League of Legends Is Reworking Akali

Akali is the next League of Legends champion to be added to champion update schedule behind others like Irelia and Aatrox.

As part of Riot Reav3's champion roadmap that outlines current and future plans for League champions, a subheader that read "Shrouded in Mystery" was enough to let Akali mains know what was coming. Sure enough, the next sentence from Riot Reav3 confirmed that the next large Visual and Gameplay Update (VGU) that's being worked on is for Akali.

Explaining the reasoning behind Akali's upcoming rework, Reav3 explained that the champion has always been one that players have been fond of, but added that "she hasn't aged particularly well."

"Her assassin pattern is very all-or-nothing, so it can be difficult for her to succeed unless she snowballs off of early kills," Riot Reav3 said. "We want to give her more options for success by playing up her ability to hide in plain sight. We think her Shroud is an awesome and iconic ability and want to push it even further."

Like other older champions, Riot Reav3 said that Akali has some difficulty laning against more modern champs. She may have some reliable mobility thanks to her multiple dashes after hitting level six, but her laning pattern still suffers early on. To fix this, Riot is hoping to give the champion a "stronger laning pattern" and reduce the emphasis on her all-or-nothing snowballing potential that relies entirely on getting kills.

As for the champion's overall theme, Riot hopes to expand on her assassin qualities while also adding other traits to help set her apart from other champions.

"Overall, we are pretty satisfied with Akali's high-level theme of a "Ninja Assassin," but the current execution is a bit generic. We'll be looking to add a couple more unique traits to Akali to elevate her beyond this common theme. As for her narrative, we want to go with an approach similar to the one we took for the Gangplank VGU, meaning we want to extend her narrative rather than rework it. Instead of a new Akali, this will be a tale of growth and change."

A projected release date for Akali's rework has not been provided.