League of Legends Reveals Akali’s Reworked Abilities

After a brief slipup this morning that leaked Akali’s rework ahead of schedule, the full update for the League of Legends ninja has now been revealed.

A video that was uploaded as “unlisted” to YouTube resulted in the champion’s full kit being discovered before Riot Games could share the more detailed reveal of new and reworked champions. We saw a condensed version of her abilities before to get a fair idea of what the new Akali was capable of – it’s still plenty of dashes, if you’re wondering – but now that the reveal page is up, we can see each move in greater detail.

The typical video breakdowns of each spell can be seen below along with gameplay tips. You’ll also want to check out at least one of the champion’s update skins that takes on a new name with Akali’s rework.

PASSIVE: ASSASSIN’S MARK

Assassin’s Mark

• Damaging a champion with an ability creates a ring around them. When the ring forms, Akali gains a burst of movement speed towards it. Once she crosses the ring, Akali gains another burst of movement speed towards the enemy.
• Crossing the ring also empowers her kama, which increases the range and damage of her next attack. This attack also restores a small amount of energy.

Akali’s new passive allows the champion to stick to enemy champions with some extra movement speed while also increasing her damage output. Since Akali relies on positioning and quick manuevers when having to fight in such close quarters, the extra range on her attack and the movement speed should help her get her poke in and get out before taking too much damage.

Q: FIVE POINT STRIKE

Five Point Strike

• Akali throws five kunai in a narrow arc, damaging enemies directly in front of her and slowing those at maximum range.
• If cast with nearly full energy, Akali heals for a percentage of the damage.
• At rank 5, Five Point Strike deals extra damage to minions and monsters.

A form of crowd control to further increase here ability to stick to opponents, this move also keeps a heal in Akali’s kit, but only if she manages her energy correctly. The slow also only applies to those hit with the ability’s sweetspot, so you’ll have to put some thought into it instead of just spamming some easy poke.

W: TWILIGHT SHROUD

Twilight Shroud

• Akali restores energy and creates cloud of smoke, which slowly spreads to cover a ring-shaped area. While in the smoke, Akali is obscured and has increased movement speed.
• While obscured, Akali is stealthed and though her position can be revealed, Akali herself can’t be—meaning she can’t be targeted by abilities or attacks, including by turrets.
• Akali can leave the smoke a few times to extend the duration of Twilight Shroud by a small amount.

The iconic stealth ability returns, this time with a new form of protection called “obscured.” When obscured, Akali can’t be targeted by anything, not even turrets. Attacking will break the obscure effect, but dipping in and out of sight allows her to extend the duration of the ability.

E: SHURIKEN FLIP

Shuriken Flip

• Akali backflips and throws a shuriken forward, damaging and marking the first enemy hit. The shuriken can also hit and mark the smoke from Twilight Shroud.
• Akali can reactivate Shuriken Flip to dash to the marked target, damaging enemies she passes through.

A long-range move that gives Akali a damaging skillshot and a dash, this looks like it’ll be where many of the outplays happen. Like a Lee Sin’s Sonic Wave coupled with a backflip, this lets Akali mark a target to dash to while avoiding incoming damage at the same time.

R: PERFECT EXECUTION

Perfect Execution

• Akali dashes up to two times, with a slight delay between. The first dash deals physical damage and briefly stuns, while the second dash deals magic damage based on the missing health of the enemy.

The last of her abilities, Perfect Execution, keeps her iconic dash intact while giving her an execute to finish off the low-health enemies. It also stuns enemies for a short duration when the first charge of the ability is used, something that when coupled with her slow and her multiple dashes and movement speed buffs will prove to make Akali quite the sticky champion.

Playing as Akali

Just as Riot Games usually does, a more realistic look at her abilities in action was also shared to show how they’ll all work when used together. Riot also offered the details below regarding how players should chain together her abilities and how they should go about using the new Akali in teamfights.

“Akali is an adept assassin who fights while on the move, adding new layers of complexity to her playstyle. The secret to Akali’s technique lies in the ring created by Assassin’s Mark: constantly crossing in and out will keep your kama swinging and your damage deadly. Shuriken Flip and Perfect Execution tag your target with the Mark as you dash forward or backward, activating your empowered kama. When you recast the ability and dart back in, combine the passive hit with your Five Point Strike for a lethal burst attack.

“Akali has a more extended execution than other assassins—Twilight Shroud helps you reposition and avoid retaliation at the same time. More advanced acolytes will use it in combination with Akali’s other abilities to set up, cross into, and slip back out of the ring. Even if you run out of energy and enemies attempt to punish your overconfidence, clever use of Twilight Shroud will keep them grasping at shadows.”

Crimson Akali

While all of Akali’s skins are getting updated, just as they always are when a champion is reworked on a visual level, one skin is getting an entirely new name as it joins the likes of Alistar and others in the Infernal skin line. Crimson Akali will now be referred to as Infernal Akali with the splash art above previewing the skin.

Riot Reav3 commented on the name change not long ago when players in the Akali Mains subreddit asked about changing the name once the ninja was reworked.

“Yes, we plan on renaming Crimson Akali to name that better fits the new theme we have given it,” Riot Reav3 said several days ago.

Akali’s rework will hit the PBE first before coming to live servers, but expect a champion roadmap with more teasers to come shortly after that.