I thought I might get a little inspiration for the Champ of the Week from last night’s Fearless Gamer League of Legends Monday and it turns out I was right. I had a lot of fun in a game with Akali, a champion I hadn’t spent much time with until burning through something like 18000 IP a couple weeks ago to buy a rune page specifically for her. Since that time I’ve started to really appreciate her playstyle a bit more and to see how much she can contribute to a team. I’m really excited to name Akali my Champ of the Week.

I’ve been screwing around with a few different builds as I’ve played her recently, but I’d really like to spend the week focusing on when a build works and doesn’t work, and how to stay viable if you get wedged into a duo lane. I think the obvious solution to that problem is to not play Akali if you’ll be in a duo lane, but Akali requires a lot of rune specialization. If players want to get serious about her, chances are she’ll be one of very few champions that player can afford for some time. I may spend a game or two playing with a basic mage rune setup, but frankly, I don’t think she fares very well in levels 1-5 without her own build.

Check back later in the week for epic tales of my leaps across Summoner’s Rift. Chances are good that I’ll get caught under a turret more often than anyone reasonably should.

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If you played Shen or Akali this past week, you probably noticed some incredible skins in the skin selection screen for each champion. Both Shen and Akali got Blood Moon skins, which are now available from the store.

That Shen skin is definitely one of the best skins I’ve seen in this game, to the point that I hope Riot can find a way to balance him so that I see him in the game more often. I don’t really think he’s OP, but he does seem to get banned an awful lot and I can’t stand his global ult.

I like the Akali skin, though I wish she was actually wearing the mask. I’ve actually been playing Akali quite a bit, to the point that I might have snagged that skin at full price with a full mask cover.

One of the great things about LoL is the endless possibility for expansion. There can always be new heroes, new maps, new game modes, etc. Those things need to fit well into the game to really serve as expanded material, though. If no one’s playing those modes/champions, they have virtually zero effect on the game.

That’s exactly what I’ve been seeing in the new champions. They get played for their launch week and the subsequent free week and then fall completely off the radar. I almost never see Olaf in game any more, and when I do I tend to smash him. Malzahar? Never. Akali? Less than never. Garen? Rarely. Kennen? Nope. Mordekaiser? Occasionally. The only patched champions I see on a regular basis are Shen (who is in nearly every game), Ezreal (same, almost every game), and Pantheon (only because Heartseeker is crazy broken right now).

If you take a look at the champion list at LoL Base, you’ll see that the only one of the champions I never see that has a positive win/loss ratio is Mordekaiser. The rest are negative, in some cases drastically so, which says to me a couple things. First, and most obviously, those characters suffer from some kind of serious design flaw. Though I think several of the champions I mentioned are solid (Kennen and Garen for the most part), the others have trouble providing serious support to a team. It could be that players just haven’t figured out how to play these new champions, but most of them are old enough that someone, somewhere should be playing them or singing their praises, and that’s not really the case.

It’s too early to say where Kog’Maw will fall, but if he follows the current trend, we’ll see him for two weeks and not much more.

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.

Patch Day is once again upon us, this time heralding the release of Akali, the Fist of Shadow. It’s a patch I’m excited for, mostly because the ninja trio is finally complete. There are some other good changes, though, including a Shen nerf, a Master Yi semi-buff (more on this later) and, an Amumu buff, and some minor changes for several other heroes. This patch also gives us Gentleman Cho, so be ready for well-dressed alien epicurean exploits.

First, we should talk Akali. As mentioned in my initial review, she is too hybrid for the current itemization. If you’d like more than just my opinion, consider that Phreak’s Akali spotlight recommends Mejai’s Soulstealer and Sword of the Occult if she’s going to do well. It makes sense to a degree, but it also points out a significant gap in the itemization. The best thing after Guinsoo’s Rageblade is two high risk/mediocre reward items? Seems to me the 1235g for Mejai’s would be much better spent toward some real AP for Rylai’s or a Brutalizer on the way to your Ghostblade.

The Master Yi situation seems like a stopgap to me. It might keep the Yi fanatics from crying quite as much but he still suffers his old fate. He’s highly susceptible to CC, often requires his ult for escape rather than attack, and offers none of the team utility of other melee DPS toons. I’ll take a Garen/Pantheon/Udyr/Mundo/Shaco/Warwick/Gangplank and even Tryndamere over Yi any day of the week. Yi’s only strength is backdooring towers, and if he’s left to do so your team likely would have won anyway. He is undeniably better than before, but to a pathetic degree. It’s like “improving” a car by giving it a sunroof. Nice? Sure. Does it improve the functionality of the vehicle? Not so much.

The Amumu buff will be especially nice for the first 6-8 levels. That’s typically the worst part of Amumu play because of his long cooldowns and pathetic early-game damage. With an attack buff and some cooldown reduction for Tantrum, he should farm much better and generally seem more enjoyable at every phase of the game.

I’m willing to wait to pass judgement on Udyr until I hear a little bit more from Udyr players. I rarely play the shapeshifter, mostly because I struggle in the jungle (I know, it’s sad). I do know a few Udyr fans, so I’ll see what they make of the nerf before I offer any targeted opinion. I will say that using Treeline as the baseline for buffs/nerfs seems ridiculous when Mundo is so god-forsakenly strong on that map and hasn’t even been grazed by the nerf stick.

Enjoy the time with the new champ tomorrow! As always, I’m sitting on enough IP to buy her several times over, so you can bet I’ll be playing her as soon as possible.