Note on season 3: Since S3 just started, and I have only tried some of the new mage items, don't just down-vote simply because I didn't add item X to the guide. So please bear with me while I test other S3 builds and paths outside the PBE
Welcome to my all new guide on how to play Ahri in S3. Alot has changed since the start of season 3. Especially with the introduction of yet another new (old) jungle, and loads of new recipes and combinations.

You can review some of the most important changes here:

Now back to Ahri,

She is very fun to play, but you might have difficulties playing her right, especially if you find it hard to hit skill shots (her ability to assassinate the enemy carry relies heavily on landing her Charm). As a ranged mage assassin, she scales good with levels, and as such, she should take either the mid or top lane. Preferably the mid, because Ahri isn't that sustainable, even with her passive Essence Theft. Ahri is a tough champion to master, she's squishy and dies easily when focussed or cc'ed (most ap carries have that problem though).

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http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/mastery-tree-planner#&tree1=1-0-1-2-0-4-1-2-0-1-0-0-3-1-0-0-4-1&tree2=0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0&tree3=1-0-3-1-0-3-0-0-0-1-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0&v=2

With S3, alot has changed and it seems the new masteries have become more of a game-changing factor than the old ones. Case in point: I remember obliterating the enemy top lane, playing as Irelia with my support page...

Anyway, I will explain some of my less obvious choices below:


Destruction
I can hear some of you thinking 5% isn't very noticable. And you might be right. But I'll take 5% turret damamge over 0.66% damage or 1% CDR.


These are the masteries I find most useful on Ahri. I suppose you could go 9 in defense too. But that's just personal preference. If you prefer to have some bonus health, then I strongly suggest you adding some manaregen, because otherwise you just won't be able to keep up with harass/farm in lane.

For runes, I take a pretty standard AP caster set. But runes are all about personal preference imho. I will provide an explanation as to why I use these, and some options too.

The Greater Mark of Magic Penetration is almost a necessity on mages, and Ahri is no exception. Once the enemy team sees the damage you start dishing out, they will stack magic resistance, and these runes will help you penetrate some of it. I wouldn't recommend any other marks, you will need the magic penetration, and the other marks aren't as viable as these on AP sin Ahri.

The Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration will provide you with some much needed mana throughout the game. These seals will make me spam my abilities hard, and make me proc my Soul Eater more often. If you can't get your hands on the blue buff very often, these runes will make you rarely go OOM in late game.

For glyphs I use Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power, these will help you crank up your AP throughout the game. Imagine you are laning vs. a decent LeBlanc], and she managed to keep you from farming to your heart's content. These glyphs will help you to still be a threat to that overextending [[caitlynn down in the bot lane, right?

Other very viable options are:

• Seals
  greater seal of replenishment These seals will make you just that much more dangerous between level one and six. Mix these with the mp per 5 per level anyway you want, they are great.
  Greater Seal of Armor When you trade hits with your enemy, these seals will make you come out on top for sure. The reduced minion damage and AA damage can be the difference between scoring first blood in mid and die to the minions, or scoring it and survive with 10 hp.