Guide To qop

(English is not my best language, so there will be some mistakes I think)

Foreword

This guide (my first one) is mainly for beginners. It could be that i write sometimes a bit to "pro"-like (I'm NOT pro^^) and that beginners don't understand me. But I hope it's useful for good players, too.
It's about my favorite hero: Akasha the Queen of Pain. After she was nerved to death, she became a more common hero in 6.63 because of a buff of Scream of Pain and Shadow Strike.
But she is still weaker than in versions earlier versions than 6.52 because of pipe.
Because I started playing her intensively since 6.52, which was made some time ago, I've got some skill in playing her. And I will try to teach you that in this guide.
Maybe (/hopefully) you noticed this gay pink look. It makes the guide easier to read and maybe female Dota players like it

For the hasty experianced players:
Alt+Tab mini-guide
(Not my idea, I saw this in some other guide^^)

Quote:

Skillbuild: 9x Items: Starting Core Supportive Semi-Carry Anti-Nukes/Stunns/Disables Tips - Choose preferable a solo lane - Go ganking in early-midgame - Use Blink to move around, dodge and pass cliffs, and chase, that means nearly every time possible when you have a bit mana regeneration - Always let other team mates (the initiator) begin fights.

1.0 Hero Information

1.1 Story
1.2 Pros / Cons
1.3 Roles

2.0 Skills

2.1 Information / Using
2.2 Conclusion
2.3 Synergies
2.4 Skill Build
2.5 Area of influence
2.6 Litte Blink Guide

3.0 Items

3.1 Starting Items
3.2 Core Items
3.3 Advanced Items
3.4 Alternatives
3.5 Rejected Items
3.6 Dangerous Items
3.7 Item Synergies
3.8 How to use...

4.0 Strategy

4.1 Early Game
4.2 Mid Game
4.3 Lategame
4.4 Ganking
4.5 Clashes

5.0 Allies / Enemies

5.1 Allies
5.2 Enemies

6.0 The golden rules to play Akasha
7.0 Replays
8.0 Credits

Hero Information

Here are some things that saying you nothing and you don't want to know: The stats
(Year it's stolen from here )

* Affiliation: Scourge
* Attack Animation: 0.56 / 0.41
* Damage: 45 - 53
* Casting Animation: 0.452 / 1.008
* Armor: 1.6
* Base Attack Time: 1.7
* Movespeed: 300
* Missile Speed: 1500
* Attack Range: 550
* Sight Range: 1800 / 800


16 + 1.7
18 + 2
24 + 2.5

All in all: Her stats aren't very decent. The base damage is fairly ok, the strength is low (very balanced because you have Blink), the agility fairly high for a intelligence hero (but that just matters for the semi-carry build) and the intelligence is fairly good since version 6.65. Her int gain is ok, but nothing special for a int hero. The agi gain is high for a int hero, but the str one isn't. But that is ok, when she would have too much mana or life she would be a bit too hard to kill because of Blink.

Story

Akasha is one of the many souls claimed by the blade, Frostmourne. Raised to serve the Lich King as a Banshee, she desired to become pure substance once more. Driving deep into the forests, she was able to subdue and possess a Succubus minion. Rightly bearing the title, Queen of Pain, she enjoys nothing more than inflicting massive damage on her foes, using both the poisonous strikes of her succubus host and the vicious howls retained from her Banshee nature. Akasha breaks her enemies' eardrums with torturing screams, some so loud they manifest into powerful waves that ripple across the lands, shattering all in their wake.

Notice: She was a Night Elve, i think. Look here

Pros/Cons


Pros

+ Very strong midgamer
+ Not completely useless in the other stages of the game
+ Good ganker
+ Blink is a wonderful escape, chase and moving over the map skill
+ Good farming
+ Tons of AoE Damage

Cons

- Low hp
- Disablers are your death
- You are getting weaker in Late Game
- You have no disable, just a slow.

Roles
Akasha has different roles in the team.
1. AoE - Sonicwave / Scream of Pain
2. Ganker - Blink / Shadowstrike / Scream of Pain
3. Semi-Carry - Items (Look at the item part) / Blink / Shadowstrike
4. Antipusher - Scream of Pain / Sonicwave


Skills


Information / Using

For a more detailed description of the skills look here.


Shadow Strike

Information

Hurls a poisoned dagger which deals large initial damage, and then deals damage ever three seconds over 15 seconds. The poisoned unit has its movement speed slowed for a short duration.

