With 
you can turn botlane into tentacle city through spamming your spells forever and her scaling is good enough that what few dmg items she gets on Supp gold are enough to wreck a team (esp. squishies) when you land a good ult.
MilfHuntUnitXJ94 votesBecause shes got no engage and no peel, and as a support tank is very squishy at melee range
Tobias Brackner1 votesShe's not a supp tank, she's a damage supp.
She can force fights with spirit grab and make things really awkward for the enemy team, allowing you to keep up pressure in stalemate situations. She can also swing a teamfight hardcore if they engage on your team or you engage on their team.
Quepha1 votes[{quoted}](name=Tobias Brackner,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=tprzkc8q,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2016-04-23T03:42:01.096+0000)
She can force fights with spirit grab
Blitz forces fights, Thresh forces fights, Nautilus forces fights.
Illaoi creates a situation where a fight might be considered a good idea but probably isn't so they just back off and cs tentacles for a bit.
Tobias Brackner1 votesNope. If you grab them near a tower you can force a ccharaccter to back off or lose a good % of their health.
You know, kind of like what a poke champion does?
Quepha1 votes[{quoted}](name=Tobias Brackner,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=tprzkc8q,comment-id=0000000000000000,timestamp=2016-04-23T18:58:34.326+0000)
Nope. If you grab them near a tower you can force a ccharaccter to back off or lose a good % of their health.
You know, kind of like what a poke champion does?
forcing a disengage is the opposite of forcing a fight literally the polar opposite.
Tobias Brackner1 votesYeah I didn't type that well. Essentially if someone is grabbed by Illaoi tentaccle the team has 3 options: have the guy run out of range, let the guy eat the dmg, or engage on it. All 3 (ideally) are beneficcial to Illaoi's team
GigglesO1 votesBecause shes got no engage and no peel, and as a support tank is very squishy at melee range
Well, even if she can engage/peel it also normally isn't enough, and is too reliant on her grabbing a soul. I have seen it though, to be fair, it is doable.
Tobias Brackner1 votesWhat does "too reliant on her grabbing a soul" mean?
Is thresh "too reliant on landing a hook"?
Is Vayne "too reliant on landing autoattaccks"?
Quepha1 votes[{quoted}](name=Tobias Brackner,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=tprzkc8q,comment-id=000000010000,timestamp=2016-04-23T19:44:33.291+0000)
What does "too reliant on her grabbing a soul" mean?
Is thresh "too reliant on landing a hook"?
Is Vayne "too reliant on landing autoattaccks"?
Thresh actually isn't too reliant on landing a hook because flay and his ult make for powerful peel when someone jumps on his support. He is very well rounded. An Illaoi can probably contribute more damage than most supports, but her ally is still probably going to die, especially when Illaoi is not gaining levels or gold very fast as a support.
Vayne's auto attacks cannot be dodged or blocked by minions so being reliant on them is fine because they are reliable.
Kasyrgan3 votesNo Peel No Heal No Shield No Stun No Auto-attack boost Good Scaling
All in all, no utility and all damage usually makes an ADC's life a living nightmare during the laning phase. Also, since her tentacles do more damage to minions you will be stealing quite a bit of cs during any skirmish. Illaoi also provides free gold to the supp, making it easier for the enemy bot lane to snowball. Yeah if the enemies engage you post-6 they'll have trouble with your Ult, but most supports have the utility that Illoai lacks ie. stuns, silences, heals, and shields so your Ult won't accomplish much against any competent support player. There is a reason Illaoi is a top laner, because she doesn't fit in any other role as well as she does in top lane.
Also, why would you take a woman who is obviously an islander and take her away from her island home called Top Lane? Its just rude if you ask me.
Tobias Brackner2 votes"since her tentacles do more damage to minions you will be stealing quite a bit of cs during any skirmish" Negligible. The amount is tiny enough to be that 100g you always have in pocket after buying items
"Illaoi also provides free gold to the supp, making it easier for the enemy bot lane to snowball." once again negligible. The goldd is teenny tiny and can be made up by killing them or denying farm.
" Yeah if the enemies engage you post-6 they'll have trouble with your Ult, but most supports have the utility that Illoai lacks ie. stuns, silences, heals, and shields so your Ult won't accomplish much against any competent support player" You can also ult off on an engage to wreck the enemy team. Also you are doin some theory craftin that ain't exactly provable. I can speak from experience that Illaoi Ult shits enough dmg to decimate whole teams even if they have a soraka burning all of her heals, same w/ Supp Illaoi. I feel you are assuming a scenario where the supp Illaoi goes in w/o her team or otherwise engages ahead.
worm2 votesWhy don't you test it out and tell us how it went?
