Personal Introduction: I'm an Akali player. I'll always be. I've played for well over half of my games and I mostly do well with her. I've refined this build over a couple hundred games and I've found it to work best for me. I've used it in normal games and done extremely well, I've used it in mid elo ranked games and done extremely well and I've used it mid-high(~1600) elo and done extremely well. It would probably work at any elo but these are just proven grounds of success with it.

(Ranked games played at ~1400 Elo)

Now unto the girl:


Akali's the First of Shadow. Beautiful but deadly. Much like the Black Widow.



She's a burst AP Assassin. She is not Hybrid. She's not viable hybrid. It may work on certain occasions but that's like saying that you saw an AD Soraka the other day and she carried her team. She's designed to take out the enemy team's carry before they can even start attacking your own carries. Even though she's an Assassin, if she's well played she can easily carry games. She also excels at dominating lower elo/normal games. Some would call her a pubstomper. But she's much more then that.

Pros:

- Good Looking
- Good laner
- Easy to zone out your lane if you know what you're doing
- One of the best assassin in the game
- Amazing burst that your enemies won't expect
- Incredibly easy to chase/juke/escape your opponents
- Incredibly hard to gank
- One of the scariest champion to feed
- One of the easiest champion to get fed on
- Cool skins (:

Cons:

- Can be countered by good teams.
- Requires to get fed/farmed a lot.
- Requires thinking.
- Requires a higher level of micro then most champion.
- Doesn't have as much skins as Teemo or Ryze


Abilities:

Twin Disciplines:

Discipline of Force - Upon obtaining 20 Ability Power, Akali's basic attacks deal 10% bonus magic damage, increasing by 1% for every 5 Ability Power gained thereafter.

Discipline of Might - Upon obtaining 10 Bonus Attack Damage, Akali gains 10% Spell Vamp, increasing by an additional 1% for every 5 Bonus Attack Damage gained thereafter.

Additional details: This is what makes Akali such a strong laner. The spellvamp makes you able to stay in lane longer before you have to go back to base and the magic damage makes last hitting a breeze. With my build, you start with Discipline of Might at level 1 and Discipline of Force at level 3.

Mark of the Assassin:

Akali spins her kama at a target enemy to deal magic damage and mark the target for 6 seconds. Akali's melee attacks against a marked target will trigger and consume the mark to cause additional damage and restore Energy.
Akali throws her kama at a target enemy to deal 50/75/100/125/150 (+0.4) magic damage and mark the target for 6/6/6/6/6 seconds.

Akali's melee attacks against a marked target will consume the mark to cause 50/75/100/125/150 (+0.4) magic damage and restore 20/25/30/35/40 Energy.

Additional details: This is Akali's bread and butter skill. It's used mostly to harass and last hit during the early levels but deals an tremendous amount of damage all throughout the game.

Twilight Shroud:

Akali throws down a cover of smoke. While inside the area, Akali gains Armor and Magic Resist and becomes stealthed. Attacking or using abilities will briefly reveal her. Enemies inside the smoke have their Movement Speed reduced.
Akali throws down a cover of smoke that lasts for 8/8/8/8/8 seconds. While inside the area, Akali gains 10/20/30/40/50 Armor and Magic Resist and becomes stealthed. Attacking or using abilities will briefly reveal her.

Enemies inside the smoke are slowed by 14/18/22/26/30%.

Additional details: This is what makes Akali so hard to deal with. Just as you think you're finally gonna kill her, she throws her shroud down and becomes invisible leaving you with the choice of either giving up on killing her or die in painful suffering. It almost makes it nearly impossible to gank Akali in the early laning phase. If you see the enemy team's jungler charging at you with ghost and red, you just pop it and walk/flash towards the safety of your tower.

Crescent Slash:

Akali flourishes her kamas, dealing damage based on her Attack Damage and Ability Power.
Akali flourishes her kamas, slicing nearby enemy units for 30/55/80/105/130 (+) (+0.3) physical damage.

