(rework concept idea) Irelia the Will of the Blades
Note: repost because of...inconveniences, to be honest i dont know what the hell just happened.
Originally i intended to spend the weekend to finish my champion concept idea (my very first) but since it was announced that the next champion rework is going to be Irelia, i thought i might compile all the ideas i had and show to see what people think.
See Whats up Jeremy its me guys video, it compiles a lot of Riot thoughts about what would they like to do with Irelia’s kit as well as having Gbay99 to express his ideas. There are things that basically all Irelia players and Riot agrees like ditching her passive, parts of her E and try to leave Q alone at all costs unless it was to make it feel better, among other changes that i saw people talk many times at the Irelia mains reddit page as well which can be quoted from the video:
Playstyle: “I think its important for Riot to understand even if this abilities are flawed in that they reward you for doing stuff like taking damage or fighting outnumbered it draws a lot of Irelia players to the champion and develops this go ham all the time kind of playstyle which would be a shame to see it disappear entirely” Gbay99
Keep champion identity: "she is this champion where you can go and get crazy cool 1vs1 or have fun outplays based of your knowledge and mechanics she provides a lot of depth for her kit as a top laner despite being so simple” Gbay99
Which leads us to:
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to play Irelia. The playstyle is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of micro mechanics most of the plays will go over a typical D5's head. Theres also Irelias cultural outlook, which is deftly woven into her characterisation- her personal philosophy draws heavily from Confucianism literature, for instance. Irelia mains understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of her design, to realise that they are not just simple and fun- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Irelia truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldnt appreciate, for instance, the humour in Irelia’s joke catchphrase "Balance in all things" which itself is a cryptic reference implying that not only is her blade precise, but totally gnarly. Im smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as my genius mechanical plays unfolds itself on their screens. What fools.. how I pity them.
Jokes aside, as expressed above and in the video i tried to keep all this little things that made Irelia the champion that people love to play and attached to as well as deliver more on the premise of telekinesis blades.
#Title and Look
I wanted to change her title to something less obvious and that touched more on the character. Hope, savior, liberator, miracle were the words I tried to capture what Irelia did to save her country in the battle against Noxus because basically after that she kind of became the poster child for liberation, freedom in her country. Or thats at least what someone like Syndra would say, maybe Zed and Jhin to an extend.
In terms of look, I would really like to see the silly breastplate go, that is the most absurd piece of equipment ever, why the armor is only covering her breast and leave the rest exposed to the enemy for probably the most easy kill ever. That is a remnant of old lol female characters when they were based on look only and I honestly believe that should just go. And yes, I do know Irelia first concept arts. Those are really, really big melons.
#ABILITIES This is a simplified version of her abilities, full detail of the kit is in the #WIKIA PAGE I MADE HERE.
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#(Innate) Crown of Blades: Irelia readies blades every few seconds, up to a cap. This time is reduced for each nearby enemy champion. her next attack after using an ability expend blades, thrusting nearby enemies. Blade attacks deal physical damage and heal Irelia.
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#(Q) Bladesurge: Irelia dashes to an enemy, damaging them. If Bladesurge kills the target, its reset and her next blade is not expended by her basic attacks after use.
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#(W) Hiten Style: Irelia assumes a hiten stance disabling her blades from attacking, instead expending them to deflect incoming basic attacks. Blades that deflect attacks then thrust forward in the attackers direction dealing a portion of its damage as true damage.
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#(E) Equilibrium Strike: Irelia damages the target enemy and slows them for a duration based on how lower her percentile health is than her target. If it surpasses a cap, they are stunned instead. Equilibrium Strike can be cast under hard immobilizing effects, if used this way, grants tenacity for a brief time based on if Irelia is outnumbered or not.
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#(R) Transcendent Blades: Irelia instantly readies all her blades and for a brief time can fire them forward, thrusting all enemies they pass through. Transcendent Blades can be held to charge additional blades to be fired at once, up to a cap but they no longer will pass through enemies.
