Akali is not an Assassin

Gunpoint··8 votes·1,113 views

Assassins are supposed to be high risk, high reward, with high mobility and are squishy. Akali can build Hextech Gunblade, and be set to 1v3 at level. It really is dumb. Having your entire team to 1v5 akali, is not a counter. You keep nerfing her shroud and then buffing it in other areas, when it isn't even the shroud thats the problem. Her Ult, should be like Ahri's ultimate, a regular cooldown with three charges. After she uses the three charges, it's done. One shadow dance charge is all that is needed for her to kill any priority target. Right now, Akali just goes around and kills whatever the hell she sees because she can. You don't see Talon 1v2 Xin Zhao and Jax, you see him avoiding them and fighting the enemy adc. You can say that once she dives into your team, you can easily kill her, except for the fact that she has so much lifesteal and spellvamp that she almost never dies, and if she did, its because your entire team focused her and got melted by the other 4 members of the enemy team. It can also be argued that if she isn't fed, she's not a real threat, but that isn't true because she can secure kills in teamfights and then snowball off of that, and I've honestly never seen an Akali lose in lane anyway. There are other assassins like Katarina, that have characteristics similar to this, snowballing, 1v5's, and spellvamp/lifesteal. But, Katarina's laning phase is pretty bad, she also is shut down by A SINGLE cc ability. If you hit Katarina with any interrupt, doesn't even have to be hard cc, could just be a Thresh flay, her threat to your team is pretty much done. Akali can take the cc, and then just keep fighting. Finally, even if things go south, all her burst is done, she shrouds, and if you don't have a pink or lee sin, she's just going to sit there the rest of the fight or until she has charges on her ult. Thoughts? I really think she needs her ultimate nerfed or a complete rework.

TL;DR Akali is an overpowered AP bruiser with 3, recharging, resetting, gap closers.

23 Comments

Squeaky Dreemurr6 votes

A better title might be "Akali is a Currently Overpowered Bruiser-Like Assassin." She most certainly is an assassin, but I agree with what you have to say. Between her huge amounts of lifesteal and spell vamp, her shroud, and Zhonya's Hourglass, it becomes extremely difficult to kill her in team fights, BEFORE and AFTER she dives in and sends your ADC and mid laner directly to Hell. Of course, the worst instances occur when she's quite fed, but she is a strong and remarkably safe assassin even when going even or slightly behind. So frustrating.

DarthSpectrum2 votes

Besides Zhonya's, which everyone can get, at least Akali doesn't have any un-targetable skills. Even in her shroud, one can hit her with anything not point and click.

Compare to other assassins, her damage is on par.

The main problem with Akali is the sustain. Assassins with sustain equals heal to full while bursting. It should be nerfed.

NovemberrRose3 votes

akali is fine lol, wtf

Demented Lemur1 votes

wtf alkali is op

Narasimha2 votes

If she was a bruiser she'd have decent waveclear.

Gunpoint2 votes

Bruisers aern't really defined by waveclear.

Narasimha1 votes

I'll put it like this. How many fighters can you name that have bad waveclear? And likewise, how many assassins can you name that have good waveclear? Primary role only, and lets try for atleast 4 in each list.

Gunpoint2 votes

Good Waveclear Assassins... Fizz, Talon, Katarina, Zed, Pantheon, Kha'Zix, LeBlanc

Bad Waveclear Fighters... Wukong, Xin Zhao, Irelia, Poppy, Olaf, Warwick

Narasimha2 votes
  1. Fizz has horrible waveclear. If you're using his E to farm, you're just playing him wrong.
  2. Leblanc has horrible waveclear. If you're using HER W to farm, you're playing her wrong
  3. Panth is a fighter first, and his E is actually VERY bad at waveclearing.
  4. Of the 6 fighters you named, 3 of them are played as assassins (Xin, Irelia, and Poppy). So while not a rule, its definetly a strong trend.
Hayaishi1 votes
  1. Fizz has horrible waveclear. If you're using his E to farm, you're just playing him wrong.
  2. Leblanc has horrible waveclear. If you're using HER W to farm, you're playing her wrong
  3. Panth is a fighter first, and his E is actually VERY bad at waveclearing.
  4. Of the 6 fighters you named, 3 of them are played as assassins (Xin, Irelia, and Poppy). So while not a rule, its definetly a strong trend.

I can't tell if you're being serious or you're stupid?

Xin Zhao, Irelia and poppy are all bruisers.

You asked for Wave clear and he gave you wave clear, the context doesn't matter.

Narasimha3 votes

As always, a bit of both. Plus a healthy dose of madness.

Also, you do know there is no actual definition for bruiser? If anything, its exactly the same as a fighter, a champion between a tank and a carry.

And context is EVERYTHING. We don't exist in a vacuum, so things should not be taken as such.

Sukishoo1 votes

If you think those ones have bad waveclear, you must not know how to use them properly.

But seeing you're a bronze, it's not surprising you think that.

