Why Akali is a completely busted champion

Moonfall Saber·Aug 5, 2017·47 votes·4,061 views

So yes this is a rant and I did just lose a game miserably to a player however, during this game I was wondering what the actual counter-play to Akali actually is.

Many people will say is a counter to Akali. While this might be somewhat effective it does not effect her burst at all. Another part to this is that Akali can shroud herself until Grievous wounds has worn off. Then her next auto attack will heal her massively.

You also cant build tanky against her because she has nearly unlimited sustain so she will eventally kill you anyway.

You could group, this is probably your best option. However she is still going to one shot your adc and then could potentailly 1v5 your entire team after that.

You could backdoor constantly but then you will be picked off by Akali everytime.

So what is the actual counterplay to this champion? An Assassin with crazy sustain is a horible idea.

77 Comments

Zero DriveAug 5, 201718 votes

Ekko An Assassin with crazy sustain is a horrible idea indeed. Ekko

I do hate Akali though. I hate beating her so hard and in spite of that she still somehow remains relevant enough to kill my adc or myself even when a full item or even 1.5 items behind me. The way to counter Akali is AoE burst, AoE CC, and (like most assassins) massive shields. When Akali enters her shroud after a failed assassination the adc MUST FALL BACK. And I mean completely remove themselves from the fight. A midlaner can always back up and zhonyas if she engages on them again but, and I cannot stress this enough, THE ADC MUST GET THE FUCK OUT OF DODGE. She's kind of like yi in that you want 2 players to save hard CC for her. Chances are she will survive the first stun and go into her shroud, but then she's going to hop on someone and heal up. This is your window to kill her.

AirKingNeoAug 5, 201721 votes

Ekko doesn't have crazy sustain. He has a burst heal on a heavy cooldown.

Zero DriveAug 5, 20174 votes

His burst heal is on a 38.5 second cooldown at max rank + 45% cdr. Ekko ult at no point in the game is truly on a heavy cooldown. With a gunblade he does have pretty crazy sustain with passive procs. I'm not arguing that Ekko is not balanced, merely pointing out that he is an assassin with crazy sustain. When you get brought down to 20 hp and then press R to fully restore your health pool that's pretty crazy level sustain.

5000000000000000Aug 6, 20172 votes

is 45% CDR ever worth on Ekko? Isn't precision always better?

RainXBladeAug 6, 20171 votes

Technically it is, considering Ekko's AP and that he's reliant on his ult to get him in and out of fights and to heal off any burst that he's taken (if it ever happens.)

PluniverseAug 6, 20171 votes

I never found ekko broken to be honest. If you are playing another fighter and have Merc treds or maw you should be good to survive his burst.

Sexy Jack RabbitAug 6, 20174 votes

You clearly did not verse him when he was first released then.

Imperial JapanAug 6, 20171 votes

Haha I was 1v1'ing my friend. This was when he was in bronze and I was in silver 1 - I was ~40 CS ahead and Just backed. I started to fight him and he bursted me in one rotation (I had null magic mantle as well)

AimléssAug 5, 20172 votes

Ekko's sustain is only his ult, and since its an ultimate it has counterplay. Your advice on beating akali is legit, I just think the shroud time needs to be cut in half and she'd be balanced, cause what you're asking is for an ADC to leave the fight for 8 seconds, which is far too long, there's no way your team is winning that in an even fight, and akali didn't even have to do anything but click W to achieve that. If they wanna give her real counterplay they need to lower that shroud to 4 seconds.

Imperial JapanAug 6, 20171 votes

Your ADC is zoned off but their Akali can't show herself either without getting fucked in 5 different directions. In the meantime, your assassin can target the enemyADC (talon, zed, etc) and burst them making the fight a 5v4

GayFluffyUnicornAug 6, 20172 votes

The problem with ekko is his CC as is with nearly every AP assassin. Don't see why champs like ekko, ahri and lb should have hard CC on top of their mobility and burst dmg. No AD assassin has this. Akali is kinda weird since she is the only assassin without ANY form of CC but sustain and sustain on an Assassin is an even worse idea if it scales off of her own damage.

