Hi! I'm Hungarian so my English isn't the best, but i'm trying to make myself clear! This is my very first guide to introduce my favourite champion!

For Newbies:
AD - Attack Damage, AP - Ability Power, AS - Attack Speed, CC - stun, slow, fear, etc...

My main build is the first one for solo top, so I introduce that one:

I know you miss the AP or AD items. Why? They are horribly expensive and they do not fit on Irelia well:) I'm going to detail it in the items section.

So, in my opinion Irelia is neither AD nor AP dependant champion. She is very unique. But if I have to choose, my decision is AD. Look at her skills for a moment! Bladesurge benefits 100% of your AD, which is very good to make better damage and easy last hit minions. Equilibrium Strike is strong, but only get the half of your AP as bonus damage. Hiten Style neither improving by AD nor AP, but her strongest ability anyways:) (Synergizes with AS) Transcendent Blades can be improved by 0.6% AD AND 0,5% AP! But we can make a very good offtank or tanky build!
We Shouldn't have to forget her lifesteal skills. 2 of her abilities grants lifesteal as a great sustain.

First I maximize Hiten Style: really nice true damage and lifesteal. Grants insane sustain and harassing tool. The lifesteal from this ability works on buildings too! Build some AS to make this ability even more better.

I maximize Equilibrium Strike second because this is your core ability to beat enemy champs in 1v1. It's strong, can stun or slow your enemy. It can change the outcome of a fight.

For last I max Bladesurge to decrease it's cooldown. Early game don't waste this skill because of it's high cooldown. It helps you to kill minions very easy by jumping one by one for 25 mana each. Synergizes well with Wit's End and Trinity Force because it applies on-hit effects!

On level 6, Use your Transcendent Blades. It heals you up a little and nuke the enemy down. It procs your Sheen or Trinity Force well! It does wonders with the new Black Cleaver

You can see 3 different Irelia builds with different skill and item sequences.

First build: IRELITANK
I have a lot of success with this. Your main lane is Solo top. Farm a lot with only last hits, and harass the enemy player with W. When you have ult, just nuke down your opponent. If you are countered, ask for ganks and dont push your lane hard.
Irelitank build is a wise choice if your team is squishy and needs an anti-carry initiator in teamfights. The build contains only one, but maximum two offensive items like Zephyr and Trinity Force. Items after that provides a lot of health, resistances and aura. My favourite tank items in this build are Randuin's Omen and Spirit Visage. You still do "Tons of Damage" even with only one true Offensive item: Trinity Force.

Second build: CARRIREILA:
This build is more about damage, aggressivity and utility/movement which is very good in laning, 3v3 and Dominion. This is for advanced Irelia players. You need some feed, farm to have success with this build! You are a bit squishy so your team needs an other initiator/tank (I mean Sejuani Malphite or Amumu etc.). In this build, we want a very strong champion in early game too. For this paying style I found the best early item: The Brutalizer. It will be discussed later why this item is so good in this build.
CarrIrelia's secret is in this item build: You have early high attack damage,( The Brutalizer+ Phage) after that you start to build some AS: Trinity Force Zephyr Youmuu's Ghostblade or/and Wit's End. Insane hybrid damage output with these! I see youmuu's in a very few irelia build, but it synergizes so well with Hiten Style. For about 4-5th item you can pick Maw of Malmortius. Guardian Angel is a highly recommended defensive item in this build. if you feel too squishy lategame and need more overall survivability, get Randuin's Omen if the enemy team's AD carry hits you hard.


Third build: JUNGLIRELIA: This one is my basic jungle build, with attack speed and late game tankiness. She is not the best and fastest jungler but very good ganker with the gap-closer and slowing/stunning skill.

There are so many other possibilities to build Her. I tried a lot of them and i found that 3 is the best. You may change some of the tanky items, depends on the enemy team.

For last, I show you an OP lategame build. Only effective when the game is long. The build is very expensive, but the strongest ad-tanky build I have ever built. This is Critelia:



with this you have 68% Crit chance, about 3200Hp, 190 bonus AD, armpen, CD reduction... Etc... just insane. I think this build will never be the best in S3, but can be good when fed as hell and wanna' troll the hell out of the enemy team.

Let's compare Sheen and The Brutalizer

*(poor stat) **(okay stat) ***(Good stat) ****(great stat) *****(SuperB stat) On Irelia!

Sheen: Price: Lower(+1*), Build in early Trinity force:(+1*). Bonus mana: its okay(**), I think Irelia is not a mana starving champion. Bonus Ability power is okay again(**)
And the passive is SuperB in early game (*****).
Its 11* at all.

