I'm one of the highest ranked Illaoi mains in the world. I was briefly the highest elo Illaoi in the world at the start of the split, peaking at 436lp and rank 1500 overall for the EUW server. I mostly play stormraiders surge on her but I also play grasp, which is objectively stronger but also boring.

Illaoi as a champion feels very dead in high elo. This is because people stand outside your range and CC and kill you, basically. Her worst matchup, Varus top, does all of these things.

Because I'm aware she's a bit of a pubstomper, I understand that people aren't interested in hearing about "Illaoi buffs" (although she does regularly get changed anyway) but I thought I'd suggest some minor touchups she could use that relate to her kit being outdated or inconsistent.

The first change relates to the distance tentacles are able to spawn from eachother in toplane. When the map was changed a while ago, it became harder to spawn tentacles opposite eachother on walls (especially near turrets on either side). The lanes are just too narrow to get the right setup a lot of the time. I'd suggest slightly lowering the required physical distance between tentacle spawns to make it easier to set up two tentacles opposite eachother.

The second change relates to what happens when Illaoi dies. When Illaoi dies currently, tentacles stop slamming the vessel (the curse lifts). However, if the person becomes the vessel after Illaoi dies, they get slammed normally, which in some situations makes it counterproductive to kill the spirit if you are going to die soon after - you might as well let your tentacles kill it later because you will get more slams that way. This is a remnant of when her curse used to be 60 seconds long. Since the curse is only 4 seconds now, I'd suggest getting rid of the curse vanishing on death, especially since it currently works pretty inconsistently.

The third change relates to tentacle spawns on Nexus turrets. Currently, if the enemy is sieging your base and will take the inhib and pressure to end, you cannot set up tentacles until they have taken the inhib (meaning you will have at most one tentacle to defend Nexus turrets). So far as I'm aware this applies to all structures that are not yet able to be attacked. I'd suggest allowing her to set up tentacles to defend the base before an inhib is taken so she doesn't get caught flat footed by a quick enemy push. She's supposed to be the "setup a zone and fight" champion but because of how the modern map works she can't do this in the base.

The fourth change is making Illaoi slams count as "ability damage". The rune which seems to make most thematic sense on Illaoi is conqueror, but Illaoi can't really stack it because her slams don't count as ability damage. If you think about it, her non-passive slam abilities don't actually get cast that often, most of her damage is done with those slams. Most fights with conqueror, Illaoi finishes stacking at the very end, which just feels like a gut punch when you get the "stacked" sound after the fight is already over. If passive slams counted as ability damage, this would help move her away from the obnoxious grasp W spam variant and give her a bit more to do in fights with conq being an option.

The last change is to how the dash version of W (non melee version) works. For those who don't understand, Illaoi has 2 versions of W, a melee version which acts as an auto-reset and the ranged version which dashes. I think it would be a good idea to make it so that if you flash during ranged W, the damage and slam effect still goes through, as if you cast the melee version. Basically you have to be careful repositioning with flash as Illaoi as it stands because you can heavily grief your own damage by flashing during the W dash windup if it's the ranged version of W you're casting. This change would help make her more dynamic in skirmishes.

Summary of the aim of the changes I've suggested: make tentacle setup a bit less clunky, make her w feel a bit less clunky with flash, reward you a bit more for killing the spirit in tight situations, give her another keystone option which she's been somewhat locked out of.

It's beautiful

Did someone test on the pbe or understands how illaoi stacks bc and how the changes will affect her?

i think black cleaver has an internal cd now or smth so tentacles hitting at the same time might only apply one stack but then again i dont even know if it applied more before.

i just think this could be a potential nerf so im asking if someone knows how it affects us in case it does

Right now, I have around 500 or so games on Illaoi, and I’ve tested out a bunch of builds. I hold one specific build path very close to my heart, and I recommend for everyone to try it out. I’ll write it down and then explain why it is the way it is.

The Build Path

First back, buy Tunneler and build that into Sundered Sky. Following that, go Black Cleaver and then Sterak's Gage, Death's Dance, and Spirit Visage (the order of these last two is up to you). For boots, you will go Mercury's Treads almost damn near every game, except if they have a very low amount of CC and/or no AP.

