‘League of Legends’ Irelia Champion Reveal: Ionian Fervor Never Looked So Good
Get ready Irelia mains, her League of Legends rework is finally here. Just looking at her abilities, which allow her to jump around and throw knives, you can see the makings of a meta champion. It won’t be long before cries of “better nerf Irelia” come back into the League meme-o-sphere. She’s going to be through some serious testing on the PBE, but will be released around patch 8.7.
Here are her full abilities taken from her champion reveal page on the Riot Games website:
Passive: Ionian Fervor
Hitting enemies with spells grant Irelia stacks of Ionian Fervor for a few seconds. Hitting multiple champions with an ability grants multiple stacks, and basic attacking extends their duration. Each stack adds bonus magic damage to her basic moves. At max stacks, this bonus damage is increased against shields, and Irelia also gains attack speed.
Q: 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.
If the target was marked or dies to Bladesurge, its cooldown is refreshed.
W: Defiant Dance
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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.
E: Flawless Duet
Irelia sends a blade to a location, and can recast Flawless Duet to send a second blade to another location. The blades will fly towards one another, dealing magic damage and stunning enemies caught in the crossfire. Flawless Duet also marks champions and large monsters for a few seconds.
R: Vanguard's Edge
Irelia unleashes the full force of her blades in a line. If Vanguard's Edge hits an enemy champion, the blades will radiate outward, dealing damage and marking enemy champions and large monsters, and forming a barrier that lasts for a few seconds. This blade wall deals 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.
Irelia is a frontline bruiser who can stun enemies stupid enough to get in her way. The old Irelia would pounce on enemies and thwack them with her blades until somebody died. With the rework, her kit is now about bobbing, weaving and kiting. You’ll deal a ton of damage with your autos and shred through shields like they were parmesan cheese, but waste all your abilities and you’re a sitting duck. She’s a champion with a high skill cap, meaning terrible players will immediately pick her up. Get ready for that Yasuo or Riven main to start spamming Irelia clips in your Discord group very soon.
Check out Irelia's skins, they are now beautiful. The craziest part of all of this: Frostblade Irelia still has her butt as the main focus of the splash art. I’m sure many League of Legends fans will appreciate that.