Irelia Build Guide

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Love

Unorthodox Irelia

written by xite91

Irelia Build

Intro

Hi there! I've been playing irelia for a few months now and i've fallen in love with her. The build im about to show you is very much like the title says, but i feel it'll get you the most out of this wonderful champ!
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Also, i'm still new to the champion guide-making process, so some of my coding is guessed. I'll clean it up when i can
Pros / Cons

Pros
- Very strong DPS abilities
- Naturally tanky, you can take a lot with her
- Very fast, a great champ for chasing (when it's smart, ofc)
- She can go hybrid, though it wouldn't be my first choice
- She can fill any role, jungler, mid, solotop, lane
- Great for turret pushing
- A ranged-champ killer
- Passive tenacity
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Cons
- Kind of farm/kill dependant
- her stun can be unreliable
- Despite popular belief, a lot of CC destroys her just as much as it does to any other champ, regardless of her passive
- Can be team dependent
- Melee, relies on auto attacks

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She's a very solid champ, i had a hard time thinking of her cons, but there are plenty of them out there, i'll add them as i think of them

Abilities

Ionian Fervor

This passive is pretty awesome, gives you a free merc treads, really. It's great for harassing in the lane phase, and even better for initiating in the team fight stage.

Bladesurge

Your last hitting tool. Also a great chase/escape/initiate tool. This will get you close.

Hiten Style

I love i love i love this ability. The passive? Awesome. The extra damage? Awesome. And as far as i know, it procs on your bladesurge, too.

Equilibrium Strike

This can be awesome, or it can be annoying, often times, it's both. I love the stun, the slow is pretty good too, as long as they dont have a flash or other escape.

Transcendent Blades

Love this ulti. It gives lifesteal (spellvamp? something like that) on hit, shoots wherever you tell it, and has almost no delay.

Unique Skills

Irelia's unique skill is that she can really fill any role, except ranged.
Dont believe me? try to jungle her. Yup, she does that.
Try solo top/mid, or even just laning. Yup she does that too.
Now try her ap. HOLY HELL IT WORKSMost of her stuff DOES scale off of ap, and though i wouldn't suggest it, she CAN be a mage

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Something else somewhat unique about her is that she isn't very easily shut down. You can go against cait+alistar and get completely out laned and still come back strong as long as you play smart.
Summoner Abilities

Ok, before you choose your summoner spells, you have to decide what kind of irelia you want to be. I'll go through each one for you. After each spell, i'll rate it based on my opinion of it between 1 and 5, 5 being the greatest

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Exhaust I like this spell, but not so much on irelia. It's good for really any champ, but i find it best on squishy champs for when they're fighting the carry.

Rating = 4

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Garrison Come on, this is a summoner's rift guide

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Ghost Great for chasing, great for running. I love it for jungling, but not for laning.
Rating = 5

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Heal This spell's ok, but i love having low health on irelia, makes her stun way more likely to happen. It's great as a lure for first blood, but loses it's luster later on as it's not nearly as strong in teamfights as you'd think
Rating = 3

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Revive I've seen someone get a pentakill with this spell, so I won't knock it, but I'd never take it
Rating = 2

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Smite The obvious jungler tool. I absolutely would not jungle without it.
Rating = 5

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Surge Definitely viable, awesome for early game, not my favorite spell for her, but remember how i said she scaled off of both ap and ad? This would definitely work.
Rating = 4
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Teleport I love this spell. I really do, but I'm not big on it for Irelia because she's already so fast, and she really shouldn't be getting outta lane too often anyway
Rating = 3
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Cleanse Again, a great spell, it really is, but not on irelia. I'd rather grab [item=Mercury Treads] or [item=quick silver sash] or [item=banshees veil] if the amount of enemy CC is too high
Rating = 3
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Clarity Not that great for irelia, she's just not that mana hungry, and you can always get blue buff if you're having trouble
Rating = 2

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Ignite I take this spell if i'm laning, it's a great spell especially if you're against champions like volibear or nocturne It's also helped me get many a first blood
Rating = 5

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Promote This spell makes me giggle every time i see it used. Definitely very usefull, but i see it being more a spell for supports to use, or players like master yi or tryndamere whose main goals seem to be pushlanespushlanespushlanes
Rating = 3

