Medium Difficulty
Fleet Footwork
Fleet Footwork
Overheal
Legend: Bloodline
Cut Down
Nullifying Orb
Gathering Storm
Attack Speed
Adaptive Force
Magic Resistance
Fleet Footwork
if you want to play for early game
Fleet Footwork
Overheal
Legend: Bloodline
Coup De Grace
Nullifying Orb
Gathering Storm
Attack Speed
Adaptive Force
Magic Resistance
Starting Items
Long Sword
Refillable Potion
Provides highest damage, builds into mythic quicker, and gives you the best sustain.
Standard Build
Wit's End
Galeforce
Berserker's Greaves
Lord Dominik's Regards
Infinity Edge
Maw of Malmortius
Situational Items
Anathema's Chains
Immortal Shieldbow
Mercury's Treads
Bloodthirster
Cooldowns
Q: 1.5
W: 20
E: 16-10
R: 100-60
Akali's Skill Max Order: Q → E → W
Cut Down
Enemy health needed to proc Cut Down Level 1: 663
Akali's Base Health Lvl 1: 570
Akali's Health With Doran's Shield Lvl 1: 650
You will not proc Cut Down early game in lane, but Akali builds a lot of HP items. Cut down will become more valuable as the game progresses.
If you want to play for early game, Coup De Grace is better. Otherwise, Cut Down is better if she builds one item onwards.
Cut Down is Sometimes recommended in this matchup
Overview
Level 1: Hide in top bush and conduct Quinn Cheese. Auto-E-Auto, then back off instantly to avoid Akali's Q. You hard win, so be as aggressive as you can. You can zone akali off the wave if you get good positioning after the cheese. She loses all trades.
Level 2: Akali levels W usually. Goal is to bait her W, and then if she uses it, be aggressive for 20 seconds because she can't trade ever. You can almost get 2 Es in before her W comes back up. You can use E aggressively if she levels W second.
Level 3: Akali has E now. Level 3, try not to vault aggressively. The goal is for akali to E you first, and then you Vault her after her E to push you to safety. If you E first, Akali can land E on you and get into melee range because you have no disengage.
Level 6: This is the scary part of the lane. Try to get a back off before her 6 spike so you're full HP with items. To live when she ults you, you must dodge her E. Be good at sidesteps, or hide behind minions. If she misses E on you, her chances of one shotting become less because she can't jump to you as easily to land her Qs! If she ults, try to blind her to make it harder for her to land her second R/E.
What To Do
Definitely a tough matchup, so be careful with her later on.
Your goal is to win early game hard so that she doesn't become problematic later on.
If you are even in CS and don't kill her before level 6, then that's a win for her, so remember that.
Level 1 you can trade aggressively with your vault, but try to go in for a trade after she Qs the minion wave.
Try to stay out of range of her Q because if she hits it on you, her passive will activate to grant her enhanced movement speed + an enhanced autoattack.
Her Q is a 1.5 second CD, but it costs 120-100 (scaling down in cost with points in her Q) energy out of her 200 energy, and energy restores 10 per second.
Essentially, 1 Q clutters her energy pool for a while, and if she misses the Qs on you, she won't be able to activate her passive to deal extra damage.
Her Q range is 500 and your AA range is 525, so if you stay in your AA range you will be able to prevent her from landing her Q on you.
Level 3 onwards is when the matchup gets spicy.
The key to beating akali early game is to bait out her W.
It has a 20 second CD, but with it activated, she gains energy and MS and will be untargettable.
Don't try to fight her when it's up.
Simply run away when she uses it to avoid being hit by her Qs to grant her a passive mark.
When her 5 second W is down, THEN go for the trades because akali pre 6 is VERY WEAK without her W.
Akali's second cast on her E can be cancelled with Quinn's E vault, so don't vault akali agressively.
Instead, bait akali's E, and when she reactivates it, vault her in mid air and then run her down.
Without akali's W and E, she is a minion and Quinn with W max will eat her alive.
Now, when Akali gets 6 you must be careful.
You can cancel her Rs with your vault, but the main thing is to try to play back and avoid being poked down in lane.
Nullifying Orb is key in this matchup for surviving her R if you want to go a safer route to help with Akali's Second R activation.
Your goal in this matchup is to hard win early game, and avoid akali landing E on you at all costs in engages.
I like fleet in this matchup not for sustain, but more for the movement speed it provides.
If Akali is trying to run at me, I proc fleet and get a bursty of MS to run away being ready to side step my movement, making it more difficult for Akali to land her E on me and chase me after she wants to assassinate me.
Akali Matchup Guide Season 12
Season 12 Akali Match
Beating Akali with Fleet Footwork (Season 11)
High Elo Akali Stomp Pre Conq Nerfs (Season 10)
Canceling her E with Vault
Canceling her R with Vault