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Tips on fighting Illaoi for the ones that find it a bit difficult.

Zerenza··10 votes·3,846 views

Alright first off, i'm an illaoi main, i love to play her and i'v been playing her since release. Second, these are things that have happened to me while playing illaoi and things that i'v done while fighting ones that helped me win against them, Just some tips to help you guys out cause not everyone is a Diamond 1 smurf riven god (just a joke).

  1. Illaoi is designed to be really good at fighting in places she's set up, do not fight her under a tentacle, i know we've heard this one before but it's super important. If you have to fight her kill the tentacle she's using first, it really helps lower her DPS and will actually give you the time to fight her without getting killed. Also her kit is designed to punish mistake and do it hard, if you dash the wrong way, expect to get caught and chunked, if you fight her wrong, expect to get killed.

  2. Do not camp an illaoi, or gank an illaoi after 6. This is mostly only true for solo Q, your teammate might not understand what's happening and will likely give her a double kill, in addition when i play illaoi i almost never run from ganks, i always run under a tentacle land an E and go to town. Shyvana is really the only jungler i'v seen that you can trust with a gank on illaoi post 6 due to her massive percent health damage. Kindred is to squishy to do the same thing.

  3. If illaoi runs into a bush, do not follow her, she's probably put a tentacle there and was keeping it hidden until she needed it. I do this all the time and a lot of times i can get a really cheesy double because people follow me into a really good set up.

  4. If your bellow 10% health, back, do not stay even if she's near your tower, she will kill you. A good illaoi player will run under tower for you if your bellow 10% health and use her W to execute you. I do this constantly and take ghost for the sole purpose of doing it, it's extremely effective against people who thought they could fight me but found out quickly they were loosing.

  5. Try your best to bait out her ultimate and then call for your jungler, in many cases illaoi's ultimate is the only way she can 1v2-1v5 and is a core part of her ability to fight multiple champs at once. If you can safely bait her out, do it.

  6. DODGE! I literally won against an illaoi with fiora in ranked due to the pure fact that i was dodging her tentacles, i wasn't playing to aggressive and when i'd see the indicator for a "Slam" i'd just run around then go in on her again. It was extremely easy after i hit 6 and while it was a bit frustrating, i didn't loose and i didn't feed. She did take my tower but overall she didn't get any kills and that's important, starving illaoi is an effective way of defeating her.

7.Counter Picking, illaoi counter picks are NON-SQUISHY damage champions. Do not pick quinn against her like everyone says, it's a trap, do not pick gnar, that's also a trap (it's a skill matchup that's easy to loose for both sides), do not pick teemo all you'll do is be mildly anoying but i'v never lost to a teemo so take from it what you will.

Good champs to use against her are Nasus, Volibear, Garen, Vlad, Fizz and Pantheon. Any champion that can out sustain or out damage her will most likely win eventually as long as they play smart. Even if you don't play smart you can play volibear and feed her 8 kills in lane but still win the game because your more useful(so salty.). In addition avoiding her damage is extremely important and champions like Fizz do that really well are amazing against her. Finally i got my butt kicked by a pantheon, i'm going to assume this is the same for renekton since they are both really good early game bully's.

Vlad fits all the criteria for defeating illaoi because he has it all in 1 kit, i'v never fought a good vlad so i'v never lost to one but i'm always cautious because i know he wins.

Lastly BUILD AN ARMOR ITEM AND YOU WILL BE FINE, her damage is insane because you literally don't have any armor so she's going to delete you.

32 Comments

Blåbæret4 votes

Illaoi is pretty much impossible to counter in lane. The best thing to do is for jungle to help push another lane and get tower so you have a person free to roam/get support to go top.

Picking Quinn isn't a bad idea. You just need as much lifesteal as possible. Rush Bloodthirster and she won't be able to kill you and at least you can farm, but you will most likely not get her tower. Fiora is a decent pick as well because she can block whenever there's incoming unvavoidable damage. She can stay in lane for quite a while without having to back and can actually kill Illaoi as long as there aren't too many tentacles.

Though personally I just pick Lissandra for her waveclear. If you're in bad position you can just ult yourself for a nice heal. You probably won't kill her, but she won't kill you either.

