Illaoi needs a major nerf

56552559_DEL·11/25/2015, 6:48:58 PM·21 votes·5,116 views

I just got done playing with 2 Illaois. I was playing a tank in the top lane and had to face an Illaoi and holy shit is she OP. There is literally NO way to defend against her E. If you walk out of the circle, you get the full effect, if you stay in the circle, you still get the full effect and you CANNOT defend against it or cancel it unless you kill her.

She scales way too fast with health and damage and does an insane amount of damage in the early game. And I even played WITH someone using her on my team who agreed that she is OP.

Way to go Riot for making the AD version of Teemo.

44 Comments

Boxpencil11/26/2015, 6:12:53 AM6 votes

Her ult destroyed me and my illaoi and my blitz in a 3v1 at blue buff, guess what?

Our illaoi won her lane against the other illaoi. I don't know how she even did 1720 physical damage to me, but it happened. She does tons of damage,

Niyumi11/26/2015, 1:29:24 AM6 votes

You know, Illaoi even tells you (in her VO) how to beat her: "MOVE!"

Seriously. The people in this game cry SO MUCH about everything. Literally every single ability of Illaoi's can be dodged or avoided by, you guessed it, moving!

She uses Q? Side step. It has a VERY readable animation, and even shows you where it'll do damage. So, like, move!
She hit you with W? You let her get too close. (Seriously, it gives her an AA range of Tahm for ONE ATTACK, so why not try moving?
You got hit by E? Sidestep more, and keep minions between you (Gee, like, you know, every champion with a hook). Or, in other words, move!
You got hit by her R? Why'd you get that close to her? If you just MOVE, you don't get hit by her!

Against a somewhat intelligent person, Illaoi has a VERY rough time. Against people who have no clue and don't want to try, but instead cry to Riot for nerfs, she does amazing. She has zero mobility, zero CC (outside of a slow that's VERY situational), zero gap closers, nothing. She has to literally walk up to you to do anything. So, if you MOVE, you never take damage from her. Hard concept, I know.

Treat her tentacles like Heimer turrets: Clear them if you can, avoid them if not. Half of Illaoi's damage comes from her tentacles smacking you, and all of her sustain depends on a tentacle hitting a champion -- if her tentacles don't hit you, guess what? You take much less damage, and she doesn't heal herself.

So, please, just shut up and actually try putting in some effort and thinking for a change -- you might just beat Illaoi then.

TL;DR: How to counter Illaoi (and she even tells you in her VO): MOVE!

Edit: By the way, did I mention to move?

BattleOxe11/25/2015, 7:01:07 PM6 votes

You can cancel her E by killing existing tentacles. But yeah she has a lot of DMG and lots of free heal, But she is relian on others people engage, and she doesn't really have a fallow up. So, unless you engage on her, she won't be that dangerous. Also, champs who can clear tentacles safely will destroy her in lane. But like every other new champ, she needs some toning

MasterSomething11/25/2015, 6:49:26 PM5 votes

You DO realize you can, I dunno... DODGE the spell? Or, alternatively, ATTACK HER?

Ralanr11/25/2015, 6:57:20 PM4 votes

You can destroy her tentacles. In fact if you get debuffed then you need to destroy three.

Neugierineko12/5/2015, 11:53:32 PM3 votes

I love all those people bitching about how you can "easily" counterplay Illaoi. OF COURSE I can 100% concentrate on eliminating those tentacles which appear every few seconds, sidestep each one of her abilities as they are predictable, always draw back if she comes near me under any circumstances and COMPLETELY focus my item build on countering her. Guess what? THAT'S STILL NOT BALANCED!!! You know what happens then? She gains complete territorial domination over her lane, you miss out on a shitload of CS and EXP, you start tower-hugging (where she eventually kills you nevertheless because of her incredible tentacle spawn range, ultimate, and heal). It's ridiculous. Been there, done that. I watched myself and other much more skilled toplaners just crumble at her hands. All the kiting and evading her abilities in the world and a healthy balance between tanky and offensive items on Gnar didn't even scratch her, and I've dominated my share of Rengars, Maokais, Irelias, Rivens and what not on top. But put that aside. Her cooldowns are too low, her damage and tankiness too high. You simply can't deny the fact that currently, she has a little bit too much of just everything. Make the tentacles spawn less often in a closer radius, tone down her offensive stats, remove her heal (just so she is really forced to actually buy items providing health-regen), notch down her E (because, let's be honest: this IS a second ultimate with a sweet low cd). Right now she can easily buy solely offensive items without having to worry about defensive stats, and she should be urged to decide: dish out some nice dmg but be prepared to get your ass whooped or annoy the hell out of the enemy team but at the expense of not being able to single-handedly kill 3 or 4 enemy champs. Right now, she's got both.

Longfellow Grimm12/4/2015, 9:35:59 PM3 votes

Illaoi needs her spells taken down a peg or two big time. She's totally unbalanced. Her tentacles spawn way too far ahead of her position and are untargetable by turrets so she can get free damage on you behind turret. THAT IS TOTALLY BROKEN

In addition that ult is ridiculously overpowered. I just played a game with an Illaoi who was out of position. My team had twice the kills at about 25 to their 12 (ish). Four of my team came down on her and she killed three of us and survived the fight long enough for her team to back her up about 7-10 seconds after the 4v1 started.

Cut her down!

Longfellow Grimm12/4/2015, 9:48:16 PM3 votes

The tentacles have such a low cooldown how do you even offer that solution with a straight face?

