What's up guys!? First off I want to thank you for taking the time to check out your quintessential guide for Irelia in Season 7. Irelia is a great Top Laner and tanky style champion that has a lot of damage output and can really carry a game, especially when ahead. As an Irelia main I can honestly say she is a ton of fun to play, but also very easy with a decent skill cap, so learning her will be a lot of fun. Remember, as I say with all of my guides, it is up to you as the player to learn and obtain the skills needed to learn this champion, and this guide is only meant to supplement you with the tools needed to learn Irelia. So without any further introduction let's get started. Also here is a video guide on my YouTube channel to follow along with, Cheers!

YouTube Guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoLeHyVo3B0&t=1949s

- So, for your items.

- Damage

- Trinity Force

- This will always be your core damage item every game, and you will build this first. CDR, Attack Speed, and Physical Damage are all needed for Irelia to work.

- Secondary Damage items

- Sterak's Gage

- Increased Base AD stat, HP, and Shield passive is great for a tankier Irelia. Build this only if your team needs a True Tank Irelia. FYI the Base AD increase stat boost boosts the damage from the Sheen proc of your Trinity Force.

- Titanic Hydra

- So this is going to be your split push item for wave clear and additional HP. After you get Trinity Force and boots, rush Tiamat and sit on that until Sterak's Gage is complete, then finish off the full item.

- Armor

- Ninja Tabi for situational armor boots. Your Primary armor items will be Guardian Angel since Health stacking is where your going to get your most gold value. However if your against a Fiora/Riven/Jax, an early Bramble Vest into Thornmail 3rd will be necessary.

- Magic Resist

- Mercury's Treads for situational MR boots. Your primary MR item will be Spirit Visage. Get Spirit Visage for the HP and healing buff passive.

- So, for your build

- Against AD Top

- Rush Trinity Force, then Situational Boots followed by Tiamat. Then build your Sterak's Gage and finish off Titanic Hydra. Situationaly build Guardian Angel and Spirit Visage.

- Against AP Top

- Same as AD matchup

- So a few things here. Against fighter match-ups like Fiora/Jax/Riven, Bramble Vest into Ninja Tabi is your best bet for survivability trading potential, so keep an eye out for those champs. Secondly, your core items are Boots, Trinity Force, Sterak's Gage, Titanic Hydra and Guardian Angel. Your 6th item and be switched around with your alternates situationaly so experiment and see what works with that last item slot. I know it seems a bit open ended for an item build but for Irelia a lot of stuff works for her right now so try other thing with that 6th item.

So for standard Runes we are going to have Press the Attack for your primary Keystone. Then, you will run Triumph for gold and HP restoration, Legend: Alacrity for more attack Speed, and Coup de Grace for extra damage to low HP targets. For our secondary tree you will run Celerity for extra movement speed and damage, and finally Scorch to help with being a lane bully. Remember these are standard runes so fell free to experiment with other rune combos and find what works for you.

- I'll be as straight forward as possible. Against melee champions start Equilibrium Strike to stun them and walk away from lvl. 1 trades easily. Against ranged champions start Bladesurge so you can get some farm and avoid some poke a little bit more easily. At lvl. 2 take either Bladesurge or Equilibrium Strike depending on which ability you started. At lvl. 3 take Hiten Style and max this by lvl. 9 as this is your primary damage ability. Typically you want to max Bladesurge second because your gap close is what's most important with sticking to targets and being able to movearound more during a team fight. You then max Equilibrium Strike last however, if you feel like you need that scaling stun rather than the Bladesurge you can max that second. For me however, I just stick with Bladesurge max second in almost all situations. And as always, Transcendent Blades at lvls. 6, 11, and 16.

- ( Bladesurge is an auto attack reset, keep that in mind)

- Equilibrium Strike -> Hiten Style -> *AA -> Bladesurge

- This is Irelia's primary damage combo. Remember to auto attack as much as possible before you use your Bladesurge when the enemy is running away. This is used for heavy lane trading or if you happen to get right next to an enemy without using your Bladesurge.

- Bladesurge -> Equilibrium Strike -> Hiten Style -> *AA -> Bladesurge

- So with this combo, you Bladesurge to a low HP minion next to then enemy then do the same combo as above. By doing this your Bladesurge will reset it's Cooldown and then you can Bladesurge again because it will be available right away. Remember you can chain this between minions if a bunch of them are low health to get the reset and get next to you enemy at the same time.

- Bladesurge -> Equilibrium Strike -> Hiten Style -> *AA -> Transcendent Blades -> Bladesurge

- Your primary kill combo. Same as above however your Transcendent Blades will be active while you are attacking your opponent. While firing your Transcendent Blades you can still auto attack simultaneously so you can engage on your opponent and hammer the **** out of your R key to get it off as fast as possible.

- One quick note, all of your abilities proc Sheen from Trinity Force, and this can kill towers faster. So for example, Activate Hiten Style, AA the tower for extra damage, wait 1.5 seconds for the cooldown, use Equilibrium Strike on a nearby enemy minion, AA the tower for extra damage again. If there are no enemies around while your Transcendent Blades is up and your confident you wont get ganked, you can use that for 4 Sheen procs. First Transcendent Blades cast, AA then wait 1.5 seconds for Sheen cooldown, Second Transcendent Blades cast, AA then wait 1.5 seconds for Sheen cooldown, etc.

*AA = Autoattack

- Pros

- Very Tanky, can deal damage and take it as well
- Sticks to the back line very well
- 2 heals from her Hiten Style and Transcendent Blades
- Bladesurge dash resets on kill for potentially high movement and agility
- Semi-high skill cap but easy to pick up and learn

- Cons

- Doesn't scale well if behind
- Lack of CC/ Equilibrium Strike stun is dependent upon how low Irelia's HP is compared to enemy
- Can be kited easily
- Weak/Needs items to scale against champions like Renekton and Trundle

- As a tanky champion you also have massive kill potential. Your job is to stick to the back line of the enemy team and either kill the carry/carries or peel them off for your team so they can kill the enemy's front line and then clean up for you. When you get to mid/late game you will have 40% CDR and a 3.2 cooldown on your Bladesurge so you can just instantly Bladesurge full HP targets to engage and not have to worry about getting a reset on the ability. The more you snowball in a game however, the more likely it is you'll kill these targets and walk out alive. Also don't forget to keep an eye out for minions to Bladesurge to in a fight or to initiate a fight if you see the opportunity for a Bladesurge reset. Take it and go for it.

Again, as an Irelia main I can honestly say she is a great champion with a mix of tankyness and damage that can hard carry a game if mastered. Having over 300k mastery points with this champion I was able to utilize her to get to Platinum in Season 6 and still have her in my champion pool to climb to higher ELO's this coming season. Remember, it is up to you as the player to learn this champion for yourself and only use this guide as a supplement to your learning her. Anyway guys I hope you enjoyed going through this guide and good luck in Season 7. Cheers!