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Ok I give up, how does one fight Illaoi

JackMcSnipeyz·11/27/2015, 11:42:09 AM·7 votes·16,738 views

I've tried, i laned against her, i was against her in teamfights, i had her on my team and had her against my team and i still dont get it.

How do you fight illaoi? her lane power is unreal, if you're playing anything other than ranged, you'll get zoned - Hard! to the point where even the tower isnt a safe place to hide. tentacles seem to spawn pretty fast, and quickly, they will swarm your lane, making farming and poking increasingly hard, not to mention if you try to go for the tentacles, another one will spawn right away, and it's so predictable that you're going for them, that Illaoi just uses it as an easy poking opportunity. In other words, you either back off and play as passive as possible, or you stay in a constant never ending fight where you try to dodge her abilities, farm, and also destroy her tentacles.

  • And the biggest offender, E, this ability is way to strong, it's just insane, that Ulti level of power on that basic ability. Yea you can say "Just dodge" but as i mentioned before, because she has total lane dominance she will get an E on you eventually, and if you try to fight back get ready to be hit - hard. Then even the turret isnt a safe place, tentacles just whoop your ass every 5 seconds and you're in a 1 minute long game of Quick time dodging event. And no, waiting for 3 tentacles to spawn, just to destroy them doesnt make it any easier, that means you're giving up farming and focus on dodging and hitting the tentacles because being a vessel means you cant get near illaoi until you've completed your mini game. And then when you're finally done doing that, you're comming back just to get pulled again - Great.

Honestly, im not one to shout "OP BROKEN GUT AND NERF" but this champion seems to be very very toxic to play against.

Any tips for playing against illaoi? what are your thought about her? (that ones of you who laned against her)

39 Comments

The Whamboozler1/3/2016, 3:49:00 PM4 votes

She's kinda oppressive, yeah. Here's what I've seen do well against her.

  1. Show no fear. Especially early, she actually can't really do much to you. Early game aggressors can and will molest her if they try, and they can usually get ahead of her and force her to play defensively due to being at low health... at least make her base so you can gain a lead in CS and Level. The worst thing you can do against her is be afraid of her and let her dictate the way the lane plays out. Thump your chest, don't be afraid to go aggressive, and bully her right back. Early on, she can't handle it. If you play early well, you should be ahead enough to do it later too.

  2. Move! She even tells you to do this. Illaoi has trouble dealing with mobile champs. If you can dart in and out quickly she'll have a real hard time slapping you down with all her tentacles, due to the delay on them striking. Learn the timing, dart in, slap her and fly out before the thwack.

  3. Range. Anyone with ranged harass poops in Illaoi's cereal. This includes melee champs who throw stuff (Gragas, for example). She has no real sustain unless you're fool enough to dive in and eat a three tentacle beatdown, so harass her with your abilites from a range until sticking around leaves her at serious risk of death to you or the jungler if she stays.

  4. Repositioning the battle. Illaoi needs those tentacles helping to fight most people on even footing. If you want to fight her, let minions push in and THEN do it when you're away from the field of tentacles she's set up. Controlling the flow of minions is a useful skill to know anyway, and against her it's very strong. If she can't set up the battlefield before she fights, she's weaker. Use that! Displacements help too, to shove her away from her tentacles and bring the fight to where YOU want it.

  5. The Vessel ain't so bad. If she lands a clean E on you, you have two choices. One, immediately back off... become the vessel and deal with the tentacles spawning on you. This will probably make you miss CS or take some damage from the spawning tentacles. If she's too strong to all-in, this is your only option. But if NOT... if it's early on. If she snags your soul FIGHT HER FOR IT. So long as you avoid letting her hit you AND your soul with her AoE abilties, she'll have to pick and choose between you and as said above, if you're fighting her properly and on your terms... she probably won't be able to out-trade you. Go in on her and teach her you are not to be messed with.

