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The Akali Update has turned out to be a Disappointing Downgrade

Akali is SO HOT··19 votes·2,959 views

Before the rework, old Akali had a low pickrate and a low banrate with a good winrate. Most people didn't really like her that much, but she wasn't widely hated by the players. The rework was supposed to modernize her kit and make her better for modern League. Now she's back to a low pickrate and low banrate, but now she has a garbage winrate and everyone hates her. As long as she has her current kit she'll stay this way because if she is at all decent in soloq she'll be busted in pro play. The whole design of her kit just isn't good and is what keeps her in this awful state.

A big reason she is this way is because they decided to make her kit entirely revolve around her shroud. It turns out that this isn't a good idea and in order to make a champion that functions around a single ability good you have to make that ability completely busted. This could potentially end up working out in theory, but when you make the ability incredibly unfun to play against and insanely good it just doesn't. It should've been very apparent from the beginning that obscurity under turrets was a bad idea. There weren't any Akali players that I knew that supported the idea of her being immune to turrets with her shroud. You would think that even when she was still 100% p/b in pro after the first couple rounds of nerfs that they would've decided to remove it, but they just kept other pointless ones coming. It also turns out that when you make the one ability the champion is balanced around super bad, then the champion will also be super bad.

Another bad thing about her kit is the fact that she has an execute on her ultimate. This is also another reason why she was p/b in pro since release. She can go into a fight and even if she can't kill her target she can still use R2 to kill whichever enemy her team got down low. It's the same reason Urgot is currently high priority. They changed her ult from something that she could use to stick to her target to a big damage boom stick that she uses to instakill whoever is low on the enemy team. It also doesn't help that it isn't targeted anymore so if she's in trouble, then she has two free range dashes to get away with.

The third problem with her kit is how she goes about killing her target. At this point she is really just a bad and squishy bruiser pretending to be an Assassin. The only part of her kit that screams assassination is the execute on her ultimate which is, again, broken. Unless she is far ahead, she has no burst in her kit that she can use to kill carries with. Having to go into melee range to proc her passive and then run away from the person she's trying to kill and then trying to run back in to auto attack them is bad. Dancing around like a headless chicken trying to get passive procs off isn't a well designed assassination pattern. This all goes back to her shroud as well. Due to the fact that her burst pattern is so slow, she needs her shroud to be able to survive long enough to use R2. She just absolutely cannot fight without shroud in almost every situation. Having such a busted ability be her whole crutch for actually killing people is so bad.

Thematically, it would make sense to focus on her shroud as it is a unique ability that no other champion has. Gameplay wise this is an awful idea. Long time Akali players didn't love playing Akali because of her shroud. They enjoyed her because of how mobile and sticky she was with her ultimate. For gameplay, she could function perfectly fine without her shroud. Back when pinks revealed her and oracles was in the game she was still doing just fine. It should've been painfully obvious to focus on her ult and dashes for the rework. You could've made her shroud look and feel super amazing without turning it into the crutch she relies on to function as a champion. Instead of focusing on her constantly being able to dash around all of the attention was focused on a gimmicky and broken ability and she was given a 2 dash ultimate on a long ass cooldown with one of the dashes being completely busted. Her ult even has one of the highest cooldowns of all of the Assassin ultimates in the game which is even worse because she probably relies on her ult the most to kill her targets.

Her whole kit is just bad design. It has no redeemable features in it aside from her shroud which is a flawed ability. She's just a poorly designed bruiser trying to be an Assassin, but failing at it. Having a whole kit based around a badly designed ability and requiring high a cooldown ultimate to kill people is just bad design.

This isn't even to mention that she is almost nothing like old Akali. The only thing that she had in her kit left that resembled Old Akali was her heal and now that's gone too. Her new personality is just complete ass and super lame. If I wanted to play an edgelord champion I would play Kayn or Zed and not Akali. The voice lines they wrote for her are all just bad and lazy and are super generic. Riot has always said that they keep long time Akali players in mind when making changes to her, but they've just lied over and over again and now we're here. A champion with a lame personality and a poorly designed kit with a busted crutch of an ability.

It's very frustrating that they kept her in that state for so long and let her be p/b in pro for so many months. It feels to me like they hyped her up with the KDA skin and now that they've cashed out on it they smashed her into the ground because they don't need her anymore. I have little faith that the future changes they have planned for her will really fix anything and she'll just be like this forever.

