IMPORTANT: Guide Still under Construction

The main reason why I wrote this guide is because I'm just not statisfied with the JUNGLE guides for akali out there. The best voted jungle guide here is imo really really bad and it can be done a lot faster.
This Guide won't explain every single detail to akali, because it would be way too much, but it'll give you a good idea on how to play akali and I hope you'll figure out how to play her well really fast by following this guide.
The lane guide is pretty standard i guess but believe me I've tried a lot of different stuff and this is what has worked best for me.
I also need to mention that I'm from austria so if you find spelling mistakes just tell me so i can remove them.
Enjoy!

Pros:
-Very fun to play with
-One of the best chasers in the game
-Can snowball very well
-Great burst
-On of the fastest junglers if done right
-great at juking (great fun!)
-Doesn't have to be weak early game with this lane build.

Cons:
-If ganked in the jungle its very hard to escape, compared to other junglers (only matters in higher elos)
-Is not a good enemy jungler invader (compared to shaco, nunu, usw)
-Oracle hurts her viability in teamfights, but not punishes her completely.
-having 0/3 can mean the game is over for you unless you really start ksing

Twin Disciplines
Gives you spell vamp from AD and more dmg on autoattacks from AP.
The extra dmg on autoattacks helps, but its not worth stacking AS, playing her as a Hybrid is viable, but not as good as pure ap since youll not have as much burst.
Mark of the Assassin
Your main harrassment ability. With the proc it actually deals a lot of dmg. This ability is always maxed first.
If you are on a lane you can throw this on an enemy then wait till it comes of cd again and then go for the double-procced autoattack! Deals crazy dmg.
Twilight Shroud
This is your Stealthing ability. Also you shouldn't forget that it gives you higher resistances, so its wise to use it in a teamfight. It needs 80 energy, so only use it if you need it or if you dont need much more energy to finish your enemy off. This is also very nice for lowering the towerdmg you get.
Crescent Slash
This is your aoe which deals dmg around you. It has a pretty short range so if you are trying to use it on your enemy, only use it in melee range. It scales of AD as well but since it's the only AD ability its not worth building it... (AP is cheaper too)
Shadow Dance
This is Akali's showstopper. It has a lot of uses.
1. Chase enemies
2. Burst enemies down with multiple charges
3. Juke (this needs some practice to master)

I will post an indetailed description on when to do what and how to do it if this guide gets noticed, maybe even a video.

Just follow the build instructions. The only thing I don't do every game is getting twilight shroud at 4 when jungling. Because sometimes you just can't gank or you screw up jungling and need that 1 extra point in e. If you decide not to get it at 4, take it at 7.

Musthave:

Flash has so many uses it's amazing. Almost everyone takes it. It's especially good for akali since flashing out of twilight shroud will give you a lot of space on your enemy. Makes you able to towerdive better, chase enemies, flash back from a teamfight when you overextended and most importantly flash out of your

2nd Spell:

Smite is a musthave if you are jungling.


Exhaust is usually the 2nd spell i get when laning, I think it's actually a lot better than ignite which is what most people get. The reduced dmg and slow will help you a lot more at killing your enemies than the plain (and pretty low) dmg from ignite will.

Other semi-viable choices:

I'm personally not a fan of ignite but its viable instead of exhaust. Exhaust might take more skill to use in the right situation and this can help you pick up some kills early, but is never as good late game.
I only get this when i play ranked and i know that i'm up against healers such as mundo, soraka, sona... and our team doesnt have enough ignites.
The other reason why i would get this is because it can give you 10 ap through the masteries which is essential when jungling without runes or a character far below lvl 30.


Im a fan of Ghost but it's actually kind of meh on akali, if you really want to go full mobility take it it's just not what I would take.


I have seen 1 or 2 akalis do well with it. It synergizes with your ult meaning jungle getaways. Just not my cup of tea. If you use ts or vent you can tell your support to use it and its the same..

Lane Build

There is actually a wide range of rune choices on lane akali. If you don't have these go to other guides and look what you can come up with, this is just how I play here.
If you are jungling I recommend that you get exactly these runes because otherwise you will struggle.

9x

The best runes for any magic dmg dealer. I get these because I play with defensive masteries, so 9 AD marks just wouldnt be enough. And Dorans Blade are a good starting item too. With the defensive mastery build and dorans blade you will own right away on mid believe me!

9x

This synergises with your evasion mastery in the defense tree. The speed buff really helps early game in mid lane (put that double q burst on your enemy) and can randomly save your *** sometimes. In my opionion the best seals for akali.

5x

You need these to activate your passive at lvl 1, combined with the quintessences and the masteries you'll get to 20 AP.

4x

Best glyphs out there. You can go full ap runes too, it's just a slight difference.

3x

Same as the Glyphs

Differences in the Jungle Build

7x

You need these to active your spell vamp at lvl 1. Combined with masteries this is enough.

9x

Standard Seals for any Jungler - A MUST if you want to jungle fast and effective.

Lane Akali

9-21-0 On Lane Akali because it gives you that early survivability with which you can own your enemies even early game. Also it gets you the speed buff when you evade attacks which is really important for the early game strategy this build suggests on akali.

Jungle Akali

21-0-9. the 21 in offense are needed for the passive proc and faster jungling. The 9 in utility are standard for a jungler too. If you don't have all the runes or aren't lvl 30 you should take ignite and put a point in the mastery for more ap when jungling.

A video of the Jungle route will follow if I have the time.

Start with Golems. Use smite right away on the one you focus and spam q all the time. Use your first health pot. From now on you should use another health pot every time the old one wears out. (You should come to a total of 4 pots used the first time you finish your route)

After that wraiths as with any jungler focus the big one first and spam e and q all the time.

