Akali ARAM Build and Guide

Updated for patch 26.21. Ability details come from Riot’s official game data for this patch; ARAM balance numbers come from the League of Legends Wiki’s champion data.

An Akali ARAM build is Ability Power burst with some Health on a champion the mode treats kindly: Akali deals 105% damage, takes 90% damage, and gets 120% energy regeneration and 120% Tenacity on the Howling Abyss. Five Point Strike on a 1.5 second cooldown into a clumped team is the point, so you build to cast more and to survive the way in.

Items below are our reading of the patch 26.21 data, nothing more. Win rates don’t figure.

How is Akali changed in ARAM?

Akali deals 105% damage and takes 90% damage in ARAM, with energy regeneration at 120% and Tenacity at 120%. Four lines, four buffs. A rare sight (even on this map). The energy one is the interesting one, because Five Point Strike has a 1.5 second cooldown and the only thing that stops her casting it on every cooldown is energy, so a fifth more regeneration is a fifth more kunai over a long fight. Why be this generous with an assassin? Because the Abyss removes her two best habits: there’s no side lane to roam to and nowhere to reset between fights, so the mode pays her to fight in the open. To be fair, 90% damage taken on a champion who dives five people is the one that keeps her alive. The rest just makes her louder.

Why does Akali fit the Howling Abyss?

Because the shroud works anywhere, and the kunai hit everyone in front of her. Riot’s data for patch 26.21:

• Assassin’s Mark (passive): spell damage on a champion draws a ring of energy around them; leaving it empowers her next attack with bonus range and damage.
• Five Point Strike (Q): five kunai, damage based on bonus Attack Damage and Ability Power, plus a slow. Cooldown 1.5 seconds.
• Twilight Shroud (W): smoke that makes her invisible and unselectable by enemy spells and attacks, with a brief Move Speed boost; attacking or casting briefly reveals her. Cooldown 20/19/18/17/16.
• Shuriken Flip (E): a backward flip and a forward shuriken; the first enemy or smoke cloud hit is marked, and the recast dashes to the mark. Cooldown 16/14.5/13/11.5/10.
• Perfect Execution (R): a damaging leap, then a recast dash that executes everything it strikes. Cooldown 120/90/60.

Picture the enemy team in a line, because on the Abyss that is what they are. Five Point Strike is five kunai thrown forward, and a line of champions is the shape it wants. Twilight Shroud drops in the middle of the lane and becomes the one spot where targeted spells and attacks can’t find her, which on a map with no fog to hide in is worth more than on the Rift. Perfect Execution’s recast dashes in a direction and executes everything it strikes, plural, and the Abyss makes “everything” mean something. Where’s the problem? 125 range and a team of five people who know exactly where the smoke is, which is why the Health in this build isn’t optional.

What should an Akali ARAM build focus on?

Ability Power with Health attached, Magic Penetration, and one item that buys her a second life inside the shroud. Four items from the current patch.

Hextech Rocketbelt opens the build, and it’s the item that gives her a fourth dash: 60 Ability Power, 350 Health and 10 Ability Haste, with Supersonic, an active dash in the target direction that fires missiles dealing magic damage. Akali already has the Shuriken Flip dash and both halves of Perfect Execution, and a fourth one on an item means the engage and the exit can be different buttons. The 350 Health is the first of several, because 90% damage taken only helps a champion who has Health to take damage against.

Lich Bane is second: 100 Ability Power, 6% Move Speed and 10 Ability Haste, and Spellblade makes the attack after an ability deal bonus magic damage On-Hit. Her passive already wants ability, then attack: Assassin’s Mark empowers the attack after she leaves the ring her spell drew, and Spellblade loads the same attack again. Honestly, it’s two passives aimed at one swing, and with a 1.5 second kunai cooldown that swing comes around a lot.

Zhonya’s Hourglass is third, and in ARAM it matters more than it does anywhere: 105 Ability Power and 50 Armor, with Time Stop putting her in Stasis for 2.5 seconds. The shroud hides her from targeted spells and attacks; it does nothing about areas, and the Abyss is five people throwing areas at the smoke. Time Stop is the answer to the area, and the Armor is the answer to the marksman who keeps attacking the cloud anyway. In practice it’s the item that turns a dive from a coin flip into a plan.

