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Proposed Rework: Irelia

Monstradon·3/5/2016, 4:30:23 AM·5 votes·1,091 views

After Azir's released I remember a Rioter, saying they feel Irelia's basic kit doesn't really match her character. I think IronStylus mentioned that he had something planned to make her feel like her floating swords isn't something she just thwacks you with. With nothing brought up in all this time I decided to re-imagine her kit if she was released today. I want to remind people I am in no way saying she is underpowered or overpowered, but I did want to see if I can create a kit that involves her telekinetic blades and mobility to feel much more noticeable.

My proposed rework for her shifts her away from her current bruiser style into a “light fighter” archetype, that Riot classes both Yasuo and Fiora. Light Fighters are frail champions that maintain a high level of DPS (crit/vitals) in melee range, and have tools to avoid incoming threats through the use of abilities (wind wall/parry) or “in fight” mobility (Yasuo needs enemy target to dash or Fiora needs to hit an enemy for reduced CD on her dash). This is the model I used to shape Irelia towards this class. Warning! I kind of overdid saying "blades" to much, but It's important because that is where I focused the kit. Emphasizing her telekinetic blades.

Passive: Hiten Style Irelia's Blades follow up on her Auto Attacks, Irelia can only have 4 blades up at a time. Blades AA do not apply on-hit effects. Blade AA scale with X% of her AD ( ~10% or scaling). (Visuals: Irelia AA then all blades chip damage on her target)

W: Blade Thrust Irelia launches a blade at a targeted direction, stops at the first champion hit (Applies on hit effects). The blade remains on the ground. Irelia can pick up blades by walking near them. (This skill is like a Skillshot AA, but visually acts like Olaf's Axe, This skill lowers the number of blades Irelia has lowering the “optimal” damage output from her passive. Irelia cannot cast this ability when she has used up her 4 blades)(~500 Range)

Q : Blade Surge Same as her current Blade Surge except dashing towards a blade grants 50% CD back (does not refund mana dashing towards blades)

E: Equilibrium Strikes

Passive: Gives Irelia x% of Tenacity for each blade she is carrying.(~5% scaling to 10%, so 20% with 4 blades early and 40% at max rank)

Active: Irelia retrieves all her blades, slowing first champion hit, and stunning higher health targets. When this skill is on cooldown, Irelia does not gain her tenacity passive.

R: True Hiten Style Irelia looses her innate passive “Hiten Style”, and her blades starts spinning around her for the next ~8 seconds dealing X% of her AD(~10%). Irelia Gains:

  • X% Life-Steal (~20%)
  • Heals X% of DMG dealt to enemies (reduced on minions)
  • Blade Surge (Q) towards Blades Reset the ability now
  • Blade Thrust (W) no longer stops at first champion hit
  • Picking Up Blades lower Blade Thrust (W) cooldown by X% (~30%)

Keep in mind the more blades she is carrying, means the more damage she is dealing due to the “swinging” of blades around her. (blade hits deal around the same damage of her innate passive but instead of being locked to AA, it is now dealing that damage in AOE fashion. Her blades are somewhat far from her so there is a spot between Irelia and her swinging blades that don't hit targets, somewhat like a Darius Q)

Explanation: This kit revolves around Irelia uses of her blades. The more blades she is carrying, the higher damage she can output, more blades on the ground means more mobility. Irelia also needs to decide if blade surging towards minions might be the better options since it restores mana. She also has to deal with wary use of her Equilibrium Strikes due to the nature of her having to “pick up” the blade to keep the passive tenacity up. Irelia can potentially stun four people if she lines her self with blades on the ground correctly. True Hiten Style grants her the ability to transition between her mobility and damage output much faster by granting a reset on Blade surge towards blades on the ground. Blade Thrust now does not stop on first hit champion meaning she can position her blades where ever she wants during her ultimate's duration.(I think the only issue with this kit is targeting her blades in the ground might be difficult since it is a small thing to click on.)

P.S. did not put mana cost nor CC durations and ~# (insert number) is the stat/ratio that I think the ability should relatively be close to.

14 Comments

Ave Machina3/5/2016, 5:14:10 AM2 votes

The kit is cool and I like it, but "Hiten Style" as her passive and "True Hiten Style" as her ult is really hype. I think that's my favorite part.

Variks the Loyal3/5/2016, 5:30:45 AM2 votes

You have a really cool idea here, and I feel it fits the 'telekinetic warrior' vibe that Riot wants from Irelia.

