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Akali is ridiculously weak early game

nymtheraven·4/26/2016, 5:13:40 AM·1 votes·1,189 views

Riot, why is akali so weak early game? Her q does nothing unless you auto attack after, but then the cd is so slow she cant really follow up with anything but auto attacks, which dont hit for much. She is VERY squishy so she cant really melee fight and she is a melee champ. She does minimal damage to champions. W isn't really threatening. It might score you a few minions or hits but really lacks any sort of actual threat early game. Akali can be pretty easily pushed out of lane. Her cd's are way too slow to be threatening until she has completed items. Pre 6 she might burst down half an enemy champ's life, but then she is dead cause she has no follow up, and so squishy. Her q poke doesnt really do much. At level 6 she is threatening, but by then she has usually lost lane and is starved. If she is lucky she will pick up some lucky kills by ganking side lanes ect. and snowball into late game, but that isn't a viable way to win consistently. Why is this champion so damned weak compared to others? I really like this champion, but it is so frustrating having absolutely no useful tools to lane with until level 6. Why would you make a champion like this? You say you have a rework coming at the end of next year. It needs to be sooner. I don't know of any other champions that are this completely unviable pre 6. Akali is REAAAALLY strong in the mods where she doesnt need to compete for farm like aaram or ascension. I rock peoples socks off in those. But she is CRAP at farming lane phase. I've watched youtube vids and it seems you nerfed her pretty hard in the past. Could you do something about that? Maybe lower q's cd, or increase its base dmg so she can poke effectively? Maybe stronger early on? You could increase e's early dmg so she can clear minions quicker. you could give her higher early spell vamp to make up for her squishy-ness. I mean she is only vizble early game jungle. But her clear speed is slow compared to other jg. However she can gank lanes and farm without getting pushed out.

5 Comments

Kr1sys4/26/2016, 5:28:51 AM2 votes

Because she's a monster later, and level 6 doesn't take very long to get to.

Akali is SO HOT4/26/2016, 6:26:36 AM2 votes

She powerspikes too hard at level 6 for her to be allowed to have a good early game. Right now her early game is probably a little too weak in my opinion and she doesn't powerspike as hard as she used to because of all of her nerfs but w/e

Takazaki4/26/2016, 5:30:11 AM1 votes

inb4 triggered session 4 players show up

Gwythyr4/26/2016, 5:33:52 AM1 votes

Alrighty. So Akali is my favorite champion in the game (bring on the "nuub no skill champ" BS) and to an extent I agree with you. However after playing tons of games on her I realized there are ways around these issues, which is probably why riot leaves her as is. Also, if she did have much stronger poke in the early game then she would be very unbalance. The most probable reason that she is weak pre-6 is because once she has it her combo is exceedingly deadly (especially combined with ignite and thunderlord's decree). *Sidenote: she did receive a buff of sorts on her Q with the amount of energy it refunds which helps with the waveclear. Anyway! on to my points.

Akali is best Mid game after getting Hextech Gunblade and a couple of kills. Everyone knows this. Everyone hates this. Her burst is insane. She can chase you down and just ult a minion to get out of range of the turret. Your complaint is the same one that nearly everyone has with Akali. To fix this here are suggestions that work for me:

  1. If you want poke early take your Q first and W second. When you see the enemy go for a CS simply throw your Q onto them and wait for their auto attack animation to run up and proc your Q. Believe it or not that proc is where most of her damage lies. Her ult is a gap closer but it isn't the core of her damage. Her Q's detonation does the most damage by far in her kit. If you're struggling to land the early Q's while they auto attack, simply sit back and farm till level two. Cast your shroud around their minions while also casting your Q on the enemy. Wait in your shadow until the Q CD is nearly over then auto attack the enemy. This will proc your Q and then you can cast a second Q almost immediately for follow up damage. Since you're already in AA range just auto again for more burst. Combo this with E once you have it.

  2. If you're annoyed with how squishy she is run more armor or magic resist in your rune page depending on who you're fighting. It can be annoying to run two rune pages for one champ but it can be worth it depending on the situation. Also having 7 bonus AD in her rune page activates her passive at level 1, that way you gain spell vamp right from the start of the game for some in-lane sustain.

  3. Practice farming under the turret before 6. Because people know you are weak early on many players will attempt to turret dive you. Even with just a Q, auto, E combo and a turret shot you can kill many champions before level 6. It is all about timing. Under turret use your Q's activation to get the caster minions down just enough that you can 1 hit them after a single turret shot. Use E for the other two and an auto on each will finish the job.

  4. Be patient. She is built to have her ultimate. I know it sucks sometimes, but those first 5 levels are only the very start of the game. If you feel she's too weak early on simply play back and wait for your time to shine! As annoying as it is this works. You can bully other laners but it depends on the matchup and how well you use the abilities that you have access to at the time.

I hope this helps even a little! If you have any other thoughts or questions I'm more than happy to discuss tactics with you. She is my absolute favorite and I'm happy to see someone else enjoys her as well!

LilxPaprika4/26/2016, 6:12:16 AM1 votes

her passive scales a lot that's probably why. her late is disgusting though.