Irelia Nerfs: Huge Changes Coming to League of Legends
One of the most well-known memes in League of Legends is “Better nerf Irelia.” And yesterday, Riot Games may have taken that phrase a bit too seriously.
Recently, the PBE (Public Beta Environment) was updated with a list of nerfs specifically for Irelia. While balance changes usually don’t generate much excitement, these nerfs are causing quite a stir. In fact, they are some of the most significant single-champion nerfs in a long time. The severity of these changes raises doubts on whether they will be implemented without further tweaking.
The latest changes on the test server not only impact Irelia’s balance, but they actually remove key features from her kit. Firstly, her passive no longer deals bonus damage to shields. This means that there are no longer any champions in the game that can directly counter shields. Secondly, her Q ability no longer deals double damage to minions. Instead, it now provides a small amount of flat bonus damage. Lastly, her ultimate ability no longer disarms enemies; it now only deals damage and slows them.
Normally, when major nerfs like these are introduced, there is a compensation buff or tweak to maintain balance. However, for Irelia, the only buff is a damage increase to her ultimate ability to compensate for the removal of the disarm. Everything else is simply receiving a heavy nerf with no other adjustments.
So what does this mean for Irelia? It’s clear that Riot believes she is significantly overpowered, as otherwise, such drastic nerfs wouldn’t have been implemented. This is quite puzzling, considering that her win rates in the top and middle lanes are some of the lowest in the game according to League stats site OP.gg.
Even if Riot’s reasoning for these changes is based solely on Irelia’s popularity, there are other champions that could have benefitted from nerfs with higher priority. For example, Aatrox has a much higher combined win rate and play rate in both the top and middle lanes.
Regardless of the explanation, one thing is certain: if these changes go live, Irelia will be considerably weaker. Whether this is for the better or worse remains to be seen.
Irelia, League of Legends, nerfs, balance changes, kit, shields, minions, disarm, buffs, win rates, play rates, Aatrox