Tobias Brackner1 votesimplying that I didn't
I'm speaking from first-hand experience about the details I described.
Kai Guy1 votesRelying on landing her E is an issue, simply because the value you get from it is lower if you hit a 
Yes you can bleed over some damage to them, but once they are vessels its only an annoyance for any player knowing her kit. Her WR require her to get into the thick of things and she drops to fast if gold starved to really utilize that with out very specific comps. Effectively your left with her Q for poke but its fairly easy to avoid if your ranged and shoves waves forward if people use minions as sheilds, and they should be doing that to avoid your E anyway so you end up with lanes that get shoved. Puts ya in a bad spot for jungle and mid ganks. So even thou she has very unique mechanics, she does not bring anything special to lane that other champions currently in the game can not do better in the support role. Also i even tryed some meta breaking when she came out, when relic sheild still executed spirits, went for some AOE wombo AP mage, CC tank, aoe adc, things that allowed her E to splash mad damage, nothing panned out better then current adc/support thou.
Tobias Brackner1 votesHer E also is extremely low cost and low risk compared to those other champs. There is no such thing as hooking the wrong target w/ Illaoi and it's much harder for them to turn an Illaoi hook into an engage. I hear you about the vessel but it can be a threat while they are trying to last hit (causing loss of farm) and forccces them to move predictably, opening them up for harass.
I hear you about the specific comp thing, but even then "specific comp" translates to "does it have 
" among other AOE cc cchamps. I also feel her cccounter-engage w/ her ult opens her up to be strong on more poke and kite focused compositions, and that's not mentioning her being able to throw out some pretty nice poke/waveclear dmg w/ Q and aforementioned non-commital soul grab.
Shoved lanes aren't necessarily a bad thing. Also the Q can be landed pretty easily if you time it right (and when you have two targets to hit).
When I played her supp I found her to be an excellent supp in comps that have limited dmg sources (tanky top, jung, lower-dmg adc and mid).
I feel that she's not as "good anywhere" as other champs, but I do feel she has a strong nicche, esp if you are up against a strong teamfighting team.
Ratbert2 votesIf the enemy is good, they can bait your tentacles to steal farm/push lane.
Tobias Brackner2 votesBaiting requires you to take the bait. What you are describing is something that can be handled by skill #yomi
Colgate Minuette2 votesBecause any actual support will wreck you?
The only reason supports are not the most important role in the game (play making wise) is because they never have the gold to do it. But in bot lane now THEY GET TO FARM! HOW AWESOME! When an illaoi comes bot lane I loveeee it cause I finally get to farm some gold! It's fantastic it only takes a few of your little tentacle things for a free pink ward or just some mana regen.
(Also she can't exactly stop me from attacking the ADC soooo)
[slayer-jinx-wink]
Tobias Brackner1 votesThe tentaccles spawn oncce every 20 seconds. Assuming you are able to kill every tentacle when it spawns, that is still a lot of time to get any meaningful amount of gold. Also you are starting to get into some play-making stuff (they know you going for tentaccle so they throw poke to hit you or otherwise engage)
Sightless662 votesShe offers relatively little compared to other supports. Her laning pattern is easy to punish when there are multiple champions, with at least one of them being ranged. Additionally, if she falls behind, she can easily offer absolutely nothing to her team. Without some gold to keep herself alive and get some damage, her ults will do nothing significant, and her E is not a good enough source of sole utility to make a viable support in any game where she's even and behind.
I laned against a few Illaoi supports back when she came out. Out of all the odd or unusual supports people play, she's definitely the easiest to beat. Her laning was about on par with other supports, and then she became useless.
Tobias Brackner2 votes"Her laning pattern is easy to punish when there are multiple champions, with at least one of them being ranged" How so? When I supp with Illaoi I play her as a poke champ.
Yeah she has a hard time playin when behind but tbh her damage base is high enough to still be impactful in a teamfight. If picked into the right composition she ccan be extremely dangerous.
Sightless662 votesWhen I supp with Illaoi I play her as a poke champ.
She can play a poke support, and she's not significantly stronger than other poke support. However, her all-in strength is countered and reduced much easier than the all-in of other poke supports is (I can kite out Illaoi and kill tentacles to make her unable to all-in me, but I can't do the same to an angry Karma). If all I want is poke, I can do better. If I want poke with other mechanics added on, I can do better.