Level 1 - 50 strike damage, 10 duration damage and slows 20%
Level 2 - 70 strike damage, 20 duration damage and slows 30%
Level 3 - 70 strike damage, 40 duration damage and slows 40%
Level 4 - 100 strike damage, 50 duration damage and slows 50%


Mana: 80 / 100 / 120 / 140

Cooldown: 20 / 17 / 14 / 11 seconds

Using

- Mainly for ganking, use it when the ganked hero runs away
- NOT for harassing. You could do this, but you should not skill this early. I will explain it after the skill build.
- You can also use it on heros like Bloodseeker that are fast enough to chase you when you blink away.
- You shouldn't await to kill someone with it. If you follow my skill build, you will not skill this before level 10. And on this level it doesn't really hurt someone.
- The skill is based on Warden's the normal Shadow Strike.
- Does not stack with Viper strike.

Blink


Information

Short distance teleportation that allows one to move in and out of combat.

Level 1 - 200 - 700 Range Teleportation
Level 2 - 200 - 850 Range Teleportation
Level 3 - 200 - 1000 Range Teleportation
Level 4 - 200 - 1150 Range Teleportation

Mana: 60

Cooldown: 12 / 10 / 8 / 6 seconds

Using

- Fleeing. That should be obviously. Blink away if you have low hp
- Chasing. Obviously, too. Blink to the fleeing hero
- Moving around the map.
- You can also dodge skills like Hellfire Blast with it
- The skill is based on Warden's Blink
- When you aiming a point behind the maximum range of blink, you will not blink the maximum range. You can see it here:

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-> too far

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-> right
- You can fake blink by pressing the Blink hotkey and then stop a few times. There will be still an animation. You can see it here

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Scream of Pain

Information

The Queen of Pain lets loose a piercing scream, damaging nearby enemies.

Level 1 - 85 damage
Level 2 - 165 damage
Level 3 - 225 damage
Level 4 - 300 damage

Mana: 140 / 140 / 140 / 140

Cooldown: 7 seconds

Using

- This is your main damage skill, so use it whenever you want to make damage
- In a teamfight you have to be careful. Because you have to be nearly in the center of the other team, you will die quickly. More to this you will find in the strategy part.
- You don't hit units that are invisible or in fog. Sometimes you don't even hit units that are directly next to you because they are in fog for a second.
- The skill is based on Warden's Fan of Knifes, just the knifes are replaced by Banshee's attack effect.

Sonic Wave


Information

Creates a gigantic wave of sound which deals heavy damage to all units in a line.

Level 1 - 290 damage
Level 2 - 430 damage
Level 3 - 600 damage

Mana: 250 / 360 / 500

Cooldown: 135 / 135 / 135 seconds

Using

- You should use this in a clash and try to hit all enemy heroes. More to this at the strategy part.
- Also you can finish a fleeing hero even when he is invisible fairly easy because of the big Aoe.
- This skill is based on Dreadlord's Carrion Swarm.
Here is a picture that shows you the Aoe. You can see that its getting bigger. It's hard to see the AoE, because Icefrog changed the Sonic Wave effect in 6.54. But i made a copy of the skill in a own map. The wave flys 1000 warcraft meters and the aoe grows from 100 to 300.

Conclusion
All in all, her skills are a bit unimaginative (3/4 skills are Warden's ones) and ... relatively bad. Shadow Strike is a joke of a Venomous Gale, her Blink is a worse version of Magina's once, her ulti doesn't do as much damage as other AoE ultis (Sandking, Lich) or has a stun/disable (Tidehunter / Rooftrellen). And her Scream of Pain is not as good as Death Pulse. The reason why she was a firstpick in <6.52 is just the combination of all skills that makes her very dangerous.

Synergies
+ = Chasing and fleeing as I said before
+ = Blinking to be near to you enemy and damage him
+ = Aoe damage combo for teamfights
+ + +
= Blink to your target, use SS, Scream, Blink, Scream, Blink Scream till he has low hp and finish with your ultimate. That way you don't just do Aoe damage, you can also kill single targets. You don't make high burst damage like slayer, but you are harder to get rid of.

Skill Build

Blink
Scream Of Pain
Scream Of Pain
Blink/Shadow Strike
Scream Of Pain
Sonic Wave/Blink
Scream Of Pain
Blink
Blink/Sonic Wave
Shadow Strike/Blink
Sonic Wave
Shadow Strike
Shadow Strike
Shadow Strike
Stats
Sonic Wave
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats

This is my recommended and the most common build.
Some people recommend to skill Shadow Strike one time at the start of the game. Only do it when you are on a dual lane. You will nearly not even notice the slow on level 1. But a blink level 2 earlyer is better because it's getting hardly better on every level.
Taking Scream of Pain primary is the best choice, i think, because the damage is deadly in early game.
You CAN skill Blink instead of Sonic Wave on level 6 (Thanks to CaLLizeR). Mobility is awesome in midgame. The bad thing is that you can't use you "<440? = Dead" combo.


