Hey Everyone, This is my first time building a guide, and I decided to choose it on my first champion i ever played, Akali. Akali, is a type of champion, a beginner player could play with and do extremely well. And by extremely, well i mean like 10/5/2 or something like that. But for high level players we all know, that is not super good. But beside the point, I recently saw that Akali, became super popular. For this reason i decided to make a Build on her, since most people don't know how to build the PROPER Akali. I see, people buying trinity force on her, and i see people buying, things that are NOT suppose to be played on her(well in my opinion) and it burns my eyes.... I played her way back, and i remember when people, were crying over here saying she was op. And if you build her right, she can become the most op character in the game.(well in the game your playing in) But to do this, i need to share this build with beginners, and experts on Akali. SO this build hopefully will teach you on the whats, and hows of Akali.
Post If you play with this build, and tell me how you do!
Arcana3

Some Pro's and Con's of This Akali

Pro's
Can Get some pretty sick Burst damage
Carry's your team early game
Early game, the burst is great
Ap Heavy
Easy to Use
Early to Mid-late Game

Con's
Dies Fast, since you are aggressive, trying to get off burst
Dies to anti-ap since you are ap heavy
Her burst diminishes late game

9/28/11
Added Icons, to the names of items, masteries, champions, etc.
9/29/11
Put up the Skills Chapter
10/3/11
Added Mercury Treads(OMG I can't believe i forgot to put this in....)
Added An Optional Routes To Build Akali
Added a optional Akali Build's to the Team
Added Optinal Masteries on 2nd Akali
10/11/11
Changed the Masteries and Runes
Using Skills/Akali To There Fullest

Well, for all the experienced players, the runes are normal and such, but for the new players ill explain them. Greater Glyph of Ability Power w/ Greater Quintessence of Ability Power, allows you to start off akali, with her passive. Akali has 2 passives, 1 is her Attack Passive, and the other is the Ability Power Passive. To get off these passives, you need 10 bonus Attack Damage for the Attack Passive, and you need 20 bonus AP, to get off the Ability Power Passive. With the Glyph, and Quintessence of Potency, you have 24 AP. This allows you to start the game off with the AP Passive. You can achieve this lower levels, by buying the Amplifying tome, which grants 20 AP, but as you see i start my build with a Doran's Blade. I do this because the Greater Seal of Strength, is not as improtant as the AP runes. Ap Items are cheaper, but at the same time the Ap Runes are more expensive, since they can make many champions stronger. While it is the other way around in AD. SO I always buy the AP runes FIRST. And then i buy the Greater Seal of Strength. So i want to differ from the build. If you have BOTH OF THE PASSIVES, you can start the build with a Boots of Speed instead. Just to Let you all know.

The masteries are pretty simple, I use a 24/0/6. I Pretty much use the simple, masteries every akali person use, except, maxing out the EXP bonus. I think putting at least 2 into it is fine, so i can use the rest of the points into other things like Attack Speed bonus and such. Maxing out Exp is also fine i would then not max out Lethality .

