Champion Sneak Peek: Irelia, the Will of the Blades[]
By ByronicHero[1]
If you picked up a copy of the November issue of PC Gamer, then you've already had your first look at the League's latest champion. If you missed that issue, then it's my great honor to officially introduce 
Irelia, the Will of the Blades. In addition to being the latest in our long line of pretty ladies to join the League of Legends, Irelia serves as the captain of the Ionian Guard - which only goes to show that there's no glass ceiling when you have a telekinetic command over swords. So watch yourself! Irelia brings new meaning to the old proverb: "Walk softly, but carry a big sword." Hey, wait... did I get that right?
Full Relaunch[]
Champion Roadmap: October 2017[]
- A Dance with Blades
After a lot of explorations we've settled on who our next big VGU will be after 
Swain: none other than the Will of the Blades herself, 
Irelia. Irelia has long been very high on our list of champions with huge untapped potential, and players have been requesting it more now as well. Her thematic fantasy promises a highly agile warrior that uses multiple telekinetic blades to vanquish her foes. Yet, outside of her 
ultimate, she doesn't really have any abilities that are delivering on that fantasy, and even her current ult falls a bit flat compared to modern champion designs. Her kit is very reliable, which leads to uninteresting stat checks and makes her more snowball reliant than she should be.
Irelia also lacks a strong strategic identity and place in the league's current landscape, so we want to take this opportunity to give her some unique tools to master and use. One ability that we do feel has held up well overtime is 
Bladesurge, so don't expect big changes there, though the rest of her kit should be going through a pretty major overhaul. Even though we'll be doing major changes to her kit, we want Irelia to feel like the champion players have grown to love, just in a much more thematically cohesive way.
Champion Roadmap: January 2018[]
- Peace Isn't Always the Answer
Sometimes violence is necessary, which brings me to our next topic: Irelia. When we started Irelia's rework, our main goal was to transform her into the master of levitating blades that her theme implies—she should be surging into the thick of battle, where she can pierce the shields of her enemies before cutting them down in a flurry of dancing blades.
Like I mentioned before, we're keeping her current Q, Bladesurge, as we believe it's a great ability that's core to Irelia, and we'll even be spicing it up by giving her more reset opportunities. The rest of her kit is going through pretty big changes to help fully realize her theme. We still want to maintain her strength against ranged champions and want her to be able to fight at a relatively long range (for a fighter), poking at her enemies with a thousand tiny cuts before surging in for the kill.
As a war heroine, Irelia also needs some tools to initiate a fight and signal to her teammates that negotiations have failed and it's time to fight back. Get ready to surge into battle with Irelia later this year.
Champion Update: Irelia[]
Tranquil as the sea—and furious as the tempest. A fierce defender of Ionia, Irelia trained in the ancient dances of her people and adapted her art for war. Using her graceful movements to levitate an array of deadly blades, the Blade Dancer cuts down any foe foolish enough to play at conqueror.[4]
- Ionian Fervor
bonus magic damage to her basic attacks. At max stacks, this bonus damage is increased against 
shields, and Irelia also gains 
attack speed.
- Bladesurge
Irelia dashes to a target, dealing 
physical damage (increased if it's a minion or monster), applying on-hit effects, and 
healing for a small amount.
cooldown is refreshed.
- Defiant Dance
First Cast: Irelia begins charging her blades, losing the ability to move or attack but gaining significant damage reduction for a brief period. This channel can't be interrupted.
Second Cast: Irelia lashes out with her blades, dealing physical damage in a line. The damage increases as Irelia charges.
- Flawless Duet
magic damage and 
stunning enemies caught in the crossfire. Flawless Duet also marks champions and large monsters for a few seconds.
- Vanguard's Edge
magic damage and significantly 
slows enemy champions that pass through it. It also 
disarms them for a few seconds, making them unable to basic attack.Playing As Irelia[]
As Irelia, you dance across the battlefield in a whirl of death, leaping from one enemy to another with devastating choreography. Use 
Flawless Duet to initiate the performance, slashing at unexpected angles to leave opponents marked and stunned. Rush in as your 
Ionian Fervor rises, flowing effortlessly from one mark to the next with Bladesurge.
When enemies attempt to assemble against you, split them apart with 
Vanguard's Edge. Confine one threat within a wall of blades while you weave among the other foes marked by the scattering of your swords. If you find yourself requiring respite in the heat of battle, a well-timed 
Defiant Dance will cast off the worst of your opponents' counterattack. After a dramatic pause, return to your rhythm with another Bladesurge sequence, making swift work of those that remain.
Tips and Tricks[]
Flawless Duet is as versatile as you are. In addition to serving as your most reliable method of applying marks, the stun makes it a great technique for both engaging and retreating. Surprise your enemies by changing up the angle of attack, when you use it, and how far the second blade falls from the first.
- You can quickly tap Defiant Dance to trade the extended damage mitigation for an immediate attack. Use it to strike down fleeing enemies when you don't have the option to Bladesurge for the last hit.
