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Recommended Items
Spells:
Flash
Ignite
Items
Ability Order
Ionian Fervor (PASSIVE)
Irelia Passive Ability
Read this first

Also,

The information above, including the quick guide (remember to read the notes), is enough to play


When you're ready to read the guide, open these three links in a new tab.
Turn down the volume in the bottom left
Turn up the volume to hear the jazz better
This one is fine where it is
For the final touch, read this guide in Morgan Freeman's voice.
Hello, my summoner name is Asakyun, and I'm a Silver 1-2 player. In the first place, I wasn't going to make a guide for
Irelia in S3 because she was completely outclassed due to her favorite items being nerfed, along with the attack speed stat in general. But now, with
Blade of the Ruined King, she is definitely a decent pick for ranked.
I'm probably going to try to add some videos, especially to explain the tricks you can pull off with
Irelia's abilities, at least when I figure out how to record and not have League's FPS drop to 15. Also will add a full game if I can record without lagging, not necessarily a stomp, but just a regular ranked game. It would be nice if I win though. :D
(verification)
Elophant
LolKing
By looking at my stats, you might say I shouldn't be making a guide on
Irelia, but one on
Singed,
Vi, or a support (including support
Ashe)
However, a large factor was that I was 0W 4L with
Irelia before
Blade of the Ruined King. Excluding those games, I am 19W 11L with Irelia, giving a 63% win rate. I also have over 300 games of ranked experience with
Irelia over S2 and S3.
So, let's get started!


I'm probably going to try to add some videos, especially to explain the tricks you can pull off with

(verification)
Elophant
LolKing
By looking at my stats, you might say I shouldn't be making a guide on




However, a large factor was that I was 0W 4L with



So, let's get started!


So why should I play her if she is so "bad"?
1. She has (almost) no real counters.
2. If she gets the first kill, normally she will almost always get the second kill and the third kill, and so on.
3. After stomping in the scenario above, she can normally auto-win games.
hi i'm uber 1337 pro who should be in challenger but i always have noob teammates who always throw the game and feed 0/20 to the enemy
Now I digress, some games are indeed, unwinnable. However, if it's something moderate like an enemy AP mid being 3/0, or an AD carry 3/0,
Irelia will be able to screw them up, even if she is 0/0, as long as she has
Blade of the Ruined King, and you start ganking early (i.e. as soon as your lane has been won).
After ganking, push a tower. Towers win games, not kills. If dragon is up, do dragon after pushing down a turret. Return to your lane, push it back out, rinse and repeat.

If you win lane and follow these steps, you should win at least 75% of your games. If you're not winning, the following happened:
1. You didn't win lane.
Winning lane gives you options. You can continue to play defensively, you can play aggressively, and you can roam. If you don't win lane, you're normally restricted to playing defensively. You can roam when losing lane, but your tower will go down, and you might not be strong enough to make ganks work. Winning lane also corresponds to getting an earlier
Blade of the Ruined King which is a ridiculously powerful ganking tool. If you don't have
Blade of the Ruined King early enough, you may not be able to pull off a successful gank.
2. You didn't roam after winning lane.
If you don't roam, then you have a much more minimal effect on the game. Top lane is relatively isolated from the early action, which happens around mid, bot and dragon. If you do not roam, then as the isolated top-laner, you have almost 0 impact on how the game plays out. Your enemy laner is also worth less gold the more times you kill him, so it's not worth staying in lane to get diminishing returns. (there are some exceptions, and you should NOT pick
Irelia when these exceptions are present)
3. You made a dumb play.
Roaming is fine and all, but you have to be smart about it. If you give the enemy a kill, then it sure as hell had to have secured your team a double kill. You don't win games by going even, you have to win every trade. Being smart also applies later on. With this build, you cannot simply go 1v5 in the late-game, or even dive into the middle of the team-fight. Pick your target, and do not go in until this target has appeared.

