Illaoi - The Kraken Priestess

Welcome to "Mental-cle Tentacle" (say what ?!)

Greetings, I am iBobb and I play in EU West. I've been playing League of Legends since 2010 with some breaks so I am quite experienced although not an obsessed player right now. I can see you are bold enough to try and take Illaoi jungling. This is my first guide so I hope it's useful for you and that it's easy to follow. If you enjoyed it in any way, lol, please vote and comment for opinions/suggestions. Anyway,I wish you good luck in your great non-toxic games.
- iBobb

Starting Items

x3

These are the regular starting items for most junglers. Now you have the option of going for a Refillable Potion instead of the Health Potion. However, as this champion is too slow, I believe, at least for the very start, you should buy 3 Health Potions

Stalker's Blade , but which one?

Warrior
If you want to go for the more aggressive play style and aren't worried about your sustain, why not go for this one.

Cinderhulk
A great option if you want to be more tanky and you like being annoying to others just by hanging around them. (Stop trying to be like )

MID-GAME Crisis

The Black Cleaver and Frozen Mallet together with Titanic Hydra are some of the best damage items you could build on this champion. They all also emphasize your tanky potential by providing extra health.

Randuin's Omen and Spirit Visage together with Dead Man's Plate are the defense you are looking for. I like the combination of Frozen Mallet with Randuin's Omen as they both help you slow enemies down when ganking, as you aren't lucky having dashes like good ol' master Lee

Final Buiild / Late Game

After attempting different scenarios I found out that Q is still the best ability to start with even in the jungle. However, even before level 6, I also get W to level 2. After learning our ultimate, we put a few more points in Harsh Lesson(W) and I guess just keep upgrading Q & W simultaneously. What's great about Harsh Lesson is its low cooldown and the extra damage from our lovely tentacles.

Passive: Prophet of an Elder God
Illaoi periodically spawns a tentacle on a nearby wall. Tentacles interact with Illaoi’s abilities and last until killed or left dormant a full minute.


Q: Tentacle Smash
Passive: Tentacles that hit enemy champions heal Illaoi for a small portion of her missing health.
Active: Illaoi summons a tentacle that slams down in a target direction, damaging all enemies struck.


W: Harsh Lesson
Instead of attacking normally, Illaoi charges in for her next basic attack, dealing bonus physical damage before commanding all nearby tentacles to swing at her target.


E: Test Of Spirit
Illaoi casts a spell that sends tendrils out in a target direction. If the tendrils connect with an enemy champion, they grasp the champion’s spirit and tear it back to Illaoi. When spirits are attacked by the Kraken Priestess or her allies, it transmits a portion of its suffering to their now spiritless champion. If Illaoi and her allies are able to destroy the spirit, or if the spiritless champion flees too far from their spirit, they suffer a heavy slow as they become a vessel, and start spawning tentacles around them that attack both their host and their allies. Test of Spirit allows tentacles to occasionally swing at spirits and vessels, dealing physical damage to all enemies hit.

"Test of Spirit levels the playing field, giving Illaoi free access to her target’s health bar even when their physical form is well away from danger."


R: Leap Of Faith
Illaoi leaps into the air before slamming her idol into the ground, damaging all nearby enemies and summoning a tentacle for every enemy champion hit. Harsh Lesson’s cooldown is significantly reduced while Leap of Faith is active.

Pros

+ Heavy Damage + Fairly tanky + Great early and late game + A lot of potential in zoning enemies

Cons

- Quite immobile - Slow basic attacks - Harder jungle start - Longer casting times (mostly easy to dodge) - Vulnerable if caught without tentacles nearby (you'll go mental-cle)

As with most champions, Flash is a great choice for Illaoi. It provides her an easy escape or catch-up mechanism while she has low mobility. I recommend flash as it also helps her position more easily for her ultimate if you want to Flash-to-Ult their team.

Since we are talking about jungling, Ghost can't be left unmentioned. It provides great movement speed when escaping or ganking however you should be extra careful to use it on time. Using it late makes it useless and a wasted Spell.

After you choose between the first two, Smite is a must . I'm so glad items like Stalker's Blade were introduced so there aren't many smiteless junglers around anymore.

Works well with:

Orianna , Blitzcrank, Lulu etc.

Struggles against:

Vayne, Janna, Ziggs etc.

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