Hello, and welcome to my guide on Akali. Most of you do not know me, as I'm new to these forums, and this is my first guide. I have played Akali for a while now and I think with Season 3 opening, now is the best time ever to release a guide on her. She hasn't changed too much, however there are several changes to her, including masteries and item builds. I hope you all enjoy the guide and will give me feedback on what you would like to see in the future.

For masteries, several things have changed, and I would like to cover them briefly. I believe Akali has the potential for a lot more damage now that Season 3 is upon us. I prefer to go 29 - 0 - 1, which is very unusual, yes, but it fits her well. The small amount of hp and 2 Magic Resist and Armor she would get from the Defense tree isn't enough to counter the extra damage added by going 29 into Offense. Having the spell vamp and lifesteal with the added damage will benefit you more than the small health and defense boost. The Utility tree is buffed a lot more, however, to benefit from the 3% lifesteal and spellvamp from it, which is the best for Akali from the tree, you will need 11 points into Utility, making Akali's damage drop off severely.

Because of the changed items in season 3, I like to go with flat AP yellows, blues, and quints, and magic pen reds combined with enough AD reds to activate her passive and give you a nice boost. The flat AP gives you bonus damage for the early game, as well as the magic pen to make your Q spam even more deadly and provide more sustain. You can however, change some of the flat AP for health runes if you feel you are too squishy, just keep in mind you need at LEAST 20 AP to activate her passive at level 1.

Your skill order is very crucial if you want to sustain your damage. If you don't keep your order going, you will find yourself energy starved.

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You want to open up with a harass. This will mark the enemy. Wait for it's cooldown to reset so you can continue properly with your burst. Once cooldown has reset, close to gap onto them with and auto attack them to proc the extra damage off your . Now go ahead and mark them again with , auto attack once, then use . Now is when you need to decide what to do. If they are trying to escape, toss a and close the gap with . If they turn to damage you, drop your until your cooldowns reset, then repeat from the beginning of your combo.

To harass in lane without taking any damage, drop your , then toss out . If they are close enough, use but be sure to be able to get back into your quick enough to not take any damage.

As Season 3 is here, new items have came into the game, making her capable of even more damage. The main item change to her is the new item .

You want to start out with + .

As soon as you can, you'll want to buy for sustain. Now you have a couple choices. If they're stacking Magic Resist early, you can build , as it will build into a late game item for you anyways. Otherwise, you will want to build into as soon as you can. This will give you health as well as the slow, which will active the passive of your late game . Once you finish your Rylais, you will need to make another decision. If you are getting fed, and they aren't stacking MR too much, go into your , as it gives you extra damage, movement speed, magic resist, and just goes amazingly with your passive. If they are stacking Magic Resist, finish up your . This will give you a MAJOR damage increase, as well as a bit more magic penetration. The passive will also do double damage from your Rylais. This now eliminates the need for your deathcap, which leaves your last slot open for a . If you are taking too much damage in lane, or need more sustain, finish your before your . If you manage to finish all of these off, you want to enchant your boots with or . If you are being focused too hard in team fights, of course build your before your or .

As far as early game goes, play safe, harass with your . Take at level 2 when you can. This will give you an escape from early ganks and let you harass without taking as much damage. You want to get your as early as possible, so farm away!

At mid game, you should have decent farm, and at least and . You should be able to roam easily for ganks and kills. If your lane is being pushed too hard, get your finished before your for the sustain, and extra damage. You should be able to win trades easily in lane, and be ready to start team fighting or pushing objectives hard.

You should have most of your items finished by late game. You should be team fighting and focusing objectives. In team fights, if you have your already, don't be afraid to jump into the middle of a fight or initiate. You can jump right into the middle of a fight, burst someone, then drop your while your team blows them up. If you do get focused, you have your to fall back on.

You don't have too many champion counters. Anyone with a or obviously will negate your . If you notice the enemy buying a pink ward to place in lane, wait util he drops his, then drop one of your on and destroy his so that you keep the upper hand.

Your main lane counters are:



Corki can harass from a distance, as well as see you through your .
Darius can pull you out of your , as well as damage you while you're in it. Katarina can start ulting you while you're in your and it will continue to damage you.
Lee sin has two abilities that will give him vision of you while in . Rengar simply out bursts and out sustains you early to mid game and can zone you hard enough to starve you of farm.


Other tough lanes will include:


Garen has decent sustain, and silence and can spin to damage you while in .
Malzahar can drop his void pool in the middle of your , as well as surpress you and kill you before you can burst him down.
Ryze can get tanky enough that he can out last your burst through and trade with you very well.
Warwick can get tanky to sustain your burst and then simply out sustain you in lane while constantly harassing you. His suppression is very deadly against Akali.

I hope you all have enjoyed my guide, and please leave me feedback on what I need to add or improve upon. I build a very high damage Akali, and played right can do severe damage to even the tankiest of enemies. She's extremely mobile, has high damage, and can burn down carries very easily. However, she's also very squishy if she gets focused. I hope you all benefit in at least some way from reading this and I wish you all good luck while playing Akali.