Welcome to my fourth guide on MobaFire! I am Vynertje, and today I will introduce you to my favorite bruiser in this game: Irelia!

At the moment I am writing this, Irelia has been hit hard since the S3 updates, but I hope this guide will motivate people to play her. (:

I would like to point out shortly that I am not a native English speaker and I will have made errors from time to time, please don't give me a hard time for this. Finally, please read the full guide! The cheat sheet is nowhere representative to the full guide, so please read on!

A short note: whilst the guide is pretty much finished, I am still working on some art to make the guide look a bit prettier (:

Feel free to skip this, but I feel like I should show you why I am eligible to write a guide, here on MobaFire; I mean, anyone could write a guide out here and actually do well with good formatting and some nice looks.

I am Vynertje, I have been playing League of Legends since mid to late 2011 and have been very active since 2012. I play on EUW and main top at the moment (however, I have mained support, mid and jungle in the past too) and Irelia is my favorite champion with over 60 games played in soloq this season only. My top ratings for both seasons are 1519(S3) and 1535(preseason S3) and I am currently in Gold V.
I have been following pro players and asked for some advice for specific champions often and I think this allows me to tell you quite a lot about Irelia.

You can always check my up-to-date profile here

Also, feel free to add me in-game if you wish to play a game or two with me or ask for some further advice. I always accept those and I most certainly enjoy playing with the MobaFire community!

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Pros + Deals all kinds of damage (physical, magic and true) + Can carry games single-handedly + Will get super tanky + Amazing late-game scaling + Good utility + One shots enemy carries

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Cons - Generally a bit weak before level 9 - Hit pretty hard in previous nerfs (better nerf Irelia!) - Can be mana hungry when playing overaggressive - Depends a lot on Hiten Style - Equilibrium Strike is not a reliable stun - Health can counter her damage pretty well

Helps last hitting early game and is useful in trades early game. I've heard people taking attack speed marks, but even though attack speed is good, for your runes, flat ad is better because 9 ad makes a bigger impact then 15% attack speed in the early game. Also, attack speed doesn't really help last hitting.

These seals are just epic. 9 of these give you 13 bonus armor early game, which is about 7% less damage taken by all physical attacks.

As long as you do not face an ap top, you are free to use scaling magic resist glyphs, adding up to around 25 magic resist at level 18! When you do face an ap top, you should go for flat.

These both help last hitting and early game trades, just as your marks. These runes allow for a very versatile early game set, with both durability and damage.

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This is a more offensive mastery page, and should be used in a more aggressive playstyle. I sacrifice tankyness ( Legendary Armor for damage ( Havoc ). Furthermore this is a very standard page. Don't forget to take improved summoner spell masteries wherever possible.

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This is your page if you want to stay a bit more defensive, we take those extra points in Legendary Armor and Honor Guard to be as tanky as possible.

Please note: I am not going in-depth on this, because I really feel like this is a waste of time, because, who in the world is going to use Clairvoyance on Irelia anyway? I will only mention all the viable spells!

My preferred spells:

Flash is a pretty obvious first choice: this spell gives an extra dimension into playing: you can use it to engage, to get in range for spells you wouldn't be able to hit normally or to escape (and especially to dodge skillshots or jump over walls). I would mention this as a must-have!

Great to finish off low-health enemies, when you have just used your full combo. This is also useful to stop enemies regenerating huge amounts of health (like Dr. Mundo or Swain). Also it adds 5 AP and AD when on cooldown (with your masteries).

Other viable spells:

I think Exhaust is a good choice on Irelia because it allows you to fit into that anticarry role even better. The enemy does not only have a pretty big damage reduction, they are also slowed, allowing you to catch up. This is not my main choice because often the slow is overkill, and the damage reduction doesn't come in handy because you are tanky already and you might just use the extra damage on Ignite instead

Ghost is a really neat spell, and especially in late game this can suit you very well. You get a massive speed boost and this allows you to stick onto those high-priority enemies better, also, the cooldown is pretty low too. However, when comparing to flash, you don't have that ability to instantly jump over walls or to dodge skillshots.