Area of influence

Another thing you should always use, is her Area of influence.(Aoi). A axe e.g have a very small Aoi. (Because of that he needs a dagger). With Blink and Sonic Wave, your Aoi is really high. Look at this superb imba top quality picture i made:

(When you skilled out all your skills)

High damage area
In the high damage radius you can do damage with Shadow Strike, Scream of Pain and Sonic Wave.
Radius: 1550
Damage: 775 + 250 over time (1025)
Good damage area
In the good damage radius you can do damage with Scream of Pain and Sonic Wave.
Radius: 1450
Damage: 675
Low damage area
In the low damage Radius you can do damage with Sonic Wave.
Radius: 2150
Damage: 450

Litte Blink Guide

Speed

Firstly, I want to tell you, how superb your mobility is:
Boots of Travel + Blink level 4 whenever it's possible with maximum used range every time and animation canceling
=
As fast as a hero with around 500 ms.
But you don't have to care about trees and cliffs.

This is a map with some good positions where you can use Blink to reach useful positions extremely fast. I think I don't have to make picktures like in the ganking part. You will understand it.

How to aim

As i said before, you should always use Blink's the maximum range. As I said in the description of the skill Blink, you can aim too far. In this situation you will not Blink to the farest possible position. But how can you aim right? Mainly it's experiance. Here is a picture of Level 4 Blinks distance. If you would aim too far, you would blink to Ward's position.
Maybe the distance is not that high, but it can save your life.

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The common projectile dodge

this are examples for heroes, that can shot a stunning projectiles. They are faily easy to dodge. Just concentrate and wait for their animation. They will stop moving for this. Then use you Blink quickly. It isn't as hard as you think.
But there are also the hard guys:

To dodge Alchi's stun, Snipers ultimate and (the hardest one) Tinkers missle, you need experiance. I can't really teach you that because you never know when the projectile will fly or it's simply too fast to use Blink when it does.

Items


Starting Items

1.



Let you stay longer on the lane.

2.



Let you lasthit fairly easy and nuke a bit more (mainly for lasthits because the damage will not kill someone on low levels)
Not against double stunner lanes (Crix/Mirana,Atro/Kunkka) or high damage lanes (Tinker).

3.



Buy this when you play against heroes on the mid lane who spam their skills, e.g. Zeus. Upgrade the Magic Stick to a Magic Wand.
If you are Top/Bot, take #4.

4.



The Magic Wand rush build. The pictures are a bit confusing, I know. You buy 3 GG-Branches and the RECIPE for the Wand. Then buy the Stick in the Goblin Shop. Just works if you go Top/Bot.
If you are on the mid-lane, then buy #3.

5.



The most balanced start items. Can be taken against every lane.

Core Items

Core (2070 )

Optional

Core
Helps you ganking because you will pass the runespots anyway. When you stay on your lane at the beginning you can check the runespots easily with your blink. Storing runes is always good.
For obvious reasons. Can be delayed for Null Talismans.
Get 1 or 2 Null Talismans for mana (you really need it) and a health. Some people now maybe ask : "Why not bracers?" Bracers are good on many intelligence heroes. And they are defenetively not bad on Akasha. But Null Talismans are better. You need mana for Blink. And Blink prevents you better from dying than Hp ever could. Also intelligence gives you damage that helps you lasthitting (your animation is good but your damage is low).
Optional
I don't added it to the core items, because you sometimes need it, sometimes you don't even have to buy it and sometimes you don't have a scroll in you inventory. But I highly recommend to carry always 1 or 2 with you. 135 gold can save you (blink away and use it), towers (blink to a tower, lol) and allies (Give them one or use it to kill heroes that chase you friends into towers).
I really learned to love it. It can help you ganking (ganked heros use their skills^^) more often and helps you against spamming heroes like Zeus or Bristleback.
In early/mid game team fights (it isn't really effective in lategame) you will get many charges. Look in the "How to use" part. You can swap a Null Talisman with this item or just add it (you have not enought space to add a part of a core item (Void Stone/Point Booster then).
The new item in 6.65 is a good choice for Akasha, preferable if you go ganking. The little mana regneration and the charges that you get by ganking seem to be made for that and the 6 strength will let you survive the first nukes flying around. Because you have 5 more intelligence in 6.65 you can replace a Null Talisman by it. If you wan't to use it on a enemy you should remember that it dispells.
Adding another Null Talisman is never a bad idea when you don't get enough farm.

