Give Illaoi Some Love!

To put it simply, I think in order for Illaoi to be more playable in the game at all, they should add a slow to her tentacle slams. Nothing massive, just a small slow, decaying over a second or two, that would help Illaoi keep her targets in range of her tentacles rather than how she currently is simply kited until she dies. And her is why I think so..

We all know Illaoi is a juggernaut and so she's not supposed to have a lot of mobility or cc, just a ton of damage if she can get in range. However, of all the juggernauts, Illaoi's cc is by far the least reliable, and she needs it the most. For example, Garen has a pretty decent engage and once he is in he can follow the target as he kills them with his spin-to-win. Darius just needs to get close enough to drag his targets in and then he can land a reliable full combo that should leave them at least near dead most of the time. Illaoi, though, has the problem that she doesn't only need to be able to get close to a target, she also needs the target to be in range of and stay in range of the tentacles she spawns on walls and with her ultimate for her damage and tankiness to be reliable.

Because of this, the main thing I would like to suggest is that some extra cc be added to her kit. Her e is rather difficult to proc and gives the target plenty of time to either build up distance between them or fight her and reduce the spirit's time. I believe a small slow would help alleviate her troubles by making it harder for enemies to escape her domain, so to speak. The slow wouldn't be very strong, probably no more than 20%. In order to make it stronger, targets hit by several slams could take an additional 50% of that slow per each strike (so, for example, a person hit by four tentacles would be slowed by about 50%). This would make it more important for Illaoi to land multiple tentacles, and it would also mean that in a team fight her slows would be strongest on her target, who would generally be struck by the largest number of slams. Also, in order to make her more useful as cc, striking the ghost could provide another slow, stacking separately, that is somewhat weaker. Of course, since Illaoi has access to tentacle slams so often and in so many ways, making the slow decay helps to keep it from crippling the enemy team beyond belief, and also makes it less of a struggle to fight in lane. This way, teams can still rely on kiting and cc to shut her down like any juggernaut, she would just have something to help her keep her targets in range. In fact, Illaoi could start the game with the slow decaying over only about a half second or so, and have the decay time increase by maybe a second as she reaches level 18. This way, Illaoi's lane bullying isn't incredibly affected by these changes, and her presence in the later portions of the game is improved. Finally, in order to make her initiation a tad stronger and more reliable, this weak slow could be spread to her ultimate. This way, rather than everyone splitting the instant she ults, the targets it hits might be forced to stick around just long enough for Illaoi to make her time useful.

Now, admittedly as it is now I believe this could make Illaoi a bit too strong. For this reason, a few nerfs to her current kit may be necessary. Arguably, she is currently balanced around being able to fight only occasionally, and as a result has a lot of power built in for those situations. With the added slows, she may be more reliable in more situations, and her incredible damage would be too much. For this reason, I believe that her tentacle slam damage should be reduced somewhat. Specifically, I would say to reduce her base damage by one or two per level, and to reduce the damage increase on her q by around 5% at all levels. Illaoi's damage scaling insures that her slams should still be pretty devastating, and the added slow should allow her to land many more of them, so I would not call this a huge nerf. Also, with the added slows, if they were to affect the spirits she pulls out with her e, the slow applied to the unfortunate champion connected to it when it dies would probably have to be reduced. Illaoi would get plenty of slows as she kills it, and the tentacles it summons could apply extra slows.

And so, that is my suggestion. However, in addition, there are a few other quality of life changes I would like to suggest. Firstly, Illaoi's q tentacle slam should have its strike speed increased when she ults. Maintaining the same slow swing wastes a lot of time during her ult when she wants to land those tentacle slams on everyone. And also, while she ults, her w's cooldown should be reduced by cooldown reduction even after falling to two seconds. this would make ultimate Illaoi better at sticking to her targets, and it ensures that all the cooldown reduction you purchase actually has value at all points. You cannot argue that this cooldown is set in stone so that a tank version can get good use out of it anyway, because most tank items give cooldown reduction, and Illaoi is sorta a terrible tank anyway (although more slows would make her better). If the cooldown is too low, then the base amount could be increased. Instead of two seconds, it could be 2.5 seconds. Or even, each level of the ultimate could lower the amount, from 3 to 2.5 to 2 for example.

That is all I have to say. You are welcome to discuss this. Any suggestions for Illaoi, or arguments to debate