League of Legends’ Kraken Princess: Illaoi Abilities Guide

Illaoi wins fights by forcing enemies to deal with tentacles, not just her health bar. If you don’t understand how her tentacles spawn, how they get commanded, and how her Spirit test redirects damage, it’s easy to take the wrong trade and lose lane fast.

This guide explains Illaoi’s abilities and focuses on what each spell does, what it can and can’t interact with, and what the common edge cases mean in real games.

Illaoi’s core idea: tentacles + forced decisions

Illaoi never fights alone. Her kit keeps putting tentacles on nearby terrain, then uses her abilities to command those tentacles to slam.

That creates a simple but brutal pattern. If you stand where tentacles can hit you, you take heavy physical damage. If you back off, you give up space and tempo.

Prophet of an Elder God (Passive)

What the passive does

Illaoi’s passive periodically spawns a Tentacle on the nearest terrain perpendicular to her location, as long as no other tentacles are already near that terrain. The tentacle takes 2 seconds to fully spawn, and it is untargetable during that delay.

The passive has a static cooldown that scales by level: 20 to 7.25 seconds.

Tentacle slam damage and scaling

Tentacles deal 9 to 162 (based on level) + 100% AD + 40% AP physical damage to all enemies struck. That tentacle slam damage is also increased by 0% to 30% based on the rank of Illaoi’s Q (Tentacle Smash).

This matters because Q does two jobs at once: it casts a slam and it buffs all tentacle slam damage through its passive increase.

Multi-slam damage reduction (the “stacking tentacles” rule)

If enemies get struck by multiple slams within 0.5 seconds of another, damage gets reduced:

• Second slam deals 50% damage

• All additional slams deal 25% damage

This prevents perfect overlap from always deleting targets. It also makes timing and spacing important, because tentacles that hit “too close together” lose value.

Healing from tentacle hits

Each tentacle heals Illaoi for 5% of her missing health if it hits at least one enemy champion.

If several tentacles hit at the same time, the healing is calculated iteratively based on the new missing health each time. The formula you provided is:

(maximum health − current health) × (1 − 0.955ⁿ)

Here, n is the number of tentacle hits.

Terrain rules and map-specific problems

Illaoi cannot spawn tentacles on ally invulnerable structures, and she also can’t spawn them (and neither can a Vessel) inside the Nexus Obelisk’s attack range. You also noted a bug where she still has issues spawning on Nexus turrets even after they lose invulnerability, likely because the nearby Nexus remains invulnerable.

Tentacles also prioritize spawning on map terrain before player-made terrain.

Tentacle Smash (Q)

Costs, cooldown, and cast feel

• Mana cost: 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60

• Cooldown: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6

• Cast time: 0.75

Q disables Illaoi’s movement during the cast, but she can still use some spells and some item actives. The key practical point is that Q commits her briefly, so aim matters.

Q has two parts: a passive buff and an active slam

Passive: increases tentacle damage by 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30%.

Active: Illaoi slams down a tentacle in the target direction.

That passive is a big deal. Even if Q misses, ranking it still boosts every slam your kit produces, including slams commanded by W and the autonomous slams triggered by Spirits and Vessels.

Hitbox and indicator notes

Q’s hitbox is fixed in front of Illaoi, while the ground indicator is fixed to the targeted direction. That mismatch matters when you aim at angles or cast at the edge of range.

This ability will cast from wherever the caster is at the end of the cast time. That means if her position changes before the cast finishes, the actual slam uses her end position, not her start position.

Conqueror interaction note

There is one potential bug: if Illaoi hits someone with Q while running Conqueror, the slam damage is always amplified by one bonus Conqueror stack. Treat that as a known inconsistency, not a reliable mechanic.

Harsh Lesson (W)

What W does at a glance

W empowers Illaoi’s next basic attack within 6 seconds:

• It gains 225 bonus range

• It makes her dash/leap to the target if they’re beyond her normal auto range

• It deals bonus physical damage based on the target’s max health

• It commands all tentacles in range to attack the target

Mana cost is 30, and cooldown is 4.

Bonus damage formula, minimums, and caps

W’s bonus damage is:

3 / 3.5 / 4 / 4.5 / 5% + (4% per 100 AD) of the target’s maximum health

It also has a minimum bonus damage of:

20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60

The bonus damage is capped at 300 against non-champions, and that the minimum bonus damage can also apply to turrets.

W is an auto reset

W resets Illaoi’s basic attack timer. That’s why her trades often look like “hit, W hit” in quick sequence.

Test of Spirit (E)

What E does

E fires a tendril projectile in a direction. It stops on the first enemy hit. If it hits a champion, Illaoi pulls their Spirit out in front of her over 0.75 seconds.

Key stats:

• Mana cost: 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 / 55

• Cooldown: 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12

• Cast time: 0.25

• Speed: 1900

While tethered, the champion is revealed with true sight, and Illaoi gets sight around them while the tether remains.

Spirit stats and damage redirection

The Spirit spawns with the target’s current health, armor, and magic resist. Damage dealt to the Spirit redirects a portion (pre-mitigation) back to the tethered champion.

Damage transmission is: 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 45% + (8% per 100 AD)

AD values required to reach 100% redirected damage: 937.5 / 875 / 812.5 / 750 / 687.5 total AD (by rank).

The actual damage can vary due to how the Spirit’s and Vessel’s damage modifiers differ and how the system caps damage.