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Clairvoyance This spell is awesome too! Again, though, i feel it's more usefull on support champions or tanky support.
Rating = 2, maybe 3
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Flash This spell is always usefull, love to hate it and hate that i love it, great for laning, great for initiating, great for chasing and great for running away. I take it when i lane irelia
Rating = 5
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Now you've got the whole set of masteries, you choose which ones you want. If you're still not sure, here's what I almost always take

for lane; Flash and Ignite

for jungle; Smite and Ghost
Masteries + Runes

For runes i like these
x9 Greater Seal of Resilience
x9 Greater Mark of Desolation
x9 Greater Glyph of Focus I use these on all of my champs, mainly cuz i don't wanna spend more money on runes, but another great choice would be Greater Glyph of Fortitude or Greater Glyph of Warding
and any combination of Greater Quintessence of Strength or Greater Quintessence of Desolation for my quints. i use both kinds

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For masteries i like to take
... okay my mastery tree broke, so I'll fix it later, mostly i just spec into whatever sounds good in the defense tree :D
I change it up sometimes, but that extra tankiness is just amazing on her. Also, sometimes i spec into Summoner's Wrath for ghost when i jungle, but not always.
Skilling Order

From the beginning i've like this build

The passive life gain is great for in lane, and makes it so you rarely have to go back. I've gotten half a tri-force on my first back before with her because of this passive

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I've played it like this too;

this one's good if they're just not getting that much damage on you and they're very squishy, you can be much more aggressive with how short your cd on Q is.
Items

Okay, so here's the extremely unorthodox part <3
when I play irelia, i focus very much on her W's passive, and her high damage output for how tanky she is.
That being said, I start out with a Doran's Blade
on my first back, i usually get another Doran's Blade and Berserker's Greaves
now let's talk about this, because I'm sure you're going, "now Xite, berserker greaves?" And to you I say, "Cha"
Yes, you can use Mercury's Treads and it'd be perfectly normal and, honestly, would work great. I'm not saying you can't at all, but remember how i said i focus very much on W's passive? What will make that better? Attack speed.
Honestly, though, there aren't many boots that are bad on her, just get them based on your playstyle.

Okay, and now for irelia's bread and butter, if you dont get this youre bad... DUNDUNDUN Trinity Force
Tell me what in there is bad for irelia? Nothing!
ok, now the rest of it is very team dependent. I'll just go through the items I usually get based on what's going on.
About here is when i get Warmog's Armor Health is OP, always remember, you can never have enough health, never ever ever, besides, the next item makes it even more OP
you saw it coming, but here it is! Atma's Impaler gives you defense AND more damage, the crit chance is always nice too.
But what if they have a lot of ap or their veigar's just wrecking you? Well, of course you get a [item=force of nature] or even a Banshee's Veil if theyre ad heavy? Thornmail
if you're not dying to anyone and you wanna be real mean? go for it and get a The Bloodthirster
other good items are Frozen Mallet Phantom Dancer The Black Cleaver
also, always remember that elixers are OP early game, so if you don't have the money fo an item, but have money for and elixer, go for the red one first, then green is good too.
Build Example

This is typically how my build ends up being;
1. Super Offensive DPS Irelia
Berserker's Greaves Trinity Force Warmog's Armor Atma's Impaler The Bloodthirster Frozen Mallet
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2. CC heavy or AP heavy team
Mercury's Treads Trinity Force Banshee's Veil [item=force of nature] Warmog's Armor Atma's Impaler
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3. Heavy DPS/ auto attack team
Berserker's Greaves Trinity Force Thornmail Warmog's Armor Atma's Impaler Frozen Mallet or Frozen Heart
Farming

When in lane, farming isn't hard, but it's harder than jungling.
Use your q to last hit.
I read in a guide once, for melee minions, let the turret hit 2ce, then use q, and for caster minions let the turret hit only once before using it. It's worked great for me! Other than that, just be mindful of where the enemies are when you go to farm.
Also, her ult is great for clearing minion waves, and it's on such a short cool down that it doesn't really matter if you do
Creep Jungling

Start at blue, you can do it without a leash, but it's better to get one. Still start with the same build and abilities, it works just fine.
After blue, follow the same path junglers take. You can gank at level 3 but four is better. Don't be afraid to go into a gank without full health, because you're irelia and your stun only works if they're higher health than you.
Working in the team

Irelia can be a pro initiator, but she can also be a great clean up champ.
Just remember the basics, dont initiate on a team fight unless your whole team is there. Try to be close by if a team fight is about to start and you want to clean up.
Your ult is AWESOME if you're getting focused. You heal for 25% of the damage you do to champions and 10% against minions. It won't keep you alive forever, but it'll keep you alive long enough for your team to finish them off.
Summary

This isn't nearly as in-depth as i wanted it to be, but I started getting rushed about halfway through. If you have any questions, just ask! Feel free to rate and leave feedback!
Keep your eye out for additions to this guide including;
- Jungling more efficiently
- AP/Hybrid Irelia
- In-Depth how to play, including videos, step-by-steps and catchy one-liners!
Thank you so much for reading! Good luck and have fun!