Charm enemies with AD Ahri: Best build, runes, why caPs is playing her
Probably not what Riot expected.
Ahri received a mini rework inLeague of Legends patch 12.3that was well received by the community. Back in the meta, solo queue and pro players have been using her in the mid lane.
Most recently, DRX star mid laner Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon picked her twice against Gen.G’s Kim “Zeka” Geon-woo’s LeBlanc andOriannato much success. Other mid laners in the LCK, LPL, LCS, and LEC, such asT1’s Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok,JD Gaming’s Zeng “Yagao” Qi,Cloud9’s Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami, andMAD Lions’ Steven “Reeker” Chen, are also popularizing her in major regions.
One pro player, however, has other ideas.
G2 Esports’ Rasmus “caPs” Borregaard Winther caused a stir after he was spotted spamming AD Ahri in solo queue on the EU West Challenger ranked ladder. Rushing Kraken Slayer as his first item, caPs has been playing AD Ahri in bot lane and mid lane.
Recognizing that she’s “been a little too strong since”, Riot Games decided to nerf her in patch 12.5, albeit slightly. Fox-Fire’s base damage has been decreased by 10 at all levels, and together with Charm, their mana cost increased. These changes, however, do not affect AD Ahri, who casts spells while weaving auto attacks in between to stack Lethal Tempo’s passive.
R – Spirit Rush
How caPs has been playing AD Ahri in solo queue
So far, caPs has been matched up against meta mid lane champions like LeBlanc, Viktor, and Ryze, to name a few in his ranked games.
Since these mage champions require items, he showed AD Ahri’s potential to out damage them in the early game. Despite eating LeBlanc’s Electrocute combo, for example, caPs’ AD Ahri manages to turn the trade around by auto attacking after the opponents’ spells go on cooldown.
He also makes use of reworked Ahri’s increased mobility, dodging skill shots then turning the tables on his opponents with Spirit Rush.
In fact, he’s even attempted the same build on AD LeBlanc.
“If you really, really like Ahri and you want to be like Faker…,”caPs explained on stream. “I also want to be like Faker. If you don’t know how to hit any skill shots, you just max W, go full AD, then you don’t need to hit anything.”
“So you’ll basically be like Faker. Throw some auto attacks, press W and R every now and then. Boom!”
Currently holding an average 6.6/9/5.3 KDA and 23% win rate on AD Ahri in solo queue, the G2 mid laner has won three games on her, and lost 10.
AD Ahri Starting items
How Faker builds Ahri in his ranked games
Faker, on the other hand, has a rising 47% win rate on AP Ahri on the Korean ranked ladder where he rushes Everfrost for the extra utility. Racking up a positive 6.2/3.5/7 average KDA, it seems he’s found more success on this champion the conventional way.
Faker’s AP Ahri runes
Faker’s AP Ahri build
The fullLeague of Legends patch 12.5 notes can be found here.
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