need advice from Illaoi mains

Big Lincoln·Feb 11, 2017·2 votes·1,255 views

Grasp or Deathfire? i've been taking the latter and it hasn't done me wrong; wondering if I should switch though because I keep getting "dft illaoi?" every time the game starts

are these necessary items? I've been building those with Cleaver and 2 tank items; I feel like despite nearly 4k health and the shield from Sterak's, I get popped nearly instantly in teamfights. Watching this Korean Illaoi player, she takes Grasp and Frozen Mallet, with scaling CDR runes to make up for no DD.

are there other high elo illaoi players that post videos? want to see what i can improve on, what better players are doing with her

15 Comments

DragonManSquidFeb 11, 20172 votes

tl;dr, If you aren't winning, press R more often.

MissingKayoFeb 11, 20171 votes

Grasp or Warlord's.

JavelinJoeFeb 11, 20171 votes

I usually run Fervor or Grasp depending on match-up. Also those items are not necessary, but good if ahead or vs squishy targets who cant kite you down or hard CC you.

I usually run item 3071 item 3748 item 3065 ( item 3068 / item 3742 / item 3143 / item 3025 ) item 3111 as a core, with slight variation on the armor item I choose. Then you could go whatever you think you need to win. Often I do still end up going item 3812 for more sustain and the CDR.

Big LincolnFeb 11, 20171 votes

fervor and titanic? haven't seen those on Illaoi yet, mind explaining further?

JavelinJoeFeb 11, 20171 votes

Fervor works well with her ult since each hit with your W give stacks to go with her massive AD scaling. So stacking them is super fast mid fights. They also are stacked by basic attacking any soul you get with your E.

Titanic for trading since she often has a lot of health to use with the passive damage, plus it allows you to have good wave clear without having to rely on your Q and W, spending your precious mana.

Big LincolnFeb 11, 20171 votes

i'll risk my ELO to give it a try, then desu

JavelinJoeFeb 11, 20171 votes

I would try it in normals so you don't have to risk elo.

Big LincolnFeb 11, 20171 votes

23/9 not bad

ADC was awful though, ended up being a loss desu

JavelinJoeFeb 11, 20171 votes

nice k/d though

Big LincolnFeb 11, 20171 votes

i feel like even with the titanic active, i wasn't doing a lot of damage to Jhin with it, for some reason. i had 4.3k-ish health

does W not apply the bonus damage or something? would be a weird interaction if so

JavelinJoeFeb 11, 20171 votes

W is not a heavy damage ability. It deals % health and that is about it. So the not health tanky Jhin likely didn't get hit too hard with it. But I bet your tentacles nearly 1 shot him.

Another item i like a lot is item 3156 . Since you get spell vamp still from it, you heal shit tons with your ult and such.

Big LincolnFeb 11, 20171 votes

i meant W on top of titanic's active, it didn't seem noticeable

JavelinJoeFeb 11, 20171 votes

hmm never payed too much attention to it

TheSingularityFeb 11, 20171 votes

Only run DFT if you plan on doing glass cannon illaoi (my preferred build) or 3 dmg items. Anything else and Grasp should suffice for your needs.

As for core mine's cleaver+deaths dance. Cleaver should be first buy if you're behind or second if you're snowballing (in that case buy deaths dance first). As for beef, visage, dead mans, randuins should suffice

If you're popping with that much HP in team fights you should work on how you engage as the only counter to illaoi is crowd control. So you popping leads me to believe you may be getting off sub-average ults that don't heal you effectively Or, you ult, get CC'd and end up dying before you can slam anyone

If you have spirit visage and land your ult on at least 3 targets (or 2 people+the spirit) they should heal you for a crap down of HP while dealing dmg and shredding armour (more than enough HP to survive the initial burst of a team fight)

I use a FULL AD glass cannon gismo with my own twist used by a diamond illaoi on NA. Obviously I'm no where near his level but it works as long as you ban fiora. My build is generally item 3071 into item 3812 into item 3072 into item 3074 then item 3033 /// item 3036 for dmg or item 3139 //// item 3156 for defence. Buy boots whenever they fit into your budget (sometimes I even sell my boots just for more damage). If I fall behind I may grab a item 3026 but otherwise I never stop building damage. With this, you can 1v1 almost any champ in the game, ganking you becomes a suicide mission for the enemy jungler and with a nice 500+ AD and a auto reset..... you're split push god.

Edit: found him https://na.op.gg/summoner/userName=Maulface

AbisuMar 1, 20171 votes

This is all just my opinion and how I play her. Depending on who I think I'm laning against I take grasp of the undying for better sustain and more tankiness and if I want to go aggressive I take DFT. I always, always start with BC and after that it depends on the enemy team. I know people are always griping about how item 3025 is bad on Illaoi but I've never done bad with it and it makes her a real tower shredder. If the enemy team has more ap then I will usually go item 3065 right after cleaver. The builds that other people suggest are all good on illaoi, just play her right.

Your job is to be a lane bully and making sure that the enemy top laner is kept busy and if he does decide to leave lane, punish him for it and take that tower. As Illaoi you want to be ganked, you excel at setting up fights and you make them fight on your terms not the other way around. Like people say, she's an immobile juggernaut so she's not very good at roaming or closing gaps so just keep pushing lane and only leave for very near by encounters that are coming your way. I rarely tp gank as Illaoi . Like DragonManSquid also said, make sure you're not too stingy about your ult, if there are atleast 2 people around you even if you don't have a spirit, just ult. Tentacles come down faster and can't be targeted during your ult. That's just my opinion