Illaoi and mana costs

GlockHammer··2 votes·2,137 views

No this is not a thread about Illaoi being OP, there's enough threads adressing that.

No, my issue with Illaoi is her manacosts.

Recently had a game where Illaoi was literally spamming her skills at me for the first 5 minutes of the game, I kid you not, without running oom right of the bat.

She didn't build a single mana item, I don't bother checking her masteries but regardless, being able to spamm that many spells, at least once every 4-7 seconds while also comboing many times for 5 full minutes without going oom as the stupidest shit I have ever seen.

To make matters worse, imagine my reaction when she went oom and I though, YES, it's my time mofo! Yet she retained massive combat capacity due to her low costs or high regen, it's just f*cking retarded.

I now fully understand why people can't stand this champ, first you have to dodge for days, often sacrificing mobs to even be allowed to stay in lane, and yet Illaoi retains high combat capacity despite going oom? Seriously, what the f*ck?

Please Riot, this champ already packs a punch, snowballs like most bruisers could just dream about and has a retardedly abusable skillset, I should be rewarded for dodging almost everything she dishes at me in laning phase, not penalized by it. FIX THIS DAMNIT!

But who am I kidding, Illoai is probably selling better than butter at the moment, fixes incoming when sales starts decreasing...

12 Comments

Korillo1 votes

Sounds like you played against Illaoi once and struggled? This isn't surprising playing against a champion you've never played against is going to cause some issues. Have you tried considering ways to play against her or are you just going to blame this entirely on the champion design?

GlockHammer1 votes

{quoted}

Sounds like you played against Illaoi once and struggled? This isn't surprising playing against a champion you've never played against is going to cause some issues. Have you tried considering ways to play against her or are you just going to blame this entirely on the champion design?

I have played against her several times, but in this last match it became utterly apparent to me that her manacosts are nonexistent, I have pointed out my issue with the champ, what's the problem?

Korillo1 votes

{quoted}

I have played against her several times, but in this last match it became utterly apparent to me that her manacosts are nonexistent, I have pointed out my issue with the champ, what's the problem?

That is my question to you. Indeed, what is her problem? She is currently sitting at a ~46% win rate and is generally considered to be a weak champion. What champion were you playing that you struggled so much against her?

Have you tried playing Illaoi? Playing her might give you a better idea of how to play against her.

GlockHammer1 votes

{quoted}

That is my question to you. Indeed, what is her problem? She is currently sitting at a ~46% win rate and is generally considered to be a weak champion. What champion were you playing that you struggled so much against her?

Have you tried playing Illaoi? Playing her might give you a better idea of how to play against her.

I already have an idea of how to play against Illaoi, it's called DODGE GOHAN DODGE!

U even have to dodge when u all in her because tentacles will be striking you from every direction and unless u can finish her within a timefractio (which just won't be happening...) she will just gobble you up, yet she somehow seems to be able to sustain quite well.

I was playing melee fighters against her, seems to be a toxic matchup in my opinion.

I can beat less skilled Illaois with ease, since they haven't figured her out, but competent Illaois, well, not even tower seems to matter to them.

As I mentioned earlier, many champs are only actually weak when they are low on mana or straight out countered, a classic example of this is Ryze, yet I generally beat Ryzes playing the sustain game untill they are low on mana, this is generally especially effective during the early game before he starts stacking up his tear and if you have a lead on him, well, the rest is history as with pretty much any matchup, at least in lane. I honestly expected Illaoi to be the same since most champs that have a mana pool generally lose massive combat effectiveness when they run out.

This tells me: A. Illaoi has at least 1 highly effective and fairly mana effective skill she can spam B. Illaoi has too good mana regeneration C. People haven't caught on to how great mana regen masteries are on this champ

Since you have an adept understanding of this champ, why not share some tips instead of saying: Play her, I maybe don't want to waste RP/IP buying every single champ in the game to understand them? I might not find her appealing at all.

Imo just reading about them and playing against them will generally be enough to beat them once figured out, an example of this in my case is Irelia, have never touched her, yet very rarely lose lane to her given I don't get blind pick countered.

Also, I just examined her stats on LoL-wiki.

Edit: Just realised she's on free week, gonna give her a go.


Prophet of an Elder God STATIC COOLDOWN: 20 - 12 (based on level) Prophet of an Elder God INNATE: Illaoi draws the presence of her god, spawning a Prophet of an Elder God.png Tentacle on nearby impassable terrain if none are nearby. Every time a target is hit by Harsh Lesson.png Harsh Lesson or has their Spirit pulled by Test of Spirit.png Test of Spirit, all Prophet of an Elder God.png Tentacles in range attack the target once dealing 10 - 180 (based on level) (+ 120 / 130 / 140 / 150 / 160% AD) physical damage to all units in a line. Tentacles will also attack Vessel.png Vessels that enter their range, which can only happen once per tentacle per vessel. [show] Ability Details

