Before her rework in patch 12.3, Ahri was considered a rather weak mage in terms of damage output in League of Legends. Her most valuable skill was E – Charm, which had strong crowd control, leading players to build items around this ability for a long time. Previously, we had the Hextech Gunblade build or later the Everfrost combined with the rune Glacial Augment for more precise E usage.
However, after her rework, Ahri now requires a lot of AP and magic penetration as her abilities deal significantly more damage. Moreover, the value of E – Charm has decreased quite a bit with Riot removing the damage amplification feature. This change has made runes that were primarily supportive, like Glacial Augment, no longer suitable. Instead, professional players have now switched to using the Electrocute rune for this champion.
So why is Electrocute becoming the best rune for Ahri? The answer lies in the fact that this champion can easily trigger Electrocute at level 2 with W – Fox-Fire and Q – Orb of Deception. Furthermore, professional players also take one small rune point for attack speed to help activate Electrocute more easily when laning with Ahri’s auto-attacks.
We should remember that in this rework, the energy cost of W – Fox-Fire has been reduced to just 25, allowing you to “spam” this ability quite comfortably. This enables Ahri to push lanes and poke opponents much more easily than before, especially when facing melee champions. Even in matchups against mages, the new passive allows Ahri to sustain and hold the lane much better.
Regarding starting items, it’s interesting that most professional players choose to skip Doran’s Ring. Top-tier players like ShowMaker, Faker, and Chovy opt for the Corrupting Potion as their first item for the “new” Ahri. As mentioned earlier, Ahri at this point will look to “spam” her skills continuously to push the lane and attack opponents. Among the starting items, the Corrupting Potion is the most suitable as it ensures energy while providing a significant amount of damage.
After that, you should aim for Luden’s Tempest or Everfrost as your Mythic item. Items like Rylai’s Crystal Scepter, Rabadon’s Deathcap, and Zhonya’s Hourglass are good choices that Ahri players should consider. The advice is not to use the Crown of the Shattered Queen as this item provides too little damage.
As for runes, Electrocute is clearly the best option for reworked Ahri. After that, the rune points for Taste of Blood, Eyeball Collection, and Ultimate Hunter are the ones players should choose. In the secondary tree, 2 points in Time Warp Tonic and Biscuit Delivery will help you have ample health while laning, especially synergizing well with the Corrupting Potion.
