**General Knowledge **: Irelia is VERY mid game focused. She has 2 major power spikes, one being level 11 and the level 2 ulti, and the other is when she completes Trinity Force, so avoid dueling her unless you are very fed or she is a idiot. Her major weakness is the fact that once she is a fight, there is basically no way out, unless you manage to find something to Q to. Speaking of which, you Q resets if you kill a enemy target, so it is nice for farming under tower. A neat trick for laning is to wait for a caster minion to be on low health, Q to it and smack you opponent with E and a few AA. If done well it can take quite a bit of health from you opponent and is quite annoying. However remember that you are not a top tier early game duelist, so depending on who you are planning on annoying, they could very well turn and smack you. (Match ups below)
Important Items (Build what you need according to the situation, just because a item is really good on a champ, if not needed it is a waist of gold ): Trinity Force, Wit's End, Spirit Visage, Zephyr, Frozen Heart, Randuins, BORK and Maw of Malmortius .
- Trinity Force : Ok, this is the only item that you will want to get in pretty much every single game, since it gives her literally everything on a champ that scales with almost anything. Your Q procs Sheen, Phage's bonus movespeed is nice, the AS is nice as well, and the crit is useful since you AA a lot.
- Wit's End: Is quite a potent item of her, since she deals a considerable amount of magic damage, and her Q procs it as well. However, it's uses are limited and the stats are not huge, so only buy if you are massively ahead.
- Spirit Visage : This is another item that Irelia loves (Just please, don't build it if the enemy team has no magic damage). The stats are nice and the CDR is great, but the passive is what makes Irelia love it so much. Irelia is a sustained fighter, with her W and Ulti healing her. So with a Visage the amount you heal is quite absurd.
- Zephyr: A unrated item that should only be built is she is beyond fed and just wants to rampage through everyone's asshole. The bonus ad is ok, the AS is wonderful, the CDR is excellent and the tenacity along with your passive will make you charge through their CC like you're a Olaf. **DO NOT BUY IF BEHIND **
- and 6. Basically the best defense items against ad champs, see whether you need Mana and Armor or Armor and Health.
- BORK : It is really nice since it gives you AS and you rely on your AA a lot. It also allows you to deal percent health true damage, so yeah, fuck tanks.
- Maw: It a nice option against very Magic damage oriented lane or teams. If you are ahead against a Rumble, for instance, buying a Maw will give you more damage, plus defense against Rumble himself, giving you even more snowball potential.
Match Ups
Easy:
Rumble: So, levels 1-4 he bullies you so don't trade, but once one hit level 6 you can all in him and strait up kill him(Ulti the wave on minions so that you can do the trick of jumping and using E). Irelia snowballs really really hard, so this a lane the can get potently out of control.
Ekko: He depends on his W CC to win trade and you passive is basically a "Fuck you and your CC" so yeah, carry on
Any Super tank: So super tanks have massive utility, but not a lot of damage, so they offer little to no kill threat to you. Complete Trinity then BORK.
Gnar: His annoyance factor come from the fact that he is ranged. But Irelia can gap close and deal with him. She outrades mini Gnar , and if you do not wish to duel mega gnar, you E will almost always stun him, since he gains health in his mega form. After a few items you can kill him none the less.
Vladimir: This blood sucker can't really do much against you, since you are both sustain ,but you will ALWAYS win all ins. Another easy lane to snowball.
Yorick: He shoves the lane like no other, but his ghouls are basically free Q targets so that you can hit him, so yeah, enjoy this lane.
Aatrox: Another sustained fighter, but your sustain is larger, you have more CC and you deal more damage. Just dwindle him down so he waists his passive. A all in early game, with both of you at full life, but him with his passive up , will never go well. Just kill him once, go base , return and then kill him before it comes back up.
Gangplank: Just jump on him, and he can do nothing about it, other then Q you every 5 seconds, and in about that time, he should be dead, so yeah, really easy lane.
Hard
Garen : His silence is beyond annoying and he deals a lot of damage for a tank, so yeah, not a nice lane. His early game was nerfed so you have some leeway, but it is still not a great match up.
Renekton: He bullies you around like there is no tomorrow. If you really want to trade with him, wait for level 11 and Trinity (Good to have BORK as well) then you are good to go. But before that, trading is suicide. DO NOT USE THE Q TO MINION TRICK, HE WILL SMACK YOU CLEAR OUT OF LANE.
Nasus: You both farm , you both get to mid game, you go to try to kill him, he uses him W and E, slows and removes your armor, then one shots you with Q. Not really that nice. Try to force trades early and hope that he is a greedy Nasus and stays in lane with low health.
Malphite: He is wayyyyyyy to annoying to deal with, his passive is quite irritating and he has a AS debuff that fucks you up.Not a good lane mach up either.
Olaf: He straight out murders you early game. NEVER TRADE EARLY.
Udyr: Read Renekton again, same shit
Swain: Ahhhhhh yes, cancer in person. Remember, you are not Cassie, nor Viktor, nor Syndra or Brand, so you are not built to deal with his bullshit, so yeah, enjoy hell. A good Swain top is going to be your bane, you Karma for having picked Irelia. I mean he is a Mage that loves close combat, has sustain and decent range on his major CC snare, like WHAT THE FLYING FUCK. Also: The Bird Is The Word
Riven
This is a special lane since ~~ you both have autism ~~ you are both quite similar, other then the fact that she has more CC, and you have sustain. And the thing is, everyone that mains one of theses 2 champs, say that this is quite a easy lane(Irelia mains say that she stomps Riven, and Riven mains say that she stomps Irelia), and as someone who mains both, I can say that this is true. Levels 1-6 this is Riven's lane, she will push and shove you , and outrades you no matter what you do. And level 11 on up, this match up is in Irelia's favor, since Riven needs to snowball, or she gets out-scaled hard. But in the level between 6 and 11, it is anyone's game. The secret is : Let the other start the fight. If Irelia jumps on Riven and stuns her, Riven can just use her 2 forms of CC and out trade you quite hard. But if Riven jumps on Irelia, she will have blown her CC (Since Irelia should neve let Riven walk in W range normally, Riven should have to use her Q to engage on Irelia ) and therefore, has lost her win condition to beat Irelia, since in a AA fight, Irelia wins hands down.
I hope that this was helpful.