In short, to beat Illaoi you need to control the pace and location of the battle. She's NOT a stat check unless that is how YOU are playing as well. She punishes people who think fighting is a stat check. If you're used to diving in headfirst and mashing buttons until you win... she will destroy you. The answer isn't to avoid going all-in on her and being timid, either... you just need to know WHEN to be aggressive and how to go about asserting your dominance over her. She really is a teacher. Learn.

Faith Breaker11/27/2015, 12:09:23 PM2 votes

I don't understand why you have a hard time with her. Kill her tentacles. Learn to dodge aka don't stand still and let her pummel you with her tentacle smash. Hit her. It's not difficult. I havn't lost to an illaoi yet fought against 3 had 2 on my team. It's cute bc you literally just hit her tentacles and they go away. If she takes your spirit and you become a vessel, you get FREE GOLD off her tentacles that spawn. Illaoi supports the enemy team.

Quepha2/18/2016, 3:58:43 PM2 votes

{quoted}

How do you fight illaoi?

If she casts Q, move to the right. You can even move to the left if you're feeling crazy.

If she casts E, do the same thing.

If she casts R, back up.

Congratulations you've just made the enemy Illaoi completely useless.

Rozair11/27/2015, 11:59:29 AM2 votes

Just pick Yasuo against her. Seems like the right solution here

WillieTheWhale11/27/2015, 1:15:59 PM1 votes

Pick nasus. You can sustain her early damage, and u cant fail to last-hit a tentacle.

Goosetard11/27/2015, 1:46:33 PM1 votes

Just about all of her damage is in the tentacles. When I've fought her, what seems to work best for me is to prioritize not getting hit by them above everything else, even delivering my own damage. As long as you are moving sideways relative to the tentacle (not directly towards or away) they won't hit you. Her tentacles only ever swing when there's a spirit/vessel or she uses her w. Avoid standing in a position that the tentacles can hit both you and the spirit. Since there's usually only one or two nearby, it's not hard with a little thought. When she uses her w, just move. Immediately. Don't try to get an auto attack off first, just move in the appropriate direction and the tentacle will miss. Most Illoais will try to get a double tentacle hit by using W after the tentacles target a spirit/vessel. If she does this, dodge them both, then trade. If her W is on cd, trade after you dodge the single hit. You probably won't get much damage off, but you'll get off more than she will, and this trade pattern is pretty mana hungry for her.

If she hooks your spirit, you have two choices: trade with her, or sit back and take it like a bitch. Tentacles will hit your spirit and pass some of the damage to you regardless. Try not to get yourself hit by those same tentacles, since this is essentially damage amplification for her. However, unless you're very low hp, without her also focusing your spirit, the tentacles probably won't be able to kill it on their own. If she focuses your spirit and you deal damage to her, the trade won't go in her favor. If she focuses you and you dodge tentacles, your spirit will time out, and you won't have to deal with the trial.

If she ults, move far enough from any spirit she might have so that as few tentacles hit you as possible. You can try to fight her during the duration of the ult away from the spirit, but it's hard. On the spirit is suicide. Fortunately she has no cc so she doesn't have a way to keep you there by herself.

If you're in lane with low life, it's hard to stay because she can pull your spirit and proc the test very easily (it has as much hp as you did when she pulled it from you). However, if you're both low life, it will be hard for her to win the fight without pulling your spirit to get the additional tentacle attacks and healing. You should try to bait out her spirit grab and make a decision from there.

I'm not saying she doesn't need any tuning, but if you follow the counterplay pattern I outlined above I think you'll see a lot more success and feel a lot better about fighting her.