It's pretty hard to sympathize with players who are unhappy with their champion rework until it happens to you. I hope other players who love their champion don't end up like this when it's their turn for a rework.

https://i.imgur.com/SjAPlYU.jpg[/img]

43 Comments

bluefire mark 211 votes

RIP Aatrox. Fnally saw the light and then got reworked only to be immediately gutted again

Moody P6 votes

new akali is fun and hot though

tbh I think she's way more interesting with shroud being her focal point but I think she has a conflict of interesting between that and actually being an assassin that needs to be sorted out before we can actually balance her

VolatileAkali2 votes

She'll never be balanced if they don't fix her shroud and her ultimate. Those two needed to be fixed, especially the execution part and the 8.24b nerfs which should've gotten reverted. Her passive and Q should also need numbers changes. I believe most Akali mains don't mind E staying what it is, since it's not weak or strong.

Paroe1 votes

{quoted}

She'll never be balanced if they don't fix her shroud and her ultimate.

Actually, Akali was balanced before her last round of (triple!) nerfs.

Unlike Aatrox, Fiora, Riven, or Urgot playing against Akali required you to respect her and the damage she can do with multiple procs of her passive. When you greed for that kill while her shroud is up and youre a targeted champion or when you dont stay behind minions while youre low and her E is up... Thats a misplay. You have to THINK while playing against Akali, and sometimes you have to retreat.

Akali was, prior to her gutting, a fair and balanced champion with the stigma of being "A CT champion". That Stigma is what led to her being 'hated' and her current god awful state i think, since its what everyone cites as evidence for why she was 'broken' despite all of her mechanics being easily countered by walking away.

VolatileAkali1 votes

Akali is NEVER gonna be fixed until they change her mechanically.

Paroe2 votes

{quoted}

Akali is NEVER gonna be fixed until they change her mechanically.

No, shes never going to be 'fixed' until someone who isnt CT reworks her. Because CT touched her, shes cancer and bad and overloaded and awful and bad and unhealthy and toxic and etc, etc, etc.

I swear, if riot had just said "Yeah a new guy named CronicThomas reworked Akali!" she would have a couple nerfs sure, but she wouldnt have been gutted. Also theres riots limelight policy. Pretty sure Akali is a victim of that too.

SEKAI1 votes

{quoted}

No, shes never going to be 'fixed' until someone who isnt CT reworks her. Because CT touched her, shes cancer and bad and overloaded and awful and bad and unhealthy and toxic and etc, etc, etc.

I swear, if riot had just said "Yeah a new guy named CronicThomas reworked Akali!" she would have a couple nerfs sure, but she wouldnt have been gutted. Also theres riots limelight policy. Pretty sure Akali is a victim of that too.

Maybe the """designer""" who up to this point has done absolutely nothing good to the game besides adding more tumours every few months, with the sole exception of Warwick rework who is ironically the only actually good thing out of CertainlyT's entire catalogue given it was credited to him despite him being an associate of the said rework where Reav3 was actually the one who was in the driving seat, is the problem itself?

For instance, Irelia rework was a trainwreck filled with stinkers alright and we rightfully tear it to shreds. But we don't tear the designer apart because out of SolCrushed's catalogue, only a couple is even worthy of hate let alone the designer themselves.

But CertainlyT is different, because barring the Ammo mechanics (credited to them, who knows if they are actually the mastermind or not; I'll give the benefit of the doubt and say they are), you'd be trying super hard to even find a single redeeming factor off this guy's contribution to the game.

The game is simply far better off without CertainlyT. All they could write for their achievement in Riot is ultimately down to starting an arms race among designers at Riot in producing the most broken champion possible, and having a long history of swiping/ripping off other existing champs (while radicalising the designs of the copycat to render to originals obsolete) and getting away with it for all this time.

Paroe3 votes

{quoted}

Maybe the """designer""" who up to this point has done absolutely nothing good to the game besides adding more tumours every few months, with the sole exception of Warwick rework who is ironically the only actually good thing out of CertainlyT's entire catalogue given it was credited to him despite him being an associate of the said rework where Reav3 was actually the one who was in the driving seat, is the problem itself?

For instance, Irelia rework was a trainwreck filled with stinkers alright and we rightfully tear it to shreds. But we don't tear the designer apart because out of SolCrushed's catalogue, only a couple is even worthy of hate let alone the designer themselves.

But CertainlyT is different, because barring the Ammo mechanics (credited to them, who knows if they are actually the mastermind or not; I'll give the benefit of the doubt and say they are), you'd be trying super hard to even find a single redeeming factor off this guy's contribution to the game.

