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Wondering about Akali

Gurv··3 votes·402 views

So, I'm rather new to LoL and so I don't know too much about the game (Level 26), this is also my first time posting on the forums sorry if this is the wrong section but I didn't know where to go to post in general discussion. Anyway to be blunt, Akali seems really OP to me. I don't really know how to write it out in a paragraph so I'll just write points about what I think.

  • As long as she survives until 6 without being too far behind she seems to have too much kill potential, from what I've seen from spectating my friends games despite being shutdown most of the time before 6 she rapes anyone with half health or under once she has hit 6. (friends are gold and plat if anyone wants to know)

  • She's a very easy champion as she requires no skill shots, it doesn't seem fitting for the potential she has.

  • I'm not sure what it is but the fact that she can heal back so much of the damage being done to her seems ridiculous to me.

  • I've read and agree with this point: If a direct counter to her isn't picked before she is then it'll be very hard to lane against her, the jungler could camp your lane but I think that's only applicable if the rest of your team is winning their lanes.

  • This point coincides with the ones above. Although I cannot play ranked yet I have watched gold ranked matches and I do indeed agree with what I've read about Akali being "free elo". From what I have seen she does indeed usually have a very good score. However I've also read that this is usually only happens in lower elo, I am not sure how to classify gold rank.

  • The biggest counter argument I've seen against Akali while browsing threads about her is to buy pink wards. This definitely seems like a good way to counter her however having to repetitively buy one before you engage her seems to be quite gold consuming not to mention there is still the potential to lose a fight thus wasting the gold.

  • Her ban rate is very high compared to most other champions, this may not prove much but there has to be a reason this is so, she also has a very high win rate. I do believe that the statistics come from high elo, however I am not 100%.

  • I actually haven't played ranked yet so this is just speculation, if you have to counter Akali, doesn't that mean you have to create a team that's based around that as well? I don't really know how to explain this one and it can probably be applied universally throughout champions so if it sounds stupid, sorry. don't regard it as a point.

  • This is in no way a valid point but I just feel like mentioning that when I was watching Geranimo stream he played Akali whilst (I believe) never having really played her before, he implied she was OP (said something about button mashing and winning) and he did indeed win lane. Idk once again just mentioning it

Anyway, this is just what I think if there's something I'm missing or don't understand feel free to correct me as well as voice what you think about what I have to say, once again sorry if this is the wrong section, if it's possible to move it I'll try, just ask.

14 Comments

Champion Skin2 votes

The reason Akali heals so much is because she often buys Hextech Gunblade item 3146 which gives 20% spell vamp (damage dealt by your abilities heal you buy a % of the damage dealt) and it also gives 45 AD and akali's passive gives her spell vamp from AD

I would recommend **upgraded **red trinket item 3364 when you get to level 9 as it can be used to reveal Akali/traps/wards and well it doesn't have that long of a cooldown and it is reusable

Akali's main problem is that she needs to go all in to deal damage this means she is high risk and high reward, you ended up behind, all you can do is jump in melee range to deal damage but you don't deal enough damage so if you jump on people they will still have quite a bit of health and they will likely be able to fight back and kill you

As Akali has to go in melee range to deal most of her damage if she get's CC'ed then she will likely be in range of all 5 enemy champions and will likely be killed if they are smart enough to target her and at least 1 person have upgraded red trinket or pink ward

(Oh and Akali will likely have to wait for about 20-30 sec for a second charge or her ult before she will go all in which should give you plenty of time to notice that she is level 6 and for you to be careful)

And just farming under tower works pretty well to as Akali can't really towerdive (unless you are at like under 20% hp or something like that)

Gurv1 votes

Ah, I had forgotten about the red trinket, my bad. Everything you have said is indeed true. However, if the enemy team has to waste all their cc trying to kill Akali doesn't that leave them with nothing to stop the other threats on their team such as the ADC? Also a good Akali wouldn't get caught out I'd imagine, and her team could potentially save her if she does get CC'd.