#Stats Indeed, As you noticed, i did not change the stats because i dont know how could they be tweaked to bring Irelia away from the stat bag status she suffers, my intention is to bring a design that helps steer away from that but im no expert in that regard, i can only have an idea of how would her stats be balanced around but that also heavily falls on live tests to find the right spot.
#Ability Insights
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##(Innate) Crown of Blades:
I moved the tenacity (to Equilibrium Strike) and gave her a complete new kit. With this i wanted to fill in the idea of going against multiple enemies at once because since you had many blades flying around you it was just fair for the enemy right? This is the core idea in her design, reason why i went for the cooldown reduction on blades the more enemies are around you, also why the radius is that short opposed to the current innate which has a 1000 radius for the tenacity. The idea is that she really commits to the fight, she wants to fight as many people as possible because she has the means to deal with the situation.
Crown of Blades new mechanic is tied to Hiten Style and transcendent blades to an extend, i basically transformed the healing and damage into a single part of the kit that would allow me to give access to the rest of her kit, unified the effect to be part of the whole playstyle. As for the transcendent blade part, I never found it was a defining trait the Ap ratios on her ultimate as they were only there to add some synergy with stuff that gave Ap so she could find a bit of use there but if people really want to keep the ap ratios on the blades...im going the Yi way, i really dont think its the right way to keep them, at least in this design iteration. THAT IS WHAT I SAID IN THE BEGINNING, the more i thought about it, the more comfortable it felt, it gives a certain mage sword vibe that feels right, even the effect Irelia uses more “spellblade” rings something about it. On the scaling in both the physical damage and the heal, i dont know if they would be too much, especially the healing when combined with the way her ultimate works. Its probably too much healing but it was to have an idea.
Finally to really bring the blades up, they act as actual melee basic attacks meaning they trigger on-hit effects, lifesteal and even critical strike. An Important thing to notice is that blades expended with your basic attacks are not considered projectiles while fired with W or R they are considered projectiles.
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##(Q) Bladesurge:
As everybody main idea, i also leaved Bladesurge as its, only removed the mana restore on kill because i consider its not a core part of what makes Bladesurge iconic and added a new little mechanic that synergizes with her innate. Also a tweak to its mana cost to make up for the mana loss. Something i really liked about this change is the interactivity with the blades because it makes it her way to sustain. Aside from Q reset, you also get health on your next attack with your blades without losing them. Makes management also important as you can choose to keep jumping with Q or using basic attacks in between.
Just in case, and because it can be poorly worded. Bladesurge makes the next time you expend blades with basic attacks to not be expended as in retained after you hit nearby enemies with them. It doesnt make the next blade to actually not be expended as in the next basic attack wont use them at all.
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##(W) Hiten Style:
Completely reworked as well, only thing that remained is true damage but works different now. The ability is now a toggled ability that makes blades form a defensive stance around her, whenever an enemy champion or large monster basic attacks Irelia, one of the blades will deflect the attack and will thrust into the enemy location after a brief delay. Idea is that innate makes blades only trust when you attack, Hiten Style changes the rule to only attack when you are attacked. Since blades wont be consumed unless they meet the new trigger, her blades wont aid her offensively when she basic attacks. One important thing is how the blades work when thrusting, once a blade deflects an attack and starts its animation to thrust forward, you can change the starting point of the thrust since the blade is “attached” to Irelia while performing its animation which takes 0.4 seconds. This creates nice plays Irelia can use to reposition for a better shot, even use Bladesurge to quickly cover terrain for a flashy play. Also blades thrust to the location the attacker was at the time the attack was made, this works like either lucians Piercing Light or Galio’s ultimate, Hero’s Entrance. There a few nice combos you can make like survive heavy focus by refilling your blades using your ultimate to block a lot of basic attacks in case all your blades are quickly expended in the very first seconds of the skill. Of course that this then leaves you without much to do for the next few seconds. Thats also one of the reasons why it remains active for a minimum of 2 seconds, to prevent toggle-on and toggle-off scenarios that can abuse the mechanic, this way it gives for example ranged champions the chance to punish her, wasting her blades with their basic attacks. As pointed in the ability notes i imagine that visually when toggled-on Irelia's blades will glow yellow and change the formation in which the they are levitating giving both the player and enemy information on what is happening.