Elemental LuxAug 6, 20171 votes

The day that Zed, Talon, and Kha stop having 400 damage auto attacks that have a .5 Second cooldown.

The DeckownerAug 5, 201716 votes

It's quite retarded how Rito made Akali a drain tank assassin...Did Graves not teach them a lesson?

ElikainAug 5, 20172 votes

And that's why Akali is on their list of champions to rework eventually. Buffing or nerfing her kit is hard as she's quite a fickle champion to balance.

CronofugeAug 5, 201711 votes

Just pink ward the spears. Everyone knows that.

Unlucky47Aug 5, 20178 votes

I stopped maining akali around the start of season 7 when all the tanks were being picked and the reason was that I could not kill anything. Akali doesn't have any flashy plays like ekko, zed, or talon. She is a direct line assassin to get onto one person and kill them. As long as the enemy team doesn't have a brand or anything that would prevent you from grouping up, then staying close together is the biggest counter to akali. I'm not saying it's the be all end all counter, but it will greatly increase the chances of you killing her before she does anything meaningful.

LeonerdoAug 5, 20177 votes

I am incredibly biased on this, but I think Akali is fine for now. She's a unique assassin, in that she can thrive in the top lane with her sustain, and I wouldn't want to see her homogenized just because. She hasn't been strong until very recently, and even now she's not crazy OP. I think it's okay if she gets a little bit of time in the limelight.

Moonfall SaberAug 5, 20171 votes

Do you remember last time she was in the limelight? She was completely broken again. Her ult proced her Q and she was just unstopable.

LeonerdoAug 5, 20175 votes

Her E (not ult) procced her Q.

And yes, she has always snowballed pretty hard. But she really sucked in teamfights before, because of the pink ward deal, so she had to be able to one-shot people with R>Q>E. Now her snowball relies more on her skillful use of that stealth, instead of just raw burst. Extended burst window and all that jazz. Basically, she's not as faceroll as before, so I think it's not a big deal that she's strong.

Moonfall SaberAug 6, 20171 votes

Both her E and her ult. dealing any damage at all proced it

LeonerdoAug 6, 20172 votes

I fact-checked that when I posted it just to be sure. Her ult never procced her Q.

I find it's a pretty good idea, when me and someone have different recollections of a past patch, to just check the patch history on Wikia and see who's right, rather than blindly believing my shitty memory. Maybe you're memory isn't as shitty as mine usually is, but you're still wrong this time.

RalanrAug 6, 20171 votes

Burn.

LeonerdoAug 6, 20171 votes

I'm not tryna burn anyone (well maybe a little); it's an honest suggestion that I think fact-checking things is useful, because my memory is shit, and in general nobody's memory is perfect.

LimrickAug 5, 20176 votes

The ONLY counterplay is to either get your jungler to camp you so she stays so far behind she's useless, or focus her down the second she shows her face in teamfights. Her late-game is bad, if you survive the mid-game you can usually pull out a win.

MFTORANK1Aug 5, 20174 votes

I don't remember his name but an Akali one trick reached rank 1 recently so Riot decided to buff her, great logic indeed.

hi ìm grootAug 5, 20173 votes

1v1 if she's ahead, there's almost none. But if you group and can hard CC her, its kinda like yi.

IP MasquerenaAug 5, 20173 votes

{quoted}

Let's not forget one important detail: Don't randomly throw your CC. You are Zyra/Lux/Morgana/Ahri mid vs her? Unless you know you can hit her and kill her or at least force a back, don't throw the CC and keep it for when she jumps on you. Simple.

"Akali jumps on me and oneshots me, no counterplay" but you forget to mention the following "because I throw my CC randomly, so it's on cooldown when she jumps on me so I can't stop her because I'm Plastic 5"

Akali has an easy kit, that's true, but she's a bruiser/assassin mix, not a pure assassin Zed or Talon (also Talon has sustain: If Noxian Diplomacy kills its target, Talon heals for 20 - 71 (based on level) and 50% of its cooldown is refunded, so what was that with only Akali having sustain as an Assassin?) but she has a high skill cap to actually master. Yes, she's easy to learn but really hard to master. Play her for more than 1 game where the enemy sends a noob mid, or just play her against someone who knows how to play against her, and I guarantee that you will curse yourself for picking Akali (less than your team will curse you for being a feeder, ofc)

All those "Akali is OP and has no counterplay" players should stay in their divisions or learn to play. Akali is the weakest assassin in the game due to being a hybrid.

