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Illaoi is like the least known champion in the game.

The King Diamond·10/13/2019, 12:00:08 PM·5 votes·5,822 views

Or atleast on top lane. Seriously. Oh, how many times I've won my lane because my enemy didn't know how to play against me and what to do in some situations. Is this because she isn't popular champion? Maybe a little bit. But for sure her kit isn't something common in League, and her E is one of the most if not the most "detailed" and compound abillity in the game.

-Are u hit with her E? Guess I will just stay and don't leave the range, because something bad may happen, or...just jump into her so tentacles will attack me and the soul in the same time. -Did she ult and got plenty of tentacles? Guess I will rush into her -Are u a Vessel? Guess I will forget that tentacles will attack me with no command rly often, so lets fight her. -Did she ult so tentacles attack faster and have no hitbox indicator? "OMG WTF WHY I CAN'T SEE IT ATTACK ME? BUG?" -Is she low HP so u feel u are about to kill her? "WTF HOW U HEAL SO MUCH?"

I know plat isn't something big, but I thought players know their matchups rly well in that elo.

25 Comments

Kenneky10/13/2019, 1:37:40 PM9 votes

I do see Illaoi times to time, the champion I barely see is Skarner. Seriously I legit have no idea what his passive do (those rocks around the map), In Illaoi's case, I actually know how she works.

Jamaree10/13/2019, 12:05:49 PM6 votes

She doesn't see play so she gets to be strong against people who don't know how her kit works. Probably for the best though, better she remain as she is so her strengths remain hidden because the moment people understand her kit, it is ridiculous how easy it is to beat.

Charmy Bird10/13/2019, 2:04:07 PM4 votes

Illaoi is cancer af though. A champion who's counter is straight up don't approach her is broken in my book. As a jungler ganking her post 6 is basically suicide. Even if illaoi sucks early she'll just farm and solo carry late with how much damage she deals and worst thing is even if u manage to kill her, her bullshit tentacles will still attack and delete u withiut even the hit lbox indicator and u don't even expect it

LordGeovanni10/13/2019, 8:01:00 PM2 votes

YorickTrundle Volibear Udyr Warwick Taric TahmKench Sejuani Skarner RekSai Rammus Gragas. Some all of these less known top lane but still top champions at some point. some can be considered more known in other lanes. The same thing happened with Yorick before his rework. (and poppy) No one knew how to play versus yorick And they Yorick Players werent telling the general public how to really easily beat their champion because why would i do that with my Winrate is bearly 51% and Pick rate is So low its usually stated to be less than 1%. So he gets a whole rework because people didnt get anyone to practice against him because hes a rarely seen pick (when all they had to do was put him in ai matches or tell people just use custom games to practice against him cause adcs dont get nerfed when no one can beat them for months on end) Illaoi used to be able to be beat in melee if you culled her tentecles and didnt run from her E pull but fought her in it but they removed the ability to lower the up time of the e by fighting her its better to just leave the circle and not take free damage that used to be a really safe option too but not tentecles slam on their own when they only used to slam once and if you didnt clear them Until after you stopped being the vessel they didnt respawn in the same spot to look like its slaming again.

Nekorus10/13/2019, 2:05:22 PM2 votes

when i was skimming through the champion icons to find someone i can argue with i actually foundMaokai and asked who was this guy to my friends and they all just laughed at me thinking i was joking when ive only played against maokai like 3 times.

Predatorator10/13/2019, 6:16:30 PM2 votes

Laughs in Skarner

Ariel the Cruel10/13/2019, 11:06:20 PM1 votes

Tentacles are worth gold. If you're Susan, they're worth stacks too.

That's about all you really need to know. XD

ModCaliCoastReplay10/13/2019, 4:43:44 PM1 votes

Illaoi falls off very heavily against enemy teams that know her kit and respect her, and dodge her Test of Spirit. Lots of her tentacle hits are also indeed dodgeable, even during her ult, though it takes extremely skilled players to dodge three or more tentacles - but I have seen it. She also gets countered in lane by skilled players on ranged champs, which severely limits her blind pick potential against really good teams.

As a result of these things she is rarely seen in professional play.

I play her, so this is not a diss - she is in my mind one of the strongest solo-queue pure laning counter-diver and counter-juggernaut counterpicks, as it is arguable she is the "juggernautiest" of all the juggernauts. The only other champions that can stand toe to toe with her in a melee fight when her ult is up are arguably the hard late game scaling melee champs (Chogath Kayle Nasus), and generally only with a lot of stacks/levels - she's generally much stronger in early/midgame.

And as you noted, she absolutely does belong to that class of champions who utterly delete players who don't understand what she does.

It's mildly concerning to hear that so many Platinum players don't actually fall into that category though, and does make me wonder why - boosting/illegal account sharing or sales have been a problem, but I also sometimes wonder if things go deeper and if ELO has fundamental flaws in team games that it does not in the single-player matches and ladders it was developed for (chess in particular).