The game is simply far better off without CertainlyT.

Keep peddling that worthless hate, im sure itl get you somewhere. Boards certainly loves the bandwagon.

Fact of the matter is, CT does good work. His champions are kept strong numerically by the BALANCE team. Just... Think for a moment. A car designer working for a city car manufacturer creates a car with 21 new features. Management looks at the design, says okay, and pushes it through....

If the design is overloaded with superfluous or to many features, do you blame the designer or management who let it go through? You blame management. Not the designer. You do not put the cart before the horse, no matter how pretty the cart is.

You need to hold accountable the people who should be held accountable. If a design is overloaded, once it gets in the hands of the balance team its THEIR JOB and THEIR RESPONSIBILITY to say yes or no as to whether or not it gets implemented in that state. Heck, CT's champions arent even broken so much as can be frustrating. Zoe's sleepytime trap needs to be gonzo (give me that bubble as a passthrough skillshot!) and Yasuos tornado needs to replace his windwall (but still block projectiles.. Even better if they redirected!).

Heck, you wanna talk broken? Lets talk Cass, Irelia, Vayne and Ezreal.

SEKAI1 votes

{quoted}

Keep peddling that worthless hate, im sure itl get you somewhere. Boards certainly loves the bandwagon.

Fact of the matter is, CT does good work. His champions are kept strong numerically by the BALANCE team. Just... Think for a moment. A car designer working for a city car manufacturer creates a car with 21 new features. Management looks at the design, says okay, and pushes it through....

If the design is overloaded with superfluous or to many features, do you blame the designer or management who let it go through? You blame management. Not the designer. You do not put the cart before the horse, no matter how pretty the cart is.

You need to hold accountable the people who should be held accountable. If a design is overloaded, once it gets in the hands of the balance team its THEIR JOB and THEIR RESPONSIBILITY to say yes or no as to whether or not it gets implemented in that state. Heck, CT's champions arent even broken so much as can be frustrating. Zoe's sleepytime trap needs to be gonzo (give me that bubble as a passthrough skillshot!) and Yasuos tornado needs to replace his windwall (but still block projectiles.. Even better if they redirected!).

Heck, you wanna talk broken? Lets talk Cass, Irelia, Vayne and Ezreal.

This is coming back to our previous debate a few days ago where you said

Paroe (NA) - 4 days ago

1) CT is a champion designer.
2) Balance is supposed to work with designers.
3) Balance is supposed to be the 'check' that a design goes through; once a champion reaches the final stages where they get real numbers applied, balance is the team that says "yeah this is cool'.

4) This blind hatred for CT is pathetic. You people need to cool your jets and start trying to hold your yakuza style accountability to the people who actually are responsible for not balancing the game in a long-term way and allow flashy champions like CT's to be in the state they are

Do you blame the manager who let a lady walk out with more than she paid for, or do you blame the cashier who scanned the items?

And I replied with

I am SICK and TIRED of this drivel where people selectively dissociate a champion designer from the balance of the champion. You say "yeah but balance says yes", but you conveniently forgot such objectively stupid idea has to be brought up to the balance team in the first place.

A designer is at least partially responsible for the champion's balance state. Much like how editors are only there to make what comes out of the writer BETTER, a balance team is there to keep champions in line and not there to make the fucking champion for the designer who couldn't. No editor should be responsible to write the god damn story for the writer, similarly champion designs from the designer should already stand on their own prior to balance team working on it. CertainlyT hasn't been able to achieve any design that's remotely balanceable let alone balanced, with the only exception being Warwick, a rework he was credited for but in actually was only an associate of the project. And with so many of creations down the line each getting more and more extreme to the point of Zoe who is an utter antithesis to any design of a multiplayer game, it's clear that CertainlyT not only doesn't care but they act intentionally to break the game with each release, BECAUSE HE KNOWS HE CAN GET AWAY WITH IT AND GET PRAISED FOR IT. CertainlyT is not only a garbage designer, he may also as well be downright malicious.

