Greetings lovely people of MOBAFire, here I am known as Firbane, and I'm here to give you a little bit of information about Ahri, the beautiful nine-tailed fox kite mage, and hopefully send you along your way to learn how to play her on the fields of justice. This guide will assume that you know some of the basics about League, such as most champions have a three item minimum core set, how to auto attack, so on and so forth. This is not a guide for players just getting into League of Legends, as there will be terminology that will be completely foreign to you if you've never played a MOBA in your life.

After one of our most recent patches, Ahri has become exceptionally good at poking then quickly escaping range from any return pokes using her Orb of Deception, her Spirit Rush and Fox-Fire target acquisition range is short ranged as Fox-Fire locks on quicker. Her Charm is what I call the rock of her build, without it she cannot effectively kill enemy champions. Ahri is a wonderful roamer mid game, able to get her allies kills where her jungler may falter, and in the middle of team fights can drag a key fighter out of the fray, locking on to them and killing them entirely with an absurd amount of burst. With that said, let's sink our teeth into the guide!

Pros

Cons

Ranged Champion Lower mana costs High mobility Powerful mid game *Quick auto animations

Squishy Slow base movement Long(ish) cooldowns Loses power early and late game **Relies on Charm to kill early game

*Compared to most other mid lanes, Ahri's attack animation is abnormally faster, where her level 18 attack speed of 0.9 can be increased to essentially 1.1 or higher if you know how to orb walk.

**This really depends on how much damage you deal in the game, but early on no charm usually means no way to get a kill, so learn to land the skill shot!

• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power - Early game, Ahri can use all of the burst she can get. With high mobility there isn't much to worry about in the later game, but early game that extra oomph can really help you secure some kills and be quite annoying in lane.
• Greater Seal of Ability Power, Greater Glyph of Ability Power - Without trying to sound redundant, both these seals and marks are in place to boost your ability power even further. Constructive alternatives I would consider to give Ahri some toughness are Greater Seal of Armor and Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist, or alternatively to scaling magic resist, you can try Greater Glyph of Magic Resist instead for more early game protection.
• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration - With this, early game it won't matter if you're Ahri versus Galio, you should have a good amount of magic penetration in conjunction with your masteries to basically ignore magic resistance. This also gives you some extra oomph for late game when the magic resistance will be stacked against you.
• Alternatives - If you don't like having so much burst early on and would rather throw your spells like a maniac, then Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration is worth a try to give you early game mana regen to stay in lane longer and get by without a strong reliance on blue buff. I'd say you can trade your ability power quints for Greater Quintessence of Scaling Ability Power or Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration to boost your late game instead. I personally think trading marks is much harder to do on Ahri, as for anything ability power related is actually much weaker on the marks then anywhere else.

Flash - A great spell to have on almost any champion. It allows you to make quick escapes when Spirit Rush is on cooldown, or to suddenly flash in and Charm, allowing you to become unpredictable when you may throw a charm their way.

Ignite - Truly a good spell to secure your early game kills, and overall an awesome spell to dish out some extra damage on their carries mid team fight.

-OPTIONAL CHOICE(S)- Teleport - Since Ahri already has Spirit Rush, which is in essence three flashes, you can get away taking an alternative to flash like teleport. This allows you to be more unpredictable about where you might be when roaming, and what you may be doing, making ganks easier, which helps your team out allowing you to win more consistently. Be aware when Spirit Rush is off of cooldown however, as it's now your only method of consistent escape.

• Essence Theft - Ahri's passive. In short, what this does is after hitting nine targets with her abilities, in the case of Orb of Deception it caps after hitting three enemies, Ahri's next ability has something akin to spell vamp that gives her more health the more targets she hits. Ergo, using Orb of Deception to hit the majority of five minion waves will practically heal you from near death to full.
  
