14/01/2012
i have re-arranged the item sequence for irelia, i have changed it that after you buy sheen, you buy heart of gold to maximise its gold making passive, and also i have changed starks fervor into a guardian angel. i have also made a secondary utility build. i also included an alternatives in the item section.

hey guys, welcome to my build guide for irelia. i love to play irelia a lot so i started to make up my own build for irelia, hope you guys like it :). as everyone knows, irelia is an offtank and can be a dangerous DPS at the same time, this build i created is to show people how i make her dangerous and tanky. but i like building my irelia to be more of a tanky DPS rather than an offtank. but there is now an alternative guide of how i would build an off-tank irelia.

Pros

High damage output with tanky items
Very fast
Very durable
Deals true damage
Built-in heals with Hiten Style and Transcendent Blades
A great farmer
She controls her blades without touching them, which is awesome


Cons

Item dependent
Somewhat squishy early game
CC is not reliable (can either slow, or stun)
Requires a solo lane to shine properly

Marks

You will need armor penetration for both your basic attacks, your Q and your R (since they all do physical damage). These marks are kind of required for a good dmg irelia.


Seals and glyphs

Since irelia is a DPS as well as an offtank, i put in armor runes to give her decent armor early game. i put in cooldown runes because as your bladesurge level increases, the cooldown to it decreases. with all your masteries and runes alone, you have a 16% cooldown reduction

Quints

i put in movement speed quints so irelia is moving really fast early game, aswell as late game. also you bladesurge on nearby almost dead enemy minions helps you either catch up to enemies quicker, or it can save your *** from being kicked. i have also put in an alternatives in the quintessence, depending on how you like to build irelia's runes, you can have extra armor penetration, have increased movement speed, or you can have extra health.

i have thought about what masteries to do, and i have decided to do the utility way of the masteries. my reason behind this is because you gain extra cooldown reduction, you gain extra experience, gain more gold per 10 seconds and movement speed. i have put 9 points on the offensive side, and i put summoners wrath, brute force, sorcery and arcane knowledge. the reason i put in the attack damage and summoners wrath on the first line, is because your dash deals more damage, so you can last hit better. the summoners wrath is to buff your ignite spell and your exhaust.

i chose those variety of items because irelia is an off-tank as well as a DPS.

my starting item was lvl 1 boots and 3 health pots, so you have good movement speed and can stay in lanes for long periods of time with the health pots, after buying sheen i buy mercury treads because of irelia's passive, it gives you more tenacity and also it gives you magic resistance.

trinity force helps you with both, tanking and damaging. with bladesurge, since its a physical attack it automatically deals 150% damage because of sheen/trinity force. trinity force also gives you bonus movement speed, critical chance, and a bit of evrything.

youmuu's ghostblade is put in there because as your buying it, you have an avarice blade there so you have bonus 5 gold/10sec (gold cancels out when youmuu's ghostblade is bought), it gives you an extra 15% critical chance, it gives you more armor penetration and if activated, it gives you bonus 50% attack speed and 20% movement speed. this item goes well with your hiten style, as it deals true damage.

wit's end is put in because it gives you attack speed, bonus magic damage per hit, gives you magic resistance and also buffs your magic resistance by 5 per hit (stacks 4 times) this item was put in there also because of your dangerous W skill, hiten style, as it gives you health as you attack and also deals true damage. with your fast attack speed with youmuu's ghost blade, your attacking nearly 2 times per second which is devestation to the person who your targeting.

randuin's omen is put in as it further tanks you up, it also has a heart of gold which gives you bonus gold as your building this item. this gives a good boost to your armor and health. it only gives you 5% cooldown reduction, but every little bit helps. its passive is also very good when going 1on1 with someone, because when attacked, it has a chance to reduce the enemy's attack speed and movement speed by a certain percentage. its active is also extremely useful within team fights as it applies a slow and an attack speed reduction to all enemies around you.

last but not least, starks fervor is also put in there as it is a good team item aswell as a good item for yourself, as it gives you bonus attack speed, and its aura gives everyone a slight boost in their atttack speed, gives 20% life steal to everyone near you, grants 30 hp regen/5sec to everyone and also reduces the enemies armor by 20 if near you.

to sum it all up, all these items will be fully effective within team fights because of randuins omen and starks fervor. you will have a lot of lifesteal because of your hiten style and your transendent blades (your ult) which helps you say in your lane longer, aswell stay in fights longer aswell

alternatives:

if you are vsing another team that has hard hitters such as master yi, tryndamere, etc... you may also want to replace the mercury treads into a ninja jabi, as it gives you armor and a dodge chance.

you can also change

with my summoner spells i put in exhaust and ignite. because early game, i hate having champions running away with very low health. so ignite and exhaust just helps me kill them more efficiently. you can change either one of these spells to a flash, becuase flash is a useful spell to catch up to enemies, or it can save yourself. you can also change your spells with a ghost aswell, so you can also catch up to running champions or do some running away of your own.