Personally the biggest thing that bugs me is that she does not require much mechanical skill to achieve the potential she has. None of her skills are skillshots and while people could argue that she does require some positional strategy I feel that could be said for many champions. People could also say she has no escapes, I do agree that she does not have a reliable escape but she does indeed have situational escapes.

I do agree that if she gets shutdown very hard before 6 she becomes useless, but I'm also sure that a good Akali player will be able to make it to 6 without being shutdown too hard thus keeping the potential to snowball out of control.

Overall an Akali is obviously very beatable but I think the problem is:

  • To beat her, she must be focused to a great extent early in the game, it may require quite a bit of the junglers time

  • I feel stopping her is very resource intensive

It seems to me that many people cannot deal with her, from all the threads about her as well as this one I have made. I think that majority of people are of lower elo, and in this low elo she is basically free to do as she pleases since odds are people do not know how to stop her, and the ones that do know how to stop her may lack the champion pools to follow up on their knowledge.

I am fine with champions such as Zed, Talon, and Katarina because from what I have seen they do indeed require quite a bit of skill to play. Also, with the Katarina nerfs I do not feel it is fair that Akali does not receive one as well. Also to mention, I have not played any of the champions I just mentioned this is based off speculation.

Anyway, thank you for replying, future replies are welcome as I'd like to discuss this further.

Champion Skin1 votes

The biggest problem with Akali is that she is almost as strong at low elo/skill levels as she is at higher levels because she requires very little mechanical skills

The problem with this is that it makes her very strong in low elo where the teamwork and counter building (Red trinket) and such is less common which are things that are necessary to beat Akali
And well you probably don't need to CC Akali for more then 1-3 seconds if everyone focus her depending on the burst of your team and how much of it you use on her

The problem with nerfing Akali is that would make her too weak against people who knows how to deal with her, while on the other hand she will likely still be strong against people who don't know to deal with her

And I mostly find Fizz to be even worse since if Fizz knows what he is doing it is so darn hard to hit him with anything because of the invulnerability and the fact that it so short cooldown that he can burst on person then he can Zhonya and when it ends his cooldowns are pretty much up again and then he can burst another person or jump out...

Talon is pretty much in the same boat as Akali of more or less only having lots of damage and all in Talon isn't as bad to deal with in lane... however if talon is fed it will probably be much worse then Akali as Talon doesn't only kill one person he burst your entire team as a lot of his damage is AoE while Akali has almost no AoE

And discussion is always nice and interesting (as long as it isn't just lots of name calling and flaming)

Gurv1 votes

Oh, I completely forgot to regard Fizz. I completely agree that Fizz is op and I'm pretty sure he speaks for himself as to why that is. As for Talon, he is a monster when he's fed, but I do not see him get fed nearly as often as I do Akali.

An Akali nerf will, like you say, make her very weak against those who know how to deal with her, but that's how it should be. Since so little people know how to deal with her I think it would make an impact for the better if she does get nerfed.

Since it seems that Akali is always strong pick unless she's directly countered, a nerf would let people play the champions they want and have fun without being completely destroyed.

I'd personally rather play against a fed Fizz rather than a fed Akali, atleast with Fizz I can attempt to kite him, whereas with Akali I'm literally dead the moment she lays eyes on me. Don't get me wrong though, BOTH ARE HORRIBLE.

Also, like you said, killing Akali depends on the burst of the team, if it's not quick enough then odds are you will lose your carry in the fight as well, putting your team at a huge disadvantage.

Personally, reassurance for what I think about Akali comes from what I've heard twitch streamers say (It's where I learn most of what I know about the game, I'm aware it's biased but they are in their respective ranks for a reason). Also the ban rates she has and quite a high winning rate compared to other champions.

