Welcome to Dirimo's guide to Akali, The Fist of Shadows. I made this guide because every guide i've seen has had fragments of things missing, although most guides have more than a majority of the information. This guide is a mix of the other guides put together along with my own twist to it.

Now as to Akali, She's a champion for any DPS players our there. She is quite squishy but she isn't called the "Juke Queen" for no reason. If played correctly she is untouchable and can destroy anything from a caster to a fully built tank. Her main job is to decimate the squishy carries of the enemy team and to push towers, so keep that in mind. She is an extremely fun champion to play, and her ultimate lets you run circles around an enemy.

Why play Akali?

She's a champion that can support/carry a team to victory. She can also push towers quite hard, around 600+ damage to nexus/towers, i've done higher but that's the average end-game tower damage. In high ELO situations, that's her role: Kill Squishies, Push Towers.

We shall now move onto the strong points and the weaknesses of this champion.

Pros:

- Extreme Burst Damage
- High Mobility
- Good/Great Harass
- Strong Throughout Game (Nice Early Game, Great Mid Game, God End Game)
- Fun Champion & Definitely LOL Worthy :)
- Oh and her dance is amazing ;)

Cons:

- Quite Squishy
- Often Focused
- That's all I can think of, she's just that awesome ;)

Overview:

She's overall a very well-rounded champion, well balanced and considered broken when played correctly. She is easy to pick up, but hard to master. If you're looking for a chalanging champion, definitely a great champion.

A. Skills



Your passive is Twin Disciplines, her passive makes her quite an interesting champion and, in my opinion, what makes her such an amazing (if not the best) hybrid. Your passive has two effects. The first is activated once you reach 10 attack damage or more. This activates the Spell Vamp effect of your passive which is used for survivability. The second effect is activated when she reaches 20 ability power or more. This activates the bonus magic damage that applies with each of your auto-attacks. Both of these parts of the passive scale.



This is the first ability you max out and is essentially your main burst damage. You throw your karma (your weapon) at your target, dealing a fixed amount of damage (+40% of your ability power), and a debuff is applied to them for 6 seconds. Then the next time you auto-attack them, if the debuff is still up, it deals an additional ammount of fixed damage (+40% of your ability power) and restoring an ammount of your energy back. This is your main damage source, I will explain the skill sequence in due time. ;)



Twilight Shroud is the reason (atleast i've recently figured out is only half of the reason) why Akali is nicknamed the "Juke Queen". You place an AoE circle on the ground which, while you're in it, you gain armor and magic resistance but not only that, you become stealth while you're in it and when you leave it, the stealth stays for about 1 second more.

Scenario 1: Example of how to juke, run right, drop a shroud, go in, wait for the enemy to keep going right, then you run out of it to the left, run left. Juke successful.

Scenario 2: You can also use the shroud for the Armor or MR. I've used this to reduce the damage of Vladimir's ultimate: Hemoplague ( ), I ended up living with about 50-100 health and a very unhappy Vladimir that my team finished off as I stayed a happy little (stealthed) camper. :3



This is another ability that participates in your burst damage. When you use this ability, you damage all enemy units within a small range dealing a fixed amount of damage (+30% of ability power & +60% of Attack Damage). It's good for farming creeps and it's also nice to use to remove whatever health your poor prey has remaining.



Ahhh... This is what made me fall in love with Akali, why she's such a good chaser, such a good juker (juker... is that a word?). This is the other half of the reason why she is the "Juke Queen". This ability charges up like Teemo's Mushrooms, Corki's Bombs, Etc. Every so often you get a charge (Essence of Shadow) up to 3 charges. As you rank up this ability, the time to gain another charge is shortened. You can activate your Shadow Dance at the cost of 1 charge. You dash to an enemy target up to a huge ammount of range.

Scenario 1: Offensively, your prey will never get out of your grasp (provided they don't ghost and use another speed boost), you can chase somone across the map with this ultimate but usually they die by the time their a third of the way there.

Scenario 2: The Juke Queen's Tag Battling, that's what I like to call it. While your team fights the enemy team, you'll be focusing their squishiest champion. The thing is, you'll get focused by the enemy correct? So you do as much as you can then exit the scene by Shadow Dancing to a enemy minion that's away from the fight, once they've switched targets, you then wait for your cooldowns and enough energy to Shadow Dance back into the fight and proceed to eliminate the rest of the threat.

