Will Riot ever nerf Irelia?

3sTbGoP7ES·7/17/2015, 8:09:31 PM·35 votes·4,229 views

This is a serious question. She is currently sitting at 53% win-rate, 12% play-rate and 18% ban-rate.

She is one of the most annoying champions to lane against just because of her stupid 2 second stun.

She outdamages any champion full-ap/ad champion with just Tri Force and builds full tank.

Snowballs way hard. If you get killed by an Irelia there is no coming back.

Impossible to duel because of her stun. The low cooldown ( 8 second cooldown with no cdr that stuns for 2 seconds) and high duration stun makes her almost impossible to duel against.

True damage and sustain, targetted dash, etc. Her ultimate has almost no cooldown.

Her cc reduction passive gives immense power in teamfights. She can straight dive to your carries and delete them.

Her single-target burst is just too strong with only Tri Force. Her Q , R adds up the Tri Force's passive +200% base AD damage.

So when will Riot nerf this champion? How a champion that only builds only Tri Force and full tank can dish out so much damage with a 2 second point-click stun?

And did you know she was only nerfed 1 time in past 3 years? and the nerf was a joke.

Patch 5.6- E - Equilibrium Strike DAMAGE 80/130/180/230/280 magic damage ⇒ 80/120/160/200/240 magic damage

62 Comments

Roll in Grass7/17/2015, 8:44:38 PM22 votes

Let me take this apart piece by piece.

She is one of the most annoying champions to lane against just because of her stupid 2 second stun.

Her stun isn't 2 seconds until max rank, and nobody maxes Equilibrium Strike first. Laning phase doesn't last long enough for her stun to reach 2 seconds (Level 13). The highest it gets is 1.25 seconds during laning phase (Level 8). Riot makes cc scale up towards mid/late game because you need longer crowd control during team fights, but you don't want to lane against a 2 second crowd control effect because it'd be unfair to trade against. So Riot sets cc at about 1 second during laning phase (some champions even as low as .5 seconds).

She outdamages any champion full-ap/ad champion with just Tri Force and builds full tank.

She doesn't out damage any champion, or even most for that matter. Riven and Cho'gath are prime examples. Both of them easily win the lane against Irelia, and out damage/out scale her late game. For squishy champions (ADCs and APCs), it seems like she "out damages" them because they're too busy trying to escape to fight, and because they're too squishy (unlike Irelia) to stand there. Her gapcloser and stun make it to where they need to escape melee range before they can think about fighting. That's what a mechanic called "kiting" is used for. She can easily be kited due to the considerably long cooldown on Bladesurge. That's why she's given a long slow/stun; so that she can at least stand a chance against kiting. In other words, she doesn't out damage any ADC or APC, she's just tankier. If kited properly, an ADC or APC can beat her.

Snowballs way hard. If you get killed by an Irelia there is no coming back.

Not true at all. If you play properly and farm properly, you'll come back pretty quickly. If you get killed a second time, however, of course you'll get snowballed. By that point, you've already lost a considerable amount of cs and gave her 578g in kills. That's why you PROPERLY tower hug, and make sure to just last ht whatever minions you can at a safe distance. You'll come out of lane behind, but at least she won't be too fed.

Impossible to duel because of her stun. Her low cooldown and high duration stun makes her almost impossible to duel.

Umm... First off, most of the champions in the current meta have crowd control, some of which are better than Irelia's. To name a few, Riven, Zac, Cho'gath, Sion, and Gnar. Her stun also has the average cooldown of a stun, 8 seconds. And to make it worse, it doesn't scale down by leveling it. Throughout the entire game, it's 8 seconds without Cooldown Reduction. As well, again, the stun is only 1 second and 1.25 at level 8. It's not that long of a duration, especially with the current meta.

True damage and sustain, targetted dash, etc. Her ultimate has almost no cooldown.

Let's go back to the current meta ramble I was on about. Cho'gath has a true damage ult and immense sustain with his passive, and his ult cooldown is only 80 seconds. Zac has % max health sustain that is pretty high and annoying to deal with, especially in lane, and his ult is a large amount of crowd control which gives him a movement speed bonus and 36% of his max health regenerated (if you properly pick up the blobs), the cooldown being 130/115/100. Riven has a shield that scales off of her main stat and two ultimates that output an immense amount of damage, and her ult cooldown is 110/80/50 seconds. Gnar's passive regens a large portion of his health, and his ult gives him two extremely long duration crowd control effects, with a cooldown of 120/110/80 seconds. Irelia's ult doesn't put out a large amount of damage, but gives her back 25% of the damage output by the ult, with a cooldown of 70/60/50. You may be thinking, "This just proves my point!" No. Her ult is weak compared to all of the meta champions. You heal about 300 health, big deal when you're getting wrecked by a Riven shield and ult; crowd controled by Zac who's healing a % of his maximum health and dealing damage at the same time; knocked up, then silenced, then eaten by a Cho'gath; stunned three times in a row and being out damaged by a Gnar. Her ult is extremely weak in comparison to toplaners of the current meta.

