League of Legends S12: Illaoi Top Build Guide

From runes to items, gameplay tips amd more, we've put together a guide to help you master playing Illaoi in the toplane in League of Legends.

Be mindful that there are several ways to build and play a champion, and you'll need to be adaptable as the game and the enemy team progress.

That said, this guide is a good starting point to helping you get to grips with the champion and making an impact in your games.

Runes

Core Items

Divine Sunderer

3300 Gold

Sterak's Gage

3100 Gold

Build

Divine Sunderer is a great bruiser item with a passive that deals bonus damage, and heals if the enemy is a champion.

Sterak's Gage is also a great bruiser item that aids in survivability.

Spirit Visage is a solid defensive item, while Death's Dance is great for sustain against AD.

Starting Item & Boots

Corrupting Potion

Option 1

500 Gold

Health Potion

Option 2

50 Gold

Doran's Shield

Option 2

450 Gold

Berserker's Greaves

1100 Gold

Skill Order

While your choices may differ according to how the game progresses, the typical Illaoi skill priority is:

R > Q > E > W

Summoner Spells

These are the summoner spells most typically taken by Illaoi in this role. Naturally, this may change depending on match-ups.

Gameplay

As long as you're careful in picking your battles, Illaoi is incredibly strong. Playing around her passive tentacles offers both offensive power and healing. She'll often bully enemy champions in the toplane, and is a great splitpusher. 

• Level 1 - Take Q - Tentacle Smash, so that you can push the lane easily, and zone your enemy away. 
• Level 2 - Take W - Harsh Lesson, and aim to synergise well with the passive tentacles for lane zoning and pressure.
• First Back - Aim for a Phage on first back, which will aid in healing in lane.

Tips & Tricks

• Test of Spirit's animation is invisible to the enemy if you're not in their field of view. Use this to surprise enemies. 
• Burst down a champion affected by the Test of Spirit - if their health is low enough when you use it, you could end up with a kill.
• An enemy that strays too far from the spirit is slowed immensely.
• Try using Flash with Test of Spirit for more range, to surprise the enemy.
• When Leap of Faith is used, activate Harsh Lesson for quicker tentacle activation.
• Leap of Faith adds a tentacle for each champion hit, and an extra tentacle if a spirit is hit too. These tentacles are untargetable. 
• Use Flash during the animation of Leap of Faith to change its trajectory. 
• Using Leap of Faith at the right time makes you briefly immune to crowd control.