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These are the things that I like about Akali and think they should stay for the Assassin Update

Akali is SO HOT··34 votes·3,403 views

Season 3 Akali main here. There are 4 things that I love about Akali and these are what they are.

1) Having to proc Mark of the Assassin This makes the ability much more interesting than just a missile that you throw at your target for some damage. Having it be like Annie's Q or Kayle's Q would just be boring because nothing goes on with the abilities outside of a lame stun or slow. Having to actually get up and close to your enemies to do something makes it both more challenging and interesting to play with which makes the gameplay much less static and more fun. She doesn't get damage off on her opponents for free like Annie or Kayle do with their Qs which is much less frustrating to play against and makes it so you can't just sit back and spam Q all day with nothing going on. If you want to do that play a different champion.

2) Twilight Shroud's Stealth This might be controversial because of all the stealth hate going on right now but whatever. Twilight shroud has been one of the best things about playing Akali and I would be sad to see it go and be turned into a Graves smokescreen or whatever people are asking for. Having it be countered by pinks and reveals makes it fair to play against unlike other champs like Twitch, Rengar, Eve, etc. because you know exactly where Akali is when she is stealthed and can take advantage of that. At the same time, if the Akali player is smart, even if you have a reveal she can still take advantage of the movement speed it provides. Being able to juke around your enemies is also really fun to do because of all the spots you can place it to give you multiple places to run to. For example, something like this: At 2:57 https://youtu.be/rrxUO_UpdmY?t=177

I also enjoy the idea of "Oh shit Akali is in her shroud better not fight her here" concept because it gives Akali more interesting ways of using Twilight Shroud's stealth to scare away her enemies or use it to position properly for an all in.

3) Shadow Dance's 3 Charges and Resets To be quite frank, if Akali didn't have this part of her kit she would be complete garbage. Being able to stick to your targets when they try to escape feels really good and enforces Akali's strength in being one of the best pick assassins in the game. If she only had 1 ult charge then that would mean all of her damage would have to be through the roof in her Q and Ult which would just lead to 100-0 gameplay with just 1 combo. Giving her 3 charges means that you can make her combo weaker in exchange for allowing her to do them more often than other Assassins. Akali is known for being on the weaker burst side of the spectrum of Assassins and having multiple ult charges is why. I like the reseting part of her ult because it still gives her something to do when she's killed her target. Katarina can still bounce around all over the place after she's killed her target, leblanc can dash all over the place with her low cooldown W and still help the team with chain CC, Khazix has the slows on his W and the resets on his E for more jumping around, etc. The reset aspect of Akali's ult is what allows her to still be useful to the team after she's finished off a carry instead of just sitting there doing basically nothing.

4) Spellvamp Akali has no reliable defensive mechanism because her shroud is so easily countered with pinks and reveals and this is her way of staying alive in teamfights. What I really like about this is that she doesn't get to press a button and get out scott free like other Assassins do, but in order to survive she is forced to fight. If she doesn't fight then she doesn't get healed from her spellvamp and if she doesn't get healed from her spellvamp then she doesn't survive. So this way she has to work to survive instead of just pressing a button and saying bye like Zed, Khazix, Leblanc, etc. can. This can cause the problems of being a drain tank which can be really cancer to deal with and stuff but I'm sure Riot will either completely remove this from her or change it drastically. I would just like it to be a part of her kit in some way or form instead of giving her a get out of jail free card because that would just emphasize hit and run fighting which isn't as fun as staying in the fray and fighting till the end.

Also, don't change the name of her Passive because that would just be sad. This is an Akali thread so downvote away or whatever. Thanks for reading.

95 Comments

Sammystorm20 votes

The main thing I disagree with is spell vamp. The problem with akali is that she can act like an assassin but heal faster then a sustain character. It makes her hard to play against and is very very frustrating. I do however agree on the other 3

Akali is SO HOT12 votes

The problem stems from the fact that she always has it up because it's part of her passive. It could be perfectly healthy if they did something like using her ult gives her 10% spellvamp for 5 seconds, gain 10% spellvamp while in shroud, hitting someone with E grants 10% spellvamp for 5 seconds, etc.

