Who am I?
I am robertonkartul but people call me robi. I play on the EUNE servers. I've been playing ranked since season 9 and since then i've been maining akali. I have over 220k points on akali as of making this guide and i want to share the information i've learned over this time with you all.

Why play akali?
Akali is one of the most fun champions in the game. Everyone has their own playstyle and you can make amazing flashy plays with her. She is relatively hard to learn, but extremely rewarding.

Pros + Good engage and mobility + Great 1v9 potential + Amazing when mastered + Fun to play + Strong dueler Cons - High ban rate - Hard to master - Gets changed every patch - Very squishy

Conqueror

Conqueror is the most used akali keystone.
People use Conqueror because it give great healing and damage, its also really good for team fights, it is also good against tanky team comps. Akali can proc conqueror quite easily and in combination with rift maker allows akali to heal A TON in extended team fights.


Electrocute
Electrocute is my favorite keystone on akali
Electrocute is very good and easy to proc on akali. Because of this i run it in 90% of my games. Not only is electrocute strong for early trades and engaged its also really fun. Combining Electrocute with Night harvester and sudden impact makes it really good for oneshots.


Dark Harvest
In some situations you can replace Electrocute with Dark harvest. Dark harvest and elec are very similar as they are both good for burst damage where as Fleet and Conqueror are more brawly. The difference between Dark Harvest and Elec is that DH is weak early game and it takes a while to start it up and I consider it a gamble as you never know how the game will go and if you even get your moneys worth. Although if you do pop off with DH it will be REALLY GOOD.


Fleet Footwork
Fleet Footwork is a really good for anti-poke and sustain in general. You can never go wrong with Fleet, and thats why people in high ranks use it often. Fleet footwork is usually built against high poke/long range champions such as lux, Lucian and Xerath and it is often used in hard matchups such as Irelia and Zed. People who go fleet often buy DShield as their starting item to keep themselves healthy in lane.

Lets talk about some variation to runes!

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Presence Of Mind is very good for teamfights as you get energy on kill meaning you can do a lot of in extended fights and this is why people usually run it in combination with Rift Maker and Conqueror.
Triumph is commonly used as a tower dive rune, its really good when combined with an aggressive akali. Even though Triumph is more situational then Presence of mind, it is better when in an easy matchup and it excels when used with something like Electrocute

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Coup De Grace is the more popular variant as it is more versatile then Last Stand. Having Coup De Grace will always increase your damage in a dual where as Last stand only when you get low. I prefer to use Coup De Grace because it feels more effective and since my playstyle is aggressive i get a lot of use out of it.
Last Standis the pick if you're in a hard matchup because in a situation like that you're most likely going to be trying to trade instead of going all in, so you probably wont be doing a ton of damage when the enemy is below 40% hp. Last stand is also better when you're playing akali toplane.

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Out of the 3 legend runes there is only one that is useful on akali and its Legend: Tenacity. Having reduced stun duration is amazing on akali as she is very squishy and will get rolled if she gets stunned in a team fight. Along with Legend: Tenacity you can run unflinching if you're going for a Fleet Footwork build.

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Taste of Blood helps with early sustain and winning trades. It used to be picked all the time but nowadays people prefer to run Sudden Impact as it increases the damage you do.
Sudden Impact Is my favorite out of these two. It is very nice to have with a aggressive akali build and who doesn't like extra damage after the recent akali nerf.

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The only one out of these 3 that is viable is Eyeball collection, because zombie ward and ghost poro take too long to stack up on akali.

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The only 2 that are any good on akali are Ravenous Hunter and Relentless Hunter.
Relentless Hunter is fun and its good for roaming, but the healing from Ravenous Hunter is a must have on akali as she is really squishy so having that extra healing is really needed.

VS
Flash + Ignite are your default akali runes, but if you're playing top you can also going Flash + Teleport. If you replace Ignite with Teleport when going top you will lose a top of kill pressure so i don't do it.
THOUGH i've seen some people go Teleport + Ignite, but this makes me sick to my stomach, you have to disengage and you because VERY susceptible to ganks.

Electrocute and Dark Harvest

When running an Electrocute build its a good idea to go for a burst build so your core items would be these: as its a very good item to increase first hit damage and it also gives you a burst of movement speed (movement speed doesn't stack) building is also very good, its not only good for bursting down enemies, but its also really helpful when taking down towers.


