If you’re looking for a mechanically-intensive champion in League of Legends, then this Irelia guide might be perfect to help you learn her! Here’s a full rundown of Irelia, the Blade Dancer!
New to League of Legends? Or, maybe you want to change Champion… This fully-explained Irelia guide might be what you are looking for! It has everything you need, from runes to builds & tips on how to play her!
Due to it being the preseason in League of Legends, this Irelia Guide will be updated as and when patches go live. That means it’ll be relevant for whenever you find yourself needing it! In case you want to learn other champions, check out our other League of Legends Champion guides by clicking here!
League of Legends Irelia Guide – Runes & Summoner Spells
Irelia’s rune set is pretty unvaried. She always run Conqueror since it works wonderfully with her kit & it’s considered the only viable keystone on her. Triumph allows you to survive nasty situations, especially during the early game.
You can either go Legend: Alacrity or Legend: Bloodline. After the nerfs to the latter, the first one is slightly stronger as of right now.
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Coup de Grace is useful in most cases. A good alternative, however, is Last Stand. It is extremely effective during laning phase if you’re up against champions that deal a lot of damage such as Darius, Fiora or Riven.
As for the secondary tree, getting Time Warp Tonic is really good value. Irelia, in most cases, will start with a Corrupting Potion (more into that later), granting her more sustain and some DoT (damage over time). Biscuits of Delivery allows you to heal up a little more to escape some situations where you might die. Remember that you can use both items together, surprising the opponent and turning a loss skirmish into a winning one.
Credits: Riot Games
The usual Summoner Spells are Flash & Teleport. Flash, as usual, is a go-to. Teleport, instead, allows you to get back to lane faster or help your teammates, while also ensuring that you can split push later into the game, knowing you will be able to join any incumbent teamfight.
Credits: Riot Games
The other option, the more aggressive one, is Flash & Ignite. This combination works best when you want to make sure to cut off the enemy’s sustain in an extended skirmish. Champions like Illaoi or Darius will heal a lot less, giving you the edge in order to kill them.
League of Legends Irelia – Build & Skill Order
Irelia’s build, despite the item changes in the pre-season, has remained pretty much unvaried. One thing worth noting is that, unlike many other champions, Irelia doesn’t rush the Mythic Item right away.
Instead, she usually starts with Blade of the Ruined King: the item passive is extremely strong & all the stats it grants work perfectly with her.
After that, you surely want to go for Trinity Force. It’s the only viable Mythic item on her & the attack bonus when building Legendary Items is what Irelia needs the most.
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Once you’ ve built those two, you’re either looking to go for even more damage or start building more defensive with tankier items. Sterak’s Gage & Death’s Dance both fulfill that so they’re very effective 3rd/4th item.
Try to always have a component for each different type of resistance, rushing whichever deals more damage to you.
 Bladesurge (Q) | 2 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 9 | |||||||||||||
 Defiant Dance (W) | 3 | 14 | 15 | 17 | 18 | |||||||||||||
 Flawless Duet (E) | 1 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 13 | |||||||||||||
 Vanguard’s Edge (R) | 6 | 11 | 16 |
Skill order is very straightforward. Max Q, E and W last. You can start Q if you want to go very aggressive and trade already at lv 1. Otherwise, go for E for a more conservative start.
The order is vital so don’t mess it up when leveling the skills. You’re going to struggle a lot more so be very careful.
During the Laning Phase…
Irelia has insane outplay potential & requires in most cases to create a lead, either by killing the laning opponent over and over again or by getting very ahead in cs.
It’s extremely important to stack your passive by Q’ing the minions first and hitting the E on the enemy. Never trade without your passive, try to preserve your E if the opponent is pressuring and chasing after you.
It’s usually recommended to let the wave push into you at lv 1, and start trading at lv 2-lv 3. Freezing the wave (check out how to freeze, we’ll show it in the future) can be extremely helpful for finding openings to jump on the opponent.
Stack up not only the passive but also the Conqueror, by repeatedly auto-attacking. When trading as Irelia, spacing is very important. Try to step back and auto, similarly to when you’re kiting as an ADC (auto-attack move ). If you’re able to learn these small tricks & perform them consistently, you will be halfway through mastering Irelia: practice a lot & be patient, it took me almost 30-40 games to get the hang of it.
Then Later into the Game
Past the laning phase, Irelia is extremely effective when split pushing. She’s able to 1v2 pretty easily but be aware that messing up is as easy. One mistake, for example missing a Q on a minion and not getting the reset, will impair you immensely.
Try to play around with objectives and push your lead to close out the game. Irelia is strongest around mid-game (15-25 minutes) so take advantage of it as much as possible. Later into the game, you might struggle, especially when teams are very clustered: don’t be greedy and go for outplays. Play it slow and wait for your team to engage.
Takeaways
After her rework, Irelia has become a mechanically-intensive champion. While she’s very hard to learn & master, being able to play her at a really high level allows you to take over games by yourself.
Be patient & apply the aforementioned tips, focusing on learning the mechanics one at a time. When learning her, I made the mistake of trying to apply everything at once, failing miserably.
Hope this guide helped you learn more about Irelia, the Blade Dancer! What are you waiting for? Go try her out!
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