Or something like that.

Sammystorm3 votes

That could help yeah. It is hard to say. Spell vamp is one of those stats that is super fun for the person using it but feels very hard to play against for everyone else.

Anu3isII1 votes

Personally, I dislike the interaction between Sustain and Minions. Most of the times it seems broken, and the champions that are abusing it are balanced around it.

I think it will only be balanced when the health outcome is much lower. Maybe like in Vlad's Crimson Rush case, where the heal is only 50% of what it could potentially be because you used it on a minion.

Sammystorm1 votes

Which is what akali is so hot addressed in their response to me.

Pierce The Veal1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Akali is SO HOT,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=nOaQsEh7,comment-id=00030000,timestamp=2016-07-05T00:33:23.747+0000)

The problem stems from the fact that she always has it up because it's part of her passive. It could be perfectly healthy if they did something like using her ult gives her 10% spellvamp for 5 seconds, gain 10% spellvamp while in shroud, hitting someone with E grants 10% spellvamp for 5 seconds, etc.

Or something like that.

No, I honestly think that having her spellvamp up all the time is not really that big of a problem. It gives her her own niche, and I don't really believe she should suddenly be forced into a "oh my god she gets stats from her passive, we need to gut- ahem, 'rework' her."

Serika Zero3 votes

pick, spell vamp or playful&trickster spellvamp or deathmark recall if anything, Akali's healing herself its much less frustrating since you might just kill her. As opposed to the "healthy" assassins which you can't even catch

Sammystorm1 votes

I would disagree. Her spell vamp is a large reason why people can engage with her and stick in fights with her. It makes her more of drain tank with the damage output of an assassin which is not enjoyable.

Serika Zero1 votes

or you could kite the 3 dashes and now she can't do anything. Example of supports that can do that: Braum Alistar Janna Leona Nami Thresh Zyra OFC, your adc is required to buy a darn item 3211 . But its still better than them having to buy item 3157 to deal with Zed or Fizz ;)

Sammystorm1 votes

None of those champions really can kite akali if she has all 3 charges. You don't kite akali you cc stun her so she can't heal or murder your squishy. I don't think that is a particularly healthy play style.

Serika Zero1 votes

Akali uses dash 1 to get in range. Braum uses Q slow -> akali hides -> akali uses second R to get in range again, braum procs stun -> akali uses last dash -> braum ults. Tadaaaaa

Akali uses dash 1: alistar headbuts Akali uses dash 2: alistar purverises Akali uses dash 3: alistar headbutt is offcooldown and he uses it again and that goes back and forth

they can all deal with akali. They just need to know how to..... and you learn that... by playing vs akali or as akali. Since she's not popular, you can either take my word for it or start playing akali yourself. Janna in particular is the most notorious anti assassin hero in the game. Nearby are Tham, Lulu, Soraka and Malzahar. But Janna is overall the most disliked support by assassin players as she cockblocks the most effective way.

Sammystorm1 votes

Ok none of those things actually happen. Yes they can deal with akali but they can't really kite her.

Serika Zero1 votes

do me a favor and give akali a try in like 5 games or so ;) if you tell me you had an easy time in team fights, then i'll acknowledge your point as superior and better than mine

you don't have to win those games, just tell me how you felt ask akali in team fights (where the enemy team has the opportunity to kite you)

Sammystorm1 votes

Oh. I wasn't trying to say that akali is easy. I would never say that. I personally don't play assassins because I am really really bad at them. Not in ranked at least. I don't know what your definition of kiting is but akali has a ms buff and 3 long range dashes. You can't really kite that. You can stun lock her. Which is what I think you are trying to refer to. Anyways Akali isn't a very great team fighter. Most assassins aren't. Her biggest weakness is getting cc'ed before she can kill something. That doesn't make it ok for her to have a huge amount of sustain though. If we do get rid of her sustain we would need to buff her in some other area, preferably twilight shroud.

