Hi Summoners, welcome to my Irelia - Unstoppable Top Solo Guide always the comments and suggestion are well received. I decide to pic Irelia, the will of the blades as my first guide here because she is one of the first champions I got and because she is extremely strong late game.

So let's start with the guide and I hope you enjoy it

I decide to choose Ignite and Flash as the two summoner spells because it can help you to secure kills or scape if needed.

Flash

This is the most powerful summoner spell, versatile and useful, helps you to chase or scape this spell must always be your first option combined with any other summoner spell unless you're Singed and you got Ghost.

Ignite

Useful to get kills early, mid and late game, in my opinion should be in your arsenal if you are a bruiser or ADC.

Teleport

This is a good choice if you think you'll need to go back to the top turret faster or if you want to get a free kill ganking bot or mid teleporting yourself into a Sight Ward, Vision Ward, Heimerdinger H-28G Evolution Turret or into a Teemo mushroom placed with Noxious Trap.

Exhaust In the new meta after the season 3 rotation this summoner spell is useful not only because the slow but the AS reduction because AS items were nerf.

In early game is all about sustain, opening with two Rejuvenation Bead and three Health Potions will provide the sustain you'll need. In your first time going shop make sure you have enough gold to get the Vampiric Scepter and the Boots if necessary to get a Sight Ward please get it. In middle game is very important to analyze your opponent/s and decide based on your needs which item you'll get first. Wit's End is a very strong item with Irelia as Phage so make sure you get any of those after you complete Ravenous Hydra
I added Trinity Forcein the built but if you need more tankiness please get Frozen Mallet instead.

Keep in mind that there could be many other combinations but is important for you to know what you need so you can get it. Please check the Situational Items section for more information.

In late game is very important to stay together as a team and be able to survive the team fights, that's why I choose Guardian Angel and Warmog's Armor as the last two Items. The order in those two items can be decided by you based on your team needs.

In this section I will describe a little bit about the situational items using Irelia against some match ups.

Against AP: The magic damage is escalated with AP items, runes and masteries so you have enough time to build magic resist, just keep in mid that the magic penetration is always an option for AP champions.

Wit's End

In the previous seasons this was a core item with Irelia but now with Zephyr you usually prefer to get Zephyr instead of Wit's End but if you are vs. an AP champion is better for you to get Wit's End because the magic resist and the additional bonuses like AS and the bonus magic damage on hits.

Maw of Malmortius and Banshee's Veil

Those two Items provide a decent amount of MR and they can shield you if needed.

Mercurial Scimitar

Is a very good option if you are against someone with hard CC.

Spirit Visage

Has MR and your Hiten Style will provide and incredible sustain.


Against AD: There are some many bruisers in the current meta that can easily kill you if you made a mistake so the following items can help you to recover the lane even if you were killed.

Frozen Heart and Randuin's Omen

Reduce the AS of nearby enemies or the ones attacking you, the activated ability of Randuin's Omen can help you to scape or chase someone and is very effective in team fights.

Sunfire Aegis and Runic Bulwark

Both have awesome auras as a passive abilities and a decent amount of armor, they also can be useful in team fights.

Locket of the Iron Solari

I know this one looks like a support item but the activated ability can save your life if you are about to die.


Against High Sustain: Usually in the Top Line you will find a bruiser or a tank so if you are against a tank or someone with a very high sustain like Garen, Nunu & Willump, Malphite, Dr. Mundo, Volibear, Shen and Lee Sin the following items can help you to mitigate their sustain in the line.

Youmuu's Ghostblade, Black Cleaver and Executioner's Calling

Critical strikes, attack damage, armor penetration all are incredible stats in a bruiser like Irelia and the activated ability in Youmuu's Ghostblade and the amazing passive on Executioner's Calling are useful.

Blade of the Ruined King and Bloodthirster

Life steel and drain effects work very good on champions with a lot of health items on them.



Against Ranged: This could be a very difficult match up because they can easily harass you at the distance and keep you away from farm so you can lose the XP the Gold and finally the lane.

Statikk Shiv, Hextech Gunblade and Sword of the Divine

Those three items have awesome stats on Irelia and the activated abilities synergize well with the true damage and the Irelia’ s gap closer.

Frozen Heart

This item can diminish the AS on ranged champions to reduce the farm speed.

