Hello and welcome to my guide for Irelia.My nickname is CaelumIV and im currently on West Server in Europe.Because English is not my native,i may have some mistakes through the guide,so i'd like to apologize if you find any.

Irelia had some nerfs few patches ago but she is still really viable.For me she is one of the few champions i use in order to rape faces.This guide wont teach you how to be godlike,or how to get pentakills.This guide is gonna teach you some basics of Irelia's gameplay with a decent item build.

Pros

+Great Burst
+Great Farmer
+Insane lane sustainability
+Great Survability
+Great mov. speed
+Stun,Slow
+True Damage


Cons
-Mana hungry early on
-Picked by ranged
-Short Range
-If enemy manages to deny you,you will have problems later on

For runes I go:

Greater mark Of Desolation x9 -- 15 Armor Penetration is good for any Physical Champion.
Greater Seal of Armor x9 -- I prefer them from per/lvl because Irelia is a meele champion(125 range) so she needs to rush in minion waves to last hit,giving an opening to her enemy.I believe Flat armor Seals will benefit you more than per/lvl
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist x9 -- To survive early AP Burst
Greater Quintessence of Vigor x3 -- To boost her already great lane sustainability.With Regrowth Pendant and those runes you have 31 hp/5 at lvl 1.Which means 7 health per second.

I used to go 21/09 but after a suggestion from Khazem and some in game tests I decided that 0/9/21 is better,mainly because 0/9/21 makes Irelia's sustainability godlike.

What I use:

Most OP Spell.EVAR!!!

Flash can save you by ganks,can help you in ganks,can help you set traps and much more.Its a must.


I really love this spell.50% health reg?Good.True Damage?TOO GOOD.

Ignite some times can give you that little burst in order to kill your enemy.And can help you secure a kill on Tryndamere, Vladimir, Swain, Alistar etc

What you can use:

If you are a ghost lover
If you are an ignite hater
If you need quick trips to base.But you dont need,you are Irelia

Stay away:
I cant find a champ besides tryndamere,who heal is usefull on
Yes you are mana hungry early on.But Philo Stone solve this issue.
You dont jungle
This spell has its uses but not on Irelia
Unless you are a CV pro
Are you high?
Well with merc boots you have 75% cc reduction in teamfights.
You are not Pantheon,nor Karthus.GTFO

I start with Equilibrium Strike in order to avoid any early ganks from jungle. Equilibrium Strike+ Flash= escape from any gank.Then I put one point to Bladesurge to help me in last hitting and finally I put the next point to [hiten style].I maximize Hiten Style because its the bread and butter on Irelia and leveling up Ultimate whenever possible.

Core Build:Philosopher's stone, ,

philosopher's stone boost your already insane lane sustainability and clears any mana issues.
Mercury's Treads is such a great boot option on Irelia,because scales really good with her passive.Alternativly you can go Ninja Tabi if they are AD Heavy
This item is a must on Irelia.Gives whatever a tanky dps champ wants.Health,Speed,and ofcourse the improvment passive of Sheen,which procs Bladesurge

This is my core.From here I plan my next item according to the enemy team.But I usually go the build I have on the Purchase Order.

After finishing Trinity Force I go Shurelya's Battlesong(dont forget the active!!) and then Atma's Impaler.Those 2 items make me extremely tanky,with a great dmg output.If the game is still on i grab a Negatron Cloak bulding it to a banshee's veil whenever I can.If the game is still on,i take my final item which usually is guardian's angel


Viable Items

These are items I buy after completing my Core.

Doran's Shield.I may start with doran's instead of going for philo if I face a heavy ad champ on my lane.If I do this,after finishing my boots+trinity I go Giant's Belt + Atma's Impaler,bulding Sunfire AFTER finishing my Impaler's.

Wit's End Great Item if they go double AP meta
Randuin's OmenIf they are AD Heavy
Thornmail If they have many right clickers such Tryndamere Xin Zhao Caitlyn

Balanced Team


AD Heavy


ps:build Giant's Belt and then Atma's Impaler right away.You need that little burst from Atma's passive more than Sunfire's

AP Heavy

Farm,harrass,farm more,harass more.When you reach lvl 2 you are a farming machine.When you reach lvl 4 you are a killing machine.When you reach 6 they need 3 people to shut you down.But remember to last hit,ill explain in the near future how important last hitting is.

Mid game is all about dragon/baron control and buffs.Make sure to last hit whenever possible and join teamfights targeting the carry/squishy.That your role.Taking the damage while killing their carry.

Late Game is where Carries shine.Focus the enemy carry and bring him down.Your survability is huge even at this point of the game.

Irelia is good at farming mainly cause of her Q skill.Early on(pre 12) it cost 60 mana refunding 30 if you maange to kill the enemy.A total of 30 mana.If you arent able to last hit properly cause u are not used to,this skill will save you.Practising in custom games maybe help you understand Irelia's last hitting method,so you wont need to spam Bladesurge for farming.Again ill repeat myself.LAST HITTING IS A VITAL PART OF THE GAME.Sometimes a good cs score(creep spree)will turn the tables of the game.As i said before i plan to show you why pretty soon.(need to do some calculations.


