Sup, My name is Adzill, also know as "better nerf meh" on euw, this is because of better nerf Irelia, not because I am big headed. anyway, I have always had one champion I really enjoyed playing; Irelia, from her juicy booty, to her play style I really love Irelia. Recently I have been talking to people who I played with a long time ago, when I just started with Terania, they were silver/gold level at the time, but are now currently plat/diamond. Some of them mained Irelia for a short period of time. They stopped playing Irelia because she was so repetitive, I do see what they meant but when guinsoo's was changed it gave a different playstyle to Irelia, one that I enjoyed just as much as tri-force and determined it was something that Irelia should get. When I saw irelia mains in challenger start to use guinsoo's it confirmed my suspicions that it was indeed a good item. At some point I would love to achieve to bring back the meme "better nerf Irelia" ...

Indirect:

Death timers:
Death timers are being decreased, this causes games to be harder to close and late game champs will be better. this will also cause midgame kills to be less rewarding, which is a problem for irelia as she is strongest at midgame.

Bruisers are buffed:
Bruisers have an easier time as bloodlust has been nerf, thus causing a nerf to Graves top. Also poppy and rammus have been nerfed causing bruisers to have an easier matchup.

Maw of Malmortius:
Maw has been nerfed making it harder for bruisers to deal damage and have magic resist, i would recommend wit's end as a substitute.

Fun fact: Irelia was the only champion to get buffed this patch, so for "better nerf irelia"

When to pick irelia?:
Irelia is one of those champions who will dominate certain champions matchups but will struggle against others. This means if played at an average level, it would be best to play someone else, for example if in draft mode the enemy picked tryndamere.
however Irelia only has a few opponents that she cannot lane against, thus causing Irelia to be a safe(ish) pick.

Irelia has a great kit which gives her good potential for laning and for mid game.
Her passive: Ionian Fervor - Ionian Fervor RANGE: 1200
Ionian Fervor
Irelia reduces the duration of crowd control against her by 10 / 25 / 40% when near one or more visible enemy champions.

Ionian Fervor is a passive ability that reduces the duration of most crowd control effects on Irelia by a percentage dependent on the number of visible enemy champions within sight range.
Additional Information:

When Ionian Fervor activates, Irelia's headdress will glow red and the Ionian Fervor buff will appear on her status bar.
If Ionian Fervor triggers for multiple enemy champions, the glow will become stronger and the buff will gain further stacks.
Ionian Fervor does not reduce the duration of knock-ups, knock-backs, or suppression.
Ionian Fervor stacks multiplicatively with tenacity and Tenacious mastery s4.png Tenacious for a total of:
1 champion: 50.28%
2 champions: 58.56%
3 or more champions: 66.85% Her q: Bladesurge - Bladesurge RANGE: 650 COST: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 MANA COOLDOWN: 14 / 12 / 10 / 8 / 6
Bladesurge
ACTIVE: Irelia dashes to the target enemy, dealing physical damage and applying on-hit effects.
PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 20 / 50 / 80 / 110 / 140 (+ 120% AD)
If Bladesurge kills its target, it refunds 35 mana and resets its cooldown.

Bladesurge is a targeted dash ability that brings Irelia to the target enemy unit, and applying on-hit effects on arrival.
Does not apply spell effects.
Does apply on-hit effects, life steal but can NOT critically strike.
Classified as a melee attack.
The damage will be mitigated by Counter Strike.png Counter Strike, Aegis Protection.png Aegis Protection, Riposte.png Riposte, and will miss if Irelia is blinded.
Banshee's Veil item.png Spell shields will block the damage.

