Hey there! It's me again with yet another ranked guide - this time featuring Irelia, The Will of the Blades! *exiting moment*. This build is also inspired by Chaox, so credit to him :).

If you're interested you can take a look at my other guides:

Nidalee - Solo top for ranked games ***COMPLETE***
Kennen - Solo mid for ranked games ***NOT COMPLETE*** This is a so called "copy-pasted" guide and I don't want credit for it. It's taken from the top Kennen guide on solomid.

But who cares about those. I post them here because I can. u mad?

Well then, let's get right on to it!

Before reading this guide, please take in mind that I will not go in depth with this champion. I will only come with suggestions and personal preferences on how to play Irelia in ranked games. Therefore I haven't listed pros and cons and such either...
u mad? There are plenty of other Irelia guides explaining this.

First of all, it's VERY IMPORTANT to know what you are supposed to do - especially in team fights! Irelia is one solid anti carry.

She can just jump on the carry with , - and considering their carry took some damage, and your HP is higher than his - slow their carry - let's say because I hate him - with , start wrecking him with the true damage from and finally finish him off with . AND IMPORANTLY, get away with it! = Happy Teemo --> Mad Teemo = (^.^) --> :(

That's pretty much your role, kill their carry, don't feed. And that is ridiculously hard. Just ask Duff Duff's anti-carry guide. As he writes, you either do a really great job, or you do a really bad job.

Since you will have to go into the very middle of the team fight (melee range) you will have to build into the only OP role in league of legends that I can think of - tankydps, it really needs a nerf IN GENERAL. In my opinion Irelia has lots of damage potential already and you should abuse that. Pick up one or two damage items and get tanky.

I will do this quick as this is not an in-depth guide


First of all your passive, this might just be one of the best passives in the game, THIS is why Irelia can anticarry so well! Let's say you dive Ashe she quickly ult you! Since you are at melee range it will only be a 1-sec stun.

WARNING - MATH WILL BE DONE NOW! CLOSE YOUR EYES TO AVOID BRAIN DAMAGE - lol

You have 35 tenacity from your mercury treads. Tenacity does not stack by itself, but it stack with other crowd control reducing effect like Irelia's passive. Therefore, when your passive is fully stacked you have a total of 35%+40%=75% Crowd Control reduction, which means Ashe's arrow will only stun you for 0,25 sec, if you managed to hit your E before the stun she wouldn't have had time to get away, making her a useless waste.

Irelia's farming skill in the very early levels - self explanatory, if you hit a minion and it dies, the cool down resets and you get back 35 mana - will also help you a lot if you get pushed all the way back to the turret! This is also why we get Trinity Force! Bladesurge will proc the Trinity Force effect when you hit your target, dealing massive amounts of damage! If you can time it right you can use it to finish off someone and then continue to dash to the next target without waiting for the cooldown. This is also the spell you should use to jump onto carries in team fights!

This spell is actually really good, and has GREAT, sorry, AMAZING synergy with attack speed! If the team is very tanky you should probably get this skill maxed out early (not necessarily first) and combine it with some attack speed.

This spell has been nerfed somewhat (1:1 AP ratio --> 0.5:1 AP ratio), making AP Irelia very useless, but as the way I build her it's not such a big deal.
I max this skill out first to increase the duration. Also this spell is kinda weird actually. You want to hit the stun, but you don't really want to go low on hp - eh... dilemma. But, it has some advantages! If the enemy tends to be very greedy, and dives you at the turret, he simply asks to die! When you are sure you're lower than him just hit him with your E and it's basically a free kill...

Hehe, my E is no longer a weird spell, 'cause when I finished you off I can just go the the closest minion wave and get back up from almost no health to full health! Lol, u mad? It can be used to finish off someone, flee from someone and maintain your health, farm or get back up to full health. Generally a very decent spell!

I take Armor Penetration marks, since there aren't really other option...
I take flat Armor seals. You could consider HP/level but due to the Heart of Gold nerf, the early armor is really nice :)
I take Magic Resist/level simply because they are really strong. You could take the flat ones if you prefer that, or even Cooldown reduction.
The 8.1 Heath Regen/5 sec is actually very very good, and the only reason you will have to bluepill is because you ran out of mana - lol. You can consider flat HP, Armor Penetration or movement speed, but I prefer the health regen.

I go 0/9/21 simply because I really like the utility tree. More, exp, more summoner spells, more movement speed all that. The is actually very very good. And it will bring your health regen even higher!

Ignite has great synergy with Irelia's burst making her very scary to lane against.


Many people says that flash is better than ghost. I agree, but ghost also has great synergy with her passive, making her able to escape 2-3 man ganks, sometimes 4! It also makes her very very flexible in team fights.

