Irelia, Will of the Blades [A Rework Concept: Reimagining the Tough Master of Flying Blades]
Hello everyone! Name's Cardi and I've done a few rework concepts in the past with some receiving some really nice feedback from you guys in the community. I know I haven't posted for a while, but I hope you enjoy this particular rework concept of mine. I really do enjoy having conversations with you guys about my ideas, even if they do occasionally get argumentative - because hey, that's what discussion's all about, the forming of new ideas with tough viewpoints battling each other constantly. If you haven't checked out some of my older posts, here are some links if you're interested.
This rework is dedicated to the Will of the Blades - Irelia. She's been the target of various nerf memes in the past, and an unstoppable solo queue force of her own when she's popular because of her somewhat overpowered passive ability and overall pure, raw high combination of durability, damage, and control effects. The goal of this rework was to take what she already had and improve it without making existing users of Irelia, especially her mains, feel alienated from the new champion. Overall, I think this rework would give her a nice telepathic blade master feel that adds to her character's depth in-game, to masters of the champion and aspiring masters alike.
Irelia, Will of the Blades
Attack Range: 300
Irelia is a master of telepathically controlled flying blades. Her attack range should reflect this and make her feel as such. In effect, 300 attack range would ensure that she's the first champion in League of Legends to be a mid-ranged melee fighter entirely without further aid from her kit (unlike Gangplank, who needs his Q ability or barrels to accomplish a long-ranged or mid-ranged assault). While fighting melee champions, she would dance around them and their minions with the new Bladesurge skillshot slashing ability and complement her mid-ranged attacks with a rather unusual form of kiting and chasing, all whilst firing off her transcendent blades on fleeing and approaching enemies).
Indomitable Will (Passive): Irelia’s spirit is one with her blades and fierce as steel. Her movements, like her blades, are fluid but packed with inertia. She gains Indomitable Will for two seconds each time she kills a unit (duration is tripled if the unit is a champion), which renders displacement effects ineffective on her, resulting in stuns equal to the duration of the displacement effect instead (duration affected by Tenacity and Disable Resistance effects).
To retain a nice feel for the champion without making her impossible to counter, a new passive ability was absolutely necessary for the blade master. In line with her theme of solidity and fluidity, her new passive takes what she's already good at, namely, dashing around minions and champions while resetting Bladesurge, and adding to it by making her impossible to knock back when she's done a good job of setting up a killer duel by turning displacement effects into brief stuns. Root effects will still be very effective in keeping her at a distance from your team's squishies, but don't expect champions like Vayne or Tristana to have an extremely easy time peeling her with their overloaded self-peel knockback abilities anymore when she's yelling ferociously and bulldozing through your team's front line.
Bladesurge (Q): Irelia dashes in a line after a very brief delay of 0.25 seconds in a blinding glow of golden light that marks her dashed path. When she arrives at her location, she spins her telepathic blades around her, dealing damage once more. Enemies can take damage from both the dash and spin portion of this ability, and this ability’s cooldown is refreshed if it kills any unit.
Maximum range: 800 Cooldown: High
As the longest linear skillshot dash in the game, Irelia’s New Bladesurge will strike terror into the hearts of those who dare oppose her and her blades. Or, at least that's until she resets it. Then it becomes a monster 1600-range dash that'll destroy your team's squishies before they can react if they fail to position themselves correctly. Of course, there's also the opportunity for Irelia to misplay and completely miss out on her reset - or worse, her target. In that scenario, even the Blade Master herself won't be able to fend off the entire ensuing onslaught that comes her way, indomitable will or not. Enemies will have plenty of time to react to this new version of Bladesurge - even if not to the dash damage itself, at least to the spin when she arrives with Summoner Flash or similar abilities. But the most important thing is how masterful Irelia will feel in the hands of a skilled player, slicing and dicing through enemy teams not unlike a somewhat unique version of Renekton and chopping them up with her trascendent blades when she's played skillfully and masterfully.
Hiten Style (W): Irelia gains a burst of movement and attack speed for four seconds. In addition, her attacks during this time deal bonus magic damage and heal her for a portion of her missing maximum health.
Coupled with her new attack range, this ability will have Irelia feeling like a top notch fighter with an incredible potential for burst power. Imagine her looking something like Zed or Lucian when they're running fast, but with flying blades instead of guns or shurikens.
Equilibrium Strikes (E): Irelia levitates her blades far above her head, which then crash down upon circular areas on the vertices of a square. Enemies struck are damaged and slowed briefly or stunned if Irelia is below a certain health threshold.
Now, this area of effect ability is a little different from any other ability. It's rather like four smaller Syndra Qs, but also like an Aatrox's Q. When she aims the ability, the blades will fly up above her head and strike down on the corners of an invisible diamond. Only enemies hit by the blades at any one of the four corners will be slowed, damaged, or stunned. Follow up on a good E with her Q skillshot to rip your opponents into shreds.
Transcendent Blades (R): Irelia’s four blades surge with power, circling further away from her than before and granting her bonus attack range for a duration. During this time, they can be shot, one at a time, up to four times to deal damage and apply on-hit effects to all enemies they pass through. Shot blades return to Irelia immediately after the end of their path, but cannot be shot again.
Razor sharp blades that have the potential to finish off fleeing cowards. That's what I imagine when I envision Irelia and her fighting spirit. Used in conjunction with Hiten Style, these blades pack some serious finishing and healing potential. But it's nothing compared to how cool Irelia would look when she Bladesurges through an entire team picking up kill after kill with her deadly, impactful flying metal pieces of doom.
TL;DR -Irelia has increased attack range. -Passive prevents Irelia from being displaced by measly Vayne E's or the like. -Q is a long-ranged dash skillshot that retains its reset function. -W is a speed up and magic damage/heal on-hit. -E is a special area of effect slow (sometimes stun). -R increases attack range further and grants her four skillshots as it does currently.
In virtuous spirit, Cardi
