Hi all! This is my first guide (ever), and it's on my favorite champion in all of my LoL summoning career: Ahri!

I don't claim to be a pro, nor the best at Ahri, but I feel that I have a firm enough grasp of her mechanics and tricks to write this in-depth guide. If you have any tips, or criticisms on my items, runes, or masteries, feel free to make a comment on it. Just make sure to make it constructive.

P.S. 아리 is Korean for her name (it means Graceful/Elegant).

That dance reference was by NeiLalwaysLeeT. Go check his channel if you want to see some other LoL references.

First things, first: Ahri is not a "mobile assassin" like Riot said (unless you build her like one). She is just a caster, who has extremely high mobility coming from a long cooldown skill that can be learned at level 6, not before it. If you want a true mobile assassin, get Fizz, Kassadin, or LeBlanc.

Some mid laners are farmers ( Ryze, Karthus), who just want to farm until late game, where their true power lies. Other mid laners are roamers ( Kassadin, LeBlanc), who will want to bully their lane opponent out of lane or push the lane to gank the side lanes. These guys have the best early/mid games. Although it's not all black and white; there are shades of gray too!

Ahri is essentially the jack-of-all-trades mage. She can burst, but not as hard as LeBlanc or Veigar. She has some sustained damage with her low cooldowns, but not as much as Cassiopeia or Ryze. She is mobile with her ult up, but with slow base movement (305), is slow without. Ahri is a roamer, with her amazing mid-game so push the lane with Orb of Deception and roam to gank either bot or top.

She has relatively high base damages for her main damage spells, allowing her to build semi-tanky (not as effectively as before), yet deal glasscannon-like damage. However, high base damages with an assassin build ( Deathfire Grasp) allow her to be able to insta-gib a squishy carry before they can run away.

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Pros + Fun and versatile + One of the highest, if not the highest burst mobility in the game with her ultimate + Can carry a whole team by roaming and Charming (don't mean 1v5) + One of the best mid games + Some lane sustain and easy farming + True damage and one of the best CCs in the game ( Charm) + Sexy fox lady

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Cons - Relatively slow moving skillshots - Low mobility without ultimate - Weaker late, late game (can't one shot the overpowered Purple Caster Minions with Orb of Deception anymore) - Takes some time to out-damage the other burst casters (unless very ahead) - Squishy until you get some items

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• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration - Standard mage marks: they'll give you magic penetration for your magic damage spells.
  *They don't work for the return part of Orb of Deception*
• Greater Seal of Armor - Armor will help you trade better (autoattack harass, minion retaliation). Not much to say here.
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist - Some much needed magic resist against the magic damage dealing mids.
• Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed - MOVEMENT SPEED to help you land that last skillshot, make clutch escapes, reposition yourself better, etc. (even better since the S3 base movement speed buffs, as these only work on base movement speed and not bonus), and you really won't miss the 15 AP.

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VS AD Mid ( Talon/ Pantheon/ Gangplank)

• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration - refer to above
• Greater Seal of Armor - Armor for those pesky physical damage spells and autoattacks
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist - Since you won't be going up against an AP mid, they should have an AP top. If they don't, replace these with Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power
• Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed - refer to above

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You can always use different runes. These are just my preferences. Other viable choices are:
Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration - These will help early on if you have mana problems
Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration - These are much more effective than the the flat mana regen runes, but mana problems should only occur in the early or mid game
Greater Seal of Scaling Health - These give health, simple enough.
Greater Seal of Scaling Ability Power - Get these if you just want more damage.
Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power - A standard caster glyph, there's nothing wrong with getting it
Greater Glyph of Ability Power - Get these if you want the AP from runes, but want a better early game (note that the Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power and the Greater Glyph of Ability Power AP bonus evens out at level 7, so choose wisely). These are usually for AP junglers like Diana.
Greater Quintessence of Magic Resist - Use VS LeBlanc/ Veigar or if you're playing Galio (hint: you're not)
Greater Quintessence of Health - Nothing wrong with being a little bit tankier
Greater Quintessence of Spell Vamp - I haven't tried these runes on Ahri; they are for some AP tops, such as Rumble and Vladimir
Greater Quintessence of Ability Power - Just AP for more damage

