Hey guys,
this is my second Guide and I'm glad to announce that my coding quality is yet terrible.
I hope you can still enjoy the Guide and improve your gameplay with Irelia.

But let's get to me:
I am now 21 years old and play League of Legends for more than 5 years now. Nearly 3 years I'm maining top lane and Irelia has always been one of my favourite Champions.
In my best days I was Diamond 1 in Season 3.
Maybe you do know my Riven Guide already and yes, this Guide is going to be as detailled as my Riven Guide.
So prepare some energy drinks, coffee and eyedrops, here it comes.

The Ionians have developed some of the most breathtaking and deadly martial arts on all of Runeterra - just one manifestation of their pursuit of enlightenment. The most remarkable blade style to emerge, however, was the unusual byproduct of foreign intervention. Master Lito was a swordsman whose teachings were sought by ruling classes from nearly every city-state. His art was a highly-guarded secret, but it was said that swords would breathe in his grasp. He withered unexpectedly from a mysterious disease which baffled the brightest of Runeterran physicians. When he died, he left behind Zelos and Irelia, his son and daughter, and a truly unique weapon. Zelos became a sergeant in the Ionian military and left to seek assistance from Demacia immediately prior to Noxus' invasion of Ionia. Irelia, charged with the protection of their home until Zelos returned, was alone when the Noxian forces struck.

The Ionians fought admirably, but soon Ionian blood stained the land beneath the prints of foreign boots. At the Great Stand of the Placidium, Ionians prepared for surrender, but were inspired to maintain their resistance when the young Irelia lifted her father's enormous blade and pledged to hold until her brother returned. In the chaos of the ensuing fight, Irelia was cursed with dark Noxian Necromancy. As her life ebbed, Soraka, the Starchild, made a final attempt to anchor her fading soul. Unwilling to relinquish her home, Irelia rose at the brink of death, and her father's sword lifted in the air alongside her. Irelia rushed back to the fore, unfazed by the blade's sudden animation. The weapon danced around her effortlessly, cutting down Noxians as they gaped in horror. The decimated invaders were forced to retreat from the Placidium. Irelia was appointed Ionia's Captain of the Guard, and when the defense of her homeland moved to the Fields of Justice, so did she.

'The sword flourishes, as though painting with blood.'
-- Taken from a Noxian Field Report

Ionian Fervor (Passive)

For each nearby enemy champion, Irelia reduces the duration of stuns, slows, taunts, fears, snares, immobilizes, blinds and silences.
1 Champion = 10%
2 Champions = 25%
3 Champions = 40%

Bladesurge

ACTIVE: Irelia dashes forward to strike her target, dealing 20/50/80/110/140 (+ 100% AD) physical damage and applying on-hit effects. If it kills the target, Bladesurge's cooldown refreshes and refunds 35 mana.
Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 Mana
Cooldown: 14/12/10/8/6 seconds

Hiten Style

PASSIVE: Irelia's basic attacks restore 5/7/9/11/13 health.

ACTIVE: Irelia's basic attacks deal additional 15/30/45/60/75 true damage for 6 seconds and Hiten Style's passive on-hit health restore is doubled for the duration (10/14/18/22/26 per hit)
Cost: 40 Mana
Cooldown: 15 seconds

Equilibrium Strike

ACTIVE: Irelia pierces her target, dealing 80/130/180/230/280(+ 50% AP) magic damage and slowing the target for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds by 60% for the duration. If the target has a higher or health than Irelia, she stuns the target for the same duration instead (equal amount of HP will count as stun, too).
Cost: 50/55/60/65/70 Mana
Cooldown: 8 seconds

Transcendent Blades

ACTIVE: Irelia summons 4 spirit blades and fires one in a line towards the cursor, dealing 80/120/160 (+ 50% AP) (+ 60% bonus AD) physical damage per blade to enemies it passes through. Irelia is healed for 25% of the damage dealt to champions and 10% of the damage dealt to minions and monsters.
Cost: 100 Mana
Cooldown: 70/60/50 seconds

Irelia is a very mid- and lategame centric bruiser, who can charge into the backline dealing huge amounts of all damage types and might even kill tragets before they can react.
But you can as well peel very good, due to your [[Equilibrium Strike] and help out your own backline.
Your ability to engage fights and find picks as Irelia is key to her gameplay.
Especially the reset from Bladesurge in combination with Equilibrium Strike is deadly.



