December 21, 2011 - Released Irelia guide
January 16, 2012 - Editted some grammatical errors
January 21, 2012 - Updated lots of chapters and made a more up to date Irelia guide: runes, masteries, skill order, last hitting tips, more in depth information about laning against certain champs and other small things
January 24, 2012 - Updated Irelia's kit section and made it more indepth since I feel like it is highly broad and undescriptive. Updated skill order to maxxing Bladesurge 2nd instead of Equilibrium Strike. Read more about this in Skill Order section
January 25, 2012 - Editted "Potential Solo Top Champions" Udyr description
February 2, 2012 - Deleted chapter on "How to be a better overall player" as this is not a general guide, but an Irelia guide. Also tweaked minor gramatical mistakes.
February 3, 2012 - Approved!
February 4, 2012 - Updated guide thanks for a few helpful comments at the end. Thanks Thunder_God and Cpandarun. Also, I tweaked some information and changed my tsm&in-game summoner name to SäucyBeast.
February 8, 2012 - Updated masteries and build information. Also, spiced up the "Potential Solo Top" section and editted the "Team Fights" section.
February 12, 2012 - Updated summoner spells, masteries, and core item builds. Added in Spirit Visage into core item build versus AP champions. The reason behind me buying Spirit Visage on Irelia now versus AP Champs? I'll keep this simple. I've always felt Irelia was a little too squishy even though she has Wit's End versus an AP lane. With just Wit's End, Irelia was still susceptible to die to burst damage. I didn't know how to remedy this, but just today I realized that with an AP top lane, there is a 90pct chance that the enemy mid lane is also AP. And since everyone loves running the double AP meta nowadays, I realized Spirit Visage was a highly viable item. It offers hp, cooldown reduction, increased sustain, and MR. That is practically everything an Irelia needs to sustain against an AP top lane. What's great about it is it won't be wasted on just countering that enemy top lane because their mid is ap too! Spirit Visage OP!
February 13, 2012 - Updated grammatical mistakes.
February 20, 2012 - Removed the mandatory SV purchase against double AP teams. Replaced with just mandatory Frozen Mallet purchase in addition to Wit's End. Frozen Mallet so you can survive the double AP solo's bursts. SV just isn't as cost efficient as buying Mallet/Phage. Started using AD marks, quintessences, and limited parts of the offensive tree, which help with exchanging harass and last hitting. Basically, I exchanged my additional move speed in runes/masteries for additional attack damage to increase my aggression in lane. All of this was done with many games of testing. Attack damage early on really does do much more for Irelia than move and attack speed.
March 5, 2012 - Changed summoner spells to fit aggressive playstyle with Irelia and performed major overhaul of "Potential solo top" chapter.
March 20, 2012 - Created a "Situational builds" section, editted Masteries to conform to sustain nerf, and changed the guide name to something more fitting.
April 4, 2012 - Updated the entire guide. Will be bringing to you guys laning videos versus many champions, a new section on proper usage of Irelia's kit, and a more in depth explanation of Irelia's early, mid, and late game soon.
April 9, 2012 - Tried to update guide with tons of videos, but Lolreplay is bugging and not letting me upload videos atm. Still to come: new 1v1 postnerf Irelia information.
April 16, 2012 - Update: LolReplay has temporarily disabled the upload button, so my 1v1 lane matchup series (15+ vids) have been postponed until LolReplay has the function again. The reason I don't record my replays with Fraps is because my comp sucks. Expect soon: 1v1 videos, postnerf 1v1 lane matchups
April 30, 2012 - Finally, I have uploaded the many 1v1 Irelia matchup videos!
May 22, 2012 - I am in the process of completely re-modeling my thread and condensing all the information.
May 23, 2012 - I have concluded the entire rehauling of my guide. All information is new and up to date as of May 23. Changed masteries, runes, playstyle, lane matchup information, and just about every section of this thread. Give me feedback, thank you!
May 29, 2012 - Editted core build.
June 11, 2012 - Updated Lane Matchups Section
July 7, 2012 - Changed mastery setup and removed the AAC section of the guide. Linked the "AMA" forum thread I created for any people with questions. Included more viable build options for Irelia such as Maw of Malmortious and Hexdrinker. Finally added in a lane matchup section for Darius and Malphite since those two seem to be quite popular nowadays. I realize my replay links to these matchups are quite old. As I collect more replays, I will be uploading new replays to replace the older ones.
July 10, 2012 - Elaborated more on the Early, Mid, and Late game sections.
July 17, 2012 - Updated Team Fights section.
August 6, 2012 - Redesigned the item build section and removed a few items off the Situational Item Builds section.
November 26, 2012 - Changed to attack speed marks and cleaned up guide a bit.
December 4, 2012 - Changed to season 3 masteries after much theorycrafting.
December 17, 2012 - Changed masteries because Tough Skin doesn't impact laning minions anymore. Updated the build order and removed GP10 from the alternate starting path because GP10 is not worth the investment anymore.

