Back when Bard came out and some weeks/ months after, I thought to myself

Penns·Dec 7, 2015·3 votes·611 views

"Nice, Im about to get a free win" if my enemies picked him.

And Illaoi is literally the same atm lol I dont know whats so good about her? Someone enlighten me?

20 Comments

EcchiOtakuTMDec 7, 20153 votes

Players refuse to outplay her easy to counter kit (Moving, Executioner) and just want to whine to riot about nerfing a horrible(Great design and lore) champion who has no merit to provide to a team outside of a clusterf- fight where the enemy lets her ulti 3 members of the team.

Seriously wish the playerbase would stop complaining if they can't even do the basics of positioning.

RalanrDec 7, 20151 votes

As much as I hate fighting her in teamfights, you're on the ball.

XonraDec 7, 20152 votes

{quoted}

Players refuse to outplay her easy to counter kit (Moving, Executioner) and just want to whine to riot about nerfing a horrible(Great design and lore) champion who has no merit to provide to a team outside of a clusterf- fight where the enemy lets her ulti 3 members of the team.

Seriously wish the playerbase would stop complaining if they can't even do the basics of positioning.

Sadly, your last few words are 100% the problem with Illaoi; you don't need to counter the champ, or super outplay...just have not terrible positioning and she is countered. Her E is very easy to dodge, her Q is telegraphed, and without her catching 4-5 people out with a flash ult, her ult isn't actually great if say, it hits only 1 person (especially if she has no tentacles set up prior to ulting).

XonraDec 7, 20152 votes

PRoblem isn't that she is bad as much as she has a LOT of counterplay compared to most champions. Her power is far too specific and niche, and her weaknesses are like a grocery shopping list.

If you can play her well, she can outplay very hard.....in very specific situations IF you are set up around your tentacles, or have multiple man ults and don't die afterwards. If you don't meet the mentioned criteria, then you will get pooped on, especially in team fights. She is pretty good 1v1 with some matchups If the enemy doesn't play super aggressive. If you are against Renekton, Fiora, or any of the currently popular top laners in solo queue, she will get pushed in, and out of range of her own tentacles.

It isn't an auto win or anything, but Riot seems to have focused a bit too hard on her shtick, and didn't really think too far into what happens if even a single part of it doesn't match up. The higher you go in ranked as well with higher skilled players, the easier she is to counter just by playing around her, and less about it mattering what champion you pick.

she is supposed to be a bruiser/juggernaut, but she is much less tanky with too much focus being put on her tentacles healing her (which is easy to negate by just killing them, which yes, is rather easy), and her damage is decent, but still less than say, Renekton with more tools and mobility. She doesn't really fill her spot very well, and she is about one bad month away from being a (at best) B tier support, as she will be pushed out of top lane very soon, as people in mid to high diamond and above already are saying how useless she is past laning phase, and easily countered in lane and giving up on her. (The amount of streamers I see straight up making fun of her as a champ is kind of depressing, but I guess it counteracts how ridiculous Tahm Kench is :P)

ProfDrDeathDec 7, 20151 votes

I honestly want to hold my opinion on Illaoi for now. To me, it looks like she has a lot of counterplay that is easy enough to grasp, but punishing if she is not properly played around.

On the other hand, remember release Orianna/Lee Sin/Yasuo? Especially Orianna, since she also has more than one unit to manipulate? I don't think that we have yet seen Illaoi being played to her full potential.

I wonder what would happen if Riot added a few AP ratios to her. Nothing major, not shifting her playstyle towards AP, but rather, add a bit of AP ratios that increase the physical damage. Just so she can build AP items at all.

XonraDec 7, 20151 votes

{quoted}

I honestly want to hold my opinion on Illaoi for now. To me, it looks like she has a lot of counterplay that is easy enough to grasp, but punishing if she is not properly played around.

On the other hand, remember release Orianna/Lee Sin/Yasuo? Especially Orianna, since she also has more than one unit to manipulate? I don't think that we have yet seen Illaoi being played to her full potential.

I wonder what would happen if Riot added a few AP ratios to her. Nothing major, not shifting her playstyle towards AP, but rather, add a bit of AP ratios that increase the physical damage. Just so she can build AP items at all.

I think the difference between the champions you named, and Illaoi, is the actual depth of character.

Oriana has full control of the manipulation of her ball, as well as being able to combo it with others like putting it on malphite for the "ball delivery system" and so on. There is a lot of surface depth, and real depth to playing her at low and higher levels.
Lee Sin has a lot of ability to outplay with his kit that is hard to see on the surface, but it has a lot of depth to it that takes a lot of skill realistically to pull off fully.
Yasuo I think is more towards the Illaoi side of "depth" as his stuff is pretty obvious, just not as easy to pull off, but he has more very blunt tools so to speak to just whack you over the head with (free crit all over the place for example and synergizes well with so many champions).

Illaoi however isn't actually very deep, concept wise. Her skills are very obvious, as is her power. She has no direct synergy outside of what other champs would have with the same champs. She needs to play around her tentacles, and everything is that. No other champion puts down tentacles, so no synergy there, her ult is just, put down even more tentacles, and spam W to make them hit people. It LOOKS like a lot going on, but realistically, she has a very shallow playstyle, that when you dig deeper into it, is very easy to counter because when she has to play around her kit to succeed, that makes it easier for others to simply do the same and play away from her strengths, and her whole shtick falls apart very quickly the further from laning phase you get.