In this guide I will teach you exactly how to play to her strentghs, including Runes, masteries, Skillorder, Laning, Itemizing etc.

Pros + High Assassination power + 2 Second Point&Click stun + True Damage + Good Scaling into mid/lategame + Nearly no hardcounters + Invulnerable to CC + Sustain

Cons - Weak early Laning - Needs a lot of practise to master - No good AoE (besides her Ult) - Very reliant on Trinity Force - Mana issues early game

We pretty much have limited options here, but I would recommend Teleport and Flash on Irelia so you will be able to have pressure on the whole map and take part in Dragon fights, without losing out too much on farm.
But let's go in depth:


This one is a musthave. Flash is so good on all Champions, because it can either be used offensive or defensive. Following up ganks or escaping enemy ganks, Reaching their backline or getting out of bad positions.
Just get it, like 99% of all players do.


Teleport is great for different situations as well. You can use it to backport for free, and then get back to your lane immdediately, without losing out on anything. Furthermore you can take part on bot lane fights, setting up kills for an easy Dragon afterwards. Speaking of Dragon , it is possible with Teleport to join these fights and turn it around.
In the lategame Teleport allows you splitpush pressure. If someone shows up on your lane, Teleport to you team and you have a 5v4 Situation.
Also keep in mind, that most toplaners will run Teleport. That means, if you don't pick it up, the whole splitpuush pressure will go down onto your team.


Your option if you really don't like Teleport and want to get fed. Ignite will help you securing kills in your lane and translate this lead into a stronger mid/lategame, where it then helps you to kill their carries.
I would recommend Ignite for lower elo, where people have issues to play around Teleport and getting fed might just win you the game.
Your oneshot potential once you have Sheen or Trinity Force is enormous.
But be careful: If you do not win your lane and you stand with your back against your turret, you might get in trouble or lose out many cs.

I personally don't see a reason to discuss other summoner spells at the current date, but if you want to know why I don't mention another summoner spell, feel free to ask me about it.

Marks

It helps you with early trades and securing Minions under the turret. No discussion at this point bois.

Seals

This is good against nearly everything. It helps you vs mages like Lissandra, who will try to auto attack you a whole lot and more obviously against AD toplaner like Riven or Renekton.



This is your second option. You will most likely play it against mages, even better if they are melee ( Rumble). The higher health pool is more valuable than some Armor, because Rumble won't auto attack you that much. be careful about minion damage though.

Glyphs

Speaking of Ap toplaner, this is your setup for Glyphs. Nothing special and really nothing to say to it.


Round 2 of Glyphs, this time against AD toplaner. As you don't need the Magic resist early on, you will have a greater amount in the lategame. Be sure about the damage sources from your enemy.

Quintessence

These are quiet important on Irelia. More auto attacks mean more often damage in general. But because your Hiten Style procs on every Autohit it means +75 True damage per hit and 26HP healed (if Hiten Style is level 5).

Offense Tree

I think here are only two things to discuss.

1. Expose Weakness
I don't take it, because it won't help out in lane (besides at ganks) and you want to be able to solo kill their carries. that means increasing your teammates damage onto that target won't help. You still can use it, it is not bad at all, but i prefer not to.

2. Devastating Strikes over Warlord
While you don't invest heavily onto Attack damage a bonus of 5% will give you ~ 10 AD in the lategame, which really doesn't do much.
6% Armor & Magic penetration however will scale with your decent base damage on Equilibrium Strike and Transcendent Blades, as well as the Passive and Active of the Blade of the Ruined King. This increases your lategame damage by a lot and helps you killing tanks a lot faster.

Defense Tree

Just one decision to make here.

I personally go with Recovery because your early lane will be quiet hard. It helps you to regenerate some health, which means you can stay longer in lane. In combination with Hiten Styles passive, you will have loads of sustain.
The other option is Enchanted Armor , which will grant you an additional bonus of 5% Armor and Magic Resistance. This is more focussed to the lategame, when you have put up your defenses.