Notice how in the three points above, I do not mention anything about your teammates. Especially in Silver tier or lower, almost all games are winnable, as long as you have the skills.
If, for example, Voyboy was playing in your place, in many of those "unwinnable" games, he would have carried hard. Your 4/1/0 would have been 10/0/17 for Voyboy, and he would have carried that game. He would roam and get his teammates back in the game. If you really believe you belong in a higher elo, then this is how you need to think.
Focus on yourself, and not on how bad your teammates are. By doing so, you will be a generally better player, you will always be able to improve, and you won't be at risk of having a heart attack. The first step in being a better player is to think about how you could have done something better, rather than blaming others.
Now I digress, some games are indeed, unwinnable. However, if it's something moderate like an enemy AP mid being 3/0, or an AD carry 3/0,


After ganking, push a tower. Towers win games, not kills. If dragon is up, do dragon after pushing down a turret. Return to your lane, push it back out, rinse and repeat.

If you win lane and follow these steps, you should win at least 75% of your games. If you're not winning, the following happened:
1. You didn't win lane.
Winning lane gives you options. You can continue to play defensively, you can play aggressively, and you can roam. If you don't win lane, you're normally restricted to playing defensively. You can roam when losing lane, but your tower will go down, and you might not be strong enough to make ganks work. Winning lane also corresponds to getting an earlier


2. You didn't roam after winning lane.
If you don't roam, then you have a much more minimal effect on the game. Top lane is relatively isolated from the early action, which happens around mid, bot and dragon. If you do not roam, then as the isolated top-laner, you have almost 0 impact on how the game plays out. Your enemy laner is also worth less gold the more times you kill him, so it's not worth staying in lane to get diminishing returns. (there are some exceptions, and you should NOT pick

3. You made a dumb play.
Roaming is fine and all, but you have to be smart about it. If you give the enemy a kill, then it sure as hell had to have secured your team a double kill. You don't win games by going even, you have to win every trade. Being smart also applies later on. With this build, you cannot simply go 1v5 in the late-game, or even dive into the middle of the team-fight. Pick your target, and do not go in until this target has appeared.

Notice how in the three points above, I do not mention anything about your teammates. Especially in Silver tier or lower, almost all games are winnable, as long as you have the skills.
If, for example, Voyboy was playing in your place, in many of those "unwinnable" games, he would have carried hard. Your 4/1/0 would have been 10/0/17 for Voyboy, and he would have carried that game. He would roam and get his teammates back in the game. If you really believe you belong in a higher elo, then this is how you need to think.
Focus on yourself, and not on how bad your teammates are. By doing so, you will be a generally better player, you will always be able to improve, and you won't be at risk of having a heart attack. The first step in being a better player is to think about how you could have done something better, rather than blaming others.
Runes are more "personal flair" than game-changing. They're only an aid to help you through the early levels, but they're far overshadowed by items as the game goes on.
My runes are ones you could consider standard for junglers, so these can serve dual-purpose as a page for

The total cost of this page is 10,455 IP. Changing out ASPD marks for AD will reduce the price to 8,610 IP. This page will work for all junglers (AP junglers arguable) and



Marks
Runes



M A R K S |
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The most optimal marks for
![]() It does not greatly hurt ![]() ![]() ![]() If you are really intent on playing ![]() |
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M A R K S |

Seals
Runes



S E A L S |
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If you're playing top lane, there's only one legitimate choice for seals, and that's armor. Most top-laners are physical damage, most junglers are physical damage. It's nearly inexcusable to play ranked top lane and not have all nine armor seals. Make sure you have these, if not anything else.
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S E A L S |

Glyphs
Runes



G L Y P H S |
|
MR glyphs are quite useful in the case that you're against an AP top laner or an AP jungler. They're also cheap and can be used for any role, so if you are limited on rune pages, then use MR glyphs.
ASPD glyphs are also an option, as they scale well with ![]() ![]() This is really the only place I would deviate from my standard ASPD marks, armor yellows, MR glyphs and AD quints. |
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G L Y P H S |

Quintessences
Runes



Q U I N T S |
|
You can have ASPD quints for the additional scaling with
![]() You can also have MS quints to counter kiting. However, this is fixed by building ![]() ![]() ![]() Finally, you can get AD quints. In my opinion, these are the best quints for all physical damage based characters. "But you just said ASPD marks were the best for ![]() ![]() AD quints are equivalent to 2.37 AD marks, but ASPD quints are only equivalent to 2.0 ASPD marks. In addition, AD helps you last hit, and I believe you should retain some AD in order to facilitate last hitting, and quints are clearly the best place to add AD. You can't use ![]() |
|
Q U I N T S |
Masteries, like runes, are more "personal flair" than game changing.