BlackxHokage11/27/2015, 3:06:17 PM1 votes

Shes the same as heimeirdinger. However you would play against him do the same with her

gaebraham wolf12/16/2015, 1:59:55 AM1 votes

The issue i have with her is not one ability or one stat. My issue with her is the combination of all of them. So the tentacles are like heim, try to take them out as they spawn, and you can dodge her abilities as you go in to kill them sure. Then there is the pull, if she lands it she gets ahead in money. You are stuck getting only the gold from the tentacles and she gets a whole creep wave and your spirit. Then she has the ult so even if you get a gank, she can survive, heal up, and kill. That plus how much damage she can do plus how tanky she gets all together is just op. It makes it so you can't engage till tentacles are down, then she just makes more, survives your whole burst, and deals massive damage all the while. I think either her damage ratios to her tentacles need to be lowered, or the heal from them taken off, or something so that you can poke and take out tentacles till you can engage, rather than her be strong in all parts of the fight. As it stands, unless you get fed very quickly, she will counter any melee champion you try. (except maybe yas)

d4rkshock1/3/2016, 3:23:48 PM1 votes

What I think we have is another rengar, trynd, fizz, vi , etc. Any champion that has no counterplay and is impossible to balance. I just used a 4 syllable word. Deal with it. Can't play against her. Totally broken. I need to kill whoever thought she was a good idea at the riot balance team desk. Rito plz nerf.

taleofsonata1/25/2016, 11:58:31 PM1 votes

Here goes another noob complainer, whats next heimerdinger? GET Gud!

BildoSama2/19/2017, 10:29:00 AM1 votes

23 voters are frequent Illaoi users

Leafy Breeze2/14/2018, 4:15:54 AM1 votes

I really think that this is a problem. Personally, i am a mid laner, but when I play akali top illaoi really pokes me down when I try to farm or even go near her tentacles. But the thing you have to understand is that some lanes cannot be won no matter what you do. She will out waveclear and outfarm you if you are a meelee champion and will poke you and the turret and eventually win lane. Even when I try to fight her with my jg and mid, she got a triple kill with her ult, and I didnt even give her kills before that. The way I believe to fight illaoi is to of course know how to dodge skill shots, but after that, the strategy is to farm under turret and give her no chance to kill you from the beginning. When you reach midgame and if she is winning your turret, ask for jg ganks, buy stopwatch and try to make the outplays with the help of items that outscale or counter illaoi(armor, last whisper, etc.). Late game becomes a huge problem if you do give her early kills. When playing midlane twisted fate, my team would always feed the illaoi top and we would literally need to 5 man her at the inhib turret while the other 4 enemy players just stomped our objectives. Like I said, in summary, the key to playing against illaoi is to play it as safe as possible and outfarm and outscale her with items mid and late game (hourglass is a really good along with lord dominik's). TBH i would definitely ban her if you are playing ranked, but there are so many other champions that outscale so hard and just make her seem like nothing in late game. Ex: Tryndamere, Darius, Nasus.

Kouga11/27/2015, 12:03:39 PM1 votes

She seems really overtuned - that E is ridiculous in terms of his power (not just damage, but the general mind games/dominance it provides) especially with as much range and relatively little warning it has. It might be enough just to give it a visual indicator (similar to Jinx Zap) or it might need its actual numbers changed. But yeah when you're in lane, the only solution (which is to turn and fight her) never seems like a good option.

AyRe CoNteMpT11/27/2015, 12:15:07 PM1 votes
  1. pick a champion with more raw power than her
  2. all in her
  3. she has no escapes and zero cc so free kill

some options: tryndamere ghost ignite, master yi flash ignite, irelia flash ignite, garen flash ignite

if she dies to you in lane once, she cant come back as she has no uncounterable abilities and you can simply own her up with more health and damage.

her early laning is strong but if you can either push her in or block the wave and force her to push you in, you can outscale her by lvl 6 and instagib her with many champions as her burst is mainly dodgeable/flashable and she has no followups and no sustained damage outside of her R-W combo which still has 2 seconds cooldown which is basically too long to use it again.

Akenero11/27/2015, 1:07:58 PM1 votes

Okay,now im not gonna go too deep into this, but here we go Her passive is negated if you are either A-mobile B-ranged C-sustained Kill the tentacles, kill the kit Her q is hella slow to come out, and has a large indicator of where it hits,keep in mind her ranges and move perpendicular to the area and you'll be good W-just an autoattack enhance E-fight her off of it, and dont leave the zone! If she does get your soul, kill tentacles XD R-this is the hard one, but generally just move out of the zone