I don't really tell you what to take. it is personal preferance and you might just take what you like: Early or lategame.

This is my usual Skillorder on Irelia.
At Level 1 you really want the CC from Equilibrium Strike to disengage early trades, since your level 1 is weak.
Leveling up Bladesurge second allows you to follow up ganks easily, as well as increasing your csing under turret.
Maxing Hiten Style is still the best option in most cases, because it will add15 True damage/lvl and also your sustain.
Having 75 True damage per hit at lvl 9 is huge. A level 9 enemy will have around 1500 Hp. In a trade you are almost sure to get 4 hits with Hiten Style onto your target, which equals 300 True damage while you heal for 104. So only 4 hits will create a gap of 400 HP.

But let's talk about maxing Equilibrium Strike second over Bladesurge.
We'll look at the differences:

- 50 Magic Damage/level - No Change to Cooldown - No change to AP Scaling - 0.25 Stun/Slow duration added/level

- 30 Physical Damage/level - Cooldown -2 seconds/level - No change to AD Scaling

So we basically trade 0.25 slow/stun duration and 20 Magic Damage per level for 2 Seconds lower Cooldown.
I think it becomes clear that Equilibrium Strike is more valuable than Bladesurge.
2 More things:
1. Bladesurge will go down to a 6 Second cooldown when it's maxed. This is the exact duration of Hiten Style. Without Cooldown reduction you cannot use Bladesurge twice, while Hiten Style is active.
2. Equilibrium Strike deals magic damage. While most people will itemize Armor against Irelia, the damage discrepency between Equilibrium Strike and Bladesurge gets even bigger.

Last but not least, always put a point into Transcendent Blades whenever you can (Level 6,11,16). Overall a very good Ultimate.

Get ready for a long, long, long list.

Offensive

Always build it. It synergizes well with your kit. The on-hit effect of Sheen will allow you to get easy resets from your Bladesurge. The movementspeed from Phage as well as the attack speed from Zeal are great as well. It is the item for Irelia.

Another great option for Irelia. The attack speed you gain scales with Hiten Style and the passive also adds another great on-hit effect. The Active will allow you to stick or run away from your target. Build it second if you are fed as hell and nobody can really kill you, before you kill them. Otherwise build it whenever you feel, that you are tanky enough and need more damage.

The Hexdrinker I am not a big fan of this item on Irelia, because it has pretty low stats and building it into Maw of Malmortius is too expensive. Also it doesn't give any Attack speed and Irelia is really hungry for that.

One of the standard items until Blade of the Ruined King was released. Even though Wit's End is cheaper, you don't really have much profit of reduced Magic resistance. Might work against heavy Magic Damage comps. Lissandra, Xerath, Elise, Corki, Annie for instance. Also it is falling off lategame because of it's low stats. I wouldn't build it frequently, maybe in 1 out of 20 games.

Decent item for splitpushing, even though you don't get much out of the Critical Chance. It doesn't add any defensive stats and I wouldn't really recommend it, but it some rare cases it can work.

Extremely cost inefficient item, even with the tempting slow on-hit. But that is exactly the point: You will be fast enough to chase your enemies, due to your Trinity Force and Blade of the Ruined King. Also you will get an AoE slow with Randuin's Omen.

It still is a good item for Irelia. If you had to go Ninja Tabi it's good choice for the lategame if you want more tenacity and damage. However keep in mind that Zephyr and Mercury's Treads will not stack tenacity!

And to just close out the Offensive items, without listing all of them I want to share my honest opnion: You don't need more than you Trinity Force and Blade of the Ruined King on Irelia to deal **** tons of damage. Anything added to those two items is overkill.

Defensive

Great item for the will of the Blades, Irelia. You will gain a lot of Health and Armor, as well as an AoE Slow and an attack speed debuff for those who attack you. Simply awesome.

One of the two big Magic Resist Items. Has 50 HP more than Spirit Visage and will Block one spell all 40 Seconds. It's really good against big engage spells like Unstoppable Force from Malphite or Solar Flare from Leona.

