illaoi is the best modern juggernaut design and should be the standard

Moody P··2 votes·1,169 views
  • Heavily specialized in her niche (not a generalist) but doesn't have polarized matchups

  • no heavy reworks needed, only major changes have been condensing her E

  • never nerfed; despite being a "pubstomp" champion has never overperformed at low elo, consistently viable in high level solo play unless the meta heavily counters her (I.e ranged top meta or Tryndamere), unlike Yorick who has only ever been problematic in low elo

  • Does not intrude on other champion roles when she isn't supposed to (unlike Aatrox and Urgot who needed reworks to stop them from being replacements for tanks; Aatrox still OP at top end play by design because Jag can only create OP champions)

  • Actually useful, unlike Yorick and Mordekaiser

  • Fulfills an interesting role in the roster as a nester juggernaut unlike every juggernaut design after her who are generic and uninspired (Aatrox, Mordekaiser, Yorick, Urgot)

  • Embraces her identity and gladly becomes one of the most immobile champions in the game, unlike Aatrox who cheats with dashes and massive speed boost for the entire fight, still viable despite it and despite the foolish idea repeated by boards that immobile champions are inherently disadvantaged

  • Meaningful skill curve evidenced by her win rate delta, entirely brought on by high IQ macro play and optimization of her kit rather than artificial skill inflation through mobility like every design of the last 2 years

Illaoi is truly an underappreciated gem of this game and deserves more respect than she gets. This is what a juggernaut should be in terms of skill floor and ceiling and value to a team.

5 Comments

xDogMeatx1 votes

morde is stuck building hp items (i played him recently) instead of having resist items to do meaningful damage.

Rαy1 votes

I personally think Illaoi's design is super cancer and I don't enjoy a single game playing against her. This whole "she pressed R, run or we're all fucked"-concept is pretty dumb in my opinion.

Her landing one E and ripping out half my health bar by slapping my immovable clone doesn't help either.

Moody P1 votes

doesn't matter. Illaoi has never had a significant ban rate despite a few spats of being top tier in certain metas. As vocal as people get about her the data shows she's never been frustrating enough that people will refuse to play against her. Fundamentally Illaoi is one of the fairest champions in the game and all you need to do is know when you need to respect her powerups.

her E

she's investing enough mana into doing 25-45% base HP to you that could 100-0 your spirit. consider the mana:reward ratio here and wonder why the most generous hook in the game might have different penalties and whether you would prefer it if she just blitzhooked you into her death zone instead

Rαy1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Moody P,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ZM2b4Vye,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2019-08-24T02:12:00.566+0000)

doesn't matter. Illaoi has never had a significant ban rate despite a few spats of being top tier in certain metas. As vocal as people get about her the data shows she's never been frustrating enough that people will refuse to play against her. Fundamentally Illaoi is one of the fairest champions in the game and all you need to do is know when you need to respect her powerups.

she's investing enough mana into doing 25-45% base HP to you that could 100-0 your spirit. consider the mana:reward ratio here and wonder why the most generous hook in the game might have different penalties and whether you would prefer it if she just blitzhooked you into her death zone instead

People's opinions on forums matter, that's why they come here.

She's not getting banned because no one plays her or gives a crap about toplane bans. If that's your point, how do you feel about Darius? He's probably among the 2-3 toplaners who actually have a very high banrate.

Yes, I know what to do when she lands an E or presses R. Run and play her wacky ass mini game for the 30th time in a row by dodging her tentacles that can't hit shit if she's not in range. We all know certain ways to deal with certain champs. Does this make them less annoying? Not at all.

I never said she's too strong (although she's in a really good spot), just unnecessarily one-dimensional and tiresome and her low playrate is an indicator for an unsuccessful design.

AhhShucks1 votes

I agree 100%

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