Illaoi is a great design but I feel like she's balanced too far into extremes

just going off the top of my head:

• obscenely long delays on 3 spells; casting them all in order Illaoi CCs herself in place for about 3 seconds
• very immobile around her spawns but no way to keep you there
• high setup time and reliance on a slow, narrow skillshot that can be blocked means she MUST be bursty

all this wraps up into her current situation which IMO diminishes the cleverness in her design. It feels really all-or-nothing, in a way that even though Illaoi is provably a very high skillcap champion since she has one of the highest winrate deltas through experience in top lane, I don't really get a chance to express it in a consistent manner and my fights usually go down to one of two situations; I instagib everyone who is a possible threat to me, or I don't, I get kited and I die with minimal contribution.

Illaoi paints a big target on herself with how long her spells lock her in place; she's very easy to stunlock despite not having much answer for it herself.

I understand and can appreciate that Illaoi is very macro-focused and, much like Shaco, heavily relies on beating the player more than the champion, but I'd also like some changes that help me do the opposite; I'd like to be able to properly enjoy a teamfight or a duel for a little bit longer on her, so I can show that I am indeed a talented Illaoi.

Just as a thought I've been mulling over, I'd like to proposition something like;

• Reducing her burst, probably by hitting the passive damage increase on her Q
• Speeding up her spells, namely her E and her Q, just shaving like .2 seconds off of each
• Giving her a haste when tentacles damage enemy champions - just 10% whenever a tentacle hits a champion would suffice

I think something like this would make her a lot better and more versatile without removing her from the natural niche that her kit fills itself into. Less burst makes her feel less bullshit to fight when she's fed, which I think is that big pain point that makes her such a terror for soloQ below Diamond, but now she'd be able to outplay opponents through using her new MS boosts to reposition inside her nests and juke skillshots as well as kiting melee opponents who trespass onto her turf.

I'm well aware that her being able to make very sudden 1vX turns and come out on top is a big part of her appeal, and it should stay part of her appeal, but in my opinion, slowing down the damage dump just a little bit would allow a nice retuning that lets Illaoi's potential as a champ design come to its full.