Ahri's only real strength comes from her gank setup so I'd recommend taking cleanse in this matchup. You should be pretty safe to max E, even if she holds her charm for your E, as long as she uses Q to push the wave you can E aggressively and if she charms she won't do any damage anyway. Make sure to rush Wit's End.
Akali
Akali can be scary in the mid to late game but early is extremely easy. Take ignite, E max and rush Wit's End and you should have no problems destroying her. After level 6 be careful not to waste E as you can use it to get out if she ults aggressively.
Anivia
One of Akshan's hardest matchups. She has multiple ways to cancel your E, can match your waveclear and also makes it really hard to play short range champions in teamfights. I'd recommend banning this champion but if you do vs it, you probably need to take TP or cleanse, max Q and just play to farm then avoid her in teamfights. Rushing vamp scepter to sustain her trades will be your best bet.
Annie
Annie is pretty easy for Akshan, take cleanse and rush Wit's End. You can max E and it'll be really easy to E onto her whenever she uses her stun.
Aurelion Sol
Super easy matchup, use your mobility to stay avoid his stars, E max ignite and look to rush a mythic.
Azir
If you let Azir poke you this matchup will be very hard early, try trade really aggressively with your E whenever he Q's forward with his soldiers. If you take ignite and E max this should be fairly easy. Rushing vamp scepter for sustain helps a lot too. At level 6 be careful of E'ing too far forward as you might get ultied under his tower.
Cassiopeia
Cass is one of your harder matchups but not unwinnable. If you start E with ignite normally you can get a really good trade level 1. If you get a big lead here you can look to max E and then E into her if she ever wastes W (which can cancel your E). If she respects and doesn't let you get a free trade and holds her W well, you will need to max Q instead which you can use to punish her low waveclear.
Corki
Extremely easy matchup, take ignite PTA and E max and there is no way he can ever fight you.
Ekko
Pretty easy overall, Ekko needs to use his Q to clear waves so if you E max with ignite and go in whenever he Q's the wave you should have no troubles. Rushing a Wit's End can be good here but you don't have to.
Fizz
You can bully Fizz early game with E max and ignite but if you don't get some significant MR he can one shot you at level 6. Make sure to rush Wit's End and try E in when he uses his E.
Galio
Very easy matchup but it is a little hard to E in sometimes since he can use his own E to back out. I'd recommend taking ignite if their jungle isn't likely to gank you, or cleanse if he is. This can be a good matchup to do 3 points Q to match his waveclear then E max.
Graves
Graves is another champion where E'ing into him can be kind of hard. He does have weak waveclear early so 3 points Q into E max is a good choice here. Recommend TP or ignite, personal preference.
Irelia
Akshan actually deals with Irelia sorta well but she's really annoying overall. Take PTA ignite and max E. If she ever wastes her E you can look to punish by E'ing next to her (but not into her, especially after 6). Worst case you can use E to dodge her stun and just farm it out.
Kassadin
Sort of like Corki there's nothing Kass can do to stop you from E'ing into him with ignite and killing him. Recommend maxing E and trying to keep the wave in the middle so that you have lots of room to run him down. Rush Wit's End.
Katarina
Akshan has super strong trades early game so you can auto attack harass her a lot. You can take either ignite and exhaust but E max is definitely better. Rush Wit's End.
LeBlanc
Akshan has pretty strong auto attack trades so you will have a pretty good time against LeBlanc early but she can be annoying in mid game. In this matchup it can be hard to get value out of E max since she will either chain you or W away from it. I like 3 points Q into E max to allow you to punish her early waveclear problems. Rush Wit's End.
Lucian
Lucian can poke you out with Q's, but can be punished pretty hard if you E into him after he misses Q. Take ignite and rush mythic with E max.
Lux
Lux can be pretty annoying since she heavily outranges you and can root you during your E. If the lux is wasting her abilities you can look for more points in E to punish her but otherwise I would just max Q. Wit's End and cleanse are useful here.
Malzahar
Malzahar is annoying in the midgame but the early game is extremely easy. Max E with ignite and you can freely E into him without much counterplay. Make sure to kill his voidlings whenever they come out so he can't push at all. Buying a QSS around your first item will go a long way here.
Orianna
Ori will try spam poke you out, but you can easily punish with E max and ignite. Rush Wit's End.
Ryze
Ryze can be a bit difficult because he can match your waveclear, root and disengage when you E and also has good sustained trades. I'd recommend taking TP with either 3 points Q into E max or a straight Q max and playing to pick up kills from other lanes.
