Ahri is a mid lane mage/assassin who dominates in the early to mid game. This is my one and only guide and feedback and constructive criticism will be greatly appreciated so I can grow this guide and help out more people trying to pick up mid lane Ahri.

Enjoy!

Pros

• Incredibly high burst damage
• Very high mobility with her ultimate
• Good sustain during laning
• Dominates early to mid game
• Very high outplay potential

Cons

• Highly skill shot based
• High mana costs
• Falls off late game
• Can be stunned and locked down easily
• Loses most of outplay potential when Spirit Rush is on cooldown
• Only one form of hard CC which has a long cooldown and a high mana cost

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Ability Sequence Order

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> > >

So we want to max Orb of Deception for obvious reasons, lower cooldown, more damage, better scaling and so forth. Second, it is a choice between Fox-Fire or Charm. If you want more damage to burst down the target you need to kill then you should consider putting point into Fox-Fire, I would advise doing this if you are laning against a melee champion as it will be hard to make use out of the longer effect on Charm. However if you're laning against a mage such as Viktor or Twisted Fate who simply want to farm and push waves, Charm is a better option so you can engage on them more securely and deal definite damage because of the longer effect.

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Ahri's abilities

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Now we know when to take Ahri's abilities and why we should do it let's find out what they actually do.

• Essence Theft

  Ahri's passive gives her great sustain in lane and means she can recover after trades better than other mid laners. Because of this passive you only need to start with one Health Potion. Essence Theft heals you for every unit hit which synergises very well with Orb of Deception
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  A good way of utilising Essence Theft effectively is by launching Orb of Deception into the raptor camp next to your tower to restore health without extending beyond the safety of your turret This works well when landing against champions like Xerath or Zed who can punish when you go far out of your tower range.
  
  Remember that Essence Theft can be proced when you use any ability, if you are on low HP don't use your Charm to get the Siege minion use your Orb of Deception to gain as much life back as possible.
  
  

• Orb of Deception

  is Ahri's main source of damage. It can be used to poke laners, doubles your damage output in trades and is great for face checking. This ability is great against enemies such as Darius and Volibear who build magic resist items like Maw of Malmortius and Spirit Visage because of the true damage on return making Ahri a very good tank shredder.
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  The movement speed granted is useful for two things, closing the gap on your target to make it easier to hit the rest of your ability combo or getting away from your enemies. When being chased by a low mobility champion such as Brand launch your Orb of Deception behind you towards the chasing enemy to gain the most movement speed possible. Orb of Deception is also useful to close the gap on far range targets like Lux, launch Orb of Deception towards them to close the gap for you to hit your Charm and the rest of your ability combo.
  Orb of Deception will always return to you resulting in some nice plays. For example Lee Sin has ganked you lane but he is low. He has jumped behind you ready to kick you into your laning opponent so launch your Orb of Deception in front of you and flash over him, because it returns it will deal the damage to him and, combined with Charm and Fox-Fire can potentially land lethal damage,first blood and a lot of gold.
  
  

• Fox-Fire

  provides incredible burst damage and synergises well with Spirit Rush. Even though it has high potential to burst a single target down to 0 health it has a very short range compared to Charm and Orb of Deception which is why the movement speed from Orb of Deception is so important. It means you can close the gap and get in range to land the damage you need to kill your laner.
  
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  Note that even though your Fox-Fire prioritises champions, it only does so if the champion is in it's range therefore this shouldn't be used if you're not in range to hit all the fox fires.
  
  

• Charm

  is a vital part of Ahri's kit, it keeps the target in place so you can hit your Orb of Deception and also brings them close enough to hit all of your Fox-Fire onto them. Because of your charm this gives you an incredibly high chance of landing your full ability combo onto them and puts immense lane pressure onto them as this combo should force a heal from some mages and maybe even a flash if they are already low.
  
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  A useful trick to get away is by firing Ahri's Charm towards the enemy at the same time as Orb of Deception, this gives you the highest possible chance of getting away. Also this small combo can put off a lot of damage and may even force them to stop chasing you.
  
  Your Charm is also useful for negating what could be a fatal damage. For example Lee Sin has ganked your lane and has you marked with Sonic Wave when you see him reactivate it and come flying towards you, Charm him to negate his damage. This also works with LeBlanc Distortion and other similar abilities.
  
  
  

• Spirit Rush

  is Ahri's ultimate, it is essential for getting out of tricky situations, catching up with a fleeing enemy or gaining a positional advantage throughout the landing phase and in team fights. If you can stay on top of your farm and hit 6 before your laning opponent this gives you a huge lead and a much higher chance of landing your full combo, this powerspike will almost always ensure a kill on your enemy. If they have a large minion wave pushing and it's hard to hit your Charm, use your Spirit Rush around the minions, not through the minions because you will take more damage, and when the enemy is in the open use your Charm to land the full combo. Note that is you are laning against a fizz or zed who have an easy get away from your charm it is probably a bad idea to engage like this, instead wait until you know that ablility is on cooldown or the opponent is out of mana.
  
