Akali Build Guide by Chillmaster92

Introduction

Hello guys,
this will be my first Mobafire build and I´m going to tell you how to play Akali in my opinion.
There are many different builds you see ingame and most Akalis play Hybrid. In this guide i will show why we should forget Hybrid and look forward to play Akali on AP. To understand why playing Akali on AP is more usefull then on Hybrid please carefully read "Skills" and "Items" section.

Akali is one of the greatest Burst-Champs in game. Your Job is to pick out enemy carries in teamfights as soon as possible. She´s perfectly made for that job because you can jump give them your Burst and stay invisible in Smoke.




Story:
There exists an ancient order originating in the Ionian Isles dedicated to the preservation of balance. Order, chaos, light, darkness -- all things must exist in perfect harmony for such is the way of the universe. This order is known as the Kinkou and it employs a triumvirate of shadow warriors to uphold its causes in the world. Akali is one of these shadow warriors, entrusted with the sacred duty of Pruning the Tree - eliminating those who threaten the equilibrium of Valoran.

A prodigal martial artist, Akali began training with her mother as soon as she could make a fist. Her mother's discipline was relentless and unforgiving, but predicated on the fundamental principle: "We do that which must be done." When the Kinkou inducted her into the order at the age of fourteen, she could slice a dangling chain with a chop of her hand. There was no question - she would succeed her mother as the Fist of Shadow. She has had to do much in this role which others might find morally questionable, but to her it is in service of her mother's inviolable doctrine. She now works with her fellows Shen and Kennen to enforce the balance of Valoran. This hallowed pursuit has unsurprisingly led the triumvirate to the Fields of Justice.

"The Fist of Shadow strikes from the cover of death itself. Do not impede the balance."


Pros:
- Awesome Burst!
- Perfect Assasin
- Invisibility
- Can jungle
- Jumping wherever you want ;)


Cons:
- Can easily be countered by Oracle´s wards.
- Squishy if not buying def items.
- needs a good early game most of the times

Masteries

Nothing much to explain..
9/21/0

9 on attack for some Magic Penetration
21 for having a little bit survivability
0 most of that is useless for Akali

Skills

Twin Disciplines
Akali has a really great passive. Out of the passive there go 2 passives that can be activated.

Passive 1:
If you get more than 19.5 AP your NormalHits will deal a percantage bonus damage depending on how much AP you have. Each 5 AP will give you 1% off the physical damage as magic damage on normal hits. With this guide you will get 500 AP plus, meaning that your normal hits already deal like twice damage. (Depending on Magic Resist)
Note: This effect does not combine with Lich Bane. So your 500AP lichbane hit wont effect with the passive, meaning that you wont deal 500 Bonus magic Damage - only the real physikal damaga you got effect.


Passive 2:
Having at least 9.5 AD will activate your SpellVamp passive, giving you 10% Spellvamp +1% for each 5 AD. We do not get this up really much because we play AP pased.
How to activate look into "Runes" section.



Mark of the Assassin
This is like your main ability. If you wanna do damage always start with that skill.
It´s really good for farming in early game espacially against ranged enemies on the lane.
Since you´re not having mana try to do most minion last-hits with that skill so you go sure not to be attacked by enemy Champs.
This ability marks the hit enemy for a few seconds. Marked enemies you attack with normal hits will get a great bonos Damage. To know how to use that the right way,
watch " How to combine the skills" at the bottom of this section.



Twilight Shroud
This is a really great ability. You´ll be invisible for a few seconds if you stay in the smoke. If you attack someone you´ll be visible for a short moment and then you will stealth again untill the smoke is gone. Great for Dealing tons of damage combined with Mark of the Assasin] and [[Shadow Dance. Also this ability is really great for escaping. First of all its slows enemies passing through the smoke. The other awesome fact is, that you move out of it but you´ll move unstealthed after about 0.5-1 seconds delay, meaning that you´re enemies are waiting that smoke goes out when you´re already outside. Really awesome if you use it right. For more also check out " How to combine the skills".



Crescent Slash
This is your late game aoe-farming-ability. Awesome to kill huge waves of Minions cause the cooldowns are quiet low. In 1 on 1 situations, try not use it that often cause you will need your energy for Mark of the Assasin and Twilight Shroud and if you play wrong Akali goes out of energy really quick. So care with that.



