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What's the counterplay to Irelia?

Marmara··6 votes·3,360 views

Seriously, does Irelia even have counterplay? She has one of the most toxic designed kits in the game.

Build armor? Nope, she also deals true and magic damage. Build MR? Nope, she also deals true and physical damage. Use a ranged champion and poke her? Nope, because she has a heal and equilibrium strike (so you're forced to always have lower health than Irelia making poke a no-no. Sorry Teemo/Kennen/Lulu). Focus her in teamfights? Nope, because she has 40% tenacity as a passive. Keep your distance and farm? Nope, because she has a double gap closer. Out-trade her? Nope, because she can pop her ultimate and heal the damage back up. Abuse her weak early game? She doesn't have a weak early game like Jax or Nasus and she can farm under the turret quite well with bladesurge. Oh and she has a heal.

You can at least stack armor against a Riven. You can at least kite a Nasus. You can at least abuse Jax's weak early game and focus him in teamfights. You can at least build a thorn mail against a Fiora.

Irelia, on the other hand, has too much of everything to the point where facing against an Irelia means you have to cross your fingers and pray that she's a noob player.

16 Comments

BeatzBoyFTW4 votes

Darius

Marmara2 votes

I don't play Darius, sorry. He's so useless late game and can so easily be counterpicked.

And he looks so violent and aggressive that he's not aesthetically pleasing for me to play. I mean, read his lore. He's a psychopath.

I prefer playing champions that look... much more innocent and happy.

ZehPandah2 votes

innocent and happy.

Teemo

Marmara1 votes

Awww look at Teemo... sooo cute and adorable... squeeeeee :D Seriously, I love playing him because he's so cute.

Unfortunately he doesn't do so well vs. Irelia. I tried before. Irelia crushes him because of the equilibrium strike and heal.

Teemo does well against most other top laners though.

I am a Witch1 votes

Teemo should do well vs Irelia, in theory--she's autoattack reliant, so the blind is really effective. Post-6, poke with AA's, if she Bladesurges to you, you should have a mushroom between the two of you so she would hit it, blind her when she comes in to get you, taking poison damage and is slowed. Walk in range, AA her, run away. Isn't that how to play Teemo?

BeatzBoyFTW1 votes

I don't play Darius, sorry. He's so useless late game and can so easily be counterpicked.

And he looks so violent and aggressive that he's not aesthetically pleasing for me to play. I mean, read his lore. He's a psychopath.

I prefer playing champions that look... much more innocent and happy.

Useless? Pfft.

If you can't find anyone else to counter against Irelia, Darius would be a much better choice. For instance, Irelia pre-6 is basically 100% melee fighter, means whenever you see her closing in just to cs, you can just Q slice a chunk of her health off easily. For building against her, there are 2 ways: if you're winning the lane, go AD. If losing, go tank. I was a Darius main before, and this usually works a lot of time.

For late game, it is always better for you to go a tanky champion since you don't really have much mobility, besides the passive ms boost. With just the one Hydra, combined with Randuins & other defensive stat items, he pretty much aces every 1v1 battles (except ADCs, depends how often they like to move around).

His W also works pretty well against melee champs, with the ms & attack speed reduction. It should be effective against Irelia, despite her passive. As you know Darius, the longer he 1 v 1 a single champion, the stronger he gets thanks to his 5 stacked bleeds.

And other thing, just dunk'em hard

ShogunWolflux2 votes

I don't play Darius, sorry. He's so useless late game and can so easily be counterpicked.

And he looks so violent and aggressive that he's not aesthetically pleasing for me to play. I mean, read his lore. He's a psychopath.

I prefer playing champions that look... much more innocent and happy.

??? so basically "because i don't like the aesthetics of a champion - their existence as counter play no longer exists or is relevant?"

Irelia also has no escape - and can be ganked really really easily pre 6. Her early game is actually considerably weak - she needs level 4 + to start trading well. She's auto attack reliant - so champions like nasus/nautilus/teemo/quinn can do well if played properly. Fizz is another good choices because grievous wounds. Though darius is pretty much the sure fire way to just destroy irelia. Randuins rush is also productive.

