*MATCHUP THREAT LEVEL IS NOT RELEVANT THEY ARE ALL RANKED 5 FOR PRACTICALITY*
Hard only after 6.
In the recent patches Akali's early-game has been heavily nerfed.
She isnt a lane-bully anymore.
We can easily win lane before level 6.
Make sure to get as much advantage as you can pre-6 in order to be able to duel her in the lv6 spike.
Malzahar
Malzahar is also an easy matchup for Irelia both pre and after level 6.
Irelia has an insane sustain in lane and Malzahar's poke is basically inexistent for her.
Also you can dash on his minions.
You can cancel his passive spellshield with your W.
If you hit your E on his spellshield you will still mark him.
You can stop his ultimate by yourself since your second E can be moved even when you are suppressed from Malzahar's R as long as you took his spellshield down before getting ulted.
[*11.14 UPDATE* You can no loger move your second E when stunned so we are no longer able to stop Malzahar's channaled Ultimate while ccd.]
Zed
Easy matchup pre-6.
When 6 hold your E for his ultimate. Just E on yourself vertically making sure you hit it at the right timing.
Yasuo
Pretty hard if the Yasuo knows what he is doing.
He can punish every level 1 minion Q with AUTO+Q.
He can also nullify our E with this Windwall if the E collide between it.
Make sure to E orizontally and avoid all-ins if he has windwall up.
Katarina
Pretty easy both before and after level 6.
Just avoid walking on daggers if you have your E on cooldown.
Try to throw vertical E covering your champion's hitbox as well.
Many katarina try to outplay Irelias jumping on them in order to dodge Irelia's E if they have no minions to shunpo on.
Anivia
pretty unplayable.
She can counter Irelia pretty easily and can be a pain in the a** in teamfights as well.
Annie
Easy matchup. Just be carefull level6 she has a lot of damage and if we are rushing Blade of the Ruined King we wont have a lot of HPs to witstand her burst. Make sure to stay healthy when near her after lv6
Lee Sin
Lee Sin is now magically a midlaner as well thanks to Mark Yetter :)
Its not that hard of a matchup, but carefull from level 2 to level 3 he really spikes a lot
Ahri
Easy before level 6.
Carefull from level 3 to --
She can charm when you are going for a CS with your Q and take a free trade.
Avoid using Q to last-hit , if the minion is on an open trajectory for Ahri to land a Charm.
Just walk up to the wave and last-hit, Irelia has a big auto-range for being a meele.
Diana
Pretty easy matchup overall.
Avoid getting poked too much level 1 form Diana's Qs.
Make sure you are healthy level 2 and level 3 in order to all-in her.
Avoid using your dash before she uses her Ultimate if you are in Ulti-range.
She can stop your Q-RESET becaouse her Ultimate has a mini pull/knockup.
Azir
Hard from 6.
Azir's Ultimate can heavily counter Irelia.
Its easy for Azir to stop Irelia's flow of reset with his ultimate, so before fighting in any situation wait out or bait Azir's R.
Laning-phase is not that hard overall, Irelia is way stronger in laning-phase and has a huge kill-pressure on Azir
Orianna
Well.. Just run her down :)
Orianna's Kit is completely immobile.
Beside bonus movement speed / phase-rush she is basically a free kill every time she walks in lane for Irelia before level 6.
Cassiopeia
Pretty easy pre 6.
As long as you dont get hit by his Q's you can completely destroy her.
Corki
Easy!!
Syndra
Pretty easy matchup.
No mobility like Orianna.
As long as you avoid getting hard-poked level 1 you are in control of the whole laning-phase.
Every time she has her stun down she is dead :)
Kassadin
Run him down pre 6 :)
Viktor
Easy matchup both pre and after 6.
He's the classical no mobility mage that Irelia counters very well!
Alistar
TEAMFIGHT SETUPS AND FRONTLINE
Amumu
TEAMFIGHT SETUPS AND FRONTLINE
Braum
TEAMFIGHT SETUPS AND FRONTLINE + CC ON BASICS
Jarvan IV
TEAMFIGHT SETUPS AND FRONTLINE
Ivern
INSANE SHIELDING AND PERFECT FOR IRELIA SINCE SHE HAS TO DASH ON TARGETS AND EASILY USE IVERN'S SHIELD DAMAGE AND SLOW
Yuumi
WELL. BROKEN :)
Synergies
IdealStrongOkLowNone
Alistar
TEAMFIGHT SETUPS AND FRONTLINE
Amumu
TEAMFIGHT SETUPS AND FRONTLINE
Braum
TEAMFIGHT SETUPS AND FRONTLINE + CC ON BASICS
Jarvan IV
TEAMFIGHT SETUPS AND FRONTLINE
Ivern
INSANE SHIELDING AND PERFECT FOR IRELIA SINCE SHE HAS TO DASH ON TARGETS AND EASILY USE IVERN'S SHIELD DAMAGE AND SLOW
Heeeey, welcome to my " IRELIA MIDLANE GUIDE". Im an Italian Master Katarina main and as second pick I usually play Irelia midlane.
