League of Legends Illaoi Champion Review
Illaoi, the Kraken Priestess, has been making some waves recently since her release back in November. Although her win rate isn’t all that impressive statistically speaking, that can be pinned moreso on players not knowing how to properly utilize her strengths rather than the champion being mechanically weak. Illaoi is actually quite strong and if played properly, can even feel OP to opponents she ravages.
I like Illaoi and not just because of her unusual gameplay mechanics. I’m probably the furthest thing from a feminist there is, but it’s nice to see a female champion that doesn’t simply have a perfect figure and huge breasts. Illaoi also has intriguing lore. She’s the priestess of a deity known as Nagakabouros who is the Serpent Isles’ “god of life.” So basically you have a god fighting alongside you whenever you play as Illaoi.
Abilities
Illaoi’s passive is called Prophet of the Elder God. Every 20 to 12 seconds, depending on champion level, Illaoi spawns a ghostly Tentacle on a nearby wall. Tentacles themselves don’t do anything which is actually somewhat disappointing. Instead, whenever Illaoi hits an enemy champion with either Harsh Lesson or Test of Spirit, any Tentacles in range of the enemy champion hit will also attack for some huge physical damage. Additionally, Tentacles will automatically attack enemy Vessels that wander within their range, but only once per Tentacle. Tentacles last for one minute and disappear if Illaoi strays too far from them.
Her Q is called Tentacle Smash. This is the ability that you’ll want to learn first because of its usefulness, but also to level last. Tentacle Smash has two parts, a passive and an active. The passive part of the ability is that anytime a Tentacle hits an enemy (including those from Prophet of the Elder God and from using Tentacle Smash); Illaoi is healed for five percent of her missing health for every enemy champion hit. This gives Illaoi a surprising amount of sustainability, especially in team fights where her Tentacles and abilities are hitting multiple enemies at once. Just when you think you’re about to finish Illaoi off, her health pops back up just far enough that she survives what you expected to be the final blow of your combo. Leveling up Tentacle Smash does not increase the healing effect from the passive portion, but it DOES add extra damage based to Tentacles based on a percentage of her attack damage.
The active part of Tentacle Smash is a skillshot that sends a Tentacle out in target direction. This Tentacle deals damage and heals Illaoi just like any other Tentacle hit would, only it’s an area of effect ability that can hit multiple enemies. The reason you want to learn Tentacle Smash first is because the activated portion can be used to harass foes from a distance.
Illaoi’s W is called Harsh Lesson. Activating Harsh lesson empowers Illaoi’s next basic attack with bonus range, bonus attack damage, and enables her to dash to the target. As mentioned previously, Harsh Lesson combos with her passive nicely because whenever you hit an enemy champion with a Harsh Lesson-empowered attack, all Tentacles within range will also lash out. It’s like simultaneously scoring multiple basic attacks. Because enemy champions CAN kill your Tentacles by attacking them, one of the main ways to use Harsh Lesson is to bait an enemy into coming near the Tentacles then using it to punish them (thus why it was named Harsh Lesson – you’re teaching them a hard, hard lesson).
Harsh Lesson is Illaoi’s bread and butter ability because it’s the main ability which spurs her Tentacles into action. You’ll want to learn it second and then level it up first so as to reduce its cooldown so you can have it ready at a moment’s notice. Make sure you use it to protect your Tentacles whenever possible. You want to keep as many Tentacles on the battlefield around you as you can.