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  Spirit Rush works very well with Fox-Fire, if you are close to the target when using your ultimate click Fox-Fireand Spirit Rush at the same time to get incredibly high burst damage, this will force a laner to use a Heal, Barrier or maybe even Flash.
  
  Remember that one bolt on Spirit Rush will proc Essence Theft, not all the bolts can heal you, only one.
  
  

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How to use Ahri's abilities

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Now all of Ahri's abilities have been covered let's talk about how and when to use them.

My favourite Ahri combo is the Charm, Fox-Fire, Orb of Deception, let's call this one the orb of charm fire for future reference. This works very well against champions with low mobility like Cassiopeia or Karthus as it is easy to hit your charm onto them, preferably you will want to hit this combo at quite close range to get all of your Fox-Fire charges onto the target. In the early stages of laning (pre-6) this should take a large portion of their health away (and your mana!).

A more difficult combo to execute but still just as powerful is where you launch your Orb of Deception forward first to kill the low health minion which makes way for the Charm and Fox-Fire, just as effective and also slightly more cunning as the enemy isn't sure if you are wave farming or trying to kill them.

As mentioned earlier Spirit Rush and Fox-Fire work very well together and give very high burst potential. To execute this well you need to use Fox-Fire during a Spirit Rush dash, this works well against champions like Katarina who need to be close to you to deal their damage.

Ahri's combos are best used when she is about to have Essence Theft ready, if the current stacks are 8, use your Charm to ready up the passive and then Orb of Deception to gain back health during the fight, this is better used in lane as the minions hit by Orb of Deception increase the health you get back. However fighting in a minion wave is dangerous with Ahri as you can lose a lot of potential damage from your Fox-Fire because of it's short range and you can also lose a lot of health too making it easier for your opponent to turn the situation around and kill you.

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Ahri's laning phase

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Ahri excels pre 20 minutes and can make enemy teams fall apart and give their mid laner a hefty amount of reports if executed properly.


To begin laning you will want to farm until level 2 and poke with Orb of Deception and only [orb of deception as your Fox-Fire may not target your opponent if they aren't in range. When you hit level 2 try and find a gap in the minions and land Charm followed by Orb of Deception to land a huge chunk of damage on to your enemy which will be hard for them to trade back.


Okay let's talk about level 3. You want to approach your combo the same way you did with the the one at level 2, find a gap in the minion wave etc, however if the Charm doesn't it is very likely that Orb of Deception and Fox-Fire will therefore a lot of poke will still be landed and not much damage will be missed. If the Charm does connect however this will often chunk half, or sometime even more, of their health with forcing summoners, or maybe even a back. this will give you a large farm and level advantage plus if you hit 3 just before them this can give you a 2, maybe 3, level advantage which will give you a lot more damage over them resulting in even more kills. This rolling start to lane leads to a very impactful and high damage snowball from one of the best cary/kite mid lanes in the game.

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Ahri's roaming - Where to go to pick up more kills

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Ahri's ability to tear up the enemy bot lane is crazy because of her high mobility ultimate, high damage Q and a Charm to lock your enemies in place. If you kill you laner at level 3-4 you should shove your minions into there tower and then leave for bot lane, if your on purple side try and go behind dragon pit and cut off their exit. do the same at level 6 with your increased mobility and damage it should make it even easier. Ahri's top ganks aren't as strong because of the increased tankiness and raw damage however if your top laner is behind a gank from you and your jungler will work most of the the time.

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Team fighting with Ahri

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Ahri can set up excellent flanks and, with a Quicksilver Sash or Cleanse, run straight through the front line and burst down the ad, mid laner or sometimes the support. One of the best manoeuvres in fights however is to Spirit Rush around the tanks, this is safer and means you don't have to buy a silly defensive item like Quicksilver Sash and have more damage :p. Orb of Deception is also brilliant for shredding through a heavy front line such as Volibear, Dr. Mundo and Cho'Gath because of the true damage on return, it is impossible for them to itemise against and can really chunk through their health because of it's low cooldown. With Ahri you want to try and fight in lanes and river instead of in chike points as you lack the mobility as all 10 players are crammed into a small place making hard for you to ult round the front line meaning you have to play more riskily to get onto the back line.

I hope this in-depth guide has helped you improve on your mid lane Ahri this is my first guide and still work in progress so be expecting pictures and videos in the near future, don't forget to leave a vote to help this guide grow so it can help out other newbies learning their first champion or veterans looking to learn a new champion. Please leave any feedback in the comments.