Hello players and welcome to my build on Akali, the Fist Of Shadow.
Akali is probably THE best 1v1 champion in the game, as long as she has gained control on that Gunblade for the lifesteal/spell vamp.

If you are a experienced player, make sure to read through the item Discussion part, this is always something where the readers can help the buildmaker with fresh ideas.

Akali's passive is split in two parts, the first passive gives her spellvamp when she gets 10 or more bonus AD, a lot of people buy a doran's blade to reach this 10 bonus AD mark, if you follow this guide, the runepage will give you all the bonus AD you need. The more AD you have (bonus) the more spellvamp you get, but it's not scaling that mucht, I leave it more or less.

Akali's second passive gives her bonus magical damage on her auto-attacks, whenever she reaches 20 bonus AP. Again a lot of people decide to rush the hextech revolver, giving you 20+ AP at level one, I decided to take enough runes to get to that 20 bonus AP without the use of items.

[ As I've said my runepage is really important, it activates both passives without the use of items, allowing you to get some boots first, resulting in spellvamp, high damaging auto-attacks and great mobility in the early levels, abuse this advantage! ]


Akali's first move is her Q, Mark of the Assassin, level this first since it will be your major damage output and is a great tool to lasthit minions. By hitting someone with this move, that person will get a mark, hitting it with an auto-attack will consume the mark and will deal a lot of damage to that person. This damage is magical and will heal you if you have the passives up.

Akali's second move is her W, Twilight Shroud, I get 1 point in this at level 2 and nevermind it further on. This move is the thing that makes Akali as OP in 1v1 as she is, whenever you use this move on an area, this area will be shrouded, akali will become invisible whenever she is stand in the area, enemies are slowed as well. When a teamfight starts, you can lay this down to remain stealthed and pop-out bursting someone and become stealthed again whenever you want to. Also know that people think akali is in the shroud when layed down, if you are fleeing, laying down a shroud and move the other way can duke enemies.

Akali's third move is her E, Crescent Slash, this move makes Akali slash everywhere around her, enabling her to farm multiple creeps at the same time. This move ofcourse hits stealthed people, so if you're sure that low hp eve/twitch/shaco/akali/teemo is somewhere around you, fell free to slash them down :P

Akali's fourth move is her R, Shadow dance, this move is one of the best ults I've ever seen, Akali can jump to an enemy (champion or minion), dealing damage and burning one stack of this move. The stacks will come back after a short time. Akali can save up to 3 stacks.
This move enables Akali of great chase-capacities, and at the same time saves her life quite often.

LEVEL 1 SPENDAGE

Boots of Speed size, Health Potion size
As mentioned before my runepage is accessing both my passives for me, therefor I get a pair of boots at level 1. This is just great mobility and you have gold left for some HPots.


REGAINABILITY
Hextech Revolver, Pickaxe, Vampiric Scepter
The Revolver is just for the spellvamp, because you need that, the pickaxe is a great way to maintain the damage output from your auto-attacks, your passive won't be enough anymore, so why not boosting it again. The Scepter is for the lifesteal.
What a sweet thing these 3 things togheter will form a gunblade in the end :D


FEEL FULLBUILT
Mercury's Treads, Hextech Gunblade, Rabadon's Deathcap
Mercuries gives you some MR (always nice isn't it?) and some extra mobility + reduction of CC, Akali hates CC. The Gunblade is just the finishing of the spellvamp/lifesteal, after this item you can heal up against probably any non-fed champ, the active of the gunblade is a nice extra nuke too. The DCap is just ensuring you that your AP will be massive throughout the whole game, which AP champ doesn't want that?

[PATCH REVIEW GUNBLADE]
(21/10/11) The gunblade has been nerfed togheter with the graves patch. All stats are now lowered and the spellvamp is unique. The lowering stats hasn't been much of a problem for me yet, have played only 1 akali game after the patch came out but it ended in a sweat victory, 14-1-5 endscore and had 60 minions more then my solo top 1v1 enemy. The unique thing is only a problem if you were thinking of using multiple gunblades. (It seems that some people were doing that with Jax on dominion, I think I understand why they patched it then :D, Imagine a jax with 70% spellvamp and 50% livesteal or something... That Jax is like god then...)


