League of Legends Illaoi Guide: Best Build, Runes & Combos

Illaoi is a brutal top lane juggernaut in League of Legends who thrives in drawn-out fights with her tentacle-heavy playstyle. She excels at punishing overextensions, dominating 1v2 situations, and turning teamfights around with a well-timed ultimate. Her kit rewards smart positioning, aggressive trading, and mechanical discipline. In this guide, we’ll break down the best build, runes, items, and combos to help you unleash Illaoi’s full power, take over your lane, and smash through any frontline that stands in your way.

Illaoi Abilities Overview in League of Legends

Passive – Prophet of an Elder God
Illaoi periodically spawns a tentacle on nearby terrain. These tentacles deal damage and heal her when they strike enemies, especially when triggered by her other abilities. Managing and fighting around your tentacles is key to dominating as Illaoi.

Q – Tentacle Smash
Illaoi swings a tentacle in a straight line, dealing physical damage to all enemies hit. This is her main poke and waveclear tool, and it synergizes well with her passive tentacles for big harass and sustained damage.

W – Harsh Lesson
Illaoi’s next basic attack causes nearby tentacles to slam the target. It also empowers the attack to deal bonus damage and resets her auto attack timer, making it great for short trades and DPS bursts during fights.

E – Test of Spirit
Illaoi pulls the spirit of an enemy champion. Damaging the spirit damages the champion. If the spirit is killed or the target leaves its range, they become a Vessel, causing tentacles to spawn around them and slam automatically. This is Illaoi’s main outplay tool and what makes her so dangerous in duels or when ganked.

R – Leap of Faith
Illaoi leaps into the air and slams the ground, dealing massive AoE damage and spawning a tentacle for every enemy champion hit. During the next few seconds, tentacles swing faster and cannot be killed, turning teamfights into a bloodbath if timed well.

Mastering Illaoi’s abilities means knowing how to position around your tentacles, using E to force aggressive trades, and dropping R at the perfect moment to turn fights in your favor.

How To Play Illaoi In League of Legends

Best Summoner Spells For Illaoi

The best summoner spells for Illaoi are Flash and Teleport. Flash is essential for escaping ganks, chasing down targets, or repositioning during a fight to land the perfect ultimate. Teleport helps you return to lane quickly and apply split-push or cross-map pressure throughout the game. If you’re looking for a more aggressive, lane-dominant approach, you can swap Teleport for Ignite to secure early kills—but Flash + Teleport remains the most reliable combo for most matchups.

Best Runes For Illaoi

The best runes for Illaoi come from the Resolve tree, focusing on durability and strong trades. Take Conqueror as your keystone to stack bonus damage and healing in extended fights. Follow it with Triumph for clutch healing on takedowns, Legend: Tenacity to reduce crowd control effects, and Last Stand for extra damage when you’re low—perfect for Illaoi’s 1v2 brawls. In your secondary tree, go Inspiration with Biscuit Delivery for lane sustain and Time Warp Tonic if you’re starting with a Corrupting Potion. For rune shards, choose Attack Speed, Adaptive Force, and either Armor or Magic Resist depending on your lane opponent. This setup helps you dominate early trades and scale into an unkillable split-pushing monster.

Best Build For Illaoi

The best build for Illaoi in League of Legends focuses on sustain, damage, and durability so she can thrive in extended trades and dominate teamfights. Start with Divine Sunderer for healing and percent max HP damage, perfect for extended brawls. Follow up with Plated Steelcaps or Mercury’s Treads based on enemy damage type. Then build Sterak’s Gage for a massive shield and bonus survivability, and Death’s Dance to keep you alive while dishing out damage. Add Spirit Visage if you need magic resist and want to amplify your healing, or Thornmail if you’re against heavy healing. Finish with Hullbreaker for strong split-pushing or Maw of Malmortius against bursty AP champs. This setup makes Illaoi a durable, high-damage threat that can solo carry in chaotic fights.

Best Combos To Learn For Illaoi

The best combos to learn for Illaoi focus on abusing her tentacles for maximum damage. A basic trading combo is E → W → Q, pulling the enemy’s spirit, slamming it with a tentacle-empowered auto from W, and finishing with a Tentacle Smash. For all-ins or teamfights, the core combo is E → R → W → Q, where you cast Test of Spirit, instantly drop Leap of Faith to spawn tentacles, then follow up with W and Q while your tentacles slam the area. Always position near terrain to keep tentacles active and try to hit as many enemies with your ultimate as possible to overwhelm them with constant tentacle slams.

Conclusion

Illaoi is a powerhouse in the top lane who thrives in extended fights and turns ganks into double kills with ease. With the right runes, build, and combo execution, she becomes nearly impossible to handle in 1v1 or even 1v2 situations. Mastering her tentacle mechanics and knowing when to drop her ultimate can turn any skirmish into a wipe. If you want to break open the top lane and carry with brute force and smart positioning, Illaoi is the perfect champion to learn and dominate with.