This guide is made by an Irelia with over 700 games played. Information included in this guide is from experience playing Irelia as well as reddit posts, youtube video's, coaching sessions, conversations and discussions with other Irelia mains and alot more sources. In this guide I will place video's of other players, for example some usefull tips and tricks. Every video that I use which is not created by myself will get credit. I am not gonna explain what every Irelia ability does, as you can just search for that on google. However I will explain it a bit more detailed, with tips and tricks. This is a wall of text, please take your time reading this. It does not look attractive in any way just because in my opinion a guide needs to be usefull rather than attractive. Enjoy reading this guide and enjoy your Irelia journey!

Irelia is a diver, which is a subclass of Fighters. Divers are very mobile, with easy engage an lots of damage, but somewhat "squishy". The main role of Irelia is to dive on the enemy backline and try to kill their carries, very similar to Assassins. The difference between Irelia and standard Divers is that she does not have to hard commit on one champion but she can dash through the whole team because of her Dash marks. Irelia has both DPS and burst damage, allowing her to take out the enemy carries and keep helping the team by using her DPS on the enemies that are still alive. Irelia can, for example, throw her Vanguard's Edge into a full team, Bladesurge on the first target, and because of her dash marks it will reset so she can Bladesurge onto the enemy adc.

Irelia is mix between the DPS of skirmishers, the kill potential of Assassins and the engage of Divers, but also have some of their weaknesses.
Irelia does not really have to hard commit on one champion but she is a "Hard commit to a fight" champion which means that once she goes in there are only 2 options: Either she dies or the enemies die. At first sight it does not really feel like it but Irelia is a very squishy champion in the way that she doesn't have the durability of for example Renekton. She is very weak into CC, you need to kill the enemy faster then he can kill you!
Vi her ultimate Cease and Desist is a lockdown abilities, which isolate the enemies. Irelia doesn't have such things, she is a very selfish champ.
The faster you can finish, the better. Irelia is very kill hungry and doesn't scale very well. She is adaptable to alot of situations, but that also means she is not VERY well at one of them, both splitpushing and teamfighting.

PROS

CONS

• Very easy to get high CS

• Hard to itemize

• Good aggressive mobility(waves)

• Low defensive mobility without waves

• Very high mechanical ceiling

• Hard to master mechanically

• Very rewarding

• Hard punish when making mistakes

• Fun to learn!

• VERY VERY sensible to CC

• You can play her top and mid

• Need good E accuracy

This guide is focussed on midlane Irelia.
Before we get into what to do as Irelia i want to mention something.
• If you are a toplaner, play her toplane. You can still use this for items and general knowledge.
• If you are a midlaner, play her midlane. Read further!

I mentioned this because lane fundamentals are HIGHLY needed as Irelia, like the enemy champions but also gank times etc.. This way you can focus on learning Irelia more and not "re-learn" the fundamentals, although, you'll probably learn some fundamentals by this guide. I would suggest to choose the lane you want to play Irelia on, and learn the fundamentals of that specific lane before picking up the champ.

Irelia passive is her bread and butter, you should always try to stack it fully before commiting to the enemy, especially in lane phase. In river teamfights it's a bit harder to stack up passive because the lack of minions but you can always use Flawless Duet, Defiant Dance and Vanguard's Edge to get marks and stack passive with Bladesurge
Passive is always good, but it absolutely excels after a few levels and Blade of the Ruined King, making Irelia an Early-Mid game beast.
Irelia passive makes her AAs scale with 120% AD, since it has a 20% AD scaling, making Irelia literally double dipping into AD Items and Conqueror! her dps also increases because of the attack speed buff!
It deals also magic damage, this makes itemisation against Irelia alot more difficult, since people tend to buy armor. This is very strong with Wit's End.



