Akali/Strategy

Skill usage

 * Because  is manaless with great sustain from, spamming her abilities can be useful to push the lane as well as heal.
 * Beyond rank 1, the debuff lasts longer than the cooldown, allowing  to cast  followed by, then finishing with another  for extremely high bursts of damage.
 * More specifically, --> wait for the cooldown -->  --> autoattack -->  --> autoattack.
 * If you are under level six, you can surprise enemies low on health by substituting for  to net a kill.
 * Due to the low cooldowns of damaging abilities, the constant usage of  followed up with auto attacks can prevent her from running out of energy.
 * This also allows her to heal more due to her innate spell vamp.
 * The stealth and slow of  can be used offensively to provide cover and allow her to chain skill combos on the enemy more quickly, but can also be used defensively to prevent drawing enemy focus during team fights and to provide aid in retreating after team fights or running from ganks.
 * remains in stealth for a split second after leaving her ; you can take advantage of this to close a short distance between her shroud and a brush or to go around a corner.
 * is great for running from enemies in the jungle, especially near brush, as you can overlap them to break vision with both the brush and  to juke enemies. The ability can also be used to check brushes for enemies as the stealth prevents you from being seen by enemy champions in the same brush.
 * Dropping during a team fight can be great to avoid focus, slow the enemy team, or get closer to a target. Be wary if the enemy team is buying s.
 * Using  followed by  or   can effectively confuse enemies and allow for an easy escape. You can drop a  over a wall and use the vision provided to  to a monster over the wall or simply . to nearby minions can be useful to quickly disengage.
 * The armor and magic resistance bonus from  may not be significant but can be enough to save you from abilities like, so keep this is mind as well.
 * is great for farming gold by last hitting minions and pushing lanes as it deals AoE damage.
 * can be used to proc her if an enemy is just out of range for an autoattack or when you are blinded.
 * Be careful of the high energy cost at low ranks to avoid being caught without enough energy for.
 * strength greatly increases once she gains access to . Before level six, you will oftentimes not be able to get close enough to enemies to proc her main damaging ability,.
 * Once you hit your first 3 stacks of, look around the map for an easy gank. is an excellent roamer due to her burst damage and chasing power.
 * If an enemy is out of range, you can use on an enemy minion to close the distance, allowing you to catch up with  or another.

Build usage

 * Starting off with a or  is useful for activating her passive, . The alternative is activating one or both parts of her passive with runes and/or masteries.
 * is an essential item for  and should probably be purchased as a second or third item. The additional attack damage and ability power is useful for  as well as built-in life steal and spell vamp.
 * Getting an early is beneficial for early game sustain, along with.
 * can deal a massive amount of burst damage with combined with her passive by auto-attacking an enemy marked with.
 * Since is an assassin capable of dealing heavy burst damage to a single target, she is heavily countered by the target's magic resist. Therefore, purchasing a  and/or an  will ensure she can take out targets and keep her damage relevant throughout the game. Either item probably should be purchased after boots and.
 * is a great item to get because the slow is applied with her  and, allowing her to stick to targets better and reducing the chance that they get away. The additional health also helps keep her alive longer during teamfights or small skirmishes.
 * may be an excellent choice especially when paired with or . The percent health damage is doubled for any target that is slowed. With her low cooldowns,  can maintain the debuff on an enemy constantly.
 * Because the base damage and ability power ratios of abilities are fairly poor,  is highly beneficial, granting her more ability power and further complimenting her damage with.
 * Purchasing early can make you very powerful late game if you are able to earn a decent number of kills without dying. Although this is extremely beneficial, it is situational, relying on your early game performance and continued success.

Runes and Masteries
Runes and masteries can be utilized in order to immediately activate her innate. Combined with mastery and,  may, with base 15 ability power and a , get both Disciplines up at level 1. This can be helpful if you want to start with and  instead of choosing a passive to start with.
 * It is advised to take 3 ability power quintessences and 7 attack damage marks for 14.95 ability power and 6.65 attack damage. The other attack damage and ability power can be found in masteries in the offense tree.
 * Without the necessary runes and masteries to activate your passive (because needs her own rune page to effectively utilize her full potential),  is a good choice for a starting item for the added health and AD.

Countering

 * is most effective when making quick kills. The longer she has to stick around in a fight the more susceptible she is of taking a heavy amount of damage.
 * She isn't as effective against durable opponents because of her low base health and that she is a champion that has to burst a target down quickly.
 * When uses, she is very vulnerable because she will use  to hide and wait for her abilities to come off cooldown. Having a  or  will make her vulnerable and easier to take down.
 * can damage  with, despite being invisible due to her . This can be an effective way to damage her in her , potentially forcing her to run from her cover.
 * After burst, she has to wait for her cooldowns in order to deal her burst damage again, which takes a while, even with cooldown runes and masteries. If fighting against her, use this time to take her down.
 * When you are chasing her, make sure you are aware of the amount of HP you have, due to the fact that she can nuke quite easily and score another kill on you.
 * Against an, play more offensively until she reaches level 6; try to deny her early game, as she usually has the advantage once she gets her.
 * has very few offensive items early game. Zone her out so she can not farm, which will further delay her from getting her . Once she does hit 6 try to bait her into using her ability on you if you can take it, as she is less effective the less charges she has.
 * will stealth her only if she remains in the AoE, Meaning that she will be out of stealth when she is out of the AoE or attacking. Try to move out of the AoE as fast as possible to prevent her from bursting you while in stealth, or pick up an or a  if she seems to be over using it.
 * Take great care when chasing, as her and her  will make her a very effective juker and escape artist. Stun or silence her if she is being over-aggressive.
 * Champions with AoE abilities or reveals (such as ) can be an extremely effective counter.

Champion Spotlight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8UjQ_hYfh4