TLDR; just pick a waveclear champ. Illaoi's laning phase is far too strong and I'm pretty sure she'll be nerfed eventually.

Zerenza1 votes

Fiora get's countered by illaoi, a good illaoi will bait out her W by using her other high damage ability's and then using her E, in addition having to get close to illaoi is a death sentence for her, illaoi outdamages and outsustains her. I do it all the time, quinn is a terrible pick, illaoi can E you the second you Vault and it will still hit at the place you started the vault from. I stand by the champions i chose because in my own experience as an illaoi main, those champions are the ones that defeat me. She is not unbeatable and she is not OP, people just don't know how to fight which is why i made this thread.

Edit: lissandra is an OK pick for her range (but remember that you do not outrange her enough to be safe) and her ability to just ult herself to avoid almost all of the damage. I'd suggest playing it because i'v also used lissandra against her with some success.

Blåbæret3 votes

The point of picking Quinn isn't too kill Illaoi. It's for her range and ability to take down tentacles without getting oneshot. There's no point in attacking her other than AA harass. You will not take her tower, but you can stall for a long time, enough for your other teammates to start roaming. Quinn gets fast back to the tower even without TP.

In general I don't think Illaoi is OP, but I do think her laning is too good and power needs to be taken away from her laning towards other areas. As things stand right now she has no bad matchups and is extremely dangerous to gank.

Zerenza1 votes

I would only take away from her W due to it's percent max health damage being a bit overkill. Other than that she's fair, she has 0 CC and literally you just have to be safe and not die. Renekton and pantheon do the same thing just better, i literally can't do anything against a pantheon even with Irelia (and she's pick or ban right now) because of panths early game. Illaoi definitely has an above average early game but it isn't by any means worthy of nerfing a champion with 48% winrate. She does fall off in the late game and her greatest power is mid-game not early game.

Zerenza1 votes

The reason i don't suggest quinn is because i'v fought like 6, even if they play safe and farm, i still chase them down and kill them because they are so squishy. Quinn is supposed to be a mid-game split pusher but if she can't farm to get any items to do it then she's useless, unless your really skilled in the match up i do not suggest playing quinn. The champs i selected are the ones you'd pick if you had no experience with it and just didn't want to feed.

Lovelle1 votes

Her ult is the only thing that bothers me. It seems like it's always up. Feels like I'm dealing with an AOE Trundle ult.

Revali3 votes

I'm not an illaoi main, but I do disagree with you on one thing

Shyvana is really the only jungler i'v seen that you can trust with a gank on illaoi post 6 due to her massive percent health damage.

You have to remember she's also melee and your ult can make her unable to pull you because you actually have immune to CC frames while your casting ult. Ive learned that from a shyvana dragon forming me mid ult, didn't budge one bit.

Zerenza1 votes

Yeah there is a risk but in my experience's she's done it the most "Effectively", other jungler's seem to have a huge issue with running up there and getting killed but i had a friend of mine(we were duoing) and he was playing shyvana, i got illaoi to waste her ult, ran and backed then he went up there and chunked her to death it was pretty entertaining. Actually i should add that baiting out her Ult is important...whoops.

Edit: I added it in there, and illaoi actually has a huge issue with getting chunked and bursted so maybe jungler's that can do those things easily are good against her.

Revali1 votes

That's generally why illaoi buys steraks, it solves her problem of burst most of the time

Zerenza1 votes

Of course but she normally doesn't get that until mid-late game, i usually build BC then Steraks and by then mid-game team fighting is starting so it doesn't matter than anyone is bursty because they missed their chance. Sometimes i go BC, resistance item and then steraks for really hard matchups but it's rare.

Raiku Kawisa3 votes

Its sad how many people underestimate what a Shyvana can do. Especially one with Exhaust. If Shyv has an exhaust. RESPECT HER, FEAR HER. For the love of god dont fight her unless you know its down (3 minute cooldown and there is plenty of jungle to farm while cooldowns o.o) Considering I main shyvana and Illaoi is my go to top laner I know really well how to fight Illaoi and all of these tips are accurate (Shyvana is also good vs Illaoi because she can 1-shot tentacles with one Q)

Marshbouy1 votes

"but, but but but but but but but... I SAW HER DELETE SOMEONE IN 1.5 SECONDS."