• Orb of Deception - Ahri's bread and butter ability, what you'll be using the most to poke, and sometimes get away/close gaps with the extra movement speed. This skill shot does damage in two ways, on the way to the extent of it's range, and on the way back to Ahri. On the way back it deals true damage, meaning it's damage that is neither magical nor physical. Something you should practice is hitting targets at the full extent of this ability's range, as it will deal both damage types at once, and doesn't have the chance to miss in either direction. It should be noted that mid casting animation of this you cannot auto attack.
  
• Fox-Fire - A very good bursty spell in Ahri's arsenal. This will be cast and summon three flames that will circle Ahri that, after a split second, will begin to find targets in range of themselves to lock onto and hit. The target priority is greater to champions, so don't worry about a stray flame hitting a minion unless that flame is out of range of the champion. The flames deal more damage on their own if one flame hits one target, as more flames hitting the same target decreases the damage they do.
  
• Charm - This is your key ability as Ahri, it makes or breaks how effective you can pick out and kill targets. In short, this skill shot upon impact to a target taunts them in a way where they are passive but run towards Ahri very slowly, making it easier to land Orb of Deception, or finish them off with Fox-Fire or an auto. If you can't land this spell, playing Ahri will be a nightmare for you.
  
• Spirit Rush - At level six, you gain the ability to close gaps, jump over walls, and use that quickly get away or close distances. This ability follows your mouse cursor as to which direction you will fly. Additionally, Spirit Rush acts like Fox-Fire in the sense that when you cast it, if there are up to three nearby targets, Spirit Rush sends out three magic projectiles to do a good amount of damage to them. You get three casts for this, and each cast of Spirit Rush acts as it's own spell, each of which procs Lich Bane or can give you full stacks for Essence Theft. This ability also goes through thin walls around the map, the base walls, dragon/baron walls, and most walls around monster camps in the jungles are examples of this feature. A key note to make is that this ability will not target recently found targets if you say jump into a bush when you did not have vision, meaning this ability is vision based prior to your jump.

The order that you should prioritize your ability point allocation in game, from the left being greater to the right being lesser, as follows;

(R) > (Q) > (W) >= (E)

Every point you can invest into your ultimate should be invested into your ultimate. Past that, focus on getting Q maxed first, then W, then E. W and E are interchangeable, as when you level up E, the time they are charmed is increased, which is good when you need to do better crowd control instead of higher burst.

-Core-

Sorcerer's Shoes - For most mages, this is a core item because it gives extra magic penetration, which is great when dealing with magic resist tank champions. The only alternative I would consider is Ionian Boots of Lucidity for extra cooldown to put say your Charm to a cooldown of nine seconds instead. Even then, I'm skeptical about it's use, but do not discourage the idea.

Rabadon's Deathcap - I call this "Floppy Hat," because it's a hat for the squishy mages. This is insanely powerful, any ability power you get or have/had with this is boosted by 30%, giving you a lot more burst that's difficult to deal with. Coupled with magic penetration and you're a monster.

Lich Bane - For the purposes of this guide this is the item we'll focus on the most. As previously mentioned, Ahri has an abnormally fast auto-attack, which gives this item validity because your attacks will connect faster than your typical ranged opponents. Since this also scales off of your ability power, it's essentially like landing all three shots of your Fox-Fire on one target for one auto-attack.


-Beginner's Core Extension-

Zhonya's Hourglass - For a beginner, this is an essential item to learn. Most amateur and pro players alike know the value of this item; it's in its immunity active. The only times this active is worthless is if you get caught well away from your team and they can't come to save you from your golden prison. Otherwise, if you're focused you can disrupt the enemy team long enough for your team to get some kills while they're busy burning abilities on your glorious golden form.

Luden's Echo - The new 120 AP item to grace the fields of justice. This item's raw burst and likedness to Statikk Shiv make it a good item on a champion like Ahri. The massive burst and extra movement speed give Ahri extra damage and movement, making her harder to catch, and allowing her to kill easier. In team fights where everyone is grouped up, the first spell that lands will "shock" the rest of the enemy team, making you a bit more of a threat.

