So, Illaoi seems super oppressive lategame, am I the only one who feels that way?

Godman873·Jan 7, 2016·4 votes·4,261 views

As a character and design I LOVE the goal for Illaoi but whenever I see her in a game her damage and tankiness is so high she has been able to 1v2 and even sometimes 1v3, as someone who used to play alot of MMORPG's she feels like a Raidboss as long as she hasn't been feeding.

Looking at Illaoi's kit two things really REALLY stand out to me....

Illaoi's E (Test of spirit) goes on cooldown the second it hits someone, this is really unusual to a spell like this since it is usually after the effect ends to avoid problems. The cooldown is 12 seconds at max rank and it lasts for 10.... with 20% CDR (17% for 2.04 seconds) She can immediately use her E as soon as the first use is over.
The passive on her Q (specially when combined with ult). If Illaoi was a champion who didn't have easy access to CDR and Health items it wouldn't be that bad but building something like spirit visage makes her incredibly tanky while it can be hard to notice the amount of HP she is healing per tentacle hit. (I don't know if the healing stacks per tentacle but if it does that just makes it feel worse)

Those are the two major issues I have with her, so my question is. Is it just me that feel that Illaoi is super oppressive lategame? Also, if anyone has tips for countering her other than kite her, please share because I'd love to not feel powerless against her, I found out Olaf can out trade her early on but thats really it...

20 Comments

PennsJan 7, 20162 votes

Well "kite her" is her counterplay.. Basically, write "when illaoi ults just run away" in chat (at least thats what I do all the time lol) and you should win if your team does it.

item 3123 Could also help on your adc.

Godman873Jan 7, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Well "kite her" is her counterplay.. Basically, write "when illaoi ults just run away" in chat (at least thats what I do all the time lol) and you should win if your team does it.

Could also help on your adc.

Well thats a ton of counterplay right there, 800 gold and the LMB to run the other direction. =/

But then the question is what if you're a melee champion like Yi, Mordekaiser, Evelynn or even a short ranged mage like Twisted fate?

PennsJan 7, 20161 votes

She counters melee champs, thats what she was made for. As melee just dont feed her top lane and wait for mid- late game where she cant do anything anymore. And as TF you just stun her and proceed to kite.

Godman873Jan 7, 20161 votes

{quoted}

She counters melee champs, thats what she was made for. As melee just dont feed her top lane and wait for mid- late game where she cant do anything anymore. And as TF you just stun her and proceed to kite.

With all due respect she is at her strongest lategame where she is dealing damage while being incredibly tanky.

Also, TF was the only shortranged maged I could think of in that second.

ParoeJan 7, 20161 votes

{quoted}

With all due respect she is at her strongest lategame where she is dealing damage while being incredibly tanky.

Also, TF was the only shortranged maged I could think of in that second.

If illaoi has her ult up, dont group closely but be prepared to engage. Or force her to panic ult and waste it.

Also, you realize the "counterplay" for zed is "just buy zhonyas"?

MohawkBirdJan 7, 20161 votes

You need to run away or out of tentacle range as well. It's not different than trying to fight a heimerdinger in 3 of his turrets, you simply don't do it. She has no decent gap closer to catch up to you and even when she does she has no damage given she needs a proper amount of tentacles to dish out that damage.

Hayaishi2Jan 7, 20162 votes

Hit her with 1 CC and she can't do anything.

MohawkBirdJan 7, 20161 votes

Or just walk away from her tentacles and she literally cannot do anything.

DrangedCapybaraJan 7, 20161 votes

"Just dodge her E, don't let her hit her Q, and stay away from her."

This is not counter play, it is avoiding certain death at the hands of a god.

Illaoi doesn't have a true "counter", but she struggles the most against Teemo, Trundle, and Kayle (40ish% win rate for Illaoi compared to 46% total win rate).

These are champs with high amounts of CC and utility. Honestly, I would just pick a broken champ (Mundo or Teemo) and watch two of the most hated and banned champs fight to the death.

Also, each tentacle hit does stack on her HP gain.

colesyJan 7, 20161 votes

illaoi is garbage

ZeroleraJan 7, 20161 votes

Standing in the middle of the ultimate is the issue. It's like standing in the middle of a Velkoz or Missfortune ulti while they have a full build and expecting to not receive any damage. People still don't seem to realize that the ultimate is not just the first hit - it creates a powerful zone for her to fight in for several seconds afterwards.

