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Irelia Build Guide by Lord Drek

AD Offtank Irelia -The Hand of Justice

AD Offtank Irelia -The Hand of Justice

Updated on February 6, 2013
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Lord Drek Build Guide By Lord Drek 79 24 627,298 Views 82 Comments
79 24 627,298 Views 82 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Lord Drek Irelia Build Guide By Lord Drek Updated on February 6, 2013
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Choose Champion Build:

  • LoL Champion: Irelia
  • LoL Champion: Irelia

Introduction

IRELIA THE HAND OF JUSTICE

Hello all, my name in game is Lord Drek and this is my first guide here, on MobaFire. I am also NOT one of those 2300 Elo players that tell you they have 2300 Elo like 9001 times in a champter and im not the absoulte best player of Irelia in the universe, but I am quite seasoned and I will share my knowlege with you, cuz its sad to see so many Irelia's fail that sadly.

I will present you my beloved champion Irelia . (you didn't think it was her eh ?)

Irelia is an amaizing solo top champion, that, if get fed early game, can snowball immensly trought the game. HEr expetionall phase(s) is(are) : MID-LATE game(best) and LATE (worse, yet very good) game. Countary to popular belief, Irelia's best time isnt very late in game, because she falls off in dmg then. When she comes out of top lane, fed to the shkies, amongst 4 lvl's lwoer opponents, shes ultra carry, nuking down 2 champs, then DPSing the remains. I'll teach you to do that in all of your games. Enjoy!


A little about my grammar

I'll tell you what these means, but if some arent inclouded, check out this :Legend



AA=Autoattack
ArPen= Armor Penetration
Mpen= Magic penetration
Ar = Armor
Mr= Magic resist
Ms= [u]M[/u]ove speed
HP= Hit points
K= 1000gp (4k=4000)
Gp= Gold/Gold pices
AD= Attack damage
AP= Ability power
Cs= Minion Kills/ Creep Score
CCr = Crowd Controll reduction

This is In-depth Irelia guide, please do not read it while youre waiting for game to load as you'll get to know just few things.

Well, lets get started, shall we?
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The Nerfs

Well, you most likley seen the nerfs for Irelia but I'll write 'em here again for you.

Hiten Style nerf :
Passive heal reduced to 5/7/9/11/13 from 10/14/18/22/26. When acitve is on, healing is returned to normal.

Well, this nerf really hits your laning phase badly, and you must adapt to it. How? Well, you must play a bit more defensivley and must sometimes push when activating your W for healing. That mean's you shouldn't trade if you know you will not be able to heal it back with just passive, as you DON'T want to push your lane too much. It allows enemies jungler to gank you easier.

Transcendent Blades nerf :
Cooldown increased to 70/60/50 from 60/50/40.
This nerf isn't as bad as the other one is, but it still hurts your laning phase. Before the nerf you could use ultimate 10 times in 10 minutse, while now you can only use it 8 times. (the time between lvl 6-11)
Thsi also hurts your sustain, and thredfore you should do the things I wrote at the Hiten Style nerf.

So, this nerf hurts your laning phase, but it doesnt hurt you lategame really bad, so try to have good laning phase, and when game advances, you won't have problems with this anymore :)
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Pros / Cons

Pros / Cons

spaaaaaaace
Pros


+ Insane damage from just few offensive items
+ Very tanky
+ That sustain...
+ Amaizing solotop
+ Can win 1v5
+ Look epic...
space
space
Cons


- Item dependant
- Squishy early game
- Needs solo top
- Needs an averge jungler
- Erm... lemme think
- Nothing, really
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Runes

Runes can differ from player to player, as one can take ArPen quints and AD marks or diffrent way around.

For marks you can pick Greater Mark of Desolation for ArPen, as most of your abilities need ArPen. Can also be Greater Mark of Attack Speed(I use them at the monent.). I prefer AS marks because it really improves your capatibility to last hit and increases your damage output by normal AD and by Hiten Style alot, while ArPen only improves damage from your AD and doesn't boost your laning phase enought.

For seal you SHOULD take Greater Seal of Armor seals, because Irelia has got very low base armour. It help your lane pressence very nice. Of course it makes dmg you get from lane opponent much lower. At seals, there really sin't much choice, as flat armour is the best choice.

For glyphs you can take Greater Glyph of Magic Resist or Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist.
Flat will improve your early game drasticlly(only when laning vs. an AP champion!!), while mr/lvl will help you lategame. But as you're laning vs. AD solotop bruiser, you won't make much use of flat mr, so MR/lvl is better in my opinion.

For Quints you can take Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage, Greater Quintessence of Desolation or Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed.
Take MS quints if you like roaming and like to be fast ( at endgame your speed will be totaling about 480).

Runes

Precision
Fleet Footwork
Phase Rush
This is example of runes I sudgest and bellow there are more combinations. This rune build gives you some nice damage, and increased sustain with AS, as you heal with you Hiten Style.

Take ArPen quints if you didn't take ArPen marks already. You can also take ArPen Marks and Quints, as they will increase your damege alot.

And take AD quints if you think you'll have problems with lasthitting as that bonus 7 Ad really boosts your early game and last hit capatiblities.

Runes

Precision
Fleet Footwork
Phase Rush
This rune build offers better early game, and some nice utility from 4.5 % increased MoveSpeed.

Well, if you wanna hear my reccomendation, I recommend : AS Marks, Flat Armor Seals, Mr/Lvl Glyphs and ArPen or AD Quints.
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Masteries

9/21/0 (above). As an offtank, you get the most benefit from Defensive masteries, and that 8% ArPen from Offense will help you alot.
If you want Utility I recommend you to use 0/21/9, you can, however, use 0/9/21 too, because having faster summoner spells and that cash + all other stuff from Utility is really usefull. But I still reccoment you the Defensive way more :)
Of course you can go 21/9/0, but you're gonna be more valnourable, but you will, however, have better early game.Offense and Defense. 13/17/0
Of course it seems that 21 /9/0 or 9/21/0 way is better but seriosuly, try it out. You will be suprised by how balanced you are. Use above for when you know you'll need to spamm your skills, as you get 4 CDR in Offsnse and 0.45 scaling CDR in Defense.
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Summoner spells

The best options: and

Why these two?
Well, Ghost is going to boost your Ms to hit the skies. No opponent will ever run from you, not to mention you will run from anyone you want.
Ignite will offer you to kill those nasty luckers who get away with like 24 HP and then trololol at you. You will ignite them and trololol at them instead of them trololing at you.
(i hope you like the trolololing xD ).

