LoL Classic - Irelia Build

Changes for Classic

• The abilities are completely different. Read the descriptions.

How to Play

Irelia can be a strong, dominant lane champion, but you need to play around the minion wave and be careful when trading. You need time to come online, so don’t fight until you’re at least level 4. Keep the wave closer to your side of the map early, as this lets you look for aggressive plays with the enemy laner. Once you’re level 6 and unlocked your Ultimate, your kill pressure intensifies and you can look for all-ins after a few short trades.

Outside the laning phase, your goal is to pressure the side lanes, split push, and take turrets to open up the map. As Irelia is a strong skirmisher, look to skirmish and fight whoever tries to stop you from split-pushing. In the mid and late game, you can also group with your team or ambush squishy enemies walking around Summoner's Rift alone, like the enemy Support or ADC.

Runes Explained

As Irelia is a heavy duelist and is an AD champion, we recommend going for 9x Attack Damage Marks as this will increase your damage output while trading. As Irelia needs to get on to her enemies to kill them, you should take Armor Seals to help protect you from incoming damage/basic attacks to make trades more favourable. While most enemies in the Top lane will be AD, you will face AP Mid laners and other AP champs. You should take Magic Resistance Glyphs to protect you from their damage!

We recommend finishing off your Rune Page with 3x Attack Damage Quints to just increase your damage output.

Masteries Explained

As Irelia is an AD fighter, we recommend going 21 points in the Offense tree and 9 points in the Defense tree. The additional AD increases your kill potential throughout the game, making you a stronger laner and duelist. The 9 points in the Defense tree are to help you while trading and make it less likely for a trade to go south. Irelia can also switch her setup. You can go 9 points in the Offense tree, and 21 in the Defense tree, depending on what you prefer and how comfortable you are on her.

If you take the Offense tree as your main tree, then your kill pressure and trading power will be higher, whereas the defense tree will make it easier for you to survive lane.