I've seen her go mid, but I like to play her top even though I do rather badly. What do I build when I take her top lane and do I build when I take her mid? Please include masteries and skill build. Thank you and have a nice day.
Top: Start cloth armor or doran's shield against AD champs. Build armguard if you're losing. Build Gunblade if you're winning. Run teleport so you're relevant.
Mid: Start boots. Build gunblade.
Q > E > W.
Mid: Q1. E2. Q3. W4.
Top: Q1. W2. Q3. E4. Shroud allows you to trade better in lane and will help you escape early ganks.
Personally, I'd start with some defensive start like Cloth Armor or Null Magic Mantle regardless of which lane I play Akali in. Akali's power spike REALLY rests in her ultimate's gap closing abilities, so unless you are against a Melee champion you are confident about taking on early game (hint: Not many champions actually fit here), you want to try to play defensively and farm as much as possible so that your gold and thus items are ready for post-6 fights. Flask I'd say is slightly more notable of an option for top lane since up there, sustain is just that much more valuable imo.
Most of the time, you're just going to generally want to rush Hextech Gunblade
, starting from Hextech Revolver
, as it's one of the best items you'll get in terms of both supplying Akali with raw stats and the sustain to survive her first fight. That said, by the time you hit level 6, you should at least have a Revolver by then, and should be looking for opportunities to fight. DO NOT rush in willy nilly. Wait for the opponent to blow an important cool down on a minion first, then instantly jump on them after. If you do this and you are smart about using your Ultimate (Use one to jump them after they use an ability on a minion, use your second after they blow a gap closer, use the third if they use another gap closer or as an 'execute'), you can usually win most trades.
Sorcerer's Shoes
is her primary boot choice to start scaling, whereas Boots of Mobility
is when you want to roam and gank other lanes. Buy conditionally.
Another important item in Akali's shopping list is Zhonya's Hourglass
. At this point, you are three items in and need to start building conditionally.
- You almost always want to buy this item, though timing will vary. I like it as a 5th item if the opposing team builds no Magic Resist, but if you see the opponent rushing Magic Resist early on, don't be afraid to take this as a 4th item.
- This is how you deal with tanks. With proper shadow manipulation and maybe a well timed Zhonya's, many tanks will simply melt to you if you have Void Staff and Liandry's together to take them down.
- These are basically your 'fighting' items. I've seen mixed views on both of these items, but personally, I find them great items for sweeping low MR teams.
- Finally, this is your mark of death. This is for high priority targets that under any and all circumstances MUST DIE.
To note, this is how you build Assassin Akali. You can basically consider normal tank or tanky items like Banshee's Veil
or Guardian's Angel
to be part of the 'conditional 3' items you buy.
As for skills, aside from the obvious 'get your ultimate when possible', always max your Q first, as it's your big non-ultimate source of Magic Damage and one of the only ways you can farm safely in lane, max your E second for more damage, and max your E last as you won't need its utility to scale most of the time.
I don't agree that no one here has mentioned rylais as a key item for akali.
any half decent team will keep pinks on hand or upgraded sweepers, so you need the HP to sustain, it also makes you literally impossible to run from, and gives you a means to get away from enemys with the slow being more significant on her Q
gunblade / rylais / blasting / sorcs are ideal for her, last 2 items depend on what you wanna accomplish
anyone that is telling you to rush gunblade is wrong. it's actually a really gold inefficient item when completed. just build a revolver and leave it like that until last. build 
or something similar. all also solid; rylais is mandatory. generally try not to get the belt for it until you can finish the item; finish sorcs first instead
edit: also is a really bad idea in most cases. can be okay if there are lots of tanks