Now, concerning the "well balance team said it's cool": This is not to give balance team some credit, but even I am going to bet that the balance team isn't so stupid they weren't able to see utter design failures like Zoe as it is, or fail to catch Akali's semi invulnerability being a big red flag which anyone could see lightyears away. They still make out of the door not because of the balance team, but because of CertainlyT. CT must have a lot of political power within Riot since he's able to literally break everything, and has been doing it for years by being immune to criticism, immune to consequences of stealing other existing designs in the same game for YEARS, immune to the consequences of releasing only champions impossible to balance with the sole exception being one he is the least involved in (remember that ultimately, designing IS his job, and there IS A CONSEQUENCES for designers whose designs are consistently problematic and faulty); it's clear either Riot can't touch or simply intentionally let CT reign because his utter narcissistic garbo designs appeal to other garbo narcissists that populate the majority of the playerbase in an industry that sells power fantasy and promotion of self-glorifying cynicism and narcissism. With someone like that, how the fuck is the balance team even supposed to do with their creation? You tell me.

Well, you don't need to because I already know. The balance team just says "Yes" to everything flown out of CT and then attempt to fix it later. Why do you think CT's champs are almost all reworked or going to be reworked despite their young age and that it also includes designs that are already reworks themselves?

This replied was unanswered by you (or maybe you replied and I forgot), and the thread was deleted by mod at some point (though I still have the page open and my tendency to not close my computer and browser has paid off, I guess). We can continue that round here if you want.

........

Lastly, Cass OP? What.

Paroe2 votes

{quoted}

snip

Did you play against Cass last time she was popular? Shes still bonkers. Once new Conq. goes live shes going to be even worse.

Your argument that things shouldnt even be brought up or shouldnt even need to told to be toned down highlights an intrinsic difference in the way you think versus the way i think. Creativity is about challenging the boundaries of what currently exists to create at least fresh takes on old concepts. You want to draw about the lines, not inside it. The way you think is creativity inside a box. "how do i do something fresh with existing pieces". Both have a place, but its the job of management in both cases to reign in or curtail ideas that could be problematic. Sometimes the puzzle pieces fit together way to well, as we see in Sylas. Other times the box was simply left to far behind, as we saw with Thresh and Zoe.

In the end, it still boils down to the various balance teams letting things happen and keeping things strong. Regardless of design... Riot loves their limelight balancing.

Okay okay, heres another similar situation; A programmer works for the US border patrol. They write a drone program that allows dozens of small drones to work together to stitch a real-time view of dangerous areas. They add, in addition, a people recognition to the program that alerts border patrol, local police, immigration officers, AND the state guard if the drones spot people in their operation area.

It is, one hundred and one percent, up to their management to tell them "Hey we dont need these to alert the local police, immigration, and the military", and if the program were to ship WITH those additional things it would be managements fault entirely for letting it ship with so many unneeded elements. (Although knowing the US it will ultimately be the programmers fault and they would get sued or imprisoned....)

SEKAI1 votes

You entire argument hinges on the ASSUMPTION that balance team is the management and the last say of the champion design process.

The reality is that we do not know. And judging by the last few releases and re-releases I highly doubt if any had gone through any form of serious balancing before coming out. But still, that would also be an assumption on my part.

And similarly, I can equally apply my imagination and my prowess at speculation and go back to my previous hypothesis, which you've completely ignored so far, that CertainlyT must have a lot of political power within Riot enabled by both the community and Riot themselves, to be able to do constant fallout and still somehow be in the company. Ffs, Ghostcrawler is gone from game designing at Riot and shoved into narrative design for both pulling less shit and being in the company for shorter than CertainlyT ; that's all you need to know how much power CertainlyT has within the company. And someone with this level of power can easily disrupt the company process to shape it around themselves and create double rules and double standards; this means it is plausible that CertainlyT could very much just skip the standard management process if he wants to, I mean he must have been doing it for years given his career. Welcome to company politics.

See? My theory works equally too. In fact if I were to brag, I'd say this is more likely what's actually happening in Riot.

Creativity is about challenging the boundaries

You can challenge the boundaries all you want if you are the only one going up against the odds; or at least you're jumping in suicide squad style with a bunch of like minded friends who want a piece of it. However, there is 0 reason to take the most popular game down with your experimentation.

And challenging the boundaries implies you actually learns something out of it. CertainlyT has learned absolutely nothing out of their endeavour besides that they can hide behind pretty excuses and get away with exponential level of bullshit. That's how we even arrived at Zoe, the utter antithesis of both Riot and any multiplayer game's design 101.

There is a difference between pushing the boundaries and slowing turning on the temperature to boil and damn frog.

VolatileAkali2 votes

CertainlyT and riot august are the one at fault, they ruined a beloved character because of "unique" and "balanced". Ironically making her the most unbalanced champion in recent memory.