First thing's first: NEVER FOLLOW ITEM BUILDS EXACTLY. ALWAYS BUILD ACCORDING TO THE ENEMY TEAM!
If they have all magic damage, then skip the Zhonya's Hourglass and get more MR from Quicksilver Sash or a Banshee's Veil.
If they have all physical damage, then get a MUCH earlier Zhonya's Hourglass.
If they have a lot of true damage, then get Rylai's Crystal Scepter. Here's a hint: Black Cleaver + Last Whisper = almost 0 armor = true damage. Health counters true damage.
If they have a tanky team, then get Deathfire Grasp.
If they're building a lot of MR, then get a Void Staff instead of an Abyssal Mask.

Ok. Now that I've sent that message out, it's time for me to explain my build.
In my opinion, there are two ways of playing Ahri: A burst assassin (-ish) and an AoE mage. In my opinion, Ahri can't really operate as a AoE DPS mage anymore, with all of the utility mages out there who outclass her in that role ( Anivia, Orianna). So her assassin build is probably the best build for her right now.

You can start with several items, which aren't listed above. These items are a Crystalline Flask and consumables, Boots and consumables, and After that, you should build whatever you need. If you plan on getting Athene's Unholy Grail, then get a Chalice of Harmony and one Ring instead of the Double Doran's.

You should always have a defensive item in your build. Guardian Angel is a well-rounded one that gives an amazing passive. Other choices include Quicksilver Sash, Banshee's Veil (get the Catalyst the Protector instead of Chalice/Rings if you plan on getting this), Thornmail, if their team is made up of mostly autoattackers who rely on lifesteal to stay alive.

At the end of the game, if you have enough, you can change your Sorcerer's Shoes into Mercury's Treads or your Abyssal Mask into Void Staff. The first exchange will make you tankier in exchange for less damage. The second one will make you more damaging against high MR teams, but will make you more susceptible to magic damage. Only get Void Staff if 3 or more enemies have over 100 magic resist or if they have little to none magic damage (note that if they have little magic damage AND little magic resist, Abyssal Mask will give you more damage and some survivability against the little magic damage they have.

You can also get Mercury's Treads against CC heavy teams and magic damage lane bullies.

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• Athene's Unholy Grail: What you get if you want to constantly push the lane without running out of mana. Also gives a nice amount of AP, MR, and CDR. Good item to get against LeBlanc since you can push the lane (she doesn't farm well at turret) and you have some MR. You can also get this if you have a mana hungry jungler or if your jungle isn't in your control and blue is constantly being taken.
• Will of the Ancients: It's still a good item. Just not as cost effective as it was before. When Ahri was released, WotA was pretty core on her. Now, rarely anyone gets it. Get it if: you're losing lane badly and need to recover quickly or you have an AP Top and want to run Double WotA. Don't rush it either, just leave the Hextech Revolver in your inventory until later.
• Abyssal Mask: It's not a priority item since the nerf. If you want the magic pen, you can get a Haunting Guise (It's underrated). Just note that it's not an aura and you get no MR. If you still want the MR, you can just get an early Negatron Cloak and get another big MR item (QSS, BV). You can get this if you want more aggressive stats than the other MR items give you.
• Deathfire Grasp: Super damage! Use it before your Fox-fires and Spirit Rush essence bolts land, to make maximum effectiveness of the % damage increase.
• Rabadon's Deathcap: A core item on any AP Carry's build. It's just pure damage and allows you to scale into late game better.
• Rylai's Crystal Scepter: Makes Ahri one of the kiting queens, along with Ashe and Kayle. A chunk of HP to survive, and the slow lets you chase better. Also, since Fox-Fire counts as a single target spell, you can reapply the 35% Rylai's slow 3 times, making your chasing/escape potential amazing.
• Liandry's Torment: Along with Sorc Shoes, and possible Abyssal, you can get up to 50 MR reduced, 30 of it through penetration, and the other third through Abyssal's -MR aura. It'll give you a nice DoT (keep in mind that it's current hp, not max). It's a combo item along with Rylai's Crystal Scepter, as the slow will increase the DoT duration.
• Zhonya's Hourglass: Armor and AP. Get it against Talon or heavy physical team compositions. Also, the Stasis active is amazing. It can save you and your tails, by letting you ignore that Requiem, Ignite, or to allow you to drop focus in teamfights.
• Lich Bane: I personally don't like it. You can use it for more burst, and you can have constant procs from your short CDs, but it's still really situational. It also helps you split-push better, if you're doing that.

