Midlane Akali Guide
You've come to the right place.
CM
January 1st, 1 ⸱ 29 min read
At a Glance:
Who am I?
My name is Cocho. I've been playing League since Season 6. I play on NA and my peak rank is Master in S11 (Top 0.2% of Ranked Players). I main mid and have good understanding of all midlane champs, since I have played against each one 100s of times.
Video Guide
For those who want to understand Akali quickly without reading.
Why Akali?
Akali is a high skill ceiling assassin. She can be hard to win with at a low level of play, but you will significantly improve with her over time. She can do a lot! She can build to kill tanks, can build to kill squishy champs, she can teamfight, she can sidelane. Akali's shroud (W) is an amazing ability. Akali's shroud lasts 5-7 seconds. This allows you to farm and trade effectively in lane and teamfight/sidelane later into the game. Akali's ultimate (R) has a 100 second cooldown, which is pretty low. Once you hit level 6, you can look for solo kills or roam around the map.
She is generally pretty good against most enemy teams, but watch out for specific abilities that reveal you in shroud. Too many of these champs make make it very hard to play Akali. Here's a picture of every ability that will reveal you. Ban one of them!
Akali Gameplan
if I had to sum it up as quickly and general as possible:
In lane against ranged opponents, farm up. Use shroud to get good trades if it's smart to do so.
In lane against melee opponents, play reactively, Q them when they go for farm and use W or E when they step out of line.
After 6, you can let them push or hold the wave on your side to run them down the long lane. Or you can push and roam/call objectives.
Once your botlane gets their tower, tell them to come mid. You'll sidelane to clear waves quickly then come back to mid if they're going to fight.
Be at every objective early, use sweeper + control wards to clear vision.
Try to get dragon soul, or pick up enough gold in fights + sidewaves to carry fights.
Runes (Loadout)
Here are Akali's 3 main rune pages. You can copy these and change health to armor or magic resist based on matchup. I will explain different choices below.
- Conqueror
- Electrocute
- Fleet
Runes Explained
Akali has many different options for runes.
Open each tab for an explanation!
- Keystone
- Precision
- Resolve
- Domination
Conqueror is great for extended fights and Akali can take those because her Shroud (W) lasts 5-7 seconds.
It takes 12 stacks to fully stack Conqueror. Each ability and auto is 2 stacks each. Even if Akali didn't have her Q + Empowered Autos, she could still stack Conqueror quickly because her E and R have recasts that both count. Just E and R is 8/12 stacks. One Q + auto during a full combo means Conqueror will be fully stacked.
It might sound counter-intuitive, but I find Electrocute to be best against squishy melee opponents. Such as Yone or Yasuo. You won't beat these guys in an extended fight, but you can take very good trades against them with Q > Auto > Q to proc Electrocute. It falls off after lane, but its pretty good early game.
I will say Fleet Footwork is the hardest Keystone choice here to pull off successfully.
Once Fleet is stack against a ranged opponent, you can try to close the gap by auto attacking a minion then using the movement speed to your advantage. If they throw a skillshot, use the movement speed to dodge. If they don't you might be able to get in range for Q or E.
Once Fleet is stacked against a melee opponent, try to not use it on minions. Ideally you want to Q the opponent, then use your empowered auto on them WITH the fleet proc. If they walk away, just use it on a minion and repeat all laning phase.
You restore 12% missing health and gain 20 gold per kill. But I don't think this is worth it over presence of mind.
You get a small amount of energy back when damaging champs + 15% of energy for takedowns. This allows you to get multiple kills without running out of energy. This rune also has synergy with Demonic Embrace, since that item damages opponents over time, thus refreshing Presence of Mind.
UNIQUE – AZAKANA GAZE: Dealing ability damage curses enemies, causing them to take「 ( 8% / 4.8%) of their maximum health as total magic damage over 4 seconds.
Tenacity is the ONLY good option in this row. You can take a different rune if the opponents have no Crowd Control.
This rune is great for assassinating low health targets. It is best when paired with Rocketbelt against squishy ranged champions. It can work with any build though.
This item gives you Magic penetration (MPEN).
MPEN is best against ranged champs because they naturally have less magic resist.
Last Stand offers higher damage potential than Coup de Grace, but to do that, you will need to be low HP without dying. Last Stand is best paired with Riftmaker to live longer during a fight.
