Top Lane is Yours

Hey everyone. This is my second guide, and its for my new favorite champion, Irelia.

When I first started playing her, I loved her. She is so elegant, and manages to hit so hard while taking so much damage.

And like most people do, I went on MOBAfire to check out guides for how to play these new champions. For the most part, these guides really are well written. I havnt read one that I thought was bad. But they all seemed to be missing something to me. So I kept playing her, and got her down perfectly (in my opinion). I fount that missing "something".

Also, please note that build #2 is for Dominion, a game mode I find Irelia to absolutely just roll over the enemies in.

Also Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.

Pros

+High Damage
+Hard to kill
+Excellent at farming
+Sexy (see-Chinese Nightblade Irelia skin^)
+Can solo top easily, even against 2 people, allowing for a jungler.
+Her carry potential is insanely high in Dominion.
+Fun to play

Cons

-Requires a lot of farm
-Not as good in a duo lane
-Hard to play correctly
-The american art is not even close to as good as the Chinese art for her.

Runes

For my runes in both Classic and Dominion, I roll with

Greater Mark of Desolation

Yes, we are going pretty tanky. However, your there to kick ***. This will help you do that.


Greater Seal of Armor

Told you, going tanky. Helps keep those annoying RDPS that solo top against you from hitting you too hard


Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist

For when you are going against the caster up top. I find that per level works better for these, as casters usually rely on spell rotations that dont work until they have all their spells. Thus, flat MR is not as useful as per level. But that just me.


Greater Quintessence of Desolation

Remember what I said about kicking ***? Jumping on people, slowing them then getting a few AA on them with all your early game armor pen gives you lane dominance.

Reworking the Masteries

I have decided that Defense is the way to go for new masteries. And my word is law, so you better listen.

We get some very nice flat armor and MR, some health regen, and a little more flat health. However, the bottom half of the talent tree is why I believe this is the only way to go.

• Flat Damage Reduction is always good by me.
  
• Initiator is just way too good for our purpose as off-tank/anti-carry. We can jump into the fights faster this way. Beautiful.
  
• Honor Guard gives us a % damage reduction. 1.5% off of EVERYTHING (except true damage of course) is just so good, it makes you hungry.
  
• Mercenary So you can merc some kids. Kidding. Its just a bit more gold, we only get 1 point in it. Irelia has a pretty pricy build, so more money anywhere never hurts.
  
• IM THE JUGGERNAUT ***** is all you will be able to think of. More CC reduc? Ok cool story, im going to snatch that **** up right now.

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Exhaust is my personal favorite summoner spell, evar. So many great opportunities for it. Is that fed/farmed Jax your bot lane fed about to penta your team? Not any more. Exhaust, bye Jax.

SPACE

Flash AhhhAhh! Savior of the universe! /Queen Now that that is out of the way, Flash should be used because, well... Everyone loves flash. Hop over walls, jump into range of a Bladesurge for a kill, put some distance between you and that fed Jax, etc.

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Ghost Is also great. I dont use it over flash, however, some people prefer it. Its all a matter of taste. However, in Dominion, this spell should be taken over Flash. More in the Dominion Section

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Ignite Meh, she hits hard enough already. I prefer to shut down their ad carry with exhaust while I burn down their ap. But still a valid spell for sure.

SPACE

Clairvoyance Should not be forgotten. Its always useful for your team to have it available. And since we went utility mastery, we have a disgustingly low cooldown on it!

SPACE

Teleport Feeling a bit too slow back to your lane? Grab tele! However, once you get your triforce and boots, you should be moving pretty damn fast, and tele seems to lose some value.

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To all the rest, I just say no to. But do whatever your little heart desires.

> > >

The skill sequence for Irelia is the same in Classic and Dominion.

Max Equilibrium Strike
2 second stuns are nothing to laugh at. The damage on it is nice as well. Its just overall... An amazing ability.

2 second stuns.... How has that not been nerfed? Its what allows Irelia to win 2v1 anywhere.

Second, we max Bladesurge for the last hitting ease, and because in teamfights, you want to have that on a low CD so you can get people running, and because its a great burst tool.

Its possible to lunge at a low health minion near a champion who is out of range then lunge to them. It will catch most people entirely off guard, seeing you cover over 9000 miles in .2 seconds.