Void Staff - I'd arguably call this the scariest item in an AP champion's arsenal. Early game this item couldn't make a difference truly, it's late game where this item shines, as you get a boost to pre-existing magic penetration and a good chunk of ability power.


-Trinkets-

I'd like to preface this section with the following words; all of this is up to your own personal preference. As Ahri, I don't like spending money on wards, so having what I recommended at the top of the guide for a trinket is a good choice for me. Whatever you decide will make your playstyle fit you.

Warding Totem - A great early game item to defend your mid lane by warding one of the two side bushes. This way, if the enemy jungler roams into your lane, there's a 50% chance, if your team didn't spot him, that he'll run into your ward first. At champion level nine, the duration of the ward is increased to what is essentially a purchasable stealth ward. This upgrades into;
EITHER
Greater Stealth Totem - Which holds up to two charges of actual wards in it, which is great for defensive and offensively warding.


OR
Greater Vision Totem - Which takes longer to regain its single charge, but throws down a permanent pink ward that your opponents can see immediately instead of a stealth ward, which, depending on your opponent (*cough* Akali/ LeBlanc *cough*), can be invaluable.

Sweeping Lens - This is a good item to use when you want to help your team retain map control by removing your enemy's sight wards. Although with this you'll need to buy your wards which is seventy-five (75) gold a ward, and your money could easily go elsewhere, as that can add up. At champion level nine, the radius in which this item scans for wards is increased. This upgrades into;
Oracle's Lens - Which has an even larger sweeping radius, and not only that, but for a short time after using the trinket, in a small radius around your champion, you can see invisible units, whether or not they're actually wards.

Scrying Orb - Much like the spell Clairvoyance, nobody uses this trinket. However, it can have its uses, such as using it to try and spot your lane opponent as they recall or as they try to go into a lane to gank, and they will be marked for a short duration if you land this right on them for longer than the area revealed. At champion level nine, the range in which you can place the small vision circle is increased a pretty significant amount. This upgrades into;
Farsight Orb - Which is MUCH more useful than it's unupgraded form in that it places a ward that lasts for half the time regular wards do with only one hit point, but marks opponents to be seen by said ward for five seconds like it's unupgraded form. Additionally, upgrading gives a small increase to the use range.


-Some Alternative Items From Beginner's Extension-

Say you have some experience or are wondering what other items are good on Ahri that are situational rather than what I gave you for the Beginner's Core Extension. Here is a short list of examples, and a brief description of what they replace and when they should be built. I encourage you as a player to experiment and see for yourself what items are good or bad outside this list.

Morellonomicon - I personally don't like this item, despite it's cost efficiency. However, you'd build this to give yourself more cooldown reduction, and stop the Soraka's and Sona's from healing efficiently. This would possibly replace Luden's Tempest.

Abyssal Scepter - If your magic penetration isn't going to cut it (they have over 300 magic resist somehow), knocking off some of that magic resist is better than having penetration. This would replace Void Staff.

Athene's Unholy Grail - I've my quarrels with this item, I believe if you play Ahri right you never need this, but if you're spell happy or need the sustain because your opponent won't back off from your poke, then this isn't a bad item if you're not getting blue buff. This would possibly replace Luden's Tempest.

Banshee's Veil - A defensive item if their team is really crowd control heavy, has a lot of AP, and/or Zhonya's Hourglass isn't helping you at all. It blocks the first ability that hits you that deals magic damage. This would replace Zhonya's Hourglass.

Quicksilver Sash - No, you will not be upgrading this to Mercurial Scimitar, but it's active can get you out of bad situations, like say dying to Mordekaiser's ultimate as it sheds the debuff, or getting out of Morgana's snare. This would replace Zhonya's Hourglass.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter - This utility item on a mage such as Ahri gives her some extra health to beef through some of the harder team fights, but also slows down quick movement speed opponents trying to escape the fray once it turns sour when your spell hits, save for when they're Master Yi. This would replace Luden's Tempest.

