Hello and welcome to my Irelia guide. This is my first real try for a guide, so feel free to give me some constrictive critisism. Also, english isn't my native language so sorry if it isn't 100% correct!

Irelia is a great late game carry and is a real pubstomper at low elo, and a respected pick in all elo and competetive play. She is played alot by Wickd and s0Az on EU servers which are both exceptionally good players. I am by no means as good as they so if you want to watch them play search for them on www.youtube.com or you can watch them stream at www.own3d.tv.
Videos are great ways to learn and learning from the best is never wrong. And now, my dear readers I present you my Irelia guide.

PROS

+ One of the best off tank carrys in game
+ Great damage even with a full tank build
+ Extremely fast paced champion

CONS

- Only situational CC
- Hard to master

Greater Quintessence of Armor

You may be asking why to use Armor quintessenses. And to be honest it's only a matter of preference. I use them because I find myself laning vs AD bruisers/assassins at top lane. I used to prefer movement speed quints but with the new mastery page that I use I feel it's not really needed. However, when I have something like an Udyr that is solo top and I have to go middle vs AP I prefer greater quintessence of regeneration


greater mark of desolation

So the marks are fairly standard on anything that deals physical damage. 15 armor penetration may not look as much but you WILL notice a BIG difference by using these runes. To be honest a must have and I don't really see any other options for this slot.


Greater Seal of Armor

I used to use Greater Seal of Evasion on all of my solo top champions but with the removal of Nimbleness I just like the damage reduction from armor seals even more. Dodge is also soon to be removed from the game. Just like quintessences I would rather use health regen than armor vs AP carrys.


Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist

Best in slot for almost any champion in my opinion. I use it on all of my junglers and solo top champions. I have however seen Wickd use cooldown reduction on these in a solo queue ranked game, but I would never imagine him to use them in competetive play. Greater Glyph of Magic Resist are also a good choice here.

Stats from these runes:

~15 Armor Penetration
~25 Armor
~24 Magic Resist@lvl 18

Flash

I used to use flash on EVERYTHING with no exception. Now, when flash has been nerfed I occasionally switch to ghost. Much like the runes, summoner spells are a matter of preference. You can easily just flash over walls to escape that first blood or even go offensive flashing to ensure that kill. I would advise you to not offensive flash if you are not 100% that you will get the kill.

Ignite

Synergisez very well with Irelia's burst. Extremely efficient vs high sustain targets such as Nidalee or Swain

A summoner spell which I use very frequently on solo top champions, especially on Irelia. This works very well if you want to sit at tour lane and farm all game and push their tower and occasionally teleport down for a dragon fight. Irelia is a champion that can easily turn the tides of battle. A great summoner spell for 5v5 premades.
DO NOT USE IN THE TWISTED TREELINE!!!



As I said, it's either this or flash. Good for long chases and runs.



Great summoner spell overall. I switch between this and ignite depending on what my team needs.

I don't really feel as if any other summoner spells are that good on her. Stick to the five above.

Ionian Fervor is one of the best passives in the game if not the best. You are almost unstunnable with merc threads and defense masteries. In teamfights nothing can stop you and people that say "stun Irelia!" just don't.

Bladesurge is an amazing skill that synergisez extremely well with her other abilities. Remember, it resets your attack timer so make sure that you use it straight after autoattacking if your opponent doesn't run away. And the fact that the cooldown resets doesn't make it worse. It gives you soooo much utility! For example: charge a minion and when the enemy least expect it just charge their carry. It covers so much ground and the range is fairly high on it as well. It gives the Sheen proc aswell so when you have that you can just poke down your lane opponent really hard.

Hiten Style is your bread and butter skill. The sustain is fantastic from this and the true damage is extremely powerfull. This combines really well with items like Wit's End and gives you really good burst. It also works with your Q and when activating it makes last hitting a breeze. Another sweet thing about this is that when you activate it for the true damage the passive is still there.

Equilibrium Strike is your only crowd controll spell. Does exactly what the tooltip says and this can easily turn a 1 vs 1 your way. When you duel someone try to wait for them to deal some damage to you so that he has higher health than you so you can get your stun off. This easily allows you to escape ganks without wasting any summoners.

Transcendent Blades is a great ultimate in my opinion, and is great for sustain in lane and landing that final blade on a low health enemy just makes you feel so pro. Each charge that you use grants the Sheen proc aswell so try and make use of that aswell.
-> -> ->

philosipher's stone Good item for early sustain in your lane and helps you get items faster to. Sometimes I like to build this into a Shurelya's Battlesong.

Wriggle's Lantern This is a really sweet item for any solo top champion. It gives you more sustain and a free ward every 3 minutes. The damahe proc on minions is usefull for getting drake and baron, aswell as for farming. I sometimes skip this item when I need to go middle. In 90% of my games I start with Cloth Armor and rush this item.

Mercury's Treads These are probably the best boots in game. With masteries, 3 enemies around you and these you'll be stunned for 85% less time! Say that Malzahar uses Nether Grasp you'll be stunned for ~0,40 seconds!

Wit's End This item boosts your sustained damage to very high levels as well as giving some good defense. When you activate your W you'll be hitting like a truck, and fast to. If an enemy runs away from you, you probably wont have enough run speed to catch up and use your true damage to full potential. Yet.

Trinity Force This item is the item that every Irelia gets. What is there not to like about it? Sheen proc is just to good, Zeal has attack speed and well needed movement speed(Irelia is not reliable on crit chance so no point in stacking it on her) and Phage has health, damage and a slow. An AMAZING item on Irelia. Don't ever skip it. I usually start getting Phage because it makes you a bit more tanky and gives you a great slow.

That is basically the core on Irelia in my opinion. You could say that you don't need the lantern on her, but I just love it on Irelia, although it may not be 100% core on her, i definetely think that wit's end and trinity force are.

Guardian Angel I get this item so many games just because it's so versatile in it's stats and it's passive is so good it's just wonderfull.

Force of Nature I get this item everytime the enemy team has double AP or if their AP carry is just wrecking us in teamfights. This grants you even more movement speed.

Banshee's Veil Another great item to counter AP carrys. Gives a nice bit of health and magic resist but to be honest it's the spell block passive that you want. If I'm sure that I'll be getting this item I usually get a catalyst the protector after my lantern. It gives you great sustain in mid game. Don't build it into the veil straight away unless you want to negate a big source of AP damage like Requiem. Building a ] Hexdrinker is also a good item for that.

Warmog's Armor A pretty straight forward item which I usually build if my team is dominating and we are certain we will win. When I build this I get it after Trinity Force and straight after I combine it with Atma's Impaler.

Randuin's Omen A great defensive item that I build if I'm going full tank. If you plan to get this get a Heart of Gold early game.

Infinity Edge This is a really good item on AD carrys, but I don't really feel like it gives to much to Irelia. I would rather for attack speed items than heavy AD items.

Phantom Dancer I would much rather get this than an Infinity Edge on Irelia because of the attack speed.

Hextech Gunblade This item is actually not bad if you're planning on going a more offensive damage Irelia. I've gotten it a couple of games with her when we've just had a to tanky team and so I've gone hybrid assassin.

Guinsoo's Rageblade Same as the above. These Guinsoo's Rageblade and Hextech Gunblade work pretty well together.

Okay then. That's my guide and build for Irelia. Thank you very much for reading and if you have some tips on what else I could write in this guide! I would like to give JhoiJhoi alot of credit for her incredible guide on how to write a guide! Her guide can be found right here: http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/making-a-guide-101506
CHAO!