Akali is an extremely fun hot ninja chick. Although she was until recently underrated, she seems to be becoming one of the next FotM champions. Akali excels at dealing large amounts of burst damage, arguably some of the best in the game. Her role in a team is generally labeled as an "anti-carry", someone who singles out the enemy team's squishiest and highest dps champions and rips them to shreds. And of course, Akali is amazing at what she does. This guide will tell you what you need to know to be facerolling in no time!

Pros:
- Enjoyable
- Amazing assassin
- Decent farmer/laner
- Can jungle
- Deceptively strong burst
- Great chasing/juking abilities
- Snowballs well

Cons:
- Squishy melee
- Countered by CC/focus/oracle's elixirs
- Skill/micro intensive
- Requires good judgment/awareness

Twin Disciplines:
Akali's passive is what makes her a viable hybrid. She gains bonus magic damage from AP and spell vamp from AD. With flat AP runes and Doran's Blade, both buffs will be activated at level 1.

Mark of the Assassin:
This is Akali's main damaging ability. Max it first. Use it to harass early game. Whenever it's safe to fully engage, wait until the cooldown is up to burn the first mark and afterward use it again for a double auto attack double mark burst. Deals tons and tons of magic damage, fast.

Twilight Shroud:
This is Akali's stealthing ability, unique in that it is the only stealth that activates instantly. Use it in the thick of a teamfight, for zone control, to juke, to 1v1 kite, to slow enemies, and for facechecking brushes. Be advised that it starts at 80 energy, so be careful when using it while bursting. Use it at the edge of brush or around a corner to juke. Flash out of it when death is otherwise imminent. Also don't forget that it gives Akali armor and magic resistance, so it just might save you from that DoT or turret shot.

Crescent Slash:
This is Akali's only AoE ability. Use it for farming and bursting. Remember that its range is very short and easy to miss on fast moving targets. It scales off both ability power and attack damage, but only does physical damage.

Shadow Dance:
Akali's ultimate is what defines her. You can do so many things with this ability. Start off a surprise gank with it, last hit that about to die creep, chase and kill steal like a pro, burst with surplus charges, and most importantly, juke. Does a surprisingly large amount of magic damage.

Standard burst rotation: Q -> R -> autoattack -> Q -> autoattack -> E -> W if needed.


Shadow Dance Techniques

Mastering the use of Shadow Dance to juke is essential to playing Akali to her fullest potential. Use it on minions to quickly disengage from a teamfight if you are being focused and need to use hit and run tactics. Use it on minions after diving to avoid turret shots. Use it on minions to gain ground (such as when a low health champ is pushing your turret) on an unsuspecting opponent and get in for the kill. You can even use it on one champion to be able get to another behind him using it again to finish a kill.

Use it for escaping ganks if you overextend. One neat little trick is if Twilight Shroud isn't enough to get away from a gank from behind, you can Shadow Dance forward onto an enemy minion, if you can't get away by running into the jungle or something, keep running a little bit and let the enemy champion catch up some, then Shadow Dance backwards (flying right past that champ) onto another minion and then run like hell. Doesn't always work, but if that's your only chance of survival, go for it. You could use Twilight Shroud at that point to slow them if you need to. This comes in handy when you get ganked with heavy CC and Oracle's Elixirs and simply running won't save you. Remember, you can dance all day. Your enemies cannot.

Akali has great synergy with jungle wards. Since you can Shadow Dance through walls, if a neutral monster camp is warded, you can use Shadow Dance on it to escape. It also makes for an extra surprise factor against enemy champions if you have sight through a ward or teammate and you Shadow Dance through a wall.