AND SHE'S ALSO HEAVY :(
Rylai's Crystal Scepter, Guardian Angel, Zhonya's Hourglass / Abyssal Mask
The Rylai's is there for 3 things, 80 AP, 500 HP, Slow! The GA is just something I advice for anyone at the end of the build, it makes bulky dpses from glasscannons, offtanks from bulky dpses and tanks from offtanks. In this case, Akali will get bulky :D Also note that if you die and revive by the GA, you can lifesteal/spellvamp everything back in like 2 seconds, leave some ult stacks and if you see you're about to GA. Zonya's is just my advice for games with a lot of AD against you, OR if the AD/AP is equally devided. Take an Abyssal if they have more AP. This will result in a really bulky Akali.

I've seen many other builds on akali, all people get the gunblade, pretty much, some people dont like the rylai's some people make her more hybrid after the DCap, they're all plausible, this build is just the one that fits me most, and I think that it'll fit most of you guys too.

There are a lot of items you can get on Akali, as I've mentioned before, one of the options is the lich bane, not my favorite, but it is a great item (in theory). When I actually use it I always find it to be a downer, also since your AP won't get to the numbers that for instance , and often get. But it is a good option.

Since you will burst a lot, this item might come in handy. Again I don't use this item, because you will burst (giving stacks) wait in shroud for cds(lose those stacks) and attack again (gain them back) this won't give Akali the full profit of the rageblade, it is a good option tho, especially for players that got fed badly, you will keep attacking then, the stacks will be kept at 8.

Akali can go both mid and solo top, depending on the enemy against you. She can get babysitted at bottom, but then you need a really strong AD carry to get the mid working.

TOP 1v2
This is propably the worst-case scenario, the 1v2 top lane means that you must soak-up all exp on the lane, and that you can probably not last-hit properly, try to do it with your Q, but don't expect it to work flawlessly. If you have to do this set-up, tell your jungler that unless they fail, you will need ganks quickly. Get yourself pushed to your tower and last-hit all the minions you can, the gunblade is expensive you know ;P

TOP 1v1
Helllll yeee is my answer to this, play defensive untill you reach level 6, then you can start to farm, if they attack you, lay down your shroud and Q + auto-attack them, theyll feel it :D
Once you have optained some of the items I've recommended, let's say when you got to the Vampiric Scepter, you can start to **** on them. There are only a few enemies that stand your epic bursts. When you have to trade damage equally, do so, you will regain all health quickly.

MID
Play defensive again (farming with Q), and do pretty much the same as 1v1 Top, BUT this time your enemy will probably be a caster, those often have a lot of CC, therefor it might be smart to get your mercuries even before the pickaxe, or before the scepter, just depending on the type of enemy.
( , , for example) -> GET Mercury's Treads.
( , , for example) -> It can wait.

BOT wth Support
Rare situation, just farmfarmfarm till level 6, you will have the items you want then, get them and **** on enemies like never before. You will have to own them, because your mid will probably fall.
You don't want , What can you do with that mana-regain? You're energy.

DONT DO
You are an AP caster. You can behave like one. DON'T DO THAT.
A lot of players use Akali to lasthit enemy champions in teamfights, waiting in their shroud to ult out and kill the low hp enemies. Next to a frustrated team this will only end in a underpowered team, and you will probably lose the fights.

DONT Burst into a tank, they survive your moves, then you have CDTime and the carries kill you.


DO
Smartly burst down their AD carries, or whoever you have to focus, depending on your game. You can jump right on them easily, and with your burst the enemies will drop quickly.
Make sure most dangerous CC is done already ( ults, ults, graps, ults, etc etc) and jump for the kill. After you finished the focus #1, go for #2, etc etc.
when you drop, use your shroud to go invisible, please dont try to finish them when you're not sure if you get them down before you die. With your ult and healing you can back out and jump in again, this time with a full HPBar against a half HP.

Akali scares people, when raping my top/mid I've seen my enemies flee for me, use this to keep them off while your team is destroying a tower.

20/10/11 Creation
21/10/11 Made Chapter "Item discussion" + Gunblade's Patch review