Akali's Kit?
So Akali came out, and my speculation is this:
With the inconsistent nature of her passive, it's going to end up being some weird ass ratio like 10-180 (+20% AD)(+35% AP) or something. Let me explain. If Akali's passive has very little damage, she'll become someone who can only deal glancing damage to an enemy early game, and it will feel bad to play with. Otherwise, if Akali's passive has big damage, late game she'll feel greatly unfun to play against.
So much constant damage woven into her kit means that, yes, Akali just became a pretty hard champion to master. I can already tell Akali's going to get "compensational buffs", and will become broken for 2 patches before the balance team decides to nerf the items that Akali builds, rather than Akali herself.
Looking at her kit, this means that she shouldn't be able to deal a lot of damage with just one or two hits from her passive, because otherwise, the constant weaving in and out means that she can easily deal lots of damage. Using this stance of logic means that a low damage passive is good.
However, with a low damage passive, the rest of her abilities gain significantly more damage. I don't want her E to be a souped up version of Caitlyn's E, and her Q and Dashes seem like they'll be doing a ton of damage, and the balance team won't let a new champion be obscured by a shroud... get it? Anyway, my ideal for Akali is a chip damager that dashes in and out, finally going in for a kill on weakened opponents. With the ideal of assassins now though, that won't happen.
I guess I'd prefer an Akali that has to rely on weaving in and out rather than an Akali that can obliterate by sticking onto a single target.
This is why I would like for Akali's passive to be the main source of damage.
Akali as a concept is healthier than another Auto-attacking assassin out there, Fizz. Akali's usage of diving in and out at a glance seems as if she gets a lot more mobility. However, only scalings will tell if Akali will be a step in the right direction, or an arrowhead in the tides of damage+mobility creep.
I would have loved it if they made her E a forced dash, forcing Akali players to either get a sub-optimal direction dash, enabling opponents to counterplay both her engage AND her escape, but it's likely too late for that, and players will complain with it being "wonky".
I used to doubt that mobility creep was a thing, but looking at it now, it definitely is. Akali's mobility now is even more potent than it was before, mainly because she can choose which directions she dashes into now. However, she's also not as sticky, so this is a case of a shift in mobility, rather than creep in mobility, which I am fine with.
I like the W, and its design in general is nice. I also like how it spreads out over time, enabling more outplay/counterplay as/against Akali.
I also like how her passive only activates outside of a given range, meaning she not only CAN back off, but she HAS to back off.
ALL of this is of course, given that the balance team doesn't decide to give her absurd damage.