Good spells :
Heal can let you turret dive at very low lvls, and turn 1v1 duals around.
Flash.. well you all know why its useful.
Exhaust can be nice when you're chasing/fleeing/dualing/teamfighting. It disables 1 target for 3 seconds. Never hurts (you)(well if you get exhausted it does.. but lets say you don't.)
Very nice for any solotop, and it lets you make devastating ganks. Also marks you with "This guy is everywhere" which is nice. (Makes your enemies mad and fustrated. Always good for your team.)

Bad spells :

You plan on dying? not cool ...
This spell is junk.
Nothing too good.. 35 AS on 200 cd.. nty..
You are Irelia. no way cc will hurt you so much.
Supports spell..
You don't have mana problems. If you do, learn to AA.
You aren't jungling, are you?
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Skill sequence

Ability Sequence
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

As you can see, I max Hiten Style first. Some of you may question why. Well, 13 life return per hit seems little but actually it is alot. It offers you great sustain and the active is great damge.
So, I take Hiten Style first for 2 reasons:
1. The 75 true damege per hit on level 9 is ALOT. Not to mention you can cut trought tanks like hot knife trought butter.
2. The sustain. 26 life return per hit is at level 9 similiar to 15% lifesteal. And it works on buildings ;). What 'bout that? Also, if you activate it, your heasling is doubling also, so hay hello to 26 healing/AA.

So after Hiten Style I max Bladesurge, as it lowers the coolwodn so you become unescapable and offers you some more damage output.
Of course we put some poits in Equilibrium Strike, because that 1.5 sec stun/slow is quite nice.

And a word of coution: DON'T FOLLOW THIS SEQUANCE ALL GAMES!!!!
Ability Sequence
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

This ability sequance is when you are laning with an painfull matchup, that has very high damage and has potential to steamroll you before midgame, when you become ultra strong. (eg. Darius) I plaid against him once, and i did well untill my jungler noobishly died to him and there he goes, fed up. He could towerdive me and almoast kill me if not kill me. There, Equilibrium Strike helped me soo much, because 1.75 sec stun under tower + your damage is usually fatal.

If you play 1v2 lane and can't hit minions, get ur Equilibrium Strike high, to disable tower divers and make ganks more sucessfull.
If you are having hard time in your 1v1 lane (which hardly happens).

The above sequance is just most usual, but its not like " Do it like this or you are noob", because it must be changed to go on with the game.
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Skill explenation

I won't copy/paste the description, as you just hoover your mouse above names of skills and see it. This is pobably one of the best passives in game. When 3 enemy champions are in sight range CC on you is reduced for 40% ! And it adds with tenacity and maybe Juggernaut . Imagine the CCr. It is about 67% from dimising returns. 3.5 sec stun ( Ashe's arrow) stun lasts 1.1sec. And thats epic ;)

Use:
  • Use it to know when you are getting ganked. If your passive suddenly jumps to 2stacks and you haven't seen any enemey but your lan matchup near, then get nearer the turret, as you are probably getting ganked.
  • Of couse, use it to lower the CC on yoruself. Simple and amaizing.


Bladesurge is your farming/chasing/gapclosing/escaping skill. As bladesurge coodlown is refereshed after killing a unit with it, you can farm really well with it by targeting low life mininion. But take care, if you Q evrey single minion you are gonna be mana starving so last hit with AA if possible. Yet farming with Bladesurge its like jumping all around them.. its fun =P

Use:
  • Use this to juke like a boss. (target enemies or creeps)
  • Use this to get lasthits you couldnt otherwise.
  • Use this to chase.
  • use this to charge to AD carries in the teamfight.


Hiten Style is your skill to enchante your AA to deal true damege ( 15/30/45/60/75). It also restores you some health evrey time you hit (5,7,9,11,13).
This skill is most important of both builds, as it allows you to deal segnificant amounts of damage while having tank items, and on off-tank build is pretty much the same, but there the AS is boosted so you're making much more out of it. This is very nice when used on tanks who relly on thier armor to counter you.
Use:
  • Use it to sustain yourself like a boss.
  • 75 true damage per hit? Deal is a deal Grimch!
  • You can sucesfull zonw with its active, because it will make enemies scared; and with a good reason :D


This is your only CC and a single target low range nuke(early game). If you max this by level 9 its gonna HURT enemies. 2 second stun/slow and 280 magic damege is about 1/5 of their life. Yet, its better maxed at level 18, as Hiten Style at level 9 has sick sustain and dmg =P
Use this to flee also as it usually stuns your chaser, use it to stun those stupid tower divers who are left beneath a tower for 2 seconds, stuned. Usually tower dives on you fail. Badly.

Use:
  • Use it to stun/slow when your jungler comes.
  • Use it for damage when cc doesnt help (280 burst isnt bad at all)
  • Use ti to maketower divers say 'Oh, bloddy hell...'


This is your ultimate. It has very low cooldown so you can clear a wave of enemy minions to heal up and use it on every teamfight/solo fight there is.

It summons 4 blades which you can fire to fly in direction straight to your crusor.
You'll need some practive on firing this ulti, but when you learn it it is very suefull, because you can :
1.Chase and shoot blades for bonus dmg.
2.Getting chased and shooting blades behind you in your chaser can save your life countless times.
3. Snipe low hp targets (requires alot of skill with Irelia).

They heal you for 10% damege dealt to minions and 25% damege dealt to champions. So always try to hit as much as you can. This ultimate can turn any 1v1 fight and teamfight around very quickly. And please, don't hesitate to use it.. IF it happens you got blue buff, the cooldown is like 30 seconds or even less.
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Skill tricks

The point of this trick is that you dont get hurt, while you effectivley harass your opponent. And this is how you make this trick work.

Your enemey is close to his caster minions, and if you Q to him, you'll get hurt way more than him. So, wait for some creep near to get low health, and Bladesurge to it. After that, use your E on your opponent, leaving him stunned or slowed badly, unable to trade with you. Killing minion will renew your cooldown, allowing you to bladerurge back to hit melee creeps and saving yourself from you opponent's hits.

