Skill Order

Normal order: R > Q > E > W. Take Q first for safe lane damage and wave contact, take E early so you can reposition and punish overextended targets, then put one point in W for its utility. After that, max Q first, max E second, and leave W for last unless your augments give you a very specific reason to change it.

Normal leveling plan

  1. Start Q. In ARAM: Mayhem, Akshan needs a safe way to touch the wave and tag champions before he commits. Q gives you that low-risk interaction. If you start E and the enemy team has hard crowd control, you can lose your first trade before you even get to play.
  2. Take E second. You need access to your swing early because Akshan is not a front-to-back turret. If a low-health enemy steps too far forward, E lets you convert Q poke into an actual chase. If an enemy bruiser or assassin jumps you, E is also your reset button when there is a clean angle.
  3. Take W third. One point is enough for the utility pattern in most games. Use it when your team is resetting vision control, when a marked enemy is killable, or when you need to approach without walking straight through poke. Do not rush W points just because the ability feels unique; you still need damage to win fights.
  4. Max Q first. Q is the stable choice because it works before a fight starts, during wave pressure, and while both teams are posturing around health packs or choke points. When you are unsure what the game will become, Q max keeps you useful.
  5. Max E second. E becomes more valuable once fights are messier and enemies are lower. Second-maxing E gives Akshan better follow-up on picks without giving up the early consistency of Q.
  6. Max W last. W has important utility, but it is not your default damage skill order. If you put too many early points here without an augment reason, you often feel invisible in the bad way: present on the map, but not threatening enough to force respect.

Augment-influenced skill order

Default augment order is still R > Q > E > W unless an augment clearly changes how you are dealing damage. Mayhem augments can push Akshan toward poke, chase, on-hit fighting, or risky execute play. Match your skill order to the thing your augments are actually rewarding, not to the fantasy of what you want the game to be.

  • If your augments reward repeated poke, spell hits, or safe ranged trading, stay R > Q > E > W. This is the cleanest setup when your team is playing slow or the enemy has strong disengage. Max Q first, keep farming angles, and only use E after someone is already pressured. The cost of switching to E max in this kind of game is simple: you shorten your threat window and become dependent on risky entries.
  • If your augments heavily reward chasing, swinging, attack patterns during E, or finishing low-health targets, consider R > E > Q > W. This is best when the enemy team lacks instant lockdown or when your frontline can start fights for you. You still usually want early Q for lane contact, but you can begin prioritizing E once the augment makes your swing the center of your damage plan. The punish window is clear: if the enemy saves crowd control for your E path, you can die before your build pays off.
  • If your augments give strong value after takedowns, resets, or extended clean-up fights, use R > Q > E > W unless fights are already easy to enter. Q first helps create the low-health targets your team needs. E second lets you cash in once the fight breaks. Going E first here is tempting, but if your team cannot start fights safely, you end up waiting for a perfect angle while losing wave pressure.
  • If your augments specifically improve stealth, roaming, or W-based utility, you may take an extra W point earlier, but do not fully max W unless the augment directly demands it. W is strongest when it helps you arrive at a fight from a better angle or pressure a marked target. It is weak as a blind early max because ARAM fights happen in a narrow lane where raw damage and fast follow-up matter more often.
  • If your team has no wave control, never skip Q max. Akshan cannot afford to be trapped under tower while waiting for a swing angle. Q max helps your team clear, poke, and keep enough space for you to use W or E later. The wrong order here makes every fight start with your team already pushed in.
  • If the enemy team has heavy point-and-click control, traps, or easy anti-dash tools, avoid early E max unless your augment is extremely E-focused. E max only works when you can actually complete the play. Against reliable lockdown, Q max lets you contribute without offering your body first.
  • If the enemy team is mostly short-range and your frontline can hold them in place, Q max first is still strong, but E second becomes very important. Let them walk into Q range, chip them down, then swing after their first engage tools are used. If you max W too early in this setup, you miss the damage needed to punish their failed engage.

Practical adjustment rules

  • Max Q first when the game is even, poke-heavy, or hard to enter. This is the safest rule. You can always use more reliable damage and wave pressure.
  • Max E first only when your augment and the matchup both allow it. You need a reason to believe you can swing aggressively without being instantly stopped. If that condition is not true, E max becomes a trap.
  • Take W earlier only for a clear play pattern. Use it to approach a marked target, hide your rotation behind your frontline, or set up a collapse after the enemy burns key cooldowns. Do not spend points there just because you are behind; being behind usually means you need more damage, not less.
  • Always rank R when available. Akshan wants access to his ultimate pressure whenever a target is forced low. Skipping R delays your ability to finish fights that your poke and chase have already set up.

The biggest mistake is choosing a skill order that does not match your access to the fight. Q max is for games where you must earn your opening. E max is for games where your augment and team already give you the opening. W max is almost never the normal answer unless the augment package makes W the whole reason you picked that path. If you pick the wrong order, Akshan loses his tempo fast: no lane pressure with early W, no safe damage with early E, or no clean-up threat if E is delayed too long in a free-chase game.