Illaoi is the avatar of the god Nagakaburos; she is a towering woman with a build like Braum. Illaoi smashes enemies with his tentacles and is one of the strongest but underrated champions in the top lane.
When left alone, she farms her core items, and once she does, she can completely split pus,h and not even a team of 5 can stop her. Her ultimate allows her to spawn tentacles that scale with the number of enemies she hits upon the initial casting.
She can use her tentacles to slam her opponents simultaneously, making her a tremendously tanky champion who can deal tons of damage while healing herself. So what damage do her tentacles deal?
Also Check Out: Is Hecarim AP or AD
Is Illaoi AP or AD Champion?
Here is the answer:
Illaoi’s abilities all sell with her attack damage, making her an AD champion. Illaoi’s kit can be annoying in the early game, especially when she constantly hits you with him, she can pull your soul, and once she destroys it, it comes back to you to show you and spawn tentacles around you. These tentacles constantly try to smash you and are incredibly annoying. Illaoi can be built like a bruiser champion that can split push and 1v5 or a tank that can stand in front of a team fight.
Best Items for Illaoi
- Hullbreaker – Perhaps Illaoi’s staple item is the complete breaker as she can split push like no other champion. She can siege towers pretty fast, and having that extra defensive stats will help her deal with the inevitable swindles of multiple champions. The buffed canon minion will also help her push towers faster.
- Divine Sunderer – Illaoi has her W that can inflict on-hit damage; it also has a low cooldown meaning that she can proc the effects of the item frequently. Divine slanderer’s spellblade effect also heals the user so it can synergize with the heal from Illaoi’s Q and tentacle smashes.
- Death’s Dance – A generally good item on any bruiser as it mitigates the significant damage from champions with physical burst damage. Death’s dance also gives a bogiveshealing percentage to Illaoi.
- Frostfire Gauntlet – If you don’t need that many heal and have the upper hand early on in the game, this item is an excellent alternate for Divine Sunderer; it also has a spellblade effect that slows the enemy champion down.
- Sterak’s Gage – Illaoi can take on multiple champions at once for an extended period; this means that it is almost a guarantee that at one point, her HP will drop low. This item will strengthen Illaoi and give her extra survivability to deal with those 1v5s.
- Goredrinker – This item is generally good on Illaoi and is safe to build if you don’t know how to counter your enemies; being Illaoi, you will be stuck in between enemies of five and will always be surrounded by them; you can use this item upon dropping low on HP or every time it is off cooldown to give yourself a massive heal.
Best Runes for Illaoi

- Conqueror – Illaoi excels at extended fights meaning she greatly benefits from this rune as it gives her bonus offensive stats each time she damages an enemy champion; upon reaching maximum stacks, Illaoi’s heal is increased for a certain percentage.
- Triumph – Bonus heals each time you exit a tower dive or disengage from a team fight after scoring a takedown.
- Legend: Tenacity – To reduce the crowd control durations inflicted upon you.
- Last stand – Greatly synergizes with conqueror and Sterak’s gage; as you fall low on your HP, you get much more vital.
Also Check Out: Is Jinx AP or AD?
When Should I Pick Illaoi?
There is little to no counter to Illaoi, meaning you can pick her up anytime you want. She is a grand first-pick champion as some little champions and items counter her. IT also doesn’t matter if enemies are mobile or immobile, tanks or squishies; Illaoi can destroy them all.
Conclusion
Illaoi is an AD champion, meaning all her damaging abilities scale with attack damage. Even if she is built like a tank, she can still 1v5. IT doesn’t matter if she is facing tanks or carries; she can 1v5 as long as she doesn’t CC chained.