Of course, Q's renew cooldown on kill is EXTREMLEY usefull.
Let me tell you an usefull trick, that saved my life sometimes and took my opponent's one.

After teamfight, me and enemey Gargas were in lane both on very low hp (he had 300 i had 50). He went in brush, i knew that he'll throw his barrel at me, and so i waited for him to throw and uncover himself. And he threw it, he said "cheers" to himself, but i bladesurged to nearably minioni soptted before, and killed minion, then i Q'd to gargas and killed him.
So he had 6x more hp, was in brush and had long range, yet i killed him with QEQ trick!

Also, you can move very fast if theer are minions nearaby and you having Trinity Force soon (1 Q kills caster creeps). Yet there is usually not enought creeps to allow you to bladesurge non-stop. It is usefull for getting out of tough ganks though.

Next trick :
Transcendent Blades snipe/shoot.
You probably seen it in skill explanation chapter already, but im going to describe it even more in here.

The trick is that you can run and shoot blades in any direction you want, whiout stopping for even an milisecond(or nanosecon( ;o). That means, you can chase, run and do evreything very nicley with doing damege + healing yourself. This tehnique saved my as s countless times.

Another thing you meight want to consider. This skill + Bladesurge has great Ksing potential ;D. You can snipe low life targets first with ulti then q to them, q refreshed, do the same to other and so on. That may net you some pentas or quadras (in 400+ games i never had luck to score quadra or penta.. i ahd double+triple in same fight tho).

*Also, you can check brushes with your ultimate if you ppped it and used only 1-3 blades. It will heal you if you hit some one. Usefull for after-teamfight detecting ganks from bushes.
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Items- What to buy next - Trinity tank

This is the chaper you were all waiting for eh?
Well, then read it slowly and read it whole.

As you can see I cover 3 diffrent builds. So lets start with Trnity tank Irelia

Core:

Sequance: -philosopher's stone-



At start you should buy Recovery pedant and one Health Potion.
You need sustan for the laning phase, as hinten style won't heal you enought first levels. On first recall buy Philosopher's stone and Heart of Gold. If you are doing great then also grab Boots.
The next recall you should farmed quite some minions, so buy Sheen and if you got more gold buy some more items to Mercury's Treads.

You should be still laning and try to farm as much as possible. If you manege to make your jungler come gank your lane don't act like he is coming. Try not to push just focus on last hiting. And save mana and of course have all your spells ready.
So if you get some extra cash from kills, that much better for you, on next recalls focus on getting and then focus Trinity Force, as it boosts your damege to hit the skies. Belive me you will deal so much damage they won't realize what hit em.

I'll tell you what happened to me not so long ago. I was laning againt Volibear and we were even in lane.. he meight be a bit better. Then my jungler came and i destroyed his turret, but we were still laning.
So I was laning for like 5 minutes whitout recall and i had 3k gold on recall. I bought Trinity Force. As we went 1v1 lots of times and no 1 died or something we went again, this time with the maginficent Trinity Force. He was losing so much life and he didn't even see it! Well, it ended that I turret dived and killed him. With ease. He got owned. He raged. I think. Well, he did.

So yes Trinity Force IS our best friend, and no Irelia will match you (but those with Trinity Force.


Anyways after the amaizing item ( you can't guess which one i mean D:), we should focus on making you tanky as hell. Now you have to decide. You can pick Randuin's Omen or Force of Nature.
Decide on what is killin' you the most. If theres a fed Annie walking around and she owns you buy Force of Nature and if there's some Nocturne who is fed up by your team and can badly injure you buy Randuin's Omen.

After you buy first of these 2 items buy the other one. Of course I sudgest you you dont rush 1 item but buy Negatron Cloak and then get yourself the Randuin's Omen. This will get you mixed defenses all the time and you will be unstoppable.

After you buy your base Armor and Magic Resistance stuff, Guardian Angel is a very nice pick. If youre so far you should be ownign and thus getting focused on shight. Don't run from that but wish your enemies happy focus, because you will have so much reststances and after they kill you you come back. Not to mention the very nice bonuses it offers.

We came to the last item. Buy what you need, no one can predict what you'll need as last items.
If your team has no real tank you can become one and buy Warmog's Armor. It will give you 1k extra life scoring about 3.4k Hp and with all the damage reduction you will soak LOTS of damage.

If you got an initiator, you can very well buy Madred's Bloodrazor. It will boost your damage alot.

Of course if enemies team is AD/AP heavy you can buy Thornmail or Banshee's Veil.
If you need more As to use your Hiten Style better and move faster, buy Phantom Dancer. The speed boost allows you to be lighting like.

REMEMBER :

You don't need to follow path fo items like a drunk guy. Adapt it to current sitiation this is only the most used way! Always rememeber that!

We will come to explan of each item few chapters later!
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Items- What to buy next- Tanky DPS-Trinity

The above item sequance also explains most of gameplay, so read it anyways.

Core:

Sequance: - -


You start with Boots and 3 HPpots. This setup offers you mobility, and sustain untill you get your next item ; Wriggle's Lantern as it gives you GREAT sustain, pushing power, armor and damage to allow you to tarde with ur opponent.. After boots RUSH Wriggle's Lantern and after it, buy Mercury's Treads. After boots its good to buy Recurve Bow as it allows you to sustain extra fast with your AS.

After recurve, buy Sheen, then Wit's End, and proceed to Trinity Force. Now you have : Mercury's Treads, Wriggle's Lantern, Wit's End and Trinity Force. This build and core gives you :
  • Sick sustain.(Wriggles and AS)
  • Mobility.[Trinity and boots)
  • Great damage output.[Trinity and wits end)
  • CC(slow from trinity)
  • Resistances and hp(all)
Anyways, after the core, you should focus on getting hella tanky. Heres what you do :
  • Buy Negatron Cloak and Varden's mail, as they offer you some more armor and mr.
  • Upgrade above items in Banshee's Veil and Randuin's Omen. They'll give you 2 VERY nice passives, 700 hp, nice resistances and some hp regen,cdr,mana..


