02/12/12

Added in Trinity force information
Added Optional runes/masteries
Added late game items.

Hello, I'm Hyperfurbay and welcome to my irelia guide! This guide is strictly for 3v3 and I feel that she is a very strong 3v3 there is also not alot of guides for her that cover her 3v3. Plz give my guide a chance read atleast a few chapters and give my build a try. Lets get started shall we?
Lets talk a lil bit about irelia first. I feel Irelia is a mix between Xin zhao, Akali, And Riven, And she should be played that way. Why? Her basic attacks give her lifesteal, its better then Xin's, Her burst feels like Akali and you need to time your attacks like Riven. What can she do? What makes her different from other champions? Why is she under played?

Well first thing is what can she do? She can do ANYTHING that your team needs her to do, she can jungle,tank,support,and my favorite carry. What makes her different? Some of the many things that irelia can do that seperate her from other carrys like tryn,olaf,xin,AD sion, you know the OP ppl of 3v3, Is she takes skill and alot of practice to master. In my experience she is the hardest champion i have mastered, But all the work doesnt go unnoticed, If you put your time and commitment to irelia she will pay you back with a great score and alot of fun.

And lastly shes underplayed because she IS hard to master, You get to vs the OP champions cuz there easy! The ppl playing as OP champions dont like to work hard and master someone that takes skill or they just think that since she is underplayed shes weak.

Irelia dashes forward to strike her target. If it kills the target, Bladesurge's cooldown refreshes and refunds 35 Mana.
Irelia dashes forward to strike her target, dealing 20/50/80/110/140 (+) physical damage.

If it kills the target, Bladesurge's cooldown refreshes and refunds 35 Mana.
Cost
60/65/70/75/80 Mana
Range
650

Her Q abilty is Irelias bread and butter, You will use this alot all game. This skill applies On hit effects, applying to sheen as well.
Irelia is skilled in the art of Hiten, passively giving her physical attacks health restoration. Activating Hiten Style gives her basic attacks true damage for a short period.
Passive: Physical attacks restore 10/14/18/22/26 health.

Active: Irelia's basic attacks deal 15/30/45/60/75 true damage for 6 seconds.
Cost
40 Mana
Range
20

This skill is your friend in lane making you a very very very tough person to push out of lane, In late game this skill just adds to your crazy amount of damage.
Irelia's attack balances the scales, dealing damage and slowing the target. However, if the target has a higher Health % than Irelia, then the blow stuns the target instead.
Irelia pierces her target, dealing 80/130/180/230/280 (+0.5) magic damage and slowing the target by 60% for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 second(s).

If the target has a higher Health % than Irelia, she stuns the target for the duration instead.
Cost
50/55/60/65/70 Mana
Range
425
This skill is amazing in every situation, Running from someone that has the upper hand simply stun and run allowing you to live and destroy them later.
Irelia summons 4 spirit blades that she can fling to deal physical damage and siphon life from enemies they pass through.
Irelia summons 4 spirit blades that she can fling to deal 80/120/160 (+ ) (+0.5) physical damage to enemies they pass through. She heals for 25% of the damage dealt against champions and 10% against minions.
Cost
100 Mana
Range
1000

This skill is amazing the damage is good but whats even better is that you can get a total of 5 sheen procs using it.

Alrighty runes!





Why these runes? Well with my build your a damage dealer with surviabilty, Not an off tank, The armor pen you recieve will buff her early game that most players have trouble with. The armor seals will give you sustain since alot of the champions you solo top with are AD, and if they are AP the armor seals help that much more for early game because until an AP can spam his skills there left with auto attacks. Why I choose mana regen blues? Well inorder to carry you need farm. Farming with your is amazing but you will quickly run out of mana before you can seize the oppurtunty to score a kill.

Optional runes

If your not a fan of armor pen then this is another fantastic option.

If your more of a off tank player then this a must have for you.

If you like to play her more as an auto attacker this is a great option as well.

This is another way to solve the mana problem if you don't like the regen options.

Another option because the cool down reduction masteries and items this is a possible choice as well.

I go 21/0/9 masteries because I feel that she isnt meant to be played as an off tank she gets no benefit from hp like olaf does and she has so much more potential as an ad carry.

So lets explain the offense masteries I pick up improved ignite and go down the usual ad masteries making sure to pick up the cooldown reduction. This will give you amazing harrass after you get, letting you pick up on either your kills or your farm and ultimatly increasing your chances for victory.

Now why ultilty? As in my runes she runs out of mana really fast if you spam your Q to last hit. You might say it doesnt cost alot of mana to use your Q your crazy! "alt f4" But think about it,your not just going to use your , lets say your at half mana cuz of your farm and you see an oppurtunity to get a kill you jump in do your combo and end up running out of mana. Letting the kill slip away.costs a hefty 100 mana at rank 1, spamming it in lane to get hp leaves you with no mana as well, combine that with farming and you find yourself going B before you really should have to.

Optional masteries

This 9/21/0 build is an excellent option if your playing irelia as an off tank.


