Why everyone is building tanky Akali?

YumaS2Astral·Feb 21, 2016·2 votes·954 views

Don't say to me that is yet another assassin that can abuse bruiser items to become tanky while still dealing tons of damage?

I have just played against an Akali that built a then - she could still do a lot of damage and due to being tanky, her weakness of being bursted down was essentially nullfied. However, she is not the first Akali that I've seen building tanky.

It is ridiculous how nowadays I can pick a champion that is supposed to be squishy and then become very tanky through itemization - not as tanky as an actual tank like Malphite, but tanky enough so that it doesn't matter how much the enemy tries to peel, either I don't die, or I die but I manage to get a kill anyway.

9 Comments

AscendedxBladeFeb 21, 20161 votes

ya here we go again i just played agenst her and could do nothing it felt like i was useless

YumaS2AstralFeb 21, 20161 votes

{quoted}

ya here we go again i just played agenst her and could do nothing it felt like i was useless

Akali was supposed to be burstable, but with that tanky build, this is impossible.

full AP Akali may be able to burst you down, but at least she can actually explode if we focus her.

Akali is SO HOTFeb 21, 20161 votes

Korean solo q is doing it now for some reason. Overrated imo but w/e

YumaS2AstralFeb 21, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Akali is SO HOT,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=aq7N7138,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2016-02-21T05:18:26.772+0000)

Korean solo q is doing it now for some reason. Overrated imo but w/e

I am really thinking of testing Khazix with bruiser items to see if he is viable. I've actually tried to do it 2 times, but both games ended too quickly for me to see if bruiser Kha is viable.

DaxanaterFeb 21, 20161 votes

red mercy

MadraFeb 21, 20161 votes

If she kills you early, it doesn't matter what she goes back and buys: she's going to be able come back and do it again.

If I remember correctly, tanky Akali was a thing a few years back, too.

KnKitsuneFeb 26, 20161 votes

{quoted}

If she kills you early, it doesn't matter what she goes back and buys: she's going to be able come back and do it again.

If I remember correctly, tanky Akali was a thing a few years back, too.

I don't think that even matters if she kills early. Last game against her, our top lane( Rengar ) destroyed her during the laning phase, yet she was still able to purchase enough tank items to 1v3 our team. We still won fortunately because she constantly tried to 1v5.

HextenFeb 21, 20161 votes

Because of the changes Riot did to Akali back in 5.9. The E buff pushed Akali more into a DPS champion, and the way to achieve this is to build full tank so you could build off multiple E's.

Scarizard also was the one that made this build: item 3068 -> item 3001 -> item 3146 Max E, W first and get Q at level 13. Said that it was one of the easiest champion to get Mastery 5 on.

LevyathynFeb 21, 20161 votes

It became really, really popular in Korea. I mean, there's reasons for that, and I will share, but that's why--the best players in the world are trying it out, and everyone else wants in.

As for Akali, she has such a weak laning phase and is so countered by pink wards and a lot of the tanky top-laners these days that making her tanky is the only way to really make her relevant. Her base damage is solid, but her E is only on a one-second cooldown at max rank, and taking even a little AP via Rylai's or Abyssal makes it do hefty damage, while her Q more reliably gives her energy before you max it. Now, she doesn't do heavy burst assassin damage as before, it's overall pretty weak, but she has incredible engage potential with her stealth, three-dash ultimate, and mixed physical and magical damage, making her very, very hard to corner, stick to, or escape from.

Now, with Sunfire she has immense clear, she can dive your backline and survive like a Vi but without the heavy disruption, and can split-push or teleport to dish out decent damage in teamfights.