✰ Introduction ✰ Mid or Top ✰ Skills ✰ General tips and Combos ✰ Wards ✰ Game plan Early Game (0-15 min) Mid Game (15-25min) Late game(30 min+) ✰ IMPORTANT NOTE #1 ✰ IMPORTANT NOTE #2

Hello! I’m just another EUNE LoL player, who really enjoys playing Mid in my free time. I've been an OTP Irelia, so I decided to make a guide, as she’s an incredibly fun and rewarding champion to learn. The more you play her, the more crazy moves you can come up to and surprise your lane opponent. If you’re a beginner to league or Irelia as a champ and struggle to win the lane, I made a guide for you!
Disclaimer: I did this guide based on my experience and game style. Not all of the tips might fit you, but perhaps you'll find some useful general tips =)
UPD 01.01.2025: Happy New Year everyone :) I'm so happy that more than 20k people already read my guide, I promise I will keep updating it! Thank you all <3
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TOP:

Choose top if you prefer long fights with outplays. I saw many people recommend playing Irelia top to understand champ mechanics better, so I started from top as well. As a new player, it was really painful. Irelia has more unfavorable matchups on top than mid (like Jax, Sett, Illaoi, Tryndamere).Overall in LoL top is a hard lane. You have to manage your waves properly, and not get dived eventually. You also don't get much ganks as any other lane. HOWEVER after 14.24+, Irelia as a toplaner finally became good and playable. In 25 S1.1 minions were reworked, and now they do more damage to each other, preparing low hp minions quicker for you to Q. I will try to extend the guide for toplane as well, after playing there :3

MID:

Mid is for those who prefer fast all-ins in a second. This lane is less punishing, giving you opportunities to roam and farm faster. I use Resolve rune set on midlane and really enjoy it for my playstyle. Inspiration rune set is good if you play aggressively with more trades, losing hp and mana, and Biscuit Delivery will save you. Glory to cookies!
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If you played Irelia you probably know her abilities. Still, I'd like to shortly explain her kit, so that tips and combos would be clearer.

Passive: Ionian Fervor
Most of your damage comes from this passive, as you get Attack Speed and bonus magic damage on hit. It has 4 stacks, you get 1 stack for each enemy champion hit by an ability.

This is the mark you need to use wisely. Enemy champions and large monsters hit by Flawless Duet and Vanguard's Edge initial barrage (Not marked when walking throught it, only when you hit the skillshot!) are marked as Unsteady for 5 seconds. The mark can be consumed by Bladesurge.

Q: Bladesurge
*Irelia spams Q everyone dies lol* no. It's not how it works. Your Q resets only if you kill a target OR if you hit a marked enemy. Use it wisely, I will explain it in tips. Your main farming and early passive-stacking tool.

W: Defiant Dance
Don't think of it as your damage tool, but a defensive one. Use it to survive an all-in, painful skillshot, tower shot, or to do some damage to several units in front of you. You can also farm with it, to prepare minions to Q all of them. When you hold it, you can see a bar below. Defiant Dance deals more damage after you relese the key after the bar fills on 50%.

E: Flawless Duet
Irelia sends a blade to the target location for 3.5 seconds, which can be recasted. Once the two blads are placed, they stun all champions in the line for 0.75 seconds and mark them. It also reveals an enemy for a short period.

R: Vanguard's Edge
Deals magic damage, also reveals enemies and slows them by 90% for 1.5 sec. Gives a mark to recast Bladesurge just as Flawless Duet.
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As I already said, you probably played Irelia, or at least know how her abilities look like. I just mentioned some details that you could've missed, without precise timings, cooldowns, mana cost, range etc.
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Warding path for a midlaner is quite simple in early game. During your laning phase (0-10min) on ~1:05 put a Stealth Ward on enemy raptors. (1 if you're blue side 1 if red). It makes spotting enemy jungler much easier, and you will have a lot more time to predict his gank.
Blue spots are places where you must have vision if you're blue side.
Red spots the same, but if you play red team.
Yellow spots are places where it's better to always have vision, no matter the side.

