[Champion] Irelia - Page 18

On June 24 2011 17:02 Ordained wrote:
I wanted to try my hand at writing a guide and who better to start with than my absolute favorite champion, Irelia.

To start off I am going to go over her skills a bit and how I use them since I will be referring to them not as their name but their corresponding hot-key.

Ionian Fervor (passive) - Reduces the duration of stuns, slows, taunts, fears, snares, and roots for each nearby enemy champion. (10% 1 champion, 20% 2 champions and a max of 30% 3 champions.)
This is an amazing passive. Irelia jumps into a fight in a flurry of blades and damage and the first reaction of many people is to stun her. This is like tenacity lite. It lets her get in and out safe as possible and is the only thing that stacks with tenacity effects. (Which is why I build Mercury's Treads on almost all builds)

Bladesurge (Q) - Irelia dashes forward to strike her target. If it kills the target, Bladesurge's cooldown refreshes and refunds 35 Mana.
Irelia dashes forward to strike her target, dealing 20/50/80/110/140 (+) physical damage. If it kills the target, Bladesurge's cooldown refreshes and refunds 35 Mana.
Cost
70/70/70/70/70 Mana
Range
650
Awesome farming skill and can also help you hop around a battlefield to confuse and juke enemies. I generally use this skill after an enemy flashes to catch right back up to them in a teamfitght. Opening up with it is risky as it can leave you as a sitting duck in the middle of 5 pissed off enemies. If you know your target has burned their flash/ ghost/ escape abilities it is somewhat safe to use it right away but normally I like to save it.

Hiten Style (W) - Irelia is skilled in the art of Hiten, passively giving her physical attacks health restoration. Activating Hiten Style gives her physical attacks true damage for a short period. Passive: Physical attacks restore 10/14/18/22/26 health. Active: Irelia's physical attacks deal 15/30/45/60/75 true damage for 6 seconds.
Cost
40/40/40/40/40 Mana
Range
20
Another really awesome skill. True damage is not blocked by armor or magic resist. This is the skill I max out first when fighting a really tank heavy team. People tend to underestimate the damage it can do. Paired with your ultimate this can provide you with a deceiving amount of survivability. This is where a majority of your damage will come from.

Equilibrium Strike (E) - Irelia's attack balances the scales, dealing damage and slowing the target. However, if the target has a higher Health % than Irelia, then the blow stuns the target instead. Irelia pierces her target, dealing 80/130/180/230/280 (+0.5) magic damage and slowing the target by 60% for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 second(s). If the target has a higher Health % than Irelia, she stuns the target for the duration instead.
Cost
50/55/60/65/70 Mana
Range
425
This is the skill that, in my opinion, takes the most thought of when to use it. It deals decent enough damage but the real kicker is that it stuns if someone has more health than you. I have won many fights because someone is a tad too greedy and tries to finish me off because they have more health and think they can win. The reason why this can be the most confusing part of irelia is sometimes you are hesitant to use it because you dont know if you will need the stun later to survive or if you need the damage now to finish a target off. It is a very unique skill but once you get the hang of it, one of the most fun to use.

Transcendent Blades (R) - Irelia summons 4 spirit blades that she can fling to deal 85/135/185 (+) (+0.5) physical damage to enemies they pass through. She heals for 25% of that damage against champions and 10% against minions.
Cost
100/100/100 Mana
Range
1200
This is probably my favorite skill in the entire game. It is great for farming, surviving teamfights, finishing off runners, healing and has great AoE damage. I almost always open up with this skill in teamfights. It has a relatively low cooldown too so do not be afraid to use it when you need it.

Irelia is a very fun champion to play and is capable of carrying a game very hard with the right setup.

To start out I will go over the mastery page that I use.

In the Utility tree I take: [3/3] Good Hands, [1/3] Perseverance, [4/4] Awareness [3/3] Meditation, [2/2] Utility Mastery, [3/3] Quickness, [1/1] Blink of an eye, [3/3] Intelligence and [1/1] Presence of the Master.

In the Defense tree I take: [3/3] Hardiness [3/3] Resistance and [3/3] Strength of Spirit.

I choose to max Good Hands over Persistence because I feel it helps a lot more since you are a melee and will probably have people trying to kill you first. Awareness helps get that vital level 6 a tad faster and the buff duration of Utility mastery lets you get more benefit out of Lizard and Baron buff.

I feel that Meditation and Quickness are absolutely needed so you can either get in close to last hit and get out safely (Quickness) and the mana regen lets me use Q to last hit just that much more in lane (which helps when being pressed to your tower. I also run flash so I put a point into Blink of an Eye instead of Haste.

I choose to use the defense tree for my remaining 9 points because it blocks a good amount of damage while in laning phase and gives a good amount of health regen that synergizes with W nicely. It is very hard to knock an irelia out of lane if played well.

The summoner spells I use are Flash / Ignite. Flash so I can get out of a bad spot easier and Ignite, not just for damage but for the healing reduction (which was recently buffed.)

For items there are 3 paths that I generally take:
Doran's Sheild: In a lane where I know I will be harass a lot by an AD champion I run a Doran's Shield for the armor and health regen,
Boots/ 3 health pot: If I am up against a very mobile enemy I sometimes open boots so that I can get in and out quick to last hit and avoid harass as much as possible. Boots helps for getting out of a jam / early gank as well.
Mana crystal / 2 health pot: This is my preferred starting items. The mana from the Mana Crystal lets you Q minions for the harder to get minions and lets you have some breathing room with skill usage. It also builds into a Sheen which is part of Trinity Force, which is a core item in my build.

Your first big item will be based on what is happening in your lane. If you are up against a tanky champion like Chogath, I build a Zeal first as the attack speed synergizes with W nicely.

Vs. a squishy champion such as Twisted Fate I rush Sheen.

If you are getting harassed a lot and find yourself with lower than optimal health a lot during laning, you can also rush Phage which gives decent damage and health to make you a bit more threatening. The slow is just icing on the cake.

I build "Triforce" first because it is just an amazing item on almost any AD champion but is core on Irelia. There is not a single part about it that does not directly help her.

After "Triforce" I tend to get a Brutalizer and build it into a Youmuu's Ghostblade for the Armor pen and that awesome Active (20% movement speed and 50% attack speed.) I have found that the ghostblade has secured me kills that would otherwise be just out of reach. The movement speed active can also save your butt if you are the target of a gank.

From here on I build luxury items based on what is happening in the game. Force of Nature for magic resist, Sunfire for some armor and health, Infinity Edge or Black Cleaver for damage.

I generally play Irelia like I would play any other anti-carry by waiting for a teamfight to get initiated then ruining someone's day.

Irelia is one of the most diverse champions out there being that she can Jungle, solo top lane or solo bottom lane and still be an asset to the team. This is just one of the many playstyles.

Hope this helps people who are looking to get into Irelia.