Akali lacks what the majority of other assassins have, an escape mechanism. My suggestion would be to give her increased move speed when she has less marks of shadows. This gives her an easier way to escape after team battles or chase down stragglers.

As far as Akali's escape mechanism goes, I think its about right, meaning that it requires thought and preparation. Many of the popular champions have ludicrously easy escape mechanisms so in comparison it might feel lacking. A short duration speed burst during and upon leaving her smoke cloud might be another possible solution, if more people feel her escape should be buffed than not.

The thing with her Shadow Dance is that it requires an enemy to actually use it. Because of that, it's seriously inferior to all other forms blinking and since Twilight shroud is a stationary AoE, it's horrific in comparison to others,

The cloud gives obvious locations of where you could go[At least for me, owning Akali is easy xD... Most because I play her often lol.]. If you don't show up within 1 second of exiting the cloud, you're still inside.

Most of the time, you'll need to use it in a crossroads to take advantage of it. IMO, the main problem is how long you remain invisible upon exiting the cloud[I would love that temporary MS boost as well]. If it was slightly extended, you could seriously throw off the enemy with it. I always find myself having to do fancy jukes to even take advantage of my invisibility. It can be an extreme pain going in for an easy kill and then trying to escape at the same time.

There are other things as well though. Flash is amazing on Akali. Because of the lack of possible areas to go when using Twilight Shroud or Shadow Dance, Flash is great for throwing people off. However, I always end up choosing ghost for 15 seconds of chasing and then escaping. Exhaust is also great just for the slow in tandem with T Shroud.

Another possible idea is to make the cloud expand. It only makes sense since smoke bombs disperse before fading... The fact that they disperse is why it no longer becomes visible. An increase in area would be awesome as it gives you more range to travel and more area for your enemies to cover. It'd also be a better bonus for the skill as increased duration means it has a longer time to expand.

I love Akali and any slight buffs would make her a lot more viable in LoL<3.

Firstly, she HAS 2 abilities that can get her out (NOT counting summoner spells). her ult which can be used 3 times, and t-shroud.
Instead of placing the t-shroud directly in the middle of the lane to get away, try using it on or near bushes, and then EASILY juke who ever is chasing you. I've gotten away from entire teams by t-shrouding near a bush, then using her ult on a neutral, if you can't get away using that.... then perhaps a different champion would be better.

dont forget, she is complete burst. juke them, when they turn to run, pick one off and repeat. she has such low cooldowns, and such high burst, as well as pretty decent survivability, you need to make CORRECT use of her abilities.

I still say she should be able to ult on any minion.

i love akali to and juking is east but if your slowed and your only chance is to t-shroud yourself then its not as easy i say that like most other **** with those type skills (jax jump strike, kats shunpo for an example) shadow dance shoudl beable to be used on anyone