Skilling priority: > > >

A really awesome passive! This gives awesome tenacity (which means a reduction of all, except suppresses, crowd control) which works really well in teamfights. Since this is dependent on how much enemies are near you, you'd pretty much always have the full 40% reduction in teamfights! A good rule of thumb to know the range of this passive, the range is almost equal to your screen minus the HUD(heads-up-display) while in-game.


Bladesurge is an ability that allows you to jump to any enemy target dealing some damage as well. The cooldown refreshes (and replenishes 35 mana)) onto killing someone with this skill, and stacks with on-hit effects like Sheen or Wit's End.
Since this skill refreshes, this can aid your last hitting (you can just Q to a minion whenever you would just fail a last hit. Also, you can take last hits under your turret when you lack the damage to kill them inbetween turret shots.

Now the catch with this skill is the refresh, and this can allow for some neat tricks. One of them is that you can Q to a minion to get into your enemies range, stun him (since he didn't take any damage your Equilibrium Strike will more likely stun) and when he uses a gap closer (e.g. Flash) you can Q on him again. This is also a cool way of engaging (use the refresh on a minion to jump onto a carry who would be out of range normally).

You can also use this skill very effectively to get away from ganks. When you time this well, you can outplay the enemy jungler by using it simultaneously with their gap closer, e.g. Xin Zhao's Audacious Charge. When you do this, you will change places and you have escaped the gank. You can also keep using the refreshes onto minions to completely juke them.

I max this last because your other skills are more important, but that does not make this skill weak. When maxed, you only have 6 second cooldown (!) on it and decent damage. This is actually the reason why Irelia scales that well into late game; all of her skills scale well and could be maxed first if it were on a different champion. This makes it really important for you to keep up in level, because a level 18 Irelia, is a really tough enemy.


Hiten Style is pretty much what cuts your meat for you. This is what makes Irelia stand out from all other bruiser champions. For 6 seconds, all your autoattacks deal bonus true damage, and doubling your already awesome passive health regen on-hit. Keep in mind activating this just before using your Bladesurge, because the true damage does get applied. Also, you can use this spell for better last-hitting under the turret. This is generally better than having to spam your Q three or more times, since it saves you a bit more mana.
Since this is an on-hit ability, it is of great importance that you get attack speed in your build. This allows you to get as much attacks in those 6 seconds.

Also, as mentioned in the 'cons' part, you do really rely on this spell. When you know it is on cooldown, you should play carefully. Also, after those 6 seconds, you should back off in a fight, because your damage falls of greatly.


Max this skill first because of its epic damage and sustain. You should only max this second, when you are facing someone you know you can never make much use of this skill. This, you could do against Jax, because he can just dodge your attacks, stun you and then jump away to avoid literally all your damage.


Equilibrium Strike is your only form of crowd control. This really fits well into your kit because it revolves around just jumping on a carry, killing that single target in a blink of an eye and then mopping the teamfight up from behind.

While this skill is mainly good for the utility, it does have some big single-target damage. You can use this skill in lane when the enemy has the higher % hp, deal three attacks with Hiten Style and back off for free poke.

Also, even though the stun is always best, try not to rely 100% on the stun. A 60% slow is great too, so there is not really a point into attempting to constantly stay at lower hp than your enemy, simply you'd get the stun. However, you should always try to get the stun, whenever possible.


I don't care what people say about Transcendent Blades, but I love this ultimate! There has been some talking in the past about this ultimate being weak, but I can assure you, it isn't. Everything in this build compliments this ultimate, and the ultimate compliments this build.

Let me tell you, first of all, that this ultimate has a really short cooldown. This is why it is really versatile to use:

• When you want to base, quickly kill a wave with your ultimate so you will lose as little creeps as possible, and it will generally be up again whenever you need it.
• Use it to gain advantage in lane. Since this has really low cooldown, I generally do not fear using it to turn tides while trading with my lane opponent. The heal and damage can give you a good advantage other champions do not have, since their ultimate generally has a longer cooldown
• Use it to survive ganks by healing a bit health while getting chased by shooting this backwards

The damage this skill offers, is a bit underestimated. Since we are buying Sheen into Trinity Force, we can use this skill multiple times to keep getting those procs for good extra damage. When doing this, do make sure you do not blindly spam this, but only use it when your Sheen is off cooldown (the damage passive has a 2 second cooldown) for the extra damage.