Advanced items

Supportive

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Core

Optional

Luxury

Core
When you need more disable in your team (i personally think that you can't have enough), build Guinsoo's. It's THE item for nearly every intelligence hero in lategame and should be your first aim after core because it gives you the only important thing that Akasha doesn't have: A disable.
It gives you in combination with Blink superb mobility to gank and destroy creepwaves.
Optional
Instead rushing a Guinsoo's just with a Void Stone, you can build a Ring of Health to get this. Is a good choice if you really want to focus on ganking or want to make a Linken's or a Hood (i know, that is wasted gold but it worth it I think).
It is an often underestimated Item that is great on Akasha, especially when you play against heroes like Riki.
It gives you strength and intelligence and the 2 baby warlocks are a great help by ganking. Blink, summon , Shadow Strike, Scream of Pain and hit, hit , hit to death. Also you can kill annoying wards. Skip it if you have serious problems to micro, there are no invisible heroes or you don't need to kill wards. It also counters heroes heroes like Luna or Yunero a bit because they prevent you and your team a bit from damage and AoE heroes will think twice about using skills because they don't want to damage/kill themselves (Don't think that it really saves you from it. 600 damage (after reduction) aren't that scary).
Eul's is a possibility, too. Since 6.60 you can use it on allys. This way you can not just disable dangerous targets, you can also save allys and use it on yourself when you see that you blinked in to hasty and would die. The mana regeneration is something you really need and more ms can't be wrong.
Luxury
Shivas let you tank a bit more and gives a nice aura which is annoying in combination with Shadowstrike. A bit more Aoe can't be wrong, too.
Good synergy with Shadow Strike. Gives you also a bit hp, mana and ... ok you don't really need attack speed but agility gives you also a bit armor.
It's also possible, because it's cheaper in 6.6x and Sonic Wave's cooldown is ways too high. I'm still not a fan of this, but if you like it, why not? You can buy a really helpful Point Booster in early game after core items and build Guinsoo then. Also you can rush Guinsoo without Point Booster or rush Aghanimn's instead of Guinsoo's. Impossible is nothing^^. All in all you should know what you spend your money for: You can always use your Ultimate in clash-orientated games. The damage is not really imba, Shiva's one is higher. And the stats are fairly nice, Life and Mana are the 2 things you mainly need.

You end inventory could look like this:
Ganker



or this:
Clash-power





Semi-Carry

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Core

or
or or
Optional

Luxury


Because its a bit confusing, I made this picture. Just follow the lines of 1 colour:

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*Update 6.64: Power Treats gives you attack speed again, so you can buy it.

Core
It can be easily build up and the Oblivion Staffs are granting you improtant mana regeneration for ganking. Soul Burn has a good synergy with your skills (more damage on 1 target than with Aghanimns).
You want to make physical damage, so Power Treats are a good choice for this build.
or
As I said in the Supportive Build, it's awesome for Akasha.

Now you have good attackspeed. So lets incrase your damage with a Stygian Desolator.
Or
As I mentioned before the synergy with Akasha's skills is great. And a slow cant be better than pure damage. The stats make you not so squishi.
Or
Also a choice against heroes that have evasion or Butterfly. It has problems with Stygians and Skadi's orb effects. So just buy it if your play against evasion heroes. Buying Stygian instead is better than deactivating the bonus effect, i think.

Optional
Good synergy. Gives you in fact a little extra Blink, that you don't need, and the stats are perfect (damage, intelligence and attack speed), but low. You CAN'T push someone on cliffs. In fact it's nothing more a fun item.
Luxury
If the game isn't over you can buy a Assault Cuirass because of the good synergy with Stygian Desolator (is good with Skadi, too) the amor buff is useful, too.
It is indipendent from agility now. If you build Skadi, it's a good choice.
Pure damage. Simple but good. Buy this, if you bought Desolator, because the pure damage let you make higher red numbers than Skadi.

You end inventory could look like this:
A(r)mor destroyer



or this:
Ice, Poison and Thunder



or this:
Eagle eye




Anti Nukes / Disables



Akashas biggest weakness is that she's dying quickly against Nukes / Disables. This Items will help you. You can add one of this to every item build. I just recommend Linken's more for the Supportive and BKB more for the Semi-Carry build.

Against nukes like Laguna Blade. Upgrade it to if you have the money.
Always a good choice. Gives you nice stats, regeneration and prevents you from some stuns (be fast and use Blink to save you then) and sometimes from hard damage nukes like Laguna Blade.
Against mass disables / nukes. Is good for the semi-carry build, because you will be a main target of disables / nukes even more and the damage/hp is good for you, too.

Alternatives

I'm testing some Items in the next time.