Serika Zero1 votes

maybe kiting wasn't the best word for it. My thing is she can be kept away from killing your adc unless she is very feed (the AP Akali) since she dies very easy. And the tanky Akali (of which I have like 40 games in ranked) can be kited as she doesn't have the damage to 1 shot the enemy adc. So even if she has to get in range every time she is thrown away by displacements, stuns, etc her job is to distract the enemy team and make them use skills on her. Which is actually quite balanced (she doesn't mass carry when ahead, nor be totally worthless when behind) and can still be counterplayed by how you play vs her.

You might say I'm biased. But there were plenty of times when the enemy team was able to kite me down and peal for their carry. Even tho all I was trying to do is buy time for my hyper carries to do their thing.

Overall, Akali is easy to play due to point and click nature, tho she can still be kited. That's why I wanted you to give her a few tries. Just to see that the enemy can kite ya and peal for their carries ;)

Sammystorm1 votes

I personally would rather play against assassin akali because you can actually burst her and she has to think about her engages. Tank akali is very very difficult to kill and is overall just annoying

quasistellar2 votes

Meh, she's an assassin that has very tricky escapes. She has to R to a minion or use her shroud very well--if she didn't have spellvamp they'd have to give her more burst or a better escape, because she'd just get burst down herself before doing anything.

My Waifu Vanilla1 votes

It's not as bad as when Zed/Talon were buying BT 24/7 and healing for their entire health in 3 autos so it is a moot point imho.

Sammystorm1 votes

Just because zed and talon could do it, doesn't make it ok for akali to do it now.

SouL1ess8 votes

To be honest, after Riki's Blink Strike rework, I am more in favour of reworking Akali entirely and get rid of her reliance on Shadow Dance as both a sticking and damage component.

Being able to stick to a target multiple times WHILE dealing damage is much more powerful that it seems. While it is fun, and in fact absolutely necessary for Akali to function with her current kit, she probably needs a rework to not be dependent on this mechanic. Similarly, the Spellvamp probably requires a rework as well, one that is not stat based but perhaps combo-oriented.

To be frank, Akali's kit needs a large-scale rework. Crescent Slash is underpar right now, while Shadow Dance is a very powerful ult that construct the basis of Akali's kit and playstyle. And Shadow Dance may not be the most healthy mechanism for an assassin. Her passive can probably be removed in favour of granting the passive bonus to ranks in her other abilities, in turn opening possibilities for another core gameplay of her kit.

Edit:

[{quoted}](name=Akali is SO HOT,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=nOaQsEh7,comment-id=00030000,timestamp=2016-07-05T00:33:23.747+0000)

The problem stems from the fact that she always has it up because it's part of her passive. It could be perfectly healthy if they did something like using her ult gives her 10% spellvamp for 5 seconds, gain 10% spellvamp while in shroud, hitting someone with E grants 10% spellvamp for 5 seconds, etc.

Or something like that.

Sorry, didn't look at the comments before I posted. But yes, I do agree that statistical spellvamp is problematic.

My Waifu Vanilla1 votes

Eh, Crescent Slash is definitely one of her best abilities right now and arguably the one thing with her Spell Vamp and Ult that even let her function as a champion. The ability to do hybrid damage and waveclear as early as level 5 (Rank 3 E with 2 long swords kills the entire wave with an auto to everything) make her no complete garbage and it is a much more reliable ability than Q which is a glorified 1 point wonder since they changed the energy refund. It is also the main reason bruiser Akali works since it scales well with AD and is spammable for how much damage it actually does (like a 240 base on a 0.8 second CD with a Total AD scaling).

Does it gel well with the rest of the kit? Arguably no, but it is one of her best abilities and she SHOULD keep the ability to do hybrid damage when they rework her since that is currently one of her best traits since only her and Corki are able to pull 50-50 damage splits fairly consistently (if you go bruiser akali you more often than not do a very close 50-50). The Q can honestly go since it is clunky in its current iteration and I would honestly like to see the playstyle of Bruiser Akali transition over to the rework than Glass Cannon Akali that just QR Autos you for most of your health. By taking the playstyle of Bruiser Akali that is more sustain damage based and AoE with mobility she would be the only AoE Assassin besides Talon and to some extent Katarina which would set her apart from the rest and it would arguably be healthier than the nightmare that was Akali during her prime where there was very little counterplay since she straight up 1 shot you with Q and R after Gunblade.