Sylas
With E max and ignite you absolutely destroy sylas in trades, if he ever wastes an ability on you or the wave just punish him easily. Rushing Wit's End is good too.
Syndra
Syndra can be difficult but is certainly winnable. Go for ignite and E max and play aggressively to try bait out her E. When this is on cooldown you should be able to E forward for an easy trade. Rush Wit's End.
Talon
Similar to other melee assassins you want to E max and look to punish them when they use abilities on the wave. After 6 though he has insane killthreat on you. Make sure to rush shieldbow. Barrier, ignite and exhaust are all viable options here.
Lee Sin
Lee is hard to kill but doesn't have much threat on you. 3 points Q with ignite and rush a mythic should be the best here.
Lissandra
Liss is very annoying in teamfights but in 1v1s you definitely have the advantage. Take cleanse and rush Wit's End. If she has electrocute you can straight E max, if she has aftershock you probably need to do 3 points Q then E max.
Twisted Fate
Against TF take cleanse and E max. Whenever he uses his W on the wave look to E forward aggressively into him, try ward around mid so you don't get ganked while you do this but worst case you can probably disengage with cleanse. Wit's End is optional depending on if they have other AP on the team.
Tryndamere
You have to bully Trynd early game because he will be very difficult to 1v1 in the mid game. Try take ignite and E max and keep the wave in the middle, harassing him with autos and looking to punish if he wastes dash.
Veigar
Veigar is very easy to 1v1, especially if you take cleanse and rush Wit's End. If you max E you should be able to punish him for walking up to the wave, especially if he wastes his cage.
Vex
Vex is annoying but easily beatable if you know what you are doing. Max E and take ignite or cleanse. Never E forward when she has her fear up and wait for her to use it to poke. The ideal trade window is when she has no fear and just wasted an ability on the wave. Rush Wit's End.
Viktor
Viktor has really strong poke but is ill equipped to stop your E unless you get caught in his W somehow. Take ignite, E max and rush Wit's End.
Vladimir
In this matchup you want to mainly be looking for big all ins rather than allowing vlad to sustain up. Your E is lower cooldown than his W so you can be very aggressive if he uses it. Take ignite and E max and look to go in when his Q is down. Rush Wit's End.
Xerath
Oftentimes you can bully Xerath really hard in the first 1-2 levels by E'ing into him with ignite and looking for a kill. After that it can be hard unless he wastes E. Would recommend either straight Q max or 3 points Q into E Max. Rushing Vamp scepter and tier 2 boots will make sustaining his poke easy.
Yasuo
Against Yasuo with ignite and E max you will have a lot of kill threat. Make sure to harass him with auto attacks and try to punish with your E whenever he wastes his tornado.
Yone
Yone is very easy to punish early and you can always E away from him if he E's into you, or E into him if he doesn't have his knockup ready.
Zed
Zed has insane kill threat on you so you need to rush shieldbow. Go E max with either ignite or exhaust and be very careful after 6, but pre6 you should be able to punish him pretty hard especially if he W's forward.
Ziggs
Ziggs is very easy to kill early with E max and ignite, you can either rush Wit's End or a vamp scepter in this matchup depending on the rest of their teamcomp.
Zilean
Zilean has pretty good ganksetup but can't really counter you E'ing forward with ignite. You can take cleanse if you are really scared of their mid jungle. Recommend rushing vamp scepter or Wit's End if they have lots of AP.
Zoe
If you get hit by random bubbles then Zoe will be very hard, if you can E max with cleanse and look to E forward whenever she wastes E then it should be pretty easy for you. Rush Wit's End.
Hey guys I'm Shok, multi rank 1 challenger mid laner for LCO team Dire Wolves. I've played League professionally since 2017 and have been rank 1 in multiple seasons, as well as rank 13 on the NA ladder in season 9. Akshan is really strong in solo queue, especially as a counterpick because he snowballs the map so hard.
I upload regularly on YouTube, and stream everyday on Twitch so feel free to follow me on either of those platforms :)
Season 10Season 9
Season 9 NA
Pros / Cons
PROS:
+ Snowballs well + Farms really quickly mid game + Game changing revive + Strong roaming + Insane teamfighter
CONS:
- Short range - Easily countered - Feast or famine - High skill cap - Weak from behind
Runes Explained
Precision Primary
When playing Akshan you will always take the precision tree primary, however, your secondary tree may differ. Press the Attack is by far the best keystone on Akshan since you can proc it easily and it adds a lot of strength to your laning phase.