ParoeJan 7, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Standing in the middle of the ultimate is the issue. It's like standing in the middle of a Velkoz or Missfortune ulti while they have a full build and expecting to not receive any damage. People still don't seem to realize that the ultimate is not just the first hit - it creates a powerful zone for her to fight in for several seconds afterwards.

Yup... ... I was gonna do math but i think someones fucking with the wiki because if she had a 10.5AD ratio+1250 base damage she would be oneshotting fully built tanks.

ZeroleraJan 7, 20161 votes

It's 160% also Illaoi will rarely get more than one damaging item and then jaunim's fist and the upgrade making her usually have around 250-275 AD late game with Baron. If she gets off an ultimate with 5 people around her yeah it can mean 5 additional tentacles each at 160% ad per hit but they aren't all going to hit you. Also a lot of things in league are op if you manage to hit 5 champions with it.

ParoeJan 7, 20161 votes

{quoted}

It's 160% also Illaoi will rarely get more than one damaging item and then jaunim's fist and the upgrade making her usually have around 250-275 AD late game with Baron. If she gets off an ultimate with 5 people around her yeah it can mean 5 additional tentacles each at 160% ad per hit but they aren't all going to hit you. Also a lot of things in league are op if you manage to hit 5 champions with it.

i dont see why... My illaoi gets item 3053 item 3156 and item 3071 for damage. 350 or so with baron?

ZeroleraJan 7, 20161 votes

I don't see illaoi building malmortius considering she wants spirit visage for her heals. I mean I guess if you're running a super high ap team but that would leave her too squishy late game when everyone is dealing really high damage and has full builds

ParoeJan 7, 20161 votes

{quoted}

I don't see illaoi building malmortius considering she wants spirit visage for her heals. I mean I guess if you're running a super high ap team but that would leave her too squishy late game when everyone is dealing really high damage and has full builds

You still end up with +3000HP. And her heal with sv is litterally 5.5% of her max health. would you rather have 0.5% max hp more, or 50 damage, 50mres, 10 armor pen, and +300magic damage shield?

ZeroleraJan 7, 20161 votes

It's not just an extra 20% healing from spirit visage that you get (which by the way 5% x 1.20 = 6% which is an extra 1.0%) But you also get 500 health and 70 res 10% cool down reduction so you can spam your tentacles more to heal more and the health adds to the extra shield from Sterak's Gage. Then if I'm really fed I'd go with titanic hydra - more health and the same amount of damage as Maw provides and even better interaction with Sterak's passive.

But yes a full build late game like that if you stay in the middle of her ultimate spells death. (Then again stay in the middle of a fiddle ultimate while you let his darkwind bounce between two people and him draining someone else and you're gonna feel a lot of pain too.

ParoeJan 7, 20161 votes

{quoted}

It's not just an extra 20% healing from spirit visage that you get (which by the way 5% x 1.20 = 6% which is an extra 1.0%) But you also get 500 health and 70 res 10% cool down reduction so you can spam your tentacles more to heal more and the health adds to the extra shield from Sterak's Gage. Then if I'm really fed I'd go with titanic hydra - more health and the same amount of damage as Maw provides and even better interaction with Sterak's passive.

But yes a full build late game like that if you stay in the middle of her ultimate spells death. (Then again stay in the middle of a fiddle ultimate while you let his darkwind bounce between two people and him draining someone else and you're gonna feel a lot of pain too.

Right, i tohught sv was 10%... ... At any rate maw of malmortus is more useful if youre even or ahead.

ZeroleraJan 7, 20161 votes

Well this isn't an Illaoi guide or anything but I will say that Titanic Hydra's % of your max health damage increase to your auto attacks in an AOE with a passive to reset your attack timer and deal 10% of your max health as an AOE damage is pretty OP on a champ who stacks health.

QuephaJan 7, 20161 votes

She should get outranged by most champs and she doesn't really have the mobility to make up for it. Obviously you don't want to try and collapse on her when her ult is up or you're going to have a bad time.