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Pure Defensive Items
These are items you get just for defense and have no offensive purposes

• Quicksilver Sash: This is a good item if you find yourself getting CC-locked a lot. Get it if: they enemy team wants to CC-lock you with Leona/ Nautilus or if they have a Skarner/ Warwick/ Malzahar and they're targeting you with their ults.
• Frozen Heart/ Randuin's Omen: Since you'll be diving in anyway (not stupidly, mind you), a Randuin's would be a good choice if they have heavy physical damage, and a FH would give you a lot of mana and CDR. You would normally get a Zhonya's, but you can get this if you like. Don't get the FH if your team already has one.
• Catalyst the Protector: I don't think that Ahri needs that extra mana from RoA. Your spells don't cost that much mana to use. Sure, it gives more HP, but Rylai's slow is amazing for kiting, chasing, and escaping. If you really want the Catalyst the Protector passive, then save it for a Banshee's Veil later if you're up against a Blitzcrank, Nautilus or some others. Skip the Doran's Rings if you plan on getting a Catalyst.
  
  

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  Boots
  There are a few choices for boots that I would recommend:
  • Sorcerer's Shoes: These will give you a strong early game. Combined with runes and masteries, you should do almost true damage to anyone without scaling MR or MR runes/masteries.
  • Mercury's Treads: These provide MR, but most importantly, Tenacity, an amazing stat for anyone against any CC. Take these against heavy CC or magic damage teams.
  • Ninja Tabi: these provide armor and an amazing passive to deal with those autoattackers. Take these against teams with a lot of autoattackers or physical damage.
  • Mobility Boots: This will give you a lot of movement speed when not fighting. Get these if you want to roam a lot.
  • Ionian Boots of Lucidity: These provide CDR, allowing you to spam even more. Many mid laners tend not to get these boots because of blue buff and the blue elixir. However, if your jungler deems you unworthy of blue because you're dying a lot or they're Fiddlesticks, then get these if you want CDR. You really shouldn't need this, and if you don't have Blue Buff, you can always get Athene's Unholy Grail, which conveniently gives 15% CDR.
  
  
  If there are other items that you think I should put here, then feel free to comment about it.

ALSO: Standard Combo

1: (Optional Flash) > R > Deathfire Grasp + W (use these when you're mid-dash) > R (position yourself for E) > E > Q > (save last R to reposition yourself for another W, double-hitting with Q, or to escape)

2: (Optional Flash) > E > DFG + W > R > Q > R > (save last R)


Essentially - R>Q=W>E

I normally max Orb of Deception first, but maxing Fox-Fire will give you a higher damage potential. Orb of Deception is longer ranged and a better farming tool, but Fox-Fire should be maxed first against a melee champion or one who has to get close to do their damage ( Akali, Ryze). Note that each Fox-Fire has its own range.



I get Charm at level one because of the CC it brings in to either escape from their jungler's Red Buff -> Gank route or to help your jungler's Red Buff -> Gank. Of course, if they have a blue reliant or level 6 ganker ( Amumu, Warwick), then you can get Orb of Deception or Fox-Fire first.

- Depending on which skill you maxed first, use that for the most health gained. Assuming level 5 Orb of Deception and Fox-Fire, Orb of Deception will heal more if both parts of it hit at least four enemies.


- During laning, try to hit your lane opponent with both the magic and true damage portions at the same time (hitting them with the tip of the spell). During teamfights and skirmishes, if you can't hit your target with the tip, then sidestep or Spirit Rush (don't use it just for that purpose ;D) in order to let the true damage portion hit them.

- Each Fox-Fire has its own range. So in lane, don't expect each Fox-Fire to hit a single target if you're surrounded by minions unless you're extremely close to the enemy champion. This is a multi- single-target spell, if that makes sense. Ahri summons 3 (multi) Fox-fires, but each one of them counts as a single target spell for spell vamp and the Rylai's slow.


