Hey there, and welcome to my Akali guide! This is my 2nd build on Mobafire, meant to replace my old Akali build with more detail, and a better item sequence.

My focus with this guide is not just to give you an item sequence and set you off. I'm here to teach you how to play Akali, click by click. After some practice, prepare to be going 25/1/X every game (Because lets face it, You're going to die at least once).

Important:
Violet Text will be relevant to the AP build
Red Text will be relevant to the AD Build

Pros:

Pretty good damage early game (With the right runes)
Too much damage late game
Best chaser in the game (Thats right, Yi.)
Can single-handedley lead a team to victory

Cons:

Pretty Squish'
Owned by CC
Tough early game

- Twin Disciplines-
Not too much to pay attention to here. Just think of it as extra damage.

When you get your Rylai's Crystal Scepter, your extra damage from the Discipline of Might is around 92%, meaning your auto attacks deal almost twice the damage.

- Mark of the Assassin-
Great damage output. Scales with AP. Use this to harass early game.

Your main nuke. With your Lich Bane and Deathcap, auto-attacking a marked target will deal around 800 damage.
Just because you aren't building AP, doesn't mean neglect this skill. It still does quite a bit of damage.

- Twilight Shroud-
Lets face it. Akali is pretty squish, so why don't we fix that up with a great defense mechanism? Use this all the time. Not only is it harass prevention, but it is also gank prevention. Ill get into more detail on using this later in the guide.

- Crescent Slash-
Some great damage and an excellent way to farm minions. Scales with 30% AP and 60% AD.

Your secondary source of damage.
Your main source of damage and a mini-nuke. You can push lanes with it too, as it destroys minions. Just be careful, if you spam this too much you'll find yourself with no energy faster than your enemies can say "That f**king fed Akali is carrying your team so hard".

- Shadow Dance-
As soon as you get this at level 6 (Or some other level if you don't know what your doing...?) you should be ganking lots. Not only does this skill make Akali the best chaser in the game, it also provides quite a bit of damage.

Don't be afraid to spam this skill to get your Lich bane going.

- Exhaust - Great for chasing and defending. Use when someone is running to tower, or if you are out of stacks on your ult.
- Ignite - Some great extra damage, and an anti-Mundo skill. Gets rid of the ones who make it away with <100 health.
- Flash - Great for chasing, escaping, and just about anything. Use it when you ult won't help you.

Ability Power Core:


Start off by getting a Doran's Blade. With the Brute Force mastery and the AP runes, you should have both passives activated at level 1. This is a huge boost, and will make early game much easier.

Next, work on your Boots of Swiftness. These are easily the best boots for Akali, because they assist in her already-amazing chasing abilities.

Then start on your Lich Bane, getting the Sheen first. This is a great item mid game, because it increases your damage boost by almost 2x. I used to get this near the end of my build, but it isn't as effective when you get it close to the end of the game. Trust me, Riot is gonna nerf this item if you get it early with Akali.

After you get your Rabadon's Deathcap, its time for people to start dropping in less than 5 seconds. The purpose of this item is not only to give you AP, but to boost the effectiveness of your Lich bane by 70%.

The Rylai's Crystal Scepter will give you some health and AP and make chasing that much easier.

Attack Damage Core:


Start with a Longsword to activate your first passive, while your AP runes should activate the 2nd. This is a huge boost, and will help your early game a lot. Turn this into a The Brutalizer as soon as possible.

Next, work on your Boots of Swiftness. These are easily the best boots for Akali, because they assist in her already-amazing chasing abilities.

Then grab your Blasting Wand for that little bit of AP to help out Mark of the Assassin and Shadow Dance. Then turn your The Brutalizer into a Youmuu's Ghostblade. Remember to use the active on this. I see so many people grab this item and never activate it once. What a waste, eh?

After that, grab a Phage and turn your Blasting Wand into a Guinsoo's Rageblade and prepare for rape.

If the game lasts long enough, turn your Phage into a Frozen Mallet to help with the chasing.

Situational Items:
Warmog's Armor - If you're dying lots.
Thornmail - Against heavy AD teams.
Force of Nature - Against heavy AP teams.
Banshee's Veil or Quicksilver Sash against teams with lots of CC. Mercury's Treads might also be a viable substitute.