Additional Details: This is Akali's farming skill. It'll clear out minion wages extremely quickly at later levels. Use it early on to harass more then to farm. It can be used to quickly deal out a ton of burst in conjunction with Mark of The Assassin. Be careful of your energy bar when using it though, it uses a lot of energy for a limited amount of damage.

Shadow Dance:

Akali moves through shadows to quickly strike her target, dealing damage and consuming an Essence of Shadow charge. Akali recharges Essence of Shadow charges both periodically and upon kills and assists, max 3 stacks.
Akali moves through shadows to quickly strike her target, dealing 100/175/250 (+0.5) magic damage.

Akali stores an Essence of Shadow on kills and assists as well as every seconds up to 3/3/3 total.

Additional Details: This is what makes Akali, well Akali. You jump on your enemies from a huge distance and proceed to rape their face while they're wondering how you just went from behind your creeps to them while they're behind their own creeps.

That's not complicate.

You start off with to harass/last hit. Then you get to zone out/harass your opponent. You get at level 4 to harass/farm.

From that point, you max -> -> ->

Max Mark of the Assassin first because it deals the most damge. Crescent Slash second because upgrading it gives more benefice then Twilight Shroud.

Level 1 Fight: (wait until it gets off cooldown)+ Auto Attack+ +Auto Attack

Additional details: This allows you to deal out a huge amount of damage in the shortest period of time if your enemy wants to mess with you when you don't have your shroud.

Adding Shroud: + (wait until ModA is off cooldown)+Auto Attack+ +Auto Attack

Additional Details: Same thing as level 1 except you barely take any damage since you're inside your invisible inside your shroud for most of it.

Adding Crescent Slash: + (wait until ModA is off cooldown)+Auto Attack+ +Auto Attack+

Additional Details: Same as before except you add a little more damage due to Crescent Slash.

Killing without Ultimate: (wait until it's off CD)+ +Auto Attack+ +Auto Attack+ +

Additional Details: This is the combo you're gonna use if you manage to get your opponent low enough before you hit level 6. If he doesn't have a flash, he should die. Do not throw your shroud down unless he decides to fight you instead of running away or if you're getting hit by a lot of creeps.

Killing with Ultimate: (wait until it's off CD)+ +Auto Attack +Auto Attack+

Additional Details: This is the basic combo. Use more ModA or Shadow Dance depending on your enemy's health. It's also really easy to dive a low health enemy using this technique. Just make sure you have Flash or Shadow Dance to get away to not die.

Harassing : + +Auto Attack

Additional Details: Use this to lower your opponent's health before going in for the killing blow.

Double Mark: Throwing your mark and waiting until it's off cooldown to initiate a combo is refered to as a Double Mark Activation.

Juking is the act of doing something unexpected, to throw off your enemy off and make him unable to predict your next move. Mostly used to escape, it takes a whole new meaning when playing Akali.

Your Shroud is a juking machine. It can be used to take out enemies when they think you're gonna be an easy kill.

When you're low health and an enemy is chasing you, the natural thing to do is to throw your shroud down. Most of the time, you'll just use it to escape your enemy one way or another(flash, run in opposite direction,etc). But you can also use this 8 seconds of invisibility to kill the unsuspecting fool. When you're in the your shroud, use the double mark activation technique to burst down your opponent. He won't expect it. Not only are you gonna deal an immense amount of damage with him not being able to react, but since you have a Hextech Revolver you're gonna regenerate easily 200-300 HP in a second.

Try it, you'll be surprised how many fall for it and how many kills you get that you wouldn't have gotten if you just ran away.

Akali's a very versatile laner. She can go mid, solo top or even duo bot. Doesn't matter. But the consistent way to get farmed/fed is to take a solo lane. I usually go with mid but also works wonders with the synergy between your shroud and the bushes.