The order in which these items are bought, are somewhat unusual. I'll explain why im buying these items in these paticular order. I'm buying Doran's Blade first, because it allows me to get off my passive and with its bonuses, it allows me to have some sweet life steal, and with Akali's passive i have spell vamp too! I buy Boots next, because it allows me to get around faster. I then buy Amplifying Tome. This should always be the 3rd item so you can get off your passive. With Both passives, Akali is one of the strongest champions on the field. Also you can adjust you build accordingly, if you buy the Amplifying Tome first, you can either buy a Hextech Revolver, or A Sheen. I have Sheen as the item you buy, because of its passive. Many people like to buy Hextech Revolver, and Sheen, but to me that is just takes to much time, and doesnt allow you to buy stuff you really need, like the Rylia's Crystal Scepter. I buy Sheen because of Akali's Q. Her Q bonus, with Sheen gets off at least 325 damage(this is when q is at level 3). So buying Sheen to me, is better early game, but don't be afraid of buying a Hextech Revolver, there is nothing wrong with this, and it give you extra 2% in Akali's passive. I then buy Mercury Treads. The Treads are the best boots in the game in my opinion. This is because they have Tenacity. Tenacity, makes stuns, slows, and things like that go away faster. Mercury treads have 35 tenacity, which is amazing... The Stuns, you get hit with will not last as long, potentially allowing you to get to a target with low health, alot faster. After Treads i then buy Rylai's Crystal Scepter, because of its slow. The Scepter, slow is so amazing, it allows for ganks to become so much easier, and it allows you to use Shen more. I then buy the Rabadon's Deathcap. The deathcap, increases Akali's ap by so much its crazy. She by this point would have at least 355 ap, and this would be at the 20 minutes mark. After you buy a deathcap, make sure you buy the Hextech Gunblade. Most people like to get Revolver for this reason, because late game, you can make the Gunblade cheaper(well at least i think so). The gunblade, allows you to get off that shot of damage you need to secure a kill late game. Because letting people escape is never a good thing late game. After i buy a gunblade, i like to sell the doran's blade since its not longer a use to you, because hextech gungblade give you bonus AD damage. If the games goes any longer i usually like to buy either a Void Staff or a Abyssal Scepter, depending on whats going on. IF you need just some more ap i would go for the Void Staff, because it give you Magic Pene, and it also gives you a sweet amount of ap, but if they are trying to counter you by building Magic resist, i would buy the Abyssal Mask. I would do this because it lowers the enemy champions Magic Resist, by a good amount and allows you to kill those champions that build magic resist champions

Most people are wondering, why i do not finish Sheen. Like i explain in Items, Sheen with Akali's Q at level 3, early game does a staggering 325 damage. This early game devastates mage's and even some tanks. I then, let Sheen use its passive throughout the game, because basically the passive of Sheen is the same as Lich Bane. And building a lich bane just for 80 AP, and the same passive of Sheen is really not worth the time or money investment. I have Sheen just for the massive of amounts of burst i get, and i just really rely on its passive more then anything. This is why i dont finish off Sheen. Also some may ask, why not get Trinity Force? 1 It takes to much gold to actually build, unless rushed, or fed, 2 this is a heavy ap akali, you don't really need AD all the much, and you only get 60 AP out of Trinity Force.

There are alot of ways to build akali correctly, several actually. But there are 3 items you always start out with, on Akali in this order(Left to Right)



You Always buy Doran's Blade for the bonus AD, and life steal. Early on, Doran's Blade 3% life steal is great for staying in lane. The 2nd item, Boots you always buy 2nd(unless you change it and buy it first). You buy boots 2nd, because you need to more quick and agile early game, so lets say taric stuns you and then brand comes in to clean up, you flash away, and you have boots to be quicker. Some builds do not get Boots 2nd, which i feel is not a great idea at all. The 3rd item, is Amplifying Tome. This is the starting item, for buidling into Sheen, or Hextech Revolver

Now you can take a different route from my build. I take Sheen, cause it does passive does a massive bonus with akali's Q, but thats just me. Hextech Revolver, is also a great idea. I gives you Spell Vamp, and also 40 AP. That is alot of ap early on. SO don't be afraid on depending on who your facing to change the build around.

So the 4th item will be either of these
OR

After you build these, items, you will go into Rylia's Crystal Scepter. Always do not change this part of the build. You then go into Rabadon's Deathcap, do not change this also. If you want the explanation on why, its in Items. You then also, build Hextech Gunblade after all this is done(This will take longer or shorter, depending if you bought Hextech Revolver over sheen. Now is were you can change the build alot.

There are 3 Items, that you can buy that work late game and will sustain you late game. Void Staff, Abyssal Mask, And Lich Bane.
Out of these 3, i would buy Void Staff or Abyssal Scepter, FIRST and then Lich Bane. In the chapter Reason for Sheen, i say i dont finish sheen, because it takes to much time and would subtract from getting more important items. This is true, but late game this becomes dumb. Sheen by itself wont be able to support you at all, so at this time you need to change it. Lich bane is the answer. A very kind poster, has stated this, and i have run a few playthroughs of this. I found out Lich Bane, is good but still takes a large amount of time and money to build. So i like to BuilLd Abyssal Mask or Void Staff First, and then Lich Bane. Anything after Lich Bane Is not needed, since you pretty much have the strongest, ap items in the game.
Also If you Didn't Buy Sheen First, then BUY Lich Bane First, and then buy Abyssal Mask or Void Staff. You do this, because you need the unique passive Sheen and Lich Bane give. It just makes Akali, super bursty.

