For once... I wholeheartedly agree with a Hashinshin game overview post.
Riot is trying to be community based, listening. But they got to stop listening to the novice's of the game... which evidently the majority of the community. Starcraft isn't balanced around bronze league cheese.
Pokemon tournaments aren't balanced around vs AI games. HoN/DotA/DotA2 was never balanced around casual/ MMR random play. It was all based on pro play and full 5v5 scenarios.

Many teenagers or new players complain and threaten to quit the game. While in reality they will never quit the game as long as it is popular... Why is Riot focused on pleasing the low-level whiners.

I barely have time to figure out the game and play with new changes but... new changes already arrive. And it's no longer balance around central theme, it's balance on what the game balancers "deem" appropriate. Hashinshin hit the nail on the head, this "designed counter-play" and itemization recommendation is causing the game to LOSE DEPTH.

The only reason the game is still interesting is because there are so many heroes and so many combinations that when you force one OP path, others open because of 111 champions.

I like the slow balance changes of Starcraft 2, or old DotA/HoN much more than... rebalance patches almost bi-monthly, comes with the champion releases. Just knowing how real this post is makes me itch with annoyance.

Akali vs Kayle. Top. Long lane, chase and staying power, AoE for cloud harass. A strong Q. That or denied lvl 1-5.

It's pretty painful, good timing of her ult can stop you diving her (at your own tower).

Yesterday I got smashed so hard by Kayle top lane. I really don't see what I can do against her. I did a red elixir, 4 pot, 1 ward start.

I baited her ignite at lvl 1, with my elixir, and healed back to 75% hp. Q and E combo was pretty much enough to bring me down super low when I try to get one CS. I can be Kayle Qed and E splashed once or twice when I try to get ONE CS out of shroud.

When shroud is almost ending she camps me and gets at least 1 auto attack.

At lvl 5, I was 20 cs behind. And she killed me once. At lvl 6, Kayle was lvl 7,I was about 30 cs down. Then she killed at my tower with a red elixir of her own. I stayed in cloud harassed, she stayed out of tower range splashing with E. When cloud was nearing end she dove me, ult blocked all tower hits, and my Q R.

After that I had to leave lane, I successfully helped gank, and mid game she was almost double cs (55 vs 100+).

I could have executed the tower defense better with a later shroud but, I don't see Akali getting out of this one without jungle pressure. Amumu did 1v1 kill her later on when she was out of mana but... yeah you can guess the team pretty much gave up with a 2-0 kayle, that started roaming and "Akali fed Kayle so hard, it's gg".

Sorry for spamming but just to throw some other common champions into the fray:

Ryze, and Cassiopeia are considered strong vs Akali. Due to snare, and area of effect spells that do not require a target.

Anyone with stuns or displacement when you try to kill them:
Renekton, Brand, Annie and Orianna are considered strong burst with AoE that can hit you whether you stealth or not.

I remember having lots of trouble against a good Malzahar too. Silence at the right time, with minion poke really hurts.

Some of these are skill match-ups some of them are really really hard for Akali. Any discussion is welcome. I want to get better at Akali too!.

What I mean to say is, Akali's early laning phase is her weakness. And I love Akali and think she is more viable now...
But it doesn't change the fact that she has a volatile sustain model. If she gets hit by a full combo by Darius/Riven/ChoGath, she can no longer stay in lane. Without revolver, is 6% spellvamp really that strong? Does it allow her to farm any safer than Diana?

On the reverse, if you hit Cho'Gath with a Q, Auto attack, and E... he can still try to sustain by CSing and pot and stay in lane. Akali players have to be super careful not to overaggress.

Meanwhile the posts here seem to paint a picture that Akali is really more robust than she is.

I just had a discussion with a friend and indeed Garen is still a really difficult match-up. If he doesn't blow his cooldowns until you try to engage him, Akali loses the trade. You pretty much have to safe-farm until 6.

@Feedbro, I agree with most of your analysis but for the OP.. I see a lot of Akali lovers post here.

The discussion is biased for Akali, it doesn't really discuss the reality that Akali is still pretty weak laner against aggressive high damage champs. If you make a mistake you're pretty much dead.
A pink ward is good enough aggression towards you for an all-in kill.

You say it's easy to dodge Cho's Q, but it doesn't change the fact that if you get baited for a CS (like siege minion) and get hit by Q, you probably will come close to dieing because of "stun -> silence -> ignite -> AA -> Chomp if he's 6", and like I said he can all-in you earlier than you can ult chase him, because he doesn't need to wait for Shadow Dance charges. One Shadow Dance < Cho Feast. His Q W, CDs are shorter than your shroud.

