League of Legends' Reworked Akali Could Once "Ride" Enemy Projectiles

Akali's got a full set of new abilities after Riot Games reworked the League of Legends, but she almost had one creative ability that would let her ride atop enemy projectiles.

The scrapped ability was revealed recently during a Reddit AMA where the team that created the new version of Akali took to the League of Legends subreddit to answer questions about the rework. As is the case with every rework, players wanted to know about any abilities that the champions had prior to their release that Riot deemed too strong or unfit for the game. Lead game designer Mark "Riot Scruffy" Yetter commented to confirm that Akali could at one point ride on other champion's abilities.

"There was an early phase where Akali could 'ride' other champs' projectiles," Riot Scruffy said. "It was a crazy and novel idea, but players had a terrible time finding practical uses for it."

Though players reportedly had a hard time making good use of the ability, lead champion producer Ryan "Riot Reav3" Mireles could remember at least one time when the ability was put to good use.

"I have fond memories of assassinating a ADC, riding Ornn's ult out of the backline, then riding it back into the backline again, with cooldowns refreshed and killing someone else," Riot Reav3 said, a moment of gameplay that certainly would've yielded some rewatchable clips had the ability made it to the live servers.

That wasn't the only ability that Akali once had that didn't make it to her final form either. Her ability that lets her throw out several kunai did become part of her release kit, but she almost had an ability that let her use two kunai to trip up opponents.

"She had an ability that she'd throw out 2 kunai with a rope in the middle, kind of like Irelia E and trip up people that walked through it," Riot Ranger XIV said.

The Rioter who serves as a QA analyst for champion updates gave more details on the scrapped ability to say that it was a double-cast spell that likely operated similarly to Irelia's Flawless Duet ability. Other players said that it would've been a neat ability for Akali to have but the Rioter said that it "didn't play well for an assassin" and added that he believed the new Shuriken Flip ability to be the superior of the two.

Akali's rework is now available for all players, and you can read more on the development of the reworked champion here.