Akali's sustain seems ridiculous?

Pinko Commie Guy·Aug 5, 2018·1 votes·954 views

Thread title says it, more or less.

It seems really difficult to get any damage to stick on Akali. The rest of her kit seems okay-ish (I think her poke cone is a bit much, but whatever), but it is just an absolutely nightmare to lane against when combined with her sustain. If you can't fully commit to an all-in kill, there's almost no point in trading with her even if its in your favor because she'll heal away the damage while you're stuck with whatever she puts on you.

14 Comments

IllabetheAug 5, 20182 votes

Her sustain is utter garbage.

It only activates on Q's thrown for 100 Energy at 90-100% Energy bar. In other words, Once every .... 30 seconds IF she is conserving.
The heal is TINY. Even with 2-3 items, her KIT Heal is like 112. That's Mid game!

Pinko Commie GuyAug 5, 20181 votes

'like 112' sounds like you're guessing.

And no, she didn't have a gunblade. I'm talking levels 1-6 here.

EDIT: Just so we're clear, though: she self heals every time her energy bar maxes out, as a rider on her Q.

Yeah that seems totally fair.

IllabetheAug 5, 20182 votes

Do you even know how fast her Energy recovers?

The base energy regeneration is 10 energy regenerated every second (50 per 5s), effectively requiring 20 seconds to regenerate the entire 200 energy pool.

In other words, just to cast one Q, she has to wait 10 seconds. If she wastes that ES on throwing Q's to heal, she can't sustain Energy for W or E.

The ONLY part of her kit which recovers ES is her passive, which requires her to skill a champion, and then go outside the circle that forms, and then go back in. The most efficient way to do this is to E (and hit E) which refunds the cost of E. (E costs 30 Energy, and Passive refunds 30 Energy).

In other words, she's pretty reliable on only having 1 Q per 10 seconds, and 20 Seconds of skilling nothing to get a chance to heal on Q, of which the heal is friggin small.

If a tiny heal every 20 seconds at MAX is enough to knock you out of a game, you're playing mid wrong, especially since it denies her the ability to skill in the meantime.

I am guessing..... because I don't know exactly when you're complaining about, what level Q, and items she had or runes she had, or more specifically, when I wrote this. At Tier 3 Q The heal is 30% of her premitigation Q damage..... once..... which at level 6 is about 171 damage. So..... she heals for about 51.3 damage. Out of 962 HP.

That's pretty precise numbers.

Pinko Commie GuyAug 5, 20181 votes

Alright, fair enough; that still seems like garbage to me. And I've been seeing Akali top lane with green runes, not mid.

To give an example: I typically play Fiora. I can poke & mitigate damage done by hitting vitals - something that actually take a bit of timing & exposes me to counter-play. Damage largely stick on me because even though Q into vitals has a sustain rider, my opponent can trade back.

What's the counter-play to Akali waiting for energy to build and pressing Q into minions / me? What do you figure the skill ceiling is on that?

This kind of sustain was supposed to be taken out of the game for promoting bad gameplay (...except Garen got to keep his, because lol Garen). :|

Cotten Eyed JoeAug 5, 20181 votes

She has almost no healing until gunblade. If she wastes her energy and cd to heal 100 health, abuse that then.

Horse GrenadesAug 5, 20181 votes

It’s much better than old akali. After her mini rework you couldn’t even poke her out of lane

Cotten Eyed JoeAug 5, 20181 votes

She doesn't have massive sustain. She's really easy to poke. Her Q uses half her energy. Trading is really easy for you if you learn how Akali works.

Pinko Commie GuyAug 5, 20181 votes

{quoted}

She doesn't have massive sustain. She's really easy to poke. Her Q uses half her energy. Trading is really easy for you if you learn how Akali works.

How does it work, then?

Here is what I have seen: I poke her down to maybe 50%~ HP. She disappears into the smoke cloud. By the time the cloud is gone, she's back up to full HP (or nearly there). She didn't have pots.

I don't know how this works.

It could be I'm just misplaying it and inadvertently giving the chance to heal back up, but it isn't at all clear with visual indicators or sound queues or anything.

IllabetheAug 5, 20181 votes

A couple possibilities:

If she already had item 3146 , and she healed by attacking you near minions with a Q. That's 5% of damage done to minions and you. If there's a wave of some 7-8, That's a pretty nice heal.

summoner 7 She could have had that....

If you're talking about Reddbot: You gave him a 13 minute Hextech Gunblade, and he had 21 minute Mejais. Her heal scales, so she both had a Q heal at full energy AND the Gunblade heals.

Cotten Eyed JoeAug 5, 20181 votes

Her shroud doesn't heal her. Her only healing ability is her Q, which only heals her when she's near full energy. If she had heal, that might explain it, or maybe, you didn't see her use pots.

BoulderoxAug 5, 20181 votes

Why does an assassin need sustain exactly?

isn't that idk, the point of an assassin, glass cannons with risk reward gameplay....

Pinko Commie GuyAug 5, 20181 votes

No, silly, not at all.

The point of assassins is to be better at everything than any other champ. Because this makes the game more 'open', somehow.

Cotten Eyed JoeAug 5, 20181 votes

The point of an assassin is to kill the enemy backline. Assassins are easily shut down by tanks.

Cotten Eyed JoeAug 5, 20181 votes

Akali needs sustain cause of how short her abilities are. It's really easy to poke her. So giving her Q some sustain makes sense in making sure she isn't always dumpstered in lane.