Welcome to my second build for Akali, the Fist of Shadow. This will be a hybrid Akali and for those who don't know, hybrid is both AD and AP.

Hello guys, I haven't been updating this in almost a year, but this build is still viable, I made small changes and hope you like it, try it, rate and comment.

Pros

Can close range
Uses energy
Unstoppable when fed
Building AD you get something to build AP for
Building AP you get something to build AD for
Stealth

Cons

Requires for you to make big decisions in a short time
Stealth can be countered by AoE (Area of Effect) spells
CC (Crowd Control such as: slow, stun, fear, taunt...) like taunt and knock up can stop her from using her nuke

Since I had to put new masteries here's the explanation: You are a hybrid, so you must take both AD and AP, I don't take any protection cause I play careful and that's mostly what you need to stay alive.

Marks:

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration and Greater Mark of Desolation: Magic pen. for your spell vamp and Armor pen. for... well attacking.

Seals

Greater Seal of Strenght: We're adding AD for your passive to add more % of spell vamp

Glyphs

Greater Glyph of Ability Power: We're adding AP for your passive to add more damage to your attacks.

Quintessences

Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage and Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: We're focusing to give more strength to your passive.

Rush Sword of the Occult and look at your passive: 1 stack=1% spell vamp, 20 stacks=20% spell vamp plus spell vamp from Hextech Gunblade and all other AD items will make you very hard to get on low HP lategame since you can just go in the middle of a minions wave, use Crescent Slash and heal half of your health. For boots I take Ionian Boots of Lucidity for reduced cooldown. Rylai's Crystal Scepter For health and the slow from abilities. Guinsoos Rageblade Is a hybirds best friend, AP and AD in one. Hextech Gunblade for more spell vamp and AD and in the end, just for the magic pen. a Void Staff.

If your doing bad from the start (died once-twice) so you can get Sword of the Occult in like 5-7 mins I don't recommend you follow this build, but the second one with a Sheen at the beginning. Note that after you get Hextech Gunblade if your doing really good instead of Ryali's get another one. After Ryali's if you haven't bought another Hextech and your starting to do good buy one, if not buy Rabadon's Deathcap and you can upgrade Sheen into a Lich Bane and the last item is just your choice.


For Dominion, open with Boots, Long Sword and Amplifying Tome and go bottom. Upgrade your boots to Mercury Treads and buy a Giant's Belt, Blasting Wand and a Ruby Crystal. After that, you can:

a) Buy Rylai's Crystal Scepter and then a Phage and Trinity Force
b) Buy Phage and upgrade to Frozen Mallet and then a Void Staff
c) Buy Sword of the Occult a Soul Stealer and hen Rylai's or a Frozen Mallet

Passive: Twin Disciplines
One of my personal favorites, when you get 20 AP your attacks deal 10% bonus damage as magic damage, for each 5 AP after that your magic bonus gets higher by 1%. When you get 10 bonus AD you gain 10% spell vamp, every 5 bonus damage in after that will give you 1% bonus spell vamp. I use runes, masteries and item to focus this, that's why I take hybrid.

Q: Mark of the Assassin
You throw your kama at the enemy target and damage him giving him the mark, if you attack that target while he has the mark you will do bonus damage. I use this to harass early, and late its damage is very high, that's a nuke spell.

W: Twilight Shroud
You throw a smoke bomb and in that smoke enemy targets are slowed and you gain bonus armor and magic resist and get stealthed. But when you attack your stealth fades for a short time.
Use it to juke when your low health or to recover your energy when fighting 1v1. I just love that ability.

E: Crescent Slash
You damage all enemies around you.
When I said that your Q is a nuke spell I wanted to add if you use Crescent Slash it will be insane cause it uses base damage, ability power AND attack damage.

R: Shadow Dance
In the Pros / Cons chapter i said that she can close the range I was talking about your ultimate. You gain a mark, you use that to use your ultimate. You gain 1 mark after some time and you can have maximum 3 marks. Before the nuke combo that I said you will use your ultimate to do a hell allot of damage in 3 seconds or even earlier.

So to put this all together if your facing a tanky enemy 1v1 ultimate, Q attack, E attack if you run out of energy use W when you can for the stealth, what the enemy do will tell you what to do: If the enemy stays its good, you stay and recover your energy and ultimate for another combo, if the enemy starts running ultimate to him and combo with another ultimate cause he's running (if someones running he'll hardly get away from you, if you have Rylai's Crystal Scepter even harder. If you thing you need to, use Ignite. You will do TONS of damage!

OK, since nobody really likes Sword of the Occult I'll make you like it. Getting stacks with Akali is simple, all you need is a partner who can hold your lane at least 3 minutes without you. Just look at your map, at least 1 lane must be pushed back. I mostly go mid. If the mid is pushed to the mid (none pushed the enemy to more than half) tell your ally to let the enemy push more than half. Just go Shadow Dance to the enemy and throw Twilight Shroud in front for the slow. Just nuke him with your ally and if you get an assist, its good, if you get a kill, even better.

What I use:
Ignite for even more damage after the combo

and

Flash to get away from a gank without enemy minions behind you as said in the "Escaping Gank" chapter.

Viable:

Ghost
Exhaust

Escaping with the help of minions:

You see them coming for you, you see minions behind you and no brushes nearer to you than to them. What are you gonna do? EASY! Use your shroud to confuse them a little, and the ultimate to the enemy minion and run for your life, if they flash you flash too. :P

Escaping without minions or brushes:

Same with the shroud but instead of your ultimate use flash, if the enemy flashes too, I really don't know what to tell you :P. You can flash over a wall if your shroud is there or to a brush, or wait for you team and flash to them...

Escaping with the help of the brush:

Use your shroud so that the edge of the shroud will be on the edge of the brush. If your enemy doesn't wait and goes in one direction, go to the other way and flash or ultimate if you can.

Your not really made to stand in fight in team fights, if the focus you its bye-bye. I put my shroud somewhere near the fight, but not in the middle of everything and when I see someone has lost half of his health I ultimate to him, use the combo and back to the shroud.

For dominion go bottom, farm up and your job is simple: go around, Q-R-AA-E-Q-R-AA everyone you see, if you get chased juke with Twillight Shroud. Simple and affective.

This is my second build and its more detailed than my Twitch build, expect that my 3rd build will be even more detailed.

EDIT: 4th August, 2011: Added what to do if your going bad with the Sword of the Occult.
EDIT: 5th August, 2011: Removed the pictures for the smaller ones.
EDIT: 6th August, 2011: Added how to get stacks easily with Sword of the Occult.
EDIT: 16th August, 2011: Removed the old "What to do if your doing bad with the Sword of the Occult " and added a new build without it.
EDIT: 22th August, 2011: Some mistakes in writing are corrected.
EDIT: 11th July, 2012: Added some more information, new masteries set and a dominion build.
EDIT: 12th July, 2012: Renamed the guide.