Offense
![]() |
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Having 9 points in offense is obvious.![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |

Defense
18 points in Defense? Not so obvious. You get the 4 points in ![]() ![]() ![]() Then ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The last 2 points in defense can be used in one of the two ways: 2 points into ![]() ![]() Or 1 point into ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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![]() |

Utility
![]() |
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3 points into utility. These 3 points into utility is where my own style comes into play. If you like ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() You can also opt for ![]() |
W > R > E > Q against melee in lane and Teeto
W > R > Q > E against ranged in lane

Ionian Fervor is a great passive. However, you need to understand the limitations of your passive, as an
Irelia player.

Take an early point in Q (
Bladesurge) to easily CS. The CD on Q refreshes on kill, so in theory, you could get all your CS with Q. This is too mana intensive, however, and I recommend you learn to CS normally, with auto attacks. You can, however, use it to get all the CS when there are two minions about to die and you can only reach 1. If you want increased safety from ganks, take E at level 1 and Q at level 2. Max Q last, unless your lane opponent is ranged.
Tip:
Bladesurge resets your autoattack timer, so if you auto-attack then
Bladesurge really quickly, it'll have the same effect as auto-attacking twice in the time of one. AA, Q, AA will give you about 3
Hiten Style procs in less than a second.
Tip 2:
Bladesurge applies all on-hit effects, including
Hiten Style,
Wit's End, and Spellblade procs. In fact, using
Bladesurge counts as proc'ing the Spellblade passive, and when you reach the target and hit them with your Bladesurge, the target has the extra damage applied. Thus, you don't necessarily have to activate
Hiten Style before
Bladesurge to proc Spellblade, but it's normally in your best interest.
Tip 3: If your opponent is standing next to a dying minion, you can
Bladesurge onto that minion and then use
Equilibrium Strike on your opponent. Afterwards activate
Hiten Style and start whacking away. Use
Bladesurge later on in order to either escape or stick onto your opponent.
Tip 4: If the enemy jungler ganks from behind you, just use
Bladesurge on him, and you'll escape the gank easily.

Take W (
Hiten Style) as priority afterwards to get extra sustain and true damage which helps in trades.
Hiten Style's sustain was hit hard, but it still gives you something.
Tip: Activate
Hiten Style before you use
Bladesurge, as
Bladesurge procs Hiten Style.

Take E (
Equilibrium Strike) at level 2 to get the CC, and max it second for increased burst damage. If you want increased safety from early ganks, take E at level 1.
Tip:
Equilibrium Strike will stun even if both of you are at the same % of HP. So, if both of you are at full health, E is a guaranteed stun.

Needless to say, take R (
Transcendent Blades) when you have the chance to. One of the greatest things to do with R is to wait until your opponent comes up with a huge minion wave, then engage. You might think that doing so is bad for you (minions can do lots of damage), but with
Tough Skin
, you cut the damage by a large amount, and
Transcendent Blades will quickly turn the tides in your favor. (healing you while damaging your opponent)
Tip:
Transcendent Blades also doesn't interrupt your attack animations, so you could use it to increase your DPS slightly. Each blade is worth about the same amount of damage as an autoattack without
Hiten Style, so it's helpful.
Tip 2:
Transcendent Blades will quickly even out a fight in your favor, especially if you're fighting in a wave of minions, as you will also heal for the damage done to minions.
Tip 3: If calculated,
Transcendent Blades will do more damage than, say Lee Sin's
Dragon's Rage, as long as you hit all 4 blades. Don't believe people when they say this ult is weak -- It's still very strong, just because it doesn't have massive burst damage doesn't make it any weaker.
Tip 4: When you have an item with Spellblade procs, such as
Sheen,
Iceborn Gauntlet or
Trinity Force, space out your
Transcendent Blades to one every 2 seconds if you're not at risk of dying, in order to maximize damage from Spellblade procs. Of course, if you're at risk of dying, spam it to get health back as soon as possible.
Tip 5: When you want to recall, use
Transcendent Blades to push the lane. You will miss less CS this way and
Transcendent Blades has a short cooldown.