Test of Spirit is Illaoi’s E and perhaps her most controversial ability. The way it works is that she sends out a “tendril” in a line toward a target location that stops when it hits an enemy unit. If the enemy it hits is a champion, it pulls their spirit out of their body and to Illaoi (if it hits a minion, nothing happens). The spirit cannot move or do anything, except be damaged by Illaoi and her allies. A portion of the damage dealt to the spirit is transferred to the actual enemy champion which means she can kill you without actually hitting you. The portion ranges from 25% at lowest level to 45% at max, plus an additional 8% per 100 AD Illaoi has. The reason this ability is so controversial is that it feels like it lasts forever (10 seconds) and there’s no way to counter it (except for dodging the tendril of course). Once pulled, you’re basically boned. Although you can reduce the time the spirit lasts by attacking Illaoi, most of the time this won’t be possible without suiciding and you’re just going to end up retreating. One thing some players tend not to realize is that if you are standing next to your own spirit, AoE abilities will hit you TWICE.
If you retreat far enough away, you can break the tether to your spirit, but doing so slows you by 80% for a few seconds and also makes you become a Vessel. Becoming a Vessel is a curse which causes THEM to spawn a tentacle nearby every 10 seconds for the next 60 seconds and since Tentacles will attack Vessels….
You can free yourself from the curse by killing three Tentacles or by killing Illaoi. Or you could always just survive the 60 seconds of Tentacles.
Players hate Test of Spirit because if they get caught with it, they can wind up getting killed without actually being able to do anything if Illaoi and a few allies deal enough damage to the spirit. If just seems like an unearned death and one that you couldn’t prevent because you can’t be expected to dodge tendrils ALL the time. Regardless, learn and level Test of Spirit last.
Test of Spirit is strongest when you have a couple teammates with you. If you pull someone’s soul when you’re facing them one on one, it might end up being detrimental to you to attack it. One on one, they will likely just dive in at you to attack you while you attack their soul, but since only a certain percentage of what you deal to the soul transfers over to them personally, you’d come out on the losing end. You could always pull a spirit through a wall through, for some cheap damage.
Illaoi’s ultimate, Leap of Faith, is truly devastating in team fights. She smashes the ground dealing some respectable physical damage to all enemies around her. She also spawns a Tentacle for each enemy champion hit, and the Tentacles swing much faster than normally. Additionally, Harsh Lesson’s cooldown is reduced to a mere two seconds for the next eight seconds. This is the true strength of Leap of Faith. Illaoi can then repeatedly teach Harsh Lessons to enemy champions, and single handedly turn the tides of a team fight. Don’t forget, every time a Tentacle hits an enemy Illaoi will heal for five percent of her missing health. So a well executed Leap of Faith and subsequent Harsh Lessons can deal tons of damage to enemies while also healing her repeatedly. In some cases, even the enemy team all focusing Illaoi won’t bring her down.
Items
Illaoi’s abilities scale with AD but she is also pretty tanky so you’ll want to build a combination of items and keep her well rounded. Most Illaoi item builds use both The Black Cleaver for damage as well as Spirit Visage to amplify the healing effect of Tentacle hits. Sterak’s Gage is also another “must buy” item for Illaoi. As I pointed out in the paragraph about her ultimate, teams will generally try to focus her in group fights. This’ll help activate Sterak’s Gage and going into Primal Rage, plus boosted Tentacle healing from a Spirit Visage can really make her hard to kill. I also personally like Frozen Mallet and Titanic Hydra on her as well.
Conclusion
Illaoi is a strong champion that can both be really frustrating to play against as well as to play. She’s good at pushing lanes and is mainly played solo top or sometimes in mid lane. Her true strength comes in the second half of the game during team fights, however. That being said, Illaoi is very unique and can be hard to play. Her difficulty rating of four doesn’t seem very accurate. Yes she deals a lot of damage and can take a lot as well, but she needs to be played properly and skillfully in order to do that. Engagements have to be specifically planned. Simply bumbling around randomly and hoping for your Tentacles to do all the work for you isn’t going to cut it. Illaoi is weak against champions with high mobility because she herself lacks it. She has no escapes and Harsh Lesson isn’t really a gap closer either since the dash range is so small.
Illaoi is one of those champions that you might want to try out before you drop 6,300 IP/975 RP on. You’ll either really like using her like I do or feel like she’s too hard to play and never use her at all.
