Boards›Gameplay

Akali

Rafiina·12/13/2016, 7:39:29 PM·2 votes·870 views

I rarely visit these forums, but I'll try to remember to check on the off chance that Riot is willing to offer some input.

This is a letter about Akali, a champion beloved by only a few. We all know about the Akali changes made recently. Her R damage was cut in half, and the cooldown doubled. Her Shroud has an awkward cast time and an even more awkward global ability cooldown. Her E cooldown is triple what it was when maxed, and still 20% higher if you reset it -- which is essentially impossible in champion combat. To top it off, her passive was made to be inconsistent and fall off hard. She now hits slower, softer, and less consistently.

So that's what's changed. Why did it happen? I think their reasoning was pretty good. Previously, you could get away with Gunblade, Rylai, Zhonya and then tank and kill almost everything. In experienced hands, Akali's laning wasn't even weak and truly bad matchups were few, yet she instakilled almost every lane opponent at level 6 with only one use of her ult necessary, while scaling harder than Fizz into late game. If all that weren't enough, there was the shroud bug (RIP).

Currently, you can not build enough damage on Akali to be a successful assassin, even considering the new design mindset for assassins. Akali struggles to kill anyone. The most recent patch saw a slight buff, only to simultaneously nerf one of her three core items to be worthless for both damage and the small survivability it offered (Rylai). So overall, she only saw a nerf this patch. She is currently out-burst by essentially every mage in the game, meaning that she often loses duels that go in her favor (enemy missed stun, akali has ignite, no flash for opponent...even all of the above). With the need to build as much damage as possible, you're glass cannon every game. There's no room for variation and it was her worst build path pre-rework. Troll builds like Triforce were better, to give some perspective.

I'm trying. Others are trying. Professor Akali is somewhat vocal about it. I don't want the old Akali back. I was incredibly excited for change and felt the shroud bug, while amusing, was unfair. Give her some escape mechanism or surviability (a single heal that is often blown when she's full health does NOT count when she's liable to die before it comes back up). Give her some utility. Give her some CC. Give her some damage. Help her items. Do something.

Thanks for reading.

3 Comments

Thurst2812/30/2016, 4:49:08 PM1 votes

I'm amiss at this. One that I am the first here and two that you think Akali is not strong enough. I've seen Akali in 3-4 games today. All of which she could 1 shot the ACD and other squishies. Not just early/mid game fed like she was, because as you said her ult one shots most all champs, but also late game. The best way I have ever heard it put is like this. It doesn't matter if you do 1000 damage or 1,000,000 damage, if the enemy dies at 999 damage they die either way. So to ask for CC when she has a huge aoe slow and speed buff, or heal/sustain when every game I see her in she does the most healing even more then supports, or to question her mobility when she has a 2 second dash/flash type ult that has a very low CD recharge is silly. Old Akali was crazy OP with her sustain and ability to go damage or Tank and still wreck. Rework Akali puts her kind of in the realm of balance. Gunblade gives her more then enough heal and scale because she can still go gun blade then tank items and be effective and nearly never die end game or full damage. I have watched her win duels with full/even build Jax (that was me today). That shouldn't happen as an "assassin glass cannon". An assain should lose to the so called fighter/bruiser/dualist... What ever they are called these days. Assassin blow up squishy ADC and other mages/assassins, they should lose to bruisers, and kite Tanks but not be able to all in solo kill them. That's primarily how the game "should" work. Sadly that is not the case due to the hyper explosion that assassin have on everyone. AD assassins have live steal out the ass and AP assassin have a metric fuck ton of mobility plus sustain. Hybrids have both or which ever they choose. Akali is in the healthiest place she has been in a long time and still teeters on the edge of OP. Now a mage or assassin has the chance to out play her where before you saw her and you just shit yourself. Example: today I played against Akali as brand. I think she was jung... regardless. If I landed my stun plus combo I won the fight if she dodged or stealthed me properly she won or at least got away safe. It was a fair and good fight with outplay potential. After full build she still blew me up but if team and I could stun/cc her she was dead. Anyways it was balanced. What you are asking for is OPness. If you get it she will just be perma ban again and honestly there are enough cancer champs as it is. I can barely bring myself to paly this game as it is between the cancer community and the hyper mobility damage explosion life steal sustain fucking cancer champs that I have to deal with. Sorry rage there.