Illaoi buffs were placebo changes

Moody P·Dec 7, 2018·1 votes·1,005 views

Not gonna complain even though I'd be justified, just pointing it out. Her performance hasn't budged a bit.

Guess I'll just wait for a better meta.

4 Comments

HethaleanDec 7, 20181 votes

People are still maxing E though. Pretty sure they should be maxing Q since her laning phase cooldown of E is now her rank 1 of E.

Moody PDec 7, 20182 votes

because E is the strongest spell in your rotation. there's no reason not to max it first when the dmg up is so massive

SillaeDec 7, 20181 votes

[{quoted}](name=Moody P,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=A2fhs2Zw,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2018-12-07T13:16:38.121+0000)

because E is the strongest spell in your rotation. there's no reason not to max it first when the dmg up is so massive

I agree it's the strongest, but it's also the most unreliable. You can use the ol' w on caster to gapclose since the enemy is almost always hiding behind/among them but they could still hide behind them if they're fast enough or have a dash. Maxing Q lets your tentacle one shot casters with just Black Cleaver and leave them open to an easy E. Easier to kill the spirit and vessel them too, which I personally like inflicting more than the poke since it usually causes them to panic and tilts them beyond belief, and it boosts the damage of your ult by a LOT since it buffs your tentacles (jungle came to gank? E, ult, double kill in 1.5 seconds).

I personally max Q, but I get why people E.

The E.. buff.. didn't really affect me at all since I only use it when the odds are stacked for me (i.e. his minions ded) rather than spamming it for the poke.

Moody PDec 7, 20181 votes

The thing is is that in any lane you actually want to play Illaoi in, E max will make you absolutely crush them. Illaoi is basically relevant for the purpose of stomping out tanks in lane and punishing tank-stack comps.

In lanes you get countered in you already would max Q first, and given that those lanes will almost never position themselves to hit by anything, much less an E, much less letting you attempt to throw out Es more often, the buffs are mostly moot. It doesn't help that game pace is so ridiculous, the game's over before the R buff really matters and by then nobody's gonna stand in your R anyway.

The thing Illaoi needs most is a return of tanks in soloQ.