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What Irelia Actually Needs Now

Blades of Navori·4/8/2018, 12:50:40 PM·10 votes·1,659 views

Hello everyone,

So far the hotfix has definitely put Irelia in a bad place, but of all the nerfs given to her the worst one was the gutting of her base stats. So far she just feels like a clone, albeit a worse clone, of Camille. Her laning is significantly worse, their ults kind of do a similar job of locking a target down, though Irelia's hits multiple people, and they're powerful divers who scale into the late game.

My greatest concern isn't that she is in a bad spot because of the nerfs, but because of the potential buffs and direction Irelia could be taken that would still put her in a "bad" spot. Is say this because she could still easily be a clone of Camille. Riot Maple in the reddit described a "power curve", shifting some of her early to late. However, this again could just make her a clone of Camille, although a worse one. They already removed some of her late game power from the ratio on her Q and the disarm duration on her ult, both of which are fine. However, touching any more of her late game would put her in a situation where her early game is just on par with other late-game bruisers, but not have quite the power to really match them. Fiora, Camille, and Riven can all jump into a fight providing different types of utility, Irelia's should be focused on her ult, which had been touched.

Remedying her laning phase is the best place to go right now. The best fix would be to increase her health by a small amount and revert the armor nerf. As of right now there is nothing she can do to stop bullies like Renekton, Kled, Jayce, or Voli even because they can jump on her too easily and deal too much damage. Her stun nerf is debatable, it should have increasing CC with every rank, though not by much IMO. But even now when you land the stun to prevent the enemy from diving you the .75 seconds just isn't enough to stop their attack and the CD makes it impossible to even stop it as second time even if you do. Renekton, assuming he E'd through at least one minion, will have his dash. An aggressive Yasuo will pretty much always murder Irelia in lane.

What Irelia really needs isn't a curve shift. She should remain a powerful back line diver in the mid to late, but she shouldn't be too easy to kill in laning. Her Q and Ult nerfs, as most (including Irelia players) agree, are completely justified and that already helps remedy the curve shift. Adjusting it more by touching her late game again would result in a carbon copy Camille who just does Irelia's job a thousand times better. Irelia shouldn't be someone who fights really well in lane, but she also shouldn't be someone who cannot do anything if a bully jumps on her.

Riot, please fix.

23 Comments

Wild Geese4/8/2018, 3:44:19 PM3 votes

More armor... Probably the right call.

Although I have to wonder if people need to try some other item builds on her. This champ has been out a very short time.. Maybe black cleaver or lethality turns out to be stronger, perhaps on-hit AP.

A month after Kai'Sa and her builds are still being optimized, be patient.

AirKingNeo4/8/2018, 4:44:08 PM3 votes

yeah because let's overbuff again!

Ahristocats4/8/2018, 4:51:45 PM3 votes

a mobile champion in lane deserves bad base stats

kled or camille or any champion you listed are not as mobile as irelia in lane, and they do not have a ranged stun either if irelia had good base stats, trading against her would be difficult

Ralik0984/8/2018, 2:53:48 PM1 votes

Completely agree.

Agan Mardrus4/8/2018, 5:34:57 PM1 votes

i tend to have more success giving her an iceborn than a trinity. but then again, i build a lot of other weird crap on her too and it seems to work out better than it maybe should. from my experience tho and i don't think it's a secret to anyone but sheen more so than the trinity itself is the corner stone of her build. so as long as you get that early and then itemize against your lane opponent you should be able to consistantly come out of laning phase in decent shape.

(edit: i think it's less about her innate power than it is being able to "build to suit" while laning and i think she, more than other champs, relies on her player being able to evaluate a situation and build accordingly)

Rico Nasty4/9/2018, 8:50:42 PM1 votes

Her stun is laughable. 0.75 seconds is not enough for anything. I agree that she is a little too easily blown up for a diving bruiser, but I think that's a good thing. She also deals high damage and can secure kills very easily, and this is made easier by her mobility and whatnot. However, I do want her to be balanced, because I would hate for them to pull a Zoe (overbuff the shit out of her then nerf her into the ground). I think part of her balance is that she's low defense aside from her W, like the other day I was playing a game with her. I was taking a tower all by myself at around the 20 minute mark and the entire enemy team was alive (bad idea, I know) and MF pops out of the fog and kills me under tower. I think that's the way it should be -- tanky enough to retain her diving bruiser identity, but not so tanky that she can 1v3 or something.