UNIQUE – VOID CORRUPTION: For each second in combat with champions, deal 3% bonus damage, stacking up to 3 times for a maximum of 9%. While this effect is fully stacked, convert 100% of the bonus damage into true damage.
This item also gives omnivamp, which basically just heals you for a percentage of damage dealt.
This rune is amazing if you can get away with it. Your laning phase will be weaker without Second Wind or Boneplating. Akali builds a lot of HP items, so extra armor and magic resist from Conditioning works very well.
Second Wind is amazing against ranged opponents who harass you in lane. If the enemy isn't a great Boneplating opponent or if you aren't sure, then just take Second Wind.
Bone Plating is great against most melee champs. These champs do not have a ranged auto attack (obviously) and often cannot pop your Bone Plating for free. Try to trade when Bone Plating is coming off cooldown!
Akali builds a lot of HP items, and this rune gives you HP based on your HP. Great Rune.
Unflinching gives you even more Tenacity. If the opponent has a lot of CC, try taking this instead of buying Mercury treads.
Taste of Blood heals you a bit every 20 seconds. Akali's shroud (W) is also a 20 second cooldown. This rune improves Akali's trading patterns a bit. Personally, I'd rather just go resolve secondary over domination.
If I'm taking Electrocute, my opponent is probably ranged so it will be hard to get good use out of Taste of Blood.
If you are Electrocute against a melee opponent, then that is the best time to take Taste of Blood.
I'd rather take resolve still, but Sudden Impact is great to make your Es more deadly. You will be waiting for an opening and sitting back more with Electrocute and Sudden Impact.
Hunter runes are generally preference and up to your playstyle. Try them out and see what you prefer.
Ravenous Hunter gives some healing. It isn't much but some healing is more than 0 healing. The ability to heal off of minions is generally very valuable at all points of the game.
Hunter runes are generally preference and up to your playstyle. Try them out and see what you prefer.
This rune doesn't even make THAT much sense on Akali compared to other options. It's just a good rune. Moving faster around the map is good.
Hunter runes are generally preference and up to your playstyle. Try them out and see what you prefer.
Ultimate Hunter is my favorite choice of the 3. Akali's ultimate can very easily get you kills, so putting it on a lower cooldown is great.
Akali is an assassin and should be getting kills to stack up Eyeball Collection quickly. The other rune choices in this slot do not synergize as well.
Summoner Spells
These choices are preference and have different playstyles. Try them both out and see what you like.
Flash is obviously a great summoner spell. If you don't have a solid gameplan around TP, then I would suggest Flash as it is generally better. Flash helps you secure kill and escape deaths. If your lane opponent has great gank setup and their jungler is a great ganker, then you could take Flash for safety.
Teleport (TP) was nerfed on Patch 12.1 but it is still great. Akali has plenty of mobilty and doesn't NEED the safety/mobility that flash provides. Teleport allows you to cheat the lane by getting a free recall. Later on you can split push and TP to fights.
A great time to push the wave and recall are before cannon minions hit the wave. A cannon minion wave spawns every 3 waves (1:30).
If you recall and TP at 3:45, the cannon wave will hit mid at 4:00. Your opponent will have a hard time shoving that wave and you will have plenty of time to push and look for a roam. Then your next TP will be up around 10:00 minutes. Then 16:00.
TP turns into Unleashed Teleport at 14:00, and using TP like this allows you to get plenty of TPs off.
If you don't TP as it comes off of cooldown, then consider saving TP until 14:00 so that it becomes Unleashed TP.
Unleashed TP lowers TP's cooldown by 2 minutes, so it is usually a bad idea to use TP from 12:00 - 13:59.
Skill Path
Always max Q > E > W
Points in Q will lower the energy cost. This allows you to clear waves and combo better/more often.
Points in W extend Shroud's duration by 0.5s and reduces the cooldown a bit. This isn't worth it compared to points in Q or E.
Every point in E adds 87 damage, which adds up quickly.
You can go E level 1 or level 2 sometimes if a ranged opponent tries to walk up to far for poke.
Akali
Item Builds
Here's Akali's best items. I will explain the item choices in-depth below.
Open the tabs for more info on each item and when to build!
- Starting Items
- Early Recall
- Mythic
- Core Items
- Situational
- Why Not This ?
Your main starts are going to be Dark Seal or Doran's Shield.
Some of this is preference, some playstyle.
You should build Dark Seal when you want the AP for trades or you're just going to sit back and farm up. Getting a good early recall and not getting punished with Dark Seal + Refillable feels great.