Hello fellow beautiful people, I am SäucyBeast, a 1900 elo player. I have played Irelia exclusively for about 13 months now and am confident enough in my abilities to create a guide teaching everyone how to play Irelia. I hope in this guide you will acquire some newfound information from my extensive knowledge of this wonderful champion!

"Ask Me Anything" LoL Forum Thread: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?p=25561345

My "L2PLAY" Guide Series:
1. http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=1791576
2. http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?p=21108649
3. http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?p=27854305

Irelia is a tanky dps champion who specializes in the mid game section of a game. Her combined damage from her few core items with her kit causes her to be a deadly fighter during mid game. Her true damage can wash away an opponents health bar with ease, her low cooldown gapcloser is a great escape/chase, her situational cc turns around fights, and her ultimate is able to serve out a decent amount of damage/healing. Overall, she is a beast: so play her!

PROS

• Good harass
• Great burst
• Great chase/escape mechanism
• Good survivability
• Great solo lane
• Pubstomper
• Built in sustain
• Easy to last hit

CONS

• Requires lots of farm

Play maker. You need this skill to make plays or to help reposition yourself in certain situations. Too clutch to give up.


This summoner allows you to score easy kills. Combined with the aggressive early AD setup, kills are guaranteed with ignite in Irelia lanes and help snowball your lane early.

Other alternative summoners -

Run exhaust for nerfing heavy damage dealing champs, teleport for mobility, competitive play, and helping out your team, and ghost for long term escape/chase.

AS Marks - Helps her last hit, gives her autoattacks more threat, and overall improves her lane presence especially after a few levels on Hiten Style.

Flat Armor Seals - Self explanatory

Flat Magic Resist Glyphs - Self explanatory

Health Regen Quintessences - Due to Irelia's Hiten nerf, she needs to way to passively sustain herself without being forced to autoattack the creeps. Autoattacking the creeps pushes the lane and makes her prone to ganks. Being in melee range while autoattacking creeps to heal up also risks being harassed by enemy laner.

Offensive Tree

• [1/1]Summoner's Wrath

Defense Tree

• [3/3]Perserverence
• [3/3]Durability
• [1/1]Veteran's Scars
• [3/3]Hardiness
• [3/3]Resistance
• [2/2]Relentless
• [3/3]Tenacious
• [1/1]Defender
• [1/1]Honor Guard

Utility Tree

• [1/1]Summoner's Insight
• [3/3]Meditation
• [1/1]Improved Recall
• [3/3]Mastermind

In offensive tree, we get 5 AD/AP for using ignite which is incredibly strong for a single point mastery. In Defense, we focus on heal, health regen, tanky stats, crowd control reduction to combo with Ionian Fervor and Merc Treads. In Utility tree, we focus on lane sustain mana regen, faster recalls, and cooldown reduction on summoner spells.

Max Hiten Style first for obvious reasons. This is her main output of damage and sustain in the laning phase. Equlibrium Strike comes second because her crowd control is needed to escape, set up ganks, or even turn the tides in a trade. Finally, Bladesurge is last because it is least priority during the laning phase. You will hardly have a trade last more than 6 seconds (which is the cooldown for max ranked Bladesurge). It goes without say to max Transcendent Blades whenever possible.

Level 1 Bladesurge or Equilibrium Strike?

If enemy team has a strong early jungle, get Bladesurge to jump to the jungler if he comes from behind.
If enemy team has a passive early jungle, get Equilibrium Strike for lane aggression.

At level 2, get whichever skill you did not choose at level 1, and proceed to max skills in order R>W>E>Q

Each nearby enemy champion (to a maximum of three) reduces the effectiveness of Crowd Control on Irelia.
1 Champion: 10%
2 Champions: 25%
3 Champions: 40%

This is the biggest reason why people see Irelia as a highly mobile and scary champion. Her CC reducing passive combined with a pair of merc treads allow for Irelia to be CC'd for minimum amounts of time. This creates the illusion of her being a mobile beast.


Irelia dashes forward to strike her target for 20/50/80/110/140 (+1 per Attack Damage). If it kills the target, Bladesurge's cooldown refreshes and refunds 35 Mana.

Cooldown 14 / 12 / 10 / 8 / 6 seconds
Cost 60/65/70/75/80 mana
Range 650

This move can be maneuvered in so many different ways. You can easily chase or run away with this marvelous skill. This is mostly used for harassing and farming during the laning phase. Heed this warning however, do not spam it on every single minion to last hit because you will run out of mana fast! Keep in mind, Hiten Style + Bladesurge + Trinity Proc = 1 hit a caster minion.


Irelia is skilled in the art of Hiten, passively giving her physical attacks 5/7/9/11/13 health restoration. Activating Hiten Style adds 15 / 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 true damage to her physical attacks for 6 seconds and gives her physical attacks 10/14/18/22/26 health restoration.

Cooldown 15 seconds
Cost 40 mana

This skill just got nerfed by half, but Hiten Style is still Irelia's bread and butter. This is her laning phase in one button. Not only does this skill help you sustain your lane per attack, but it doubles when it is active and it also does lots of true damage. Thats why it is most recommended to run a tad of attack speed on Irelia to maximize effectiveness on this champion.