- One of the best type of CCs in the game. It makes the afflicted enemy unit slowly move towards you, unable to use most spells or attack. A stun would be better for escaping, but this type of CC basically forces the enemy to walk into your whole team during teamfights, unable to do anything about it. Best part is that it's long ranged (975)

- One of the best escaping, chasing, and repositioning skills in the game. It wasn't supposed to be used as a get-out-of-jail-free card, just a repositioning skill for your other 3 spells. It lets you hit someone twice with Orb of Deception, get closer for all three Fox-Fires to hit, and gives an open space for you to land Charm. In team fights, you can use one or two of them for damage. I use the remaining charges to reposition myself to hit their AD Carry, escape from danger, and to chase fleeing low health enemies. Flash is a 400 range blink and Spirit Rush is three 450 range dashes.

Flash is overpowered. It can let you escape ganks, get that last spell off for the kill, or, for some champions, initiate a teamfight.


Ignite adds to your burst combo and can lower the healing capabilities of enemies who rely on healing (AD Sion, Swain, Dr. Mundo).

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Exhaust can lower the damage outputs of champions, and can be beneficial to have against heavy damage dealers in a teamfight, although this is normally taken on the support, jungler, or top laner.


You can get Teleport to have more of a map presence. If your support wards the side brushes at bot, you can teleport to them in order to gank without going in through the river or tribush.
Here is an example of where you can teleport to gank bot:


Cleanse is useful against the champions with long CC durations that can end up in your death (I'm looking at you Morgana D:)


Ghost used to be the number 1 summoner spell. Now it's barely used. Flash usually is much better, but Ghost is better in long chases without wall interference. It's mainly used on champions such as Olaf, instead of mids.


It can save you one day from a LeBlanc or Veigar combo or a Karthus ult. Who knows?




Useful for burst survivability when you can't really use Heal. Otherwise, essentially the same purpose as Heal.

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The best summoner spell. You need it to dunk the nooblords. Dunking aside, a bad spell. 9 minute cooldown, only usable when dead, something you don't want to be unless you're Karthus, but it is hilarious when combined with Teleport. (Be at the teamfight twice, anyone?)


If you know how to manage your mana, then you shouldn't need this... ever. If you want, you can get mana regen runes.


This is for your jungler to secure buffs, Dragon, and Baron Nashor. Unless you're jungling (you are BAD at it), don't get this.



This should be on your support, even though most of them get Exhaust nowadays. As much as I loved CV AP Carry Lux, I wouldn't recommend it on an AP Carry.

These matchups will assume equally skilled players with equal jungle interference. (I'm open to questions, advice, and disagreements (just tell me why!))

Oh hey! AD Caster/Assassin/Bruiser Mid Meta! Since armor is essentially useless as a stat right now (penetration changes, price increase, Black Cleaver), getting health is probably the best defensive stat you can get against ADs. If it comes with armor ( Randuin's Omen, Runic Bulwark), great! But you can't really use these items without losing out on a lot of damage (Deathcap nerfs). So against Kha'Zix, Talon, and others, get a Rylai's Crystal Scepter and a Zhonya's Hourglass.

- Difficulty - Easy pre-6/Medium post-6 - easy pre-6, much harder post-6; her ult will beat yours, but can't be used for escaping. Try to harass her a lot pre-6 as she is melee. Also, never fight in her shroud. If she uses Shadow Dance towards you, then Charm and unload. Get some early MR and HP. Roam when she does to counter-gank, or push the lane and roam yourself.

- Difficulty - Easy-Medium pre-6/Medium post-6 - she has extremely high AP ratios and base damages. Try not to get hit by her Flash Frost, or you'll get hit with her Frostbite, which will HURT. She is blue-buff reliant, so see if your jungler can ward their blue at 7:00 to try to steal it. Be careful of diving her because of her passive Rebirth. Later in the game, she has a lot of utility in team fights and can Frostbite into Glacial Storm. She can prevent you from roaming for kills post-6 by pushing you to your turret. You can ult out of Glacial Storm and Flash Frost and go through Crystallize. In team fights, she is a lot more useful as she has more damage (both burst and DoT) and more utility ( Crystallize, giant AoE slow, AoE stun, while you have a single target Charm and a bunch of slows).

