Illaoi is a very balanced and manageable champion

Koechophe·Dec 4, 2015·4 votes·387 views

Until she ults. Then she does freaking ridiculous amounts of near-unavoidable damage without even trying and beats the living crap out of you. Seriously, I have no problem dealing with her in lane, but once her ult comes up, she just slaughters you with it, multiple tentacles beating the living crap out of you and her spamming her W over and over again. The ult itself has a decent damage, but the issue is it has so many passives it's not even funny. Summon up to 6 tentacles, tentacles are immortal, tentacles swing faster and W has a massively reduced CD. The level of power crammed into that move is just crazy.

Imho she'd be fine, if it wasn't for her ult. It's just way, way too strong.

6 Comments

Big LincolnDec 4, 20152 votes

walk out of her ult

force her out of her ult

CC her during her ult

seems like enough counterplay to me

TheCeeJayDec 4, 20151 votes

I'm sure the general argument against this is that "her ult does a lot of burst when she uses it" which CAN be true if you group as 5 and she initiates that way. It's like an Amumu ult (except harder for her to pull off due to not having a decent gap closer), don't all stand around her.

If she gets a 5 man ult off, sure someone is probably going to die due to the initial tentacle hit, but the other members of your team can walk away.

KoechopheDec 4, 20152 votes

That's not even the problem. The idea that you can just "walk away" in the midst of a teamfight without consequences is laughable.

KoechopheDec 4, 20152 votes

Has counterplay =/= balanced. Nidalee's spears have always had counterplay, but when they used to chunk people for 1200 hp, that wasn't balanced. Everything Tahm does has counterplay, but having as much damage and utility as he does loaded into a single kit with extreme tankiness isn't balanced.

Even then, her ult does insane amount of damage over a very short amount of time, and "walking out of it" isn't usually an option in teamfights or even in objective skirmishes, and when playing as a squishy, she can kill you in 2 seconds flat with an ult, not to mention that if she grabs your spirit, you get a huge slow and and are constantly bombarded with tentatcles. "Forcing her out of her ult" is impossible unless you're new poppy, especially since she has her mini gap closer on a 2 second cd that whole time, and unless she positions it stupid in a teamfight, the ult will win the teamfight. And "CC her" is everyone's solution to things which are OP. But her ult lasts 8 seconds, and she's not deterred by slows. So... 8 seconds straight of snares and stuns? Good luck with that.

I never said the ult has no counterplay, I said it was way too strong. That statement stands. And even then, the counterplay you brought up isn't teribly effective.

HexaDecimelDec 4, 20151 votes

I don't think the argument should be based around whether or not you can simply walk away from an Illaoi during a teamfight. The real question is should you be initiating a teamfight on her terms, knowing that it is her primary area of strength. And, is that area of strength at a reasonable level? Is Illaoi overpowered? Or does she simply have power in an area that players are not use to dealing with.

She obviously excels in teamfights with the confusion and grouping of enemy players. I don't necessarily think it is wrong to have champions have opportunities to dish out insane amounts of damage as long as it is clear how they are doing it and options are provided to play around it.

In this case I do feel that she should be rewarded for getting off a multi player ult with passive tentacles included. This is because it is difficult for her to engage on a competent team. She is slow, it takes time to set up an area to fight in, and her tentacles can be destroyed with two auto attacks. A team that knows how to kite and peel will wear her down and draw her away from her area of strength if she tries to engage on them. Also if she is dealing insane damage then that probably means that she is building more damage items then defense. With her needing to W in order for most of her tentacles to attack she will have to in the middle of your team. And if she really is the main damage dealing threat on the team then she should be focused down as quickly as possible.

These are just my opinions based on watching other players use her.

HexaDecimelDec 4, 20151 votes

Illaoi's ult is fine people just need more time to learn how to play against her. She presents very clear moments of strength and weakness. First off she is very slow and needs time to set up tentacles with her passive and to be in close range on multiple people the get off a strong Ult. During that time she can be easily kited, and if you have strong engage Illaoi generally isn't the strongest tank and can still be killed fairly quickly if you coordinate with your team. The effectiveness of her ult relies on enemies staying grouped up and in range of her tentacles, and Illaoi staying alive while in the midst of the enemy team to get off multiple Ws. Remove any of those requirements and she will become instantly less dangerous. IF you allow her to use her passive to set up multiple tentacles and don't kill them, then allow her to slowly walk up to you Ult and then W several times, all while staying closely grouped with your allies and not killing her, then you will surely die. You could say it serves as a....Harsh Lesson XD