Mid laning:

Mid is a lane that Akali can own very easily. It's very easy to take advantage of a couple mistakes your opponent makes to either kill them or zone them out.

Most of all, you want to make sure to get as much last hit as possible. I have a section on Farming with Akali later on.

Strategy:

At level 1, you want to use to harass the enemy or to get last hits if he doesn't let you get close enough to auto attack. Do not be too aggressive, an Akali without her shroud is a defenseless Akali.

At level 2, that's when you can start to have fun. You can place your shroud on top of the creeps to either get last hits or to harass your opponent. If you're comfortable with Akali, you can even place it behind the enemy creeps to deny him exp/farm. This early in the game, people underestimate Akali and will not respect your shroud. You need to teach them that respect by taking half their HP at level 2.

Keep harassing them and getting last hit until you're level 6. This is the point where you start playing crazy aggressive and you either kill them/make them back out/zone them out like there's no tomorrow. As soon as you hit 6, slightly before, throw a mark at them. Use the skill combination that I talked about earlier and either kill them or make them use their flash.

From that point, you either dominate a lane or lost it because you DCed or your mouse stopped working for 5 minutes. Akali is one of the strongest level 6 champions in the game. Take advantage of it. Keep zoning them out or killing them.

By the time you're level 9, you should've either killed them a couple times or have double, even triple, their cs count. From that point, you should start ganking/helping your other lanes.

Solo lane matchups:


Ashe is weak early on and needs a lot of farm to start doing damage. Play aggressively early on as soon as you hit level two. You can bait her by throwing your shroud down and moving to one of the extremities remaining barely invisible. She'll waste mana shooting it and it's on an enormous cooldown early on. Try to hit 6 before her and try to kill her as soon as you do. Getting arrowed is kind of annoying.

Anivia is an extremely easy lane. Since you have boots, the chances of her hitting you with are almost non-existent. Plus, Fros bite barely tickles when you're not chilled. You can harass/zone her out extremely easily. If you manage to pop , you shouldn't have any problem popping it since you have extremely high damage even this early into the game. At level 6, killing her is a breeze. If you zone her out successfully, you should be one or even two levels over her when she hits 6 so her ult won't be a problem.

Annie's kind of a pain in the *** to deal with. She does a lot of damage early on, just like you. But it's very possible to manage her. Just watch out for her stun Disintegrate +Incinerate combo. If she tries to harass you with just Disintegrate, she'll run out of mana really fast and lose a lot of CS giving you an easy lane control later on. If you hit 6 before her, try to kill her as soon as you do. If you don't, just make sure you have almost full health before trying to kill her. Her full combo with ult + Ignite hurts.

Can be difficult to deal with. Try to be extremely mobile so he doesn't hit you with either or . Punish him each time he uses on you by throwing your . Don't try to activate it when your shroud isn't up, he'll just pull out a stun combo on you and drop your health very low. You can bait his by throwing your shroud down and moving to an area that he most likely won't target. When you hit 6, waits until he uses one of his three spells(preferably ) and then jump on him to kill him. If you have over 50% of your HP, he won't be able to kill you even with and if he doesn't have all his spells up.

Another pretty hero to deal with. Since you have boots, her shouldn't be a problem. Just be careful of her huge range and run back when she runs at you with a charged. Another thing to watch out for is her which reveals you in your shroud. Most good Caitlyn'll try to place them in a way where it's hard to get to her without activating them. Just make sure to avoid them and keep throwing those at her if you can last hit with auto attacks. Killing her at level 6, shouldn't be a problem since her can't be used in a fight since it has a long channeling time.

She's a tricky one. She's an extremely good harasser, but the mobility you get from the counter that partly. Try to not let her hit you too much with as the damage quickly adds up. Make sure to not let her harass you without fighting back. Remember, you have more to win harassing her then her harassing you since you have 4 . At level 6, a kill should be easy. Just try to do it before she hits 6 as can screw you up. If she is, just make sure she's low enough that she can't possibly kill you.