Zerenza4 votes

"Don't be afraid! believe in the me who believes in you!" an ally has been slain.

Marshbouy2 votes

"our 0/7 vayne lost a 1v1 to illaoi! nerf her!"

Penns1 votes

The only time I remember playing against Illaoi was as Yasuo mid in blind pick.. that wasnt very fun lol.

Zerenza1 votes

Yeah i'v fought several Yasuo's and despite it supposedly being in Yasuo's favor i highly doubt it, he's super squishy and there is very slight delay between dashes that lets illaoi get free harass. I am sorry for the pain she most likely inflicted upon you XD

TenshouSNK1 votes

Doesn't Quinn do well against Illaoi?

Zerenza1 votes

In my own experience no, most of the time i'll just chase her down with ghost and kill her because she's squishy. I'v been poked really bad by one before and had to play safe but eventually she over extended and i killed her then snowballed. I think it's a skill match up and it rely's on quinn not making very many mistakes, one tip would be not to vault if there are no minions in between you and her, Illaoi can still land her E because your hitbox does not change.

RogueWill1 votes

MasterYi and Irelia and Tryndamere are hard counters since Illaoi can't shake them off or diesnagage if she needs to, but they can.

Zerenza1 votes

Yes those are good counter's but only after they reach their late game, before that Irelia, Yi and Tryndamere are pretty easy to deal with and she kind of farms them. So depending on whether you want to be more useful than her (Garen, Voli) you want to out scale her (Nasu, Vlad) or if you just want to have a better late game (Tryndamere, Irelia). Yi is iffy, he's super squishy and all she has to do is build thornmail and steraks.

LiveYiOrDieHard1 votes

"Kill her tentacles"

Sure, then I lose 50% health taking down 1 tentacle and have to leave lane or I die under my tower.

Zerenza1 votes

Dodge, taking out a tentacle is easy, there is an indicator on all the damage she'll send your way so you just have to take the time to dodge it and then go back in for trades.

Lovelle1 votes

My favorite Illaoi counter is Executioner's Calling.

Gibberwatt1 votes

I like anivia, since Illaoi can set up all she wants, but anivia can just poke from outside her tenticles. But then, she is my main.

lllusive Man1 votes

dont pick vlad into illaoi its a trap too you can dmg him while he is pooling if you used your e before the dmg will get through. bec you dodge stuff as vlad but you are not unkillable in your pool

Zerenza1 votes

The majority of her damage comes from tentacle slams, if illaoi Ult's you can pool to avoid everything. You can avoid the majority of her combo despite the fact if she hit her E you'll still take damage. This match up is more because he's more useful to the team, he outscales her and he's pretty safe against her so you won't feed if your good at vlad and you also out damage her pre-six.

lllusive Man1 votes

nobody ults when vlad has his pool lol you can heal his dmg in lane with spirit visage and death dance there is no way a vlad can beat an illaoi ore be more usefull late in my opinion

Zerenza1 votes

Yes they do, vlad can bait out her ultimate just like any other person can. It's pretty simple and without her ultimate a good vlad can beat her pretty easily. Illaoi falls off in the late game, not super hard but it still happens, vlad becomes better and better until getting his full build and with a Rylai's is infinitely more useful than she is.

The Last Ballad1 votes

The point was not that Illaoi ults his pool, but that Vlad predicts her ult and pools under it. Going in when the Illaoi knows your pool is down, but it is actually just a second or two from coming up would work.

warpenguin5551 votes

when i illaoi i shit on panth. then again i havent seen a single panth do panth things to illaoi so i dont know

Zerenza1 votes

To be fair it was before i got used to illaoi (like my 3rd game with her?) and i'd never fought a pantheon before. But if he does what he is supposed to and poke you down enough (his spear's still hurt like hell, illaoi doesn't have very good early tank stats) then pantheon can beat her in lane until about level 9 or until she gets her damage item.

Beuhlakor1 votes

Just pick Tryndamere or Renekton and massacre her.

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