Irelia Build Guide : [S14.10] IRELIA COMPLETED IN-DEPTH GUIDE

WHO MADE THIS?

This guide is made by an with over 700 games played. Information included in this guide is from experience playing as well as reddit posts, youtube video's, coaching sessions, conversations and discussions with other mains and alot more sources. In this guide I will place video's of other players, for example some usefull tips and tricks. Every video that I use which is not created by myself will get credit. I am not gonna explain what every ability does, as you can just search for that on google. However I will explain it a bit more detailed, with tips and tricks.
This is a wall of text, please take your time reading this. It does not look attractive in any way just because in my opinion a guide needs to be usefull rather than attractive.

Enjoy reading this guide and enjoy your Irelia journey!

Champion Identity

is a diver, which is a subclass of Fighters. Divers are very mobile, with easy engage an lots of damage, but somewhat "squishy". The main role of is to dive on the enemy backline and try to kill their carries, very similar to Assassins. The difference between and standard Divers is that she does not have to hard commit on one champion but she can dash through the whole team because of her Dash marks. has both DPS and burst damage, allowing her to take out the enemy carries and keep helping the team by using her DPS on the enemies that are still alive. can, for example, throw her into a full team, on the first target, and because of her dash marks it will reset so she can onto the enemy adc.

is mix between the DPS of skirmishers, the kill potential of Assassins and the engage of Divers, but also have some of their weaknesses.
does not really have to hard commit on one champion but she is a "Hard commit to a fight" champion which means that once she goes in there are only 2 options: Either she dies or the enemies die. At first sight it does not really feel like it but is a very squishy champion in the way that she doesn't have the durability of for example . She is very weak into CC, you need to kill the enemy faster then he can kill you!
her ultimate is a lockdown abilities, which isolate the enemies. doesn't have such things, she is a very selfish champ.
The faster you can finish, the better. is very kill hungry and doesn't scale very well. She is adaptable to alot of situations, but that also means she is not VERY well at one of them, both splitpushing and teamfighting.

PROS

CONS

• Very easy to get high CS

• Hard to itemize

• Good aggressive mobility(waves)

• Low defensive mobility without waves

• Very high mechanical ceiling

• Hard to master mechanically

• Very rewarding

• Hard punish when making mistakes

• Fun to learn!

• VERY VERY sensible to CC

• You can play her top and mid

• Need good E accuracy

This guide is focussed on midlane .
Before we get into what to do as i want to mention something.
• If you are a toplaner, play her toplane. You can still use this for items and general knowledge.
• If you are a midlaner, play her midlane. Read further!

I mentioned this because lane fundamentals are HIGHLY needed as , like the enemy champions but also gank times etc.. This way you can focus on learning more and not "re-learn" the fundamentals, although, you'll probably learn some fundamentals by this guide. I would suggest to choose the lane you want to play on, and learn the fundamentals of that specific lane before picking up the champ.

IRELIAS KIT EXPLAINED

passive is her bread and butter, you should always try to stack it fully before commiting to the enemy, especially in lane phase. In river teamfights it's a bit harder to stack up passive because the lack of minions but you can always use , and to get marks and stack passive with
Passive is always good, but it absolutely excels after a few levels and , making an Early-Mid game beast.
passive makes her AAs scale with 120% AD, since it has a 20% AD scaling, making literally double dipping into AD Items and ! her dps also increases because of the attack speed buff!
It deals also magic damage, this makes itemisation against alot more difficult, since people tend to buy armor. This is very strong with .

is an ability that be used for both damage and movement.
You should more often use it for movement rathen than damage, but here are momements you could use for damage. Do not be affraid to use when you know it will be on cooldown, for example: gap-closing, saving teammates,..
Bu at the same time you should not use carelessly, using it in a bad way can end extremely bad for you and your team. Is it better to save and wait for enemy or movement ability, than just deal a bit of extra damage.
Try to use on minions as much as possible in 1v1 situations to keep yourself healthy and dodge the enemy abilities and confuse them, but make sure to on that you'll oneshot, so the cooldown resets. I will list some breakpoint of oneshot's later. Implementing on minions while fighting an opponent is a skill you need to master in order to become a good player.
Here are some breakpoints to oneshot .
• The easiest and most obvious one is: Lvl 9 ( 5 points in with will oneshot full hp . This is fundamentel to remember since its the most used one, especially in 1v1 fights.
• Lvl 7 with full stacked and some extra ad/on-hit.
• Lvl 5 with a quick (tap it once) to damage minions + stacked.
• Lvl 3/5 without stacked but with a Charged to deal alot of damage to minions.