Irelia's attack balances the scales, dealing 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 / 280 (+50% of ability power) damage and slowing the target by 60% for 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 seconds. However, if the target has a higher Health % than Irelia, then the blow stuns the target instead.

Cooldown 8 seconds
Cost 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 mana
Range 425

A low cooldown stun/slow. Use it to harass/kill an opponent. Try to use this skill more often when you are slightly less HP than your enemy so it can proc the stun. The biggest difference from good and great Irelia players is that great players know how to time their stuns so they can pull off a kill in what would have been an escaped victim if this skill had procced the slow.


Irelia summons 4 spirit blades that she can fling to deal 80/120/160 (+60 of attack damage) (+50% of ability power) physical damage to enemies they pass through. She heals for 25% of that damage against champions and 10% against minions.

Cooldown 60 / 50 / 40 seconds
Cost 100 mana

This skill does nothing anymore after consecutive nerfs. This ultimate provides a mediocre amount of damage, as well as heal for a slight amount. Learning to aim this skill is important as it can mean the difference between a dead and an escaped target. Try using this skill at the start of teamfights so you can tag every single enemy target at least once so you can get the maximum amount of assists possible.

This section will discuss the proper uses of Irelia's kit in certain situations.

• When an enemy jungler is coming from behind you, use Bladesurge to reach him and get further away from your enemy laner.
• You can use this skill to also jump walls
• Use this skill only to farm minions you cannot reach with an autoattack in time in lane
• Use this move on a low hp minion to juke enemies
• Use this skill from a brush so you can make your jukes more successful
• Bladesurge + Trinity + Hiten = 1 dead full hp caster minion
• Use this skill to close the gap between you and an enemy by killing a nearby creep so you can initiate with your Equilibrium Strike. This way, you will have your Bladesurge up in case the enemy is able to outrun you or use a gap closer/Flash to escape you
• Great last hitting tool at turret

• Use Hiten Style at turret to farm minions if you do not have the autoattack damage to last hit properly
• Use Hiten in order to heal up more
• Sometimes, you want to prolong the use of Hiten Style against certain enemies. Against say an Akali or Fiora, you want to prolong your use of Hiten Style until they have blown their "Twilight Shroud" or "Parried" skill
• Use this skill to greatly amplify your damage with true damage

• In 1v1 battles, use only when the stun is procced. The 1-2 second stun will actually make the difference between a dead or escaped opponent
• Circumstance when you can use Equilibrium Strike will be when you are simply harassing with E+AA
• Bait enemies with Equilibrium Strike. When you are of lower health percentage, you can still kill someone because a 1-2 second stun is huge.
• If you are getting turret doven, don't be afraid to use your Equilibrium Strike on the enemy. This will make the enemy panic and hesitate whether they want to dedicate and continue diving you or run away. This hesitation can also net you free kills.
• When getting ganked, you can use this skill to escape with the stun.
• When you are far overextended and getting ganked by the enemy, walk into the brush and use Equilibrium Strike- this guarantees the enemy cannot land a skill on you before you strike them with your crowd control.

• Only use this skill in 1v1 situations to heal up and do damage
• As a last resort, you can use her ultimate to heal up a random creep wave. (Last resort only- this is a waste of your mana and cooldown otherwise)
• When using this in a 1v1 fight, try positioning yourself in a way where this can also heal off of minions in addition to the enemy.
• Use this skill to manipulate minions with your Bladesurge. If you are trying to make big plays and bladesurge won't kill a minion upon cast, you can use her ultimate to lower the health of enemy minions so that you may have your Bladesurge up in the scenario where your enemy runs away from you or uses a gap closer/Flash to escape.
• Push waves with Transcendent Blade when you are bluepilling, or any other reasons where you want to push your wave.

If your enemy is staying away from you, feel free to Bladesurge to him first before unloading your combo on him. Before you dash instantly to him, try to lower a nearby minion hp to be one Bladesurge from dead so you can dash to it immediately if the enemy laner comes close to it. This way, you will be next to your enemy laner with bladesurge off cooldown in case enemy blinks/flashes/escapes.

(The reason I do this trick is to save my Flash summoner. I hate initiating with Bladesurge first because it causes people to use Flash to get away and then I am forced to use my own Flash to keep up with them. Using this Bladesurge exploit, I can save my Flash summoner.)

If the enemy is not staying away from you, go to him, slow/stun him and begin to unload your combo on him.

The usage of Hiten Style, Bladesurge, Equilibrium Strike, and Transcendent Blade are all situational. If the enemy if still full health, it would be better not to waste mana using Hiten Style. If the enemy is low enough health, it is better to unload your entire combo on him (WQER) to kill him. If you are out of mana, use your skills sparingly. A good tip is to also never be at 100% full mana. Always have about 80%-90% mana.

