i'm new to lol (only having picked it up last september to play with friends), so this is mostly a place for me to continually refine my build and collect my thoughts. you should take everything i say with a grain of salt, and please feel absolutely welcome to share your own insights.

21/0/9 to embrace ahri's strength in dealing burst damage. how cdr impacts ahri is addressed below.

from the short time i've spent with this game, what seems to be the most evident path to victory to me is to build your champion as strongly as possible, as quickly as possible. that's the ideology i've implemented here, anyway.

league of legends is an archetypal example of what sirlin describes as the slippery slope in game design; where falling behind itself causes you to fall even further behind, or inversely (and more suggestive of a positive feedback loop), where pulling ahead itself causes you to pull even further ahead. in the absence of significant human error, any advantages you have over the opposing's team's mid, in gold and/or experience, positively impact your ability to keep widening that disparity. this facilitates the snowball effect. so how do we put ourselves at such an advantage? league of legends being a game of phases, good farming (last hitting, zoning out the opponent, getting early blue, pushing your minions to the opponent's tower to deny him/her gold) and ganking are key to coming out of the beginning laning phase on top. doran's items (as opposed to early boots or rushing hextech) wholly facilitate this as they are bar none the highest stat/gold items in the game. priced affordably, they are ideal candidates for early game purchases.

here are some of the huge pluses doran's ring brings to ap carries:
- the increase in health allows you to trade favorably with your opponent
- the mp5 enables you to farm more rapidly as well as comfortably maintain enough mana to drop a full combo
- the ap creates an earlier first blood window by quickly bringing your opponent's life down to that % which you need him/her to be in order to commit your max damage combo, and does so in both directions. by virtue of carrying more ap, your individual pokes bring your opponent's life down faster, and since your max damage combo will be dealing a lot more damage as well, you can feasibly go for the kill while they are at a higher health percentage than what would have been ideal for you otherwise. this is good.

these all work toward the end of eclipsing the opposing team's mid.

before i continue on this train of thought, i really want to stress the importance of being content to outfarm your opponent. in the event he/she is playing conservatively, and you overextend, leading to your death, well, you've just undone all your hard work.

that being said, killing your opponent secures your advantage in a manner of ways:
- it negates the gold you spent on that extra doran's
- pushes you towards leveling up
- creates an almost zero-risk opportunity within the laning phase to heal up at base and buy items
- opens up the top and bottom lanes for ganks, which, if executed successfully, will lead to a wider flow of cash and experience for yourself, while completely halting its flow to your opponent(s).

when you finally return to mid, you will be primed to snuff out the opposing team's mid in a matter of seconds and have his/her team crying accusations of feeding.

i reserve my first recall for buying my second doran's and boots. level one boots help facilitate lane control, mobility to aid in poking/dodging skill shots, and ganking. they also serve as a platform for building affordable cdr.

ahri benefits incredibly well from spellvamp because her spirit orb penetrates through consecutive minions, so i like to build an early hextech. i'd recall just for this item, as it greatly diminishes the need for me to leave the lane to heal, improving sustain. i eventually build a late-game will of the ancients.

rabadon's is my favorite item to rush because of its passive. the 30% increase to ability power translates into one thing: the earlier you build rabadon's, the higher your average ap for the game is. you have to build this item in parts because of its massive cost. given that i have the money, i will always opt for needlessly large rod over blasting wand.

after rabadon's i like to knock out my level 2 boots, while picking up will of the ancients for the +40 ap and +8% spell vamp. the cdr from ionian boots improves dps more than sorcerer's shoes does, and i usually get a late-game void staff for any magic pen needs anyway. here i start to open my build up to circumstance.

if the flow of the game starts progressing towards team fights, and your team lacks a tank, take rylai's next. you never want to be near the front line, but since a tank-less team formation is much easier to penetrate (than if your team had a tank), you want to mitigate the risk of being focused (and consequently dying) with the extra health from rylai's along with the adhoc escape mechanism that is foxfire + rylai's passive.

if the flow of the game starts progressing towards team fights, and your team has a tank, take lich bane. you should be positioning yourself to always be out of harm's way anyway, and with a tank, the enemy team will have a tough time targeting you. lich bane gives you a huge dps increase with its passive, with nice bonuses to your ap, mana pool, and movement speed.

otherwise, take lich bane. your dropping power will be too much. eventually build both lich bane and rylai's.

when building lich bane, grab a blasting rod for the welcome increase to your ap, then sell a doran's ring to open up a slot for sheen. lich bane synergizes well with rabadon's, as its passive is directly dependent on your ap.

when building rylai's, grab a blasting rod, then build straight into it. rylai's is a solid addition to ahri's arsenal by providing her with a boost to her survivability and damage output, not only through flat bonuses to health and ap, but with a useful passive that helps her escape from sticky situations and aids her in chasing. rylai's' passive also synergizes well with lich bane's, enabling you to reliably land auto-attacks while in hot pursuit.

your sixth and final item slot closes out this build with flexibility. take zhonya's for a huge boost to your already monstrous ap while using its active to spite the opposing team's efforts to focus you. banshee's veil is great to counter lux's finales funkeln or any other fed ap carry running wild. buy void staff to cut through walls of magic resist like running a hot knife through butter. if only the enemy tank is stacking magic resist, build deathfire grasp to stop the tank in his/her tracks. if the entire enemy team is building magic resist however, void staff is more valuable.

1: 825 (975 if you need wards), doran's, boots
2: 1200, hextech revolver
3: 1600, needlessly large rod
4: 860, blasting rod
5: 1140, rabadon's
6 (or 7, if necessary): 1650, ionian boots, will of the ancients
7: 860, blasting rod
8: 2245, rylai's
9: 860, blasting rod
10: 1022, sell doran's, sheen
11: 1350, lich bane
12: 622, sell doran's, blasting rod
13: 1435, void staff

- to extend early/mid-game ward life, start placing wards only when top or bottom calls an mia. if you have negligent teammates, place wards when you suspect an mia. use your first pair of wards to test the waters of your team's competence.

- burn your mana liberally whenever you need to teleport back to base.

- be content to outfarm your opponent. in the event he/she is playing conservatively, and you overextend, leading to your death, well, you've just undone all your hard work.