Illaoi, the Kraken Priestess
Overview:
With Illaoi being such a fun and flavorful addition to the roster, I find she leaves very little room for improvement. With a unique take on zone control and the juggernaut role, as well as a few unique tools to play with and master, this kraken-summoning auntie is close to the ideal I hold for new kits.
I think that it's because she has such a solid kit, however, that her minor flaws stand out so much and almost demand to be fixed - these flaws being that A) despite being such a unique and territorial kit, her most frequently-usable basic ability AND her Ult encourage her to run out of her tentacle-ensconced home turf and into the fray, and B) her play-patterns tend to fall too hard into default bruiser* territory.
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The changes below mainly involve Harsh Lesson and Leap of Faith, which currently give her the means to jump into fights instead of playing into her strengths as an unmoveable, zone-dominating powerhouse. With Harsh Lesson now closing the gap by bringing enemies closer, and Leap of Faith being better-used when Illaoi isn't surrounded by enemies, her niche should be even more distinct.
Leap of Faith is the more substantially altered of the two, to help her feel less like the default bruiser kit (mainly by making her stop to cast it like a big spell instead of popping it and becoming a Stronger Default Bruiser for a bit), while also bringing out the "kraken summoner" fantasy beyond just summoning more tentacles.
*ie. Some assortment of ranged poke, attack modifier, gap-closer, utility, teamfight ult - obviously it's fine for champions within the same general archetype to have similar tools, and it's important for there to be simpler champions who don't stray far from the baseline, but a theme as involved and "weird" as Illaoi's feels better when it's a few degrees separated from this default.
All values in blue are meant to give a general idea of the ability's properties, and are subject to change.
Class: Juggernaut
Recommended Positions: Solo Sidelane
Complexity: Medium
Innate: Prophet of an Elder God
Every 20 to 12 (based on level) seconds, Illaoi spawns a Tentacle on a nearby impassible terrain if no other Tentacles are nearby. Tentacles fully spawn after a 2 second delay and are untargetable in the meantime. Tentacles have 2 health and take 1 damage from enemy basic attacks.
Tentacles deal 10 to 180 (based on level) + (120% total AD) physical damage to all enemies struck when commanded to attack by her abilities. Each Tentacle also heals Illaoi for 5% of her missing health if it hits at least one enemy champion.
Q: Tentacle Smash
PASSIVE: Tentacles deal 10/15/20/25/30% increased damage.
ACTIVE: Illaoi slams her idol into the ground, summoning a Tentacle that slams down in the target direction before disappearing.
Range: 825
Targeting Type: Skill Shot - Line
Cooldown: 10/9/8/7/6
Cost: 40/45/50/55/60 mana
W: Harsh Lesson
Illaoi's next basic attack within 6 seconds gains 225 bonus range and causes her to pull her target up to 225 units towards her if they're beyond her normal basic attack range.
The attack deals 3/3.5/4/4.5/5% + (2% per 100 AD) of the target's maximum health as bonus damage (capped at 300 against non-champions) and commands all Tentacles in range to attack her target.
Harsh Lesson deals at least 20/30/40/50/60 bonus damage, which is also the bonus damage dealt to turrets.
Range: Self
Targeting Type: None
Cooldown: 4
Cost: 30 mana
E: Test of Spirit
Illaoi sends a grasping tendril in the target direction, stopping once it hits an enemy. If the enemy is a champion, their Spirit is pulled in front of Illaoi over 0.75 seconds. The target is tethered to the Spirit for 7 seconds, and is revealed while the tether remains.
The Spirit has the target's current health, armor, and magic resist, and redirects 25/30/35/40/45% + (8% per 100 AD) of all pre-mitigation damage it receives to the tethered champion. Illaoi and her allies can attack the Spirit as though it were an enemy champion.
When the Spirit is killed or the target moves more than 1500 units away, the tether is severed, marking the target as a Vessel for 10 seconds, revealing the area around them for 3 seconds and slowing them by 80% for 1.5 seconds once the tether returns back to them. Each Tentacle autonomously attacks the closest Vessel or Spirit every 5.5/4.5/3.5 (based on level) seconds.
Enemies made a Vessel spawn a Tentacle near themselves every 5/4/3 (based on level) seconds. They can rid themselves of the debuff by taking down Illaoi. Tentacles can spawn exceptionally closer to each other than when spawned by Illaoi.
Range: 900
Targeting Type: Skill Shot - Line
Cooldown: 16/15/14/13/12
Cost: 35/40/45/50/55 mana
R: Leap of Faith
FIRST CAST: Illaoi roots herself in place and targets an area on the ground that slowly moves towards the cursor, growing in size and increasing the number of tentacles spawned by the second cast over 2 seconds. After 2 seconds, Illaoi will automatically initiate the second cast.
SECOND CAST: Illaoi leaps into the air before slamming her idol on the ground, dealing 150/250/350 + (50% bonus AD) physical damage to enemies within the target area and spawning 0 to 4 Tentacles within it.
If Leap of Faith is charged for the full duration, Illaoi will summon the Head of Nagakabouros at the target location, which has 4/6/8 health, takes 1 damage from enemy basic attacks, and lasts for 12 seconds. While it persists, Harsh Lesson's cooldown is halved, and all Tentacles awakened by Illaoi are untargetable, will not show their hitboxes, and will take half the amount of time to make an attack.
Range: 450 (initial target range), 250 (min effect radius), 500 (max effect radius)
Targeting Type: Skill Shot - Circle
Cooldown: 120/95/70
Cost: 100 mana