It synergizes well with Irelias kit. The increased healing and regeneration scale with Hiten Style, Transcendent Blades and Blade of the Ruined King, the CDR is great as well. Take it if the enemies can easily pop your Banshee's Veil or have no strong long range engage spells.

Gives Less tanky stats than Randuin's Omen, but increases your splitpushing ability by a little bit. Never buy it to deal more damage in teamfights, because the few magic damage + Reduction from Magic resistance won't do much. I'd only build it against full AD Compositions.

I really like this item on Irelia because you will most likely stick to their AD Carry. Also so Increased Mana Pool and CDR are helping out a lot. However you need to be very careful about your HP Pool, because it gives none at all, so make sure to have at least one item that gives you HP. Also make sure the enemies rely on Autohits ( Jinx, Kog'Maw, Jax...).

Same as for Frozen Heart for most of the things. It is less worse defense wise, but will help you to shut down their ADC, because it adds a lot of damage if he attacks you. And because you are Irelia, the enemy ADC cannot simply ignore you, or he wil die.

Adds a lot of HP and increases your Regeneration. It's basically good if the enemies have a good mix of physical and magic damage. Make sure that there is no % life damage on their team, because your resistances will be a lot lower and more hp = more damage then.

Great versus mixed damage as well, because it gives both of the resistances. Good in the lategame, but very dependend on how the fights go. If you respawn in 5 enemies waiting for you it has 0 value. That means: Think before you buy it.

Boots

They are great against heavy CC enemies. The tenacity will stack with your passive Ionian Fervor, which makes it nearly impossible to stun you. Whatever, do not buy them to get Magic resistance only, that's simply gold inefficiency.

Great against heavy AD and Auto attack reliant Champions. They will block a lot of damage, the best example is Fiora. You will not only block 10% of her basic attack, but also 10% damage of each strike from Blade Waltz.

It's risky to run them but synergizes with Hiten Style. I usually don't run them, but if you feel you are very far ahead and just want to be as much of a pain as you can get, take them. Be aware that it decreases your durability by a lot.

No usual pickup and nearly the same description as the one from Berserker's Greaves. Risky pickup, but really fun. Don't build it in a serious game though.

Yeah,...you don't really need to be even faster. Your Trinity Force will complete this job and your Ionian Fervor will help against slows already. No need to pick them up.

Trinkets

Always start off with a Stealth Ward for early scouting and to prevent early ganks.

After that you have 2 options.
1. Upgrade the Stealth Ward into Greater Stealth Totem. Basically gives you a Sightstone that can only stack 2 wars (which is still great for a cost of 250g).
2. Swap it out for an Oracle's Lens

After showcasing a lot of the relevant pre-game decisions and items, let's get to the actual gameplay as Irelia, starting with the Laning.

First at all, you have to be aware of the fact, that you are pretty weak until level 4/5/6.
With this said, just try to be passive in the early levels, try to get as many minions as you can get and disengage any trades started by the opposing toplaner with your Equilibrium Strike. It is also great to be pushed in by the enemy so you can lasthit near your turret. Even under your turret you can farm very efficiently with the help of Bladesurge and Hiten Style. That also lowers the pressure from the enemy Jungler in the early game by a lot, because diving Irelia is most likely no good idea, because of you CC and Mobility Equilibrium Strike and Bladesurge.
The Crystalline Flask allows you to stay very long in lane and sustain through a lot of damage.
Important: If the enemy toplaner has limited sustain and only 1 Health Potion, you can always trade him, sustain with your Crystalline Flask and 3 Health Potions, and get an insane lead in HP. That allows you to go all in at lvl 4 or 5, when your Hiten Style starts to deal serious damage.
Your first backport should come up if you have enough money for either Sheen or Phage + 1 Stealth Ward and maybe Health Potions.
You want to get sheen in a matchup, where you are not getting bullied and trade a lot. It increases your damage by a whole lot. If you want to play it safe, just go Phage. More HP and movement speed will help to be quiet save.
At Level 6 You have a really great powerspike. Your Transcendent Blades not only deal a lot of damage on high range, but also heal you for a great amount. Your all in becomes very strong.