Edit: By the playstyle of Bruiser Akali I do mean the actual playstyle and not the build itself since I do think she should be building damage and not tank items.

Arakadia5 votes

Her ult is part of the reason she is so feast or famine. And triple jumps are absolutely bs against immobile mages, I main mages and if I fight Akali I usually play real agressive pre six and might kill her. Than she can dive me undertones with two ults and than use the third to jump out.

I almost never do well against Akali after 6 and triple jumps are quite unhealthy IMHO.

Ziggyzz2894 votes

Well when you say triple jumps are quite unhealthy then Yasuo comes into the conversation. Who while his jump has a shorter range and it cant be used on the same enemy twice his overall damage is better IMO and his kit is overall better. BUT, one of the real problems with Akali is not her triple jump its that she really cant be used medium-high elo as she gets absolutely crapped on by any hard cc Alistar for example as she can't ult to her own minions or teammates to escape and since the game is balanced around plat-ish elo I expect to see a rework to most things except her triple jump. What I hope for is a more healthy kit that give her a more utility-damage based kit along the lines of Ekko's Q.

Supreme Senpai693 votes

Yasuo dicks on immobile mages pretty hard too, but like you said, he can't use his more than once per ten seconds. If he jumps on you you can blow flash or some spell to get him off while suffering some damage. If Akali does it you have to just grab your knees and make it easier for her, there's no getting away.

Vistha Kai2 votes

If Akali does it you have to just grab your knees and make it easier for her.

Don't forget to apply lube.

Supreme Senpai691 votes

There's no time.

Vistha Kai1 votes

You can always do it, before going into the lane or before appearing on her screen.

Evewynn4 votes

The only thing I think is iconic to her character is her stealth field, and it should not be removed or changed too much. Everything else seems kinda generic and I would be alright if they played with them to get an interesting and healthy kit. Honestly, as long as tank akali is dead, I don't care what all they do.

YCitizenSnipsY4 votes

I don't think the stealth is that big of a deal. Its the only stealth mechanic in the game that lets you know just about where they are. The kind of stealth people hate is when some one comes out of no where and deletes them. Akali usually uses stealth to prolong the encounter.

Stalinium1 votes

Is the kind people hate Talon stealth, or Rengar/Shaco stealth?

Leetri1 votes

It's the Evelynn/Twitch kind of stealth people hate. No indication they're there until it's too late. Talon has his giant blades visible when he ults, Shaco has the bright orange smoke puff and Rengar gives you an exclamation point warning from a fair range (although it could be clearer IMO).

My Waifu Vanilla1 votes

I do kind of wish Talon's ult got the little exclamation point thing too since that man can cross a large distance during stealth (the blades would be so far away you wouldn't see them to begin with) with Ghostblade and other MS sources, but since Talon typically cannot kill anyone without the first hit of the ult it isn't a BIG deal. I do agree however that the exclamation point is a little too small for rengar and can get cluttered out by other things potentially but that is also a problem with other very important things being way too small (Shen ult being a big offender since the visual disappears COMPLETELY if the puny 150 damage shield breaks or whatever it is at rank 1).

NineTailedMystic3 votes

  1. Her current Q is very annoying to play against as a melee if you lane against her top. It only has about a 1-2 downtime if she spams it on CD when she doesn't proc it making it a very oppressive zone tool.

  2. Shroud is fine to play against, but likely changed since they'll probably be changing stealth with Assassin Update

  3. I think it'd be better as two charges, so there's an actual chance to escape her since she can follow whoever she wants as long as she has vision which her W gives.

  4. She doesn't need this. Her escape is her ult. Why should she get to live throughout a teamfight just because she gets such insane sustain from Gunblade and Passive?

Are4 votes

  1. Q damage is negligible if it is not proc'd. I'm guessing you're playing squishy melees top lane. Spamming it on CD while not proccing will also make her run out of energy. Building resistances and HP will help you.

  2. If you take away her three charges, then you have to give her more damage on her Q and R. It's also part of her niche to catch out slippery targets.

