18.4.2012:
Rework of build/masteries/skills
Added Void Staff to Situational Items
*NOTE: SOME RUNES DID NOT SHOW UP WHEN I CHANGED THEM. I USE 4X Greater Glyph of Ability Power & 4X Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power. NOT ALL Greater Glyph of Ability Power.*

23.1.2013:
[*]Full build/masteries/skills/runes revamp
[*]Removed "Useless Items" Chapter, added GA to situational
Working on more atm, should be updated fully in a few days

I haven't touched this guide in a VERY long time and have come back to 17k+ views. Thank you guys so so much for even just giving me views. It gives me the motivation to revamp the entire thing for the upcoming season and make even better Akali players in NA! (As long as you're not against me ;) )
No, but really, thank you guys <3

I just want to take a second out of this guide to explain something important about guides and League of Legends gameplay in general. If you don't play the game as it.. probably should be played.. NO guide will work for you. Let me point out some things that people do that just completely fills my mind with wtf.

• Feeding. Self explanatory, don't chase early game, play defensive, especially with someone squishy like Akali.
  
• Don't be item dependent and think that an item can save you, your game play and strategy is the only thing that can save you. If you're unskilled, you're going to die.
• Don't DIE for a KILL. Sure, you got one kill, but so did someone else. So when you're chasing someone all the way across the map think about that. You want to get fed, but it's for no purpose when you do it just to die. Staying alive is more important than getting the kill.
  
• TOWER HUG EARLY GAME AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. I don't know how to stress this enough.. I've seen dumbasses run out into a shrub or just out in the open right away. Enemies will hide in shrubs, gank you, or just kill your *** if you go out there alone. Tower hug with your lane mate, don't do anything alone, we play on teams for a reason.
  
• Don't run in and save your team mate who has 200 hp because you won't save them even if you try. I hate when this happens, it's beyond annoying. Actually, people run out thinking they'll get a kill but they're just going to die too. Instead of giving the other team a double kill, leave them with one and don't get involved.
  
• If you're up against a range champion, or a champion that has range skills, stay out of that range especially early game when all you have is Boots. Be especially careful when they have stuns. It's ridiculously easy to dodge some ranged skills. It baffles my mind how people don't understand how to dodge, for example, EVERY skill Lux has.
  

Having almost 400 games exclusively with Akali, I've had a lot of time to work on a good build for her. A lot of people in game talk smack on my build and insist I should rush Rylai's or Gunblade, but I've tried that and it didn't work for me. Try my build out, see how it works for you and give me feedback. I'd love to give my insight to the community and I would also love yours as well. Feel free to leave comments and suggestions.

Please vote!

Just to back me up a little bit on this guide, I guess. Some changes in boots/situational items. Those will be explained as well.

I'm just going to get this out of the way first, because this is the most ridiculous argument about Akali. A lot of people argue that Guinsoo's Rageblade is absolutely horrid when it comes to Akali, that it's useless, takes up space, and doesn't make a difference. SO I figured I should make an entire chapter about this item.

Taken from LoL Wikia.

Effects

• +45 ability power
• +35 attack damage

Passive

• Unique: On cast or hit, you gain +6 ability power and +4% attack speed for 5 seconds (maximum 8 stacks).

• " Guinsoo's Rageblade is one of the few hybrid items in the League of Legends, providing attack damage, attack speed and ability power. It is currently the only item in the League of Legends aside from Trinity Force to provide all three of these statistics. The buff time is refreshed each time an attack or ability is used, so if continually attacking or using an ability within five seconds of the previous, eight stacks will be maintained. Item activations(but not summoner spells) also trigger the passive. It is a cost-efficient core advanced item in any hybrid's build."
  
• According to stat value calculation, this item is the most cost efficient item when you have all 8 stacks yielding a total of 35 attack damage, 93 ability power, and 32% attack speed for only 2235 gold.

tl;dr:

So, basically what you can take from that:

• Good for a hybrid build
• Attack speed
• Attack damage
• Ability power
• Very cost efficient

Now let me make a few arguments to the most commonly *****ed about things:

omG liek Akali doesn't even need atak spid wtf r u doin ur DUM
FALSE. Most of the time, your teammates will be absolutely helpless and idiotic, will die a **** ton, rage quit, etc. That stacking attack speed will help you push towers and farm a lot better than you think. = carry your idiot team to a victory.

Just because it's cheap doesn't mean you should get that over something else..
As stated above, at eight stacks you get a total of 93 AP. Doesn't seem like a lot, but getting that item first will give you the most AD/AP early game pretty much. This will not only get you farther early game, it will help you push harder while the opposing team is still squishy and weak. If you don't do too hot early game, odds are you won't do too hot late game, because you will probably have fed the other team and made it gg at 10 minutes. Sure, there are more costly items that you can't afford early game that you might want to get, but trust me, get rageblade first.


