Irelia rework

League champion rework: Irelia ability kit revealed

Irelia has been infamous since she released. But while many cried to “better nerf Irelia” based on her extremely rare balance changes, others felt like she would rarely show up in games. Because of her feast or famine nature, Irelia has spent most of her time sitting on the sidelines, never really finding her way into the “most played champions” listing.

Well, her rework aims to change some of that. Let’s take a look at the brand new Irelia: The Blade Dancer.

THE KIT

PASSIVE - IONIAN FERVOR

Riot Games

Riot’s Tooltip:

Surrender@20

What it does:

Every time Irelia damages a champion with an ability, she gains a stack of her passive. Her basic attacks do additional bonus magic damage (scaling with her AD) per stack and each stack only lasts six seconds unless refreshed. If Irelia reaches four stacks, she becomes capped and cannot gain anymore. However, she also gains 20 percent attack speed and does three times extra damage to shielded opponents.

When you first play new Irelia, you may struggle to find a use for this passive. Her base cooldowns are long, which can leave you wondering how the hell you’re ever supposed to proc all four stacks. This is where the blade dancing aspect comes in. Irelia is a melee champ that’s all about being sticky.

You don’t want to just slam all your abilities at once like Yorick. Instead, you want to pace your abilities by flowing autos in between them, almost like you would with Lucian. By doing this, you’ll gain the max bonus of each stack while also allowing your other abilities to cooldown in the process.

Q - BLADESURGE

Riot Games

Riot’s Tooltip:

Surrender@20

What it does:

Irelia dashes to a target and deals damage to them. This attack also applies on hit and causes Irelia to heal herself. The cooldown of Bladesurge is instantly reset if Irelia kills her target with her dash or if the target was marked (which we’ll get to in a second).

This ability is almost identical to how it is on the current live servers. Essentially, you want to use this ability to dash into a fight or stick on a target that’s heading away from you. If the target is marked, then you can dash in and still have your dash for their escape. It’s crucial not to simply spam this ability, otherwise you risk spending any resets you get and wasting potential chase. Be patient and look for opportunities to reset Bladesurge.

W - DEFIANT DANCE

Riot Games

Riot’s Tooltip:

Surrender@20

What it does:

Irelia creates somewhat of a shield around herself on the first cast, instantly gaining a Ionian Fervor stack. The shield blocks 45 percent of incoming damage while it is being charged. However, she is unable to do anything. When she releases the ability, her blades will fly forward and deal scaling damage based on how long she charged.

This ability is a pretty interesting addition to her kit. Irelia has always been the kind of champion that is sticky and stays by your side as you run from her. This ability forces you to trade your mobility fo damage and defense.

When looking for opportunities to use Defiant Dance, you want to be sure that you are either mid-duel or are ahead of a champion you’re chasing/within dash range. What you don’t want is to charge up, hit your W, and then lose the kill to being out of range.

While Irelia is a powerful duelist, she also excels in group fights. Use this ability to deal major damage in a line, hitting multiple champs (and gaining stacks for each) at once. Because you are guaranteed two stacks if you only hit one champion, it’s also a great way to start a fight that your opponent can’t necessarily run away from.

E - FLAWLESS DUET

Riot Games

Riot’s Tooltip:

Surrender@20

What it does:

Irelia throws two blades to two locations on the ground. Once they both land, they fly toward each other, dealing damage, stunning, and marking any champions or large monsters hit.

This is Irelia’s new stun and it takes quite a bit of work to pull off. However, it’s also a ranged ability, allowing for a lot of flexibility. This is your opener. Throw two blades, stun your target, dash in to consume the mark, Defiant Dance, and dash again to chase the target. You wanna get some autos in there too, but that’s the overall casting situation.

Flawless Duet is about catching your enemies at weird angles. Once your opponents have learned the cast range, it’s something they’ll be able to prep for. So move a blade to the side or behind you and then dash up to a dying minion to place the second blade perfectly behind your target. Then you can simply start with an auto and your W and still have two dashes to chase.

R - VANGUARD’S EDGE

Riot Games

Riot’s Tooltip:

Surrender@20

What it does:

Irelia throws an arena of blades onto the field, dealing magic damage to and marking anyone in the area. The arena remains for 2.5 seconds and traps players. Anyone brave (or foolish) enough to walk through the wall will take massive damage, be slowed, and be unable to basic attack for two seconds.

This is an interesting ability, especially for a champion that wants to stay close to her enemies like Irelia. You want to use this Fiora-style, meaning that this is your big finishing move. Once you’ve chased down your prey and are ready to get the kill, drop the arena and finish them off. They either have to face you or damage themselves by running through your wall.

