Illaoi is too strong a support

Nebuul·Dec 1, 2015·22 votes·3,293 views

Illaoi is an extremely oppressive support. She can easily have both the enemy bot laners as empty vessels. Additionally, since the cooldown of the spell is shorter than the minimum time it takes to remove the debuff from killing tentacle spawns, she can instantly re-vessel someone when they get back to lane. An empty vessel is all but guaranteed because her adc can sit back and burn down the spirit safely while Illaoi either runs away to avoid damage or assists with crazy AOE + healing.

Something needs to be done about how overbearing E is in a duo lane. I recommend ramping the contribution from teammates: 0/25/50/75/100% so that Illaoi can't invest in damage as much if she wants her adc to assist in taking down spirits. Basically, spirits would get damage reduction when hit by other players until max rank.

42 Comments

Valhalla RisingDec 1, 201510 votes

Hate that i'm contributing to the comments because Id rather let this dark horse slip under the radar for a while.

I mean, of all her roles support should be least concerning, I bet you probably only played against it one time b4 rushing to boards with cry.

I wont up or downvote, just being real.

Shrek LuigiDec 2, 20151 votes

Yeah, I'm getting really fed-up with these threads too.

ADepressedLeonaDec 1, 20159 votes

Illoai has 0 CC at all, with no heal, no shield, nothing. Dodge her E and she has literally nothing as a support

Hello I am BirdDec 1, 20153 votes

[{quoted}](name=Snowy Poro,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=RyaEzjHX,comment-id=0003,timestamp=2015-12-01T12:44:16.998+0000)

Illoai has 0 HARD CC at all, with no heal, no shield, nothing. Dodge her E and she has literally nothing as a support

She does have cc. She gots slows.

ADepressedLeonaDec 1, 20153 votes

{quoted}

She does have cc. She gots slows.

She has one slow that is completely tied to her E. Dodge it, and you dodge her only cc. Or if you get grabbed, don't run, hit her. The ADC should be using their range to poke at Illaoi while they try and whack at your spirit. And if you're ahead, Illaoi literally means nothing because unless you get your spirit grabbed under turret, you should be able to force them off of it every time

Hello I am BirdDec 1, 20153 votes

It's not that your point doesn't stand, just that she does have cc.

Illaoi is still bs doe. I don't understand why people bring her into the bot lane though. Every time I have seen her bot, she does nothing but stall the lane or feed.

EcchiOtakuTMDec 1, 20152 votes

She doesn't have reliable CC and in addition to being horrible outside of laning phase since you can't peel at all.

ZaghyrDec 2, 20151 votes

You are missing the point. She has a slow, therefore, she does have cc.

Shrek LuigiDec 2, 20152 votes

Nasus has a point-click slow--doesn't mean he's a good bot-laner

EcchiOtakuTMDec 2, 20151 votes

Sure she has CC but the fact it's unreliable makes it useless where bot is concerned.

She only has a good laning phase that works like blitz after that she's useless to a team.

HabitzDec 1, 20151 votes

Preach it!

ZedexDec 1, 20152 votes

yeah, shes very lacking in the peeling department late game. Assassin's would love to play against Illaoi support, the ADC is as good as dead unless the jungler or top lane can peel like a god.

For The AlliancéDec 2, 20151 votes

Her tentacles heal her for a percent of the dmg done by them...

ADepressedLeonaDec 2, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Her tentacles heal her for a percent of the dmg done by them...

They heal her which doesn't amount to anything important as a support lol

MunchCrunchLunchDec 1, 20154 votes

Illaoi gets triples and quadras with just a black cleaver 30 minutes in the game. lmao. so broken. her damage scale is absolustely isane

Occams RaiserDec 1, 20151 votes

but not as a supp

doombotMECHADec 1, 20152 votes

idk what everyone is on about illaoi supp is free gold gen for the other team.

Occams RaiserDec 1, 20151 votes

She falls into the "anything goes in normals and low mmr" spot. Give it time and everyone will see why you don't take her supp. SHe is just new and weird.

Makior72Dec 1, 20151 votes

Until they do something about it. Always pick braum if illoai is not banned. He counters her hard as a support.

NebuulDec 1, 20152 votes

I actually want to try Nasus support vs her. Then I could farm my q while the adc cs's

trash sionDec 1, 20151 votes

Tentacles don't spawn often enough. It's one every 8 seconds or so, and some will spawn wayyyy back by the enemy duo. You'll have like 50 stacks by the end of laning phase if you're lucky.

Duke AnaxDec 1, 20153 votes

That's exactly the cooldown of Siphoning Strike at level 1. A support Nasus should level Wither anyway. So between Tentacles and Targon's Brace you can easily get close to maximum stacks without taking any CS from your ADC.

NebuulDec 1, 20152 votes

Don't forget that Nasus can body-block her E to purposefully become a vessel. That is free stacks!

trash sionDec 2, 20151 votes

Honestly, I'm convinced. I'm totally gonna try this today.

Occams RaiserDec 1, 20151 votes

Nasus with 30 stacks

Adrian BlackbearDec 1, 20151 votes

That's a skill matchup. I've played Illaoi support into Braum and completely decimated him and his ADC without any real help from my ADC.

PokladnicaZlaDec 1, 20151 votes

Well,she's also oppressing to play against on Aram...