In these two upcoming chapters I hope to give all viable items for Irelia, for both DPS and tank builds. However, we should first get to know when to pick what path.

So, the main importance in judging what to go for, is how tanky your team is. For example, when you have Shaco or Kayle as jungler on your team, you generally will lack tanks. However, when you already have Maokai jungle, you might want to get some more damage to back him up.
For this, my rule of thumb is the following: if your team has two (off-)tanks already (generally the support and jungler), you are free to build DPS. If your team has less, you should at least take away one damage item and replace it with a tank item. If your team has none, you should completely build according to my tank-irelia build.

Starting items:

sight ward



I mention three starting paths here. Generally, you start flask because it offers amazing sustain (and solves your slight mana issues too) and actually pays for itself really quickly. Generally you go with 4 potions (buy your fourth one after the minions have spawned) when you plan to play defensive. When you are going more aggressive, you should bring a ward.
Cloth Armor is best when you face heavy-ad burst-like champions, like Riven. This gives you the extra armor you need in order to survive the first levels.

In this part I give you a standardized build and all alternatives, and what to replace them with.

Early game core:

This is a standard early game core. Remember that health is the most powerful early game defense to get (ever tried killing someone with a Warmog's Armor as first item?), and this is what makes Phage and Doran's Blade really strong early game choices. Go Ninja Tabi in a standard lane, and Mercury's Treads when facing heavy ap damage (e.g. Rumble).

Mid game core:

At this point your goal should be to get as much damage as you possibly can. Trinity Force and Zephyr enhance your damage greatly because they give literally everything Irelia needs. Attack damage, attack speed, movement speed, some cooldown reduction and tenacity. The tenacity on Zephyr allows you to buy Ninja Tabi, which is an awesome item considering it pretty much reduces physical damage taken by 10%. Make sure to get a bit more tanky by buying a Giant's Belt at some point in the midgame, because otherwise you are very easily taken down in teamfights.

Typical late game build:

TONS OF DAMAGE!
But seriously now,
TONS OF DAMAGE!
Okay, when you have come to this stage in your build, you will be most likely be roflstomping everything alive and just...
So basically, we finish Randuin's Omen because it is such a great anticarry item. It shuts down their damage really hard and gives some good stats overall too. Blade of the Ruined King is an awesome item on Irelia too because, again, it compliments everything we need. Especially since health stacking is the meta, this item is so incredibly powerful! Finally, we end our build with Spirit Visage because it is pretty much the best magic resist item out here and it gives some other neat stats as well, including CDR and health.

Other optional items:

Thornmail: Good item when facing heavy physical damage teams, especially with lots of auto attackers. It will give you extra damage including an incredible amount of armor. You should replace Spirit Visage with this, since we only use this against pure physical damage.

Guardian Angel: Also a great item which gives you two lives. The main use is to scare people away from attacking you, because it has a great mental impact when they see they have to kill you twice. Also, you can create a bit of an upset when you revive and they have to switch focus. Generally good when being focused heavily, replace Randuin's Omen with this item.

Sunfire Aegis: If you have to get a bit of defense in the early game, this should be your way to go. Since the passive is at best early on, you should not buy it really late into the game, but in the early game it definitely gives good stats when you have to play a bit more defensive in lane. This is also a good item for split pushing, but that does not really compliment your skill set. Replace Randuin's Omen with this item in the early game.

Wit's End: Good on-hit item, increasing your attack speed and giving some decent magic resist. The item is pretty cheap and good relatively early on in the game, but after the nerfs after the season 3 patch, this item is a bit weak in late game. It is, however, a good item when facing an ap-top and when you are in need of some magic resist. This item could be used instead of Zephyr or Blade of the Ruined King

Maw of Malmortius: I think this is currently the best mix between damage and magic resist, when compared to Wit's End. It gives more magic resist, some good ad (while attack speed is a bit stronger on Irelia, damage is still a really effective stat) and a great shield. The downside to this item is the price, because it costs nearly 50% more. Again, this item could replace the Zephyr or Blade of the Ruined King

So, moving on to the tank- Irelia part of the guide, allow me to explain quickly that this is not about dealing damage: You want the initial burst with your Trinity Force, but we are not one of the primary damage sources, so our other items will be tank-oriented. Also, our start is the same as with DPS irelia, so I will not go over all that again.

