Really great recommendations maziodyne. Previous to your post I was considering just jumping in with a L air tat and following up with a C.L hoping for a hit but the main problem is that the air tat isn’t actually an overhead! (???) Also, the range of the c.l is so low it’s incredible haha. 
I understand what you are saying about xfactor but i’m trying to use akuma in a pheonix team… perhaps it would be best for me to just leave akuma in as the anchor and try to use phenoix with akuma assist, leaving akuma for last?
I figure that with pheonix, lvl 2 x factor is still pretty damn powerful and if she gets nuked at least I will have an akuma with some bar to burn in my anchor.
I’ve been trying to use akuma as my 2nd char after my wolverine goes down but I am just having huge problems connecting any combos coming in from the air or ground because of his complete crap normals.
Maybe you could recommend a few ways to get in with him with a phoenix assist of some sort? If not, do you think it would be better to run phoenix out after the first character goes down and hope that level 2 xfactor + dark phoenix will be able to get things ready for a barred-up akuma?
One last thing… i have been seeing some REALLY weird behavior with his raging demon… I thought that it couldn’t be any more buggy then how it works in SF4, but it looks like half the time he just pushes the enemy across the screen. Stuff like using raging demon off of a hard knockdown should work (he’s pushing them along the screen as they get up), but then he ends up passing THROUGH them. What the heck is up with that??