I completely understand and acknowledge her burst path is better in almost every way, but her range leaves much to be desired for me to enjoy playing her. Would a more defensive oriented build like 
Etc. work with her
or is that to little ap to be relevant for ahri (what little testing ive done her w goes down to about a 2 second cd. )
thank you for any insight from ahri players or people who have more knowledge about her than I.
King J3ff2 votesI don't play ahri, but from what I've seen: , 
, 
, works on a lot of ap champs that u wanna build healthy. tthen finish it off with and 
EndlessSorcerer1 votesYou could try using:
Revali1 votesthat's definitely not a defensive oriented build, that's more akin to her traditional burst style of play.
Darth Sidiouss1 votesRod of ages always makes you a bit more beefy its a good substitute for if you dont desire CDR that much.
jaymc11301 votesViable competitive builds?
No.
Fun trolly bruiser builds? Sure!
Try this: 
with 
as a fifth item and what ever boots you so desire.
Terrible build. Hilarious when you can win with it.
Asya1 votesBeing an Ahri main I've really been enjoying this build 
/ , combining them with scaling health yellows. Now ofc you could trade zhonya's for abyssal depending on the enemy laner, but I believe zhonya's could be the most efficient one even vs ap mids like Syndra or Ziggs that are really popular atm. You can be at around 3k health with this build, and have a really good burst potential as well, add zhonya's and your ult and you'll be basically uncatcheable. You may get tabi's etc if you wanna get a bit more resistant but I believe the amount of health you have should be enough. And since this build doesn't really add much cdr you might as well get some scaling cdr runes if you're willing to sacrifice some early ap for it or go for cdr boots instead of magic pen ones. Hope this helped :P
Veraska1 votesGenerally you don't need to be building defensively on ahri, her range and mobility do a lot of work if you're good with her
However if you really want to face tank with her you could go roa into hourglass/abyssal and the death cap maybe
U lose out on a lot of the damage you want early but ur definitely beefier