What Makes Akali OP?

Who meeeeee?

I'm seeing a lot of QQ on the forums about Akali and how she's suddenly overpowered and needs to be nerfed. Well this has probably been true for a while, but the problem is that only a hand full of people knew how to play her to this level, aka players like Westrice and they don't stream as much as some other players.

On the other hand, HotshotGG has been streaming himself playing Akali as his main, and when he streams, the world stops and watches. This means that high level gold and platinum players are picking up on what seems to be a fun hero, and improving her playstyle to a point where she's getting stronger and stronger than before. And of course, any viable hero will be considered "OP" if they kill your "OP" hero.

So what makes her "OP"? Well let's take a look at her. She's an anti-carry assassin, this means that her job is to take down the squishiest enemy heroes. Where does she lane? Usually solo top or solo mid. The fact that she can handle both burst casters as well as tanky dps makes her sound OP so far since there aren't many heroes that can handle both lanes equally well.

But the main thing that people probably find OP about her is her three blinks from her ulti. Other anti-carries like Poppy, Xin Zhao, Nocturne, and even Irelia, only have one. Once they blink in and stun, if the target gets out of the stun and blinks away, they've gotten away.

Akali KEEPS CHASING

Not only this, but she can also get out of reach via her shroud unless the other team has a pink ward or an oracle. As we all know from pre-nerf Eve, any hero that makes it so you MUST spend money to counter or lose means that this hero is the ultimate pubstomper.

As for her early laning phase, her passives make give her great sustainability, especially since she doesn't use mana, so she only has health to worry about...which is easily resolved by her passive lifesteal + shroud combo. So now for the moment you've all been waiting for; how do you counter her?

Counterpicks

Lee Sin: Lee Sin's mana-less energy using abilities along with his lifesteal, invis detection, and AOE attacks make him ideal to lane against Akali. The main problem is that this takes Lee Sin out of the jungle, where he's super strong. He also gets banned almost every game.

Ezreal: Late game Ezreal is Akali's main target, but early game Ezreal can put a real hurting on Akali's laning phase. Akali's Q doesn't do as much damage unless she combos it with her auto-attack, and all his abilities will hit Akali right through his shroud. If you use your E first, it will automatically hit Akali and show you exactly where to shoot your Q as well.

Cho'Gath: He's great for sustaining lanes, and all his abilities except feast can hit Akali right through her shroud as well. His late game potential is also in par if not above Akali's.

Brand/Orianna: Both of these heroes are on par, if not better than Akali early, mid, and late game (team fights). The game changing factor will be how good they are at killing two or four enemy heroes before Akali jumps and facerolls them, or how fast Akali can nuke them down before they have a chance to cast a single spell.

Agree/Disagree? Got comments or experiences? Post them below in the comments :) Thanks for reading