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
- Posted by Reav3.
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.