Early game core:

As I've mentioned before, health is the optimal early game defense. Because of that, we are going to rush a Sunfire Aegis. This item gives health, armor and sustained damage. Now that is pretty much all you will need when building tanky on Irelia, don't die and still deal tons of damage. Please note that I don't mention any magic resist setups because there are no real ap top champions I want to go tanky against, because generally you are easily able to burst them if you get some damage.

Mid game core:

Your mid game purchase should be a Trinity Force because this gives you all the damage you ever need to be a pain in the ***. I've already done some explanation why this is such a good item so I will not do this again. Important is that you will lack some magic resist as a tank, so you should try to fit a negatron cloack in somewhere.

Typical late game build:

If you would ever reach this far into the game, what would happen, is that practically you will be able to stand in the middle of the enemy team for 50 seconds and still laugh at them for doing so little damage.
Spirit Visage gives you all the magic resist you need, while it gives some other neat stats, and combined with 260 armor, this will give you a 4 second Randuin's Omen active. On top of that, you have 4k health keeps you going.

Other optional items:

Guardian Angel: Works fine, gives good stats and an amazing passive. I do think you'd only buy it for the passive, because it has pretty weak base stats. It makes you really scary, but as long as you don't die anyway, it's a waste.

Frozen Mallet: Mallet is a great item because it gives a huge slow, decent health and some ad. However, we already have Trinity Force so the slows do not stack (the strongest one gets applied) so generally I never take this, only when you really really need the little bit improvement on the slow. Also, this item is good when you are not buying trinity.

Iceborn Gauntlet: Pretty much the same as with the Frozen Mallet, this item on itself is awesome, but the passives don't stack with each other. You could, however, use this when you swap triforce with Blade of the Ruined King and then add frozen mallet.

Atma's Impaler: At a certain point in your build you will be hitting 4k health, and at this point it is profitable to buy the atma's. The only downside is that Irelia does scale better on other stats then on attack damage. However, Trinity Force, Warmog's Armor and Atma's Impaler is a really powerful 'trinity'.

Blade of the Ruined King: Good when you feel you are lacking damage, or to swap triforce with. The damage on this item is great but generally a bit weaker when you consider that you will not be facing tons of health as anticarry.

Zephyr: This item is another good addition if you lack damage, it also has a bit more utility than Blade of the Ruined King. When you do buy this item, you should always have Ninja Tabi because the tenacity doesn't stack.

So basically I've seen people playing Irelia with different strategies and items, and in this chapter I will go in-depth on why I don't follow their item builds, and why mine is better.



As you have seen, I always pick Trinity Force over Blade of the Ruined King. Let's start giving a short overview of what both items have to offer over each other, based on what they give more than the other item instead of total.

• +30 ap
• +5 ad
• +10% crit chance
• +250 health
• +200 mana
  

• +10% attack speed
• +15 life steal

So, as we can see, the Trinity Force is a much more versatile item than the Blade of the Ruined King. Now, I must add to this, that some stats we do not use to their full extent. These are, off course, mana and ap. But, when buying Blade of the Ruined King you do lose health and flat attack damage. In the end, we can see that, pure by analyzing the stats each item gives, that they are pretty equal.

Now, where the difference comes, is when we take a look at the passives. Now, the blade adds passives that give you damage based on a % of current health, which is good, until you consider that Irelia is an anticarry. We will not be attacking any high-health targets until the very late game, when the enemy carries have gotten a Warmog's Armor themselves too. At this point, we could use the burst from Trinity Force much better.

So, if you really want to fit into your role best, you should buy Trinity Force early on. While Blade of the Ruined King is a great item, it is not fit for taking down carries, but more on taking down high-health tanks.


This is something that has been introduced in this season: starting with a Elixir of Fortitude. Now, lets quickly explain what it is good for.
The red elixir start is used to get some form of dominance by having the big boost in early game health and damage. Now, you would say, this is amazing! Yes, but there are some downsides.

