League of Legends: Illaoi Preview - Lanning

Strong but relatively slow, Illaoi needs to be careful with her abilities, particularly during the early game. The tentacles she summons through Prophet of an Elder God pack a punch, but don’t move with Illaoi, making her much stronger when she’s able to hunker down in one spot. At the same time, her tentacles and abilities - particularly Tentacle Smash - deal massive area of effect damage and can push the minions towards enemy towers super easily. This is where Illaoi needs to be particularly vigilant: if she strays too far forward, she’ll miss out on the extra damage her tentacles offer and render herself relatively defenseless against enemy ganks. Illaoi can definitely take a punch, but if she’s caught out of position, she pretty much only has her health and resistances - along with the healing from tentacle strikes - to sustain her through the enemy onslaught.


When she’s well-placed for a fight, she definitely knows how to inflict pain. Illaoi can whale rival melee enemies down with Harsh Lesson and Tentacle Smash, and only adds to the hurt when she positions her enemy within reach of her tentacles. Ranged enemies can be more of a challenge, harassing Illaoi from a distance while staying far enough away to avoid her melee retaliation. But try as they might, they can’t avoid Illaoi’s punishment if she manages to steal her lane opponent’s spirit. 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. So, while junglers traditionally look for enemy kills or flashes during ganks, killing an enemy’s spirit will often impact the lane just as meaningfully. Their spirits crushed, Illaoi’s counterpart becomes a vessel for Nagakabouros, who starts sending tentacles to further test their newest victim.
Suddenly Illaoi’s opponent, melee or ranged, has a whole heap of things to pay attention to. Tentacles spawn beside walls, so escaping or chasing to wall brush becomes a lot less… well, survivable. What’s more, Illaoi’s a bunch stronger when she can reliably fight alongside the tentacles created by her spiritless enemy, and can fire off Tentacle Smash and Harsh Lesson to coordinate the ever-increasing number of aquatic appendages populating the Rift. And while Illaoi’s opponent is distracted by the various limbs sprouting around the Rift, they’re all the more likely to miss a return visit from the Kraken Priestess’ jungler.