Doran's Shield helps in trades as well but If you find yourself having a rough time in a matchup, try this out. Don't use your health potion until you could be killed. Doran's Shield heals more when you are low, so it is good to hold out on using the pot as long as you can.
Refillable start is great if you can get an early recall. If you plan on trading aggressively, maybe just start 3 health potions. Either way, try to get a refillable potion 1st or 2nd recall.
Health Potions are great for being aggressive and healing back up. Try out Refillable start and Health Potions to see what you prefer.
I see a lot of Akali players in Korea start Doran's Blade and I don't think it is worth it. You get a bit more health and healing, but it isn't going to be more than Dark Seal and an extra red pot in most scenarios.
Dark Seal in general is just a great item, even at 0 stacks. If you have 350 gold, just buy it.
1st or 2nd recall should have a refillable potion buy (assuming you didn't start it). This way we don't spend too much on Health Pots. Sell refillable later on for items. Potions lose value over the course of the game because we have more HP.
This is just an AP component that builds into our items. AP is good for damage and wave clear.
If we don't have gold for anything else, just buy a Ruby Crystal.
This is just an AP component that builds into our items. AP is good for damage and wave clear.
Boots are important, but against most matchups I would but at least a different AP component before boots.
Vision OP
Buy anytime you have extra gold. Try to ward river onto the side that is strong.
If you bought some other AP component and have gold for Sorcerer's Shoes, then get them. The damage is pretty similar and they help you roam faster.
Rocketbelt is great against squishy enemy teams due to the Magic Penetration. Consider Rocketbelt if you see 3+ Ranged Champions on the enemy team.
It's generally best paired with these items/runes.
Shadowflame gives you even more Magic Penetration.
Coup de Grace is great for assassination low HP opponents.
Electrocute is a less popular option. You can take Fleet or Conqueror with these Magic Pen items. I'm putting Electrocute here so you know this is the only build where you could consider Electrocute.
Riftmaker is great against tankier enemy teams due to the bonus True Damage and healing. Consider Riftmaker if you see 3+ Melee Champions on the enemy team.
It's generally best paired with these items/runes.
Riftmaker stacks up after 3 seconds in combat. Demonic Embrace keeps you in combat. This means your Riftmaker stays stacked for an extra 4 seconds which can be pretty big.
You'll be up against a bunch of melee champs and you'll be a bit tankier with this build. So you'll be lower health longer.
Last Stand deals a max of 11% increased damage compared to Coup De Grace's 8% increased damage.
Longer fights mean you'll get more value of of Conqueror than Electrocute.
Fleet still feels pretty good later on, but this rune is mainly for lane. You'll likely get more value out of Conqueror later on in the game.
You generally want to build either:
Rocketbelt > Sorcerer's Shoes > Shadowflame > Demonic/Zhonya's
or
Riftmaker > Sorcerer's Shoes > Demonic > Shadowflame/Zhonya's
Shadowflame gives you Magic Penetration. Rocketbelt gives you Magic Penetration. Sorcerer's Shoes gives you Magic Penetration. Stacking Magic Penetration is pretty good against squishy/ranged champs.
You generally want to build either:
Rocketbelt > Sorcerer's Shoes > Shadowflame > Demonic/Zhonya's/Situational
or
Riftmaker > Sorcerer's Shoes > Demonic > Shadowflame/Zhonya's/Situational
Riftmaker stacks up after 3 seconds in combat. Demonic Embrace keeps you in combat. This means your Riftmaker stays stacked for an extra 4 seconds which can be pretty big.
You can build Zhonya's Hourglass after your first item if needed. I find that it's often not necessary. Only build it against heavy AD teams who have a fed AD assassin.
You can rush it against Sylas. Maybe in some other matchups like Vladimir or Aatrox. Sylas is the main one.
Later on if the opponent built a lot of sustain, you can just build Oblivion Orb and sit on it until you upgrade.
Against AD assassins, you will probably want to build cloth armor first back.
Very strong AD item that AD assassins will rush. This item gives them 10 Lethality for 50 gold (WOW). That stat will penetrate your armor. You want to build armor to counter this.
Don't build this item. It has been nerfed many times and is not very gold efficient. The base item gives you 0 bonus stats for 265 gold. YOU LITERALLY GET NOTHING.
Against an AP midlaner, you can sit on this until you build Mercury's Treads.