Not a real threat. Only thing is his puts a 35% chance to blind debuff on you. Screws up your mark activations. Other then then that, he can escape your killing attempts with . Little small other thing is his which can hit you while you're invisible in . Lastly, his helps him get CS even when you zone him out and can also deal AoE damage that hits you even when invisible. Guess he's more of a pain then he looks like heh. Still if you bait him into wasting his , you should be able to kill him easily at level 6.

One of the easiest hero to get fed on. Ridiculously terrible against Akali. If he tries to you, dodge it or get a creep in front of you. If he tries to you, dodge it or laugh at the waste of mana while you spellvamp back all the damage he dealt to you with a single mark activation. If he tries to you, activate a mark in his face and take a quarter of his health while be barely did 100 damage to you. You should have a lot more CS then him and he should hit level 6 when you're 7-8. At level 6, do the exact same thing as with or Vladimire. Bait him into wasting his and then kill them. Although, your Shadow dance have a much longer range then his Arcane Shift. You can just jump him and not worry about it.

I know what you're thinking. IT'S A FIDDLE IN THE MIDDLE, SOOOOO OOOOPPPPP QQQQQQQQQQQQ. But Akali is the hard counter to a midding Fiddle. There's very little he can do. You deal much more damage then he can heal off his and as soon as he tries to do it, make him pay for it by trigerring a mark in his face. Plus, you have an ignite so killing him is a breeze. His only way to do anything to you is harass with . Haha.

AP Gragas seems to become more and more popular. Sadly for our little buddy, Akali wrecks melee. No exception. Keep harassing him and deny him last hits. He'll be forced to last hit with and won't be able to harass you with it. Be careful he doesn't on his turret though. Really annoying. Apart from that, easy matchup.

Very rare but not terrible. His can do a lot of damage to you if they catch you outside your shroud. Also, if you try to harass Heim while inside your shroud, they'll focus you. Careful. His can also be pretty annoying but if you make sure to each time he uses it, you'll be fine. Remember, you have 4 . He has one or two. You'll win the harassing game. His can also mess you up if you try to kill him at level 6. Should just help him escape, not get you killed.

Melee heroes are the easiest to deal with. Each time she tries to or in your face, just trigger a and she'll stop doing it soon enough, trust me. Watch out for though. If she manages to hit a couple creeps behind you, she'll heal up quite a bit. But don't worry, that's why you carry around.

Same as . Punish him each time he tries to unto you. He'll stop doing it. Melee heroes are a breeze for Akali. His dodge-Stun can be annoying though. Watch out for it.

His is annoying as hell. Thank god you started with though. Easier to dodge. But that's all he's got going for him. He's ridiculously squishy, you'll win the fight if he tries to bring it directly to your face with . If you try to kill him at level 6, make sure to not come out of that fight below 300 HP. is one of the most annoying spells in the game.

You'd think that since Kassadin is an anti mage, he'd counter Akali. Nope, doesn't. He's just too weak early game to do anything to you. Each time he uses , throw a mark on him. If he tries to get close enough to , activate it and he'll lose more health then you. Once you both hit 6, you can counter his with . You have more range then him. Kill him.

Melee Hero=Easy lane. That logic usually always works. Her is the only thing she's got on you. Hit her back with each time she uses it. Each time she tries to get a cs with an auto attack, trigger a mark on her. She'll watch out next time and you'll easily double her Creep Score. If she tries to jump on you with laugh at her face and trigger a on her. She'll NEVER do it again. I promise. Her is pretty good since it goes through your shroud. Just stand away from it and back unto her when it's done.


Another Ninja? What will you do? Don't worry, Akali is the superior ninja. Make sure to dodge his and you'll be fine. His auto attack+ can be annoying but it won't kill you. Make sure to NEVER try to fight him when he has marks unto you. You'll just get stunned and lose a ridiculous amount of health while you can't do anything. At level 6, his is annoying. It hits you through your shroud and can also stun you. If you engage carefully, you should win a fight though. Just wait until he uses his and then charge him. Or just make sure to have more health then him. Either works.

