Akali? Concerns and possible mini Rework solution.
With recent nerfs to akali on PBE. It got me thinking why is she so hard to balance for riot that she is slowly falling into ryze/azir tier of nerfs. I have played reworked akali few times (definitely not my main but really enjoyable champion) and I have played a lot against her. Few times when I had played her i had reaction "Ok, this is broken."
Her game-play is unique, dynamic and have really high skill ceiling. But. She is trying to act like an assassin with high burst and mobility but someone pushing her to be skirmisher with long invisibility with no counter-play and high sustain with ravage hunter/gun-blade. I think that this is core of her balance problems. She is both and she is strong in both areas.
Before series of hard nerfs she could R into enemy back-lane, drop W and, if she is a little bit ahead, she could 1vs5 with almost no counter-play. This is exponentially stronger in coordinated play, because she can literally zone whole enemy team and she just doesn't die. Not talking about her Flexibility in build paths and possibility to build both ap and ad. To be played on mid and top. etc.
I think that root of it is her W. Her smoke is so busted that even with how squishy she is, she just doesn't die. I would like to see her as a high efficient ninja that excels at quick positioning and assassinating targets that doesn't know what hit them.
So I have tried to design a Ezreal level of her W rework.
Twilight Shroud Cooldown: **11 / 10.5 / 10 / 9 / 8 ** Energy restored: 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 Bonus Movement Speed: 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 / 55% Shroud duration: 1.5 seconds
Active: Akali restores Energy and detonates a smoke bomb under her, creating a circular smoke shroud. The shroud does not permeate terrain.
Entering the shroud renders Akali invisible, gaining Movement speed and causing all sources of True Sight (except for turrets) to grant obscured vision instead. Invisibility last for 1.5 seconds on leaving shroud and Akali's basic attacks and abilities will break the invisibility.
The Shuriken Flip marked section of Twilight Shroud's will linger for the mark's duration, even after the shroud ends.
At levels 6th and 11th Akali gains additional charge of Twilight Shroud.
Here is an idea behind this. I wanted to make her shroud more engage, disengage and sticking tool than "you cant hit me for 10 seconds" tool. Bigger movement speed bonus for quicker reposition and better making use of her passive. Better scaling into late game with multiple charges.
On top of it, i think that it makes more thematic sense to have her smoke bomb more smoke bomb behaviour.
I would like to hear your thoughts about it. Do you agree with me or do you think that problem with "new" akali is somewhere else?
[slayer-jinx-catface]
