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Febiven's top tips on how to master Akali
Get some pro tips from the Misfits mid laner on how to master one of the best assassins in League of Legends.
Akali has been causing havoc on the rift ever since her rework back in July 2018. The Rogue Assassin had a 40% win rate in the mid lane among the pros at the LECSpring Split and solo queue players have been eager to pick her up.
Misfits Gaming's Fabian 'Febiven' Diepstraten helped his side overcome LEC finalists Origen in week 2 of the split with a 4/0 Akali. He's given his top tips on how to play the League champion as well as what mistakes you should be avoiding.
Play smart early game
Akali is my favourite assassin right now. She has a lot of good mechanical things you can pull off but it is really difficult to master. She's not that strong early game because you have one dash and short range which almost makes you a melee mid for the first levels in the game but when you get your points in Q, you start getting more wave clear.
Before level six, against a ranged mid you usually want to play safe and farm unless they’re really bad you can abuse them with your shroud but against melee champions you will always win trades early game. If you play around your Qs and auto attack and you can always dash away if they retaliate.
Abuse your 1v1 potential
When you reach level six and get your ultimate, you pretty much have the potential to kill any mid lane in the game right now. You should look for an all in and solo kill as soon as you hit six.
You get your first power spike around level 10 and 11 and once you complete your first item – the Hextech Gunblade – you can kill anyone 1v1. But you need to be careful if the enemy team groups because with someone like Braum or Alistar, you get combed once, they cc you and you’re dead.
How to help your team
Split push lanes whenever you can with Akali
© Riot Games
Generally, you should be the person looking to split push because of how strong your 1v1 potential is. Use that to pressure the side lanes and try and look for flanks.
When your team starts fighting, you want to be the one to execute everyone when they’re low on health. You can also look for engages yourself depending on the state of the map, but it's easy to make mistakes so you have to be more careful with those engages.
Common Mistakes
One of the biggest mistakes that players in lower elo make is not learning the Q and passive properly. When you Q, the circle appears which gives you extra proc if you walk out of it but the animation is difficult to master.
You want to do it fast to make it as effective as possible which means when you Q you instantly have to walk back and repeat. The same applies to your Ultimate and your E. This means that timing is crucial and you have to train yourself to be quick.
Items & Runes
Items: You want to build your Hextech Gunblade as soon as possible so go for Bilgewater Cutlass first. If your lane opponent have some sort of cc, go for Mercury’s Treads, if not Sorcerer’s Shoes gives good extra magic penetration. Morellonomicon next, followed by Rabadon's Deathcap and Zhonya’s Hourglass.
Runes: Precision – Fleet Footwork and second tree go for Domination – Taste of Blood & Ravenous Hunter.
