If you’re here, odds are you’re out of dice rolls and have no idea how you should play Akali in a game of ARAM.
Finding an Akali ARAM build that works for you can be finicky; oftentimes, they’re entirely different from their 5V5 counterparts, and you’ll end up scratching your head wondering how and why they work. Through years of experience and our utilization of in-game data, we’ve created a guide that should help you breeze through all random all mid games while playing Akali ARAM.
A Brief Introduction To Akali, The Rogue Assassin
Akali is a staple in League of Legends gameplay among the many choices of available assassin champions. While playing as Akali, you’ll continuously be on-the-move primarily using her signature move “Assasin’s Mark” to deal devastating damage to your enemies. Combined with her other skills like Shuriken Flip and Perfect Execution, you can strategically lay down many moves in a matter of seconds to ultimately prevent your enemies from walking away unscathed.
If your basic combo isn’t enough to finish off an enemy, her Q (Five Point Strike) has just enough range to give you time to tag an enemy while you quickly turn around and retreat to the nearest safe place. Evading enemy attacks and repositioning yourself is a simple as using Twilight Shroud, which allows you to become invisible, and it nearly stops enemies in their tracks. And if you manage to catch an enemy player in your shroud, it could be the perfect opportunity to punish them for foolishly following you into the void.
Our Recommended Akali ARAM Item Build
Akali’s item build should be family similar to her 5v5 build, mostly consisting of Items that will send her ability power and, as such, her kill potential through the roof.
Starting Items
Guardian’s Horn: Staying alive until you can buy is incredibly crucial in ARAM. Guardians Horn will keep you healed well into the mid-game if you can play carefully.
Amplifying Tome: for some juicy added AP
However, if you’re not into playing safe and want to boast more kill pressure early on, you can start with the following:
Hextech Gunblade: AP and spell-vamp to start. However, you’ll need to be confident in your ability to poke opposing players without getting caught.
Full Build
By the end of a game, you should be fully equipped with the following list of items. Remember, your goal is to stack as much AP as possible.
Hextech Gunblade: Ability Power, Lifesteal & DAMAGE
Sorcerers Shoes: Magic Resist Penetration
Liandry’s Torment: Lost of DoT (Damage Over Time) and AP
Zhonya’s Hourglass: Armor, CDR, Panic Button (short period of invincibility) and AP
Void Staff: Magic Resist Penetration and AP
Rabaddons Deathcap: TONS OF DAMAGE (and AP).
Akali ARAM Runes
The Akali ARAM rune-page as it is in 5v5, you’re going to use a combination of the precision and domination keystones. Akali’s itemization along with the quick pace of an ARAM game provide for more than enough damage to 1v5, so the rune setup mostly focuses on sustaining extended trades and fights, allowing you to stay in the fight kill after kill. However, you should be mindful of the fact that you’ll need to pretty much always keep fighting to stay relevant and healed up, otherwise you could find yourself in a tricky situation.
Precision Tree Runes (Primary)
Conqueror:
Akali’s quick attacks make it incredibly easy to charge up the Conqueror stacks and keep yourself healed up in burst-trades and extended battles alike.
Presence of Mind:
Presence of mind will allow you to sustain your mana as you slice your way through the enemy team.
Legend Tenacity:
Forget about being stun-locked for days, the extra bit of tenacity that this rune provides will allow you to mitigate a good deal of CC.
Coup De Grace:
Akali is a heavy hitter by the time she reaches her late-game build. To keep hitting hard, use Coup De Grace for an additional damage boost and to make sure that you secure each and every potential kill without any low HP enemies slipping away.
Domination Tree Runes (Secondary)
Taste Of Blood:
This rune will basically keep you healed up at all times thanks to the insane degree of sustain that it provides. You’ll get to enjoy 14% of your damage dealt as healing, which when combined with your Hextech Gunblade provides for some absolutely ridiculous healing.
Ravenous Hunter:
Akali is practically a tank while she’s equipped with Ravenous Hunter. Combined with Taste of Blood, Conqueror and your Hextech Gunblade, you’re almost impossible to kill so long as you’re constantly dishing out lots of damage to enemy champions.
Off Runes
For the 3 remaining off-runes, you’ll want to take 2 adaptive power runes along with some armor or magic resist. Keep in mind that taking health for your last off-rune is also a viable choice, though it requires a little more experience to play around and doesn’t provide as much benefit as taking armor or MR.
Conclusion
Everyone has at least one champion that they have no idea of how to play. If that character happens to be Akali, there’s no need to worry as long as you strictly follow our recommended build and become familiar with her skills throughout the course of the game.
Being a mechanically simple champion with a VERY rewarding and enjoyable play-style, Akali ARAM (when done right) is an absolute monster and will have you winning games in the blink of an eye. Do you have your own Akali ARAM build that you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments below!