- Difficulty - Medium-Hard - Extreme burst, reliable cc with a Pyromania-ed Disintegrate. You do out range her, but she can always Flash. Get early MR to avoid being Tibber-bombed on.

- Difficulty - Easy-Medium - Try not to get hit by his Pillar of Flame. It's ok to miss cs if you can avoid it as it will chunk you down. He also has a high amount of burst, but his CC is the same speed as your Charm-slow.

- Difficulty - Hard - A good Cassiopeia will give every mid laner a hard time, except maybe Galio. Avoid her Noxious Blast and you won't have to deal with Twin Fang spam. If you go in for the kill, Q, then immediately turn around to avoid her ult's stun.

- Difficulty - Easy - This gentleman just turns the lane into a farmfest. Just avoid his Rupture and you shouldn't die.

- Difficulty - Ehh, she's still pretty annoying to deal with even after her nerfs - Try to dodge her Crescent Strike. If you get hit by it, she will combo you, and it will chunk you for a lot. She can out-trade you because of the shield from Pale Cascade. I recommend getting some early MR and health. Her Lunar Rush's range is 750 units, so be careful not to get close after getting affected by Moonlight.

Difficulty - Easy? - In my opinion, she works a lot better as a top laner, as she can't really be an AP carry because she has to build tanky if she wants to use her full kit properly. Her early game poke is really good with her heat-seeking W and her %HP poke. If she uses Rappel on you, then Charm and follow up with the rest of your combo.

- Difficulty - Easy-Medium - He has a lot of burst, but his Trueshot Barrage's damage decreases rapidly if there are minions. Just avoid his skillshots and you should be fine. He actually has a LOT of burst damage if everything hits late game. The thing about Ezreal is that he has no way to actually clear minions without his ult, so push the lane and roam.

- Difficulty - Medium - You can't kill him without using everything, and his Reap harass will be annoying, although it pushes the lane. Ask for a jungler gank if you can.

- Difficulty - Medium-Hard - Max Fox-Fire first and try to harass him hard before he gets his skills. Dodge Chum the Waters with Spirit Rush and he shouldn't be able to 100-0 you. His W>Q combo hurts though, and he can use Playful / Trickster to escape with minimal damage. You can't really get a gank against one because of troll pole, but if you bait it out, go in. It has a long cooldown at early ranks.

- Difficulty - Medium-Hard - Farm-fest. Neither of you can kill each other without jungle interference, as he doesn't have enough damage, and your damage is mostly magic. He can push the lane hard and harass at the same time with Resolute Smite, an easy to land, high-damaging AoE skill.

- Difficulty - Easy-Medium - Just avoid his barrels by moving forward or to the side. Most of them will send the barrel behind you. Careful for his fatman Body Slam if you move towards him. If he lands a good Explosive Cask, sometimes the best escape route isn't back to the turret. He has a lot of sustain as well due to Happy Hour and Drunken Rage.

- Difficulty - Easy - Just farm the best you can. All he can do is push and prevent you from roaming. That's ok. You can kill him instead. He's really squishy until he gets a Rylai's or RoA. Also ask for jungler ganks as he'll be pushing hard. You can't roam much because he'll just take your turret. Heimer is known for being an amazing laner, but falls off hard because he lacks a real teamfight presence if your team can destroy his turrets.

- Difficulty - Easy - He just wants to farm. Don't let him do that. Keep chunking him with Fox-Fire and Orb of Deception and if he gets low enough, dive him. If you catch him ulting in a vulnerable place, then see if you can ult in and Charm him.

- Difficulty - Hard - He gives every AP Mid a bad time, and should only be picked in draft as a counterpick. If someone on the other team picks him before you have your mid, it's better to go Talon or Pantheon. Get Merc Treads and send your bruiser or AD against him if possible.

- Difficulty - Easy - Charm her out of Death Lotus or just ult out of it. With the remake, Katarina's Bouncing Blade harass damage has gone down. Position yourself away from your minions, autoattack her if she tries to last hit with basic attacks and spells, and save your Charm. She does lose lane, but the biggest problem with her is preventing her from roaming and snowballing out of control. Late game, try to tell your team to save at least one CC for her, then just burst her down.

- Difficulty - Medium - Kennen is a safe pick. He can farm safely with his Q, and is a stun bot late game. Dodge Thundering Shurikens, and just farm the best you can.

