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“Illaoi is the only buff woman in the game” being said on the day Ambessa Medarda was confirmed to be coming to the game later this year is peak comedic timing
As someone unfortunate enough to be a relative beginner at league when Illaoi came out… I’ve never forgotten she exists. I have never forgotten the horrors.
Her default design is so good, so perfect, I don’t see them ever making a skin that’s worth using over her default. I also love how they made an overconfident champion, without making her annoying, since she doesn’t bring people down or insult them, and can absolutely back up her confidence with strength.
DUNKMASTER ILLAOI THE TENTACLES ARE THOSE INFLATABLE SPORTSBALL TUBES but yeah still wouldn't be as great as her default, they nailed it. God that was such a good season for champ design.
You mention how Illaoi has these more 'masculine' coded features of being so strong and built, but at the same time she has a lot of femininity to her that's absolutely part of her character. Reminds me of Street Figther 6's newcomer Marisa, who loves to fight and is second only to Zangief in terms of the roster's musculature. But she also dabbles in fashion design primarily by being a jeweler who crafts rings and necklaces, which is pretty cool. I enjoy when the Big Lady character isn't just 'we made a woman into a man' or how their massive size doesn't at all make them less of a woman. Because how could it, they're huge!
The moment I peaked in League of Legends was the day i played a game of Illaoi and I was bullying the living shit out of the enemy top but bot was getting their ass kicked and mid was being camped by the enemy jungle and at some point someone tried to ff but our jungle typed "Illaoi is fed we win" and we did indeed win. I've never felt so powerful. Made my entire day. Never been able to replicate that experience cause i actually suck at this game xD but Illaoi has been one of my favorite champions for years, so fun to play even if you're behind you still have fun slapping hoes with ghost tentacles and it feels so satisfying for some reason. Also. Ilaoi just looks so cool- I love big brawny women, and the colorscheme with the muted browns and bright greens? Perfection. 10/10
I absolutely love Illaoi's Polynesian influenced designs. And in general I wish we had more characters based on indigenous people and culture. (I want them to develop more on Ixtal so badly)
Also fun fact: "Nagakabuoros" was an improvised name by the voice actress as they didn't have a name for the entity yet at that point. They ended up liking it so much that they kept it.
She was the first champion i ever played and mained, I think back when Kai’sa and Pyke just released. Not many champions have captured my heart like her, but I am glad to hear Ambessa coming to league.
I kinda like the way illaoi is rn, she's the similar to gangplank,the way you need to set up tentacles and fight around it,the same way gangplank plays around his powder keg which given they're close in lore,makes sense The only thing I'd change of her is make the tentacles in passive stack,and have the ability to choose when it can spawn,like 3 charges,where if you don't spawn the tentacles early game and play safe, you can save tentacles to spawn 3 at herald together for easily securing herald with jg,and the same way area control for baron. Gives the player a lot more control to the mechanic,but hey, I'm an illaoi main so I'm biased af
As a former illaoi one trick for around 2 years, i think her e would benefit from becoming a full hook ability rather than a poke tool. Hypothetically if they made it so that the spirit fights while the body stays still and they make the body so it has more tankiness / untargetable /invulnerable it could fix a lot of her struggling gameplay loop
We actually have seen Nagakabouros, they're a card in LoR. Granted, they are just a writing mass of tentacles and they're partially underwater, so we don't get a full view
Of course the same day Nicky talks about Illaoi being the only female Champion with notable muscles ends up being the same day Riot announces that Ambessa Medarda is coming to League as a Champion.
I remember back when she was release and people underestimate her power. The reason I main her was because back then I mainly use her to counter darius and also to spite every darius mains since darius and renekton are the major bullies of top lane back then
One of the best champions in League on so many levels. Mained her for a long time until the balance team ruined her by gutting tank items and healing so she started just dying instantly every teamfight. I think these days she's more survivable but deals no damage? I don't play LoL anymore but Illaoi is one of the characters I still miss. EDIT: Watching the other team just walk at Nicky, get hit with perfect Es and ults, and then just kill him because they stat checked her ._. yeah that's about right. In a properly balanced game, if a fed illaoi lands a four man ult with E in dragon pit AND THEN THEY FIGHT HER, at least two of those people should be dead. Just sad to see her state today.
I don't know how people can forget the torture suffered under Illaoi, so I don't agree that she is unpopular in the sense of "forgotten" everyone just hates the shit out of her, I was top main when she came out.. now I'm not
my fave thing about her animation is her limb because the idol is so heavy. just a small detail, but i really like it. it shows that even she has a slight struggel carrying that thing around (carrying her god around)
I don’t time for League and she isn’t in Wild Rift yet, but I’ve played her in Ruined King and she’s so much fun to play! Good damage and enough sustain for the team is really nice. I also like how her story line is about her doubting her faith and coming to realise she must deviate from the typical teachings and go against the Elder’s advice in order to save Bilgewater from Viego.
