Talk:Ahri/@comment-6701708-20170506134123/@comment-4091261-20170522210235

You aren't wrong, though I will go as far as to say it isn't just one item. In the past and in the present, there have always been items that allowed to amplify her damage output the amazing levels. These items are what allowed to consistently be powerful throughout the seasons.

In the past there was. During this time she was not really considered powerful due to champions like and  scaling much better from it. However, it is still an item that boosted her power all the same.

When it was replaced with, benefited more from this than  as she always focused a lot on poking with  rather than her combo--in fact in the same patch  was removed,  lost the 20% bonus damage from her. This was the breaking point for that made her top tier as all the minor changes to her managed to make her synergize even further with.

People have already experimented with in the past and found success, but now with the other hextech items added, there are now more options for her to attain assassin level damage output. Perhaps the only reason people do not place it in their build normally is due to constraints which forces her to purchase a. The priority of items like, , and fills up too many slots for her to consider hextech items normally.

Regardless, with the boost from alone, she manages to deal enough damage to do nuclear damage given how much  the other items give. and is  already. What makes her terrifying is that if she opts to replace an item like, she can increase her damage output even further.

The same can be said with any other mage, but what makes stand out over the other mages is her safety. The fact she is safe enough to easily come back after going neutral in laning phase, while simultaneously being safe enough to prevent herself from going negative in that stage, allows her to easily build these damage items and weave around, nuking everyone mid-game onwards.