Hello and welcome to my guide, I am Sören "encoded" and I play League of Legends since 2010. First game which I did with Irelia, was horrible. I thought what is that for a champ. After a pair of Months I gave her a new chance. Today it's my best Champ and I love her so. I hope I can help you with this guide a lot. Have fun and rock the games.

PROS + Tanky Champ + high burst + Hybrid damage + difficult to counter with items + great sustain

CONS - Item dependet - Squishy at times - need a lot of farm - Melee Champion - no high damage without Hiten Style

• Greater Mark of Attack Damage helps at the beginning alot. You can farm better because you do more damage for last hits and you also deal the enemie more damage. This is important for a early 1vs1.
• Greater Seal of Armor is also an important Rune at the beginning of a game. You can tank more against aggresive AD Champs and minions. I do not recommend any other seals.
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist isn't so good at the beginning but later, when your lvl 10 and higher, it's heavy. You get per lvl MR and in combination with the Greater Seal of Armor, your tanky against AP, AD and Hybrid. When you play against Hybrid Champs like Jax or anything else, this might be safe your life.
• Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage: I stack these with my marks to increase my trading and farming potential.

Summoner's Wrath is a must when taking Ignite (if you took Teleport, get the extra mastery in Fury). Fury increases your damage output via AA and Weapon Expertise helps you hurt high-armored foes. You also get some more farming capability and more offensive power with Brute Force. In terms of defensive, hardlinessHardiness and Resistance each gives a good amount of resistances. Unyielding providing the defenses needed against auto-attacks. Durability and Veteran's Scars help to tank more at the beginning. You get more life. Ionian Fervor and is just an overall great mastery for extra CC (crowd control) reduction. Get these masteries if you are looking for some more damage throughout the game.

Ignite just allows Irelia to pick up kills much easier and is often used to finish the last touch. The reduction to one's HP regen can also be extremely helpful in a 1v1 or teamfight situations on champions that have sustain (eg. Yorick, Nidalee). Ignite also highly increases your burst/killing potential.

This spell gives you total lane dominance. It also puts pressure on the enemy team with your extra map control and can be used as a counter to global ultimate champions (eg. Shen). With Bladesurge as an extremely good gap-closer, you can easily use Teleport for ganks and use Bladesurge to quickly catch up to enemies. You may also want to get this summoner spell when the lane is a farm fest (eg. Cho'Gath, Singed) but only if you do not see Ignite to be of much help when wanting to kill your opponent.

Flash is just a broken summoner spell. With the ability to surprise people, escape easily, etc., the spell has its many uses. This spell is a must on Irelia because of the extra gap-closing potential it provides.

First I skilled Hiten Style, because you can heal up fast and easily at the beginning of the game. Also when you did early 1vs1 it can helps a lot. As alternative you can skill first Equilibrium Strike when you want to stun him directly. I also tried to max this ability first.

After I skilled Bladesurge, because it's helped to get closer to the enemie. Also it do high damage which helps to get the enemie earlier down. This I also maxed out. I find the need to dash around in teamfights more often (lower cooldown), or so I can chase enemies even more efficiently.

Last but not least I maxed Equilibrium Strike next so I can deal more damage with a longer stun duration. Having two seconds to do whatever you want to your enemy can really hurt them. It also allows me to burst them even more without allowing them to trade with me.

I max out Transcendent Blades next, because it's my ultimate. Other than Hiten Style, Transcendent Blades is the other source of sustain Irelia has. It is also a great spell for clearing out creep waves.

Ionian Fervor:

• Your passive lets Irelia have 40% CC reduction max, and it's based on how many champions are around you AND you can see up to three.
• When a teamfight seems like it's going to begin, stand in the front lines to eat up all those skillshot CC stuff (eg. Amumu's Bandage Toss) that might hit your carries.
• If a teamfight is about to begin a the enemy has lots of CC, don't be too afraid as this passive will help you reduce the CC duration ( Irelia = Tenacity Queen).

Bladesurge:

• If this spell deals the killing blow to a unit, the cooldown is refreshed. This spell applies on-hit effects (eg. procs items like Sheen).
• Use this to get creeps that are about to die and are not in your auto-attack range (though only half is refunded, it'll be worth it later). This DOESN'T mean spam it for every minion, as you'll run out of mana soon enough.
• On enemy champions, after attacking once, Bladesurge the enemy to reset your attack timer and attack again.
• Use Bladesurge to jump onto a low HP minion who is near an enemy champion to stun him/her with Equilibrium Strike and perform your burst on him/her.
• It is easy to chase enemy champions on a long distance run, as Bladesurge can quickly close distances. Look for low HP minions to jump to (make sure you kill it so the cooldown is refreshed) so you can jump at least again.
• A great technique is to wait for the enemy to use Flash, and then follow up with a Bladesurge to close the distance again.
  Use this spell to kite around when necessary. To do this, jump to low health minions so you can jump multiple times after (as the cooldown refreshes if you dealt the killing blow). If there are no low health minions, create some with Transcendent Blades.

Hiten Style:

• Gives you huge sustain and true damage (allows you to outscale many top laners from levels 4-9). When wanting to deal a significant increase in damage, use the active.
• When farming under turret, the active will allow you to be more efficient at getting each creep.
• When chasing, consider activating Hiten Style before using Bladesurge onto a full-health minion to guarantee the kill and cooldown refresh (will often usually only work if you have Trinity Force).