The basics are like this:

Last Hitting at Level 1 (with no AD boosts)
Melee minions = 2 Tower hits + 2 Basic Attacks/1 Attack + 1 Bladesurge
Caster minions = 1 Tower hit + 2 Basic Attacks/1 Attack + 1 Bladesurge

Last Hitting after acquiring some AD
Melee minions = 2 Tower hits + 1 Basic Attack or 1 Bladesurge
Caster minions = 1 Tower hit + 1 Basic Attack or 1 Bladesurge

With last hitting Cannon minions, just hope you can time it right.

This section will consist of what items to purchase throughout the game and when to do so. Any items not on this list is probably not viable on Irelia and should not be bought.

These boots are actually very effective on Irelia. However, only get this item if your enemy team doesn't have much crowd control or autoattackers.

If you are hurting hard against an AD top lane, or the enemy team has a bunch of AD, consider getting this item. It will reduce your enemy damage greatly. The earlier, the better.

If you are getting a frozen mallet, it is highly recommended to get this item because most teams will have some sort of physical damage on it. This pairs with mallet amazingly well.

This is a decent item. One of my lesser bought one honestly. Although it's main purpose is to stop initiations such as Annie flash stun or Alistar WQ combos, it can also be easily popped by some other factor. If they have minimal poke and a scary initiation, consider grabbing this.

If the enemy team has major AP damage, get this item. It makes you faster, regen faster, and offers heavy magic resist.

Grab this is the enemy team relies mostly on autoattacks or consists of many AD champions.

Get this item only against duo AP solo lanes. There is no particular reason to buy this, except that it works great against AP champions.

If the enemy team consists of many people with more than 3k health, grab this.

If you built a Hexdrinker, upgrade that to this item. Having the same function as Hexdrinker, Maw will give your build a more of a "ad caster" setup. This greatly improves your survivability against duo AP lanes and free AD when you are not full HP.

Buy for heavy crowd control teams! It stacks extremely well with your passive and juggernaut.

Get this item if the enemy team has lots of AP. You probably want one of these for laning phase.

Get this item if the enemy team has lots of autoattackers.

If you are the primary focus of an enemy's suppression or crowd control, get this item!

If you want the extra armor, health, cdr for a heavy AD enemy team, get this item! It gives an aoe active slow and a passive slow against people that autoattack you. This item is great for people on the front lines in teamfights.

When you are tanky enough and do not need to acquire anymore resistances, you can always build more health. This nice item offers more cooldown reduction, health, regen, and a great aoe speed boost active.

Spirit Visage is useful when one is having alot of trouble versus double AP solo lanes. This combined with Trinity, Wits, Maw and Mercs will make Irelia super tanky yet deal lots of damage. I don't often get this because SV delays the armor items needed for the enemy AD champions.

In the occasion that the enemy team relies heavily on autoattacks, get this item! Be warned, you need a decent amount of HP to buy this item before seeing a difference in enemy damage. Also be careful because this item is countered by lifesteal.

Get this item against AD or AP lanes if you still need a little extra sustain.

Should only buy this item for AD lanes if you are losing hard.

Difficulty: Hard
Exchange wisely; try to harass with you escaping with no damage done to yourself. Pre6 you can take her 1vs1 using smart usage of your skills. Buy a pink ward for her shroud and you will win trades if not fed. Postpone using your Hiten Style until her shroud is blown so you won't waste that precious true damage.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/402961/

Difficulty: Easy
Dodge his crowd control and you will dominate him. Avoid getting hit with too many of his AA spikes.

Difficulty: Hard
Get Cloth Armor+ 5HP pots level 1. You cannot really get in range to last hit without him giving you that AOE damage to the face. When he harasses you, make sure you harass him back. Be wary to fight him when you have bloodstacks because his ultimate will deal many times more true damage. If you pick Irelia versus Darius, play safely. The best thing to do is to ask for ganks because he has escape methods.

Difficulty: Average
Care for his strong early harass. He can kill you post 6, so play safely or shut him down early with jungler help or outplay him.

Difficulty: Average
She is kind of like Shyvana in the sense that she has a crazy strong levels 1 and 2. If you get caught in her skills early, you will lose trades. Just stun her and back out if she tries to initiate. When you can win trades, try to bait out her Parried skill before you turn on Hiten Style.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/403029/

Difficulty: Easy
Much like Cho Gath, dodge his skillshots and destroy him. Your true damage counters his free resistances.

Difficulty: Average
He isn't that big a threat anymore in laning phase. If you get Cloth+5HP to survive his early level Parrrley harass, you will eventually win lane. When he harasses you, exchange back. You can definitely beat him in lane if you know what you are doing. Autoattack him when he goes in for last hits, or otherwise just zone him.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/403018/

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/397560/

Difficulty: Average
Start Cloth+ 5HP pots. Harass him back when hes harassing you. Make sure you turn on your W before he silences you and attack him back.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/403030/

Difficulty: Easy
Sustain his damage through Hiten Style and lifesteal. He pretty much cannot kill you unless you make lots of mistakes or take bottles to the face. Walk aside from your minions so he has to choose to last hit or harass you.