JbelsDec 7, 20151 votes

Well the idea that there's a champion who single-handedly ensures teamfights assuming she can get five people into a relatively large AOE circle and then proceed to just beat their faces in with raw damage is pretty cool to me, atleast

PennsDec 7, 20152 votes

Yeah assuming you get into 5 people without dying

JbelsDec 7, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Yeah assuming you get into 5 people without dying

Well, there IS righteous Glory

BeldairDec 7, 20151 votes

There is Kalista too XD

XonraDec 7, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Well the idea that there's a champion who single-handedly ensures teamfights assuming she can get five people into a relatively large AOE circle and then proceed to just beat their faces in with raw damage is pretty cool to me, atleast

She is actually not that great in team fights. If she doesn't get a perfect ult, then she has nothing else, unless you are for some reason fighting where she set up all her tentacles. If she has none, then that actually negates a lot of her assumed damage that takes up her power budget. It is obvious her kit is meant to play around her getting at least two tentacles set up for her W, and if you haven't put your debuff thing on someone from your E, then that is even less power she has in a fight.

Otherwise, she is actually not very good in team fights, as you can just avoid everything she has as her abilities are telegraphed aside from her W (and reliant on her tentacles) and if her ult isn't up, then she is no threat at all in team fights realistically.

BeldairDec 7, 20151 votes

Fear the Bard. He can be a strong support. And a decent Illaoi can easily shut down an opposing player/team.

PennsDec 7, 20151 votes

Yeah thats why I wrote "after he came out". Now hes pretty good, still not top tier tho.

BeldairDec 7, 20151 votes

I have ppl rage on me having to roam or enemies getting caught in my ult.

XonraDec 7, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Fear the Bard. He can be a strong support. And a decent Illaoi can easily shut down an opposing player/team.

Bard for sure. A good bard can win lane and frustrates teams in team fights. A good Illaoi can at best hope she can flash and hit 5 people with an ult, or that the enemy gave her time to sit there for 45 seconds setting up tentacles, then run into that area.

A good Illaoi can do good things with the right circumstances (which is her main problem. Too reliant on the right circumstances and less on outplaying someone in team fights), but a decent most players can just avoid most of her stuff.

SasogwaDec 7, 20151 votes

I don't understand your thought process. Back in the times, you complained about Veigar pre-buffs, while he was even more unreliable than how Illaoi is now, and dealt way less damage. Now you say Illaoi is weak.

Oh, and if you want to know the problem with Illaoi, it's simple : insane damage. Insane. Unreliable, yes, but insane ; she has nothing to envy Darius or any other guy. Put that with an intelligent player that will try to deny you CS by launching his tentacles where you're gonna try to lasthit and you got a huge lanebully ; and in teamfights if played smart it has huge damage output on anyone that will try to go dive your backline ; or could participate in a wombo if the enemy team is CC'ed.

PennsDec 7, 20152 votes

Illaoi is weak because she gets kited like a mfo. Veigar is ranged and his bs ult is point and click.. Also his cage is impossible to dodge, so yeah.

Shes a lane bully, maybe even a bit "unfair" in lane since ganking her can hurt a lot, but so is Heimer. Seriously have u ever seen a Heimer on this patch with Thunderlords Decree? That shit hurts and u aint gank him without oneshotting him lol. But after laning phase, Illaoi got nothing. Like you just cant gank any lane because you wont have any tentacles there, you cant teamfight unless you get engaged on, you cant do anything. Why not just play Tahm or any other good tank/ bruiser top?

XonraDec 7, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Illaoi is weak because she gets kited like a mfo. Veigar is ranged and his bs ult is point and click.. Also his cage is impossible to dodge, so yeah.

Shes a lane bully, maybe even a bit "unfair" in lane since ganking her can hurt a lot, but so is Heimer. Seriously have u ever seen a Heimer on this patch with Thunderlords Decree? That shit hurts and u aint gank him without oneshotting him lol. But after laning phase, Illaoi got nothing. Like you just cant gank any lane because you wont have any tentacles there, you cant teamfight unless you get engaged on, you cant do anything. Why not just play Tahm or any other good tank/ bruiser top?

Think you hit the nail on the head. Annoying ish in lane, but offers nothing out of it, and can't roam at all or make tp plays because she can't do anything (as much) with no tentacles set up, as it is a lot of her damage. If you want to play someone for her "playstyle" as you said, why aren't you playing Tahm, or Renekton or something? Much more reliable, and both are far superior in team fights, and both great in laning phase.

XonraDec 7, 20151 votes

{quoted}

I don't understand your thought process. Back in the times, you complained about Veigar pre-buffs, while he was even more unreliable than how Illaoi is now, and dealt way less damage. Now you say Illaoi is weak.

Oh, and if you want to know the problem with Illaoi, it's simple : insane damage. Insane. Unreliable, yes, but insane ; she has nothing to envy Darius or any other guy. Put that with an intelligent player that will try to deny you CS by launching his tentacles where you're gonna try to lasthit and you got a huge lanebully ; and in teamfights if played smart it has huge damage output on anyone that will try to go dive your backline ; or could participate in a wombo if the enemy team is CC'ed.

Illaoi is decent in lane, but no lane bully, unless you play super passive. If you play aggressive on her then it is very easy to bully her. She doesn't have the best mana pool, so simply baiting out her Q a few times and you can easily win trades. In team fights, she isn't going to be doing anything insane unless the stars align for her, because if all of her boxes for her great circumstance aren't checked, she loses a lot of her power and becomes at best, an annoying sack of hit points to ignore.

DroogzyDec 7, 20151 votes

She reminds a lot of pre rework Darius, the biggest noob stomper in the game in lane, but come team fights, she's only powerful if you're stupid enough to let her.