    The last item (you sell Wriggle's ) is Madred's Bloodrazor. They give you that extra 100(aproximatley) dmg on hit and 40 ad, 30 armor, 40% AS, you need to become as scary as a carry..
    With this build, which is expensive, but is one of the best builds you can have you will be UNSTOPPABLE.
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Items- What to buy next- Tanky DPS-Mallet


Core:

Sequance: - -

This build is basiclly the same as above one, but it differs in some points.
I'll try to explain these choices to you.
  • In some cases Mallet can be better than Trinity, as sometimes you need that extra health and the great perma-slow.
  • Thornmail is cheaper and counter carries very nicley.. doesnt provide you with teamfight changing active, though.
  • No Trinity, no Sheen.
  • If you got alot of cash, you can buy anything you want (ofc it must suit you quite good)
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Items- explanation

So, in this and following chapters, i'll explain you why i take this items over those. Hope you get the picture.

So lets start with the boots. I'll explain the good 'n'bad thing of evrey boots so you'll see the diffrence better.

These are the sudgested boots, they offer some nice MR, but the thing you take them for is Tenacity. Its an amaizing thing, that gives you 35% CCR and stacks with yoru passive. Epic.

These boots are usually used by carries and other champs that heavily relly on As. Irelia is having nice benefit from AS, but this boost can't be matched with tenacity whch stacks with passive to make her uncc-able.
You can choose this fi enemy team doesngt have any great cc's and if you are playin agressive.

The fast boots. These boots are very ncie for roamers and stealthers ( Shaco, Twitch, Evelynn). They offer great movement boost, btu you dont get any other utility, so not really reccomended, as Irelia isn't a roamer/stealther.

These are used on champions that greatly benefit from fighting move speed. Examples on where you should take tehse incloude Garen, Amumu, and some other tanks. Irelia doesnt really benefit greatly from these, as her movespeed is kinda high anyways.

As tough as Irelia is Ionian general and princess, she doesnt benefit from Ionian boots too much. CDR is always usefull, and always will be, but its more usefull on characters like Talon and some supports that need to spamm skills. You can take these, but i DON'T reccomend it, as tenacity is way too good to pass up.

Take these if you're facing 2 ad bruisers and 2 ad carries.. and of course, enemies must not have much cc.

Well...MPen on Irelia? Not thanks, only one ability does magic damage, and it has very poor AP scaling. Do not take these. Never. Ever. Seriously. Never.

So yeah, I hope I made it clear that Mercury's Treads are way the best boots to use on Irelia, as tenactity + passive makes a great combo and makes you're enemies rage.

So these boots are the best for all 3 builds, and all 3 builds run Mercury's Treads.



VS.


Lets discuss the Frozen Mallet and Trinity Force. I think this thing needs some very detailed explanation. So leats break it down to pieces.


+30 ability power
+30 attack damage
+30% attack speed
+15% critical strike chance
+250 health
+250 mana
+12% movement speed
Unique: Your AA's have a 25% chance to slow your target's movement speed by 35% for 2.5 seconds.
Unique: After using an ability, your next AA deals bonus damage equal to 150% of your base Attack Damage. 2 second cooldown.




+20 attack damage
+700 health
Passive: Your AA's slow your target's Movement Speed by 40% for 2.5 seconds.

So, you seen the stats of both items. Mallet gives 450 hp bonus more, applies 5% better slow 4 times more possible and costs 800 gold less.
So you would say its 420% better slow, but no. When you charge some one with Irelia, you usually slow/stun him with your Equilibrium Strike. It will give you enought time to proc slow once, and when you proc it once you'll proc it 2nd time with ease, so you actually don't need so much "better" slow.

About health and cost, you can get that 450 health (even more) from other items like Randuin's Omen and Banshee's Veil.
And that 800 gp really isnt soemthing that big. Imagine it as an free Kindlegem.

The best thing at Trinity Force is the sick burst ability. at time you get TF if your rush it, some enemies have 1.2k health, and Bladesurge that deals 450 damage will take away almoast half of their hp, and gives you the ability to litterary nuke down thier carry, meaning you will likley win the teamfight. Frozen Mallet gives you little-to-no offense power, its an completley defense-utility item, and in time of 20 mins, where you get TF, teamfights start to happen, and you WILL need that offense to down thier Ad carry asap, or he'll tear you apart.

As you may have seen, I prefer Trinity Force over Frozen Mallet, but that is because I usually win my lane and I'm farmed alot, so I can afford it and its lack of defense, but unstoppable power in offense. If your lane is tied or you're losing and dying alot, buy that Frozen Mallet !!! It will boost your defense, and will increase your chances of playing normal in mid and late game.

So, basically, get Trinity Force, when you know you will be able to rule whitout that bonus health and when you can farm freely. When you can't, however, buy the Mallet, you will see it is better in bad situations. Trinity Force makes you heavily offensive and quite tanky, when Frozen Mallet makes you become very tanky, but not so offensive.



VS

Sooo, you meigth be asking "Why Thornmail .. you ******ed?"
But no, the Tanky DPS build, where Thornmail is inclouded, Thornmail fits very nice. Your main wish is to keep carries from killing you or not attacking you. What armor does that job better? Noone. At least not for 2k gold. So yeah, Thornmail is very nice in that build, but in others, we need that bonus hp and threadfore buy Randuin's Omen, increasing our hp and giving us some much needed utility.

So, try Thornmail out and see how nice it is to counter carries. If you feel rich, you can, of course buy other armor items, but u will rarley have enought gold to buy full build + elixers so that 1k less gold makes you get it faster.


AND
Why do i take these 2 items OVER gp/10 items in tanky dps build? Well, they are way mroe cost efficient, both are VERY good for the gold paid. Gp/10 are quite nice items, providing you with soem sustain, hp and mana regen and 1 gold per sec. But people, tehy give you NO offense power. With only Wriggle's Lantern you heal 50/sec at level 9, thats sick sustain no one can beat.
And when you get your Wit's End, your sustain go even mroe up because of that 40% AS... not to mention no one will be able to take your auto attacks, as you attack with aprox 1.2 attacks per sec, dealing 75 ture dmg + your ad+ 42.. which makes about 200 damage at level 11-12. Thats simply amaizing, and should not be switched for gp/10.

