Illaoi Rework: Making people play her

**Resume ** So Illa suffers from a variety of problems, firstly her concept is not very attractive to many people, she isn't pretty, she isn't cool, she isn't evil-ugly-cool, she's sorta like Kogmaw, she doesn't really hit any niches that people like. She may be a strong independent black brazillian woman who doesn't need no man, but again very few people find this cool or identify with it in the context of a fantasty/sci-fi fighting game.

Anyway, i'm not suggesting her concept be reworked, rather I have some suggestions how to make her more fun.

Problem 1 Lack of agency. She spawns tentacles, but they auto-hit when she uses her On-hit ability, why? There's an obvious opportunity to allow her Q to decide the direction of where her static tentacles should smash, this adds more player agency and also more skill; it becomes more satisfying to play her and those playing against her recognize the player's skill more. And that's what Illa is, a toplaner that actually requires a bit of skill ;-)

Problem 2 Her E debuff is not fun, not for Illa (unless you're toxic) and not for the player having to dodge / kill them. For the player it is super annoying and a bad mechanic, for Illa it is a process she has no control over, whatever it does, it was simply the computer doing it. It feels cheap and annoying for both the player and the enemy. Solution: See problem 1. Rework the debuff so that it will periodically spawn 1 tentacle, until 3 tentacles have been spawned total, which give Illa vision, and then she can with her Q try and hit the player. This way it's fun for the player, if he hits and kills a target, or zones, it feels satisfying because it is a skillshot. The enemy is also aware that it is the player hitting them, and not just the computer. Allowing only 3 tentacles to spawn total, also removes the irritating infinite tentacle spawn that just serves to slow you down and is just a toxic mechanic, because even if you're killing them you have to wait for them to spawn.

Problem 3 Her ult. Her ult is easy to play against, and again is super unsophisticated tons of damage, and again it has lack of agency. Solution, see problem 1&2:

Allow her ult to spawn the tentacles as it does now, but let Illa's Q decide where they hit. After one hit, they disappear. That way it feels meaningful to the player, and to the enemy. She has one chance to do lots of damage, she can actually aim it herself to achieve what she wants; AoE Damage / Killing a Carry / Zoning an assassin / whatever.

**tl;dr ** The problem with Illa is her concept and champion model, her slow and clunky mechanics, and most of all the lack of agency. Let all her static tentacles interaction happen through her Q, whatever direction she aims her Q, her static tentacles will fire in the same direction. This allows her to feel in control, and predict movement, rather than watching her enemies juke the computer controlled tentacle after firing her W.

Make her skill based, make her static tentacles, her E and her Ult all depend on her ability to aim and predict. So that she can become the toplaner this game needs: one with a higher skill cap, hitting skillshots, and thinking strategically.

Model Concepts And remember, if champions aren't pretty, cool, or evil-ugly-cool, very few people will play them. If you're gonna make an off-beat character like Illa, you better have a story behind it that makes her cool / interesting as hell. As it is right now she's just a super annoying self-righteous priestess running around "testing people" who would rather not. The whole thing, from concept, to lore, to execution, is just a do-over. I see what you were trying to do, but to make an off-beat concept like this work you can't half-ass it. It has to be sublime all the way through to make people like it.