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Irelia; a Gameplay Update

Stacona··4 votes·930 views

"Better nerf Irelia" we have all heard this meme, and its because Irelia has always had balance problems and still does. She was a champion initially created for a damage melee, so Riot gave her literally every tool which of course makes her very overpowered in the process and ends up being a champion that requires many nerfs.

In this post my ideas will reflect what I think would be a very fun and cool concept which is Irelia's floating blades concept. This is not apparent in her current kit except in her ultimate a little bit, so this is something I will focus heavily on and makes Irelia more unique than a basic attacking melee champion (this is shared with Xin Zhao, Tryndamere, Master Yi, Aatrox, Jax, etc.).

Nothing is finalized, so give your own feedback, comments, and ideas if you have any! Also you have to speak up to let me know if you like or do not like something because I am not a mind reader, especially for someone I have never met that is more than likely 100s to 1000s of kilometres away from me.

Basic Attack Range: 125 units Movement: 340 units per second

Blade Surge (Passive): Static Cooldown: 6/5/4/3/2/1 second(s) @levels 1/4/7/10/13/16; Range: 600 units Every so often Irelia readies a blade that homes in on her target granting 475 units bonus range to her next basic attack.

Whenever Irelia basic attacks an enemy a blade is left in the target for up to 3 seconds.

Ionian Fervor (Q): Static Cooldown: 10 seconds; Cost: 85/75/65/55/45 Mana; Range: 750 units Active: Irelia dashes to a target currently with a blade in them to retrieve the blade and deal 40/55/70/85/100(+40%bonus AD) bonus true damage, if the target dies then Ionian Fervor's cooldown and half the mana cost is refunded.

Passive: Ionian Fervor's cooldown is reduced with attack speed lowering the cooldown by 1% per 2% bonus attack speed, up to a maximum of 65% reduction.

Hiten Style (W): Cooldown: 22/19/16/13/10 seconds; Cost: 80/85/90/95/100 Mana Irelia stands on her blade to start surfing on it for the next 4 seconds or until Hiten Style is cast again causing Irelia to get off the blade early.

While Irelia is surfing on her blade she is always in motion and gains 20%(+1% per 2% attack speed) bonus movement speed while ignoring all unit collision, enemies she passes through take 40/45/50/55/60(+20%AP)(+1 per 1% attack speed) magic damage which causes a chain lightning to up to 4 nearby targets, the same enemy can be damaged once every 0.5 second.

Irelia cannot basic attack, perform sharp turns, or instantly turn around while Hiten Style is being performed.

Equilibrium Blade (E): Cooldown: 8 seconds; Cost: 60 Mana; Range: 1200 units Irelia commands her blades to rip out of nearby enemies that had one stuck in them to slow them down by 80% for 0.75/1/1.25/1.5/1.75 seconds and deal 60 plus 12/14/16/18/20%(+1% per 40 bonus AD) of Irelia's missing health to the target as true damage.

Transcendent Blades (R): Cooldown: 2 seconds; Cost: 35 Mana; Range: 1000 units Passive: Irelia summons a blade every 16/13/10 seconds that orbits around her indefinitely until thrown. Every blade currently orbiting Irelia grants her 2/3/4% damage reduction and a maximum of 5 blades can be orbiting Irelia at one time.

Active: Irelia commands a blade to be thrown in the target direction to deal 80/120/160(+40/55/70%AD)(+50%AP) physical damage to every enemy struck.

Each blade's thrown missile speed is based on Irelia's bonus attack speed, the more attack speed the higher the missile speed.

17 Comments

Ruin Lance2 votes

actually one of the better rework concepts. though there are a few things i would change i like most of it

Rico Nasty1 votes

This is crazy overloaded, but you thematically hit the nail on the head, I like it. I say remove a few things from the abilities, she has too much cc and breakup abilities, her teamfights would be monstrous.