The other big use here is team fights. In a group setting, this becomes a more mobile version or The Box or a more useful version of Cataclysm. Because you’re able to simply drop it away from you, you can create a perfect situation to group your enemies for that Orianna ball or Malphite wombo-combo.

Like with The Box, you create an impossible decision for your enemies trapped inside. Keeping them on their toes and forcing bad decisions is how you win the Irelia mind game.

THE RUNES

Riot Games

KEYSTONE: CONQUEROR

Conqueror should be an obvious pick up for Irelia. You aren’t really going to just blow someone up unless you’re so far ahead that nothing matters. So instead, you’re gonna rely on being sticky. Because you’ll be in longer fights, you can also refresh the rune and keep it up for a long time.

TRIUMPH

Triumph is just stupidly powerful right and makes sense for the kind of champion that wants to fight multiple foes in a row.

LEGEND: BLOODLINE

Bloodline is great here for Irelia, but Alacrity isn’t bad either. However, Bloodline allows you to keep going as you fight, becoming obnoxiously tanky as you roll into the enemy squad.

COUP DE GRACE

Why wouldn’t you take this rune? The only thing Irelia’s kit isn’t great at is finishing kills. Knowing that, we take Coup De Grace.

SECONDARY TREE: DOMINATION

Domination allows us to take Sudden Impact, which is a obvious choice on Irelia.

SUDDEN IMPACT

Irelia is maybe the dash-iest champion in the game, so Sudden Impact will see a lot of use over a single match.

RAVENOUS HUNTER

Similar to Bloodlines, Ravenous Hunter allows us to roll into a fight and shrug off the damage that we end up taking.

Akali Rework

League of Legends’ next big content patch is 8.15, introducing the freshly-reworked Akali. The Rogue Assassin has a suite of new spells, as well as a new model, VO, and an update to every last one of her skins.

If you thought she was a threat before, the new Akali is about to be deadlier than ever. She’s more mobile, for one thing, but also far, far stealthier – the jewel in her crown is the all-new Twilight Shroud, which makes her entirely untargetable. Even turrets won’t be able to damage Akali while she’s hiding in the smoke.

Elsewhere, there are changes to Irelia and Fizz, the latter of whom is receiving plenty of attention to his ultimate. There are changes to marksmen items and support items, as well as some lovely new Pool Party skins for Gangplank, Caitlyn, and Zoe, helping you celebrate the summer in style. If you’ve missed out in previous years, Riot has a bunch of new chromas available for older Pool Party skins, too. Have a look below for all the information we’ve got, straight from the PBE.

LOL PATCH 8.15 RELEASE DATE AND DOWNTIME

We don’t know the exact release date for patch 8.15 yet, but the schedule is bi-weekly so expect it on Wednesday, August 1. We’ll update when Riot do, but keep an eye on the server maintenance page for the latest updates.

LOL PATCH 8.15 BALANCE CHANGES

That out of the way, let’s start with the really important bit, shall we? What you need to remember is that stuff on the PBE like this is neither guaranteed to happen, nor to be in the next patch even if it does. This is what the folks over at Riot are thinking about doing. We’ve got the numbers on what’s changing, and a general guideline on which way each champion, item, mastery, summoner spell or rune is moving.

Patch 8.15 Champion Rework – Akali

Stats:

·         Base HP: 550

·         HP Per Level: 85

·         Energy: 200

·         HP Regen: 0.7

·         HP Regen Growth: 0.1

·         Base MR: 32

·         MR Per Level: 1.25

·         Base AD: 64.4

·         AD per level: 3.3

·         Base Armor:  23

·         Armor Growth: ~

·         Attack Speed: 0.625

·         Attack Speed Growth:   3.2

·         Base Move Speed: 345

·         Attack Range: 125

Assassin’s Mark (P):

·         Dealing spell damage to a champion reveals an energy ring around them.

·         When Akali crosses the ring, she extends her kama and empowers it. Her next attack has doubled range, deals [39-180 based on level] (+90% bAD)(+70% AP) bonus magic damage, and restores [10 – 30 based on level] energy.

Five Point Strike (Q):

·         Cooldown: 1.5s

·         Cost: 100/95/90/85/80 energy

·         Slings kunai in an arc, dealing 25/50/75/100/125 (+ 130% tAD)(+50% AP) magic damage. Enemies at the tip are briefly slowed.

·         If cast near full energy, Akali also heals for [5-20 based on level] (+ 80% tAD) (+ 20% AP).

·         At rank 5, deals an extra (+ 65% tAD)(+25% AP) damage to minions and monsters.

Twilight Shroud (W):

·         Cooldown: 17/15.5/14/12.5/11

·         Cost: None (restores 40/50/60/70/80 energy)

·         Drops a smoke bomb, unleashing a spreading cover of smoke that obscures Akali from enemy vision and grants her 20/25/30/35/40% movement speed.

