Akali Wild Rift Build — Patch 7.2e

How to play Akali — Wild Rift guide, combos & tips

Akali is a high-mobility burst assassin for the mid lane in Wild Rift, built around one goal: slip into her own smoke, land a full magic-damage burst on a single target, and vanish again before anyone can punish her. Nearly all of her damage comes from her ability combo and Assassin's Mark-empowered autoattacks rather than sustained trading, and she trades away tankiness and team utility for some of the highest single-target burst and reset potential of any assassin in the game. Every fight for her really comes down to picking the right moment to reveal herself out of Twilight Shroud (W).

Combos

• Perfect Execution (R) first cast onto the target, Shuriken Flip (E) first cast to hop backward to safety, Shuriken Flip second cast back in, then Perfect Execution second cast to finish - the opening R dashes you onto the target, but instead of standing still through the 2.5-second window before you can recast it, use E's backward-flipping first cast to create safe spacing, dash back in with E's second cast, then aim R's second cast at wherever they actually are (it's a direction, not an auto-lock) to execute them off missing health.
• Five Point Strike (Q) or Shuriken Flip (E) first cast, walk through the Assassin's Mark ring, autoattack, then Shuriken Flip second cast - poke or mark the target from range, walk through the ring your hit leaves behind for a free empowered autoattack, then dash in with E's second cast to finish them off.
• Twilight Shroud (W) to close the gap, then Five Point Strike (Q) or Shuriken Flip (E), into Perfect Execution (R) first cast - approach invisible and faster inside the Shroud instead of walking up exposed, then break stealth with a poke or mark before committing to the kill with R's engage dash.
• Shuriken Flip (E) first cast whiffed, then Shuriken Flip again - if the throw doesn't hit an enemy champion, it still marks your own Shroud cloud, so recasting E dashes you back into the smoke instead of wasting the cooldown, giving you a clean reset when an all-in goes wrong.

Skill order: E > Q > W (take one early point in W for the Shroud stealth reset; level R whenever it's available at 5/9/13)

Early game

Before level 3 you have no real all-in, so use Five Point Strike (Q) to poke and control the wave rather than trading blades - landing it at the very edge of its range even slows anyone trying to walk away for half a second. Once Shuriken Flip (E) and Twilight Shroud (W) are both online, look for a moment an opponent overextends: tag them with Q or E's first cast (which also hops you backward to safety as it throws), then punish with the empowered autoattack from Assassin's Mark before deciding whether to commit further. Max E first for its damage and the extra reset it gives you, Q second to keep your poke and wave clear healthy, and put only one early point into W since you mainly need it for the stealth reset at this stage. Once your core items complete - Infinity Orb into Riftmaker or Rabadon's Deathcap - your all-in threat grows enough that you should be roaming through Shroud rather than staying glued to lane.

Mid & late game — teamfighting

In Wild Rift teamfights, Akali should be played as a flanker, not a frontline threat: use Twilight Shroud (W) and terrain to walk in from an unseen angle, then commit with Perfect Execution's (R) first cast to dash directly onto your target instead of fighting through the enemy front line, where a single stray crowd-control effect ends your combo instantly. Pick the squishiest champion you can burst down, use Shuriken Flip's (E) backward-flipping first cast to create spacing if you need to survive the window before R's second cast comes off cooldown, and get out with a fresh Shroud or Flip once the kill is secured rather than sticking around to fight the rest of the team. Hold that second cast of Perfect Execution until the target is around a third of their health or lower so its missing-health scaling actually executes them, rather than burning both dashes on a healthy frontliner. Because Akali brings so little to her team outside her own damage, every teamfight really comes down to whether you can convert a kill and disappear - if the pick isn't there, reset instead of forcing it.

Pro tips

• Always walk through your own Assassin's Mark ring after landing an ability - the empowered autoattack is free extra magic damage and range that's easy to skip when you're focused on the next input.
• Remember Shuriken Flip's (E) first cast moves you backward while it throws, so it doubles as a spacing tool mid-combo, not just an opener - and if it whiffs the enemy, it still marks your own Shroud cloud, letting you recast E to dash to safety instead of wasting the cooldown.
• Perfect Execution's (R) second cast is aimed as a direction, not locked onto whichever champion you hit with the first cast - track where your target is actually running before you recast it, or the execute damage sails past them.