You also have a few other problems related to things she can't do. First, she can't roam. She has no ability to convert a kill on the midlaner or jungler by roaming on them. She'd need CC to do that, and her E isn't good enough. Supports are expected to roam, and not being able to do so is a major disadvantage. That might be excusable if she could get kills in lane, but she can't. She can poke, she can harass, and she might be able to force the enemy to back (not better than other poke supports can of course, but not worse either). However, unless they choose to stick around, she can't actually finalize kills, again because of the lack of CC. This is a weakness of Illaoi anywhere you play her, but it's a damning weakness in the support role. I might have actually lose a lane against an Illaoi once if she could have taken her good trades and actually gotten a kill on me from them, but she just can't. If I'm playing Zyra I can root them and burst them and finish them off. Karma has burst and her root. Sona has an ult. Illaoi has her Q, and then some melee stuff that she can't use on a cautious opponent. That is unacceptable.
Basically, she works only when her opponents don't know how to play. She works when people don't respect how much power she has in melee range, and she works when people don't abuse how much power she lacks outside of it. That can kind of work in top lane where she doesn't give enemies a choice and where she can mass up enough of a gold and level advantage to shove herself into teamfights and succeed, but it just fails more often than not bot lane.
tbh her damage base is high enough to still be impactful in a teamfight.
Assuming that she doesn't get blown up from being behind on levels and gold, which are huge hurdles for an Illaoi trying to be useful. Even if things go ideally for her, her base damages are not that amazing where she's doing something I couldn't do as a mage support with stronger poke and better utility. I can play Zyra and win teamfights more reliably and without a gold advantage.
she has a hard time playin when behind
That's putting it mildly. I'd personally go with "worse than any true support when behind".
If Illaoi support is working for you, then enjoy it, but I can tell you the reasons why high level players don't respect it, and why it would take a massive amount of practice with Illaoi support to make it succeed against equally-skilled players who know how to play against her.
Tobias Brackner1 votesand she's not significantly stronger than other poke support
Yes she is. Her poke deals a large amount of dmg for extremely little mana. It also pushes the lane whicch cccan be used for other strategic plays. Her Soul Grab also creates a unique window to safely get dmg to the enemy laners and force them to dodge tentaccles while last hit, essentially it's additional lane pressure even beyond the dmg it provides (and that's not even mentioning the engage potential off of attacccking them while they go for a tentaccle).
First, she can't roam
Imma take an aside to point out how silly this comment is. Anyone ccan leave one lane and walk to another. Anyone can roam.
She has no ability to convert a kill on the midlaner or jungler by roaming on them.
Yes she does. Her ult provides plenty of dmg and a good soul grab can funcction as cc depending on placement. Also her Tentaccle smash does plenty of dmg too.
but it's a damning weakness in the support role
No it's not at all. there are plenty of poke supp who ccan't cconvert poke to kill. It's kind of a natural trade off.
At the end of the day, I feel that Illaoi supp is a really strong cchoice in the right team comp. Just like top Illaoi, she needs her team's support to make big plays or take advantage of opponent misteps. Supp Illaoi does the same thing.
Sightless661 votesYes she is. Her poke deals a large amount of dmg for extremely little mana. It also pushes the lane whicch cccan be used for other strategic plays.
I can say that about multiple other poke supports. This is not special. I can play any mage support and do the same.
Her Soul Grab also creates a unique window to safely get dmg to the enemy laners and force them to dodge tentaccles while last hit,
Two things. First, I don't care if I'm made a vessel in lane. Seriously, I haven't been hit by a vessel tentacle in lane since.... geez, I can't even remember the last time. It's easy to dodge because the tentacles are so telegraphed and there's such a long cooldown in between the spawning. It's just completely negligible. Second, I could do that better if the E just did the damage by itself. I can play a support like Zyra and just do all that damage from range without an opportunity for the enemy. Way more reliable in the late game too.
Yes she does. Her ult provides plenty of dmg and a good soul grab can funcction as cc depending on placement. Also her Tentaccle smash does plenty of dmg too.
No she doesn't. How are you getting close enough to them to get an ult and then having them stay in the ult? Usually, the answer is that you aren't. The soul grab is usually a terrible CC. The tentacle smash does damage, but that's the only thing she's bringing to most ganks, and that doesn't match up to what
She's not an effective roamer. She's worse than every support except Janna and Soraka at it.
No it's not at all. there are plenty of poke supp who ccan't cconvert poke to kill.
Not really. Most of them can do it way, way better than Illaoi can. Karma can sprint up into lockdown, Sona has the initiation ult, Brand and Zyra have hard CC and ranged burst, etc.
At the end of the day, I feel that Illaoi supp is a really strong cchoice in the right team comp.