Tentacle Smash RANGE: 800 COST: 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60 MANA COOLDOWN: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 Tentacle Smash PASSIVE: Illaoi's Prophet of an Elder God.png Tentacles deal bonus damage and restore 5% of her missing health if they strike at least one champion. BONUS DAMAGE: 0 / 10 / 20 / 30 / 40% AD ACTIVE: Illaoi slams her idol into the ground, briefly summoning a Prophet of an Elder God.png Tentacle that slams down in the target direction. [show] Ability Details

Harsh Lesson RANGE: 225 / 350 COST: 30 MANA COOLDOWN: 6 / 5.5 / 5 / 4.5 / 4 Harsh Lesson ACTIVE: Illaoi's next basic attack gains bonus range and causes her to dash to her target, dealing bonus physical damage. BONUS PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 15 / 35 / 55 / 75 / 95 (+ 10% AD) Harsh Lesson resets Illaoi's autoattack timer. [show] Ability Details

Test of Spirit RANGE: 900 COST: 35 / 45 / 55 / 65 / 75 MANA COOLDOWN: 20 / 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 Test of Spirit ACTIVE: Illaoi hurls a tendril forward in a line that stops at the first unit hit. If the unit is a champion, the tendril pulls their Spirit, granting True Sight icon true sight of them and placing it in front of her. The Spirit is connected to the target by a tether. The Spirit has 100% of their current health and lasts for 10 seconds, reduced by 1 second each time Illaoi receives damage from the target champion. The tether will be severed if the Spirit is killed or when the target moves too far away. Over the duration, the Spirit can be attacked by Illaoi and her allies. A percentage of the damage dealt to the Spirit is also dealt to the the target. DAMAGE PERCENTAGE: 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 45% (+ 8% per 100 AD) Severing the tether Slow icon slows the target by 80% decaying over 2 seconds, and marks them as a Vessel Vessel, causing them to spawn a Prophet of an Elder God.png Tentacle every 10 seconds for the next 60 seconds. If the Vessel Vessel kills 3 Prophet of an Elder God.png Tentacles or scores a takedown on Illaoi, they are freed from their curse. [show] Ability Details

Leap of Faith RANGE: 450 COST: 100 MANA COOLDOWN: 120 / 105 / 90 Leap of Faith ACTIVE: Illaoi leaps into the air before slamming her idol into the ground, dealing physical damage to all nearby units. PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 150 / 250 / 350 (+ 50% bonus AD) For the next 8 seconds, Illaoi summons a Prophet of an Elder God.png Tentacle for the duration for each enemy champion or Spirit hit, and all Prophet of an Elder God.png Tentacles become untargetable and swing 50% faster. Additionally, Harsh Lesson.png Harsh Lesson's base cooldown is reduced to 2 seconds for the duration. "There are kind and gentle gods. Mine isn't one of those." ― Illaoi Illaoi


As clearly described above, her abilites have fairly low mana costs, the only ability that even has a somewhat considerable scaling mana cost is Test of Spirit yet I can hardly believe it's anything that gates her use of mana considerably as she'll probably just use it when she gets a clear shot, given she has any competence at all.

I didn't even know her tentacles restores a % of her health, seems fairly overkill to me seeing as any skilled Illaoi will find situations where you can't avoid them, like when going for cannon minions, it also makes her extremely hard to all in with melee champs as you will take hits from multiple tentacles if you stand toe to toe with her, also, clearing her tentacles feels fairly pointless currently as they seem to pop up just about as quick as you can remove them costing you farming time and putting you at risk which is bad if you're being pushed.

Regardless, her kit seems overkill when it comes to laning vs melee champs, everything about her screams stay away or get gimped and the windows of opportunity are very small making her a pain to lane against. Note, I never said she's OP, my complaint is that she's ANNOYING and I'd like clearer windows on when she's engagable and when she is not, which seems like almost never thanks to her spammable low cost Q.

Ralanr1 votes

Did she have the meditation mastery?

GlockHammer1 votes

{quoted}

Did she have the meditation mastery?

I suspect that she did, regardless this player literally spammed skills like nothing I've ever seen. Hence the complaint.

Ralanr1 votes

I've spammed her spells without the meditation mastery, it drains her a lot.

GlockHammer1 votes

{quoted}

I've spammed her spells without the meditation mastery, it drains her a lot.

What about if you only spamm Q every time it's a hit or hit for you, that is when the person is going for mobs? Your opponents will always be on the losing end given he/she's melee as they'll have to chose between getting hit and losing gold.

This is my isse with Riots penchant for minigames, no matter how you play them you'll generally be on the recieving end given your opponent knows how to use the champ.

Ralanr1 votes

There are worse lane bullies.

GlockHammer1 votes

{quoted}

There are worse lane bullies.

Probably.

Erdsdale1 votes

This is odd, seeing as I love to play Illaoi and I find that mana is what forces me to back every time. I'm not a first-timer just spamming spells left and right, either.

Zaurok1 votes

Did she have blue? If she did then yeah, she won't run out of mana anytime soon. Maybe she was running mana regen runes because I go oom after hard pushing a lane...

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