I felt like we needed an actual grounded discussion on Akali instead of just "OMG SHES SO OP" and talk about why. Frankly, I love Akali, character, kit and all, shes fun, infact I think I was an Akali main. But I do think she's kinda overpowered due to her being able to snowball waaaay too easily, losing lane? simply roam to other lanes and get fed instantly. But thats just my opinion. What do you think?
FiendOfOne2 votesAlright, actual pros: HUGE power spike at 6. Reset champ. Good escape (since W gives vision). High burst (duh, assassin). Very mobile.
Cons: While relatively easy to learn the basics of, Akali is actually pretty difficult to master. CC pwns her hard. If she ISN'T snowballing, she won't snowball due to item dependency. Weak laning pre-6. Highly squishy. Is beaten by trinket items.
She's one of the 'freelo' champs. I realy hate that word, but it's true. She's powerful in silver and bronze, but once you start getting into the level where people are counterpicking, she has SO MANY hard counters that it's relatively easy. People don't really know how to respond to her in lower levels. Example: Annie. While normally an easily counterable champ, Akali doesn't really stand a chance. Annie gets her stun up, then just nukes Akali into oblivion. Akali is forced to build MR just to survive in lane, and is not getting her snowball effect or her items that she REALLY needs to do well.
Learning how to counter champs like Akali, Yi, and WW are key to getting better at the game. While VERY powerful at lower levels of play, they have tons of counterplay. Learning how to counterplay is how you get better at the game. Notably, I am imperfect at this as well - hence being silver.
disregardable2 votesItem-dependent is a good way to put it; it's the reason why Akali is not in fact OP. All of her abilities do approximately 0 damage, regardless of the level. Her attack pattern is ult->q+e, hide in w for a few seconds for CD to reset, and repeat. It is hard to kill anyone if they aren't already practically dead (thank you jungle/adc) or you aren't 2 levels above them with Zhonyas.
It's really fun when it works, but let's be honest. It doesn't come close to always working.
évy2 votespersonally akali has 1 use- killing shes isnt well in seiges.. shes easily shut down by 1 stun (shes a squishy shit) or slapping a pink on her shroud imo its hard to carry as akali.. aswell as most other melee assassins as to do your damage you have to get into melee range and usually ends with you getting destroyed after getting hard cc'ed akali could work at lower levels of play but she adds nothing to high levels of play especially against good players when youre behind there are much better assassin options like zed who has a strong lane phase and good poke for seiges and splitpushing or fizz who can flank and has way more mobility and aoe
Hayaishi1 votesShe lacks too much counterplay and shouldn't be allowed as strong as she currently is.
Radial1 votesNope. Not enough dueling power to 1v1 anyone unless you're already fed or the enemy is far behind.
WeihGuy1 votesShe gets hard countered by some champs, but those who don't simply don't stand a single chance vs her. It's just not fun when you know you cannot outplay her no matter what you do. Massive spell vamp, amazing burst with 800 range dashes and resets... She certainly isn't as OP as some people make her out to be, but she needs a change. She also gets really boring to play when the enemy can just put a pink down. You basically become just a face roll champ that hopes to get a kill before you die.
PerishSoftly1 votesI really despise her Spellvamp passive that scales with AD. Have we noticed that just by getting Gunblade she reaches about 33% Spell Vamp from her passive and Gunblade alone? What if an ADC got to 33% lifesteal with a single item that also let them deal mixed damage? People would be screaming about how insane it is.
My problem with Akali is that she alone is still designed to take advantage of hybrid scaling, and can still do so. Eve got mauled in the damage department AND survivability so she can't build more than 2 damage items without getting blown up. Jax pretty much goes tanky AD all the time because it benefits him more to get Bork and TF than it does to build AP or mixed.
Akali gets Vamp from AD, E from AD, MD on hit from AP, and QER damage from AP. Additionally she doesn't really have any items that really prevent her burst. Banshee's gets popped by a single Q in her rotation of 3 or more, SV just gives you more life for her to chew through...and that's pretty much it in terms of viable MR for any AD or tank. APs can snag an Abyssal for an effective 65 MR differential, but that means a whole lot of nothing against Akali's E and auto attacks that she is rewarded for building AD for.
Akali is very tanky when played well, for the twin reasons of mobility and self-sustain from Vamp that make her a nightmare to try killing when she's in the middle of ripping your face off. That she can tack on resistances with Abyssal, Zhonya's, and GA merely compounds the problem.
ShemsuHor2 votesAdc's have attack speed steroids not burst. Adc's are ranged champions that dont require being point blank to do damage.
At least 1/4 of Akali's damage is from her auto attack which she gets no spell vamp from. Akali is not tanky. shes good in low level play because no one gets pink wards or uses the proper lens against her. If you struggle against akali play a champion with a stun and buy a couple pink wards.
ShemsuHor1 votesAkali is great in lower level play. (pre plat) People dont buy pink wards or upgrade lens when fighting her. Her pre 6 is shit so you can totally bully her. She does massive burst and with proper engage teams she is quite phenomenal.