Another extremely easy lane. Try to dodge as much as possible. Also, stand back when he activates . Shouldn't be a problem. He's so squishy that standing near your is a death zone for him. At level 6, you should be able to instagib him. His ult shouldn't bother you as it's crazy easy to avoid as long as you have . And you better have them.

The hardest lane for Akali,IMO. She has more range then you on her Sigil of Silence and it deals more damage then your . She can also in the middle of your shroud and get back to safety instantly. A well placed can also screw you up when you're in the middle of your shroud. WATCH OUT FOR IT. My only advice is to play really defensively and try to land a double mark activation in her face. It'll hurt her. A lot. At level 6, you need to be really careful. Her full combo can kill you as fast as yours can kill her. Make sure to have more HP then her and the element of surprise. Use from so she doesn't the first hit on you. I wish you luck.

She's pretty easy to deal with. She's all skillshot. And remember, you have . You can dodge all her spells easily and zone her out with . Make sure to zone her out. As soon as you hit level 6, jump her. Watch out for . If she lands it on you then and Finales Funkeln, you're in for a lot of pain. But she's squishy, so you can probably kill her from full health with a double mark + . Also, careful about diving her. That stupid snare is annoying.

He is a hard one to deal with. His range is superior to yours and as soon as he hits 6, his ult is one of the most annoying in the game. But he has one huge flaw: Malz likes to push. Which means denying him a breeze. Early on, the only spell you really have to watch out for is . Often enough, they'll use it to push creep waves. That's when you throw your at him and a behind him. Keep constantly harassing him and zoning him out. At level 6, his full combo with takes about 3/4 of your health. Plan accordingly.

Huuuum. Annoying movement speed with , annoying harass with and an annoying slow with . Well, you guessed it, that makes her annoying. That's about it. You should just try to use strategically and kill that movement speed buff as often as you can. She barely does any damage, zoning her out shouldn't be a problem. At level 6, is barely mediocre. Shouldn't be a problem. Easy lane.

Nidalee's a great laner. I truly believe that. I started playing her recently and it's amazing how you can outlast your opponents by burning them little by litte. But it doesn't work on Akali. Nidalee's a very passive laner. You can zone her out extremely easily and there's nothing she can do about it. can reveal you while in shroud, that's about all you have to worry about. She's gonna heal a lot of the damage that you deal to her. But that's not gonna help her very much. Akali's all about burst. You can kill her easily at level 6 with . It's even easier due to the fact that her ult makes her become a melee hero.

Currently the FotM OP mid champion. She's apparently the best mage in the game. While I don't know if that's true, I know that she's one of the hero that you'll have a hard time dealing with. make for great harass and hurt a lot. She can also use it while you're in your shroud for the AoE damage. I recommend staying far from her when you're shroud is down and using it to juke those spells when it's up. She'll waste mana trying to harass you ,letting you have control of the lane. At level 6, you have to be sure to have enough health or she'll kill you very easily with if you let her. But if you have more health then her, killing her shouldn't be a problem.

Is a pain to get in the face. Two seconds cooldown? Plus his which snares you so he can hit you twice with that previously mentioned annoying spell? Ryze can be a tricky hero to deal with. He has great sustained damage. But remember, you have more burst. Try to get a double mark off. It'll give you an huge advantage on him. If you can't, try to use your shroud to harass him while not getting hit with the combo I talked about earlier. He really only has two useful spells, his other two are kind of useless.

Don't get hit by it. You have . She's gonna your . Deal with it. Don't stand too close to your creeps. Can get annoying. That's all I have to say about Sivir.

