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Riot can you please address Akali properly?

Akali is SO HOT··4 votes·780 views

inb4 downvoted to hell cuz Akali

Alright Riot listen. For the past few Akali changes you have nerfed her in areas that are not problematic and ignore the problematic parts of her kit. Once you finally understand what her problematic part of her kit is 2 or 3 seasons from now you'll nerf it and she won't be a champion anymore because of how useless you have made the other parts of her kit. Let me explain:

Currently there are 3 things people complain about:

  1. 3 Gapclosers op

  2. High Damage

  3. OP Spellvamp

Alright lemme break it down:

  1. Akali is a pick assassin. Her ult allows her to close the gap to pick off squishy enemies to help out her team. This is not problematic because that is what her job is. If you are all alone by yourself and you see an Akali coming at you you will probably die if you are squishy. She is meant to pick squishies off so her ult is not the problematic part of her kit because that is what allows her to do her job. The people who complain about this are the same people that get caught out by Akali's and lose their elo to her.

  2. She is an assassin so she is going to have high damage

  3. This right here is the problematic part of her kit. This is what needs to be changed in her kit. It allows her to survive much longer than she should in teamfights and is frustrating to play against. She also does high damage because she is an assassin which means that she will get a ton of health back from her spellvamp.

Currently with gunblade (the item she rushes) she can get about 34% spellvamp which is very hard to manage when she gets going.

Now I'm going to go over the most recent nerfs to her. As stated by the patch notes:

We're going to be blunt: Akali is a prime example of an assassin with low counterplay, largely due to her reliability and target selection. While Akali's ability to blow up highly mobile targets is valuable, it also means that once she gets even slightly ahead, she's got all the tools to smash her way to a victory. With these changes, Akali will have to be a little more clever with her use of Twilight Shroud to proc Mark of the Assassin, opening up more difficult matchups against melee champions that she previously dominated. Or, as Akali would say, "As balance dictates." -Her E no longer procs Mota -Ult range is reduced by 100

The problem with saying that you are fixing her "reliable damage" is that it will always be reliable as long as it is targeted. Making her E not proc Mota doesn't really fix this and just makes her feel a millions times more clunky to play

Also, please point out to me what melee champions she was dominating? All the top lane bruisers absolutely destroy her. Mid lane she gets dumpstered by Fizz, Diana, Zed, Morde, Panth, Riven, and Talon. What melees was she exactly beating?

It's also really kinda offensive when you use one of her quotes as an add on to her nerfs when you aren't even fixing her correctly.

Now onto the shroud nerfs from 4.18:

Akali's one of those champions who, when she gets ahead, completely circumvents her meaningful weaknesses by having extra resistances from Twilight Shroud. A fed Akali ultimately turns into a bruiser-assassin Akali who hops into a fight, tanks out damage in Twilight Shroud, and then continues to obliterate the squishies. Rather than removing her defensive mechanics completely, we wanted to focus Akali's skills on more ninja-y things, hence the heavier focus on sneaking and agility. This also allows us to reinforce the proper counterplay to Akali (reveal her in stealth and beat her up), give her better themed mechanics, all while reiterating her focus on opportunistic assassinations. Up front: this is meant to be an overall nerf, but we hope Akali players will be more focused on the cool plays they can make with this new mechanic -Shroud no longer gives resists -MS boost instead

The resists are what allowed her to survive in teamfights. Considering she has to be in the middle of your team to do her damage she is probably going to get focused down immediately and the resists helped her deal with that. Please don't use the excuse that she becomes a Bruiser-Assassin because that is just complete bs. Don't try to make the "It's op in 1v1s" because that meant you were standing in her shroud while attempting to fight her because that is just asking for death especially if you were squishy.

Instead you give her a crappy MS boost that does nothing to help her at all. What is a little MS good for in a teamfight if you are squishy as hell and get blown up instantly. Again this shroud change does effectively nothing to solve her problems.

Again and again throughout the Akali nerfs you mention that "When she gets ahead she is unstoppable when in reality this is true for all Assassins and a complete exaggeration. So if that is true why aren't you deleting all of the other assassins like Akali?