-> Added to Supportive


Rejected Items

8250 gold. 800 damage. Useless in lategame. Buy Guinsoo's and Travels instead. Or Power Treats and Stygian. And you COULD buy Divine Reaper and Hyperstone for that money.
You aren't a tank. You can get mana and mana regeneration with better items like Guinsoo's.
Year imba double ultimate ... not. Not enough mana.
/ You ARE item dependent. You NEED your coreitems or you can not gank enough (since Icefrog nerved her clash-power the good combination of nice ganking and fairly good Aoe damage is nearly the only good reason to pick her). Let other heroes like Maiden, Warlock or Demon Witch buy this.

Dangerous Items

Reduces your damage to a minimum. You will just make around 375 damage with your Scream and Wave on in a teamfight.
250 heal is not as annoying as Pipe is but it's bad for you, too. Let you make 675 damage with Scream/Wave. Pipe+Mekansm let you make incredible 125 damage .
You have nothing to interrupt this.
As i said before, disables counter you. Eul's is not that bad. You can refresh your Blink cooldown while be cycloned. But a chainstun after that is also your dead.
All your advantage in ganking is useless when the whole world see you.
Another perfekt counter item. You can't nuke and Blink, and you get extra damage from nukes.
I started hating this thing. If you do your SoP+Ulti combo on 1 guy with Blademail, you are nearly dead. If you hit 2 guys with Blademail, you are dead. (And when you have an AoE based team, and you hit 5 guys with Blademail, your team is dead).
When some heroes like Naix buy this item you have serious problems. Your Blink has a lower cooldown but this item will give your opponent a few seconds where you can't flee. And don't think you can face a Naix in a face to face fight.

Item Synergies

+ + ( )
= Superb Slow
+ +
= High damage to a single target
+
= Let you summons hit long time = High damage, good for ganking



How to use...

-Storing runes and heal life/mana. The common using. While ganking you will pass the rune spots and have nearly never ending life and mana. Also the runes like haste, dd and invi will nearly grant you free kills.
-Fountain healing. The Bottle refreshes automaticly when you are in the fountain. Using it will grant you more heal and should be done when ever you are there.
-Botteling in fight. If you chase an enemy over a long time, your mana will not be enough. So use it while chasing. If you are the one who have to run, use it, too. Even if you will be hitted, there is some heal that can save your life or some mana for Blink.

-As i said before, it let you gank more often because ganked heroes will use their skills to flee and sometimes because they have panic. More charges = you don't have to go back to fountain = more ganking.
-Surviving. In the most cases in early game it's that: 1 Hit to kill a hero before he flees into the tower. I don't think that you can be killed without skills, so you will have some charges at this destinating moment. Use it and let them fail.
-Gank detector. The range is fairly high. So if you suddenly get charges and don't see anyone, be careful. (If you suddenly get 15 charges run for your life )
-Teamfight. I mentioned it before: In teamfights you will get 15 charges easily. Use them.

Ganking. Very simple. Use it on a target to slow and disable. Keep in mind that the range is amazing. Even if a Antimage would blink away you would get him.
Teamfights. Here you have some prioritys:
1. Dangerous non channeling heroes. Guys like Tc or Lich can kill a whole team. Try to pick them out before they do it. Not that easy, I know.
2. Channeling heroes: Enigma or Sandkings ultimates are extremely dangerous. Try to stop them if you can. Stay out of range if you don't want to be affected. You can join the fight after that by using Blink.
3. Physical damage carries: A good way to kill guys like Naix or Mortred. When they don't leech life and make damage like insanes, your team can kill them fairly easy.
4. Intelligence carries: Disable guys like Krobelus, Necrolyte, Leshrak or Tinker and kill them with your team before they become dangerous. (They are not meta anymore, so I swapped place 3 and 4)

-Farming. Scream + Shivas = Creepwave
-Teamfight. A additional nuke can't be to bad, especially if you win the teamfight and the enemies die because they can't run away.

-Ganking. Blink, use Shadowstrike, use Necronomicon, take you and the ugly little demons in a slot, order to attack use Scream, press tab till you have the guy who has Manaburn, use it, order them to attack again. When the ganked hero is still alive, Use Blink and Scream of Pain till he is.
-Teamfight. Manaburn guys that have fairly low mana, but need it. Like Enigma or Sandking. Maybe you can destroy enough mana to avoid their ultimates. Also the blue guy will annoy AoE heroes with low hp, because they kill him automaticly with their skills.


