Release the Kraken

Illaoi, in any high level of play, is unusable.

Riot, if I remember correctly, you balance towards the top of the playerbase, and Illaoi has a kit that ruthlessly crushes new players, but is completley worthless against experienced players.

Compare her to other juggernauts, and she falls a bit short.

Mobility?

1. Skarner (Passive speed and W speed)
2. Garen (Q speed and slow cleanse)
3. Darius (Constant procs of the phage passive coming from Black Cleaver and Hemorrhage)
4. Morde (speed buff on W)
5. Illaoi (short range dash, cancelled by any hard cc)
6. Nasus (nothing)

CC?

1. Skarner (E stun/slow, R suppression, constant iceborn slow with Q)
2. Darius (E pull and slow, W slow)
3. Nasus (Wither)
4. Garen (Silence)
5. Morde (Rylais on everything, but particularly the dragon)
6. Illaoi (A situational slow)

Sustain?

1. Darius (Q heal)
2. Garen (Passive heal)
3. Nasus (Passive lifesteal)
4. Illaoi (Passive heal, but notable mana issues)
5. Morde (Shield pseudo sustain, ult healing can sustain through a fight)
6. Skarner (Shield pseudo sustain, mana regen out the ass)

Durability?

1. Skarner (Generally builds full tank, % HP shield)
2. Garen (W resists and % reduction, mostly tank build unless Garen is being a man)
3. Darius (Generally builds tank after one item, Q is easy healing)
4. Nasus (Ult stats, nearly full tank build)
5. (tie) Illaoi (Needs to build more damage, so
6. (tie) Morde (Needs to build assloads of damage. Most of his durability comes from his spell damage)

Damage (both amount and usability taken into account)?

1. Darius (High base damage, % armor pen, an AD steroid, a massive DOT and a True damage nuke)
2. Morde (Almost a full damage build, to be expected)
3. Nasus (Q, armor pen, % health shred, turning enemy HP into his own AD)
4. (tie) Garen (Not as much damage as an Illaoi who is popping off, but it is MUCH more reliable)
5. (tie) Illaoi (Tentacles chunk, but that is pretty much it. Everything is easily avoidable)
6. Skarner (He tickles. A squishy will probably die to a fed skarner, but he is not exactly known for slapping fools)

Comparing her to her counterparts will only get us so far. Her other problems include, but are not limited to: Hard countered by grievous wounds Can't deal with CC Tentacles are easily destroyed Long animations can get her killed She relies on popping off with her ult, but enemies can render it useless by remaining at least 350 units away and so on.

So, what do I propose? Well, I don't want her to suddenly be a beast. She shouldn't be very mobile, she shouldn't have cc, she should still be kiteable. Those weaknesses are core to keeping her balanced. That said, she needs to be up to par with the others.

1. Speed up how fast she pulls out someone spirit when she lands her E. Illaoi standing there for a moment before yanking out a soul is often enough to get her killed. Missing the E has a noticeably slower animation than
2. Let her be more mobile when she ults (one way or another) Enemies being able to simply walk away from her is not exactly ideal. One of four solutions here. Either change her ult to cast like Gnar's crunch, extend the range of Harsh Lesson while the buff is active, give her some form of CC resistance while the buff is active, or give her some plain old movement speed while she is looking for people to slam.