Irelia, The Blade Dancer

“Better Nerf Irelia.” This has been the main phrase uttered by summoners about this champion since her release in 2010. Originally being a mechanically difficult champion extremely dangerous in the hands of those who mastered her, her rework in 2018 brought a new kit as well as the ability to flex to mid. Alongside the power Akali received in her rework, Irelia has become the second-most banned champion, but still only boasts a 47% win rate. This is a guide to help all those who wish to start on their journey for Irelia mastery.

Runes

For Runes, your keystone is Conqueror in the Precision tree. This is followed by Triumph, Legend: Alacrity, and Coup De Grace. Your secondary tree is Resolve. Take Bone Plating and Chrysalis. I cannot stress enough how useful these runes in the secondary tree are, as they keep you deceptively healthy in the early game as you scale to be a late game monster.

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In either lane, Flash is a must take as it is the best summoner spell in the game. In addition, take Ignite or Teleport based on need for map presence or lane dominance.

Skills and Strategy

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With Irelia, just like before the rework, Q is your bread and butter. Bladesurge allows you to dash to a target enemy. More importantly, if the target is marked or dies to Bladesurge, your cooldown is refunded. Q should always be maxed first and is your primary gap closer, damage, and what separates the good Irelia players from the great Irelia players. Properly dashing through minions and enemies while utilizing executed minions and marked targets to literally dance around the lane with a no cooldown Q is what makes Irelia so strong and so fun.

E is the second skill you should max as it further enables her Q mobility. Flawless Duet let’s Irelia drop a blade at target location, within a few seconds, Irelia can drop a second blade at target location at which point the two blades will converge causing any enemies caught in between to be stunned as well as become Marked. It is key to keep track of which opponents are marked as you can use them as a dashing node for free with your Q at no cost to you. Whenever you lose track and lose that Q cooldown you are a sitting duck and most likely will fall. A solid trick to help engage on enemies is to Q to a low cast caster in the back of the minion wave while simultaneously leaving an E behind in order to cast the second half of E onto the opponent thus gaining the mark Q refresh for free.

Her last basic ability is her W, Defiant Dance. Upon cast, Irelia will go into a stationary channel surrounding herself with her blades. As she is channeling, Irelia receives reduced damage and can reactivate to send her blades out in a point at enemies. This skill should be used when becoming the target of big focus or multiple skills.

Finally, Irelia’s ultimate ability is Vanguard’s Edge. Now even though Irelia’s Q is the most useful move in her kit, her ultimate is probably the most powerful. Not only does it mark whomever it hits, but after it does hit, it inflicts the Disarm status effect. Disarm makes it so champions can’t use basic attacks. If you hit the entire enemy team, you can dash freely as well as prevent any basic damage from all sources for a few seconds. A few seconds in a late game teamfight effectively wins the game.

Irelia’s passive is Ionian Fervor. After using spells on enemies, you gain stacks that boost your attack damage. At max stacks, you gain a boost to attack speed as well as dealing increased damage against shields. When you dash enough to gain max stacks, trading onto an enemy champion is much easier. Try to make it so achieving max stacks coincides with your engage onto the enemy champion (this is preferred but not required, as you can still win trades without your passive at max stacks).

The Build

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The item build for Irelia is pretty standard. Start with Corrupting Potion to help sustain through laning phase. Grab Boots and a Tiamat as soon as you can. Following that, upgrade Boots based on your damage type match-up (Mercury Treads or Ninja Tabi) while building towards your Trinity Force. Turn that Tiamat into a Titanic Hydra so you can weaken backline minions for your Q engage, then finish off your core with a Sterak’s Gage. Depending on how confident you’re feeling afterwards, you can opt into more damage with items like Guardian Angel or Blade of the Ruined King. Need to be tanky? Grab a Spirit Visage, Randuin’s Omen, or Dead Man’s Plate depending on the damage profile of the opposing team.

Offense

Defense

Final Notes

Before your Tiamat, the clearing of waves can be pretty taxing due to the melee range and predictability of Q. Play safe and try to enlist the help of the jungler to help you stay afloat until you can trade effectively. If you’re top Irelia, some hyper tanks like Sion or Ornn can be difficult to kill with your damage in lane. Don’t lose your cool, just stay warded, farm up to Trinity Force, and you’ll be able to kill the squishies in the teamfight (alongside that great ultimate we talked about). Even though you have a guide and a solid understanding of the champion, Irelia is a champion that will take time to master. Keep your cool through the beginning of the process and I promise you she will become a champion you can’t stop playing.

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