This is a guest post by IgnisPhaseOne (Summoner name: IgnisPhase1)
Of all the champions I plan on writing these journal entries for, Ahri is probably the most competitive AP carry that fits my personal play style:
- Low to medium HP
- Has burst potential versatility
Although other champions may fulfill the standard AP carry role better, Ahri will likely remain the champion I pick if I want to try mixing up my playstyle or alter team strategies.
Pros
Ahri is well rounded and can do everything. She’s got enough self-healing with her passive and Orb, her sustained damage isn’t Cass but she can spam Foxfire pretty routinely, she has a powerful cross-terrain CC in Charm, and her ult is incredible for poking/escaping while having an average cooldown. She can push, she can turtle and last hit under towers, she’s difficult to gank if she’s got her ult. Ahri is really a strong early-mid ganker.
Cons
I don’t see any real glaring cons with Ahri. They’re aspects that affect all champions.
Ahri has some mana problems if you spam her abilities too much. She’s especially vulnerable if her ultimate is down since she won’t be able to escape.
A big weakness for Ahri is root abilities. They screw her over pretty hard even if she has ultimate up, since she can’t use it.
Since her abilities are skill shots, it’s possible an enemy can dodge them. She’s also not the beefiest AP.
Ahri’s lategame isn’t amazing, since she doesn’t have the most amazing burst (it is acceptable but not great) and her utility compared to Morg or someone is not as high. Ahri is a strong early-to-mid game ganker.
The glaring problem with Ahri’s lategame is that she is easy to screen from ranged AD or casters by someone with a push like Alistar. As you already pointed out, targeted disables mess with Ahri, so lategame you can go in, get hit, and the ranged ad 5 shots you. Her ratios aren’t the most amazing either. She does have acceptable poke, and charm can catch people in a poke fight.
Item discussion
Did you know that boots, HP pots, and Dorans Rings are really good items for casters?
Oh, really, you heard the EXACT SAME THING?
I’m shocked and surprised!
I only differ from standard builds in a few areas. Normally, I start with boots, 2 HP pots, and a mana pot. I’d rather have the mana, as HP pots are for when I make minor mistakes, and mana pots let me be both attack and sustain with my passive.
I find Hextech Revolver/Will of the Ancients to be an important item. Constant lifesteal on all your spells isn’t bad, plus with Wota, you give your friends benefits too. One experimental build I’d like to try is turning revolver into a Hextech Gunblade instead of a Wota for less AP heavy teams; the extra burst and the snare mean it would be easier to catch people, and adds a non-skillshot to her arsenal.
Rylais would be my next pick, as having your abilities all snare make landing all your skillshots easier, and gives you greater utility. It also increases your fragile HP pool. Especially with Ahri’s AOE spells, in teamfights being able to snare multiple targets is a great amount of utility. However, if your team already has that, gunblade might suffice/be not awful.
Deathcap is pretty solid. Build one and you get tons of AP. It’s pretty self explanatory, but when and where I’d want to build it would be my concern. I’ve never been a fan of early deathcap, and always find I’d rather have another item before instead of it.
Silly items you’re not likely to see before the endgame but might be worth considering: Void Staff, Lich Bane, Rod of Ages instead of Revolver/Wota/Gunblade combo? More experiments!
You will 90% of the time need to include a QSS somewhere in that build since Ahri plays similar to TF, darting in to unload spells then backing out, the QSS helps prevent a single CC from stopping your damage or straight up killing you (Viegar, Ryze, etc)
Runes, Masteries, and Spells
MPen Reds, AP/level yellows, AP/level or MR blues, AP quints. I guess MR blues are awesome for mid right now. This stuff is pretty standard.
21/0/9 masteries, I know you’re all shocked as well. More AP, more spell pen. The only variation is ever really in utility; my choices are either movement speed, or mana regen and improved recall. I need to experiment and find my balance of success, but I find I’m more comfortable with MP5 for now.
For summoner spells, Ignite and Flash. Flash is important pre-6 for chasing and escaping, and Ignite is a good finisher. It’s also good guaranteed damage to screw with heals when you’re trying to burst someone down.
Clarity on Ahri isn’t really necessary; because she can conserve mana, let an opponent push, and use the same number of spells to clear the wave. A single Q can hit between 3 or 30 minions; letting the wave build up doesn’t hinder your ability to farm them in the slightest. Another thing to consider is any instance in which you’d use clarity you’d almost always benefit from having teleport instead. A) early game when you’re using it for mana, you just B at the fountain and teleport back to lane. B) late game when mana isn’t an issue, clarity is crap, but teleport lets you split push, or show up at teamfights when they happen, or teammates can drop wards and you can teleport in to pressure dragon.
Gameplay
Ahri is fragile, long range, and has the ability to keep a relatively safe defense while transitioning to a powerful offense with a single activation of her ultimate. Early game laning involves keeping the delicate balance of pushed and overextended versus defensive. Getting your ult just extends your options even more. Mid game ganking is really good while you have your ult, late game teamfights are good with her bursty AOE and ult, possibly the snare from Rylais on the entire enemy team. What she brings over other AP carries is really versatility; she’s got sustained DPS in Foxfire that other very bursty AP champions lack, she’s got three flashes on her ult that can be used for a combination of attack and defense. She definitely falls on the “offensive” side of AP though, requiring good knowledge of how to apply an offense and being able to threaten your opponent before being really useful to the team as a whole.
Defensively, once you are running out of someone’s range at equal/faster speed, you immediately stop taking any damage. You avoid 100% damage. Dodging spells with that extra MS, etc, you avoid 100% of things that do not hit you.
If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a skillshot.
Counterpicks
Ryze is a common and powerful counterpick. Personally, I would put Kennen up on that list, as his ult almost directly counters yours.
Cassiopeia is at least tolerable for me; Kennen gets too many direct untargetted non-CC counters to Ahri, just like Ryze.
Except Ryze is Ryze, and Kennen is half-manageable, and Cassiopeia needs to land her things to kill you, which you can make harder for her with your ult.
Kassadin counters many AP mids with stupid silence ball and repeated gapcloser ult spam over walls and shit, Morgana can shield your charm so she can counter-ult you (but you can keep ulting to break range if you don’t burn them all just to get to her… which is bad! Don’t do that!).
Talon seems like a ridiculous anti-caster champ that could wreck you mid but nobody really plays him mid.
Notable anti-junglers would be Maokai with his ranged root, as once landed you can’t ult to get away from him. Hecarim could cause problems as an early ganker because he can attack Ahri before she can escape with her ult.
Good Leblanc players.
Kennen pretty much pokes the same way you do, so it’s actually fairly even except his ult is better for teamfights, whereas your ult is better in ganks.
Sion takes dumps on Ahri, as he does the same thing she does. He has a targeted stun, and more burst.
Ahri’s lategame isn’t amazing, since she doesn’t have the most amazing burst (it is acceptable but not great) and her utility compared to Morg or someone is not as high. Ahri is really a strong early-mid ganker.
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