Edit:
The Pre-Season 3 changes have made Guinsoo's Rageblade even more of an awesome pick for Akali! I can not express how stoked I was about the new passive. "UNIQUE Passive: Falling below 50% health grants you 20% Attack Speed, 10% Life Steal and 10% Spell Vamp until you exit combat (30 second cooldown)"
You don't notice how great of a passive this is until you're to the point of low health where you go in and regain half to three quarters of your health back. This combined with Hextech Gunblade is crazy. Not only that, but it bounces off of Akali's passive and makes it even more worthwhile.

Even if you're absolutely against this item on Akali, try it with the new changes just to see how great it works for her!

• Greater Glyph of Ability Power, Greater Mark of Attack Damage, and Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage are mandatory for triggering Akali's passives.
  
• The whole Greater Seal of Scaling Health thing is for survivability and to overcome Akali's squishiness.

A nice introduction to the new masteries if you're not familiar: Play Video Credit goes to: LTT


You want your masteries to fit Akali, whether you choose to make yours identical to the model I made or not. Let me run through some things you want and also some things you do not want out of your masteries:

DO PICK MASTERIES THAT: -Help activate your passives (+AD or +AP) -Add to the effects of your chosen Summoner Spells -Add defense -Give cooldown reduction

SPACE

DO NOT PICK MASTERIES THAT: -Are less useful for Akali, like critical strike or attack speed -Provide mana or mana regen.. Akali uses energy, not mana, so these are useless -Add to the effects of unused summoner spells

• Since you trigger both of your passives with runes, you shouldn't start with Long Sword, Amplifying Tome, or Doran's Blade.
  
  
  
• Boots & Health Potion x3:
  For some extra speed initially. More of a chance to escape if you're caught in an early game gank or fight. Health potions give you more lane time when you're being harassed.
  
  
  
• Guinsoo's Rageblade:
  Explained in the previous chapter.
  
  
  
• Sorcerer's Shoes:
  These boots give you that extra Magic Pen that help you do more damage to your enemies building MR.
  
  
  
• Sheen > Lich Bane:
  Prepare to kill every opposing champ...... seriously. You are going to do insane damage with Mark of the Assassin and with your Q>R combo you're going to reap. I find that Lich Bane combined with Guinsoo's Rageblade is absolutely amazing and does extreme amounts of damage, especially if you get them first.
  
  
  
  
• SITUATIONAL: Amplifying Tome > Mejai's Soulstealer:
  If you follow my guide to the very smallest detail, you're going to get results with this. Play defensively, settle for the assists, get kills whenever you can without dying. This goes well with Rabadon's Deathcap. With all 20 stacks, you have 160 AP plus the initial 20 AP. Along with this, at 20 stacks, you get 15% reduced cooldown times.. which means more Q>R>Q>R>Q>R madness.
  
  
  
  
• Needlessly Large Rod > Rabadon's Deathcap:
  Pretty self explanatory and is used on almost every Akali build. Akali does insane damage with a ton of AP, and when you want a ton of AP, you go for Rabadon's Deathcap. You're going to get an extra 30% of the ability power you already have, including 140 AP.
  
  
  
  
• Hextech Revolver > Hextech Gunblade
  Gives more of a hybrid build to Akali. Gives you AD, AP, life steal, and spell vamp.. even a 300 magic damage and 50% slow active. This item is great for Akali.
  
  
  
• Rylai's Crystal Scepter
  Has a slowing effect, gives you extra health and a good amount of AP.
  

The more common situational items that I use:

• Mercury's Treads:
  When you're against a heavy CC team. Gives you magic resist and tenacity, with 2 movement speed.
  
  
  
• Thornmail
  This item is especially important when it comes to AD teams. When you're getting boned by the other team that is entirely AD or close enough, grab a Thornmail ASAP. "100 Armor. UNIQUE Passive: On being hit by standard attacks, returns 30% of damage taken as magic damage. A minimum of 15 damage must be received." 30% damage returned is PRETTY good I'd say, especially when they're continuously destroying your team.
  
  
  
• Void Staff / Abyssal Mask
  Against teams with a good amount of MR, you're going to want to grab items like these. You'll break through that barrier real quick. If you're on a team with a lot of Magic Damage, you should more likely go for Abyssal Mask for its aura.
  
