Ahri (League of Legends)

Started playing League of Legends again, and had the luck to enjoy an Ahri free week. She's a lot of fun to play. Unfortunately, she seems unfocused and difficult to play. Her main strength is probably in the short term mobility granted by her ultimate (three short range dashes) and her Charm skill which is a weak pull and decent stun combined.

Ahri feels like she has a scattered and unfocused skill set, with a passive that provides sustain, an AoE that has true damage (true damage ignores defenses), an uncontrolled homing attack, a single target pull, and a mobility granting ult. Each of these abilities is pretty awesome on their own, but together, they seem somewhat awkward, as each specializes in something different. The AoE skillshot is good at harassment and whittling enemies down. The Fox-Fires seem like a hybrid of single target nuke, and team fight sustained damage. The charm is pretty awesome, but as the only CC in the skill set, it doesn't work well to design a build around it. The Ultimate, can hit three targets three times, and/or be used to move around quickly. It is extremely versatile which also makes it hard to figure out what the best way to use it is.

In my efforts to make use of Ahri, my greatest success has been in staying at the edges of fights, harassing without committing fully. Ultimately, it feels like anything she can do, another mage can do better. She doesn't seem to have enough damage to be a proper mage, and not enough CC to be a tank/support. I've had the most success when I focus on CDR, to make the most of her true damage and Charm, as well as keep her ult available whenever I need it. I just don't feel like it works any better than it could on other champions.

One thing to note: I've mostly been playing Dominion, so I don't know how well she does in Laning. She may have some strength in the laning phase of SR that makes her good. However, she appears to have a weak team fight presence and lacks the burst power of other mages.

Update(2012-07-22): Based on what I've seen of her in tournaments, Ahri's greatest strength may be her ability to punish an opponent's mistakes. Her ultimate's mobility, and her short charm help her to capitalize on any opening an enemy gives her.