Hell guys,

this will be a rather quick guide but you will know what you have to :)

Irelia has rather fallen out of meta these days after the nerfs on herself, some of her favorite items and finally attack speed itself. Still she is a viable top lane, even more outside competitive play. However I think she's something special and a character that I feel in love with around my 400. win. Lately I found her again and still love her and want to share my insight with you guys.

I'd like to go more in depth and will do so later when I got more time but remember to give me the feedback what you want to see added :)

Let's start right away!

First thing to know about her are the scalings:

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Her passive is a general advantage over the most bruisers and scales basically off everything that enables you to dive in and kill someone.

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Then we get a 100% AD scaling Bladesurge but with the cost of a lower base damage, the same with a 240% of bonus AD Transcendent Blades.

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Hiten Style scales really good with attack speed and also cool down reduction.

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Worth mentioning is a combined 250 % AP scaling which is pretty surprisingly high. Equilibrium Strike and Transcendent Blades both scale, but remember 200% of that is physical damage output!

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Cool down reduction scales great with Irelia because of her powerful kit itself: 6 seconds gap-closer vs. 3,6 seconds, true damage and healing with 9 seconds CD break vs. 3 seconds break, a potential 2 second stun on 8 seconds CD vs. 4,8 and 640 damage with heal on 50 seconds CD vs. 30 seconds CD

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Irelia scales off movement speed, tenacity and CC really good because: If she can reach and stick on a target she can basically kill everything. Anything that offers more utility is great on her if it synergies with her kit.

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I have decided to go with an tanky attack speed based build because true damage is a very strong option vs. squishy carries and tanky characters with damage reduction. Also the attack speed items provide us a lot of stats other builds do not cover. I'll go more in depth about that later.

Pretty much easy to say. The defense tree is too good early and late to be skipped. The offense tree only grants us useful stats if we go very deep and the utility simply doesn't besides mana:

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Durability : Health is really effective early and we need this for another one later
Perseverance: Health regen is really nice early for lane sustain

Hardiness / Resistance : At lower amounts every point counts. Choose vs AD / AP opponent

Relentless : CC reduction is necessary, helps vs archenemy Nunu & Willump!
Veteran's Scars : 30 health is huge early, must have
Unyielding : One of these little things that can save your life early and negate poke

Block : s.o, just even stronger
Tenacious : Excellent, stacks with Relentless , passive and Zephyr
Juggernaut : Scales awesome into late game, especially with Warmog's Armor

Reinforced Armor / Defender : Both one point wonders; 1. better vs crit heavy or hyper carry

Honor Guard : Makes us much more durable in team fights later, scales really well.

The rest? I went for some mana regeneration because that is the only thing that can stop me from winning my lane and some CDR on the summoners. But this isn't mandatory and you may also go for the armor penetration or even less CD on item actives which is really handy too.
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Both are really good choices. The difference is that damage helps with last hitting while attack speed scales better after you gain some levels.

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Most of the champions we will face top lane deal physical damage. In order to trade properly with them, we need those cheap but very effective runes. They synergy with Durability , increasing their effectiveness by a lot. Sometimes you will meet AP characters like Rumble on top lane or a really magic damage heavy team composition. In this case I'd recommend Greater Seal of Scaling Health to lower their overall damage.

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Once you leave your lane and team fights begin you need to have magic resistance. Those scale really well and give you that extra defense while you don't have your magic resistance items yet. Against an AP lane you may consider flat ones to negate the damage early on.

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Mandatory because of the great utility and the great scaling later. Required for the cheese build anyways.

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Great option because it provides the last damage that you need to finish someone off early and also scales great into the late game, adding even more true damage. Also 5 AD and AP is really useful in lane, as you could see earlier.

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Mobility is all Irelia is about. This spell is great for escaping on the long way of top lane and really shows off later in the game. It goes along with the CC reduction that we got to make it really effective. A Ghost is always up before Flash, means you win summoner exchanges.

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It rarely happens but if I see a Jarvan IV or something else that Ghost really cannot overcome, I will pick Flash like a real nerd would do. It really helps early but falls off later in the game, especially when their carries are slippery. The cooldown is much longer.

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There is also Teleport and if you really try hard you can pull of exciting lane ganks. However, Irelia's split push ability is not that great and it really depends on your team whether this either is a peanut to have or an awesome ability.

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All the champions you might meet at the top lane are rated and explained here:

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sp Akali

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7/10

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Countered by: Ignite, Hexdrinker, Vision Ward sp Tuff lane, got a lot of sustain and burst damage on 6. Do not let her kill you, she snowballs way too hard. If you are equal on 9 you should be fine. Consider buying a Hexdrinker and/or Wit's End + a lot of health. Always have Equilibrium Strike ready in case she tower dives. Do not let her roam! Push out really hard but remember Irelia's damage vs towers is limited.

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Countered by: Counter sustain, MR, Health sp The problem with this guy is that he really gets out of hand if he is farmed. Your mid is better but his end game is beast. Still harassing him is hard and if he chains CC with his jungler you may die early. Blade of the Ruined King is a really good pick up in this lane, also more tanky items. If he goes attack speed consider Warden's Mail

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8/10

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sp Cho'Gath

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sp Darius

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7/10

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Countered by: Early armor, health, CC sp Typical lane for Doran's Shield. He will constantly try to harass you and you have to make sure he's not able to stack his passive on you. The dot is brutal early.