  3. Her ult is an unreliable escape because she needs a target to dash to. The reason why she has sustain is because her full combo is three rotations which is done over 12 seconds minimum (counting CD only), not to mention, you almost never get three perfect rotations. Most other assassins will instagibb you, but Akali can not do this unless she is far ahead of you, or you built no resistances.

NineTailedMystic3 votes

  1. Garen

  2. It's incredibly frustrating to never be able to escape her if she decides you don't get to play league today.

  3. It also allows her to stay in lane basically forever once she gets Vamp Scepter/Cutlass.

I also like how I got downvoted for my previous post even though, while not worded like it, it is my opinion on her since I hate playing against her.

Are3 votes

  1. Build MR + HP. Spectre's Cowl is only 1100, Negatron cloak is 720, and Giants Belt is 1k (I think).

  2. Like I said, her niche is that she can catch out squishy targets. If you want to remove an ult charge, you have to give her back some damage, and then she just becomes Diana 2.0 who instagibbs. This design would be much worse to play against, I'd say.

  3. She doesn't get infinite sustain until she gets Gun Blade which is over 3k gold. Cutlass doesn't do much for her in lane.

NineTailedMystic2 votes

Diana is better to play against, because if you dodge her Q her damage is vastly reduced since she can't ult twice and uses mana, on top of avoiding the Q damage. Akali can RQAAER, no skillshots required and is undodge-able. She can artificially extend her range by ulting to a minion first as well. Although I'll say Diana isn't very fun to play against either.

Cutlass gives her slightly more Spell Vamp on top of the 10% Life Steal the item gives, so she can make an early back at 1500g and basically have her early weakness be negated.

Are1 votes

But you're also forgetting that Akali will almost never get her full, perfect three rotations off. The ideal combo is Q, wait, R, AA, Q AA, three times, over a minimum of 12 seconds (no CD). If the ADC/team is good, you're not going to be able to get an initial Q off. If you have to use 2 R's to get to them, your damage is severely reduced from there. One incomplete rotation isn't enough to kill someone unless they're severely behind or went full glass canon (though a lot of ADC like to build some MR now). Dianas usually do well enough to RQWAA and get the kill. Maybe they throw another Q after if the first rotation didn't get the target.

4% extra spell vamp and 10% life steal when she has about 77 base AD (lvl 8). She might heal for 20s or 30s every Q + proc, but that's negated by an auto attack. Her weakness is pre-6, and she won't have full charges until at least level 7 (assuming no more than 5% CDR). Akali rarely goes cutlass over revolver.

Mandang02 votes

  1. You could create the most broken spell in the history of the game, and as long as it deals magic damage, someone's gonna tell you "Build HP + MR". This is a worthless point.

  2. Talon can catch out squishy targets. What Akali does is far more than that, and there's a reason we've seen tank Akali and tank Ekko, but not tank Talon. It's because the first two can stick on you near-indefinitely.

Auz the Ripper2 votes

I actually have seen tank Talon.

I haven't seen tank Talon do well but I have seen tank Talon

Serika Zero2 votes
  1. or you can all in and kill her because she actually has.............. NO ESCAPES and she is squishy take a hint ;)

ps: regarding your post below. If you build no resitances, Diana can 1 shot you with RW (and a point blank which you can't dodge) Q. The entire ult twice thing is over rated past lv11. Unless ofc, you build a darn cowl (which btw, also stops Akali)

NineTailedMystic1 votes

Ahri's burst level 6 < Akali's Burst

Lemme just buy a cowl on a mid laner. At the absolute best you're gonna build a BV much later in the game, you're far more likely to but a Negatron for Abyssal which Akali will still easily kill through.

Serika Zero1 votes

Ahri is a kite mage atm, Akali is an assassin. You can Q+AA for thunderlord. Then all in next time your Q is off cooldown.

I'm playing Akali, Ahri and Diana myself. Akali can't heal a Q+thunderlord from Ahri unless she has pots before Ahri can all in her (assuming Ahri hits skill shots).