Why Iceborn Gauntlet is Bait

Now you might have noticed a very popular item missing from this build, and that would be Iceborn Gauntlet. I have very strong feelings about how dogshit (excuse my language) Iceborn is on Illaoi. Illaoi’s damage scales incredibly well with straight AD, not Sheen items, and in general, I really see no point in ever building Iceborn as a first item, or at all, for that matter.

Iceborn gives you armor, health, ability haste, and a Sheen-enhanced attack with a slow. Let’s break down why those are really not all that good:

1. 300 Health: Illaoi likes health, but being only 200 gold cheaper than Sundered while giving 100 less health is just not good.
2. 50 Armor: I personally find that building resistances on Illaoi outside of very specific matchups isn't worth the tradeoff. If you have a rough AD matchup like Vayne, you want to rush Plated Steelcaps anyways instead of committing a full item to being an armor stat-stick.
3. 15 Ability Haste: This is fine; Illaoi likes ability haste, especially in lane. Outside of lane, you should only really fight with your ult up, so it helps with that.
4. Sheen and Slow: The slow isn’t big enough to actually confirm the slam hit, and around Diamond, people really just dodge the slam afterwards 90% of the time anyways. Maybe if you are new to Illaoi you can use it to hit your E easier, but I don’t find it useful. And finally, Sheen, I genuinely never got why everyone loved Sheen on Illaoi so much. The only thing you get from Sheen is that your W-spam poke is a bit stronger. It doesn't increase your tentacle damage, which is the biggest part of Illaoi's damage, making it an item that really doesn't interact with her kit well at all.

The "CHAD" Sundered Sky Rush

Now let’s compare that to the Sundered Sky rush. You have a great build path: first back Tunneler, which gives you Health and AD (both stats that are incredibly good on Illaoi). Second back, you get your Caulfield's Warhammer and a Health Crystal, which gives you a bunch of AD and ability haste, and then you complete THE EXODIA.

In my humble opinion, Sundered Sky is by far the biggest spike one can get on Illaoi. Outside of matchups like K'Sante and Ornn, you rush this item EVERY GAME.

Why? You become UNGANKABLE. With your ult and Sundered Sky, if you are above half health, you can consistently 1v2 most jungle and top-laner combos. You can just perma-push your waves into the enemy tower and get insanely fed off of platings and diving the enemy top-laner when they get low.

The main reason Illaoi and Sundered are so good is that you can proc Sundered Sky off of your E (Spirit). The amount of straight-up damage and sustain this unlocks is genuinely insane. Not only can you fully kill the Spirit much easier now, but you also heal much more. I could keep going on about Sundered Sky for a long time, but I feel like this describes it well enough.

• Black Cleaver: Generally a very nice item with great stats. The armor shred helps ALOT, especially against armor stackers, but even against squishies, your damage damn near doubles. Since this also works with your E, it synergizes perfectly.
• Sterak's Gage: Gives an insane amount of survivability. If you are a bit ahead and get your three-item core, you will be able to 1v4 against a melee-heavy team easily, simply because of the tenacity and the 1k+ shield this item gives you. Truly a staple.
• Death's Dance: The key to Illaoi is staying alive and keeping the slams coming. If an Illaoi dies, it’s because she got one-tapped or kited. To avoid the one-tap, we go Death's Dance. It gives nice stats and the passive makes us survive just that little bit longer to get our E -> R -> W combo out.
• Spirit Visage: A good MR item. The passive provides more healing, which synergizes well with Sundered Sky and Illaoi’s kit overall.

NEVER BUILD THORNMAIL, IT SUCKS. If you are going to go anti-heal, buy Chempunk Chainsword, but fuck anti-heal, it’s cosmetic anyways. Genuinely, make your supports build it or whatever; avoid it like the plague.

Other items that are good:

• Randuin's Omen
• Kaenic Rookern
• Old Cyclosword (RIP)

I'm not seeing that rune much in general

I play illaoi secondary and I feel like that makes me so much stronger in tf. Also vs ranged top, should I go conq? Bc it's mostly just gonna be using e to poke