Also, it can be used as a great escape tool. If you are getting ganked from behind and attacked from the front, simply dash at the person behind, Equistrike them, then keep running. Grats on escaping.

Finally, you can be awesome and use it to last hit dragon when your team is going for it. Who doesn't love that 25 extra gold?

Hiten Style is a unique ability, because it allows you to make tanks your *****, squishys your *****, and top lane your ***** from the health restore on auto attack. Still, it is maxed last, seeing as having a low CD on bladesurge is more important.

Transcendent Blades Is amazing. Heals you and does lots of damage AOE. It also has a very low CD, so it can be used to farm creep waves quickly while restoring health. Late game, jump onto your target and smash your r key with your mouse over the victim. The blades will go to your cursor. GG squishy.

Obviously, always put a point in your ult when you can. Its pretty damn amazing.

Buwahahahah. Items. The most fun part to write about.

First, we start with a Regrowth Pendant. Helps you stay in top until you can go back to get your....

Philosopher's Stone so you can Bladesurge and farm to your hearts content. And you can just shrug off those few pokes you get, since you go health regen off the hizzle. And free gold? Yes please. Thank you.

Now we grab a Boots. Boots are amazing. I love boots. You should too. Kill the creep with your bladesurge, run out of range of the enemy until you can rinse and repeat.

Heart of Gold is next. This item is entirely optional, however, I tend to always grab it. It wont be sold until far after it pays itself off, and plus some. Additionally, it contributes slightly to your AD via Atma's

Mercury's Treads turn those slow boots of speed into these fancy new Merc Treads! Laugh as Leona wastes all of her CC on you. Giggle as Annie "stuns" you for .2 seconds. No CC can touch you with these. If their whole team is there, their CC will just slide off you 75% faster. Always fun.
There is no other choice. Dodge runes and quints... maybe. But its not as reliable as these dandy ol merc treads. Just take them.

LETS GET DOWN TO BUSINESS. TIME TO START BUILDING YOUR DAMAGE UP. LETS GET A FRIKN TRIFORCE.

and turn it into...

Trinity Force
Sagas could be written about how amazing this item is for Irelia. Seriously, The Lord of the Rings was written about it. Sauron when he has the one ring is actually based off of Irelia with a Triforce. True story. Just get this item. You will roll over people with it, is perfect in every way shape and form. Love it to death.

Alternatively (Thank you Kazega) one could build a Phage first, seeing as it does provide great stats for her. However, I prefer to get more mana and AP from sheen. Your equistrike will hit that much harder, and more mana to last hit and boost health regen. But its a matter of preference. Some may prefer the slow they get from phage, and how it has a change to apply on hit with Bladesurge

Now we start getting tricky. We are going to boost our defense and offence at the same time.

Grab a Chain Vest. Yay armor. Now turn that sucker into an Atma's Impaler Notice your damage go up, your crit go up, and your armor? To quote Epic Meal Time, "Its ****ing smart".

Now we need to balance our armor and MR, since we dont want the casters to get us.
The choice now comes up between Force of Nature and Banshee's Veil.

True, FoN gives

But does it give you anything offensively? No.
And now your yelling at your monitor "Classic you dumbass! Neither does BV!"
Wrong-o chaps. BV give us health. And health gives us attack. And attack gives us kills. And kills give us gold, for more items....

Thus, BV is the only choice. Oh and in addition to the damage boost... it also gives nice things like

To round off our defensive and offensive items, we get a Warmog's Armor.

Health=Survivability.
Health=Attack Damage.
Health=profit. Nuff said.

So now we are stacked. What else could we need? The answer is NOTHING. You dont need anything else as Irelia. Your pretty damn tanky and hit pretty hard. But this last item spot, this was the missing piece for me. I added an Infinity Edge.

I remember looking at my character page one game, and thinking

"man one more item spot to fill. Now what... Oh. I have a 35% crit. And I do need an offense item. Lets try out an IE"

I fell totally in love with Irelia. More than half of your attacks will crit now, for an insane amount of damage. It was that last thing that rounded it off for me.

Of course, if your game is going on super long, and your gear capped, get the pots! All 3 of them help you out. Oracals help too, ward clearing, stealth killing, etc etc.


During the laning phase, make sure to grab 1-2 Health Potion every time you go back as well. And while you are at it....