I wonder if maybe instead of making tentacles spawn around her at specific intervals, if they made it similar to the ruined king and made tentacles spawn when you use abilities. Put a cap on it which gets increased when you use your ult, and it may be able to make her less of a split push champ and make her more useful for roaming and teamfights
I hated Illaoi with a passion before this video because they would always bully me top lane, but after watching, I have been playing LOTS of her and having a very good time lol. Thanks for that nickyboi
14:15 one idea i just thought of was, her tentacles charged like zyras w but in her passive, and they would spawn when she hit a Q in a enemy champion, this would make her more dinamic in team figths and in lane it would make it harder for the enemy to just kill the tentacles off because they spawned at a bad place and a bad time, also making the tentacles not needing walls would be very good, especially when you look at the new top lane and how far apar all the walls are
When I first got into LoR I looked through the LoL roster and she immediately stood out as one of the best/most unique designs. I fully agree with your 10/10.
I main Illaoi, love the champ, I agree with what you said at the end. E is a problematic ability, if they ever do rework Illaoi I hope they do something about that but keep Illaoi's zone control with tentacles.
I remember playing when she first released and everyone did not understand how her tentacles worked so I always had tentacles anywhere I go. Good times.
I don't think Illaoi needs a rework, she just needs a way to make up for her lack of agency with the tentacles, and my first thought was to replace one of her basic abilities with a manual tentacle placement, kind of like Zyra's W.
A minor rework on her passive probably could contribute to that. Her passive only scales with levels, but what if it was affected by CDR, or have reduced cooldown based on how many slams have hit enemy champions? It could allow her to move more on the map instead of being this champion that is incentivized to sit on a lane all day because she's nothing without her tentacles.
imagine a soul stacking mechanic, for each soul you destroy you get a stack, and for example you get extra tenacity. to balance counter that, the soul should do less damage i think.
To be fair, even if the hextech gauntlets had weight reducing tech, she would still have to overcome their inertia. It would still be bery difficult to accelerate and decelerate them at punching speeds, double especially considering the speed she swings them around at. I think arcane fixed it a little bit, especially when you look at real life boxers and fighters, theyre not really big in terms of mass, at most theyll have big shoulders and chest/upper back muscles, which vi does have in arcane.
8:09 i absolutely COMPLETELY agree with you man 😭😭 and wtf is her outfit??? boob armor??? the corset??? the fucking TUTU??? shes not a ballet dancer she will punch the hell outta anyone 😭 i started playing league from arcane. vi is the first champ i ever played. seeing her design made me cringe i immediately bought arcane skin on day 2 or 3 😭😭😭 thats how bad her design looks- she desperately needs a vgu
I feel like I would swap her E and R in some way; Bring some consistency of creating and triggering tentacles outside of an ultimate-long cooldown (in a weakened form), and make the soul test her ultimate in a more powerful form.
Kinda wish she was less unique gameplay wise, then she would be more popular and riot would give her more skins and mabye make more champs with her style of body type
BIG MOMMA Illaoi is one of my fav. designs from league. I was gonna say that she was the only female champion who had a different body type, being stronk n all, but now that riot will release medarda's mom as a champion AND shyvanna will gain some muscles on her vgu, it seems we'll finally see more varied bodytypes for female champions that aren't just like ahri or evelynn.
as a one trick with 1.4m mastery on her, I do agree that her kit needs to be looked at but also agree its a weird situation bc her E is literally perfect for how she is for lore reasons. Still no idea how I'd even think about changing some things while keeping the important aspects that makes Illaoi, Illaoi
Thankfully we are getting a shyvana vgu which the concept arts imply that she is going to be buffed, and Medarda is coming as well which anyone who watched arcane (basically everyone) knows she is buffed. So people who love buffed women celebrate, we are getting more muscle momies
I saw somebody else post it, but I really liked the idea. I’m an illaoi main, and I love playing her, but it always feels unfair. I want a more fair version of her with more interactivity in the E. How about if the spirit auto attacked as well? It plays thematically into the spirit fighting for it’s life, and it turns the “hit it and you win” button into “can I win this 2v1 and be rewarded?”
