Hello! This is my first guide on Mobafire, so bear with me! My summoner name is CHRlSTOPHER and I am an Irelia main since late season 3. I am gold ELO with over 120k experience with Irelia since that mastery system was introduced. I carried myself into gold with strictly Irelia.

Pros

Easy to pick up
Really fun!
Fantastic burst AND sustained damage
Easily escape ganks with Q
After sheen is bought, you basically the laning phase
Awesome skins!
High mobility
Easy to CS with
Wonderful mid-game
Can change order in which you max your abilities
Doesn't lose many matchups

Cons

Hard to master
Better nerf Irelia
Lackluster early game

For runes, the standard Irelia page is as follows:

Attack damage marks
Armor Seals
Greater magic resist glyphs
Attack speed quints

Depending on the lane, one can switch flat armor for scaling and scaling MR for flat MR.

I most often elect to max W first. Though depending on the match up, it can be more beneficial to max E first.

The basic rule of thumb is that if it is someone you can auto attack alot, then max W. If it is a bursty champion, max E for safety in lane.

I usually never max Q and there really isn't any case in which it would be best to do so. As usual, put a point in your ultimate whenever possible.

Farming as Irelia should be relatively simple. Do not be afraid to use abilities to farm. You Q's cooldown is reset if you kill something with it, it also refunds some of the mana cost, making it a quite effective CS tool. W+Q will one shot caster minions after Tri-force is finished if you max W. CSing early is more important than trading. As Irelia, you lose trades early. You are basically racing to a sheen. Once you kill enough minions for a sheen, back then tele to lane. You should be around level 6 by this point, which means you can all-in your opponent.

Like I said before, Irelia is difficult to master. To make the most out of her unique skill set, one must understand how to do so.

Irelia is all about getting sheen procs. That is why the item is so good on her.

It is possible to get many sheen procs in one engagement with Irelia. The basic combo is as follows (Post level 6)

E>W>AA>R>AA>R>AA>R>AA>R>AA>Q
Q can be used to add extra damage onto the target, or to finish them off, otherwise you can Q away to a minion to get out of range from your opponent, negating any return damage they can give you.

Remember, PROCS, PROCS, PROCS!!!!!!!!

I consider Irelia to be an anti-carry. She has all of the tools to get in the carry's face and kill render them ineffective for the fight.

Your job as Irelia is to jump on the squishy damage dealer. More often than not you can instagib that target.

Another way to play teamfights is to peel for your own damage dealers. Irelia is quite good at keeping people away. Normally Irelia's that do this will opt for a tankier build.


Both playstyles work nicely, it just depends on what your team needs.

Irelia is awesome. Play her. I will be posting some results soon, perhaps a commentated match or so. Will update as required. Probably looks like **** right now, anyways...