I am new to this kind of game style and appreciate all your thoughts...you gave a good explanation to Akali's overall set-up and how she should be used. All of us who play her will have marginal alterations to how we would like for her to perform; after-all it is a 'guide' not the absolute. Great help for me! thanks. :)

Complete and useful guide. Thanks you!

I believe this to be the best Akali guide I have found so far, there is nothing in this guide that I disagree with, but a few things I think that could be viable options as well, and this guide is what I used when I started out with Akali.

I find that (at least for my play style) seals of scaling health work better for me than seals of armour; as seals of armour only effectively grant you resistance to people on the enemy team who deal primarily in ad (granted usually 3 out of the 5) whereas the scaling health grants you (albeit not as much to the ad heavy nor as much early game) slightly more sustain (for want of better word) to the entirety of the enemy team (more so late game which is where she can fall behind), also (usually) I find that the typical mid laners you will be versing are ap heavy so the armour seals have a negligible to non-existent affect on them whereas the scaling health seals have the initial effectiveness; seals of health are a viable option if you wish to have the initial impact but then negates the effect of using them for the slight boost to late game sustain.

As you said Akali needs a more aggressive play style so as a result I find her to be a high risk, high reward character as such I tend to swap the masteries around a bit, I find that 30/0/0 work better for me (having the health seals means I don't need the health from the defense page as much), although to new Akali players the 21/9/0 would allow them more room for error with that extra defensiveness.

A very good start item set-up (especially since boots and pots or wards and pots are no longer the optimal start off), the end game I agree with until the last two items; void staff and warmogs armour both are valid options certainly but I find that my ideal end game is: hextech gunblade, sorcerers shoes, lich bane, zhonya's hourglass, rabadon's deathcap and rylai's crystal scepter.

While you did state that rabadon's deathcap was an item to consider I find it to be a more valid option than the void staff, void staff does give you the magic penetration, but typically the only people that really make void staff a valid option are the tanky opponents which are the people that Akali has trouble killing anyway as she is high burst not a continual damage character, the rabadon's I find makes it easier to take out Akali's primary targets (adc, apc etc).

You didn't mention that rylai's crystal scepter was an option in your guide at all (as far as I can see) I think this item is much more useful than a warmogs armour, warmogs certainly does give you more health and health regeneration but rylai's crystal scepter still gives you a fair amount of health, also giving you ap and a slow; I know that hextech does give you a slow but it is an activation slow and only useable once a minute (great early-mid game), I find that the additional pretty much permanent slow from rylai's allows you to chase much more efficiently late game (seeing as you should be able to take out almost any enemy team member if you've done well) which is what you will most likely be doing, chasing down the strays and the people who run from team fights to heal up, this also gives you a better means of escape if you are losing the fight by slowing them with your attacks and then (if necessary) using your hextech to further slow them; this is slightly more risky than a warmogs (due to lack of health and health regeneration), but (as I've said before); high risk, high reward.

Another option is to have a zephyr instead of boots, the cd is extremely useful and the movement speed leaves you with only a tiny amount less move speed than un-enchanted boots, but also gives you the ad for your e and the attack speed to help you in your ability cd faze, Ionian boots i believe are another valid option to the sorcerers boots, the cd being sometimes more useful than the magic penetration.

Skill order is exactly how I do it, except for I initially go q-e-w, by level 2 it is unlikely that you will really have need of your shroud to escape attacks or that you can effectively pressure them with your shroud and the e give you a slightly better farm (in my experience) which is what early game relies on and going from level 2 to level 3 doesn't take awfully long so the extra time without your shroud is no real inconvenience.

You've included lee sin and swain as hard to beat champs, I believe including yorick in there and adding in the best way to counter around him would be a superb addition as I find him much harder than a good midder with a lee jungler with hard ganks and only just below a swain in difficulty.

As u said initially the best guide I've found, happy to respond to any of your replies about my thoughts. If I have repeated anything in this post please excuse me as it is a long reply and I didn't go from start to bottom without re-visiting previous parts to my post (while doing stuff for work so I was slightly distracted).

Thanks, I've been trying 5 pots and 4 wards but figured that you don't need so many wards at the start. The rejuvination bead might be a good solution as it gives some more sustain, I'll try it ^^

Thx for this guide!

Akali <3

Do you mind expanding on this opinion of yours? I'm sure you have plenty of reasons to think that, but I respectfully disagree. My Akali stats on both my main (http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/19206935#ranked-stats) and smurf (http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/20028053#ranked-stats) would disagree.

I'm open to feedback though, just make it constructive.

Isn't good build for Akali

Isn't good build for Akali

Thanks! My new start, which I think I've included now in the guide, depends on the matchup.

Mid lane against a jungler that has heavy early ganks I'll start 4 potions, 2 wards and a rejuvination bead. If it's a harass heavy mid laner I might start 5 potions, 1 ward and rejuv bead. If you only start with one ward make sure to use it wisely and hug that side if the jungler is MIA. Certain matchups (zed, pantheon, etc) it can make sense to start cloth armor and 5 potions, but only if you know they'll push you to your tower where you can farm safely without wards.

As I'm a newbie, I forgot to vote it up just yet, here it is :)

As you may know there now is a maximum hold of 5 health potions at once with the newer patches. This makes it impossible to go for the 9-pots-2-wards start, so what would you pick instead?

Loved the guide anyway <3.