Ahri Mid Lane Build Guides, Runes, Items, and Abilities

A new build has been rising up in popularity for Ahri: here’s everything you need to know about it and why it’s strong.

1. Pros

✔ Very Fun to Play

✔ Great Poke

✔ High Damage

✔ Decently Mobile

✔ Good Sustain

✔ High Outplay Potential

2. Cons

✘ Only safe post-6

✘ Very Squishy

✘ No R = No Escape

✘ Relies on hitting E

✘ Q + E are Hard skillshots

✘ Mana-hungry at early levels

🔥 Ahri AP Bruiser Build – Why is it Effective?

Ahri has been a consistent mid-lane pick for years. While she rarely dominates the meta, her versatility 🎭 and playmaking potential 🎯 make her a reliable champion in various team compositions.

However, one of Ahri’s biggest weaknesses is her late-game scaling ⏳ compared to other mid-lane mages. Even when she secures an early gold lead 💰 and snowballs the game, her impact tends to decline later on. As a result, she often struggles to survive ❌ in team fights and fails to deal enough damage 💥.

To address this survivability issue, players have discovered a new AP Bruiser build that is shaking up the ranked ladder. Instead of prioritizing raw ability power (AP) 🔮, this build focuses on sustain and durability 🛡️. The core items include Rod of Ages, followed by Liandry’s Torment and Riftmaker.

📜 Breaking Down the Build

✔ Increased Survivability – This setup makes Ahri much tougher to kill 💖, as the extra health prevents her from being easily burst down.

✔ Sustained Damage Output – Unlike the traditional AP build, this one allows Ahri to keep fighting longer ⏱️ without significantly reducing her damage potential.

✔ Rod of Ages Power Spike – The passive from Rod of Ages provides additional sustain 🍃, making her even more durable when paired with her built-in healing from her passive.

⚖️ When to Use This Build?

🔹 If you prefer a longer-lasting Ahri who can stay in fights and absorb more damage, this build is the way to go.

🔹 However, if your team requires more burst damage ⚡ to secure picks, the traditional full AP build might be a better option.

📊 Performance & Win Rate

The AP Bruiser Ahri build has led to a noticeable win rate increase, reaching 53% at Emerald rank and above, according to Lolalytics 📈 with data from over 10,000 games.

Even better, her ban rate remains low 🚫, meaning you’ll have plenty of opportunities to play her without worrying about constant bans.

• Q + W + AA: Your basic trade will be Q then instantly W AA at the same time.
• E + Q + W + AA: This Level 3 All in combo uses E then instantly Q, followed by using W and an AA at the same time.
• AA + W + Q: Quickly trade with AA to make sure W locks on, instantly W and Q as quickly as possible.
• R + Q + AA + W + R + AA + R + E + AA: When chasing an opponent, R into Q Range then AA W to lock on. R AA to get closer and use your final R to reposition to make E as easy to land as possible.
• Q + R + W + E: To quickly burst use Q then instantly R, W mid air then E once you land.
• R + E + Q + R + W + AA + R + AA: To All-In at level 6, R to get an angle for your E Q then R W to reposition to land the second portion of Q and finish up with AA R AA.
• E + R + W + Q: Hide your Charm animation by using E then instantly R, use W mid air and Q once you land.
• E + Q + R + W + AA: With a clear line to the target instantly E Q R one after another, then use W mid air and AA once you land.
• E + FLASH + R + W + Q + AA + R + AA + R + AA: Hide your Charm even better with E Flash mid animation and immediately R and W mid air. Q once you land then AA R, using R to make sure your returning Q lands.
• E + FLASH + Q + R + W + AA: To surprise your opponent E then instantly Flash and Q, then R right after Q finishes casting. Use W mid air and AA once you land.

1. Laning Phase

The laning phase on Ahri will differ quite a lot depending on if you are vs a melee or a ranged champion.

Vs ranged:

Against ranged champions most of your trades will either come from hitting them with a max range Q when they go for a last hit, or by using W to dodge a skillshot and then trading with autos + electrocute. Generally Ahri loses to other ranged champs pre 6, but post 6 you have great gank setup and eventually you will have enough waveclear to just push and move around the map. If you're in a very hard ranged matchup focus mainly on dodging skillshots and utilize your sustain + waveclear in order to survive. As long as you don't die you should still be very useful in the midgame even in hard counter matchups.

Vs melee:

Vs melee champions you can abuse lane early with lots of W harass and auto attacks. Against most melee champions you will need to hold your charm defensively as they may want to move into you and force a trade. Be careful being pushed up far in the lane pre 6 as you leave yourself very vulnerable to getting chased down. Again once you hit 6, you should be able to play normally and either force them under tower or look for skirmishes.

2. Mid Game

In the mid game as Ahri you will want to do your best to continue to keep up your gold/xp while also being at all the major objective fights. The best way to do this is try shove the side wave as far as you can without dying. If you don't have TP up, it can be a good idea to group with your team instead and just catch sidewaves when they are going to crash on your tower until your TP comes back up. If your sidelane matchup is really easy + your team is winning and you have vision then sidelaning should be very easy, if the opposite of these things are true then you will need to be a lot safer on side.

For objective fights, it's a good rule to try and base around 1 minute before dragon spawns, that way you can spend all your gold and get all your hp and mana back to full. This will give you the best possible chance of grouping up and winning a dragon fight.

Ahri not very good at taking jungle camps, but if you get priority on the side you can easily collapse mid and make a play, or sometimes you might be able to take a sidelane tower with lich bane if you feel safe enough.

3. Teamfighting and Skirmishing

For Ahri's teamfighting/skirmishing the main thing you need to think about is how you are going to guarantee hitting your charm and who are the most important targets. You can normally guarantee a charm by ulting forward into closer range or by using the E flash combo. You can also follow up on other people's CC if that lands first. Try have a good idea of who the highest value targets are, it's always worth charming a tank for a chunk but it may not be worth flash ult charming them over an adc for example.

You can also cleanup fights pretty easily with your ultimate, if you can find a flank or if your team engages onto theirs you can easily follow up by dashing in and using your resets to get out or reposition afterwards.

You may also want to think about which abilities are most threatening and how to avoid them. For example, if the enemy team still has stuff like thresh hook, lissandra ult, malphite ult etc you will need to either wait for these to be used or be ready to avoid them when you go engage. Sometimes it is best to just play to be the secondary engage once some of the cooldowns are out of the way.

With this new AP Bruiser build, Ahri gains much-needed survivability and consistent damage throughout fights. If you enjoy playing Ahri but want a tankier, more resilient version of her, this build is definitely worth trying!

Thanks for Reading! If you want to gain more in-depth knowledge about LOL, check out many helpful articles here!

Good luck to you! – Cheng