Q to dying minion > E > W > AA > Q
This combo takes advantage of the fact that if both are at the same percentage of health,
Irelia's
Equilibrium Strike will stun. You then have a choice to Q back to a minion to disengage or to Q to your opponent to stick. Add
Transcendent Blades and
Ignite if going for a kill.
W > Q > E > AA
This is a standard combo. Q onto your opponent. Use this if your opponent is smart and stays away from dying minions. Add
Transcendent Blades and
Ignite if going for a kill.
Q to dying minion > Q > E (1300 range gap closer)
In lane, you can trick people who are low on HP into coming closer to the minion wave with this combo. They'll think that you're not going for a kill and walk back up to the minion wave for CS. When an enemy minion starts to die, Q to that minion and then Q to the enemy (W optional) for a super long gap closer.
When chasing (you need rank 5 Q and an item that gives Spellblade procs), you can Q to a ranged minion on a passing wave, then Q to the target you're chasing. The ranged minion instantly dies, refreshing your Q.
W > R > Q > E against ranged in lane



|
What
![]() + Make CC irrelevant in teamfights + Possibly help you out when you get ganked |
|
What
![]() - Reduce CC significantly in a 1v1 duel |
|

Take an early point in Q (

Tip:



Tip 2:






Tip 3: If your opponent is standing next to a dying minion, you can




Tip 4: If the enemy jungler ganks from behind you, just use


Take W (


Tip: Activate




Take E (

Tip:


Needless to say, take R (



Tip:


Tip 2:

Tip 3: If calculated,


Tip 4: When you have an item with Spellblade procs, such as




Tip 5: When you want to recall, use



Combos
Q to dying minion > E > W > AA > Q
This combo takes advantage of the fact that if both are at the same percentage of health,




W > Q > E > AA
This is a standard combo. Q onto your opponent. Use this if your opponent is smart and stays away from dying minions. Add


Q to dying minion > Q > E (1300 range gap closer)
In lane, you can trick people who are low on HP into coming closer to the minion wave with this combo. They'll think that you're not going for a kill and walk back up to the minion wave for CS. When an enemy minion starts to die, Q to that minion and then Q to the enemy (W optional) for a super long gap closer.
When chasing (you need rank 5 Q and an item that gives Spellblade procs), you can Q to a ranged minion on a passing wave, then Q to the target you're chasing. The ranged minion instantly dies, refreshing your Q.
There are three main starts for Irelia to take.
sight ward
sight wardsight ward
I will go through the pros and cons of each start.

Long Sword and 2
Health Potions
The main advantage that starting with
Long Sword provides is getting 400 gold ahead in your build. It is the most dangerous start. It has nearly zero gank resistance, as you do not start with a ward, and you only have two potions. With two potions, you only have 300 health worth of sustain.
Though I like to use this start every game, it's not the most optimal start. Obviously I don't follow my own advice, but this start should only be used against weak early laners and against junglers with weak ganks, such as a
Fiora top and
Warwick jungle combo.

This is the favored start of many top laners, tournaments included. Has good bait potential, insane stats for the cost. Using
Elixir of Fortitude automatically gives you health, rather than healing over time, so it works similarly to potions in MMOs. This is literally the strongest start in the game at the moment, as it provides an additional 100 base HP and 15 AD, which is much more than 475 gold worth of stats. You should be ashamed if you cannot win trades against a champion that does not start with
Elixir of Fortitude. It also has higher gank resistance that the above start, as it starts with a ward and 600 HP worth of sustain. The only problem is that the effects of
Elixir of Fortitude are not permanent. This will be the start you use 90% of the time.

This is the most conservative start. You use this if you know you're going to get crushed in lane. Has a whopping 1,350 HP of sustain and 2 sight wards. Will see all ganks before they happen, and even if you do get ganked, you shrug them off easily with your 9
Health Potions. However, If you're in a situation you have to start 9
Health Potions and 2 sight wards, you should have not picked
Irelia, and rather a stronger late game champion like
Singed or
Nasus.








sight wardsight ward









I will go through the pros and cons of each start.



The main advantage that starting with

Though I like to use this start every game, it's not the most optimal start. Obviously I don't follow my own advice, but this start should only be used against weak early laners and against junglers with weak ganks, such as a



This is the favored start of many top laners, tournaments included. Has good bait potential, insane stats for the cost. Using




2 Sight wards and 9
Health Potions

This is the most conservative start. You use this if you know you're going to get crushed in lane. Has a whopping 1,350 HP of sustain and 2 sight wards. Will see all ganks before they happen, and even if you do get ganked, you shrug them off easily with your 9





Before building your third item, you should have boots and
Blade of the Ruined King. You should rush
Blade of the Ruined King 100% of the time. It's an incredible item for
Irelia. However, after you finish this item, you have 3 paths to take. The third item in your build is very situational.
In an ideal world where you don't need to be massively tanky, I would build all 3 of these items eventually.