I started playing in middle Season9 and peaked Diamond I in early Season10.
I know it sounds weird but, hold on, it wasnt my first experience on MOBA games.
I played DOTA 2 for years! So when switching to League of Legends I was still in my environment.
As I said , I come from Dota2, and in Dota details and game knowledge is a MUST.
That's why I decided to make a guide, I really like to speculate on the game details and share with you guys my experiences and knowledge.
I really hope this guide will help you out and answer some of the questions that playing Irelia in the midlane raised in your minds.
So, with all that being said, hope you enjoyed the guide, I will do my best to keep it updated and make sure noone will be missing out on new builds and playstyles.
Here's my stream, If you are interested you can pass by and say Hi I stream almost every day and you can find me:HERE
PROS
🟢Insanely good at farming 🟢Strong Early/Mid-game 🟢Good mobility on waves 🟢High mechanical skill-roof 🟢Rewarding when played correctly 🟢Double role flexibility Mid-Toplane
CONS
🔴Very hard to master mechanically 🔴Falls off Late-game 🔴Sensible to Crowd Controls 🔴Low Mobility without waves 🔴Hard to Itemize
CONQUEROR Conqueror resemlbes the "standard" keystone for Irelia and provides both sustained damage and healing, allowing us to be consistently strong from the early-game until the late stages of the game! It has also an insane synergy with Irelia's overall kit, since she is an insane bruiser and can easily stack it in teamfights with her Vanguard's Edge spiking up her damage and sustain! I really advise to Irelia's new approachers to just stick with Conqueror and learn first the damage-out put and champion limits with it before switching to other keystones!
PRESS THE ATTACK Press the Attack is also another insane keystone for Irelia, is not very common but utilized in the right situations can be game changing! I often utilize it while playing against squishy but high-damage comps so my goal in that game is to delete everyone on my sight as fast as possible before they can burst me down. This is where Press the Attack becomes insanely strong! Be aware of avoiding this keystone if laning against tanky champions, while instead its perfect to face for example champions like Orianna, Viktor, Syndra...I also reccomed going for Trinity Force as a core item while playing with this keystone as its the highest burst-output mythic that Irelia can build!
BLADE OF THE RUINED KING
is and will be (think forever)🤣 the best and only option as first item on Irelia. This item gives us all we need early-game to stomp the lane and snowball. Just rush this every game, sooner you close it, faster you scale!
SUNDERED SKY
Is a NEW item and it's THE BEST THING YOU CAN RUSH FOR SECOND ITEM. The passive is just insanely strong both to BURST the target and to SUSTAIN in longer fights, healing you more the less health you have and dealing CRITICAL DAMAGE on your first basic attack. Basically you can onetap squishy targets with Q+AUTO.
TITANIC HYDRA
is now very strong and has an ACTVIE ABILITY wich allows you to deal AOE DAMAGE and also AUTO-RESET. This is now the core item for Irelia and has to be present in almost every build. Make sure to utilize the ITEM'S ACTIVE CORRECTLY, for example Q+AUTO+HYDRA PASSIVE(AUTO RESET)+AUTO. This will allow you toutilize the item's 100% potential!
KRAKEN SLAYER
insanely good after the changes to the whole item. Base AD plus lots of Attack speed and the very usefull movement speed, on top of all this, Kraken Slayer has a very good buildpath. The item will enable us to both deal sustained and burst damage, the only flaw is the AD-Damage from the on-hit passive, that gets hard countered by even few Armor stats. Overall insanely good as 2nd item right after Blade of the Ruined King
STRIDEBREAKER
Perfect item to rush right after Blade of the Ruined King if you are facing a lot of HIGH MOBILITY CHAMPIONS, for example ADCs with Ghost or high mobility in general. The Active of the item doesn't deal damage anymore, but it slows more and also gives you movement speed based on how many champion it hits, wich in teamfights feels really nice to move around and be able to gap-close your targets!
