Akali is an energy based magic damage assassin with high sustain, chase and damage. She has been around for a while, but she is still one of the strongest assassins that will stay relevant as the game progresses.

I consider myself to be a decent or even good akali player and in this tutorial I will try to teach you the wonderful art of killing those annoying carrys who think that they are untouchable.

The starting items I would recommend are boots and pots.

Boots are to protect you from those pesky jungler who love to constantly gank akali. And pots are to help you sustain some of the poke before you can get your spellvamp.

Start with Q and continuously throw it at the other guy when you get the opportunity. If he's melee you might want to sneak an auto attack after the Q when he tries to last hit a minion. If you cant get in range you can try to prock your Q with your E.

Your mission up to lvl 6 is to:
-not die
-get as much cs as you can
-harass the other guy

Akali is great at controlling the lane. You can easily farm thanks to the bonus damage from your passive and even without pushing your lane thanks to your Q and if you position yourself properly even your E. And you shouldn't have a problem la****ing even under your tower.

Once you hit 6 you have a couple options:
-keep cs-ing(and wait for all of your ult charges) and trick you opponent into thinking you are a passive akali
-immediately start pressuring your opponent with Q R Q E combos
(you hit you first Q and you wait till it comes off of cooldown, then you ult to him, prock the Q, Q him again and prock it with your E while you back of) (i would advise you to have at least 2 stacks of your ult when you start the pressure so you can kill him if you get him low enough or use it to escape if things turn out ugly)
-try to push the lane or harass your opponent out of the lane and start to roam

You have a very simple role in team fights. And it is: Kill the threats/damage dealers/carrys before they can kill your team. But keep in mind that you are no bruiser and can be bursted down, CC and stealth detection are your worst enemies. So try to go in after the initial CC and burst happens and you have some allies around or at least close your targets.

Survival
Akali has some neat build in survival methods and a few purchasable ones.
Keep in mind that:
-Your shroud is your best friend if the enemy team has no reveal (Lee sin, oracle, pink wards,...). So use it wisely.
-You should always look for ways to get out with your ult (a fleeing enemy champion, jungle monsters or enemy creeps)
-Use the zhonyas effect to ether prevent a lot of damage, shake the enemy focus or dodge the CC (and the damage that follows)
-Don't be afraid to go balls deep if you have a guardian angel up
-Use all of your activatable items (especially gunblade since it has a short, reducible cooldown)

-QRQE is OP
-People don't expect flash ults
-You have amazing dueling and small skirmish capabilities
-Use your W around corners and to check bushes

Play Video

Burst build is good if the enemy team consists of about 3 or more squishie champions or if an enemy carry is getting out of hand. It offers amazind dmg, decent sustain, chase and survivability.

It is the standard Akali build

Hybrid Akali is a bit different. She sacrifices a portion of her burst for amazing early game sustained damage.

Hybrid items make her a great duelist and quite dangerous against tankier opponents. And her mixed damage makes it hard to itemize against her.

Sustain Akali is quite different from the rest. I would recommend that you don't pick this build before the game starts, but rather between the early and mid game of a match. It is only viable if you are already decently ahead of the other team. The sustain will keep you alive for amazing amounts of time while you take your time and kill them slowly.

The gunslinger is not a competitive build. It is a fun or troll build. The point is simple, have as many activatable single target ability items as possible and use them to help you kill your targets. When you go in for a kill use DFG first for some initial damage and to amplify all the damage that follows it. After that follow with your Gunblade and normal abilities. And to finish them of or prevent them from escaping you have BotRK.