I've read a lot of guides on Akali, and I don't play her like any guide I've seen. The way I play her is from a lot of experimenting, I realize that there are other ways to play her, in fact, I play her multiple ways. This is just my favorite. I'd love to see some feed as to what I can do better, so please comment!

Pros
-Amazing Burst
-Great Chaser
-Low ability CD
-Good at Escaping
-Good Solo Lane

Cons
-Squishy
-Lots of abilities to keep track of
-Countered by Focus/AOE/CC

I unlock my passive at the start of the game, that's why my runes are the way they are.

Offensive champ, offensive masteries...

This is an AP akali guide, so most of the items are ap. Since my passives are unlocked, I buy boots. It allows me to harass so much better, or farm so much better. Plus, it's just useful to have boots when you're a melee champ. Most guides have you get hextech revolver. That's a good route, but I like sheen even more! It makes you do so much more damage! Next I get a Deathcap. It makes her hurt more, and it gets me ready for my next purchase... Lich bane. Perfect, because sheen builds into it, and it takes all that ap from deathcap and you do that much damage with your basic attacks after you use an ability... Your abilities are on low cd, so you should be doing LOTS of damage fast! You should be shredding through your enemies health right now. You should be able to kill just about any champ 1v1. Next I get hextech gunblade, it gives you spell vamp, and lifesteal. You do a surprising amount of physical damage as akali, so lifesteal is nice. I usually buy a Rylai's Scepter, and then lastly, an abyssal scepter for extra ap, MR, and it lowers enemy MR. However, there are other viable items to get instead of these last two. Frozen mallet (if you got rylai's it's not really needed), void staff, bloodthirster, zhonya's hourglass just to name a few. Feel free to experiment! That's what I did!

I start with my q at lvl 1. Lvl 2 I get w, but then leave it as my last priority. I prioritize it like this r->q->e->w

I ALWAYS use ignite and flash. I've had countless kills with ignite, and flash combined with twilight shroud make escaping easy.

NEVER INITIATE! Just don't do it. Period, just don't. Let somebody else initiate, now your job is to kill their squishy high dmg champ or support. It should be easy, just one or two bursts. They are champs that are worth it to chase, so do it a little, but try to stick with your team. An akali who is alone, is a vulnerable akali.

I usually start with my q, then ulti to them, hit them with my basic, and throw my shroud. Then i mark them, ulti, basic, and wait. Then I q, ulti, basic. Usually after the second time they're dead, and you can move on to your next target.

I usually play defensive until lvl 6, so until then, farm minions with your q and e. It's pretty easy, especially once you've skilled your q once or twice. You can harass or kill if the opportunity arises though, I do it frequently.

The opponents often don't realize that you become 10 times more deadly as soon as you hit lvl 6. The reason you're more deadly is this... Before, you mark them, you had to run all the way to them, while they're probably doing damage to you, and then hit them with your basic. At lvl 6, you mark them, dash to them, and whack them, throw your shroud, mark and basic them again, and they have to go b, or you've killed them. See the difference? Yeah, opponents usually don't. I get fed in about two-thirds of my matches. I rarely go negative, and when I do, it's usually because something weird happens (like i play with a garen who doesn't realize that he has a silence) and I die a couple times early, or I'm too aggressive and do something stupid and end up dying.

The deathcap + lich bane is awesome! You have tons of ap, and then your basic does as much damage as your ap! Late game when you q, r, and basic it adds up to be about 1840 damage! That's nuts! And if you do it again... ouch. That's why it's often a good idea to get magic pen, because if you do that to a tank... he's half gone! Also, spell vamp and lifesteal rock! You get tons of that damage back to heal you!

Your w is often big enough to reach between two sets of bushes. Try to use that so that enemies don't know where you went. And don't be afraid to sit in your shroud for a second, figure out what the enemy is going to do, and act accordingly. Don't just throw it down and run right through it in the same direction you were before. That can be the right thing to do, but usually sitting in your shroud can only help. You have 8 secs, figure some stuff out. Can you get away easily? Do you have help coming? Do they have help coming? Can you kill them? Do you need to use flash?

Another thing to realize is that your shroud lasts 8 secs, it takes 8 secs to port back to base... It doesn't hurt to throw it around yourself and then immediately port back to base. It makes it a lot safer.

Also, you can use enemy minions to escape! Use your ulti! Just don't use your ulti to farm minions. That's stupid, don't do it. It's a waste.

Basically akali is a beast! I've never played a champ that was so fun to play, and could kill so fast. Be smart, one thing I didn't mention is that if you know where their jungler is, go invade. It's very rare that a jungler can match you, especially if they were just fighting golem, or lizard, or dragon! Mostly, just have fun, and experiment if you want to! That's the only way you'll know how you play akali best!

Please comment and vote!