Irelia Build Guide by Boohh

History

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

Introduction

Greetings fellow league attendants.
My name is Andreas. I'm from Denmark, and I wanted to make this guide to give you an idea how I like to play my Irelia. As I said, this is my guide, my way to build her, and you are free to experiment and try out different strategies for yourself.
This guide will show you a fun way to play Irelia, without getting owned.

I hope you find my build satisfying and totally awesome!

Items for Irelia

Irelia DPS

- I Always start with a , because of the armor, the HP, and the HP/5 sec. It's a great start item, cause of it's many functions, and great survive-ability-boost.

- Is a really nice item to Irelia, because of the tenacity, and the magicresist. It's also really good, because it stacks with her passive, that reduces the duration of stuns, slows, taunts, fears, snares, and roots for each nearby enemy champion.
A needed item for a good Irelia. This item makes her almost unstoppable. It is a very nice item, if you are chasing an enemy with lots of stuns, slows, taunts, fears, snares, and roots.

- Is Irelia's main-item, no matter what. I will normally grap a first, because of the insane damage-burst in your early-game. Then i will go for my , so i can get the slow-effect and hp from it fast. And then ya, ill go for my , if i cant effort buying full. will boost my damage and movementspeed, my chasing-abilities will increase remarkably. It will give me the extra HP, and the damage, and the proc from sheen. All these insane pre-items, loaded into a single item. And that's why its called "TRINITY" "FORCE".

- Will now be my next choice, and I'm taking this, because i want some extra damage, so i can nuke people, fast, and without any problems. Not that you had problems, but now it would be much easier.

- Is a nice item, because of the lifesteal, and the attack damage. Its always useful. And combined with your , it's very hard to kill you. And if you get low on HP, you can just slay monsters/minions.

- I like getting a , as a endgame item, for the movementspeed and the attackspeed, and of course the critical strike chance.

For I will then as my last item pick a , So i can get the protection from the passive, and then the HP, mana and magicresist, is very useful to.

Irelia Off-Tank

- I Always start with a , because of the armor, the HP, and the HP/5 sec. It's a great start item, cause of it's many functions, and great survive-ability-boost.

- Is a really nice item to Irelia, because of the tenacity, and the magicresist. It's also really good, because it stacks with her passive, that reduces the duration of stuns, slows, taunts, fears, snares, and roots for each nearby enemy champion.
A needed item for a good Irelia. This item makes her almost unstoppable. And in the tank situation it's very useful if you want to help your team as much as possible.

- Is Irelia's main-item, no matter what. I will normally grap a first, because of the insane damage-burst in your early-game. Then i will go for my , so i can get the slow-effect and hp from it fast. And then ya, ill go for my , if i cant effort buying full. will boost my damage and movementspeed, my chasing-abilities will increase remarkably. It will give me the extra HP, and the damage, and the proc from sheen. All these insane pre-items, loaded into a single item. And that's why its called "TRINITY" "FORCE".

- I'm now going for a , so i can stack some HP, it's a very nice item, and really works well with your , because it refunds mana, and it's cooldown refreshes. And then it's easy getting many minionkills. You will get loads of HP, and get fed on minions.

- This item is fantastic, but very underrated, but it fits very good in this build. Your attackdamage will now change so it is 200+, and it gives you critical strike chance, and armor to, and it makes a very nice off-tank item.

- Is one of my favorite items. It works very well combined with the movementspeed from the , so you can "kide" your enemies around the lanes. It gives you some armor and health, health regen and cooldown reduction.
got a fantastic passive, that slows your enemies if they hit on you. And then the activate, that slows your all enemies movementspeed and attackspeed in a range of 500, by 35%, and that's a very nice, and useful activate, as tank.

For I will then as my last item pick a , So i can get the protection from the passive, and then the HP, mana and magicresist, is very useful to.

Core items

Irelia DPS

- Is a nice item, if you are going for the AD, but i wont take it, because i need the health regen, and the armor from my .

- Could work, if you play against a team without any slows, snares, stuns and such. It's good with the attack speed, but it's not really needed if you play like i do, where you burst your enemies down.

- You could take If you don't need the extra attackdamage, and rather want some attackspeed, and wants to help your team, with some to.

- A nice item against tanks, and others with much armor.

- A cool item, if you cant effort , and your enemies got to much armor for you to handle.

- Is a very nice item, if you know how to activate it, but normally i wont. I simply cant activate it, because there already is enough to do. But if you can work progressive with this item, it will be totally overpowered.

- If i don't get i will go straight after , it helps you out in many situations, if you die, you can revive, and then you team should stand by your side, so you don't have a die again.

Irelia Off-Tank

- Nice because of the health, health regen, and mana regen. It got this insane active, and it is really unique as it says. You and your teammates will run 40% faster for 3 seconds.

- It's nice with the extra health and cooldown reduction, but not something I've chosen very often.

- Is a very nice item, because it's cheap, and it gives a nice amount of health, and reduces your cooldowns and then this healing effect thing, where all your healingeffects are increased.

- Works very well with and gives great health, and armor, a very useful item, and very fun to experiment with.

- A very useful item Vs. heavy AD team, or at least AD-carry's. And it will deliver really much damage back to the enemies. And as tank this item can turn the tide.

- Really nice item, if you are playing against heavy AP-team, or feel in a need to run even faster! And the of course the health regen is very nice to.

- Quite nice, but prefer this as a support item, but in some cases i have bought it.

Skill sequence

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 (+) physical damage.