Something that was recently brought up to me is that true beginners to the game that have a grasp on some of the terminology and how to play may not know one of the key ways to stay ahead of your opponent both in gold and in power, and that is farming, also known as "last hitting." When you're first starting League and you're one on one in lane, chances are your opponent will do nothing but focus you when you get too close to them for them to auto or use an ability on you.

Later on, a great value is placed in killing your opponents minions and poking them when they try to kill one of your minions. Describing what is commonly known as "last hitting" will not do it justice, so for you proactive people out there I suggest looking up a how-to on Youtube, as it may give you better insight than what I could provide. For those of you who work better looking at words than watching a video, read onward!

Last hitting can be described as simple as this; getting the last hit on a minion, earning you the gold they drop and incrementing your total minion/monster kills by one. This total is known as your "creep score." What most people will tell you is to last hit minions using your auto-attacks, and for most champions this is true, and when talking about Ahri, this is also true in most cases. Since early on your auto-attacks hold a very low power, you need to monitor the health of the enemy minions to pick and find a minion at a low enough health to where ONLY ONE auto-attack will kill them, it's as simple as that.

If you hit and don't kill, this is known as a push, as your hit contributes to speeding up the death of that minion. If you miss the auto-attack completely, then it's not as bad, but you miss on valuable gold. If you pushed AND missed the last hit altogether, then you overall pushed your lane with no gain, so focus on getting a gain, but try your hardest not to push unless you specifically know you are winning your lane and can afford to get a couple more ganks from the enemy jungle to try and stop you. As Ahri, you can afford to throw out an Orb of Deception in hopes to poke your opponent AND get last hits, but don't rely on this as you may do more harm than good to the overall status to your lane by pushing it a tremendous amount.

In game against a true opponent, it is a very different game, as when you go to last hit they may try to poke you, sometimes you can ignore the poke safely, other times you can't, which is where the difficulty comes in. The most I can say is practice makes perfect, the more you focus on juggling getting the last hitting, poking your opponent, and evading poke, the better you'll be overall at last hitting. Depending on your opponent's champion, you can get away with more or fewer last hits, and poke them more or less, it all boils down to experience. Just remember the most basic concept; kill the minions with only one hit from you per minion, that is how you farm.

To describe what exactly orb walking is we need to first talk about how attack animations work in the game League of Legends. Attack animations have three phases; the wind-up, the attack, and then recovery.

The wind up is where the auto-attack is being launched, but has not come close to hitting the opponent, at this point you can do a neat trick to switch targets where before you use your auto which I call Target Switching, which is done by clicking a new target as your attack animation starts. Be aware that this resets your auto attack entirely, meaning you have to wait for your attack to start from the very beginning before it hits. Though we're not here to talk about that.

The attack is when the attack has been launched, or has neared hitting the target. This ends at when the target is hit and they are dealt damage, and it's that moment we'll be focusing on.

Recovery is where your champions goes to smoothly finish out their attack by say putting their arms to their face to block or completing a weapon swing for example. These frames of animation are unnecessary when it comes to determining true attack speed, as they are merely there to fill in the gaps to make the attack speed as slow (or as quick) as it is.

There's a method to make it so that after the attack has completed the attack step and starts to go into recovery to make your champion cut out the recovery step almost entirely and save several milliseconds of time when it comes your auto attacks, and this is known as Orb Walking. It honestly isn't too difficult, it gets harder as you get a greater attack speed, but that's because your window to Orb Walk gets smaller and smaller. In short, once your attack completes, or in other words you see the damage numbers or will see the damage numbers, you quickly click to move or cast an ability and your champion will CANCEL the remainder of their animation to instead move or do something else.

An example of this kind of shenanigan in a different game would be Call of Duty and reload cancelling, in which the animation to reload goes through similar phases, the clip is in view, the gun is reloaded, and the animation completes. The last part of the animation is cancelled by the character melee attacking, sprinting, or switching quickly between their two weapons, it's the same concept there as it is here, it saves time.

