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Akali will never be balanced

EnvyDragon·5/17/2015, 4:13:21 AM·31 votes·2,515 views

until her passive is reworked.

A few practice games with her make me think her ult change adds some nice nuance, and the E change is kind of neat. But let's face it - you don't play Akali to show off skill. You play Akali to buy Hextech Gunblade and instantly have 40% spellvamp and immense bursting power.

In a game where more and more champions are being redone so successful players are the ones who know their kits and can show off on the battlefield, Akali is still based more on numbers than anything else. You dash to the target, spam your combo, and hope you have enough AP to kill them. If you do, congrats! You get gold and you've healed all your health back. If you don't, whoops! You probably died.

Akali's W has been tweaked bit by bit over time, and that's really cool. The minute changes to her ult and E make those a lot more interesting as well.

All we need now is for her passive to be gutted and replaced with something the player has to actually think about (and maybe a change to her Q? I dunno, I think it's boring [inb4 make it a skillshot]) and she'll be on the road to good game-health.

36 Comments

Widder885/17/2015, 8:37:12 AM4 votes

{quoted} you don't play Akali to show off skill. You play Akali to buy Hextech Gunblade and instantly have 40% spellvamp and immense bursting power.

First time Akali players have 44% win rate. After 100 games they have around 56% win rate. That is a difference of 12%. More than Zed for example (10%), LeBlanc (10,5%) or Lee Sin (9%). Only stealth champions have a higher difference: Evelynn (14%), Shaco (13,5%), Rengar (14%).

So it is not true, that you can just pick Akali and display her full potential without skill. It is easier with Zed, LeBlanc and Lee Sin.

http://www.leagueofgraphs.com/champions/stats/akali/all

But i think nerfing Akalis spellvamp would probably make her healthier. All champions with heals are toxic when ahead.

LilxPaprika5/17/2015, 4:31:29 AM4 votes

akali is less derpy than kat imo.

what are you looking to get out of akali anyways? its a trade off you get sustain but you're really squishy/burstable. She's one of those champs that is hard to one vs one, but falls off in team fights at high elo at least.

Mandang05/17/2015, 5:12:58 AM3 votes

The problem with balancing Akali is that you will always have players who are sick of putting up with her (extremely binary) playstyle. Either you have enough stats that she can't kill you or she kills you - there's very little room to outplay the Akali besides just a stat check.

She's a perfect example of where Riot's new mantra of 'only nerf weaknesses' is destined to fail.

Anidan5/17/2015, 6:45:24 PM2 votes

Nobody ever seems to believe that any assassin can actually be balanced. When they're "balanced", they're largely considered useless, and thus healthy. Look at Talon: Remember when people said he's healthy because his laning phase isn't overly safe and his assassination pattern leaves him in the middle of the team? Except, if he's ever anything above "only a little decent" he's considered cancer because of his burst pattern.

Zed was considered largely fine when mana rained from the sky for enemy mid laners and his ult shadow didn't quite work how it does now. However, that safety net they afforded him and mana regen changes around him apparently broke him to Hell, and made him completely oppressive in mid lane.

Fizz is considered unbalancable because of his combination of damage and mobility, as is LeBlanc. Akali is considered impossible to balance because she's oppressive to a larger extent than many assassins when she's ahead, because she can both duel and outright assassinate. Kassadin also falls into "complaints of too much safety paired with his damage", making him supposedly impossible to balance. And Rengar hasn't been able to cling to a single identity since his release.

Akali can be balanced, and yes she can balanced with her current passive. Is it easy? No. Is the community going to care? No, because they will largely believe any strong assassin is broken (proof: board history and forum archive). The question is not as to her ability, or lack thereof, to be balanced, but rather if you even want a champion like her in the game at all.

Slamurai Jack5/17/2015, 9:08:17 AM2 votes

I don't know what Riot was thinking in the first place when they made a sustain based assassin with a fully targeted kit.

runrunTJ5/18/2015, 1:36:19 AM2 votes

As balance dictates

~Akali

jDVL20eCYs5/17/2015, 5:16:28 PM1 votes

{quoted}

until her passive is reworked.

A few practice games with her make me think her ult change adds some nice nuance, and the E change is kind of neat. But let's face it - you don't play Akali to show off skill. You play Akali to buy Hextech Gunblade and instantly have 40% spellvamp and immense bursting power.