I build this item in almost all of my games as
Irelia. The real question is when to buy this item. You can pick up
Warden's Mail and hold off finishing
Randuin's Omen if tankiness is not necessary at the time.
It gives extreme survivability against physical damage and has pseudo-survivability against magic damage because of the 500 health pool it gives, reducing the effects of burst damage. It reduces the ability of the AD carry to kite you, as it guarantees a movement speed slow whenever you are autoattacked. Its active is also extremely strong, giving maybe a 3 or 4 second movement speed slow in an AOE, which also reduces an enemy's ability to kite you.
Randuin's Omen also helps you run away, as you slow anyone who attacks you, and the active can also be used in such a defensive manner.
Definitely an extremely strong item, and should be built on any melee character that needs semi-tanking abilities.

This is a strong offensive and defensive pick. Gives
Irelia good utility and Spellblade procs. In the past, I might have advocated
Trinity Force or
Frozen Mallet, but why buy either when you can have both combined? This is essentially what
Iceborn Gauntlet is, while giving a ridiculous mana pool, cooldown reduction, and tankiness in the form of armor.
You would build this as third item if you're teamfighting earlier (so you can skip out on tenacity due to your passive), if an enemy physical damage dealer is fed, or if you simply like the utility and burst damage of
Iceborn Gauntlet.

If the enemy magic damage dealer is fed, or the enemy team is magic damage heavy, your third item should be
Spirit Visage. Gives one of the highest values of magic resist on any one item in the game, second to only
Runic Bulwark. Synergizes extremely well with
Irelia, due to the fact it increases regenerative effects by 20%. This helps the lifesteal from
Blade of the Ruined King and the life gain on hit from
Hiten Style. It also has 20% cooldown reduction, and
Irelia loves cooldown reduction.

After building all 3 of these items, you reach 40% CDR, which is the max.
Bladesurge: 3.6 second cooldown
Hiten Style: 8.4 second cooldown, 71% uptime on active effect
Equilibrium Strike: 4.8 second cooldown
Transcendent Blades: 30 second cooldown



In an ideal world where you don't need to be massively tanky, I would build all 3 of these items eventually.

I build this item in almost all of my games as



It gives extreme survivability against physical damage and has pseudo-survivability against magic damage because of the 500 health pool it gives, reducing the effects of burst damage. It reduces the ability of the AD carry to kite you, as it guarantees a movement speed slow whenever you are autoattacked. Its active is also extremely strong, giving maybe a 3 or 4 second movement speed slow in an AOE, which also reduces an enemy's ability to kite you.

Definitely an extremely strong item, and should be built on any melee character that needs semi-tanking abilities.

This is a strong offensive and defensive pick. Gives




You would build this as third item if you're teamfighting earlier (so you can skip out on tenacity due to your passive), if an enemy physical damage dealer is fed, or if you simply like the utility and burst damage of


If the enemy magic damage dealer is fed, or the enemy team is magic damage heavy, your third item should be







After building all 3 of these items, you reach 40% CDR, which is the max.
40% CDR stats




These items should be mixed into the core (found in the quick guide) as necessary.
Also, the way effective HP works, as a highly regenerative unit,
Irelia should not spec for health in and of itself, as she relies more on lifesteal and life gain on hit for tanking, rather than having a massive health pool. Resists synergize with lifesteal and life gain on hit, more so than health.

If you are completely crushing your lane, you can afford to hold off building tanky and build
Zephyr instead. If any enemy champion is "on a rampage" or "legendary", don't build
Zephyr as your third item, after boots and
Blade of the Ruined King. If you build
Zephyr, don't build
Mercury's Treads, build
Berserker's Greaves. This item gives you insane attack speed, movement speed, and tenacity. All of these are great stats on
Irelia, but by going with this item 3rd, you have to play more cautiously in teamfights. Try to build
Zephyr at a point where you no longer need to get bulkier.


