How to win lane as Mordekaiser against Illaoi · 55.56% win rate over 2,191 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Even / skill | Her Q is slow and her E only rips you if you stand still — but with one ability and no aura you have no all-in either, so just farm clean and dodge. |
| Level 2 | Even / skill | Your W banks a cut of damage dealt and taken as a shield you can recast to heal, so short Q-auto trades come out even even before your full kit is online. |
| Level 3 | Illaoi | She lands Test of Spirit to fuel her field, and her tentacles punish you hardest now before you have E to drag her off them — respect the trade until level 3. |
| Levels 4-5 | Even / skill | With the full E-pull into Q-auto pattern you can yank her off her field, but she answers by hugging tentacle clusters and her vessel sustain holds — it's a read war on her E cooldown. |
| Level 6 | Mordekaiser | Realm of Death banishes her alone into the shadow realm — no tentacles, no field, no vessel to heal off — and your Darkness Rise aura plus W out-DPS and out-shield her in a straight 1v1. |
| First item | Even / skill | Your Riftmaker and aura spike lets you cash an isolated all-in, but she's farming toward her own field, so force the kill on her E cooldown before it completes. |
| Two+ items | Illaoi | Two items in, her full tentacle field plus vessel healing out-sustains your shield if you fight on her terms — never trade inside her tentacles; save R to isolate or peel her out of a fight. |
"Her Test of Spirit (E) is the whole early game — if it rips your spirit, her tentacles keep slamming you while you run, so never sit still in a bush or hug her tentacle cluster when E is up. At level 1 her Q is slow and telegraphed; sidestep it and just farm. By 3 you have the answer: E-pull her off her own field, Q-auto her on open ground where the tentacles can't reach, then W-recast the banked return damage into a heal."
The full Mordekaiser 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 Mordekaiser guide →
All Mordekaiser top lane matchups →