Hello and welcome to my Illaoi guide!

My name is TENTACLE SMASH and I have been playing League of Legends since February 2016. After playing many roles and champions I finally found my home in top lane and with Illaoi!

Illaoi is one of the most interesting and unique champions in League of Legends. She is an extremely hard champion to play efficiently at a high level but rewards players who can position, plan ahead, and prioritize targets. Illaoi is one of, if not the strongest zone control champion in the game. However, she is very easily countered. By reading this guide, I hope you can learn how to play The Kraken Priestess and dominate in the Top lane! This is my first-ever guide and I will be updating and adding new sections daily. Please feel free to comment on my guide and I will be sure to respond!

Why play Illaoi?

Illaoi is such a fun and unique champion and can crush teams. She punishes mistakes by the enemy and can snowball very fast. If you like to be a lane bully or an annoying champion pick Illaoi. She offers great team fight potential with Leap of Faith and Prophet of an Elder God. Her animations, lore, and voice-acting are spectacular!

PROS

CONS

Teleport and Ignite are bread-and-butter for Illaoi. Teleport is self-explanatory but Ignite can be a great pick with Illaoi. Illaoi has no gap-closers or really any cc other than Test of Spirit. When using the Test of Spirit and Leap of Faith combo, the enemy might be lower health and run away, so I like to ignite them right as they begin to run away. Ignite is great for early game pressure and securing kills if you are confident.

Flash is another optimal pick as you can use your Flash and Leap of Faith combo. I like using this when there is a lot of cc/mobility/zone control on the enemy team.

Ghost is one I rarely use due to it not being very useful with Illaoi. Illaoi does not chase effectively and Flash would be a better escape.

Exhaust is a great pick if your enemy laner is mobile such as a Camille or Gnar as it will help lock them down when you use your ultimate. It also adds some cc and late game pressure to Illaoi.

Cleanse does not work well with Illaoi. If you get cc'd, you can probably use your Leap of Faith and try to kill the enemy laner.

Greater Mark of Lethality

Greater Mark of Lethality is extremely good at Illaoi. I used to go Greater Mark of Attack Damage and that is still viable but Greater Mark of Lethality is just better. You are not building a lot of armor penetration so it helps you deal more damage mid/late game.

Greater Seal of Armor

You always want to go Greater Seal of Armor. It is the best seal you can buy. The majority of top laners you will face are AD so this makes you more durable when laning against them. Even if you are versing a AP top laner, it is still good to bring because the enemy jungler, ADC, or mid could be AD.

Greater Glyph of Attack Damage or Greater Glyph of Magic Resist

If your enemy top laner is AD, then go Greater Glyph of Attack Damage. It will make you more aggressive which is what Illaoi wants to be. The bonus AD will hopefully help you poke and siege effectively.

If your enemy top laner is AP or if 3/5 champions of the enemy team are AP (Top, Mid, and Jungle, etc) then go Greater Glyph of Magic Resist. You only build magic resist with Spirit Visage and again, just like with the Greater Seal of Armor, it will make you more durable for team fights as you want to be able to come out on top when team fighting.

Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage

Always go Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage no matter what. The extra 6.75 AD will help you be more of a threat when you land your abilities.

Explanations

Black Cleaver is a must buy because the majority of top laners are AD. The Health and Damage is great for making Illaoi a more bruiser-like champion, but I personally like the 20% Cooldown Reduction. It helps you use your ultimate more and (hopefully) get more kills. The passive is also great for shredding tankier champions.

Spirit Visage is another must buy. I get this item first if I'm versing a AP top champ such as Vladimir, Teemo, or Swain. The bonus health helps make you tanky to outlast your laner. Usually since Illaoi has such high AD ratios, you still do quite a lot of damage. The magic resist is self-explanitory but the 10% Cooldown Reduction is nice to use your ultimate more.

Sterak's Gage is a nice buy for Illaoi. The passive makes you tankier when you are dealing with burst-y champions such as LeBlanc, Teemo, or Ahri in teamfights. Sterak's Gage also gives you a nice bit of damage, a good buy for any match-up in my opinion.

Warmog's Armor is a strange pick but one I really enjoy and like to use. The health is great for durability but I absolutely love the passive. With Illaoi, you want to be in as many teamfights as you possibly can if you cannot split-push or if the team needs you. The passive lets you regain health quickly to prep for the next teamfight and will help you surive the fights.

Death's Dance is great for more damage if you are snowballing in lane or if you already bought your other preferred tank items. The attack damage is nice but the lifesteal is the best part. The lifesteal from Death's Dance stacks with your lifesteal passive from Tentacle Smash, meaning you have better survivability when fighting.

Many tankier items such as Frozen Heart, Dead Man's Plate, or Titanic Hydra can have success, but the recommended build I provided is the one I have the most success with and tested the most.

Passive: Prophet of an Elder God

Description

This is what makes Illaoi the best zone control champion. Illaoi passively spawns a tentacle by a wall or other terrain such as a turret every 20-14 seconds depending on level. The tentacle(s) will remain there until either killed or if left dorment for 1 minute. Tentacles will slam at spirits, vessels, and whoever Illaoi uses Harsh Lesson on. The tentacles deal phsyical damage and will heal Illaoi when they strike a target.

