Irelia, Will of the Blades [Fan Rework Concept~!]
Hey League! Cardi here. Irelia's quite the dated champion - so I thought it'd be fun to share a rework with my fellow summoners. Hope you guys enjoy reading and imagining as much as I enjoyed working on this :D~ (< that's a passive aggressive "I can't believe this fucking happened I'm actually really upset but I'm glad it's over" face; it took quite the effort - double the effort because I had to retype and rewrite EVERYTHING because I didn't write out my commentaries in a separate word document before losing it by accidentally closing the browser, ALWAYS SAVE AND BACK UP YOUR CREATIVITY FOLKS) But yea, seriously I hope you enjoy it!
#Irelia, the One Who Actually Communicates With Her Blades
Hiten Style (Passive): Irelia wields four spirit blades that hover nearby, circling around her in a similar fashion to Syndra’s Dark Spheres (similar Ionian magic, huh?). Whenever her spirit blades strike down into the ground, they slow enemies struck. Whenever they pass through enemies, they apply Blademark to enemies struck. Blademark increases magic damage taken by affected targets. Her four spirit blades are visible to all units across the map once lodged into the ground.
Irelia's abilities allow her to control her blades from a distance (it's really cool). Whenever the blades strike through enemies, they apply Blademark. Whenever they crash into the ground, they slow enemies.
(Here's me flexing my horrible artistic muscles as best I can)
Bladesurge (Q): Irelia sends her four spirit blades flying through the air in a line a fixed distance towards a target (point-and-click), dealing physical damage to all enemies they pass through and stopping at maximum range. Irelia then dashes extremely quickly to her blades after a delay (regardless of where she’s moved to since the blades were fired) to reclaim them. If Bladesurge’s cooldown is refreshed before Irelia dashes to them, Irelia can re-direct the blades in a new direction by selecting a new target. Upon reaching them, she spins with the blades to damage enemies around her.
If at least one of Irelia’s spirit blades is pinned into the ground, Bladesurge instead causes the spirit blade closest to Irelia to un-lodge itself from the ground, levitate across vast distances towards Irelia before lifting itself upwards above Irelia's head and striking down at a new target location. Enemies are damaged by the pass through of the blades.
Bladesurge’s cooldown is entirely refunded if at least one target is killed by the ability. Bladesurge’s cooldown is heavily reduced if it damages at least one enemy inflicted with Blademark.
Irelia can reclaim spirit blades lodged in the ground by walking past them.
With this new Bladesurge, Irelia's blades are literally surging through the air. If all four of Irelia's spirit blades are circling her, she'll cause them to pierce through a target a set distance (similar to Fizz's Q) before they stop at their maximum range. When they stop, she dashes to her blades to reclaim them and slashes enemies around her. The whole process would be similar to a Lissandra's E - once she casts the ability, the blades become the Fizz in a Fizz Q, and then once they reach max range she'll dash (instead of blinking like Lissandra) to her blades before spinning around once like Katarina. Of course, Irelia's ability to Q repeatedly has been kept intact - but instead of dashing around herself, casting Q on a new target as it's traveling will redirect the Q in the direction of the updated target. Once the blades finally come to a stop, Irelia will go grab 'em and spin.
However, if Irelia has at least one spirit blade stuck in the ground, the ability instead becomes a ground targeted AoE skillshot. Casting it causes the nearest spirit blade stuck in the ground to fly towards Irelia (and of course damaging and apply Blademark to enemies in the way during its flight) before lifting itself up above Irelia's head (like an Aatrox Q but the blade is the Aatrox) and crashing down on the target area (about the size of a Syndra sphere). Say she kills something in the whole process, then what happens? Well, she can do it allll over again :^).
Edit: Okay so to help you guys understand this ability more, I'll explain it further. So Irelia starts with all four spirit blades at her side (circling her). Casting Q when this is the case causes them to fly (all at once) in a line towards a target (striking past it to reach the max range of the ability). Then, she dashes to the location of her four spirit blades (at the point they've stopped at and are currently hovering at) to claim them and slash enemies around her. But if she kills at least one unit during the blades' strike through, she can re-direct the blades before dashing to the blades' final location.
If however, her blades are lodged in the ground (because of W crash down or a Q recall+crash down) she has to pick the blade(s) up in order to cast the ability described above. That's because if at least one blade is in the ground, Q (instead of causing a strike through at a target) recalls the nearest single spirit blade and crashes it down at a new location in the ground (this could be at an enemy target or at Irelia so she can reclaim that blade). This also means Irelia does NOT dash and spin - the Q only performs a targeted strike through + dash/spin when all four blades are in Irelia's possession.
Transcendent Blades (W): Irelia’s hovering spirit blades circle Irelia quickly as they rise above her head. They then strike down into the ground at four locations in a line, dealing magic damage to enemies in the vicinity as each of the blades pierce the ground.
If Q is a mini version of this ability, then this ability is the real deal. Irelia takes all of the spirit blades currently at her disposal (the ones circling around her) and fires them in a line one after another at the ground. The specialness of this ability stems from the type of damage it deals - magic. If Irelia can manage to land this ability consistently, even the highest armored of foes will struggle against the flawless and majestic control Irelia has over her blades (and her ability to deal mixed damage). The downside is that this ability won't let Irelia fire off any blades not currently at her side - meaning unlike Bladesurge, which automatically causes the nearest blade to return to her for its crash down effect, she has to have at least one blade directly circling her for the ability to work its magic.
Equilibrium Strikes (E): Irelia gains attack speed and magic damage on-hit on her basic attacks for a duration. Enemies struck by four consecutive attacks while Hiten Strikes is active are stunned for one to four seconds (based on the difference between the target’s current percent health and Irelia’s current percent health). If the current health of the target struck by a fourth consecutive Hiten Strike is less than that of Irelia’s, the target is instead inflicted with Blademark.
Irelia's really good at what she does - now she does it better. When she's disadvantaged, landing four basic attacks is all it takes to perform one of the most powerful stuns in the game - up to four seconds if her opponent has 100% of their health while she has 1 HP. While Irelia's spirit blades are busy dancing around and impaling enemies, Irelia is simultaneously hard at work cutting up her foes. Because you know, she wouldn't be able to maintain fairness, balance, or -equilibrium- otherwise.
Call to Arms (R): Irelia recalls all four of her spirit blades. Once all four blades reach her, Irelia’s basic ability cooldowns are instantly refreshed.
Irelia's foolproof method of regaining her control over all four blades at once. When she puts at least one point into this badass ability, the potential of her kit immediately doubles. Blades flyin' everywhere, Irelia slashing her foes repeatedly, what a picturesque scene.
Notes Sorry guys if that wasn't as enthusiastic as it could've been. I really poured my heart into writing the post that got deleted. So this one that you're reading might be a little sapped of life and color. I'll make it up by answering your questions in detail the best I can, but I'm exhausted physically and emotionally now. So chat ya a bit later :^)