Stacona1 votes

Q I am most willing to change; I had a hard time coming up with something for this, so if you have a better idea then let's hear it. W I really want a surfing ability I think it will be very cool and fun; and E has a better equalizing aspect to it.

qetzel1 votes

I see two problems with this, ignoring balancing. Firstly, the rework should keep what is currently fun. That is chaining Q jumps, so that should be kept. Secondly, having drastic and fast range changes isn't a good idea. If you think about Poppy, her passive occasionally feels clunky because the ranged attack comes up at a bad time. With this rework, that will be much more common. Furthermore, late game, Irelia will basically be a ranged champion. This will give players satisfaction issues - building for the late game when you are ranged will leave you weak in the early and mid game, whereas building for the early and mid game will leave you weak for the late game. This isn't a meaningful decision as it doesn't positively impact how Irelia or her enemies play - it just feels forced.

There are some cool ideas here, but there are also some big problems that need to be fixed.

Stacona1 votes

That is because Poppy has two attacks, a hammer and a shield, this can easily be made to be a lot more fluid in my scenario where it is just the same blade attack.

I wanted a different look on things like rather than having another melee champion with a dash, have someone that uses her blades to deal her damage. And the ranged aspect late game is for potential "meta mix ups" to have Irelia in the bottom lane rather than a traditional marksman. I wanted a more drastic change for Irelia to have a much different feel than she is now, and have her feel like her blades do the work for her.

I think the surfing idea will be a good replacement and a more fun one than Q resets.

Stacona1 votes

EDIT:

Ionian Fervor: To tone back the crowd control, I changed the original Q ability. Now instead of Irelia summoning a blade to fly behind her target to push it towards Irelia; the ability is now summoning a blade that flies behind the target to deal physical damage only to all enemies it passes through as it flies towards Irelia's initial location. If Irelia catches the blade then her next basic attack deals bonus true damage, this creates a fun little mini game for the player as well.

Do want to mention something as well. Besides top lane Irelia, I also did intend for this to potentially be a 'meta shifting' element to it where you can have Irelia in the duo-lane to take over the traditional marksman slot; this allows a melee to go a pure damage build by being treated more like a ranged champion than a melee one, or you can go bruiser Irelia in the top lane to utilize other elements on my kit in a different light.

And yes, this concept was intended to be a more drastic change to Irelia than what you are used to. Irelia right now I feel is a mix of overloaded and bland; I kept certain kinds of aspects of her current kit, but mostly only her ultimate will feel most like what it is now.

Topless Irelia1 votes

Interesting but not a fan of removing her dash. Her dash is one of the things that is really fun about playing her.

Stacona1 votes

hmmm ... i may have a way to keep it that makes the dash more interesting using my new mechanics having the dash feel more floating blade rather than just a plain dash; come back in a bit to let me know of the new Q

Stacona1 votes

EDIT:

Blade Surge: Basic attacks stick in Irelia's target for up to 3 seconds, this was Equilibrium Blade's passive but now interacts with Ionian Fervor as well.

Ionian Fervor: Okay, another change to this ability. So no longer is an AoE nuke into bonus true damage on-hit if you catch the blade. Now dashes to a target currently having a blade in them, synergizes with the new ranged basic attack passive, dealing bonus true damage on contact- cooldown refresh and half cost refunded if the target dies. Bonus damage because it still applies everything your normal basic attack would apply, basically the same element the current Q does now, its a cool element since now there is a slight pick and choose between the slow and damage of E or using your dash, of course with an attack speed encouraged build you can easily use your passive into Q then AA to use your E and can follow up or disengage with W's surfing.

The cooldown is reduced with attack speed, max 65%, rather than cooldown for this ability. Lowest cooldown is 3.5 seconds to help those that are mathematically challenged.

Topless Irelia3 votes

Yeah this seems to be a lot better I like it

Shadow Hazard1 votes

I think she could use a rework/update also, so anything other than something obviously bad is a plus to me.

I like this idea as a general view but I think this is a bit too much of a change for her.

For the ult the damage in theory I think is too much for how often it can be done.

I am guessing that the W is supposed to act like a dot.

At the end of the day it probably is bias from me having my own idea's of an update that I feel she could use.

Stacona1 votes

I think Irelia needs a bigger change though, even Riot has stated she is very overloaded because of when she was created; so she is not at all in a good balance spot, nor does she have an interesting kit. But floating blades I feel is something they definitely can do now and is a super cool concept where you can make a fun gameplay out of it.

Ultimate is the least change, it is now ammo based instead of a bunch of blades in a burst for more complexity and no longer grants sustain. I am not here to grant perfect balance, but the numbers are to give a better picture of my ideas, and things can easily be balanced which is good for long term health for the game.