I have some criticisms. While flinging and dashing to the blades, as well as that really cool passive, all fit the idea of the telekinetic warrior, I feel part of Blade Thrust is ill-fitting. Someone who can control blades with their mind should be able to bring them back at will, no? Having her walk to the blades to retrieve them doesn't fit the fantasy, and also runs the risk of giving her too much uncounterable mobility. For example, if Irelia is laning against a lane bully, she can keep herself completely safe by simply keeping a blade behind her at all times, and dashing to it instead of trading. This could make her too safe in the laning phase, and, if this kit would end up like her live state, allow her to reach a powerful mid-to-late game too easily. It also makes it fruitless for junglers to try and gank, since she'll always have a blade to dash to.

Possible solutions would be to give Irelia a form of involuntary waveclear, so she pushes the wave and is therefore inherently less safe (I don't like this solution), or, make the blades automatically return to her after a certain amount of time. Say, 9 seconds. This means that, for an Irelia to skillfully escape a foe, she needs to launch a blade away, wait for it to land, and then dash to it. This also gives her enemy a way to prevent her from escaping; if they stand in the way of her blade, it will stop at their position, and she cannot dash away.

Secondly. Her E is sort of ambiguous, and I can't tell how it works. Does she recall the blades, then strike with them? Do the blades strike as they return to her, dealing the damage as they travel through the air? It's not very clear, and you know how Rito is about clarity.

Lastly, while I love most of your proposed kit, I do not like the ultimate. To me, it just seems like a 'press this to fight better' button. There's very little interaction or decision making involved on either the side of Irelia or her opponent; no skillshots to land or dodge, no execute mechanic to watch out for, etc. It's like Jax's ultimate, where you just turn it on when you fight without thinking about it.

That said, I love the ideas you have come up with here. Hiten Style, to me, is really, really cool, and I feel like it could look cool visually, and has cool decision making; the enemy needs to be careful of how many blades Irelia is currently wielding, and so does she. It has good counter-synergy with her Blade Thrust - does she opt for damage, or mobility? I like how you've given her options to dash to her blades instead of champions, with a penalty of no Mana return. Gives players something to think about.

Overall, very good. Not perfect, but very good. The ult is the only part I disagree with completely.

Bultz3/5/2016, 5:21:35 AM1 votes

She just came out....

WoonStruck3/5/2016, 5:32:57 AM1 votes

First off, I'd make her ult or passive "Will of the Blades" or something that sounds similar; powerful and foreboding. Something that demands respect for her 'art' and how she gained this 'skill'.

Second, I wouldn't keep the tenacity. It has limited use with the obscene amount of displacements and persistently re-applied CC effects in the game now, and all damage can pretty much be unloaded in less than 1.5 seconds for any champ Riot allows to be viable. Its just going to soak up her power-budget with minimal payout. Tenacity is powerful, but, although 40% sounds great, its effectively going to be 25% effective tenacity (after mercs and such), and not apply in a large amount of scenarios anyway.

What I'd do instead, rather than tenacity, is give her what Riot was originally going to give her. Increased attack speed for each nearby enemy champion. This fits her lore, where she became more powerful among all of her enemies too.

What this does is allow a tanky build to still function and be respected (without being ridiculous like current), if someone so chooses, and also allows people to play her as a dps 'assassin'. She'd basically be a less irritating Lee Sin that can actually be balanced properly for both builds.

Also, with her ultimate, make a portion of the lifesteal passive, and add spellvamp to the active. She has no real safety in lane, so she needs something to let her lane a little better passively. In addition, DO NOT make it like Darius' hitbox. That would be absurd considering its a dps tool...it would make her do less damage overall. Make it so each blade covers a 'circle' around her. If you toss one and do not retrieve it, the inner-most 'circle' does not deal damage. Second, the second inner-most does not deal damage, etc, etc. This allows enemies to out-play her by denying blades as well, giving them satisfying options against her.

To make it a little more bearable, you could even make it so the focus isn't the spinning blades, but hitting people with the blades with her ult active. You could make it so it dashes to them and applies various effects, such as resets/reduced CD, damage, CC, etc, but are unable to retrieve the blade until the ult's duration concludes, at which point it would drop to the floor. Cleanses drop the blade where they are (like fizz fish).

This would allow you to trade 'damage' for various other effects, making her gameplay less binary.

CoolKnightST3/7/2016, 2:00:35 PM1 votes

To be honnest despite Irelia has an overloaded kit. She's actualy has an intressting playstyle because of it. Problem with her kit is more about counterplay between these elements. What's also worth to mention is that she doesn't provide a lot of utility to her team so I'm kinda tricky to ballance her while maintaining her own strengths. Unless you want to see another Fiora offcourse.