The main problem with this, is that the elixir itself only lasts 3 minutes. So you have 3 minutes of dominance over your enemy, but when you don't push that advantage, you waste 250 gold, which is almost equal to a kill.
Now this is my point: Irelia is generally not a dominant laner early on, so you are not making good use of this until later on in the game. Because of that, you only have the item as some sort of insurance in case things end up bad. I think, that when you put so much gold into a a small heal, you are better of buying something that increases your early game, but doesn't drop you off when you fail to push that early game advantage; something that pays for itself ( Crystalline Flask) or just helps you out defensively ( Cloth Armor).

Finally, I would also like to point out that many people out here, that are using mobafire, are not familiar with using the Elixir of Fortitude. It would be a death sentence to recommend this item to someone who is not used to this item.

Lane phase is really important for Irelia. That is why I decided to dedicate a special chapter to this topic.
This is because Irelia is pretty dependent on her items. When she cannot get those items, she will have a really though late game.

So, first of all, it is really important to farm a lot. You should play defensively in most matchups, and just try to farm as much as you can. Your goal should always be to get 200 farm by 25 minutes. Off course you can often compensate your farm by kills, but you should always aim for this.
Farming with Irelia is pretty easy, you have good base ad, and a good skill set to allow for easier last-hitting. For example, when you are just about to miss a creep, you can quickly Bladesurge onto him without losing much mana or wasting a cooldown. Also, you can last hit easier under your turrets by activating Hiten Style.

A second important thing, is that you regularly need to build a few defensive items earlier on. For example, when facing Darius, your first major item should be a Sunfire Aegis, because otherwise he will just faceroll you. You don't have to change your build, just change the purchase order.

A third note is on warding: there is no reason to constantly buy and place wards. When playing a defensive lane, there generally is no need for wards, because a jungler often does not gank a lane that is pushed to the turret. Another reason not to ward, is when you are losing your lane. If your lane is lost anyway, the jungler will be wasting his time on you, because the enemy can deal with you on his own. So, only ward when you are planning to play aggressively or to push your lane.


A final note on lane phase, is that the turning point generally is level 9, and the completion of your early game core. While most champions have only one core skill, Irelia has 3 core skills, that work really well individually, but also when paired with each other. This causes Irelia to scale much better than her counterparts do. Often you are really careful before this point, but you can stomp everything after.

I think I have stressed Irelia's role throughout the guide enough, but I feel like it is important to explain how you should fit into that role.

As anticarry, you are generally not your team's main tank. Therefore, initiating should not be your main objective.
However, you are the front line of your team. You, and your other tanks, will be the ones to dive into the enemy team to deal with their back line. Therefore you must be tanky enough to fit this role.
Your first target should always be the ad or ap carry. Who to target first of these two, is depending on two factors.
1. Which one can I burst down the easiest / has the lowest chance of escape: For example, Ezreal is really hard to kill because he has really good escapes and kite. You might prefer to kill the enemy Viktor because he has no inbuilt forms of escape.
2. Which one of the carries is the most dangerous: there is no real point into focussing a 0-10 Zyra while the enemy Vayne is 20-0.

Important is also, to combine your powers with your tank. For example, when a Maokai snares and knocks a Varus back, you should combine your damage with his crowd control.

In order to truly understand Irelia, I really think you should also know her weaknesses and the mechanics that counter her, so you will never overestimate yourself again, and live instead of dying because of that.

Health stacking

One of the most effective things to counter Irelia is health stacking. This is because health is the strongest defensive stat to get against true damage. Warmog's Armor, Sunfire Aegis and Randuin's Omen are defensive items that can all ruin your lane. An advantage you will have, though, is that the most enemies, who buy these items, will lack damage.

Another counter mechanism concering this topic, is bruisers who have huge base damage, so they can build tanky as hell while doing **** tons of damage. (**** you, Garen)

Early game ganks or 1v2 lanes

Irelia is very easily shut down if she cannot get her early game core and levels. It is very hard for her to overcome a big disadvantage, when you have just lost first blood to a snowballing champion. Also, denying her farm is a great way of extending her phase of weakness (which is generally until level 9, and before she has finished her early game core items). 1v2 lanes (laneswaps between bot/top) are a good way to deny her all the xp and farm she will need.