SEKAI1 votes

{quoted}

Akali was, prior to her gutting, a fair and balanced champion with the stigma of being "A CT champion". That Stigma is what led to her being 'hated' and her current god awful state i think, since its what everyone cites as evidence for why she was 'broken' despite all of her mechanics being easily countered by walking away.

Her being oh so supposedly balanced prior to the gutting must be why she was banned out of the game in high elo and tourneys.

Paroe1 votes

{quoted}

Her being oh so supposedly balanced prior to the gutting must be why she was banned out of the game in high elo and tourneys.

You realize thats a lie, right? Aside from worlds - where she was new and people didnt know how to walk away because the top lane meta was all in all the time - shes had a superficially high ban rate because shes a CT champion, not because she actually deserved a ban. Her win rate has never reflected her supposed 'strength', which was never above 50% after her actually deserved nerfs early on.

SEKAI2 votes

{quoted}

You realize thats a lie, right? Aside from worlds - where she was new and people didnt know how to walk away because the top lane meta was all in all the time - shes had a superficially high ban rate because shes a CT champion, not because she actually deserved a ban. Her win rate has never reflected her supposed 'strength', which was never above 50% after her actually deserved nerfs early on.

Yes, tell me about how the high elo players and tournament players don't know how to play the fucking game.

And if she was banned on the basis of being new, she wouldn't be let free only in the first quarter of the Worlds and then completely banned out for the rest of it. It was because she was broken and everyone in the tournament realised it at some point.

Tournament players don't give a shit who designs which champion, only which one is broken or which champion is whose pocket pick. If Tournament bans have this supposed hard on against CertainlyT champions, Akali wouldn't be the only champ besides Thresh out of their catalogue, to even get attention in Worlds (yeah Yasuo and Zoe got banned once and twice out of their total appearance of 3 p/b total each, we don't count that).

Akali was banned precisely because of OP's argument, that her kit is just fundamentally broken; and that's something that's echoed throughout the vast majority of CertainlyT's design. That's why all of his creations have been gutted and reworked/in the process to be despite their young age and many of which are already rework themselves. The designer themselves is clearly the major problem here.

Paroe1 votes

{quoted}

Yes, tell me about how the high elo players and tournament players don't know how to play the fucking game.

And if she was banned on the basis of being new, she wouldn't be let free only in the first quarter of the Worlds and then completely banned out for the rest of it. It was because she was broken and everyone in the tournament realised it at some point.

Tournament players don't give a shit who designs which champion, only which one is broken or which champion is whose pocket pick. If Tournament bans have this supposed hard on against CertainlyT champions, Akali wouldn't be the only champ besides Thresh out of their catalogue, to even get attention (yeah Yasuo and Zoe got banned once and twice out of their total appearance of 3 p/b total each, we don't count that).

Akali was banned precisely because of OP's argument, that her kit is just fundamentally broken; and that's something that's echoed throughout the vast majority of CertainlyT's design. That's why all of his creations have been gutted and reworked/in the process to be. The designer themselves is clearly the major problem here.

Your bias is showing. Maybe you should tuck that away.

How can a kit that is 60% skillshots and whose major source of damage is repeated melee attacks be fundamentally broken? Do you even understand what Akali is and what she does? You can outplay Akali easily unless shes ahead. Akali has more counterplay than your average diver and thats a hard fact. You keep citing tournaments... Can i have some links, or are you talking hobby stuff? Or stuff like TCS? Because i havent heard of a random Akali ban since worlds, when people didnt understand the whole "walk away" concept.

... Also professional play does most certainly ban pocket picks. If you know Goomba is good on jayce or KoopaKeeper is good on rammus, why wouldnt you ban those away? You never want someone to get a main in pro play.

SEKAI1 votes

{quoted}

Your bias is showing. Maybe you should tuck that away.

How can a kit that is 60% skillshots and whose major source of damage is repeated melee attacks be fundamentally broken? Do you even understand what Akali is and what she does? You can outplay Akali easily unless shes ahead. Akali has more counterplay than your average diver and thats a hard fact. You keep citing tournaments... Can i have some links, or are you talking hobby stuff? Or stuff like TCS? Because i havent heard of a random Akali ban since worlds, when people didnt understand the whole "walk away" concept.

... Also professional play does most certainly ban pocket picks. If you know Goomba is good on jayce or KoopaKeeper is good on rammus, why wouldnt you ban those away? You never want someone to get a main in pro play.