I main Heimerdinger - His turrets do similar damage to Illaoi tentacles

BUT guess what... if my turrets go down I have to wait 20 seconds PER TURRET for them to be placed again

Not to mention!

They are targeted - NOT PASSIVE

They have a casting range of 450 units

ILLAOI on the other hand has a passive casting range of... I don't know can't find the exact numbers but it is somewhere in the range of 1500 units I would estimate

And with a static cooldown of 12 seconds they are back up as soon as you knock them down.

Bad form all of you with your terrible arguments - Lazy answers don't solve problems in this game.

NazZomLord11/25/2015, 7:23:15 PM3 votes

item 1001 And take a small side step, keep a minion between you and her to dodge the E. -_- cry some more

Deaeras11/26/2015, 1:55:15 AM2 votes

Treat her like Renekton, then she's not so OP.

The Loveless11/25/2015, 7:25:39 PM2 votes

Lol she's like katarina. No tank steroids + no on demand cc = all damage. Her moves are slow enough that I have 1v1d her as Naut.

Also if you get your soul pulled, why run? Is it 1v1 or not? Because in a 1v1 I would orb walk to make her split damage on me and my soul, wasting her time.

Puynsi11/25/2015, 7:50:45 PM2 votes

She needs her tentacles spawn rate nerfed, she comes into lane, spawns 3 of them and as soon you destoy it another one spawns, the damage of the tentacles is kinda strong, but her spawn rate is bs.

Hybrid11/25/2015, 9:06:24 PM2 votes

Big bravo to Rito for this TahmKench and this Illaoi

Stella Ex Amore11/26/2015, 12:25:03 AM2 votes

Illaoi is probably the most toxic champion in the game at this moment. Yes, even surpassing Yasuo and Tryndamere crit-heals. Try playing against her as an ADC or Support, bot lane. She can take so much control over the lane that it makes cs near impossible, god-forbid she ever decides to use her ult on you. She is a monster 1v1. 2v2 is out of control. Illaoi has made the game unenjoyable to play.

Oh wait. Before I get a response that says something like, "Oh come on man, just kill the tentacles, that's counterplay". No. No it is not. Her kit is far overtuned and verges on broken when used well. The tentacles spawn rates are way too fast to be dealt with in high intensity situations. She is wrecking every lane (including jungle) from Gold to Diamond, often requiring constant camping from the opposing jungler just to keep her in check. And no, ganking her doesn't often work out in the enemy's favor, either. Bjergsen on his TSM stream last night could barely handle (with constant camping from jungler) Illaoi mid.

Meep Man11/26/2015, 1:41:31 AM2 votes

Kill her tentacles and then dodge her E. Boom, you just beat Illaoi because all of her other forms of damage are crap.

The Bearded Bard12/5/2015, 7:32:50 AM2 votes

#dodgetheskillshot

Forreal I don't see the big deal about her. Clunky telegraphed abilities that are just asking to be avoided.

Doctor Jarvis4/10/2016, 9:01:26 PM1 votes

Honestly, I think she's fine except for a few select things. My first issue is that her E is such bullshit. Yeah, you can dodge it, but if you actually dodge every single one you're not playing against a good enough Illaoi to complain. And then, when she does hit you, there's nothing you can do. As you said, run far enough away and you're fucked. If you try to fight her (because she has your soul for less duration every time you auto attack her) you just end up taking double damage from her tentacles, and if you stay in her range without fighting her she gets free damage and you'll probably be a vessel anyway. Every option is a trap. And then, even if you manage to get ahead enough to evade that trap, she has an absurd heal passively which, combined with and scaling with her ult, give her so much sustain in the middle of team fights that it doesn't matter how behind she is.

Ultîma11/26/2015, 1:20:53 AM1 votes

Okay, maybe I'm crazy but isn't the tell on her Q quite long? As in long enough you can just walk out of it if you're paying attention? Same goes for her tentacles if you become a vessel - they have a pretty obvious particle telling the player where they're going to spawn before attacking. Her passive has a pretty lengthy cooldown, meaning she can't realistically cover a lane in elder god appendages if her opponent has any presence of mind to clear them out.

Meth Cooker12/7/2015, 12:12:40 AM1 votes

regardless that she is "easy" to dodge and slow, it is too easy for her to get back into the game when behind, one ult in a teamfight can easily give you a triple and you are getting healed each time a tentacle hits another player. I think that her tentacle damage needs to be lowered, it does the same as her q and should do 75% or 50%.

elongatedpinklip12/14/2015, 8:50:32 PM1 votes

report every illaoi you come across people will be forced not to play her or riot will simply be forced to nerf her either way you win

Frenzy6912/16/2015, 7:01:08 PM1 votes

she really needs a nerf...please riot...

Aezanthya2/2/2016, 9:26:22 AM1 votes

Illaoi is useless.

If you feed her, it's your own fault.

EcchiOtakuTM12/4/2015, 10:59:17 PM1 votes

First and foremost the main problem is, you're new to facing her. Once you get the hang of it through practice you'll see how easy she is to beat like surprisingly even non plat+ are.

Passive- lower tentacles to 1 hp then before you're about to take on illaoi kill them all

Q- dodge

W- when you're hit by it focus on dodging the tentacles

E- dodge, if you're hit by it fight her without taking a q hit until your spirit disappears, If you don't think you're able to just run out of range and dodge tentacles that spawn until you kill 3 of them(Lowering all tentacles to 1 hp also helps with this)

R- Respect her ulti it has power and just walk away until it's done

Advance Tips- buy shoes and an executioner's calling, and during her w and r mid-leap if you cc her it interrupts both putting them on full CD which can make illaoi cry.