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So...Why does Akali Even Exist?

10Tickler··2 votes·1,103 views

She's Unfun: The champion. Either she gets fed early, picks up Hextech Revolver, then is unkillable for the rest of the game, or she just farms under turret, until she hits six, then ruins the game for everyone else playing it. Akali's on your team? Too bad, you didn't need any more kills.

Akali's on their team? Well, might as well surrender right now, because there's nothing that's going to happen anymore.

Am I being a salty little turd? Sure. Am I bronze? Yes. Does that matter? No. Akali is an Unhealthy Champion and Archetype with no actual nerfs that have done anything significant to her in the past two years that I've been playing. No matter what's come along, A select few Champions have been at the top, and the Queen among them all is Akali.

Free Spellvamp and Bonus Damage through her passive, just for Building like she normally would. Damage Burst from Q Procs, A Stealth that can be negated, sure, but you have to sacrifice vision control elsewhere to do so, then AOE damage and to top it all off, a Dash that does HUGE burst damage, as well as resets when she gets a kill, Again, not something hard for her to do. All this, for the low, low, low price of not being mana gated in the SLIGHTEST, instead she gets energy to spend, which regenerates at an appalling rate, and doesn't apply to her Ultimate in the slightest.

Can we just stop and admit to ourselves here that Akali is a terribly designed champion already? Admitting it is the First step to Recovery.

13 Comments

Keevalroy5 votes

I really REALLY don't like doing this, but this comment right here drove me over the edge

Can we just stop and admit to ourselves here that Akali is a terribly designed champion already? Admitting it is the First step to Recovery.

You're bronze 3 with a 40% win rate with hardly any normal games played. Akali isn't designed well, I can agree to that, but to suggest in such a way that there isn't anyone worse designed coming from someone who can be proven to have little game experience, it doesn't carry a lot of weight.

Akali was also created a long time ago when League was just starting out. There wasn't a lot of balance thought out, it was more (here's an idea, lets go with it.) Akali, Fizz, Poppy...all of these problematic champions can be excused for this reason. There are others, those that have been created more recently that are much worse than Akali, and THEY are the ones that should be causing us to scratch our heads,

Unlike most of them, Akali has clear counterplay. Pink wards aren't some magical savior item that will stop all damage and automatically kill her, but you need to know that when she goes in, she's going to hide in her shroud while she waits for her cooldowns to come back up. She's vulnerable now - CC her to death, blow ults if you have to, and don't let her dive squishies.

Her early game is when she is at her weakest, abuse it and you should win lane. If you don't feel safe, call your jungler to gank her or wait for the countergank. Akali HAS to get kills to be relevant. Keep diving her in the early game, make her go on tilt. A tilting assassin will do incredibly stupid things to try and get kills. You can also abuse that as well.

Finally and most importantly, this is a team game. Move as a team, fight as a team, don't get separated from the team! Assassins have their defined roles for a reason, they 'assassinate.' If there's too many people around for them to go in, you're making her wait until her team groups up to be able to engage you. When she DOES go in, have the pink and CC ready, she should die immediately. You have now won against Akali.

JustMyBassCannon4 votes

I can't really think of any reason to admit that she's terribly designed.

What's poorly designed? Her simplicity and ease of use? Her ability to snowball like any other assassin? Her offensive and defensive mechanics? The counteraction available against her?

A Bad Janna1 votes

{quoted}

I can't really think of any reason to admit that she's terribly designed.

What's poorly designed? Her simplicity and ease of use? Her ability to snowball like any other assassin? Her offensive and defensive mechanics? The counteraction available against her?

Zed xD!

JustMyBassCannon2 votes

What about Zed?

I know he's a hot topic right now, but the only thing difficult about him is the safety granted by his ultimate.

10Tickler2 votes

Oh? like Any other Assassin?

What other assassins in League of Legends have enough sustain to dive 1v5, and emerge with almost all of their health, with at least a double kill?

On top of that, Q+Sheen procs are way out of hand, especially since Sheen damage is counted when calculating Spellvamp. It's not a fact that she snowballs, because sure, other assassins snowball too, it's that snowballing, plus simplicity, plus safety, plus the fact that other than buying Zhonya's to try and dodge some of her massive damage, your options once she drops a shroud include: 100 gold gone in 2 seconds, or losing Vision control for 30 seconds, at the least.

JustMyBassCannon6 votes

[{quoted}](name=Various Felonies,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=W2g9cqwT,comment-id=0002,timestamp=2015-01-21T04:01:38.475+0000)

Oh? like Any other Assassin?