Finally, as a trinity force connoisseur, sure you know Spellblade doesnt trigger on Toggled abilities making Hyten Style not be able to be abused to proc the blades when needed.
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##(E) Equilibrium Strike:
Equilibrium Strike new mechanic works mostly the same as how it worked before, i tried to make it more meaningful in the way its used, not only for the slow/stun but the new component that gives you tenacity if you are extra deep in the enemy formation as a good Irelia (ready to die 4vs1 Kappa).
Equilibrium Strike functions pretty much just as described by Gbay in the video where the slow increases by the difference in percentile health between Irelia and her target, making it really effective if you are low and not so much if you are even or in better position than your enemy. The disable duration now has a minimum threshold and a maximum that scales by rank. The mechanic now changes is in regards to getting access to the stun, now you stun the target instead of slow if your percentile health is 45% or lower in comparison to your enemy. Now this might sound like a huge amount to get access to it but things can turn closer the lower health bars are, 20 to 40% already doesnt sound that bad, how about 10 to 20% or 5 to 10%. As health bars get closer to 0 it sounds like something that is innate in Irelia design as a lot of the time in duels its in these health percentages that Irelia plays shines. Then we have the new mechanic which lets you cast Equilibrium Strike while under hard crowd control effects and grants you tenacity if cast this way if you are outnumbered. The outnumber and tenacity mechanic works exactly like Irelia old Innate, it grants tenacity only if the amount of allied champions nearby is lower than enemy champions and the amount is the same, increased by level not rank using the original levels in the original innate.
Then as pointed in the ability notes, visually a mark will display above targets that have a percentile health high enough to trigger the stun and a purple aura will show below Irelia when she is outnumbered and the status bar will display the buff.
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##(R) Transcendent Blades:
I could say it functions the same but now with additional features. Now it refills your blades instantly when used and grants the ability to hold it, charging more blades to fire them at the same time to a maximum of 3 at once, the cooldown is also increased by 20 seconds on all ranks to make up for the effect. The new mechanic makes two things possible: -Makes blades be able to PASS THROUGH TARGETS HIT, this is probably the most powerful thing in the kit and is why Transcendent Blades just doesnt grant any kind of damage modifier of any kind. -Grants you a way to burst by charging multiple blades and firing them at once. For spell shield purposes when multiple blades are fired this way, the whole thing is considered a single ability. Also you become pacified while charging.
One change that i just didnt find any way to bring back was the ability to trigger spell effects, since now blades are actual basic attacks it feels like too much power to be able to trigger them on top of on hit effects and lifesteal, critical strike and the fact that they can also pass through enemies, basically making the blades function like Twitch's ultimate which also does not apply spell effects. One difference is that Irelia blades when fired by either Hiten Style and Transcendent Blades are considered an ability so they can be blocked by spell shields unlike when expended by basic attacks as they can also be blocked by parry, block, dodge, etc. One of the major problems appeared when firing multiple blades at once, it was too powerful so my idea to tone them down was that they just dont pass through enemies anymore, cannot critical strike and apply reduced on-hit effects in the same way Urgot’s Purge works.
Then as pointed on ability notes, Irelia can fire blades for as long as she at her disposal, this makes it possible to expend the blades on basic attacks and Hiten Style if you want and if you regain blades while the ultimate is still active you can still expend them on it.
#Design
Keep fidelity, always keep in mind pro and dedicated player. the plays and strategies as they are what define her play style that was created and became a solid part of who she is. Idea and feeling expressed by players about her innate and sustain in battle, making her able to go into the enemy team and fight multiple people. Work around the idea of a fighter that is good fighting multiple people, smart skillful play than its now yet keeping it simple. Keeping all this kind of little techniques or plays like using the blades of the ultimate to help lower a minion you will Q, resetting it to quickly close the distance to your opponent and aggressive and risky playstyle that incentivizes to be low on health as players tend to not overheal so they can overcome fights through sudden health regeneration and E to bait the enemy and win the fight. That was my starting point. I also liked the possibility of opening new secondary roles like jungle and even mid.