Her passive gives immense power in teamfights.

This is true.

She can straight dive to your carries and delete them.

No she can't. If your team is playing how they're supposed to play (2 tanks in front, bruiser in middle, APC and ADC in back), the tanks can at least get a slow off, giving the carries time to back up, which allows the bruiser to peel them off while one of the tanks comes up to completely peel off the carries, meanwhile the carries should be kiting properly.

So when will Riot nerf this champion?

Not anytime soon. She's perfectly balanced for the current meta. Get good.

Irelia Bot7/17/2015, 9:19:35 PM6 votes

What if Triforce is the real issue?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj1he7A9nBsz

Back at the start of season 3 Triforce was nerfed to hell and Irelia bsically disapeared from the game She did not return until mid season 4 when Ranged tops were made meta and after Triforce had been buffed to being good again.

FalconPawwwwnch7/17/2015, 10:44:21 PM4 votes

There's no need to nerf Irelia

There's better top lanes for climbing solo queue (Riven) and there's better champs in competitive play

IcyPepper7/17/2015, 10:55:48 PM4 votes

Eh, Katarina and Blitzcrank have shorter cooldowns on their ultimates (Katarina... at least, late-game. Not too sure about early).

If anything, I'd change her W passive to be her real passive. Like, I know I'll get flamed for even suggesting that, but tenacity is really strong and since the latest changes to the defensive tree...

By no means do I hate Irelia, but she has to build full tank after triforce to do her job. She dives in teamfights, it's what she does. She doesn't have the cc or utility of an actual tank, and her Q isn't the best escape (it can be used as such, but it's not the best), so she needs to survive when she dives.

But she could use some toning down.

AlatreonHunter7/17/2015, 8:22:30 PM4 votes

better nerf irelia ritoe

NERDSMASHER50007/18/2015, 12:37:01 AM3 votes

[{quoted}](name=Hi im Dovahkiin,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=vsAQJA5E,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-07-17T20:09:31.726+0000)

This is a serious question. She is currently sitting at 53% win-rate, 12% play-rate and 18% ban-rate.

She is one of the most annoying champions to lane against just because of her stupid 2 second stun.

Ryze

She outdamages any champion full-ap/ad champion with just Tri Force and builds full tank.

Ryze

Snowballs way hard. If you get killed by an Irelia there is no coming back.

Ryze

Impossible to duel because of her stun. The low cooldown ( 8 second cooldown with no cdr that stuns for 2 seconds) and high duration stun makes her almost impossible to duel against.

Ryze

Her ultimate has almost no cooldown.

Ryze

She can straight dive to your carries and delete them.

Ryze

Her single-target burst is just too strong

Ryze

TCU Dushi7/17/2015, 11:30:43 PM3 votes

@Fae The Eevee

I think you are missing the point and your reasoning is flawed.

  1. Most Irelia players max E. Reason for doing so is because both her other abilities are pretty useless till 1 core (Triforce)

Q has great base damage, scaling is less good. It's mainly used for last hitting minions (cooldown reset) or to initiate/gap close. It's not a spammable ability on champions cause of the high cooldown when it doesn't kill a target.

W has passive sustain on basic hits and on activation it gives you bonus true damage. This ability is not maxed as without any form of attack speed its simply not worth spending early skillpoints in. The ability becomes stronger when her AS gets higher.

E is maxed for various reasons. it basically gives Irelia somewhat of a free lane if she wants to. It's practically impossible to all-in her when she maxes the stun/slow. As a Irelia player you are looking for 1-2 cores anyways till you reach any form of a power spike. besides that it makes laning very safe, she can get some easy trades off when the enemy champion hits her near the minion wave (being stunned in the minion wave is painful) and it sets up nicely for any potential gank/countergank

  1. Neither cho gath or riven "easily" win lane against Irelia. She is one of the champions that can decide to stalemate the lane. Experienced Irelia players can survive almost any matchup because of her strong kit. Ps. if you play against a Riven with teleport you end up in a farm lane, if you think/expect her to take ignite you counter her by taking exhaust. Try it :P hella fun

  2. Irelia snowballs extremely hard, basically like playing against a Riven or Rengar top. that first kill + minion gold basically means you have to hug your turret or pray she fucks up

  3. You are comparing Irelia's kit to all kinds of tank top laners who are pure CC bots who "can" dash out reasonable damage in ideal situations. I'll take Cho'Gath as a example.

Whilst Cho'Gath does good damage, reasonably tanky (passive hp from his ult stacks) and has a true damage ultimate. You can't ever compare Irelia and Cho'Gath. It might be true that one of them has a high damage ultimate and provides AoE cc. Cho'Gath can't reach a backline like Irelia can.