What you have effectively done with these changes throughout the seasons are: -Nerfed her Q and ult to the point where she would probably be better afking pre 6 -Nerfed her W to hell -Deleted her E -Made REALLY annoying changes to her ult -Made her feel really clunky and just not fun to play -Ignore her spellvamp problem

Here is my suggestion to fix her instead of dumpstering her everywhere:

-Revert the most recent changes. If you really want to nerf her ult put it to 750 but revert the E change because that is just plain stupid. -Change her passive to be 8% spellvamp base but it will increase 1% per 12 AD up from 6 -Akali benefits 50% (or maybe 75% idk) from spellvamp gained through items (this does not affect her passive) -Revert the shroud changes but decrease the resists she gets

Now once she gets gunblade she should have roughly 21% spellvamp if I have done my math correctly which is something that is way more manageable. In return for her decreased sustain she gets her shroud resists back but at lower values. They could be stronger early but weaker later at maybe 15/20/25/30/35. You can nerf her spellvamp even more if you want but make up for it by increasing the resists on her shroud.

BIG NOTE: Essentially what I am doing is making a proper balance between her shroud resists and spellvamp. Lowering the spellvamp means an increase in her shroud resists. So for example if you nerfed her spellvamp to be at 17% when she gets gunblade you would buff her resists to be at say 15/25/35/45/55. Obviously those don't have to be the exact numbers but that is the general idea

Please Riot. The Akali QQ will continue as long as her reliable damage allows her to spellvamp for million and she will just end up getting nerfed again and again in places that aren't her passive. I want to have a conversation with you. Please understand that what you are doing to Akali is just making her really unfun to play and doesn't fix her at all. Thanks.

14 Comments

Abyssphere3 votes

I'm really agreed with you. They don't seem to know what's causing her problems at all and I'm genuinely scared to play her now, she looks so clunky.

Akali is SO HOT2 votes

{quoted}

I'm really agreed with you. They don't seem to know what's causing her problems at all and I'm genuinely scared to play her now, she looks so clunky.

They've been doing this for 2 seasons now. You think they would've figured out the problem by now.

Leti the Yeti2 votes

lol, they really do need to make akali more ninja we ocne went up againt one and we were gettign rekt so hard it was hysterical we were joking around dude 1:"guys, we need more wards, carry pinks.. we need to see akali coming" dude 2: "there's akali"

  • ally has been slain - dude 1: "that didnt help"
BeatzBoyFTW2 votes

lol, they really do need to make akali more ninja

Shen : Wtf man

ModKnightsKemplar2 votes

I see some of the same contradictions in your post that you are accusing Riot of... Honestly, taking away resistances on shroud seems like a great idea to me, but only if she keeps the spell vamp. You argue the other way around, and I couldn't disagree more.

Spellvamp is great because it allows her to recover from low damage that tanks and others might put on her, but removing resistances means if she gets truly caught, another carry has a chance to blow her up. That sounds SUPER ninja to me... Stay hidden or die.

As far as "reliable damage" goes, I think you simply change their definition on them to try to make them look stupid. Making her proc auto-attack reliant IS less reliable than spell ---> spell ----> dead. Now, you need three actions (spell -----> spell ------> auto --------> dead) to get the same level of damage. If it takes longer, the opponent has a longer time to react, and that is more counter play. It may not be counter play you like, but it is more counter play.

Can you at least tell me why you are downvoting me other than the fact that the thread is about Akali

I see that you hate Riot's direction with her, but people are probably downvoting you because you don't sound like you are voicing an opinion. You sound like you are preaching facts, but that isn't the case. Riot clearly disagrees with your main tenants here, as do I. In matters of opinion, it doesn't really make you look reasonable to use phrases like "alright Riot listen." It makes you sound arrogant. Not saying you are, it may be unintentional, but I felt a need to address your question.

Akali is SO HOT1 votes

{quoted}

I see some of the same contradictions in your post that you are accusing Riot of... Honestly, taking away resistances on shroud seems like a great idea to me, but only if she keeps the spell vamp. You argue the other way around, and I couldn't disagree more.

Spellvamp is great because it allows her to recover from low damage that tanks and others might put on her, but removing resistances means if she gets truly caught, another carry has a chance to blow her up. That sounds SUPER ninja to me... Stay hidden or die.

As far as "reliable damage" goes, I think you simply change their definition on them to try to make them look stupid. Making her proc auto-attack reliant IS less reliable than spell ---> spell ----> dead. Now, you need three actions (spell -----> spell ------> auto --------> dead) to get the same level of damage. If it takes longer, the opponent has a longer time to react, and that is more counter play. It may not be counter play you like, but it is more counter play.

I see that you hate Riot's direction with her, but people are probably downvoting you because you don't sound like you are voicing an opinion. You sound like you are preaching facts, but that isn't the case. Riot clearly disagrees with your main tenants here, as do I. In matters of opinion, it doesn't really make you look reasonable to use phrases like "alright Riot listen." It makes you sound arrogant. Not saying you are, it may be unintentional, but I felt a need to address your question.

