Hi Guys! I'm DobbieTheElf. I am a toplane Akali main, and I have played her there since the rework, so I have been through all the nerfs and come out the other side. I hope this guide helps you with runes, items and just generally how to play Akali.

BUT REMEMBER. THIS IS JUST MY OPINION. I AM DEFINITELY NOT THE BEST PLAYER EVER. IF YOU WANT TO BUILD SPELLTHIEF 1ST ITEM, GO FOR IT. THIS GUIDE JUST AIMS TO HELP YOU WITH CHOOSING WHAT TO DO.

Pros:
- Great fun to play
- Pretty easy to learn, but high skill cap makes it rewarding to master her
- Combos look SO clean once mastered
- Hybrid champ so has flexible itemisation
- Great outplay potential
- Great at 1v1s if played correctly

Cons:
- Lower than normal time to kill for an assasin
- Squisy as hell
- CC kills her
- Balance is all over the place at the moment
- Feast or famine type of champion (great when ahead, bad when behind)

Passive - Assassin's Mark

Akali's ability damage against enemy champions creates a 500-unit ring around them for 4 seconds, granting her 40 / 50 / 60 / 70% (based on level) bonus movement speed for 1.25 seconds while moving towards the edge of the ring.

When Akali is outside the ring, she regains the Movement speed icon bonus movement speed towards enemy champions and gains Swinging Kama for 4 seconds.

SWINGING KAMA: Akali's next basic attack gains 125 bonus range, deals 39 − 180 (based on level) (+ 90% bonus AD) (+ 70% AP) bonus magic damage and restores 10 / 20 / 30 (based on level) energy.

A lot of your damage comes from this ability. Try and get off the auto attack whenever possible. The movement speed is a life saver sometimes too, allowing you to easily escape after a trade. You should be proccing this as often as you can in a fight, as the damage from it is ridiculous after you have a few AP items

Q - Five Point Strike

Akali throws a flurry of kunais in the target direction, dealing magic damage to enemies hit. Enemies hit at maximum range are also slowed by 50% for 0.5 seconds.

Akali's bread and butter. Low cooldown but high energy cost mean it can run you out of energy easily. Main source of damage along with your passive.

W - Twilight Shroud

Akali restores energy and detonates a smoke bomb in the target direction, creating a circular shroud that expands over the next 5 seconds into a ring. The shroud does not permeate terrain.

Entering the shroud renders invisible, gaining bonus movement speed and causing all sources of true sight (except for turrets) to grant obscured vision instead.


Akali's basic attacks and abilities will break the invisibility for 1 − 0.625 (based on minutes) seconds. Twilight Shroud's duration is extended by 0.5 seconds whenever she enters or breaks from the shroud, up to 6 times, for a maximum bonus duration of 3 seconds.

The Akali Ability. The main thing that you have to play around when using Akali. Determines how you fight, and can also help you get out of sticky situations.

E - Shuriken Flip

FIRST ACTIVE: Akali flips backward and fires a shuriken forward, stopping with the first enemy hit and dealing physical damage.

The shuriken marks the enemy or the last Twilight Shroud smoke section hit for 3 seconds. While the target is marked, Akali can reactivate Shuriken Flip.

SECOND ACTIVE: Akali dashes towards the marked target, regardless of distance. Against enemies deals the same physical damage.

Combo starter, escape tool, passive proccer: this ability does it all. Can propel Akali over small walls.

R - Perfect Execution

FIRST ACTIVE: Akali dashes in the target direction, dealing physical damage and stunning enemies hit for 0.5 seconds.

After 2.5 seconds, Perfect Execution can be reactivated within the following 7.5 seconds.

SECOND ACTIVE: Akali dashes in the target direction, dealing magic damage to enemies hit, increasing by 0% − 200% (based on target's missing health).

The main damage source of Akali, when it is up. Be mindful that there is a small gap between the first and second parts of the ability. This can also go over walls.

First, like with most champions, you put a point into your ultimate whenever possible. Gives better damage and cooldown to your most powerful ability. You max q first because it is your main source of damage and the main way to proc your passive. Afterward, you max e, as it's a great gap closer/escape ability, and is also very useful for fights. You max w last as the cooldown isn't decreased very much by maxing it, and nothing else of note changes when maxing.

So, there are 3 pages that are worth considering on Akali

1. Conqueror
Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, Coup de Grace, Taste of Blood, Ravenous Hunter

The main runepage. Conquerer is pretty good on Akali, especially when she is playing against someone like Kennen that she can all in consitently. Gives some nice sustain in fights, allowing her to fight for longer and get out a lot of damage.

3. Grasp of the Undying
Grasp of the Undying, Demolish, Second Wind, Revitalise, Taste of Blood, Ravenous Hunter

Good for spltpushing, or when you know that there isn't gonna be many kills in lane.

4. Electrocute
Electrocute, Sudden Impact, Eyeball Collection, Ravenous Hunter, Perfect Timing, Biscuit Delivery

Bursty page. Not played often anymore, but I like to play it when you are up against a squishier team and can play more like an assasin than a bruiser. Also good against matchups like Tryndamere where a bit more damage is useful.

Flash and Teleport ar the only real options here. Flash because it's flash, and you aren't Hecarim or Shaco. Teleport because you're a top laner. You can take Ignite instead of Teleport, but I never have and I can still kill without out it. Up to you.

So, now the arguably most important part of the guide. Items. Akali is different to most champions in that she is a hyrbrid. This means that she isn't locked into building either AP or AD, like most champions are. This makes her generally pretty flexible in terms of what she can build. However, the absolute best item in tha game for Akali is Hextech Gunblade. This item gives a bit of AP, a bit of AD, a bit of Lifesteal and an active that adds to your burst. Generally an all round good item. After this options become more ambiguous, depending on what you like building.