The lockout: why E feels “committal”

Illaoi is unable to act while firing the projectile and while the target’s Spirit is being pulled. She also cannot cast E again until the Spirit dies.

That explains why missing E feels so punishing. During key moments, she gives up control to attempt the grab.

What happens when the tether breaks: Vessel rules

The tether ends if:

• The Spirit dies, or

• The target leaves tether range

When that happens, the tether is severed. The target becomes a Vessel for 10 seconds and gets slowed by 80% for 1.5 seconds when the tether “returns” to them.

Then the tentacle pressure ramps up:

• Each tentacle autonomously attacks the closest Vessel or Spirit, prioritizing the Spirit, once every 5.5 / 4.5 / 3.5 seconds (based on level).

• Vessels also cause tentacles to spawn near themselves every 5 / 4 / 3 seconds (based on level).

• Vessel-spawned tentacles can spawn 250 units closer to each other than passive-spawned tentacles.

A Vessel can dispel the debuff by scoring a takedown against Illaoi.

Spell shields and projectile blocking

Spell shields may prevent:

• The initial spirit grab, and

• The slow upon becoming a Vessel

But spell shields do not prevent becoming a Vessel itself or tentacles attacking. Also, the tendril can be blocked by effects like Wind Wall, but the returning tether slow cannot be blocked even if the tether can otherwise be destroyed by certain effects.

If the tethered target is untargetable when the Spirit dies, the tether slow will not be fired.

Spirit classification and targeting oddities

Spirits are classified as clones (like Shaco Hallucinate), with several unusual rules:

• Only Illaoi’s team and neutral monsters can fully target the Spirit.

• The Spirit’s allies can’t manually target it with spells, but can still hit it with auto-targeted effects (bug).

• Spirits take 50% damage from turrets (bug).

• Spirits can’t be healed or shielded, with Summon Aery excluded (bug).

Timing quirks: sometimes the Spirit’s lifetime is slightly longer, and sometimes its untargetability is shorter. That can change how many tentacle slams land.

Damage calculation order matters

How redirected damage is calculated:

1. Take pre-mitigation damage dealt to the Spirit.

2. Apply E’s damage modifier.

3. Cap it to the Spirit’s current health.

4. Then apply the Vessel’s damage modifiers (resistances and other effects).

Because Spirit and Vessel modifiers can differ, and because of how the cap behaves, redirected damage can be higher or lower than expected in some cases.

Other specific interactions

• The Spirit pull is not considered a stun and isn’t blocked by crowd-control immunity, except Morgana’s Black Shield.

• The Spirit projectile model can desync from the real hitbox, and the model can vanish if Illaoi enters stasis/sleep/airborne while the real hitbox continues.

• If the target goes to Realm of Death, the tether breaks but they don’t become a Vessel.

• The Vessel effect does not persist through death.

• A target made a Vessel while resurrecting will not revive as a Vessel.

• Runes treat the Spirit as a champion for effects and tracking.

• Transferred damage applies on-damage effects (Black Cleaver and Grievous Wounds), but transferred damage does not double-apply on-hit or on-spell effects to the target; those apply to the Spirit only.

Leap of Faith (R)

What R does

R makes Illaoi unstoppable for the cast time and then slam her idol into the ground:

• Mana cost: 100

• Cooldown: 120 / 95 / 70

• Cast time: 0.5

• It deals physical damage in an area: 150 / 250 / 350 + 50% bonus AD

For each enemy champion hit, Illaoi summons a tentacle for 8 seconds, up to 6 tentacles.

The post-R buff: what changes during the window

For the duration:

• W’s cooldown is halved

• All tentacles awakened by Illaoi are untargetable

• They don’t show hitboxes

• They don’t go dormant

• They take half the time to make an attack

This does not affect the tentacle attack from Q.

This window is where Illaoi becomes most dangerous. She can chain W commands more often, and awakened tentacles swing faster.

Tentacle spawn geometry

Illaoi spawns tentacles about 700 range away unless a natural wall blocks the way, making it spawn on that wall with an angle relative to where she faces.

The angles depend on how many champions she hits:

• 1 champion: 0 degrees (toward her facing direction)

• 2 champions: 60 degrees

• 3 champions: 300 degrees

• 4 champions: 120 degrees

• 5 champions: 240 degrees

• 6 champions: 180 degrees

If no walls are nearby, the final tentacle forms a perfect hexagon when fully stacked.

Tentacles may spawn on base barriers, and if Illaoi is in the center of one, tentacles can stack on the same position and look like a single tentacle.

How Illaoi’s kit fits together (and why fights swing fast)

Illaoi’s abilities all point to one plan: place tentacles, force contact, and punish anyone who stays in range too long. Q raises the damage floor by boosting tentacle slams. W turns a single auto into a multi-tentacle attack order. E creates a second target that can take damage and transmit it back. R turns every nearby enemy into a tentacle summon trigger and speeds up the tentacle cycle.

If Illaoi gets E on a champion, the fight becomes about tether range, Spirit health, and where tentacles can land. If Illaoi hits multiple champions with R, the fight becomes about surviving the buff window while the tentacles swing faster and W cycles twice as quickly.

Conclusion

Illaoi rewards clean spacing and punishes hesitation. Her kit is simple to name but strict to play around, because tentacles follow rules that don’t forgive sloppy positioning. Focus on how tentacles spawn, how slams stack and reduce, how E redirects damage and creates a Vessel, and how R changes the tempo of tentacle attacks. That’s where most Illaoi fights are decided in League of Legends.

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