Illaoi is a powerful top lane bruiser who excels at punishing aggressive opponents. She can dominate 1v3 or even 1v4 situations when enemies engage on her, though her effectiveness is limited by short range and team fight vulnerability.

Core Strengths:

• Strong lane bully
• Exceptional split pusher
• Powerful mid-game scaling
• Excels in defensive fights

Skill Order Priority:

• Matchup-dependent skill maxing
• E max: Optimal for melee matchups where E is reliable
• Q max: Better against ranged or highly mobile champions
• R > E > Q > W

Build Path:

Starting Items:

• Doran's Blade + Health Potion
• Corrupting Potion (alternative)

Core Items:

• Divine Sunderer
• Black Cleaver
• Death's Dance
• Spirit Visage

Situational Items:

• Sterak's Gage (vs burst)
• Maw of Malmortius (vs AP)
• Guardian Angel (late game)
• Thornmail (vs heavy AD/healing)

Build Strategy: Focus on AD items that provide health and survivability. Your healing scales with damage output, so prioritize items that offer both offensive and defensive stats. Late game, consider pure tank items for team fight durability.

Playstyle:

1. Push lanes aggressively
2. Focus on taking towers
3. Create side lane pressure
4. Control territory around tentacles
5. Bait enemies into unfavorable engages

Key Tips:

• Position near pre-placed tentacles for maximum effect
• Use E to force advantageous trades
• Save ultimate for counter-engage opportunities
• Focus on split pushing over team fighting
• Control choke points with tentacle placement

Remember to adapt your skill order and build path based on the specific matchup and team composition you're facing.

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