Better nerf Irelia indeed.
Decades-old memes aside, she has proven to be really strong lately, to a degree that did indeed warrant a nerf. However, what (in my eyes) should be done with her is the following:
- Change Equilibrium Strike to physical damage. Currently, Irelia can level E and get a really strong magical nuke (due to high base damage) and long CC - while building for physical damage with Phage and Sheen-empowered auto-attacks.
- Have the stun duration scale from half to full with the actual difference in absolute %-HP. The remainder of the duration would be the slow. For example, a rank 5 E of an Irelia with 0.01% HP less than you would stun you for 1 second, then slow you for another one.
- If it nerfs her too hard (or E max proves still to be problematic), add a slight total AD ratio to the damage, while lowering the base to some degree (so she has the same damage at a desired breakpoint).
Changing E to physical damage gives Irelia's opponents a way to actually deal with her (buy some armor), but might also open up new itemization options for Irelia herself (how about some penetration?). The latter especially if the AD ratio is added.