Does Illaoi have too much counterplay in her kit?

Cloud273·May 15, 2016·7 votes·869 views

Oh, you ulted? I'll just walk away and avoid all your damage. Oh, you actually landed your soul rip (for once)? I'll just walk away so your team can't follow up after I'm cc'd (and "ripping" the soul takes FOREVER, btw). In order to fix this, what if we just give Illaoi more cc in her hit? For instance, what if her 'w' stunned her opponent for like half a second, but ONLY during her ult (if this would be too OP)? Unlike other top laners, Illaoi lacks a reliable gap closer, ms boost, or point and click cc. Almost every other top laner has at least one of these things.

8 Comments

AMADEUSdotEXEMay 15, 20161 votes

Try fighting quinn. Or vayne. Or Nasus as her. Then realize how much of a pain trying to main her is.

Cloud273May 15, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Mogeko Magica,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=0oV1KfHo,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2016-05-15T21:03:07.875+0000)

Try fighting quinn. Or vayne. Or Nasus as her. Then realize how much of a pain trying to main her is.

Yes, I imagine it's a nightmare. Illaoi is simply too easy to kite (or avoid her damage) due to the reasons I mentioned in the OP. Her 'w' is very difficult to land, and even if she hits it you can just walk away before she actually "rips" the soul (or whatever you want to call it).

AMADEUSdotEXEMay 16, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Yes, I imagine it's a nightmare. Illaoi is simply too easy to kite (or avoid her damage) due to the reasons I mentioned in the OP. Her 'w' is very difficult to land, and even if she hits it you can just walk away before she actually "rips" the soul (or whatever you want to call it).

On the bright side It's nice to know that she's actually fair to fight against. Considering how much of a monster she is when she gets to have fun.

NostolgicSkiesMay 16, 20161 votes

Its not just her lack of CC in some cases its her reliants on W to make her tents hit. a simple stun and even her ult becomes useless in its "danger Zone". Personally i would just be happy with higher base stats and some minor dmg nerfs to balance out. its always nice to be able to survive your intial Ult hit. instead of ulting and watching the first tent smash from your ult hit after your dead cause you have no decent resist and just the health from black cleaver early on. especially for a Champ that kinda requires your enemy to stick around and well hit you in order to realy do any dmg or be a threat at all.

BluePolarizerMay 16, 20161 votes

Illaoi hard counters people with lag (like me). She tilts me heavily because when you play on 150 ms ping, you can't do shit against her since if you are unable to dodge her stuff, she out stat-checks everyone.

However, if you don't lag, Illaoi is pretty terrible.

SpoofghoulMay 16, 20161 votes

illoai is ''fine''

i mean her main weakpoint imho is that she is teamcomp reliant. She eneds an extra initiator tank with lockdown and her team needs some extra cc aswell, and you are going to want some ap damage too.

The problem is when you realize that most of these cc heavy tanks are also played toplane. And they aren't doing so hot in the jungle because they get shit on by the likes of lee and nidalee

so that leaves support, and then you realize that out of the cc heavy tanky supps there is only a few with decent aoe lockdown

like you could pick nautilus and alistar for example becaus they can aoe cc, but in doing so they sacrifice peel ability for the ADcarry. So you need a self reliant ad carry.

Also since you want more then 1 guy to be able to enable her you are going to need either more cc/slows or other buffs and boosts

so you will want sivir or bleu ez

A mage with some aoe spammable shit which can apply rylais would be very usefull too.

And i think thats what makes her do shitty, she is very very strong except also very kitable/avoidable unless you have a teamcomp who can make up for the things she lacks

A sion would be very nice to have in that instance, but he has trouble competing with strong early game junglers when he is jungling and since you are taking illaoi toplane where would you put him? Obvious answer is mid btw, sion mid with tp is really hard to deal with.

Tl;dr Illaoi's biggest weakness is teamcomp reliance and the additional support she needs usually is played in the same lane she is. And the big weakness really is the fact that she can only really be played toplane, because she needs the walls.

So how to make her work then?

Teamcomp: I think illaoi can be strong with the right teamcomp as it is a nono to fight her head on.

so with a sivir adc for the utility and the fact sivir doesnt need a bodygaurd as much as other adc A sion mid for the piles of cc he brings, he also brings waveclear and good initiation. A jungle mage like malzahar or brand for example so your arent so ad heavy, and their aoe/dots can keep people from getting away once they get rylais and for support a lulu is good because she has alot of cc and she can speed you up, or an alistar for good initiation and diving power or a nautilus the king of cc and he also has that neat point and click ult to start a fight.

Build: but if your teamcomp isnt all you want then your build can make a difference too.

So since this item 3071 is allt he damage items you need, that leaves 4 other items to cover up some weakpoints

for example: item 3800 bring your own initiation item 3143 slow them down after you ult item 3512 lack initiation? make them come to you

Pika FoxMay 16, 20161 votes

Probably. I feel like she needs nerfs so she can be allowed to be more consistent as well as less frustrating to play against. Im just not sure how you would change her kit so she could be allowed to be more consistent in the first place. Maybe adding a decent slow to her ult zone in exchange for less damage from the ult tentacles, so shes more likely to have the ult mean something without it instantly giving her a pentakill while doing so.