The Brutalizer: A little higher price. Grants early 25 Attack damage which is insane and scales well with Bladesurge(****).
The Cooldown reduction is great, because Irelia is not a stupid auto attacker, she is more about skills (****).
The high Armor penetration early game can be deadly: (****)
It's 12* at all.

Then I found brutalizer in early game a little better, personally i love it, give it a try if you have never bought it yet, but skippable item and you can Rush for early Trinity Force. I recommend it mostly in the CarrIrelia build.

In late game you can get any other tanky items, even Atmog etc.

Greater Mark of desolation and Greater Quintessence of desolation grants some armor penetration, making your autoattack better. This is good throughout the game.

and Grants good damage bonus and helps a lot in last hitting and early-mid game damage output.

and grants 25% Attack speed which is quite a lot. Very effective in the jungle.

and It's the best option for yellow runes. Your opponent has physical damage most of the time. These grants you the basic defense in early game.
I don't think mana regeneration runes needed over armor runes.

For blue, you have more options:
: Flat magic resistance against an opponent with heavy magic damage.
: These are the basic blue runes for solo top and jungling.
: Just another good option if your enemy is not magic damage based.

: This is my new personal favourite. Helps catching enemies with Bladesurge. Good for everyone.

: Not my favourite but a good choice if your team needs a tank.

You ask why these items? Hmm?:)
As I said I don't really like much AD or AP increasing on Irelia. You don't benefit from them effectively. To make heavy AD or AP Irelia, is expensive and not worth for you.
Now let's see my items:


MY S3 CORE:

Starting items:

Doran's gadgets? Maybe! You have to be tough in the solo lane especially when the enemy team don't have a jungler, so not a bad choice getting a Doran's Shield first, but I think better start with:

: and 3 Health Potion gives you great mobility and survivability to farm well, and escape from ganks. Very good against a melee opponent, who doesn't have any hard ranged harass, and good against skillshots.

If your Opponent is a hard ranged AD harasser like Pantheon, consider getting:

15 bonus armor is (maybe) the most important thing you need in very early game against a heavy AD opponent. (Mandatory against Pantheon, Riven and Renekton). Just lasthit minions with auto attack or Bladesurge and run away or immediately or stun the enemy if you are in danger. Just never push, because without Boots you are slow as hell, and can be ganked easily. On low Hp, just def under tower, Hiten Style and pots heal you up instead of an early recall. You can use your ultimate on a minion wave to heal you up too. Activating Hiten Style helps you last hitting under tower too.

Philosopher's stone Grants you the basic Hp and Mana regen in early game. This is a good thing, but there are better options for advanced players.

Heart of gold: I miss this thing but don't worry, there are so much other good choices.

Solves early game mana problems, grants some AP which is never bad. But the best thing is the passive. It makes your Bladesurge]] even deadly! Try to keep proccing it with Transcendent Blades.

Shoes are needed for all champions. I buy this if I need that early tenacity or magic resist. For example, if you face with Shen top, take these. Don't take Zephyr if you have these already, take Wit's End for example. This item stacks with your passive making Irelia almost immune to CC!!! These are your only chance to survive and do well in teamfights. Consider getting a Ninja Tabi instead if the enemy is mostly AD, and take Zephyr for the tenacity.

The best item on Irelia!!! The most important is the passive: This is a Sheen with increased effect, and slows enemies on hit, making them impossible to run away from your bloody kisses:) You may take Frozen Mallet or Iceborn gauntlets instead, some people like it but in my opinion, Trinity Force is a must have.

: This thing is made for Irelia. Insanely cost efficient to her, I buy it almost every game.

: Anti-AP Irelia item. Very good mid game, but lategame not that effective, so you may change it. Maw of Malmortius is way better, but much more expensive. Choose...

you may try build "Fratmog" ( Frozen Mallet Warmog's Armor Atma's Impaler) when your team lacks of CC.

Favourite mid/lategame items:

In lategame, you can sell your philosopher's stone if you have, or buy:
. very nice item with strong hp and mana regen. Gives a minighost on use for your team, which helps in crowd control, initiating and escaping. If your support Haven't taken it yet, consider taking it, but never will be the best choice.

is extremely nice!! The best way to counter AD champions, gives area slow on use! Very very effective in lategame teamfights! I think it's a better option on Irelia than Frozen Heart, because of the massive health bonus and that much mana don't needed. Maybe good combinating them if your enemy has a fed AD carry as hell, but I don't recommend that.

I don't really like this item on Irelia, but rarely it is needed. Very good against AD champions with high AS, or on-hit attacks! Master Yi Tryndamere Nocturne Gangplank etc. It's VERY effective against them. They almost kill themself, when hitting you! It is countered by lifesteal.

