Illaoi
Matchup Summary
Illoai is a super hard match up for Renekton, due to her low CDs and punishing abilities being way too much for Renekton to really deal with. Renekton's best bet at gaining an advantage is from his first few levels, as he can take W to counter Illoai's W start playstyle, or take Q if Illoai starts Q. Make sure to keep the wave state close to the middle, as being near her tower or your own provides her the ability to easily use tentacles. If Illaoi fights you in the middle of the lane, you can go toe to toe against her, potentially forcing a kill if she's low enough. By level 6, Illoai will straight up win fights if she lands E, so make sure to always avoid being hit by E in any way possible. Alternatively if Illoai does miss E, Renekton can force an all in on her E down timer, allowing him or his allies to easily shut her down and take away her power. Later on in the game, Illoai's weak teamfighting presence allows Renekton to fulfill a valuable role on his team. Illaoi will most likely look to push side lane with her items, forcing you and your team to remove her from the map before making any plays possible. Once she is dead, you and your team should force any major objectives or fights that are available on her death timer.
Detailed Tips
- 01
Respect Illaoi Level 1 - Illaoi’s level 1 is pretty underrated in the fact she can hard outtrade her opponents with her grasp W trades, which allows her to also abuse her tentacles to hit the targets she is hitting. As Renekton, we can’t do much other than trying to mitigate it by trying to hard push the wave, on top of also trying to avoid her tentacle slams. If we hesitate too hard vs Illaoi, she will completely zone us from the wave preventing level 2 and the ability to get a hard trade on her.
- 02
Play For Level 2/3 Kill Angle - Once we reach level 2 vs Illaoi, we’re able to look for a hard trade to abuse her. It is absolutely essential to put everything into the first few levels in our trades before her inevitable fun times. As Renekton, try to look for a heavy trade when we reach level 2, then look for a level 3 kill on the wave shove back. Try to hard push first 2 waves and look for the waves to crash back around the middle, as staying away from the walls and her side of the map will leave her in an uncomfortable state.
- 03
Respect And Kill Illaoi Tentacles - Playing around Illaoi’s tentacles is absolutely crucial to keeping your HP up and preventing her overall sustain. Illaoi will always try to poke with her W and Q, providing she misses her E. Try to kill any tentacles you can whenever Illoai doesn’t have her E or range available to poke with. Doing this will also limit her overall tentacles she can receive through her R.
- 04
Avoid And Punish Illaoi E - Illaoi E is an absolutely horrible ability, which quite honestly is probably my most hated ability in the entire game. What does hard suck for this match up is how big Renekton’s hit box is, which can completely feel awful when it comes to trying to dodge on lower movement speed thresholds. As Renekton, the best thing we can do to deal with this and avoid being hit, is trying to rush movement speed to easily out manoeuvre her E, trying to use minions to block her tentacle hits and just trying to utilise our E dash to bait her ability. Within this match up, Renekton does have to play very on edge to beat Illaoi, so trying to fast trade and look for any opportunity to bait or miss her E is essential for fights. Once Illaoi misses even one E, we can look for a heavy trade or kill window, as Renekton’s power completely overpowers Illaoi once she has no E. Just be aware her E CD is very short as the game goes on, so make sure you play around your timers effectively to have success over her.
- 05
Rush Antiheal - If you don’t take ignite into this match up, then going Executioners is absolutely a must if you’re going to beat Illaoi. Illaoi’s overall healing from her tentacles can be the absolute decider for her being able to cheese low hp fights, hence why anti heal is needed to take away that opportunity for her. Later on in the game, the healing reduction will become even more essential for defeating illaoi within fights with your team.
- 06
Play Wave Within The Middle - Playing within the middle of the lane is most certainly the best point around the Illaoi match up, as Illaoi won’t be able to easily access her tentacles compared to inner points of either side of the lane. Typically if you’re pushed in, Illaoi can spawn to tentacles aside of the tower wall and rocks, making it incredibly hard to deal with her poking ability. When you’re shoving in, Illaoi can easily farm and prevent herself to trades using her tentacles around her tower, overall making it impossible to leverage any fights. Keeping the wave in the middle is always the best case, so try to always stick to this if you’re available to.
- 07
Abuse Renekton's R Powerspike - Prior to this point in the match up, if Renekton has farmed safely and rushed defensive boots in the match up, Renekton is now ready to fight his opponent in an all in. Renekton's high base damage and stats from his R, allows Renekton to completely stat check his counter match up. Simply wait for the enemy to make a mistake, then go all out and kill your opponent.
- 08
Avoid Illoai R - Whenever Illaoi R’s there’s a couple of situations that make it more impactful on whether or not you can kill, or you absolutely need to dip away from her. If Illaoi misses E, her R is generally not as impactful as it spawns less tentacles, as well as the fact she will be dealing way less DPS in the process. In these moments where she doesn’t land E, you need to abuse it, so as long as you have R up you can tank against Illaoi’s R and stat check the overall fight if played well. If Illaoi hits E then R however then you need to instantly dash away, otherwise she will absolutely fist you.
- 09
Play For Ganks - Ganks can be very awkward vs Illaoi as most people don’t understand that getting hit by her E is simply GG, so with that said if you can make her miss by dashing in with E then side stepping or double dashing past her to avoid it, you can then create a free gank setup and easily shut her down.
- 10
Build Plated Steelcaps, Eclipse, Black Cleaver or Death's Dance - Go Plated Steelcaps to lower Illaoi’s overall damage and utilise the additional movement speed. / Go Eclipse for consistent power through mid game and damage mitigation with the shield. / Go Black Cleaver for additional CDR and other versatile stats for utility based gameplay. / Go Death’s Dance to lower Illaoi’s overall damage, while providing decent survivability stats in side lane.
- 11
Mid Game + Teamfighting Tips - Illaoi as a teamfighter isn’t really her strong point, as CC is one of Illaoi’s difficult attributes to deal with. Another huge con towards Illaoi’s playstyle within the mid game, is trying to deal with high mobility based targets, which she absolutely sucks at. With that said, Illaoi will try to play heavy for side lane push, as she can essentially dominate most champions in the entire game with her high stat check and low CD playstyle. As Renekton, this is a very difficult point within the game, as most often you’re relegated towards dealing with her. Renekton can’t really offer a lot within the 1v1 or in terms of trying to deter her from pushing, so you need to get your team to help you shut her down. Try to spam ping your teammates to help you so you can get her off the map, which subsequently helps to help you and your team look for fights. In teamfights if she does join, try hard to stun her from reaching your back line, and try to utilise empowered E to help apply armour shred to her playstyle.