Wolves - Same as wraiths.

Blue Buff is the same as any other Jungle mob just save your smite for the last hit (around 500 health) and spam e and q.

Now Blue Pill, buy shoes and as many pots as you can and then go to golems and after that red buff, unless you could gank for an easy kill.

Congrats, you just finished your akali jungling. Once you are done with it you should gank right away unless there is really no option to. In this case just jungle more until you get to 6.

After you are around lvl 6 please don't stay in the jungle as a lot of bad players do. Just gank consistently or deff lanes when someone needs to go back. Only grab the buffs in the jungle, apart from that you should only be there when there is no chance to gank.

Jungle Start

+5x

This is standard for every viable jungler out there and you should get it too. You will need to sell the cloth armor later (anytime you can afford a more expensive item by selling this) but don't flame you are losing a total of 75 gold.


Get these the first time you get back from your jungling.

Lane Start

This is your starting item, which procs your passive at lvl 1 and makes you get really bulky. The lifesteal is not that important, but can help.

Core

With this amazing item you can start to sustain jungling. If I get to finish my build (which usually never happens) I sell this item, because late game it's really not about spell vamp anymore, more about burst. This is also a reason why I don't make a gunblade out of it. The little increase in spell vamp from the passive that you get with gunblade is also not gamechanging.
Also it's not too expensive, just a great starting item.

If you are using the lane build the revolver will give you a crazy amount of spell vamp and you will heal a lot if you use your attacks on enemies.

If you are a fan of mejais, this would be the right time to get it. Please don't get it before you have the revolver, I've done it a few times with 2-0 or 3-0 and it didn't work out that great. You just need the extra spell vamp.

Now finish your boots. These are better than the cdr reduction ones on akali. Mercurys Treads are also an option, but only get them if they have lots of stuns, or if their team is very caster heavy.

This gives you tons of survivability combined with a slow. This makes akali actually pretty bulky, the AP is just a bonus on top of it. Most important item in this build.
This is in my eyes definetly the most important item for akali, don't ever play her without rilays.

This Item is Core for any caster, get it every time after rilays, if you are overfed you can get this even before you finish rilays.

Last items

Since you are selling your starting items you have 3 items left to buy. There is no set order just get what you need the most.

This is usually my 4th item, it's just overall great for damage and more magic resistance. MR is usually more needed than armor at this time and I don't like banshees on akali so this is what to get.
RECOMMENDED

OK now I really don't like this item on akali, since you don't need the mana and its pretty expensive for its MR, but you sometimes need to get this when you are facing champions which crazy iniation spells such as ashe, Amumu, annie...
Also this can almost completely negate the dmg of some casters such as Kassadin.
I usually get abyssal scepter as mr item though since it just suits akali better.


This is one of the items i usually get. It has a lot of AP combined with some armor and a nice active which can dodge karthus ulti and other annoying spells when you use it right.
Abyssal Cepter + Zhonyas + Rilays will give you a lot of survivability late game, which is what you need as a melee caster.
RECOMMENDED

This is my 4th item if I don't need the survivability of the other items. This combined with a double Q-Proq is just crazy dmg output. I love this item, but sometimes other items are more important.
RECOMMENDED

If you see a lot of Banshees Veils on their team, or if they just have a lot of tanks (HIGH MR) you need this. Since you usually dont focus their tanks anyway it's not that great to get but don't underestimate it's power.

Why I don't get these Items

This item is in my eyes kind of overrated on akali. Believe me you wont be able to hit your enemies with many autoattacks anyway since they'll try to run the moment you jump on them, except for melees. But against melee champions (Jax, Yi, Olaf..) you should try to stay in your shroud and only burst them down, not autoattack. So this becomes kind of useless. Not that much AP.. just not as great as some people may think.
The only reason why it would be good is against towers or for a faster baron / dragon, it gives you higher sustained dmg, but you are not a sustained dmg champion.

Early Game

If you are jungling this doesn't matter much.
If you are laning you should try to get a solo lane, preferably top (only if 1v1!), since you can hide in the bush and juke with your shroud. Since you are using defensive masteries and dorans blade you will have a ****ton of life so you can start to harass right away, which is what makes this lane build so good. Just put one q mark on them, wait till it's almost off cd then walk up to them, throw the second q and then autoattack for a huge burst. If you get harassed by them a lot too, try to lifesteal and spellvamp from minions.
If everything is going good you can try to zone your enemy out of exp or lasthit range. The best time to do this is when one of your minions is about to die.

Mid Game

In my opinion mid game starts at lvl 6 when people get their ultimates. Laning is now even easier, use the same technique with your q as above, but instead of walking up to them you can (and should) use your ulti to activate the q proc. You can kill them usually very fast in lane. When you go b gank if you know they have bad map control and go wherever you can get kills/farm. If you didn't do good early you should try to farm even more and gank other lanes (maybe killsteal) since akali sucks when shes underfed.

Late Game

In Teamfights wait until the tanks have used their major cc then jump to their AD carry (you can use tanks as a bridge first jump to them, then to the carry), pop your shroud right away so you cant get focussed and then burst all their carries down (AD carry - ap carry - support - tank).
If they have oracle you need to be a little more careful. Focus whoever you can savely go for, following the priority list.

If I explained something wrong or forgot something please tell me so that I can change it. Also if you want something explained a little more detailed I can do it for you.
I hope you enjoyed this way to play akali and will have success with this build. Thanks for reading my guide i hope you enjoyed it.