Irelia Bladesurge is an ability that be used for both damage and movement.
You should more often use it for movement rathen than damage, but here are momements you could use for damage. Do not be affraid to use Bladesurge when you know it will be on cooldown, for example: gap-closing, saving teammates,..
Bu at the same time you should not use Bladesurge carelessly, using it in a bad way can end extremely bad for you and your team. Is it better to save Bladesurge and wait for enemy Flash or movement ability, than just deal a bit of extra damage.
Try to use Bladesurge on minions as much as possible in 1v1 situations to keep yourself healthy and dodge the enemy abilities and confuse them, but make sure to Bladesurge on caster minion that you'll oneshot, so the cooldown resets. I will list some breakpoint of oneshot's later. Implementing Bladesurge on minions while fighting an opponent is a skill you need to master in order to become a good Irelia player.
Here are some breakpoints to oneshot caster minion .
• The easiest and most obvious one is: Lvl 9 ( 5 points in Bladesurge with Blade of the Ruined King will oneshot full hp caster minion . This is fundamentel to remember since its the most used one, especially in 1v1 fights.
• Lvl 7 with full stacked Ionian Fervor and some extra ad/on-hit.
• Lvl 5 with a quick Defiant Dance (tap it once) to damage minions + Ionian Fervor stacked.
• Lvl 3/5 without Ionian Fervor stacked but with a Charged Flawless Duet to deal alot of damage to minions.

It is recommended to go into a practice tool and test those things A LOT, so you really have that feeling. Bladesurge on minions is good but don't do it carelessly, it's a decider between killing the enemy or get killed, so train it!


Defiant Dance is a very good ability, it deals damage and absorbs incoming damage. It can be used as an offensive, defensive and utility ability.
I will put some examples below to explain this.

• You can reduce Riven Broken Wings and then hit her with the fully charged Defiant Dance for a good amount of damage. NOTE: Defiant Dance is fully charged approximaly 50% into the animation, your champion will make a sound and you can visually see it, check this out in practice tool.

• You can mitigate enemy damage by using Defiant Dance and aim it towards enemy minions to damage them and quickly Bladesurge the damaged enemy, stacking up Ionian Fervor and depending on the situation, check to land Flawless Duet and re-engage.
Defiant Dance will not get canceled by enemy CC: That means that CC (silence/stun/root/knockup/snare/...) will NOT cancel Defiant Dance

• When enemy champs are low hp after a fight, and you still have Defiant Dance available, you can finish off the enemy, this is especially good when tower diving/just in range of tower, to mitigate the tower damage and still kill the enemy. The range is quite far, you should check this out in practice tool also!

• Use Defiant Dance to mitigate Zed, Karthus, Darius, Caitlyn,..

Learning the patterns that enemies use their abilities is a very strong skill to learn in order to use Defiant Dance at his maximum! Using Defiant Dance just when Pantheon jumps on you, mitigating his full combo will significantly decrease his kill threat.



Landing Flawless Duet is also an ability to master in order to become a good Irelia plater.!
If you land this ability it will mark and stun them, giving you the chance to Bladesurge them for free. This may seem small on first sight, but not putting Bladesurge on cooldown is massive for Irelia
A quick tip is that the first Flawless Duet and the second Flawless Duet have unlimited range, meaning you can place the first Flawless Duet behind you in fog of war, use Flash toward the enemy, Bladesurge a one shot minion and place the second Flawless Duet behind the enemy. This is a combo that I use very often myself, especially when coming back from base.

There are a few tricks to hide your Flawless Duet
Bladesurge on a minion and put Flawless Duet at the spot you land, then putting second Flawless Duet behind the enemy is the first basic one.
You can also hide your Flawless Duet by placing it and popping Defiant Dance at the same time.
Hiding first Flawless Duet in fog of war is also very effective.
Placing your first Flawless Duet and than use Vanguard's Edge and than place second Flawless Duet behind the enemy. This will almost guarantee you a stun because of the 90% slow of Vanguard's Edge


Vanguard's Edge is a very powerful spell, it is AOE, slows 90% and deals damage. It is basically an easier to land Flawless Duet.
Irelia's Vanguard's Edge has more or less the same utility as her Flawless Duet, as it let's her Mark enemies for Free Bladesurge! With significant upsides:
It is alot easier to land, it's a very quick and wide skillshot.
It has a 90% Slow both on Hit and if the enemies touch the Cage around them, making it very easy to hit Flawless Duet! It is also great to catch enemies that are running away.
If you throw Vanguard's Edge, it will explode on the first enemy that it hits. Exploding and hitting and marking every other champion next to them.
A little trick, is that YOU DO NOT, have to wait for Vanguard's Edge to Land on Someone to Bladesurge, if you're sure it will Hit, you can instantly Bladesurge and by the time you get there, Vanguard's Edge will have landed and your Bladesurge will not go on cooldown, instead only consuming the Vanguard's Edge mark!

