Hi,Wingsofdeathx here with yet another guide! is an extremely fun champion that thrives on trading toe to toe with her opponents and baiting reckless all-in engagements with her deceptive damage, crowd control, and self healing abilities. She is also great at diving squishy, high priority targets--especially when they have low mobility.


Her makes it easier for her to shrug off CC and stick on her target, making her a very formidable initiator. The more utility her team uses on her--such as shields, heals, and speed boosts--the better. Her early laning phase is a little weak, but she quickly picks up at level 5 and begins to dominate many standard matchups in the top lane.


She is the queen of mid game team fights, and, if snowballed, can become a force to be reckoned with well into late game. However, keep in mind that as a general rule of thumb, most bruisers will fall off around that time. is a relatively safe pick top lane. Not many of the popular top picks are bad matchups for her and she synergizes well with aggressive junglers--this makes her a terror for aggressive top lanes, mainly because when someone ganks for her it's hard to get out.




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• Gives you strong laning phase
• The mana/health regen lets you stay in lane longer
• Reduced minion damage and health helps you trade with your lane opponent
• Attack speed and armor penetration gives you more damage overall

These runes are designed to increase your damage and match with trades early on. For late game, the damage also scales with your . In the laning phase, try to avoid being bullied too hard when you are still weak. The attack speed doesn't help you too much until you have a decent level on your .


You may also choose to go flat AD or armor pen marks if you want more burst damage and a stronger trade early game. Quints can be MS, Regen, move speed, or flat health. You can also substitute glyphs for flat MR or attack speed if you feel like you need more damage and they have some magic damage.

is great for positioning and making plays with a + onto a carry. You can also over a wall to escape a gank.

is great for bursting down your lane opponent in duels and assassinating carries. has some amazing burst damage at level 6 and onward, but often falls short of a kill without the help of .

is also good for chasing people down since must stay near targets to deal damage. Some characters such as can run away from very quickly unless you can keep up with them by using . It's also great for diving and can situationally be better than .

Good for if you want to make plays across the map, but makes your laning phase just that much weaker for sacrificing a combat summoner. It's good if you are just going GP10 items for your lane and you want to have more map presence. isn't the best split pusher, but this spell can allow her to attempt it as you can draw a couple people away from an objective at the very least. Just make sure that they don't have much hard engage and their potential to catch isn't great because isn't the best at escaping.

A more balanced summoner spell that can be used defensively or offensively to bait people and peel for your team later. It scales better than later into the game. However, you may end up missing out on some kills that you would have gotten with . Overall, it's a great summoner and helps improve Irelia's already amazing bait potential.

It's not bad, but it's not that great either . It's good if you like to let yourself drop low for a stun followed by a . Just be wary that many top laners like to run and was recently nerfed at early levels. It's an okay summoner, but not necessarily the best for Irelia and I feel that there are better alternatives.

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%



It's a very nice passive that makes not as necessary if they don't have a lot of magic damage. The CC reduction from a tenacity item has multiplicative scaling with this passive, meaning in a large team fight, CC will have a 60% duration on you and with the 35% reduction from a tenacity item, CC will last (1 - .40) * (1 - .35) = .39. This means that with you will have 61% CC reduction. So, you are only gaining 21% from instead of the full 35%. This is still not a bad option, but it's not needed as you are basically getting free tenacity in team fights. This also applies to the 21 pt defense mastery.




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




It's your standard gap closer and AD scaling nuke. Although it doesn't say so, it does apply on hit effects, so make sure to activate before using this to get a free proc. Also, remember you can use this to jump to creeps that are low for a free dash. If you're chasing someone and there's an incoming minion wave, you can ult the ranged minions into kill range so you can get a free dash to gap close.




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 is your passive form of sustain and main ability used to fight. This ability substantially increases your damage and once you reach around rank 3 of this ability, you can start out trading many laners with it. Don't be afraid to activate this to last hit under tower for sustain and easy last hitting since it doubles the health you get back from attacking when active and the mana cost is low.




