Guide · Top

Irelia Guide

the Blade Dancer

Fighter

Assassin

Tier B Top

Irelia, the Blade Dancer, is a fighter and assassin champion of medium difficulty. Across our 838 analysed ranked games, Irelia is mostly played in Top (62% of its games), and more rarely in Mid (38%), with a 51.8% win rate in that role: tier B among Top champions (#20 of 51, ranked by win rate). Irelia's damage is mostly physical (72%): armor is the best defensive answer against this champion. Win rate varies with game length: 62.9% in short games (under 25 min, 167 games) versus 41.4% in long games (over 35 min).

Averages measured over 523 Top games played with Irelia, from our ranked Solo/Duo data collection.

Combos and how to play

Irelia is a mobile fighter whose abilities give her stacking attack speed. Bladesurge resets if it kills its target or hits a marked target, Flawless Duet damages, stuns and marks between two blades, and Vanguard's Edge creates a wall that damages and slows.

The engage combo

E › Q › AA AA › W

When: An enemy is within range.

Flawless Duet damages, stuns and marks; Bladesurge on a marked target resets its cooldown: you can chain and stack Ionian Fervor.

The wall ultimate

R › Q › E › W

When: A team fight starts.

Vanguard's Edge damages and marks the champions hit then forms a wall that slows; use the marks to recast Bladesurge.

Physical defense

W › AA AA

When: An enemy attacks with physical damage.

Defiant Dance charges an attack and makes you take less physical damage; the longer the charge, the more the damage increases.

Laning phase

Chain Bladesurge through minions to close in: its cooldown resets if it kills. Defiant Dance protects you from physical damage while charging.

Common mistakes

• Using Bladesurge with no minion or mark to come back from.
• Charging Defiant Dance with no protection against magic damage.
• Neglecting your passive's attack speed: it requires hitting with your abilities.

Riot's official tips for playing Irelia

• Use Bladesurge to cover great distances by targeting low life minions on your way to champion targets.
• Defiant Dance is not interrupted by crowd control, try timing it for incoming disables.
• Flawless Duet does not have a maximum travel distance, try using it in creative ways.

Build, runes and summoner spells

The most-played core build is Wit's End, Blade of The Ruined King, and Hullbreaker (148 games, 54.0% win rate).

Wit's End+Blade of The Ruined King+Hullbreaker

148 games · 54.0%

Blade of The Ruined King+Hullbreaker+Death's Dance

132 games · 52.3%

Wit's End+Blade of The Ruined King+Death's Dance

97 games · 51.5%

Summoner spells

Flash + Ignite50.4% · 335 games

Exhaust + Flash56.0% · 91 games

Flash + Teleport53.4% · 88 games

Most-played runes

Conqueror + Inspiration

51.6% · 343 games

Primary tree · Precision

Triumph93%

Legend: Alacrity99%

Last Stand96%

Secondary tree · Inspiration

Triple Tonic74%

Jack Of All Trades68%

Shards

Attack speed98%

Adaptive force100%

Health82%

Conqueror + Resolve

52.9% · 155 games

Primary tree · Precision

Triumph82%

Legend: Alacrity98%

Last Stand93%

Secondary tree · Resolve

Bone Plating80%

Unflinching61%

Shards

Attack speed99%

Adaptive force99%

Health scaling63%

For each row, the most picked rune among the games played with this page (share of games in brackets).

Which items to build against the enemy team?

We sort every game by the enemy team's damage. These are Irelia's completed items and their win rate in each situation; "▲" marks an item that does at least 3 points better than its usual win rate.

Mostly magic-damage enemy team54.2% · 142 games

At least 50% of their damage is magic

Blade of The Ruined King 54.0%

Hullbreaker 59.8% ▲

Wit's End 51.4%

Death's Dance 52.8%

Kraken Slayer 54.5%

Guardian Angel 71.4%

The item that stands out most is Hullbreaker: 59.8% win rate, +5 points versus its usual win rate.

Mostly physical-damage enemy team50.8% · 132 games

Less than 35% of their damage is magic

Blade of The Ruined King 50.8%

Hullbreaker 51.2% ▼

Death's Dance 48.2% ▼

Kraken Slayer 56.8%

Wit's End 42.9% ▼

Guardian Angel 52.9%

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Balanced enemy team51.0% · 249 games

Mixed physical and magic damage

Blade of The Ruined King 51.8%

Hullbreaker 54.7%

Wit's End 53.3%

Death's Dance 55.0%

Kraken Slayer 64.0% ▲

Guardian Angel 69.2% ▲

The item that stands out most is Kraken Slayer: 64.0% win rate, +4 points versus its usual win rate.

Counters and matchups

Who counters Irelia in Top

Jayce Irelia: 60.9%23 games

Jayce has the edge in 39% of the 23 Top duels against Irelia. See the Jayce guide.

Who Irelia is strong against

Jayce60.9% · 23 games

How to play against Irelia

• Pay attention to Ionian Fervor stacks and try to engage Irelia when it is down.
• Minion waves greatly enhance Irelia's mobility, beware fighting her inside one.
• Beware of wasting your high impact spells on Defiant Dance.

Win rates measured over direct same-role duels; only matchups with more than 15 games are listed. See all of Irelia's matchups.

Abilities

PassiveIonian Fervor

When Irelia strikes enemies with spells she gains stacking bonus Attack Speed. At maximum stacks she also gains bonus damage on hit.

QBladesurge

Irelia dashes forward to strike her target, healing herself. If the target is Marked or dies to Bladesurge, its cooldown refreshes.

WDefiant Dance

Irelia charges a strike that deals more damage as she charges. She takes reduced physical damage during the charge.

EFlawless Duet

Irelia sends out two blades which converge on each other. Enemies caught in between are damaged, stunned and Marked.

RVanguard's Edge

Irelia fires a massive number of blades that explode outward upon hitting an enemy champion. Enemies hit by the blades are damaged and Marked. Afterwards the blades form a wall that will damage and slow enemies that walk through it.

Frequently asked questions

Full Irelia page · League of Legends tier list · All champion guides