OP item... was an OP item..., I don't have to say anything. Other option is Banshee's Veil, which can be good against Karthus or heavy CC.

--> I only buy this if the enemy is AP dominant. Nice choice against Karthus, and Burst cannons like Veigar and LeBlanc. Love this item and always will be a good choice for Irelia.

You say it is not an OP item, but OP on Irelia. Magic resist and Hp bonus makes her more tenacious in battle. More tenacity-->More lifetime-->More dmg. It's easy:) This item grants 20% increased heal effects and regeneration on you, so it makes Hiten Style, Transcendent Blades and your regenerations even better:) With High resistances, enough hp, very good damage you will nearly impossible to be killed by enemies, because you heal up yourself again, and again...:)
And that CD reduction helps you to rotate more effective in lategame:)
This is a cheap item again:)) 2200g. Nothing for this:)
Anyways, I have to mention, this item is the best for Warwick, Yorick, Dr. Mundo and Volibear.

Against Rammus, Malphite and if you are fed soo much and the enemy take tons of armor. The new Black Cleaver is a better Option for Irelia. Think of Transcendent Blades applies armor penetration debuff on the whole enemy team, interesting... and considering.

--> It fits better on tanks or on some support champion, not really on you, but it grants moderate bonuses for your team, and it has decent price! Take this for 5-6th item, if your team haven't picked it yet.

Definitely love this item. Using the active while Hiten Style is active... huh:D

Against enemies with lots of health: Cho'Gath, Vladimir, Volibear, Dr. Mundo etc. For AS irelia/JunglIrelia, but I think it's a waste of an item slot... not bad, but there are better choices. This item is definitely made for Warwick.

Now the last item slot. My all-time favourite last item is:

I do not need to explain why I think:)))
You will be even brave and you will make easy killing blows!

If the game goes well, and you have a lot of health (about 3000+) you can get:
: Grants Insane stats for low price.

After that, Don't forget the ELIXIRS!!!!

Jungling:
Start with Hunter's Machete and 5x Health Potion, max Hiten Style and go for:

if want to build tanky, or icon=Spirit of the ancient golem size=32, if you want to be an offtank: lots of damage damage, or armor and health. Anyways, it helps you to kill monsters with increased effectiveness. It helps your entire team in killing the Dragon or Baron. Look at the price: 2400g. Very Cost efficient and easy to get and it's bonuses are huge. You can sell it if you have 6 items, and take Runic Bulwark instead for example...

In 5v5, I get:

very good to survive, going through walls. You can use it to chasing low Hp enemies, Combinate Flash with Bladesurge, and your enemy will be surprised:)

very good in chasing and fleeing. you have a lot of tenacity so you can use it bravely; and have low cooldown.

I like it, but only in 5v5. You are not a swift character like Master Yi so you can report calmly to buy your items, and teleport back immediately. Helps a lot! Use it especially when you dont use any movement speed bonuses than boots. Good at low account level, or if you don't have movement speed runes for example.

get it instead of Teleport. kills low Hp enemies and good in making your first blood:)

Maybe you can choose it if nobody have in your team yet. Good Choice on CarrIrelia.

I don't really use other summoner spells on Irelia, consider taking Heal on the Twisted treeline, or Barrier on Proving grounds.

Some pros:
- Effective at early game after lvl 3.
- with full item you have about 60-70% Damage decrease from attacks and spells, as an offtank and it doesn't harm your damage very much.
- You do not really need expensive full AD or full AP items like Infinity Edge Phantom Dancer Rabadon's Deathcap Bloodthirster etc. Just don't fits on you!
- Easy minion last hit --> much gold.
- Becomes very nice offtank.
- Can jungle

Some cons:
- Not good in surviving abilities. Stoppable with Frozen Mallet for example.
- Early game mana problems for beginners.
- CD dependant.
- Neither AP nor AD is really good for her.
- Hard to learn the use of this Champion, use your abilities swift! (use Q W E R!!!!)
- You will never become a Yi or Trynda, dont forget that! And Do not play that way. They are troll auto attackers. Nice against bots but not against players. But you are still OP:))

Better nerf her, but the best is playing with her.
I hope I've helped you, If U have any Questions, or problems, just write it on my board!
Thanks!

- Build created 05 08 2011
- Item changes 06 23 2011
- Build finished 06 29 2011
- Detailed guide for the second build possibility 10 07 2011
- Third build (Jungling) 02 19 2012
- Big build update 09 30 2012
- S3 update 12 09 2012