Irelia, the Will of the Blades

The Ionians have developed some of the most breathtaking and deadly martial arts on all of Runeterra - just one manifestation of their pursuit of enlightenment. The most remarkable blade style to emerge, however, was the unusual byproduct of foreign intervention. Master Lito was a swordsman whose teachings were sought by ruling classes from nearly every city-state. His art was a highly-guarded secret, but it was said that swords would breathe in his grasp. He withered unexpectedly from a mysterious disease which baffled the brightest of Runeterran physicians. When he died, he left behind Zelos and Irelia, his son and daughter, and a truly unique weapon. Zelos became a sergeant in the Ionian military and left to seek assistance from Demacia immediately prior to Noxus' invasion of Ionia. Irelia, charged with the protection of their home until Zelos returned, was alone when the Noxian forces struck.

The Ionians fought admirably, but soon Ionian blood stained the land beneath the prints of foreign boots. At the Great Stand of the Placidium, Ionians prepared for surrender, but were inspired to maintain their resistance when the young Irelia lifted her father's enormous blade and pledged to hold until her brother returned. In the chaos of the ensuing fight, Irelia was cursed with dark Noxian Necromancy. As her life ebbed, Soraka, the Starchild, made a final attempt to anchor her fading soul. Unwilling to relinquish her home, Irelia rose at the brink of death, and her father's sword lifted in the air alongside her. Irelia rushed back to the fore, unfazed by the blade's sudden animation. The weapon danced around her effortlessly, cutting down Noxians as they gaped in horror. The decimated invaders were forced to retreat from the Placidium. Irelia was appointed Ionia's Captain of the Guard, and when the defense of her homeland moved to the Fields of Justice, so did she.

'The sword flourishes, as though painting with blood.'
-- Taken from a Noxian Field Report



Stats

Damage 56 (+3.3 / per level)
Health 456 (+90 / per level)
Mana 230 (+35 / per level)
Move Speed 320
Armor 15 (+3.75 / per level)
Spell Block 30 (+1.25 / per level)
Health Regen 7.5 (+0.65 / per level)
Mana Regen 7 (+0.65 / per level)



Abilities

Bladesurge - Irelia dashes forward to strike her target. If it kills the target, Bladesurge's cooldown refreshes and refunds 35 Mana.
Irelia dashes forward to strike her target, dealing 20/50/80/110/140 (+1) physical damage.

If it kills the target, Bladesurge's cooldown refreshes and refunds 35 Mana.
Cost
60/65/70/75/80 Mana
Range
650

Hiten Style - Irelia is skilled in the art of Hiten, passively giving her physical attacks health restoration. Activating Hiten Style gives her basic attacks true damage for a short period.
Passive: Basic attacks restore 5/7/9/11/13 health.

Active: Irelia's basic attacks deal 15/30/45/60/75 true damage and doubles health restored for 6 seconds.
Cost
40 Mana
Range
0

Equilibrium Strike - Irelia's attack balances the scales, dealing damage and slowing the target. However, if the target has a higher Health % than Irelia, then the blow stuns the target instead.
Irelia pierces her target, dealing 80/130/180/230/280 (+0.5) magic damage and slowing the target by 60% for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 second(s).

If the target has a higher Health % than Irelia, she stuns the target for the duration instead.
Cost
50/55/60/65/70 Mana
Range
325


Transcendent Blades - Irelia summons 4 spirit blades that she can fling to deal physical damage and siphon life from enemies they pass through.
Irelia summons 4 spirit blades that she can fling to deal 80/120/160 (+0.6) (+0.5) physical damage to enemies they pass through. She heals for 25% of the damage dealt against champions and 10% against minions.
Cost
100 Mana
Range
1000


Ionian Fervor - Reduces the duration of stuns, slows, taunts, fears, snares, and roots for each nearby enemy champion.

1 Champion: 10%
2 Champions: 25%
3 Champions: 40%

Hey guys now first about myself. I love playing solo top the most and I feel that the most skilled of players are playing this role. I'm not saying that I am very highly skilled but I feel like I can very easy own bot and mid but usually top is completely another ball game. I think this happens because of the diversity of top champions you can find. You can play a tank top like a Garen, Malphite or Volibear. Then you will find your very strong bruisers like Olaf, Irelia, Riven and Jarvan IV. Ofcourse the you get your semi- and full ranged solo tops like a Jayce, Teemo, Vladimir and Yorick. Now all of these champs can be played solo top and there is a lot of others and they all are played completely different and of course that means they are countered different. Now I'm not here to tell you how to counter some solo tops and what not. I'm just here to teach you my guide and how I love to play Irelia. We all know she have had her few nerfs and there is a reaso for that. She is bloody strong and if in the right hands she can own a lot of the champions in the league really easy. Even when someone tries to counter her you should be able to still make a difference late game. Enough jibber jabber on the guide.

Okay so lets start with the marks. Now for this build to really works its magic you will need to have some insane attack speed. That is why i like to play Irelia with Greater Mark of Attack Speed. These 9 marks gives you about 15% attack speed and combined with the mastery Alacrity you will have about 19% attack speed extra level one. It doesn't sound like a lot but if you think about it, its like having a Berserker's Greaves level 1(without the move ment speed of course). Attack speed if you ask me is a bit under rated because of the fact that it stacks with a percentage its still very useful late game.

Now on to the seals. I take Greater Seal of Armor for the armor. With most of you solo tops you will be laning vs. another champ thats highest damage out put is AD dammage. Its also really nice for tanking fights later on. It doesn's really grant that much armor but it helps a lot for early game especialy when you should freeze lanes or something like that. Lane freezing will be explaine later on.

