Illaoi E is my nightmare

Boo Koo God·12/23/2019, 5:54:06 AM·38 votes·14,662 views

Early game oh boy its not bad but after a while it starts to seem that's how she does all the damage to me.

Test of spirit is the only reason I hate laning against illaoi.

and everyone one I face just fishes for e's in lane because they can half health you with them instead of fighting.
Dodging q's cool. Dodging the W's cool, Dodging E's cool. Getting hit by one e and feeling like you have to back now that's not cool.

Armor feels useless against it, Health feels useless against it, They get black cleaver and I feel like one e is a death sentence in mid to late game.

76 Comments

VampiricLlama12/23/2019, 6:39:45 AM29 votes

I still have no idea why they removed the duration reduction if you fight back while your spirit is out. It made it feel good to play against. It created interesting gameplay choices, and promoted interaction.

Glory9712/23/2019, 12:56:13 PM12 votes

But honestly that's just what juggernauts do generally. Most laners are not going to trade with juggernauts in lane, because juggernauts are beasts in 1v1. So they need somekind of tool to do something, when the enemy just keeps their distance.

And of all juggernauts there are, i think illaoi e is one of fairest abilities. I hate darius e, mordekaiser e, even nasus w a lot more than illaois e.

MorganFreemanBot12/23/2019, 6:11:51 AM10 votes

Walk away.

That's the counter play. Yes you will take some damage, but Illaoi is an immobile juggernaut with almost no CC. Getting hit by her E is similar to getting hit by Darius E; it's supposed to have consequences. Walking away is the best bet, because you can reasonably kill the tentacles without taking any damage, making it mostly cost you time / being somewhat zoned.

That said, I think that removing the 'e duration is reduced when taking damage from the target' was a mistake. E giving afflicted targets the opportunity to fight back to reduce duration / get a decent trade, or even win, was pretty cool. Now there's absolutely no value to all-inning her when she does it, because it's just a massive damage amp if you do.

C0NCH0BAR12/23/2019, 6:47:06 AM8 votes

I despise the ability cause it has boring counter measures ever since they took off the "lowers duration if you fight back" mechanic, but mostly I hate it because her allies can attack it too, effectively making it suuuuper free damage come mid-late game. If her allies couldn't deal damage to it I think it would feel much better.

Woodakoodashooda12/23/2019, 5:55:55 PM4 votes

Have you played Illaoi? I don't personally main the champion because she is an absolute bore to play. Ranged top lane champions are her bane as is any player decent at kiting.

She does not necessarily out duel champions. She generally bests other melee champions in lane during laning with some exceptions.

Darius Goes even with her early on and the match up is decided either by ally intervention or by better top lane. Mordekaiser Eliminates her build up with his ultimate and benefits from having no resources to fuel his abilities. Nasus Struggles against her early, but can gain stacks off her tentacles and, with patience, beats her in the mid to late game. Yorick Is able to take her out safely from a distance with his ghouls and ultimate. He out heals her as well.

Jungle have a difficult time ganking her because of her ultimate, but you can walk out of it and then use the window of opportunity granted to eliminate her and take control like you would if an enemy had used their summoner spells.

Don't get me wrong, I generally despise fighting her unless I am playing one of her counters. She bullies me, my allies can offer little in the way of help, and I am bound to lose unless my allies win elsewhere because she will shove wave after wave of minions down the lane until she solo wins the game.

But she is not the only champion who does that. I hate Heimerdinger for the same reasons.

Jamaree12/23/2019, 6:41:00 AM4 votes

[{quoted}](name=Boo Koo God,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ZbFyvEAc,comment-id=,timestamp=2019-12-23T05:54:06.016+0000)

Early game oh boy its not bad but after a while it starts to seem that's how she does all the damage to me.

To be fair, that is where all her damage is. Sure, she can poke with Q and harass with W in melee match ups, but just about every melee champion in the game outduels her if she doesn't land her E. Illaoi lives or dies on her E. She goes from one of the strongest melee duelist in the game, to one of the weakest depending on whether she hits it or not, honestly, I wish less of her damage budget was in her E.

Test of spirit is the only reason I hate laning against illaoi.

and everyone one I face just fishes for e's in lane because they can half health you with them instead of fighting.
Dodging q's cool. Dodging the W's cool, Dodging E's cool. Getting hit by one e and feeling like you have to back now that's not cool.

The flipside happens to Illaoi too, if she misses her E, she basically loses the duel outright, and it is only able to do that much if she lands in with a tentacle near.

Armor feels useless against it, Health feels useless against it, They get black cleaver and I feel like one e is a death sentence in mid to late game.

Nah, just walk away from her. I know that sounds like not real advice, but she isn't going to kill you with just E. She will chunk you sure, but if you just walk away, you won't die.

Ragnaveil12/23/2019, 6:07:06 PM3 votes

You know why armor and health don't matter? Its pre-mitigation damage. She has free defensive pen on her E, better than Darius, Morde, and Garen's respective pen. I wouldn't mind it having pen (since shes a juggernaut), but for the love of christ, it doesnt need to be pre-mitigation.

KawaiiDespair12/23/2019, 4:38:49 PM3 votes

just position behind minions

Ashe mage AD12/23/2019, 7:17:14 AM2 votes

Shyvana was always there for me when I needed to cook some octopus stew. [sg-syndra] People just aren't as aware of this pocket counter pick it seems or maybe they don't know the dragonic recipes for octopus stew blahahah. And now we also got Mordekaiser with his ult. People seem to be more aware about this one.

Pika Fox12/23/2019, 2:56:38 PM2 votes

Yeah.... i really dont like how her E is....

Theres no incentive to fight over it, and it basically becomes "get hit by E -> Run", making everything boring for both parties and a feeling of unfairness for both. Illaoi is just too gimmicky imo, leading her to either be too good or useless depending on if things go her way or not.

I feel like making her E more like a camille cage and forcing a fight would have been better. Would require a lot of number shifting, but i feel like that would be better gameplay overall.

ACriticalThinker12/23/2019, 4:14:27 PM2 votes

by the time you dodge all the tentacles she got another one for ye..