Champion Spotlight
Recommended Items
Tips
- Playing As
- Akali excels at killing weaker characters. Let your team initiate and then strike at the people in the back.
- Find the balance between storing , and using before having max charges.
- Playing Against
- Akali can still be hit by area of effect spells while invisible inside .
- Akali greatly benefits from both and . Watch which items she gets and prioritize her accordingly.
- Return to base if your Health is low and Akali has multiple charges of her .
- Akali's allows her to strike through and deal damage to enemies. Her Crescent Slash deals crazy damage when built right. When at the nexus and the team crowds, be watchful of Akali, she can and Crescent Slash. Depending on health and proximity to the Crescent Slash, the entire team can be wiped out.
- Akali's passive is used on her auto attacks. The first attack will give Akali back a percentage of her health. The second strike deals increased damage. If she's low health and has her Twilight Shroud, be careful because she will auto attack to gain health and, if she has it, summoner heal and turn the tables on your engagement.
Tricks
- Ability Usage
- Her bread and butter combo involves proccing twice in quick succession. Akali's mark lasts 6 seconds, and its cooldown at 0% reduction is lower than 6 seconds at all ranks except the first, when it is 6 seconds exactly. This combo comes into effect once you get your ultimate at level 6, and consists of - [wait for cooldown] - - AA - - AA. You can then add any or additional as you want, as well as more if the fight lasts long enough for the cooldown; however this combo will proc (if off cooldown) and her passive damage, meaning big damage to the enemy. This will likely put your target below 150 health if not kill them, which can easily be finished by auto attacking, , using her , the target again, or any combination thereof.
- Akali's here. Look at how is negated. In order to negate the displacements, you must cast her W at about the same time as the displacement; it just has to finish the cast time after the displace begins. Akali will be moved to the center of her shroud (not to where you targeted to blink to). is a very versatile ability. After the rework, there are 4 important things to note: First, do not reveal you in your , nor will anything other than a turret or an ability/effect that specifically says it reveals stealth. You will have a shimmer similar to / (except not red) when taking damage while invisible. [NOTE: There is currently a bug on the stealth where many hard crowd control abilities will actually reveal her and make her targetable] Second, the movement speed from shroud is now on at all times while you're in the shroud. Third, it is no longer placeable. This means that some previous advanced tactics, such as placing the center of the shroud in a wall to make the shroud invisible to enemies, are no longer possible. You can still do the aforementioned tactic using brush, however. Fourth, her shroud now has a small blink on cast. This is useful for gap closing, dodging abilities, and juking. But a very unknown mechanic on it, because it was never listed although it is confirmed intended, is that you can actually use her blink to negate displacements, such as knockups and knockbacks. This is shown
- You can fake blinking over a wall with Akali's by running up to a wall and then targeting somewhere not over the wall. Enemies will likely expect you to have gone over the wall and will use their own abilities or flash to cross the wall, allowing you to get away safely.
- Akali's will allow you to and be invisible, but it will reveal you for a moment after casting it. Keep in mind that this will put your on cooldown, meaning you won't have access to it when you arrive, which is especially important to be aware of if you are joining a teamfight. Make sure to weigh the pros and cons of being able to immediately at the cost of your against the value of having it for the teamfight at the cost of having to back away from danger first.
- Akali's is a point-blank area of effect ability with good damage and a relatively low cooldown. It is especially useful for wave-clearing: cooldown is reduced 60% if it kills a unit, so make sure to utilise this when trying to clear a large wave.
- Mastery Usage
- is very important to being able to burst down targets early, as well as for trading in lane. It can be proc'd fairly easy using a - autoattack combo, as the damage from landing, the damage from the autoattack, and the damage from proccing are all considered separate. This also works using the damage from the second auto attack of her passive.
- Item Usage
- Use as part of your burst combo.
- Use to survive large burst, sustained damage, or to survive long enough for ability cooldowns required to kill a target or escape, especially when you are very likely to die before those cooldowns come up.
- Spellblade on your next auto attack, which means you will proc your Q and hit the damage from at the same time; is guaranteed to add Tons of Damage to your combo. Keep in mind comes with mana, which means some wasted gold efficiency on Akali. can be very useful for boosting your burst as casting your will activate
- is a great pickup if you are against a lot of magic damage. It adds CDR and MR, with some AP.
- allows you to stick to targets easily, as well as giving a large amount of Ability Power and Health. The passive slow activates as single target on both parts of your , your , and the second autoattack of your .
- Countering
- Like most assassins, Akali can be countered through extensive hard crowd control. Examples: , , (passive) or .
- Akali is a champion that snowballs well into the game. She will target the ADC and Support primarily, although anyone squishy is fair game- always ward the river to let you know when she is coming- then hard Crowd Control her. She can easily 1v2 due to the level advantage and pure damage output/sustain that comes with a . When you see her coming, try to hug your tower effectively force her back to her lane, causing her to miss CS.
- Try to gank her early while her is down. Do not go into the - Akali can burst you down from half health to 0 with a - - combo, even in the early game. Using champions like will make this easier with his vision debuff from or .
- Stealth detection abilities like , , or can reveal Akali while she is inside her , making her vulnerable.
- Akali is considered a squishy champion. Fighter Champions, particularly Juggernauts (like , , or ) and Divers like and can counter Akali thanks to their high damage and extensive toughness. Champions with high burst and reliable hard crowd control such as are also excellent counters, as they can kill Akali before she is able to take any action.
- Passive
Akali's passive is used on her auto attacks. The first attack will give Akali back a percentage of her health. The second strike deals increased damage.