You can start Hunter's Machete instead of Hunter's Talisman for a bit of extra damage against camps, but Talisman seems to give you better sustain against the camps and you seem to clear more of them without needing to really heal. You should either rush Hextech Gunblade or Stalker first. Gunblade gives you better power & sustain against champions while Stalker helps a lot with jungle camps. It's up to you and I switch it up game by game. If you don't buy the complete Runic, at least try to get the basic Stalker. You will eventually be upgrading the boots but the basic boots give a good early speed boost. Always try to keep a Control Ward up in key areas where enemies might cross, such as the bushes near lanes, near objectives/buffs or in tribrushes. You should either get Gunblade or complete Stalker/Runic first. After that, you can move towards building the rest of the items in generally the order above. You will want the Sheen on Lich Bane but don't bother starting with Sapphire Crystal in Sheen's build path because Akali doesn't use mana. The Sheen helps because you usually use an ability right before a basic autoattack. Keep Stalker/Runic until you need to sell it for a final item, as Stalker/Runic will really help with jungle camps, minion waves and deleting champions.

With the complete build, or even while on the build path to the complete build, you can generally delete champions.

Hextech Gunblade is your bread and butter, it should be one of the first items (if not THE first) that you get. Get it through the Hextech Revolver path, this adds a lot to your early combos. If you need more lifesteal, then go for the Bilgewater Cutlass side of the build path. Once Gunblade is completed, you get a lot of lifesteal and your active can be thrown in with your R to open up extremely deadly ambushes.

Lich Bane helps a lot because Akali's kit focuses on using abilities immediately before using autoattacks. Lich Bane has a Sheen effect that buffs autoattacks if they happen right after abilities. It is great for attacking objectives including towers. Take towers, for example. Even if your ability doesn't hurt the tower you are attacking, use an ability anyway (on a minion or something) then autoattack the tower for extra damage against that objective. Void Staff just adds more AP potential, Rabadon's gives stupid amounts of extra AP and Rylai's slow effect helps you stick to targets. Sorcerer's Shoes add speed and Magic Penetration.

I prefer to start with Q because it is your main source of damage. I take one point in W because I only use it defensively for the most part and it's better to upgrade Q/E first. I alternate back and forth between leveling Q and E, maxing Q first, then E. I take R whenever possible. I then finish with maxing W as last ability. You will mainly be using W defensively but I also like to use its blink to position for distant Rs.

It should be noted that if you want more damage earlier without the defensive capabilities of W, you can take Q or E third instead and then take your first point in W sometime at level 4 or later.

There is a case to be made for waiting until level 8 to take W, and instead alternating Q and E instead. (Example: Q-E-E-Q-E-R, max Q, get W.) This gives you a lot more damage, but you will be sacrificing the defensive options and concealment offered by W. If you take this route, you will hit harder but you will need to be careful because you won't have the concealment or blink from the shroud.

Passive - Twin Disciplines: Akali's first two basic attacks are empowered. Discipline of Might: Akali's first basic attack heals her for 5 - 60 (based on level) (+ 60% bonus AD) (+ 45% AP) health. Discipline of Force: Akali's second basic attack within 4 seconds deals an additional 10 - 100 (based on level) (+ 50% bonus AD) (+ 65% AP) on-hit magic damage. Twin Disciplines works against buildings and objectives.

Even though Spellvamp was widely removed, this new reworked passive gives a similar heal. I still preferred the old passive though.

Q - Mark of the Assassin: Active: Akali throws her kama at the target unit, dealing magic damage and marking them for 6 seconds. Basic attacks detonate the mark, dealing bonus magic damage and restoring 40 energy.

Q is your bread and butter for poking and preparing for autoattacks. It is good to Q before using your ultimate so that the Q is ready for the basic attack that comes with the ultimate.

W - Twilight Shroud: Active: After a 0.25 second delay, Akali blinks to a nearby location, leaving a smoke cover for 8 seconds at the location before cast and causing a global cooldown of 0.5 seconds to all her other abilities. The smoke cover grants Sight icon sight of the area and Slow icon slows all units within it. While inside the smoke cover, Akali immediately gains true invisibility and movement speed. If Akali uses a basic attack or ability inside her smoke cover, she will reveal herself for 0.65 seconds.

I prefer this reworked shroud to the old one. This can also be used to jump over walls.

E - Crescent Slash: Active: Akali flourishes her kamas, dealing physical damage to all units around her. Crescent Slash base cooldown is reduced to 2 / 1.8 / 1.6 / 1.4 / 1.2 seconds whenever it kills at least one unit.