To practice this on Ahri, you need to try and move when her arm to throw her orb to auto attack is fully extended. This will take some practice, but if you can fully do this consistently, as Ahri your attack speed will be much higher, allowing for further viability for Lich Bane then without this knowledge.

• Before the minions spawn - Obviously, you'd want to buy your items and rush to lane. If your jungler wants a leash, go to protect him from invasion and/or help him damage the monster he wished to be leashed. It's no debate on what ability to start with, so get your Orb of Deception now. Once minions spawn, the games begin. Try not to get spotted in lane before the minions come to the center of the lane, you may be susceptible to pre-game poke or a pre-game gank.
  
• Minions have spawned and are in lane - Here you need to pay attention to a few things; minion health (both enemy and your own), your position, and your opponent's position. Minion health dictates when you'll attempt to last hit to get that sweet gold. Your position dictates if you can land your Orb of Deception or if the opponent will simply poke you. The opponent's position dictates whether they can last hit, or if you can poke them with auto-attacks and your orb. Until you have Charm, this will mostly be you poking your opponent in hopes they'll back off or you can get a kill if they don't, you just need to dodge poke in order for this to be effective.
  
  Last hit with your spells especially if you can hit your opponent with the spell to boot. Charm last hit only if you desperately need to.
  
  When you get Charm, look for clear shots to hit your opponent, then hit them with orb and Fox-Fire to punish them being open. A lot of your kills now will come from this if you do it when they're lower than 35% health typically. A typical combo now looks like E - Q - W - AUTO.
  
  Whatever happens here, don't hesitate to back if you're below 20% health, that's a dangerous number to be around, and opponents like LeBlanc or Zed can really ruin your day. Finish your boots and buy another Doran's Ring if you're behind, or get that Needlessly Large Rod if you have the gold.
  
  In order to win early game, you need to keep the pressure on with a good mix of auto-attacks and poke from all of your abilities when you get a clear shot for Charm, but don't get cocky, just because you can fend them off from your minions and perhaps get a couple kills doesn't mean you can let your guard down, you haven't even hit level six.
  
• Level six, and the games begin - Once you hit level six, it's time to get a little unpredictable. Spirit Rush is available to you, and it allows you to make a suddenly aggressive and jumpy play to kill opponents from under towers when they're around 50% or lower health. If you do this, your combo will go R - E - Q - W - AUTO - R - AUTO - R when you don't have Lich Bane, else your combo will look more like R - E - AUTO - W - R - Q - AUTO - R - AUTO. Landing your E on the enemy first only changes your combo from the first two listed to E - R - *(AUTO) - Q - W - AUTO - R - AUTO - R.
  
  *Add this if you have Lich Bane
  
  Never hesitate to use your ultimate to get out of a bad situation, this is what makes champions like Nidalee so frustrating to play against; they never die.

• Roaming - Once you get your first kill (or your opponent has won the lane even without killing you), it's a good time to start looking for ally lanes that are pushed up to your towers to go down and gank. Ping when you're about to go in, and use Spirit Rush followed by Charm to lock down the opponent as bot lane support uses further crowd control, or top lane closes the gap to deal more than lethal damage. Be sure to pitch in your Orb of Deception and Fox-Fire to get more damage, else your team may not walk away with a kill.
  
  Try not to roam if you don't know where the enemy jungler is or the rivers are not warded, as you may run into him if the river isn't warded. Also stop roaming when it looks like your lane opponent is on to you, as they will chase in an attempt to counter gank.
  
• Teamfights - Being so mobile means you can skirt around the main insanity that is a teamfight using Spirit Rush to target the squishy carries in the back, in fact that's what you should do when you're not getting focused. Ahri's insane ability to pick off targets on their own and take them out of the fight with Charm is enough reason alone to target the carries. Focus on the more fed carry, be that your lane opponent or the bot lane ADC, as they do more damage and are the bigger threat to your team. Get out while you can if the enemy team tries to turn around and focus you, as it won't end well.
  
