Irelia Build Guide by The_Nameless_Bard

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Runes

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: I love these. They make early jungle navigation so much faster. Plus they mean you're not too hurt by not getting level two boots right away.
Other good options:
Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage: These will speed up your jungle a little because you'll deal a bit more damage to the creeps early. Plus they'll give all your abilities a nice boost to their damage.

Greater Mark of Attack Speed: These make your clear time a little faster (and I prefer them), though if you don't really like/don't own these you can use Greater Mark of Attack Damage instead.

Greater Seal of Armor: These are pretty much core on a jungler.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist/ Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: These are good choice in general on an off-tank like Irelia.
Other good options:
Greater Glyph of Attack Speed: If you decide to use Greater Mark of Attack Damage you should run these instead of the MR glyphs.
Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction: These work quite well, and help with your semi-long CDs

Masteries

I prefer 9-21-0, but 0-21-9 will work equally well.

9-21-0:

0-21-9:

Summoner Spells

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I recommend these because Flash gives you a solid escape and there's no reason not to take Smite when you're jungling.

Other good choices:
Ghost: If you prefer Ghost to Flash go ahead and take it.

Exhaust: If you feel you don't need the escape from Flash/ Ghost you can take this so you have a little more CC.

Skill Sequence (levels 1-4)/Jungle Path

Take Hiten Style first and head over to the Wolves. Get a leash if possible and turn on Hiten Style before the Wolves starts attacking you. Keep attacking it, turning on Hiten Style when it comes back up. If you have a good leash you can finish this before the blue spawns.

Head over to blue and turn on Hiten Style again attacking the large golem until it it low enough to smite. Take a potion or two if you feel low on health.

When you hit level 2 take Bladesurge. With a blue buff you should be able to use it to last hit the monsters.

After blue go for wraiths > double golems > Wolves and repeat as needed until you hit level 4. Be sure you take Equilibrium Strike at level 4.

At level 4 grab red buff and you're ready to gank.

Post level 4 skill sequence

After I get my first 4 levels I usually take 1 more point in Hiten Style before I take a point in Transcendent Blades. Then I take one more point in Bladesurge before I take the last two points in Hiten Style. I max Equilibrium Strike last because a .25 second duration increase on a stun/slow isn't as good as the reduced cooldown on Bladesurge

BUT you can max either Bladesurge or Equilibrium Strike after Hiten Style, depending on the lane you're ganking. Either option works for Irelia.

Ganking

I don't usually gank until I hit level 4. Wait in a bush for the enemy to push out a bit(make sure your ally/allies are ready). When they get in range, use Bladesurge to close the gap and immediately hit them with Equilibrium Strike. Turn on Hiten Style and attack them, using Bladesurge again as soon as it's out of CD. Most of the time your ally should be able to get a kill on the enemy, but even if you don't secure the kill odds are the enemy will still have to leave allowing your ally to free farm.

Core

vs. : I prefer to get Mercury's Treads on Irelia because they synergize so well with her passive, but if you feel you're taking far too much physical damage Ninja Tabi can be a good alternative.

-> : Spirit Stone is pretty much core on any tanky jungler who doesn't need Wriggle's Lantern (Like Irelia). I prefer to upgrade it into Spirit of the Elder Lizard because of the great synergy that item has with Irelia's Kit.

/ : Some people don't like this item on Irelia, but I, personally, love it.

: This item is great on on Irelia

: This item synergizes really well with Irelia imo. It gives her more armor and some health regen. plus an AoE slow that works really well with the Bladesurge + Equilibrium Strike combo.

Situational Items

Offensive Items:

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If you feel you need armor pen you can grab either of these. Though, generally, Irelia scales better with flat AD than she does with armor pen.


This item is a very good AD item for Irelia, in general.


4% of enemy health in magic damage (2% of which you get healed as well) + Hiten style AND decent lifesteal, need I say more?


A decent alternate item to Trinity Force for Irelia

Defensive Items

You can substitute this for Randuin's Omen if you want more CDR and mana. It gives more armor than a Randuin's Omen and the aura is nice if you're up against a high AD team.


This item is very good on Irelia. It gives a hefty boost to your defensive stats and the passive means you will often be unkillable.


If you have the defensive stats to utilize this item go ahead and get it. The passive on it is quite good on Irelia.

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These are both very good on Irelia. They give a general amount of tanky stats that are super good.


This item is quite good on Irelia. It gives you a little health and mana/health regen and CDR, All stats Irelia can utilize. Plus, the MS boosting active is really good for chasing or escaping.


This item can be decent against a high magic damage team

Summary

Well that's pretty much it.

I wish you luck on all your future endeavors.

BYEEEEEEEEEEEE!

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