@@FratoiuAlex Getting the other player to approach. Like I said, I don’t wanna make her more balanced, just more fair to play against. The #1 counter to Illaoi is “just walk away.” The fact that the other player is walking towards your tentacle setup is reward enough for me. People immediately try to break the tether, going out of range to reduce chip damage, meaning that they need to dodge tentacle swings and miss cs. They’re screwed if they break the tether, screwed if they approach, and screwed if they do nothing. This kinda change could put both players into a risk/reward type of gamble. If the player is confident enough to challenge, then it might cause me to back off, giving counterplay to the E (and fit flavor wise, rewarding the people that face their destiny head on, instead of running away). On the other hand, walking into range of the R (and 2 tentacles already putting the hurt in) could kill them outright, so you’d probably need to make the E easier to hit, or reduce the cooldown, since enemies could punish if it whiffs, and punish if it hits. It would definitely help both players in the late laning phase (just past lv6), since the Illaoi wants people to approach, and the enemy player doesn’t want to miss a cannon minion and cs by dodging tentacles cause they got hit by one skillshot (giving me another chance to hit them again cause it’s always easiest to hit people with the E when they’re scrambling). It also wouldn’t be 100% AD ratio, probably like 50% of AD or AP, whichever’s higher, at melee range for ranged champs, just to prevent people from itemizing or picking around it (or flat damage scaling off the enemy’s level)
@@tsncrpntrSome time back, Illaoi's E used to have a mechanic where it would lose duration the more damage you dealt to her, meaning that you could either walk away like today or take the gamble and try to reduce the damage taken by accepting to trade. Granted, the challenge was bold, especially since you can't really knock Illaoi out of her abilities so your only option is to statcheck her in a 1v1.5, but the option existed. Then Riot removed that interaction and a vast, vast portion of the playerbase just scratched its head in disbelief.
*sees nicky play illaoi in mid* I thought you werent a psychopath like Tobias? Kek Anyway love the video and like the other comments said, itsa funny that the time you posted this there’s news of the new buff women champ/update
I love her kit so much man, the passive and E makes it for me, of course If you miss E you are fucked, but It's on you man, I wish her face was better but I guess for what she is It's fine, sadly she is bruttaly beaten by champs with high attack speed, but her and Renekton might be the only champs you are almost guaranteed to praticly win every 2v1 or 3v1 on lvl 6 and a full item, cleptomancy on her was SUCH a joy man, It was so fun, I miss that talent so bad
I disagree with the discussion at 14:00 because I tried playing Illaoi to learn more carry champs. I was positive in more than half of my games from just starting her. I think her setup is nearly braindead and her champ's hotboxes are super forgiving. idk if it's just the gold life or what but that's my experience.
Illaoi is such a cool character but I absolutely can't play her. Sadly the playstyle just won't click. But the character, the lore, the voicelines and man the DESIGN are just so great and one could do so much with her (like Riot currently does), but it still sometimes feels like she is being overlooked. For example; why didn't she get a soulfighter skin, when her whole stick is about being a cool, strong lady and souls?
Hearing you pronounce it "Naga-Kay-Boros" is a bit painful. it's a KAH sound, she says it lots of times in the Ruined King game. Like "car" or "Camembert"
Illaoi is one of my top 3 fav characters, and even I think her kit needs a rework. I've always like the idea of making the e a sweeping move in a cone so it can go through/over minons but kiting her becomes viable to balance it. A friends of mine also suggested making it so you can stock up maybe three tenticals and if you hit w on a champ they pop up so you bully a little more without needing perfect set ups for them
I have come to realize that Nicky actually doesn't like skill expressive, fast paced, flashy champions which is a shame, but to each their own. Although I disagree with 95% of this series, it's always entertaining to watch u suffer for the most part. Much appreciated.
I actually love Illaoi's gimmick, I just don't like how slow she feels. She's like a more damage oriented Sion, and against any champ other than another bruiser half her skillshots will end up grtting sidestepped.
As an Illaoi main, I think she has problems in her kit but I’m still glad she is in the game, unlike Yone. Btw I love the moments where Nicky is getting cornered or ganked and it skips all the fighting to a grey skin, that is so fucking hilarious.
Her lor gameplay is also pretty unfortunate. She’s consistently a very bad champion but all of her support cards keep catching nerfs because they’re so good in other decks
Crazy how in this video you mention that Illaoi is to date one of the only Buff female champions in the game on today january the 5th where certainly no other buff older womab chanpion is announced to be coming in the future... *Ambessa Medarda enters the char*
Hey Nicky, I would like to send you a fan art for Friday reviews but I don't have Discord, only Twitter, can I send it to you in DM? Or just post it and @tag you? 😅
So it's not necessarily OP bc it has clear counterplay. But I hate how literally one single ability, her E, determines whether or not she can 1 v 5 or dies instantly. Like "oh, I wonder if I'll hit the win button this time". Definitely a really dumb mechanic.