Why Ahri? Why now?!

Ahri is an AP-burst mage. She has incredible mobility with her Spirit Rush ultimate, incredible damage with her Orb of Deception and Fox Fire, and her skill-shot Charm is nothing to laugh at, because landing one can potentially win your team the game. Given the nature of the champion, she is favorable when your team is going to be trying to make picks all over the map, and also will make her a team fighting monster with the ability to engage and dive into the back line with constant repositioning to keep her safe.

Lately, with champions such as Tristana and Kog'Maw being incredibly high picks, Ahri makes a great champion to essentially shut them down with a little knowledge and skill even with top lane monsters like Alister and Maokai trying to stop your attempts.

Pros:
• Great burst for squishies and tanks alike
• Amazing roaming capabilities
• Combos are easy to learn, but still are devastating when mastered
• Ultimate provides immense repositioning capabilities, allowing you to be aggressive or passive depending on the situation

Cons:
• Very susceptible to pre-6 ganks
• Gets bullied out of lane pretty easily, especially against champions like Fizz, Talon, and Syndra
• As the game gets pushed out, very reliant on landing your charm to reliably get off your damage
• Skill shot reliant

Skills:

Essence Thief:

- A great passive for sustaining during laning phase. If you are constantly trading with your lane opponent, you will be able to get the full use of this passive by hitting a full minion wave with your Q.

Orb of Deception:

- Ahri’s bread and butter. For the most part, you will be maxing this first and foremost. When you get the opportunity to harass your opponent, throw this out. The thing that makes this skill particularly strong is the return true damage. And if you miss the initial damage, try to position yourself in order to hit the enemy on the way back.

Fox Fire:

- Most of the time, you will be maxing this third. Fox fire surrounds Ahri with three balls of fire and will target the closest target to Ahri, dealing damage. This prioritizes champions, though any subsequent hit will only deal 30% damage to the target. This is great when coupled with your Spirit Rush ultimate.

Charm:

- A wonderful skill-shot spell that puts Ahri’s kit together. Landing a charm will make the enemy hit walk towards you for a brief duration of up to 2 seconds when skilled up to level 5. If that’s not enough, landing a charm will increase damage to your target by 20%, so you can only imagine what kind of damage you will be doing if you buy a Deathfire Grasp to complement it.

Spirit Rush:

- The skill that makes Ahri the threat that she is. Ahri gains the ability to dash three times, releasing fire that target opponents close to Ahri. These dashes can be used to close the distance, or keep distance from foes, the utility it provides makes Ahri a complete terror to deal with.

Skill Level UP:

R > Q > W > E

 >  >  > 

Masteries:

Basic Combos:

R > W > E > Q > Ignite > R > R

W > R > E > Q > Ignite > R > R

E > W > Q > R > Ignite > R > R

Once you get one of Ahri's combos down, it'll become easier to do the others, this is because all of Ahri's combos are just variations of one. However, in team fights, you will want to space out your dashes to maximize your positioning and damage potential. So you would use more Qs, Ws, and Es inbetween your dashes.

Summonner Spells:

With Ahri, flash is a must. Otherwise, you should grab ignite to complement her early game damage to secure early potential kills.

Masteries:

Rune Setup:

My personal rune setup is as follows, depending on the matchup, you will want to switch it up accordingly.

9 x Hybrid Penetration Marks
5 x Flat HP Seals
4 x Flat Armor Seals
9 x Flat MR Glyphs
3 x Movement Quintessence

Movement quints are incredibly useful for a champion like Ahri, for her mobility is of the utmost importance for her. Grabbing these will allow you to dodge skill-shots during laning phase, enable you to roam more efficiently in order to provide pressure to other lanes, and makes it easier for you to secure those last few hits on potentially slippery targets. You can switch these out for flat magic pen or flat AP depending on your playstyle.

Hybrid penetration marks are my standard for most AP mid laners, as they make your trading power stronger in laning phase, helping you get the most out of your damage. Taking these marks, you are opting for a more aggressive play style, so please don't hesitate to trade with other midlaners through a mix of auto attacks and skills. If you don't want to take these, you can switch then out for flat AP marks instead.