AHeroNamedHawke1 votes

I don't play Darius, sorry. He's so useless late game and can so easily be counterpicked.

And he looks so violent and aggressive that he's not aesthetically pleasing for me to play. I mean, read his lore. He's a psychopath.

I prefer playing champions that look... much more innocent and happy.

Scurry, weakling

Cozarkian1 votes

item 3082 - AS debuff reduces her true damage and sustain, plus armor for her physical damage.

By the way, magic damage on her E is a detriment that reduces the benefit of armor penetration on her. You only need armor/health against Irelia but you will also benefit from the MR you build to protect against her teammates.

Raja Chachki1 votes

Riven counters Irelia early, like lvls 1-5, but then Irelia begins to win(if s/he is a good Irelia). I myself have loved Irelia for a few months now, and I think all you can do is build health and try to sustain as much as her. She doesn't have a "double gap closer" until she has some AP or until lategame where it is almost maxed. And her early is REALLY weak(lvls 1-4). Play someone with hard CC, but is a burst, not a poke champ. Zed would probably win, so would Akali(shroud protects her from Irelia ult and CC). And, like everyone else has said, Darius. Darius is probably the strongest counter pick to Irelia, and you are wrong, he does much late game. If he EVER catches ANYONE, then they are dead or dying.

1 4m 4 n00b1 votes

Just pick Olaf and face roll her.

SionideCN1 votes

Nerfs and Morello

Big Nasty Mèat1 votes

Build some health. Or pick Malphite and rush frozen heart. Anything that delays her mid game and/or keeps her from snowballing counters her. The average player doesn't respect her level 6 power spike or the strength of her E in low-health duels and this allows her to get ahead pretty often.

EndlessSorcerer1 votes

Most of her matchups are skillbased. She does well against ranged, squishy champions and can 1v1 a lot of bruisers and tanks as well. For counters, I would recommend: Gnar - build tanky (Double Doran's -> Phage -> Randuin's Omen), poke her from ranged and disengage when she tries to jump on you Darius - Build damage [Hydra] when ahead and tanky [Sunfire] if behind. Your cripple reduces her movespeed and attack speed, you can outdamage her early, and you have a lot of burst damage. You just have to watch your mana and Q her when she tries to sustain. Ryze - Ranged harass, durable, disengage Cho'gath - Knockup isn't reduced by her passive, a lot of early damage when maxing E, good burst, too tanky for her to kill Lissandra - Harass, mana sustain, CC to peel

Though, like I said, most of her matchups are skillbased. If you can't play the matchup well and she can, she will likely have the advantage due to your lack of practice.

SmokingPuffin1 votes

Mechanically, this is the problem that led to Better Nerf Irelia. Her kit has everything a bruiser could want, and leaves little in the way of counterbuilding or counterpicking. You beat her by having more stats than she has. For most of her existence, this has meant picking whatever early game bruiser is best at the moment (Renekton Rengar Shyvana Riven at various points in League history). Do this and Irelia has to farm passively until about level 9, while you have the change to take lane control.

This of course highlights the problem that has existed in top lane since season 2 released all these stat ball bruisers. Whichever one has the best early game stats is the one you play over, and over, and over again, and if you don't you will just lose every trade and suffer through a passive laning experience.

tldr - Irelia isn't the problem. She's the best example of what's wrong with top lane. Nerfing her won't fix top lane now any more than it did the previous dozen times.

Notorious K E K1 votes

Unfortunately 3 years after this post, Irelia is still the most poorly designed champion with all the issues listed above. She has positive matchups against all bruisers and defies meta. I really hope this soon to come rework either kills her or changes her enough I'm not reminded of this disgusting mask players use to pretend they are using skill to solo carry. I'd like there to be a day when Irelia players don't get platinum or higher with half the games of the average player.

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