This is another option if you choose to go off tank.

Pros

High dps
Great farmer
Can change her role in a game
Underestimated
Not played alot(means no one knows how to counter her)
Fun to play

Cons

Can get focused pretty hard
If your team doesnt have enough damage to back you up you get stomped on
If you lose out on farm your almost useless

Core items

, ,
There will not be a game where you do not get these items in my build. The phantom dancer raises some questions but ill answer them now, The move speed is great on her for chase, Crits are always good, and how much more damage will W do to tanks with a high att speed? This items is mainly a buff to her W. Low att speed on her w makes it almost useless.

Situational items

Can be switched for


if there team doesnt have alot of cc.

Defense Situational

Can be switched for other defensive items depending on the enemy team. I recommend items such as

Or

Helpful situational Items

Since you are strictly a solo laner, part of your job is to control the jungle. So if your team doesnt have someone more suited to have the jungle control early game such as Shaco,Xin, Noct,Olaf,Udyr. Then it might be wise to pick up

just until you can do the jungle without it.






Can be another Situational item when vsing tanks, If you have someone else on your team with a higher att speed ask them to get it and ask them be the tank dropper ofc not focusing the tank just one the one taking him down

Late game items

Can be switched out for either another heavy AD item or a defensive item during late game
Such as

or
or

And for defensive items the situational items to


are what i recommend for defensive late game items.

Starting items

Can be switched to


being built into


if you feel your going to be harrassed alot or your solo top lane in 5v5 in a 2v1 then


is highly advised.


Why no ,

Dorans shield is a decent item I choose not to purchase items like this because i feel its a waste of the gold you start with, If you use the 475 starting gold to start your build you can get your core items that much faster making you a much more lethal threat in mid game. If you feel another way about this item then like I said I personally dont prefer this item but you are more then welcome to make the switch if you feel other wise.

Trinity force info/calculations

Trinity force gives your next basic attack 150% of your attack damage now at the top you get 227 AD from my build without the stacks fromso Ill do the math on both.

Without stacks

(227 AD divided by 2 = 113.5) now that is the extra 50% you get from trinity force proc add that to the base attack damage to get the 150% for the trinity force proc, which is 340. now times that by 8 (the number of times Irelia can get her trinity force proc) which is 2724 damage in just the trinity force procs. not including the possible crits or armor pen.

With stacks

(267 AD divided by 2 =133.5) now add that to your base attack damage for the trinity force proc and it ends up to be 400.5. Lets times this again by 8 the number of times Irelia can get Trinity force proc, It adds up to 3204. Once again not possible counting crits or your true damage.

Critical strikes?

Now with Phantom dancer I can assume that with 45% crit chance that atleast 1 out of 3 auto attacks will be a crit.
So lets do the math with adding in a critical chance and damage with our trinity force procs.

Without max stacks but with crits

2724 without any blood thirster stacks now with 1 of 3 attacks being a crit out of 8 attacks thats 2 crits, A critical strike will do 200% more damage now 340 (our AD from trinity force proc) 340 times 2 is 680 now times it again for the number of crits which is 2 so we can times it by 2 which ends up being 1360, Now we have to delete our original sheen proc in the damage total of 680 because we already counted for it when we did the trinity force proc example. so 1360 minus 680 is of course 680 now add 680 to 2724 and that will be your final damage. It is 3404, Once again not counting true damage non procced auto attacks, also as you might have noticed that 45% crit chance is more like a crit every 2 hits ( im giving my self room to play in my equation) LEMME KNOW IF I LOST YOU! lol

With max stacks but with crits

Now lets do it again but counting in if we had max blood thirster stacks (267 base AD)
400.5(Trinity force proc AD)
Critical strike on 400.5 is 801 times that by 2 for the number of guareenteed crits and you get 1602 but once again if we minus the procs already accounted for which is 801
that leaves 801 additional damage from critical strikes now we add this to our damage from base trinity force damage and we get 4205. Once again not counting true damage or damage from spells.

What we learned?

Irelia is no joke as a dps carry she can easily do over 5,000 damage if the player can use all of his trinity force procs. In a VERY VERY VERY short amount of time! Still think shes an off tank? *This also doesn't include possible late game items where you can choose between offense or defense so keep that in mind as well.

The old way to play Irelia was to maxor first. I choose to max first. Because it deals a great deal of damage early game when combined with your brutalizer and sheen. Also the lower cd is great in a 1v1 because about the time its refreshed the champion you are vsing is ready to run allowing you to Q back in for the kill. I max next for more early damage and longer cc. Maxing last. You will of course take whenever poosible.

Recommended

Why flash and ignite?

Irelia lacks an escape making her very vunerable to ganks, Flash is great for Irelia, Since her chase is lacking at times you can flash up to finish em off or Use flash to close the gap when intiating a gank.

Why Ignite? Another great item that fits her since you will most likely be vsing ppl with life steal, ignite will shut them down from the 50% reduced healing. Why will that help so much? Well 50% reduced healing = 50% faster kill, 50% less damage taken, 50% less focued by there carry allowing you to jump in to help your teammates.