And I feel like she's always an inferior pick. She has all of Top Illaoi's weaknesses, but with a much smaller window to gain advantage. I can pick other champions to do her job with more reliability and with less ability for the opponent to mitigate my actions. I can snowball harder with Zyra, I'll win teamfights easier and with more reliability because I'm not required to get into the middle of them on an underleveled and low-gold champion to do anything, and I'll be more usefull when behind.
Again, if it's working for you then keep enjoying it. I really don't want to try to tell you to stop doing something you enjoy. It's cool that you're having fun and winning games with it. All I'm saying is that there is a good reason why she has made no impact on the support scene. She's just too easy to respond to.
Tobias Brackner1 votesI can say that about multiple other poke supports.
Illaoi Rank 1 Tentacle smash does 72 in large AoE for 40 mana Karma Rank 1 Q does 80 in small AoE at ccost of 50 mana (I think Illaoi will outsccale this dmg). Lulu does 80 for 60 Lux does 60 for 50 and 60 for 70
From what I can tell, in terms of sheer dmg, Illaoi is the most mana efficccient.
Sightless661 votesKarma Rank 1 Q does 80 in small AoE at ccost of 50 mana (I think Illaoi will outsccale this dmg).
Don't forget that R+Q. That's a lot of damage Illaoi isn't doing. Autoattacks too.
Lulu does 80 for 60
She also has about 50% more mana regen than Illaoi, so if you're just worried about mana efficiency for one ability, Lulu's doing fine there.
Illaoi will do fine manawise spamming her Q, but like I said, I can say that about any poke support. If you're just throwing out one ability, you're going to be fine no matter who you are. She has small advantages in single-ability poke, but this isn't enough to make up for her weaknesses. This is relatively unimportant.
There are two things to keep in mind. First, other champions can poke with autoattacks. That's not something to dismiss lightly, particularly in the early levels. This is big part of being a successful poke support. Until at least level 3, autoattacks are actually contributing more to poke than abilities are.
Second, other champions have multiple ranged and/or CC abilities that they can use as part of a poke combo, which is important for threatening kills. Basically, I don't have to be incredibly scared of Illaoi because even if she gets me low, the only thing she has to kill me with is the Q, so I just have to stay out of kill range of that and I'm pretty good. I can stay at low health using lifesteal and I'll be fine. For Karma or Lulu, I have to worry about the possibility of a multiple-ability burst combo, which also contains CC that will help let the enemy ADC get in range to kill me. Illaoi has to get her enemy much lower than Karma or Lulu before she can drive them out of lane or threaten kills, and that's really, really bad. It means that she has a harder time effectively convert temporary lane advantages into meaningful gold or experience advantages.
Unstoppable Monk2 votesSupport Illaoi isn't more of a thing because there's not that many 
players. The amount of people who can play her is smaller than the number of people who think they know every champion in the game and think she can't be a farm/experience denying support that transitions into an early objective team pressure.
Randomonium2 votesI could see her being useful as a support to counter strong engage lanes (Leona, Thresh, Nautilus) if your ADC has some good range (i.e. Caitlyn, Varus, etc.) Illaoi pretty much makes it so that enemies engage you at their own peril, which can make your poke ADC able to deal tons of free damage.
BeatzBoyFTW1 votesNo CC and technically a support similar to Brand. Just plain damage. I doubt you'll be able to do anything to "support" when the enemy jungler ganks your lane.
Tobias Brackner1 votesYou can 3 man ult and shit ddmg all over them.
Also I feel supp brand doesn't do as mucch raw dmg as supp illaoi on a gold -> dmg basis.
BeatzBoyFTW1 votesYou can 3 man ult and shit ddmg all over them.
Easier said than done. Even I done this at top lane after ulting top/jungle/spirit, and believe me, the damage spike doesn't come a lot too soon. Plus, you're going against a range comp at bot lane, so it's either you had to Flash near them in order to summon 3 tentacles(with Spirit), or the enemy bot laners are dumb enough to go near you. Also adding the fact that enemies can simply run away from you since your ult does no CC to keep them at the same position.
Tobias Brackner1 voteswell yah, you don't fish for Ults w/ Illaoi, they need proper setup. She's a weirdly defensive cchampion base so that's gonna ccarry over to her in the botlane.
DrDiaga1 votesBecause if the enemy stays behind minions, she has absolutely nothing to offer her ADC.
No peels, no utility. And she would fall off incredibly hard on a supports budget.
Edit after reading some of your replies-----
Her poke is pretty bad. Its base damage is low, and scales off her ad. For the first level or two, it will do alright damage, but as her income is going to suck as a support, you won't be buying much damage, even if you ignore buying support items you actually need to buy, aka sightstone, ect.
