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Recommended Items
Runes: Standard Grasp
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor
Spells:
Flash
Teleport
Items
Ability Order
Prophet of an Elder God (PASSIVE)
Illaoi Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Heimerdinger
Dealing with Heimer's turrets can be very difficult. Those turrets hurt early game. Your best option is to play passive and try and farm under tower. Even ganks can be risky because heim has strong 1v2 potential. It depends on who your jungler is, as Illaoi you don't bring any hard cc to the table, and you don't have much of a gap closer either. In theory, you can dominate the lane if you can kill turrets as he tries to set up, but you'll be oom before you know it.
Introduction

Hello all, another guide by Smartest2. I've played Illaoi in low-mid diamond level and found that Illaoi is a BROKEN champion, if played properly. After thousands of games on Jayce, I didn't even hesitate switching to Illaoi as my top laner after a couple games.
The carry potential of Illaoi is one of the highest in the game. There will come a point where you enter RAID BOSS mode if you can get the items.
Please ask questions on anything you need help with and I'll be more than happy to provide some feedback.

You guys asked, I listened!
I have put up my first video talking through the lane phase of Illaoi. There's so much information I want to pass on to you all and it's much quicker to give that information through a video. Quality might be scuffed as it's my very first video but let me know what you guys think! More videos coming in the future!

Pros
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Cons
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There are two combos to learn:

Combo 2:
Test of Spirit +
Leap of Faith (E + R)

The first one is to use




This combo is especially great for 1v1 situations, as it helps you deal extra damage and heal for extra amount with the additional tentacle. Normally a 2 tentacle ult will win you any 1v1. It comes in handy when you're in a 1v2 situation as well. If you can get a 3 man ult (2 + ghost), you have a pretty good chance of winning the 1v2.

Combo 2:
Leap of Faith +
Flash (R + Flash)

The second combo takes a lot of quick thinking. First we will need to cover some background information on how

Animation: Illaoi's ult has a two-part animation. In the first half, she jumps up into the air, preparing to slam down onto the ground.
The second half is when she starts falling from the air to slam to the ground. Between her ascending and descending animation, there is a brief pause where she is suspended mid-air (half a second at the most).
During this suspended state you are able to flash before you slam on the ground. This works similar to Shen's

When to use this combo: This one requires prep or quick thinking. Typically you'll want to use this as a teamfight breaks out. You want to try and LAND in their backline, hitting 2-4 champs. As soon as you land, your priority target will most likely be the enemy team's ADC. If timed well, this is a fight changing combo.

Passive - Prophet of an Elder God
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![]() These tentacles will attack enemies under certain conditions (if ![]() ![]() Continuing to spawn tentacles whenever possible, and preventing the enemy laner from killing your tentacles is a vital component in mastering Illaoi. It can be a little tricky learning to play around the cooldown, but after a couple games it'll become second nature. |

Q - Tentacle Smash
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![]() ![]() ![]() The reason we max ![]() ![]() Landing ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |

W - Harsh Lesson
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E - Test of Spirit (This is a long one)
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![]() A percentage of the damage taken by the spirit is transferred to the tethered enemy champion, 25/30/35/40/45% (+ 8% per 100 AD). Any tentacles in range of the pulled spirit will attack the spirit. If the spirit is killed before the enemy champion leaves the tether radius, they will immediately be turned into a vessel for 12 seconds. An enemy champion with the vessel effect is initially slowed by 80% for 1.5 seconds. Every 5/4/3 seconds (champion levels 1/7/13), a tentacle will spawn near the vessel and slam in the direction of the enemy champion. In fact, each tentacle that is within the range of the enemy will attack the vessel before going on a 10cd, which means that the same tentacle can attack the vessel twice if the tentacle isn't killed and the vessel stays near the tentacle. NOTE: ILLAOI E DOES NOT DEAL ANY DAMAGE ON IMPACT! IT ONLY PULLS A SPIRIT FROM AN ENEMY CHAMPION! |

R - Leap of Faith
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![]() What does this all mean? This means, you get close to enemies, you push r to try and hit as many enemies as possible = spirit (max of 5 tentacles can be spawned from ult), and then you spam w. Goodbye enemy team. Short and sweet. |


Let's take some time to discuss this ability sequence in detail by looking at different stages of the game. This ability sequence is fairly standard, but for any new









Positioning

When looking to land E on an enemy, positioning plays a vital role. You want to make sure that when you land E, you have at least one tentacle in slam range. It won't do you a lot of good to land your E if you aren't able to deal have damage to the spirit. Try and play around a tentacle when you look to land an e, and make sure to watch for enemy minions.

Best Combo to Kill a Spirit

Okay, you landed your E, you have the enemy's spirit in front of you, and you're close to a tentacle.... now what? The second you land your e, w the spirit. If your tentacle hasn't slammed onto the spirit yet, it'll queue another slam, causing 2 back to back slams. You want to take advantage of animation cancelling whenever you can, on any champion you play. This usually means weaving in auto attacks whenever possible.
So theoretically your combo would be:
E > AA > W > A > Q > AA > W > AA/W until spirit is dead or enemy champion walks out of tether range.
This combo will take some practice to become second nature, but you will get the hang of it pretty quick.

Ahhhh The Enemy is Running At Me After I Landed E!!

Some enemies don't want to take free damage from us attacking the spirit, and will try and fight you (usually this will only happen pre 6).
What you want to do in this situation is to use your Q (


However if they decide to commit and try and fight you, you'll need to gauge how quickly you can kill the spirit.
If you can kill the spirit quickly, you should be able to chase down the enemy and get a kill, since tentacles will be attacking them as they move as well, increasing your total damage output.
If you CAN'T kill the spirit in time (usually the case vs


Vs matchups like this, you're usually better off either:
- Only harassing with
Tentacle Smash instead.
- Waiting until you get additional points into
Test of Spirit.
- Waiting until you get additional damage (either through skill ups, or items) that will allow you to kill the spirit faster.

Tips and Tricks

Tip #1:
Pop a dosage of yourCorrupting Potion when you land
Test of Spirit. Each time you hit the spirit it'll apply/re-apply the burn effect of
Corrupting Potion. Every little bit of damage helps.
Tip #2:
An easy way to landTest of Spirit is to cast it when the enemy laner comes to last hit a minion. They will be animation locked and won't be able to dodge the e (or they give up the gold from the minion).
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