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Countered by: Ignite, MR, sustain sp Dr. Mundo is one of the easier match ups. Dodge the cleavers or hide behind minions. Once he hits 6 his sustain is really high and you should get sustain so you both can farm. It is really hard to bring him down but you should be free farming as well.

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3/10

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sp Dr. Mundo

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sp Elise

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9/10

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Countered by: MR, sustain, CC sp A really annoying lane because of her immense poke. In an all in you can bring her down but she got several moves to outplay you. Still, unless you got the sustain, farming without fighting her is not that simple. She will go for magic pen early, so grab some yourself and a lot of pots.

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Countered by: Randuin's Omen, Ignite, Ninja Tabi sp Fiora has a good advantage early and decent damage. However, it is pretty easy to repel her harass and stay in lane. Once you bought armor, you can all in her because she's pretty squishy. You have to have Ignite up though, she heals a lot.

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5/10

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sp Fiora

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sp Gangplank

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6/10

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Countered by: Randuin's Omen, sustain, minor MR sp His early game is really strong and you should go Cloth Armor and 5 x Health Potions. Keep the lane frozen and grab some armor. Remember that his ult and passive deals a god amount of magic damage, so also grab Wit's End pretty soon.

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Countered by: Armor, CC, sustain sp Garen is a real lane bully with a whole lot of sustain. His early combos can really hurt you and you should not try to trade with him. I like to go boots anyway to dodge his E and take more CS. Be superwary on 6 because his ultimate is devastating, especially if you got health.

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7/10

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sp Garen

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sp Jarvan IV

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5/10

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Countered by: Armor, sustain, Flash sp Jarvan IV has a very good poke with his flag combo + passive and CC you cannot reduce (yet) but he runs out of mana really fast if you can sustain yourself. Never take Ghost if he's on top or jungling, otherwise you are a free kill! If he hits you with the flag you can stun him right away and make sure he cannot use the knock up.

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Countered by: Randuin's Omen, Wit's End sp Jax has one big advantage which is his E. Auto attack him and outlast his combo, then engage. Your stun lasts as much as his but your follow up is better and his E got a massive cooldown. Around that it is a mana battle whoever has the best sustain wins.

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7/10

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sp Jax

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sp Jayce

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8/10

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Countered by: Randuin's Omen, Wit's End, sustain sp Jayce is another poker that also deals hybrid damage. His mobility is bigger than yours but once you get Warden's Mail he's in trouble. If he builds as AD caster you can crush him in an all in. His burst is huge but his DPS after that isn't and he uses a lot of mana, often forcing him to build Tear of the Goddess which lowers his lane presence. Doran's Blade can decide the lane.

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Working here :)

Stay defensive early. As said above Hiten Style has no base amount but scales rather with levels. You should try to stay as long as you can because Irelia loves both gold and the XP. Depending on your opponent you can buy some of those above early items to win the lane. Every time you go back, make sure to get the lane pushed out with Transcendent Blades.

Harassing is pretty simple: Make sure there aren't too many minions around, wait or prepare a caster minion to go low, Bladesurge on it and get the reset, stun him with Equilibrium Strike, auto attack and either follow up with Bladesurge, back off or save it for chasing.

Killing is the same, just throw in Ignite, Ghost and Transcendent Blades. Once you hit mid game, make sure to ward their red and roam towards mid or dragon. The more presence the better.

Always build vs. your enemy, don't rush BOTRK every time, adapt to both your lane's and their jungler's damage.

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Let's talk about the most important stage of the game. Lane phase is over, you are farmed and want to do some action. But where to start?

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Your job is pretty simple: Nuke their carry before he nukes you. The build provides you a lot utility to do so and if you have Ghost up it should be no probem. Irelia can actually engage if someone overextends but you are not exactly a great tank due to no natural tankyness. If you plan to go manly and not get a Warmog's Armor you have to play a more assassin style role and try to flank them. Pop Randuin's Omen right next to their carry right when he's about to stop running and fight you. If you can always save blade surge to deal with Flashes and time them at least on their AD carry.
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There's a few things to say about playing a ranked game:

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• If you are in the champion selection screen look what role you take. If you expect to be the main tank (which isn't your ideal role) take the build that provides most tankyness. Always check your runes and the summoner spells of your opponent before the game starts!

  
  

• Remember to take risks only if you know where the enemy jungler is! Be even more wary if you don't have your Ghost or Flash ready. Map attention is crucial to win your lane. Irelia's mid game is strong and the only reason to loose your lane is a counter pick (which you hopefully checked before) or an early gank that sets you behind. However: If he has shown himself or you got your sight ward up, be aggressive and win your lane!

  
  

• Help your mates! If it is time to do dragon: Be there! Gank mid if possible. If the enemy uses your jungle to gank, ward mid as well! It will keep you and him alive. Help your jungler if he has problems in his part of the jungle or while invading. Don't waste farm but always be present in the game. Your goal is to have more impact on the game than your opponent.

  
  

• Stay positive! Seeing things negative and **** talk won't ever make you nor others play better. Just imagine you are playing with four, mindless super minions. Take the lead and distribute bread. But don't flame around. 99% of the league players can't handle criticism. At all.. So better stick with phrases around that or leave it completely.

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I can just say that playing Irelia is really fun and enjoyable if you stay calm and play your game. She's a very versatile character with some magic in her.

I hope you enjoyed reading and learned something about Irelia. Please leave feedback below :)

I'd like to thank Jhoijhoi for her guide "making a guide".