- Difficulty - Easy pre-6/Stupidly Annoying post-16 - AP Kog relies on his range advantage and is completely broken. At level 6, Living Artillery has a relatively short range, but at level 16+, he becomes really, really annoying. Living Artillery do around 500 damage on a 1 second or less cooldown, slow if he has Rylai's, and all of this... from beyond vision range. Here's a video: Just replace 'swimming' with 'moving'. And if you get close to him, guess what? Lich Bane combined with Bio-Arcane Barrage = a lot of damage... from 710 range away. However, you have 3 dashes when he isn't godmode press-R-20-times-to-win at level 16. If he has blue buff, he can just spam it endlessly. You know what? AP Kog deserves two videos. Watch Froggen dominate in at MLG during CLG.eu vs. TSM here. Get tier 2 boots as soon as possible to dodge Living Artillery. If he starts to fire off a lot of Living Artillery, then move erratically if you can. Take advantage of his weak early game by harassing him a lot.

- Difficulty - Hard - After double Doran's or Chalice of Harmony, get Merc Treads and get a Negatron Cloak> Giant's Belt> Abyssal Mask> Rylai's Crystal Scepter. Her Q>R>W combo should do much less than what it should do with your 100 MR. I recommend getting a Chalice of Harmony because it gives you mana to push the lane, as LeBlanc is a horrible farmer at her turret, and it gives you some much needed MR. If you don't plan on getting an Athene's Unholy Grail, then go ahead and get double Doran's into Kage's. Just be sure to get an early Abyssal Mask. Don't get a DFG and Athene's though, as the CDR will be wasted.

- Difficulty - Easy-Medium - She can zone you easily with her long range, but after level 6, you can dodge her skills (which have long CDs) and get in close, which is something she doesn't like. Her Lucent Singularity won't do that much early on, just watch out for Light Binding and Illumination-procced autoattacks early game. Many people tend to underestimate Lux. She was my main caster before Ahri's release, and I know first hand how many people have gotten killed from a Q>E>R>Detonate E combo. If she lands a snare at level 6 and you have 500 hp left, get ready to die. ;_;

- Difficulty - Hard - Really great laner, he has good harass, and can kill you at level six with his full combo. He pushes the lane hard with Malefic Visions, which doesn't let you roam, and his Nether Grasp is point-and-click hard CC, which prevents you from damaging him while you get melted from his DoTs.

- Difficulty - Medium - He is an anti-burst mage with his shield. However, in order to keep his shield up, he has to push the lane hard, as his abilities are mostly AoE. Ask for a jungler gank; he has no escapes. All he'll do is push and farm. Late game, protect your carry from his full combo, or you just lost the fight.

- Difficulty - Medium - She is known to be one of the safest farmers in game, due to her level 3 Tormented Shadow being able to one-shot the caster minions and her Black Shield's CC Immunity. However, she does have a 425 autoattack range, so harass her before she gets level 5. Your Orb of Deception's true damage will penetrate Black Shield.

- Difficulty - Easy... if you can dodge skillshots - AP Nid is a one trick pony. She fits in with a poke comp as her Javelin Toss is on a short cooldown and chunks hard. If she's going glass cannon, then she should be easy to deal with: dodge javelins and go in for the kill. The javelins will do much less damage up close than far away. If she's going tanky, then she'll probably split-push a lot. If your team has a teleport, then she should be much easy to deal with (like all split-pushers). However, if the enemy team picks a Nidalee, then your team might assume that she'll be in top lane, as she doesn't normally mid.

- Difficulty - Medium - The Queen of Zoning - avoid the Ball and Command: Dissonance. With Command: Protect, she can shield herself and autoattack you a few times with Clockwork Windup, while receiving no damage in return. Her single target damage is lower, because of her utility and AoE damage. Don't underestimate her though.

- Difficulty - Easy early-mid/Medium-Hard late - Early game, he's easy. But mid-late game, he's tankier and can do more damage. His point and click Rune Prison and stop you from ulting away or closer. You need to try to shut him down early on with jungle ganks and a lot of harass. He is short-ranged, but it's common to see Ryze have 500 more health than you, a Frozen Heart aura, a spell shield, never running OOM late, and dealing the same damage as you or even more.