Also, Akali starts her ult at 1 stack, which means right as she gets lv6, Ahri's busrt > Akali's burst for like 5 to 10 seconds (even with no previous poke)

Diana's lv6 burst is also stronger than both Akali and Ahri's. Still, Akali can be all-ined very easy and she has no escapes. While Ahri has her dashes she can use even over walls with ease. Akali only has targeted ones.

Akali is seen as a "bad" (or weak) assassin in terms of performance ever since her E nerf (unable to proc your Q mark with E). While Ahri is an all around pick, that can work in every team comp. She can build for kiting, she can make picks, she can wave clear and she can peal for her adc.

Akali can assassinate (if she had gold for items) or play tanky front liner role and hope that her team kills the enemy front line before she dies.

Akali sacrifices a lot for that burst, stickiness and manaless style. And when she goes in, she stays in. Unlike lovely Zed, LeBlank, Fizz who, go in.......... and then they go out for free >.> Fuck the "high reward, low risk assassin" riot is preaching right now.

NineTailedMystic1 votes

Ahri is classified as a burst mage. Yes I can harass her all pre-6, and probably even kill her once or twice, but when she finishes Gunblade, she can kill any squishy with relative ease since they buffed the base damage on Gunblade.

Diana can be escaped from with Ahri's ult as long as you survive the initial burst which you should at 6. If Akali has all 3 charges, Ahri cannot get away since Akali and chase dash for dash, flash for flash. Akali doesn't have to escape. She can just turn and try to kill her assailant and hope she bursts them down and heals through their finishing damage.

Akali is in a bad spot, because she's one of 'those' champions. Ones who are intentionally left weak due to their playstyle.

Hell, I have an easier time against Leblanc than I do Akali.

This is all coming from an Ahri OTP basically.

Serika Zero1 votes

Akali has 1 charge at lv6. It charges up in the next seconds 30s for one charge. That's 1 minute. Akali needs 1 minute to have all 3 charges after hitting lv 6 (unless she died with-in that time).

Next, Ahri has 3 dashes. Akali ends up having 3 dashes. Akali is melee, so she needs to dash once to get in range. Then Ahri can dash away. Then Akali dashes once more -> Ahri dashes away -> Akali uses her final dash -> Ahri dashes away again.

Its simple numbers, Ahri can escape Akali fairy easily. Ofc, if you build pure offense on Ahri, you will feel the pain 1 minute after lv6. While I agree that GunBlade is strong, so is item 3001 and its cheaper ;) combine that with the farm advantage you should have from lane (not even kills). You should have item 3001 item 1056 item 1056 (total gold 3550) by the time Akali gets item 3146 (3400 gold).

Then you can build further into CDR and mana or whatever you want. Akali HAS to get ahead or she is in a shitty spot if she builds AP. While the tank build is more forgiving.

So, lets go over it again shall we, regarding AP Akali: She has no escapes in lane. She has no wave clear. She has no pick potential. She has no peal potential. She has to snowball to win games. She has one of the weakest laning phases ever. She has no zoning tools, unless she is ahead. Then she can zone with her Q and pose aggressively. She is point and click. She is melee. She has sustain. She can stick to her target for extended period of time. She can assassinate people with ease when at equal or ahead. But due to shitty laning phase she will start behind and that's why she has to get ahead. Like every other multiple spells ap assassins (note: not fizz) item 3211 is a massive item against her. She uses energy, and together with her sustain, it allows her to win attrition wars vs other melees.

She has tradeoffs. Akali has been seen as a bad assassin ever since the E can no longer proc Q nerf. And that would have only given her some zoning tools and average laning phase.

Ahri has: Wave clear. Peal potential. Kite potential. Escapes, albeit she sacrifices her kill pressure if she uses her ultimate defensively. Outplay potential. Since her ultimate requires no target. Doesn't require to snowball for win. Average laning phase (not the best, nor the worst). Skill shot based - requires good aiming, so bad players gona suck at her Zoning tool, just like Akali, only available when she is ahead and is able to posture aggressively in lane. Ranged = easy farming Minimal sustain in lane, might as well have not had a passive tbh >.> Can chase a target very well (stickyness) Can assassinate people when at equal or ahead if they don't build resistances. Has mana.

