An Akali Champ of the Week is exactly what I needed after the mess that is Mordekaiser. I’ve been spending some good time on the melee ninja, darting around the map and dominating my opponents. Where Mordekaiser felt dependent on my enemies, Akali allows me to focus on my own play. Every fight feels like a puzzle, working out just how hard I can hit an enemy to grab that last hit, refreshing my Essence of Shadow for a dash out from under turret fire and back to safety. I’ve only lost one game with her so far, thanks to a Singed player who thought he needed to troll. I was 20-4.

I have a couple buddies with whom I often chat about game balance. Whenever we’re talking about whether a champion is OP, we always talk about the two tiers of OP. The lower tier is a champion that is godlike in the hands of a skilled and attentive player. The upper tier is champion that any player, regardless of skill, tends to have a good game with. Akali is absolutely lower-tier OP. With even the most moderate farm she becomes a wrecking ball at level six, able to burst down just about anyone that isn’t a true tank. With a little bit of map awareness she can quickly take over a game, cutting down squishy champions and building a massive item farm. Once she has Rylai’s and Lichbane, very little can stop her.

I think I’m going to save the Akali counter discussion for another post. For now, I’ll leave you with my rune and build choices so you can start tearing up Summoner’s Rift. I use the runes pictured above, taking AP quints, 7 physical damage marks and two magic pen., flat armor seals, and flat AP glyphs. The total stat bonus is 6.6 physical damage (rounded to 7), 1.9 MPen, 13 armor, and 24 AP. With the 3 damage from offensive masteries, this gives Akali both her passive bonuses without any items, allowing me to take boots and three pots at level one.

As for build, I now rush Rylai’s exclusively. I tried Gunblade a few times, and though it was fun in the early game against single targets, Rylai’s gives her much more survivability along with a slow on every skill, not just a targeted nuke on a 60-second cooldown. From there, I take Lichbane followed by Deathcap unless I’m having serious survivability problems. As for boots, it’s really up to you. I like Sorcerer’s Boots, but I take Merc Treads often for the added survivability.

Check back this weekend for more on this amazing assassin. I’ll cover the characters that counter her best and some methods for being successful against a tank-heavy team.

I’ve only had the time for four games today with Akali, but between that and my time on the TR I feel like I have enough data to offer up some initial impressions.

First, I like Akali. The energy system provides just enough spam to keep me happy while still limiting DPS output to a reasonable degree. That said, the fact that Akali is melee makes her incredibly susceptible to CC/AoE damage dealers, and without her own hard CC she can be easy to counter.

For my first game I set out to try AD. It was broken for most of her duration on the TR so it seemed right to give it a go. Akali is a great farmer, especially if you have a lane partner capable of some decent harass. I had quickly put together my Rageblade and a Phage (which I didn’t love). My burst was solid and I was healing well from her passive, but I was missing something. My next item was a BF sword, and in the time it took me to farm that (which wasn’t long) I watched my damage go from good to just below mediocre. She doesn’t have enough of a CC to keep an opponent close and her Mark of the Assassin (Q) and ultimate are both laughable as AD. Mark is so bad as AD you shouldn’t even waste the energy to use it. By the time I had a Bloodthirster and Infinity (yeah, my farm was huge in an average length game) I was cutting people down fairly quickly, though mostly through right clicks, which kills a lot of the “feel” of the character. Crescent Slash feels extremely lackluster the further the game gets, mostly because of the crappy damage coefficient. I know she’s meant ot be a hybrid toon, which is fine if you have a mix of AP and damage, but consider a skill like Volley, which is used at range, covers a wide radius, gets 100% of your attack damage plus bonus damage and shares a similar cooldown. For the number geeks, at 300 attack damage, Crescent Slash will deal 310 damage (180 from AD ratio plus the 130 bonus damage). Volley, by comparison, would deal 380.

For the second game I went AP and was similarly disappointed. The ult felt better, but her ratios are pretty bad for Mark (40%) and downright deplorable on Crescent (30%). Without a monster farm she is hardly something to fear, especially since she has to be on top of you to deal any damage. The only person I felt like I was rocking was a Zilean who had built zero survivability, and once he was down I was usually out of energy, leaving me woefully exposed to his allies. Consider that at 300 AP – which is a lot if you aren’t sitting on a 20-stack Soulstealer and can’t benefit from Archangels – her Crescent is dealing a meager 270 damage while Mark is hitting for 540 (including the proc). Compare that to Anivia’s Flash Frost – which you can proc for extra damage if you’re good – hitting for 660, stunning, slowing, and synergizing with her other nuke. I think increasing her ratios a bit would make AP feel much more viable. Since shroud deals no damage, she needs the other skills to hit hard. I feel like her passive is meant to counteract her melee vulnerability, but by level 10 a 20% spell vamp isn’t going to save you from much. In most cases you’re healing back something on the order of 60-90 damage for each cast. That’s fine if you’re at a distance and capable of running but when you’re buried in the mix it’s not going to help.

On the whole, I think it’s still very difficult to make melee DPS viable without some sort of survivability. Garen works well because he has both passive and active damage reduction, a speed boost, and slow immunity. Though you could argue that Shroud adds survivability, your enemy still knows where you are and can spend AOE skills to blow you up without much trouble.

As I play her more, you can bet I’ll be making more posts about her viability. Stay tuned.

If you’re keeping up with the announcement forums you know Akali is upon us. She’ll finally be joining her brothers, Shen and Kennen, for battle in the League of Legends. The Test Realm has been absolutely packed with players trying to get a look at her. I was lucky enough to get several games in so I thought it would only be fair to give you guys my impressions. As we now have the “new champion approaches” post from Riot, I can also offer the official skill list for your perusal.

