This is my very first guide. It is built around a similar style of play of quite possibly the best Irelia player ever (in my opinion), that being Wickd.

Irelia is a tanky dps with great movement and some crowd control. She focuses on slowing down or incapacitating carries,assassins, and supports. Most people like to build her pure dps, but I prefer to play her as a bruiser, or fighter or a more common term being an off tank.

Runes vary depending on if you lane solo or not. I generally like to keep the same overall set up. That way no matter if I have to duo or solo lane I will be efficient and not have to worry about being ganked, or blue pilling too soon.

Marks:
Greater Mark of Desolationx9

Seals:
x9

Glyphs:
x9 Or x9. Personally I like warding for Irelia much much more, because chances are you will be building which is a huge amount of MR, so the MR per level is not needed as much.
For:

Quintessences:
Greater Quintessence of Vigorx3 (This stacks with the masteries and ).

Masteries on Irelia vary from person to person. Some may go 16-0-14, 9-21-0, 21-0-9 etc. However, Those are for people who play for more of a damaging role. However, Irelia is a GREAT bruiser. So what I do (I got this mastery setup from Wickd on EU) is I go 1-18-11 or 0-18-12. The reason I focus on building tanky is because I have more health and more regeneration than most other people that take the choice of being more offensive and aggressive in the beginning and I allow them to burn their own mana.

Core Items: , / , / and . Depending on if the team is AD or AP heavy will determine what items you will get. Trinity Force will be your bread and butter for this entire build.


Build One: This build is more geared towards an AD heavy team.
Build Two: This build is more geared towards an AP heavy team.

Boots: should be your first main item if not your second. This provides movements to escape a gank from the opposing team or to help secure one for your own team. This is a must if they have a solo lane that is AP as the magic resist will allow some sustain mixed with your mass regen (as seen in runes and masteries section of the guide). If you have a strong AD champion in the lane against you, you'll want to get for two reasons. One is you have a 12% chance to dodge their attacks which is VERY VERY nice. Two is the armor buff it gives, combine the armor with your runes and you will laugh at their damage and be able to take the aggressive side.

: This item will turn Irelia from defensive champion into an offensive one QUICKLY. You will always always ALWAYS start with first. The mana and the 100% damage bonus will let you dominate your lane.

You will see some Irelia players take philosopher's stone or even first, but I will tell you right now, they are "OK" items for her, people that think "mana per 5 or hp/5 or gold/5" on her is needed is dead wrong. With doran's shield and the regen quints you'll be put at 16hp/5 which is more than enough. For mana/5 you have AND which is 10 mana/5 at level 1, which is more than enough for Irelia if you stick to last hitting. As for the gold/5, if you're last hitting properly and getting ganks in your lane, you will not need any gold/5. Gold/5 are for champions like Jarvan who can't farm as fast and are mana heavy.

Those who think is best are a bit more respected than those who take philosopher's stone and ghostblade, don't get me wrong ghost blade is good for damage and armor pen and cool downs, but there is no sustain in there at all like there is for philo stone or wriggle's. Wriggle's will grant you asight wardfor vision and fast clearing on minion waves and life steal. Again this item is a bit defensive in my opinion, it just does not say "I'm willing to dominate my lane". The sight ward is good and the mass minion damage is good, but is it really needed? Irelia can simply last hit with her for true damage and it brings life steal, so the life steal portion of wriggle's is pretty much canceled out. Her (ultimate) can clear minion waves almost instantly with 3 hits AND it heals you, so the entire minion clearing portion is canceled out. The only thing left standing is the sight ward... Now the ward is nice, but for the lovely price of 1600 gold it's not worth it, that is equal to buying 21 and 1/3 sight ward.

So to me the only viable option here is . It's 1260 gold and you get that lovely 100% damage of your AP passive effect. Which means you can control your lane, you'll most likely have more mana than your opposing lane meaning you'll need to back less and that means you have that much more mana and damage to harass and possibly get a gank. The mana is just so nice, it lets you farm with your more and if the minion wave is large enough, it will allow you to farm well enough with your

For aggressive play ( / ) take first. This will allow you to get a quick hit or two in and keep your opponent at bay. For the more defensive style, take first. allows you to stun for ganks, and if you're lucky enough to bait someone on your tower, stun them there for up to 2 seconds if your % hp is less than their's. For a somewhat aggressive play (after level 5 or 6 or whenever you get ), you'll want to focus on first. This provides slows/stun on your opponent,and with this can lead to a large burst of damage. If you focus on it will be because you have a very "pokey" lane and hiten style will allow you to get healing done, also if you combine hiten style with sheen the true damage along with the big burst hits will heal you for a very nice amount as well as bring the hurt onto your enemy.


Note: Build 1 is my general skill sequence, build 2 is for mass agression and last hitting.

/ has become my new favorite. It's a good combination to have if you want to ensure a kill. Ignite mixed with will make your opponent wish they never came near your range.

/ is another good setup, but just make sure you take a point in , this will shred armor and magic resit and allow you to deal good damage.

You should be focusing on last hitting with Hiten Style (W). This provides true damage and will heal you as well if you have taken any damage.

For Slightly larger minion waves you will use (Q) , again make sure you last hit for the passive of mana refunding.

For abnormally larger waves is when you use (ultimate), This will usually clear the wave up in about 3 hits (depending on if you have / or not).

Minion jumping or "bridging" is exactly what it sounds like. You use to last hit a minion (usually the one closest to your enemy who is fleeing) in order to kill that minion, reset the cool down on and refund mana AND allow you to jump on the enemy champion for quick damage, you will follow this up with an and either stun or slow them, depending on your current hp% and their current hp%. This is a needed strategy on Irelia, this is what can define an average Irelia from a great one in certain occasions

As Irelia, you job is simple. You want to initiate the fights and go for their carries or casters. You want to stun them and hurt them as much as possible while healing off of them or whatever is around you with your