Difficulty: Average
Jarvan is nasty early on due to passive, but as the laning phase drags on, you can kill him. Try avoiding squirmishes at early levels. Sit back, harass when the opportunity arises and win your lane.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/403025/

Difficulty: Hard
You will have an average time laning pre6 and maybe even killing him. Use your Hiten Style after he wastes his stun, so you outdamage him. While you are fighting him, jump to a low minion with bladesurge to avoid his stun. Post6 however is nearly impossible to win if the lane is going even. Post6, ask for ganks. Try shutting him down and zoning him to the best of your abilities before he hits 6 then play cautiously.

Difficulty: Easy
It is hard to catch him because he will use his escape so just focus on harassing him until you can one combo burst him down. You can attempt to kill/harass him by W+Qing to him. Focus on exploiting his mistakes and not completely blowing all your mana trying to kill him when he comes into your Q range.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/402913/

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/402912/

Difficulty: Hard
Lee sin can kill you early with Qs. When you exchange with him, always try to hide behind your minions as they will shield you from his Q. If you know his W is up, try to save your Q (if its a guaranteed kill) until after he uses his W so you can catch him.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/402985/

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/402994/

Difficulty: Average
In this lane, you cannot kill Malphite. However, it will be hard for him to kill you. If he wastes his Attack speed debuff , punish him. Under normal circumstances, purchase GP10 since this lane will mostly be a farm lane.

Difficulty: Average
Do not fight him around your minions. Even better, fight him with HIS minions there so you can ult heal off them if possible. Before using your skills, burn his shield with autoattacks.

Difficulty: Average
Nasus will focus on farming his Q. Exploit this by harassing him when he last hits. Juke his Q's on you with your own Q to a nearby minion. Whenever he Q's you, you win because its not a minion. If he Q's the minion, you win because he is not hurting you. He is hard to kill once he reaches six and gets some items.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/403091/

Difficulty: Average
Aggressively harass her early because her skills do little damage early on. If you can maintain control and zone her, you win your lane. Don't take too much pokes from her cause a good Nidalee will give you a run for your money. Ask for ganks to get an early advantage before she hits level 6 and you can't catch her anymore.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/403049/

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/397557/

Difficulty: Hard
He dominates you at levels below 6 if he plays champ right, but once you hit six you can all in him and win a 1v1 encounter. At levels 1-5, he will come out on top of trades by a tiny bit since he can sustain better. Outplay him and Olaf will be a breeze all laning phase. Build HP versus him.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/402903/

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/402902/

Difficulty: Hard
Start Cloth+5HP. Be wary of his block passive. His early game will be rough just like Gangplank but even harder due to his block ability. Try to sustain until you have a few levels into Hiten where you can start to kill him.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/402948/

Difficulty: Hard
Avoid confrontation with a Renekton at level 2 because his full combo chunks. He can only dash a second time if he hits a target with his first dash. After level 9, you should be able to take him on.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/402945/

Difficulty: Average
Stun her when she is trying to harass you with Q and then harass her back once her Q is on cooldown. Never harass her at level 1 when she gets her Q first. Wait until later levels to harass her. A good way to beating a Riven is to stun her (make sure she is stunned so she cannot dash and receive a shield) and then unload your full combo on her. If you do not do this, she will dash away and her shield will absorb damage.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/403027/

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/403026/

Difficulty: Average
When he comes in to last hit, harass him. Eventually, he will become low enough for you to kill. If hes being passive and staying away from your autoattacks while missing last hits, you can turn aggressive and W+Q him. Never fight him when he is overheated and his autoattacks do bonus magic damage as he is using Flamespitter.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/402775/

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/402774/

Difficulty: Average
Harass him early and you'll win lane. Due to the base stats buff, all AP lanes are relatively easy-average now.


Difficulty: Average
The first two levels, Shyvana is terror. When you get a few more ranks on your Hiten style, you can start exchanging with her. Always remember to exchange wisely and time it so you can get as little damage returned as possible.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/402940/

Difficulty: Easy
Don't run into his poison if you chase him. Harass him hard when you can cause he will come in for last hits with his poison. Consider taking Frozen Mallet or red buff and you can kill him with ease combined with your Hiten. Beat on him pre-6 when he is killable.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/397552/

Difficulty: Hard
If Sion is building AD, you are going to be outtraded top lane. If Sion is building AP, it is easier. Versus an AP Sion, trade when his shield is down or harass him to destroy her sheild so he misses CS. Versus an AD Sion, try not to harass him at all because he will outtrade you due to that passive. Due to Sion's passive (40% chance of reducing 30 incoming damage), Irelia's damage is pretty much nullified versus Sion. Try to avoid trades and just wait for outside assistance.

Difficulty: Average
Skarner has high mana costs. His skills do alot of damage, but you can sustain it. Once he is out of mana, you should be able to kill him quite easily.

Difficulty: Average
Dodge his rakes then win lane. Try avoiding being with your minions or his rake will be able to hit you and your minions, which is a double win for him. Make him choose between you or the minions.