There are no good AD support items and you won't be making the money to buy a proper build. You will start falling off incredibly hard by even mid game.
Her ult requires you to be on top the enemy and for them to stay in that area. By lvk 6 you are already going to be behind in items. Plus you have to try to land it on an ADC who can and will stay away from you and harass with ranged attacks. At range its even easier to dodge Q's as well. Hell it can be tough to land them against a good top melee.
So we have a Q that ranged champs can easily avoid, while you take their ranged harass. Her E which is easy to avoid if they keep minions behind you. No peel or utility if any kind for your ADC. And you falling behind in income, so you can't afford to keep your damage up nor survival items to survive the poke ranged and a lot of supports will lay on you.
It wouldn't even work in bronze.
Play it support for 5 games in a row and post your results. I bet money they will be bad games.
Tobias Brackner1 votesThe value of a support isn't about what they offer "their Marksmen" it's about what they offer their team.
She can harass through minion waves. My entire argument revolves around the facct that she shits dmg for low cost.
And I literally said she doesn't fall off incredibly hard on a support's budget. I said that in the starting post.
DrDiaga1 votesRead my edit for more info. And yes its half what they offer their marksmen. That is the foundation for the rest of their game.
If the ADC is stuck under tower scraping for cs, you aren't helping them, and you both get behind, and then your team has two people behind.
And I find it impossible she doesn't fall behind on a support budget. Supports have bad income unless botlane rolls the enemy hard. Just because you said the opposite doesn't make it true.
Read my edit about her poke.
And again play 5 in a row and post your results.
Tobias Brackner1 votesHer poke is pretty bad. Its base damage is low, and scales off her ad. For the first level or two, it will do alright damage
Her poke does really good dmg since it scales w/ her total AD. It only drops off when they start gettin 2 items and even then it's gonna be just the people buy health/resistances. Also I adddressed your comment about items in my original post, please read it again if you missed it.
I find your talk about her ult to be very strange. The things you describe are true even for lane Illaoi. You make it sound like supp Illaoi is gonna fish for the ult. Your ccomments are like complaining about Morgana's ult, saying that it would be too hard to land on ranged champs.
Her Q is just about as easy to avoid as lux snare.
while you take their ranged harass.
wut
DrDiaga1 votesYeah but you aren't going to be able to afford to keep that ad climbing as much as you would in top lane.
And the difference with her ult top, is generally you are against a melee who is trying to fight you hence easier to land your ult. Plus they are getting in melee range of minions. Bot lane they are even farther away and when you are even ult they can leave that zone, which is the counterplay to her ult, and still fight. Not to mention top lane doesn't have a support with heal shields and peel getting you off their ADC.
And when Jung ganks your ult, even if you nail it on all three, which is much more difficult then it sounds, won't help when they focus and blow up your ADC since you can't peel, then they will turn around and finish you off. You are especially fucked with pre 6 ganks.
And lul whut is an ignorant reply to my point. To even be in range of the ADC for Q's or soul snares especially with minions around, you are going to have to be right up in that minion front line. If I was ADC I would poke the shit out of you and dodge the majority of your Q's. As an illoi player I am even more familiar with her timing and would have no trouble dodging most her stuff, and would be returning a ton of poke on her, and I'm sure any decent ADC would as well.
And all this is ignoring their sup as well. As sup mages are pretty popular these days you will be hurting. Like if their sup is zyra, you are totally useless.
Tobias Brackner1 votesYeah but you aren't going to be able to afford to keep that ad climbing as much as you would in top lane.
I literally discuss this topic of her AD on supp gold in my original comment. Not gonna lie, it's like you didn't even read the post.
And the difference with her ult top, is generally you are against a melee who is trying to fight you hence easier to land your ult.
The one Tentaccle she'd get from her ult would make it not even worth it. For the dmg to be really crazy (and imo worth it) is to have a tentaccle already nearby and hit their soul w/ the ult. This playstyle is preserved with her as supp.
And the difference with her ult top, is generally you are against a melee who is trying to fight you hence easier to land your ult.
I said "wut" cuz it seemed that your argument revolved around this idea that you would be wallowing in the frontlines eating harass. This made so little sense the only way I could respond is "wut" because it's like you are ignoring all of the melee supps already in the game.
As for your mis-informed comment about the range on her tentacles. 850 on slam and 900 on grab. Caitlin has 650 range.
won't help when they focus and blow up your ADC since you can't peel
Another strange comment from you. It's like you are ignoring the Marksman's ability to self-peel and position properly to deny getting dove upon (and that's not to mention the peel from your teammates.)