The first Idea that I tried was the one everybody also thought. Making blades fly and remain stuck on the ground so she can either pick them or call them back. While I was never truly sold on the idea, it definitely became clear when Xayah came out with the exact mechanic. I understood that it just didnt feel right on Irelia. I still tried other ways to implement the mechanic like that she would fire the blades flying over her head towards enemies, trusting and remaining stuck on the ground past them. She then could call them back if she was within a medium range (350 average, kind of melee) but the interactive unit vibe was still there and it also felt like a inverse Illaoi tentacle. The part that i still liked about this was that as a character (lore aspects) it said a lot about her limits. She can fling the swords very far but doesnt have the reach to recall them from long distances. This was kept and is what led to all the unified ranges in her kit regarding blades. One idea that remained to the final mechanic was being able to attack several targets at once with her blades, maybe overwhelming the enemy with a relentless flurry of blades. One thing that i tried was to give this vibe of blade dancing, being able to attack and cast abilities without needing to stop, and while it currently feels like this with her abilities, being E the only one that forces Irelia to stop to cast i didnt want to just give her the ability to attack while moving, it seemed aside from very powerful, it wasnt part of her identity or just wasnt coming along with my vision. That is how i started idealising to what ended as the blades in her innate Crown of Blades, they feel like basic attacks (they actually are) and with Hiten Style and Transcendent Blades it really enforces this, even triggering them with basic attacks as you can actually attack enemies all around, to your right, left, back, it doesnt matter, the blades will thrust on them.
In the beginning, I had Q as the ability to regain blades whenever she killed a target with it. Then I realized I made Q into a mini game I wasnt happy with. It felt bad in my mind. Eventually it turned out into the current version that as explained in its insight, it creates a lot of choices for players.
Hiten Style in the very beginning was basically Xayah ultimate and innate, it was the skill that let you pull the blades back to you, damaging all enemies in their path and that fired the blades when you used basic attacks which then became the trigger in the final version of Crown of Blades. It also had a lot of synergy with her ultimate as it was the one that let you fire the blades forward so then you could use Hiten Style to pull them back to you, potentially dealing a ton of damage and healing for a ton as well. In the end it grew to the final version but im still not sure how powerful its to give Irelia the ability to parry basic attacks so i had ideas to balance the mechanic in case it turns to be too good, like that she blocks a basic attack from each unique target every 1.5-0.75 seconds. Idea is that she cant just parry all attacks from an enemy during the 2 seconds, only 1 every few seconds. She can still block 1 attack from every single champion that attacks her, but cannot do it again for a brief time.
Equilibrium Strike signature always felt like it was that ability that turned the tide in a losing fight, that players always held until that moment to make the best out of it. I took that idea and stretched it further, tried to make it feel even better on that regard and added the tenacity mechanic for that extra emergency button. My idea with this was to transform a stat that almost always goes undetected or unappreciated to something you could actually feel when the right time was presented. This was one of the skills that i had less trouble from all in her kit, probably even less than Bladesurge because the essence of the skill was something very explicit you could say.
Finally, Transcendent blades was very clear from the beginning but the balance was a total hell, it still is as im not fully convinced with the damage and healing reductions but i guess that is something you can only get to a better shape with live test. I actually got the idea for the multiple blade firing from Lillin’ Fool’s Fire visual animation, it started as a charge skill that would let you fire multiple blades at once and they would detach from the other blades if there was a nearby enemy in its sight range, homing to them and thrusting pass them, remaining stuck on the ground or making all 3 hit the same target if they are alone.
#Closing thoughts
So heres all the ideas i got for Irelia as well as the process to the final version, what i tried that worked and didnt like, sorry for the long post, i wanted to make it shorter but i set today as the deadline. Hope people find inspiration and new ideas in this.
