Tips and Tricks for playing against Illaoi + Guide to play as Illaoi.

I've got about 40-45 games on Illaoi and have a 75% winrate or so, and have played against her a few times as well when I don't end up getting her, and win like 80% of the time I play against her (Assuming someone else hasn't just fed her to be 20/0 or the like, at which point she is just like any other fed carry, a massive PITA to do anything about) because I understand her rather glaring weaknesses, and let me tell you something.

She is probably one of the highest counterplay Juggernauts there is, but goddamn, if you don't properly play against her, she WILL wreck you, she will dominate your lane, and she will win the game potentially on her own with more than 50% of her team's damage being just her. Her kit is filled with countless instances of counterplay (Big one? In Piccolo's famous words, DODGE!), but is tuned so that if you don't, she will eat you alive.

SECTION 1 : PLAYING AGAINST ILLAOI

Anyway, for the tips to play against her, she has several core weaknesses that many Juggernauts don't have, either being massive weakness to CCs at specific times, or how most of her power budget is fairly conditional.

1. Compared to most Juggernauts, she is much harder countered by Snares and Silences, as well as any other CC which prevents movement or spell cast, as her bread and butter damage skill, W (Note, Q ranks increase W damage indirectly by increasing tentacle damage.) is counted as a mobility attack which can't be used while snared, or can't be cast while silenced.

2. Her ult is a massive part of her power budget, but I honestly rate a well landed ult worth an entire item or more, so the fact she needs it to be really effective is fine, as with it (And it is up fairly often with the 30-40% CDR she tends to build) she is a monster during it's duration if she hit 2-3 targets. She can get upwards of a total of 6 tentacles out of her ult trigger (More, technically, against any team with clones, but that's a fairly rare case that she would land a 5 man ult with Spirit while they had the clones also in the area. The AoE size of her ult is pitiful and is fairly well announced by it's half second or so cast time, especially with the fact it is coming out of a slow, near 0 mobility Juggernaut), and it grants her a significantly shorter W CD, down to 2 seconds regardless of CDR (For comparison, max rank W with 40% CDR is on a 2.4 second CD). This brings us to what she is good at... when an enemy comes to HER, because she has a hard time getting to the enemy.

2a. If you and a teammate are ganking an Illaoi in lane, don't scrunch up on her, whatever you do, DO NOT STACK UP ON HER, as this can potentially give her a 3 man ult with her spirit. An instant 3 tentacles, plus any which might happen to be sitting around the area you fight her, means she can have 4-5 tentacles, which each heal her 5% of her missing HP per attack (Hint, she heavily depends on that healing, counterplay it with ignite if you have it available, or grab Executioner's Calling if you don't), which will be attacking at least once every 2 seconds, more with a spirit/vessel to target and her Q counted into the mix. Best place/time to fight Illaoi? Not near any wall she has had more than 10-15 seconds to set up on, preferably very shortly after her passive has spawned a tentacle in another place to leave her with no chance of any bonus tentacles spawning mid fight. Catching her as she comes back to lane is a very easy way to wreck her.

3. Additionally, Illaoi is very teamfight/multi target focused, and loses a LOT of her power when she has only one person to fight. Very strong 1v1 duelist will roflstomp an Illaoi 6 ways to sunday, but may infact be beaten if they have a teammate trying to help to potentially give Illaoi more targets to get healing off of. Fiora comes to mind as a very easy counter pick if you know how to play her (Lol, almost all of Illaoi's damage has a half second charge up. Riposte says "Hi!"), but I've also had some trouble in lanes against/stomped her with Tahm (Who brings tons of CC for her ult to shut it down, as well as a massive amount of durability, and even better, an ability to munch an ally during Illaoi ult to just strip her of targets that she needs or keep your high priority carry safe and sound), and Renekton is a skill matchup that is in his favor, as he has CC for her W/ult, very easy disengage if she does ult, and is naturally very durable and has a lot of sustain. Ranged champs in lane are also very potent vs her, so long as they have some disengage to escape her threat zone if she gets close. I've yet to run into a Nasus as Illaoi, and I really hope I don't (Or, at least, I really hope I don't run into a good one). He logically counters almost everything you do in lane. He WANTS you to try and bully him with E, he gets free Q stacks from it, and can just rush a Frozen Heart to negate all of your 100% physical damage, 0 natural arpen ass. Nasus just has to survive till 6, and it should easily be a lane in his favor from every point after that.

