Wild Rift Guide: How to Play Akali
In today’s article, we are going to show you Akali and how to play her In League of Legends: Wild Rift. Akali is an AP assassin with a high burst, mobility, and true stealth. She is a very strong solo queue champion.
To write this article, I interviewed GLD Random, a one-trick Challenger Akali. Check them out at @Random_WRift.
Like every other champion, Akali has her own playstyle, strengths, and weaknesses. We’ll cover everything and more so stick around!
Akali, The Rogue Assasin
Abandoning the Kinkou Order and her title of the Fist of Shadow, Akali now strikes alone, ready to be the deadly weapon her people need. Though she holds onto all she learned from her master Shen, she has pledged to defend Ionia from its enemies, one kill at a time. Akali may strike in silence, but her message will be heard loud and clear: fear the assassin with no master.
Akali’s Abilities
- Passive, Assasin’s Mark: Spell damage to Champions creates a ring of energy around them. Exiting that ring will allow Akali’s next auto attack to gain additional range and damage.
- Ability (1), Five Point Strike: Akali throws out five kunai, causing damage based on her extra attack power and spell power, and slowing down within the maximum range.
- Ability (2), Twilight Shroud: Akali cast a layer of smoke, gaining movement speed and regaining energy briefly. In the shroud, Akali becomes invisible. Attacking or using skills will expose her briefly.
- Ability (3), Shuriken Flip: Akali flips back and fires a shuriken forward, causing magic damage. The first enemy or smoke hit will be marked. Re-cast the sprint on the marked target, causing additional damage.
- Ultimate, Perfect Execution: Akali jumped in one direction, causing damage to the enemies she hit. Re-launch the sprint in one direction and execute all the enemies she hits.
How to Play Akali
Runes
Before the game even starts it is very important to choose the right runes, so the champion can accelerate as much as possible and unleash her full potential.
Keystone: For Akali, you choose Conqueror as your keystone since it’s giving you a lot of AP and allows you to charge it really fast with a small combo. Once the Conqueror rune is charged you can deal tons of damage.
Slot 1, (Domination): For this, you go Brutal to have this AP and magic penetration during the early stages of the laning phase and being able to cleat your lanes as efficiently as possible.
Slot 2, (Resolve): For this one, you will choose Hunter-Titan since Akali is team fight based Champion and can stack this rune really fast.
Slot 3, (Inspiration): For this, you will go Sweet Tooth since it’s giving you gold every time you consume the Honey Fruit and more health.
These are the runes that you should use. If some other runes suit you better you can try them out and leave a comment down below.
Skill Order
- You always max your Ability (1) first since it’s the main damage in your kit and also the main ability for poking and clearing your waves.
- The second one you max is Ability (3) which is your second source of damage and a very good ability to reposition yourself or even use it as an escape.
- The last one you max is Ability (2) this one gives you true stealth and allows you to regenerate energy while you inside of it.
Combo’s
The main combo will always be Ability (1) and then auto attack to poke and harass during the laning phase. Once you reach level 5 you want to press your Ultimate then your Ability(3) reactivate it auto attack, Ability (1), auto attack, and reactivate your Ultimate to finish of your target. Here a video with all the possible combos you can pull off with Akali:
Another combo that is hard to pull off is, press Ability(3), auto attack, reactivate Ability (3), press Ability (1), walk back use your Ultimate on the target, auto attack, Ability (2), auto attack, Ability (1) and reactivate your Ultimate. You can always use your Ability (3) and Ultimate to reposition or even escape from dangerous situations. You can also use your shroud if you want to stall or wait for other abilities to come off cooldown.
Early game
Laning Phase: During the laning phase you want to stay safe if you are playing against a range match up and wait until you reach level 5 to roam or all in the enemy for a kill.
If you are laning against melee Champions you want to harass them as much as possible and play around your shroud while poking them. Try to always have priority and help your jungler out if he needs you assistance on a Scuttle Crab.