Additional Information:

Bladesurge will only allow Irelia to dash through walls if there is enough space for her on the other side.
Damage is not dealt to the target if Irelia is disrupted before she reaches their location, but the damage cannot be dodged via instant displacement like Urchin Strike.png Urchin Strike's.
If the target dies within a very short time (approx. 0.5 seconds) of performing Bladesurge, its cooldown will still refresh. Her w:
Hiten Style COST: 40 MANA COOLDOWN: 15
Hiten Style
PASSIVE: Irelia's basic attacks heal her.
「 HEAL: 5 / 7 / 9 / 11 / 13 」
ACTIVE: Irelia's basic attacks deal bonus true damage and double Hiten Style's self-healing for 6 seconds.
BONUS TRUE DAMAGE: 15 / 30 / 45 / 60 / 75

Hiten Style passively grants Irelia an on-hit effect. When activated, Hiten Style is a self-target ability that buffs Irelia for a short duration, adding bonus on-hit true damage.
True damage ignores all forms of damage reduction, except invulnerability.
Additional Information:

Hiten Style's true damage does not apply spell effects.
Hiten Style's true damage does not work on structures, but the passive healing does.
Hiten Style's passive health gain is not lost while the ability is on cooldown.
Hiten Style does not have a cast time and does not interrupt Irelia's movement. Her E:

[Equilibrium Strike] RANGE: 425 COST: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 MANA COOLDOWN: 8
Equilibrium Strike
ACTIVE: Irelia pierces the target enemy, dealing them magic damage and Slow icon slowing them by 60% for a short duration. If her current health percentage is equal to or less than her target's, she Stun icon stuns them instead.

Equilibrium Strike is a targeted ability.
Applies spell effects as a single target ability.
Hextech Revolver item.png Spell vamp is fully applied.
Will of the Ancients item.png Will of the Ancients will heal you for 15% of the raw damage dealt.
Rylai's Crystal Scepter item.png Rylai's Crystal Scepter will apply a 40% Slow icon slow for 1.5 seconds.
Magic damage will be mitigated by magic shields.
Banshee's Veil item.png Spell shields will block the damage and slow/stun. Her ult:
[Transcendent Blades] RANGE: 1000 COST: 100 MANA COOLDOWN: 70 / 60 / 50
Transcendent Blades ACTIVE: Irelia summons 4 spirit blades and fires one in a line towards the cursor, dealing physical damage to all enemies it passes through.
「 PHYSICAL DAMAGE PER BLADE: 80 / 120 / 160 (+ 50% AP) (+ 60% bonus AD) 」
Transcendent Blades Ready Transcendent Blades can then be cast 3 more times at no additional cost to fire each of Irelia's remaining blades, incurring a 0.5-second delay in between each cast.
Each blade heals Irelia for 25% of the damage it deals to enemy champions, and 10% of the damage it deals to enemy minions and monsters.

Transcendent Blades is a pass-through linear skillshot.
Applies spell effects as an area of effect ability.
Hextech Revolver item.png Spell vamp is reduced to one-third effectiveness.
Will of the Ancients item.png Will of the Ancients will heal you for 5% of the raw damage dealt.
Rylai's Crystal Scepter item.png Rylai's Crystal Scepter will apply a 40% Slow icon slow for 1 second.
Banshee's Veil item.png Spell shields will block the damage of one blade.
This ability is considered to be a projectile for Unbreakable.png Unbreakable and Wind Wall.png Wind Wall.
Additional Information:

All activations of Transcendent Blades have no cast time and do not interrupt Irelia's movement.
When first activated, Transcendent Blades has a 1 second cooldown before the 2nd blade can be fired. Between each remaining activation, a 0.5 second cooldown is applied.
Each activation of Transcendent Blades counts as a spellcast for the purpose of items such as Sheen item.png Sheen.
If Irelia dies and is resurrected by Guardian Angel item.png Guardian Angel or Zilean Zilean's Chrono Shift.png Chrono Shift while Transcendent Blades is active, she will revive with four blades, no matter how many were used before dying.
Once you activate Transcendent Blades, you have 10 seconds to use all 4 blades before it goes on cooldown. Once you have used all four, it goes on cooldown immediately. This is all from: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Irelia To make this simple Would just say that:
Irelia's bladesurge is a dash, and can be used to last hit minion, it resets when it kills a target and refunds a bit of mana, this also applies on hit effects like hiten style

Irelia's hiten style allows sutain per autoattack, even on turrets which allows her to sustain well, it also deals lots of true damage on her auto attacks and bladesurge.

