So someone apparently leaked parts of the Akali rework.

Staying invisible under tower is definitely that CertainlyT flavor.

@Yuuki God dammit. Checked the comment for more details, and a google search revealed similar info: "While inside the smoke, Akali has invisibility which can't be broken by anything - not even turrets or the fountain laser."

Ugh, I liked playing Akali every now and then, but this sounds like permaban until she's nerfed into the ground.

The biggest reason Akali is so frustrating to play against is that her invisibility is so instant. Right now, while she's in the shroud, she can attack and maybe a quarter second later she's invisible again. There's hardly any time for reactions.

Taking that frustration and removing any places where you could play safely against her... yeah, that sounds like a ton of fun. For Akali.

@MageXy Yep, that's CertainlyT for you.

Fun to play, incredibly soul-destroying to play against.

Turrets have .83 attack speed, so that means a little over 1s per shot. A skilled Akali player will be able to dive, shroud, and then continue an attack without ever being shot a single time, assuming there's minions nearby.

Her Q costing all of her energy is interesting but she seems to have a lot of energy generation (passive, shroud) to make up for it.

Oh and she does mixed damage.

Q is magic, E is physical, ult is both.

Oh and ult has no energy cost so she can Q, ult in, shroud, and end up with enough energy to E out.

So I'm thinking her full-burst combo is Q -> passive empowered auto-attack -> ult -> shroud -> passive empowered auto-attack -> ult -> E

Or you can swap the second ult and E.

Oh wait, energy pool is 200 max, not 100?

nvm...

Seriously though, what is the counterplay for Akali? Build Guardian Angel?

I guess "dodge skillshots".

Yeah most energy champs have 200 energy pool, IIRC

I think the only upside of this post is that the guy who leaked it said "it was recorded a while ago and things could have been changed"

I hope he's right

They did apparently change her Q and R to skillshots though, so that's better-ish.

The splash art looks pretty amazing though. artstation.com/artwork/d2vQ1

@MageXy Based on that description, Riot's changing up the lore for the ninjas again.

Seems like Akali might not be working with Shen/Kennen anymore.

That new design is definitely fancy.

Okay, so her smoke is weird.

It starts with a small area but then turns into a donut.

Yep, that looks pretty disgusting. I was really, really hoping that after attacking from the shroud she'd stay visible for at least 1 second... nope. It actually almost looks like it's even less time visible than before... sigh

In an attempt to look on the bright side of things, her abilities don't seem very long-ranged and her only gapcloser is still her ult but now has a sizable cooldown.

@Yuuki Her E is also a gapcloser. It's kind of like Quinn's E, except whatever she hits, she can jump back to (no limit to the range). I believe the purpose of this skill is to help proc her passive.

@Yuuki These are the skills she's probably going to have, based on the leaked video that is now taken down: dailymail.co.uk/sport/esports/article-5958553/…

@MageXy Her W used to reposition her but it no longer does, right?

> If this is cast at full energy, Akali gains a large heal

That's interesting.

So you can cast her Q even when below 100 energy?

Also, that circle is bigger than I expected which I think is a good thing. Means she needs to reposition more to maximize damage.

Remember she has 200 energy total.

So I'm assuming she doesn't get a heal if she only has 100 energy to spend.

Ah, I misinterpreted "at full energy".

Not gonna lie, I really like the eating ramen animation. :D

@MageXy It's pretty adorable.

So without knowing the numbers, I could see two skill paths for her.

Maxing E first would make trading a lot stronger since you can proc passive more easily. Whereas maxing Q could help you sustain in lane since rank 5 increases damage to minions and you can heal off of it.

"Her position can be revealed, Akali herself can't be-" Akali confirmed Heisenberg?

But I guess that means you can reveal her under shroud but she still can't be targeted.

So you can hit her with skillshots and AoEs, but not point-and-clicks. Or basic attacks or tower attacks.

The smoke also seems to dissipate if it hits a wall while expanding. So tower diving might still be slightly risky? Probably not too much though.

Duration seems to be shorter too. Plus, she needs to re-enter it to increase duration, so CC her to heck.