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

I use my to move fast forward charging my enemies, and killing them fast, and without any problems. I often use it to chase what ever is running away from me. If my is on cooldown, my will proc, and make me deal a really nice hit.

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: Physical attacks restore 10/14/18/22/26 health.

Active: Irelia's basic attacks deal 15/30/45/60/75 true damage for 6 seconds.
Cost
40 Mana
Range
20

I use to proc before attacking, so i have it on when i use . And then if i play against a armor-tank, its great to proc, because of the true-damage from it's activate. And then of course i'll use it to get my health back when it's low.

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
425


This is my favorite spell because of the stun/slow on the ability. It's really useful, both if you chase, or just 1v1 a enemy. And if you are in trouble, you can just turn around and stun the enemy. I love this ability.

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 (+ ) (+0.5) 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

I use to finish people, and it makes it possible for me to kill an enemy on low health, that have flashed away from me. And i use this ability as much as possible, cause of its really low cooldown.

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%

How i use my abilities

I start using my , to proc the , and get the extra true damage, from it's activate. Then i dash forward by using , so i can burst, slow and maybe even stun my enemy. If they are on low hp, i will finish them off with . If they aren't i could use it to harrash my enemies, or get their HP lower, so i maybe could finish them with one more rotation.

Summoner spells

Irelia DPS

I take so i can get away, or chase my enemies. I would probably use it to flash into range of , and then lay a furious attack at my enemy. Or maybe if I'm in trouble i could flash over a wall, or just away from my enemies.

And then i grap , and i'll use it to finish of my enemies, or limit my opponents, so they cant regen health from lifesteal. It's very useful when you play against ...

You could take

- Its also nice if you are playing against lifestealers, or just some foes with high attack-damage-output.
- Heal is not a spell i would use, but it's okay in the laning-phase, and if you are getting ganked by your turret, or a place where the enemy will be in trouble.
- Teleport could be okay, if you know that you will need to get around on the map fast. But not a very often chosen summonerspell.
- Ghost is very attractive with a That's what many people are using, but i don't think it's that flexible. I still prefer Flash.

Irelia Off-Tank

I take so i can get away, or chase my enemies. I would probably use it to flash into range of , and then lay a furious attack at my enemy. Or maybe if I'm in trouble i could flash over a wall, or just away from my enemies.

Then i take so i can "kide" the enemies around, chase then, and let the kills be easier for my teammates to catch up on. It's also great if you play against one with massive attack-damage-output. It makes it possible for your team to help you our, or you to help your teammate. like a real off-tank should do.

- Its not that needed as off-tank, but a okay spell, if you want some kills, or maybe just wants to remove healeffects from the enemy-team.
- Heal is not a spell i would use, but it's okay in the laning-phase, and if you are getting ganked by your turret, or a place where the enemy will be in trouble.
- Teleport could be okay, if you know that you will need to get around on the map fast. But not a very often chosen summonerspell.
- Ghost is very attractive with a That's what many people are using, but i don't think it's that flexible. I still prefer Flash.

Masteries

Irelia DPS

My masteries for dps irelia are 21-9-0, and it goes straight for the AD, and the cooldownreduction. Lifesteal, and the crits. Very simple AD masteries. i have picked some talents in defense to increase my health and survive-ability early-game.

Irelia Off-Tank

Her tank masteries is chosen to get max health and max armor and magicresist. This would help you very much early-game. And then i got the last points in offence, to increase my damage.

Runes

Irelia DPS

I have chosen flat attack damage, criticalstrike chance and attack speed. So you will do very well early-game, with an start attackdamage on 53 + 0,95x9 + 3x2,25 plus flat AD from masteries, and they are giving +3 ad, and all that is about 71 AD at lvl 1. It's very nice, and very useful.


Damage 71
Health 550
Mana 230
Move Speed 320
Armor 15
Spell Block 30

Irelia Off-Tank

As tank i have chosen flat health, and it will give about 126 extra health at lvl 1. And you have 430 if you just go without runes and items. But with and the runes, you will go to your lane with 676 health. And with your masteries you will have 700+.
I have also chosen to get some flat armor and magicresist, so i will have a better chance in the lane in the start of the game. At lvl 1 you will have about 15 armor and 30 magicresist without anything, but with and masteries, and your runes, you will have 30 + 13,42 (from runes) + 6 (from masteries) = 49. And you will have 8 (from runes) + 10 (from ) + 6 (from masteries) = 39 armor. So you are very hard to counter.

Damage 53
Health 700+
Mana 230
Move Speed 320
Armor 39
Spell Block 49

Team work

Irelia DPS

In this DPS build, your task is to nuke all the squishy's, before they are making any damage to your team. And then just run around kill enemies 1v1, and kill the dragon from time to time. You will quickly get fed, and when you have killed dragon some times, you have given your team a nice amount of money.

Irelia Off-Tank

It's your task as Irelia Off-Tank, to take all the damage. Stun, start teamfights, exhaust, and still deal a nice amount of damage to the enemy team. It's also your task to tank turrets and baron when it's possible for your team. And you actually have to be quite aggressive.

Pros/Cons

Irelia DPS

Pros

Really high burst damage
A very flexible damage and movementspeed
Funny champion to play
A respected champion
Nice looking ;D

Cons

Maybe seems easy to play, but difficult to masterh

Last words

I will end my guide by saying thanks for reading, and I hope you like it.. If you don't got a brilliant score just like that, you should take some more games. This build takes some practice to master, and you'll learn some good tactics of your own along the way.

GL & HF enjoy my build, and vote up please ;)

And if you find anything i should change, try write a comment before voting down :)