Did you read the OP? I'm sure OP explained exactly why her current kit is a big problem. We don't even need to debate on this because OP covered all of the corners already.

And no, she was THE most banned champion in the Worlds because she was the one that lacked the most counterplay, deemed to even surpass someone like Urgot whose sole reason to even be picked in tournaments is to autowin lane. And as said, Akali was only starting to be banned well into the Worlds (a quarter) and from that point on she was banned supremely up to the mid-point, and then from that point she never showed up ever again because she was 100% banned; that is as a clear of an indicator of "everyone realise how OP Akali is" as you can ever get. That's how the bans work. That's the fact.

Also no, the reason you don't hear that much about Akali after Worlds (outside of the bit where you refuse to hear) is because she has been on the gutting train after Worlds; indeed, her first special delivery came about just 4 days after the end of 2018 Worlds and the rest is history. I wonder why the gut train happens hmmmmmmm...

Linna Excel3 votes

I liked the older version too and I miss the Takali skin, but it's pretty clear riot likes the new mess of a champion. While I was originally hopeful, giving her to CertainlyT was a bad call. I think he tried to preserve her in part, but in order to make her into a champ riot's new design philosophy demanded she be, he had to give her the problems she now has. I don't completely blame him, as I think it's clear riot's modern designs are terrible at least from a balance standpoint. Both her and Irelia's rework are pretty clear examples of riot not knowing what they are doing anymore and making champs the balance team can't deal with.

A big reason she is this way is because they decided to make her kit entirely revolve around her shroud.

As a melee assassin, she needs a way to get to her target. Without the old ult that let her engage, it's the only tool in her kit that lets her do her job as an assassin. Getting rid of the old ult led to this.

Another bad thing about her kit is the fact that she has an execute on her ultimate. This is also another reason why she was p/b in pro since release. She can go into a fight and even if she can't kill her target she can still use R2 to kill whichever enemy her team got down low. It's the same reason Urgot is currently high priority. They changed her ult from something that she could use to stick to her target to a big damage boom stick that she uses to instakill whoever is low on the enemy team. It also doesn't help that it isn't targeted anymore so if she's in trouble, then she has two free range dashes to get away with.

Agreed. It basically forced riot's hand because #LCSbreakingthegamesbalanceplays

Unless she is far ahead, she has no burst in her kit that she can use to kill carries with. Having to go into melee range to proc her passive and then run away from the person she's trying to kill and then trying to run back in to auto attack them is bad.

That sounds more like a skirmisher's kit to me than an assassin's.

Her whole kit is just bad design. It has no redeemable features in it aside from her shroud which is a flawed ability.

I pretty much agree. As someone who didn't like the new look (bad hair day, she needs a second kama, and the fanny pack) I kind of want riot to VGU her again and bring back the side boob.

Akali is SO HOT2 votes

Bring back sideboob 2k19

Kelg2 votes

This is what happens when you overload a champ with healing, burst, mobility, and bullshit superstealth

emarythomp21 votes

Completely 100% agree. If they made her kit a little different noone would mind it.

Stars Shaper2 votes

Akali always went from beying an abysmal pick that worked to a toxic overpowered pick because of itemization gone nuts (Tank Akali for example) and any time the assassin meta popped out she was easily overpowering a lot of teams or else "Just Pink Ward Akali" wouldn't have been a meme to begin with.

The update tried to keep her identity while giving her mmore mechanical intensity but apparently that didn't change much, she is just a problematic at her core.

Fízz v22 votes

Idk but I like new Akalis kit. Tho I didnt play old akali much

Darius Strada2 votes

The voice lines they wrote for her are all just bad and lazy and are super generic.

I miss Laura Bailey...

Akali is SO HOT2 votes

Same

Moonscourge2 votes

She was stupidly broken before though. Those ult dashes were absolute cancer to play against. Can't ever escape from her and disengage should always be a weakness for any assassins.

General Matty2 votes

Revert Akali

Akali is SO HOT1 votes

I would be fine with that.

The Ecdysiast1 votes

She's really not back to the low pick rate though, so the entire post is irrelevant.

Akali is SO HOT9 votes

???? https://i.imgur.com/K1hpJpL.png[/img]

Just for reference, she's picked less than Nocturne Mid

The Ecdysiast1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Akali is SO HOT,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=kQLqfrBa,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2019-02-17T03:09:03.408+0000)

???? https://i.imgur.com/K1hpJpL.png[/img]

Just for reference, she's picked less than Nocturne Mid

"For reference"

Actually, her pick rate in ranked is 6.24%. You can't use only her Diamond+ pick rate to determine her popularity. Thank you for the attempt though.

