So tank Akali. Counterplay help?

AMADEUSdotEXE·Mar 13, 2016·2 votes·1,104 views

Just fought one as Darius. Was dominating lane early > got camped > died once > jg died trying to gank > She got a penta. Is this build actuallly good or did she get lucky? If so what champions counter it? I mustve dropped like 6 pink wards in lane just trading. I'm not exactly thrilled to see that both Yi and Akali are covering one of their main weaknesses which is being squishy and easy to cc lock so I'd like advice on how to counter it. I'd rather not ban her EVERY game if avoidable so "ban her" isnt what I'm looking for.

11 Comments

NørseMar 13, 20162 votes

Play champions that displace her from her stealth, or who can hit her with aoe while she is in there. Vlad would be a half decent option, as he can bully her out hard early and sustain her, and you are typically building liandry/rylai so you will hurt her through tanky stats, and you can E spam her W while leeching creeps, or pool it to lessing its durational impact. Running a gragas jungle to barrel her out of it works quite well.

In the end Akali works on the Zilean principle where her base damage is really high, so she can build full tank and do a crap ton of damage. As always your best bet is to just red trinket her and CC lock her in team fights. Shes not immortal, she just does decent burst while being survivable, but shes really no more dangerous than bruiser Ekko.

hsumis1oveMar 13, 20161 votes

Go vayne. You can juke her and she wont one shot you. This is just a theory. I dont have much experience against tank akali except when i played fiora in ranked once. Early game i destroyed her; mid game i started feeding, but fortunately my team was fed enough to still win.

AMADEUSdotEXEMar 13, 20161 votes

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Go vayne. You can juke her and she wont one shot you. This is just a theory. I dont have much experience against tank akali except when i played fiora in ranked once. Early game i destroyed her; mid game i started feeding, but fortunately my team was fed enough to still win.

Was she stronger mid game or what? I actully considered running fiora instead.

darkmatchwaldoMar 13, 20161 votes

Terrible Idea. Sure pre-6 you have a range advantage but post 6 she can jump on you and kill you. You try to juke with Q? She R's again. You E her away, She R's again. You pop Ult and try to turn on her? She goes into shroud and you burn your ult for nothing. Eventually she gets tanky enough to the point where she kills you with her base damage/sustain faster than you can kill her.

To beat tank akali you need AOE damage and/or AOE CC.

Alex SloanMar 13, 20161 votes

Anivia.

Succubús GFMar 13, 20161 votes

As Darius, you actually shouldve won.. Or try Garen ? Literally someone who can outsustain will win.

AMADEUSdotEXEMar 13, 20161 votes

{quoted}

As Darius, you actually shouldve won.. Or try Garen ? Literally someone who can outsustain will win.

Well as i said I was winning at first, she just had a good jungler. Garen seems intersting though...

darkmatchwaldoMar 13, 20161 votes

Don't play Juggernauts.

KaokentakeMar 13, 20161 votes

when i play top. i ask the jungler in champ select to please never come top. i tell my jungler i want zero ganks and zero help
this also means you will be camped with no jungler help. but if you play properly its a good thing
with my plan, i just play ultra safe in lane. i never try to kill and i just hug my tower and CS
i NEVER try to kill my enemy. i always assume the enemy jungler is hiding in a bush somewhere
when i see the enemy jungler REVEAL HIMSELF in another lane. thats when i try to kill my enemy
due to you telling your jungler to camp other lanes, what USUALLY happens is the enemy jungler comes top and wastes his time, while your jungler snowballs bot/mid easily

essentially. this is the most effective way to win toplane, in any matchup, in solo queue. by telling your jungler to STAY OUT, and by you being skilled enough to survive a 1v2 lane and not feed (doesnt matter if your down in cs. just dont feed and your team will snowball out of control)

CR4ZYRONDH4VIMar 13, 20161 votes

Tank akali is op lol. Take a lane bully and end the game early. or take nasus top and outscale her.

LankPantsMar 13, 20161 votes

You stacked MR, don't do that. When Akali's maxing E and building a Titanic she deals more physical damage than magic.

Was dominating lane early

Here's the thing, despite you saying you were dominating early she has a CS lead on you. That tells me that you most likely misused your lead. What you should be doing when you're up in a bully matchup is attacking creeps as little as possible and trying to let the lane push into you. If the wave ever pushes past the river towards you you should move in front of it and she will not be able to pick up CS.

Your goal is not to kill in a bully matchup, your goal is to deny as much farm as you can. This means that you should never cast your Q unless she walks in range of it and only use W when you need it to reset your AA and grab an extra creep.

Akali has an incredibly weak and exploitable early game you need to play around this and keep her out of the game.

I'm not exactly thrilled to see that both Yi and Akali are covering one of their main weaknesses which is being squishy and easy to cc lock so I'd like advice on how to counter

Just rememberer that in covering that weakness Akali is also losing a strength. Tank Akali is fairly similar to Irelia, she has damage but as long as you respond to her it's not high enough to assassinate somebody.