EDIT: I gotta try her as support,anyone know how to build her? :))

MunchCrunchLunchDec 1, 20152 votes

black cleaver. and the rest are just tanky items. you'd still outdamage most people on your team. and they'd be scared to come at you

PokladnicaZlaDec 1, 20151 votes

Thank you mate :D

MunchCrunchLunchDec 1, 20152 votes

and a sterak gage because her base damage is really high

DalaninDec 1, 20151 votes

Black Cleaver and titanic hydra, or even Sterak's cage if you want to survive the dmg burst

Occams RaiserDec 1, 20151 votes

build a gravestone for your adc and hope your team is good enough to win in spite of you, perpetuating this myth that she is good as a supp.

RouenDec 1, 20151 votes

What her E echoes like 25% of the damage dealt to you at level 1.. You already get hit by every E she throws apparently so be glad she isn't playing BC but anyway.. what do you do when she spirit is pulled out? You know you can defend yourself I mean imagine you would hit the enemy adc while they hit your spirit, you would deal 75% more damage to them

Confusing thread making it look like Illaoi support is good or even overbearing..

ZedexDec 1, 20151 votes

Idk man, its pretty garbage late game. Might be a decent early game harass (that if abused to often will eventually get nerfed)

She needs gold and stats to be useful. her best position is top where she can run the lane her way, with her tentacle mechanics. Her healing if not stopped can turn a jungle gank into a double kill for Illaoi.

On bottom shes literally a wet noodle, and almost completely useless as a support late game if you don't have another champion peeling for your adc

TulareDec 1, 20151 votes

I haven't had time to get many Illaoi games under my belt but so far she's treating me well in the support role. I'm 5-1 in games with her as support. Her early game harass, as you note, is "decent". Along those lines, it is probably worth noting that in those 6 games, 4 of them were won while I was level 13 or lower. One of the wins, I was level 18 and the one loss, I was level 18. That lends some evidence to your argument that she's weak later on, although I dispute your claim that she's "almost completely useless." I think her strength is going to be bullying early so that the game is clinched in the midgame.

ZedexDec 1, 20151 votes

Well, I'm a bit biased due to the Illaoi support that was on my team last night that basically cost us the game.

The lack of peel on our team was the problem, not really Illaoi. Though my friend i queued with stated he didn't think the soul grab was strong at all. He'd end up smacking it and burning mana for miniscule damage, and later game she was unable to peel for him. But as I said, having a different team comp would have helped us. So I should have posted, "It seems garbage late game from my experience last night, but this could have been because of .... "

Anyways, making it work is probably the easy part. If it becomes popular I'm assuming they'll nerf is as they did intend for her to be a top lane Juggernaut.

Occams RaiserDec 1, 20151 votes

Against good teams she sucks cause the jungler knows to gank her cause she has no peel and no mobility. I am guessing you didn't get ganked pre 6 in these games. I supp main and you look strong til the jungler comes into the lane. Then it becomes a double kill for us pre 6. If a normal lane and jungler play their cards right, you and your ADC should be dead at least 1 each before 6. If you don't get ganked at all, you are lucky and will probably fall off late game.

TulareDec 1, 20151 votes

You're right that I didn't get ganked much but it did happen sometimes and I was adjusting my tactics accordingly. Good placement of wards in the river mitigates that danger. Obviously that's true of any champion, but it's not like supports are defenseless against junglers. I also found that I could position tentacles on one or both walls near the river and hover between them to provide a deterrent to an incoming jungler. At the very least, it helped minimize the damage (only I died). That's fairly conservative positioning anyway and keeping near my tentacles was an incentive not to overextend. It also "felt" like a good position to read the enemy team's positioning and body language to anticipate incoming ganks.

MohawkBirdDec 1, 20151 votes

It's literally the same thing as dodging a Thresh hook or a Blitz snare. Stay behind minions and you won't get vessel'd. Treat it like a lane with either Thresh or Blitzcrank . Also as an ADC you have a huge range advantage on your side, effectively making her tentacles free gold for you. Sorry, but I just don't see how Illaoi support is more oppressive than any other support. She's got 0 CC and 0 peel for her carry and she is completely immobile and easy to peel. All you need to do is play smart and it's so easy to make her useless.

Occams RaiserDec 1, 20151 votes

It is weaker than a hook or grab because you don't have to flash out of it. If she grabs you just start fucking her up. She will quickly stop hitting your soul. People keep running away when they get grabbed like she is really doing something. Her soul grab dose dick for damage unless you are playing a super squishy supp.

MohawkBirdDec 1, 20151 votes

True. I was more using it as a comparison because it's a single target, blockable skillshot.

NebuulDec 1, 20151 votes

It isn't the same, though. Illaoi never has to touch the spirit. She grabs and runs while her adc burns it down. The goal isn't even to kill the person, it's to apply ridiculous lane pressure. Illaoi can easily have both the adc and the support as vessels simultaneously. If you stay in-lane as a vessel, then you are setting up to die, especially when she hits 6 and ults. It is really easy for a level 6 Illaoi to get 4-5 tentacles going at one on her ult. If each tentacle hits a champ, that's 20% max hp healed per W, 40% if she nails both champions.

Illaoi support isn't about CC. It's about zone control and suppressing the enemies' ability to safely lane in the first place.