In this part I will categorize all top lane champions for you to face, in three categories: hard, skill matchups and easy lanes. I hope to give you a decent view on how aggressive you should play and perhaps how tanky you might want to build. A skill matchup generally says that the best player will win, but there can always be a slight edge to one side. In a skill matchup, you often have the disadvantage before level 9, but you often have the advantage after that point.

It is really important to know your enemy, because if you do not know what to expect from them, you will die unnecessarily because you simply do not know your limits, or your enemies possibilities.



A short note before jumping into my list: Irelia is probably the single safest champion in the whole game to pick before knowing your enemy. Irelia is really versatile and scales great. There are a few champions that can give you a hard time while laning, but a good Irelia can win, or at least stay even in all matchups.
The only two champions I would never pick Irelia against, are Garen and Singed

Akali should be a decently easy matchup for you. I feel this is because Akali is really squishy and also pretty weak pre-6 (which allows you to get that free farm early on, which you rely on so badly). A word of warning: she can kill you easily when you fight her in her Twilight Shroud, so it might be wise to bring a Vision Ward

I mention Cho'Gath as an easy matchup, because he generally has no way to kill you. You can sustain well, you are relatively tanky and you've got good damage. Try to dodge his Rupture, eventually by jumping on him with Bladesurge and he should be pretty weak.

Darius is one of the most annoying champions to face off in the early game. Your goal should always be to have a free farm lane and to simply outscale him in late game. Really key to countering Darius is getting ganks (he has no escapes) and rushing Sunfire Aegis; health and armor combined is the way to counter his damage.

Elise is a very versatile champion, and it really depends on the player how much she can hurt you. I've played against passive Elise players who I just raped after getting my first major items near the 15 minute mark, but some hyperaggressive players can shut you down well - especially when they would get some help from their jungler. Make sure to get enough sustain and magic resist and you should be fine late-game

Fiora is trash. Serious trash. She is really squishy and has nothing that really benefits her in lane against you. She can parry one attack, but you can do so much more besides that single attack. This is one of the few lanes I recommend Elixir of Fortitude against. Also - make sure to rush Ninja Tabi because this counters all her damage

Gangplank is a very versatile champion, with good poke, good late game scaling, some map dominance and is an easy farmer. Generally, the player who is the best safe-farmer will win this. You generally cannot kill him too easily because of oranges and he lacks the burst to kill you. I think the jungler and your own farming skills will be the decider in this lane.

Garen is one of the few champions I would list as genuinly hard. He is such terror in lane, that you generally stand nothing against him. He just rushes sunfire and warmogs and you'll never be able to kill him again, while his base damage is **** high. He sucks lategame a bit though, so your only chance is to farm for the late game.

Jarvan IV is pretty easy because his goals are the same as yours: late game. However, he relies on burst, and since Irelia is somewhat tanky, he will have trouble against you, being one of the best 1v1 champions in the game. Especially after his nerfs, this lane shouldn't pose any threat to you.

Jax is actually the only champion that can beat you in both early and late game. While a skilled Irelia player can beat him, if he is good enough of a jax player, he should not give you the ability to exploit your Hiten Style at all. If you face a player of who you know to be experienced on jax (perhaps check this by using lolking.net), you should max Equilibrium Strike because Hiten Style is somewhat useless versus him.

Jayce is a ranged champion, which makes him naturally a bit more squishy but with more poke. Irelia is really good against this, because of her sustain, tankyness, gap closers and huge burst. Try to q on a minion and stun him, so that you can use your q again when he knocks you back. Also important is to get Ninja Tabi pretty quickly

Squishy assasin versus tanky assasin. 'nuff said.

Lee Sin is really dominant early game. He has some good utility when facing you (attack speed debuff) but if you survive the first 6-9 levels, he will become useless, utterly useless and you should be able to roflstomp him all day, as long as you simply get to farm the first levels. Keep in mind that his damage is 100% physical.

A tanky horror to play against. Attack speed debuff - horribly tanky - good late game scaling. Although I doubt his ability to stop you from farming, you should never be able to kill him and if he gets some ganks, he will kill you. You could decide to trade with him when he has wasted his Ground Slam, because he relies on this to counter your damage.