"Her Q hurts so much if she autos you with it" Well no dug, it's a 2 part skill, not my fault you can't play against her and you take free poke. I'm pretty sure that you would end up feeding her with Annie or Lux as well. Heck, those who make comments like that would feed her with anything because "she's OP and has no counterplay"

Cereal420Aug 5, 20172 votes

i feel akalis laning is nasty af and super good but i cant teamfiight for shit with her. this is just my opinion but she sucks in teamfights

PePsiLemoNNAug 5, 20172 votes

I was wondering what the actual counter-play to Akali actually is.

Same with Kassadin . Don't let her reach lvl 6 lol.

I NEED HEALlNGAug 5, 20172 votes

{quoted}

Same with . Don't let her reach lvl 6 lol.

so finish the game before lv 6? what's ur rank, cause that's some high elo shit

PePsiLemoNNAug 5, 20171 votes

Ayy ppl actually took this seriously

I NEED HEALlNGAug 6, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Ayy ppl actually took this seriously

virgin alert

PePsiLemoNNAug 6, 20171 votes

Completely related ?

I NEED HEALlNGAug 7, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Completely related ?

because riot balance team members are ALL CHALLENJER and none of them are silver

PePsiLemoNNAug 7, 20171 votes

I like giraffes

I NEED HEALlNGAug 8, 20171 votes

{quoted}

I like giraffes

aqours fanboyAug 5, 20172 votes

Treat her like Master Yi. Shut her down early or suffer.

Akali seems oppressive top lane because unlike mid, she has NO BURST to worry about. She can fuck up literally any tank or fighter (basically top lane in 2k17, s/o to the tank meta)

If you let her snowball and get ahead you lost your lane, I'd suggest gracefully losing and looking for map pressure or just banning her outright.

Sraeg2013Aug 5, 20171 votes

The thing is stunning Yi once is usually enough.

Unless you keep Akali stun-locked she will lolnope into her shroud and either back off or kill your squishies.

aqours fanboyAug 6, 20171 votes

Fair point.

Sraeg2013Aug 6, 20171 votes

2fair4me

######Delete the duplicate.

Mecha IncognitoAug 5, 20172 votes

Well until her rework here's a lil tip for if you're playing a tankier champ into her - Try and get 1350 gold on your first back (shouldn't be too hard unless top lane becomes a fiesta from ganks) and buy item 3076 + item 1033 . Her passive won't sustain her as much, armor still lowers some of her damage from basics + her E, and the null magic will help with the rest of her damage.

IP MasquerenaAug 5, 20172 votes

So another Plastic 5 claiming Akali is OP because Hexdrinker doesn't exist, Executioner's is useless and all champs in the game have no AoE skills. #Logic.

I'll just quote the top 3 comments from another "Akali circlejerk thread" (and sorry for the triple post, Rito's reply lenght doesn't allow me to put all 3 in 1 reply)

[{quoted}](name=Eevee Girl Alex,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=LlviwEFY,comment-id=0006,timestamp=2017-08-05T20:46:15.858+0000)

Don't say "literally" when it isn't true. There's plenty of counterplay to Akali.

Pick a champ that can easily poke her enough to where her passive won't cut it. Malzahar, Ahri, Brand, and Zed can do this without breaking a sweat.

Hit her with a CC stronger than a minute slow. Akali has a very short-range blink, so something that slows her for a couple seconds (e.g.: Malzahar with Rylai's can place E on her for a 4s slow) tends to seal her fate. If you have hard CC, Akali has NO way of dealing with it.

Area of Effect spells shut Akali down super hard. If she's in her W and being stubbon, a well-placed Morgana W (or something similar) can force her out into the open.

Some defensive items early (e.g.: Banshee's Veil for APs, Hexdrinker for ADs) go a long way to stopping Akali in her tracks.