Irelia can be very reliant on Flash because the Vanguard's Edge + Flash combo is insanely strong, especially late game, to reach the enemy backline.

Now that we have explained Irelia's kit in a detailed way, we can go on to the next step, which is learning Irelia. With "learning Irelia" I mean learning the champ in a very effective and progessive way. Before we get further into this I want to say something about "Irelking". Irelking is literally the god with Irelia, every Irelia main has to respect his skills with our champ BUT don't try to immitate and learn too much from his "enjoying video's". I mean, he sometimes makes guides etc, which are very usefull, you should check these video's for sure if you want to become a good Irelia player. HOWEVER his entertaining Irelia video's are not the very correct way to improve, just because the funny fact that he is literally too good with the champ and you will probably never reach that level of gameplay. It's like you want to train driving to get your license, and watch video's of Max Verstappen becoming Formula 1 world champion. Irelking puts himself sometimes in situations where ONLY he can escape, gain kills, or just be usefull in general, because he is mechanically so crazy with Irelia. Enough said!



The way to improve at Irelia is by playing alot, testing combo's and build in practice tool, limit test and NEVER be affraid.
Playing alot doesn't mean any explanation, BUT you won't improve fast by just spamming games and never limit test or test things out. In order to learn Irelia the quickest way you should test your damage output in every sitation, even if that means you have to Flash + Vanguard's Edge into 3 enemies. I don't tell you to just go lvl 1 tower dive, you'll need to think wisely about your engage's, but this is a very effective way to learn Irelia. You need to compare Irelia with a sports car, lets say a Ferarri. If you always drive at the allowed speed limit, you were better off buying an opel corsa, saving you alot of money. So is Irelia, if you will always play slowly and safe with Irelia, you are better off learning Annie, which is more easy to learn thus saving you alot of time.
If you really want to learn Irelia you should sometimes take her to the racetrack, and go crazy, in a way that it is helpfull for the team and makes you team win games ofcourse. However, sometimes you will lose games because of this, believe me, you will lose games because you went too crazy. Your teammates will flame you doing this, and if you play flex with 4 friend, they will flame you even more. But BELIEVE ME, in the long term, you will become an Irelia god. It's no problem if you lose LP if that means that you'll become better on Irelia. Also, just blind pick Irelia!

FUN FACT: My friends flamed me so much when I was learning Irelia, literally saying don't play Irelia ever again, " Irelia is not a champ for you man, take something more easy", "I never play again with you if you pick Irelia".
After 2 months into the learning process my friends literally begged me to play Irelia. This is the way it goes.

Don't focus on LP, you'll lose games, especially in the beginning of your journey. Don't worry, you'll recover that LP the further you are in the process. If you have absolute control over Irelia and you know the fundamentals of the game, you'll win 99% every lane up to probably Gold 1 or something. (That 1% is Beifeng Qiyana on his smurf account).

Many people think that Irelia has combo's that you really need to learn, in my opinion this is wrong for 90%. Ofcourse, Vanguard's Edge + Flash is a combo because you use 2 different things but there is not a real "combo" compared to Qiyana for example, where you really need to train using specific abilities in a specific order. Irelia her "combo" can be done in any order you want to do it. The most important thing is that your aiming is good, you will understand what I mean when you try to Bladesurge minions mid-fight. Missclicking at that (using Bladesurge on a minion that doesn't reset CD) will kill you, its as simple as that. Therefore its recommended to train your aim and precision. I will link a website where you can train your aim. A small tip: When learning Irelia its not a bad idea to increase the size of your cursor in game, so you can keep track of it more easily. Decrease the size by time. Also, your sensitivity shouldn't be too high or too low.