Sustain wise:
Akali at lvl 1: hitting one Q on a minion with AA gives 90 dmg, assuming you started with 15AP from quints, you get12 more dmg.  the base passive is 6%, if you ran ~10 AD (like old Akali builds), you get ~8%
With 8% Spell Vamp you get 112 x 8% = 9HP sustain, when landing a Q.

Akali at lvl 5, assuming somehow you got hextech revolver, and now you have 20+8 = 28% Spellvamp. You might have more if you picked up a longsword, but it's negligible.
Q lvl 3 hits for 95x2, if you have about 63AP (15 flat, 7.65 from scaling, and 40 from two tombs) gives your dmg to 240.
Sustain = 240 x 8% = 19.2HP on 5 second cooldown...

Cho'Gath at lvl 1 gets 20HP per minion kill no CD.

Cho'Gath at lvl 5 gets 32HP per minion kill no CD.

I don't see Cho'Gath completely losing an exchange if he is CSing safely, if you go in for the melee hit he should be able to Q you 100% or silence you before cloud. In cho's favor laning advice I dont' recommend walking aimlessly into a cloud... and if Akali uses her cloud early, that's a 20s CD you are suppose to capitalize on. Have you guys played against cho'gath and won consistently? Replays? or something... Cuz I don't see this theorycraft being anything but biased.

It's a hard matchup, and Cho has distinct pushing advantage. What do you do if Cho pushes? and ignores you... stuns/silences if you full engage... and runs away?

Same question, what if Garen just walks to you, uses no skills. Do you cloud? do you Q him? or do you try to cs while running?

I just want to stress the point that Akali has a decent laning phase, but her strength lies in her assassination at lvl 6, and roaming into other lanes. She's similar to Evelynn, and Diana.

Quote from Feedbro »

Top I'd say your favorable matchups are Darius, Singed, Riven, Vi, Olaf, Jayce, and Zed.

 

No offense to some of the posts here, but I really feel some of the responses here have no logical backing and are just thrown out there from singular experiences or they are plain speculations.

Introduction

Akali

Passive
Spellvamp scale with AD, % magic dmg on autoattack scale with AP.

Q
Double nuke requiring an auto-attack for second nuke. Primary damage.

W
Stealth cloud with armor/res bonuses, slows enemy walking into it. Can be used to help against enemy chase.

E
Melee AoE mixed damage. High energy cost early, scales poorly with AP, better with AD. Secondary damage.

R
3 charges of 800 range gap closer with decent dmg 0.5 scale, reset +1 charge per assist/kill

Strengths
One of the burstiest assassins.
Has sticking power on key targets.
Natural sustain with AD.

Weakness
Has no real CC, which is one reason for gunblade.
Reliant on auto attacking to maximize damage.
No defensive abilities if stealth negated
Akali has a very slow autoattack animation, and generally doesn't build any attack speed early game to make up for it during laning.
Wave clear is decent at best, Q is best damage but also it's only single target, E is not a safe waveclear due to melee and high energy cost.

Akali has natural sustain, and a ranged farming Q so she lanes OK. She is weak against people that can out damage her, or out sustain her. But she has the power to leave lane and gank really hard (similar to Eve/Diana maybe even Kat). Akali also traditionally builds HP/lvl so that she can SpellVamp to keep her HP up while she kills. This means she doesn't build Armor runes, and if you don't you will lose vs most bruisers that start defensive runes against you.

Match-Up Analysis

All match-ups outcomes are skill-matchups, however there are distinct advantages that make Akali weaker or stronger in persay matchup. The keypoint to remember is you must AUTOATTACK to trade damage effectively. Against champions that are very happy to get into melee range, you generally have it bad or lose. In matchups where you can get into melee range to farm/harass relatively safely, you generally have it good. In matchups where both of you don't want to get into melee range, and you can farm with some AAs/shroud and Q, they are even. I will give some examples:

Riven

Riven definitely is a super BAD matchup for Akali. Because your primary damage and trade is your Q, you must mark, then auto attack... and if you do this you cannot use Q to safely farm. If you throw your Q at Riven to harass, and go for CS Riven can shield dash towards you and chop you for more damage. If you decide to autoattack back to proc the Q she can then Q you to gap close, attack you again or Stun you. You basically cannot melee trade vs Riven. If you use your shroud early level to farm, she can still dash towards you when you appear to CS, AA, stun, AA, Wait for you to run or shroud to disappear, and Q chase you. Riven Q and W stun are both AoE, so even if you are stealthed you still take damage. In an all-in even situation, Riven Ult with shield all skills and ignite, you cannot burst Riven before she out sustains you or bursts you because she has a melee stun.

lvl 1-6
Riven builds MR-DPS like hexdrinker, or straight damage.
Akali builds sustain revolver, or Mpen boots.