Difficulty: Hard
A good Teemo will not lose to you. He is extremely hard to put up with. I suggest asking for ganks against good Teemos and just farming and turret to the best of your ability while avoiding his harass.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/397554/

Difficulty: Average
Avoid fighting with him when his rage bar is filled up. Just try farming it out and harass when his rage bar is low or when he comes in for last hits. Also, know when his ult is up or down so you do not get baited.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/403004/

Difficulty: Average
Udyr is mostly a farm lane. He can't really kill you and you can't really kill him. Purchase GP10 in this case since the lane will be a farm lane.

Difficulty: Easy
Due to the base stats buff, this lane should be easy. Harass him early by running up to him and using E, then hittin him with your autoattacks. You can also Q to him first if he is smart enough to stay out of range. Take ignite to counter his pool.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/403090/

Difficulty: Average
A full combo of Q>R>Ignite>Q will hurt greatly. Autoattack him when he comes in for last hits, and when you feel he is able to kill, ignite him so he can't regen any of the damage you do to him. When you are trading and harassing him, try to have those autoattack fights when his is attack speed buff on cooldown.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/402953/

Difficulty: Average
His first two levels are the weakest because he doesn't have his clone. Zone and harass him whenever he comes in for last hits. If you haven't killed him before he gets his clone, its highly suggested you grab a pink ward for your lane as it'll make your job so much easier.

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/402935/

Difficulty: Hard
His sustain and harass is pretty nasty, but just hit his ghosts to heal back up though when he uses them to harass you. Dodge his harass ghouls by entering brush to lose focus. After level 6, you should be able to kill him. Once he starts building tanky and he maxes his heal ghouls, there is no point in trying to kill him because his sustain will outlast your mana pool since he most likely has Manamune. After that, just farm or ask for ganks.

Summary
What is early game? Early game is the first stage of the game where both teams try to build themselves a steady advantage so they may engage in the Mid game stage. During the early game, players farm their respective lanes and try to achieve kills, which help in the goal of setting enemies behind and putting yourself ahead. The Jungler's role early game is to help lanes win and help provide map control through controlling buffs, dragon, and the jungle. In order to be successful during the early game, one must master several different mechanics.

Farming and Last Hitting
The difference between high elo players and low elo players is the ability to farm a lane successfully. High elo players can harass while farming while lower elo players cannot. If you learn to farm everything in your lane, your ELO will skyrocket. You should never push out your wave with constant autoattacks unless there is good reason. Good reasons being you need to bluepill or the enemy has recently bluepilled. Pushing in these instances will save you cs or make your enemy lose cs. Under normal circumstances, laners want to last hit minions only.

Last Hitting is the act of killing a minion with one autoattack/skill when they are low hp. Using the last hitting mechanic, lane will push minimally. Last hitting also generates gold income for the respected player. You can check how many last hits you have with the hit of the tab button. Good "creep score" to aim for is 100 cs by 12 minutes and 200 cs by 20 minutes.

Freezing your Lane
First of all, what is this? Freezing your lane is the act of tanking the enemy creep wave at a desired location and only last hitting enemy minions so your allied wave pushes very little and thus keeping the lane in a balanced equilibrium. This will result in a frozen lane. Freezing the lane is best in the area right outside your turret's range. This occurs most often when your enemy has a buildup of creeps pushing to your turret, leading to a frozen lane outside YOUR turret. Freezing your lane outside your turret is good for many things. A frozen lane will help you last hit better as your turret isn't swallowing cs and make you less prone to ganks. For your opponent, going near the creep wave to last hit and get experience makes him more prone to ganks (as he is past river).

Zoning
What is zoning? The process of standing between the creep wave and your enemy, thus denying them any way to receive experience or last hits. When can you start zoning an enemy? When you are able to beat your opponent in a 1vs1 fight. Zoning helps a won lane snowball even harder and thus putting your opponent even further behind. In a recent 1800 elo ranked game I played, I had beaten down a Nasus hard. At one point, I was level 11 and he was level 5. He couldn't even come back to lane or I would dive him under turret. Zoning combined with Freezing lane will help you become a super strong laner. If you can freeze your lane next to your turret all the while zoning the enemy, you will still be decently safe from ganks because you aren't extending past river and will be severly gimping your enemy. If your enemy tries to leech some experience or creeps, he then risks being ganked because he is overextended or risks death to you in an all in fight.

Global Objectives
Global Objectives are super important. During early game, everyone will be underleveled and underfarmed. Getting global objectives like turrets and dragons (the only global objectives achievable during early game) will help build your team an early advantage. Lets talk Dragons. If one team is doing Dragon, only contest it 5v5. Under normal circumstances, only proceed to take dragon if the enemy team does not have vision on it or if they are outnumbered in case a fight breaks out at dragon. It is better to give up Dragon than Dragon and 4 deaths. If your lane enemy is at dragon and making the situation a 4v5, tell your team to back off. Then proceed to push your lane super hard and take your respective lane turret. In my own opinion, I would rather capture a turret than a dragon as turrets provides everything a dragon does plus map control.