When learning Irelia in game, don't play too much with runes and build, just go basic builds and runes untill you've mastered Irelia ingame.

In my opinion there are only two spells you should take on Irelia, being Ignite and Flash. Some players will tell you to pick Teleport but I think when you are below Diamond in League of Legends, your knowledge is not so good that you are able to get as much benefit out of Teleport as you would get with Ignite. Especially on Irelia it is very hard IMO. As earlier mentioned, Irelia is a very kill hungry champ, Ignite will help you alot getting kills early game. Teleport can be usefull to splitpush when an objective is almost spawning, and using Teleport to join teamfights and secure objectives. But first of all, splitpushing is not your main job as Irelia, you can splitpush sometimes when your help is not needed at an objective, but for important objectives you should always look to be there with your team. Let Yorick splitpush with Teleport instead. Even if you should make the best Teleport ever and you win the game by just that one Teleport it's not as effective IN THE LONG RUN. I think Ignite is in 99% of the games just way better than Teleport.

But hey, remember, Irelia is so flexible and you should test everything, so don't hesitate to test Teleport on Irelia!





With Irelia there are two runes that you can pick: The most used is Conqueror and the other one is Lethal Tempo. Conqueror is my way to goo in 99% of the games, as it syngergises very good with Irelia thanks to Ionian Fervor scaling with AD. She also stacks it very fast with spamming Bladesurge and other abilities combined with AA's. Lethal Tempo only stacks with AA.
Another big advantage of going Conqueror instead of Lethal Tempo is that +- after lvl 13 with Blade of the Ruined King and Immortal Shieldbow / Wit's End, her Ionian Fervor will provide more than enough attack speed, meaning Conqueror is way stronger late game. Lethal Tempo is really good into specific lanes. It will make your fight with Yone or Yasuo almost unlosably very early, since you just have more dps with fully stacked Ionian Fervor, its a simple as that. Lethal Tempo is not bad, its just nothing really special, very player specific and you are often better taking off Conqueror
Beside keystones, you can take what you want. I mostly take Triumph, Legend: Alacrity ( Legend: Tenacity is they have ALOT of cc) and Last Stand. Coup de Grace is also very good, and if you know most enemies will have more hp than you, go for Cut Down.

In the second tree, I mostly take Resolve, the 6 last runes. Conditioning + Overgrowth was my main pick for a very long time, it makes you very tanky mid game, which helps you not die / deal more damage in teamfights. Second Wind is the go rune against heavy poke opponents. Bone Plating into champs that don't really poke but use multiple abilities or AA's when they engage. Revitalize is good with both Bone Plating and Second Wind and Unflinching against heavy CC teams.

You should also test Inspiration in the second tree. Picking Magical Footwear and Biscuit Delivery. This is often used by Irelia players,it gives more sustain early, and no need to spend 300 gold on boots. I personally don't really like it but test it and decide for yourself.





Irelia build can be overwhelming, since there are so many options. The positive thing is that you can really think about what you are going to build for the first 10 minutes since we are ALWAYS going to build Blade of the Ruined King first. Vampiric Scepter always first component. Blade of the Ruined King is the BIGGEST power spike in the enitre game for Irelia. You must rush it every game, don't buy anything else (beside a control ward and potions if you need it, and your starter items). In rare situations you can buy Executioner's Calling before finishing Blade of the Ruined King, for example if you struggle against Vladimir.

If we look at boots you should buy Mercury's Treads in 80% of your games, since we really need tenacity. Even if you are facing an AD champion in LANE, you will still need to buy Mercury's Treads in many cases, Irelia does not really benefit from her boots in lane phase since we rush Blade of the Ruined King, so it is better to buy boots against their team comp rather than buying boots against our own laner. Plated Steelcaps against lots of AD and Ionian Boots of Lucidity if we need ability haste (very rarely) are the alternative options.