Conclusion vs Riven: You have no innate advantages, you must outplay her heavily with shroud and timing or she can all-in you at any time. I mained Riven, and I never had problems with Akali top, ever. Even after a jungle gank you can still all-in kill her if she gets outta position. Pink-ward on first back zones Akali so hard. I don't see how this could be a good match-up for Akali.

Darius

I won't go through a full run-down for all match-ups but another quick example:
Darius. Is an easier matchup than Riven, but is not easy by any means. His passive stacks bleed, he has an AoE Q to bypass stealth and would love to get into melee range. If you Q him and auto-attack, he can hit you with a Q spin, W to slow you, auto attack once (that's 3 stacks of bleed), Q spin you while you wait in cloud, and E hook you if he guesses the direction you run from cloud. Basically he has a deadly full combo if you get into melee range. However, he has no dashes, and no shield, so if you play a patient farm game, with a Q harass (no AA) once and a while... his larger cooldowns will give you a chance when you hit lvl 6.

Conclusion vs Darius: Akali doesn't change the fact he is always a dangerously strong laner, however he is melee with no sustain. If you play safe you have chances to win lane. Probably a skill match-up, relatively even.

Cho'Gath

Someone said Akali destroys Cho'Gath, convincingly. This makes little sense to me. Cho'Gath has a free sustain when CSing. He has a silence, an AoE auto attack E, and a skillshot knockup/slow. At 6, he out bursts you, and doesn't need to wait for Shadow Dance charges. If the Cho'gath starts with MR runes, your Qs will do only slight damage. But if you choose to go into melee range and trade while CSing... it means he can predict your movement, if he lands a Q you pretty much lose the trade or die. He can silence you to prevent you from shrouding, land a Q while you run autoattack, then go back to sustaining by csing.

However, Cho'gath is melee, so you can again use your low CD Q to farm, and attack him if his Q is on cooldown. At 6, you can kill him only if you beat him in the sustain game lvl1-5. However, he can turn on you pretty hard. When you use R to go in after Q, he can stun his ground as you go in. Silence you so you can't cast, then R nomnom you for true damage. The fact that he can push the lane with E and sustain while you MUST spend Q to CS and clear the wave means Cho wins once he starts pushing. Your shroud does not protect you for AoE E autos, or W or Q. A Cho'Gath Q landed means imminent death.

Conclusion vs Cho'Gath. Skill matchup strongly dependent on pushing the lane, and out sustaining Cho'Gath. Not the worst matchup but definitely not in your favor.

Garen

Garen was discussed above too. For a character that is so strong vs melee traders like Riven, Garen is actually not that strong vs Akali. This is because the nature of her shroud slows Garen's E. Your lower cooldown Q makes safe farming and harass possible. The silence doesn't hurt you that much as you can throw down shroud and Qs before he gets into melee range. As someone else said, you can outrun Garen spin if he goes through your cloud. Garen's passive sustain is easily shut down by constant Qs. His best bet is to push the lane and force you to take minion damage by forcing you to CS at tower or push back. But pushing always puts top lane in danger of ganks. Once you hit 6, if you sustain well. You have a kill chance against Garen once he's on the run. If Garen has his Q silence on CD, he's at a big disadvantage against an all-in dive.

I am not that experienced with this matchup but,
Conclusion vs Garen: Akali low CD Q can harass Garen or farm safely. Cloud slow and stealth stops garen's 2 skill combo. Relatively safe lane for Akali, with kill potential at lvl 6 or jungle ganks.

Other? (just theorycraft or light experience)

Akali vs Kass ? Slight advantage for Akali, energy vs mana problems and natural sustain. Can outchase his R ultimate.

Akali vs Kat ? Pretty even 1-5 but Kat pushes harder. Lvl 6 is bad for kat as shroud disjoints her ultimate. Akali has better dive.

Akali vs Lee ? Pretty even laning, as both have sustain while Akali out damages burst trades. Even though lee can break through cloud, he can't out damage her with the bonus MR/Arm. Skill matchup, lee is almost alway a skill matchup.

Akali vs Mordekaiser? A common theorized counter to Akali. Heavily dependent on how you start. Mordekaiser out pushes you, but if you can get him low while your minions are up, he has no sustain only shield. You might want to red elixir start, and start hitting the minions right away, don't even leash blue more than a Q. Once morde starts pushing you can't stop him from zoning you. Mordekaiser has the advantage early but his lvl 6 ult weaker than yours, and less roaming power.

