You either shit stomp her if youre ranged with her having 0 chance of victory or she dunks you because you can only fight her in melee range.
She either destroys you in ganks because you and your jungler cant kite due to your kits, or she gets ccd to hell and back while having no chance of fighting back.
And of course she can be spotted through fog of war because fuck Illaoi.
Aezanthya20 votesSo like every champ in the game ?
"a melee gets destroyed by a ranged in lane" seems logical "you get destroyed by the ennemy champ because you're too dumb to dodge their telegraphed skills shots" sounds about right "you're dying 2v1 'cause you suck" seems about right "we actually know how to play and use our spells so we win the 2v1/force the ennemy to back" sounds about right "if i get cc as hell i can't fight back"
Irelia Bot8 votesIt feels worse then release Darius.
At least Release darius was vulnerable to ganks and didn't heal a lot in a fight meaning that if you won trades with him there was potential for healing up and winnign that way.
But with Illaoi you trade as a melee and you die.
It really is not that interactive.
Vellich0r11 votesOr play reworked poppy and profit. Illaoi ults? Knock her away from the fight and suddenly she is borderline useless.
High51 votesI wouldn't disagree, but Poppy in lane vs Ill is a tough matchup.
SolusInCadere1 votesbut poppy can do that for everyone.
"oh, a 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
got close to me? ult them and remove them from the teamfight."
Vellich0r1 votesBut Illaoi is a champion whose entire team fight presence relies on her hitting a huge let and then staying inside an enemy team. If you knock a darius away after he ults, the cult does damage. same for a brand, a cho, or an annie. But if you knock an Illaoi away from her ult tentacles she no longer has a team fight presence.
legionnaire991 votesbut poppy can do that for everyone.
"oh, a
i know but if a knock up unless you wait the 4 sec and how many champs can stop her...
Vellich0r1 votesTrue, but you can easily knock her away from her tentacles and force her out of her comfort zone, plus your W blocks her from using her w on you if you utilize it correctly.
Slamurai Jack13 votesYou don't autolose to Illaoi by being a melee champion. Any good duelist can also beat her. Anyone with enough mobility to consistently juke her Q's can beat her. Any champion with strong sustain of their own can beat her. Hell, nearly every champion can beat her; I have no idea how people struggle against her so much.
Nidalee SO NYAAA6 votesit just get old when you duel her and she just uses E
OyddAWqJ5r3 votesFight her over it but try not to overlap yourself with it and take 140% damage from her attacks for no reason. That's the whole point of Test of Spirit, you gotta pass the test not run from it.
Ofc if there's a gank inc just run, screw the test.
BakedLotion10 votes[{quoted}](name=Slamurai Jack,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=0fOKOhdY,comment-id=0007,timestamp=2015-12-12T19:28:35.762+0000)
You don't autolose to Illaoi by being a melee champion. Any good duelist can also beat her. Anyone with enough mobility to consistently juke her Q's can beat her. Any champion with strong sustain of their own can beat her. Hell, nearly every champion can beat her; I have no idea how people struggle against her so much.
Because when she uses ult, her tentacles hit almost instantly.
Rew7111 votesIts also sad that she deals from 150 to 350 damage. Then sprouts a Tentacle to those hit which then smacks them. She deals a lot of damage in that ultimate. I've been caught in some where it had 4 rain down on me. That was above 400% of her current AD in damage.
SolusInCadere1 votesI've done the math many a time. If, during the duration of her ult, 
gets atleast nine hits off of her tentacles (with 4+ tentacles and 3+ casts of W, it doesn't seem unlikely) it deals over 1000% of her AD, from tentacles alone
SeductiveGrandpa3 votesThe only way you can lose hard to a illaoi is making the mistake of letting her get too close to your team.
One time, I was playing this SoloQ game where my team could group up and work together and let me just say: ILLAOI WILL FUCK YOU IF YOU DO THAT (Group up*) If the enemy Illaoi realizes how damn strong that R is, she'll run into your team and become and unstoppable 1v5ing killing machine. (PSssss Almost unstoppable kinda like a kamikaze karthus but she can do crazy shit with a full man ult, she gains a ton of health back when tentacles land) I like to think of her as Galio, You stay the fuck away from me and I stay the fuck away from you so you cant ult over here and kill me and make me throw my laptop out a window.
Sire Hippington9 voteswellcome to the happy core concept of juggerrnauts...Heavily overexeggerated strengths and weaknesse lead to a shity experience on either side no matter what.
Only Play Darius6 votesWould you prefer champs that lack distinct strengths and weaknesses and instead are good at everything? 
