Irelia is a melee AD bruiser who relies on high levels of mobility to “dance” across the battlefield. Irelia specializes in the toplane, but can also be played in the midlane depending on preference. In order to properly play Irelia, you must be familiar with the minutiae of her abilities.

Abilities:

Passive - Ionian Fervor

Irelia’s passive provides Irelia with the necessary damage on auto attacks to melt down armor stacking tanks and the health bars of squishy Attack Damage Carries. Irelia gains a stack of Ionian Fervor each time she lands an ability on an enemy or neutral jungle monster. The stack lasts for 6 seconds, being refreshed each time a new stack is attained. At maximum (5) stacks, Irelia deals increased magic damage on-hit. When engaging in early game trades or all-ins, it is vital that you have at least 4 stacks of your passive in order to maximize damage and reap the benefits of Conqueror (rune). Without your stacks, you lack the necessary damage to contest against other toplane bruisers such as Renekton or Riven.

Q - Bladesurge

Bladesurge is Irelia’s most used ability due to its low cooldown and high mobility. Bladesurge enables Irelia to dance across the battlefield while applying on-hit effects and increased damage. Irelia dashes to a target, healing her herself in the process. If the target she dashes to is marked or dies to Bladesurge, the cooldown of Bladesurge is reset. You want to primarily use Bladesurge on low health minions and marked targets. Bladesurge is also great as a way to finish off the enemy champion to enable you to get to your next target very quickly.

W - Defiant Dance

Irelia’s Defiant Dance ability is the least useful part of her kit, but can be useful in certain difficult matchups. Irelia charges a strike that increases in damage the longer she charges for. While charging, Irelia takes reduced physical damage from all incoming sources. In matchups against Aatrox or Riven, your Defiant Dance can be very useful to negate a large chunk of damage that you know that you cannot dodge. In teamfights, Defiant Dance can be a great way to stall for teamfights if you enter the fight too quickly. Defiant Dance does enable Irelia to take reduced damage from towers, making her a better tower diver. However, Defiant Dance will mostly be used for the extra long range damage.

E - Flawless Duet

Flawless Duet is Irelia’s only form of hard crowd control, but is useful for catching enemy champions and increasing damage from your Bladesurge. Irelia throws one edge of her blade to a certain area. Irelia then has a certain amount of time to place another blade, which will create a line between the two, stunning all enemies and applying marks to enemy champions and jungle monsters. Both parts of Flawless Duet should be used in quick succession to prevent the enemy champion from reacting too easily. In the laning phase, landing a Flawless Duet is a perfect opportunity to enter a trade as long as you have the necessary Ionian Fervor Stacks.

R - Vanguard’s Edge

One of the biggest impact ultimates in the game, a perfectly timed and placed Irelia ultimate can shift the tide of the game in a matter of a few seconds. Irelia throws a large number of blades, spreading out on contact of the first enemy champion. Vanguard’s Edge applies a mark to all enemies hit by the initial blast of blades. After spreading out, the blades form a wall that damages and slows enemies that walk through it. After using Vanguard’s Edge, you will want to quickly use your Bladesurge and eventually use your Flawless Duet to cause even more pandemonium.

Combos

In teamfights, Irelia can devastate the enemy team by placing her Flawless Duet behind herself, pressing the Ultimate button and immediately Flashing to increase its range. After you Bladesurge onto the enemy opponents, you can lay your second blade of Flawless Duet to create a hidden stun.

During the laning phase, if you happen to land a nearby Flawless Duet, you can use your Ultimate and then immediately Bladesurge to create a quick burst of damage that entraps the enemy champion for an easy kill.

A smart way to use your Defiant Dance is masking the second part of your Flawless Duet with the edge of your Defiant Dance to make a hidden stun. This can be used in conjunction with your ult to completely mask the Flawless Duet among the clutter of similar colored animations.

Keystone Runes

Irelia simply has one keystone rune choice. Conqueror synergizes extremely well with Irelia’s passive and easiness in proccing the full 5 stacks of Conqueror.

Items

Starting Items

You will want to always start with Corrupting Potion for the increased sustain against tough bruiser matchups. After Corrupting Potion, your primary goal Item wise is to get a Tiamat to enable easy pushing and better wave control to outplay your opponents. After Tiamat, buy Sheen to deal increased damage to minions, which helps you out with wave clearing and wave management.

Core Items

Irelia always will build Trinity Force first because of Irelia’s ability to delete squishy champions with the item. Trinity Force provides Irelia with the necessary passives and stats to be a relevant champion in teamfights. After Trinity Force, you will want to build Titanic Hydra against physical damage compositions or Wit's End against magic damage compositions. Titanic Hydra gives you even more waveclear and more health, giving Irelia some necessary tankiness. Wit's End gives Irelia a chance to deal with enemy magic damage while dishing out even more on-hit damage. Finally, you’ll want Death’s Dance due to its ridiculous synergy with Conqueror. Death’s Dance will enable Irelia to truly one versus five for the rest of the game.

Later Stage Items

Closing out her build, you will want to build a Sterak’s Gage and Guardian Angel to give you even more tankiness in later game teamfights. Sterak’s Gage prevents you from being automatically burst down. Guardian Angel is a late game get-out-of-jail-free card that gives you a chance at redemption.

How to Lane as Irelia

As Irelia, you will want to entirely rely on minion wave management to setup favorable situations. Irelia truly does not have poor matchups (other than Tryndamere) as long as you have the necessary wave setup. Tiamat and Sheen will assist Irelia in early wave management. Always remember to use Bladesurge when the enemy laner is marked with either your Flawless Duet or Vanguard’s Edge. Gliding across the minions at extremely quick speeds will cause the enemy laner to panic and potentially lose the trade.

Conclusion

Irelia can be an extremely fun and rewarding character to master. While it may take dozens of games to even scratch her deep kit, the opportunity to enjoy destroying the enemy team will always be worth the trouble. Thank you!

­­­­­

Like our content? Support us by getting our merchandise in our shop