Great starting items:

Regrowth pendant allows you to lane decent against an AP carry. It also allows you to rush philosopher stone. I simply like this item because my health regen just reach something like 30 health/5 sec as early as level 1, which is just REALLY BAD-*** CrAzZzZzZy.

Doran's shield is a decent starting item especially against an attack damage based champion. HP, HP regen and armor - take in mind that it doesn't build into anything which will slow down your build a bit.

Boot's of speed allow you to be very aggressive in lane, I rarely get boots first though, since I focus more on getting cs (creep score AKA minion kills).

Sapphire Crystal allows you to rush Sheen very early, which boosts your damage output significantly. A very common choice!

I don't believe in build 'orders' since every game is unique!

Therefore I have listed some decent items on Irelia. I don't believe in picking up Spirit Visage, since it has been nerfed too much to be REALLY good anymore - so don't hate/flame for not having it in my item build. When I think of it, I can only see it's potential when you would build attack speed for

Depending on the game, the build 'order' will change. Thats why there aren't really any goals, but you want to aim for something like this.

Early game 'goals'

Philosopher's stone

Provides decent tanky-ness and damage.

Mid game 'goals'

Provides even more tanky-ness and damage. If you're bad at using Shurelya's active I wouldn't recommend getting it. Trinity Force is just amazing :D.

or
Depends on who you are facing. Force of Nature vs AP. The movement speed and health regen are simply bonuses. Randuin's Omen vs AD. Now you might think "why not Banshee's Veil?". Well, the hp is nice, the mana is nice, the shield is nice. I usually tell that this is the very best defensive item in the game, but it's mainly to avoid CC, so I prefer Force of Nature over Banshee's Veil.

Late game 'goals'

or
Whichever you didn't get before.

or
Atma's for more damage (you will have something like 3k hp to support it). Guardian Angel for more survivabilty.

Situational

It might have been changed a bit, but considering most teams will have at least one champion not using mana I believe it's been buffed. At least against AP teams. It's very good because it provides damage, attacks speed and magic resist.
NOW WHY WOULD YOU GET THIS?! Is the team tanky? If the answer is yes you should probably get an item to support your . Since it deals true damage, tanks with lots of armor / magic resist will be devastated unless they build HP.

Same argument as Wit's End, but if the team you are facing builds a lot of hp this is a solid choice!

If the enemy AD carry is insanely fed and you just can't burst him down fast enough, this is a very solid option!

Your goal is to last hit as many minions as you can. You will probably be pushed all the way back to your turret. Be happy for that - you won't have a hard time last hitting since your Q will support you in doing so.

When you reach level 6, you basically win the lane. Simple is that. Clear the wave with your ult and recall. Buy some stuff and a ward and go back to the lane. You should continue farming and score a kill when ever possible, or at least harass them out of the lane. The basic combo for harassing is
-> . You can follow up with hitting them couple of times before going back to farming.

You will probably want to just continue farming your lane. You don't really want to join team fights before you get Trinity Force. You should try to score kills when your ghost/ignite is up and otherwise play a bit defensively unless you really know you can kill whoever is stupid enough to go 1v1 on you.

When you join the team fights it's your job to take out their carry. Therefore you should let the tank engage - otherwise you will probably get slaughtered by little noob Teemo. :( --> (^.^). We can't let that happen!

Already when you get Trinity Force you are very strong, but when you reach your fifth item you will just be insane madness! Madness? THIS IS LEAGUE OF LEGENDS! And you are just about to dominate it! It's your turn to initiate team fights, choose your battles carefully, and take advantage of your burst and tankyness

Some of the recent games I played on Irelia. Since I can't really allow myself to play Irelia solo top every game, especially not in normal, I only have 4 scores. But what the heck, I just took the ones I could see on my match history ;) It just shows that this is a solid build. Feel free to post some of your scores and I will gladly post them in this guide

I stream sometimes. Not that I think someone is watching - I guess I just do it because I can :)
My stream

Click here cause I say so.

Patch .118b

Bladesurge damage reduced to 20/50/80/110/140 from 20/55/90/125/160

Transcendent Blades:
Now heals for 10% vs minions, and 20% vs champions.
Ability Power ratio increased to 0.5 from 0.4
Deals physical damage instead of magic damage.
Scales with attack damage and ability power

I get why Riot Games does this, Irelia was fairly OP. So basically they reduced her burst on her Q, buffed it on her R (ult), but nerfed the healing from the ult to avoid abusing minionwaves to get back to full health :>

I hope I went straight to the point in this guide, instead of those looooong detailed guides that you don't read anyways. Irelia has some really good burst and I don't see why she shouldn't be in every game. RATINGS ARE MUCH APPRECIATED!

Oh and lastly!

CARRY COMPANIES WILL GO BANKRUPT!!1!!one
LOL U MAD?!11!!!one!ONETHAUSAND-ONEHUNDRED-AND-ONE