SeductiveGrandpa1 votesThe only one I can vouch here for is:
I mean when im playing, yeah he'll rip your adc's head off but usually once you stun him or snare him its over. Relevant Video: https://youtu.be/pxiKEe6vAiM
SolusInCadere1 votesUm...
: abuse missed Q. That thing has a long cooldown.
: Yea, I got nothing
: shoves lane just by existing, gank him. Also, squishy af cause he rushes SS and IE
: poor late game scaling compared to other ADCs, non stellar laning phase, although crushes skill shot reliant supports. Poke her with superior auto attack range or targeted spell harass
: yea, nothing again. His Q is just, so devastating
: telegraphed transformation and low mobility while in big mode. keep your distance when he's gonna transform, then poke him because he has no way to retaliate. All if his CC is locked up in big form too
Meep Man1 votesYasuo dorsnt have to shove lane.
Hayaishi28 votesThis is not how it works, Illaoi doesn't always 2v1 when you gank her, if your laner and JG have hard cc she is dying.
Illaoi also doesn't respond well to ganks because she has no lockdown, or long range gap closer.
legionnaire991 votesThis is not how it works, Illaoi doesn't always 2v1 when you gank her, if your laner and JG have hard cc she is dying.
Illaoi also doesn't respond well to ganks because she has no lockdown, or long range gap closer.
only one champ can counter hard CC 
so that isn't a reason she is balanced and do you like battling 
they also have no gap closer and Darius pull is shorter ranged then her E jump
Hayaishi25 votesonly one champ can counter hard CC
Garen and Renekton are known for 2ving in ganks, we're not qqing about them though.
Sasogwa4 votesGaren and Renekton are known for 2ving in ganks, we're not qqing about them though.
Only if extremely fed. Illaoi is less reliable, but has more significant damage. Darius would be the closest example of someone that could possibly 1v2 ganks.
Hayaishi22 votesOnly if extremely fed. Illaoi is less reliable, but has more significant damage. Darius would be the closest example of someone that could possibly 1v2 ganks.
Yeah, try ganking Renekton with no hard CC.
SolusInCadere1 votestry ganking anyone without hard CC. There's a reason that 
farms for so damn long
SeductiveGrandpa2 votesGaren and Renekton are known for 2ving in ganks, we're not qqing about them though.
This is so damn true when I used to play Garen. Every time, every time.
SolusInCadere1 votesI never let the "counter with cc"/"everyone is countered by cc" argument go past me. One: people are countered by CC to a different extent based on role. Illoai happens to break that mold, as CC devastates her. It locks out her ability to god mode during ult, where a lot of her power budget is placed.
For a general break up of that classic back and forth: does 
get countered by CC? NO! because any cc that he receives is CC not being used on a damage dealing ally. CC just lets him get cooldowns back.
legionnaire991 votesI never let the "counter with cc"/"everyone is countered by cc" argument go past me. One: people are countered by CC to a different extent based on role. Illoai happens to break that mold, as CC devastates her. It locks out her ability to god mode during ult, where a lot of her power budget is placed.
For a general break up of that classic back and forth: does
where not talking about team fights where talking about being gank and if i hard CC you going to die unless it him he will laugh at you trying
iluvalar5 votesIllaoi was designed by riot to do 50% of her enemy hp bar. That's it. She physicaly can't do any more unless her opponent stay inside the tentacles ranges. Take one step back at the right moment and look at her melt time after time...
Remlap12234 votesHonestly, the worst thing about her kit is those goddamn tentacles. Her E is so goddamn cheesy, because you can literally be bitch slapped across the map after you recall to base because there is no timeout for being a vessel.
They just need to go down in one hit if you're a melee champ, and keep it at two for ranged, and have their base damages toned down, as well as that stupid healing.
The reason Illoai is picked is because she has no reasonable counterplay. If we get rid of the cheese in her kit, then she can actually be balanced.
PB4UAME2 votesit goes away after 1 minute, so uh, yeah there is a timeout. You can also A, dodge all the tentacles that spawn easily with or without boots, and B, kill a total of three tentacles (bonus, it doesn't even have to be ones spawned from the debuff) and it goes away.
To even get the debuff you have to first let her land a short range, blockable and telegraphed skillshot, and then letter her kill your spirit, or you just ran away out of the fairly large range, and were punished for it.
AhegaoEpidemic1 votesHonestly, the worst thing about her kit is those goddamn tentacles. Her E is so goddamn cheesy, because you can literally be bitch slapped across the map after you recall to base because there is no timeout for being a vessel.
They just need to go down in one hit if you're a melee champ, and keep it at two for ranged, and have their base damages toned down, as well as that stupid healing.
