Welcome to my Akali champion guide! In this guide I will be going over various builds and which play-styles suit them best. Akali is an assassin that excels at chasing down single targets and putting out high damage. She doesn't have mana but instead using energy and cool-downs making her quite a "spam-able" champion.

Pro's

• Great burst capabilities.
• Great chasing capabilities.
• Great Passive.
• Anti-Carry

Con's

• Squishy early game.
• Tends to get focused a lot.
• Without her shroud she has little escape mechanics (unless she can get in range to dash to enemy creeps.)

Max Mark of the Assassin first then put a point in Twilight Shroud at level 2 and leave it there for now. Max Crescent Slash next and put points in Shadow Dance when you can.

The typical combo would be Q - R - Auto Attack repeat.

You can throw an E in there for the spell-vamp if you need it.

A good harrass combo is R - Q - Auto Attack - E - W then back off.

Usually you want to pop your shroud to escape/wait for cooldowns/energy to release more damage.

For runes I take:

• 9 x Greater Mark of Attack Damage - For the Spell Vamp passive ability at level 1 for better sustain.
• 9 x Greater Seal of Armor - Armour gives you that extra sustainability in the laning phase.
• 9 x Greater Glyph of Magic Resist - Magic Resist gives you even more sustainability in the lane.
• 3 x Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration - Magic Penetration allowed Akali to burst her targets down faster!

You can take flat AP runes if you want instead of one of the defensive sets but I personally like to be aggressive so with the extra sustainability I can achieve that.

Additionally you could take Health runes but even with more health they still put out their full damage you just last slightly longer.

For masteries I take 21/0/9 like this:

Items on Akali you should look for these stats:

• Attack Damage
• Ability Power
• Life-steal
• Spell-vamp
• Attack Speed

So this is the build I take in the order I like to take it but you can take it in ANY order.

Starting:

x3

This gives you the mobility early to dodge harass and the health pots to stay in lane longer as you wont have your passives yet. You could start with an Amplifying Tome to get your other passive ability up.

First time back:

or

This depends on their team comp, if they have heavy CC get the Mercury's Treads if not and you want to destroy their carries then get the Sorcerer's Shoes. The Hextech Revolver gives you some AP but more importantly the extra Spell Vamp, this helps Akali stay in lane longer and win more 1v1 fights even if you are under-farmed or the other player has a few kills up on you.

Early-Mid Game:



The Rylai's Crystal Scepter first gives you the health and damage to be great early-mid game and it helps you chase with the passive slow from the Rylai's. Guinsoo's Rageblade helps you with some AP and AD as well as the stacking AP and Attack Speed for the longer fights.

Late Game:



These 2 items will pretty much complete your core, it sounds like a lot but Akali is a great farmer and easy to pick up kills with so reaching this if the game drags on enough will be easy. They both give you a lot more damage and the Lich Bane adds some more Ability Power, plus the passive which applies an on hit magic affect to your next physical attack which does an extra 100% of your ability power to the target, throw that in with your Mark of the Assassin's extra damage for one crazy burst of damage!

Situational



The last slot is purely situational, a Guardian Angel is great for letting you chase or overextend for kills (basically being greedy) Banshee's Veil is good for the MR and the 1 ability it blocks, this can stop most burst/combo champions putting their full damage on you. Abyssal Mask is good for the extra AP and the MR as well. Either that or you could throw in a second of one of the earlier items (except the Lich Bane),

Remember that you can use this core build in ANY order depending on how the early game goes. Of course even with your passive Spell Vamp I would always pick up that Hextech Revolver for even more early game sustain.

29/09/2011
- Guide Created
- Changed 7 Marks to give passive SV proc at level 1.
- After some testing I swapped the Trinity Force for a Lich Bane.