When her overall win rate dips back down to under 3%, then you'll have a point.

Ereldra4 votes

And where do you get your 6.24% from? On Lolalytics she is listed with a 2,9% pickrate.

Aside from that, it doesn't matter what her pickrate is. The rework is just a complete and utter failure and every single instance of Riot, wether it was the rework team, the QA, the playtesting or the balance team failed. Old Akali was in a better state than current Akali is, and THAT really says alot about how hard RIot failed here.

Paroe3 votes

{quoted}

And where do you get your 6.24% from? On Lolalytics she is listed with a 2,9% pickrate.

Aside from that, it doesn't matter what her pickrate is. The rework is just a complete and utter failure and every single instance of Riot, wether it was the rework team, the QA, the playtesting or the balance team failed. Old Akali was in a better state than current Akali is, and THAT really says alot about how hard RIot failed here.

From a counterplay and skill based perspective you are dead wrong. The current iteration is so full of counterplay that you can actually do things against her unless shes ahead to the point where to instagibs you.

The only 'failure' is that of the community at large for their irrational and shallow hatred of CT that led to Akali having the worst win:ban in the history of the game. 38% win rate to 45% ban rate.

Infernape2 votes

People banned her because her kit was and still is pure aids to play against.

Paroe2 votes

{quoted}

People banned her because her kit was and still is pure aids to play against.

Have you tried walking away? When she drops her W it means you should back off.

Its a full stop, i understand that and i understand that it can be frustrating to deal with; Akali is by no means broken because of it.

SEKAI3 votes

{quoted}

Have you tried walking away? When she drops her W it means you should back off.

Its a full stop, i understand that and i understand that it can be frustrating to deal with; Akali is by no means broken because of it.

You keep using that as a crutch, but do you know realise that rationale works for someone like Illaoi, the same can't be said about Akali?

For the love of all that's good and pure in this Earth, Illaoi's "walk away" works because that's when her ULTIMATE goes off and ONLY in that moment when you have to "walk away", and on top of that she has NO MOBILITY AT ALL barring a single very short range dash, and a CC that can be blocked by ANYTHING that only affect a SINGLE TARGET; meaning she can't do anything if you really just turned and walked away.

This is not the same as Akali because EVERYTHING IN HER KIT GIVES HER EITHER A CC OR MOBILITY. Yes, EVERYTHING, from her passive to Q, to W, to E, and R; she has it all, multiple MS steroids, an AoE slow, a stun (that can stun multiple targets?), multiple dashes. And this is on top of the fact her ability that forces you to "walk away" is a BASIC ABILITY that has NO COST WHATSOEVER AND IN FACT GIVES YOU RESOURCE and is also only on a medium CD (especially for its power. For reference, even Yasuo's busted ass W has higher CD than Akali's W. Yeah, imagine that) that GETS SHORTER as you level. You don't just fucking walk away, oh no you don't.

.....

EDIT: and ofc, being overloaded is just one of the many aspect of her broken-ness. As explored by OP, her biggest issue is HOW she was overloaded that's the even bigger design concern.

Winner Bot1 votes

{quoted}

You keep using that as a crutch, but do you know realise that rationale works for someone like Illaoi, the same can't be said about Akali?

For the love of all that's good and pure in this Earth, Illaoi's "walk away" works because that's when her ULTIMATE goes off and ONLY in that moment when you have to "walk away", and on top of that she has NO MOBILITY AT ALL barring a single very short range dash, and a CC that can be blocked by ANYTHING that only affect a SINGLE TARGET; meaning she can't do anything if you really just turned and walked away.

This is not the same as Akali because EVERYTHING IN HER KIT GIVES HER EITHER A CC OR MOBILITY. Yes, EVERYTHING, from her passive to Q, to W, to E, and R; she has it all, multiple MS steroids, an AoE slow, a stun (that can stun multiple targets?), multiple dashes. And this is on top of the fact her ability that forces you to "walk away" is a BASIC ABILITY that has NO COST WHATSOEVER AND IN FACT GIVES YOU RESOURCE and is also only on a medium CD (especially for its power. For reference, even Yasuo's busted ass W has higher CD than Akali's W. Yeah, imagine that) that GETS SHORTER as you level. You don't just fucking walk away, oh no you don't.