It is recommended to go into a practice tool and test those things A LOT, so you really have that feeling. on minions is good but don't do it carelessly, it's a decider between killing the enemy or get killed, so train it!

is a very good ability, it deals damage and absorbs incoming damage. It can be used as an offensive, defensive and utility ability.
I will put some examples below to explain this.

• You can reduce and then hit her with the fully charged for a good amount of damage. NOTE: is fully charged approximaly 50% into the animation, your champion will make a sound and you can visually see it, check this out in practice tool.

• You can mitigate enemy damage by using and aim it towards enemy minions to damage them and quickly the damaged enemy, stacking up and depending on the situation, check to land and re-engage.
will not get canceled by enemy CC: That means that CC (silence/stun/root/knockup/snare/...) will NOT cancel

• When enemy champs are low hp after a fight, and you still have available, you can finish off the enemy, this is especially good when tower diving/just in range of tower, to mitigate the tower damage and still kill the enemy. The range is quite far, you should check this out in practice tool also!

• Use to mitigate , , , ,..

Learning the patterns that enemies use their abilities is a very strong skill to learn in order to use at his maximum! Using just when Pantheon jumps on you, mitigating his full combo will significantly decrease his kill threat.

Landing is also an ability to master in order to become a good plater.!
If you land this ability it will mark and stun them, giving you the chance to them for free. This may seem small on first sight, but not putting on cooldown is massive for
A quick tip is that the first and the second have unlimited range, meaning you can place the first behind you in fog of war, use toward the enemy, a one shot minion and place the second behind the enemy. This is a combo that I use very often myself, especially when coming back from base.

There are a few tricks to hide your
on a minion and put at the spot you land, then putting second behind the enemy is the first basic one.
You can also hide your by placing it and popping at the same time.
Hiding first in fog of war is also very effective.
Placing your first and than use and than place second behind the enemy. This will almost guarantee you a stun because of the 90% slow of

is a very powerful spell, it is AOE, slows 90% and deals damage. It is basically an easier to land .
's has more or less the same utility as her , as it let's her Mark enemies for Free ! With significant upsides:
It is alot easier to land, it's a very quick and wide skillshot.
It has a 90% Slow both on Hit and if the enemies touch the Cage around them, making it very easy to hit ! It is also great to catch enemies that are running away.
If you throw , it will explode on the first enemy that it hits. Exploding and hitting and marking every other champion next to them.
A little trick, is that YOU DO NOT, have to wait for to Land on Someone to , if you're sure it will Hit, you can instantly and by the time you get there, will have landed and your will not go on cooldown, instead only consuming the mark!

can be very reliant on because the + combo is insanely strong, especially late game, to reach the enemy backline.

Learning Irelia

Now that we have explained 's kit in a detailed way, we can go on to the next step, which is learning . With "learning " I mean learning the champ in a very effective and progessive way. Before we get further into this I want to say something about "Irelking". Irelking is literally the god with , every main has to respect his skills with our champ BUT don't try to immitate and learn too much from his "enjoying video's". I mean, he sometimes makes guides etc, which are very usefull, you should check these video's for sure if you want to become a good player. HOWEVER his entertaining video's are not the very correct way to improve, just because the funny fact that he is literally too good with the champ and you will probably never reach that level of gameplay. It's like you want to train driving to get your license, and watch video's of Max Verstappen becoming Formula 1 world champion. Irelking puts himself sometimes in situations where ONLY he can escape, gain kills, or just be usefull in general, because he is mechanically so crazy with . Enough said!

