Guide · Top

Illaoi Guide

the Kraken Priestess

Fighter

Tank

Tier B Top

Illaoi, the Kraken Priestess, is a fighter and tank champion of medium difficulty. Across our 242 analysed ranked games, Illaoi is mostly played in Top (100% of its games), with a 50.4% win rate in that role: tier B among Top champions (#31 of 48, ranked by win rate). Illaoi's damage is mostly physical (96%): armor is the best defensive answer against this champion. Win rate varies with game length: 52.7% in medium-length games (25 to 35 min, 112 games) versus 46.2% in long games (over 35 min).

Updated Oct 10 2026 · Patch 26.22

Average KDA

5.3 / 6.4 / 4.0

ratio 1.5

Damage / min

968

CS / min

8.0

Gold / min

433

Kill participation

31%

Vision / min

0.72

Averages measured over 242 Top games played with Illaoi, from our ranked Solo/Duo data collection.

How to play and combo preview

Written guide · based on the official ability texts

Illaoi is a tentacle fighter: she and the vessels she creates make tentacles appear on nearby impassable terrain; they deal physical damage and heal her if they hurt a champion. Test of Spirit rips out an enemy's spirit and turns them into a vessel, and Leap of Faith summons one tentacle per champion hit.

The trade

W AA AA

When: An enemy is near terrain features.

Test of Spirit rips out the enemy's spirit: if they move too far away or the spirit is destroyed, they become a vessel and make tentacles appear; Harsh Lesson leaps you in and pushes the nearby tentacles to strike the target.

The area ultimate

When: Several enemies are close.

Leap of Faith slams your idol, deals physical damage and summons a tentacle per enemy champion hit.

See all 3 Illaoi combos: key order, when to cast them, cooldowns →

Laning phase

Play near terrain features: that is where your tentacles appear. Tentacle Smash increases the tentacles' damage and makes one slam down when activated.

Common mistakes

Fighting far from impassable terrain features.
Casting the ultimate without several targets.
Forgetting that the spirit passes part of the damage to the original target.

Riot's official tips for playing Illaoi

Tentacles are an immense source of power. Don't fight without them.
Spirits inherit their target's current health. If making a
Vessel
is your goal, try whittling your opponent's health down a bit first to make killing the spirit easier.
Leap of Faith is best used to follow-up a strong engage or when being engaged upon. Be careful about being the first one into a fight.

Build, runes and summoner spells

The most-played core build is Sterak's Gage, Black Cleaver, and Iceborn Gauntlet (35 games, 60.0% win rate).

35 games · 60.0%

26 games · 53.8%

24 games · 58.3%

Skill order

Max order : E > Q > W57.1% · 21 games

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Q	●							●		●		●	●
W		●												●	●
E			●	●	●		●		●
R						●					●

The order shows which abilities reach rank 5 first; the grid shows the most-played level-up sequence with that order (measured over 36 games).

Starting items

Doran's Shield

Health Potion56.2% · 16 games

Doran's Blade

Health Potion60.0% · 15 games

Laning phase (averages)

At 10 min: 3638 gold, 78 CS, 5054 XP. At 15 min: 5852 gold, 123 CS, 8816 XP.

Summoner spells

Flash + Teleport46.2% · 143 games

Exhaust + Flash62.7% · 59 games

Flash + Ignite44.4% · 27 games

Most-played runes

Grasp of the Undying + Precision

47.5% · 118 games

Primary tree · Resolve

Demolish100%

Bone Plating75%

Overgrowth89%

Secondary tree · Precision

Last Stand96%

Presence of Mind92%

Shards

Adaptive force97%

Health scaling80%

Conqueror + Resolve

48.6% · 70 games

Primary tree · Precision

Presence of Mind94%

Legend: Haste97%

Last Stand90%

Secondary tree · Resolve

Bone Plating69%

Demolish69%

Shards

Adaptive force89%

Adaptive force94%

Health scaling70%

For each row, the most picked rune among the games played with this page (share of games in brackets).

Which items to build against the enemy team?

We sort every game by the enemy team's damage. These are Illaoi's completed items and their win rate in each situation; "▲" marks an item that does at least 3 points better than its usual win rate.

Mostly magic-damage enemy team52.5% · 61 games

At least 50% of their damage is magic

Black Cleaver 56.5% ▲

Iceborn Gauntlet 60.7% ▲

Sterak's Gage 60.9%

Spirit Visage 56.5%

Sundered Sky 75.0%

The item that stands out most is Iceborn Gauntlet: 60.7% win rate, +8 points versus its usual win rate.

Mostly physical-damage enemy team41.5% · 65 games

Less than 35% of their damage is magic

Black Cleaver 46.5% ▼

Iceborn Gauntlet 48.6% ▼

Sterak's Gage 56.0%

Death's Dance 46.2%

Spirit Visage 54.5%

Randuin's Omen 40.0%

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Balanced enemy team54.3% · 116 games

Mixed physical and magic damage

Black Cleaver 52.8%

Sterak's Gage 58.9%

Iceborn Gauntlet 51.9%

Spirit Visage 48.1% ▼

Sundered Sky 71.4%

Death's Dance 52.4%

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Counters and matchups

How to play against Illaoi

Killing Tentacles whenever possible will make it much easier to win a fight against Illaoi.
When your spirit gets pulled out, fight back if you can. Dealing damage to Illaoi reduces the spirit's duration.
Avoid grouping up for Leap of Faith to reduce the number of Tentacles available to Illaoi.

Riot's official tips.

Win rates measured over direct same-role duels; only matchups with more than 15 games are listed.

Illaoi Top: what our games say

Laning phase against the Top average

Measure	Illaoi	Top average	Gap
Gold at 10 min	3638	3580	+58
CS at 10 min	78	71	+7
XP at 10 min	5054	4754	+300
Gold at 15 min	5852	5655	+197
CS at 15 min	123	111	+11
XP at 15 min	8816	8297	+519

Measured over 36 Illaoi games with a timeline; the average covers 82 champions played Top in our ranked games.

Win rate by game length

short under 25 min49.5 %91 games

medium-length 25 to 35 min52.7 %112 games

long over 35 min46.2 %39 games

Best result: medium-length (25 to 35 min). Only groups of at least 30 games are shown. A gap of several points shows the phase where the champion is the most reliable.

Abilities

PassiveProphet of an Elder God

Illaoi and the Vessels she creates spawn Tentacles on nearby impassible terrain. Tentacles swing at spirits, Vessels, and victims of Illaoi's Harsh lesson. Tentacles deal physical damage to enemies hit, and will heal Illaoi if they damage a champion.

QTentacle Smash

Increases the damage dealt by Tentacles. When activated, Illaoi smashes down a Tentacle that deals physical damage.

WHarsh Lesson

Illaoi leaps to her target, dealing physical damage and causing nearby Tentacles to also swing at the target.

ETest of Spirit

Illaoi rips the spirit from a foe's body, forcing it to stand before her. Spirits echo a percentage of the damage they take to the original target. If killed, or if the target gets too far from the spirit, the target will become a Vessel and begin spawning Tentacles.

RLeap of Faith

Illaoi smashes her idol into the ground, dealing physical damage to nearby enemies. A Tentacle spawns for each enemy champion hit.