Random Fact: I've Tag Battled and scored a triple kill while we initiated a team fight with me at 100 or so health. I just tagged between minions and the fight, bursting anyone in my path :) This of course lead to a lot of raging from the enemy team and an annoyed teammate yelling "KS!" *Snickers* >:3

B. Summoner Spells



This is my favorite summoner spell to use with this champion. This has healing reduction and of course aids the burst. I use this mainly early game to harass and gurantee a kill. The other reason I get this is to counter champions that can heal, ESPCIALLY Dr. Mundo... His ultimate: Sadism ( ). He heals all of his health which can occasionally help him escape or prevent the kill. So it's a nice, handy little summoner spell.

Important: The main reason why this summoner spell is used is because of the improved versions bonus. While this ability is on cooldown, you gain 10 ability power. When you use this early game / start of the game (for ganks and such), You gain 10 ability power. With the correct runes your passive should activate, but should you not have all the runes, if you have atleast 10 passive AP the this will activate your Bonus Damage side of your passive. Also, more AP early game = more lane domination.



Another one of my favorite summoner spells in the game. This is used for situations where your just a BIT our of range for your Shadow Dance, so you flash forward and proceed to kill OR for those situations that are just like "Oh hey... I'm dead." Not to mention, flashing through the wall is always fun ;)

Alternative Options:



Due to the recent change to Exhaust, I don't really like it. The target still does little to no damage but I feed like it's just not enough. It is definitely a life-saver and can ensure a kill but it's not my style. If you like it, then stick with it.

Remember: You don't have to use these summoner spells! It's just personal preference! Although I highly reccomend Ignite!

C. Runes

This is how I set up my build so I can activate both of my passives by level 2, and earliest by level 1.

9 Magic Penetration Marks
5 Attack Damage Seals
4 Ability Power Seals
9 Ability Power Glyphs
3 Ability Power Quints

I use these to activate my passives early on, and the rest for more early game damage.

I went ahead and did a price check on the total cost of the runes and it's around...

= 410 IP x 9 = 3,690 IP
= 205 IP x 5 = 1,025 IP
= 410 IP x 4 = 1,640 IP
= 410 IP x 9 = 3,690 IP
= 1,025 IP x 3 = 3,075 IP
Total = 13,120 IP

I am really bad when it comes down to creating my own mastery build, so I looked for one that worked right. After a while of testing mastery builds, I went with Shak3y's Build. It's also where I got the idea of the rune build. I disliked the fact that both parts of his build didn't have enough damage. So I decided to mix them. After testing the build for a bit, i've gotten nice results. So that's why i'm sticking with this build.




Some people wonder why I have a point in Exhaust and in Ignnite when I only use Ignite and Flash as my summoner spells. I'm a lazy person, what can I say? I just leave the exhaust there as a filler, because 0.66% crit chance isn't much in my opinion. Since I sometimes switch between Exhaust and Ignite (depending on what my team has), I leave them both filled just incase, feel free to do otherwise though. :)

I start the game with a...

Doran's Blade and a Health Potion. I've seen Akalis out there start with Long Sword to activate the Spell Vamp part of the passive but I think it's stupid since it is almost never used to lead up to anything. I use Doran's Blade because it gives health AND attack damage. Enough to activate the passive and a nice little bonus of extra health and life steal.

Hextech Revolver is the next item I get. It gives a good chunk of Spell Vamp for more survivability, and at the same time it gives AP for more burst damage. This draws the line between farming and staying in lane, or farming and recalling for health.

Boots of Swiftness is my next item and my choice of boots. You can go otherwise with either some Sorcerer's Shoes for more damage (20 magic pen. is more then you'd imagine) or Mercury Treads if the enemy team has heavy CC (i.e. stuns, disables, etc.) as long as you're willing to pass up some damage/mobility.

Sheen is one of the most amazing items for any Hybrid-Melee DPS. Every 3 seconds you can proc it's passive which makes your next auto-attack hit for 100% more. Great for pushing towers and ofcourse when you initiate your skill sequence, you'll do some nice damage ;)

Hextech Gunblade is then bought after a good amount of farm, make sure to ALWAYS use the active effect of this item, it has a low cooldown so abuse it as much as you can. You deal a good chunk of damage, and it's range is as big as your Mark, and it also slows so... It's amazing.

Rabadon's Deathcap... Oh the pure joy this item gives me. It's like AP on steroids... It's as if Mejai's could stack 40 times... This will boost your AP by an enourmous ammount if not double. It will take a while to farm to it but when you get the Deathcap, you can proceed to /all GG NOOBS I IS TEH NUKING YO ***! cause that's essentially what you'll be doing.