Your E is really good for dealing damage to enemies all around you. It is Akali's form of Area of Effect (AOE) damage and it is a key part of her burst combo.

R - Shadow Dance: Passive: Akali uses a stock system on this ability; she stores an Essence of Shadow periodically and upon taking down an enemy champion, up to a maximum of 3 stored at once. Akali immediately gains 3 Essences of Shadow upon learning the ability.

Active: Akali dashes to the target unit, dealing them magic damage. Akali will land between 100 and 200 units on the far side of her target based on how close they were, halved versus Mark of the Assassin.png Marked targets.

This ultimate was the cause of a lot of controversy during the rework. Before the rework, the cooldown was extremely low and it did a ton of damage. Now it is mainly used to stick to a target and ambush them from a distance without the heavy damage it used to have. I prefer the old R.

(Citation.)

Pros of Akali Jungle:

1. Akali has a lot of natural sustain in the jungle from her passive.

2. Akali's ultimate is perfect for ganking squishy targets because she dashes a great distance in a short amount of time, especially when paired with her W blink or Flash for added distance.

3. Akali's shroud conceals her and blinks, allowing her to reposition during combat and ganks. It also allows her a second to take off camp aggro while waiting for abilities to reset. Her dash and W blink allow her to easily stick to targets and can even be used to position quickly to hit Rift Herald's eye on its back.

Cons of Akali Jungle:

1. Akali is very squishy. You have to dive in and then back out fast to avoid getting caught out.

2. Akali was weakened in the rework so that her combos often take two or three rounds to actually kill them if they aren't squishy. This is where your teammates and your W come into play. Use your teammates and your W to reposition and cover yourself until you can dash again.

3. Akali Jungle is not 'meta', which will inevitably invoke whining from your teammates on occasion until you end up carrying the team by devouring squishies and objectives.

I usually follow this path, though it is acceptable to start red as well:

Start allied blue buff (Smite if necessary), kill it then move to kill allied Gromp. Kill wolves then move to kill the nearest Scuttlecrab for extra vision and healing. From there, you can either move immediately into invading the enemy red buff or move to take your own buff. Kill red buff, then take raptors, then take Krugs. Move to take that Scuttlecrab. Then back, buy according to the build path. During this time, watch for possible ganks because Akali can actually gank fairly okay at lower levels if she backs out quickly.

Taking red first can give you more damage on your E.

Once I've cleared my camps, I then just start to focus on counterjungling and eating enemy camps as they spawn while looking for ganks. My main focus as Akali Jungle is killing squishy champions through ganks and killing camps on my way to those ganks.

In order to obtain a high rating in Akali Jungle games, you need to have a mix of good kill/death/assist ratios (assists count) along with an extremely high Creep Score (CS) count. If you keep killing camps as you move to gank throughout the game, you can easily hit over 200+ CS with Akali Jungle.

Minion tax is extremely important on Akali Jungle because you need to build your items quickly so she can snowball properly. If you gank a lane, take a few minions to supplement the time you took to gank it. Don't stay too long or take too many minions, just a few as compensation for your help. Honestly, the amount of minions I take for tax widely depends on the laner's attitude. Toxic attitude = More minions taken. Friendly attitude or neutral attitude = Less minions taken.

I personally prefer Ignite for the extra damage, but Flash is often used instead of Ignite to help position for distant attacks and escape dangerous situations in conjunction with your W.

Smite is a must on Akali Jungle to kill objectives and it also becomes part of your burst combo when you complete a jungle item.

The new Rift Herald is EXTREMELY important and Akali can kill it fairly easily by using her W blink and her R to get behind the Rift Herald and hit the eye on its back. When you get low on health, use your potions and even Smite if you have to. You can kill Rift Herald shortly after getting your ultimate if you do it properly and use your head when it comes to lifesteal and healing.

After the Herald is dead, if you or anyone on your team killed it, you can pick up the 'Eye of the Herald' that spawns at the Rift Herald's pit by standing on it. You'll know you got it because it says you 'captured' the Rift Herald. This is different from 'defeating' the Rift Herald. Make sure you actually capture the eye. Then, go to a lane, help clear the lane of enemy champions and hit 4. Wait a few seconds and the Rift Herald will spawn, running right down the lane and attacking enemy structures for massive damage. It will also fight minions and champions for you but you need to protect it. It is entirely possible to take down three towers and maybe even an inhibitor with one Rift Herald summon if you protect it right and assist it.

You need to be careful when summoning the Herald because if the enemy uses some crowd control on you, it can cancel the summon and you can lose the item entirely. You also need to remember that you have a limited amount of time to summon the Rift before it expires. Rift Herald only appears once per game before it is replaced by Baron Nashor.

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