Welcome to my guide for Irelia. My Summoner name is XxNataliaxX playing on the NA server. Irelia is my main top laner along with Warwick Warwick in the Jungle. Yes I play in Bronze elo hell. Hopefully by next season that will be different. This guide works well for me, use it as you see fit and your playstyle. Irelia Irelia is a very underused champ, especially in Bronze. However if used correctly can be a extreme game changer, but she takes practice to get timing down.

Pro+
Naturally tanky mid/late game
Great lane clearing ability
Snowballs easy
just like Novacaine, give it time it always works. Heavy late game heroics
Early 1v2 advantages

Con-
Slow starter
Somwehat squishy until level 6ish
Timing of Equilibrium Strike Equilibrium Strike and Bladesurge Bladesurge takes practice
Slow movement Speed

Pretty Standard Rune setup for Irelia.

This Skill sequence sacrifices some wave clearing ability for an advantage in early game trades with your opposing laner. If you want to farm better and faster in early game, start with Bladesurge Bladesurge at level 1 and Equilibrium Strike Equilibrium Strike at 4.

Note about skills.
Two things to remember for your skills
Bladesurge CD resets if you kill a minion or champ with it. Use that to your advantage when going in, sometimes it helps to close with Bladesurge on a almost dead minion to have it available immediately in case the enemy champ runs.

Equilibrium Strike slows when you have more health than the enemy champ, andSTUNS when you have less.

This is going to be a bit lenghthy due to different starting item sets for opponents. Please bear with me on this. I will outline a normal build first and then go into the special ones for certain opponents in the top lane.

Normal Build

For most Top laners, start with Doran's Blade, 1x Health Potion and a Stealth Ward.

Your First back purchases depend on how you are doing in lane.

If you need an early back, and are getting outtraded, buy a second Doran's Blade and Boots.

If the lane is even or you are winning the lane, Buy Bilgewater Cutlass and Boots

Core items
Build Blade of the Ruined King first. This item will give you the advantage for most opponents mid game as long as they are not too far ahead.

I build the next two items almost simultaniously, Start with Glacial Shroud and Spectre's Cowl Glacial Shroud will help with your cooldowns so usually I buy that first.
Then Finish Frozen Heart and Spirit Visage.

Next Build Trinity Force starting with Phage

Finish your boots when you have some extra gold and depending what the opponent team is consisted of. Viable options are Ninja Tabi and Mercury's Treads

Last item choices
The last item is another defense item, depending on what the enemy composition is and who is carrying. You can build Guardian Angel as a catch all, Banshee's Veil for heavy AP or Randuin's Omen for Heavy AD

Special Build use for Renekton, Fiora, Volibear

For the above champs, start with either a Doran's Shield or get a head start on your first item with Cloth Armor and more potions. I prefer Doran's Shield

Your first item for this should be Frozen Heart, then continue with Blade of the Ruined King and the rest of the core items.

This will help you survive in lane.

As I said in the Introduction, This is based on my playstyle, if you want to try it great, if it doesnt work for you, I'm Sorry and I hope you find a guide that's right for you.

Early Game
Be aware in the early game stages, Irelia is a bit squishy. I do not engage the enemy champ until I'm at least level 6, unless i have a chance to kill them or a gank comes my way. However, I will trade if the initiate. I will take the first hit from the enemy chap to get my health below theirs the use Equilibrium Strike to stun and Hiten Style along with autoattacks. Hiten style is a very useful tool since it adds to your damage output, and heals you. Other than that, Farm as much as you can.

For the special champs Renekton Fiora and Volibear:
Play very very VERY safe. I play these champs under my turret. and farm there just for experience. Practice your timing since they all can dive you early with Ren's Slice and Dice, Fiora's Lunge and Voli's Thundering Smash. Get your timing down to use Equilibrium Strike under your turret to add damage.

Mid game
Once you are level 6-7 the fun part begins ;)

Once you get level 6, you can start initiating fights with your top laner, and will win the 1v1. I still take the first hit, Equilibrium Strike to stun, Hiten Style and autoattacks. as they start to run, Transcendent Blades and use Bladesurge to close again. By that time Equilibrium Strike will be off cooldown and you can slow and finish if neccesary.

Clear waves fast with Bladesurge. This is a rough guide for midgame minions when to use Bladesurge to kill them. This is when NOT using Hiten Style.

Melee minions 3x autoattack
Ranged minions 2x autoattack
Siege minions 5x autoattack

This is also the time to start roaming. Irelia is great at roaming due to the Bladesurge initiation. I usually start roaming after i destroy the opponent's first turret. If all lanes are winning, I continue in my lane.

Team Fights

So it's late game, and everyone is grouped. Irelia with the Bladesurge can attack the back line of the enemy team very easy. Her tanky nature ensures that you have to be focused because or will kill a lot of champs due to your true damage from your skills.
Target the adc first an all in will kill them 90% of the time. The combination of Hiten Style, Blade of the Ruined King and Spirit Visage gives you a humongous survivavbility boost and the CDR from Frozen Heart helps stun other champs for your team to kill them.

If you are being focused hard, use Bladesurge on a minion or a outside ranged champ to get out of a focus group and try to escape.

Ok, so this was my Irelia guide. Hope you enjoyed it, and maybe it helped. If not , sorry. Thanks for reading.