This is guide to how I like to play Irelia. I feel her true damage and healing potential really make her one of the strongest laners in the game and as she gains items she becomes one of the scariest people to see jump into a team fight. This will be an in depth guide to the laning and team fighting areas of the game.

For runes I like to run with Armor Penetration Marks and Quints almost always with Irelia.

As for glyphs and marks these are changeable and many work well with her. I personally like to run dodge yellows just to get more use out of the defensive mastery for the move speed upon dodging. And for blues I use magic resist almost always.

The masteries for Irelia can vary depending on the player. I personally am a fan of building Irelia more tanky than DPS. Her true damage should be all you really need to be able to take any champ with her.

I use 0/21/9 to get the defensive bonuses plus the attack speed bonus from the defensive tree, and then the typical experience masteries from the utility tree.

Items can always vary and should be purchased situationally. The only items that I generally always get are the philly stone and HoG. The Items I posted are just the typical build I would use against a well balanced AP to AD team. Wits End on Irelia is extremely powerful especially if laning against a mage. It synergizes very well with the way she lanes. Since you use hiten style's passive to regen hp you usually have full stacks on the MR from wits end so whenever that caster gets in tange to try and harrass you have the MR to stop that harass and most likely will be able to charge them without harsh consequences.

Summoner spells are always players choice. Use whatever makes you feel most comfortable with the champion. I prefer Ghost exhaust for the ability to stay on the other champion to get more truedamage on them or in other circumstances to escape a gank.

My choice for skills focuses on the healing and true damage over the burst of most other Irelia guides. Think of it this way at level 9 with no items Irelia can deal auto attack damage plus 75 true damage each attack, not even adding in the damage from bladesurge, equilibrium strike, and her ultimate, this alone is enough to take out most champions in a 1 on 1 situation. Also hiten style mixed with the philospher stone is and insane amount of health regeneration. A strategy I like to use is getting into a very aggressive fight against my opponent in lane and even if not killing driving them out of lane and then pushing to the tower and getting damage on it as hiten style heals when attacking turrets! (OP right?) By time that champ gets back to lane you should be full HP without ever useing your ultimate on creeps.

As for your Q and E abilities choosing which one to max is up to you. I generally go with Bladesurge in order to lower its cooldown so you can get 2 or 3 on an enemy instead of only getting in the initial bladesurge. Though if going against a champ that can easily escape from you it is very acceptable to rank Equilibrium Strike over Bladesurge for the increased slow/stun time.

You will always want to take Irelia to a solo lane. If you have the chance to take a 1v1 lane you should take it. For early game laning as you first come into the lane you should be focused mostly on farming and getting a few levels. At low levels don't be afraid to take a few attacks the regen from your regrowth pendant and hiten style is pretty high for early game. Once you have hit level 4 this is where most of your harassing comes in. Anytime the enemy champion get in range of your bladesurge activate your hiten style and jump to them. Do not intantly waste mana on your equilibrium strike as it will come in handy if they attempt to stand ground and fight. If the champion tries to run use your equilibrium strike mana depending (You don't want to go oom after 2 or 3 harassment combos). Once you have enough money to get a philly stone and boots back and get them. After getting philly stone Irelia's lane staying power is incredible. At this point you should be able to safely farm as you would be able to make short work of almost any champion. Irelia is extremely powerful against champions that have no escape mechanism. If ever the enemy is out of summoner spells and around half HP do not be afraid to go for the kill. Jump to them, activate your hiten style, equilibrium strike, and then exhaust after the slow wears off if needed chasing them down with your ultimate and auto attacking. If possible you should try to save ghost to use defensively or to push them out of lane when they return.

Here is the fun part of Irelia, team fighting. For team fighting you can be very tempted to try and initiate the fight as you are most likely one of the most farmed champs at this time, but do not initiate a full 5v5 teamfight. Despite being very tanky Irelia can be quite easy to take out with all 5 enemy champions laying everything they have on her. Let your tanks do the initiation, but as soon as the fight starts and everyone is in chaos make no hesitation to jump into the battle. Your job is to jump directly to the other team's carry and push them out of the battle and, if all goes right, kill them. Help control the fight with Irelia's soft CC, survivability, and very hefty damage output.

Play Irelia as a tanky DPS to get the most out of her. Since she requires you to be right in the middle of a fight being squishy just isn't an option. Remember to base your build off the other team not the items I listed. Irelia is a very strong early, mid, and late game champ just don't get overly cocky with her because she is most definitely not invincible.