The problem with her spellvamp though is that as long as she has it she can: a) Have tons of sustain in lane b) Drain Tank entire teams because of how much she can heal up so quickly

Since her cooldowns are so low she can essentially keep drain tanking your team forever and since she is energy base, unless she is spamming E, she won't run out allowing her to keep going.

If you go the resistance route that means she can no longer drain tank as effectively but you can still soak up some damage that is brought upon you just in a different way. Pros to this are: a) No tons of lane sustain b) Can tank damage to survive in teamfights but not in the form of drain tanking which is unhealthy c) If she wants to 1v3 she can't soak up all your damage and kill all of you ezpz d) She has to be much smarter about using her shroud and where to place it instead of just on top of herself all willy nilly. She needs to place it more carefully to maximize the usefulness of resistances she gets. e) Since she no longer has drain tanking spellvamp this could open up more CDR builds to take advantage of the fact that she gets resists from shrouds which would help her in teamfights f) Since her shroud only lasts for a limited amount of time, she would not be able to tank damage forever whereas she can with her current spellvamp.

As for the reliable damage part as long as its targeted it will always be reliable. I see what you are saying but after playing Akali for a long time there is not much of a difference in using your auto to proc Mota and using your E. The difference is that E feels more fluent when you use it to proc it instead of the auto attack which is why she feels so clunky now. Her damage is still reliable it's just more clunky to output.

I can also edit the op to sound less harsh because that wasn't really my intention.

Edit: I do see your point about making it harder to kill her if she truly gets caught out which can be problematic. However I would honestly rather have that than her being able to turn on you and soak up all of your damage and kill you all.

ModKnightsKemplar2 votes

Here's where I come at the spellvamp argument... I'm a Swain main. So, while you may be correct that Akali's spellvamp is too much, I do like it as a concept, and I would point to my man Swain as an example of this not being completely broken. It's a little different because Swain is not an assassin, but he certainly can drain tank teams if he is fed (I would argue that's kind of the point of Swain). I don't think drain tanks are essentially unhealthy, though. They just require burst if you want to kill them.

I do, though, think it's weird for Akali to be this weird drain tank/assassin hybrid. I almost feel like lowering her damage is the answer, but then she would completely lose her champion identity. It's a bit of a pickle. Perhaps your suggestion is the best way to handle it, by giving her resistances back on shroud and lowering spellvamp. I wouldn't mind that, except that it just feels like an inelegant solution. And not very ninja like.

I do understand the clunkiness argument. As much as I would say that the spellvamp helps her "ninja" vibe, any lack of fluidity in her moveset goes against it. But it seems to me that if they nerfed spellvamp just a little bit, maybe they could return the E proc without needing to increase resistances? That way she doesn't lose the fluidity, but also isn't clunky, and that would maybe help deal with the drain tank issue. Why is that not an option?

Linkttp1 votes

It is an option, and one many people are voicing. I think the real way to solve this would be to lower Akali's synergy with hextech gunblade. Maybe lower spell vamp to 10% and make it give 100ap and 50ad instead? And then undo the nerfs that make her feel so... Un-Ninja.

Linkttp1 votes

While the way it was stated with you is off I agree on the problem. Spellvamp. The recent changes have gutted her. Quite noticeable in the massive winrate drop.

ModKnightsKemplar1 votes

Yeah, thanks for the feedback. As I think I stated above, I would love to learn her, but it seems she's in a bad place to really dig in and invest currently. First of all, she's weak, and second of all, she doesn't feel good to use right now.

I wonder what you think about tweaking her passive, with regards to your idea to change her synergy with spell-vamp (I'm referencing your other post, but they seemed related enough to get away with it)? I think it seems like a good place to nerf, since they could do that without changing the fluidity. Perhaps if they just lowered the numbers a little? Or would that handicap her sustain too much?

Akali is SO HOT1 votes

b before I go to bed

Akali is SO HOT1 votes

Can you at least tell me why you are downvoting me other than the fact that the thread is about Akali

Moe Moe Kyuun1 votes

They should just tweak her passive with the spellvamp. It's so BS when you are fighting her, pink it so she can't hide in shroud, yet she will live while taking someone down because of that spellvamp. I think people underestimate how much she actually heals from that crap.

Akali is SO HOT1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Moe Moe Kyuun,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=KERzbELh,comment-id=0005,timestamp=2015-01-29T18:55:14.015+0000)

They should just tweak her passive with the spellvamp. It's so BS when you are fighting her, pink it so she can't hide in shroud, yet she will live while taking someone down because of that spellvamp. I think people underestimate how much she actually heals from that crap.

I agree

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