gut the freelo that is irelia

ScarnMichaelScar·Mar 26, 2015·4 votes·1,119 views

no champion should be able to build one item , and be able to out damage, out tank, and outsustain everyone else for the rest of the game.

irelia's early game is nowhere NEAR bad enough to justify how hard she hits, how well she tanks, and how good she is at sticking to targets late game.

that equilibrium strike nerf was a joke, and riot knows it. you really want to balance irelia? lower the amount of true damage she gets per aa in hiiten style per rank. take away the mana refund on her q, but keep the reset. make her THINK about just q farming. instead of giving her a negligible mana cost, with a partial refund, while her starting build is a crystalline flask and 3 health pots which will keep her in lane FOREVER with her built in sustain.

irelia is the only champion right now that you can absolutely dumpster early and still carry the game if you dare let it go past 20 minutes.

14 Comments

Slamurai JackMar 26, 20152 votes

I'd like to cut through the hyperbole for a second. Irelia is not freelo. But, her damage, and in paricular, her burst seems excessive for a champion that gets to build 5 defensive items and has as much diving and sticking power as she does. Personally, I think her base stats are just too high.

For example, her base AD at lvl 1 is 7th highest, and her lvl 18 AD is 19th, which is extremely high for somone that abuses triforce as well as Irelia does. Another note is her base HP. It's 10th highest at lvl 1 and 21st at lvl 18, which is considerably higher on both counts when compared to similar champions like Xin Zhao, Jarvan, and Jax. Also, despite her free sustain on both W and her ult, she has strong health regen as well, again top 20. She also bizarrely has very high mana regen as well, the highest of all bruisers. Her attack speed is also high, ranking in the top 15 at lvl 18, and easily above every other bruiser.

It would obviously be absurd to ask Riot to nerf all of these things, but I do believe that Riot should consider giving Irelia the "Jax" treatment. Because right now, if you want to pick a top lane bruiser, there's Irelia , and then there's everybody else.

SEKAIMar 26, 20151 votes

Or you can get groups to track her down when she's alone which isn't particularly hard to do, and you shouldn't focus her during teamfights unless she has already absorbed everybody's share of feed all into herself, but even then it's always better to just get her out of the fight first, lock her down in cc, clear her team up then 5 or 4v1 her.

ScarnMichaelScarMar 26, 20152 votes

{quoted}

Or you can get groups to track her down when she's alone which isn't particularly hard to do, and you shouldn't focus her during teamfights unless she has already absorbed everybody's share of feed all into herself, but even then it's always better to just get her out of the fight first, lock her down in cc, clear her team up then 5 or 4v1 her.

"she's not op, you just need to 4v1 her before teamfights start if you want any hope of winning"

come on man. lets compare her to other hypercarries.

Yasuo - at full build has a lot of damage, but is still extremely squishy and easy to kill in teamfights. weak against armor. Tristana - harder to beat than yas on account of being in the backlines, and having 2 escape tools, but still very squishy, and weak against armor

both of these champs tend to build item 3087 item 3031 item 3006 item 3072 item 3026

lets look at what Irelia builds and still manages to keep up with them damage wise, while being immensely more useful.

Irelia - builds one damage item, has passive sustain that's doubled when hiiten style is activated. has true damage added to her aa's, point and click very fast gap closer that resets on kills(allowing her to kill a minion with it then jump to you when she was originally 1k units away.). a slow that stuns if you have a higher health percentage than her, and i guess a pretty decent damage dealing ult.

item 3078 item 3143 item 3102 item 3110 item 3111 item 3026 tends to be a standard build for irelia. with it she can simultaneously tank 3-5 people, all while melting tanks and carries alike with her insane true damage/triforce procs.

the only person i can think of that actually stands a chance of 1v1ng her after she gets 2 items would be poppy, and ONLY if poppy had someone to ult.

otherwise, she's the safest hypercarry that hits carry point MUCH quicker than anyone else.

SEKAIMar 26, 20151 votes

The reason I said that was, she has to actually kill people to get a second gapcloser (and it works only on enemy units), or she needs to wait, hence she isn't that hard to corner and kill with a small squad on her arse. Unless she is running *towards *the enemy camp, which would always make it easier for the enemy team to track her unless she pulls some ridiculous stunt.

I would agree Irelia is particularly strong, just as she has always been, and her early isn't exactly easy to exploit given she is a hypercarry. Maybe she needs to get a check up or 2 but I wouldn't say a nerf is necessary atm.

ScarnMichaelScarMar 26, 20151 votes

{quoted}

The reason I said that was, she has to actually kill people to get a second gapcloser (and it works only on enemy units), or she needs to wait, hence she isn't that hard to corner and kill with a small squad on her arse. Unless she is running *towards *the enemy camp, which would always make it easier for the enemy team to track her unless she pulls some ridiculous stunt.

I would agree Irelia is particularly strong, just as she has always been, and her early isn't exactly easy to exploit given she is a hypercarry. Maybe she needs to get a check up or 2 but I wouldn't say a nerf is necessary atm.

her q is a very powerful chase mechanic with minions in lanes. and unlike yasuo's e, irelia's q can't overshoot someone if they get closer. it's too powerful of an ability to give to someone who already has true damage and heals built into their kit.

also once irelia gets triforce killing with her q becomes laughably easy on minions.

SEKAIMar 26, 20151 votes

That's what I said, if she is running away from danger, her best bet is running straight into enemy camp which is always a bad idea. Otherwise her escape is rather limited.