The other global objective is turrets. If you are winning lane, depending on the time of the game, choose to keep or take the enemies outer turret. If you are winning lane, consider keeping the turret alive so you can continue to farm and feed off the enemy. If you take the turret and choose to keep laning, you are in danger of ganks as you will be overextended. If you are losing lane and the enemy chose to leave their turret alone, take it so if they ever come back to lane, they are also prone to ganks. If you are winning lane and your other lanes need help, take turret and start roaming.

Assisting Other Lanes
In solo queue, winning your lane does not always guarantee you a won game. To win games, you need to make sure other lanes win too. Most players do not know how to assist other lanes when the opportunity presents itself. If you are winning your lane/the opportunity presents itself, go roam other lanes and try to net yourself and your teammates a free kill. Helping other lanes will in the end help you win the game.

Establishing Map Control
Establishing Map Control is another important element during the Early game. Establishing map control mainly consists of warding key points on the map and dominating the jungle (both yours and the enemies). If you ward your lane and other key places on the map, then you have good map vision. This prevents ganks and helps you make more informed decisions. Say you wanted to dive your enemy at top lane to get a free kill, but didn't want to risk it because you did not know where the enemy jungle is. Well say your bottom lane had a ward in the enemies jungle and the ward had seen the enemy jungler taking his red buff. Now you know where the enemy jungler is and are able to make a more informed and calculated decision on diving that enemy top laner without risk of jungler assistance. Knowledge is key to winning.

Another form of map control is controlling the enemies jungle. Controlling the jungle means you also own a huge part of the map. This gives the enemy that much less map control and vision. To control the jungle, you need to ward it. Once the jungle has been warded, you can start invading it with no fear of enemy interference since wards will tell if you are in danger or not. Invading an enemy's jungle puts the enemy jungler behind and also their lanes because it means the jungler's ganks will weaker. In addition, constant stealing of an enemy's red and blue buffs is detrimental to the jungler and the laners who typically need these key buffs. For example, who will win trades more often? A mid lane with blue buff or one without? Who ganks better? A jungler with or without red buff? Overall controlling the map will help establish a good early game which then leads to a successful mid game.

Summary
Midgame is the section of the game where one team has gained a set advantage from Early Game and is now grouped in order to push their advantage even further. During the Mid Game, both teams will try to establish map control by controlling buffs, dragons, and barons. In this stage of the game, teams will contest and bait out fights for big objectives like Barons and Dragons. To be successful during the mid game, teams must be grouped up at crucial times and know how to bait/fight for objectives. The team that has the better teamwork will dominate Mid game because this is where most team fights occur.

Global Objectives
Like Early Game, Mid Game will also consist of lots of global objective fights. Under normal circumstances, only contest dragons with the entire team. Never give away free dragons or global objectives without taking something of your own. Part of global objectives is timing the Dragon so your team can be ready to take it again as soon as it spawns. The Dragon respawn timer is 6 minutes after death.

The other global objective is turrets. If you take a turret, you then have more map control as your minions give you more vision as they extend further. Turrets is also a place to force fights since the enemy team naturally want to protect their turrets. However, if your team is in a losing position, do not fight for the inner and outer turrets. Only contest Nexus or Inhibitor Turrets as they will give you better positioning for teamfights.

The last global Objective is Baron Nashor. Although it is mostly contested late game, teams can also rush it Mid Game to gain a huge advantage. Always be aware that enemy teams in the correct circumstances can rush a Baron Nashor. If the enemy team has 1 or 2 champions that can tank Baron damage and a champion that can continuously DPS it, early Barons are possible. In best case scenarios, 2 people can do Baron. The best way to prevent Early Barons is to keep a ward on it at all times after 15 minutes or at least acknowledge when the enemy's AD carry and bruiser is MIA. Baron Nashor is one of the most important global objectives in the game and provide a huge team fighting buff for your team. Teams can either actually do the Baron Nashor or bait out a fight with proper map control. Typically, teams do not try taking Baron unless they have a set advantage such as one dead enemy or one enemy not with their team. The other case to this is if one team has cleared out the vision in Baron area and are comfortable with rushing Baron before the enemy team is able to check it. Try not to do Baron when the enemy 5 are up because if the enemy team does check and the Baron is not taken, then you are fighting a gimped teamfight in your enemy's favor. As Baron is such a huge factor in the game, a common rule is to not be at bottom lane past 25 minutes in the game unless an enemy is there. Always be sure to time Nashor. The faster a team can be prepared for Baron means the few additional seconds a team has to rush it and successfully take it without being contested. The Respawn timer for Baron Nashor is 7 minutes after it is cleared, or 3 Minutes after the buff runs out. Overall, Global Objectives play a huge role in the Mid Game and teams should not ignore them and give them up to the enemy.