Rabadon’s Deathcap finishes it, 130 Ability Power and a 30% increase to total Ability Power from Magical Opus, because every kunai scales with Ability Power and there are a great many kunai (that’s the whole champion). For boots she wants Sorcerer’s Shoes and their 12 Magic Penetration, with 45 Move Speed attached. The catch is that none of this is Magic Resist, so against a team of mages, swap Lich Bane for Banshee’s Veil and keep the rest.

How do you play Akali on the Howling Abyss?

• Kunai from the back until the shroud is up. Five Point Strike is on a 1.5 second cooldown and the energy regeneration is 120% here, so the poke phase is free.
• Shroud on the choke, not on yourself. Twilight Shroud is a place; drop it where the fight will be, then arrive.
• Mark a smoke cloud with Shuriken Flip to escape. The first enemy or smoke cloud hit is marked, and the recast dashes to the mark, which means your own shroud is an exit.
• Save the Perfect Execution recast for a line. It executes everything it strikes, and on the Abyss a retreating team is a line.
• Max Q. The cooldown is already 1.5 seconds, so the ranks are pure damage on the spell you cast most.

How do shopping and Mark change the game on the Howling Abyss?

There is no recall here. The shop is the fountain, at the start and after each death. Relics along the lane handle the healing in between, and Akali, with no sustain in her kit, leans on them more than most. For the build that means Health components first: the Rocketbelt’s Health piece before its Ability Power piece, since the first few fights come down to whether she survives the walk into the shroud (she often doesn’t). Finish Hextech Rocketbelt, then Sorcerer’s Shoes, then the rest. Funny enough, the mode’s extra energy regeneration is the cheapest item she owns, and it arrives at level one.

Mark is the ARAM snowball: land it on a champion and you can dash to them. The choice is fixed before the game loads. On a champion who already carries three dashes plus the Rocketbelt, the snowball is the fifth (yes, the fifth one), and the honest use is the one nobody takes: throw it, don’t follow it, and let the hit tell you where the back line stands. A dash forward on an assassin with 125 range is a decision, and the snowball makes it too easy to make. Put simply, take Mark and treat the follow-up as optional.

Is Akali good in ARAM?

Yes, and the four modifiers say so plainly. 105% damage, 90% damage taken, 120% energy regeneration and 120% Tenacity are a mode telling an assassin to go ahead, and the kit answers with a kunai that hits a whole line and a shroud that works without a bush. What she can’t do is survive being wrong: one dive at the wrong moment with no Zhonya’s is a death, and on the Abyss the respawn walk is the only respite she gets.

The mid laners who make her wrong most often are in the Akali counters guide, and the ones with areas and ground effects are just as bad here. Our guide to LoL roles is the primer on what mid lane asks of an assassin. The item database keeps stats and patch history for everything above, and the Akali skins page keeps the cosmetics.

Long story short: kunai from range, shroud on the choke, Rocketbelt in, Time Stop when the areas land, execute the line. That’s the Akali ARAM build spending every modifier the mode handed her. Then you respawn, add the next Health piece, and go back to throwing kunai.

FAQ

Is Akali buffed in ARAM?

Yes, on four counts. For patch 26.21 the League of Legends Wiki’s champion data has her at 105% damage dealt, 90% damage taken, 120% energy regeneration and 120% Tenacity.

What items does the Akali ARAM build use?

Hextech Rocketbelt, Lich Bane, Zhonya’s Hourglass and Rabadon’s Deathcap with Sorcerer’s Shoes, swapping Lich Bane for Banshee’s Veil against a mage-heavy team.

Does Twilight Shroud work on the Howling Abyss?

Yes, the same as anywhere: inside it she is invisible and can’t be selected by enemy spells or attacks, though area spells still hit her and attacking or casting briefly reveals her.

Why Zhonya’s Hourglass on the Howling Abyss?

Because the shroud doesn’t stop area damage and the Abyss is full of it. Time Stop’s 2.5 seconds of Stasis covers the moment the areas land, and the 50 Armor helps against the marksman.

Is this build based on win rates?

No. Akali’s patch 26.21 ability text and the item data, nothing else, went into it.