The State of Akali, A rework Is Mandatory
Akali....
Introduction
Akali to put things simple is.
The cruddy version of Diana. However things were not always like this, players use to look at both champions as equals and with this debate in my mind.
Do I want a Ap assassin who is sorta tanky but lacks burst, but will survive a team fight, or do i want someone with nod defensive skills excluding her spell vamp but huge burst?
At the moment I would say we have three Ap assassins who have this type of play style, feel free to add to the list if you feel like it.
Ekko Diana Katarina Akali
Four people who can 100 to zero people really quick that do something somewhat similar , but have their own unique tricks that make them different.
Ekko-provides the most CC out of all of them but has the least ammount of burst Diana-Amazeing burst, mediocore cc, solid defensive play options Katarina-God like burst, no defensive options except for shunpo, lack of mobility excludeing shunpo, easy to run from Akali- Supposed to have god like burst, but no defensive or cc options at all
Now let us move onto Akali, Akali use to be the queen of finding a squishy bursting him down, then to regen off of spellvamp, to then find a new target, kill that target, and I think you see where im going here. Now the only time she ever does it is when she gets hella fed, and tbh any champion is scary when hella fed.
Akali suffered MAJOR nerfs, one of the most devastating nerfs was the fact her E Crescent Slash no long procs her q mark of the assassin for bonus damage. I get why riot did this, but fact is, since they did this, akali has seen almost no play, and her burst potential was greatly lowered.
THE COMPETITION AKALI FACES AMONG HER COLLEGES OF NINJAS
Why has she seen no play? Well assassin mains can answer this, why the hell would you pick Akali over any assassin at the moment? Let's make a list of the ones I have not mentioned.
Zed-Can be a great lane bully with his clone shadow slash combo, a amazing roamer who can jump onto a target with ease with his ult, great split pusher for he has remarkable wave clear
Ahri-can edit her build to a multiple type of play styles, offers a stun type attack with her charm, amazing for creating picks, a remarkable roamer with amazing chase with her charges. Safer charges for it works as a skill shot and not as a auto lock which allows you the freedom of where you want to be. Solid lane bully with Q and fox fire
LeBlanc- Can lane bully with her Q W combo, reliable poke, offers soft to major cc with her chains with the fact she can cast two in a single team fight to snare multiple targets. Once fed is a huge burst type character. Can get out of bad situations with ease
Fizz-Stupidly mobile, can counter many major ults through playful trickster (built in toolkit zhonyas), if fed as a ap assassin can 100 to zero with ease with a safe way to get in and out, offers soft cc through his ult, also a solid split pusher with his good wave clear and one v one ability.
Kassadin-With his ult and built in slow is stupidly hard to get away from, once fed can create easy picks to get in and out
Yasuo-Possibly the most unique assassin out of all of them through the fact his toolkit offers major cc through his Tornado and ult, very mobility, remarkable split pusher, rewards you highly if you build a comp around him.
So with these amazing picks...I just see zero reason in why you would chose akali over any of them....
**What is she suppose to be? What made her unique? **
So with that made clear that Akali is clearly the worse assassin out of all of them right now, the real question becomes, what was Akali suppose to be, what were her pros, what were her cons?
Akali as stated earlier, from what I have seen in both pro play and casual play was suppose to be a bad ass kunochi who could jump onto a target, burst them down in a few seconds, heal off her spell vamp to then select a new target and jump onto them. She was a champion that was suppose to make the enemy team panic in team fights who was suppose to find someone, isolate them in a one v one situation while your team dukes it out four v four, akali is then suppose to kill the person she isolated, to then jump onto the next target. She was never suppose to 100 to 0 someone from what I saw, she was suppose to be a Isolator who caused great panic and disruption in team fights.
For when Akali jumps on your carry you are given two options, protect your carry, or let them fend for themselves, however with how Akali plays, your carry more then likely ran very far away from you, as she isolates them in a area very far away from the actual team fight. Basically Akalis game in her prime was all about creating chaos and havoc, and in her prime she did this better then any assassin. However since the nerfs to her damage output she is no longer capable of doing that.
Also..she was nerfed multiple times in recent patches in ways no one noticed
THE UNINTENTIONAL AKALI NERFS
1-global nerf to all AP items 2-The increase in Price to Zhonyas 3-Buffs toward tanks 4-Buffs toward anyone who is AD
1-so she allready experienced nerfs toward her damage in her own toolkit but now the items she needs to help her burst people down also got nerfed, this means even less damage output 2-Her only real defensive option, with it being so costly now, it takes her so long to hit that power spike 3- She was never meant to kill tanks, but now they are even harder to kill 4-The very people she is suppose to assassinate/Isolate can now almost always out trade her in just seconds, if she jumps onto a lucian he is just gonna laugh and shoot her brains out.
THE FLAWS IN HER TOOLKIT ITSELF
1-No defensive play 2-No CC at all besides her stelath ability with a very soft slow 3-obscenely large energy costs to the point you cant even get off your second, third charges sometimes because you have no energy to even do it 4-Unreliable burst because it is so item dependent...for items that were nerfed... 5-Gets easily hard core lane bullied pre 6 by good players to the point she can barely even farm 6-no wave clear in the slightest, so once shes bullied, safe turret farming isn't even a option
TLDR, The Conclusion
Akali is a champion who has suffered heavy nerfs for what use to be justifiable reasons, but as time went further and further she simply became the worse mid lane/top lane assassin pick in the game to the point the only people who play her are the legitmate akali fans themselves
A rework is a must and what I hope that rework does is add in abilities that make her into someone who can find a target, isolate them, who can then turn that into huge team fight chaos.
