Akali Mid Lane Wild Rift overview and best build snapshot
Best Build
Quick snapshot of the default setup for this guide.
Items
Summoner Spells
Spell 1
Flash
Spell 2
Ignite
How to play
Take short trades around your passive Hitting a champion with an ability creates a ring around them. Step outside it to strengthen your next basic attack, then move back in for that hit.
Use your shroud to buy time Your 2nd ability creates a smoke cloud that hides you between attacks. Use it to buy time for your energy and abilities to recover.
Wait before diving into teamfights Let enemies use their stuns first, then use your ultimate to reach their damage dealers.
Guide author
Royal
Royal has reached Rank 1 in EU and NA, and Legend and Sovereign on the Chinese server. Created by Royal with input from high elo and professional players and the WildRiftGuides Discord community.
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Strengths
- Twilight Shroud (2nd) hides her from anything without vision inside it, refills energy, and lets her back out of any fight that goes wrong.
- Huge burst and repeated repositioning once her items land, killing a squishy mid or carry and using shroud or the second ultimate dash to disengage.
- One of the best roamers in the lane, turning brief wave priority into picks two lanes over.
Weaknesses
- Squishy and short on energy before items, so real lane bullies push her around early.
- Hard crowd control and bursty all-in fighters kill her while her combo or shroud is on cooldown.
- Tanky frontlines and high-magic-resist mids can survive her burst and restrict her access to the backline.
Akali Mid Lane Wild Rift best build, items, runes, summoner spells, and skill order
ITEM BUILD
Best Wild Rift build for Akali Mid Lane, including items, runes, summoner spells, and skill order.
STARTING ITEM
Early ability power for her kunai poke. She uses energy instead of mana, so Five Point Strike (1st) is limited by both its cooldown and her current energy; Twilight Shroud (2nd) restores 100 energy for a committed rotation.
BOOTS
Magic penetration matters more than raw stats, because she gets one burst window and it either kills or it does not.
CORE BUILD
One full rotation does enough damage to trigger the mark on a squishy, and the move speed helps her leave afterwards.
Her ultimate recast already deals more damage to low health targets, and the crit stacks on that same window.
Her damage is one rotation, so multiplying all of it at once matters more to her than to mages who get several attempts.
Cuts the magic resist enemies buy to survive assassins, which keeps her burst lethal. Choose it over Cryptbloom when enemies are stacking magic resist and maximum personal damage matters more than ability haste and team healing.
Build this when you land in the middle of the enemy team with your dash spent. Buy Seeker's Armguard early for the armor and ability power.
SITUATIONAL ITEMS
Build this when reaching the carry is harder than killing them. It is a third gap closer next to her dash and ultimate.
A damaging ability against a champion creates Assassin's Mark (Passive) when Akali is not already holding its empowered attack. Leaving the ring readies that attack, so Spellblade can add damage to the deliberate ability-passive weaving her combo already wants; it is not an automatic proc after every cast.
The alternative to Void Staff. Less penetration, but the ability haste and the healing on takedown help when she dives with her team. Choose it when enemies have not built much magic resist, so trading Void Staff's extra damage for more ability haste and an area heal after takedowns is worthwhile.
Build this when shields absorb Akali's all-in. Her first Q (1st) or shuriken hit reduces the shield before passive attacks and the second ultimate dash deliver the finishing damage.
Build this when enemies heal through Akali's all-in. Her repeated Q (1st) casts and passive attacks keep Grievous Wounds active throughout both ultimate dashes; buy Oblivion Orb early and delay the full item if needed.
Build this when the enemy has crowd control ready for the moment she comes out of her shroud.
RUNES
KEYSTONE
Kunai, shuriken and an empowered attack are three separate hits inside one shroud, so it triggers on her normal combo.
PRIMARY
Her E (3rd) recast and her ultimate are both dashes, so the bonus true damage lands when she arrives.
Her whole rotation lands on one target inside her shroud, which is what this pays for.
She is built to find kills, and every takedown turns into adaptive force that makes the next one land faster.
SECONDARY
Her shroud answers commitment, not chip, so this handles the poke that pushes her off the wave.
SITUATIONAL RUNES
Take this over Second Wind when crowd control is a bigger threat than poke sustain. Its 10% Tenacity shortens most disables, and the temporary Armor and Magic Resist add protection while immobilized.
Take this over Second Wind against an all-in lane. Reducing the next three damage instances helps Akali survive the opening combo long enough to enter Twilight Shroud (2nd) and begin her return trade.
SUMMONER SPELLS
MAIN SPELLS
Flash
Must take. She spends her dash and her shroud getting in, so Flash is the only tool she has left to get out.
Ignite
Take this for early kill pressure in lane and on roams, since kills are what turn a mid lead into pressure on the rest of the map. The Grievous Wounds also makes it strong into champions with a lot of healing.
SKILL ORDER
Skill Priority Order
- 11st Ability
Q - 23rd Ability
E - 32nd Ability
W
Akali Mid Lane Wild Rift matchups and counters
Wild Rift matchup guide for Akali Mid Lane, covering favorable lanes and difficult counters to prepare for in ranked.
Good Matchups
These champions are favorable matchups for this pick in Wild Rift. You have advantages against them and can play more aggressively.
Orianna
Her whole game is ball position, and the shroud stops her single-target casts from picking you out, though her ground-targeted and Ball-centred areas still hit you inside it, so move as well as hide; her early poke priority is the only edge she has on you.
Lux
One missed binding removes Lux's only hard crowd control. She can still shield herself and slow Akali with Lucent Singularity (3rd), but she has no dash or blink to escape the follow-up all-in.
Ziggs
Akali can cross Ziggs's artillery range and use Twilight Shroud (2nd) to deny targeted follow-up. Respect Satchel Charge's (2nd) displacement and Hexplosive Minefield's (3rd) slow, because those are his real tools for creating space once she arrives.
Mel
Mel has no dash, but Solar Snare (3rd) and its expanding slow zone can still stop a careless approach. Bait Rebuttal (2nd) before committing the full combo: its brief invulnerability prevents non-turret damage even when there is no projectile to reflect.
Akali Counters
These champions counter this pick in Wild Rift and can be difficult matchups. Learn how to play against them or consider banning them.
Kassadin
You bully him early, but he scales past you: his post-five blinks match your mobility, and his magic shield absorbs your burst, so your lead only lasts until his spike.
Irelia
She beats you in extended exchanges: Bladesurge (1st) heals her and resets when it kills a target or consumes a mark, while her stacked passive increases her attack speed. Her stun can also catch a predictable dash, so avoid fighting through a prepared minion wave.
Galio
Galio is built to stop magic-damage assassins: Shield of Durand (2nd) periodically grants him a magic-damage shield, while his crowd control punishes Akali's landing point. He can charge W (2nd) around a predictable commit, though Akali can still space the radius or time her movement around the channel.
Kennen
Kennen's ranged poke punishes every step toward him, his stun chain connects even through your shroud plays, and his teamfight ultimate beats yours when it lands first.
Twisted Fate
His ultimate reveals you even inside Twilight Shroud (2nd), stripping your safest engage and cleanest escape at once, and the gold card (2nd) locks you down for his team's follow-up.
Akali Mid Lane Wild Rift game strategy and teamfighting guide
Wild Rift game strategy for Akali Mid Lane, from early lane control through mid and late game map play to final teamfights.