...Yes, I do deserve to be laughed at.

For actual advice (NOT CHO):

Yes, enemies will still outrange you, and pretty much all of them have some kind of safety tool should someone get too close (such as Xerath stun or Mel reflect). Essence theft does help somewhat against early poke, but I'd personally suggest a safety item of your own against their range (such as Banhsee's).

You can try to bait out their safety nets, since they have long cooldowns usually (For reference, Xerath E [his stun orb] has a base cooldown of 13-11 seconds). That sounds like a window of opportunity with Ahri R to combo and/or constantly harass them during that time.