Hey there,

welcome to my new Akali guide. What does await you?
I entire look at

Akali, the Fist of Shadow

In my opinion, akali is one of the most versatile champions in League of Legends. She can do a lot of things, making her very valuable for each and every team. If you don´t like my guide, feel free to vote-down it, BUT please give me a reason, and whenever possible suggestions or criticism.
Thank you and have fun reading :)

Log
14.05.2011 - Publish

Fist of Shadow

Akali can do everything but tanking, sometimes even that.
But what is Akali's most valid job in a team? She takes out the ones, who the other team is afraid of dieing: Their carry. With her assassin-like Shadow Dance Twillight Shroud Combo she can invade the other teams very core and easily destroy one by one.

What do i need to be a excellent Akali player?

-Skill, Akalis abilities have a short cooldown and are somehow combo based. If you can't correctly smash your keyboard, you end up being killed while only havin scratched their carry

-Perception, you have to know when to go in and when to retreat.

-Enemy knowledge, what can this Malzahar do to stop me killing their Ashe. A lot! So i focus him down. You have to know what abailities their Champions have, and how they could use it.

If you respect this points, the kills will fly onto your scoreboard! :)

Why is Akali good?

-Very high damage
-Within the first build not very squishy
-Can take out their carry very easy
-Very good ganker
-Ap build deals insane damage

What to be aware of!

-Easily countered by oracle
-Very vulnerable to CC (Who wants a stunned assassin?)
-Ap build is quite squishy until Banshee's Veil
-If your doing well, you're going to be focused (Who not, if doing well?)
-Need a good team, else she will feed

As you can see, Akali CAN be devasting, but you have to be wise and don't do anythin stupid!

Clash No.1 - The runes

Hey why do you start of with 6,6 Attack damage from runes and 8,5 Magic penetration? You will be doing less damage! But remember, we´re playing Hybrid!
Yeah that's right, but with the 6,6 AD and the 3 AD from masteries, we will reach the 9,5 (thanks riot to decrease it *happy*) AD which are needed to get 10% spellvamp.
Another reason is, that you can start of witch Boots, which helps you enormeously in harrasin, escaping, chasing, poking, juking, baiting, a.s.o. Furthermore you can grab yourseld 3 Health Potion which will also help you harras, escape, ... :)

As for the AP build you want to maximize the damage output the magic penetration marks are to choice to make. They will greatly increase your early game damage, and this is where Akali prepares for here devasting mid game!

As for jungling the AD helps more than mPen, you will also choose these, especially because of getting 10% spellvamp.

I prefer Flash and Ignite for several reasons:

Flash - Is THE spell to have! Helps you chasing, escaping, sometimes even rescueing your mates! You can easily use this, when an enemy Caitlyn has just about 150 HP left, but you also have only 100 HP. You are in youre shroud, and your ultimate has not the range her autoattack has! What to do? Flash - Shadow Dance - Smile! Just an example ;)

Ignite - Pure firepower, and very nice against e.g. Dr. Mundo and Fiddlesticks
This is just the little tick of damage you do more, but can decide over loose or win!

Why not:

Exhaust also very usefull spell, but you have a slow with your Rylai's Crystal Scepter

Clairvoyance Not your job

Clarity - No Comment -

Teleport Nice spell on 55

Heal hmmm... there are better ones

Ghost You may change it with Flash if you prefer it.

Rally Youre a chaser...

Smite If jungling top, if not flop!

Revive Not so suitable

Cleanse Usefull in some cases.

Fortify Not for you!

Clash No.2 - The Items

Again, not everyone will agree with my item build, but i have to tell you that it is simply fantastic!

Hybrid Items

Boots should be obvious, but why as a first item? because they greatly help you in early game, and with the rest of the money, you can buy 3 Health Potion which also help you to stay in lane for a very long time.

Hextech Revolver is the 2nd item, it will provide you with about 25 spellvamp together with your passive. This is fantastic, casue you can heal yourself while farming and/or harrasing (which is very easy with Akali, as displayed later.

Boots of Swiftness are needed because almost every other champ will buy boots with a movement speed increase of 2, so you need more to do that AA after your Shadow Dance to proc the 2nd part of Mark of the Assassin. Also they help you travelling and positioning before them teamfight starts.

Hextech Gunblade is the item to go for! A ranged slow with nice damage and insane lifesteal/spellvamp. You will have 25% lifesteal from this item, combined with the 16% spellvamp of your passive, you will easily get about 40% lifesteal which is awesome! Think about doing 1000 damage (which is not much) and healing for over 400 HP!

Rylai's Crystal Scepter has everything Akali needs: Health, Ability Power and a fantastic slow. With the very short cooldown of Shadow Dance and Mark of the Assassin, you can always have a slow on your opponent, making it very hard for him to farm/harras. Also great for chasing (for obvious reasons)

Guinsoo's Rageblade is also a great item for Akali, because it provides you with attack speed, ability Power and damage! Makes you an amazing killer in 1on1 Situations and even a better killer in teamfights! Furthermore, this item aloows you to kill that tower amazingly fast! After Guinsoo's Rageblade you will finally reach about 50% spellvamp

Trinity Force - THE ITEM, you need everything from that guy but mana and critical chance, but the passive is just insane, it will increase your damage dramatically. The bonus HP will also help you to stay alive in teamfights and to make your way to the Pentakill!