Irelia whilst building 1 single damage item can dash out consistent damage to a carry because of her passive (tenacity) and her point click kit (targetable gap closer + stun/slow. Cho"Gath hate to say it, Gets locked down pretty easily and has no way of reaching the backline unless you get some kind of amazing "lucky" flank

Having said that, I do believe Irelia is well balanced. But simply because the current meta doesn't exactly work in her favor. My only problem with your post is that you are following a train of thought based on hypothetical situations, weird team comps(2 tanks infront, bruiser in the middle) and comparing champions/kits whilst you shouldn't.

-Riven doesn't easily win against Irelia -Her Ultimate is infact strong -Most Irelia players do max E first because it controls the pace of the lane -Cho'Gath and Irelia have a completely different role in a team and are not comparable

  • Irelia snowballs extremely hard -ADc and APc's can get blown up by Irelia within seconds despite building full tank (Triforce as only damage item)

I could go on but i guess you got my point.

I agree with you that she is well balanced and does not need nerfing. However, she is extremely strong and can be quite "toxic" to play against

I Main Swain7/18/2015, 12:37:51 AM2 votes

that ability is almost the entire reason dueling her is impossible. you have the same hp? that's fine, she'll out duel you. you have more hp? that's fine, she'll stun you and take out a chunk of hp while you sit pretty. you have less hp? that's great, when would you like your funeral services to be held?

Fadedpf7/17/2015, 8:28:53 PM2 votes

"WE CANT THE COMMUNITY BACKLASH!!!"

Akali is SO HOT7/17/2015, 11:11:38 PM2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Hi im Dovahkiin,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=vsAQJA5E,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-07-17T20:09:31.726+0000)

I'm so bad at this game pls help me I suck xdxdxdxd

yep

Jeddy0177/18/2015, 12:48:00 AM2 votes

How a champion that only builds only Tri Force and full tank can dish out so much damage with a 2 second point-click stun?

Um..............coughNasuscough.....

Anyway on topic,may I ask how you want her to be nerfed?How do you wish to tone down Irelia a bit while still letting her do her job?Are we talking decreasing numbers (or increasing with cooldowns & mana cost)?Are we talking about changing 1 or 2 abilities?Are we talking about changing her entire kit?Are we just listing the problems of her kit without talking about what's good or how to make it better?

Stackless Python7/18/2015, 1:23:12 AM2 votes

Why would you ask Riot to change a 53% win rate champion who isn't that big of a problem? You know if they did, she would be unplayable for the next 5 years at least before a stupid rework that would make her OP as fuck. She isn't THAT powerful, little annoying, strong or even matchups, but all around she isn't a big problem.

Ironclad Dragon7/18/2015, 6:45:19 AM2 votes

https://youtu.be/fbTPemmD33k?t=5m10s Educational vid on Irelia.

Only Play Darius7/18/2015, 8:11:45 AM2 votes

Pick Nasus and enjoy the free lane. gg

Sageace7/18/2015, 1:56:11 AM1 votes

I really don't see Irelia's "OP" state very often (this is largely due to playing my main agaisnt her), So I cannot say much for her.

And besides, Irelia is due for a Kit Rework and Visual Upgrade, so patience. She will be reworked (nerfed?) when her time comes. http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Unreleased_Content

stealthfox947/18/2015, 2:44:35 AM1 votes

Right after they nerf Riven.

Baby Ghoul7/18/2015, 3:05:42 AM1 votes

Riven is getting all the attention right now, but if Riot ever deals with her, then I'm certain Irelia will be next.

Maybe if they disabled Irelia we'd get a better idea of how many people think she does need a nerf or light rework, along with all the "better nerf irelia jokes" that haven't been funny for like over a year since she's the queen of top lane. We know she's always at the top of many lists for climbing for a very good reason. She's an overall great champion, but you have to admit she's way stronger than the majority of top laners, and is more reliable.

She definitely has her die hard defenders though, but that reliable stun during trades is problematic when paired with the rest of her kit and champion composition. Also yes, we're all aware that it slows if she's higher HP, and doesn't do anything if they're even in HP. Bad Irelia play doesn't get punished as hard as other top laners either, despite how easy it is for her to get her snowball rolling. I wouldn't say that's balanced at all.

Phife7/17/2015, 11:31:34 PM1 votes

She was awful for about a good 6 months, then they buffed her.

Remlap12237/18/2015, 6:39:01 AM1 votes

They're probably not going to nerf her until she reaches extreme popularity. However, if I had to wager a guess, her rework is getting.... expedited.

O Fallen Scholar7/18/2015, 8:12:43 AM1 votes

We can't nerf Irelia because community has Riven on their sights. Can't stop current bandwagoners. Have to wait until Riven whine goes away.

Synx77/18/2015, 1:47:48 AM1 votes

Delete Riven as well while you're at it.