Note that when you build this item, you go 10% over CDR cap. This is not ideal but if you really need armor, then that's what you have to do. With 95 armor, this has the second highest armor value of any item in the game, and synergizes with
Randuin's Omen active. The attack speed slow aura stacks with
Randuin's Omen, which drastically reduces the DPS of any AD carryand auto attack based bruiser. You can easily go above 300 armor if you build
Randuin's Omen,
Frozen Heart and
Iceborn Gauntlet, netting 75% physical damage reduction, which is reduced to 65% after the effects of
Last Whisper and
Weapon Expertise
.

Guardian Angel is an ubiquitous item in League of Legends. Can serve dual purpose as both armor and magic resist, and gives a strong passive to boot. However, the stats of this item are inferior to any dedicated armor or magic resist item, due to its strong passive.
This item can turn around fights in the late game due to the passive, and can lead to a win, but in other cases, it has weak stats compared to other items.


One of
Irelia's core items in Season 2, this has been relegated to a secondary item role. However, it is still decent, provides
Irelia much loved attack speed, and magic resist.
Only build
Wit's End when you need magic resist outside of
Spirit Visage. You should predict whether you need
Wit's End, and in that case, you should not build
Zephyr and
Berserker's Greaves, but instead build
Wit's End and
Mercury's Treads.
Often, this is enough magic resist for the game, netting you 165 magic resist when
Wit's End is at 0 stacks of its passive, and 185 magic resist at 4 stacks.

This is the Holy Grail of magic resist items. However, do not pick this item up if your support or jungler did. They need the cost efficient stats because they do not get as much gold as you do. If they are bad and do not build this item, you need to build it for all the free stats you provide for your team.

This is just a pretty terrible item for
Irelia.
Irelia doesn't really do much with attack damage, so you're only buying this item for the magic resist and the magic damage shield passive. This item is included simply because I feel I need to provide options, and most other options are even worse.

Like
Maw of Malmortius, this is a bad item for
Irelia simply because she does not do much with attack damage. This item should only be built if the enemy team has suppression, such as
Skarner,
Warwick or
Malzahar. Even then,
Quicksilver Sash should be kept in your inventory as long as possible, until the only item left to build is
Mercurial Scimitar.

This item is also an option for magic resist, though it again is weaker than any dedicated magic resist item. Mostly built for the passive.
Also, the way effective HP works, as a highly regenerative unit,


Attack
If you are completely crushing your lane, you can afford to hold off building tanky and build









Armor

Note that when you build this item, you go 10% over CDR cap. This is not ideal but if you really need armor, then that's what you have to do. With 95 armor, this has the second highest armor value of any item in the game, and synergizes with









This item can turn around fights in the late game due to the passive, and can lead to a win, but in other cases, it has weak stats compared to other items.

Magic Resist

One of


Only build







Often, this is enough magic resist for the game, netting you 165 magic resist when


This is the Holy Grail of magic resist items. However, do not pick this item up if your support or jungler did. They need the cost efficient stats because they do not get as much gold as you do. If they are bad and do not build this item, you need to build it for all the free stats you provide for your team.

This is just a pretty terrible item for



Like








This item is also an option for magic resist, though it again is weaker than any dedicated magic resist item. Mostly built for the passive.
Absolutely do not pick
Irelia against
Singed,
Nasus, or
Darius.
Teemo and
Garen also are not good match ups for
Irelia. For the most part,
Irelia is fine against other top lane champions.
These are not necessarily hard lanes to play against -
Singed and
Nasus won't easily be able to kill you - but they vastly out-scale you and make it hard for you to do your job snowballing other lanes.

Singed is simply too hard to play against as
Irelia. He's nearly impossible for
Irelia to kill without jungle help, and forces her to stay in lane even if she did win lane. He does not let you fulfill the core tenets of playing
Irelia and top lane in general, which is win lane and roam.
Irelia has a hard time winning lane in this case and
Singed's pressure with his constant pushing does not allow her to roam. Just don't pick
Irelia against
Singed.

Nasus, like
Singed puts constant pressure on top lane. He is weak in lane, but
Irelia still has a hard time killing him due to
Wither, which slows both movement speed and attack speed. His ult,
Fury of the Sands, also inhibits
Irelia's ability to kill
Nasus. Finally, because his
Siphoning Strike infinitely scales, you do not want to let him free farm, and thus he forces you to stay in lane with him.
Nasus, like
Singed, thus is not a champion you want to pick
Irelia against.

