Starting a general guide.

[quote=theBMB]Before this looks like advertising, I just want to clarify that there are specific parts of my guide that I want feedback on. My akali guide has been up for awhile, but I haven't gotten any real constructive criticism. Since I want to make a general guide about items, item builds, and build order I want more feedback on my ideas in the general sections of my akali guide. Namely the "character fundamanetals" and "items" sections. I'd like some people to take a look at those sections so I can see if my ideas are on-track before I start my next one. Any constructive criticism will be taken note of and added to my next guide.[/quote]

[quote=Searz]Let's leave the making of advanced item guides to the players with good insight. I dunno if you have it, but chances are that you don't(most ppl don't).[/quote]

[quote=theBMB][quote=Searz] Let's leave the making of advanced item guides to the players with good insight. I dunno if you have it, but chances are that you don't(most ppl don't). [/quote] well that's harsh, the point of my post was to look at my guide to determine if I had that kind of insight.[/quote]

[quote=jhoijhoi]Hi, some constructive criticism: 1) Dodge runes? Dodge boots? Dodge masteries? On Akali? D: With your build you'd want Sorcerer's Shoes to maximize your damage potential. 2) The disadvantage of specifying in the defense tree is that you're not utilising the Awareness gain in the Utility tree. Hitting level 6 as fast as you can is something that is absolutely imperative to early gameplay. If you still want to keep your dodge chance, you could always go ?/?/8 to get that Awareness bonus + Good Hands 3) Great commentary and written guidance throughout your guide - commendable ^^ Your items section was fine - was there something specific that you wanted feedback on? I'm struggling to find anything wrong with what you've written ^^[/quote]

[quote=theBMB][quote=jhoijhoi] Hi, some constructive criticism: 1) Dodge runes? Dodge boots? Dodge masteries? On Akali? D: With your build you'd want Sorcerer's Shoes to maximize your damage potential. 2) The disadvantage of specifying in the defense tree is that you're not utilising the Awareness gain in the Utility tree. Hitting level 6 as fast as you can is something that is absolutely imperative to early gameplay. If you still want to keep your dodge chance, you could always go ?/?/8 to get that Awareness bonus + Good Hands 3) Great commentary and written guidance throughout your guide - commendable ^^ Your items section was fine - was there something specific that you wanted feedback on? I'm struggling to find anything wrong with what you've written ^^ [/quote] thank you, that's exactly the kind of comments I'm looking for. As to your second point, that actually seems like a pretty good idea, I'll need to rebalance my masteries and try it out in a few games, because you're right, getting to level 6 with akali as fast as possible is really important. The reason I build Akali so tanky is that she often has to dive through a team to get to the carries and she needs to be able to absorb some damage or else she'll just end up useless.[/quote]

[quote=jhoijhoi]I see, so you chose dodge to counter the carries that you're hard-countering :P Well, I don't quite know how that'd work, as I don't/have never played Akali, but it sounds like a pretty good theory to me. But from what I remember, Akali is also meant to shut down the AP carries as well, and your item build (from what I remember) has no magic resistance. I know magic resistance is hard to come by for non-mana using heroes, but perhaps you should consider writing something about that in your guide: don't just focus the [[ashe]], but the [[annie]] too.[/quote]

[quote=Jebus McAzn]I'm going to have to disagree with Jhoijhoi and say that 90% of the time you want Mercury's Treads, not Sorcerer's Shoes. Your damage early game is a mix of physical and magical (although mostly magic) but what's really your concern is your late-game defense, where half a second could mean the difference between successfully getting a Shroud off or not. You have 9/21/0 mastery trees, which is OKAY, but not best. Westrice, the best Akali player in the game right now, runs much more heavy offense masteries in order to get that extra attack damage. With AD marks and AP glyphs/quintessences, you can get both passives at level 1 WITHOUT needing any items, letting you start with Boots and health potions, making her laning much more aggressive and powerful. Guinsoo's on Akali is pretty bad. I can understand the reasoning - she benefits from AD and AP, you can kill towers faster, and she combos so much that she can stack it quickly - but the fact is, you're paying a lot for that attack speed and the attack damage, two stats which are not optimal for you - and all you're benefiting from really is the AP and MARGINALLY from the AD. Your money is MUCH better spent on AP items. Your core should be Boots, Rylai's, Lich Bane, and then AP items (Deathcap, Hourglass, Void Staff, Gunblade, etc). Consider Flash+Ignite over Flash+Exhaust, but I can see why you might take Flash+Exhaust. With Ignite and the mastery, you can get more AP, making your laning more scary.[/quote]

[quote=jhoijhoi]^I'd listen to Jebus, he knows what he's talking about. The reason why I said Sorc shoes was because you were aiming for magic damage, and sorc shoes > ninja tabi any day.[/quote]

[quote=theBMB]Ya my second build includes mercury treads, I explain boot choices in the items section; I generally alternate between ninja tabi and merc treads depending on the enemy teams composition. As far as Guinsoo goes, I agree, there are definitely better items for her but it allows me to sell my doran's blade later on if necessary and keep my passive. I often skip it though, it's not a very strong item, attack speed isn't very useful on akali. I want to try out AD runes to get both passives without items, it might improve the build order, but magic pen is pretty useful for akali's AP burst, whereas the AD runes would basically only be there to activate the passive. As for ignite vs. exhaust I just prefer exhaust in my playstyle, but I definitely recognize the merits of ignite. Exhaust is more useful to me because it adds some more CC to Akali's lineup. It's also nice to have at least on exhaust to counter champs like xin, and tryn[/quote]

[quote=Jebus McAzn]The first and foremost advantage when running AD reds is that passive proc without Doran's Blade. This means that you don't need to be concerned with buying an item like rageblade to keep your passive going. More importantly, I feel that starting with Boots on Akali lets you get off more damage than MPen marks ever would.[/quote]