Illaoi is infuriating to play against.

Rax Reformed·12/23/2016, 11:55:21 AM·38 votes·4,112 views

You can be 3 kills and 20 CS up on her, and she'll still be able to 100-0 you in the all-in that she forced because she hooked your fucking soul out of your body.

Good luck ganking her as a jungler after she hits level 6. You're really just serving her a free double kill. Every time I see one on the enemy team, I just let out a big sigh. I know she's going to win lane against my top laner, and by the time I get to see her, she's going to be so fed she can 1v5.

Why is she allowed to be like this? She's stronger than Diana was when she released, but Riot does nothing about her. Why isn't she played more? I despise laning against her when I go top. I'd rather fight two Teemos simultaneously than fight her alone.

60 Comments

THE RlVER KlNG12/23/2016, 3:21:27 PM18 votes

I'm a Mastery 6 Illaoi player, and her real counterplay is that she's the only Juggernaut where you can dodge basically all of her damage. Tentacles are horrendously slow, only being difficult to play with within her ultimate. Her E is slow and has a long cooldown. She also runs out of mana very quickly and pushes like a madman with her Tentacles, so ganking her pre-6 is probably one of the easiest things in the game. She loses to range like every other Juggernaut and can be beat by the same types of champions as well - Fiora, RIven, Trundle, Tahm Kench. Nasus and Darius are the two Juggernauts that do the best against her. If she lands her E, don't be an idiot and let her beat you up for free - either run away and take the Vessel debuff, which isn't as bad anymore, or fight her! The spirit duration is reduced every time you damage her.

Once she hits 6, you can still gank her. Bait her ultimate, make her miss her E. Or, you know, just disengage, since she has no way of making you stay within the boundary of the ultimate. When I play against Illaoi and I am not able to kill her at 6 or successfully bait her ultimate and then kill, I just come back the second time when I know she doesn't have it. It's like Ahri ult or Zed W or Flash - Illaoi isn't a champion you can gank whenever. She also relies incredibly on snowballing and falls off hard if she can't establish a lead on her opponent. An Illaoi that isn't super ahead come lategame will accomplish very little outside of spirit pulls. Illaoi's ult scales directly with her performance and where it occurs - if you can get it in a chokehold of terrain, or manage to hit 5 immobile champions with little CC (which is a disaster of a team comp anyways), then maybe you'll get something out of it while not ahead. Other than that, nada. She's the Shaco of top lane - she scales with how dumb her opponent and jungler are.

Oh, and you try playing Illaoi into a 3/0 opponent with 20 CS on you - same as any champion, you won't be having a good time.

MissingKayo12/23/2016, 5:17:51 PM12 votes

"in the all-in that she forced"

You mean the all-in you were dumb as fuck enough to stay inside and keep fighting when you failed to dodge E?

10Tickler12/23/2016, 7:34:11 PM10 votes

Walk away, dodge E-Tentacles, wait for it to die out.

You want Infuriating? Annie. 0-6 in lane, then Boom, hits six and drops a 300+ Nuke on your head that's an AOE stun and does continuous damage, and god forbid you kill her for it.

Papa Andrei12/23/2016, 8:23:36 PM8 votes

So you are complaining anout the chanpion designed to kill a lot of people if they jump her?

It honestly seems like uou faced a semi decent Illaoi, fed your ass off, and now its time to rage on the boards because you didn't win.

Troll for Trump12/23/2016, 5:13:07 PM7 votes

She doesn't force fights. The only way she wins a 1v2 is when YOU'RE the one forcing the fight

Korillo12/23/2016, 2:52:07 PM7 votes

Illaoi is really strong at level 6, but she sucks early game and sucks late game. Idk she kind of just sucks unless the enemy team is dumb.

Her ult is the only thing she has going for her and you can literally just walk away and let her be useless again when its over.

SteelMankind12/23/2016, 3:43:37 PM6 votes

She's allowed to be extremely strong in the right situation because she has no way of forcing things to happen on her own - aside from lane harass, any kills she has comes from people trying to fight her and messing up. There's a reason why, despite her incredible AOE damage that increases with the more enemies she hits with her ult, Illaoi splitpushes rather than teamfights.

Her ult all in is also only strong if she pulls a soul, which is a relatively easy skillshot to dodge. Think of it like an Ahri charm or a Blitz hook - you just gotta avoid it; there isn't really a case where you can get hit by it and come out on top.

If you can't dodge it, Tryndamere does very well against her. Illaoi has no way to disengage a trade, meaning that against someone who's happy to right-click you all day long, any trades become all ins, which Tryndamere will win thanks to his ult denying Illaoi burst.

Tangy Citrus12/23/2016, 12:03:25 PM4 votes

easy to counter. Just hide behind minions when her yank is up, destroy her tentacles when possible - safely. and get item 3123

If you pick into her, then go for someone with an interrupt or some form of cc into big damage. She can destroy tanks pretty fast after she builds her black cleaver so be careful of that kinda choice. If you are truly scared of her, then go for minion push potential like a quasi susan or a ranged poke through minions like jayce. just be careful and not expose yourself if you play ranged.

King of Demons12/24/2016, 3:19:58 PM3 votes

And then you realize she literally has zero ways of keeping you pinned down. If she ults you just run out. E is a skillshot, if you get hit by it you deserve to get punished by her.

