Hello. I am a Diamond 3-1 Akali one trick. I peaked Low Masters in season 10 and have been in Diamond elo ever since. I am also a Talon, Ryze, Zed, and LeBlanc player but I mainly play and climbed up to Masters with Akali. Here, I'll teach you what runes and build to go on Akali in which situations. And how to play Akali at all points of the game. I will try my best to teach you micros and macros. If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I'll answer when possible.

Pros:
- High mobility
- Huge carry potential
- Has a lot of teamfight pressure
- High one-shot potential on squishes
- Execution ult
- High safety
- FUN

Cons:
- Bad early
- High mechanic champion
- E+Q COMBO NERF :(

Akali's ability damage against enemy champions creates a ring around them for 4 seconds and grants her 40 / 50 / 60 / 70% (based on level) bonus movement speed for 2 seconds while moving away from them. Subsequent ability damage while a ring is active will only refresh its duration.

If Akali leaves the ring within its duration, she regains the bonus movement speed towards enemy champions for 2 seconds and gains Swinging Kama for 4 seconds.

SWINGING KAMA: Akali's next basic attack is ranged and is doubled, deals 39 − 180 (based on level) (+ 60% bonus AD) (+ 50% AP) bonus magic damage and restores 10 / 15 / 20 (based on level) energy.


Akali throws a flurry of kunais in the target direction, dealing magic damage to enemies hit. Enemies hit at maximum range are also slowed by 50% for 0.5 seconds.

Akali restores 80 energy, gains bonus movement speed that decays over 2 seconds, and detonates a smoke bomb a fixed distance away in the target direction, creating a circular shroud that expands over the next 5 seconds into a ring. The shroud does not permeate terrain. Akali is also invisible while in shroud and can only be revealed by attacking enemies and by true vision.

Akali flips in the opposite direction and fires a shuriken in the target direction that stops upon hitting an enemy, dealing them magic damage. Shuriken Flip marks an enemy or the last Twilight Shroud section hit for 3 seconds. Recasting Shuriken Fliplets Akali run towards the marked target or Twilight Shroud section hit, regardless of the distance, dealing magic damage upon arrival.

Akali dashes 675-825 units toward enemy champions dealing physical damage to any enemy champions in her way. Recasting Perfect Execution, Akali dashes in the target direction dealing magic damage to all enemies in her path. Damage is increased by 0% to 200% (based on target's missing health).

Akali has hundreds of combos you can do. But I will only be showing the important and common ones.

Short-Trade Combos.

1. Q, Passive Auto

2. Q, PAuto, Q, W, PAuto, Q, PAuto

3. E, E2, PAuto, Q, W, PAuto, Q, PAuto

Full Damage Combos

1. R, E (backwards), E2, PAuto, Q, W, PAuto, Q, R2, PAuto

2. R, E+Q (backwards), E2, PAuto, Q, W, PAuto, Q, R2, PAuto

3. R, E+Q (forwards), E2, PAuto, Q, W, PAuto, R2, PAuto, Q, PAuto

For this season, there are only 3 essential Rune Pages you should consider bringing.

Conqueror is statistically the best Akali rune page to run for this current season. This rune page gives you both Sustain and Damage.

Electrocute is my personal favorite rune page for Akali. This rune page is better if the enemy team is more towards the squishier side for more one-shot potential. You get a lot of burst and First Blood potential. This rune page is also good for hard snowballing games.

Fleet Footwork is my least favorite of the three. I rarely ever bring this rune page unless I am up against very hard matchups or against hard poke. I recommend bringing this rune page, if you are not an aggressive player and rather play safe.

Q&A:
So you may ask.. Why is the secondary rune page only Resolve? Going Precision and Domination is still good but Resolve is just super strong with Assassins this season. The sustain you get is very good and you can duel a lot better with Resolve.

Starting Items:
For the starting items, I always buy Doran's Ring and 2 Health Potion first. The only time I will buy a Doran's Shield is when I'm up against a counter matchup or a pokey champion. You can start Dark Seal if you are super confident about your matchup and can stack the item. But I'll still recommend buying Dark Seal as an "extra gold" item instead of starting.

First Back:
On your first back, buy a Hextech Alternator or Haunting Guise depending on which ever build you are going. If you cannot afford the item, then I recommend just buying whatever you can. For example, you can buy an Amplifying Tome, or Aether Wisp. Akali doesn't really need a Control Ward because ganking her is already pretty hard, so rather not waste money. But you can still buy it if you prefer.