Surprisingly easily lane. His harassment is pretty weak. But careful. What ever you do, don't get hit by Nevermore. So much damage that can be avoided by avoiding it. Lane sustainability. Doesn't matter, he'll run out of mana if he uses it too much. You have a . Honestly much more reliable. One last thing to mention, keeps damaging/slowing you while you're in

You'd think she'd be really easy to deal with. I've had some problems with her though, for an unknown reason. Is a great harass plus a heal debuff. If she uses it + auto attacks you, it deals about twice as much damage as just throwing your mark at her. Don't try to win the harass game in this case. Harass her from the safety of your shroud, if you can land a trigger on a thrown mark do it. It'll make your life easier. Let's her get away from danger, how sad. When you hit 6, try to make her waste it then jump her. Make sure you have enough essense on as her makes you need to use an extra one.

So annoying. His goes through and it kind of hits for a lot. When he gets it, make sure not to get hit by . Juke it. But if he does hit you with it, run far away. Because otherwise, he'll take half of your health in 3 seconds. Other then that, since he's been nerfed he isn't really a problem. Diving him is a hard thing to do with though. Make sure you have if you wanna do it.

an annoying harass. can also be annoying to deal with. Honestly, Vayne's really not a hard lane. Just make sure she doesn't hit 3 auto attacks in a row or Silver Bots will hurt you a lot. can be tricky. If you're both low, she can use it to get the jump on you with her stealth and kill you. Make sure you have up.

I honestly think this is the easiest lane you can get with Akali. Veigar needs to last hit with to get farmed up. So he can't really harass you with it. For the love of god, zone him out hardcore. If he doesn't switch lanes, make him turn level 6 when you're 9. There's nothing he can do. consumes too much mana with to be used constantly against you. He might use it to stun you when he gets his jungling buddy in your lane, but that's it. This can hurt though. Watch out for it


Don't play too aggressive until level 6. Make sure he doesn't hit you with that too much. When you hit 6, jump him. You should be able to kill him. Watch out for his previously mentioned blind, you can't activate marks while you're blinded. Also, most Teemos drop shrooms in the lane. Be careful to not hit them when you're invisible.

Not like most people, I actually find Vlad one of the easiest lanes for Akali. He's very weak early game. is on an enormous CD early on. if he harasses you with it, he won't be able to farm effectively and you'll beat him in cs. If he farms, play more aggressively and use your shroud harassment to zone him out/harass him. At level 6, you should be able to kill him easily as he is still squishy at this point and his ult barely does anything. Try to bait him by unto him and dealing a little bit of damage and when he wastes it, go in for the kill

About 90% of the times, you do not want to initiate teamfights. You should not engage a teamfight. Unless you have a CLEAR advantage and you're sure that your team's right behind you, ready to back you up.

You almost want to make sure to NEVER go in first if they have an . If they do, you have to enter the fights when most CCs are blown and their carry is vulnerable.

If you are playing with a good team, your goal in teamfights should be to take out the enemy carry. If you achieve that goal, your own carry will be able to kill the other enemies and you will win the teamfight.

Most of the times, in solo queue and in normal games, your carry is going to be bad and you're gonna have to carry your team. In that case, you cannot afford to die. You need to do everything possible to stay alive. Which means, act as a carry. Focus targets in the front of the teamfight and do not go in too deep. You can of course take more risks if your is up. Make sure you have a way to escape or that you're making them run away though.

The most commonly used spells, for obviously reasons are:

Just so useful to escape enemies and/or chase. Flash from inside your shroud is usually an assured escape.

Also, + is about the trolliest move you can do. And yes, I just used troll as an adjective. You can jump from so far, it's ridiculous. They never expect it.

Overall a must have on Akali.

It's just so great to get easy kills early and late game. You just Ult+Q+Ignite and you leave them out to die when they're low. It's also really useful to get kills while escaping with Flash.

Scenario: You're mid against a Caitlyn. You're both at about 25% hp(unlikely to happen, if she's at 25% you're at 75%, Trolololol) and then Xin Zhao comes out of the bush. They charge you and you barely have time to throw your shroud down. You Q+Ult+Auto Attack+Ignite Caitlyn while flashing away. You just got a kill and made that Xin Zhao real mad by not dying.