4. Teamfights as Illaoi are very hit or miss. Against a high CC comp, or a high mobility comp, Illaoi is very dependent on the enemy coming to her (Hey, that sounds like what I said in point #2... I wonder if that is connected....), but she still has her teamfight options. Most of the time, the enemy front line will try and get past her to her carries, and give her 2-3 man ult chances, which can get her a solid teamfight win. Treat Illaoi not as a tank, but as the epitome of what a Juggernaut is supposed to be. A tanky carry who has very low mobility, but very high damage. Don't give her her perfect storm situations of massive multi-man ults, especially on squishy targets, and try and peel her off of them. Avoid fighting if you can while you have any Vesseled champs on your team, as her tentacles will attack a vesseled target on their own on top of targeting the ground under where she W'ed. Even someone vesseled in another lane/far off in the jungle can potentially give her power in a teamfight if they don't dodge her tentacles.

5. Vessel status and you : How to counter it and laugh as you get a bit of extra farm/deny her her E's power; Anyway, on to what most people hate about her, her E, Test of Spirit. There are several ways to counter her E, in lane, it's easy enough to just sit in your minions, as she can't E through a minion wave. Their fat asses will make landing an E on your near impossible, so all you have to worry about is her walking up to you to W you, or her delayed Q hit. If, for some reason, she actually HITS you with her E, you have two options to handle the situation... 5a. Jump her ass after she blows her CDs on the spirit. The spirit last 1 second less every time you attack Illaoi. Fight her, and you can get rid of it in seconds potentially. 5b. Just flat out jump out of the spirit range/run away. You deal with dodging 3 tentacles and killing them, but take no to low damage and gain 15 gold. 5c. Just whatever you do, don't just sit in range, eating the damage, without some form of reaction to it.

6. And on the topic of dodging her tentacles, it is very easy to do so if you know their attack pattern. Effectively, watch for the bubbles of water just before a tentacle spawns, and just move perpendicular to them, and they will NEVER HIT YOU. Turn on them after the attack, and kill for 5 gold. Hell, if you are moving fast enough, you can just flat out run away from them. Note that any 3 tentacles count for removing the debuff, including ones that were already there, not just ones you spawn. You can remove the debuff in about 10 seconds fairly easily if you have a few tentacles in a safe area to get rid of, or just stay away from walls and the tentacles won't be able to hit you (A tentacle's range is about 55% of a lane's width. See it spawn on one side, move to the other and you have just dodged it). While it probably won't be easy to CS when you are first getting used to dodging her tentacles, once you do you could easily force them to shove the Illaoi to your tower (where you are generally very safe), while still getting all your CS and a few extra gold from the tentacles. She probably will whittle down your tower over time, but shouldn't be able to take it until at least 15 minutes if you are defending against her properly. If she has Vesseled you and you are trying to recall, wait until after a tentacle spawns and tries to attack, and dodge it, and kill it. There is about a 10 to 12 second CD before another can spawn and attack, during which you can safely recall. From what I've seen, a tentacle can't spawn in your fountain, so you won't get BSed and get slapped just as you get back on the platform for a kill to her.

SECTION 2 : BUILDING AND PLAYING ILLAOI

2.1 Runes and Masteries

Personal runes I use as Illaoi is 3 Arpen Quints, 1 Arpen Mark, 8 AD Marks, 9 armor Seals (can sub scaling armor if you want for a stronger late, as you are building early armor, or you can grab hp per level seals instead, because again, you are rushing very early armor) and I personally run AD blues, but if you just want to grab MR/MR per level go ahead, it isn't that big a part of it, just personal preference for clean numbers. The numbers this leaves me at is 10 flat AD, 9 Arpen, and 9 armor from seals (but sub what seals you want in, AD blues are only about 2.5 AD total so sub those if you want as well).

Masteries I run are 0/12/18, with the last hitting mastery from cunning, the Assassin mastery for the 1.5% damage (Top lane is an island, don't expect tons of help), Merciless for 5% damage against targets below 40% HP (If you know this is a lane you need more mana in, you can opt for the mana regen mastery instead to help with pushing/long term lane pressure), and Dangerous game for the potentially life saving heal again. In the Resolve tree, I run Unyielding, Tough Skin, the healing amp mastery (Because you heal like a Mundo in a fight, lets face it), Perseverance for lanes where you are not landing tentacles 24/7 for healing (which is rather low healing unless in a full out fight anyway), Legendary Guardian, and Grasp of the Undying for even more healing and damage TM.