My glyphs I use on Irelia is also very important to get a nice balance between armor and magic resist. Thats why I suggest playing with Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist. It grants about 24 magic resist at level 18 and is def better than just flat Magic resist glyphs, but if you are laning vs a Ap champ maybe taking the flat Magic resist is not such a bad idea.

My Quintessences is probably the only runes that would change in this build depending on the enemy solo top. I use Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage purely for early game farming. It doesn't really grant extra dammage on enemy champs cos its really not a lot of AD you are getting extra but it helps so much on farming.

Before I say why I build this way I want to say why there is no Randuin's Omen and madred's bloodrazer in this guide. If all of you don't know this yet thses items are going to leave the league in a month or two. I am not completely sure about randuin's but I know Heart of Gold is going to leave us all(moment of silence).... So I assumed that Randuin's is going to leave as well. Heart of Gold was a vey fun Item for me on tanky champs and the G5 passive was awesome.

Okay so on to the build. I start with Boots and 3 health pots. This is just to ensure that I would be needing to fall back to early and to be able to run from an early gank when I have not bought ward yet.

With my first recall(after I got first blood) I try to grab a phage and a few wards. Remember at this time 1 ward is more important than finishing an item. You need to be able to play solo very confident to ensure a maximum farming environment. That is why wards are so important. The Phage helps a lot with some early health and a bit of AD. A phage can also result in a few succesful ganks.

2nd Recall you will be looking to grab a Wit's End or just a Recurve Bow for that matter. Following again with some few wards. By the time you have wit's end there will be very few solo tops that would be abe to out dammage you. This a fantastic item that grants great attack speed and very nice magic dammage every hit. This magic dammage stack very well with your true dammage you deal with Hiten Style.

3rd Recall you should be thinking of ganking when leavng the base so buying a Giant's Belt rushing to a Sunfire Aegis is very important beacuse you must be able to turret dive if necassary.

Late game its very important to buy a bloodthirster and Trinity Force. These 2 items would increase your dammage a lot. these 2 items could also be purchased a bit earlier if more dammage is preferred.

Warmog's Armor is a very nice last item on Irelia and would grant you the edge on very big team fights.

Now other nice items that works good with this build is like Black Cleaver and Last Whisper, Guardian Angel is also never a bad idea and can easy turn a team fight.

I start with Bladesurge and I recommend this for everyone. Level one you will need this to get away from enemies as well as to reach them. When you kill something with Bladesurge it instantly refreshes, this makes it possible to farm like crazy. You don't want to spam this though cos it will eat your mana like hell.

On level 2 I take Hiten Style and max it at level 9. Te reason i max hiten style is for the awesome true dammage it grants as well as the nice life steal it grnats. Increasing your sustain very nicely. 75 true dammage levl 9 is actually probably a bit too much. Riot will nerf this probably LOL.

Equilibrium Strike can be maxed last its just a very nice utility skill. Granting some great slow and even a stun if you are lower level than the enemy champion.

The ulti should be maxed at 16. Taking one at 6, 11, 16.

Exhuast is a very nice summoner spell for solo q and with the extra armor and dammage reduction Summoner's Wrath grants it tip the scale to you any 1 vs 1 battle.




I play all my solo tops with ignite and this is soooo important if you are lanig vs champs like Sion, Tryndamere, Lee Sin, Volibear and a Mundo. The debuff really eats them alive. The dammage over time is just great and can really get you a kill that coulda gotten away.



Ghost is another great spell on Irelia and really makes diving turrets or escaping last second possible. Really nice spell on Irelia.

Pros

Very good sustain
Win 80% of 1vs1 easy
Not easily coutered
Extremely strong late game
She is a hot girl
Best passive ever

cons

Takes a lot of skill to play
Mana hungry early game
Expensive to build

This is just some spots to ward late game.

If you are playing top on purple team its important to also plant a ward at their blue buffs exit from the riverside.

When on blue team warding at the tri bush at top lane and warding at the exit between mid and baron is very important. When these to places are warded you would never be ganked because you will be able to see a gank coming from a mile away.

Lane freezing is very important if you want to excell in league of legends as a good summoner. Most of the higher elo players already know how to do this and I just want to quickly explain what this means.

We all know that the best way to farm is just to last hit when a minion is getting low health. Just by knowing this you already know how to freeze lanes a bit. Now sometimes the enemy will push very hard and it would result in some of their minions to be kill by the turret and even if you manage to kill each one of them none of your minions took any dammage while all of theirs died. This would result that the next 2 waves of yours will push harder than theirs if they now only last hit. even if you last hit as well you minion will win in numbers and still make you vulnerable for a gank.

Now to stop this of happening you need to freeze the lane when the enemy minions is reaching your turret. How to do this? you simply go take the dammage of the minions and tank them until your next wave come in. This will result in making your enenmy vulnerable for a gank.

Farming is kinda part of lane freezing and the all over game play of the champion. Irelia can easily freeze a lane and she can also very easily push one when needed.

Early game you shouldn't really just farm with Bladesurge because it mght result in to too much pushing or just getting you out of mana. When you do see that your minions is dominating the enemy minions you should try to push out the lane and quickly recall rather than endagering yourself to ganks.

When you want to push lanes fast to get a turret its very easy to do so. You can use your ulti and Bladesurge to finish the minions very fast and deal some serious dammge to the enemy turret fast.

This whole guide is basically created to promote the idea of playing Irelia with some great attack speed. With great attack speed Irelia deals tons of dammage. Her true dammage is insane on her basic attack and with a Ad well over 200 you own very hard in group fights.

When you are fighting in group fights its really important to try and finish of with Bladesurge rather than iniciating the team fight. When you have your ulti its important to posision yourself to hit as most eneme champs as possible to maximise the healing effect.

So this is my Irelia guide and its kinda still in progress. I would like some feedback and any advice would be awesome.