DarthSpectrum2 votes

Akali has many limitation to her kit. I say this without any bias, as I usually pick Yasuo for mid lane, whom Akali absolutely counters. (Windwall doesn't block point and click projectiles at close range, Yasuo has no natural MR, Yasuo's damage is easily countered by sustain, Akali's stealth counters his ult as she can W before the my Q hits, Akali's Q always pop my shield in advance for her burst, Yasuo doesn't have a target-less dash to escape from Akali, etc.)

The perk that differentiate her from a generic Assassin is that she is almost impossible to peel off. At the same time, she can easily disengage with her shroud.

From countless unfavorable match ups with her, I can say that she is probably one of the best single target Assassins. But that is the thing, she is only really effective on one person at a time because of the mark on her Q.

Akali is fairly manageable once you know her pitfalls. Due to the cool down on her Q, she needs to Q you first, wait for her second Q to almost go off CD, then ult in order to have even a chance of bursting you down. Even then, the burst from that is considerably less than what other assassins can do. Simply keep away from her when marked, and deny her farm when not. If she goes all in without a second Q, her damage output is less than the QEW combo of Katarina. Her second weakness is that she can still be struck by skill shots and AOE in her shroud. Start to cast spells when she is stealthed, and she will be forced to exit (normally towards her turret.)

Akali is definitely on the better half of the roster, but I do not consider her to be seriously overpowered. She CANNOT realistically fight more than one target at a time besides juking with her shroud; since a large portion of damage comes from her Q.

Don't engage when she has the health advantage, her specialty is that she cannot be peeled.

Good Luck on dealing with Akali in the future. If you really do not like her, pick a champion such as Cho'Gath.

Gunpoint1 votes

Her Q has a cooldown or 4 seconds, WITHOUT CDR. "waiting for Q, is such an overstatement." She just mashes Q at whichever target she wants to kill next. You can't "keep away from Akali when marked" that's like saying keep away from Talon when he slows you with rake. Even if her damage is a little bit less than other assassins upfront, she deals it through the entire fight without any breaks.

DarthSpectrum1 votes

I meant to stay away when marked during the laning phrase.

Also, to use her full burst, she can't trigger that mark until her second mark has come off cool down. This isn't a big problem at level 18, but you can use it your advantage early on. Otherwise, I agree with your statement about her damage. It has actually been tested that a full combo from Akali is better than Kat's albeit it takes more time. Either way, she can only focus one target at a time, take her out then.

Just to make sure I am not projecting the wrong message, I do not disagree with you about Akali being extremely versatile. Unfortunately, there are other champions in LoL that even surpasses her, and in comparison, she is not that bad.

I am fine with reworking or nerfing these champions, I am sick of champion select as a game of who can pick the most obnoxious character to lane against.

(Of course, I mean Fizz. The previously OP champions such as Jax, Yasuo, Zed, and Kassadin are fine. They have already gotten the nerf hammer, leave them alone!)

Hayaishi2 votes

Akali is just too reliable, she even goes top because nothing up there can bully her.

If she finds herself behind she still has enough damage to kill anything squishy, be it your support or whatever.

She should've been nerfed long ago, idk what Riot is doing.

smokin weed1 votes

riven, garen, cho gath, mord, heimer, uhhhhhhhhhhhhh just off the top of my head are some extremely hard counters to her.

IwfiKe3qjM2 votes

maybe the problem is her spell vamp... maybe it's too OP... at the other lines maybe i didn't see a problem... (although i didn't play her yet... i spectated match that have her played...)

Demented Lemur2 votes

The shear fact that akali has so much sticking potential and sustain is enough of a reoson to nerf her as well as according to riot they don't like champs who are feed or famine as shown by what there doing to fiora and what they did to rengar

NovemberrRose1 votes

lol clearly you cant keep akali away from you, JUST LIKE YOU CANT KEEP TALON AWAY FROM YOU WHEN HE SLOWS YOU BY 99%. NO DIFFERENCE GUYS

Gunpoint2 votes

Except that Akali has 3 dashes, not one, also has invisibility, on a lower cooldown, and can do her burst repeatedly, well talon can't. Talon's also squishy as hell, Akali isn't.

Fed by Snu Snu1 votes

Spellvamp on akali's kit shouldn't exist anymore. It's a bit too much with the tankiness she has at her disposal, like Zhonya's and Abyssal. It just bring the total spellvamp on obscene amounts and gives easier time until your powerspike, making the only time someone can abuse you much less...well...abuseable.

The cooldown of her Q can also be called a bit too low for being not only her main burst source, but also her energy restore mechanic, but I'd put it 2nd on the list of what breaks the camel's back.

iConcy1 votes

Akali is meant to be broken so people who are in fact bad can do well in this game. Akali snowballs excessively easy once she hit six. You can make Akali 0/5 but once she hits six she WILL get fed. Its how she's designed. The people that defend her are obviously people that play her and fail to do well with most other champions.

More from Gameplay

More by Gunpoint