... to be continued...

Generally I am not shooting anyone's opinion down or saying I am an Akali Pro... but I'm just going through match-ups analytically. I have played a lot of Akali lately and watch some pro streams as well. I am encouraging correct play, mind-simulation and replay analysis to incite better understanding of match-ups. Less speculation based on incorrect assumptions or single match-up experiences will help the LoL community grow in skill.

It's not about "I beat this guy so hard the other day", it's more like. If I were playing against myself, with both champs... how would I kill myself and which side would be easier to win. Which side has the mechanics and potential to destroy the other side?

The tabs in my browser cut off this title to "Damage Anal.." hahahahahhahahhaha

OK I enjoyed that. Conclusion.
BotRK, good single item source of damage for bruisers, especially with HP stacking opponents.
Good sustain alternative for ADCs with the buff.

If you don't heavily scale off AD (ie:not Riven for bruisers, and not Cait or Graves)
BotRK is a good alternative as a mid-game chasing item, or a 3rd adc sustain item.
Candidates, Tristana?... what bruiser would build this, not many I actually think.

Quick update. Noobypower or one of our many adc players don't mind trying support. We have a full roster.

If possible, I'd like to play a few rounds today, possibly get our placement.

Approximately 6 hours 45 minutes from now or 11:30pm PST, 6:30pm AUS, 4:30 JP. Can we try to get everyone on? I will be on Raquell.

Dear ravenlucian,

No one ever gives credit to the pretty good stuff, or the pretty interesting posts. People are attracted to the RIDICULOUSLY STUPID, SEXIST, UNFAIR posts... or the RIDICULOUSLY GODLY, SUPER AMAZING results. So basically, since you got replies, your post falls into one of these categories.

Your reasoning is that:

1) Riot should punish all D/Cs so YOU feel appeased (appeasing the players as you say). He ruined your ranked game so his right to play ranked should be banned.
---> If I were in your shoes and the player got permabanned because of uncontrollable circumstances, OR he had personal reason to leave OR he was just having a really bad day I would not feel appeased. I don't think it's fair AND I would like the benefit of a doubt when I have uncontrollable circumstances happen to me.

2) Reality is if growing the business is the goal, you want to appease MORE than you disappoint. You also want to use resources efficiently.
---> Do you realize how much energy and time it takes to find proof that a tree fell over your internet power line? or getting a certified note from your ISP, or proof that your wife went into labor? Or proof that your hand got cut... you could send a picture... or send a note, or scan a note... but do you realize how much easier it is to lie, and send fake shit?.... League of Legends is not a university professor, as an amateur gamer, it has no real personal relationship to you, it provides a service you use it. There is no certificate, you do not PAY to take a SAT test under them. So there is absolutely no fundamental reasoning to have to show proof for a disruption of performance.

3) Currently the performance anxiety on ranked is already really high, it is stressful. Your post is proof of this. So now, you need to perform well (or you lose ELO), you need to NOT FLAME (because you'd get banned for toxicity), and now... you need to make sure nothing CRAZY happens like ISP, injury, power outtage... because if you are unlucky you are now BANNED from playing. This adds more elements so that the average player DOESN'T WANT TO PLAY. Therefore the game will lose popularity and no one gives a shit about proof of DC anymore. The game will die. You want to add anxiety that you can no longer play if your internet isn't perfect.

Going from purely logic. Thesis: D/Cs are a minority in ranked games.
Proof? Well I can't say 1% of games are DCs, but from your information. You had a ranked score of 5 wins, and 1 loss, you played 6 games normals. Then you had this OMFG D/C leaver game which you were winning. So that is only 1 game out of 5+1+6 = 1/12. So in those games, 91.66% of your games had no DC.
This is too small a sample size to say that "Rage quit D/Cs are less than 5% of all games".

Nevertheless, D/Cs are a minority. You had 5 ranked games to win through skill and team communication (sometimes it's impossible). You had one DC game. So I'm going to say that the thesis "D/Cs are a minority in ranked games." is true. Because most of us can see this already, we don't think DCs should be instantly punished, which is why we go out of our way spending 10 minutes to reply to your anger.

So all we can comment for you is... No, your idea is not good for Riot, it isn't good for us players, and it isn't even good for you. Best of luck in your next ranked games. Take it easy yo. Trying hard isn't stress free.

The players that improve the most and fastest are also players that take losses lightly while being strict on their own performance. If you want to rise in ELO, be a better gamer, not a better rule maker.