Strategy


Early Game

Pick Akasha (^^), buy your items and choose your lane. You are very variable in this. When you go mid, you are leveling fast and go ganking to make kills. When you go to other lanes you can kill with your lanepartner. Just in organizated games like clanwars, inhouses and -cm games (yes, even in public) you should look against which lane you play. Better don't buy the start items #2 if you play against a tinker in the mid or a double stunner lane. Now guess against which lane you will play (sorry, just experience can tell you that, no guide) and chose one of this strategies:


Defensive: The <440 death combo

I personally have a little strategy to make a kill when your opponent is not a noob that let himself kill. Play a bit passively. Lasthit of course. And remember the holy number : 442!
On level 7 you Scream of Pain in combination with Sonic Wave will do this damage. When you just damage sometimes a bit and run directly a bit back after that, he will just smile and keep beeing on the lane, because he think you would be to scared.(Year mindgaming^^). But when he (or she of course) haves ~ 400 hp, Blink->Scream->Wave. And he dies smiling (xaxaxa what a bad joke ). Against good players it will work just 1 time, but it will work (When I do it^^). And lasthit creeps all the time, of course. But just do it against heroes like Potm that can flee to fast and are able to become really dangerous. Of course it would work against a Mortred or a Kunkka, but it grands unnecessary too much farm. Simply be agressive and do the combo if they really are foolish enough to stay on lane with low hp.

Offensive

Against heroes that can't really kill you and need farm (nearly all carrys) play agressive. Just hit them when they come to near. Of course you have to last hit. But destroy the carry's farm is better than some lasthits.

Defensive

Against a double stunner lane play VERY deffensive. Stay out off their range. And just come near to make some lasthits. And just lasthit when you don't go into stun range. If your opponents keep beeing between you and the creeps, go ganking or ask your allies for a gank. Otherwise it can destroy your game because ganking without regeneration form Perserverence or Oblivion Staffs is hard. You have to go back to the fountain too often.

Later early game

The ganker

The aim of the ganker-Akasha is to abuse Blink and brust damage to kill as much heroes as you can. Preferable dangerous carries. If you have a carry in your team, leave the kills to him if possible.
After you are level 7 you are a imbalanced killing machine for a short time when you was on a solo lane. Go ganking. That works great because of the brust damage. Read at "Ganking" for more information.

The farmer

The aim of a farmer-Akasha is to rush Guinsoo's/Orchid before go ganking. It wastes her early-game gank potential, but you go ganking in mid-game and you are useful in lategame because of good farm.
Just lasthit and sometimes hit creepwaves to 2/3 and use SoP.
Kill the lane opponent if you can, and if there are ganks near to you you should help of course.
If all goes right you will get Guinsoo's or Orchid around minute 25.

Runes

When you have a Bottle and you are in the mid, the rune race can begin. Maybe you will play against heroes that use bottles, too. In fact you will always win this "race" if you try it, because of your almighty Blink.
But why you should run around the map and lose farm?
1. Staying on lane and farming. By leaving the lane for runes? Yes. If you have low hp, you can't lasthit that easy because you always have to care about your life. Without mana, you can't use Scream of Pain. And SoP nearly grants you free lasthits. All in all you will not lose as much farm as you think. Always store the runes.
2. Kills. Runes can help you getting them. You are near to the top/bot and the mid lane. You can go to the Sentinel/Scourge wood for a good ganking position or return to the mid to kill your opponent. Look at the "Ganking" part for good ganking positions. You don't have to use runes for that.
Here a little guide what to do with special runes:
Illusion: Not the best ganking rune. But you can send your illusions to the nearest lanes to make the players scared^^. No, seriously, scout with them or let the enemies think that you return to your lane. You can also use them for 1337-like actions where you block the enemy with them, but if you are able to do that you know what to do with runes anyway. For us mortals it's not much more than a bottle-filler.
Haste: Gives us the option to gank the farest lane (When you are bottom, it's the top lane, I think you know what i mean).
Run to the enemy, use SoP and start hitting him to death. Use ultimate to finish him if you have to.
Invisible: Go next to a hero, order your allies on the lane to get ready and kill them (if they will leave the protection of their tower). You have the advantage of surprise.
Regeneration: Store it and wait for the right situation to use it. For example if you have low hp after a fight and don't want to go back or you are chased.
Double damage: A rune that you can abuse to it's maximum because of Blink and Shadowstrike. You can get many hits, especially if you cancel your attack animation.

Mid Game

The ganker/The farmer

In the midgame, when the ganking phase has begun, you should gank with your mates. The only difference between the ganker and the farmer is, that the farmer will have a Guinsoos/Orchid now. When you see that there is a hudge creep wave which could destroy a tower / looks delicious, buy a tp or blink to it and kill them with SoP or your Ultimate (when there are REALLY many creeps). You can also return quickly to your mates by using tp and /or blink. Sometimes there are little clashes (teamfights). Look at the category "Clashes" for more information.

