League of Legends: How to Play as Illaoi
Let's start with her passive. Her passive is called "Prophet of an Elder God" which allows Illaoi to spawn Tentacles on nearby terrain. In my opinion, her passive is one of her key components to her laning phase, and probably her second most important "ability". Reason being her tentacles that spawn from her passive can be activated to smash down on enemies using several of her other abilities provided within her kit. Which we will dive into in a little bit.
Illaoi's "Tentacle Smash" is her "Q" ability. Her tentacle smash slams into the direction of the cast. Her tentacle smash will deal damage and restore missing health as long as an enemy champion is struck. The healing restoration applies to all tentacles striking champions on the rift. This ability is important to Illaoi's laning phase as it allows for sustainability from the health restoration, this ability is also a great way to shove a minion wave and clear out minions. Note: the arrows on the picture above that point out the bonus damage. This bonus damage is applied while she combos with her "E" ability. For more information about ability combinations, continue reading.
Harsh Lesson grants Illaoi's next basic attack bonus damage and range. By casting this ability Illaoi leaps to her next target applying the bonus damage. This ability also resets her autoattack timer, which simply means you can apply two autoattacks fairly quickly. This ability also activates the tentacles spawned from The Prophet of an Elder God to strike the target that Illaoi has targeted with Harsh Lesson, as long as the target is in range of the spawned tentacles. This applies to all tentacles spawned within the area that are in range of the target that is struck by Harsh Lesson.
Test of Spirit is by far the most important ability in Illaoi's kit. This is the ability you want to max skill points in first. The reason for this is that the cooldown for this ability is significantly long at the start of the game. By maxing this ability out first it allows the re-cast time to drop tremendously, as well as following up with combos. By activating this ability, Illaoi casts a tendril in the direction of the cast. If the ability hits an enemy champion, a Spirit is pulled from them and is placed in front of Illaoi. By attacking the Spirit, it deals a percent of damage back to the enemy champion that it was connected with. If the Spirit is defeated, a slow effect is applied to the enemy for two seconds. If the enemy champion leaves the area by running out of the zone, the slow is still applied. By connecting this ability, it automatically activates nearby tentacles spawned from her passive to strike the spirit. This is crucial for putting out damage on your lane opponent while staying at arms length.
Illaoi's ultimate ability is called Leap of Faith. Casting her ultimate allows Illaoi to leap into the air and come smashing to the ground dealing damage to all nearby enemies. Every enemy (including Spirits) that are struck by Leap of Faith, summon tentacles that last eight seconds. It is important to note that the tentacles that are summoned by activating Leap of Faith are untargetable, they do not need to be attached to nearby terrain, and they do not have a required distance between them, like the ones summoned from Prophet of an Elder God. Another thing to know about casting Illaoi's ultimate ability, is that all tentacles on summoners rift are able to swing 50% faster. That means if there are tentacles active outside of the ultimate cast area, they too will apply the attack speed buff.
Let's get down to the possible scenarios of using Illaoi's abilities. First of all during the laning phase, it is important to know how to summon her tentacles using her passive Prophet of an Elder God. These tentacles are summoned to the nearest impassible terrain as long as her passive is on cooldown. You are able to control where these tentacles are spawned by simply keeping track of the timer on your passive, and by simply walking to the nearest impassible terrain that does not already have a tentacle spawned on it. It is important that you keep tentacles as close as possible together so that when you are able to activate the attacks for them, they could potentially strike the same place in synchronization. A good placement for her tentacles would be near your own tower, or somewhere where the enemy opponent will have difficulty destroying them. While targeting an enemy, whether it is in lane, teamfights, or a possible one versus two situation, it is absolutely crucial to land the Test of Spirit ability. If positioned right, by successfully landing this ability and ripping a Spirit from an enemy champion, the tentacles that are summoned by your passive will strike the spirit and deal damage to the enemy champion. As long as you have skill points invested in Tentacle Smash, any tentacles that strike the Spirit also heal Illaoi as they are damaging the enemy champion and enemy champion's spirit. My favorite situation when I play Illaoi is when you are outnumbered and the enemy top lane and jungle role think they have the advantage against you. This is where they are wrong. As you are getting flanked by the enemy champions, position yourself near as many tentacles spawned from your passive as you can. The most important step into turning this situation into your favor, is landing the Test of Spirit. Like I have mentioned before, by landing the test of Spirit you are applying a percentage of damage to the enemy that was originally hit. The bonus damage that is applied on your Tentacle Smash can be utilized by smashing both targets, the Spirit and the enemy champion, this will deal physical damage to the targets hit, plus the bonus damage, plus the percentage that is applied by attacking the Spirit. Since you have successfully landed the Test of Spirit ability it activates the summoned tentacles to strike the spirit. After allowing the tentacles to strike the Spirit with the successful soul rip, strike the Spirit with the Harsh Lesson ability. This will allow the tentacles to smash down on the target once more, applying the same effects. To make her ability combos very effective, allow the two enemy champions to approach you near your summon tentacles. Successfully connect the Test of Spirit, and activate your ultimate Leap of Faith. Leap of Faith summons tentacles based on the number of enemy champions hit by the ability, this also applies to any spirits within the cast of the ability. After you have successfully landed your ultimate on top of "three" enemies, continually cast your Harsh Lesson ability since the cooldown on this ability has been significantly reduced by activating your ultimate ability. This is where the fun begins. As you see tentacles smashing into your enemies repeatedly for the next eight seconds, you are constantly getting healed from all tentacles that are striking enemy champions and spirits. Essentially, if done correctly, you can have three summoned tentacles from your passive plus an additionally three from your ultimate landing onto two enemy champions and a spirit. Allowing there to be roughly six tentacles available for a smashing good time, but don't forget you have one more tentacle in your back pocket with your tentacle smash ("Q" ability) applying the same effects. By casting your Test of Spirit first, it allows you to utilize the rest of your available abilities to their fullest. If somehow, someone has escaped the horrendous beat down of your tentacles, you should be able to recast your Test of Spirit ability on the enemy champion that is trying to flee. Either destroy both the enemy champion and the spirit, or chase the enemy far enough out of the zone so that the slow effect applies and beat them down until you successfully defeat your opponent.
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