In this first guide of my very own, I'll show you how to master the AP carry assassin ninja sexy beast Akali. This guide will include her pros, cons, masteries, runes, items, matchups and more.

About Akali

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Akali is a melee ability power carry who excels at taking down the squishy and deadly champions (I.E. , , , , etc). She's good for getting in quickly, picking up kills, and getting out. She is also extremely good at raising your League Points and win rate

Pros

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Middle and Late Game Snowballer
Kills very very fast
3 jumps to get away with, kill, or KS
Ult refresher
Mobile
Invisibility shroud
Amazing juking ability
Incredible sustain
Pentakill worthy

Cons

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Can be shutdown fairly fast
Usually focused first in team fights
CC owns you hard
Vision wards and revealers (Nidalee, Lee Sin, Caitlyn) will shut you down
Not used that often in the HP stacking meta

Red Marks

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For Akali, I like to go for Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration (9) because it's amazing for top lane and bottom lane on Akali. Whether you're fighting a Shen top or a Cho'Gath mid, you're going to have a much easier time fighting them.

Yellow Seals

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Greater Seal of Scaling Health (9) or Greater Seal of Armor (9) are both really good seals for Akali. Sustain is the key to surviving a team fight - even when you're going for the glass cannon build. Akali already has an insane amount of sustain via her passive (bonus spell vamp) but early-late game health or armor will help Akali greatly throughout early to mid game.

Blue Glyphs

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Flat Greater Glyph of Magic Resist (9) will help Akali's early to mid game play in middle lane. At level 1, you'll have a good 17 magic resist which will definitely reduce the damage of the enemy mid lane's output on you.

Purple Quintessences

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Greater Quintessence of Ability Power (3) will not only boost your output damage but will also increase your on-hit bonus magic damage from Akali's passive. These suckers will boost your damage output to a fairly good amount for early game, leaving you with Boots + 3 Health Potion start instead of buying an Amplifying Tome.

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- I choose Summoner's Wrath because of the 5 AP gain you get while your Ignite is on cooldown. This means that you'll be dishing out a little more damage with your spells. Just remember that it all adds up... that measly 2-3 damage increase or so may be the result between life and death of an enemy who's about to escape from you.

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- I go for Sorcery because it'll give you that slight edge in a fight during early to mid game. You'll be able to get that Mark of the Assassin out faster, meaning that you'll take out people a little bit faster. It can also be a saving factor between life and death for you (I.E. throwing down your Twilight Shroud a few seconds faster after the cooldown is up).

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- This sucker is an average boost on your AP during the beginning of the game, scaling to late game at level 18. With Rabadon's Deathcap, the 18 AP that you originally get from Blast will raise to 23.4 AP. This is a small but decent chunk of AP that will surely down your enemies slightly faster than average.

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- Even after the damage was nerfed from 3% to 2%, Havoc is still a really viable mastery to go for. This will increase your overall damage by a whopping 2%. You're Akali. You want to kill things fast with style and grace. You want to leave the enemy stunned and confused, questioning why they didn't even see their health bar drop.

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- Hell to the yes. Why WOULDN'T you go for this sucker? Adding an extra 8% magic penetration with Void Staff will leave you at 43% magic penetration. This means that you're going to be making the enemy team wish that they hadn't wasted their gold coins on an Abyssal Mask just for you. Oh... bye bye Dr. Mundo and Amumu and whoever else gets in your way.

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- Another 6 AP to help you early game. Stack that with all of your other AP increases and you'll easily be a paper shredder. Mental Force is sort of a no brainer. You want to maximize your damage output as Akali.

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- OP. OP. OP! This bad boy is one of the new mastery points Riot put in to the offensive tree when it was reworked. It's practically a must. Stack the 5% of magic damage with Lich Bane and Mark of the Assassin and you'll be hitting around 1000 DMG + when you're maxed out with gear. Spellsword also works on turrets I believe, so less turret attacking! Woot!

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- lol. Don't even try to make me write something here. Get it. Own everything. Win win. On a serious note, Archmage will stack with Rabadon's Deathcap, Blast , Mental Force , and any other AP increases that you have.

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- Great for securing kills. You'll be doing an extra 5% to enemies under 50% hp. Executioner stacks with all of your other bonuses/damage increases, so you'll be able to down someone a little bit faster.

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- Just what the mastery is called. This mastery will boost Akali's sustain from early game, scaling towards late game with 108 HP. Durability may not seem worth it at first, but you can thank it when you survive Karthus's Requiem.

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- Another 2 armor to slightly help you early game if you're up against someone that autoattacks a lot (I.E. Orianna). You can change Resistance for Hardiness if you seem to be going up against somebody top or mid that dishes out more AD than AP.

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- 5 magic resist to assist you mid against any other AP mid ( Karthus, Katarina, Twisted Fate, etc.). You can change Hardiness for Resistance if you seem to be going up against somebody top or mid that dishes out more AP than AD.

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- 30 HP means a lot during the early game/lane phase. It'll help you out tremendously, such as surviving an enemy's Ignite or any other high harass enemies. Try and get Veteran's Scars , as it can and will determine many early game fights that you may get caught in.

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What's changed?

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8/20/2013 - Updated the original build and added a new one. (Sorry for not updating this. I never got the chance to really get in to the major stuff about Akali. I promise I'll finish this guide up sooner or later! Thank you very much!)

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4/18/2013 - Finished the Masteries section.