This is what your meant for. This is something that's gonna take some practice and judgment. You need to know when you can get a kill and make it out alive. With someone as squish' as Akali, you need to play smart. One wrong move could cost you your life, and that triple kill.

Harass with Mark of the Assassin. Akali isn't the best harasser, but its better than nothing. Keep in mind that you don't have the best defense early game, and play accordingly.

Remember to spam Twilight Shroud to keep yourself alive.

How to make people die:
-> -> (Auto Attack) -> -> Repeat

Twilight Shroud really is an underestimated skill. It has saved me so many times I can't even count. Learning how to use it to its fullest potential will make playing Akali much easier.

1. The Lane Harassment
At any time, place Twilight Shroud down over the enemy minions to give yourself a clear path to them. Then, you can last hit and maybe hit your enemies with a few Mark of the Assassin's. Be careful that you don't keep auto-attacking while Twilight Shroud is active, as you will remain visible to your enemies, and remain open to harassment and possible ganks.

2. The Juke
If you find yourself in a situation where you need to gtfo with 4 enemies chasing you, keep running. If at any time you figure that you're not gonna make it out alive, drop a Twilight Shroud and wait. The enemies will either run through the shroud, leaving an open path the way you came, or sit around waiting for you to make a move. Here your almost screwed, but there's still an opportunity to make it out alive. Wait till most of them are to one side of the shroud, then escape the other way. Or wait the full 8 Seconds for your team to come with the backup.

Another juking tactic is to run to some brush, then place Twilight Shroud right before it. The person chasing you will run through the shroud and check the brush to see if your in it, leaving an open escape route the way you came.

3. The Minion dash
Lets say your low health in the middle of a lane with no friendly minions anywhere near, but tons of enemy minions and maybe a few champions. As soon as you need too, drop Twilight Shroud and wait for a minion wave to walk by you. Then as soon you can, Shadow Dance to the first minion in the lineup. This will give you some great distance on your escape.

4. The Horror Pit (Suggested by Elitelink)
A good player will know the abilities of all champions. A good player will know that an enemy Twilight Shroud means GTFO. Place this down over the enemy minion wave to stop them from last-hitting your own minions. Also, if someone is hitting your tower, pop down your W and they should be smart enough to run away.

What type of champion do you like to play? Well obviously if you're playing Akali, you like the fast-paced, own-in-face carries. There is two options here:

Roll the AP build. This build is made just for making the enemy team rage quit and surrender because of the fed Akali. This build provides the highest Damage output for Akali. If you want to be the one who keeps your noob team in the game, this is the build for you.

Rock the AD Build. Although you don't deal as much damage as the AP build, you can still rape some face. The benefits of this build are that you can push lanes, as your Crescent Slash will 1 hit Minions. You are also given some extra survivability from the Active on Youmuu's Ghostblade.

TL;DR:
Kill Anything.
Kill Most things, and help your team out.

Which build do I use? The first build I developed for Akali was an AP build that focused a little bit more on CC than damage. This worked fine, however I often found that people get away with little health because I'm not dishing out enough damage. After I found out how great Crescent Slash scales with attack damage, I made an AD build for her. This one worked out great, but it just didn't fit my play style. This one was more of a passive, "clean-up-the-low-people" build. With great farming capabilities, I decided to keep it floating around because it was still useful. Then I looked at all the items and realized how great Lich Bane would be on Akali. I tried it out in a custom, and saw that it worked SUPER for her mid game. But it wasn't enough to be a huge boost for late game. So, I added Rabadon's Deathcap which gave me all the damage I needed. Then I put in the Rylai's Crystal Scepter to make chasing easier and for that extra bit of health. After using this build and going average 21/6/7 out of 7 games, I decided I was set.

TL:DR
I use the AP build.

Thanks for reading my guide for Akali! I hope I have helped you improve your game with this amazing champion. If you have any questions or comments, leave them in the box below! Also, don't forget to give me a +/-!

Just Because:

Changelog
14/2/11 - Changed the guide around and fixed spelling/grammatical errors.
14/2/11 - Edited the Masteries for the AP Build.