Thoughts about possible Irelia Changes
#Just to be clear, this isn't a fully developed, nobel peace prize winning suggestion. I am just throwing out ideas. Hi, Irelia main here. So at the moment, Irelia is an low winrate champion but has been nerfed repeatedly because she's good in Pro play. Another problem with her is that while she VERY often loses games, she is frustrating when she does win, according to many players (from my experience at least). Strangely enough, while I hear a lot of complaining about Irelia, I never hear anyone talk about what to do. I was thinking about how to change her and make her less of this problematic design.
My patch is the following
P: Stack max from 5 to 4 Attack speed per stack:
8 - 12%10 - 15% Gives 5% movespeed per stack (20% max) No longer gives on hit damage at max stacksQ: Damage changed to 25/55/85/115/145 from 5/25/45/65/85 AD ratio increased to 1.0 from 0.6 No longer does bonus damage to minions Mana cost increased to 40 from 20. (Restores 20 mana on kill)
E: Completely changed. Can now be used 4 times within 5 seconds Each use sends out a blade to a location and damages enemies it passes through for 20/40/60/80/100 (+40% AD) (+20% AP). All extra hits on a target deal 50% damage. After the fourth cast, all blades return to Irelia. Each one deals the same damage (and will still be lowered if multiple blades hit a target). 30/35/40/45/50% of all damage dealt by this spell is given to Irelia as a 3 second shield when the blades return. Range increased to 1100 25/22/19/16/13 second cooldown. 100 mana cost
W: Completely changes. Passively gains 2/3.5/5/6.5/8 armor for every 10% bonus attack speed she has. Now actively surges Irelia, causing her to deal 10 - 60 bonus true damage (Based on level) for 4 seconds. She also enhances her next ability. Q: Automatically kills the target if used on a minion (and refunds 50% of the cooldown on this spell). Now auto resets and deals 25/30/35/40/45% of your bonus AD in bonus physical damage if used on a champion. E: Each blade slows enemies by 10/15/20/25/30%. The slow does not stack, but refreshes with each hit. 14/13/12/11/10 second cooldown. 50/40/30/20/10 mana cost
R: Now stuns for 0.75/1.25/1.75 seconds on impact to all enemies caught. No longer slows on passthrough damage. Still leaves a reset mark
#Numbers are completely changeable
So the purpose of these changes would be to keep her ability to dash around by killing minions and champs with Q, put power and identity into the rest of her spells (Its just Q and R right now I would say.), and do so while not giving her the tools to take on the world. I took some ideas from the old Irelia concept, mainly her W and R.
These changes probably seem random and unnecessary, but this is what I think about it.
PROS: She is easier to play Her Q does more damage and gives back mana. Her E does more damage and the shield helps in extended fights. Instead of damage reduction, W now gives armor, which is more consistent and doesn't require reactions. Since the damage from W scales with level, you wouldn't feel pressured to max it instead of Q for the on hit bonus. Feel free to stay maxing Q without having a 10 damage boost at level 9.
This setup has more clear weaknesses. Her only stun is now on her ulti! Her mana costs and cooldowns are up and her bonus damage is on her abilities. Because of this, she can be challenged early game. 10 true damage on hit for 4 seconds is probably more manageable than 15 magic damage on hit for the entire trade (Assuming the trade is level 1)
CONS: It wouldn't feel anything like what Irelia is right now probably, which is dissatisfying E doesn't have a mark anymore, so you can't reset off of it. Im not sure how to include that into this. W is messy and weird. Might need to change it?
Obviously this isn't perfect or something. (Or maybe it is) but I think something like this would make her healthier. It might not be necessary, since maybe current Irelia can be balanced with number changes (I don't think so though).