2.2 - Building Illaoi, Item Wise

On to what I enjoy doing more, playing as the Kraken Priestess. First of all, let me go over my core build, and what I think is a noob trab 90% of people who play her fall into, the Cleaver Rush. Everyone sees Cleaver, and thinks "Oh wow, this just screams "Pick me, pick me, and do Tons of Damage TM." Issue is, sure, you deal "Tons of Damage TM", but you also take "Tons of Damage TM". Guess what, all the healing in the world from your Q passive means nothing if you die in 2 seconds (Hint, more than half of Illaoi's durability in teamfights is her healing, consider her a Mundo who has to land stuff to get her healing).

Illaoi scales moderately well on AD, but she scales better on durability and a light amount of damage. She has Total AD ratios on her tentacles, and Base AD ratios on what I consider one of her biggest Core items, Iceborn Gauntlet, and rather high ones at that, and the highest base AD in the game, so she gets plenty of damage just from levels and her base AD/anything that amplifies her base AD like Sterak's Gage/the value of her base AD like Arpen runes. But, it is critical that you GET that durability, especially before people are heavily jumping on your face and you are eating 2-3 champ's aggro. So many people rush Cleaver on her, but rushing an Iceborn Gauntlet + 2 ruby crystals gives you the same amount of hp and CDR, the Sheen proc (Which is godlike on her, and makes you a tower pushing god who can hit a tower for 500 damage every 2 seconds or so on top of normal AAs) and, fairly importantly 65 armor and 500 mana. Illaoi is, while not very mana hungry on an individual skill basis, has nearly no mana regen. This means it is fairly important to get a decent chunk of flat mana, to give you several more trades in lane, and to make sure you don't go oom and lose just about all of your damage, as your AAs are rather lackluster with your non-existant AS. An important thing to note, I don't just flat out rush the full Iceborn usually. I grab Glacial Shroud, and usually grab the one glove that builds into Sterak's (Can't remember it's name, Jarum's Fist maybe?), or at the very least it's parts, before building my Sheen and then Iceborn.

Now, here is the thing, my build leaves me very durable, I finish Sterak's just as teamfights tend to be starting up (Meaning I have 65 armor and 500 HP from items, and a shield for 30% of my hp, on top of almost 100% of the damage I am going to need for the entire game). Someone who rushed Cleaver is sitting just on the Cleaver and any component parts of their next item, maybe Chain Vest and a ruby for Deadmans. Guess who can take a beating for 5-8 seconds, and who will pop if CCed and focused? Also, it isn't unrare for me to not build boots until after my 2 item. Your job isn't to run away, but to be this siege machine that just waltzes down lane and takes what she pleases.

Anyway, I follow up Iceborn/Sterak (Or as I call them, my gloves) with things that give me raw durability, or utility/healing. Spirit Visage is almost always what I follow up my first two items with, assuming they have any magic damage, before letting my build be mostly decided by what is needed that game for the rest of it. My conditional items are Death's Dance, if I am feeling confident on my durability/ability to survive being bursted, as it gives me even more ridiculous healing in fights to the point of making Mundo purple with envy, or Deadmans if mobility/pick potential and physical durability is needed. If I'm worried about only 1-2 hard CCs on their team, and I'm still feeling a little threatened by magic damage after SV, I'll grab QSS into Mercurial Scimitar. If it's more CCs than that, I might just focus on more raw bulk and try and just soak as much damage as I can.

2.3 Gameplay

1. Laning phase - In lane, you are a bully. Plain and simple, but remember, you need your tentacles to do a lot. You have some threat outside of them with your Q, but stick around them, and defend them. If you just let the enemy clear them freely, you will get shrekked when you do get ganked, because you do push, pretty heavily, and the enemy if you E them can force the waves to push to get the wave directly under his tower if he is so inclined. Remember, your passive can store up a tentacle, and won't just instantly place it, if you are already near another tentacle. This means you can use the tentacle to bait a fight out, fight them as they try to clear it, and watch them feel agony as it just instantly respawns right where it was after they just traded a chunk of hp to try and loosen your hold on the lane. If you can, try and land E within range of 1 of your tentacles, better yet if you can land it in one of the sweet spots where 2 tentacles can both hit it, or even more potently, if you are really dominating the lane, the trifecta of both lane walls and the enemy turret triple tentacle trap.

