Akali Build Guide by Darkfreak

Introduction

Akali is a burst ap champion. I like to play her as an offensive ap champion who makes her enemies run in fear of her power. In this guide I will go over the basics of Akali and how I play her. This guide is viable in 5v5, ranked and dominion.

The first time I ever played Akali some time many months ago, I fell in love with her. I just loved the fact of a dog faced champ that could feast her eyes upon her enemy and destroy them without and problem.

Akali's Story

There exists an ancient order originating in the Ionian Isles dedicated to the preservation of balance. Order, chaos, light, darkness -- all things must exist in perfect harmony for such is the way of the universe. This order is known as the Kinkou and it employs a triumvirate of shadow warriors to uphold its causes in the world. Akali is one of these shadow warriors, entrusted with the sacred duty of Pruning the Tree - eliminating those who threaten the equilibrium of Valoran.

A prodigal martial artist, Akali began training with her mother as soon as she could make a fist. Her mother's discipline was relentless and unforgiving, but predicated on the fundamental principle: ''We do that which must be done.'' When the Kinkou inducted her into the order at the age of fourteen, she could slice a dangling chain with a chop of her hand. There was no question - she would succeed her mother as the Fist of Shadow. She has had to do much in this role which others might find morally questionable, but to her it is in service of her mother's inviolable doctrine. She now works with her fellows Shen and Kennen to enforce the balance of Valoran. This hallowed pursuit has unsurprisingly led the triumvirate to the Fields of Justice.

Pros / Cons

Pros -Able to lane anywhere -Decent sustain -Amazing burst -Amazing get aways -Scary as hell

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Cons -Squishy early game -Needs to proc her passives -Countered hard by oracles

Runes

Runes explained:

Marks:

Greater Mark of Attack Damage: Used to proc her Twin Disciplines passive
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: Used to counter some armour

Seals:

Greater Seal of Health: Used to make her less squishy and scary because of her health early game.

Glyphs:

Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power: Used to proc her Twin Disciplines passive and makes her stronger late game.

Quintessances:

Greater Quintessance of Potency: Used to proc her Twin Disciplines passive and gives her early game strength.

How to play Akali

When using Akali, you want to try and deny minions and xp from the enemy. You want to keep her 'q' on the enemy so that if he comes in to last hit you slam him hard and would do more damage then he would from an auto attack. This keeps your dominance over the lane. You want to get the red buff when its up if your jungler doesn't need it for the slow. This allows you to go around and gank other lanes. In team fights, you want to run in first and put down Twilight Shroud. This removes the focus from you to your team mates. Now you want to burst down the squishy champs first and finish off low health enemies.

Akali's Abilities

Mark of the Assassin
This ability is Akali's only ranged ability so you want to use it to your advantage. If your a bad last hitter, use it on the minion then proc it when its low health. If you can last hit fine, then keep the ability up on the enemy champion. If they come in to get a last hit, proc your mark and walk backwards. This will push the enemy back and if they auto attack, you will do more damage.

Twilight Shroud
This ability is Akali's only stealth ability. You want to use the stealth to your advantage to get out of sticky situations and to keep the lane pushed. Also, remmember that this ability has a slow on it, so use this to slow down running enemies to allow your team to catch up.

Crescent Slash
This is Akali's only multi-target damaging ability. You want to use this to last hit minions and do a little bit of extra damage whilst you await your cooldowns in a fight.

Shadow Dance
This is Akali's gap closing ability. You want to use this after your Mark of the Assassin to close the gap and proc the mark. This is also a really good ability if you have a fast enemy who is getting away and with Rylai's Crystal Scepter can slow the enemy.

Akali's Ability Order

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

Akali

Mark of the Assassin

Twilight Shroud

Masteries

Masteries
3/5	4/1	4/5	1/1	3/5	4/1	4/	1/	1/5	2/1	3/1

Akali

Twin Disciplines

Akali

Akali

Akali's Combo

• Use Akali's Mark of the Assassin on the enemy and wait for the cooldown to be around 0.5 seconds off finishing.
• Use Akali's Shadow Dance to close in on the enemy and auto attack to proc the Mark of the Assassin's mark
• Use Akali's Mark of the Assassin on the enemy again and follow it up with a Shadow Dance and then proc the mark again.
• Now use Crescent Slash to do some damage whilst your abilities are still on cooldown for some extra damage.
• Repeat this process untill they die.
• If you in trouble or loosing the battle, put down twilight shroud and try escape.

Dominion

Akali is a great dominion champion as her abilities allow her to more around the map very quickly and get in and out of fights. She completely denies champions of turret capturing and is always really scary and fed in this game type unless you are a fail of course :) In this game type you want Flash and Ghost as your summoner spells.

5v5

Akali is in my opinion, one of the best solo top champions in the game. She can harrass the enemies easily and get out with twilight shroud. This can also be used to ensure the enemies arn't getting alot of xp or gp to defeat you and get fed. She can lane anywhere, but I profer top as I said this is where she shines. In this game mode you want to take Flash and Ignite or Flash Teleport

3v3

Akali is an all right champion for 3v3. She doesn't do much work until level 6. She can fly around the map and gank very easily and ensure kills. She is very good at lane control though as her twilight shroud covers the majority of the lanes.

Escape methods

First method: In the laning stage if you are getting chased a lot, run up past there turret and ulti to an incoming minion rushing to the lane. From here you want to run over to the wall and flash over it. Now you want to put down twilight shroud on a corner to confuse any ememies that come to kill you on which way you went. Now you want to find a safe bush to recall in or go back to lane and continue farming.

Second Method: The second method is for the roaming stage in the game. When under pressure by a stronger enemy for multiple enemies, you want to put twilight shroud in a corner and stay for 2 seconds to see if you opponent goes one of the 2 paths the shroud covers. If this is so then walk away from him once he is out of sight. If this doesn't go to plan, run one of the 2 direction and hope he doesn't go the way you went. There is a 50% sucess rate in this method.