Who is better? Akali or Katarina?

TheBoss King·Oct 16, 2016·2 votes·3,473 views

So I main both champs, Akali mastery 6, and Kat mastery 5. Although each time a play one of them, I always wonder who is better? Whats your opinion on this ?

26 Comments

Darth WestOct 16, 20162 votes

Akali.

Katarina is easily countered most of the time with people able to disrupt her ult, well.. at least in the mid-high elo's.

I rather vs Katarina any day of the year then Akali.. Especially a fed Akali, yikes.

OneMustFallOct 16, 20162 votes

Well head to head Katarina beats Akali hands down. A good Katarina is better than a good Akali on your team. Both can be countered easily though.

IceemberOct 16, 20164 votes

Huh? Katarina wins a head to head against Akali? In what world? The one where the Akali stands in Katarinas ult maybe. Otherwise Akali can easily win that.

OneMustFallOct 17, 20163 votes

{quoted}

Huh? Katarina wins a head to head against Akali? In what world? The one where the Akali stands in Katarinas ult maybe. Otherwise Akali can easily win that.

Her 58% win rate vs Akali proves otherwise.

IceemberOct 17, 20161 votes

Keep in mind that that Winrate does account for all Akali vs Kat match ups and not just one where it's a skilled Akali vs a skilled Katarina. That statistic also includes another 8 players that aren't accounted for. If we are purely looking at scores they both end up averaging a similar 10 kills over 7 deaths per game. Which includes favorable and unfavorable matches for both. But that wasn't the basis of your statement either.

You said that a skilled Katarina would beat a skilled Akali any day. Typically with both players understanding their champs the Akali will use her superior mobility to bait Kats ult out. Without her most damaging ability and 1/2 her rotation on cooldown she is a sitting duck for Akali to easily combo and finish off.

OneMustFallOct 17, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Keep in mind that that Winrate does account for all Akali vs Kat match ups and not just one where it's a skilled Akali vs a skilled Katarina. That statistic also includes another 8 players that aren't accounted for. If we are purely looking at scores they both end up averaging a similar 10 kills over 7 deaths per game. Which includes favorable and unfavorable matches for both. But that wasn't the basis of your statement either.

You said that a skilled Katarina would beat a skilled Akali any day. Typically with both players understanding their champs the Akali will use her superior mobility to bait Kats ult out. Without her most damaging ability and 1/2 her rotation on cooldown she is a sitting duck for Akali to easily combo and finish off.

Actually if you look at their matchup stats, Katarina averages more kills, less deaths, more assists, more CS, gold and higher damage than Akali. Akali's stats go down when facing Katarina while Katarina's stats go up. It is by far one of Kat's strongest matchups.

Your whole "in theory" statement doesn't actually play out between two skilled players. A skilled Kat won't get baited out by Akali and Akali can't hide in her shroud from Kat's ult or W because it hits her anyway. Katarina should never lose that matchup if on the same skill level and I can attest to this as a former Kat main. I literally never lost to Akali. It was basically freelo going against one. It gets even more slanted the higher you go in elo.

IceemberOct 17, 20161 votes

Alright. So first off I'll address KDA's this is from champion gg and lists by midlane with kills being the first displayed thing: Akali's average KDA is 10.41/7.76/5.81 whereas Kat is 10.29/7.03/6.93 which makes sense due to playstyle. Akali is single target focused burst where Katarina is more AoE and cleanup oriented. Now onto CS and that: Yeah she does but akali also ends up tanking more damage which again makes sense for the playstyle of the champion as if Kat takes alot of damage she is useless where Akali has a built in sustain mechanic and can take a little bit of a beating during fights.

What Theory? I know this out of experience. Why would anyone in their right mind stand in Katarina ult? The way you play this as Akali is Q wait R AA E R out to minions Q R AA E if she isn't dead and throw an ignite in there. No shroud required. And this gets even better the higher in elo you go?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSlXuq-Breo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY1RcKp52-0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rj2sXrBQi0

And he isn't the highest Elo Akali main.. The highest is TFBlade. Unfortunately he doesn't stream or anything so we will never know what Challenger Akali vs Challenger Kat actually looks like..

OneMustFallOct 17, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Alright. So first off I'll address KDA's this is from champion gg and lists by midlane with kills being the first displayed thing: Akali's average KDA is 10.41/7.76/5.81 whereas Kat is 10.29/7.03/6.93 which makes sense due to playstyle. Akali is single target focused burst where Katarina is more AoE and cleanup oriented. Now onto CS and that: Yeah she does but akali also ends up tanking more damage which again makes sense for the playstyle of the champion as if Kat takes alot of damage she is useless where Akali has a built in sustain mechanic and can take a little bit of a beating during fights.

What Theory? I know this out of experience. Why would anyone in their right mind stand in Katarina ult? The way you play this as Akali is Q wait R AA E R out to minions Q R AA E if she isn't dead and throw an ignite in there. No shroud required. And this gets even better the higher in elo you go?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSlXuq-Breo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY1RcKp52-0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rj2sXrBQi0

And he isn't the highest Elo Akali main.. The highest is TFBlade. Unfortunately he doesn't stream or anything so we will never know what Challenger Akali vs Challenger Kat actually looks like..