What other assassins in League of Legends have enough sustain to dive 1v5, and emerge with almost all of their health, with at least a double kill?

What other assassins in League of Legends need sustain to dive 1v5 and emerge with almost all of their health and a double kill?

Let's be perfectly honest here; if a team is so uncoordinated that Akali can get an easy double kill, they're probably uncoordinated enough that Zed, Talon, Fizz, Katarina, Kassadin, Evelynn--forget it, I'm not naming every last assassin. The point is, Akali's not the only one who can kill bad teams.

On top of that, Q+Sheen procs are way out of hand, especially since Sheen damage is counted when calculating Spellvamp. It's not a fact that she snowballs, because sure, other assassins snowball too, it's that snowballing, plus simplicity, plus safety, plus the fact that other than buying Zhonya's to try and dodge some of her massive damage, your options once she drops a shroud include: 100 gold gone in 2 seconds, or losing Vision control for 30 seconds, at the least.

No, Sheen's damage doesn't count for Spell Vamp. Sheen's damage is a physical attack enhancement, and applies Lifesteal.

And, again, if the team's tank and/or support isn't buying vision (even though they normally will), you should compensate. Teamwork involves picking up the slack if you can. Pick up that Oracle's Lens and you don't have to buy Pink Wards.

Moulin Rouge2 votes

She's cancer imo.

Cancer its' purest form. Like you said, if she gets ahead on your team then she takes all the kills and if she's ahead on the other team she's nigh unstoppable unless you have an equally fed Riven or something.

Lord Dusteon2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Various Felonies,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=W2g9cqwT,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-01-21T03:52:55.194+0000)

HUGE burst damage

Just going to point out this part. Akali's basic combo (QRE) does 640(+1.7AP)(+.6AD) at MAX rank.

Akali's ult is 250 + 50% AP. For comparison, LeBlanc's is 600 + 130%AP, Veigar's is 500 + 120% AP + 80% Enemy AP, hell even Evelynn's E is 230 + 100% AP + 100% Bonus AD. As in, Eve, the bruiser/tank/assassin has more scalings than Akali does.

Also as comparison, Brand's R in a best case scenario does 1050 + 150% AP. As in, his R ALONE has a 400 damage higher base and only 20% less AP scaling than Akali's base combo.

Face it, if you died to Akali it's because you decided "Oh, I'm beating her pre 6, I can skip getting a pink ward for more damage", then died because she jumped on you and sat in her shroud for her cooldowns and energy to get back while you sat there.

Miku Lv992 votes

But Akali doesn't really scale all that well into endgame. I've had an enemy Akali that was like 23-3 and yet my team still won the game. If you can get your team to make it to endgame and group up she's not all that strong then.

But yes her gameplay is very lame and it's like you almost can't go anywhere by yourself ever again that game unless you have very good vision or have seen her somewhere else recently.

youngjake931 votes

Yi, Akali, Katarina, etc all have this problem of where you let them hit your whole team and you don't hit them back, then you all die. Just hit them back, preferably with CC. They are really squishy.

Also, Akali is really getting a big nerf taking her ult range down by 100 so it will actually be possible to escape her and dare I say attempt to kite if you have really great range.

Linkttp1 votes

If? If?! Zoning Akali just became retardedly easy. She's garbage atm. She doesn't even Really have An E. It does LESS damage that her AUTOS.

youngjake931 votes

{quoted}

If? If?! Zoning Akali just became retardedly easy. She's garbage atm. She doesn't even Really have An E. It does LESS damage that her AUTOS.

Lol this was speculation from a month ago before the changes went live. Also, before the E change even was announced.

DarthSpectrum1 votes

I do agree that Akali could certainly use a rework. Her current state leaves little room for variety in her plays, and is practically just a "ball of stats." (The term refers to champions such as Irelia or Katarina whose kit follows a very linear pattern. Essentially, when they engage an opponent, they can only use their abilities in a specific set order and AA, hoping that their stats are enough to win.)

However, the downside to having such an un-interactive kit is that these champions can do close to nothing to their counters. In draft mode, try not to pick champions Akali might do well against such as Yasuo or Fizz. Rather, chose Malzahar, Annie, or Azir to counter her.

Akali is overpowered in certain match-ups, but she is not nearly good enough to warrant any serious nerfs. Although that does not imply that she is a well-rounded champion.

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