Ahri Build Guide by Akureinoyami

Introduction

Greetings! First I would like to say welcome to my very first guide. I hope that you find it helpful to some degree. Ahri is a relatively high skill cap assassin champion. I say high skill cap because much like the blind monk Lee Sin, you have to be able to hit all of your skill shots and use them in an effective order. My advice to players that are new to her, don't get too frustrated when you don't win the first few games with her. Keep practicing and there's always bot games to help you work on the combos.

Runes

This rune build is a typical AP endgame mana regen build. Greater Mark of Magic Penetration for magic penetration, Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration to have better mid to late game mana regen (I will explain other methods to overcome mana issues in later sections), and Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power for a steady increase in your AP so that you can stay in lane and feel like you can compete against an opponent with an item advantage (because you killed them earlier ;D). Greater Quintessence of Ability Power for better beginning game damage and put you on the offensive.

Masteries

This is a typical AP Mastery build. I don't know how to explain it any further at the moment. If you have specific questions, please leave a comment below.

Items

Ok, welcome to one of the longer sections of this guide.I will begin with the regular item build, this is your build if everything is going well for you team. I may refer to this as item path 1. First I will repost the entire build, and follow it up with explanations for the items. I will do so for paths 2 and 3 in later parts of this chapter.



I start Ahri out a little bit different than I do with a lot of casters. I'm not a huge fan of the Doran's Ring at the start for most casters, but it really and truly works well with Ahri's passive to make her beginning game lane sustain absolutely amazing.

The second item should usually be the Hextech Revolver to once again increase Ahri's sustain with addedspell vamp in lane and to give a nice little bonus to her AP. If you are noticing that you are having a difficult time dodging your opponent's abilities, then you should probably buy Boots of Speed. Survivability is key.

Assuming that everything goes well, your third item will be Sorcerer's Shoes. I choose this over something like Ionian Boots of Lucidity because the extra damage from magic pen will contribute to your spell vamp. Ciderhelm provides great insight into this stat. If you are curious about more info on how spell vamp works, Ciderhelm's video will be linked below.

/league-of-legends/item/rylais-crystal-scepter-85 AP, and the extra passive that slows enemies affected by your abilities by 35% for 1.5 seconds. It's great for the teamfights mid game, which if everything goes well and you farm properly, you will have this item at that time.

In a normal game when the enemy team is balanced and/or you are racking up kills, you should go ahead and grab Rabadon's Deathcap for higher AP.

The sixth item you will be building will depend on which of the previously listed paths you've taken. If you went path 1 and bought rababdon's, then grab the Athene's Unholy Grail to reduce cooldowns, increase AP, and super mana regen to prevent oom as much as possible.

Upgrade your Hextech Revolver into Will of the Ancients for the added spell vampand AP.

Sell your Doran's Ring to make space for Void Staff, for added AP and magic penetration.

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Now for path 2:

Notice that path two has the exact same beginning build as path 1 until after Rylai's Crystal Scepter (path 3 will as well). I will skip the explanations on those items to save me the time to copy and paste as well you the time to read them over again. Path 2 is a counter item build to keep you competitive in a game that may not be going so well for your team. Specifically this item build is designed to counter a team with either a majority of AD champions or a team with an extremely fed AD champ. Which means you will need to stack some of that good ol'armor.

For this reason, I recommend building Zhonya's Hourglass for the extra armor, while at the same time building AP for damage. This also helps because of it's active ability, in the event you become the focus of the enemy team.

Your next item will be Rabadon's Deathcap for the damage boost.

Sidnote: you will notice a decrease in damage compared to path 1 in previous parts of the game. I recommend this because it is better to be alive after teamfights as opposed to getting a combo off and immediately dying.

Upgrade your Hextech Revolver into Will of the Ancients for the added spell vampand AP.

Sell your Doran's Ring to make space for Void Staff

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Finally Path 3:

This build is made to counter an enemy team that is predominantly AP or if the AP team members are carrying the team. Like I said previously, the first four items will be the same as path 1.
That being said you will acquire Abyssal Mask for addedmagic resistance, AP, and for the passive reduction of enemy Magic Resistance thus increasing your damage to the entire team.

Your next item will be Rabadon's Deathcap for the damage boost.

Upgrade your Hextech Revolver into Will of the Ancients for the added spell vampand AP.

Sell your Doran's Ring to make space for Athene's Unholy Grailto reduce cooldowns, increase AP, and super mana regen to prevent oom. This is especially important in this situation. Think about it, the main resource of casters' abilities is mana. So the best way to beat another caster is to play smart and make them run out of mana. With the added advantage of Abyssal Mask, this is easy.

The main idea that I hope you take away from this section is: PAY ATTENTION to the enemy builds and how much gold they are gaining (via monitoring their Kills and Creep Score). It will save your life.

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Special Note: If you wanted to boost your auto-attack damage in between abilities with any of these builds, you may exchange the Athene's Unholy Grail, Abyssal Mask, or Void Staff with Lich Bane. However, I will have to test it with each build in a few games to weigh the pros and cons before I give a formal recommendation.

Summary

Thank you for reading my guide. I would like to end on a note discussing how Ahri should be played in a game. Ahri has two roles in the game: Caster and Assassin. Allow me to further define these roles:

Caster

• Positioning is usually toward the back of a teamfight
• Damage from afar to minimize the damage to him/herself

Assassin

• equipped to do burst damage and have a gap closing ability
• objective is to dive in and kill low survivability champs (i.e. AD carries)

Ahri's primary role is Caster, which seems pretty obvious by the build and ability focus. On the other hand, her secondary role is Assassin. This is what makes Ahri an intriguing champion. She can stay on the fringes of the battle using Orb of Deception and occasionally using Fox-Fire when enemies are in range to add to the damage, waiting for the perfect time to Charm enemies. Or you can use Fox-Fire + Spirit Rush into the back of the enemy group to assassinate the enemy carries. Either way using your moves in rapid succession is the best way to take enemies in team fights. While you are laning switch back to the Caster role and continue to poke enemies/farm minions. Remember you are an Assassin second, only pop all your moves at the most opportune time when you are sure to clench the kill or at the very least SURVIVE the skirmish. Be cold and calculating. Survivability is key in this game.


Thank you so much for reading and be sure to comment and vote. Ask questions and let me know how I can make this guide better for you.

Change Log

7/19/12: Made some aesthetic changes, no real difference in content.

Special Thanks To...

I would like to take some time to thank a few people who have influenced this guide both in it's content as well as it's aesthetics.

Ciderhelm for his wonderful information on spell vamp presented in a concise and well-delivered manner.

Jhoijhoi for her extremely organized and easy to read coding guide. Thank you so much for the information and I am sorry that my guide's aesthetics doesn't do your guide justice.

Teyso and Raffattack for giving great constructive criticism on the layout of the guide to make it easier for you all to read (so really you should be thanking them =/ ) \

Nevertheless, thank you all for helping me steer this guide into the right direction.