Not mandatory but very useful

Other decent spells:

Exaust Pretty good spell in all occasions. Useful mostly for the slow until you have Rylais but can also save your life if you have your shroud down and can't take that much damage.

Good for escaping and chasing I guess. Not on Akali though. Pick Flash.

Useful in the sense that you could possibly CV creeps behind a wall and unto them. Not really worth it though.

I guess if you're into that kind of stuff...?

7x Greater Mark of Strength - Activates Spellvamp passive with the Brute Force offensive mastery.
2x Greater Mark of Insight - Extra Magic Pen, why not?
9x Greater Seal of Vitality Greater Seal of Vitality - That little extra survivability helps since you're not getting any defensive item besides Rylai's and Lichbane.
9x Greater Glyph of Force - Activates passive at level 3 and evens out with Flat AP at level 6. Difference before 6 between Flat AP is negligible.
9x If you absolutely want to get that passive at level 1. I do not think it's necessary and I like AP/level runes better. But both are very good.
3x Greater Quintessence of Potency - Activates passive at level 3 with Glyphs.

With this rune setup, you start with 10 bonus AD and 17 Bonus AP at level 1. The AP'll build up by about a couple points each level helping you deal more damage without getting any offensive item early on.

I feel that 21/0/9 and 21/9/0 are the best masteries for Akali. The offensive tree gives you so much benefice that it'd be sad to not benefit from it.

21/0/9: You hit level 6 before Awareness which helps you get an easy kill on him. You also get longer buff duration which is always a nice thing.

21/9/0: You're a little tankier in lane which helps but isn't really needed.

You can go either one without much difference. However, I think that 21/0/9 is more useful in the end.

Farming effectively is a very important part in playing Akali. It's essential to have both a high number of CS and kills to be able to dominate a game.

Early on, you need to rely on and your auto attacks to get last hit. As the game goes on though, you'll be able to use to clear out entire minion waves very quickly.

Using to get last hits is not a bad idea when you know you're not gonna need it or you're gonna regenerate those Essense fast enough anyway.

Stealth detection is one of the ways to counter Akali. It shouldn't be that big of a problem though, you can work around that issue very easily.

Vision Wards They're mostly used in lane early/mid game. There are two situations where an opponent's gonna get one.

1) You gave up an early kill and your opponent wants to take advantage of the situation to get an even bigger advantage.

That's hard to deal with. He already has more items/exp/cs then you and you can't use your shroud anymore. You need to have your jungler gank asap or you lost your lane. If you manage to get a kill and get back in levels/items, you should be fine.

2) You're dominating your lane and your opponent's trying to catch up by denying you your shroud.

LOL. He pretty much just wasted 120 gold that could've been used to actually help him. Akali beats most heroes in her lane with or without shroud. Especially with your ultimate. Shouldn't be a problem.

Now, this is a more serious issue. There are two times in the game where the enemy's gonna grab an oracles:

Mid game: This is where you're becoming a nuisance and the enemy's trying to counter you early on by getting an oracles. This isn't usually a big issue.

At this point in the game, the other team doesn't do enough damage to burst you down quickly anyway. Plus, you can usually get your team to focus the one with the and focus HIM down.

If you do get into serious teamfights though, I talked about oracles in the Teamfight section below.

Late game: Now, it's the time where oracles get annoying. Gold isn't running so short anymore and maybe 1-2 enemies decided to get an oracles and will get more even if you kill them.

The game's mostly gonna be all teamfight at this point. I talk about it in more details in the teamfight section but in short you wanna be more careful. Wait until the enemy team blows their cc/ults before jumping in. Make sure to focus their carry so if you do get bursted down, at least you accomplished something and your carry can now destroy them.

Now this is where it gets fun.