Map Control
Map Control only means one thing in Mid game: wards and oracles. Not only should the support be supplying wards, the rest of the team should be as well. Not only do you want to maintain ward coverage of the map, you also want to diminish your enemy's control with Oracles. If you ward everywhere, then you will have an easier time making informed decisions. In the same sense, if your enemy has less vision of the map, their decisions become more obscured. An example of this would be early Barons. If you notice 2 of the enemy team's players in the bottom jungle, you can sneak and take a free Baron. Other objectives teams can contest are the enemy blue and red buffs. Having these buffs on your teammates makes teamfights more favorable to your team. Be sure to time these buffs after the entire camp has been cleared so you're team can keep the advantage and continue to be in control of the enemy jungle as soon as the buff respawns. Buff respawn timers are 5 minutes after the entire camp is cleared. Being in control of the jungle gives your team a huge portion of the map. Overall, map control, wards, and dominating the jungle will give your team a huge advantage over time.

Farming
A big mistake most people make is stop farming during the Mid game. Alot of people farm alot during Early game then completely stop during Mid Game. Although Mid game is full of team fights, if you aren't contesting buffs, global objectives, or having an impending team fight, you should be off farming and earning gold. Most gold during Mid game is given to the AD carry so they can carry a game if it gets to late game, but if the AD carry will clearly not be able to pick up a lane's creep wave, then take it for yourself.

Grouping Together
This concept during Mid game is crucial. If a team is about to contest an enemy's buffs, Dragon, Baron, or Turrets, the team should be grouped before hand and moving as a group. If one player is not there, make sure they are there or they could cost the team a severely detrimental teamfight. A team should also never give away free objectives so make sure the entire team is grouped before these objectives are contested.

Summary
Late game is the stage of the game where most champions are fully built. This stage of the game only consists of contesting mainly Baron Nashor and Turrets. Other objectives like buffs and Dragons are miniscule now that most players are fully built. Some champions have a better late game than others so be careful in allowing the game to get to its late game stage. To be successful in the late game, players need to be alert of certain concepts.

Global Objectives
This stage of the game, the one of the two global objectives contested is Baron Nashor. This is where most teamfights happen late game. Baron can either be baited or actually done. Keeping constant vision of Baron Nashor when it is spawned is imperative. Since Nashor is so important, players should NEVER be at bottom lane. Even if the enemy is there, take that free Baron that the enemy gave you. Teamfights during Late Game will most likely decide the game. If enough players are alive at the end of a team fight, the game can be decided right at that point. Since the respawn timer is near a minute during Late Game, Global Objective team fights have that much more meaning. The other Objective during the Late game is Turrets. Late Game, the best place to fight is at turrets, making it riskier for the enemy team to force a fight there and easier since you more or less have another teammate.

Map Control
During Late Game, wards should still be bought and map control should still be established. Your support should always have 1 slot in their item build for Wards. Map Control during this stage of the game is incredibly important. Knowing where the enemy team is at all times help you survive and help you make more informed decisions. For example, you want to farm those wraiths in your jungle but have no vision. As a result, you may be ganked by the enemy team and cause your team to contest objectives in a 4v5 situation. With the respawn timers near a minute, one person being caught out of position and ganked can easily lead to a game over. Now if you had vision of the area surrounding those Wraiths you were trying to farm, then you can safely take them without the fear of being ganked and losing your team the game. Map Control goes either way: it can lead to you catching the enemy out of position and winning the game, or leading to your team being caught out of position and losing the game. This is why Map Control during Late Game is imperative as ever.

Sticking Together
Do not let your teammates out of your sight late game. Stick together at all times, no matter what your team is planning on doing. Your team can be farming or taking objectives, but always do these things as a group. It doesn't matter if your team has sufficient map control and wards to cover you when you want to farm in lane. Your team needs to be with you when you farm. Sometimes you will be so far extended farming in lane, the enemy team can still catch you even if your team has wards. The only acceptable time to farm alone is in the Jungle when you have good ward coverage. Sticking together in this part of the game is important because one person getting caught leads to a game over. Travel as a team, fight as a team, farm as a team, and ward as a team so you may win as a team.

Destroying the Nexus
This concept is surprisingly hard to understand for some people. If you have the chance to end the game, end it. During Late Game, extending the game can only have negative effects. By extending the game, one is increasing the chance his team has to make more mistakes and possibly giving the enemy team a comeback. With everyone being near full build late game, one team fight can determine the game's outcome. If one team fight works out for you, it doesn't mean the next team fight will since everyone is near full build. If given the chance, end the game and don't give the enemy the chance to make a turnaround.

Irelia doesn't have too high a skill cap when it comes to team fights.

Irelia has two jobs during team fights:

• Take out their highest damage dealing champions
• Protect your own carries

So when do you know when to protect your carry or focus theirs?

Focus their carry

• If you are doing well that game and have the ability to kill them
• Their carries is stronger than yours

Protect your carry

• If you are not doing so well that game and do not have the damage to kill their carries
• Cannot kill their carries for any reason (IE: Heavily protected)
• If your carries are stronger than theirs

This concludes my entire guide for becoming a successful Irelia player. Come back every week or so to check up on any updates to this thread- I'd hate for you to use outdated information. I hope you enjoyed reading this guide and at least picked up one or two tips you didn't know before coming here! If you have anymore questions, found an error in my guide, or just want to talk to me, feel free to post in the comment section below or add me in game SäucyBeast.

See you on the fields of justice, summoners!