Pale Pirate12/23/2016, 6:18:27 PM3 votes

and she'll still be able to 100-0 you in the all-in that she forced because she hooked your fucking soul

Let me get this straight: Whenever she grabs your soul, you try to all-in her.

Dude, no. What the fuck? This will give her ult an extra tentacle, it will give her spells an extra target to hit to deal damage and heal, it will let her keep hitting you after you run away, it will slow you so she can chase you after you run away, and it will also put the spirit debuff on you.

If she hits you with E, you just land some poke to reduce it's duration (weird mechanics, I know), or you run away so you minimize the damage you take. You DON'T all in.

GULAG 4 U12/23/2016, 7:11:31 PM3 votes

It doesn't justify nerfs really.

Wyrmblade12/23/2016, 8:37:43 PM3 votes

How come a 4/0 Lee Sin one shotting a carry is considered an outplay while a 0/3 Illaoi, a champion who's not particularly strong right now and has an entirely avoidable kit getting a doublekill is considered broken with no counterplay?

Only Play Darius12/23/2016, 8:50:27 PM3 votes

Not really. Her mana consumption is high, her pre-6 is very vulnerable to all-in's. She needs to land her E for the rest of her kit to function and it's difficult to land against champions who stay back or are directly next to her. CC and poke destroy her teamfighting and her late game damage isn't great. She also needs to build more damage than other juggernauts so she dies quickly if she gets focused.

Kukan Seishin12/24/2016, 3:18:46 AM3 votes

Illaoi sucks... like... seriously... here is why A: Poke, unless she gets some sort of lifesteal she can be bullied really hard B: Don't all in her when she has r C: Read her abilities and realize two things A: All her damage can be dodged B: She is slow af, get frozen mallet, Rylais, and watch as she is now useless and cant reach anyone. D: If you are doing baron and drag and she tp's in.... (don't... bloody.... fight.... her..... she will kill you all in a tight space like that) E: CC save a cc for her WHEN SHE ULTS, not before she ults and she isn't doing anything, WHEN she ults, then cc her. her ult is like super saiyan mode, cmon.

captainkaiger12/23/2016, 8:12:36 PM2 votes

That's her job. Force you to make mistakes that you don't know you're making, and to fight her. Illaoi is really well designed, she has high damage, sustain, and some amount of utility, but absolutely zero mobility. The closest you can get to that is flashing at someone. Dodge Illaoi's E, and she loses half of her capacity to head on fight you.

Iźuku Midoriya12/23/2016, 9:43:50 PM2 votes

yea i take ignite against her and she can kill at least one person in a 2v1 against her

High512/23/2016, 12:39:02 PM2 votes

Not sure why she's making a come back. Had an Ill feed my Cho the other night. Stupid easy matchup.

Doozku12/23/2016, 7:12:05 PM2 votes

Pick yas and dodge everyone of her ult tentacles and feel incredibly satisfied afterwords.

Xonra12/23/2016, 7:45:25 PM2 votes

I am surprised she isnt played more for sure, but I tend to just ban her when I go top (unless my team refuses to because I for some reaaon get first pick with no ban and the enemy without fail picks her in that case)

agbudar12/24/2016, 3:30:23 AM1 votes

she can get countered hard once you get to know her Garen Garen Darius all dump on her hard when played right

AcidTheWarlock12/23/2016, 9:51:35 PM1 votes

Pick Shen.

If she E's you, E her. Then W. If you're good at attack moving, you've already won.

One of my favorite moments is when I fought an Illoai standing right next to my spirit as Shen.

Juked every single hit and got 6 empowered Q hits as I kited her on a melee champ.

So just pick a tank with good mobility. Malphite should do well into her. I'd expect Riven, Fiora, and Yasuo to win lane hard.

Out of lane, if she's not fed, Illoai sucks.

Zero Skill Tank12/23/2016, 2:41:19 PM1 votes

Now, I'm not saying that Illaoi is not at least some level of bullshit, but:

You can be 3 kills and 20 CS up on her, and she'll still be able to 100-0 you in the all-in that she forced because she hooked your fucking soul out of your body.

If she catches your soul, you just let her pound it. Rito removed bonuses for hitting Illaoi when she has your soul up a while ago to stop people fro getting baited like that.

Spoofghoul12/23/2016, 1:18:20 PM1 votes

just pick teemo into her build mallet and make her life hell shes just as useless as you outside of laning

and since teemo can push her around in lane that means shes pretty much 100% useless sack of gold to collect every now and then

NGNL Asian12/24/2016, 4:40:07 AM1 votes

When Riot released her 80% of the players on boards were begging her to be nerfed, more than the current vayne hate, and a bit less than the current yasuo hate.

Atheon Jr12/24/2016, 9:47:38 AM1 votes

she has relatively high cooldowns on her e and q. once she misses or uses it, take the chance to auto her tentacles. ive played a lot of illaoi and i know by doing this you can beat her, ive used it a lot of times to beat her and although it can be tedious it's your best shot. The tentacles are the core of her kit, wipe them out and she'll be useless.

KVbqbFsC8e12/23/2016, 9:15:29 PM1 votes

Its essential that you learn early that you absolutely cannot fight Illaoi when she ults. When she uses that ult, get out of there.