Lich Bane is obviously an amazing item which you enventually needed to upgrade your Sheen to anyways. It's proc is like Sheen's but more damage. and looky-looky! It gives more movement speed, who said chasing was difficult? ;)

Rylai's Crystal Scepter I seldom get to this item but that's probably because I play 3s and either they surrender by this point or we're pushing Nexus, and I never get the chance to buy it. It's a staple when it comes to AP DPS because of the slow and more AP and hey, it's more health :)

Guardian Angel Last but not least, at this point if you're still buying and not winning either you're carrying and have a **** ton of money, or they're just turtling. Either way, the biggest nuke on the team deserves a second chance at life :) It's more of... Insurance, a promise of victory I should say.

Now here comes the part everyone probably wanted to get to. Sorry for taking my sweet time, trust me it takes longer to type this then it is for you to read this >.>

This guide is more 3v3 friendly but it is also 5v5 friendly. Just apply the knowledge from 3v3 to 5v5. Elementry, my dear Watson. :3

Early Game:

Start the game by grabbing a Doran's Blade and a Health Potion. Go to your lane and do what you wish (set-up a gank, wait at tower, go grab a hot pocket).

When you farm through creep waves, make sure to last hit with your Mark of the Assassin, focus on getting to level 2, nothing else.

Once you reach Level 2, you should have your Shroud, Put it BEHIND the creep wave and sit in it and last hit. Deny them exp and if they get near your shroud, quickly go to them, mark them, then tag them to pop your mark's debuff.

Try to stay in your lane as long as possible, return as soon as you have enough for your Hextech Revolver. You should now have a decent amount of damage and proceed to farm until Level 6.

Once you learn you Shadow Dance, now the fun begins. You want to go for kills as often as possible. Refer to Chapter VII (7) for the skill sequence. This is wear you become fed and where they start to rage.

If everything is going right, proceed to the next part of the guide, if all else fails, resort to turtling and refrain from feeding, i know this sounds like common sense but you need to remember this... The more you feed them, the less you are fed. Not only will they overpower you, you will be out of the lane/experience, causing you to fall behind even more, and causing you to become an easier target, if this should happen, you are doomed and you will need a hell of a miracle or your team's going to have to carry you back to fed. It's do-able but very difficult. So, I repeat. Refrain from Feeding.

The rest of this guide will be for if you are doing good and playing smart and getting kills/farm.

Once you have enough for Boots of Swiftness, blue pill once your lane pushes out and buy it. Once you have it, it's mid-game time.

Mid Game:

This is the point where you need to score kills, and carry your team to aces and tower kills. Organize ganks and try to get the last hit on the players. I know this sounds selfish, but you need the kills. A fed Akali can burst and entire team down, but make sure if you getting the kills, you're committed to support your team until the game is over.

Once you have enough for Hextech Gunblade go back and but it. Always use it's passive as i've explained before. It ensures kills since your only slow is an immovable, placement slow.

Late Game:

When you've gotten enough for Rebadon's Deathcap, you should be doing extremely well or your farming to an extreme extent. This should bump up your AP to about 400+, and you should be dealing a good amount of damage, at this point you can push pretty hard. Don't forget your passive, with 400 AP you should hit about 300-400 on towers. Make sure when you're pushing, to use crescent slash to proc Sheen as often as possible for more tower damage.

When you get Lich Bane, You can push like a god. By the time you get this item you should be close to winning. Make sure you are pushing with your team with every opportunity!

If the game still havn't ended, grab a Rylai's Crystal Scepter and a Guardian Angel to get the job done. Don't forget, at the end of the build you should be able to take out the nexus in about 4-5 seconds. Flash comes in handy for these situations if you know what I mean ;)

Alright, so you're almost done. Now for how to execute kills and tower kills.

The Basic Chase / Burst

-> -> Auto-Attack -> -> on them -> ->

The target should be dead, if not, rinse and repeat.

Tip: Make sure to lead the Shroud to ensure maximum slow.

The Stationary Burst

-> Auto-Attack -> -> Repeat

This is the basic bread and butter technique, just rinse and repeat until they drop.
If you need more damage, you can also use [Shadow Dance] for more burst damage, but I advise saving 1 charge incase they run or for escape incase more come for you.

Tip: If they are hitting you back hard, you can always use a Shroud on yourself for protection, because your shroud gives Armor and MR.

In the end, I love every little bit about Akali, and hopefully I have shared with you enough of my knowledge of both this game and this champion for you to do better. This champion is a well-known burst and a well known squishy. Hopefully I have convinced you that this champion is great and it's the one for you, or have shown you that this champion is not your style and saved you IP/RP.

Well I must now bid a farewell to you readers, i'm assuming you're all happy that your done with this long guide. :P

If you guys liked this guide, feel free to rate it up, and if you have any comments, concerns, or suggestions, feel free to leave me a comment and i'll respond to you as soon as possible. :)

Note: I will attempt to upgrade this frequently.