Champion Skin1 votes

Well it really is fine playing most champions into Akali you just need to know how to play against her and how to deal with her/counter her (red trinkets, grouping up) Like possibly buying an early Negatron cape and well you can hug the tower against akali though if Akali is good she will probably roam so you need to use wards to try and warn your allies if they don't listen well then not much more you could have done (because if she is stronger then you following will be a death sentence and won't accomplish much most likely... this is true of more or less all champions though)

Kiting Fizz is often impossible though as his ult has a huge range and if you are in range not to mention if you try to CC him this often gives him an opportunity to use his E forward to get even closer and he is feed he will most likely be in range to E forward into Q if he is feed enough that will mostly likely be more then enough to blow you up with lich bane and the dot (and possibly his ult)

Well kiting Assasins in general is often impossible as they often have the tools to get to their target and deal incredible amounts of damage to it and then get out again

Gurv1 votes

But if Akali isn't shutdown hard early, even if she's not fed, she becomes really deadly. If you attempt to shut her down and she capitalizes on a mistake that was made and gets even a single kill out of it, she's basically snowballed. Or it really seems like it.

About Fizz, I don't know how his ultimate works but I'm usually able to dodge it, or get out of it. I play a lot of Vayne and kiting against Fizz is okay I guess, usually they're Silver or Gold since I queue with my friends, so they might not be good at Fizz, I'm not sure.

Champion Skin1 votes

Fizz ult is a line skill shot that attaches itself to the first enemy champion hit and it slow you for 50-70% and it will knock you up and deal damage after 1.5 seconds If Fizz misses or the target hit it will lay on the ground and deal the damage/knock up to anyone who walks into it If the wiki is right his ult have 1275 Range so if Fizz is good at hitting it he will catch up to you with the slow + knock up

And Fizz Q has 550 range which is about 100 less range then Vayne Auto attacks I believe so it is possible to kite him if he doesn't have his E 8 sec cooldown (4.8 sec with 40% CDR) and he doesn't have or miss his ult

The thing I hate about Fizz is that you can't really target him, even if you try he can doge lots of CC/damage with his E While Akali you can at least target and focus down (assuming you were smart enough to buy a red trinket or pink ward)

And there are lots of champions who are really deadly if they go even or win Ryze usually gets lots of damage and durability at the same time (though he was nerfed recently and I don't know how much that will hurt him) And Irelia who heals with her ult and W passive while stunning you and pounding you to death with true damage and Sheen proc's (Not to mention CC last such a short time on her because of her passive)

Gurv1 votes

Oh, the winrate I looked at was http://www.elophant.com/league-of-legends/champion/akali/stats

Anyway, yeah as Vayne I would usually tumble to go invisible when he uses his e, and then proceed to kite. With BotRK, I usually can kill him before he gets his E back up, but if he's fed I'll usually die.

With Akali, I don't usually have enough time to do anything against her.

Ryze with his nerfs isn't that bad anymore, although he is still very annoying.

I can't say anything about Irelia as I haven't played against her before. But I do hear quite a few people saying they want Irelia nerfed but I have no say in that.

I still think Akali is too strong and requires some sort of a nerf :/

Champion Skin2 votes

Well I don't think those stats are very relevant because it says " Stats based on all challenger games"* After all there aren't all that many players/games in challenger and well Challenger players make up like less then 1% of the player base... actually it is probably less then 1% given how few is in Challenger

Gurv1 votes

Yeah, but what I was trying to say with that was, if it's as easy as I've read it is to shutdown or counter Akali, she would not have such a high pick and ban rate in challenger.

Champion Skin2 votes

Well obviously it won't be easy to shut down a challenger that knows what he is doing And well it seems like she isn't that hard to shut down for everyone else as she has about 50/50 (+/- 3%) win rate over all If she was op and crushed games why wouldn't she win more then 50% of games?

Gurv1 votes

From the site you linked I checked Ryze and Fizz's win rates as their peaks aren't even as high as Akali's as well as their averages.

Ryze's win rates aren't even as high as Akali's before the nerf.

Also, that means a good Akali player can't be shutdown 60% of the time in challenger, which is much more meaningful than a silver or bronze game I'd imagine.

Champion Skin1 votes

Oh and there is this http://www.lolking.net/champions/akali&region=all&map=sr&queue=1x1&league=ranked#statistics

It seems like Akali is around 50% win rate all around so she probably isn't that op/strong (or at least not strong enough to carry by herself or so it seems from her win rate) And surprisingly it seems like she is 48-50% win rate around Bronze to gold and it seems like her win rate is 50-53% in platinum-diamond

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