How to buff Illaoi?

DrBaryon·2/24/2016, 8:09:41 PM·6 votes·1,504 views

Riot has demonstrated with the buffs in patch 6.3 that they are aware Illaoi is weak and are interested in buffing her. That said, the buffs in 6.3 have not dented her low pick rate and play rate, and the 6.4 nerfs to Sterak's, her corest of core items (even more than cleaver IMO) will probably hurt her even more. So if Riot is still looking for her to be viable, they'll have to try another buff.

The problems are:

  1. Illaoi's counterplayable kit just favors pub stomping so any buffs to make her semi-viable in high elo will make her pick or ban in bronze-silver
  2. People hate playing against Illaoi. Only recently has she stopped being banned despite clear evidence that she's usually a liability for her team. Her E debuff and ult tilt people really hard, so any buff that makes her more frustrating to play against will result in permaban status.

So the question then is how do we buff her without breaking her wide open in low elo or making her more frustrating? As someone who plays Illaoi a lot (not really in ranked though), here are some ideas:

  1. Higher base AS. A QoL buff more than anything but one that would have real benefits. Illaoi's AAs aren't really core to her kit but a responsive autoattack is essential to farm properly especially under pressure and Illaoi's are a notch above Karthus tier. Buffing this will improve her ability to farm without spending mana or pushing wave (which is a problem now), and also improve synergy with item 3071 and item 3748 .

  2. Small slow on Q. Illaoi has 1 incredibly situational CC in her kit (vesseling someone). As much as Riot likes the idea of juggernauts having weak cc/mobility, weak does not usually equal absent (Garen is fast as hell and Darius has pull + slow) and trying to balance around 0 cc/mobility without piling on damage and gimmicks is very very hard (RIP Mordekaiser ). Putting a slow on Q would do a lot for Illaoi. She could use it to kite back, chase, set up a pull, keep a priority target in the ult zone longer, etc. Lots of strategic options open up, she'd bring something other than incredibly situational dmg to her team, and it would still be counterplayable (that Q is one of the more dodgeable skillshots in league).

  3. R resets W CD. Basically, so that you can W->R or W->E->R without crippling your ult dps. Illaoi's strength right now is her ult, but executing it on a team that's paying any attention is incredibly difficult. If you use the mini gapcloser of W (and it is a tiny tiny gapcloser) to get in the fray, you put it on a 4 to 6 second CD. So after you E->R, your tentacles will slap once, you maybe q someone, then you and your tentacles stand around looking stupid for 4-6 s or until you get killed (probably the latter since you're in the middle of the enemy team). As it stands, you have to hold w while you slowly walk into the enemy team to E->R them, or wait for multiple melees to dive you and punish their dumb, dumb decision. If R reset W, you could use W to get in range for E->R, rendering the combo much more doable. There's still counterplay (don't bunch, stay out of the very short W range, run like hell once the ult goes down), but with it Illaoi is actually good at teamfighting like she's supposed to be.

  4. Scaling armor debuff or bonus damage against vessels. Pulling souls one after another and turning the enemy team green in a siege is fun, but is more annoying than impactful unless they stand in tether range for a long time. Every once and a while you'll get a stupid kill or a slap on a carry out of it, but usually it just distracts them a bit while they play a minigame for 30 s. Allowing the debuff to soften enemies up brings you real late game utility and further exaggerates her power window (if you're vesseled and you fight Illaoi you should get wrecked). It also might give her some late game scaling without cleaver so she can choose better offensive items (IBG, Sterak's, Maw) or get tankier.

Some ideas. What do you think and what would you recommend instead?

13 Comments

Faceplow2/25/2016, 9:46:19 PM2 votes

I love playing Illaoi, I suck at her, but she's hella fun.

Imho, the only things I'd like to see changed on her is:

  • Her W being an "on-hit" ability. Can't tell you how many times I've died trying to W someone and it's like she gets bugged and doesn't auto attack. It happens the most and has got to be the most annoying thing so far to me. I'd rather them make it a "click ability" instead of "on-hit."

  • Her Q has to be the slowest skill shot in the game. It's very rare that it ever lands. I'd like it to see it sped up a little bit.

Other than those 2 things, I really enjoy this champ. She's quite honestly the most fun champ I've played in a long time. I don't know if she's OP or UP, her kit is hella fun and I honestly just enjoy playing this champ.

PrimeWraith2/24/2016, 8:10:10 PM1 votes

downvote

Lańce2/24/2016, 8:15:39 PM1 votes

illao is the season6 yorick

get past my abusive bully lane phase and you win. expect she doesnt ult someone to offer some utility.

Teemo Illaoi Yorick Quinn

all these guys are built around winning lane phase so hard that they become useless later with quinn being the least punished cuz she is an adc

ewvisysNSE2/24/2016, 8:40:16 PM1 votes

I feel like she needs a more reliable cc as well. I do not have a very good KDA with Illaoi but I really enjoy playing her and have a good winrate on her. (Only in bronze so far.) I don't know if adding the slow to the R would help or even adding the slow to the beginning of the E instead of after you kill the soul. She is the perfect example of a champion that punishes people hard that do not understand her kit but once you know to stay away from or kill the tentacle spawns and stay behind minions to avoid the E there is very little that she can do to you. Maybe even simply being able to decide where to put your tentacles would help improve her QoL a bit.

Yosuke Apperu2/24/2016, 8:59:09 PM1 votes

If they buff something on her then she needs to lose damage on her ultimate.. death recap says 1200 damage at rank 2 with only one damage item.. Plus her e is it? The curse one... is oppressive as hell to play with. Imagine giving all of the juggernauts more cc... seems like a bad plan to me.