Its not damage over time, but damage per half-second- so staying in combat grants a bunch of sustain magic damage "ride that champion dude"; but its more so a surfing mechanic i think will be super cool and fun for the game and something you can fit into Irelia with her wind surfing on her floating blade

Two things i wanted was fix issues of too much sustain (health sustain removed entirely) and remove her ability to be super mobile, deal insane damage while having a stun that is not only long normally but is longer than intended that Riot will never fix for who knows why, and remove her free ignore CC passive

The thing to introduce is work off a super cool theme Irelia has that is not at all reflected in her kit, and Hiten Style is a cool name and my ability fits this exactly of what it should be in league terms where as the current version is just a very uninteresting press a button and receive auto win trading power

i originally had her dash removed, but then i re added it after feedback in a better way where it offers a lot better counter play with the requirement of a basic attack of normal or ranged from passive and more advance things and tricks you can do with it

I also kind of want more choices for that duo lane damage dealer so the passive being a 1 second cooldown late game can offer her the ability to siege along side unique attack speed scaling to grant her sustain damage; so creating a full damage melee champion without a loaded kit and is not basic attack focused (even though it has a play in her gameplay) would be cool to have in the game, someone that can replicate the goals of a marksman without being a marksman. Of course top lane bruiser Irelia should still be a thing [like E scales off of health or attack damage], i just wanted to create more alternatives if I am going to create a more large scale gameplay update

Shadow Hazard1 votes

It is possible to have an overloaded kit simply having the utility it provides also, take Fiora for example. Even if her damage is gutted, her self healing is best only challenged by the currently updated Xin, she has many forms of CC and of course her riposte being a counter CC that puts Irelia's passive to shame. Not to mention for the issue with Irelia's passive, there are many displacement CC that Irelia's passive does absolutely nothing for. I think her passive can be improved giving her back her passive defense against all CC while allowing it to have item stat scaling.

Having a charge for her ult is a cool idea that I agree with but yours is a flat buff. It takes less time to get even the equivalent 4 blades she has now and at superior scaling, so effectively you made her ult shorter cooldown + more damage. The flat damage reduction is another overloaded stat, it would make is possible to make Irelia a more power tank that it is capable with her now.

There are very few dots in the game that actually happen at a per second basis, most happen every half second so that behavior wont be new on the W. Again the dot will be overly strong even compared to her current W thanks to the double scaling you have for it plus the relatively high base damage. Not being able to make sharp turns is a very odd mechanic to put into it.

The range on her passive is way too high, to the point that she will become a full ranged champ late game. Plus her range is better than most ranged champs AA range. The combo of that and E will make her to strong of a ranged harasser. Frankly this kit would turn her more into a pure assassin with overloaded abilities for team fights.

There was a champion concept not too long ago by the name of Sigil if you want to look it up, that had many similar kit idea's to yours. It took a while for me to remember what this idea reminded me of.

For ways I would go about changing Irelia, I would keep her playstyle that she currently has, while giving her more build options beyond her current meta choice for the past few years. I don't think she will need something this radical though.

Great idea, but too radical for what could be otherwise done.

Stacona1 votes

Champion in kit Tenacity is being removed from all champions that previously had it and still have it currently

As I said the numbers are to give a rough idea of how things work, not for perfect balancing - recharge timers and damage values can EASILY be adjusted, but something you forget is there her current ultimate heals her for like 50% spell vamp I took off her in kit sustain and gave her different utilties to compensate. Balancing is on a different level, as long I set it up to be long term easily balanced with small patch tweaking then the change is a success for long term health for the game. So there is a big difference to whether the numbers make her too weak, balanced, or too strong that can always be adjusted between patches rather than have her in her current spot of way too strong or completely useless if nerfed a lot (Irelia is still too strong even after her nerfs over the years). Damage reduction while she has a currently created orbiting blade creates a decision making of slightly tankier (suppose to and intention of being slight, nothing insane like Alistar ultimate or Braum shield) is meant to create decision making of AoE damage / waveclear OR save the blades to be slightly more durable in a fight and live 5 seconds longer or something like that.