Without further ado, the Akali skill list:

Mark of the Assassin: Akali throws her kama at an enemy, dealing damage and marking her target for several seconds. If she hits a marked target, the mark will deal additional damage. This is your bread and butter AP damage skill, even if it is inappropriately named (seriously, what assassin lets you know you’re marked?). It scales with ability power at a .4 ratio for both the initial strike and the secondary hit. This is what a fed Akali will use to cut you in half.

Twilight Shroud: Akali throws down a smoke bomb at a target area. While in the area, Akali becomes stealthed. Performing an action breaks stealth for a second. Enemies in the area have reduced movement speed and attack speed. This is the most “ninja” of Akali’s skills. It drops a circle on the ground about the radius of Nasus‘ Spirit Fire, visible to all players. When Akali is in the circle she cannot be seen for the duration that the circle is active (I believe it’s 6.5 seconds at rank 1). It also slows attack and movement speed of all enemy units in the circle. It’s not a bad skill, but it’s not great either. I haven’t played it much on 5v5 but on 3v3 I used it mostly as an escape mechanic, though occasionally the slow would get me a kill. I would love to see them give this a small (maybe 15%) movement speed boost for Akali as well. The slow improves along with the duration as you rank up.

Crescent Slash: Akali hits all units around her for damage scaling off both her attack damage and ability power. The bread and butter damage skill, this thing hits in about the radius of Malphite’s Ground Slam. It gains 60% of your AD and 30% of your AP along with a base damage modifier. It’s great for picking other Akali players off in the Shroud when they’re low.

Shadow Dance (ultimate): Akali moves through shadows to quickly strike her target, dealing damage and consuming an Essence of Shadow charge. Akali recharges Essence of Shadow charges periodically, max 3 stacks. This skill gives Akali all of her feel. It has great range, is up – typically with 3 stacks – every time you need it, and can be used for farming, harassment, whatever. Much like Ezreal, Akali can be tough to target when she’s using this skill. It’s only on a two second cooldown and it improves from there, making this your go-to skill for dishing out quick damage. Coupled with Mark, most targets won’t get away from Akali over 40% after a full combo.

Twin Disciplines (passive):
Discipline of Might – Upon obtaining 20 ability power, Akali’s melee attacks deal additional magic damage. The bonus magic damage is increased for every 5 ability power gained afterwards.
Discipline of Force – Upon obtaining 10 attack damage, Akali gains spell vamp. She gains additional spell vamp for every 20 attack damage gained afterwards. I’m completely unimpressed by this aspect of Akali’s playstyle. Might only hits hard if you have high attack damage (it’s a percentage based increase on your AD). Force only heals well if you have high AP. This doesn’t encourage one build over the other, it encourages a strict hybrid to maximize both your damage dealing potential and your survivability. This is further emphasized with the damage scaling on Crescent Slash and the fact that Mark scales by AP only. If there was one thing I would change it would be her passive. The Mark/Slash issue just points to viability for both builds. Adding another level of dual-scaling encourages those weird hybrid builds the new champions seem destined for. It’s not that I’m opposed to hybrid builds, but that there aren’t enough items to support it. Guinsoo’s, sure, but what then? Until we have better itemization for true hybrids I’ll remain displeased with the effort to push players in that direction.

Despite my distaste for her passive, I think Akali will be a lot of fun She still has excellent damage output, and her twitchy playstyle is something I’ve really enjoyed on Kennen. In fact, I’ll probably build her a lot like I do Kennen – heavy magic penetration with enough early AP to completely carry a team. From just a few practice games I get the feeling that she’ll snowball fairly well as AP but has the farming capability to make AD viable. I still think AP is the spec, though. Ranged damage dealers far outshine their melee counterparts in most situation. Yes, even on TT. There are a select few melee toons that do well there – I don’t think Akali will be one of them. Not as AD, anyway.

The Test Realm caught an update today, and it first looked like just a couple tweaks for a short list of heroes. As it turns out, it’s the Akali patch. The last in the trio of ninjas has joined her brothers and she looks to be the most “ninja” of the bunch. Akali is a melee assassin who uses a short range throw, much like Shen, and has a stealth/slow mechanic similar to Rikimaru from DotA.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to test Akali before practice game creation was disabled around midnight. On the whole, she sounds interesting, though I think a lot of people will struggle to be successful with her. Her Q skill is like Vorpal Blade from what I can tell, but when attacked it consumes the mark effect to deal bonus damage. Her W is a smoke cloud that stealths her and slows enemies in the area. Her E skill is a splash damage effect and her ultimate seems to be like a rogue’s shadow step from WoW. The ult has a 2/1.5/1 second cooldown, though you need an Essence of Shadow to use it, which charges every 30/25/20 seconds, much like Corki’s Missile Barrage and the max is three instead of seven.

The only other things I can tell you is that the Test Realm champion info screen shows a “Bruce Lee Akali” skin, so you can dream about what that will look like. I’ll post more info as soon as I have it.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve been not-so-patiently waiting for news on Akali, the last of the ninja trio. After the long wait, we finally have…concept art! Okay, this isn’t exactly the news I was hoping for but it’s something, and with the other champions release has followed shortly after this kind of preview showed up. I’m really hoping for a Wednesday evening TR launch, but I kinda doubt it. I’m content to wait another week, though.

I do wish the image told us a little bit more. From what I can gather Akali is melee and will likely be some sort of assassin. I would not be surprised to see some kind of stealth mechanic. She is a ninja, after all. Really, with all the community complaints about the ninjas not really being very ninja, Riot kinda has to pull through on this one.

In any case, I’ll be ready when she launches. I’m sitting on a couple thousand IP and I’ve played everyone else (except Eve). Anyone else excited about this chick?