Those aren't the matchup stats but overall stats. Matchup stats are Kat sitting at 11.23/7.32/7.62 vs Akali at 10.55/8.63/5.92. Notice how Katarina's kills go up along with Akali's deaths compared to average. The stats don't lie, Akali performs worse than her average when matched up vs Katarina and Katarins performs better than her average.

Posting videos where people sometimes win the matchup over the course of a ranked season doesn't really benefit the argument. You can just as easily post videos of Katarina beating Akali like this recent one here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2W88gr9fV8

Another one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vXK9JCpWcM

Anyway in Plat+, Katarina has a significant statistical advantage (58% winrare) in their matchup. You can debate it all you want but there is no numbers to support your argument. Katarina does well against Akali and is listed on several sites as a direct counter to her. Ask any high elo Kat main.

nm1010Oct 17, 20161 votes

The difference I immediately notice is you posted a master smurf in a plat game and a game from 3 seasons ago? All of the akali games are this season and in d1/masters. The fact that you missed this difference (or didn't care) really hurts any credibility you had.

OneMustFallOct 17, 20161 votes

{quoted}

The difference I immediately notice is you posted a master smurf in a plat game and a game from 3 seasons ago? All of the akali games are this season and in d1/masters. The fact that you missed this difference (or didn't care) really hurts any credibility you had.

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Pierce The VealOct 17, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Huh? Katarina wins a head to head against Akali? In what world? The one where the Akali stands in Katarinas ult maybe. Otherwise Akali can easily win that.

Akali loses that fight unless there's minions she can dash away to during the fight. Even then kat has the advantage. It does help that much of katarina's damage cannot be stopped with Akali's shroud.

IceemberOct 17, 20161 votes

Everybody seems to think it's about shroud stopping damage. You know what other abilities shroud doesn't stop? Syndra ult, Viktor ult and laser, lux E and ult, Morgana ult. There's many. But you know what else? A good Akali knows their shroud is a mechanic best suited to preventing autos and possibly dodging point and clicks. They don't rely on it to stop any ability casts that are incoming.

Pierce The VealOct 17, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Everybody seems to think it's about shroud stopping damage. You know what other abilities shroud doesn't stop? Syndra ult, Viktor ult and laser, lux E and ult, Morgana ult. There's many. But you know what else? A good Akali knows their shroud is a mechanic best suited to preventing autos and possibly dodging point and clicks. They don't rely on it to stop any ability casts that are incoming.

You're right, a good akali uses shroud to dodge abilities and prevent single target abilities from being used on them. Coincidentally, only Kat's shunpo is a targeted ability, and every other ability in her kit has enough aoe/ability to hit her such that hiding in her shroud vs katarina is useless.

Akali's best bet is baiting out kat's ultimate, after which she may or may not have a chance.

zaire90Oct 20, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Huh? Katarina wins a head to head against Akali? In what world? The one where the Akali stands in Katarinas ult maybe. Otherwise Akali can easily win that.

what you do is save your ult and when she and try to keep a distance fromm the minion wave and when she ults to you you ult as kat and then when shes almost out of range if shes smart enough to run then ignite q e w and thats during laning phase if u can stay ahead you can win 9 times out of 10 pre 6 just q then proc it from a distance since akali cant do the same

IceemberOct 20, 20161 votes

and you play that matchup as Akali by baiting the ult by letting the minion wave pass you then going onto kat procing a Q jumping out to minions then proceeding to go back onto her when she tries to follow up.

HollabakatchyaOct 16, 20162 votes

I like Akali quite a bit more than Kat. I think that playing Kat well is harder than playing Akali well due to timing, but the fast paced nature of Akali's kit just makes for a better game overall imo.

Irelia BotOct 16, 20162 votes

Are you trying to kill one specific target or clean everything up?

Commit SudokuOct 16, 20161 votes

in most situations id rather have a patient katarina rather than any akali because she is countered with 75g

Irelia BotOct 16, 20161 votes

soon it will be over akali. That cheap counter will not harm you anymore.

Akali is SO HOTOct 17, 20161 votes

Katarina is easily a better pubstomper. Akali is pretty bad right now so go with Katarina. Both of them are getting changes in the Assassin update so I don't know what it will be like in a month from now though.

Irelia BotOct 17, 20161 votes

Akali is only bad if the enemy knows what a pink ward is.

ItsOrvalOct 17, 20161 votes

Depends on who youre facing... If they have knock back/up champs Gnar Jayce Aatrox Malphite Zac etc, then Katarina would not work good against them beens her ultimate would get canceled when they knock her back/up.

If youre facing champs like that block AA or have CC thats grabs you Skarner Thresh Blitzcrank , then Akali would not work well against them.

LankPantsOct 17, 20161 votes

Right now Akali. After the assassin update probably Katarina. They're both pretty horrible right now but Akali actually has a niche as a weird sort of bad Hecarim top lane where you play her as a bruiser and deal a fair amount of damage with E.

XinZhao2WinNhaoOct 17, 20161 votes

I also main both. I used to main Akali but waiting for level 6 to do anything starts to piss me off so I decided to pick up Khazix, Kat and Yi instead. So I'd say Kat.

O Fallen ScholarOct 17, 20161 votes

I would say Kat mainly cause she has shunpo. She gets countered by a lot of things but at least she has that cool passive which can be abused when played well. Also ward shunpo saves ur ass. Akali is the definition of all in and once you commit, you'll eat a pink ward and die.

Akali is SO HOTOct 20, 20161 votes

Katarina is definitely going to be the better choice after the update.