Hey guys, so this is my first guide EVER and who else would i choose but my most played most experienced champion. Don't be too hard on the criticism ;)

Irelia is a highly versatile strong Top laner who can adapt to any situation by playing passive with her sustain or bullying her opponent out of lane. She has a high skill cap which i love as there is so many possibilities with what you can do with her kit throughout the game. Irelia exceeds in solo queue as you can carry your way through it in no time due to her high burst damage and her tenacity and overall tankiness, making her the ultimate weapon against high priority squishy targets.

Pros
* Good sustain
* Overall tanky
* High burst
* Can turn fights around
* Assassination potential
* Can snowball


Cons
* Falls behind without farm
* Weak against attack speed De-buffs
* Requires items
* fairly weak against aggressive early champs

For runes it's pretty standard as it says in my notes. The stats are pretty good all round and are mainly directed towards early game for farming and generally being able to hold your own in lane. Flat Runes Tend to give a strong early game which is what irelia needs.

Marks
Good for farming, and early game damage

Glyphs
All round gives good early game defense

Seals
Good to prevent Ranged AD's to poke you down

Quints
Same as marks

These runes are just basically for half and half defense and offense and are a good pick for not only irelia but alot of top lane champions. Attack speed, lifesteal and movement runes can also work quite well with irelia. Lifesteal quints can work really well with irelia's hitten style and double dorans, it gives incredible sustain, attack speed also fits in with this getting more strikes off while the true damage bonus is up on hitten style.

Irelia's farming potential is really good as you can dash to minions and pick up farm with irelia's bladesurge that you could normally not reach, she has good pushing potential as you can clear a whole wave with irelias ultimate. Irelia's bladesurge is a really good farming tool, but be warned she can use ALOT of mana by spamming it so don't use it for every minion you see on low hp, just for ones that you could not normally get due to AA timer or just out of reach. My trick with her blade surge especially if you are trying to push it AA Q on mage minions, and generally two AA and a q on Melee minions (only works if you have trinity force). This is an efficient pushing technique i use especially with irelia's decent attack speed once you have Botrk and tri-force.

Starting with equilibrium strike on irelia enables you to be able to stun and get one auto attack off, which is good for early game poke. Maxing w first on irelia is the best option for dueling potential as does maxing e second for the stun duration.

Bladesurge

This is what makes irelia so versatile in my opinion, a gap closer that refreshed on minion kills and champion kills? that's pretty decent. This is irelia's main farming ability and main burst damage late game when applied in hitten style and tri-force

Hiten Style

This is irelia's main ability out of her kit, it gives her, her main damage, her sustain, and what makes irelia so strong. It can be used to buff irelia's q and makes farming a hell of alot easier.

Equilibrium Strike

Irelia's 3rd ability is what gives her an edge on fights, once it has been maxed it basically gives you 2 seconds to do whatever the hell you want. It's better to save the ability until the target has a higher HP % then it will give you time to take the advantage in a fight.

Transcendent Blades

This is irelia's ultimate ability, Irelia's ultimate can be used in many situations, it deals a decent amount of damage and restores a good chunk of health. It can be used to push a wave, to clear one, or just to heal. In a fight with irelia try to line up Transcendent blades to hit more than one target if possible so you get the bonus off hitting the champion and healing off multiple targets.

Basic combo-E,W,R,AA,Q,AA. to initiate with irelia, try to jump to a low hp minion near the target with bladesurge, then you will be able to stun the target and pull off your combo. If the targets flash or has some sort of gap closing ability, wait until they use it then Q to close the distance between you.


Irelia mainly rely's off her true damage on hitten style without this she wouldn't be what she is, this is why champions like malphite,jax,renekton can be a counter to her. Jax can block all of her basic attacks for a duration, Malphite can slow her attack speed and kite her till it runs out, and renekton can stun and dish out damage while on the move along with his bonus health on his ult. Generally champions that can outsustain and counter irelia's basic attack exceed against her.

Irelia has a versatile kit that allows you to do so much, although she has counters like jax there are ways to outplay, such as dashing around to nearby minions to wait out jax's duration on his Counter strike or just dashing around to wait out on cooldowns. This is a quick clip which also demonstrates a farming technique with irelia which i mentioned in the "farming chapter" Play Video
Irelia's ultimate can be used to climb along minions by ulting the wave then dashing to the low ones with your Q refreshing if it kills the target. This can be done by applying your W with Q along with tri-force to one hit mage minions meaning you can use it as a double gap closer.

Irelia hits her main power spike generally between 6-10, once you hit level 9 hiten style should be maxed and you will have level 2 on equilibrium strike giving you a slightly larger stun. By this time if you have either double dorans or phage along with your ultimate you will be able to dual almost anyone top lane unless the target is ahead of you in which case pick your fights carefully.

Late game irelia is superior if she has not fallen behind and has a decent build, she can jump to the back line of targets and take out the prioritized targets while taking little damage, this way it pulls the front line back to stop you while the rest of your team can deal out damage while they are focusing you. This is the main thing i enjoy about irelia, she does so much damage while taking so little, this way the opposing team will have no other option but to focus you to save the carries, but if they choose not to well then bye bye carries and bye bye to the rest of the team.

I'm just going to go through the champions myself and most others struggle with when playing irelia.

Garen- Okay so this along with jax is my most hated champion when playing irelia, Garen is tanky, garen does alot of damage, garen can silence you, garen can sustain, garen is unkillable unless the player is unskilled. Generally this is probably the top laner i hate the most not only on irelia but on others too, he can bully other people out of lane and he just dominates in team fights. The only way to take him down is via ganks, out playing him or just punishing his mistakes.

Renekton- Renekton can be a big problem in lane, but overall he CAN be defeated. A good player won't make too many mistakes but if he does, punish him. If you can be one step ahead of renekton or get in front of him early, he will drop off late game and you will become superior to him. Generally just start cloth armor and 5 pots and try and poke him down over time as renekton will either always start with dorans shield, blade, or cloth and 5 pots. If he chooses to start with something like boots punish him until his pots have run out and then go for him as he would have weaker stats than your's. However be careful if he starts with a elixer and fortitude as renekton deals alot of damage with a red pot and stacks of fury.

Jax- Jax is a pretty hard champion to beat with irelia, the only way you can take him down is if you snowball him early which is pretty easy if your mechanics are good with irelia. other than this he will take you down in fights if he gets fed, or the game lasts till late game. If you do manage to get ahead and stay ahead then throughout the game he won't be much of a problem. Just make sure as he uses counterstrike dash away using bladesurge then re-engage when it has ended.

Aatrox- Aatrox is champion who has a great amount of sustain, good damage and can turn around fights. However irelia should be able to beat him, starting cloth armor and 5 pots will ensure that you stay in lane to get what you need so you can kill him at level 9. Just be wary of his bloodwell and try to engage when he has used his abilities to either farm, or if he has used his 3rd strike on his w.

Darius winning a lane with darius is sort of like a 50-50 in my opinion, if he does (which i find alot of darius's do) get to cocky then strike him, if he starts to get too many stacks of Hemorrhage back off an re engage after it has worn off.

Overall irelia is an incredibly strong top laner and a great champion for carrying in solo queue, she can snowball and be unstoppable if left alone. she is truly an unstoppable force in the right condition, with her mobility, high burst and tankiness she is the ultimate killing tool.

Thanks, for those who read my guide, like i said at the beginning this is my first guide ever, so if anyone experienced at this could message me and give me criticism/help it would be appreciated.

Once again thanks everyone, and good luck summoners, the fields on justice await you!