Early Game

With Akali, like most champions early game is critical. As Akali I tend to play it safe in the early game and use my shroud to farm with my q and e. If you are paired with a champion with strong lane control take advantage of this as much as possible and get your farm count up while reaching level 6 as quickly as possible. If the enemy team ventures to close use your q to harass. If the enemy is getting free farm use your shroud (w) whenever it is available on the opponents side of the minions, stand in it, hit them with your q, and if they stay near your shroud, chase them down for an auto attack to proc your q. Usually this will make the enemy back off and allow you to farm until your shroud disappears. If they back off before you can get in a melee attack just leave them and farm while standing on the edge of your shroud.Repeat this technique every 20 seconds against skilled enemies. For combat rely on your q and its proc for burst in early game, but DO NOT engage the enemy unless they are unskilled or your ally has a strong early game, because you do not have phenomenal escape ability yet. This same strategy is effective in mid as well.

Mid Game

As Akali mid game is your time to shine. take advantage of your ult to close on enemies quickly and make sure to get the proc on your q. In mid game akali can kill anyone. tanks aren't tanky enough yet so they are also fair game. If you are facing tanky enemy champions only fight in the open. When I am facing squishy enemies such as karthus in mid game, who can't stun or snare, I play extraordinarily aggressive. I tend to tower dive alot on these champs as they constantly underestimate akali's ability to ult in burst them and either ult out or flash out.

End Game

In End Game Akali can be extremely useful in teamfights so long as you CHOOSE YOUR TARGETS CORRECTLY. I cannot stress this enough. The majority of the time even a fed akali will have trouble against tanks and tanky ad champions, such as Udyr, Lee Sin, and Renekton. In late game teamfights it is critical that you circle around the back of the enemy and take down squishy carries such as ashe or miss fortune, because you can do this very quickly and escape with your ult.

When playing akali it is critical to pick your targets correctly. When laning against champions who can heal like soraka and sona don't bother harassing or fighting, just farm. Against champions with a weak early game such as mordekaiser, harass as much as possible early and then play more defensively when he gets all of his farming abilities. Team work in the lane is critical to play a strong early game akali. without your teammates help your only way to get kills 1v1 is your harass. For the most part stay away from tanky enemies and just try to reach level 6. Against ranged ad squishies try to harass and farm until you get your ultimate, and then dive like there's no tomorrow. I often try to bait these enemy squishies by acting as though im not aggresive and just want to farm , and then diving. Against AP squishy enemies make sure you can get away before you dive. Enemies like karthus are perfect for getting easy early-mid game kills, but a caster like malz or annie will just get you stunned and killed.

If you have any gameplay or situational questions about Akali please post at the bottom of this and I will add more chapters to my guide.