From now Irelia has many options, I will explain it as different " Irelia's".
First off all we have the damage Irelia. Her standard build will be Blade of the Ruined King -> Immortal Shieldbow -> Wit's End. Wit's End and Immortal Shieldbow can be swapped in some situations: If they have alot of AP damage or if they have a fed AP enemy, Wit's End is better second. Immortal Shieldbow is the go to for damage irelia if you are ahead or even, but if the enemy team doesn't have specific threats. Wit's End is also good into tanks, as it makes Irelia deal ap damage, making it alot harder for the enemy team to buy items against her.
You can also build Ravenous Hydra and Immortal Shieldbow. This build is quite new, but especially if you are ahead, this is really strong. The updated Ravenous Hydra gives so much lifesteal, especially when hitting multiple enemies. It's not really strong against heavy CC teams and when behind, as it is purely focussed on damage and you rely on your base stats to make you tanky. But test this also in practice tool!

I will not say so much about Trinity Force but it is good if you are MASSIVE ahead. This is really high risk / high reward, since you will die very quickly when you get CC'ed. It's alot harder to play triforce Irelia!

Bruiser Irelia will be Blade of the Ruined King -> Wit's End -> Jak'Sho, The Protean. You are alot tankier in this build, but also deal way less damage. Remember one thing: Never, but like never as in "0% of the games" buy Jak'Sho, The Protean as your second item. It will soak up your winrate significantly. This build is weaker than damage Irelia, but still good, especially when you need tankyness.

Other mythic options are: Divine Sunderer if you need armor pen, it's not super great but still ok. Goredrinker into alot off melee champs. Even Stridebreaker can be rarely usefull when facing alot of ranged champions.

Situational items
Death's Dance is a very good item on Irelia, especially if you are facing alot of AD champs.
Randuin's Omen is a solid pick too
Guardian Angel is often picked when you are the main carry and can't really die.
Frozen Heart if you need pure AD defense this item is strong af.
If you need more magic resist, go for Spirit Visage or Force of Nature
Maw of Malmortius is also great into AP comps. (without Immortal Shieldbow
For anti-heal we can go Thornmail if they also have alot of AD and Chempunk Chainsword if we just need anti-heal
Sterak's Gage is also a good tank item, but you can only buy it if you DO NOT have Immortal Shieldbow.
Items that have Quicksilver Sash as component are very good into champs like Malzahar and Mordekaiser.
Navori Quickblades is an item that I recently bought for the first time, I saw it was bought by the #1 Irelia in EUW and tested it. Make sure to have 40% crit when you buy this Item.
Even Sunfire Aegis can be usefull in some situations.
Black Cleaver is also an armor pen item but Irelia isn't really good with armor pen since her damage is mixed physical and magic.
Gargoyle Stoneplate for both amor and magic resist.
There are alot more items you can purchase, just test it!

Irelia is a very flexible champion, no one can make a 6 item build that will work every game, this is why you should learn the items and when to buy what item. Think wisely about your itemisation, it can make or break your game. Just decide wether you want to go for damage or tankyness. (I buy damage 95% of the games). Test alot in practice tool. Just keep in mind that Irelia is overall not so well with armor pen and ability haste.