Early drake fights: Before the drake spawns try to push your lane out and get priority so you can be able to move first while applying pressure on the enemy tower. During the drakes to get on the enemy backline or somehow kill their jungler. Another thing you can do is use your shroud to create space for your team and zone the enemy out.
Rift Herald: Try to push your wave out and be ready to help your jungler secure this objective, since it can help take down any tower on the map.
Mid game
In the midgame, you want to either let the the enemy to push into your lane creating enough space, for you to be able to all in them, or you can keep pushing your lane and look for roam opportunities across the map.
The best lane to roam if you want its the Duo lane since it has the squishiest targets most of the time. At the dragon fights in the midgame, you will have to try to assassinate the enemy jungler and make play around your shroud to harass as many enemies as possible, to get a dragon as easily as possible.
Late game
Once the late game hits and you have enough items you will be a monster and almost unstoppable for the enemy team. You will have to punish everyone who is mispositioned or is overextended. Try to abuse your sidelane strength to push towers since there won’t be a single enemy that can handle you, forcing the enemy to send two or more members to get the job done.
Baron fight: Let your team engage and flank from the backside to assassinate as many carries as possible. If you do this you will probably win the whole fight get the Baron and end or almost end the game.
Itemization
You always start with an Amplifying Tome. On your first back, you preferably want to get a Haunting Guise if you have enough gold and if you don’t just build a Blasting Wand, getting both of them at the same time is ideal. Your first full item will be the Liandry’s Torment since you will be able to stack it really fast with your Ability (1) slow and your passive. For your second, you want to get is the Rabandons Deathcap for even higher DPS since it gives you tons of AP. The third item is going to be the Oblivion Orb since it will make your abilities crit once the enemies are low enough and make you secure a lot of kills. Once you hit those 3 items you can one shot almost anyone on the map with a good combo.
The next item is going to be the Void Staff since it will make you able to even kill the tankiest members on the map Last but not least you are going to build a Lich Bane since it will work really well with your passive making you auto attacks hitting like a nuke. The go-to boots are the Mercury’s Treads since they give you Tenacity to be able to get out of stuns as soon as possible. You want to upgrade them to an Hourglass 90% of the time.
Akali’s counters
Twisted Fate
One of the greatest Akali counters is Twisted Fate since he is able to reveal you, while you are in your shroud with his own Ultimate. Apart from this, he is a ranged midlaner that already makes you some problems in the early stages of the laning phase. When the enemy team has a Twisted Fate you should always try and wait out till his Ultimate runs out, to engage in the fight.
Lee Sin
One of the best counters against Akali is Lee Sin since most of his abilities can reveal you under your shroud and can be quite hard to play against it. Your ultimate goal is to avoid him as often as possible and try to play very safely in the fights searching for areas where Lee Sin isn’t present at the moment, to lay down your shroud.
How to play against midlaners
Katarina
If you are laning against Katarina you have to stay away from her daggers and try to poke her level 1 as much as possible since Katarina won’t have abilities to jump. If you see Katarina start running to her daggers just use your Ability (3) to keep distance and be able to engage once her passive is used.
Diana
The best thing to do when you are laning against Diana is, to keep trading her and not letting her run away. Even after a short trade, try to find opportunities to keep harassing her. Whenever Diana uses her Ultimate, use your Ability (3) to get out of range. You should always win all in after level 6.
Ziggs
The best you can do against such a high-range poke midlaner like Ziggs is to push the lane towards him before he can do it. Since you won’t be able to reach him anyway try to find roams, or catch him when he is trying to roam.
Conclusion
Akali is a hard champion to play but can be very powerful and can hard carry your solo queue games once you are able to use her kit correctly. If you abuse all her stealth and mobility correctly you will see the true power of Akali and how strong she actually is.
Make sure to use the tips we presented you in this guide to unleash the full potential of Akali and be a true killed on the Rift. If you have any comments, questions, or feedback leave them below. Good luck climbing and see you soon Summoner!