Presence of Mind is pretty essential on Akshan because you will use a fair amount of mana in lane as well as teamfights. This will allow you to always have mana to abuse your resets.
Even when the enemy team doesn't have tanks, you will often find that Cut Down does more damage over the game than Coup de Grace, however the difference is fairly small so this can be personal preference unless you're vs a ton of tanks in which case Cut Down will be by far the better choice.
Resolve Secondary
Most of the time resolve will be the best secondary tree for you and you have several options. However, you should always be picking up one of Bone Plating or Second Wind. Bone Plating is very effective against melee champs or champions that don't have an easy way to proc it, so you can just E aggressively whenever it's up. Against ranged or poke champions that can proc Bone Plating easily, Second Wind will be much better.
Overgrowth adds up to around 400 gold worth of extra health in the mid to late game which is pretty sizable. If you prefer to take something for a stronger early game, you can consider Shield Bash or Demolish instead.
Akshan has several viable starting items. If you are facing a lot of poke in lane, then I recommend taking Corrupting Potion with Time Warp Tonic and Biscuit Delivery. This makes you very resistant to skillshot poke and makes the early game a lot easier.
If you're in a lane where it's likely you will be all inned, Doran's Blade provides you with both max HP and some sustain which is particularly useful against assassins.
Long Sword with 3 Health Potions is a greedy start that you can get away with in pretty much all easy lanes and a lot of the skill matchups. This accelerates you towards your first base much quicker and really isn't all that much weaker early game.
Early Game
If you are against a champion that is going to poke you down a lot in lane then rushing Vampiric Scepter can make the lane a lot easier for you.
Tier 1 Boots are also very useful for a variety of things in the early game such as dodging skillshots, trading and roaming. You should try get these pretty early in the game but not at the cost of a better item.
If you didn't start Corrupting Potion I would highly recommend picking up a Refillable Potion on your first base to help sustain you through lane.
Ideally you want to buy one of these every base, but if you can't get an important item because of it don't do it. Control Wards help a lot with surviving ganks early, as well as controlling vision for your jungle to gank.
Noonquiver is the item that will allow you to snowball the most but you normally won't be able to afford it outright. However if you can, you should buy it almost immediately.
Boot Options
Berserker's Greaves are pretty nice on Akshan but they aren't 100% required. They should be seen as the best DPS option and overall a greedy choice which you can get away with a lot of the time.
If you're against a heavy AD team you can itemize Plated Steelcaps. They can be especially effective combined with the Immortal Shieldbow's extra HP.
It's important to buy Mercury's Treads if you're vs double AP mid jungle or if they have a lot of CC. Playing against a double AP mid jungle like LeBlanc and Diana will make you much harder to kill. If you're vs double AP but low CC you can instead just sit on a Null-Magic Mantle and build different boots, and work towards a Wit's End instead.
Core Item Order (Crit)
After your items in the early game section you will want to complete Immortal Shieldbow and your tier two boot option as soon as your gold allows it. Most of the time you will want to go with Immortal Shieldbow over the other competing mythics because of the increased tankiness and lifesteal with only a small damage sacrifice. However, sometimes you will want Kraken Slayer or Galeforce which will be covered in the situational items section.
Complete your tier two boot option either before or after your Immortal Shieldbow, it mainly depends on what gold you base on but both are really good items.
If you are going for the crit build, you will want to pick up either The Collector or Lord Dominik's Regards depending on a few factors. In general, once completed Lord Dominik's Regards is going to be much better once completed, however it has a much worse build path which can really slowdown a snowballing champion like Akshan. I'd recommend building The Collector if the enemy team has no tanksm which is actually fairly often in solo queue. The rest of the time just go Lord Dominik's Regards.
Infinity Edge is an absolutely huge spike so if you're going the crit build you want to pick this up as your third item basically every single time. Once you've gotten this far in the build you will want to refer to situational items to fill out your last two items.
Core Item Order (On-hit)
The On-hit Akshan build is situationally very powerful and is best against teams that are heavy on AP or have a lot of tanks (or both). The On-hit build is also very flexible, in that if you are against a lot of AP champions early game you can buy Wit's End as your first item and delay your mythic to second item.
Again, complete your tier two boots of choice before your second item.
Third item pick up your Guinsoo's Rageblade which will give you a massive spike, similar to Infinity Edge for the crit build. At this point you will want to grab a couple situational items to finish off your build.
Situational Items
As discussed before, if you are building crit and you are against 1 or more tanks I'd really recommend buying this item.