If you are building Rocketbelt + Shadowflame, then you should build Sorcerer's Shoes.
With Riftmaker, you can consider defensive boots more often, but you should still build Sorcerer's Shoes in 95% of games.
Sorcerer's Shoes are the best boots in the game. Plain and simple. 18 Magic Penetration is amazing.
Best time to build Plated Steelcap is against auto attack reliant champs (Not champs who rely on abilities).
If you are building Rocketbelt + Shadowflame, then you should build Sorcerer's Shoes.
With Riftmaker, you can consider defensive boots more often, but you should still build Sorcerer's Shoes in 95% of games.
Sorcerer's Shoes are the best boots in the game. Plain and simple. 18 Magic Penetration is amazing.
Best time to build Mercury's Treads is against low damage, heavy crowd control teams.
Build Void Staff after your first two items if you see the enemy team building magic resist.
Build Rabadon's Deathcap if you want pure damage and have already built your Mythic, Shadowflame, and Demonic.
Build it after you check all the boxes and realize you don't need a different item more (such as Void Staff or Morellonomicon).
Build Morellonomicon after at least your mythic if the enemy team has a lot of healing.
The damage on this item is pretty comparable to Demonic Embrace or Shadowflame. It's a fun item but it doesn't do enough for Akali.
The spell shield isn't too useful on a melee champion who jumps into the enemy team. Something like Zhonya's Hourglass does a much better job at that. But you would probably just prefer a better damage item like anything else written in this guide.
This item got nerfed on Patch 12.3 and I don't believe is good anymore. The item used to stack on damage dealt, now it stacks on damage taken. That is just one of many changes.
The mythic passive on this item is ability haste. Rocketbelt gives you 6 magic penetration on the item AND 5 magic penetration on it's mythic passive.
Rocketbelt fills the same role and is better.
Rejuvenation Bead was nerfed on Patch 12.4 to be a worse starting item.
You can't buy 3 anymore with one pot. The cost was increased and the resale value was reduced. It worked because Akali has one of the highest base health regeneration in the game. I wouldn't recommend building Rejuvenation Bead anymore.
Here's some old advice I had with Rejuvenation Beads: You don't want to all-in with Rejuvenation Bead. Just take a trade, sit back and heal it up, then go for more. So try it out against poke champs, or champs that have a hard time killing Akali. Try to sit on the beads until you can sell some for completed items.
Tips & Tricks
Combos
Common Matchups
Play passive in the early levels. Just don't get poked out and use your shroud to get good trades in. She'll look to poke you, and those are opportunities to get good trades in.
She can kill you level 6 pretty easily if you took a bad trade or two. Consider recalling before level 6 so you're full health. If you need magic resist, you can buy an early Null-Magic Mantle and buy Mercury Treads later.
Don't try to trade until level 3.
At that point, you need the wave to be in a neutral position before playing aggressive. Try to bait out her charm before committing to a fight.
If you land a Q, you can use the movement speed from your passive and W to try and close the gap. Be sure to be ready to dodge left or right when she throws charm.
At 6, you can R onto her somewhat easily since her range isn't too long. Be sure to pre-emptively dodge to the side if you do this. Try to have your passive ready before ulting.
If you trade R for R, that is fine. Your ult has a 30s lower cooldown than hers in the early game.
Akshan is a strong lane bully. Your primary goal is to farm up and minimize poke.
You'll probably get shoved in a lot, so be sure to ping where he is going. Don't follow unless it will for sure lead into something.
If you get to level 6 and you two are even, then the game should only get harder for him from that point forward.
He's a champ that needs to stomp lane and snowball.
If even, then Akali is going to be much more effective in teamfights or sidelaning as the game goes on.
Here's a video of a pro player (Bjergsen) play this matchup:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JGc10OdHVA
He just farms up, then becomes strong later on.
Viktor is a poke heavy champ. It isn't a hard matchup if you know what minions to go for and which minions to give up when farming.
If you struggle, you can take Doran's Shield or take Second Wind.
Viktor's W and R require you to sit in, but Akali is too mobile.
Play passive early, don't get poked out, then you can start playing aggressive once you get more points into Q or level 6.
If Yasuo gets on top of you, you'll have a hard time.
Best advise is to play reactive against Yasuo and try to keep your space.
You can play aggressive, but only do so with Q and passive auto attacks. I'll explain what I mean.