FARM BATTLE! No really, there is no better farmlane than Nasus versus Irelia. I think you can beat him until the point his Q is stacked really, which should be 40 minutes. He does have a slight edge over you in lane because of Wither, but once he has this on cooldown you roflstomp him really hard. Also in teamfights, he is really susceptible to kiting, while you have gap closers. Try to farm as hard as you possibly can and try to outroam him before he 1 shots all of your team.

Worst ***** champ in game. Can splitpush all day, while not being capable of killing anyone in 1v1. You have the edge throughout the whole game once you hit level 6, but she can be ridiculously annoying with her movement speed. For this lane, I recommend building Frozen Mallet and Blade of the Ruined King instead of Trinity Force, because you will really need the slows against her - and triforce + mallet slows don't stack.

'Officially' mentioned as a counter to you, I disagree. The only way Olaf is strong versus Irelia, is because he scales of health, and health is the counter to true damage. You can beat him easily as long as he hasn't got his major health items, because he will remain very squishy without them. Always beware of his ultimate, because it gives him massive damage and immunity to crowd control. Activating this will give him a very unexpected edge in a fight.

Farm lane till level 9, beat him after that. Try to survive his poke, buy some armor and then watch him become weaker and weaker as levels progress. Important is to keep in mind when he has his block and when not, because you will have the edge when he cannot block enough of your attacks.

Such a tanky beast. Renekton couples huge base damage with tons of health (especially with his Dominus. While he does fall of into late game,it might not be enough to compensate for the early game losses you will generally have against him. Try to catch him when he has low fury and cooldowns, because these cooldowns are really hefty.

Riven is an incredibly though champion to face in early-mid game. Her burst is incredible and level 6 can hurt you a lot. She does, however, get shutdown by tanky-dps champions. So your goal should be to get as tanky as you possibly can in the early game ( Ninja Tabi + Ruby Crystal are essential early game). Once you have your early game core, around level 9, you can beat her because her sustain is lacking.

Rumble is one of the most annoying champions to play against. His poke damage is great (and sustained damage too), but he can definitely be beaten. His weakness is in-your-face champions like Riven, but Irelia can suit this role just fine after hitting a certain point in the game. He is pretty squishy, so when you see him having cooldowns or overheating, you should go all-out on him (or at least use your ultimate to come out on top of this trade) to get the advantage in lane. When Rumble gets behind, it is really hard for him to overcome.

I have played both champions in this matchup, and I can tell you, that the best player will always win this. A super aggressive Shen player can easily beat you throughout the whole game, but a good Irelia can get ahead by farming and taking turrets while he is gone and never give that lead away. You should be careful though, because from the point Shen will hit ~3k health, he will become practically unkillable for you.

The main problem with Singed is that he simply gets too tanky for you to handle, while dealing lots of sustained damage. The best way to shut him down, in general, is by having a very dominant early game, but that is also where Irelia lacks. While he generally cannot do much to you, you cannot do anything against him either, and he will simply push all your turrets while you have to try to keep up in farm. When facing Singed, I recommend your first core items to be a Frozen Mallet and Blade of the Ruined King, coupled with some magic resist.

Even though I mention this as a skill matchup, you have the edge here. You should attempt to stop him from kiting you (by using your Bladesurge refreshes) and when you do, you should be able to come out on top of any trade. Even when he uses his Sanguine Pool, he loses a lot of health and this can turn out in your favor. Make sure to get enough magic resist, combined with some health, and you should be fine.

Zed is pretty much the same as Kha'Zix. Squishy anticarry versus tanky anticarry. He cannot burst you, while you can burst him. On top of that, his early game generally isn't that superior, so you can free farm your way to the point where you can one-shot him using your full combo. This is another of the few lanes I'd start with Elixir of Fortitude over any of the more defensive starts.

Thanks for reading this guide! I hope you all have a great time playing Irelia and will ruin your enemies' day!

All constructive feedback is welcome, and I always reply to comments.

I'd like to give credit to Daniator15 on EUW for helping me out with some testing and troubleshooting. Also, credit to jhoijhoi for her guide on how to make guides, it still helps me after having already made four guides!