My Ideas For The Akali Rework Coming In The Assassin Class Update

Akali Ideas Skills: - Passive: Same, maybe remove spell vamp. - Q: Akali holds up to two kama at a time. Upon activation, Akali throws a kama in a straight line stopping at the first unit hit and marking that unit for 6 seconds. Targets can be marked with a max of two kama at a time. Any attacks against a marked target will recover the kama currently marking the target, and consume the mark causing bonus magic damage and generating 40 energy each. This damage is significantly increased against targets marked with both kama. There is a .25 second cooldown on throwing your second kama if available. Missed kama will disapear and Akali generates new kama at a rate of 1 per 8 seconds.
- W: Akali throws down a smoke bomb at a targeted location that lasts for 8 seconds. Champions cannot see into the smoke bomb, but while inside champions can see out with reduced vision.(Opposite of Graves smoke bomb. This includes Akali) Inside the smoke bomb there is a unique totem that Akali can use her Shadow Dance to dash to. Dashing to the totem breaks the totem but refunds one shadow essence for Akali's ult.
- E: Akali spins damaing all units in a circle around her. The amount of damage is increased based on the number of kama Akali currently has stored. If Akali hits a champion marked with two kama, she gains a significant speed boost decaying over one second, consuming both marks, and recovering both kama. If Akali casts this skill while inside her smoke screen, the smoke screen will disapear. - Ult: Same.

Explanation: Riot has said that Akali is a good option for one of the major reworks in the assassin update. This is due to Akali's playstyle being very one dimensional. In her current state, Akali either snowballs out of control and ends the game by herself, or she is completely useless. This mainly due to her only form of defense being rendered completely useless by a pink ward. Riot has also said that they are trying to limit invisibility from the game. With those statements in mind I aimed to give Akali a more dynamic playstyle while giving counterplay mechanics to both the Akali player and her opponent. I also wanted to keep her true to her theme of being the assassin that strikes from shadows.

Passive: Akali is the premier mixed damage assassin so to keep her that way I wanted to leave the passive unchanged. The only thing I can see changing is the removal of the spell vamp. Otherwise her dual scaling gives her a nice niche as makes her unique.

Q: Currently Akali is entirely point and click based with no special interactions on her skills. This leads to an extremely linear and boring playstyle. This new Q adds some skill to Akali and allows the player to deal much more damage if they are able to hit their skills correctly. This new mechanic will benefit more skilled players and punish players who do not use it effectively. This also means you have to properly use your skills in a rotation rather than just mash your keyboard and watch the enemy disapear.

W: Akali's current w is the biggest issue with her kit overall. Either it is super overpowered providing 8 seconds of invisibility and allowing you to wait till your cooldowns come back up, or it is entirely useless if the enemy drops a pink ward. Other than her ult, Akali has no real mobility and no way of exiting a fight after she dives. This new W will provide her many options on how to use it properly. By stopping champions from seeing inside it, Akali can still gain the invisibility and shadow theme she has while also allowing the enemy counterplay and the ability to fight her without just using a pink ward. The Akali player has to be smart about how she uses her W because neither her or her teammates can see in the smoke as well. Once inside the smoke, champions can see all units in the smoke and they can see outside the smoke with very reduced vision range. This will lead to small skirmishes occuring inside the smoke with enemies and teammates being unable to see unless they enter as well. The totem in the smoke gives Akali increased mobility with the ability to use it offensively or defensively. Offensively she can use the smoke to dash in and close the gap on enemies running away. Defensively she can use the totem to create distance between her and her opponent, or use it to reposition to dodge skill shots and crowd control. The one time use of the totem means the player must decide between offensive or defensive because they will not be able to ult back to the shadows.

E: Akali's current E is a brainless mechanic where you just spam it every second it is available while diving. This new E will give her increased cooldown on it so she must decide when it is appropriate to use it. The two kama mechanic gives her trade windows in lane, or the ability to flee from an opponent chasing her down, however she does significantly reduced damage by not having the kama stored with her. This means the skill can now be used for utitilty or damage depending on the situation. Also the interaction with this new E and her Smoke bomb will cause the player to have to think before midlessly using it. If the player uses it too soon and dispells the smoke, they leave themselves wide open to the damage dealers on the enemy team.

Ult: Akali's ult is core to her concept and I didn't want to change anything about it. This is her gap closer, her damage tool, and it fits her concept of attacking from the shadows swiftly.

With these changes Akali now has real counterplay potential and so do her opponents. It's no longer as simple as, "buy pinks, Akali dies". Her Q charge system gives her the ability to do more damage the more skilled the player is. Her W can now be used much like a Zed shadow where she can use it dash somewhere one time and if she chooses wrong she will most likely die. I also like this idea since Akali and Zed are both shadow ninja although they fight for different causes. Her new E now gives the player a decision to make between damage or utility and when used effectively can save her life. All in all I think this rework accomplishes what riot is looking to do, add healthy counterplay, unique and dynamic gameply, and balance.