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




This is a very good ability for burst damage and CC. The low cooldown and mana cost makes this spell easy to spam for trades, but be careful about wasting it as you can be counter-attacked when this ability is down. In certain match ups it can be bad if you use this too early and fail to get the stun. You can also sand bag your health in anticipation to get the stun instead of the slow. This can actually win games if you engage on a carry and manage to get a full duration stun.





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 70/60/50 seconds

Cost 100 mana





Great ultimate that does a deceptive amount of damage and gives some healing. Try to use this to hit the champion + minion wave to maximize the healing you get. It is a huge HP swing during all in trades and you'll be surprised by how much this ult can turn around a fight with someone like or .

• Try to maximize your since this is your most powerful ability for trading and harassment in most situations.
• In some matchups you can choose to max and spam it for burst harassment.
• Get to around lvl 3 since it increases the CC duration by 50% from lvl 1 and gives it a decent amount of damage while not increasing the mana cost too much.
• Get 2 additional points of afterwards since it decreases the cooldown by 4 seconds which is substantial since it is your only gap closer/starts at 16 second CD.
• Afterwards, split points between and since you want both utilities and dont want either to fall behind. Decreased cooldown on your dash and increased stun duration on are both very good. Skill them up as you see fit. Honestly, it is situational as to what you need and what you're laning against, so you should skill it up based on what you need.

Save your first point for when you're walking to lane. If their jungler is a more passive jungler like , feel free to start the lane with against a strong melee opponent like and start farming. If he tries to trade with you, stun him when your creeps aggro him and trade back. At worst, you should go even, but more than likely you will come out ahead doing this. If he or she is ranged, you can start and poke at them with + auto, then quickly duck into the bush inbetween farming if you feel aggressive. You can also just minions from bush and hide from harassment.

If they have a strong jungler, save your first point and take to dash to their jungler if they come from behind you. Attempt to escape or if they dash to you from the front and you need to stun them to walk away. It is situational, but you should get used to doing this.

You should be trying to get the wave to push towards your tower so you can farm safely and avoid being ganked. doesn't have a reliable escape. If it gets near your tower, don't be afraid to spend your on last hitting as it helps you last hit under tower, improves sustain while active, and doesn't cost much mana. If you took the mana regen masteries like I do, you should have no problems keeping this up. It is also unlikely for the enemy to want to be aggressive on you near your tower even if your is down. It's safer to do this while last hitting under tower.

At level 5, you should start to trade with the opponent by trying to stun and activate your for some hits. If they try to counterattack and you want to avoid this, you can try dashing away to a creep. If they run away, you can dash to them after you wait for your auto attack to cool down and get a + auto combo on them with. When your is active, this will do a good chunk of damage. If you feel like you can come out ahead in a stand up fight, you can them in melee range for a burst of damage when your is active.

At 6, you should look to score kills by using + along with your standard harass. Remember that your ult does 320 base damage + 2.4 damage per point of bonus AD if you hit all of your blades, which is extremely easy to do. If you're having trouble spamming out all of your blades while maintaining good control of your character, you can shoot them out at a slower pace since they are fairly easy to hit since they have long range and a wide arc.

Mid game is where really shines. You should be lvl 9~ and be well on your way to a .

Try to see if your jungler will donate you red buff if you are purple side. Another option is to steal their red buff if you are winning your lane and their jungler is not able to control their own jungle very well. A red buff on can lead to complete lane domination and easy kills since your will apply the red buff to whatever you dash to, making it easy to stick to them once you start fighting. Just make sure to move with them inbetween auto attacks so they don't get away from you.

By about 20 minutes into the game, you should be pretty close to your if you don't already have it, and should be building towards a . This is assuming that you didn't start with a . Once you have , it is very easy for you to roam mid and help your mid lane pick up kills since you will usually move faster than their mid laner. As solo top, you have a good angle coming in on them as well as high burst and a gap closer. You can even sand bag your health in lane before you go roam so it looks like you want to heal and you can guarantee a stun after the dash.