If you want to know if you do well at cs:

If you solo lane at 10 minutes mark a 100 minion score is amazingly good.At 14 minute mark a 100 minion score is pretty good.If you are <100, you need improvment

If you duo lane at 10 minutes mark a nice score is around 60.

Last hitting is a vital part during your game,many times a good creep score(cs) may turn the tables in a game.

So lets begin.Why is cs important for the game?Every last hit on a enemy minion grants you gold.The more last hits you achieve,the more gold you get.With some quick maths and the BASE(because after some time,minions gives more gold every 3-5 minutes) gold each minion gives we can see that:

Each minion gives you aproximatelly 24,66667 gold(based on the base gold every kind of minion gives you,divited by 3),so lets say 25 gold.

A kill grants you 300 gold(unless you have a spree)
12 minions grants you also 300 gold.
So its a lot safer to farm gold AND harras your enemy,that focusing on killing him.


If you manage to have 100 cs at 14 minutes marks that means you have extra 2500 gold.Which is like killing 8 enemies(no sree!)If you also managed to kill some enemies the gold amount is even higher.

This way you have more gold than your enemy,more experience than him,and of course more items

How to last hit :

Last hitting with Irelia is pretty easy.Her attack animation is great,so with some games you will get used to her animation,and you will have more accuracy at last hitting with auto attacks.If you cant last hit with autohits,use your Bladesurge

Smart Casting:
Before I describe Irelia's skills and uses i'd like to talk a bit for smart casting.Smart casting is an advanced technique which allows to the user to execute a skill by just having the cursor uppon his target and pressing the right button on his keyboard.Think it like Karthus' Lay Waste(Q ability).With this you achieve a better responce,especially at last hitting.

So with some practise you can become decent at smartcasting,and play Irelia to her full potential.I usually smart cast only Bladesurge but its up to you if you want to smartcast Equilibrium Strike to.

Abilities:


(Active): Irelia dashes forward to strike her target, dealing physical damage. This applies on-hit effects. If it kills the target, Bladesurge's cooldown refreshes and refunds 35 mana.
Range: 650
Physical Damage: 20 / 50 / 80 / 110 / 140 (+1.0 per attack damage)


Irelia's Gap closer.Applies on hit effects,like Sheen,Madre's Bloodrazor,even lifesteal,or hiten style's passive heal/active true damage.




(Passive): Irelia's autoattacks restore health to her.Health Restored: 10 / 14 / 18 / 22 / 26
(Active): Irelia's autoattacks deal additional true damage for 6 seconds.True Damage: 15 / 30 / 45 / 60 / 75

What can I say?The reason Irelia is both tanky and deadly.Awsome skill overall


(Active): Irelia pierces her target, dealing magic damage and slowing the target by 60% for few seconds. If the target has a higher health % than Irelia, she stuns the target for the duration instead.
Range: 425
Magic Damage: 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 / 280 (+0.5 per ability power)
Duration: 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 second(s)

Irelia's stun slow.Awsome skill


Irelia summons 4 spirit blades which she can fire individually in a straight line to deal physical damage to enemies they pass through, and she heals for 25% of that damage vs champions and 10% vs minions.
Range: 1200
Physical Damage Per Blade: 80 / 120 / 160 (+0.5 per ability power) (+0.6 per bonus attack damage)
Amazing ultimate for farming,healing.Its on short cooldown so use it!
Combos


The basic harrasing combo is:
Hiten Style-> Bladesurge to an enemy-> Equilibrium Strike->autohits->retreat

The full harrasing combo is:

Hiten Style-> Bladesurge to an enemy-> Equilibrium Strike-> Transcendent Blades->ignite

Irelia summons 4 spirit blades which she can fire individually in a straight line to deal physical damage to enemies they pass through, and she heals for 25% of that damage vs champions and 10% vs minions.
Range: 1200
Physical Damage Per Blade: 80 / 120 / 160 (+0.5 per ability power) (+0.6 per bonus attack damage)

So thats Irelia's Ultimate.Its basically a 4-moves ultimate,which heals you.The heal amount and damage I believe is self explanatory.

But many Irelia players seems to ignore how to hit enemies with those blades.Its simple:

The road,the path that your blades will follow is a line from your head,to your cursor,hitting every enemy in that line.So if you want to hit an enemy,or a creep wave,just move your cursor uppon them and hit your ulti.

In teamfights all you need to do is focusing their carry or squishy.Remember to activate your ;;hiten style]] before going in and use your ultimate.

Last hitting chapter:How and why.(check)
Use of your ultimate.(check)
Advanced combos.
Zoning and denying your enemy.
Junglers,a true terror?F*CK THAT IM IRELIA(how to counter lane invansions)
Alternative build(Heart of Gold to omen,instead of GA)

Well thats it.I hope you guys read the guide till the end.If you liked the guide please vote it and comment it.If you didnt,that okay,we are human beings we cant have the same opinion.Sorry for any mistakes,as I said before,English is not my native.This is my first guide ever so please guys,take it easy with me.

Thanks


My recent games with Irelia.Having a quadra kill on ranked(THAT BASTARD BRAND STOLE MAH PENTA AGRRR :@)

31/8/2011 - Guide Published
21/9/2011 - 1)Chapters Added:
Last hit Chapter
Use of your Ultimate Chapter
2)Changed Masteries from 21/0/9 to 0/9/21
3)Changes on "To be added" Chapter.