- Vanguard's Edge has two main functions: Wall off priority targets, and generate marks for Bladesurge. Masterful blade dancers will force enemy carries to choose between standing still and being disarmed, while simultaneously setting up their next sequence of dashes. Try to strike hard and fast instead of engaging in protracted duels; use your mobility to win with hit-and-run (and-hit-and-run-and-hit-and-run) tactics.
Remaking Irelia: Behind the Scenes[]
- Follow the journey of Irelia's update in this behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to update a League of Legends champion.
Better Buff Irelia: Modernizing League of Legends Champions[]
- League of Legends is a constantly evolving sport with a competitive landscape that includes over 140 unique champions. With each new release, even the most iconic older champions, like Irelia, can be overshadowed in terms of mechanics or playmaking potential. Our latest champion update looks to evolve Irelia's iconic gameplay, fully deliver on her blade dancer theme, and bring her back into the modern world of League.
Irelia Dances Her Way to Wild Rift[]
By Sol 'SolCrushed' Kim & Savannah 'Kitsunya' Ho[5]
Irelia hits the Rift soon! Join the game designer behind her original rework for a look at how we adapted the Blade Dancer for Wild Rift.
Hey everyone, I’m Sol Kim, and I’m a game designer on Wild Rift. We put a lot of thought into every champion we bring to the game, but some are more complex than others, such as Irelia. How do we ensure she feels easily accessible without sacrificing her high-skill level of play? How do we maintain her identity as a duelist who weaves her blades in and out of battle with deadly decisiveness? In fact, when we were reworking Irelia on LoL PC, we struggled with these same issues. Irelia relies heavily on her (1) Bladesurge which serves as her main mobility and attack tool. It’s a targeted dash that deals damage and resets if it kills the target, or if the target was marked with her other abilities. An Irelia who misplays her Bladesurge becomes extremely vulnerable. Because Wild Rift’s aiming requires more steps than on LoL PC, we really wanted to provide players the ability to reset Bladesurge without requiring god-tier micro.
We tried the most intuitive version first, where Irelia prioritized resettable targets when Bladesurge was tap-cast and the player could dash to their target. This allowed her to jump between minions just by tapping Bladesurge. However, when she wanted to engage on a specific target (such as an enemy champion), it forced the player to either do precise aiming or use the lock-on feature. If the player misplayed, Irelia would dash away from her opponent towards a low health minion. Normally, we encourage players to use the lock-on feature to target opponents; however, Bladesurge is unique because Irelia often wants to reset it, even during takedowns. This forced her to target-lock during her Bladesurge reset which was extremely difficult.
We felt we could do better.
We decided to flip the controls: tapping follows regular prioritization, so when the player goes for a low-health target, tap-casting will do the trick. We also implemented an assist feature where we search for a resettable target near the focus point when Irelia aims Bladesurge. This allows her to quickly flick-cast Bladesurge to reset where she wants, while leaving tap-casting open for kill moments.
This solution is not perfect since it requires more from the player when clearing minion waves and building up her passive. However, we felt that giving the player more control over which target to reset on was worth the extra effort. Once a player knows about the assist feature, quickly flicking Bladesurge becomes intuitive!
We also added a feature unique to Irelia that would help players recognize opportune moments to use Bladesurge. Similar to the white health bar that signals when a minion is killable with an attack, Irelia players will see a purple health bar that signifies when a minion is resettable with Bladesurge. This feature takes Sheen and Trinity Force into account too!
We believe we have a strong control scheme which will allow players to play Irelia like they want to, but we know it is not perfect. We would love your feedback on this feature and would be open to improving it if needed.
Quick Gameplay Thoughts: June 25[]
Hey all! A hefty batch of Irelia changes hit PBE this week, and I’m here to walk you through the journey:
- Durability down early, up late
- Passive caps at 4 stacks instead of 5
- Max passive damage and Attack Speed down early
- Q dash speed reduced slightly
- Q minion damage scales with level
- W physical DR scales with level
- W has magic DR again (half the physical amount)
- W damage increased substantially
- E blade travel time fixed at 0.25s
- Each R rank reduces Q's base cooldown
Irelia is a bit of a hot mess. She’s a lane-destroying counter god, but falls off later like a brick taking swim lessons. Her W doesn’t feel great. She’s so powerful in the hands of pros that the rest of you are playing a champ whose winrate is usually... rough. We wanted to smooth out her power curve, make her kit feel a little better to play, and tap her power down in pro play.
I had some ideas for how to get there, and went to the Game Analysis Team (a bunch of high MMR players and ex pro analysts who playtest and polish the stuff designers make) to gut check them. I also chatted with Irelia's VGU designer about Irelia's strengths and weaknesses, as well as which parts of her kit are really exciting and what falls flat. Based on those discussions, I had two initial goals. One: See whether we could lower Irelia's early power to nerf her in pro, or if "dominate lane at the cost of late game power" was fundamental to what makes Irelia exciting. Two: See if adding a new effect to W would make that spell feel more exciting and worth using.