So lets do DA MATHS... nah just kidding, i'll just write down stats, so you'll make a picture about the diffrence :) And im kidding again, because the stats are so much different, you can't really compare the two. One buuld gives you some slim hp and regen other giving you ability to lifesteal like a boss, and have ward there at all times (its like 4gp/10 sec) the oter part allwoing you to 1v1 like a boss with your +40% as and + 42 dmg on hit.
Wit's End and Wriggle's Lantern make you a true BOSS.





I think i explaind my build well enought, but if you want explanation of ANYTHING in the build, please, say it in comment and ill add it in here in no time :)
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Champion matchups- Top

This section should help you learn how to play and what to buy against champions you may meet in solo top lane. I'll also rate how hard the lane is. If you think I should add champion in here, wtire em and I'll add it asap :)


Akali:



Skill Set:



Difficulty Pre-6: 4/10
Difficulty Past-6 6/10

Usual Starting Items: & x3


How to Counter:

Akali before level 6 is a rather easy opponent for Irelia . Her lack of being able to clear minions faster than you plus her low damage output early on should give you advantage over your lane.

However just be cautious when she throws Mark of the Assassin on you as her extra attacks will hurt you for a decent amount if you let her hit you. Even with that if you just Q+E her all day you should not have a problem.

Major problems can occur once she reaches level 6 though as Shadow Dance with the addition of Mark of the Assassin and Crescent Slash can take you down EXTREMELY fast. So once you both are level 6 just play smartly and do no stick around if you have low health.

Tips:
  • Try to stay out of Twilight Shroud as it will slow you.
  • Shutting down Akali is a major accomplishment and really needs to be done. Fed Akali often leads to a loss for you.

Cho' Gath

Skill Set:



Difficulty Pre-6: 3/10
Difficulty Past-6: 4/10

Usual Starting Items: & Healing Potion x3


How to Counter:
This lane is quite easy. Just farm, farm, farm and he won't be able ebcause you can punish him like a boss. But beware! If you get ganked.. Cho is a helping mashine. If his Rupture hits you, you may as well say "bb life", because the knockup while getting ganked is just boss.

This lane, however, is an easy one, and make sure you get the best out of it. Play pretty agressive, and get few kills, don't let him farm, don't let him sustin with his passive. But beware of gankers, so use WARDS. Always. Seriously.

If you manage to get gank on him, also beware of his konockup, because it will allow him to get outa there before he dies.
You should beat him easily and have 50 cs more than he by 25 mins.

Tips:
  • Beware of his Rupture as i said before.
  • If he gets 6 Feast counters, his Hp will rise for 900, and thats alot. Try to kill him and lower his hp.
  • Beware of his burst. He can actually hit you for very much hp in a mater of seconds. That is because his Ult hits you for 300-600+ 0.6AP TURE damage, and thats ALOT. So, dont walk around with 600 or elss hp, when Cho is around.


Dr. Mundo
Skill Set:



Difficulty Pre-6: 5/10
Difficulty Past-6:7/10

Usual Starting Items: & x3 VERY IMPORTANT TO START LIKE THIS!!


How to Counter:

Well, at this lane, you'll have to get quite a bit of advantage in your early levels, so thats 1-6. You may say ' wth, Irelia is a late/mid game champ! I cant rule early game!!' and yes, you are right..
But what can we do, Mundo is beastish after lvl 6 and u wont get him out of lane even if you are super master of all universe and master of mass-destrucion in LoL .. Tl:dr, he has too much sustain to get outa lane.

So, just evade his skillshots, and dont go near him when he has his W/E on.. try to harass him b4 lvl 6, if you can't do it.. then just farm, you beenfit mroe than he does.

Tips:
  • Ignite is VERY usefull when he has his ultimate ready, and if you cba wasting ignite evrey time, buy Executioner's Calling, as it will hurt him. it will hurt him badly.
  • Call ganks BEFORE he hits lvl 6 beccause then, he becomes pratcically ungankable...
  • Evade his clevers.. he will hit himself and miss you, thats very nice for you.



Fiora


Skill set


Pre-6 : 6/10
Past-6 : 5/10

Usual starting items: Cloth Armor 5x Health Potion

How to counter :

Well, Fiora is purley AD champion, so 18 armor will reduce ehr damage quite a bit. She is weak untill level 5, when she will pwn you 1v1 with her sick 80% AS boost. Howerev, usually Irelia starts to pwn at level 9, this isnt the case. You can shut her down with your E, so put a point in Q at level 1, then don't level it agaiin untill level 11, when maxing your W and E same time.
The point here, is that an 1.5 sec stun, will make her stunned for half of time she has super power, giving you upper hand in the fight, making you able to complteley dominate her, because her Burst of Speed is all she has, and when that ability is on CD, she'll run away like a scared dog.

Tips:
  • Run when she has her Burst of Speed, and strike her back after those 3 seconds.
  • Build armor if you are getting destroyed by her.
  • Never 1 AA harass her, cuz she'll use Riposte and harass you while taking no dmg at all.





    5/10

    Open with Cloth Armor and 3HpPots.
    First 3-4 levels he will harass all the time with his Parrrley.
    When you get to about level 5, you can start pwning him out of the lane, or even get some kills. He is rether easy to take down at starting of mid game - late laning phase.

    Of course, don't forget to farm, because farming makes you boss.




    7/10

    Open up with cloth and hp pots, as his damage is mostly AD (only his ulti is magic).
    He will be a pain very early, but his strenght will be curving down and yours will go up.
    At about level 9, you will be able to 1v1 him with no problems and get him out of the lane.

    Beware! His ultimate ; Demacian Justice will deal tons of damage if you're low on HP. So NEVER let yourself be bellow 500 if you know his ultimate is up.




    10/10

    Well, this is mirror lane, and thus depending on how skilled you are. For those who are reading this guide and seek knowlege how to pwn Irelia, I'll give them some info.

    Well, what you must know is taht sustain Irelia has is just BOSS. So you can bother harassing till leve 6, from there on its pointless. She will outheal anything, and you'll need ganks to get ehr out of lane, because killing her is hella hard.
    Try to farm as much as possible, and dont be agressive from level 9 on, because Hiten Style will pwn you totaly.
    Of course buy some armor and health if you want to deny her damage, btu her true dmg will still pwn you.

