It doesn’t feel like a lot of time has passed since Aatrox’s rework, and yet we already have another announced with the Akali champion update. That is right, this time around, it’s a complete rework of Akali – “The Rogue Assassin.”

Right now, Akali isn’t in a good spot, nor is she played a whole lot. With a mere 0.61% in the top lane (Platinum and above) and 0.87% in the mid lane, she’s far from a highly contested pick, regardless of the elo.

On top of it all, she’s kind of a “feast or famine” type of champion. If she gets fed, she’s incredibly hard to deal with (especially if she builds tanky), but if she’s behind, she’s essentially a complete non-factor. Because of this, as well as her outdated ability kit, Riot thought it’d be best to completely rework her from the ground up.

The honors were given to Bradford “CertainlyT” Wenban, the champion designer responsible for the likes of Thresh, Yasuo, Kalista, and Zoe (to name a few). While you might not like seeing those champions in the opposing team, you can’t deny the fact that they’re highly original concepts.

His champions often have a steep learning curve, but once you get the hang of things, it’s worth it. He’s also responsible for one of the best reworks in League’s history – Warwick. One of the rare champions that received only a handful of small nerfs/buffs over the past couple of months.

Those players who main the rogue assassin are incredibly hyped for this rework with the Akali champion update since it appears like it will open up the character’s skill set to expand the playability. That being said, without any further ado, let’s take a closer look at her reworked abilities!

Akali Champion Update Ability List

PASSIVE: “Assassin’s Mark” – Whenever Akali damages an enemy champion with an ability, she creates a ring around them. Akali then gains increased movement speed towards the ring and through it as well. She can then leave the marked zone, and her next basic attack has increased range and damage, in addition to restoring a small amount of her energy.

Q: “Five Point Strike” – Akali’s Q ability throws out five kunai that damage and slow enemies in front of her.

Depending on how much energy you have when you use the ability, it can also heal for a percentage of the damage dealt. When maxed out, her Q ability also has increased damage to minions and monsters so that you can use it for faster waveclear. Also, the fact that she has a built-in heal (no matter how small) is a great thing for her laning phase.

Pretty basic stuff.

W: “Twilight Shroud” – Akali creates a big circular cloud of smoke and instantly replenishes a ton of her energy. While inside the shrouded area, she’s invisible and gains a ton of movement speed. Akali is stealthed and she can be revealed but not targeted by enemy abilities or turrets.

She can also leave the shrouded area for a couple of times to further prolong its duration.

This is an incredibly interesting ability and with others from the Akali champion update, and it will surely provide a ton of outplay (as well as turret dive) potential.

E: “Shuriken Flip” – Akali performs a backflip and throws a shuriken in front of her, damaging and marking the first opponent it hits. She can then reactivate her E and dash towards the marked enemy.

Nothing too earth-shattering here, but this is a key ability in her rotation. It can also be used for escaping (given that it works with creeps as well), engaging/initiating or quick juking.

R: “Perfect Execution” – Her ultimate ability allows her to dash – twice, albeit with a short delay between dashes. Her first dash stuns all enemies it goes through, whereas the second one deals magic damage based on the missing health of her targets.

Akali Champion Update Thoughts

The fact that her first dash stuns – could be a big deal – because she can interrupt channeling ultimates as well as set up additional engages from her teammates. Even though the stun has a very short duration – gets the trick done. Her second stun – based on what we’ve seen – deals a fair chunk of damage and clearly is quite useful.

You can also string abilities between the two dashes and thus weave in and out of combat and vision.

If there is one thing that’s evident from her reworked abilities, it is the fact that there’s quite a lot of synergy. If you master her combinations and spell rotations, you’re going to be dashing in and out of battle within a blink of an eye – and that’s fantastic.

There’s also some pretty obvious synergy between her kit and some runes in the Domination tree like Electrocute, Sudden Impact, Ravenous Hunter, etc. Only time will tell what will be the best and most optimal way to build her, but it’s highly possible that building half tank/half AP is still as viable as ever.

Items like Hextech Gunblade and Zhonya’s Hourglass still seem like must-buys, and getting a Spirit Visage for some additional tankiness and improved spell vamp also seems like a good idea.

She’s still a snowball-oriented champion, but she also has a couple of tools to help you get back into action later on in the game if you didn’t get the start you wanted.

Viable In Other Lanes?

With the current meta favoring AP mages and bruisers in the bottom lane, the reworked Akali seems like a fantastic pick instead of an AD carry – even though it is still a bit too early to tell for sure. She has damage, sustain, as well as built-in crowd control, and if you’re getting ganked, you can also use your “Twilight Shroud” to quickly escape.

Verdict

Overall, from the looks of it, this seems like another highly successful rework. The new Akali not only looks fun to play but she’s also a lot more in tune with the ninja/assassin theme.

The updated Akali should be hitting the live servers within a couple of weeks.