If anything Ahri is ahead of Akali in terms of pros and cons. The one big thing Akali has over Ahri is: easier to play.

Tbh, LeBlank is a VERY DIFFICULT champion to play at average or good levels (easy to play at 'bad' level). I highly doubt you faced good LeBlanc players in silver often enough to leave mental scars. While Akali is....... you know.... point and click <3

NineTailedMystic1 votes

First, since it bothers me you brought it up, if you noticed I have like 30 ranked games total this season. I just don't really play ranked. I play maybe every two weeks ranked, and I'll probably stop at gold. My normals MMR is probably around high gold-low plat judging by my teammates S5 borders.

Second, I never said Akali was a good champion. She has been in a bad spot since like late S5. She has been intentionally dumpstered for a while by Riot. Still doesn't mean she's fun to play against. She has strengths and weaknesses which you kindly pointed out, just like Ahri, but can be pretty frustrating to play against since she's all point and click. Ahri can be guilty of this because if she's ahead WR can eat a good chunk of someone's HP alone.

Ahri may not require snowball to win, but it is rough playing Ahri from behind.

I do appreciate your responses even though they did sound a bit condescending at times.

Serika Zero2 votes

Sry, my bad about the "condescending part". It happens all the time. Some people say I'm arrogant, others that i'm hard headed and others that i have to strong opinions.

So, it ends up this way.

Great Ozymandius2 votes

The shroud needs to change. Late game it is too easily countered. Akali drops a shroud? Your support or anyone else can drop a pink ward, 100% negating the shroud for the teamfight.

Other stealth champions are not so severely countered by pinks. Shaco, for example, can play around a pink if he knows where it is. The pink can effectively zone him, and can keep him from getting to juicy targets in a teamfight, but it does not completely erase his q.

But with Akali, your shroud is a big "place pink ward here" sign.

I know you don't want Akali's kit to be changed. But Akali is currently balanced around the fact that her shroud is worthless late game (and her e is also pretty worthless since it cannot proc q's and it is basically an energy hole in teamfights). This means that Akali has to be given tons of damage on q and r, tons of mobility, and tons of spellvamp for her to be viable.

Shroud needs to provide an advantage late game if the rest of her kit is going to be fixed. However, you can't just make shroud immune to vision wards because this would make the shroud uncounterable.

So the shroud needs to provide more conditional invisibility. What needs to happen is that she is invisible to enemies outside the shroud when she is inside it and she is invisible to enemies inside the shroud when she is outside it. You could make it so enemies must be inside the shroud for at least .25 or .5 seconds to gain vision of her, which would help her with ducking inside and outside the shroud. You could fine tune it in other ways. You could let it function as a blind, so enemies inside it cannot see outside it at all, which would give it a huge amount of power (including for Akali's who are behind, which would allow her to benefit her team even when behind, which in turn reduces her binary nature). Combine this with two other changes: Akali does not reveal herself by using spells if she would otherwise be invisible; and allow q's to stack, while reducing the damage for procing a single q but greatly increase the damage for procing multiple q's. This allows her upfront damage to be nerfed, forcing her to play around her (very) strong shroud to stack q's and then delete an opponent. For example, the damage on 1 q stack could be fairly small while the damage from procing three q's could be stratospheric, instantly deleting an adc with negatron cloak. This would do two things -- she wouldn't be able to instantly delete targets when snowballing. However, with careful use of shroud and q stacks, she could still delete squishies even when behind.

This would fix most of her problems -- she could provide utility and still assasinate when behind, assassination would require skillful use of shroud and setting up q stacks, and she would not snowball as hard. This is a healthy assassin playstyle.

I know you don't like this, but it is the only way to make the shroud meaningful late game while still allowing counterplay.

MunchCrunchLunch2 votes

so basically. EVERYTHING?

Tengrichan2 votes

Wanted to tell the same.Her current kit does not work.Some parts of the kit may or may not work with a new kit.So even if you like her current kit start to get used to the thought of a new kit because it will happen whether you like it or not.

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