    Its as much as i can give you, as im playing mainly Irelia and thus don't really know whats the feeling of getting eaten alive :)




    4/10

    This lane is quite easy and should be won. Start with armor or boots, both are okay.
    Just farm untill you hit level 7 or so, where you should shred him to pieces with Hiten Style. Rether easy lane.. beat the **** out of him.

    Beware! His ultimate meight be deadly when you are getting ganked, so when he hits you try to bladesurge out of the ring.




    7/10

    He is rether easy to beat, as your farming skills are way better, but you most likley wont kill him soon if you ganker doesnt help you. He is a great 1v1 champion, and will beat you in 1v1 after level 6. So is your jungler doesnt net you a kill, or you get WAY more farm than him, i'd sudgest you just farm peacefully and wait for his mistake.

    You will outfarm and outsuatin him sooner or later, do don't worry, you0ll most likley win.




    7/10

    You may start with Boots or Mr mantle. Anyways, its all bout dodging his harassing, as it hurts the most. He is, however, pretty easy lane, as you can beat him in like 5 autoattacks with youre Hiten Style turned on. Just farm and kill him few times ill level 9, when you hit 9, kill him on sight as it is very easy.

    Really nice lane, no problems unless you're to exposed to jungler.




    8/10

    Well, hes a pain with his passive shield and his annoying slow/harass.
    If you try to 1v1 him, he will just debuff you badly and kill you, so please just farm and call for ganks.
    He is a anti-melee beast, and should be threated so. Beware of his ult, because AoE knockup is boss. His Seismic Shard is also very painfull when getting ganked, because he will defbuff you speed and buff his own.

    Farm passivley, don't engage and just farm. you farm better than him. You can win, just dont be agressive.




    7/10

    Well, start with armor + 5 hopots, as very high % of his damage is AD.
    This guy is a special lane. If he farms his Siphoning Strike he will be the master of destruction late game. His Siphoning Strike has no limit to damage, so please, deny his farm. Even if you must secrefise your own farm, deny his. He will be even beastier than you late game if allowed unlimited farm.

    Imagine Nasus with 300 cs, all killed with Siphoning Strike.. thats 1k+ dmg on 3 sec ooldown. So yeah, plese deny.

    However, he is a lane where you wont kill him, nor he will kill you, unless he ahs good ganker, because his slow is just boss with the 95 slow %.




    3/10

    This guy is quite easy. At levels 1-3 you'll pwn him whenever you want, at 4-8, he'll pwn you back, so at taht time farm passivley, but from lvl 9 on, you'll wreck him like boss.

    When you're not in levels to kill him, just farm, you ebnefit much more than he does.
    When ganked,however, beware of his cc chain that is sick. Staggering Blow is 0.5-1 sec snare, and his ultimate, Depth Charge is a boss, because you get stunned and knockuped, for total of 3 sec+ passive, adds up to 4 sec of unmoving cc. He is boss CCer and he should be feared with team.




    9/10

    So, we came o this guy. He is a real PAIN and his Reckless Swing is a true boss, and will hurt you alot. So, he is an true damage noob like you. Start with armor + 5 potzs, as you'll neeed sustain. continue to your Wriggle's Lantern and then get Phage as you need the bonus hp badly.

    Try to farm passivley, let him push to your turret and call for some ganks when he overextends. He is a really hard lane, but you can handle him because you are :" Irelia the solotop BOSS!".
    Though he will be hard, and should be only confronted when you're sure you'll get a kill.
    Beware of his ult, Ragnarok, because he will ignore all cc and run like a boss with lots of resists.




    7/10

    Well, he isn't very hard, but is very annoying. He has nice sustain, yet worse than you, and his triple swing + 1.5 sec stun is a boss and should be feared. He has double-dash if eh hits a target with it, or you one dash if he doesnt hit any enemey. Open with armor + 5 and proceed for a fast lantern, because he deals mostly psyhical dmg and you'll need sustain.

    Beware! Don't ever dive on him if he has fury and ult ready. He will heal himself for 300-600 hp and stn you under his turret. You're gonna die if he does, so don't.
    Also, beware of his rage stun (using his W with 50+ rage) , because it is loads of damage, and will stun you for 1.5 sec, meaning you'll die if your low hp. And with loads of dmg i mean 400 + at lvl 9.

    In lane, just farm and get a kill when your jungler comes.





    6/10

    Hmm, another matchup that is a great pain. Riven has sick damage and should be feared at all levels. Though, longer the game is, better you are while she is getting worse. In lane, make sure you started with armor + 5 and then ASAP get that lantern, because you need is BADLY. Till level 9, farm passivley, and get some ganks, but Riven will mostlikley escape them, as she has a nasty shield and her Broken Wings give her some nice MS.

    After level 6 she is even more a pain till level 9 because her ulti will make her attacks HURT like boss.

    Hard lane, try to farm as much as possible, wait for level 9 and jungler.



    6/10

    Not really hard lane, his Flamespitter is his harass, and he will harass alot. But when he comes just jump him and do your usual combo ( Q-W-E) and he should suffer gerat damage. Though, beware ganks, because his double slow is a boss cc, and will lower your Ms to like 100.

    And when he shoots his ultimate, The Equalizer be sure not to stand on it, if you manage, dodge it.

    Rether easy lane, you should get ur Mercury's Treads soon and Wit's End after, as they'll give you the mr and dmg you need to pwn him totaly.




    7/10

    Some consider him as an counetr to Irelia, but he isn't.
    You will suffer constant harass from his Vropal blade but you should outhel it by level 9. He is better than you before level 9, but after it, your 75 true dmg per hit will shred him. Untill level 9, farm from behind, don't initiate on him, wait for ganks, and you should be fine :)




    3/10

    Lol, this lane is trully easy. He will push like maniac, allowing your jungler to make ganks like boss and kill him asap. He will, however, outdamage you untill level 5, but after lvl 5, you should pwn him with ease. Farm and get some kills, get fed, score penta and win the game :D




    4/10

    Well, if you manage to survive the burst, you'll get a kill, so start with cloth+ 5 pots, and later get Wriggle's Lantern as soon as possible, because he will harass like a boss with his Rake, but with lantern, you should be able to outsustain it.

