you can use your Orb of Deception on them to maximize the amount of health you get back. Never underestimate how much health it can give back, like it is alot.

Q:Orb of Deception

Skill does half true damage and half magic damage. Your main harass and wave clear. With the low mana costs, you will be surprise how hard and efficiently you can shove a wave with blue and double doran rings. It is probably the only spell that has this low of a cooldown while doing a considerable amount of true damage. Makes Ahri more than a one trick pony compared to other assassins(most noticeably Zed) since it is AOE. The true damage is on the way back making it pretty important to hit them on the way back. You can alter the return path by moving so after some practice makes it easier to hit them with the true damage. I personally like to use it when the opponent is going for a last hit. Also one shots Zyra.

W:Fox-Fire

Your only non skill shot skill. Riot nerfed the damage on this hard after Season 3 World Championships. It doesn't do as much as it use to, but it is guaranteed damage as it prioritizes champions. Each little ball has its own range so learn about how far each can hit. Max it second because damage is damage.

E:Charm

One of the strongest crowd controls in the game. Landing this on someone squishy in a team fight generally guarantees a kill. Late game when you have this maxed you will have this on roughly a 9-10 second cooldown (unless you go full cdr) for a two second stun that also draws them near you. Also amplifies all damage dealt by Ahri which synergizes well with the active of Deathfire Grasp. Only skill in the game that amplifies true damage.

Ultimate: Spirit Rush

This is what makes her fun. You get to dash to your mouse cursor three times with a small delay between each one. It gives you alot of flexibility as it doubles as an escape or part of your damage combo, or both. Use it to position yourself well in team fights, escape ganks or as part of your all in to burst someone. Make sure you keep track of how many times you used the dashes, you don't want to run out in the middle of the enemies team.

For the most part Ahri isn't very mana heavy allowing you to rush deathfire grasp as your first completed item. Having it is very important to your laning phase and it is the only way that gives you any type of pressure. I like to build Rabadon's item as a second item to give myself a power spike around mid game. After those two it is all up to preference. Void Staff increases damage considerably, Rylai's Scepter passive synergizes well with your ult(it is technically single target) allowing you to slow them down to land everything else. Lich Bane also works well with Ahri as her ult allows her to get a lot of procs off. Zhonyas Hourglass makes it so you are punished less for misusing your ultimate and for screwing over all the Zed mains in the world.

Early game, you can play it safe by harassing them with your Q. Be aware of your surroundings, Ahri's Q allows you to push the wave hard in certain matchups, so one strategy is to shove it as hard as you can with the first two waves and have it reset by the time the jungler is down with his camps(there is a risk if you do this against a Jarvan IV, Lee Sin or Xin Zhao because they have strong level two ganks). If you end up having the wave frozen in a bad position, make sure to ward to watch out for jungle ganks, you don't want to burn your ult or your flash unless you have to. Both have some pretty long cooldowns and are important spells. Only ultimate towards your opponent if they are low or to help assist on a gank. Try to land your E's as the damage that you will follow up with it is considerable.

Midgame you either should have deathfire grasp to burst someone down, or some sort of cooldown reduction from Athene's Unholy Grail or Morellonomicon to help catch people out with your charm. You can shove the wave and roam when your ultimate is up. Generally using it on a gank secures a kill.

Late game there are several ways to do this. You can initiate with your E by catching someone out(Faker likes doing this on supports). You can jump around and take out a squishy or you can just peel for the ADC. It is all based on decision making. IF you feel like you can't reach the opponents squishy's you might be better off peeling, you see alot of people grouped up, you wanna focus on laying out as much damage as possible with your Q and if you got a good opening you can run in and 100-0 the ADC/AP mid. It is all dependent on the situation.

Against other assassins, fizz is the only one you need to watchout for. Hold on to your E until he uses his troll poll to CC him and land your combo. Talon is roughly even early game as you have better sustain but he has more burst, later on you need to respect his burst as his silence can prevent your from dashing away.

You beat Zed because you can dash away with your ult, akali is a skill matchup, as long as you land your E you should be ok and just shove her in early game as she cannot provide any gank assistance. You beat Katarina with your mobility(dashing out of her ult) and your crowd control, you ok against Kassadin as your true damage will negate his passive. The lack of silence is a plus for you, but the fact he hops around alot makes it hard for you to chase him down.

For the rest of the mid laners you either out range them but don't beat them in pure burst or vice versa. Harass like crazy with your Q in matchups like Annie and use your E and Ultimate to burst champions like Ziggs. If they beat you both ways, you can just farm safe because with your true damage you will probably outscale them anyways.