Irelia's early game is very strong, and quite simple to explain. The main goal of our early game is to NOT die, and gain Blade of the Ruined King at around 10minutes. As Irelia you want to keep the wave at your side of the lane, we will reach this around the 5th wave. I will explain what to do. First wave: Bladesurge the 3 melee minions when they are at 10% hp, this will give you 3 stacks, than jump on the enemy to gain full stack and keep AAing him till you almost will get hit by tower. This will give you lane prio at minute 2 since he is very low hp but will not likely recall yet. Keep slow pushing the minion wave towards him and when the 3rd wave arrives, hard shove the wave, go ward (raptors) and reset if needed. This will create a slow push towards your side. From now on we will always try to keep this freeze, there a few expections when we are gonna break the freeze and hard shove. When you can buy Vampiric Scepter, Recurve Bow or Pickaxe. When team needs you to secure an objective OR you want to roam. When you have enough money to buy Blade of the Ruined King. Being able to have a freeze on Irelia is huge, for a few reasons. You can farm safely under your tower but you also extend the lane, which is a big advantage for Irelia. If enemy Lux comes too close and tries to poke you under your tower, you just Bladesurge and Flawless Duet on a one shot minion, put second Flawless Duet behind her and its a free kill. If she tries to run away you will still kill her, since you've made the lane so long. It won't be so easy in every matchup ofcourse, but always try to focus on the wave at your side, the kills will come by time. As Irelia you can have high cs/m easily, you should have atleast 80 cs by 10 minutes. Works towards this. If you are ahead, you can always place a ward at 6:30 at the enemy starting buff as it will respawn a bit later, and maybe there is a chance you can invade with your jungler. Make sure to shove your wave.
ALWAYS check your minimap and look for the enemy jungler before fully commiting to your lane opponent, as dying not only means that you give your enemy a gold advantage, you are also very likely to lose your freeze. The moment you are able to buy Blade of the Ruined King you should instantly shove and recall. if you have Vampiric Scepter, Recurve Bow and Pickaxe, you need 525 gold to complete Blade of the Ruined King. There will eventually come the case that you are forced to back with only 400 gold, in this situation you simply sell your starter item (unless its cull) to complete your Blade of the Ruined King. You literally do everything to have this item ASAP! After you've purchased Blade of the Ruined King, mid lane is yours, and you will ALWAYS kill your enemy if they haven't completed their first item yet.


Mid game is fairly easy for Irelia. You shove and move, try to help your team with objectives and look for 1v1's or 2v2's with jungler. If botlane killed their tower and want to switch lane, you go botlane and do the same, shove and move, invade their jungle with your jungler, etc.. As Irelia you need to be very active in the midgame, since you are so strong right now. You can help your support get vision in their jungle, if your jungler struggles, hover him if he is doing buffs, if he tries to contest scuttle, .. But don't forget to keep farming, that's why we shove and move all the time. Always looking to pick off enemies and get free kills. Work towards finishing the game as soon as possible, especially if they have heavy scale champions, such as Kayle. If you think the game will last very long, you want to start feeding your own carry. For example; try to give your adc some of your free kills.

Late game is a bit harder for Irelia, since she doesn't scale very well. However, she can still be very usefull if played well. Your main job in late game is to take out the enemy carries. We can do this by joining the teamfight right after our tank, try to land Vanguard's Edge and jump on the specific carry. This is probably the method you want to use if you are still a beginner with Irelia, since it's an easy way to go. The method I use is flaking, it's a bit harder and very Flash reliant, so it cannot be done 100% of the time but is more effective since you don't need to pass enemy frontline. You can also use a "Blast cone" if your flash is on cooldown. For this method you should ALWAYS buy an Oracle Lens to prevent a ward exposing you. It is useless to flank while enemies have vision on you.. You just use Oracle Lens to deny vision, you wait for the perfect moment and use Flash + Vanguard's Edge over a wall on the carry, and one shot him. If you've killed the carry, your job is theoretically done, but practically you want to go further into the fight and try to take out every other champion in the game. Remember one thing: The moment you dash into the enemy team there is no going back. YOU need to give your life to deal as much damage as possible for your team.

How to create a freeze
In this video early game is not perfect and mechanically mistakes have been made, but its a good example of how you want your early minutes to look like. The only thing that is not included is placing a ward, since I went for a back instead. At the end of the video you can see that I was about to shove the wave, this is because I killed Ahri again and was going to base. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljURhOHwgnw

A few tips and tricks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx6oWaRaBT8

IRELKING tips and tricks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=933zoJNOZHE

Loldodgegame
A very usefull game to train outside League of Legends, play skillshot dodge on HARD.
https://loldodgegame.com/

Human Benchmark
Aim trainer, reaction time trainer, ..
https://humanbenchmark.com/

Jynxver on reddit
I took alot of information from him, just because he wrote everything in such a good way, therefore I mention him here.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IreliaMains/comments/10ojsk2/comprehensive_irelia_beginners_guide/