What is the counterplay for Ahri?

Samflash3·Nov 4, 2016·4 votes·1,746 views

I see many people arguing about champions having counterplay but what is Ahri's?

(Not saying she's broken. Just inquiring about her counterplay since everyone seems to have something to do against)

21 Comments

RcGjWO640wNov 4, 20167 votes

Ahri is susceptible to anyone who can match her range and deny her ulti as well as scale into the late game. Veigar is a good example. While typically immobile mages get dumpstered by Ahri, Veigar can just throw out his stun as a huge area denial for her to move away from which helps him stay safe in lane since Ahri generally doesn't have much kill pressure until level 6.

She's also not great against anyone whom she can't outplay: i.e. anyone with point and click spells. Syndra and Veigar's ults both are lock on and do a metric dickton of damage. Annie is also kind of a skill matchup, because while Annie gets beat by Ahri's superior range, she has point and click CC and enough burst to instantly delete her if she every tries to go in without a charm pick.

Ahri is a mid-game assassin and while she doesn't really fall off into the late game, she's not as strong as a lot of other mages. So if you can generally hold out and not let her pick you with Charm, you should be able to win. Ahri in the late game specializes in kiting super hard. If she has a Rylai's, then she's pretty much untouchable without a really good gapcloser. She moves from being a mid-game assassin into more of a kite mage.

Samflash3Nov 4, 20162 votes

I really hate summarizing posts. But it does seem like

Play ranged champions.
Just CC her.
100-0 her.

Again, I don't think she's overpowered. She just seems to be the champion laughing at our definition of balanced and counterplay.

Brain Errör 404Nov 4, 20163 votes

No, she is the definition of balanced and has loads of counter play. Her ultimate, for one, is very easy to burn. It doesn't keep stacks like other dashes etc, so once you get a solid gank in and force her to burn ulti, you'll be fine. Other than that, she has a hard time dealing with healthy people, in addition to having sub-par damage when even or behind. So keep her from getting rolling and you'll be fine.

She's as hard to gank as any other mobile champ with escapes :

Zed, Fizz, Ekko, Leblanc.

RcGjWO640wNov 4, 20161 votes

Keep in mind that Ahri's Q does true damage with a 35% AP scaling on the way back. If it gets to late game, she'll be spamming it and she can absolutely shred teamfights. Being healthy helps, but Ahri can still kill tanky champs easily if they have no way of getting on top of her.

Brain Errör 404Nov 4, 20162 votes

Teamfights don't last long enough for Ahri to have that much of an impact with her Q. Max CDR, her Q is on a 4 second CD, you can't really call that spamming. You'll use Q like twice before the teamfight ends, if even. I've been chased down by so many people on Ahri, it isn't even funny. Darius/Shen/Poppy. When her ulti is down, I swear some people have so much movement speed it's ridiculous.

But yeah, for you to hit anyone other than the front line, you'd have to be in a pretty bad position. All in all, I find her late game to be sub-par to most other midlaners, but it can work depending on the team.

Samflash3Nov 5, 20161 votes

But that's a weakness common to mages in general. Twisted Fate, Karma, Orianna, etc

But what is the secret on Ahri and how can it be used on champion design like Azir where they feel like they have no counterplay/ steady power curve but it isn't unfair at the same time.

Brain Errör 404Nov 5, 20162 votes

Her damage, and her low dps is the secret to her balance. Take it this way. Ahri will take out, on average, 1 -2 people per teamfight and those people will most likely be the squishies. She's an "assassin", but doesn't have the upfront burst like most assassins to 100-0 anyone late game.

To top it off, Ahri doesn't do a lot of dps, especially in the late game. She's less than average early, has a really great mid game and falls off late game. Azir has a crappy, BUT very safe, early game, a slightly above average mid and a devastating late.

Azir has the same safety net, if not better, that people claim Ahri claims to have, and he gets this at level 3. This is why riot gutted him because of how much he has in his kit.

Azir has CRAZY dps late game and shreds EVERYONE. Tanks, squishies, you name it. He isn't gated by medium-low damage, high CDs like Ahri is. You can say Azir is actually the real definition of an APC. He's on that level of Casseopeia, except, he has 2x more the effect range AND AOE. Imagine Cass had 750 range and her twin fangs AOE'd. See where I'm going with this?

OglafNov 4, 20165 votes

Pull her tail(s).

Samflash3Nov 4, 20161 votes

Blitzcrank hook of approval.

BoulderoxNov 4, 20164 votes

i would like to second this honestly, she is deemed one of the safest laners beause of her ability to have her Q ms shenanigans, decent waveclear, true damage, and her ult that just seems a tad too safe... She has an answer if you get close and if you are far away, while packing enough damage to 100-0 in a rotation What is her weak point?