Don't forget to ward!

If you have an enemy Teemo or Jhin, swap Stealth Ward to Oracle Lens and use it while walking in jungle or approaching him. Optionally with Jhin, though
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Tips

That's my favorite chapter! As an Irelia, you always learn something new about playing this champion and outplaying your opponent.
P.S. I'm SO SORRY for tons of text, this guide already became my personal diary xD
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HOW MANY GAMES I NEED TO HAVE TO MASTER IRELIA
I dont know why, but many people ask "How many games I need to play as *champ* to master them?". I'll tell based on my experience. Irelia was the first champ I spammed when just starting League (since lvl 8 I guess), not even knowing what is BOTRK,CS,QSS,Q3 and I had to google those terms lol and I had no idea how to play this champ properly. If you have understanding of MOBA games or played League before, you will need much less time, of course. But starting as an absolute 0 and upgrading to a decent level(not going 0/5 each game lol), I needed ~150 games. I still have games where I'm behind, but when you play with your team and are good with a champ, you climb out throughout the game eventually, exploiting enemy weaknesses. But it's okay if you struggle when you just start Irelia! However, Irelia is a very rewarding champ with high skill ceiling, and one could never master her fully. Through time you will notice how you automatically dodge skillshots with Bladesurge and dive opponents under tower. There is no certain tip for that, it's just practice and learning limits of a champ. =)
HOW TO PLAY STARTING WITH E FIRST
Yeah I promised to explain it here. IF YOU START WITH E FIRST: Use it ONCE before level 2 and try to poke enemy with AA if you manage to stun him. Don't use it when your xp bar is more than ~80%. Your opponent will probably push you to the tower by that time and have a lvl 2 already. That's okay! AA some minions, reach lvl 2, and take Q. I must warn you that you have quite a small window to kill your enemy before he reaches lvl 3. Most midlaners are weaker than you lvl 2-5, so the moment you both are lvl 2, play aggressively. Why I like it:
1) The opponent is already near your tower, forcing him to Flash your engage or die. Also it's the timing when your jungler can gank you.
2) you don't get too close to him -> not poked too much.
3) Your E is more useful in invades than Q.
4) Your opponent would expect you to take Q first.

IF YOU STRUGGLE AGAINST MAGES
It's actually not only about Irelia, but for any melee champ on mid. Your lvl 1 is quite weak and you don't have a range advantage. A mage can stand behind a wave and just poke you with autos, forcing you to the tower (that's why I take E first). However, you level 2-5 as a melee are kind of a powerspike vs a mage. If they don't respect it, go for an all in, better right after they waste their abilities.

IF YOU STRUGGLE AGAINST A CERTAIN MATCHUP/WANNA TRY NEW COMBOS

Most of you forget about practice tool with AI. In Practice mode you can add a bot, and there are a lot of champs you can add as your opponent (not all, sadly). They are not perfect and it's clearly AI, however if you wanna have an approximate view of their range/damage, or learn to dodge abilities with Q (Veigar's Cage) you should try it out! Or if you struggle with farming it really helps. Plus, it has a control panel just as a solo practice mode.

IF YOU ARE SUPER BEHIND&TILTED

I wrote this chapter right after having a game of 1/8/0 on min 15 and without a Blade of the Ruined King, so I know what I'm talking about lol. I described a perfect scenario, or an average one, when you get 2-3 kills by min 10 etc and get an item each 10 minutes. But sometimes we struggle and that's okay! If you know what to do. So, the plan is:
1) Farm. You have to farm, ignore everyone and everything, don't fight for obectives or participate in random teamfights if you are not 10000% sure you will get something out of it (you probably won't). You are too weak to have any impact there, and you will probably just die again. So search for empty lanes, if you see their team somewhere, don't go there even if your team does. You won't gain much. It's very controversial, and most people would rage and ping you, but trust me, it's the best you can do. While they fight, you can even push a lane and get a tower. Cool!
2) Build DMG items. Many new players think that if they die too much they should build raw armor/hp items to survive. Nah. When I'm behind, I farm like crazy for a Titanic Hydra. It's a perfect item that would give you as tankiness, as dmg. ONLY after Blade of the Ruined King never ignore it.
3) *i will update it once i recall new lifehacks sorry it's 2 AM T-T*