2. Early team fighting/skirmishes at 10-20 minutes. At this point, you have ult, 1-2 completed items, and are power shoving down top lane. You are cocky, and in control. 1v2s should be something fairly reasonable, if you have been controlling your lane right so far to ensure your lane opponent is underleveled and underfarmed. Odds are, they will only send their jungler and top, or maybe mid and top, to fight you. Make sure though that you are not just leaving yourself as this sitting duck up there, where if they do collapse on your with 3+ people they can probably kill you without losing anyone, and not losing any objectives. Get your team to pressure the bottom half of the map, and have them keep up pressure on Dragon and bot/mid towers. You can TP in if you need to, but hopefully they are mostly just keeping hard siege on mid and keeping dragon pressured. Either the enemy will respond, and send 5 mid (Meaning you will eat all of top lane alive and take the inhib in about 1 minute. Iceborn Sterak is a tower consuming wave crushing combo) or they will send 1-2 people top. You should be able to handle a 1v1 against anyone who isn't a hyper-duelist, but if they do have one like Vayne or Fiora, TP and join the team right away and take mid tower/dragon instead.

3. Mid-late Teamfights. At this point, unless you are a walking god incarnate, not just their priestess, you probably will want to stay with the team, and try and be a team death-ball / siege machine. An ambush is pretty hard to pull off with Illaoi, as her tentacles are visible in the FoW, so they probably will know you are in the area unless you rushed to the location and only just got there as they all stumble into the bush (at which point, you might be laughing as you 1v5 due to a 5-6 target ulti giving you insane over the top damage, but never count on such circumstances).

2.4 Small optimizations/mastery of champion tricks.

1. Ult-Flash combo - This one is fairly simple, and a fairly big chunk power on her. When casting your ult, you can still flash in the middle of it's animation, and it will apply where you flashed to. This can let you get off ults on multiple people by surprise, helping you maximize your power in a teamfight. Fairly big, and fairly easy to do, this is a pretty critical trick to perform to be very effective in teamfights. It is even a reason to potentially get Ionian boots (They can CDR cap you if you are not getting Death Dance, and give you more flash uptime for more frequent high power flash ults. Considering you also run TP, you get a lot of benefit from summoner CDR especially when combo'ed with the Distortion mastery).

2. 3 hit combo - This combo is mostly for when you are running from an enemy (COWARD!) and are running to a tentacle with you directly between the enemy and the tentacle. As you get under the tentacle, you turn on them, cast E and get their spirit as close to directly under the tentacle as you can, Q at them both, and W the enemy champion themselves, not their spirit. If done right, you will both champ and spirit with 3 seperate tentacle hits in about 3/4ths a second on both the enemy champion and spirit, which can easily turn a fight in your favor by giving you about 25% of your missing hp back(30% with SV built) (diminishing returns on multiple tentacle hits do exist in some form), about 4 tentacle hits worth of damage which is around 600% of your total AD + 800 or so in base damages, and a rather hilarious tentacle that is spazzing out with how fast it is attacking.

3. Finish them! - Sometimes, you get a lot of damage off on the real champ, but not the spirit. In this case, your spirit damage CAN kill the target. This means sometimes, if a target it low, don't chase them, just keep whacking at the spirit to finish them off. At other times, it is better to land E, and just keep chasing the enemy though. As it has a decent slow if the enemy leaves it's range, you might just E them and keep chasing, taking advantage of the fact the enemy is auto-vesseling themselves to try and escape.

4. Spirit synergies - There are a few things your spirits synergize well with that you can do. If you land a spirit on an enemy champ early game in front of your minion wave, your minions can turn on it and focus it if they have no other targets (Say, because you killed the wave fighting the enemy). Sure, it won't be a lot of damage, but every little bit counts at times, we have all had those games where someone has gotten away with 5 hp before. Meanwhile, towers can also attack spirits following the same rules as the minions. If you are getting bullied under your own tower, getting the tower to help out can help bring the lane back in your favor.

That's about all I can think of, I hope this helps you in both playing as and against Illaoi. If you want to add any feed back, I'll edit it in if I find it accurate.