You can push your lane with your ult and try to roam down for dragon fights to pick up quick dragons or cover mid lane while your team takes dragon. Just make sure you don't lose your tower without getting some kind of objective in return if you do roam, as trading a tower for a chance at dragon isn't really worth it in many cases. This is because it frees up your lane opponent to take more towers and objectives. It is quite possible for 4 people to prevent 5 people from taking dragon, so keep this in mind before roaming, analyze the two teams, and try to see which team should come out on top before you leave lane.

By now you should have your and along with another dps or tank item. Your job as is to dive into the enemy team and put pressure on their carries by attempting to CC them/burst them down. You can effectively zone or kill squishier targets with Irelia's massive burst potential and mobility.

With a , you won't have to worry too much about dying while you do this, as you will come right back and still be able to fight. This item also gives a decent amount of resistance. Coupled with a pair of defensive boots and an aura from , all of this should net you at least 150+ armor and 120+ MR. You will be extremely tanky along with the health you gain back from and your will be worth more.

If you have a , then it will be just that much harder to kill you. Regardless, you will start to fall off in effectiveness, assuming the enemy team is on par with your team. This doesn't mean that you can't do your job, but expect to be focused down much quicker and possibly die in the majority of close teamfights. You should not be afraid to die for your team as a melee bruiser--you need to put yourself in danger to do your job properly and make sure your carries can maintain good positioning.


Try to go for large objectives such as deeper turrets and baron nashor. You will most likely be initiating for your team unless you have another initiator like malphite or nocturne. Try to let your team know before you go in so they can throw any defensive utility on you while you dive. Also try to bait fights in the jungle where they will be forced to facecheck your team.

As a tanky melee fighter, you should lead your team around major objectives like towers or baron. Don't let yourself get baited into bad engagements. It can be very easy to tunnel vision on a carry and just go diving at them regardless of the situation. Make sure your team is in range to follow up since you will be creating a lot of chaos when you go in with a team, but if your team isnt nearby you can be easily isolated and picked off with CC. Don't be afraid to get your health a little low if you are going in first so you can guarantee stuns on full hp carries, which could lead to a quick zerg and a kill, which opens up objectives and possibly wins your team the game.

If your team has a tankier initiator like , then you should let them go first and dive carries when the confusion of the team fight breaks out. It's easier to get to your targets after the enemy has blown their CC and abilities on other members of your team. While you shouldn't be afraid to take the focus of the enemy team and die for your team if necessary, throwing your life away for nothing is pointless and letting someone else go in first so you can get in safer means you can do your job more reliably. Just remember not to tunnel vision too hard on carries and chase them too far from the fight. Your team may need you to help peel other targets or clean up. If you go chasing that across the map while their is mopping up your team, you're not really contributing to a winning situation.

Recognize when enemies are zoned from combat and can no longer safely participate--then gauge whether it will take too much time/resources to finish them off. If it would be better to switch to other targets to help your team more, do so. It is difficult for newer players to completely grasp everything that is going on in a team fight and even pro players have troubles with tunnel vision, etc.

If you are having trouble keeping track of everything, try downloading LoLReplay and watch replays of teamfights and see for yourself what is going on in slow motion/what you should be doing to help your team the most. This can give you more of an idea of what to do, as similar team fights may happen in the future. However, remember that situations occur that can't always be predicted and you will have to think fast.

Thanks for reading my guide and I hope you enjoyed it. has been one of my go-to characters in LoL ever since she came out--eve when people thought she was bad. She isn't very hard to pick up, but has a few tricks to her and it can be a little tricky to master all of her match-ups. To be successful with her, you have to rely on knowing opponent match-ups and her limits against said opponents. However, once you've practiced a little with her you may come to find that she is a very fun champ to play :)