SETTINGS
When you're fighting in a wave, it's very easy to press q on a minion instead of a marked champ, or the other way round. What I like to do is to bind "X" key to "toggle champions only". You can find this setting in settings->hotkeys->abilities and summoner spells->Target champions only (it's almost on the bottom of the list). Bind it to a comfortable key ("X" for example). So that each time you hold X, your champ cannot attack minions, ONLY champion. After releasing the key, everything is normal. Once you get used to this setting it becomes much more comfortable to play, so try not to forget it and leaarn to play with it.
IMPORTANT check in settings->game->Gameplay->"Treat Target Champions Only as a toggle" DISABLED. Whille playing Irelia, if this setting is on, it can ruin your fight completely, so make sure this setting is disabled
NOW FOR THE SHORT TIPS
(they are not short anymore...)

1. Don't rush kills. If you feel like you can't fight your opponent then don't, and prioritize your income, even if he baits you. Farming and your cs is much more important than kills. Irelia has a great waveclear and is one of the best cs-ers. It's a part of her design and her kit, so don't ignore it. Your cs must be higher than 6, otherwise you won't be able to use Irelia potential. If you go 0/0/0 for 15 minutes but good cs, you'll still be very strong with items and the gold you gained. Plus, you will learn to kill a minion with Q faster, which can be useful in fights, and I'll tell it in next tip.

2. Minions are your mobility tool. When you get a Blade of the Ruined King you will be able to one shot caster minions. Bladesurge heals you if you kill a minion and stacks up your passive, so you can q onto caster minions between AA-ing your opponent to gain health and confuse your enemy.

3. You can use you W Defiant Dance to clear minion wave faster, or to prepare a wave to single-Q all the minions. When you have Blade of the Ruined King you one q shot caster minions and melee after a 50%+ hold W.

4. Defiant Dance also reduces damage from turrets.

5. You can land both of your E on an opponent, clicking them straight on the enemy champ. Works well if adc and support walk too close to each other, your E hides between them, letting you stun both.

6. Use Q on lvl 1-3 only to stack passive when you're about to engage. It's easy to run out of mana if you spam it too much, so try to finish minions with AA if you're not planning to engage soon.

7. DON'T HIT ONE MINION WITH AA. Hit each of the minions with 1 AA, don't stand in front of a single minion and auto attack him. That way you will manage their health evenly, making dashing between them with Q much easier. When you use a combo, you must understand that it's always better to do with minions nearby, so try to stack 1 or 2 stacks with your Q before full engage.

8. After marking a champ, never use both Q on him at once. Always save second Q to
a) escape
b) catch him if he flashes/dashes/runs away.

9. E and R mark a champion. Always try to use a mark with Bladesurge before placing a new mark with next ability. So that you can recast q 3 times instead of 2.

10. 200iq move: you can throw your R behind you while pretending to run away, hit a champ and do a combo. Trust me, it's fun.

11. IF YOU ARE ClOSE TO YOUR OPPONENT Don`t use your q after stunning enemy with E, use auto attacks, and Q him only when he starts running away to chase him down.

12. If you lose early game, go 0/2 by min 10, that's okay. Your mid game is strong, and if you're good you will climb out easily. I had plenty of games with terrible early game, trying out new playstyle, but it's all figures out to min 15-20. Try to do unexpected ganks on botlane with Vanguard's Edge+ Flash combo. (use flash right after you click R), or if there is no such an opportunity - simply farm and get tower plates while your opponent recalls or roams. Don't forget to ping your lane if the enemy is missing, perhaps he is roaming.