Dropping her early durability and passive strength was successful for goal 1. In pro, live Irelia wins by crushing the early game so hard that she's too far ahead to ever fall off. This version struggled to achieve that same level of autowin laning since she couldn’t gigachad statcheck half the roster, but she still felt like Irelia when she earned an advantage. The second change was dicier. In this test, max-charge W applied Q's mark to all enemies hit. A perfect W could mark all five opponents, which was really freaking exciting for Irelia's fantasy of zipping and dashing through fights. It was also really really messed up. Even just in lane, she could charge W and whack you, mark you, then kill you. W was definitely worth casting, but too much so.
Onto round two where W healed Irelia for every enemy hit, scaling with charge time. This was still exciting, but not nearly so much as the mark. It also shoved Irelia too hard into sustain. This convinced me to reassess whether the spell actually needed an extra effect.
For iteration three, I took a step back to look at more than just W. One of Irelia's mechanics I knew was problematic, but had been reluctant to change, was E timing. In experienced hands on low ping, E is a zero-counterplay stun. On high ping or for regular players, though, hitting the stun is a decently interesting challenge. I knew this was going to hurt, but I had to try it. I changed E's blade travel time from variable to fixed: No matter where you tried to cast a blade it would always take 0.25 seconds to get there.
This definitely stung experienced Irelias. A unique combo was gone and the spell was less responsive. That always sucks. But going back to our goals, it helped level the playing field between pros and everyone else, and bought even more room to make W satisfying. For v3, I buffed W's damage and DR, and brought back its magic damage reduction! The button felt like a powerful defense again and honestly, that’s all it needed to be.
We had leftover power budget to spare (that's how warping insta-E was), so I had a few more things to try. First: Going back to a 4 stack passive. Irelia’s passive is really unforgiving at 5 stacks: Without minions around, you have to hit every ability to get to 5, and below that you just don’t deal damage. Getting back to 4 stacks was a substantial accessibility improvement and didn’t heavily cut into Irelia's mastery or fantasy.
The last story to tell is about R's Q-cooldown-reducing passive. Irelia’s supposed to be a battle dancer wooshing through teamfights taking people down and prancing around, but one double tap Q and you’ve got lead in your pointes. I wanted to let her live out her teamfight dance fantasy, so we tested each R rank giving her basic ability haste. That got pretty messed up with multiple W's and E's in a fight, but it was perfect for Q so we just converted it into a flat reduction.
After that, a few touches of art and sound, and wham, we have a spruced up Irelia we think can be playable even after Baron spawns, and isn’t just for pros.
Also now enemies can see her passive stacks.
Trivia[]
- Original Irelia, Mythmaker Irelia, and 3Irelia in Legends of Runeterra are voiced by Cherami Leigh[7][8]
- Irelia's Japanese voice actor is Hana Takeda.[9]
- A prototype of Defiant Dance was a full counter capable of reflecting Unleashed Power.[10]
- A prototype ultimate allowed her to fire a wave of blades for circa 3 seconds (didn't follow her, just in the direction and spot she originally cast it in). This 'blade stream' knocked enemies back, which was cool thematically but it ended up being a support spell.[11]
- It may have been reused to later become Yuumi's Final Chapter and Qiyana's Supreme Display of Talent.
- It may have been reused to later become
- On an early concept she had 6 arms with each one holding a sword.[12]
- Her motions are from Wushu and Tai Chi martial arts with a light hint of western Jazz (dancing style). A mix of western and eastern influences but weighing heavily towards eastern.[13]
- The Seppuku death animation she used to have was scrapped because it didn't fit with her relaunch.[14]
- Vanguard's Edge's wall used to have 2 different colors per skin depending on whether Irelia's passive is fully stacked or not when she uses the ability. Its VFX when her passive is not fully stacked was later removed in V9.2.
- Irelia, the Will of the Blades
- Her placeholder model was Red Card Katarina.[15]
- Her death references Seppuku.
- Ryan 'Morello' Scott nerfed Irelia the day before her release for 'being too annoying to play against' and the subsequent nerfs she received whenever another champion was deemed overpowered led to the birth of the "Better Nerf Irelia" meme.
- Updated splash artwork was used in rare instances, but was not suited for release.[16]
Media[]
- Related Music
| The Blade-Dancing Immortal Theme |
- Related Videos
- Main article: Summoner icon
- Main article: Emotes
References[]
- ↑ Champion Sneak Peek: Irelia, the Will of the Blades
- ↑ A Dance With Blades
- ↑ Peace isn't alaways the answer
- ↑ Champion Update: Irelia
- ↑ Irelia Dances Her Way to Wild Rift
- ↑ Quick Gameplay Thoughts: June 25
- ↑ Irelia's Voice Actress
- ↑ Irelia's Voice Actress in Legends of Runeterra
- ↑ Official Japanese VA list
- ↑ Irelia early W
- ↑ Irelia's scrapped ultimate
- ↑ Irelia 6 arms concept
- ↑ Irelia's in-game motions
- ↑ Irelia death animation change
- ↑ @Ezreal
- ↑ Scrapped splash update