Safe Build:

Additional Details: This build is aimed at players who aren't confident they can stay alive throughout most team fights and overall avoid deaths. Most of the times, it's for newer Akali players or players playing at a high ELO.

Risky Build:

Additional Details: The only difference are the stacks. But it can be a huge difference. For players who are confident they can maintain a high number of stacks. More often then not, veteran Akali players or players that are often carrying their team. High Risk, high reward. Getting 20 stacks on Akali is like taking steroids. Except, no bad side effect.

x4 : Why go for boots? Simple. It gives you the mobility needed to harass the enemy without much retaliation and it also helps you avoid harass from skill shot champions such as Ashe, Brand, Caitlyn, Cassiopea, Anivia, Lux, etc. The pots allow you to get in your opponent's face and harass like crazy while being able to regenerate your health more then he can due to your bigger number of pots.

Tip: You can get 4 pot instead of 3 by waiting an extra 10 seconds after the creeps spawn in your spawn. Most of the time you won't lose any exp, just the kill on the first creep.

This is one of your core items. The spellvamp from it will save you on MANY ocassions and also help your lane sustainability TREMENDOUSLY. At level 7 with it, throwing a mark and activating it will give you back around 110 hp. Every freaking 5 seconds. OP, amIright?

These are the boots you should choose from. Mercury's if they have a lot of CC(Annie, Ashe, Amumu, Blitz, Brand, etc) and Sorcerer's if they don't.

Do not get this item if you're going for the Beginner's Build.

This is a controversial item. I would recommended taking it because it's incredibly easy to get stacks with Akali. Furthermore, it'll make you even scarier then you were before. And everybody was running away as soon as you appeared on their screen before.

Also, when you'll start to learn Akali more and more you'll find that it's also extremely easy to keep the stacks up. Akali is an escape artist, it's hard to kill her.


Closing point, only get this item if you're confident that you can keep at least 7 stacks up at all time. It's not mandatory, it just helps you constantly deal crazy amount of damage throughout the game.

Hextech Gunblade is just an item that has extremely good synergy with Akali's passive. It gives you crazy sustain during teamfights while still giving you a ton of damage and an awesome active(remember to use it!).

I use to get it at the end of my build but I reconsidered it and I find it's extremely effective to get it after your giant's belt so you have get that survivability first.


If you're getting only one item, get this. It's Akali's main item. So much so it should be renamed: Akali's Crystal Scepter.

It's has so many used, it's crazy. First off, no one will ever escape you. Ever. I've caught Bear Stancing Ghosting Ghostblading Udyr running away with it. It gives you a 35% slow on your and and a 15% slow on . It's also useful to run away. Just throw a mark on the enemy chasing you and /l in their face while you get to safety.


This is Akali's second mandatory item. It works together so well with your Q, it's almost like it's made to go along with it. It makes your burst potential so much higher.

If you decide to get the Soulstealer and you have over 10 stacks with it, it adds about 400 more damage to your mark activation or any auto attack after using a skill.

G-E-T-I-T

This is another fun item to get on Akali. It doesn't do much though, apart from letting you INSTAGIB squishies on the enemy team. Literally.

If you bought that Soulstealer that I praised so many times and you got a decent amount of stacks on it, you now have around 700 AP.

There's a Teemo/Kogmaw/Ashe/Miss Fortune/Corki/Karthus/Sivir standing 5 foot from his/her team? Not anymore there isn't, you just killed them before the enemy team could even press anything close to QWER.

I've only lost one game when I got to this point in my build. And at that point, even the enemy team's 4k HP cho gath ran away from me at full HP.


If the game lasts even longer then this, you can replace your Soulstealer by either or or . It won't change much at that point.


Buying Sight Ward and in between your items is always a good idea. Keep buying them throughout the game, especially wards.

Reading this guide's only the first step to becoming a great Akali player. You now have to play a countless amount of games to truly master her. But Akali's a hell of a girl. Treat her well and she'll make it up to you by destroying every game you get into.