13. Defiant Dance release animation can hide your E if you plce it right after releasing your W.

14. Defiant Dance reduces very little magic damage, so if their team/your lane opponent is mostly AP, max E after fully maxing Q. Use Defiant Dance to reduce minion health in that case or to do some damage.

15. Your Flawless Duet and Vanguard's Edge reveal enemies. You can use it for an escape in the jungle. Q Bladesurge cannot be used in unseen targets, but can be used on revealed ones. If you are escaping through a jungle, you can blindly land E on a jungle camp and Q on it, dashing quite a good distance, letting you escape.

16. If you stand right next to the wall and press Flash in the middle of the wall, you will get over the wall. (i explained it terribly sorry). You can use it for an unespected gank, pressing Vanguard's Edge and Flash over the wall. It can be tricky at first but it's super cool, so try it in practice mode!

17. Try not to stand in a minion wave, so that your opponent would have to waste abilitis either on you, or the wave, and not both. Bladesurge has enough range to reach a low hp minion.

18. When landed, two blades of Flawless Duet travel to each other and stun once met. Thus, they will travel faster if placed near each other, so that they will have shorter animation and quicker stun.

19. When you dash with Bladesurge you can cast E or R mid-Q. I thought it's a useless tip, BUT NO it's super cool once you handle it. Needs some training and mechanic. Your opponent is distracted by your dash, and often cannot react in time to your E or R. HOWEVER it works if you have stable high fps and ping.

Combos

(Honestly, I'd recommend watching a video on youtube with all Irelia combos, they are not hard, just need some mechanical pratice. I will try to comment each of them and when to use it. All these combos have variations, so it will depend on your situation. I will try to add short videos of using all those combos in my games later.)

Easy:

1. Bladesurge + AA + Bladesurge

Basic poking combo. You have two low hp minions, the one is further from you and second one is closer. Q on further, AA your opponent and immediately Q to the second minion.

2. landed Flawless Duet + Bladesurge + AA

You land your E and kick him kick him! Use first Q to get into your AA range, and save second Q to catch him up. Basic lvl 2 combo with a probable kill. Don't forget, if your E hits a champ, you receive 1 Ionian Fervor stack, next Q give second stack. By that time you must have all four stacks, so before engaging get 2 stacks from two minion killed with a Q.

Average:

1.1 Flawless Duet + Bladesurge (on a minion) + 2 Flawless Duet + Bladesurge + AA + Bladesurge

Let's break it down a bit. You have to land your first E in a bush or somewhere where your opponent won't see it, Q on a minion to get closer to an enemy, use 2 E to stun him, Q onto him to get into AA range. Never use two Q at once. Save your second Q if the enemy will dash, or run away to chase him.

2. 1 Flawless Duet + Vanguard's Edge + Bladesurge + AA + Flawless Duet + AA + Bladesurge

Basic all-in combo. Never use second Flawless Duet right after using R and without consuming the mark with Bladesurge.

3. Vanguard's Edge+ Flash+ Bladesurge + AA + land Flawless Duet + AA + Bladesurge + AA + Bladesurge

I never thought it would be that long lol
It's not that hard as it seems, and don't be scared of the Vanguard's Edge+ Flash, it's much easier to execute and almost impossible to miss the timing. This combo is used when you are outside of your midlane, as Flash+ Vanguard's Edge takes a lot of room, and your opponent would flee under the tower.

Useless Flex:
Hard:

Defiant Dance + Flash

it's hard to execute in practice mode, and even harder in real game. You will probably get the wrong timing and flash after using w. I learnt this combo from Irelking to never use it in an actual game. It probably needs quite a skill level to do it properly and get a kill. So, you don`t need it as a beginner. Better to learn it after you get a good grip on mechanical moments on irelia.
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Early Game (0-15 min)

Don't poke too much without stacked passive. Try to get a kill on lvl 2-6 if you land your E Flawless Duet and stack your passive. You can get a kill later, but your opponent would probably be trickier to deal with.

