How to win lane as Gwen against Illaoi · 53.42% win rate over 307 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Illaoi | Illaoi out-stats you at level 1 and your item-less HP can't survive a Test of Spirit grab plus the tentacles it spawns — farm, don't fight. |
| Level 2 | Illaoi | She still owns this window: her E pulls your spirit and chases you with tentacles while you have no W up to make yourself untargetable to her. |
| Level 3 | Even / skill | With Q+E you can poke and reset, but she's even-to-ahead until your mist is online — only commit when her E is down. |
| Levels 4-5 | Even / skill | You're a melee with no mist uptime versus her tentacle field, so it's a coinflip on who lands cooldowns — keep dodging her E. |
| Level 6 | Gwen | At 6 you fight inside Hallowed Mist on top of her: its armor/MR and untargetability blank her autos and E while Needlework slows and your Q out-DPSes her slams — the lane flips. |
| First item | Gwen | Riftmaker plus anti-heal let your %-HP and true-damage Snip Snip! out-sustain the lifesteal she gets from slamming you in any extended duel. |
| Two+ items | Gwen | The more HP and armor she stacks the harder your max-HP passive and magic Q shred her, and her zero mobility means she can't escape your dash-in all-in. |
Levels 1-3 are hers and you have to respect it — Illaoi out-stats you on raw base damage, and a landed E (Test of Spirit) rips your spirit out so tentacles spawn and chase you while you have no W and no items to soak the hits. Don't trade into her: last-hit with the tip of Snip Snip! and stay spaced so you never give her a clean Test of Spirit. The whole early game is just farming, dodging her E, and not getting dragged into her tentacle field — your Q cone is clunky to land on a spaced Illaoi, so settle for safe last-hits over poke.
The full Gwen vs Illaoi report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.
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Playing the other side? Illaoi vs Gwen guide →
All Gwen top lane matchups →