How to Play Akali in League of Legends

Want to learn how to play Akali in League of Legends?

Despite being nerfed multiple times by Riot, Akali remains to be one of the most picked champions. In fact, in the current LCK Spring 2022 tournament, Akali is considered to be one of the most played champions on par with Lee Sin, one of the most used junglers by Korean players.

In the said tournament, Akali ranks first in the group of champions with the highest pick rate and ban rate.

Now, there are a handful of reasons for Akali’s frequent appearance in ranked games and tournaments in League of Legends.

For one, players have found a new tank build for the lady ninja, which utilizes Turbo Chemtank as its core mythic item. This new build has a 54% win rate globally, the highest ever recorded for Akali.

If you want to add Akali to your arsenal, we got you covered.

Today, we will tell you everything you need to know about Akali and how you can play her properly in the Rift.

Let’s get started!

Abilities

Akali’s Shuriken Flip and Perfect Execution offer tons of outplaying and domination potential. With her kit, you can easily escape ganks or turn them around if you’re able to play it slow and wait for the perfect timing.

Assassin’s Mark (Passive)

INNATE – Akali marks enemy champions she damages with a ring around them for 4 seconds. This grants her 30 / 40 / 50 / 60% (depends on level) bonus movement speed for 2 seconds while moving away from them.

Subsequent damages against enemy champions with an active ring only refresh the mark’s duration.

If Akali leaves the ring within its duration, she regains the bonus movement speed, but this time while moving towards enemy champions for 2 seconds. She also gains Swinging Kama for 4 seconds, during which she cannot create another ring.

SWINGING KAMA – Akali’s next basic attack range is doubled and deals 35 to 182 (+60% bonus AD) (+55% AP) bonus magic damage.

Five Point Strike (Q)

ACTIVE – Akali releases kunai in a cone area in the target direction, dealing magic damage to enemies hit. Targets at the maximum range of this ability are also slowed by 50% for 0.5 seconds.

Twilight Shroud (W)

ACTIVE – Akali restores 80 energy over 0.4 seconds, gaining bonus movement speed that decays over 2 seconds and detonates a smoke bomb a fixed distance away from the target direction.

This creates a circular shroud that expands into a ring over the next 5 seconds. The shroud does not permeate terrain and will expand toward nearby opponents. While active, Akali’s maximum energy is increased to 80.

Shuriken Flip (E)

ACTIVE – Akali flips backward and sneds a shuriken in the target direction after the cast time, dealing magic damage to the first enemy it hits. The shuriken marks the enemy, or the last smoke section hit for 3 seconds, revealing them for the duration.

While the target is marked, Shuriken Flip can be recast.

RECAST – Akali dashes towards the marked target or smoke section, consuming the mark, and deals magic damage to enemies upon arrival.

Perfect Execution (R)

ACTIVE – Akali dashes 750 units in the direction of the target enemy champion, dealing magic damage to enemies she passes through. If Akali hits an enemy, she flips over them, continuing the dash up to its normal 750 range but at least another 150 units, totaling to 900 units maximum dash distance if the first enemy she hits is at the maximum dash range.

RECAST – Akali dashes 800 units in the targeted direction, dealing magic damage to enemies she passes through. The damage is increased up to 200% depending on the target’s missing health.

Akali Gameplay

During the early game, you should focus on staying healthy and farming until you gain access to your Twilight Shroud (W), Shuriken Flip (E), and Perfect Execution (R). Without these abilities, you can focus on landing your Five Point Strike (Q) on minions waves and enemy champions.

Since Akali relies on energy to use her abilities, you should always keep an eye out of your resource bar before engaging the enemy laner.

You don’t want to jump in, not knowing that you can’t use your abilities because your energy is low.

In the laning phase, you should also keep an eye out of the enemy jungler as he will try to camp your lane until you hit level six. Use your Shuriken Flip randomly in the lane, which allows you to go all-in or disengage fights.

Upon entering mid-game, your map awareness should be on point. You should always try to shove minion waves with your Five Point Strike (Q) and try to roam towards any lane.

If you can find overextended enemy champions, use your Shuriken Flip (E) and Perfect Execution (R) to catch extended opponents and secure kills.

In the late game, teams will be closely grouped together, so it’s unlikely for you to get solo kills unless an enemy champion badly throws. At this stage, you should still look for fast picks but expect to deal with more than just one enemy.

However, keep in mind that it is harder to solo kill champions at this point. Most enemies will have their full build or at least have defensive tools.

Runes

Precision

Resolve

Bonus

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+8 Magic Resist

Item Build

That ends our guide on how to play Akali in League of Legends. If you have questions, please leave a comment below, and we’ll do our best to answer them.

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How to Play Akali in League of Legends