Akali, is a DPS Melee fighter, with a variety of skills to use. She can solo top, and also mid if needed. She can also be a amazing partner bottom. In this chapter I will explain the skills she has, and what they do.


Mark of the Assassin does 50/75/100/125/150(+40% of your Ability Power) magic damage and leaves a mark for 6 seconds. When hit while the mark is active the mark is consumed and does 50/75/100/125/150(+40% of your Ability Power) to the target, it also restores 20/25/30/35/40 of Akali's energy.


Akali, throws down a cover of smoke, that makes her briefly stealthed, for 8 seconds, but if she attacks or uses a skill, it briefly makes her revealed. Also, while in the space of the Twilight Shroud, akali gains 10/20/30/40/50 armor and magic resistance. Enemies that walk through the smoke have there movement speed reduced by 14/18/22/26/30%


Akali twirls, with her kamas in hand damaging enemies in the area for 30/55/80/105/130 physical damage(+30% of current Ability Power) +60% of your Attack Damage


Akali, swiftly moves through the shadows to her target, dealing 100/175/250(+50% of current Ability Power) of magic damage to target. Also Akali carries 3 Essence of Shadows, and Gains one every 25/20/15. She also gains one with every kill or assist she gets.

When you play as Akali, you really want to dish out damage early game, so you can dominate the other team. The combo i use, is extremely easy to use and it really dishes out the damage in huge amounts. Before you can really start dishing out damage quickly and effectively you need to last hit creeps until your level 6. The first thing you want to use is Mark of the Assassin on the target. The passive that the mark of assassin uses, really makes anyone that wants to get close in danger. The next thing you do is Shadow Dance to your target WHILE the passive mark of assassin is still on the target. Since the Brand patch, they have changed shadow dance in her favor. She will now auto attack the target after shadow dance. So while your Mark of the Assassin passive is still up, this makes it extremely bursty and powerful. You then use Crescent Slash to do more damage, and your repeat the process, until you just dish out damage like crazy.

THE COMBO IS
Q
R
E
AND THEN REPEAT.

Lets say though you are in trouble, a nice way to escape is to throw down Twilight Shroud right when you are starting to get attacked. To play akali right this is something you need to learn instantly. This will save you so many times, its not funny. After that happens, just repeat your combo, and youll just devastate.

I will list out the Summoner spells and you can decide on what you wanna use.


Probably the best summoner spell in the game. It allows you to escape situations, you should have died in. Its a great mechanic, and you should allows have this and another summoning spell in my opinion


This on akali, is incredible good, its not funny. When you damage someone so close and they almost die, but you cant get enough damage off, ignite will finish the job. This happens alot with akali early game. Sometimes you just cant get enough damage off, and they escape. That is were the all mighty ignite comes in. It finishes off you opponent, while you run away


Good to use if you are a aggressive player. If you get stunned or something like that, this will get rid of it, and you can continue attacking. This will really screw with Alistar or Malphite since they have so many stun heavy moves

]
Probally the 2nd most viable escape summoner spell in the game. It makes you faster, and you cant be slowed. So things like Singed's poison will not slow you. But you can be stunned though, so be careful


I personally, would use this if we had 3 summoner spells. But we dont so i dont use it. Its really helpful early game, to keep alive if you run low on HP, but mid-late game it becomes really useless. If I had to choose this over something else, like ghost, or cleanse, i would choose ghost of cleanse.


Really good, early game for ganking,and not letting enemy champs, get away. But its also really bad in teamfights. Since you can only target one person, exahust, becomes not as helpful, in teamfights.

All the other summoner spells, like Revive or Clairvoyance i would not use. They are just not something you would use on akali, since she is a agrro type of character.

So I hope you can play akali and be a boss, like always. This build is such a reliable build, its crazy. Later i will update this build depending on the patches, and also i will add pictures to it. So gl, and go win in the Summoner Rift
GO AKALI!