Hiya fellow summoners! I'm ~ MysticPuppet~!

I'm pretty new here on Mobafire, but I'm eager to post some feedback on existing guides and to show you some of my builds for certain champions.

This time, Akali, The Fist of Shadow.

Pros [+] An exceptionally good nuker. (Massive burst damage) [+] A great poke 'n run champion. (Dive in, Dash out - Shadow Dance) [+] Can be played Full AP, offtank AP, Hybrid, name it! [+] Is a friggin' Ninja. (Energy instead of mana!) [+] Once you play well in a game, you get unstoppable.

SPACE

Cons [-] A very squishy champion if you don't build her tanky. [-] Needs a specific runepage to activate her passives Twin Disciplines [-] Very susceptible to crowd control. [-] Hasn't got any kind of crowd control. [-] Oracle's Elixir and Vision Ward makes her Twilight Shroud useless.

Right now I'm playing an offtank "Slow" build, and I thought you might find my perspective on things quite interesting! Enjoy my "Stack the slow" Offtank Akali Top Build!

Just to make it clear to anyone who is a little confused about it,

"Passive Item Slow Doesn't Stack" (Officially stated by the Riot Team)

With this in mind, let's look at the way I play Akali.

This build is my competitive build of Akali, which focuses on having both early and late game damage output while still being able to rush in and out without dying by a single combo of the enemy team.

The tankiness of this build allows you to take more risks, and even surviving when things go wrong. Although this is at the cost of some ability power (which means less power to burstkill lone enemies), in teamfights I find this build very useful because of being tanky, and especially by slowing with every move you make, which makes it easier for both me and my team to catch up to champions who run/flash away.

- I take 9 Seal of Armor (Flat armor) to ensure that my laning isn't doomed to fail against bulky attack damage opponents like Garen, Xin Zhao, Darius etc. Also, this gives quite good protection for attack damage based junglers, like Olaf, Xin Zhao, Warwick etc.

- 3 Glyph of Ability Power (Flat AP) to ensure that my passive is up at level 1. The rest of the glyphs I take are Glyph of Scaling Ability Power (Ap over level) just for the extra AP in lategame.

- 7 Mark of Attack Damage (Flat AD) to ensure my passive is up at level 1. The rest of the Marks I take are Mark of Magic Penetration (Mpen) to let my attacks go through some magic defence.

- 3 Quintessence of Ability Power (Again Flat AP) to ensure that my passive is up at level 1.

This build is quite different than all other Akali builds I've seen. My Akali gains a lot of tankiness (+ a little more Attack Damage) for the cost of a little less AP.

Which is REALLY WORTH IT, in my opinion.



Tankiness is what every Akali build comes a bit short. Rylai's Crystal Scepter does give a nice chunk of health, but even with that health boost you're as good as dead in any gank of the opposing team (IF you don't escape, of course).
Finding myself in times of trouble when enemy ganks were targeting me, I thought of adding a little more HP.

Real tank items like Warmog's or the Sunfire cape haven't got the right effect on Akali. When you buy an item for Akali you'll want to hit more.

The Frozen Mallet on the other hand gives Akali not only a great chunk of Health, but also some Attack damage (which means easier and faster minion farming), not to speak of the AWESOME slow that your basic attacks apply.

And that's JUST what it's about in this build. Slowing with every hit you make.
You see, dashing in a teamfight with Shadow Dance and unleashing your combos don't prevent enemies from flashing/ghosting away to safety.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter does a nice bit of slow, but tenacity-built champions (Which means nearly EVERYONE - Mercury's Treads) only need a little effort to get away safely. When playing as Akali, it's only a matter of time in tankier teamfights before you are out of energy (Even when masteries give you a nice +10 extra energy), and your ultimate sadly hasn't got unlimited charges.

When you're chasing low-on-health enemies you want them to DIE. QUICKLY. EASILY. Which means NO hard effort needed.

The Frozen Mallet and Rylai's Crystal Scepter combo makes your slow nearly unescapeable. Throwing abilities while still auto-attacking in between will slow your target constantly, making it a lot easier to catch up to them and STAY with them. Throwing in a red buff will make it impossible for your target to escape (unless they use flash very tactically).

Now, I know passive item slows don't stack, but.

Constant slowing nearly means a certain kill when chasing someone.
(With the extra health providing more bulkiness to tank turret-attacks)



Guinsoo's Rageblade is taken to give me a temporary boost in Ability power (which nearly means permanent boost in Ability power, because of the little time between attacks and abilities while playing Akali) and a boost in Attack speed (same story). The attack speed allows me to keep the slow of Frozen mallet on between ability usage, while also enhancing my farming ability at large minion waves and jungle.



The rest of the build is pretty standard.

Mercury's Treads for movement speed and tenacity, Rabadon's Deathcap for a huge chunk of Ability power to be able to nuke low-to-middle-health enemies, and Void Staff for ripping through enemy magic defence.

Void Staff is purely a last item for me when I have completed my build. Depending on the situation I sometimes use Will of the Ancients to give me some more Healing capability. When you're playing against strong Ability power-based champions you could also consider the Abyssal Mask.

As for Summoner Spells, I follow the other guides.

Flash for enabling escaping and catching up.

Ignite to counter healing enemies and to finish off fleeing enemies.

I recommend using these two summoner spells, I don't find other spells very useful when playing Akali. She's a lot about dashing in and out, and Flash and Shadow Dance should be able to keep that up.

Well, this was the first time I posted a build of mine on the internet, so I hope you're enjoying it!

Leave me some constructive criticism!

~ Mystic Puppet ~