Hence tracking and kill her with a group of people isn't really all that hard, consider we've been dealing with Lee, Ahri, Zed, Yasuo, Kassadin, Nidalee for some time already.

Her power spike and snowball is certainly problematic but I wouldn't say it's something that should warrant a nerf just yet, but it's worth getting a look into, sure.

CapitatingBunnyMar 26, 20151 votes

I've been playing mostly Nasus this season and have 21 wins to 4 loses with him. At least three of those games were against Irelia and never was she a problem. But then again I'm fucking Nasus.

Kristari ZuboroMar 26, 20151 votes

It isn't that Irelia needs nerfing... The top lane champs that Riot has gutted, need to be buffed.

Ryze, Darius, Teemo (yeah I said it), Singed (remember this guy was immune to cc while ult'd)...

Champs become OP because Riot nerfs others... They've overnerfed a bunch of champs and this is what we get, other even MORE annoying champs coming in and being way worse than those other champs were.

DyonasMar 26, 20151 votes

Teamwork. Try it sometime. You say that 4 v 1 shouldn't be needed well guess what that's called teamwork. You don't see the pros trying to solo a tank then running to the forums to cry for nerfs they just group up, focus the weakest (adc, mid, support) and then the tanks. Yes she has a lot in her kit but so do many champions and any true damage is based on her AD which will be relatively low unless she builds all attack items. If she does that then she is easy to focus down.

Is it easy to take down Sion when he's tanky? No. Is it easy to take down Nasus when farmed up? No. The same can be said of a lot of other top laners. The sad truth is that most have been hit hard with nerfs and calling for more of them is not the solution.

ScarnMichaelScarMar 26, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Teamwork. Try it sometime. You say that 4 v 1 shouldn't be needed well guess what that's called teamwork. You don't see the pros trying to solo a tank then running to the forums to cry for nerfs they just group up, focus the weakest (adc, mid, support) and then the tanks. Yes she has a lot in her kit but so do many champions and any true damage is based on her AD which will be relatively low unless she builds all attack items. If she does that then she is easy to focus down.

Is it easy to take down Sion when he's tanky? No. Is it easy to take down Nasus when farmed up? No. The same can be said of a lot of other top laners. The sad truth is that most have been hit hard with nerfs and calling for more of them is not the solution.

it's not healthy to make a chanmpion that requires to be 4v1 to be beat.

DedriusMar 26, 20151 votes

As a Season 4 Irelia main with around 400 ranked games played on her, let me give you a few tips:

Irelia is very underwhelming past 30 minutes - Basically if it takes longer than 20 minutes for her to get her Tri force, she will have a very, very small window of time where she can be a threat. Past 30 minutes her damage is meh and she soaks damage worse than a majority of other top laners.
Stay away from low health creeps - As an irelia player, past level 4-5 I want to wait till you are near a low HP creep, Q to it, E you for a stun then give you a few W empowered autos, then either Q you again or Q back to a minion for a clean escape. If you don't stand near a low HP minion then I have to make the choice of either: A.) Use my gap closer to jump on you at the risk of getting ganked or losing the trade and having no escape. or B.) Keep farming hoping you slip up and get close enough to one.
Counter her in Lane - Irelia has a good amount of counter that will either crush her in lane, or survive the lane and crush her late game when she falls off. 1. is a pretty straight forward counter to Irelia and probably her hardest counter. You outdamage her in trades and she will have a hell of a time trying to get any farm while taking your poke or the risk of you getting a pull on her for the kill. 2. Is a very good pick against Irelia because you go pretty even in laning phase but you massively outscale her as the game goes on. As long as you don't feed her early you will win this matchup all day long. 3. is a very safe pick vs Irelia because of your wither. Similar to trynd, you have a fairly safe laning phase and you will massively outscale her late game, just wither her when she goes to trade and back off until you feel your Q is farmed enough to win trades. Rushing also helps a lot. 4. pretty easily wins this matchup in my opinion. Every time Irelia goes to farm you just E her and you win most trades doing so. Post 6, your ult negates her stun which is a pretty major component in her winning trades and the longer the game goes the better you get at dueling her. 5. is who I will talk about last because although you don't counter her early, you can have a pretty easy game if you play it right. You are fairly even in laning vs Irelia, perhaps a little weaker after the nerfs so just focus on farming and staying safe, do NOT try to go in on her with your stun unless you are sure it will land. When you start to get to level 9-10 and have a BOTRK that is when you start to crush Irelia. She can't duel you and you obviously begin to turn into the 1v5 raidboss we all know and love the longer the game goes. is also a pretty easy counter to irelia with his AS slow and a frozen heart rush.

Like I said I don't really play much Irelia anymore compared to other champs but she does have clear weaknesses and falls off last game. She has a strong kit that allows her to outplay and win a lot of even matchups but focus on beating her when you have the advantage and its a pretty easy game against her.

ScarnMichaelScarMar 26, 20151 votes

irelia doesn't fall off late game because of the sheer amount of tankiness and true damage she gets.

once she hits 6 all of those counters save for maybe trynd and jax get dumped on because of how much kill potential she gets with just a phage or a sheen.

DedriusMar 27, 20151 votes

She does fall off late game compared to other tanks and other bruisers, she is just average or below average compared to other picks past 30 mins.

Malphite - Just E for the AS slow and she can't kill him

Nasus - Wither for AS slow and Ult if he comes close to dying.

Darius - Rapes her in a trade at 6 she stands little chance.