Some usability buffs for Illaoi

All in all, I think Illaoi is in a pretty good spot. She has clear strengths and weaknesses. But there are some usability things that really bother me. These will definitely make her stronger, but not from a numbers standpoint, just reliability.

#Illaoi's W (Harsh Lesson)

What currently happens:

• If Illaoi's jump towards her target is interrupted, OR the target dies before she reaches it, the entirety of that instance of Harsh Lesson is wasted. She cannot attempt to jump again with that instance, because it is wasted and put on cooldown.

Proposed change:

• In the above circumstances, instead of wasting the instance of Harsh Lesson, just make it remain active. If Illaoi doesn't reach her target, it's not put on cooldown, but the effect is also not applied. She gets to try again with that instance of Harsh Lesson.

Why?

Harsh Lesson is pretty much the core of her kit and play pattern. Counterplay against it already exists: if you stop her jump, you've delayed a tentacle attack. However, putting that instance of Harsh Lesson on cooldown immediately after the failure to contact, is gimping her; she can't use tentacles for another 5+ seconds, she's lost most of her sustain and damage output.

And most of all, it puts TOO MUCH of a dent into her ultimate. Leap of Faith is conditional as it is, requiring enemy champions to be around her, and it lasts for only 8 seconds. So given that she's got good conditions to cast her ultimate, none of her leaps are interrupted, and she can get a Harsh Lesson out as soon as it's off cooldown, she gets a max of 4 attacks.

It hurts her too much. Enemies should still be able to cancel her leap, that's acceptable counterplay and delays her damage output, giving her targets more time to avoid tentacles. But putting her leap on cooldown is akin to breaking her legs.

What if this makes her too strong?

At the very least, if she becomes too strong because these reliability buffs, then have a canceled Harsh Lesson lose the associated damage for that instance's auto attack, while still retaining the tentacle-command feature.

#Extra - Illaoi's Ult (Leap of Faith)

Something that would be nice for Illaoi is to have Harsh Lesson immediately available after casting Leap of Faith. I've had too many occasions where I'm battling someone and I just cast my Harsh Lesson, and then I immediately need my ultimate. So I cast Leap of Faith, get lots of tentacles, and then I'm just sitting there for 2 seconds being useless. Maybe something to consider in the future.

Meddler, you've been commenting on a lot of Gameplay stuff recently. What are your thoughts on these changes? Would it make Illaoi too powerful by making her more reliabile? (much like how Veigar needed his Dark Matter nerfed after it became more reliable with Event Horizon buffs?)