Hiya - I was a Top 1000 Irelia [EUW] in Season 10 and have reached top 500 this season and have been playing the reworked Irelia from almost her release.

Irelia is a high skill cap, incredibly fun Top Lane Fighter/Bruiser. She has a lot of mobility but also suffers from very long cooldowns. However, she is one of the most rewarding champions to One Trick

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Irelia synergises incredibly well with Runes such as Conqueror which gives her Sustained Damage and True Healing on top of that. She also loves attack speed as her kit is naturally high in damage.

Why should I play Irelia?:
PROS:
+ High Mobility
+ High Snowball Champ
+ Strong Teamfight Potential
+ Strong Outplay Potential
+ Strong Into Ranged Matchups


CONS:
- Susceptible to CC
- Mana Problems
- Very Slow
- Not easy to play, takes many games to learn and master

Immortal Shieldbow gives you insane amounts of sustain, damage, a lifeline, attack speed and small bruiser stats with the mythic passive. However, you're fairly squishy until you hit your final few items where you can start building tanky items.



Trinity Force is still viable, but not optimal, the spellblade proc and trinity passive can be useful for split pushing as you can abuse it with your E, however, the item seriously lacks AD making it difficult to use

Irelia Mid Or Irelia Top?
Irelia's W only blocks physical damage after the change (many patches ago) and hence I see her better in Top Lane and only viable in midlane as a very situational pick. She is also a very slow champion so her roaming potential is pretty weak if they have vision on you and hence you can get punished very hard for failed roams.

Most Difficult Matchup?
Shen or Sett - both are practically unwinnable unless the enemy laner is really bad.

Easiest Matchup?
I really love going into Kayle and Yorick, both are really easy to destroy.

Any streamers you recommend?
Definitely ICU, he interacts with chat frequently and answers tons of questions about irelia. Venour is another good one.

Is Irelia In a Good Spot?
Not really, you're pretty much always better off learning a champ like Riven who arent a slave to the pro-play meta. She's fine, but not incredible.

Why not PTA?
The issue with PTA is it only procs on one person, so although it can be more useful in lane, Conqueror's team fight potential cannot be matched, once conqueror is stacked on one, it applies to all.

1) You can hide your E in Fog Of War or a Brush to surprise the enemy

2) Save your Q2 to secure a kill or use it as a gap closer if they flash away

3) Abuse Irelia's auto range, sometimes you may hit autos you don't think possible. You can practice this in Practice Tool and learn the range.

4) Irelia's W can block Tower Damage and hence is a really useful tool for diving. In addition to this, it can be a useful (but expensive) wave clear tool for pushing in waves

5) If you start corrupting potion, use it to do bonus burn damage while trading

6) You can ult through minions before hitting the enemy to set up an escape/method of sustain while trading

As Irelia, In lane, you have 2 main power spikes these are:

Level 2 - Many people dont respect Irelia's early damage (especially her 5 stack) so picking up first blood at Level 2 is quite common allowing you to quickly gain a lead, 5 Stack, E + Q + Q can be deadly to many Top Lane matchups including tanks,this should be a free first blood

Level 6 - If you hit Level 6 before your enemy laner, you should seek to instantly engage (providing it isn't a difficult matchup), they should be dead before they can fully react with their abilities thanks to Irelia's low cast times.

Level 11 - At this point, you should have 3+ items and you should begin melting their backline.

In addition to this, there are other important things you have to remember in lane. Such as:

Taking Towers
While taking towers, keep your 5 stack up by using your abilities on minions in-between as 5 stack will give you tons of bonus damage. In addition to this, If you get Trinity, you should E1, Spellblade Proc on tower, E2,Spellblade Proc on tower, W Spellblade Proc on tower as this further speed up the rate at which you take the tower.

Roaming
One of the best roams you can do is a Teleport to the botlane, ideally , have your lane crashing into the tower and Teleport to a deepward. With your teleport speed boost you can often pick up a free double kill from their botlane.

Once your lane is over, Irelia has really strong teamfight potential with her ult, however, at the same time, it is vitally important to use it correctly since it has such a long cooldown until later ranks (or if you get multiple cloud drakes). Never waste it on chasing a kill (as tempting as it is) as a 60 seconds later you may be facing a 5v5 where you don't have you're game changing ult.

As Irelia, you ideally don't want to be the frontline engager in most fights as you're fairly squishy until you hit 4+ items, If you have a support such as Nautilus or Malphite on your team, or a jungler such as Amumu, allow them to engage first and follow up with your Ult. You should aim to Ult at least 2-3 people every teamfight as this will instantly grant you 3 bonus stacks. Irelia excels in teamfights around objectives as hitting more people becomes far easier.

ALWAYS FIGHT WITH 5 STACKS
Before you engage onto anyone with your Q, ensure you have at least 5 stacks so you get the bonus On Hit damage

1v1:
4 Stack from Minions, E, Q, run them down with fully stacked passive. Try and ensure there are minions around you in case you need extra sustain or you need a way of escaping.

1v2 Situation
E, Q, Auto, R, Q, Auto etc - Save W here for Tower shots or blocking their damage, remember to hold it for the bonus damage. Or, you can open with R providing you are able to hit both of them

Teamfight
R, Q around, E1, E2, Q, Autos, saving W for when its necessary

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this guide! As time goes on I will seek to update it with more information, especially in season 11.

Good luck on the rift!