The way to improve at is by playing alot, testing combo's and build in practice tool, limit test and NEVER be affraid.
Playing alot doesn't mean any explanation, BUT you won't improve fast by just spamming games and never limit test or test things out. In order to learn the quickest way you should test your damage output in every sitation, even if that means you have to + into 3 enemies. I don't tell you to just go lvl 1 tower dive, you'll need to think wisely about your engage's, but this is a very effective way to learn . You need to compare with a sports car, lets say a Ferarri. If you always drive at the allowed speed limit, you were better off buying an opel corsa, saving you alot of money. So is , if you will always play slowly and safe with , you are better off learning , which is more easy to learn thus saving you alot of time.
If you really want to learn you should sometimes take her to the racetrack, and go crazy, in a way that it is helpfull for the team and makes you team win games ofcourse. However, sometimes you will lose games because of this, believe me, you will lose games because you went too crazy. Your teammates will flame you doing this, and if you play flex with 4 friend, they will flame you even more. But BELIEVE ME, in the long term, you will become an god. It's no problem if you lose LP if that means that you'll become better on . Also, just blind pick !

FUN FACT: My friends flamed me so much when I was learning , literally saying don't play ever again, " is not a champ for you man, take something more easy", "I never play again with you if you pick ".
After 2 months into the learning process my friends literally begged me to play . This is the way it goes.

Don't focus on LP, you'll lose games, especially in the beginning of your journey. Don't worry, you'll recover that LP the further you are in the process. If you have absolute control over and you know the fundamentals of the game, you'll win 99% every lane up to probably Gold 1 or something. (That 1% is Beifeng on his smurf account).

Many people think that has combo's that you really need to learn, in my opinion this is wrong for 90%. Ofcourse, + is a combo because you use 2 different things but there is not a real "combo" compared to for example, where you really need to train using specific abilities in a specific order. her "combo" can be done in any order you want to do it. The most important thing is that your aiming is good, you will understand what I mean when you try to minions mid-fight. Missclicking at that (using on a minion that doesn't reset CD) will kill you, its as simple as that. Therefore its recommended to train your aim and precision. I will link a website where you can train your aim. A small tip: When learning its not a bad idea to increase the size of your cursor in game, so you can keep track of it more easily. Decrease the size by time. Also, your sensitivity shouldn't be too high or too low.

When learning in game, don't play too much with runes and build, just go basic builds and runes untill you've mastered ingame.

Summoner spells, runes and build

SUMMONER SPELLS

In my opinion there are only two spells you should take on , being and . Some players will tell you to pick but I think when you are below Diamond in League of Legends, your knowledge is not so good that you are able to get as much benefit out of as you would get with . Especially on it is very hard IMO. As earlier mentioned, is a very kill hungry champ, will help you alot getting kills early game. can be usefull to splitpush when an objective is almost spawning, and using to join teamfights and secure objectives. But first of all, splitpushing is not your main job as , you can splitpush sometimes when your help is not needed at an objective, but for important objectives you should always look to be there with your team. Let splitpush with instead. Even if you should make the best ever and you win the game by just that one it's not as effective IN THE LONG RUN in my opinion. I think is in 99% of the games just way better than , especially in laning phase becuase can manage the wave so easily without .

But hey, remember, is so flexible and you should test everything, so don't hesitate to test on !

RUNES

With there are two runes that you can pick: The most used is and the other one is . is my way to goo in 99% of the games, as it syngergises very good with thanks to scaling with AD. She also stacks it very fast with spamming and other abilities combined with AA's. only stacks with AA.
Another big advantage of going instead of is that +- after lvl 13 with and / , her will provide more than enough attack speed, meaning is way stronger late game. is really good into specific lanes. It will make your fight with or almost unlosably very early, since you just have more dps with fully stacked , its a simple as that. is not bad, its just nothing really special, very player specific and you are often better taking off
Beside keystones, you can take what you want. I mostly take , ( is they have ALOT of cc) and . is also very good, and if you know most enemies will have more hp than you, go for .

In the second tree, I mostly take , the 6 last runes. + was my main pick for a very long time, it makes you very tanky mid game, which helps you not die / deal more damage in teamfights. is the go rune against heavy poke opponents. into champs that don't really poke but use multiple abilities or AA's when they engage. is good with both and and against heavy CC teams.

You should also test in the second tree. Picking and . This is often used by players,it gives more sustain early, and no need to spend 300 gold on boots. I personally don't really like it but test it and decide for yourself.

BUILD

build can be overwhelming, since there are so many options. The positive thing is that you can really think about what you are going to build for the first 10 minutes since we are ALWAYS going to build first. always first component. is the BIGGEST power spike in the enitre game for . You must rush it every game, don't buy anything else (beside a control ward and potions if you need it, and your starter items). In rare situations you can buy before finishing , for example if you struggle against .