Lategame

You will do the same thing like in the mid game, but you will rather ganking and more ... clashing (is that the right word?^^).
When you can't win clashes, the enemy team will maybe have a very clash orientated team. So try to push the lanes. Maybe they can't defend them because they are to weak when they are splitted.


Ganking

Very simple. Always blink BEHIND the ganked heroes (not to a position that is your dead, like a Sand King ultimate or the enemie's tower, of course). That will grant you free hits. Maybe it will cut off the fastest way back to the tower. Blink in, use Shadow Strike, Scream of Pain, Blink, if you are skilled enough block the target, if not just attack, Scream of Pain, Blink (he should be already dead now), Scream of Pain and finish with Sonic Wave if necessary.
Let your mates begin the gank when there are more then 1 or 2 heroes because they will try to let you die with them. And better don't try to kill stunning/disabling heroes in the tower when they don't die after 1 Scream of Pain.
The not so simple thing is to surprise your enemys. Blink gives great options for that:
1. You are FAST. You don't have to care about trees and something like this. Not so good players will not think that they will be ganked only a few seconds after a "miss".
2. You can let the enemy not see that you are coming. Just use cliffs and trees. You don't have to walk around them
Here are some placed where you can surprise your enemies with your blink.
A general tip, that is not just useful for Akasha. She always wants to use her skills very dramaticly. They have a long animation, but you can make it 10 times faster: Animation canceling. You can cancel the animation of every skill. Just order them to move, when the skill is casted. For example Scream of Pain's animation can be reduced to 0.1 seconds or something like this. This is especially useful if you chase an enemie and don't want to lose him. It will look like Akasha is using the skill without stop running. If you kill someone with a skill, you can let her do her animation, because it looks cool .
Now the ganking positions. Akashas Blink gives you a few options that other heroes don't have.
The blue points are for the places where you can simply gank. The red points are for the early/midgame when the first towers are not destroyed. When the towers are destroyed, this positions change to normal ganking positions.



Normal Ganking Places:

1. Top lane

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Who?: Sentinel/Scourge
When?: Gank when the Sentinel or Scourge pushed too far.
Fail chance: Low. No towers are very near. The ganked hero can buy a tp to flee.

2. Mid lane

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Who?: Scourge
When?: Nearly always
Fail chance: Middle. A tower is very near. So maybe wait that the Scourge are pushing a bit. Normaly there is just 1 hero.

3. Mid lane

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Who?: Sentinel
When?: When the Sentinel pushed a bit.
Fail chance: Low-High. Gets higher when the Sentinel hero is near to the tower.

4. Mid lane

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Who?: Sentinel
When?: When the Sentinel pushed a bit.
Fail chance: Middle-High. Maybe you will be seen by jungeling heroes. Ganking into the tower is suicide against stunners/disablers.

5. Bot lane

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Who?: Sentinel/Scourge
When?: When someone pushed too far.
Fail chance: Low. But the ancient creep will hit you.

6. Bot lane

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Who?: Sentinel/Scourge
When?: When someone pushed too far.
Fail chance: Low with some stunner/disabler The ganked hero can buy a tp to flee.

1. Top lane

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Who?: Scourge
When?: When a hero is fleeing or hiding behind the tower with low hp.
Fail chance: If you hunt him fairly low, but better don't try to kill him in tower, especially if he has a mate and one or both of them can disable. Thats suicide.

2. Mid lane

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Who?: Scourge
When?: When a hero is fleeing.
Fail chance: Low-Mid. If you hunt into the 2nd tower and he still has 1/3 hp an ally could use tp to save him. Also it's near to base so maybe someone who saw you hunting could be fast enought to save his mate.

3. Mid lane

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Who?: Sentinel
When?: When a hero is fleeing.
Fail chance: Mid. You are near to tower and to the woods. When someone run into the trees it's nearly impossible to hit him with SoP.

4. Mid lane

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Who?: Sentinel
When?: When a hero is fleeing.
Fail chance: Mid. You are near to tower and to the woods. When someone run into the trees it's nearly impossible to hit him with SoP. And sometimes someone sees you.

5. Bot lane

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*I made a mistake. The place is a bit more near the 1st Scourge tower.
Who?: Scourge
When?: When a hero is fleeing.
Fail chance: Mid. If someone wants to make ancient spot or goes to secred shop he maybe see you. Also it's near to base.

6. Bot lane

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Who?: Sentinel
When?: When a hero is fleeing. There is a wood for juking so you shouldn't gank into tower.
Fail chance: Mid-High. You will not die i think, but there is a wood for juking. When your enemy is able to run into it, you will fail because SoP just hits heroes that you see.