WIT'S END
great option as 2nd item, it's perfect while facing at least 2 AP champions, preferably Mid & Jungle, since we will fight them from the start of the game till the end, but even if the enemy comp doesn't have a lot of AP damage, Wit's End is still a good option if we are snowballing and we wanna spike up our damage output and also have more TENACITYto deal wtih CCs and STUNS
STERAK'S GAGE
works best as 3rd item, right aftre Mythic, in comps with heavy stun and crowd controls. Sterak's Gageprovides both AD , HP, and a sweet little passive, that allows us to get a Shield and Tenacity once triggered.
EXPERIMENTAL HEXPLATE
very good if the game looks snowbally and you wanna fight a lot with your team rathen than using your strenght to side-lane. Combine this with Ionian Boots of Lucidity to have insanely low cooldown on your Vanguard's Edge
FROZEN HEART
is a very consistent and gold efficient option for Ireliasince she has a lot of mana problems and is likely to get focus in fights, due to her meele nature and all-in champion. Frozen Heart is then very cheap but really usefull when facing a lot of auto-based champions.
RANDUIN'S OMEN
is a good option when we are facing A LOT OF AD-DPS CHAMPIONS and we really need the bonus HP. Usually Frozen Heart will do the work(Heart and Randuin have same unique passive, you can't buy them togheter), but there are some games, for example when we don't have any engagers/frontline, that we need the bonus HP to engage a fight or tank a bit more for the team.[/b]
FORCE OF NATURE
is an insane item when we are facing A LOT OF AP CHAMPIONS THAT DEAL PER-TICK DAMAGE, like champions that build Liandry's Torment or Demonic Embrace, since the tick-per-second damage will instanlty stack Force of Nature's passive to full in matter of seconds, but also just to counter normal AP Damage the item is literally perfect, giving us movement speed, lots of magic resist, and HP.
DEATH'S DANCE
Wanna 1v9? This is the best 4th Item for you! Death's Dance is isanely strong if we are ahead. The passive allows us to HEAL HP BACK after killing an enemy. Irelia doesn't have very high AD RATIOS and Death's Dance healing works on that, but combined with Triumph the healing really amplifies our 1v9 potential! ALso with the Unique passive IGNORE PAIN - We can mitigate the incoming damage and avoid getting onetapped from both MAGICAL & PHYSICAL DAMAGE.
GUARDIAN ANGEL
Is a good option as last item. Guardian Angel allows us to take risky engages in the lategame fights, where one mistake decides the outcome of the entire lobby. Make sure to buy it if the game is getting very hard, and you need a little bit of backup.
UTILIZE YOUR STRENGHT Irelia is a really strong midlaner in the right situations, in many matchups you will have full control of the lane-state and the waves. This is why we need to abuse as much as we can our strenght and not push the lane for no reason unless you have to give priority to your jungler or bounce the wave. Wave can be "bounced" by slowpushing the first wave and then hard-shoving the second wave under enemy tower, this will allow the waves to fix close to our turret and give two options to the enemy midlaner , 1- walk up and die 2- call jungler and fix the wave. Nevertheless pulling up FREEZES after the second wave lets us avoid getting ganked and deny a lot of resources from enemy midlaner. Also Irelia is easily gankable since we have to go all-in in order to do anything due to the nature of the champion we are playing, so in the right situations FREEZING THE WAVE is crucial. Freezing is also important for pulling-off solokills since Irelia needs a lot of "space" in the lane to properly deal damage.
AUTO RESET IMPORTANCE
Most of our damage comes from the basic attacks, this is why is very important to learn and master this mechanic in order the be a deadly Irelia on the Summoner's Rift. Irelia's Bladesurge works as an AUTO-RESET , remeber to AUTO before every Q to maximize our DPS.
LEVEL 1 STRENGHT
As we already said, Irelia is crazy strong in the midlane against certain matchups.
At level 1 we can pressure the enemy midlaner by using our Bladesurge on a minion that can be executed and AUTOING the enemy midlaner that is going for a last-hit.
This kind of pressure can open up scenarios where we can have FULL-STACKS of Ionian Fervor and we can OUTLANE the enemy midlaner at level 1 or even solokill him! (works best with CORRUPTING+WARP TONIC due to the bonus movement speed when you drink a potion allowing you to chase down at level 1)
FLAWLESS DUET LEVEL 1
Irelia is crazy strong midlane but not in every matchup. For example, if you have a Darius mid, how do you lasdt-hit? This is where Flawless Duet helps us. Instead of going Bladesurge for the level 1, we can go Flawless Duet and lasthit a few minions with our Flawless Duet while also being able to stop Darius or any other level 1 hard matchup fromrunning us down!