If we look at boots you should buy in 80% of your games, since we really need tenacity. Even if you are facing an AD champion in LANE, you will still need to buy in many cases, does not really benefit from her boots in lane phase since we rush , so it is better to buy boots against their team comp rather than buying boots against our own laner. against lots of AD and if we need ability haste (very rarely) are the alternative options.

From now has many options, I will explain it as different "'s".
First off all we have the damage . Her standard build will be -> -> . and can be swapped in some situations: If they have alot of AP damage or if they have a fed AP enemy, is better second. is the go to for damage irelia if you are ahead or even, but if the enemy team doesn't have specific threats. is also good into tanks, as it makes deal ap damage, making it alot harder for the enemy team to buy items against her.
You can also build and . This build is quite new, but especially if you are ahead, this is really strong. The updated gives so much lifesteal, especially when hitting multiple enemies. It's not really strong against heavy CC teams and when behind, as it is purely focussed on damage and you rely on your base stats to make you tanky. But test this also in practice tool!

I will not say so much about but it is good if you are MASSIVE ahead. This is really high risk / high reward, since you will die very quickly when you get CC'ed. It's alot harder to play triforce Irelia!

Bruiser will be -> -> . You are alot tankier in this build, but also deal way less damage. Remember one thing: Never, but like never as in "0% of the games" buy as your second item. It will soak up your winrate significantly. This build is weaker than damage , but still good, especially when you need tankyness.

Other mythic options are: if you need armor pen, it's not super great but still ok. into alot off melee champs. Even can be rarely usefull when facing alot of ranged champions.

Situational items
is a very good item on , especially if you are facing alot of AD champs.
is a solid pick too
is often picked when you are the main carry and can't really die.
if you need pure AD defense this item is strong af.
If you need more magic resist, go for or
is also great into AP comps. (without
For anti-heal we can go if they also have alot of AD and if we just need anti-heal
is also a good tank item, but you can only buy it if you DO NOT have .
Items that have as component are very good into champs like and .
is an item that I recently bought for the first time, I saw it was bought by the #1 in EUW and tested it. Make sure to have 40% crit when you buy this Item.
Even can be usefull in some situations.
is also an armor pen item but isn't really good with armor pen since her damage is mixed physical and magic.
for both amor and magic resist.
There are alot more items you can purchase, just test it!

is a very flexible champion, no one can make a 6 item build that will work every game, this is why you should learn the items and when to buy what item. Think wisely about your itemisation, it can make or break your game. Just decide wether you want to go for damage or tankyness. (I buy damage 95% of the games). Test alot in practice tool. Just keep in mind that is overall not so well with armor pen and ability haste.

GAMEPLAN OF IRELIA

Early Game

's early game is very strong, and quite simple to explain. The main goal of our early game is to NOT die, and gain at around 10minutes. As you want to keep the wave at your side of the lane, we will reach this around the 5th wave. I will explain what to do. First wave: the 3 melee minions when they are at 10% hp, this will give you 3 stacks, than jump on the enemy to gain full stack and keep AAing him till you almost will get hit by tower. This will give you lane prio at minute 2 since he is very low hp but will not likely recall yet. Keep slow pushing the minion wave towards him and when the 3rd wave arrives, hard shove the wave, go ward (raptors) and reset if needed. This will create a slow push towards your side. From now on we will always try to keep this freeze, there a few expections when we are gonna break the freeze and hard shove. When you can buy , or . When team needs you to secure an objective OR you want to roam. When you have enough money to buy . Being able to have a freeze on is huge, for a few reasons. You can farm safely under your tower but you also extend the lane, which is a big advantage for . If enemy comes too close and tries to poke you under your tower, you just and on a one shot minion, put second behind her and its a free kill. If she tries to run away you will still kill her, since you've made the lane so long. It won't be so easy in every matchup ofcourse, but always try to focus on the wave at your side, the kills will come by time. As you can have high cs/m easily, you should have atleast 80 cs by 10 minutes. Works towards this. If you are ahead, you can always place a ward at 6:30 at the enemy starting buff as it will respawn a bit later, and maybe there is a chance you can invade with your jungler. Make sure to shove your wave.
ALWAYS check your minimap and look for the enemy jungler before fully commiting to your lane opponent, as dying not only means that you give your enemy a gold advantage, you are also very likely to lose your freeze. The moment you are able to buy you should instantly shove and recall. if you have , and , you need 525 gold to complete . There will eventually come the case that you are forced to back with only 400 gold, in this situation you simply sell your starter item (unless its cull) to complete your . You literally do everything to have this item ASAP! After you've purchased , mid lane is yours, and you will ALWAYS kill your enemy if they haven't completed their first item yet.