·         Twilight Shroud lasts 5/5.5/6/6.5/7 seconds. Entering or exiting obscured extends Shroud’s duration by 0.5 second, up to 8 seconds.

·         While obscured, Akali is stealthed and cannot be selected by hostile spells or attacks, including by towers, even if revealed.

o    Twilight Shroud’s cooldown starts once the cloud disappears.

o    The cloud’s remaining duration is shown around the icon on the ability bar.

Shuriken Flip (E):

·         Cooldown: 16/14.5/13/11.5/10s

·         Cost: 30 energy

·         Flip backward and fire a shuriken forward, dealing 60/90/120/150/180 (+70% bAD) physical damage and marking the first enemy or smoke cloud hit.

·         Re-cast: Dash to the marked target, dealing the same damage.

Perfect Execution (R):

·         Cooldown: 120s/100/80

·         Cost: None

·         Two dashes: The first vaults over enemies, stunning for 0.5 seconds and dealing 120/180/240 (+50% bAD) physical damage.

·         The second is a piercing thrust that executes, dealing 120/180/240 (+30% AP) to 300/450/600 (90% AP) magic damage based on missing health.

Champion and skin sale

CHAMPION AND SKIN SALE

Champion and skin sale: 08.07 - 08.10

BY RIOT EVAELIN

Grab these champions and skins on sale for 50% off for a limited time:

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Skin Sales

Give your champions a new look with these skins:

Galactic Nasus

520 260 RP

Captain Fortune

975 487 RP

Pool Party Mundo

975 487 RP

Dragon Sorceress Zyra

1350 675 RP

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Champion Sales

Add these champions to your roster:

Xayah

975 487 RP

Talon

880 440 RP

Blitzcrank

790 395 RP

Rakan

975 487 RP

Pool Party 2018

Learn more: Pool Party 2018

BY BILBY

Unwind from the grind during the Pool Party event, which runs from August 2, 2018 at 8:00 AM PT – August 13, 2018 at 11:59 PM PT.

Skins, Chromas, and Bundles

Pool Party Gangplank

1350 RP

Pool Party Gangplank Icon

250 RP

Pool Party Gangplank Bundle - Grillmaster Edition

3011 RP (3406 RP if you need Gangplank)

Includes all Pool Party Gangplank chromas (including exclusive Ruby chroma), Surfin’ Pengu Ward, Pool Party Gangplank Icon, and exclusive Pengu (Ruby) Icon 
Available until August 13, 2018, at 11:59 PM PT. The regular chroma bundle with exclusive Ruby chroma will remain available afterwards for 2565 RP (2960 RP if you need Gangplank).

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Pool Party Caitlyn

1350 RP

Pool Party Caitlyn Icon

250 RP

Pool Party Caitlyn Bundle - Sunsoaked Edition

2866 RP (3306 RP if you need Caitlyn)

Includes all Pool Party Caitlyn chromas (including exclusive Ruby chroma), Wipeout Pengu Ward, Pool Party Caitlyn Icon, and Pengu (Ruby) Icon
Available until August 13, 2018, at 11:59 PM PT. The regular chroma bundle with exclusive Ruby chroma will remain available afterwards for 2420 RP (2860 if you need Caitlyn).

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Pool Party Zoe

1350 RP

Pool Party Zoe Icon

250 RP

Pool Party Zoe Bundle - Cannonball Edition

3011 RP (3498 RP if you need Zoe)

Includes all Pool Party Zoe chromas (including exclusive Ruby chroma), Hang Loose Pengu Ward, Pool Party Zoe Icon, and exclusive Pengu (Ruby) Icon
Available until August 13, 2018, at 11:59 PM PT. The regular chroma bundle with exclusive Ruby chroma will remain available afterwards for 2565 RP (3052 RP if you need Zoe).

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Pool Party Taric Chromas

290 RP Each

Pool Party Taric Chroma Bundle

2130 RP (2422 if you need Taric)

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Pool Party Rek'Sai Chromas

290 RP Each

Pool Party Rek'Sai Chroma Bundle

2460 RP (2947 if you need Rek’Sai)

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The following Pool Party chroma bundles will be available for 50% off until August 13, 2018, at 11:59 PM PT:

Pool Party Leona Chroma Bundle

922 RP (1362 if you need Leona)

Pool Party Graves Chroma Bundle

1545 RP (1985 if you need Graves)

Pool Party Fiora Chroma Bundle

1835 RP (2275 if you need Fiora)

Pool Party Lulu Chroma Bundle

1690 RP (2130 if you need Lulu)