While Wit's End is a mandatory part of the On-hit build, it can also be good situationally for the crit build as it's the most effective way for you to get magic resist in the late game. Consider building this if they have a really strong AP threat, or multiple sources of magic damage.
Stopwatch can be a really good item, even if you don't plan on building it into a Guardian Angel. If you use Stopwatch well it can make a huge difference in a mid to late game fight which often snowballs into major objectives. I'd recommend buying one of these almost every single game, especially after 3 items.
Bloodthirster can be a good fourth item for either build, especially if you didn't go Immortal Shieldbow as your mythic. It gives you more lifesteal and a shield and generally makes you harder to kill in teamfights.
Guardian Angel like Stopwatch can turn around a single major fight in the mid to late game which can make a huge difference. It's also one of the only sources of armor that you can get as Akshan so consider it against champions like Zed that are AD and only have one round of damage.
Sometimes you will need healing cut, in which case a Mortal Reminder will be your best bet. However, you generally don't want to build this unless no one else on your team has healing cut already which is pretty unlikely by the time you are looking to pick this up.
If you want pure damage, Phantom Dancer is probably the highest damage fourth item for both the On-hit build and the crit build. If you aren't really threatened in teamfights then feel free to buy this.
Combos + Tips
Most of the combos on Akshan are pretty simple but there are a few that you will use often. Most common is using your Q through the creeps and hitting both parts on the enemy champion, then moving in to proc the 3 hit passive with either an auto attack or by Eing onto them.
Another thing that may come in use is that you can use your ult before using your E, meaning your ult with fire while you're still on the grapple which can be useful for getting a kill with your ult as you escape a teamfight, or making it harder for them to block your ulti shots with a tower/minions.
Remember that your ult does much more damage when people are low on HP, so try use it to clean up kills and start getting your resets going.
Q Max vs E Max
Akshan is pretty unique in that he has two viable skill orders, E max and Q max.
Generally, the best way to decide which to max is if you are in a lane where you can safely E into your opponent, either when they use a key cooldown or just all the time because you're much stronger then that will usually be best.
On the other hand if you are in a tough matchup, where your E is easily cancelled or it's not really safe to E into your opponent it will probably be better to max Q for waveclear instead. Akshan has a lot of options, and you can even take it a step further by choosing to do 3 points Q into E max, not putting a point in W until level 8, there's a lot of personal preference. If you want a standardized option I would say don't put a point in W until level 8 and just max E and then Q.
For specifics, take a look at the threat section and it will tell you which ability to max in case you aren't sure.
Laning Phase
Akshan's lane phase will vary a lot depending on your matchup. In some games it can be good to start E and cheese them level 1 as with PTA the trade should be very one sided. In more even matchups you can start Q and just look to spam auto the wave with your passive autos onto the creeps marked by the Q. This gives you really insane push early game. Look for short trades by Qing the enemy mid through the creeps and moving in for a quick double auto to get the shield.
It can be really easy to find solokills with ignite and PTA to all in, but if your opponent is playing too safe you may want to look to roam instead. If you choose to put points in Q you will have really high waveclear and should be able to roam fairly often. E max can also help you a lot with river skirmishes, though you'll have to be prepared to give up creeps to get to them without your Q waveclear. Picking up boots early will allow you to move down the river quicker. Most of the time you will want to roam bot lane and try cheese some double kills.
Mid Game
Make sure to balance farming with grouping with objectives. People will fight at an objective in solo queue whether you are there or not so you will need to be there or risk them losing 4v5. Learning when you can farm and when you need to group will take some time, but by far the most important thing is not to fall behind in the first place otherwise it will take you forever to clear waves in the side lane on Akshan.
You can use your stealth to help create picks before key objectives, but most of the time you will just want to be in a spot where you can help your team have a good 5v5 and then cleanup the kills with your E.
Teamfighting and Skirmishing
In teamfights and skirmishes as Akshan you're really looking to capitalize on your teammates engage and start getting some resets for your E. If you just try play front to back with auto attacks you will generally be outperformed by other ADCs. Try get value out of either your E or your W to get into the enemy backline and start blowing up their squishy targets. Sometimes you will have to wait for key cooldowns to be used before you can safely go in, so make sure you think about that.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading my Akshan guide, I hope you learned something from it. If you have any questions you can ask here or message me directly.
I upload regularly on YouTube, and stream most days on Twitch so feel free to follow me on either of those platforms :)
If you're interested in individual coaching contact me on discord Shok#8163.
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