Illaoi needs buffs to her late game, she has problems with her builds due to how her kit works.

Pyrithegethon··1 votes·547 views

She has 3 glaring issues that are super exploitable late game.

  1. If she doesn't build a LOT of damage to burst you down, she won't be able to kill you and becomes obsolete. If she builds more tanky then she does little damage and is easily ignoreable. She also is super reliant on landing E, ESPECIALLY late game because if she doesnt land her E and get her ult off, she is probably dead and there is nothing she can do about it.

  2. Her E being what makes or breaks her. If she misses it right when a teamfight will happen or is happening then she just lost out on about a ton of damage. She is so reliant on her E late game to actually have a guarentee slap from her ult that it isn't even fair for the enemy or her. She lands E then she has an advantage, especially if she has built damage. She misses E and is an immobile training dummy for the enemy to beat on.

3 and the biggest one I've noticed. Her ultimate is so reliant on hitting multiple enemies with it that if you don't land a 3 man ult plus E spirit then you're not going to be doing much. This is why she has to land flash ults to have a chance at beating the enemy and catching them by surprise.

I know how to fix this, 2 things should be done.

  1. Reduce her E damage transfer by removing the AD scaling but compensate by reducing the penalty of multiple tentacles hitting a champion at the same time. So if one tentacle deals 100 damage but two together deals 150 damage, the buff makes it now deal 175 damage.

  2. Rework her ult to no longer spawn tentacles based on enemies hit by it. Instead have it spawn a flat amount of 2/3/4 if she hits an enemy champion and to automatically slap towards an enemy champion inside the zone. If a spirit is inside with an enemy champion then the tentacles only slam once targetted at the champion, not spirit.

6 Comments

Brain Errör 4042 votes

Lel... late game illaoi buff. That's a funny one.

WoonStruck2 votes

Have you tried item 3071 item 3065 item 3742 item 3812 item 3047item 3053?

Or even any similar build? Plenty of damage, plenty of sustain, plenty of tankiness.


Also, remember that Illinois is primarily a split-push champ, contrary to popular belief. Not enough mobility/CC and is too prone to getting kited. If you're going to teamfight, it has to be a REALLY good engage by your team, or a REALLY good flank by you.

Step up your map game and you'll do better with her. Same issues as Fiora before they buffed her. Then nerfed her again.


Trust, you don't want her to be made more reliable. She'll just end up nerfed and in a worse state than she currently is.

Pyrithegethon1 votes

I have tried that build but you die too quickly before you can get ult off and if you get ult off youre cc'd into oblivion. That's from my experience unless you know a different way I should be playing her late game?

Also nice auto correct :)

Edit: also what order would that be built?

WoonStruck1 votes

{quoted}

I have tried that build but you die too quickly before you can get ult off and if you get ult off youre cc'd into oblivion. That's from my experience unless you know a different way I should be playing her late game?

Mostly split-pushing and getting good flanks on teamfights; knowing when to try to flank a teamfight instead of splitting.

If you choose to primarily teamfight, you either don't deal damage reliably enough, or you aren't tanky enough to deal your damage without dying reliably.

Also nice auto correct :)

Not auto-correct, I call her Illinois. xD

Edit: also what order would that be built?

You end up pretty reliant on getting ahead, or at least being able to farm, but that seems to generally be the case anyway. Cleaver->SV is probably most consistent, but you'll likely want some armor in there earlier depending on the match-up. Sterak's time is dependent on the match, and Death's Dance usually somewhere 4th-6th item. Deadman's, DD, and Sterak's all have situations they're better to rush in than the others.

You can stat-check almost anyone, even match-ups you lost early, after 3rd item. Like you said, you end up too squishy for teamfights, but something's gotta give somewhere. That's why I say split-push and flank fights.

Just gotta get good at reading enemy team rotations so you can pull people top without letting them get anything from you. Your team can force 3v4s then, or just stall and let you solo down a lane.

Sir Fuzzi1 votes

BC+DD is usually solid enough damage. If I need to do pushing, or my opponent isn't going to have lots of defense, I could suggest Triforce for stronger Ws and slightly better basics although I've never liked her animations. Of course, Black Cleaver is everything she really wants in a rush item. Just be careful with your mana, you're not an energy champ.

Trick with Illaoi is she's kind of give and take-- what she lacks in the raw dueling prowess of her competition, she makes up for in turnabout potential left and right. While her ult is easy to pin down, suffering its effects (IE being CC'd under it) is pretty much grounds for an ace.

I don't think she needs buffs or anything, she probably just has a few members in competition who feel stronger because of it.

Her ult is meant to be unreliable against smaller numbers, that's the trade off of having something on Fidd's level of coverage. Ori's has a delay, Brand's has to bounce, and Fidd has to channel; Illaoi has to make a good hit count.

But why is that even so bad? She synergizes with almost all of the good CDR available to Juggs. She gets the added advantage of being able to throw a Triforce in (not everyone can).

Big Lincoln1 votes

illaoi is a defense counter-engage monster, don't play her as an initiator unless you have flash. her big weakness is that the meta is still about protecting ADCs, and they don't ever have to put themselves at risk of getting beat up by Illaoi unless she surprises them. when/if the meta shifts back to divers and initiators she'll excel again; in fact i think she'll swing back into strength if assassins continue to become good

also disagree on the E change, it provides reward for landing it and punish for missing. really the only thing i want is for E to recover faster; i'm like 99% sure Illaoi's actually slower to recover if she lands E than if she misses it

item 3071 item 3026 item 3065 item 3812 item 3047 / item 3111 item 3053 is strongest build imo. swap any item for item 3036 / lethality items / triforce as needed depending on the enemy comp.

her late game is strong, other champs are just stronger. if you build a team comp around Illaoi or the enemy team comp is perfect to play her into, you'll see what I mean

illaoi is one of the best 1v3/1v4 champs in the game, i don't think she should be late game strong, too

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