.....

EDIT: and ofc, being overloaded is just one of the many aspect of her broken-ness. As explored by OP, her biggest issue is HOW she was overloaded that's the even bigger design concern.

This guy explained this perfectly and you are still desperately trying to use points he have explained to support yourself, LOL

Ereldra3 votes

So much counterplay that she was absolutely pick and ban in Pro-Play and High-Elo? Sorry, but doesn't make any sense. Champions that offer alot of counterplay don't thrive in Pro-Play like that, because there is no environment that is able to abuse Counterplay and weaknesses as much as those players.

Just to be clear, we are talking about her KIT not her current numbers. Her winrate is now abysmal because Riot failed to create a Kit that they can balance properly so they decided to destroy her just to get her out of her Pick-and-ban status. And the fact, that they had to resort to measures that drop a champion to a ~40% winrate after several months of trying to balance her and after reworking her BECAUSE her former kit was deemed problematic - that is nothing but a complete failure in my eyes.

Paroe1 votes

{quoted}

So much counterplay that she was absolutely pick and ban in Pro-Play and High-Elo? Sorry, but doesn't make any sense. Champions that offer alot of counterplay don't thrive in Pro-Play like that, because there is no environment that is able to abuse Counterplay and weaknesses as much as those players.

Just to be clear, we are talking about her KIT not her current numbers. Her winrate is now abysmal because Riot failed to create a Kit that they can balance properly so they decided to destroy her just to get her out of her Pick-and-ban status. And the fact, that they had to resort to measures that drop a champion to a ~40% winrate after several months of trying to balance her and after reworking her BECAUSE her former kit was deemed problematic - that is nothing but a complete failure in my eyes.

Worlds was months ago at this point and Akali was both new and a counter to the ultra-all-in meta. Theres a reason she went top, and the reason she saw limited success in worlds was explicitly because of that ultra all in mindset. People, simply, would not walk away.

I can list her counterplay for you, if you want?

  1. Shes melee.
  2. She requires multiple procs of her passive.
  3. She has high energy costs.
  4. Her major mobility is on an easy to dodge skillshot.
  5. Her W does not offer protection or utility.
  6. Shes predictable.
  7. Her ultimate is mediocre and serves solely to secure kills.
  8. Shes a bleeding diver without instant burst.

The only reasons why the community has been so negative towards Akali is because she went from a targeted damage champion to a skillshot reliant one, and because shes a CT champion. People equate their hatred of old Akali to new Akali, and its compounded by their hatred of CT. We see the same thing with malzahar but without the CT bias; previous hatred stops the champion from receiving the changes they need to succeed.

Ereldra2 votes

Just 2 things: 1.) I'm not talking about Worlds, I'm talking about Spring-Split. Akali had on Patch 9.2 a 94% presence (either picked or banned) across ALL leagues. http://gol.gg/champion/list/season-S9/split-ALL/tournament-ALL/patch-9.2./role-ALL/league-ALL/

2.) Claiming that her W, her shroud, "does not offer protection or utility" clearly shows that talking to you any further is completely pointless. I suggest you go back and read her abilities again, before you try to talk about this champion again.

Have a nice day.

ı Sona ı1 votes

Akali is honestly pretty weak now. I'd be more than happy for her shroud to still hide her under turrets (as she was marketed). It was the built in healing over and over and over that was the most damaging part. Probably just needed to nerf the healing to half what it was to make her balanced.

Sektah1 votes

There is going to be a lot of unranked and Iron/bronzies here who are going to down vote everything here because they hate anything that has to do with Akali, But this new Akali is shit, and the balancing team have CLEARLY developed something that they dont know how to control. Its legit a case of a mad scientist making a creation that is out of control, but this time, its because it is either awful or too good... no in-between. Old Akali had a fine amount of conterplay and had many vulnerable moments throughout the game to shut her down or shut her out. They should just revert her... and maybe make some new e or something (because the old one was pretty un-original and boring, and thats what riot tries to stay away from)

CccamoPhox1 votes

Gameplay isnt the only thing that exists.The whole ponit of the Akali rework is a LORE PROGRESSION."At the time it was done once before with Gankplank."Old Akali" was boring she had no personatily and her character design looked like she belonged in Mortal Combat."New Akali" has a great character design,she actucal has a personatily,and her has become more interesting.Espically the relationship with her mother,Kennen,Shen and Kayn.

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