Shadow Dance
This is the reason why Akali is a real Assassin. Jump there and jump there, and then go for that kill and right after go for the second kill. Hey, this ability is just awesome. It has a really great range, meaning that no1 shall get away from you. 3 charges are usually enough to take someone down from 100% HP because your burst damage is really high if you use that build. The good thing on that is, with every kill or even assist you will get 1 charge refreshed. WOW! Think about a team fight .. Jump in and use Crescent Slash to hit lots of champions.. if they get killed you will get a fresh Charge. Thats why Akali usually goes out of teamfights with at least 2 charges.. 3 in most of the times.

How to combine skills

Early game Damage:
Use Mark of the Assassin and do a "Normal Hit" after that.
This is most powerful if you use it delayed, meaning to use the skill, waiting till cooldown is almost refreshed, "Normal Hit" while the enemy is still marked. Cooldown should be be refreashed now. "Throw" and "Normal Hit" instantly after.


The savety version of that
Use Mark of the Assassin on your enemy. Wait as usual. Instead of attacking set your Twilight Shroud to surround the enemy go in and atack. Then as usual do another combo like at top without waiting.
This the way how you should always try to attack because you wont get much damage due to invisibility.


Main Combo
Mark of the Assassin and then Shadow Dance on the marked enemy - "Normal Hit".
If there are like 2 champs use Twilight Shroud instantly after. The rest is the same as on top.
Note: Try to start off always with Mark of the Assassin.. if you Shadow Dance as first you might waste 1 Charge without dealing much damage.


Escaping
Escaping can be really easy with Akali.
If you stand in Twilight Shroud or not .. doesnt matter at all but it´s better if you do because you will have some more time. Look out for enemy minions or champs you can charge at. This is the way to get out of the fight. In most of the times you will have to jump away from you mates and close to their turrets/base/whatever. Think about what you are able to do before you do it! In most cases Enemy Champions will follow.. minions will stay back. try to save time go get Twilight Shroud ready again. If they surrounded you check out for a minion to jump back to your side/mates/whatever. Practise that.. you can escape out of many situations if you do it right.
Wards in jungle may help you a lot so you can jump at Neutral Minions. So why not taking a ward with you and set it through a wall that you can see minions and jumpt through the wall after.

Runes

Build 1 (recommended)

Magic Penetration. Great espacielly for early game damage.


Rest of the runes will go for AP. You have to get at least 150 AP really quick before
getting Lichbane. So AP-Runes will give you alot of that till you can buy it.
Why AP per level?
This is simple.. As i said you need enough AP for Lichbane and you wont purchase before reaching lvl 10 at about lvl 7 AP/per lvl are more powerful than flat runes.


View Seals


View Seals

Build 2 (SpellVamp)

These Runes will activate your second Passive ability.
Rest of that runebuild will be the same as the other build.
At the moment i´m not using this since i´m getting Hextec revolver as third Item.
If you go for Doran´s Blade you can skip this.
Im playing without Spellvamp for the first levels and I´m fine with that.

Items

Main Build

I usually start buying Amplyfying Tome and 1x Health Potion . Also you can go for "Boots of Speed" and 3x Health Potion.


If you start with Amplyfying Tome try to get your 825 Gold for Sheen as quick as possible. Sheen is the first item you have to take and you should always have this bought on level 6. This will allow you to get a high early game Burst. Squishy´s loose up to 50% of their HP by the simple skill combo:
Mark of the Assassin--> Shadow Dance--> "Normal Hit"



As second item you should go for Boots of Swiftness. Why these boots and not Mercury's Treads or Sorcerer's Shoes like in most if the builds. The answer is simple. Most of your Damage is done by Sheen / Lich Bane. Thats why you need that 1 normal hit on enemies after using Mark of the Assassin and Shadow Dance.
With slower boots you may jump but not get the hit. With Boots of Swiftness it´s much easier to get the hits cause you´re usually more fast than your enemies.



Now you should choose one of these items first and build the rest of them after. The item you should choose is depending on how much Damage you do and how much Damage you take.
Mejai's Soulstealer is a great item for Akali cause you can have so much AP really soon if you get fed. 10+ Stacked Akali is just a nightmare but sometimes you buy it and have to sell it again cause you dont get farmed. Think about if it´s really worth.