BUYBUY SOME ******** WARDS. WARDS WIN GAMES. YOU DON'T WANT TO DIE TO THE JUNGLER? BUY WARDS. DIE TO A GANK FROM MID YOURS NEVER CALLED? ITS YOUR FAULT. YOU DIDN'T BUY WARDS.
Don't blame people for not calling MIA. Buy wards and play like your 30.

For the early game, your primary goals should be to

Mid game your concern should be to

Late game, focus on

Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q
^ Thats how you farm.
If its a big creep wave,
R R R R Q Q Q Q Q Q Q

Farmed Irelia=GG

No but really, farming is a joke with her. Just last hit when you can with auto attacks, and use your Q to lunge at minions that are out of reach. If they die to your q, you get half the mana back and the CD is reset, so you can use it on another minion nearby.

Dominion is like a mini-game in League of Legends. The little champions run around the map 3 shotting each other and standing on points. Needless to say, its a lot of fun! But then a wild Irelia appears! She takes far more than 3 hits to kill, but she kills in only 2 hits! Dominion gets even more fun now!

THIS CHAPTER WILL BE SOMEWHAT LONG. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Here is what stayed the same!

First off, the runes have remained unchanged! Armor pen is all you really need, and the others are there just to keep you a little less squishy. However, potentially one can switch their Greater Seal of Armor with Greater Seal of Defense because of how much faster leveling happens in dominion. Purely optional.

Skill sequence is the same too! We are still going for that devastating 2 second stun, maxing our Bladesurge second.

Here is what is different

Not much to be honest. The biggest change is in our masteries, where as before in Classic was focused on defense, Dominion is all about how fast you can kill. So, obviously we are going for a more offensive stance, with a more offensive early game and masteries.

We switch to a very basic AD 21/9/0 build. In Dominion, Ghost is the new Flash. Of course we grab more armor pen, some CDR, crit chance/damage for the lulz, and a tasty 4% increase to all our damage (except Hiten Style)

Take those free MR and Armor points from the defense tree, and we are good to go!



The items in Dominion are similar. The biggest difference is the order on some.

In Classic, I recommend getting a Sheen before Phage. However, in Dominion we start off with far more gold. So I always ALWAYS get Boots, Ruby Crystal and Long Sword. We get health, AD, and move speed right off the bat, and all 3 of those items will be built into something bigger and better later. Perfect.

When you go back to the spawn pool, or die from your dumb team trying to fight under the tower, you should have enough to finish off the Phage and start to build your Sheen

Once that is finished, I complete my Merc Treads, because I find the Zeal the least important item in the Triwin. Finish off your Trinity Force and profit!

Now we do it a little different. In Classic, I go for my tanky/dps items first, then get one pure damage item last. In Dominion, I say **** it, lets go pug stomp some kids. Grab a Bruatlizer, turn that into a Youmuu's Ghostblade, and bind that silly item to your mouse. When you start a fight, activate that sucker, activate Hiten Style and go master yi on their ***es.


Now we go back to the traditional build, and grab a quick Atma's Impaler. I love this item. I dont know why, its just one of my favorite items in the game. with only 2k health, which is around what you should have by the time you get this item, you will get a bonus 40 AD. Hello free BF Sword.

Warmogs is gone =/ In its place, we get a Sunfire Aegis, an alright second place. Health is good, its just not too much. And more armor is nice, since Atmas doesnt provide too much of it.

Finish it all up with a Odyn's Veil for the sweet health boost(more dmg? yes.), more mana(a bit more health regen plus more mana to spend) some sweet magic resist, and a flat 10% spell damage reduction. So full of win. Also, dont be afraid to use the active on that item! 400 damage is nothing to scoff at!

A few small tips for Irelia on dominion.

Have fun. Don't forget your playing a videogame. Smash kids, but don't be a jerk. Don't call people noobs, don't get mad at your team for being idiots. Because more than likely you will have idiots on your team. Mute them, and carry on.

BUY WARDS. BUY WARDS. BUY WARDS. BUY WARDS. BUY WARDS. BUY WARDS. BUY WARDS. BUY WARDS. BUY WARDS. BUY WARDS. BUY WARDS. BUY WARDS. BUY WARDS. BUY WARDS. BUY WARDS. BUY WARDS. BUY WARDS. BUY WARDS.

Thanks for reading, hope you have good luck with her. Tell me any concerns you may have, and I will help.

Happy (squishy) hunting!