'League of Legends' Is Removing Part of Akali's Shroud Ability

One of Akali's most useful and frustrating abilities makes turrets unable to target her so long as she's in her Twilight Shroud, but Riot Games is planning on taking away that effect in an upcoming League of Legends update.

Akali's shroud obscures her from enemies' view while giving her a wide area to fight in, but it also makes her a formidable diving force since she can drop turret aggro by disappearing into the shroud while still harassing opponents. League of Legends design director Riot Meddler confirmed on the game's boards that the anti-turret aspect of her Akali's ability is being removed though, so hiding under an enemy's turret while going for a kill will soon be a much less attractive option.

"Getting the immediate question out of the way first, yep, we'll be removing Akali's shroud making her untargetable under towers," Riot Meddler said. "We don't think that alone will solve everything with Akali, but agree it's a good change, especially given even many Akali mains would prefer that the effect be removed and power spent elsewhere."

Riot Meddler explained that the original goal behind the mechanic was to give Akali a way to fight under towers like other assassins could. League players who prefer the assassin role will know that others like Kha'Zix, Zed, LeBlanc, and Talon all have ways to get out of a fight once they've either done their damage or secured a kill, so the shroud gave Akali a similar avenue for escape. Though the ability's design fulfilled that purpose, Riot Meddler said, it "did so at a high counterplay/frustration cost" with that cost being the subject of internal debates for some time.

As for other parts of Akali's kit that may change, the Rioter said the assassin's healing effect on her "Q" may also be adjusted.

"In terms of other changes we're also looking at Akali's sustain and whether, like Aatrox, she's potentially shrugging off harass too effectively via her Q heal," the Rioter said. "We generally want champions able to create and win all ins with some reliability to be more vulnerable to harass. Debating at present whether, if we do remove the Q heal at max energy, we should replace it with another mechanic or not. For those of you who play her regularly is that something you enjoy optimizing around or not?"

A patch for when players should expect the Akali changes wasn't specifically mentioned, but there's a chance the champion's kit will see those differences in Patch 9.3.