If you´re being focused hard i would prefer Giant's Belt. But as i told you in in Runes section you need to get up to 150 AP quickly.

Hextech Revolver explains itselves





Now the great moment came. You got some HP and also a little bit SpellVamp. It´s time for more Damage. Go to get Blasting Wand this will move your AP to ~148. As i told you in runes section you should get at least 150 AP for Lich Bane. The next time you go to base purchase Lich Bane which moves you up to ~168 AP and start kicking ***es. If you didnt build Attack Damage runes you´re Bonus Damage will be increased from about 90 to 164.
If you are fed and purchased that item enemies will try to avoid to fight against you as good as possible noq because your Damage is Amazing at this point.




Since you´re doing awesome damage now your enemies will try to get away from you quick.
Your Shadow Dance will allow you do get close to them. They will run.. You have to slow them.. So.. go to get Rylai's Crystal Scepter which is one of the most important item for Akali and they shouldn´t get away since you´re faster due to Boots of Swiftness and now you are also slowing them. Also this will increase your HP a little bit more.




This item will mass your AP. You will be able to pick out Carry´s that easily. Time to get some Multikilla :P nothing more to explain on that i think. Whatch yourself how the sides can change. (video for that is comming soon into "Summary" section)




More damage, more Spellvamp and also LifeSteal which will be important since Lich Bane
deals PhysicalDamage. Nothing more to say.




Give´s you Armor and Magic Resist.
Revive ability of this item is great for Akali if you die in teamfights for example and get revived use Twilight Shroud after and look for someone you can charge at to get out of the fight. Also you can just go for killing someone close to you. But make sure to stay in Twilight Shroud that you just use one combo and get stealthed again. On this way you can get healed up quick again.




As you seen you will have 7 items purchased if you build all that way down.
There is one item you will have to skip. Mejai's Soulstealer is still staying also in "Optional Items" because im currently not using it that often. So this is the item i would skip. You will get enough AP soon but as i told you its depending on each game how much its worth for you.

Optional Items

Against AP/CC Based Team.


Against MagicResist (im never using those)




Really useful for Akali and if you are nice stacked on this you will be a real killer machine. But as i told you its depening on the game and sometimes it may be useless and the gold could have been invested more useful. Dont buy this every game and think about it before you purchase. All in all a great item.



I personally prefer Guardian Angel but sometimes this is more usefull.
If you are being focused by champs with high burst damaga or stuns such as
Veigar / Annie / LeBlanc or other teams with a lot CC it´s more useful to use this instead.




Can be usefull against teams with a lot MagicResist. I personally never used it because I have enough damage due to Lich Bane




Same as Void Staff if you have a lot of Armor in the enemy team.
Also never used it but can be helpful.

Summoner Spells

Most Useful for Akali in my opinion.
I will never replace it cause you can easily pick kills others wouldnt get.
For example: Low HP Champ standing at turret to teleport -> Jump on a minion close to him not to take instantly turret aggro -> ignite on him and go back.




Prefering this instead of Flash because its usefull to take kills by following and using your skills combos (whatch skills section) and also for escaping of course.




Also very usefull for Akali to escape, or to get some1 into range to use Shadow Dance.
But combined with Twilight Shroud i prefer to use Ghost




Akali doesnt really need it. You will get your enemies with Shadow Dance

Summary

Some things you should remember:

- Try to farm a lot with Last hits.
- If you are playing 2v1 on a lane leave your mate alone (if he can) and go for ganks.
- Try to get lots of kills in early game (early fed akali rapes almost everything)
- Dont Push the lane - (Last Hits)
- Use Combos to fight/escape as explained at top.
- Take care for Wards/Oracles in the enemy team. They will destroy you. Espacially care if you got champs like Evelynn or Twitch in team.
- Dont be greedy after you got fed. You can dive turret but make sure you can escape or be healed.
- DESTROY THEM and HAFE FUN !!




So thats it for now. I didnt finish this guide and will always update it a little bit.
I´ll always be thankfull for tipps, missing items or mistakes.
Thanks for reading and i hope you enjoy Akali if you play my build.
Rate, Comment or whatever you want.

Greeetz
Bembelsche (EU-West)