Mid Game

Mid game is fairly easy for . You shove and move, try to help your team with objectives and look for 1v1's or 2v2's with jungler. If botlane killed their tower and want to switch lane, you go botlane and do the same, shove and move, invade their jungle with your jungler, etc.. As you need to be very active in the midgame, since you are so strong right now. You can help your support get vision in their jungle, if your jungler struggles, hover him if he is doing buffs, if he tries to contest scuttle, .. But don't forget to keep farming, that's why we shove and move all the time. Always looking to pick off enemies and get free kills. Work towards finishing the game as soon as possible, especially if they have heavy scale champions, such as . If you think the game will last very long, you want to start feeding your own carry. For example; try to give your adc some of your free kills.

Late Game

Late game is a bit harder for , since she doesn't scale very well. However, she can still be very usefull if played well. Your main job in late game is to take out the enemy carries. We can do this by joining the teamfight right after our tank, try to land and jump on the specific carry. This is probably the method you want to use if you are still a beginner with , since it's an easy way to go. The method I use is flaking, it's a bit harder and very reliant, so it cannot be done 100% of the time but is more effective since you don't need to pass enemy frontline. You can also use a "Blast cone" if your flash is on cooldown. For this method you should ALWAYS buy an to prevent a ward exposing you. It is useless to flank while enemies have vision on you.. You just use to deny vision, you wait for the perfect moment and use + over a wall on the carry, and one shot him. If you've killed the carry, your job is theoretically done, but practically you want to go further into the fight and try to take out every other champion in the game. Remember one thing: The moment you dash into the enemy team there is no going back. YOU need to give your life to deal as much damage as possible for your team.

Usefull Links

How to create a freeze
In this video early game is not perfect and mechanically mistakes have been made, but its a good example of how you want your early minutes to look like. The only thing that is not included is placing a ward, since I went for a back instead. At the end of the video you can see that I was about to shove the wave, this is because I killed again and was going to base. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljURhOHwgnw

A few tips and tricks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx6oWaRaBT8

IRELKING tips and tricks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=933zoJNOZHE

Loldodgegame
A very usefull game to train outside League of Legends, play skillshot dodge on HARD.
https://loldodgegame.com/

Human Benchmark
Aim trainer, reaction time trainer, ..
https://humanbenchmark.com/

Jynxver on reddit
I took alot of information from him, just because he wrote everything in such a good way, therefore I mention him here.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IreliaMains/comments/10ojsk2/comprehensive_irelia_beginners_guide/

[S14.10] IRELIA COMPLETED IN-DEPTH GUIDE

[S14.10] IRELIA COMPLETED IN-DEPTH GUIDE

Recommended Items

Runes: Facing AD

Spells:

Flash

Ignite

Flash

Teleport

Items

Ability Order Ability order

Ionian Fervor (PASSIVE)

Bladesurge (Q)

Defiant Dance (W)

Flawless Duet (E)

Vanguard's Edge (R)

Threats & Synergies

Vex

Anivia

Aurelion Sol

Azir

Corki

Heimerdinger

Kassadin

Katarina

Lucian

Lux

Malzahar

Orianna

Twisted Fate

Vel'Koz

Viktor

Vladimir

Xerath

Ziggs

Akali

Akshan

Ahri

Annie

Cassiopeia

Diana

Galio

Gwen

LeBlanc

Lissandra

Neeko

Ornn

Pantheon

Qiyana

Sylas

Syndra

Taliyah

Talon

Teemo

Veigar

Yone

Zed

Zoe

Ekko

Fizz

Yasuo

Brand

Ezreal

Irelia

Morgana

Tristana

Kayle

Amumu

Fiddlesticks

Sejuani

Zac

Blitzcrank

Lulu

Seraphine

Karma

Renata Glasc

Taric

Cho'Gath

Malphite

Bard