Equilibrium Strike:

• Remember that this spell depends on who's HP is higher based on percentage.
• When you get this spell at lvl 1, using Equilibrium Strike at the target with full HP will grant a stun, and a chance for a free auto-attack. Remember to disengage once you land that first hit.
• You almost always want to wait for the stun when using this spell. Only use it for the slow if you cannot wait for the stun (eg. to proc items (eg. Sheen), extra damage, needing the slow, etc.).
• Consider using Flash to get in range for the stun at critical times.
• In teamfights, you can use the stun to cancel channeling spells (like Katarina's Ult)

Transcendent Blades:

• If you've never played Irelia before, remember that when you press R, you'll shoot a total of four blades. The blades will shoot to where your cursor is at.
• Overall, you should use this ability to push creep waves. A good time to do this would be right when you are about to recall.
• This spell gives immense sustain, so if you are low on HP, use it on a big creep wave.
• In a 1v1 situation, you want to engage when there is a creep wave coming, so you can heal up by hitting the creeps with your blades while fighting.
• Remember that using this spell doesn't interrupt your attacks, so you can spam this spell while doing other things.
• Using each of Transcendent Blades also procs Sheen's passive. So if possible, use each blade every 2 seconds to abuse Sheen's passive.
• You can use Transcendent Blades on a minion wave to create a minion you can jump onto and kill with Bladesurge. This is a good technique when wanting to get to an opponent who is not in your melee range. This is also the technique you use for kiting enemy champions.

Get this when against an AP matchup, or if you are not getting Zephyr and still need some sort of extra Tenacity.

Get this when against an AD matchup.

I get this item as it gives you all the stats you need. You should rush this item and get it around 20 minutes in game. This Item is hybrid with good passives. One of the most important passive is the slow of the Phage.

I get this item because it give you more AD and at the same time Lifesteal. They Lifesteal stack with Hiten Style. You will heal up hard with every auto-attack so this is an Item which u need!

This Item is important too. Irelia is not a champ who can heal so extremely up, that she can survive at tower fights easy. So she need Health and the Warmogs is the perfect Item for that. Also the item stack with Atma's Impaler really good. When you need more armor, you can also buy Randuin's Omen.

Atma's Impaler is an Item, which is perfectly for AD Off Tanks. It gaves you Armor, Crit and AD per Life. So how you can see, this Item is perfect in combination with Warmog's Armor.

Guardian Angel is an important Item too. In the late game every life is useful. When the enemies get an ACE, you will lose this quickly. Furthermore you get Armor and Magic resist, which is very important too.

Get this when against an AP matchup, or if you are not getting Zephyr and still need some sort of extra Tenacity.

Get this when against an AD matchup.

I get this item as it gives you all the stats you need. You should rush this item and get it around 20 minutes in game. This Item is hybrid with good passives. One of the most important passive is the slow of the Phage.

The passive of Zephyr stack with Ionian Fervor. Taunts, slows, stuns,... are reduced by this Item. You also get more Attack Speed, Attack damage and Cooldown reduction. The Attack Speed stack with hitten style Hitten Style, because you can heal up faster. Attack damage helps to deal more damage and cooldown reduction to spam your abilities.

This Item is important too. Irelia is not a champ who can heal so extremely up, that she can survive at tower fights easy. So she need Health and the Warmogs is the perfect Item for that. If you need more armor, you can also buy Randuin's Omen.

I get this item because it give you more AD and at the same time Lifesteal. They Lifesteal stack with Hiten Style. You will heal up hard with every auto-attack so this is an Item which u need!

This Item is good, when the enemies have heavy tanks. With this Item you can destroy them. You get more AD and Lifesteal with stack with Hiten Style.

In Teamfights Irelia should stay aggressive. You must focus the enemie with the most damage (in most Games ADC). Jump to him/her with Bladesurge and activate your Hiten Style. When he/she try to run away, use your Equilibrium Strike. Normally your Team stand direct behind you and attack them too. When you play on Guardin Angel, you can play suicide too in Teamfights. Irelia is a champ which can help and safe Teammates really good so just help your adc every time.

This is where you and your team should Ward.

• Blue: Protection for yourself. (Obvisious you play top)
• Red: If u want to counter jungle.
• Yellow: Vital to protect the jungler on your team.
• Green: To guard Dragon and Baron. Normally the Supporter will do this.

Ionian Fervor - Reduces the duration of stuns, slows, taunts, fears, snares, and roots for each nearby enemy champion. 1 Champion: 10% 2 Champions: 25% 3 Champions: 40%

Hiten Style - Irelia is skilled in the art of Hiten, passively giving her physical attacks health restoration. Activating Hiten Style gives her basic attacks true damage for a short period. Passive: Basic attacks restore 5/7/9/11/13 health. Active: Irelia's basic attacks deal 15/30/45/60/75 true damage and doubles health restored for 6 seconds. Cost 40 Mana Range 0

Equilibrium Strike - Irelia's attack balances the scales, dealing damage and slowing the target. However, if the target has a higher Health % than Irelia, then the blow stuns the target instead. Irelia pierces her target, dealing 80/130/180/230/280 (+0.5) magic damage and slowing the target by 60% for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 second(s). If the target has a higher Health % than Irelia, she stuns the target for the duration instead. Cost 50/55/60/65/70 Mana Range 325

Transcendent Blades - Irelia summons 4 spirit blades that she can fling to deal physical damage and siphon life from enemies they pass through. Irelia summons 4 spirit blades that she can fling to deal 80/120/160 (+0.6) (+0.5) physical damage to enemies they pass through. She heals for 25% of the damage dealt against champions and 10% against minions. Cost 100 Mana Range 1000

Damage 56 (+3.3 / per level)
Health 456 (+90 / per level)
Mana 230 (+35 / per level)
Move Speed 345
Armor 15 (+3.75 / per level)
Spell Block 30 (+1.25 / per level)
Health Regen 7.5 (+0.65 / per level)
Mana Regen 7 (+0.65 / per level)

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