The basic trading is not that complex.
1. Make sure the enemy has the same amount of HP or more, so your Equilibrium Strike will stun the enemy.
2. Activate your Hiten Style and auto attack the enemy as long, as you stay in range.
3. Use Bladesurge onto the enemy, while Hiten Style is still active. The active of Hiten Style will proc onto Bladesurge, which means your Bladesurge damage is increased by the amount of True damage, that Hiten Styles active offers.

Advanced Trading: (good when the enemy is out of range of your Equilibrium Strike)
1. Activate Hiten Styleand jump onto a low health minions near the enemy with Bladesurge (Make sure that the Minion dies to the damage of Bladesurge to get the reset.)
2. Use Equilibrium Strike onto the enemy, if possible same or higher health for the Stun.
3. Autoattack the enemy while Hiten Style is still active.
4. Choose between:
4.1 Use Bladesurge onto the enemy, while Hiten Style is still active. (This will be the maximum damage trade)
4.2 Use Bladesurge onto a low health minion to get out of trading range and disengage the trade. (It is the safer way to trade and needs less Mana if you lasthit the minion with Bladesurge, when disengaging the fight)

Note:
You will be able to oneshot the ranged Minions with Hiten Style + Bladesurge, as soon as you have finished your Trinity Force.
Somewhen in the midgame you will be no longer able to do that, because the minions get tankier over time.
With the Blade of the Ruined Kingas second Item you can also do the same combo to oneshot melee Minions and you won't need to use Hiten Style for the ranged ones.

Mastermind Combo: (Needs a lot of Training)
If you want to engage or chase people down the lane.
1. Use the first activation of Transcendent Blades to hit the incoming melee Minions.
2. Activate Hiten Style, Bladesurge to the first melee Minion.
3. Use the second activation of Transcendent Blades to hit the last ranged Minion.
4. Jump onto the last ranged minion with Bladesurge.
5. Stun your enemy with Equilibrium Strike.
6.1 Use Bladesurge onto the enemy, while Hiten Style is still active.
6.2 Use Bladesurge onto a low health minion to get out of trading range and disengage the trade.

This combo allows you to get into range of far away moving targets, that might feel save. It catches many players by surprise and allows a really long range engage.
Thing to note:
- Be careful not to get out of range for your whole team. Since you closed a really big gap, they might not be able to follow up fast enough.
- This is only possible with certain amounts of AD and Level. Blade of the Ruined King is required for this.


General Trading tips:
- Try to get as many Sheen procs in your trades as possible. Jumping onto a Minion with Bladesurge will use the Sheen proc, so you will have less damage then in the basic Trading combo. Transcendent Blades will help you to get more Sheen procs in.
- Your Bladesurge has a fairly high Cooldown until you level it up. Choose your trades in the early game more carefully and also if it is worth to damage the enemy with Bladesurge, rather than disengaging with it, and having it back up.

Your primary Job as Irelia is to shut down the enemies backline.
It's not always the ADC you are looking for. When the enemies midlaner is immobile and quite fed, go for him (e.g. Xerath). As soon as the ADC is the bigger problem, try to womanhandle him and burst him down.
Sometimes it is still better to support your Team, instead of diving into the enemies.
If your backline is really far ahead and will deal more damage than the enemies backline it is unneccessary to dive in.
Peel for your backline with Equilibrium Strike and get rid of their frontline. This ensures almost a won fight.
The usage of Teleport is also important. Don't split from your team if you have it oon Cooldown and try to use it to your advantage.
You should also always time the Teleport of your opponent.

I will be working on this very soon.
I just wrote like 3 Hours straight and I am not in the modd to do it right now, but it will come.
Thanks for your patience.

Irelia has easily become one of my favourite Champions.
I hope, that after this Guide you can see the beauty of her kit as well.

There is still a lot of work to go through on this Guide, I just wrote. I will try to update it over time and pimp it up a little bit in style.
If you want, Add me in League of Legends (EUW) under: epu Pew Pew
I will asnwer ur questions and help you out.
You can also send me Screenshots of your irelia games with the help of my Guide, that i Will insert into the Guide itself!

Finally, if you havn't checked out my Riven Guide, here's the link: Your text to link here....

Thanks a lot for reading and gl bois n grills.