Level 1, if Yasuo wants to shove and get level 2, that's fine. You can poke him a bit but you shouldn't be getting level 2 before him. Just respect that and let the minions come into you.
If the wave is pushing into you slowly, you can go for Q poke but just let the wave come in. Once it pushes in, the wave will either be pushing into him slowly or in a neutral position. Once the wave is like this, try to Q him whenever he walks up to farm. Don't get too crazy, just let him walk up to you and your wave, then Q him. Nice and controlled. If he Es onto you, you can use W or E when it is necessary and continue the trade with Qs and passive procs. Don't use them at the same time. The goal is to harass him with Qs when he walks up, and use W or E reactively when he gets out of line.
Once your E AND W are both down, you need to back up and farm from range with Q until your cooldowns are back.
The laning phase against Yone is pretty similar to Yasuo. But Yone's Q3 is a dash and easy to react to with Akali's E.
Every 3 Qs, Yone's Q will turn into a dash. The visual indicator and sound of it is pretty obvious. Just stand back when he gets this Q and E him if he uses it forward.
I'll copy what I wrote against Yasuo and add a little bit more.
If Yone gets on top of you, you'll have a hard time.
Best advise is to play reactive against Yone and try to keep your space.
You can play aggressive, but only do so with Q and passive auto attacks. I'll explain what I mean.
Level 1, if Yone wants to shove and get level 2, that's fine. You can poke him a bit but you shouldn't be getting level 2 before him. Just respect that and let the minions come into you.
If the wave is pushing into you slowly, you can go for Q poke but just let the wave come in. Once it pushes in, the wave will either be pushing into him slowly or in a neutral position. Once the wave is like this, try to Q him whenever he walks up to farm. Don't get too crazy, just let him walk up to you and your wave, then Q him. Nice and controlled. If he Qs or Es onto you, you can use W or E when it is necessary and continue the trade with Qs and passive procs. Don't use them at the same time. The goal is to harass him with Qs when he walks up, and use W or E reactively when he gets out of line.
Once your E AND W are both down, you need to back up and farm from range with Q until your cooldowns are back.
Zed's Q deals more damage to the first enemy hit. So stand behind minions.
Once he uses it, you can walk forward and look to Q him.
Zed's ability to win the lane is directly connected to how many Qs he can hit, so learn to dodge it.
Zhonya's Hourglass is a great item against Zed. Seeker's Armguard isn't as great. For your first recall, buy a cloth armor and sit on it until you build Zhonya's Hourglass 2nd or 3rd item.
When Zed ults you, he will appear on the opposite side that he ulted from (behind you). So aim your Q or spam click R behind Akali.
If you are low health at level 5, just recall and come back to lane so that Zed doesn't kill you easily at level 6.
Vex starts the game off with E and her fear up. If you're in range of it, then you aren't going to dodge it.
Level 1, you will probably have to eat her E in order to secure the first 3 melee minions with your Q. Then just sit back and farm the ranged minions with autos/Q.
Level 2, take W and now you can try playing aggressive through Shroud trades.
Level 3 onwards, you are trying to get in range with Shroud to Q her while dodging her fearing ability.
She can cancel your E with her fear, so don't just E onto her recklessly.
Take resolve secondary with Unflinching.
Level 6 onwards, she is threatening with fear and her ult up.
Without ult, Vex is a weak champion so look to fight her or do objectives while it's down.
Sylas often starts his E level 1 (Dash + Chain Gapcloser). So be careful about that. You can walk into your minions to dodge his E.
He can engage onto you pretty easily, so you need to be ready to react quickly with your spells. If you don't try your best to return the trade against him after he uses his spells, he will just run over you.
Build Oblivion Orb first recall to cut his healing.
Katarina is pretty stat check early on.
If she starts AD, then be careful. You can die pretty easily if you are pushing the wave into her.
If she starts AP, then you don't have to be as careful but she can still get some good trades in.
Her E lets her jump somewhere instantly and partially resets when catching daggers. Pre-6 she cannot jump again until 3s after she jumps.
Her jump range is longer than your Q range, so she will look to jump behind you as you Q. Just hold your Q until she jumps if she is trying this.
Her Q range is also longer than yours, so if she is using Q on you, just continue running forward to close the gap then Q her.
This lane gets much easier at level 6 if you aren't behind. She stands still while ulting so it is easy to land an E on her.
Don't shroud until after she ults if you think you two are going to fight. Her ult will hit you even if you are invisible.
Katarina is good at roaming, so try to slow push waves into her to waste her time.
