She is a counter to mobile champions. And? I don't see much of a problem in this.
Mobile champions such as Ezreal and Vayne are punishing if left unchecked. Champions like Akali, Kassadin, LB, Jax, etc are their counters.
This isn't an exclusive trait to Akali.

"It is almost impossible to stop her from attacking you." CC? Tanks and supports exist for a reason. The game is not 1v1. Its 5v5. All tanks and supports have ways to save carries.


Spammable ults are balanced in two ways.
1) increasing mana costs or
2) ammunition limitations.
The first one is completely inapplicable.

But why does Akali have no resource cost like Teemo? Because she is an energy based champion.
Other than Kennen, the other three energy based champions do not have any costs in their ultimate.

Its a balancing issue.
Mana based champions have issues early game where they can run out of mana from continuous use.
Energy based champions have issues the rest of the game, where you cannot use any of your abilities sparingly.

If you would give Akali a mana pool instead, I would be overjoyed. Her laning might suffer a tiny bit, but her energy issues would be gone. Never again would I have to reconsider using my E so I would have enough energy for my other abilities, or die since I just used my Q or E and not have that extra 5 energy to use my W.
Unless you were to place energy recovery onto other spells, increase her energy refund on her Q significantly, or make the energy cost of her R next to nothing, then she is going to have insane resource issues.
She won't even be able to go through one skill rotation before running out.

One thing I might agree with is her ultimate having too short a cooldown. But the most I would be agree to is having it stay a 2 second cooldown instead of it decreasing to 1 at max level.


Your argument about her passive is just wrong.

AP benefits both her auto attack and her spells.
AD benefits both her auto attack and gives her spell vamp.

But the passives do not have circular synergy like you're implying.
And they definitely don't scale that crazily well, especially on a typical Akali build where your only source of bonus AD are on your runes/masteries and Gunblade.
And you definitely won't reach 500 AP like others are implying.

I don't know if you're trying to be misleading or just misinformed.

Refer to above.
Not exclusive to Akali. Fiddlesticks can do the same thing. So can Amumu and Malphite.
And 800 range is not actually out of CC range. Maybe targeted CC spells. But for many others, 800 range is well within range for CC.
Her passive does not scale and compound itself. Again, trying to mislead or just misled.

Why isn't it?
I would say that 85% of her damage is magic.
Why would a universal counter not apply to her?

Yes, its not an "Akali-specific" counter. But is building Frozen Heart a "Vayne-specific" counter? The only items that are "champion specific" are QSS, Executioner's Calling, Sword of the Divine and Oracle.

For your "bonus point." What is wrong with that build? Not much. In fact, that build is perfectly fine.
What does a Gunblade, which is considered Akali's core item, offer?
Burst damage, slow and sustain.
Well, that build has all of it, and then some.
To supplement the lack of burst damage, he has the components for a Deathcap.
To supplement not having the CC, he has Rylais.
To supplement not having the sustain, he has a Revolver.
And the boots he is building towards is Merc.

In fact, that build can be better for certain players. If I wanted higher burst, I would can gear towards this build. Gunblade-Rylais offers more DPS over the course of a fight, but that build offers more burst, though you are squishier and can do less after you expend yourself.

The only thing I would do differently if I was building like this is to pick up my Merc Treads earlier.


At the end of the day, Akali is still a caster with awful ratios. She suffers just like all other AP casters and falls off late game. They are early and mid-game carries, where they can get their team a team a significant enough of an advantage that the game is either over or heavily in their favor by the end game.
What adds even more to her lack of a late game is the fact that she has barely any team fighting capabilities. Yes, she can snipe a carry if your tank isn't doing his job. But what if she can't? What if the tank is good?

I've had COUNTLESS games with Akali where I couldn't carry my team after the 35, 40 minute mark. Why? Because shes not a late game carry. And since I hogged all the kills to myself, the rest of my team are significantly behind in gold.
The tanks weren't tanky enough and our DPS couldn't DPS enough.
And since I'm still a melee mage, I get focused when I go in or peeled off their carry.


Summary:
Is Akali strong? Yes. Does she desperately need a nerf? No.
Shes just a melee AP assassin.

Fine answer this for me.
I play Kog'maw
How do I still manage to kill akali 1v1 in Summoner's Rift?
She gets close to me she gets the shroud on.
How did I beat her?

I think the answer is skill

Your ult reveals her.

Which is considered skill, a good akali should know that kog' makes her shroud useless. His skills counter hers in ways. It just comes down to better positioning and who has more knowledge.

But again this is another case of people basing their entire estimating of OP or not on 1v1 encounters.

When assassins are designed to win them. I've said this plenty of times but if Akali couldn't even kill the lone Ashe 1v1, how do you expect her to be even half competent in a 5v5 situation- which the game is built upon.

Had to log in to + rambo's post.

Yes but
1. she can dodge it the ulti radius is pretty small,
2. I go AS Kog my ulti does horrible damage not to mention I stop autoattacking

Finally I countered her by using pink wards.
Mid to late game I always carry a pinkward with me. She ambushes me and I drop the ward. I can beat her 1V1 also I have banshee's, and frozen Hammer, So full build I have 3k+ hp.
I can beat her with a type champ she is made to counter.

Ult:
1)If Akali's Ultimate had increasing costs, she'd run out of energy too quickly (Also note that other spammable Ults have no need to wait for charges.)
2)While it may outrange escapes, I don't find this a problem. It is an ultimate,after all. Also, she can be CC'd, you just have to do so right after she Ults to you.

Passive: I've never really noticed anything all that great about this passive; You wouldn't normally build large amounts of AD to get the spell vamp, outside of Gunblade and Lichbane.

Also, sorry if this sounds like I'm just jumping to conclusions, but this post sounds a little biased.

Just make her ult cost like 1/3 of her energy. Maybe 1/4, the problem is she bursts, slows you with rylais, and then if you flash away, or use a champion skill that gets you away, or a tank stuns her or something, she can just instantly charge you again because she has very minimal energy issues. If her ult costed energy it would give her a limitation, and make her choose between up-front bursting everything to death, and constantly being able to stick to someone. She can really just stay on top of people far too well atm.

No, just no. This would break her.

Problem with her stealth: It gives mr and armor while she is in it, slows, and stealths her.

Not only do you have problems with her pouncing in and out, but she is a lot tougher while she sits in it popping in and out.

For the popping in and out part, buy wards/oracles.
As for the toughness part, good Akali's max W last, meaning it doesn't reach full potential until late-game (Also, don't fight her in shroud. Ever.)