Ahri is one of Riot's newest champions. She is an Ability Power (AP) burst champion with a relatively small range compared to other AP burst champions like Brand and Annie. Her main focus in combat though, is to deal sustained burst damage, with the low cooldowns and mana costs on her skills.

Unlike Brand and Annie who utilise their whole skillset in one quick burst combo to drop an opponent's health rapidly, Ahri prefers to use her kit to slowly weaken the opponents before diving in with her ultimate, Spirit Rush. As such, Ahri is actually a pretty passive AP burst champion that plays smartly and cunningly and not aggressively (although if there's a chance to play aggressively without any disadvantages, you should).

Ahri's main role in the team is to play passively and remain invisible (unfocused) to your opponents while dealing a constant sustained damage to as many opponents as possible. When your opponents' Crowd Control effects (CCs) are blown and their health is lowered, you would then proceed to play aggressively and possibly dive into the battle with Spirit Rush to wipe out or cripple the remaining opponents.

Ahri, therefore, is the champion for you if you don't mind playing as cunning as Ahri is herself, remaining passive and not attracting too much attention to yourself until the position is favourable for you to dive and burst, in which case you do so without mercy.

When playing as Ahri, a few things I noticed was that Ahri was an extremely squishy and easily taken down champion. This is especially so because the range of her skills are relatively small compared to other AP mid champions ( Fox-Fire and Spirit Rush come to mind). Even relying on Charm itself to make way for a full burst combo is not enough to make her less easily taken down.

It is at this point in time that I experimented on ways to try and increase Ahri's survivability. I picked up early Catalyst the Protector and built into Rod of Ages but Ahri was still pretty frail even with those two items. If the enemy took even one glance at her, she would go down instantly.

After a few games, I decided to try out Spell Vamp items on Ahri, to synergise with her passive, Soul Eater, and see if the health regeneration from Spell Vamp would help keep Ahri alive. It worked like a charm, having those Spell Vamp items allowed Ahri to have 40% Spell Vamp ( Will of the Ancients + Hextech Revolver) with a grand 75% Spell Vamp when she has full Essence Theft charges for her Soul Eater.

Given the sustaining nature of Ahri's lategame burst, having Spell Vamp would enable Ahri to recover from enemy pokes while dealing her own pokes to the enemy champions. When you decide to dive in, your skills would help drain back enough health (since Fox-Fire's flames are considered single target spells and Charm is single target) to help you stay alive. This is better than flat health with no regeneration because throughout the whole poke phase and teamfight, the Spell Vamp would enable you to regenerate more health than those health items can provide.

I go with a 21/0/9 build for Ahri, to make full use of the new season two masteries.

The masteries I get are:

Mental Force Level 4

Sorcery Level 4

Arcane Knowledge Level 1
Havoc Level 3

Blast Level 4

Archmage Level 4

Executioner Level 1

Summoner's Insight Level 1
Good Hands Level 1
Expanded Mind Level 3

Meditation Level 3

Runic Affinity Level 1

The 21 points gotten in the offensive tree are the standard masteries for any AP casters, getting all of the AP masteries as well as the 10% Magic Penetration from Arcane Knowledge . These provide 22 AP and 5% bonus AP at Level 18. The 22 AP is not much, but the 5% stacks with your Rabadon's Deathcap to increase the amount of AP you have greatly. Executioner increases the amount of damage you can deal to low health opponents, enabling you to pick them off with ease.

Points are put into Expanded Mind and Meditation in order to help with Ahri's mana sustainability. Those two masteries enable Ahri to have enough mana sustainability, despite not building any mana regen item apart from the initial Doran's Ring. It is important to have enough mana sustain because Ahri's health sustain relies upon her ability to cast spells more often, which is directly linked to Ahri's mana sustain.

One point is placed in Good Hands in order to meet the requirements for Runic Affinity . With no other place to dump one point in, placing it in Good Hands is most advantageous, allowing you to have a slightly shorter respawn timer (which is more noticeable lategame after a teamfight. Runic Affinity is gotten because Ahri is usually a prime choice for the blue buff, so having an extended blue buff duration would be advantageous. Also, there's no other place you can place the last point in.

06/01/2011 - Added in the introductions as well as the explanation on the mastery trees. Build still in progress.

05/01/2011 - Added the build online. Build incomplete.