1. Boot options

On Akali your boot options come down to Sorcerer's Shoes, Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads. Build Sorc Shoes for more damage, Ninja Tabi into heavy AD or Mercs into heavy AP or heavy CC. It's that simple.

2. AP Route
Akali is an AP Assasin mainly, so high AP items are what you want to be buying. After your Hextech Gunblade you want to be building either a Zhonya's Hourglass or a Morellonomicon. Zhonya's is your go-to, but Morellonomicon is useful for the magic penetration and the grievous wounds passive, into something like a Dr. Mundo or Nasus with a lot of healing. After these, Lich Bane is a solid option, as it synergizes well with your passive, and then finally a Rabbadon's Deathcap or a Void Staff for a nice final increase to your damage.

3. AD Route

Death's Dance is the most stand out option in AD items. It gives quite a lot of AD, as well as the same passive as Gunblade, as well as the bleed passive that gives Akali a bit more survivability, which is great for her. The passives of Gunblade and Death's Dance, while they are the same passive, do stack with each other. This means that you can have 30% omnivamp (spellvamp and lifesteal in one) when you have both items built. This is an insane amount, giving you great survivability in any situation. Late game this means you can almost fully heal yourself by clearing a raptor camp. That is great. Couple this with the new magic resist and armor on Death's Dance, and you turn Akali into a pretty good bruiser. Other good options are Trinity Force, Ravenous Hydra and Sterak's Gage. Trinity Force is a great AD item for Akali, giving loads of stats that are all welcome. The Phage passive on this synergises really well with Akali's shroud dip in and out gameplay, as it gives you movement speed for auto attacks. Also the spellblade passive from your Sheen makes your passive auto attacks hit HARD. Ravenous Hydra is a great splitpushing item, as it gives you some much needed waveclear with the Tiamat passive. I wouldn't reccomend building both Ravenous Hydra and Death's Dance though, as that would be too much lifesteal. Sterak's Gage gives a lot of survivability to Akali, with the lifeline passive.

Building a Tiamat on your first back has become somewhat of a thing in Korea recently, as it allows you to have a bit more waveclear and roam more for snowballing. Usually you sell it late game, but if you need a splitpushy type champion it can be nice to keep for that purpose, putting pressure on the enemy team.

3. Rounding out the build.

Guardian Angel is just a generally great item to survuve in sticky situations, as well as giving some AD. Banshee's Veil is good if the enemy team has a lot of AP. Rylai's Crystal Scepter is good if the enemy has something like a Sivir who can get away from you very easily.

So you've done your pregame. Got your item choices in mind, made the right runepage, and hopefully you've banned Illaoi. So now what do you do?

1. Early game

Akali has a pretty good early game. Early on you should be aiming to CS most of the time, but try and land Q's on the enemy often, and then hit them with the passive auto attack. This little trade does a lot of damage, and can' be counterattacked very well because of the passive movement speed and because it is done from range, and most toplaners are melee. With this you should be able to zone the enemy quite effectivley, and force them off of CS. Hit tower, try and take it down etc. Roaming midlane can often be beneficial in this meta, as most good midlaners right now are carries and need to get ahead to be effective. One you have shorud, shroud after q-> auto attacking to restore some energy, as well as to guarantee minimal counter attacks to you. Your E is mostly used as an escape tool, but can be used aggresively in all ins to proc your passive again. Your first main powerspike is at level six. Once you have your ult, if your enemy is about half health, and not in tower, you should be able to kill them (with the exception of tanks). Your ult is great at level one, and can be used to secure a kill. The combo that I like to use is:
E1 (pretend you are running away) -> E2 -> AA -> Q -> AA -> Q -> Shroud -> AA -> R2 -> Q -> more autos and Q's until either they are dead or you run out of energy. However, this isn't a be all end all combo. Akali doesn't have enough burst damage anymore, so the combo you use is quite ambiguous. The most important thing though is to make sure you get a few abilites of before you use your shorud, as it restores energy, and this part is wasted. Once you have it up, make sure to play around your shorud, as it is your most powerful tool.

2. Mid Game

Depending on wether you built full AP, AD or a mix of the two, your playstyle changes. If you have gone the standard route of full AP, play like an assasin. Dive in, kill a squishy or priority target, get out. Akali can quill squishies quickly, but not as quickly as a normal assasin, so be mindful of this, and use your shorud to your advantage. If you have built AD or a mix of the two, play more like a bruiser. Get into the centre of the fight with shroud and do as much damage as possible until either you or all the enemies are dead. Obviously if you have no chance of winning after a certain point, get out if the fight.

3. Late Game

Akali late game is similar to mid game, but different if you built AD. If you did this, splitpush as much as possible. You should be able to duel most eneimes with your ludacris amount of lifesteal, and you can get out quite safely if lots of the enemies come for you.

Akali Wiki page (for numbers and ability explanation): Wiki

Edit 8/4/20: Updated for season 10 (quite late tho lmao) and added in a Tiamat as a possible early buy, removed tank akali cause it sucked, tidied some stuff up.

Edit 24/3/19: Changed the AD items to be inline with the popular Korean build that has started being used recently. I was hesitant to add it before, but after playing it a few times, it works really well.

Edit 9/3/19: Updated Runes section from Ultimate Hunter to Ravenous Hunter, beacause Ultimate Hunter isn't really needed after the ult cooldown buffs. Also changed Electrocute secondary to Inspiration, it is more played. Sudden Impact has been changed to Taste of Blood on both Fleet and Conquerer trees, to give more sustain.