Talk:Irelia/@comment-7620198-20131125234534/@comment-5605969-20131126005244

They both have similar objectives and kits (a low CD gap closer, a CC and an on hit effect). But they differ in core. First of all, Jax does not truly counter Irelia. He has the advantage, but not all of it.

Early game, Jax loses vs Irelia. I play a good amount Irelia, and I am not high elo, but all Jaxes I faced as Irelia (some were good) couldn't trade early game (except one AP jax I faced, but that's another story), so you win that one.

Mid game, if both go for Triforce first, then Jax wins. After Jax gets Triforce, he wins  vs Irelia. Again, good experience. So I always build in order to avoid that. I get an early Warden's mail, so I can reduce his AD dmg and AS by a bit.

Late game it differs. It greatly depends on your stun E capability, and both builds. He has kit advantage, but rare are late games 1 vs 1's. In teamfights Irelia IMO is better because of her passive.

So here is the great difference: their builds and matchability (team vs team). Irelia tends to build tanky with some damage and TONS of AS in order to fully benefit from her W and ulti heal. Jax takes hybrid dmg and HP in order to fully use his scalings and ulti. Jax's biggest counter is CC, since he can't avoid that unless he counterbuilds, and Irelia's main counter is dmg, since she can ignore cc with ease.

Hope I clarified that up a bit.

PS: forgot an important thing: Jax's gapcloser counts as a skill and can dash to allied minions and wards. Irelia's gapcloser counts as an AA and refreshes on kill. Use it wisely and you might be able to pull great plays.