- Difficulty - Easy-Medium - Impossible to shove a good AP Sion out of lane. He can put his shield up, stun you, and explode the shield, harassing and farming at the same time. After pushing the lane, he'll roam. However, he lacks a late game presence as his only damage sources are 1) single-target or 2) can be broken and stopped.

- Difficulty - Medium-Hard - You have to get close to do your damage. Swain likes close. Simple enough. He also has a bunch of CC and can out-sustain your harass.

- Difficulty - Easy - If you don't get hit by the Dark Sphere's stun from Scatter the Weak, you shouldn't really die. You can dodge almost all of her abilities, and she's really squishy with no mobility. You know what that means. However, DON'T UNDERESTIMATE HER ULT DAMAGE when she has multiple Dark Spheres up.

- Difficulty - Easy - Dodge his Wild Cards. He can't really kill you, and you can kill him. If you don't see him, then tell your teammates. Ward a lot to prevent him from ganking, or push the lane to his turret so he can't roam.

- Difficulty - Easy-Medium early/If-you-get-caught-in-his-stun-a-fox-is-dead late - We all know how a Veigar lane turns out. Get a bunch of MR to prevent getting one-shotted. Harass him early, and try to not let him farm (although if he's good, he knows that he shouldn't farm heavily with Baleful Strike until he has enough mana regen from Crest of the Ancient Golem or items.

- Difficulty - Medium - He has an amazing early game. He can trade with Power Transfer's shield. He can harass with Hextech Ray, and he can zone with Gravity Field. His level 6 burst with DFG is amazing. He falls off in 6-item late game because: if he gets Augment: Gravity, he'll have a bunch of utility, but will be lacking in damage, and if he gets Augment: Death, he'll have a lot of damage, but will endanger himself because of Gravity Field's short cast range. He'll also only have 4 items to really use.

- Difficulty - Easy-Medium pre-9/Unkillable without ganks or stupidity post-9 - His early game is weak, although past level 9 with a Hextech Revolver, he will out-sustain everyone. He is a late game champion, with his low cooldown spells. However, he is quite short ranged.

- Difficulty - Easy - He is long-ranged, but you can dodge all of his ult's with yours if you don't get stunned by Mage Chains and Arcanopulse.

- Difficulty - Medium-Hard early/Much easier late - He is all early game and utility, and his full damage combo is made up of a 640 base damage (+1.8 AP) on a delay. Be careful of attacking him when he has Chronoshift on him, as he will revive with full hp.

- Difficulty - Easy-Medium - Nerf Master Suck Town's plant. If she places seeds down, then push the lane and step on them outside of her range. She can nuke as hard as Annie, but her plants are extremely fragile. Each individual Fox-Fire will do 2/3 of one of her plants' health (single target spells will do 2/3, AoE will do ~1/6). Here's a quote from Certainlyt (Riot Associate Game Designer who worked on Zyra):"Zyra will still have a lot of great matchups mid, but now she'll also have some actual bad/even ones. In particular, she’ll have a tough time dealing with assassins (e.g., Fizz, Kat), and an even-to-slightly-unfavorable matchup against highly mobile casters and enemies that excel at killing plants quickly (Ahri falls into both camps)."
So there you go. Riot says that Ahri counters Zyra.
Source: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=2446529

Ahri's early game (which would be 1-5) is extremely bad. Only when she has her ultimate is she really a threat, unless massively fed (but who else wouldn't be?). For levels 1-5, play passive, making smart trades, and trying not to die.


Standard things to do:

• Last hit: It's one of the most important skills that you can learn in MOBA genre games. You should try to get 200 CS at 20 minutes. Try to achieve that in a bot game or custom game. However, if the game wasn't a 20 minute farmfest, and there were many kills, then it would be acceptable. Many games, I don't get 200 CS until 30+ minutes because I'm roaming so much and helping my other lanes snowball.
• Harass: Some champions have really nice harassing abilities ( Cassiopeia) or autoattack ranges ( Anivia). You have good harass, but not the best. If you don't smart-cast, then you can just press Q, and wait for the enemy champion to be on the tip of it, and fire. They will either back off and lose cs, or take the harass and get ~20 gold.
• WARD EVERYTHING! Ok, not everything. But what you can do is ward one side of the lane, and camp that side. If you see their jungler coming, then go back.
  
