Irelia/Strategy

Skill usage

 * is her staple ability, making it very difficult to lock her down in teamfights and skirmishes with crowd control due to her extended tenacity.
 * Coupled with, and ,  can achieve a maximum of 88.4% tenacity, one of the highest values in the game. This effectively turns a three second silence such as  last only one second.
 * For this reason, is a feared assassin and very capable at targeting and killing carries due to the difficulty involved in keeping her off of them with crowd control.
 * Bear in mind that this tenacity does not reduce the crowd control applied by knock-ups or suppression.
 * will not reveal hidden or invisible units, such as enemy champions in brush or with  active.
 * is a powerful farming tool as it refreshes and refunds mana if it kills the targeted enemy, including minions, and also serves as a gap closer.
 * If you miss when last hitting a minion, quickly use your  on it, so you still kill it successfully without losing cooldown or too much mana.
 * applies on-hit effects, including the true damage dealt by, the magic damage from , and it will proc and immediately apply the additional damage from , albeit only every two seconds per its cooldown limitations.
 * Use to cover great distances by targeting low life minions on your way to champion targets. Inversely, targeting enemy minions can help  escape from ganks.
 * By using  on a full HP ranged minion while having , you will kill a full HP ranged minion instantly, so you can use it one more time.
 * gives exceptional laning strength. Each level will provide increased sustain, doubled when active, and increased true damage per attack.
 * Combine with, this combo makes Irelia the best champion at last-hitting under ally turrets.
 * synergizes strongly with attack speed. The more hits can apply within the duration of its active means increased sustain and increased damage output.
 * also gives heals while attacking structures like turrets, because it heals per hit. Activate it during pushes to quickly heal extended amounts if safe to do so.
 * True damage cannot be negated, so keep in mind that the active cannot be negated by  or any attack damage debuff.
 * will either stun or slow depending on the total % of health has compared to her target. If higher, it will slow. If lower, it will stun.
 * This gives a lot of flexibility in its use - it will slow in a chasing situation, and stun to either turn the tides of a fight or give  the means to escape.
 * For this reason, it is often best to save until later in a fight to secure a sudden advantage and turn around.
 * To help your jungler gank your lane, purposefully letting your health drop below your target's can provide a much-needed stun to ensure a kill.
 * Consider investing your first skill point into in order to avoid and survive a potential early gank during laning.
 * allows for strong, multi-target damage and sustain, giving increased survivability in fights, especially when focusing down important targets.
 * Remember that will heal  for more when striking champions than striking minions.
 * In a teamfight, it's generally best to aim to hit as many champions as possible to keep you alive, rather than directly at a single target for extra damage, as this will give you the best sustain. With proper positioning, both these effects can be achieved without having to compromise. For example, shift around to fire the blades forward into the bulk of the enemy team while also hitting the main target.
 * During laning, fire into as large of a minion group as possible to regain large amounts of health either to continue laning or to survive a skirmish.
 * combined with makes a rather strong combo to kill fleeing enemies.
 * If coordinated well, it also makes an effective tool for escaping ganks or failed team fights at low health. By clicking the edge of your screen and firing off a few blades, you can heal off of the enemy champions chasing you to buy time to escape.
 * can give you a "stepping stone". By using it to lower HP of ranged minions, you can dash continously when using  on them.
 * Even though has a lot of sustain, she also has a lot of burst damage when her opponent has more hp than her at level 6. Opening with, activating  and  immediately, and  as the opponent flees and gains some distance (so you can land another autoattack or even more with phage). This combo is capable of dealing a lot of damage. Combined with  and  , it can even kill somebody from full health in a few seconds.
 * Irelia also can burst at level 2 (though you can only do that with a level advantage, or if your enemy has wasted an ability). Use your  onto a low HP minion near your enemy, then follow with a, attack him and then  after landed an auto attack or if he runs away. By using this trick, you can burn 2  of your enemy.

Build usage

 * is recommended for good reason, as shown by its components and subsequent easy build-up:
 * grants a small boost in mobility, and attack speed to use more effectively.
 * applies itself automatically on, boosting its damage. Each individual blade of activates (but does not apply) the / proc. The mana increase also allows  to use  to farm and last-hit minions more often, especially in a lane she cannot control and is forced against the turret.
 * adds onto chasing potential with CC, and additional AD/health is always essential on a melee champion. You should buy it first (after a  if you have mana problem).
 * can be a good alternative to .  Especially if the enemy deals a lot of physical damage.
 * Attack Speed should be a priority to DPS-focused players, because of the damage potential and healing of.
 * is a great item on because of the AS, magic resistance and the bonus on-hit damage.
 * is also great, giving more AS, as well as sustain and a strong active.
 * When considering defense, remeber that  has 2 ways of healing, and thus armor and magic resist are valued somewhat higher.  You still want health to protect against burst damage.
 * along with  and  allows  to gain a great amount of health back when in trouble, as well as giving her some nice CDR to use her abilities even more often.
 * Even though it stacks muliplicitly with her, tenacity items ( or ) are still a good choice, as they help you stick to your target.
 * not only gives you armor and magic resist, but the passive allows you to be much more agressive in teamfights.

Countering

 * is a champion that relies on attack speed. A or  is a good counter to her AS.
 * Buying a in the first trip back is a great way to counter  if you are having trouble vs her, since most of her damage come from autoattack and her true damage.
 * ​After that, by using the same logic, you can buy or stack HP ( is good since it has many upgraded paths).
 * Keep your current % of HP higher than her or you will lose lane. Picking a champion that can outburst her like is always a good idea.
 * Try to disengage when you see her is activating. It only has a 6s duration, so you can harass her back when it is on cooldown.
 * It is recommended not to fight in minion waves. Her  allows her to heal a lot of damage if it deals damage to both you and minions.
 * Try to counter her healing with healing reduction from . It can be quite powerful in early game.
 * Ask for early ganks, shut her down early. Snowball champions like are nightmares for  to deal with when they are ahead. Though Irelia's power will allow her to turn the lane around if she gets enough levels. Riven, for example, cannot burst Irelia after enough levels have passed, causing Irelia to win lane.
 * Be aggressive and be cautious of ganks!

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