Good Summoners

Ghost is good as another escape but i prefer flash because you can distance your self farther,Flashing over walls etc.... And ghost has a draw back of being slowed while active making it useless at moments.


Exhaust is good spell for Irelia because it stops ad heavy champs in there tracks and will slow enemys when chasing allowing you to possibly Q to minion exhaust and finish them when available.

Bad Spells

Useless on irelia


Useless period....


Your not jungling,Your laning


Irelia's skills dont have good enough ap ratio to take this spell.


Your passive is a permacleanse.... *cough* *cough* OP


My runes/masteries cover mana loss so clarity should be useless :)


You wants minions to farm for you?!?!?!?!

Vision wards should be placed at Red buff and At dragon at all times for 3 reasons.

1.Eliminate enemy wards.
2.Eliminate the possibilty of ganks.
3.Map Control

Sight wards can be placed in the positions above in 3 circumstances

1.You have been pushed back and have to defend your base.
2.You are pushing the enemy base and take advantage of them being out of place
3.Your enemys are gank happy.

Why warding is so important?

Map control!! When a team controls the map they control the game. 95% of the time when a team controls the map they end up winning, the 5% that lose are the ones that get aced when they push and the enemy team push for the win (epic win when its you doing this).

Also vision wards NEED to be at red buff and drag never sight wards. Vision wards are double the price as sight wards but they let you see enemy wards,Making them lose map control and you gain ganking oppurtunites.

How to ward? alot of ppl make the mistake of allowing the enemy team to see that they have bought a ward defeating the purpose of it.
When I ward I run to the jungle right out of my base and to where I need it ensuring that no enemy champ,minion,ward can see it.

I feel that Irelia should not be a jungler because she is out jungled by alot of champions, almost all of them, When I have to jungle I will pick either Trundle or Udyr they give you the safest jungling and can gank very well, A good jungle shaco will almost definatly ensure a win.

Thats my take on jungling Irelia, If you want to be a jungler I suggest other champions for you as I feel her jungle is not that strong.

Irelia is an amazing ganker. Warding correctly has a huge impact on ganking. Ensuring they don't have a ward is essential to gank.

How to gank?
I will get in ganking position (bush),Then i check there summoner spells don't commit if they have flash or ghost just scare them out of your allies lane and then signal my team I would like to gank.

Q in and slow/stun and allow for your teammates to catch up get the kill.

Tip! Its not a bad idea to gank when lower hp then your opponet to ensure your stun. Making an even stronger gank. Only do this if your team is close.

First and foremost. You need to have a solo lane for her! Irelia has a decent early game, Most Irelia players say she has a weak early game but I just don't see it. Farming is essential for Irelia, I mean I can go on for a few days saying how bad she needs farm! But I wont lol, Remember the basics of the game. Last hit,Map Awareness, and I think the most important thing is communication with your team. We've all heard it time and time again "team game bro" it gets annoying I know LOL! but its true. If your doing solo Q and you find ppl that work well with you and communicate with you,Then you need to play premades with that team. Pay attention to your wards and be aware of champions that can go thru walls (Tryn,Shaco,Jarvan,Ezreal,Shyvanna, Etc.)

Harrasment

Irelias harras is so unexplainable maxingwith or is ridicuolus

Show your enemy how hard you can hurt them and let them show you hard they can hurt you (just a poke!) then use your Hiten style to get back to full hp, If they cant lifesteal or regen there hp, They will be scared of you. Giving you control of the lane. If they think they can out dps/out harrass you. Keep poking em and ofc stay out of ganking/dying situations.
When they get low enough for you to take the kill with + +
Then do so! Just be aware of the map when doing so and check there items/summoners before commiting... Dont fall for a heal bait.

Play Video
This is RedMercys tutorial on Irelia Ive watched it countless times and it gives great advice and tips on her. Dont be hesitant to look a bunch of videos on her and see what best fits your playing style. Remember that once you master irelia she has many different builds and can be played alot of ways. This guide is just my way

Alot of ppl dont realize that id say 75% of your damage will be fromWhen going into a fight NEVER activate before you use
But why? You lose an entire sheen proc! remember your Q will automatically apply your sheen to its hit. So there is no need to activate an abilty before using your Q.

When using REMEMBER to auto attack in between blades! You can get 5 sheen procs allowing you to just destroy your opponet.

A smart way to use Irelias passive? DO TELL! Well when Irelia is close to an enemy she gains a stack of her passive. Which is visible above her skills, Since she has no bush check use this as a bush checking tool. SAVE YOURSELF FROM FACECHECKING!

Using to kite an enemy at low hp can be very useful allowing you to pick up an extra kill.

Play Video Here's an example.

Thank you for reading my guide and taking the time to make it all the way to the bottom XD.
Now Thank you to Riot for making such an incredible game! Plz give me a vote and a comment i'll try to check up on my guide everyday and respond to your questions.