The reason Illoai is picked is because she has no reasonable counterplay. If we get rid of the cheese in her kit, then she can actually be balanced.
its a mechanic that isnt fun to deal with. considering you have to either take out tenticles that attack you, or you have to keep spawning them for 1 min. she will pull your soul in a minion wave and get free harass on you. and the worst part about it is that your team cant help you kill them since it wont count.
Philbo Baggins4 votes is the 
of top lane. Get used to thinking about things other than her and you'll make it through.
The Great Divide2 votesOne melee champ does work >:) 
legionnaire991 votes[{quoted}](name=The Great Divide,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=0fOKOhdY,comment-id=0003,timestamp=2015-12-12T18:07:12.801+0000)
One melee champ does work >:)
ok he has like 6 or 5 main outs there but is really op
pWasHere2 votesI do think Illaoi is balanced. She has well defined strengths and weaknesses and her skills are decently avoidable.
That doesn't mean she isn't infuriating to lane against.
TheAwesomeJ2 votesIt feels like old darius BUT even with the new mechanic heal in his Q. One-way trade (in his favor) and you can't literally play, it's just an annoying lane. I was watching some games at high elo, just to learn HOW to beat her... but.. Irelia (that she must be the first counter) she get stoped hard in a fight at lvl 8 after an hard laning phase. Nasus, he was camping under tower all the match long..
Illaoi isn't op, she's just annoying A LOT, a lot worse than Yorick.. They must nerf a bit the early damage and then nerf the tentacles, like what they did to azir: "If multiple tentacle strike the same target ,each tentacle after the first deals 25% less damage"
Only Play Darius2 votesSounds like pre-rework
In my experience she isn't nearly that awful to play against
UrPalAl2 votes
Rapes the living shit out of her...
Good thing he's my main.
Hello I am Bird1 votes
They think she's OP... And she is...
Just waiting for my main to get dumpstered... 
High51 votesI'm not sold on that. I think Ill and Poppy is a draw for example. Ill can be annoying, but she's not OP. I like playing her and am still learning to play against her.
LitoJ1 votesEvery time Riot announces a new champ I can't be excited for it anymore. The actual only thing I think about is who is the champion I have to kick out of ban phase to make room for this new champion.
Lhostalis1 votesThe title of this post is causing me great internal turmoil seeing as how my minor in college is English... (There're probably too many grammatical errors in this sentence to count, don't hate on me. It's late at night, or rather quite early in the morning at this point.)
Tribbles Foxfolk1 votesI think the only unbalanced part about Illaoi is her damn E (Vessel). It's SO overloaded that it's not even funny. Way too much damage transfers (Not even counting the possible tanking you have to do yourself from a stun or something), the slow is unreal (What is it, 90% at rank 1?), the stupid tentacles always attack you. It's just an overloaded ability.
To be fair, though, if you gutted her Vessel, she wouldn't actually be that good otherwise. The rest of her kit is kinda "meh" if you don't set up at least a 3-person R beforehand.
Extvia1 votesgets destroyed in lane by ranged
Excuse me while I call bullshit of all the times I get fucked in top lane as ranged by her because if I stop to CS she spams shit to bash my soft fucking head in.
kasfas1 votesI manage to kill her easy with 
Q does more dmg than she heals, and the tentacles give you bonus hp.
When leaning against her get a pair of boots first back and she shouldn't be able to hit you. If she Ults, walk out of range and now you can outtrade her AND she has no ult. Of course don't just up and 1v1 tank her damage, that's not a good idea.
Basically, dodge her q, don't let her hit w on you, and go for favourable trades where she can't reliably hit you. You should get her low enough to all in her at some point and kill her, just watch for the enemy jungler when you do.
Dediguise1 votesI enjoy that both illaoi and darius grow stronger fighting multiple opponents. This makes them difficult to gank effectively which is part of what makes them strong. 1v1 however they can be outplayed quite easily. This is not to say that junglers cant gank them. Just that their sustain and damage increases with more targets. A lot of players believe this to be a broken mechanic hence the constant complaints about OP top laners. This is not an op mechanic. It is a mechanic that is counter intuitive to other design choices up until this point. But it is still a healthy mechanic.
In regards to numbers being adjusted, I'm always interested in keeping things fair. But until the community learns how to play around this mechanic I don't think it's fair to nerf the champ.
legionnaire991 votesgod i do hate post trying to say she is weak Oh if you get hit by her Q your done Oh did you stay close to her and she W you oh i'm sorry you lost o you got hit by her E u hope you don't mine missing 5 or 6 waves of cs oh you gone in to fight her man i hope you like GRAY screen she ults in a team fight man i hope you have allot of dashes or blinks o