Full Builds:
For the full builds, if you bring Conqueror, the Stormsurge build is more
universal. But go with the Riftmaker build if you are against tanky teams.

If you bring Electrocute, go with only the Stormsurge build. This build is meant to oneshot the enemy squishies and do a ton of damage in a short amount of time.

For Fleet Footwork, you can build both the Riftmaker build, or the Stormsurge build. Because in my opinion, there isn't a "best" build path for the Fleet Footwork rune page. Just build whatever feels good for current state of the game.

Situational Items:
Situational items are items you buy according to the situation of the game. For example, if the enemy team is building Magic Resistance, you will build more Magic Pen to counter. Or if the enemy team has a lot of healing you would build Morellonomicon to weaken their healing. When to build these items, depends on the enemy. If they build Magic Resistance early, you will want to build Magic Pen early as well. What's cool about Akali is that she can build AD and AP, since all of her abilities scale with both AD/AP. So if the enemy team is full AP, you may want to buy Banshee's Veil plus a Maw of Malmortius. If they are extremely heavy AD, you'll buy a Death's Dance or a Guardian Angel if they have kill pressure on you. You can also buy both if you absolutely need the Armor. In conclusion, build whatever it takes to make you stay relevant in all points of the game.

Standard Summoner Spells:
You will be bringing Flash and Ignite 90% of the time. There really aren't any needs to explain why..

So What About Teleport?:
Only time I will ever consider bringing Teleport is when I play TOP Lane because the lane is longer. The reason why pros always bring Teleport is because they want to get to lane as fast as possible so they won't miss out on gold, and they are communicating with all 5 players and so they know that nothing will happen before 14 minutes. I am not saying that Teleport is bad. It is still good, but Mid Lane is pretty short so just having a good base timing and wave management is already enough for you to get back to lane on time without losing much. It's just the fact that the Spell is basically useless until 14 minutes, and so joining early skirmishes will be pretty difficult to achieve.

(For all the points of the game, I'll put an estimated time to indicated the Early, Mid, and Late game)

Early Game:
Akali in the early game loses to 90% of matchups. There are only very little matchups that you win which are against Yone and Ekko. So with that in mind, when farming, it is okay to trade some HP for CS. Just remember to stay above 75% HP when against Burst Champions. Play AGGRESSIVE if possible, but don't count on killing anyone before level 6. Remember to always check your map constantly so you can help your Jungler. Get vision as deep as possible in the Jungle so you and your team can see where the enemy Jungler might path to. When Rift Scuttle is up, depending on which Rift Scuttle your Jungler is trying to take, stay on that side of your lane so you can help if the enemy Jungler is trying to contest. At level 6, look to kill the enemy. Find an opportunity to ULT someone. Level 6 Akali is one of the STRONGEST champions in the game. Whenever objectives are up, whether it's Rift Herald or Drake, you should be there 10 seconds early. If you are fed, try to force a fight when the enemy comes to contest the objective since Akali level 6-10 is really strong especially when you are fed.

Mid Game:
Mid game is usually marked when first turret is taken down. A HUGE TIP is to NEVER farm a wave, and wait for the next wave to come at Full HP. ROAM! If you do not like to roam then Akali is NOT your champion. Look to force fights at Dragons and Heralds. Be AGGRESSIVE. Look to fight whenever your ULT is up. In teamfights, you'll want to always do the same thing. Your job is to stay in bush to zone, flank and kill important targets. You place so much pressure in teamfights for just placing your Twilight Shroud in the center of the enemy team. Mid Game Akali is super strong as long as you are not behind. Do not split push too much unless there are no objectives to take.

Late Game:
Late Game starts at the 25-30 minute mark. Late Game isn't too different from Mid Game. Only thing is that the enemies are getting stronger, so you will want to group up more. You will also want to look towards assassinating enemies squishies from bush. In teamfights, you want to go in a few seconds after the fight starts so that the enemy team uses all of their CC before going all in. Then you can look to kill the enemy back line. You can also engage in fights by Ulting in and using your shroud to put pressure for the enemy team and combo from there. That being said, do not go into the enemy backline if they have a lot of CC and can lock you down. If that is the case, help your frontline instead.

Worst thing you can do as an Akali is poorly using your shroud in a teamfight

HAVE FUN ON THE RIFT SUMMONERS!!