@Riot: Is it acceptable that Akali functionally only has 3 skills?

To keep things simple; Akali is in a pretty bad state right now. The 4.18 and 5.2 nerfs compounded together have stripped away so much of what made her originally viable that she has literally become one of the worst champions in the entire game.

All of the other assassins actually have at least one defensive ability that they can use to either dodge or mitigate damage... but for some reason it was decided that Akali is not also allowed to have such an essential tool, even though she is one of the only assassins who has practically no escape abilities past the level 9 mark. If even there were justification for her not having an escape (arguable), there is none for leaving her with an ability that has no use against competent players. It's like the ultimate extreme of "counterplay philosphy", there is SO MUCH counterplay that even the highly skilled Akali player has very few chances to make use of the ability.

Trinket Upgrades make her W a complete waste of energy in 90% of situations post-level 9, and lets not forget that Trinket Upgrades are looking to be free in the near future. Isn't that cool? Now you can make Akali's primary defensive mechanic obsolete for FREE!

So, what exactly is the justification for allowing her to exist with a gutted skill that no longer provides any worthwhile practical use past the very early stages of the game, while leaving her as the only true assassin with no escape ability? Her playstyle has always been about using spellvamp to survive the counterburst, but she can't do that if she has no inherent damage mitigation, and if she builds tanky then she is not putting out enough damage to be useful. Honestly, I think it's time to give Akali back the resistances to her W and return the skill to what it was originally meant to be: A defensive skill, not a useless one.