  Places to ward:
  
  Red would be offensive wards
  Green would be defensive wards
  Purple is a Baron ward
  Orange is a Dragon ward
  

Depending on how early game went (farmfest or a few kills), mid game will come at different times. There should always be a ward at dragon around the 8 minute mark. If your support doesn't currently have a ward, then WARD IT. Spending 75 gold to potentially give your team global gold is worth it. If you took dragon, then your team should make a timer (6 minutes after death). If the enemy team took dragon and you had a ward, then your team should make a timer so you can contest or take the next one.

Other than dragon control, you should be doing one of four things:

1. Farming
2. Pushing the lane and ganking other bot or top
3. Participating in small 2v2/3v3 skirmishes
4. Warding the map

Her late game is decent, not the best, but decent. However, she can't risk diving in, usually; however, she does have a bunch of damage (much more in S2, sadly, due to League of Warmogs) and mobility, which keeps her safe in teamfights.

Instead of Dragon control, it's Baron control. The timer on Baron is 7 minutes after death, and there should always be a ward on Baron starting at the 20:00 mark (Yes, teams can get Baron at 20 minutes, or even sooner if they have a Fiddlesticks or Nunu & Willump. Of course, you can get Dragon if you have the time and it won't cost you team anything major.

By now, big 5v5 teamfights should be starting, and teams should be getting or close to getting aced during them. Before a team fight, your job is to poke at the enemy team, lowering their health. Be careful not to get caught by some CC. If you can, try to Charm one of their carries. It's essentially a weaker version of Rocket Grab and can easily lead to a win if landed on their AD Carry. During the team fight itself, you should try to land your Orb of Deception on as many people as possible. Your Fox-Fire will most likely target the initiator, so it won't be as reliable as a damage source. Use Charm on the best target (the carries) if possible. *Don't use the Spirit Rush charges all at once. Save them for diving onto a low health enemy, or escaping possible danger. You should use it to dart around the edge of the fight, also spamming as many spells as possible.

What you should be doing:

1. Farming anywhere that's safe
2. Warding
3. Teamfights
4. Try to find someone to kill with your team

---

Last of all, KNOW WHEN TO GO IN! This applies to all phases of the game! Don't be the first one on your team to be in the teamfight. Always wait for your initiator to go in. If the enemy LeBlanc just used Distortion to farm, and you want to kill her, then GO IN. If Annie just used her stun and is at 1/2 hp while you are at 100%, then GO. You'll most likely get a kill or they'll burn their Flash.

I'm sorry. I had to do include a quote somewhere >.<
Well that concludes my guide. I hope that you learned a lot from it and I certainly had a lot of fun writing it (even though this takes a long time >.>). Of course, nothing is perfect, and I'm definitely not saying that I'm the best Ahri. Always feel free to give me some advice about making guides, some criticism (constructive please!) on my build, or other things that I might need to know! Thanks!

Thanks to jhoijhoi's Guide to Making a Guide and IceCreamy's Guide on How to use Columns. Without them, this guide would look very different.

The font I used in the banners was: Fiolex Girls (here's a link to the DaFont site

Here's Xpecial's (TSM support player) Ahri guide on solomid.net if you want a professional's point of view on our foxy lady.

Have fun! I was playing in a premade-5 with some real life friends!

12/14-5/12 - S3 Update!
10/29/12 - Hurricane Sandy Cheeks! I edited the cheat sheet and items section, and added Elise
10/14/12 - Changed guide, essentially, from AP Bruiser to AP Assassin
9/21/12 - Handler of Balls added
8/29/12 - DOWN WITH HAVOC MASTERY
8/24/12 - Changed Build 1 build order
8/23/12 - Just some wording changes. Also Katarina rework.
8/22/12 - Added 2nd item build to Cheat Sheet
8/8/12 - You'd better run, run, run, run, new section, and Diana
8/7/12 - fixed grammatical errors based on my friend's proofreading :(
8/6/12 - added a bunch of stuff and all the title banners; also messed around with the formatting
8/2/12 - following advice, you now require a comment to vote :3
8/1/12 - first day ^_^ - lots of updates, added Nidalee in matchups, changed some stuff around