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Let's talk about the state of Akali

Miracle Kid·4/18/2015, 12:16:24 AM·6 votes·1,362 views

Hello everyone. I was an Akali main that reached diamond 1 last season. Ignore my current ranked struggles (plat 2) lol... anyway...

I used to LOVE playing Akali. She was a fun assassin that had a lot of mobility and just enough damage and reliability to be a decent/ strong pick in certain team comps. Let's say Akali top (I prefer Akali top lane), Yasuo mid, Nautilus jungle, Vayne Nami bot. For this scenario let's assume the other team's picks are Riven top, Ahri mid, Zac jungle, Graves Leona bot. I remember back in the good old days, if I played a teamfight correctly, I would wait for Leona, Zac, and Riven engage, ult to the backline, put my shroud down when they focus me, zhonyas, and the rest is simple, juke/ kite during my CD's and clean up. If I played a fight incorrectly, I would ult the backline prematurely, get Leona, Zac, whatever ulted/ focused and die immediately. This my friends, in my opinion, was a fair balance for Akali.

Now let's talk about the current state of Akali. With the removal of defensive bonuses granted while standing in her twilight shroud, ult range nerf, and removal of crescent slash procing her mark, how does Akali do now?

Current Akali, still the champion I love, still does a lot of single target hybrid damage. Akali is still very mobile, very fun. However, these consecutive nerfs to her kit have left her in an awkward state of not being able to actually do damage, while also having trouble surviving fights whatsoever.

Why should I choose Akali anymore? Diana is tankier, does more damage, more reliable, better for teamfighting, and just as mobile. There are other picks as well, but I remember diana being referred to as "Akali 2.0". Now they aren't even both good picks if you ask me. Akali is a shadow (ahaha) of her former self, and I really would like my fellow summoners' opinions on the matter. Please be constructive in the discussion, and I will be around to further explain my thoughts and opinions, and discuss! Thanks for reading.

15 Comments

InSingedWeTrust4/18/2015, 12:48:49 AM5 votes

Her snowballing potential is still the same, it's just getting used to weaving auto attacks into her initial burst combo. I never used E aside from the initial engage, because energy costs. She still plays roughly the same for me, but I was never a seasoned Akali player. The ult range did hurt a bit, but is still manageable imo.

Are4/18/2015, 1:07:44 AM4 votes

IMO, the E proc removal wasn't as bad as the ult nerf. The ult nerf seriously screwed over Akali for me, it's harder to catch out champions like Tristana, Caitlyn, and Kalista, who Akali is made to kill.

It was a real pity that double detonation has gotten harder, but they didn't need to nerf her ult range as well. Depending on the champion, you need to use two dashes to proc once because they get away so quickly.

They could at the very least buff her attack speed.

A Corny Name4/18/2015, 12:28:03 AM4 votes

The removal of the e was what pushed it over for me. Her cds are so low it becomes such a chore to weave autos just to proc her q

arcinex4/18/2015, 3:46:26 AM2 votes

Wait?? Akali is a state? We have 51 states now?

Purse Wayde4/18/2015, 12:51:07 AM2 votes

the change of the e proc completely ruined her and they know it. I have made a post to petition them to revert the change.

Miracle Kid4/18/2015, 1:44:51 AM1 votes

Bump

EvilRabbitt4/18/2015, 4:56:37 AM1 votes

I might have been the one saying Akali 2.0 is Diana.

Akali: Passive: Loads of stats Q- damage+energy refund W- Invis/Slow E- aoe damage R- Dash damage (tri-proc base, re-proc death)

Diana: Passive: Massive damage 3rd auto (MASSIVE damage, hard to overstate) Q- Damage W- Damage and Shielding, chance to double if hits 3 times (so basically 1X, 2X, or 4X) E- A pull to base and slow (large radius) R- Dash. Free proc on recent Q victims

... I'm voting Diana when I need an assassin. I used to pick Akali for the same reason as Katarina- strong clean-up. =/ Akali buffs?

Bard in a Diaper4/18/2015, 5:24:22 AM1 votes

translation - i got to d1 last season playing a broken champ now im at my true skill level, please make her broken again

shes "balanced" right now which isnt good enough to be played in diamond, doesnt mean she needs buffs though.

Saianna4/18/2015, 12:32:11 PM1 votes

Akali used to be fun to play as, but unfon to play against. No matter how great were you denying her growth in mid lane, she'd still get kills from roaming enough to snowball trough the rest of the game.

That said, I do believe thet Riot once again gone too far with nerfs. She'd need something back, but not too much otherwise we'd have next "akali op" threads.

( One thing i'd like Akali to have are fluid Q-R-AA animations, so she doesn't stop whenever she attacks/casts spells. )

Sire Hippington4/18/2015, 1:17:36 PM1 votes

While i agree that akali isn't in a great spot atm, the changes were justigfyed. Akali needs some smallscale rework like ryze. The major problem with her is that the entire kit is failproof, just get in ultrange and your bound to hit every single bit off damage you have. The only part that sometimes can be hard to sneak in befor a target gets out of range is the AA, which now is needed for Q, but you have 3 tries anyway...

When akali is strong, where is little you can do, she just gets into her ultrange, points the courser on you and facerolls. Getting out alive or reaching a protected target is morecomblicated, just as with most other assasins, but her laneing, 1v1 and cleanup were just pretty braindead.

Back befor nerf, she didn't even need an AA unless for a sheen proc, and the combination of defstats and massive spellvamp made it impossible to douel her and quite ard to kill her befor she takes out an carry in a teamfight depite pinkward.

However, i feel like they first need to do something to stealth befor really working on Akali. Right now, steakth is a full hi or miss thing. Either it works and is incredible strong, or the enemie has stealthdetection and it's totally useless, I'd prefer haveing no way of detecting stealth enemies, but theefor adjusting stealth, especially longduration stealth. Maybe putting a reksai-vision effeckt on stealthed enemies would be interesting.