LEVEL 1 BEHAVIOR
Having the control of the lane its important, pushing for no reason level 1 will eventually lead to the lack of kill-potential early levels since Irelia needs a good amount of "space" in the lane to pull-off solokills.
PRESSURE ON! Irelia's best positive side in my opinion is the advantage she has in the most matchups in the midlane.
This is why I usually like to play her mid in the 11.21 patch
So, Its important to know your champion's limits and not always but most of the times look for solo-kills opportunities.
Taking early lead is foundamental on this champion in order to snowball and take over the game.
LEVEL 6 & TOWERDIVES
As we already said Irelia has a high mechanical roof and its very rewarding getting as close as possible to the "roof".
With good mechanics and damage-output knowledge we can easily pull-off good towerdives if we are ahead and able to do so of course.
What im trying to say is that I found worth it diving the enemy lander while making him lose a huge wave, keeping the level advantage I gained trough out the laning-phase and then later taking over completely the lane.
MOBILITY AWARENESS Irelia's Bladesurge is an insane ability, we can all agree with that and the mechanic that allows you to reset it when executing an enemy target with is very important.
With "Mobility Awareness" Im talking about the ability to "set-up" minions for the Bladesurge reset while fighting near an enemy wave.
Setting up minions can be done with basics attacks or most commonly with Defiant Dance will open up out-play opportunities letting us dash trough minions to dodge spells or reposition our selves.
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WHEN TO ENGAGE
Unless we are running a "tanky" build, engaging first is not always the best option on Irelia.
For example if the enemy team has Malzahar, Lissandra or any other hard-ccs, unless we are going for some sustain and health based build Irelia is not that tanky, sometimes while learning Irelia I found myself forcing a lot of fights with Flash + Vanguard's Edge and constantly dying before casing a single Bladesurge reset. So I just tought that reminding you this could help you out!
FIGHT AWARENESS
As we already said, Crowd Controls are Irelia's Kryptonite. This is why I want you guys to focus on the enemy composition and "think forward", analyzing what kind of Crowd Controls they have and keeping them in mind will allow you to react faster to them!
BLADESURGE'S ISSUES
Resetting your Bladesurge is foundamental in order to use Irelia's full potential. Remember that if you get stunned while dashing with Bladesurge on a Marked enemy or executable minion your BladesurgeWILL NOT RESET. This could easily shut you down while teamfighting.
TARGET SHIFTING & PRIORITY TARGETS
Target shifting is pretty important while teamfighting as Irelia since we have enough damage to completely annihilate enemy squishy targets.
Target shifting comes in handy when having to play teamfights "Front to Back". The best way to do it in my opinion is to Mark the enemy frontline with Vanguard's Edge but before doing that placing the first Flawless Duet behind you, then proceed to approach the fight resetting your Bladesurge on the frontliners marked, at that point the high-dps/priority targets will start focusing you and that's the time to pull out your second Flawless Duet on them. The second Flawless Duet if done correctly will probably arrive from two screens away so the targets will not have enough time to react to it. Once we have stunned and market the priority target our work should be done!
ULTIMATE BUFFER + FLASH
You can buffer your Vanguard's Edge and Flash after the cast animation, is the most common and practical combo when you have to join teamfights.
HIDING E + GAPCLOSING
As we already said you can buffer your Vanguard's Edge. You can combine that combo adding the first Flawless Duet behind you and then going in. You will find yourself in the middle of the fight with the champions you hitted with your Vanguard's Edge marked and the 2nd Flawless Duet ready to go to reset the marks. When doing this combo you wanna make sure you take the marks out before using your 2nd Flawless Duet to ensure the highest damage-output possible!
HIDING E + GAPCLOSING ON WAVE
This combo will alow you to make easy picks on the map. Works best in side-lanes where someone will be there to take the farm. Make sure you throw your first Flawless Duet when you are out of vison. Leave your first Flawless Duet behind and use your Bladesurge to gapclose in rage to land your second Flawless Duet. Its important to reset your Bladesurge while gaplosing with it if possilbe. The combo could work also without resetting your Bladesurge on the gapclose but It could be a bit more risky to take a pick having your Bladesurge on cooldown.
THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE! WE'VE ARRIVED AT THE END OF THE GUIDE, I WILL LIKE ALL THE OTHER GUIDES DO ALL I CAN TO KEEP EVERYTHING UPDATED RESPECTING THE CURRENT META. I HOPE YOU ENJOIED THE CONTENT AND THAT IT WILL BE USEFULL IN YOUR GAMES.
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