Darius is a generally weak pick on top lane if you use the right champion to counter him, i.e. any ranged champion. However,
Irelia is not a ranged champion.
Darius punishes champions on top lane simply for being melee (unless you're
Yorick), and
Irelia is melee, so don't pick
Irelia against
Darius.

Teemo is just a bad match up for
Irelia because he is ranged, easily kites her due to his ability
Move Quick, and because his
Blinding Dart hard counters
Irelia. As an auto attack based champion, not being able to do damage from autoattacks for 1.5 to 2.5 seconds is crippling. It's not as severe early on, but it gets worse late game when his
Blinding Dart is maxed. You max
Equilibrium Strike first against
Teemo in lane, because you need to lay down as much burst damage as possible before he just runs away and blinds you. He also plays similar to
Singed in that he will push your lane forever, forcing you to stay in lane.

Garen is an extremely strong top laner. He's especially strong early game, and
Irelia is at her weakest in the early game.
Irelia has problems getting out of
Judgment, and will thus take full damage from it. She even has problems killing
Garen at level 9 because his
Decisive Strike breaks all slows, including the one from
Blade of the Ruined King. It's hard for
Irelia to decisively win this lane, so this is not a particularly great match up for her.








These are not necessarily hard lanes to play against -



















































Assuming that your opponent is not
Singed or
Nasus, you can pick
Irelia, though certain matchups are incredibly annoying or hard.
Consider your teamcomp and the enemy's teamcomp.
Does your teamcomp include a dedicated tank, normally a jungler, and a semi-tank, normally a support like
Thresh,
Leona,
Alistar or
Taric? If so, you can normally afford to build squishier into my "ideal" build.
This is not a limitation though, as you can choose to build tankier, but I enjoy playing
Irelia more when building slightly squishier with higher damage.
The more champions on the enemy team that can dive, the safer it is for you yourself to dive, as champions diving on your carries cannot peel for their own carries. However, you need to weigh the risks that your carries will die if you're not peeling.
Irelia is a subpar peeler and should not be chosen if you need protection for your carries.
These are the main things to consider when picking
Irelia, in my opinion.



Consider your teamcomp and the enemy's teamcomp.
Does your teamcomp include a dedicated tank, normally a jungler, and a semi-tank, normally a support like




This is not a limitation though, as you can choose to build tankier, but I enjoy playing

The more champions on the enemy team that can dive, the safer it is for you yourself to dive, as champions diving on your carries cannot peel for their own carries. However, you need to weigh the risks that your carries will die if you're not peeling.

These are the main things to consider when picking

This section will go over important warding locations in top lane. Remember to buy at least 1 ward every time you go back to base.
Ward Areas:
Tribush (Purple team)


River bush (Blue team, can be used for Purple if you want)


Downriver (Purple team in laning, both for Baron)
This location can be used to ward Baron, but in laning phase, only Purple team should use this location, as Purple team's jungler can bypass this ward, but Blue team's jungler cannot, unless he decides to use the exit at midlane, and walk through your jungle to reach you. Note that you cannot directly see if Baron is there with this ward, but can see if a team is doing Baron. Use a
Vision Ward if using this location to ward Baron. There's a small mistake in this picture, as the ward is supposed to be much closer to the ridge on the left, in the hopes that your ward will escape the eyes of ward sweepers.


Baron (both teams)
This is the standard area for warding Baron, and gives you vision of Baron as well, unlike the "Downriver" warding area. Make sure you use a
Vision Ward.

For more tips, here's a nice video with warding tricks.
Ward Areas:
Tribush (Purple team)


River bush (Blue team, can be used for Purple if you want)


Downriver (Purple team in laning, both for Baron)
This location can be used to ward Baron, but in laning phase, only Purple team should use this location, as Purple team's jungler can bypass this ward, but Blue team's jungler cannot, unless he decides to use the exit at midlane, and walk through your jungle to reach you. Note that you cannot directly see if Baron is there with this ward, but can see if a team is doing Baron. Use a



Baron (both teams)
This is the standard area for warding Baron, and gives you vision of Baron as well, unlike the "Downriver" warding area. Make sure you use a


For more tips, here's a nice video with warding tricks.
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