Hello there! I'm IceSlash. I am Akali otp. In season 7 solo q I was ranked diamond V on EUNE and plat IV on EUW. Currently I'm playing on EUW and I'm plat IV there.

I also own a youtube channel.

Akali had in season 7 weak early game, now in season 8 she has even weaker early, because your heal from passive is lower, your dmg is also lower (you don't get so much AP and AD as you used to get from old runes).

Why should I play Akali?

Akali is really fun to play and you can carry game with her, learning matchups and getting through laning phase into midgame and right plays in the midgame can lead your team to victory. I will leave later on some tips for laning phase on harder/easier matchups.

Primary page

Electrocute is best keystone that can be used on Akali because it deals a lot of damage and it help you with bursting enemies. It also procs very easy once u have at least 1 point in every skill.

We are going to take next Sudden Impact. After using your Shadow Dance or if u deal damage from Twilight Shroud it procs and gives you 10 armor penetration and 8 magic penetration which is helpful for bursting your enemies.

From this branch i usually take Zombie Ward because it helps me and my teammates with vision. What it does is, when your ward times out or of you destroy enemy ward it places a "zombie ward" that last's for 3 minutes. It's really helpful in early game because of early ganks, it prevents them.

From 3rd branch you take Ravenous Hunter this rune is really useful on Akali because with combination from Hextech Gunblade and Twin Disciplines Akali has so much healing compared to other champions.

Secondary pages

Secondary page depends on your playstyle and on enemy on your laner. So here are explanations which runes are good in which situation.

If you want to play assassin i would suggest taking precision and chose 2 out of these 3 runes.

This is very good because if you have participated in killing enemy champion (getting kill or assist) this rune will grant you 12% of your missing health and 20 extra gold. It can be useful in teamfights like getting into enemy team, bursting their ADC and if you have low HP you can use Twilight Shroud to hide or Flash or get away, when 2 enemies die you can already get back in that fight and help your team win it.

This rune can be useful against heavy cc teams, because it reduces duration of enemies stuns by 20% and if u get Mercury's Treads it will stack up to 44% which is almost half of base stun duration.

This rune is really good to assassinate enemies carries, because as Akali you get enemy to low health in no time, it will just help you burst them.

These runes can be useful in certain situations depending on you enemy team composition. So here are my thoughts which runes can be used on Akali from this path.

Nullifying Orb is really good against enemy team that has a lot of magic damage in it because it has similar effect as Hexdrinker, once your health drops bellow 30% you get a shield that can absorb magic damage.

You can chose this as secondary branch if you want to have lower cooldowns on your skills. Basically as it says you get 10% CDR at 10th minute, since you won't be building a lot of items with CDR other part of this rune won't matter.

Scorch can also be used if you want to try to get an early kill because enemies don't have a lot of magic resist and it helps you with bursting them.

It is really good against champions that can poke you hard like Jayce, Teemo, Pantheon, Gangplank and lot of other champions similar to them. I mostly take these runes when I'm on top lane.

This rune gives you armor, which reduces damage from enemies that do physical damage when they are poking, so it helps you a lot in laning phase until you farm up for your items.

Mirror Shell gives you magic resist, it's good against champions that deal magic damage, it helps you a lot because it reduces enemy damage from their skills a lot in early levels, they usually expect to do more damage to you but if you play it will you will kill them.

I personally take this only when my team doesn't have a good frontline, just to be a bit tankier.

It's like second Doran's Shield, very useful against poke champions, it helps you with sustain a lot. Personally I really like this rune and I use Resolve mostly because it makes my laning phase much easier than it should be.

These rune path is good to get some stuff faster but for more gold or cheaper but you'll have to wait a bit. I usually take this when I don't have hard laning phase.

This is very good, like 600 free gold, and you can use Zhonya's Hourglass before you make it for free. It can be used to outplay enemy if they try to dive you, or if you kill enemy under their turret to reset agro from enemy turret.

Who doesn't like free boots? But it comes with a price, you will have to wait up to 10 minutes to get them, for each kill or assist that u have it will reduce that time by 30 seconds. Also these boots give you 10 Movement Speed more than Boots, when you are upgrading boots it cost's you 50 gold less.

Pros + Realy high burst dmg + A lot of outplay potential and escapes + Can carry a lot games + Very heavy powerspike once you get Hextech Gunblade + 2 skills are gapclosers Twilight Shroud & Shadow Dance

Cons - Realy weak early game and falls off in late game - Loses a good amout of lvl 1-3 trades if they are not played well - Very vounerable to cc's during the game - Hard farming against heavy poke champions

Flash: You must have this summoner spell, it can really help you with escape once you nuke enemy carry or to get away from enemies when they are chasing you, or if you are chasing enemy you can combo it togeather with Shadow Dance to get to your opponent.

Teleport: It can be helpfull to get some early kills, cleaning up after fights, getting stacks on Ravenous Hunter faster by teleporting to other lanes and helping with early teamfights/dives. Teleport can also be used when you are split pushing to join your teammates when the fight starts.

Ignite: Realy good summoner spell for getting 1st blood or against certain matchups like Tryndamere, Vladimir, Dr. Mundo or other champs that have healing implemented in their kit because it reduces their heal and it also deals damage over time.

Farming

1) Early game farming

Against lane bullies (champions that have a lot of poke or farming under turret)

This can be very stressful because if you try to get to your minions enemy will poke you and eventualy dive and kill you. What you can do here is last hitting minions with q, I usualy try to last hit caster minions with Mark of the Assassin and meele minions with auto attack or with Crescent Slash. You should also know that by killing a unit with Crescent Slash reduces it's cooldown by 60%.

Other champions

It depends on your style, either you can try hard push or freezing lane. If you are freezing lane you should try to poke enemy champion with Mark of the Assassin if he tries to come for minion you can attack him with auto attack and Crescent Slash it will do a good amout of damage to him.

2) Mid and late game farming

So mid and late game farming are similar. If turrets are down, I'm pushing my lane a bit fruther than half of my lane and then I usualy group up with a team (if I don't split push) and when enemies wave comes near my turret if it's possible i go an clear it.

When should I start roaming during the game?

Well it all depends on situation, if you are ahead of your laner/enemy team you can roam then. If you are even or behind then i would suggest you to farm until you get Hextech Gunblade.

Where should i position myself in teamfights and what should I do once it starts?

So there are 2 possibilities that I can think of:

Coming soon

Coming soon