Thoughts

This is the ability that makes Illaoi so unique. This passive is your source of damage therefore if you don't have tentacles spawned you will deal significantly less damage. You can use your passive to bait enemies into trying to kill one of your tentacles and then use a combo on them. Always try to spawn a tentacle if you are not near any before engaging an enemy.

Q: Tentacle Smash

Description

Passively it increases Tentacle slam damage by 5% each time you level it up, up to 30% more damage. Its active is a skill shot where Illaoi swings her idol in a direction and causes a Tentacle to slam.

Thoughts

This is the best ability for Illaoi. This ability helps harass, poke, and set up trades as well as giving Illaoi substain for staying in lane. This ability makes it extremely easy to farm, so you must manage waves very carefully. Early game it can use up a lot of mana so be wary of usage. In lane you want to try to cs minions and hit your enemy laner. The tentacle that slams from Tentacle Smash is affected by the lifesteal and bonus damage from Tentacle Smash's passive. It does have an extremely telegraphed and slow animation, so try to predict where your enemy will be after the animation is done so you can land it on them. Due to how important this ability is make sure to max this first.

W: Harsh Lesson

Description

lllaoi's next basic attack gains bonus range and causes her to jump to her target, dealing bonus physical damage, capped at 300 against non-champions. This also resets her auto-attack timer. It will also make nearby tentacles slam the area of the target.

Thoughts

Harsh Lesson is your only "gap-closer". I really don't consider it a good gap-closer as you don't have much bonus range. You never use this ability for the bonus damage but always use it for commanding nearby tentacles to slam the target. This is great for extra harass and wave clear. I usually use this as a cheaper wave clear but it can be harder to aim correctly. This has the best synergy with Test of Spirit and your Leap of Faith. Level this third because Tentacle Smash and Test of Spirit have better harass.

E: Test of Spirit

Description

Illaoi sends a tentacle in the target direction that stops at the first enemy hit. If the enemy is a champion, the tentacle pulls their Spirit, places it in front of her and tethers it to them, granting True Sight icon true sight of them while it remains.
The Spirit has 100% of the target's current health and lasts for 10 seconds, reduced by 1 second each time Illaoi receives damage from the target. During this time, the Spirit can be attacked by Illaoi and her allies, inflicting a portion of the damage it receives upon its tethered champion. The tether is broken if the Spirit is killed or when the target moves too far away. If the spirit is killed or the enemy runs away, they are afflicted with Vessel where they will spawn tentacles near them and slam them for a short period of time. If the enemy does not run away and the spirit is not killed, they do not get afflicted with Vessel.

Thoughts

This is Illaoi's most complicated ability. Basically, it's a skill shot that, when it hits a champion, rips their spirit from them and puts in front of Illaoi. You can use any abilities you want on it so if you use your Tentacle Smash you can restore some health to yourself. If you kill the spirit or if the enemy runs away they are afflicted with Vessel and will spawn tentacles that try to slam them for a brief period of time. This is a great harass tool but is a very hard skillshot to land. Minions also block this skillshot so be sure to clear the wave or get into position where you can aim it. Harsh Lesson is great for chuncking down the spirit because it commands tentacles to slam the spirit and will restore more health to you. Max this second due to how powerful and important this ability is.

R: Leap of Faith

Description

Illaoi leaps into the air before slamming her idol into the ground, dealing physical damage to all nearby enemies. For every enemy hit by Leap of Faith, an additional tentacle will spawn. During the duration of Leap of Faith which is 8 seconds, Harsh Lesson's cooldown is reduced to 2 seconds.

---

Early Game:

During early game Illaoi is very oppressive. Be sure to manage waves and not shove too much with your abilites. Harass as much as you can because unless you are going against a Riven or Renekton you will outdamage your opponent. You will want to keep ripping spirits and harassing to push the enemy out of lane. Farming is the most important thing you can do at this stage. By gaining an early game advantage, it will make the enemy jungler choose between ganking you or another lane. Once you have your ultimate, you should be able to 1v2 when jungler comes up unless you are below 50% health.

Mid Game:

Illaoi is strongest in the midgame. You want to consistently be at teamfights unless your team is ahead. If your team is ahead then you will want to split push either top or bot depending on the situation. During teamfights you want to try and harass as much as you can. Once the enemy team is grouped together and your team is behind you feel free to ult and begin taking/dealing damage. Your job is to start teamfights and draw attention to yourself. If you are able to consistently throw the teamfight into your team's favor you will most likely win the match.

Late Game:

Illaoi falls off considerably during the late game but you will still want to play like you did during midgame. The enemy team will most likely have built more armor so you won't be able to deal as much damage. You still want to split-push or teamfight depending on whether your team is ahead or not. Due to Illaoi's insane zone control, try to defend/deny dragon/baron/buffs as your tentacles spawn quicker with level.