    However, Talon isnt really beast if he gets farm, but no kills, but you, however, are, so just farm, and grab a kill when your jungler comes, realy isnt hard lane, so really, you should be able to beat him badly, and rule late game.

    Though, beware of his full combo at level 6, ebcause E+Q+W+R is boss combo, and will take away more than half hp, btu if you have some armor, you should be able to survive, and when hes in middle of combo, just stun him and he wasted hit ultimate :)



    7/10

    Well, this guyis actually quite beastly laner. His Wilding Claw gives him loads of damage, you don't want to take, and his Iron Mantle offers him boss sustain (your's still better).

    So, in levels 1-5 you should just passivley farm, btu at level 6 you gain a huge advantege of ultimate. Udyr is extremly boss in levels 1-5 because he has 4 different spells, while all others got only 3. But after 6, your ult is gonna pwn him, and abuse that as much as you can :)

    His Blazing Stampede is also a big pain for you.. he gains sick MoveSpeed, and stuns you on each AA for 1 second, once in 6 seconds.. but belive me, its EXTREMLEY annyoing.
    His Wingborne Storm isnt that annoying, but its great for farming and some AoE damage is also quite nice.

    TR;DL Udyr is annoying, but farm till level 6, and if hes still stronger, till level 9. Your true damage should hurt him, and it will. Call for some ganks, grab some kills, farm, and you'll be boss.




    4/10

    Well, this is the OP King, so you meight have tought you won't beat him, but Irelia is the solo top boss, and some noob OP king has no chance against a boss.

    Anyways, start with cloth + 5 pots, as he meight ahve crit runes and crit you for 200 at level 1, and it hurts... but from lvl 3 on, you should be able to get him out of lane in first 10 sec, so hes not really a problem.

    Well, but evreything isn't so nice as it seems.. at level 6, he'll get the Op ultimate, Undying Rage and he becomes a boss just like you, but you're still his boss, so he should be still quite easy. Though, NEVER dive Tryndamere unless you're 100% sure his ultimate is on cd, or he'll just activate ult and trololol at you for 5 seconds... If he's gettign away with ult on, wait 2 seconds and ignite him , as it sahould kill him after ultimate ends.

    So, just harass him badly, he'll go back, leaving you free farm.. and he shoudl have very little farm, easy lane.




    3/10

    Well, this guy is threated like counter to all melee solotops, but nor for Irelia. for us, its an really easy lane.
    He is so squishy, that Q+E+W and few AA should kill him unless he uses his summoners ( Flash, color=#ff8000][Exhaust[/color]) but he has 200+ sec cd, while you have 10 sec cd :))

    So really, just farm and grab a kill when you feel like it.. beware of junglers tho.





    6/10

    Well, hes sustain maniac. He has even more sstain than you, and because that, harassing is pointless, unless you can make him back off creeps, but that is hard because he is 1v1 beast also.

    So what you must do is farm. You are better farmer than he is, and you will farm more, while if you egt ganked you msot likley get out of there, but if eh gets ganked hes screwed, so ping you junlger, he'll come and Warwick will die, giving you time to push and kill his tuuret if you want that. However that isn't always good, but more about that in : Laning phase, in Gameplay section.

    You should outlane this sustained wolf with more cs and some ganks :)




    7/10

    Well, this guy (bear actually) is quite annoying. You should start with cloth + 5 ots, as hes mainly ad, untill you get to level 6, but he's a pain first levels. He has an nasty speed boost and fling, making ganks very easy, he has some sick dmg with Frenzy as lower hp you have, more damage it will deal, so beware of his damage when low.

    His ulty is some nice elecricity stuff and shopuld be avoided. His Stormbringer deal a ****load of damage and bounce, so cc him when he uses them in teamfights, because they'll tear you apart. His damage on ultimtae is 75/115/150 (+0.3 AP). Keep that in mind, its good to avoid such nasty hits.

    But worst about him is his nasty passive. The Relentless Storm is so nasty, you'll not even see it because its extremley nasty. He will heal for 30% of hp rapidly, when on 30% or less hp. This will give him EPIc lure capatibilites, and also nice 1v1. Well, just beware of the passive, Frenzy and Stormbringer you should be just fine.

    So what to do when you lane vs Volibear?
    1.Farm, you become much more beast than he does.
    2. Call for ganks. He has no really great escape abilities but his passive, but Ignite owns it.
    3. Let him push to enable point no. 2
    4. 1v1 him only when you feel you're stronger.

    So these things and you should be fine and win your lane with much more cs :)




    6/10

    He isn't somewhat hard, but his damage is quite high early, so start with armor + 5 hppots.
    After level 2 or 3 he will constantly harass qith E+Q combo, and getting away with his W, Warrior Trickster. When you chase him , check out if his clone makes some animation, if he does he did Warrior Trickster, if he didnt Wukong is probably standing there and fooling you.
    You will start to overpower him by level 5-7 and from then on you'll pwn him, as your Hiten Style is too much for him to outsustain, as his sustain is rether low.

    Beware of his ult, though, because he has an nasty knockup and epic DPS with it.




    5/10

    Ahhh, Yorick, this guy is a lane boss, just like you. o there will be teh boss fight, where you will win if you're cunning enought.
    This guy harasses by ehaling himself and thats a pain. He has steriod,slow/nuke and harass+heal.. not to mention eh can clone himself which is very annoying in 1v1.
    Bt he has a weakness : mana. He will starve mana badly if eh harasses you alot, but if he gets blue buff.. he trully is boss. When you hit quite high level, about 10-11, you should eb able to win 1v1 if his ultimate is down or you got more items than he does.

    But at start, try to farm if you can, use Bladesurge to jump between creeps like freak so he'll have harder time hitting you with his ghouls. When he summons 3-4 ghouls, run in brush or run to your tower, they do quite ncie dmg if you let them bash you.

    If he outharrases you out of lane, consider buying Philosopher's stone as it offers nice regen, and gp/10 never hurts. However, do that only if you find yourself camping turret on low hp and mana.

    He is very hard to beat, but he can be beaten, so don't give up if you get him as a matchup, because the better player will win!