• Guardian Angel
  I know a lot of people live by this.. but honestly, all I'm going to say is why buy an item just to get yourself killed twice. It can be useful though if you're getting instantly nuked in team fights and are the main focus, you can get right back up and fight. With the new Guinsoo's Rageblade your low health when reviving can be easily restored as well.
  

• Oh **** they're going to dive
• Defend yo lane
• Not NECESSARY but if behind you should ward
• Defend yo jungle
• Vision wards for the big boy monsters

• You're going to want to put your first skill point into Mark of the Assassin due to the fact that this will help you harass nicely early game.
  
• Put your second point into Twilight Shroud so that you can slow minions and champions around you, or stealth yourself to escape. Early game this is vital though some people disagree. It helps a lot more than you think.
  
• Your third point should go into Crescent Slash because this is your big farming skill. You can use this to get waves of minions away.
  
• Get your points into Shadow Dance ASAP. This move makes Akali.
  
  
  TIPS:
• Destroy enemy champs by throwing your Mark of the Assassin, waiting for two seconds, then using Shadow Dance and Crescent Slash followed by another Mark of the Assassin and repeat this.
  
• Use Mark of the Assassin to harass during early game.

• Use Twilight Shroud to slow your enemies or to confuse them during an escape.
  
• Don't rely too heavily on Twilight Shroud for stealth because the enemy can get a ward or oracle. I utilise this skill more often than not for its slow.
  
• Check bushes with Twilight Shroud. You'll still be affected by AoE skills, but your armour and magic resist will help you not take as much damage. This is especially useful early game.
  
• Use it just to be safe. If you're walking through the jungle or near the river, use it at a crossway in case the enemy is coming after you. They'll get slowed and most likely won't get to you.
  
• Attacking turrets. There's a few things to say about this one. When you're attacking a turret and it's at it's last 200 when all of your minions die, throw down your Twilight Shroud and take down the tower. What this does for you after you get your Guinsoo's Rageblade and Lich Bane is this:
  
  1. You've already been attacking the tower, so you probably have 8 stacks on your Guinsoo's Rageblade. You have a higher attack speed and can take down the tower faster.
  
  2. Your Lich Bane makes it so that after you use an ability, which in this case is Twilight Shroud, your next attack on the tower deals an additional 100% of AP in AD.
  
  3. Slow minions that are coming, along with enemy champions.
  
• With your Flash, Twilight Shroud goes perfectly. Use Twilight Shroud at a strategic place and flash over a wall or in a confusing direction in order to escape efficiently.
  

• You want to get Crest of the Ancient Golem (Blue Buff) at some point so that you have more energy regeneration. This will help you when you're trying to kill enemies, because a lot of the time you won't have enough energy to throw your mark or use Shadow Dance.
  
• You want to only last hit minions most of the time. This will ensure that you get a lot of gold and makes sure that the enemy doesn't get experience or gold.
  
• Get extra gold from jungling if it's needed.

• Master map awareness. Know where to go and where not to go. (i.e: The river. Just avoid it as much as possible, don't use it as an escape route, you will be found and killed more than likely.)
  
• Get oracles and wards when needed, it doesn't only help you, it helps the whole team. Wards are almost always helpful.
  
• Know when to get involved in a fight and when to recall.
  
• Don't talk smack on your team no matter how big of idiots they are, I've seen so many people just ragequit because of people talking ****.
  
• Throw down Twilight Shroud when someone is chasing a teammate at low HP, sometimes I even burn an exhaust for a teammate. This will slow the enemies and your teammate has a better chance at getting away.
  
• Don't run into a fight alone because odds are when you think you're going to be 1v1 against some squishy, you're just going to get ganked.
  
• Don't overextend. As Akali, if you overextend and get closed in on, you'll more than likely die. Just because you have Twilight Shroud doesn't mean you're Evelynn, Twitch, or Shaco.
  
• Gank other lanes if you're winning mid/top hard. Don't leave your lane for too long but do make sure to help your team out if they're in need. If you plan on doing this, be sure to pick up a Vision Ward prior to your gank just so that you don't waste time sitting in a bush with a ward. If you absolutely can't afford a Vision Ward do a lane gank. Sit behind top tower waiting for the enemy to initiate and play on their mistake; or sit in a bot lane brush (make sure minions are pushed so that they don't see you coming) and wait to play on their mistakes. Picking up the easy kills and assists helps a ton. ALWAYS PUSH YOUR MINIONS AND MAKE SURE TO ASK IF THE LANES ARE WARDED BEFORE YOU LEAVE YOUR LANE.

I'm going to add more as I get feedback from you guys, I hope that my explanations were clear and valid. If you read this through, thank you. I appreciate any suggestions that you guys are willing to put out there. (: