Regorius here! I main support, and like to find unusual champs and item combos to effectively fill the role. This being my first guide, I figured I'd start with one of the most flexible, powerful, and mobile characters in the game, Akali.

My focus here is to create a build that is affordable, practical, and effective. While it may lack some of the more flashy and expensive items, the picks I have chosen were designed by trial and error to create a viable and balanced build that leaves no major gaps and accommodates Akali's skills adequately.

If you feel confident enough to boost up the damage output and chose more aggressive options, feel free to share your ideas. Any other questions and comments are also welcome.

Flash, as always, is a good choice.

Ignite is good as well, but better taken by your ADC or in situations where the enemy is dependent on LS and clutch heals.

Ghost is a poor choice as it would be used mostly in situations where you are running away, and you don't want to plan on doing a lot of that. She relies on her Shadow Dance and Flash to close and escape anyway.

Heal is a great choice, but these days ADCs seem to love it, and I avoid stacking them due to diminishing returns.

Exhaust is the choice of secondary summoner spell I advocate. Great for catching up, peeling, and forcing fights in her Twilight Shroud.

A quick summary:

Combine Arcane Mastery and Martial Mastery with your AD marks, AP quints, and a few AP glyphs to feed your passive. Having extra magic damage on hit from your AP will help you be more potent in lane, and executing minions with your Q and Targon's brace will grant you even more bonus healing without pushing the lane excessively. Having a base of 9 bonus AR and 7.5 MR will get you through the early game, and scaling runes for resistance will help to patch over your respectable health pool.

On Starting Items



On Boots



On Ruby Sightstone



On Sheen



On Abyssal Mask



On Twin Shadows

Playing Akali support gives a powerful punch to your bottom lane. However, lack of communication with your adc or reckless engages can render you and your lane partner useless. Know when to engage, how to do it, and when to withdraw if necessary. Many people playing carry supports try to rack up the kills early to feed their expensive builds. Fortunately for us, our items aren't terribly expensive, and most bottom lanes can be won with only Targon's brace, boots, and Sheen.

On Early Kills (pre-6)



On Engaging



On Caution



On Cooldowns

Use your Spoils of War from Targon's Brace on the biggest minion in the lane. This will give you the most gold and heal you and your ADC more. Work in extra attacks when you can afford to push a little to take advantage of your Twin Disciplines.

If you have managed to beat back your opponents into a defensive position and have build early mobility, by all means, use it! Stealing jungle camps and / or warding the brush on both sides of their Elder Lizard / Ancient Golem give your team the benefit of extra vision and pressure on the enemy team to make bad plays. Plays that you will see coming. Roaming with Akali support can reap serious benefits, but I would generally advise staying out of mid until you hit level 6.

Depending on the situation, you may or may not want to push bot constantly. If you had the clear upper hand in the laning phase, keep it up after the first tower goes down. Usually my ADC runs mid to help finish their tower. Stay bot and catch up on some farm if you have the wards up. If your team is struggling mid, then assist. Constant pressure bottom will divert their resources and increase yours.

1.) If you can trade for a carry as support, by all means, hunt them down. If you drag your whole team into a sloppy engagement you can't win because you want one more kill, maybe it's time to wait for your teammates to make the first moves and respond to their play.

This is a classic mistake many carries (and overconfident supports *COUGH* Braum *COUGH*) make, going for those extra kills at the expense of their team. Some will justify an imbalanced exchange with a kill or two, and expect the rest of the team to "keep up." This simply doesn't work to win games. Even if you escape with an intact kill streak, you are going to draw the ire of your team because you rolled SUPPORT.

With this suggested kit, you can do respectable damage and take a moderate beating as well. If you end up with some extra kills, it's seldom a bad thing, but seldom because you carry hard. If your team dies every time you engage the enemy and you're the only one getting kills because of your Shadow Dance and maybe (probably not) surviving because of Twilight Shroud and Flash, it's nothing to be proud of.

If you want to carry, take Akali mid. If you want to bully the **** out of an unsuspecting bottom lane, delay enemy arracks, and ambush the enemy into submission, buckle in, calculate your risks, and pair up with someone (obviously your ADC first, but I've had some interesting partnerships with jungles and mids). Akali support just ain't a solo killing machine, so take advantages when you can and guard them while you have them.

One of the things Akali does well: showing the enemy that their "edge" is razor thin. Play smart, and you can swing the battle in your favor.