    Hope you got some insight in your matchups as top lane, but keep in mind that if you think i am missing some champs in this section, please, please tell me or put in comment. I'll add it to the guide :)
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Gameplay

So, you might be wondering how to actaully play Irelia even though you know what items/runes/masteries you need.

Lets break this up into 3 parts :
  • Early game - Laning
  • Mid game - Roaming
  • Late game - Teamfighting


EARLY GAME-LANING

Well, this phase isnt really hard to remember what to do, because it is basically just 1 word.
Fa..iling... lol, kidding. it is FARMING!!! FARMING FARMING FARMING (Damn that word takes 4 lines in editor <.<)

Guess you got what I meant :D

Well its really just all about farming. You go to top lane, solo and then farm.. and farm and when you farmed so much ur the best farmer in your house, farm some more :D (the corn looks epic when it grows <.<)
You may go for a kill if you think you can, but be sure you don't dive when you aren't sure you'll get kill and get out alive, as be sure not to push too much if you didnt ward your river bush.
sight wardsight wardsight wardsight wardsight wardsight wardsight ward
But people seriously. Always WARD. Always WARD. Always WARD !!! (Yes, I know I said it two times.)

Don't harass if you know you'll lose some cs, because kill is worth just about 16 cs and its not reaslly worth it to harass so long and lose loads of cs, then not getting the kill ;D
You MUST learn how to last hit with your AA. Go play custom game and try to lasthit 6/6 minions for 20 minutes. Do that some times and you'll get the feeling. If you farm about 100 till 20 min mark you are doing good, but if you're pro you'll have 150 cs.

Irelia really needs gold, and when she get's it she's a BOSS.
I'll tell you about all teh champs you can face in top lane few chapters bellow.



MID GAME-ROAMING

When this phase starts, you'll know by seeing no lane is safe anymore, and teamfights and skrimishes are breaking out all over the map. But what you must do it so.. FARM. If there is a major teamfight nearaby, join it, but when there are 2 pople cricling aroun a guy in mid lane, dont bother and rether farm.

You, however, will start to shine a LOT in this phase. If you have your core items, you should be a boss in teamfights and people should be scared of you.
Countary to popular belief, Irelia isn't a very late game champion. Her peak is at Mid-Late game, when you come off your lane farmed like nobody else in the game. Thats the time when you will be unmatched, wheny ou will be able to go 1v3 and win, then take on 2 more!



LATE GAME-TEAMFIGHTING

So, we came to the Irelia phase.
In this phase, you'll own whoever you want and in teamfights you'll scare the SHlT out of your opponents, so they'll focus you and your carry will eat them alive. You wont die, however.
This is true untill 55th minute of teh game or so, when you usually become more and more damageless, unless you build very damaging Tanky DPS setup.

IF you missunderstood me and think Irelia is a weakling late game, you got it wrong. Irelia still is one of the best late gamers, but it isn't her best phase, yet its very good:)

Next chapter should make you know what to do in teamfights, as they are exepctionally important and can change games.
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Snowballing

Irelia is an AMAIZING snowballer as far as my experiance tells me. If you farm rpetty nicley (140-150 by 20 mins) and get lets say 2 kills and 3 assists, you entered snowball mode. Now just farm on an take all kills you get sereved on a sliver plate.
The minute when you come out of top lane to fight, will be horrible for your opponent. Why? Because you can easily steamroll trougth teamfights, killing each and evrey member of thier team with ease.

How come Irelia is so good snowballer whitout snowballing items?

Well, her late-early game-late-mid game scaling is SICK. And a Trinity Force in 25 mins is gonan bring you so far ahead of your opponents they wont ever catch you back. But when you come to that point, its easy. Hard part is to start snowballing. How to do that?

Well, Wriggle's Lantern is an item suiting your playstyle really well and will help you immensly. It gives you
  • Sustain
  • Damage
  • Survivability
  • Free cash
What more can you even want for a little pile of 1600g ?

The items leads you to lane dominance, which offers farm = cash that buys you TF = more money that offers you next items which make you unkillable and with your damage from TF and lantern you go nuts mode, and finish a game 21/2/10 (my score from 2 days ago)

Its really easy to snowball if you don't get VERY hard lane opponent ( Skilled Olaf can shut you down whtout a skilled jungler )
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Teamfights

So, what is your role as Irelia in teamfights?
You can be 2 things :
  • Carry assasin
  • Initiator

Well, builds no. 3/4 are Carry Assasin style, while builds no. 1/2 are more of an Initiator style.

What must you do in both roles?
Well, if you're The Carry asasin, you have to wait for your tank to initiate then jump on thier AD carry, and dispatch them in few seconds. AD carry is the champion that will tear your team to pices if you let him stand and shoot.
AD carry is the biggest threat to your team, so use Bladesurge to get to him, activate Hiten Style and Equilibrium Strike. If he still is there, Ult on him, and he should die.
When you dispacth AD carry, go for AP carry, as he is the guy who'll deal 2nd most damage, in some cases, most damage ( Kennen style).

If your The Initiator, its your job to jump in thier team, take load of damage, CC thier carry, act like you are only one who is gonna kil carry. Even though your assasin should go for the AD carry, he might get CC'd or focused so HELP HIM. Try to survive, though
Well, time to initiate is when :
  • Thier AD carry/AP carry is in front of the team for some reason,
  • They waste some epic ultimate/spell ( Amumu comes to mind, Ashe,..)
  • One of thier team is away, use your chance and go in 4v5 teamfight, as you increase your chances to win alot.
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Credits

-JhoiJhoi for epic Guide about making a guide, it made evreything possible. Thank you so much JhoiJhoi!

-A Chubby Baby for some rewiev, and constant help to get this guide up and running :)

-Brodienz for guide rewiev, helped me with soem aprts of guide.

-BlackIceT for giving me champion matchups format and overall support.

-JamesKalchev, my great friend, and great Katarina player, with wich I plaid LOADS of games with Irelia.
Thank ya'll, I really appriciate it :)
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Closing Statements

So I hope you learned something from this guide, I also hope its informative, and be sure to up vote the guide if you liked it. But if you don't like guide and want to down-vote it, please tell me whats wrong, i'll fix it and were both happy :)

Happy pwning with Irelia!
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