Ravenous Hydra

This is a farm machine, once you get it you won't be away from farming and the CLEAVE passive procs with Bladesurge.


CORE ITEMS: I decide to include Trinity Force, Zephyr, Vampiric Scepter, Warmog's Armor and Guardian Angel as core items because if you have at least two of them in your build your late game would be unstoppable.

Vampiric Scepter

This was just included to represent the life steal importance in the Irelia’ s itemization.

Ionian Fervor

One of the most useful passives in the game, basically Irelia gains some Tenacity percentage based on the amount of nearby enemies.

Bladesurge

A Gap closer spell ability is very important in a melee champion without that they cannot reach any ranged opponent. Bladesurge can be used to reach an enemy, and the utility on this spell for farming is awesome because if it kills the target (Minions, Neutral Monsters and Champions). This spell can help you to clean up a minions wave very fast and also it synergize with on hit effects as Hiten Style, Wit's End and Trinity Force even with the benefits this skill provides I recommend to max it at last.

Hiten Style

This is one why Irelia is so powerful, there are just a short amount of champions with the ability to deal true damage (True damage: This is calculated before armor adjustments and cannot be mitigated by armor, shield abilities can still absorb a certain amount of true damage)(Ex: Corky's passive Hextech Shrapnel Shells, Darius's Noxian Guillotine and Olaf's Reckless Swing are sources of true damage) Also the passive ability is a very important source of sustain, that's why you should max it at first.

Equilibrium Strike

This skill has two functions SLOW and STUN, it will depends in your amount of health, if you have less or equal percentage of health it will stun the target but if you have more health it will just slow it which is not that bad, I recommend to max it second because the strong damage and the CC you'll get

Transcendent Blades

This is a multipurpose ulti ability, is probably not that strong as other ultis in other champions like Darius, Nunu & Willump, Lux and Amumu but is very useful to clear minion waves, heal yourself, or kill champions at the distance (you can cast it while attacking).

Irelia is pretty squishy early game so is very important to have some masteries in offense but the rest in defense.

Durability , Hardiness and Veteran's Scar

They will provide some early game resistance, I decide to go 9/21/0 because I prefer to be safe in lane than be an easy kill.

Tenacious

Adding all the points on Tenacious + Zephyr + Ionian Fervor will make Irelia almost immune to CC so I recommend to put all the points possible on that mastery.

Defender

The mastery point is very important because it can advise you about nearby enemies and avoid being kill in a gank.

Honor Guard

This is an important mastery because reduce the damage from all sources so it can help you to get some tower dives if you play aggressive.

So basically the defense three is very important in Irelia so I recommend to try this masteries structure.

Defensive and offensive runes, Flat Armor Seals Greater Seal of Armor to have enough armor against strong damage champions as Darius and Fiora, Flat Magic Resistance Glyphs Greater Glyph of Magic Resist to being ready for champions like Ryze and Master Yi and ganks from the APC trying to help the top teammate, Attack Speed Marks Greater Mark of Attack Speed to take advantage of your true damage on your basic attacks and Attack Damage Quintessences Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage to over extend the damage potential on Irelia's abilities in early game.

You can get armor and magic resistance per level if you want to and some movement speed runes too, they could work fine for you too.

PROS

1 - Extremely strong with items
2 - Excellent farming
3 - Great sustain
4 - Escaping Option

CONS

1 - Weak early game
2 - Item dependent
3 - Need to farm really well
4 - Was Nerf

This is a very important part of the guide even if there is no much you can do in early game because remember....you are alone, alone, alone in the top line, just kidding, there is so much you can do in early, mid and late game.

Most of the times what you will be doing is ganking mid just keep in mind that should be done only if you just pushed your lane or killed the top champ from the other team.

One other thing you can do is gank bot....But how...???..is all the way down on the map. Remember you have teleport and your support teammate should place a ward on the bot bush, just teleport there and get a kill.Note: Try to not steal XP from the other lines.

As I said all the champions can be OP but really depends on the summoner's skill. I always recommend to play safe, do not feed the enemy team and be patient the kills will arrive at the time they should and never underestimate the other team members.

03/08/2013 - Itemization, Masteries, Skill Sequence adjusted.
03/08/2013 - Match ups information to be added soon, still in research.