Anti-healing items like Executioner's Calling can have insanely high value once she starts working on her Gunblade.

Akali can't handle 2v1s early game. If the jungler does his job correctly, Akali shouldn't even be able to leave tower to farm.

Akali is MELEE, ranged champions can easily stay out of range pre-6 and throw poke at her uncontested.

That's just the basics to playing against Akali. I'd actually recommend picking up Akali and playing her for a while just to learn her nuances, like what her jumps can and can't do, blink range, timings, etc.

Ariel the CruelAug 6, 20171 votes

Future reference, it's probably be easier to reply to yourself. That was the quotes all stay [roughly] grouped.

IP MasquerenaAug 6, 20171 votes

[{quoted}](name=Ariel the Cruel,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=m4lAUVl0,comment-id=00120000,timestamp=2017-08-06T01:01:23.145+0000)

Future reference, it's probably be easier to reply to yourself. That was the quotes all stay [roughly] grouped.

That's a good tip, thanks <3

I NEED HEALlNGAug 6, 20171 votes

{quoted}

So another Plastic 5 claiming Akali is OP because Hexdrinker doesn't exist, Executioner's is useless and all champs in the game have no AoE skills. #Logic.

I'll just quote the top 3 comments from another "Akali circlejerk thread" (and sorry for the triple post, Rito's reply lenght doesn't allow me to put all 3 in 1 reply)

1

oh so you're one of those idiots that think rank means something

IP MasquerenaAug 7, 20171 votes

[{quoted}](name=Dankhist Kahn,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=m4lAUVl0,comment-id=00120001,timestamp=2017-08-06T18:18:39.991+0000)

oh so you're one of those idiots that think rank means something

Actaully, unless you are Diamon 2 or above, you're all the same to me, I call "Plastic 5" players who refuse to think beside a random fact that they saw/decuded, which is also most of the time wrong (the fact, I mean)

I NEED HEALlNGAug 8, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Actaully, unless you are Diamon 2 or above, you're all the same to me, I call "Plastic 5" players who refuse to think beside a random fact that they saw/decuded, which is also most of the time wrong (the fact, I mean)

you do know most of the riot balance team are silver right? let that sink in.

but i agree with you on the plastic

0AppleJuice0Aug 6, 20171 votes

Sorry i gotta help you here. "Why Akali is a completely busted champion"

Its "why is Akali a completely busted champion?" That really bothered me. TBH i didnt even read what you said. Just wanted to help you out. Not trying to be rude, but it helps me when someone calls me out.

PePsiLemoNNAug 7, 20171 votes

It's not a question lol

BlutseucheAug 8, 20171 votes

It's CC, coordination and wave management.

Her Kit is clunky af, so her combo can be awkward for her to do and it takes time. You can also most of the time burst her before she can go into shroud, if you CC her.

If you have soemthing like Viktor or Anivia Ult, that you can place into the Shroud, or AoE CC like Malphite Ult or Viktor W, you can get her out of the shroud aswell.

But thats the problem. You have to be coordinated against her. Your Jungler HAS to punish her weak early, you have to focus your Burst and CC on Akali, you need to be wary of her roams so she doesnt feed herself up.

Laning against her is terrible. Its not fun. I cant harrass her constantly with AAs because minion aggro will fuck me. I cant push her down, because thats what she wants. Only thing i can do is freeze before my tower and wait for ganks in the early, occassionaly hitting her with a spell when she goes lasthitting with a Q. I sometimes even saw her just run up to the creeps of mine, E them for waveclear, and then W away. It leaves her vulnerable for a moment, but easily breaks the freeze.

But ok, lets talk about her heal. She does have this sustain, because she is normally a bitch till Lv6, that cant do shit if you play good. She will most of the time just eat harrass after harrass, and the sustain is for her to stay in lane. She will also just push the lane when mindlessly AAing. If you dont keep pressure on her, she will eventually outheal your damage, but thats supposed this way.

All in all, i agree with Imls when he said, Akali is the king of bad. She punishes misplay and punishes people for not respecting and punishing her. She scales with items extremly good and can is oppressive af.

But at the same time she is vulnerable. Try to abuse it and it will be a lot easier.