  If you're focused or are grabbed away from your team just before a teamfight starts, use Zhonya's Hourglass immediately, you won't last long enough to survive a full onslaught of damage and crowd control. This gives you time for your team to jump in, and you time to jump out BEHIND their team and get their carries once your immunity wears off.
  
  Once teamfights start to break out, it's a good time to start sticking with your team.
  
• Getting Caught Out - Getting caught pushing is something that can happen to anyone, you'll be overextended, no allies or towers to fall back on, and probably the whole enemy team breathing down your neck. As Ahri, you have Spirit Rush to escape this bad situation, but try to reserve it when you see the rest of the team, and not when you see two slowpoke tanks trying to catch you on their own for example. If someone is gaining fast before you see the rest of the enemy, Charm them so you slow them down.
  
  If your team is nearby, try to run to them, and ping yourself so they know you're in trouble and they'll run to you. This will lead into a teamfight, and there you'll know what to do.
  
  As additional advice, champions like Blitzcrank and Thresh can grab you and pull you back the way you're running. To avoid that, be sure to dodge from side to side and don't run completely in a straight line, as you're an easier target running straight. Also, avoid the small gaps between walls and towers, I call this "Skill Shot Valley," as it's too easy to land a skill shot here, and it will happen to you.

• Losing - Stick with your team if you're losing, in other words have fewer towers and fewer dragon buffs than your enemy. Roaming now or split pushing now can spell death for your team, because you can take carries out of a fight when any fights in base begin. Winning any teamfight means you MUST push with your team, not alone. Use your abilities to smash through minion waves and keep your line moving to make a quick turn around.
  
• Winning - Your insane mobility will spell the death for their team, though you should stay grouped because you're an asset to your team, if your team doesn't need you for fights it's okay to split push. Use an ability then auto attack buildings with the Lich Bane proc to shove their health down, opening up inhibs or nexus towers. Be cautious now, and fall back if you feel you'll get caught out from the jungle where you won't have vision, as you won't be able to run from intense burst at this late of a stage and would truly be feeding here.
  
  If you're with your team, stay in the back, only move towards the true front (the back of the enemy team) once a teamfight starts.
  
• Damage and Survivability - How much damage and how well you can survive dictates how well you will do in the late game. Always focus the carries to assasinate them when you can, and get away from being focused only to turn around once they stop focusing you and your health is high enough.

Ahri is probably one of the first champions I found to be an absolute joy to play, and the fifth champion I played before I decided on her to be my main. She can be extremely aggressive and yet super passive right after the fact to constantly throw her opponents off. The issue is that her skill shots take a lot of time and effort to learn to use effectively, and on top of that any amount of hard crowd control makes it nigh impossible for her to escape from fights.

At any rate, if you have any questions message me them and I'll do my best to help you out. Like the guide? Thumb it up! Thumbs down as necessary, but give me feedback of what you think I need to change then. As time goes, I'll add a FAQ once the questions come in and I see a common trend.

Good luck out there on the field, and may you all become champions in your own right!

March 17, 2015

• Made Luden's Tempest a core item while kicking off Liandry's Torment entirely.
• Improved the Versus Champion list to give a more accurate idea how difficult/easy these opponents are. Still thinking of other champions that you may commonly face in the mid lane as Ahri, so this section is still a work in progress.
• Improved the aesthetics of the guide in sections that include icons of spells and items.
• Improved the wording of the guide overall
• Added the An Explanation on How to Farm/Last Hitting for Newbs section.
• Added Rylai's Crystal Scepter as a viable optional item pick.
• Removed Archangel's Staff as a viable optional item pick due to change in playstyle.
• Thanks goes to jokersprank for giving me some advice on how to change chunks of the guide to make it look and feel better for this update.

March 13, 2015

• Added Luden's Tempest to the Items section of the guide.

March 9, 2015

• Created and published the guide!