7. Top lane

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Who?: Sentinel
When?: When a hero is fleeing.
Fail chance: Low-Mid. Maybe someone wants to go to secred shop. But there is the possibility that your victim goes to it. Sometimes players do that when they are low hp to buy something before going back.

8. Mid lane

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Who?: Scourge
When: When a hero is fleeing.
Fail chance: Low-Mid. Maybe the ganked hero is smart enough to go into the woods next to the 1st tower. Yes you can be next to Roshan without getting attacked. But don't go to the altar behind him. Then he will attack.

9. Mid lane

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Who?: Scourge
When: When a hero is fleeing.
Fail chance: Mid-High. Hard to get killed there but maybe someone goes to the secred shop. Also you could fail blink and stuck in the trees. And you can't blink to the middle of the lane. So he could flee into the woodnext to the 2nd tower.

Clashes
Fight in clashes is not that easy. You are very fragile and have a high priority to be killed. When you are just blinkin in, and use SoP, you are dead. If you use Sonic Wave first, the other team will run back, and heal. To be really effective, your team need a initiator.
Like this guys :
When the initiator used his ultimate (the good initiating skills are always the ultimates)
The other team can't flee anymore without loosing 1 , 2 or 3 heroes. And then you can hunt the other ones. So you can use your ultimate. Try to hit all enemy heroes. Now the enemy team should be near to dead (if not, you will) and you can blink in and scream savely, because they are not thinking about killing you anymore (hopefully^^ that is just psychology). Hunt them to death.
If the enemy team have 2/3 hp now and is just more angry, you have a serious problem. You and your team should go back. When the fight is balanced, it's time to use your items. With the semi-carry build, just hit and damage (and use you skills. Never stop using them) And try to stop channelings with your Orchid or shut down a dangerous nuker like leshrak or thinker for a few seconds.
With the supportive build, Try to shut down their carry with superb slow and hex.

Now the compact version:
1. Wait for the initiator to initiate
2. Use Ultimate
3. Hex/silence/manaburn with Necronomicon dangerous guys (I wrote about this before in the Item part
4. Look at the enemy team:
Low hp? Blink + Scream and hunt with ss if they try running
1/2 hp? Blink + Scream whenever you can
Nearly full hp and angry? Try to go back without losing someone. Don't run around panicly and don't leave your team alone.


Allies / Enemies

Allies

Other Gankers

Because you can make kills with them


Initiators

As is said before you need them to get your full potential in a clash.


Other AoE

Just 1 AoE is fairly useless. More of them are deadly.


Other heroes that can suddenly appear

Surprise, Surprise!



Healers

They make you lesser fragile.


Special Allys

Earthshaker

Ganker, Initiator and Aoe. A perfect partner.

Crystal Maiden

The mana regeneration is amazing for ganking in early game. You don't even need a Void Stone or some Sobi Mask.

Undying

Initiate, Aoe and let you make even more damage with his ulti. Also he can heal you what makes you lesser fragile.


Enemies


Disablers

You can't use Blink and die. Outch.



Damage reducers / healers

They're making you useless.



0.5 second killers

You can't do anything you are just dead.



Silencers

Obviously



Special Enemies


Bloodseeker

The 2nd longest silence. You can't just stand there because of low hp and you can't run because of low hp.

Lucifer

The longest silence. Lvl? Death! + Doom = A dead Akasha


Storm Spirit

Disable? Check. Damage? Ugly. That would be ok but in lategame he's rolling and rolling and rolling and we can't flee. One time I saw some funny 25 Bloodstone charges Storm that fucked my whole team simply by rolling from fountain into it. And guess who was the one that died instantly. Well, my teammate followed me into the death when he rolled the second time and the game was over... I want to say that: He's more dangerous for you than any other farmed carry.


Tinker

Extreme Damage. In early/mid game a rocket, laser, rearm, rocked
combo is your dead.

Quote:

+ Khadgar's Pipe of Insight Reduces you damage hardly. = The worsest thing that can happen A Tinker on drugs. This hero and 3653 gold can make you useless. Pipe, rearm, pipe , rearm... You can only try to kill him with an overkill of AoE and/or normal attacks.

-> Nerved


Nightcrawler

The new hero in 6.65 is really dangerous. Burst damage? Yes. A skill that makes him laugh about your Blink? Yes. Invisibility that makes him laugh even more because you can't hit him with Scream of Pain? Unfortunately. Removing Shadow Strike? Yes. Insane movementspeed to chase you? You know...
Try to counter him with Necronomicon.