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Irelia sucks right now. Here is what I would change

invisiblecat1·12/14/2019, 4:51:33 PM·1 votes·1,305 views

I feel like her biggest issue is the free mobility. If riot makes her damage strong, then she sticks onto champions and kills them without fail. However, if her damage is really low (like it is now), then she is impossible to win lane with and works as a glorified tank in team fights.

In her rework, Riot employed the same tricks that they gave to Katarina. Now, their mobility resets more readily, so their teamfighting is more difficult to pull off, but more rewarding once the kit is mastered. However, Irelia was NEVER a teamfighting champion before her rework, and function more of as a champion who focused on winning lane, which is why so many Irelia mains abandoned her. I think the best thing to do is give her back the early pressure, but maintain the dash resets so she isn't completely useless in teamfights. __

Here are my thoughts: PASSIVE: I think it is okay as it is now. I considered adding some healing to it (like she had with her old w), but that might stack too well with Conqueror and cause issues. If it were to be changed, I think making it function like old Aatrox passive would be cool. Decrease stack number to 4, and keep the attack speed and magic damage the same. NEW: Gives her healing on hit while at max stacks. However, the passive only lasts at max stacks for 3 seconds, but the duration can be slightly increased by staying in combat.

This way, her sustain isn't overbearing and is rewarded for landing abilities.

__ Q: Slight base damage increase, but no longer deals bonus damage to minions. No longer dashes through the target.

One point of frustration with new Irelia is how she can dodge telegraphed skillshots by simply dashing to the target, which is complete bullshit and gives her extra mobility. Also, it works too well as a farming tool but sucks when it comes to damaging champions. If the healing on passive is added, then the Q healing should be removed too.

__ W: Irelia can move while channeling, but it cuts her movespeed in half. Damage reduction applies to both magic and physical damage, but the channel only lasts 0.75 seconds. If Irelia blocks enough damage, she can recast this ability within 1 second to lash out, dealing damage and marking her target.

Being a mobile champion but being completely immobile for 1.5 seconds on her ONLY defensive ability is stupid. Letting her slightly reposition will help her out, and regaining the ability to reduce magic damage will help her in laning against AP champions. Additionally, when compared to other defensive abilities like Fiora's parry, this skill is unrewarding, so now the Q reset mark and the lash when she blocks damage will reward her for using it properly. The extra mark on her W may seem unfair, but listen to the E changes first.

E: Stun duration now scales with level. No longer marks enemy champions, instead, when it hits 1 or more enemy champions, her Q cooldown is reset

__ This change aims at adding some fairness to her kit. If she E's you from a distance, then she shouldn't be able to stick on you so easily. Now, if she is already on top of you and lands an E at close range, she is able to stay in the fight for longer.

R: I think it is fine too. Shifting the power of her abilities may make her too weak or too strong, so the ultimate should be balanced accordingly.

__ Finally, I would like AP Irelia to still be viable. That's all for the changes. Let me know what you think.

8 Comments

Linna Excel12/14/2019, 5:57:09 PM2 votes

I'd just rework her. Not a fan of anything besides the Q.

Jamaree12/14/2019, 5:01:47 PM1 votes

Irelia is bad...what?

Drageno12/16/2019, 7:37:01 PM1 votes

First of all: Winrates dont always tell the truth, Irelia is still pretty viable in the hands of a good player, especially in higher elo, but you are certainly right, that she is has been intentionally nerfed to fringe viability and i agree that her current kit just isnt healthy.

As you said she has way to much free mobility in her kit especially offensive mobility. By which i mean that it's very easy for her to get on top of an enemy and especially carries have little tools to actually defend against her onslaught when she gets ahead, using her mobility defensively is more tricky and requires experience and when she gets behind it can be very difficult for her to not get rolled over. So she ends up as feast or famine champ that either snowballs out of control or just doesnt do much, though she probably isnt as bad as say Rengar or Yasuo in that regard.

Personally i think her passive is a big part of the problem here, when she gets it fully stacked, stuns and jumps on you, she can just zerg most champs down. Sure when you have Renekton/Garen/Darius, you dont care bc these guys are also good at zerging people down, but are also beefy early on and can cc her back whereas other champs simply cant deal with her at that point. It's imho essentially a hidden stat check, either you have the stats to retaliate (like Renketon) or you simply dont (like most midlaners Irelia abused heavily in her prime time). Doesnt help that she also gets alot of burst dmg with Ult. So I'd say either her passive or something else in her kit has to go (burst or mobility).

Regarding your ideas: I think they are good overall. Passive: I dont think her passive needs heal, she already gets decent amount of sustain from her Q and she is also one of the best Conqueror user overall, heck both of the bigger changes conqeror got were probably because of how well Irelia (and a select few other champs) could use this rune.

Q: I fully agree here, she is one of the very few champs that actually dash through the enemy and not in front of them (Jax or Camille certainly dont do that) and it's stronger than most think it is bc it not also means she can dodge skillshot with it like you said, but she also can get 2-3 pretty much guaranteed AAs in and makes kiting her very hard. That her wave clear with Q is a bit r%%%%%ed is something we can all agree on i think.

W: Like the idea, since it would gate some of her damage and give her a bit more intuitive defensive capabilites, certainly worth a try. I am unsure though about the mark. Marking enemies with W would be easier in terms of actually hitting them and that is bit dangerous, but honestly hard to judge without seeing it in action.

E: Really like this aswell, current E really gives no interaction for the enemy, when you get hit by it you are pretty much screwed and dodging the E from a good Irelia all the time is essentially impossible, that skill shot is pretty fast overall. On the flipside if Irelia doesnt hit her E regularly she is screwed, it's for sure big part of her overall problem and i think your change actually fixes it quite neatly. It will make her probably easier to play overall though, which isnt necessarily bad, could be in fact very revitalizing for her, when you dont need to be a Diamond+ one trick or semipro to play her decently. I am not sure though if she actually needs to have stun in her kit, maybe change it into a snare or a slow even since this would give more counterplay opportunity against her engage.

TL;DR: Good ideas overall, Like Q and E in particular, unsure about W, dont like heal on passive.