This is my Irelia guide to success. It is meant to be built very tanky and her early,mid and late game to be very good. Here is a proving picture of my season 2 ranked games:

(My normal wins are more. I have lost about only 7 matches with Irelia and I have played about 80-90 normal games with her, all with the same build). (This guide works with Lulu Patch, every patch this will be updated).

I hope you find this guide useful. Let me begin.

Standard bruiser - offtank runes. Arm Pen for greater damage that really combines well with her true damage against taking out tanks - heavy armor champions. Flat armor gives her good early game vs bruisers top that have physical damage. MR per level so u survive the 1 AP champion without investing much on MR. If the other team has 2 AP then you will have to change the item build a little bit by getting some MR. I will talk about items later on.

Going down on defensive tree is important as you want to be more of a tank than a heavy damage dealer. You can also go down the utility tree too if you want some bonus mana or movement speed

Start of with a Regrowth Pendant and a health potion. ~ This allows u to build later to Philosopher Stone and the health regen is plain awesome it will make you stay in lane for as much as you like combined with the passive of your "W" ability.


Recall for philosopher stone and boots. If you have earned kill you should be able to buy heart of gold too. If you didn't earn a kill just buy the 180 health so you can build heart of gold later. ~ This is pretty much clear. The 2, 5 per 10 secs gold, items allow you to earn MASSIVE gold as you should be taking assists and kills as well as farm very easily.


Buy Sheen and eventually upgrade your boots to mercury treads as well as upgrade sheen to trinity force. After that start building warmog's armor by buying giant belt first. Be sure to buy wards too so you can cover your back while you are free farming.


After warmog's armor build atma's impaler and then start upgrading heart of gold to randuin's omen. If the enemy team is AP heavy then consider buying banshee's veil instead of randuin's omen. You should also sell philosopher stone too when you need the space it covers.


If the game isn't over by now then buy Guardian Angel and the 4 elixirs as well as oracle.


Note: || Do not forget to buy wards so you can ward important areas such as baron/dragon or enemy buffs ||

Maxing out "W" is the best option for Irelia. It recovers health on hit and deals 75 true damage at level 10 which is A LOT ! Nothing else to tell here.

My suggestions:

Ghost ~ It allows you to chase kills, get out of scary situations as well as initiate a team fight and more.

Ignite ~ It is very powerfull as it shuts down lifesteal/spell vamp and champions with heals. Also it's good execution spell. Its true damage is amazing! Enough said.

Other "not so bad spells":

Flash ~ If you have an addiction with this spell and you don't know how to use ghost then choose it.

Exhaust ~ Great for 1v1 as well as teamfights. It is just that ignite is more useful when executing and better for heavy heal teams.

Cleanse ~ Nice but you have mercury treads and your passive which makes you almost invulnerable to any form of CC

Use your ultimate as much as you can, especially if you have blue buff, to farm minion waves. Also last hitting with "Q" will make you not miss almost none minion. Using it when 2 minions are in low health will allow you to farm them both.

Irelia's place is solo top. You should be able to easily beat almost any solo topper. Be sure to farm a lot and request for ganks from your jungler in case you are pinned down to your turret even though it should be easy for you to last hit with your "Q" under turret. Harass when you are able to and try not to overextend. As noted above, buying wards can save your life. Beware of mid and jungle ganks and always call MIA or MISS .If you are against 2 player just play passively until a gank from your jungler occurs.

In team fights your duty is to disable and burst down squishy high dps champions. Also, protect your allies as you will be the tankiest among them and never but NEVER chase!

Split push means that you will be pushing waves while your team might fight or poke the enemy team. As a split pusher you have to buy tons of wards and watch out for group ganks. If the enemies are smart enough they will easily counter this strategy. Also after pushing 2nd tower on a lane it's strongly recommended that you go split push on other lane. While split pushing you need to activate your "Q" and ultimate as much as you can in order to kill the minions. Having blue buff facilitates the process. If you are premade with your team then figure out timings and positions for split push.

Following this guide will make you win at least 75% more normal and ranked matches whether you are high or low-medium elo. The most precious tip I can give you is to buy WARDS . Finally, don't forget to be friendly with your teammates and always call GG after a game ends to show respect to the people you were teamed up or against. :)

-Irelia got nerfed. Ultimate has 10 more seconds cooldown. Her passive "W" now returns half the health it restored before unless it's activated. With that change I suggest that you buy more potions during laning phase due to the sustain nerf.