Irelia's Equilibrium Strike allows you to farm safley and to win fights, as it either provides a stun, if the enemy has higher % health ,or a slow if they have slower %health

Her ultimate Transcendent Blades has high damage, and also can be used to gain health back, use this to trigger sheen for bonus damage.

Pros

+ Good sustain + Very safe lane + Thrives midgame + Has few counters

Irelia is very mobile and is good at roaming thanks to her kit. her stun will win most trades in lane and provides a useful tool in teamfights.

The only con with this build is that she does fall off lategame

Irelia has a two main items, depending on her matchup:
Trinity Force and Guinsoo's Rageblade

Guinsoo's Rageblade : Is great against armor stackers due to its magic damage, also the ad and ap increase scales well with her abilites (especially her ultimate Transcendent Blades) and the attack speed helps deal more true damage. guinsoo's will eliminate squishy champs quickly too, but lacks defense so you will have to follow up with defensive items.

Transcendent Blades : Works well against non-tanks such as riven and Yasuo, however I still prefer guinsoo's because of the burst. Tri force also increases health which is slightly defensive and also helps all stats, such as critical, attackspeed, attack damage, manna. But tri force is mainly used for 2 comonents: Sheen and phage, both are powerspikes on irelia.

The basic combo (with sheen)
e - aa - w - aa - r - aa - r - aa - r - aa - r - aa - q
Equilibrium Strike - aa - Hiten Style - aa - Transcendent Blades - aa - Transcendent Blades - aa - Transcendent Blades - aa - Transcendent Blades - aa -
Bladesurge
This should be a kill because of the pure damage how ever if you have guinsoo's you can just:
e - w - aa (for any-amount) q
Equilibrium Strike - Hiten Style - aa - Bladesurge
q is for an execute, this will stop people from flashing or getting away, and provides a getaway if something happens.

The basic tricks:
The double dash - When irelia dashes to a low health minion which allows her Bladesurge to reset, this allows high mobility and outplay potential. Use this to stun your opponent and dash to them again when they use their get away.

Sheen trigger - all of Irelia's abilities trigger Sheen which is great because this helps Irelia deal damage. her ult triggers sheen 4 times, try auto attacking each time you use ult. This allows irelia to have a good burst.

Use Transcendent Blades to lower minions to dash onto them for a get away or engage. Advanced:
Low elo players tend to underestimate guinsoos' power, if you are confident enough you can get your guinsoo's stacks on their tower and when they jump on your, burst them down. This works for squishy champions with little cc. Try it out in normals before ranked.

You can also take the Double dash to a next level, to avoid skill shots and cc, such as Jax's counterstrike you can dash to minions to get away from it, then reengage to kill him.
this is hard to pull of but practice makes perfect.

Cool tricks
Irelia can dash over walls, this helps if you are on the right side of the map, using a ward ( or some source of vision) you can dash to Gromp (the frog god) to get away.

There are two approaches to a team fight as irelia;
Assassin - Which is using her midgame damage to burst down the enemy carry, this is effective as mid game usually lacks defensive items or major ones at least.
Once the carry is down then the fight will be yours.

Utility/peel - This is for lategame when you start to fall of, using your tankiness to your advantage, try stunning any threats towards your carry and eliminate them. Preferably I dont like starting the teamfight if I do not have a Guardian Angel because I die too quickly if focused. this means that you should wait for a opportunity.

Patch [6.7]:

Irelia
Q cost down, attack damage ratio up.

Irelia’s been struggling overall this season, but most notably she’s underperforming in matchups she should feel good about: ranged champions who struggle against her dive. The high sustain available to those champions has made it harder for her to contest enemy farming in lane, while their general tankiness has left her all-in feeling a bit too weak to finish them off. Irelia has the tools to farm at a distance before diving onto those champions, she just needs a bit more consistency as to how often and how efficiently she can do so.
Q - Bladesurge
COST 60/65/70/75/80 mana ⇒ 50/55/60/65/70 mana
RATIO 1.0 total attack damage ⇒ 1.2 total attack damage

Possible videos
More picture guidance
Irelia's lore
More tricks
More detail to everything
More about toplane in general
How to stay stylish
How to bm, and kill the bmers


Thanks for reading, please give me feedback because it would really help.