I've been playing Akali for a good while and I'd figure I would give my guidelines on how to play her and see what the community thinks!

Pro's
- Insanely high burst damage
- Escape master
- One of the best chasers in the game
- Energy based and low CD's
- If you dream of stealthly running through the streets of New York City at night naked, this champion is made for you

Con's
- Crowd Control her and she's useless
- She has no Crowd Control herself (apart from W slow/ potentially rylai's slow)

Her passive: "Discipline of Force - Upon obtaining 19.5 ability power, Akali's auto attacks deal 10% bonus magic damage, increasing by 1% for every 5 ability power gained thereafter. (Magic damage doesn't affect towers, but it affects other structures.)

Discipline of Might - Upon obtaining 9.5 attack damage, Akali gains 10% spell vamp, increasing by an additional 1% for every 5 attack damage gained thereafter."

This often misleads new players to build her hybrid. Her highest damage is however in pure AP.
You only need AD for her passive (10% spell vamp), which gives great lane staying power and can make u survive dots (damage over time) early on. My runes and mastery setup gives me just enough AD for the 10% spell vamp passive (3 AD in masteries + 6,6 AD in runes).
This allows me to start off with boots and health pots which provides even better lane staying power including some good movement speed for Q proccing (activating mark of the assassin)

The other half of my passive (discipline of force) will also be activated from level 1 because of all my flat AP runes. Early game this gives a bit extra damage and makes it easier to last hit. Late game you will notice you will be dealing a lot of damage with basic attacks, this is because of all your AP.

The following items are not situational and you should always buy them:

- Hextech revolver: 10%passive+20%=30% spell vamp, great staying power plus decievable survivabillity)

- Sheen :neglectable mana, passive works wonders with Q proccing, it's a good and cheap alternative to getting flat AP to build up Q)

- Rylai's crystal scepter: Giants belt kills akali's name as a squishy and the slow is godly. since u have energy and extremely low cooldowns you should be able to chain slow everyone.

- Lich bane: After rylai's and hextech revolver you have a good bit of AP, for the same reason you get sheen you upgrade it to this, more damage into your Q, your bread and butter spell

- Rabadon's: Builds up the AP on your lich bane, makes you both proc more in your lich bane and it also boosts your ulti and E spell.

The following items are situational and depend on the enemy team composition:

Boots

- Mercury treads: Akali is easy to Crowd Control down, therefore these boots are a great choice, the MR helps as well.

- Sorcerer's shoes: get these if the enemy team has a lot of MR. If they also have a lot of Crowd Control you should consider Moonflair Spellblade for the tenacity that you would usually get with Mercury treads.

- Dodge boots: VS. heavy AD team, very situational

- Boots of lucidity: Don't like it too much, you don't really notice it that much on her Ultimate

Offensive items

- Zhonya's ring: Good vs. AD and for the same reason as Guardian's angel, after active you will be able to burst someone down and trade 1 for 1.

- Abyssal scepter: good vs. heavy AP team, with some free magic penetration, always good since akali is 90% magic damage.

- Hextech gunblade: A lot of akalis rush this, not the best option since the AD and lifesteal don't increase her burst as much. However, if you are having trouble staying alive/ in lane. I suppose you could rush it a bit earlier on. As a last item this is fine though. (hextech revolver, into gunblade)

Defensive items

- Guardian's angel: Good vs. AD team. This item's passive is also good because when you come out of GA's passive you'll most likely be able to burst someone down and trade 1 for 1.

- Banshee's veil: It works, the mana is neglectable since Akali is so vurnerably for Crowd Control and the shield provides a lot of cover for this

- Quick Silver Sash: Good item vs. suppresion and AP and Crowd Control. Get this is the enemy team's Malzahar/Warwick/Urgot is fed. Also helps against Amumu.

- Randuin's Omen: Rarely ever use this as Guardian's angel is better vs. AD. however you can get both items very very late game.

What do I not get on her and why

Rageblade: Akali does not need attack speed or any AD other than activating her passive.

Boots of swiftness/mobility: running faster may sound tempting, but akali beneftis so much more from magic penetration or anti crowd control. and don't forget, lich bane gives a good movement speed boost as well.

- Mark of the Assassin (Q) : your bread and butter spell, therefore we max this. Just by only throwing this you hit a decent amount, proc it in the next 6 seconds to get the same damage again plus your basic attack (which is boosted by sheen/lich bane).
A trick you can pull off: Q > W > wait 4-5 seconds > flash > proc first Q > throw second Q > proc second Q. This provides a double proc, with ignite it kills just about everyone in the early laning phase.

- Twilight Shroud (W) : great deception, great cover. Portable bush that boosts MR+Armour. allows double proccing and great damaging surprises. BEWARE OF ORACLES THOUGH!

- Crescent slash (E) : least useful spell because we're going AP, can be used for the final damage and spell vamping though. We max this last.

- Shadow Dance (R) : Q>R>Proc. you will need to do this a lot in order to harrass. R is also good for escaping. W>R to minion. Maximum of 3 stacks, 25/20/15 seconds for every stack. you will get one on a kill or assist. Don't use it too often, don't use it too little. you will find the balance after a while. Also good for proccing rylai's crystal scepter slow, good for chasing tanks down.

Most popular choices (by far the best if you ask me)

Flash:
- really confusing if used correctly with Twilight Shroud, can flash over wall without the enemy knowing you're not still in there.
- Allows double proccing of Q, sick damage early/mid-game

Ignite:
- You can chase people as far as you're allowed (until you run into their team or turret) and then you let ignite burn their remaining body parts burn.
- Burning Embers provides AP, perfect for extra damage early on.

Alternative choises (I don't like these at all in comparison to the above but i guess you can try

- Exhaust: offensively, ignite is so much better because you don't need that much of a slow to burst people, since you have your ultra long range R. Ignite also allows you to do work for you when you can't reach them anymore (turret/team mates) while exhaust can't

- Claivorence: interesting choice, allows you to CV in jungle and Ulti onto for example wolves. Good escape idea but I doubt in how many situations this will save your life.

- Teleport: Haven't tried this honestly, I think it could have some potential when you teleport to a ward and burst a remaining enemy down but it's not worth sacrifising ignite/flash.

- Ghost: Ninja's like flash better!

- Cleanse: interesting, could work if enemy team has heavy Crowd control, alternatively however, you can just get Quick silver sash.

Final tips:
- Be aware of pink wards/oracles and detecting stealths like morgana ultimate or katarina ultimate
- Give your teammates kills, it's easy to killsteal with her but you'll get a lot of flame. Besides, you get ult stacks off of assists as well so keep that in mind.
- Juke, it's easy. You can extend any bush with Twilight shroud
- If you are looking for some High ELO us/eu players check these!
~ Westrice (US)
~ Qlown (US)
~ Wale (US)
~ SK Oce (EU)



I would like to apologize for spelling mistakes, english is not my first language!

hope you liked it and please leave criticism but do indeed upvote ;P

Any questions? feel free to ask! leave a comment i'll try to answer as best as I can