Mid Game (15-25 min)

You're strongest in mid game. Roughly you have to get a new item each 10 minutes. After you get Blade of the Ruined King roam, get kills. If you destroy midlane tower, roam to bot and help in getting objectives. If you are behind and doing pretty bad, try to farm anywhere you can, except your jungler's camps lol. You deal quite a damage with Blade of the Ruined King only and the second item usually gives some sustain if it's not Kraken Slayer. Don't participate in random jungle teamfights if you're behind (only if you're sure you 100% benfit from it). Farm and play helping and pushing winning lanes. It's more a tip for a jungler, though. If you have tp, it's much easier to get to an empty lane when you see a group of enemies on the other side of the map, and clear waves there. You gain gold from minions and also a probable tower. When you're too weak, ignore teams pings, as you won't do much st this point. Your goal is to have 2 finished items on min 20 and cs 7+. That's when you have enough sustain and damage.

Late Game (25 min+)

You are strong, but there are champs that are stronger( Veigar, Nasus). By that moment the game turns into ARAM (and it has to, after Baron spawn on min 20 you have to push your winning lane with whole team, prefer mid), so participate in teamfights and don't wander around alone if you don't want 1v5.
Try to walk with a teammate who has CC. Your team will prbably be pushing a lane 5v5, s you won't getn too much minions to stack on. You can mark 5 champs with your E and R, but it's not easy not to accidentally waste your Q on an unmarked champion when they are standing close. Misclicking Q is probablly the most painful thing on Irelia, but one of the basic skills to learn.
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Thank you for scrolling to this section, as I do think that these notes are probably the most important reminders for all LoL players,even though I was not planning to include them originally. Please, read them.

IMPORTANT NOTE #1

When you start playing League, you're always bad. You cannot be pro at anything, each skill requires time and patience. I've seen plenty of new players being flamed and reported for low skill or weird moves, even in quickplays. You can never hide from that, only by disabing chat, which is quite an option to be honest. If you enjoy the game and really want to learn playing a champion and TO HAVE FUN, then nobody must ever take that away from you. Games are created to HAVE FUN and not to compete (unless you're planning to be in T1 I guess?). If you feel like you're doing bad or getting tired from a certain champ, and I'm not talking about Irelia only, take a rest, don't play League or switch to another role or another champ, and return to your main some time later. It's okay if you start off well, and your next games become worse. Don't worry, just take a break and have cookies ^т^

IMPORTANT NOTE #2

I was not actually planning to cover it in the guide, but I think it’s a really important reminder to all of you. League is quite an addictive game with the climbing system, passes (BP) and so on. I’m not a Challenger or a Pro player and I don't want to,as I'm just enjoying occasionally playing league in the evenings with friends. However, if you have the smallest doubt that you start to miss something in your real life, please, close the game and rest, without playing for a couple days as a starting point. I know it might be hard, but I believe you’re strong enough to do it. People tend to underestimate this problem, however it can be quite serious and destructive, leading to irreversible consequences. I had this experience, and I don't wish anyone the same. Doing sports, hobbies, walking outside and spending time in real life with your friends and family are precious and much more rewarding. Video games are made to have fun, and not a way to escape stress or reality. Don't let them become a drug you spend too much money and time on. Thank you so much for reading up to here, I hope you will keep my words in mind, and stay strong in this tough world <3


Thank you for reading the guide, hope you enjoyed it. Please, in case you have any questions or remarks or you want me to add another matchup or more toplane specifics, let me know in comments ^т^
P.S Sorry for the long notes and lack of structured tables, I'm new to guidemaking, I will try to update this guide!
P.S.S. Apologies if you encounter grammar or spelling mistakes, I’m not a native speaker ><


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