In a game where more and more champions are being redone so successful players are the ones who know their kits and can show off on the battlefield, Akali is still based more on numbers than anything else. You dash to the target, spam your combo, and hope you have enough AP to kill them. If you do, congrats! You get gold and you've healed all your health back. If you don't, whoops! You probably died.

Akali's W has been tweaked bit by bit over time, and that's really cool. The minute changes to her ult and E make those a lot more interesting as well.

All we need now is for her passive to be gutted and replaced with something the player has to actually think about (and maybe a change to her Q? I dunno, I think it's boring [inb4 make it a skillshot]) and she'll be on the road to good game-health.

OMG please just stop bronsis. go cry about riven zed lb or any other champ you just have to cry over cause you got outplayed and know nothing about laning. Have you ever played alkali? like have you'? i have AND HER LANING PHASE IS THE MOST SHITTY GOD AWFULL SHIT EVER WORSE THEN POPPY. and cc and this meta fuck her so hard. i only play her vs double adc and low cc low burst team. cause if she gets a head she cant snowball out of control. but you are not happy until she is so gutted the no one ever plays her? that is fair? why don't you go cry against hecarim, gragas, scrpiter xeraths, cho gate and other bullshit low counter play faceroll champs.

Only Play Darius5/17/2015, 4:48:25 AM1 votes

But but... it encourages a hybrid build path.

LOL

FantasySniper5/17/2015, 8:47:50 PM1 votes

I would like seeing the AD scale flat Mag.Pen instead.

Transgressor5/17/2015, 11:34:01 PM1 votes

Dunno man, Akali is in a garbage state right now. Any further changes will just maker her worse. All she's capable off is just catch a single target and fuck their shit up. She has nothing to offer for the team and you either lose horribly or snowball out of control. I hate getting 1shotted as much as the next guy but as an avid Akali player(not main, I just like her more than other champions) I can tell you she truly is garbage tier. I have no faith in Riot reworking her and keeping her duality at the same time. They already ruined her E mechanics(doesn't proc Q) and made it into one of the most boring abilities in the game in an attempt to reduce her snowball potential. I truly don't know man. I'm all for changes so she's no longer binary and becomes fun to play against, but I have literally no faith in them to come up with a good rework.

I'm truly afraid they'll give her the Kassadin treatment: fucker her shit up to cater to low elo scrubs that don't know how to counterpick and counterplay, ruin her mechanics, destroy her identity and give her a half-assed pathetic excuse of a visual update. And that makes me sad.

I'm open to both change and suggestions, but I'll need something REALLY good to be free of my reservations.

Imotekh Kharn5/19/2015, 2:12:13 AM1 votes

i think just some nerfs to her sustain would make her a bit more healthy.

She's similar to Kha'Zix was before his nerfs in that she has a lot of damage but can also get involved in teamfights as well because she has alot of sustain. Why she's "fine" and Kha'Zix wasn't is beyond me

D1rtFarmer5/18/2015, 3:22:08 AM1 votes

why did they do this to diana... she was a niche pick to handle alllll sorts of problems like akali.. btw is akalis ulti a dash or teleport? if its a teleport in truth this is complete bullsht

KazaLyn Shao5/18/2015, 3:49:12 AM1 votes

Riot's doctrine on assassins is completely paradoxical.

"Instakill assassins are bad. So every assassin we release has instakill potential with resets on kills." See Yi, Katarina, Kha'zix, Akali. Why are reset assassins even a thing? You got an easy kill... so now here's more! Get more easy kills! They all chain together now like dominos! WAIT OP, NERF!!!!

Huh? Assassins should be one easy kill, then largely useless for the rest of the fight. That's the only way to balance them. If they can survive long enough to let their abilities reset on their own, great. Go for another kill, but it shouldn't be as easy as, "Find easiest target. Explode. Reset. Find next easiest target. Explode. Reset. Find next easiest target..."

DJ Di05/17/2015, 5:56:16 AM1 votes

I like her passive tho. If you build full AD you can get up to 80%+ Spellvamp and 40% lifesteal :)

Kosm1K5/18/2015, 9:57:47 AM1 votes

I believe that all akali needs is that change as well. Make it into something new all-together. That on hit damage bonus and spell vamp passive are un-needed on her when she's got all the escapes from her ult and her w. I really like the ult and w changes rito has made recently, makes her feel more unique. The only problem is her passive is just stats. Rito could do something interesting and make it so that she gets kind of a buff to her abilities when her q is procced with them (returning the e q proc). Q+E would give a slow Q+R could give a speed up. W would give a speed up to Q'd enemies, something like that