Banshee's Veil - As you reach higher ELOs, this item is needed, cause they will propably know what you can do to their team, so they will try to stun you before you can use Twilight Shroud - Not with us! Also the HP and Magic resist are great to have!

AP Build

Boots Are needed for the early game, giving you great benfits

Hextech Revolver Again spellvamp is very nice while farming and to push after teamfights

Sorcerer's Shoes Magic Penetration ftw! Improves your damage greatly

Rylai's Crystal Scepter As explained above, only advantages from this item!

Rabandon's Deathcap Will greatly imcrease you ap, thus increasing your damage.

Lich Bane Again, only good stats from that item appart from the mp

Hextech Gunblade and Banshee's Veil these are Items that i recommentd, but you may freely change them for example for a Zhonya's Hourglass.

As you may have noticed, Hybrid Akali is the way to go! I really recommend the hybrid way, cause it is so great! Therefroe, my description about AP is a little smaller than for Hybrid. I recommend reading other guides, there are very good ones about AP out there.

Jungling Akali

Cloth Armor and 5x Health Potion - Standart Jungling start, you may have to sell Cloth Armor later on, but it helps you in early game/jungling

Afterwards, the build is mainly the same as Hybrid Akali

IMPORTANT!

Do not follow this build blind! You HAVE TO change items in each and every game, depending on the enemy team. But im sure you know that against Tryndamere, Udyr and Xin Zhao in 3on3 you have to buy Thornmail, so i don't write each and every thing down here.

Let me come to the last chapter:

How to Fight with Akali

The Q-...-Flash-AA-Q-AA Combo

Play Video /league-of-legends/champion/akali-50

Shadow Dance and Twilight Shroud - Your life ensurance

Play Video /league-of-legends/ability/shadow-dance-253 Play Video /league-of-legends/ability/shadow-dance-253

Now, let me show why Hybrid is the way to go and why Fb with Akali is so easy!

Why Hybrid?

Okay, imagine you completed your build:

Hybrid
Health 3080
Attack Damage 241
Movement Speed 454
Ability Power 253.76
Attack Speed 30%
Life Steal 20%
Magic Pen 1.9
Spell Vamp 46,5
Bonus Magic Dmg 46,6% -> 353 Dmg w/o Armor/Mres
AP

Health 2830
Attack Damage 170
Movement Speed 421
Ability Power 419.07
Attack Speed 0%
Life Steal 20%
Magic Pen 28.55
Spell Vamp 40%
Bonus Magic Dmg 79,8% -> 305 Dmg w/o Armor/Mres

As you can see, your basic stats are better with the Hybrid build. You will take down a AP Akali in a battle without skills.

But how about the Skills?

Mark of the Assassin
Has a 80% AP Ratio meaning
202 Bonus Dmg from Hybrid
335 Bonus Dmg from AP

Crecent Slash
Has 30% AP and 60% AD ratio meaning
219 Bonus Dmg from Hybrid
227 Bonus Dmg from AP

Shadow Dance
Has a 50% AP ratio meaning
126 Bonus Dmg from Hybrid
209 Bonus Dmg from AP

In fact, the dmg from skills is higher in the color=green]AP[/color] Build

Now let us do all together:
2x Mark of the Assassin
1x Crecent Slash
2x Shadow Dance
5x Proc ( Lich Bane or Trinity Force

Hybrid:
1004 Damage from Mark of the Assassin+349 Damage from Crecent Slash+752 Damge from Shadow Dance+3267 Damage from Trinity Force Procs = 5372 (without Armor/Mres)

AP:
1270 Damage from Mark of the Assassin+357 Damage from Crecent Slash+918 Damge from Shadow Dance+2945 Damage from Trinity Force Procs = 5490 (without Armor/Mres)

WHAAT? AP does more Damage than Hybrid?

Yeah, but only 100 Damge more. So is it really worth giving these HUGE Stat advantages away for the 100 Dmg more or less?

Btw you will heal yourself for
2525 HP with the Hybrid build
2196 HP with the AP build

So you even got another300 efficient HP more than AP

Hybrid or AP? Well, this is personal prefenrence, but as you may have noticed, AP only outweighs Hybrid an dmg, in any other Stat, Hybrid is (way) better

This is the route you may follow. It is standart jungling, be aware of counter junglers Nunu & Willump/ Shaco. If you can, start at their wraith camp, steal one or two of them and continue with your route. Ganking is pretty cool with Akali since she does nice amounts of dmg to a target wich is CCed. After lvl 6 Akali can kill almost everyone in a gank.

What type of build you use for Akali is personal preference, but i noticed, that Hybrid is the way to go!

I hope you'll enjoy what I posted.

And don´t vote it down, with comments like "sucks", "wrong item", a.s.o. this is the WAY I PLAY Akali, and it rulez ;)