If a fight is happening at an objective, it is very likely that Kat is coming, so either run to it or ping your team.
Play passive in the first few levels, let him push a wave onto your tower, farm up and stay healthy.
After a few levels, you can look to play aggressive. Corki is somewhat short range champ until level 6. If he is using his abilities, just Q him. Consider using your E backwards to get trades onto him.
Corki's W costs 100 mana. So forcing him to dash is a win.
This is a very hard matchup. Her E reveals you and has a ton of range.
Just sit back and farm up the best you can. At level 6, you can try to go for kills but it's still risky.
A lot of Leblanc players are TERRIBLE at farming. So if you farm decently and she doesn't, then you'll probably just win automatically later on once you two get items.
Consider taking a defensive rune page and starting item (Second Wind, Doran's Shield, or both).
Consider banning this champion if you are higher rank or run into her often.
If the Twisted Fate is good, then it's going to be hard to get a good trade onto him.
If he uses abilities to farm, then you can look to poke him a bit.
If he tries too hard to poke you can gets hit by E, then it won't be hard to kill him.
At level 6, you can try to hold the wave in front of your tower and force a kill onto him.
Other than that, just farm up and look for kill opportunities when he slips up on his positioning.
You can also E him and follow his ult.
Just let him Q you, he'll get his shield. Then stay in range and Q him once his shield is gone. Try to proc your passive, but if you can't it is fine.
His W deals a decent amount of damage, so try to avoid that. Your Q range is longer than his W range. You'll probably take a W if you go for a passive proc, but that is usually fine.
He can get ganked pretty easily before level 6. So try to keep the wave on your side to make him afraid of ganks.
If you don't want to do that, try to get more minions than Kassadin and fight him over the wave until you crash it onto his tower.
Kassadin scales well, so try to kill him early. Ping your jungler or try to force fights on objectives.
Irelia's Q resets when she last hits a minion or when she Qs a target marked by her E or R.
Irelia's Q lands behind the target she Qs. This includes you.
Just be mindful of what minions are low. Stand behind your minions and ready to Q her whenever she farms minions with her Q. It should look obvious when you do it right, she'll just fly right into you.
You want to be close enough to Q her if she Qs the minion, but not close enough for her to Q a minion then auto attack you.
Use your W and E reactively/defensively. Once these abilities are down, don't walk up until they are off cooldown.
Your goal in the early lane is to just Q her and proc your passive until she steps out of line and forces you to W or E.
Play passive in the first few levels.
He will Q to last hit. So just wait for him to use it then look for a trade.
This advise might sound obvious, but just dodge his W and E.
If you're caught in a cage, just relax and don't walk into the wall. The cage becomes active after 0.5s. That's somewhat fast but more than enough time to react to.
His W takes 1.2s to fall. Think about that. That is WAY more than enough time to react to.
If you get hit by these abilities, you should feel like you made a mistake.
You can shroud inside his cage and he will have to predict where to Q.
Once you hit level 6, let him push and try to hold a wave on your side. Then just ult him and force a kill.
Veigar's R deals more damage if you are missing health. So recall if you are low.
Doran's Shield and Second Wind are pretty good against his poke. Consider taking Overgrowth as well. His voidlings will stack up overgrowth and give you a lot of health.
His Q isn't hard to dodge.
His W voidlings can be killed easily with an auto attack or 1 Q.
His E isn't very effective against Doran's Shield and the resolve rune page.
If he is just trying to push the wave, you can try to prevent the wave from hitting your tower. He will have to walk up deep into the lane to push, and that is when you can play aggressive into him.
Or you can just walk past the minions and harass him. Your Q does not cause minion aggro, so harassing him past minions is pretty good.
This matchup gets harder at level 6 because his jungler can just come for a free kill if you're overextended. So just let him shove the wave then clear it and look for roams.
You can build Quicksilver Sash to counter his ult, but it is not necessary a lot of the time.
Play passive the first few levels and stay healthy. There is no point to trading against him early because he will just heal it back up. Your damage won't stick.
Once you have all your abilities, you can start playing aggressive and trying to get good trades with shroud.
His W (pool) has a 28s cooldown early on. So if you force him to use that, just look for a trade right away once your abilities are back up.
Just watch out for his empowered Q and ignite him at the start of a fight when you go for the kill.
Vladimir doesn't want to leave his lane early, so join fights if the junglers are getting feisty.