As with the start of season four, a mix of both health and armor seals will provide the most benefits. These are pretty standard, though you can switch them to full health or full armor depending on your opponent.

Flat MR Glyphs are another standard. Switch them if you are going up against an AD mid. And if you want to, you can try running CDR, mana regen, or HP scaling glyphs. I feel like glyphs are the most flexible and you can switch it up to match your style.

Item Builds:

Start:

- You generally will have two choices, the defensive or offensive start. If you don’t think you will have trouble with your lane, opt out for the Doran’s Ring start, as you will have a little more AP and health to efficiently harass your lane opponent. Your first back will generally be another Doran’s Ring, pots, and a ward depending on when you choose to back.

Mid:

- At this point in time, you will have an enormous damage spike and will be able to 100-0 most champions with this build. Don’t forget to ward up important points on the map. You can switch out the Unholy Grail depending on the matchup with either Morellonomicon or a Seeker’s Armguard in the event that you are going up against a strong AD mid.

Late:

- This is a great late game build for Ahri. You will have tons of damage and a little survivability to play with a little. You don’t have to build a Rylai's, but experimenting with it lately leads me to believe that it can be a great late game core for Ahri. Other alternatives include Twin Shadows, Morellonomicon, and Athene’s Unholy Grail.

PHASES:

Early Game:

Ahri's pre six game is a tad bit weak. Without her ultimate, she is very susceptible to ganks. You can play this safely, last hitting with your Q and playing far in the back just enough for experience. However, if you feel comfortable in this matchup, you can try harassing your lane opponent with consistent auto attacks. If you are looking to land an Orb of Deception, pay attention to the health of your minions, if one gets to last hitting health range, throw out an orb where you believe your opponent will be. You will either land the Q, or effectively deny your opponent CS. Keep this up until you hit level 6, if you played the lane averagely, you will now be able to push up your lane and begin roaming top and bot, or just kill your lane opponent.

Just remember to try to stay productive, instead of farming mid and camps forever, apply map pressure to alleviate pressure and force your opponent to act reactively instead of making you move.

Mid-Game:

By this point in time, you should have one to two core items. As you have been, prioritize map vision and objective control. Every time you back, you should be purchasing at least one ward and another pink if you don’t have one on the map. If you abuse the map control properly, you will be able to jump and full combo most champions by this point. Focus on objectives and make your picks there.

If your team decides to go for dragon and the other team is waiting to initiate, look and punish any mispositions by their ADC, Support, AP, or anyone you can burst down reliably and safely. If you are able to get a pick, the other team will be at a huge disadvantage, allowing your team to secure objectives and pull the gold in your favor. Ahri’s mid game is amazing, just don’t be afraid to R>E someone who is out of position, because even if you miss, you will more than likely burn a summonner or an important CD that could help your team win the next fight.

Late Game:

This is basically the same thing as mid game. Ward up the map, focus on objectives, and make picks whenever you can reliably and safely. Even if you’re sieging, Ahri can instantly burst down major threats with the land of a charm. If you can’t, just keep throwing spells to zone and chip away at the enemy team. Just make sure you stay with your team and make reasonable catches that your team can follow up on, or you might find yourself in trouble. If you ever feel like you got caught out, never hesitate to use your ultimate, you will be far more useful to your team alive without an ult than dead with it up. It is on a relatively low CD so just let your team know how long until you can use it again.

In team fights, stay in the back until you see an opening. If the enemy uses big CDs, such as ultimates, flashes, etc., then you can dive into their backline to blow up their threats. If you don’t see this opportunity, constantly and consistently throw out your spells. Ahri has low CDs, so you can put out pretty decent sustained damage.

Final Thoughts:

Ahri is an insanely strong champion to play at the moment. I recently had picked her up a little before 4.13 and instantly fell in love with her. At the moment, I have a 68.2% win rate with her in Plat 2 and I would love to hear what you guys think about her, whether it be in solo queue or in competitive play.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to let me know. Feel free to leave a comment below and I'll do my best to answer them. And thank you for taking the time to read my guide, I hope to hear back from you!