The only mechanic I think that needs changing is switching the armour to M/R of shroud. Most of the other complaints are due to lack of proper game play with current mechanics. I did not read over ever post just the first couple of pages. I offer strategy for most of the complaints I've read here in my guide.

The main complaint I see; escape mechanisms is one reason I have not liked any of the other stealth characters because it breeds cowardice. If you have to stay and fight then make proper use of the stealth while it is there cause very likely they are pissed at you and want a piece. With the long cd of shroud you have to be sure of your placement and use each fight.

I'd rather they add a passive for Shadow Dance similar to Yi with his ultimate:

If you kill a champion within 5 seconds of using Shadow Dance you retreat into shadow form (stealthed) for 3 seconds and movement speed is increased by 10% for that duration. This gives you a bit of survivability and rewards you for successfully pulling off a kill instead of punishing you.

So instead of wandering around behind your front line during a team battle waiting for it to finish, you can prioritize enemies with low health. And if you're clever enough to catch and kill them then your R passive will give you a chance to survive and get away before being targeted and CC'ed to death in 2 seconds.

Is this OP?

I don't see why. As many people have meantioned, Akali is supposed to be an assassin which means being able to sneak in un-noticed, killing the target, and then disappearing without a trace. There is no fun in either:

1) Cleaning up after a 4 v 5 for your team. If your team can handle a 4 v 5 where your team comes out on top you are obviously not needed.

2) Rushing in and killing most likely only one champion at best before being mass targeted and dying.

The duration of shadow form wouldn't get you to safety. At best it would stop enemy champions from immediately CCing you to death and maybe get you a third of the way to safety. Enemies could easily catch up and slow/CC you down before you escape.

What it does add however is more strategy. Focus a Ryze at 30% health, burst him down and now you're in stealth. There are 4 angry champions surrounding you. Pop your W to the right of the lane and run off to the left. Watch as the enemy champions chase your phantom to the right.

That's what your W is for.

W screams LOOK I'M HERE <<<<<. W can also be pierced by AOEs, skill shots (both CC and damage), has a delay so most likely you are still targeted and hit while inside, and easily walked around (ie: OMGIT'SYI with R walking around it). Your W may prevent 1 or 2 champions from killing you, but in a team fight you are most likely deeply screwed.

Are you forgetting something? You get 3 charges on your ultimate.

So? You only procure your passive on killing an enemy champion. Unless there are 3 very low health champions grouped together, then you won't be able to procure it 3 times. And if there are 3 low health champions grouped together then they deserve to die. They would die regardes of whether Akali had this passive or not. Same goes if a Yi found them, or a Nunu, or an Ashe, etc.

Why do you say shadow form instead of just saying stealth?

Because shadow form is a clever way of making it different from stealth. Shadow form can't be broken by buying oracles.

Why would shadow form not be detectable using oracles? OP obv.

3 seconds of stealth is lulz. At most you avoid some CC and damage and get a slight head start to GTFO. It is obviously very different to the almost indefinate stealth used by twitch and eve. Otherwise you might as well not have the passive since 400 gold spent by the enemy team easily makes it 5 v 4 for them in their favour again.

Still OP.

About OP as Garen running in and stabbing a giant sword into someone's body and killing them and running out with most of his health intact. Or Karth using his ulti. Or Annie bursting an entire team to kingdom come. Remember, Akali can only burst down one target at a time. You should be as scared of her at low health as Garen or Kath, etc. CC her while she's still bursting someone down if you're scared of her going into stealth.

I usually build Akali in this order:
Doran's Shield
Merc. Treads
Phage
Guinsoo's Rageblade
Elixir of Fortitude
and then depending on how things are going, either Trinity Force or Frozen Mallet

It works pretty good imo. Dorans gives you a nice HP/armor boost early on. Merc treads is good on any champion especially if the enemy team is stun/magic heavy. And then Phage gives a little more boost to the HP. I've actually almost considered getting Spirit Visage, though I'm not really sure if the CD is really necessary.

Twilight Shroud should reduce any enemy champion's vision to the radius of the shroud while in it, effectively stopping them from just standing in the middle of it while waiting for her to leave. There's absolutely no reason they should be able to see outside of it.

i dont have a problem w/ akali. i kill their whole team before i get low =]. just run in..spam everything while staying inside ur stealth bomb so they dont focus u. not that hard.

oh and make sure ur teammates r decently intelligent

Edit:

my build is

Mejais
The sword that gives u attack dmg per kill
Dodge boots or Magic Resist boots
Guinsoos
Trinity
Warmogs