It is a damage per half-second spell; Karthus and Anivia have damage per second AoEs and Malzahar's Malefic Visions (E) is damage over time (since it is applied to the target) which ticks every 0.5 second. It applies whenever she makes contact with an enemy just stating that there is a restriction just to clarify that it is not she auto kills anything she touches; the damage and movement speed is not what is meant to be unique, the attack speed scaling and surfing mechanic was the intended uniqueness. Not having sharp turns makes it like Irelia is a skill shot and she is surfing, think of it like a more responsive Sion ultimate, if you are actually surfing you are riding a wave which goes in one direction mostly which is why you can cancel the effect early if you miss your target so you can chase down your target rather than keep surfing in the opposite direction. Concept phases are not meant to be for balancing, just to keep in mind long term health for the game which is have things that can be balanced rather than try to have perfect balancing right out of the gate.

The passive can lead to a full damage melee sustain damage dealer, even if it means late game you are more ranged than melee, but it can open up different metas rather than only traditional marksmen in the duo lane. I focused heavily in trying to make a floating blades concept, things can always be adjusted for future game health.

Shadow Hazard1 votes

Irelia is famous for being the only champion with built in tenacity, which is hard countered by displacement CC. By that point she is getting nerfed with each released champ that can hard counter that, and there are already quite a few. The idea behind her passive was on the idea that she simple can't be shut down, but even Irelia is susceptible to chain CC, with again many champs capable of pulling that off to some degree hurts the usefulness of the passive. Calling Irelia too strong is a big overstatement, when ever other melee AA champ is doing statistically better than her partially because they were all able to migrate to the jungle with devourer, but Irelia's early clears are too weak to reliably allow her into the jungle.

Anyone who thinks it would be a smart idea to stay in melee range with a passive like that is not going to be doing as well as they could with this kit. Look at the other 2 hybrid melee/range champs gnar and jayce. They both have points when they are solidly one or the other. A better mechanic is to have something like aatrox's ult to gain bonus AA range, it is strong, goes with the lore ideal of telekentic blade control likely giving her better range than other melees. Another aspect it was clear you tried for was the point of having multiple blades, but you shouldn't have allowed the ult to have more than 4. Mentioning the ult, flat damage reduction is way too strong.

With range champs migrating to top lane hurting irelia's performance and other melee AA champs doing better, it would be easier to argue that she could use a buff, but as you said in the OP she has a lot of free strength, mostly coming from her W, a buff to flat stats can easily get out of control and too weak makes it feel like it is a waste to rank up. Very little requires major changes like what you are suggesting and in fact considering her state her later game could actually be added to, but there are ways to go about it without giving her a poppy level rework.

Stacona1 votes

Dr. Mundo will have his removed same with Irelia, Riot is not keeping Tenacity for champion kits; also it is a broken value not something that defines the champion. Honestly Irelia really has nothing that defines her currently so this was a huge thing I wanted to do with this concept.

The passive I created so I can remove her health sustain on her kit and grant her in kit synergy to use to get in melee range and stay in range; Q pulls you in and W only deals damage if you are on top of the target, E still holds threat when Irelia is low and the slow allows her to stay in melee range - the ultimate is the only thing which is from range.

The ultimate 5 felt like a good number to use, not much more than that; and its % not flat.

Poppy's rework is a lot softer than you think, this is even softer. At the same time Irelia needs bigger changes to create an unique identity, fix all her issues, and more her more interesting to play as and less frustrating to play against.

Shadow Hazard1 votes

I don't remember times of riot mentioning anything about tenacity champs(I forgot it was even part of his kit). Like I mentioned before the possibility to chain CC really weakens tenacity. You can't say nothing defines her when there was already mention of people not wanting to lose the high mobility from the dash for smart players. I meant poppy level rework in that basically everything of the kit being changed drastically, irelia does not need that. Her E is a better mechanic that most of the point and click stuns out there and add's a skill need for maximizing her performance. Her W is a shared mechanic with many AA bruisers, and it is most definitely not the strongest, it could easily be because it is a flat value but if it got ratio's given instead it would completely negate that point. Her ult is the solid anchor to her lore ability without being over the top, skill shots are limited in performance by the skill of the person shooting.

Irelia has many things she is known for. She doesn't have to be so unique that she is in her own category. And she shouldn't be changed in a way that legacy players that enjoyed her playstyle end up alienated.

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