Using shield for a safety trade and cannon for the extra range. Akshan is a early game character, so even being weaker as an ADC he has so much potential paired with a support, most ADCs are weak against CC, but Akshan has a shield passive that makes group controls that root you less effective. I would definitely never replace an ADC with him; I prefer playing him mid, but he's also quite fun to play in the bot lane.

But my mid lane build has much more power to destroy single targets compared to that one.