Conqueror and Fleet Footwork

When going for a conqueror build you want to make sure to have a bunch of sustain, so your core items would be these: because it give crazy omnivamp and when fully proc-ed gain 9% bonus damage as True damage. Though procing riftmaker isn't very easy on akali as you have to be in combat for some time, to help out with this we build , because it makes it easier to proc riftmaker and it also burns the enemy whilst giving us armor and magic resist.

Assasin's Mark
INNATE: Akali's damaging abilities against enemy champions will mark a ring around them for 4 seconds, granting her 30 / 40 / 50 / 60% (based on level) bonus movement speed for 2 seconds while moving away from them. Subsequent damaging abilities against enemy champions while a ring is active will only refresh its duration.

If Akali leaves the ring within its duration, she regains the bonus movement speed while moving towards enemy champions for 2 seconds and gains Swinging Kama for 4 seconds, during which she cannot create another ring.

SWINGING KAMA: Akali's next basic attack's Range is doubled and deals 29 − 170 (based on level) (+ 60% bonus AD) (+ 40% AP) bonus magic damage.

Five Point Strike
ACTIVE: Akali unleashes kunais in a cone in the target direction, dealing magic damage to enemies hit. Targets at maximum range are also Slowed by 50% for 0.5 seconds. INTERESTING FACT: the five point strike isnt actually cone shaped and the hitbox is a triangle so if you hit someone with the corner of your Q hitbox you actually get your passive proc without moving! Another interesting fact: you used to be able to use your Q in the middle of E2 so your combo used to be a lot quicker.

Twilight Shroud
ACTIVE: Akali restores 80 energy over 0.4 seconds, gains bonus movement speed that decays over 2 seconds, and detonates a smoke bomb a fixed distance away in the target direction, creating a circular shroud that expands over the next 5 seconds into a ring. The shroud does not permeate terrain, and will expand toward nearby enemy champions. While the shroud is active, Akali's maximum energy is increased by 80. Entering the shroud renders Akali invisible, unless she is dashing.

Shuriken Flip
ACTIVE: Akali flips backward and, after the cast time, sends a shuriken in the target direction that deals magic damage to the first enemy hit. The shuriken marks the enemy or the last smoke smoke section hit for 3 seconds, revealing them for the duration. While the target or smoke section is marked, Shuriken Flip can be recast.
RECAST: Akali dashes towards the marked target or smoke section, consuming the mark, regardless of distance. Against enemies it deals magic damage upon arrival.

Perfect Execution
ACTIVE: Akali dashes 750 units in the direction of the target enemy champion, dealing magic damage to enemies she passes through.
If Akali hits an enemy, she flips over them, continuing the dash up to its normal 750 range but at least another 150 units, for a total maximum dash distance of 900 units if the first enemy she hit was at the maximum dash range.
Perfect Execution can be recast after 2.5 seconds within 10 seconds of the first activation.
RECAST: Akali dashes 800 units in the target direction, dealing magic damage to enemies she passes through, increased by 0% − 200% (based on target's missing health). Update: the recast base damage was nerfed in the recent patch.

Akali combos are what make her so good. Once you get more used to using combos they will come naturally to you

one of the most important combos is E1→E2Qa This is the default combo and most other combos are just improvements on this one. Usually you want to slap down your shroud whenever you're fighting so you get cover and energy, so E1→E2QaW. Most akali combos revolve around cancelling E2 with either Q or R because you have no time to waste on akali.

One of my favorite more advanced tricks is using E1 right after the end of R1. you can do this by holding your mouse behind the enemy while R1 over them and then clicking right as it ends. and with this combo you can also use stuff like R2 right after E2 hits the champion. something like R1E1→E2R2

I do think that its easier for you to figure out the combos on your own in blind games because testing dummies don't move.

Start off with
Doran's Shield if you're going Fleet Footwork
Doran's Ring if you're going Electorcute, Dark Harvest or Conqueror

lvl 1 try to poke or trade and try to clear wave quick to get lvl 2 as fast as possible
lvl 2 level up E and try to either engage onto them OR if you're playing against a long ranged champion, try to use E to get minions from far away.
lvl 3 is your power spike you can try to all in on someone if you're feeling confident. Going for combos like QE1 → E2QaW or Qa → WQa. You can usually at the very least do some damage at lvl3. Keep trading and farming until lvl6
lvl 6 is a really big power spike for you and at lvl 6 you can really just push with same combos as at lvl 3 except if you feel like you can get the kill you should always take the shot.
At level 6 you can probably look for roams aswell to help others on your team.