Hello there!

This is my first guide for MOBAFIRE and I'm gonna give a guide for my main: Irelia . In this guide I'll explain all the things anyone must know in order to start playing Irelia. This guide is small and will only serve as an introduction to the basics. Remember the best way is to practice!

This guide will include four ways to play Irelia on two different maps:

• Summoner's Rift Top Laner
• Summoner's Rift Mid Laner
• Twisted Treeline Solo Laner
• Twisted Treeline AD Carry

For further discussion, you can visit https://www.reddit.com/r/IreliaMains/ ❤ ❤ ❤

Irelia is a Diver. Concept-wise, the function of Irelia is to basically enter the teamfight and take down priority targets while taking a fair amount of punishment. Her kit enables her to enhance her teamfighting potential, making her enough of a threat alone. She is viable on both main maps of League of Legends, Summoner's Rift and the Twisted Treeline.

Your roles always involve having an impact for your team, either through the snowball of the top lane or the roaming of mid lane. Irelia synergizes well with teamcomps that have CC that can follow up hers, and in general she synergizes the most with TANKS ( Malphite, Leona, Alistar) and MAGES ( Lux, Anivia, Brand, Lissandra, etc.) and in certain degree ENCHANTERS ( Nami, Janna, etc.) to keep her alive with protective shields and CC. Irelia doesn't have much synergy with ASSASSINS (With the exception of Ahri, who actually has a pretty good follow-up kit) because Assassins usually only have CC to lock down a target and burst it, and the only thing Irelia can do is to clean up the mess if they fail.

PROS!

• High Mobility
• Lane Sustain
• Easy farming under tower.
• Versatile Playstyle.
• Excellent Teamfight.
• Has Utility with her CC and damage.
• 1v3/4 Potential (If really ahead)
• Midgame monster and lategame raidboss.

CONS!

• Hard to play
• Hard to learn
• Really bad matchups (Jax, Renekton, and Fiora specifically).
• Not a strong late game but still decent (gets outscaled by Jax, Fiora and other skirmishers)
• Item dependent to be effective.

Starting!

Corrupting Potion Is the one you always buy first. It grants you:

• Life sustain (Necessary for poke and trades).
• Mana sustain (Irelia is mana-hungry early on).
• Additional Magic Damage upon consumption (More damage for level 1-3 trades).

First Backs!

• Pick Tiamat when you need to shove the lane and push in general. It also grants you sustain with health regeneration and bonus AD, which is amazing as a first object against some matchups.
• Pick Sheen to solve your mana-hungriness and for the spellblade passive. Once you have Sheen, you are able to one-shot caster minions.
• Pick Phage for extra life and AD. This is a better option than Tiamat if you wish to play passive and farm under tower, rather than shoving the lane.

Core Items!

• Trinity Force is your first powerspike. It grants all the stats that Irelia needs + Phage's and Sheen's passive.
• Sterak's Gage will likely be your second item. It was nerfed on 8.12 so it no longer synergizes with Trinity Force, but the extra AD and health is welcomed. And also the shield it provides helps you on surviving getting bursted down.
• Titanic Hydra must be your third item. Bruisers like Irelia stack health. Titanic Hydra let's you have enough stats to be tanky, damage for being tanky, waveclear, sustain and an active that's basically an AA-reset. Since Irelia, unlike other champs doesn't have AA-resets or animation cancelling on her kit, so Titanic Hydra is useful for making your DPS better.

Boot Options!

• Ninja Tabi: Usually rush these on matchups like Yorick. It is also strong against AA champions and synergizes well with Thornmail on shutting down AA-Based champions.
• Mercury's Treads are a must against Teemo and Kennen. Also if the enemy team has hard CC.

Offensive Options!

• Guardian Angel You will get bursted down. After Guardian Angel, you can end up cleaning the mess after diving. You are a diver, but you can't afford dying during a dive. (This item is not available in the Twisted Treeline).
• Death's Dance Death's Dance CDR and Lifesteal is best coupled with Legend: Bloodline. The raw AD it provides also allows Irelia to adopt an offensive playstyle that is based on sustain, and also facilitates your teamfight dives! Also, the bleed let's you survive better. Dance around your death!
• Mercurial Scimitar is your choice against teams that has suppression as CC ( Malzahar, Warwick, Urgot). It is also an item that scales well with Irelia by being an offensive item with defensive and sustain traits.
• Wit's End should be a rush item against APs, now that her W was nerfed. It lets her have hybrid damage and have a Last Stand-type sustain

Defensive Options!

• Randuin's Omen is a good option vs champions that are crit-based, just like Yasuo. It is also strong against Marksmen.
• Thornmail is the bane of sustain. If you are against a Fiora or an Aatrox, you must had rushed Bramble Vest first. This is a great item against Marksmen and AA-Based champions like Master Yi and Tryndamere.
• Adaptive Helm is a better MR item than Spirit Visage due to the reduced AP damage of subsequent attacks. You will resist both burst mages and DPS-mages alike with this item.
• Zz'Rot Portal is a viable item that helps with splitpushing. You are already building health in your core items, so all the stats Zz'Rot gives you are viable on Irelia.
• Locket of the Iron Solari is a better teamfighting option. It grants a shield to your allies in order to give them more survivability. Locket of the Iron Solari allows you to give defensive utility to truly lead your team to victory!