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Irelia
the Blade Dancer

Irelia

Passive · Ionian Fervor

Hitting champions with abilities grants Irelia stacks of attack speed, and a shield at max stacks.

DamageDurabilityMagicDifficultyMobilityCC
Champion profile (Riot)
  • Damage7
  • Durability4
  • Magic5
  • Difficulty5
  • Mobility8
  • CC8
Counters by laneEach lane has counters + tips
Top
Primary

How to play as Irelia

  • Engage combo: E (Flawless Duet) → Q (Bladesurge) to assassinate
  • Q (Bladesurge) resets on kill or marks — chain through minions + champs
  • Passive (Ionian Fervor) — 4 stacks grants bonus attack speed + on-hit
  • R (Vanguard's Edge) for waveclear and engage — blocks projectiles (Caitlyn R)
  • Build Divine Sunderer first then Trinity Force for AD + sticky
  • Power spike at level 9 with first item — pick fights then

How to beat Irelia

  • Stay spread — E (Flawless Duet) stuns if you line up
  • Don't bunch with minions in her E arc — she'll stun through them
  • Buy Mercury's Treads + Maw of Malmortius vs her mixed damage
  • Pressure her before she stacks 4 passive — attack speed spikes hard
  • Sidestep R (Vanguard's Edge) — it slows + blocks projectiles
  • Scale vs her — she falls off late game vs counter items
Jungle

How to play as Irelia

Jungle: track Scuttle, gank weak lanes, scale to objectives.

How to beat Irelia

Jungle: ward objectives, never walk blind into brush.

Mid
Primary

How to play as Irelia

  • Engage combo: E (Flawless Duet) → Q (Bladesurge) to assassinate
  • Q (Bladesurge) resets on kill or marks — chain through minions + champs
  • Passive (Ionian Fervor) — 4 stacks grants bonus attack speed + on-hit
  • R (Vanguard's Edge) for waveclear and engage — blocks projectiles (Caitlyn R)
  • Build Divine Sunderer first then Trinity Force for AD + sticky
  • Power spike at level 9 with first item — pick fights then

How to beat Irelia

  • Stay spread — E (Flawless Duet) stuns if you line up
  • Don't bunch with minions in her E arc — she'll stun through them
  • Buy Mercury's Treads + Maw of Malmortius vs her mixed damage
  • Pressure her before she stacks 4 passive — attack speed spikes hard
  • Sidestep R (Vanguard's Edge) — it slows + blocks projectiles
  • Scale vs her — she falls off late game vs counter items
ADC

How to play as Irelia

ADC: kite the frontline, hit the closest tank then the carries.

How to beat Irelia

ADC: stay behind minions and focus the enemy ADC in fights.

Support

How to play as Irelia

Support: keep vision + peel for ADC, build Locket Enchant + Knight's Vow.

How to beat Irelia

Support: dodge hooks/engages, buy Mikael's into heavy CC.

Abilities

Ionian Fervor

Passive

Innate: Irelia generates a stack of Ionian Fervor for each enemy champion hit by her abilities, or if she hits at least one non-champion. Stacks last for 6 seconds and stack up to 4 times, refreshing on basic attacks and ability hits against enemy champions and large monsters.

Ionian Fervor: For each stack, Irelia gains % bonus attack speed, up to a maximum of %. At maximum stacks, her basic attacks against enemy champions and minions will deal 30 to 120 for 15% (+ 30% bonus AD) bonus magic damage on-hit.

Innate - Unsteady: Enemy champions and large monsters hit by Flawless Duet and Vanguard's Edge initial barrage are marked as Unsteady for 5 seconds. The mark can be consumed by Bladesurge.

Bladesurge

Q

Active: Irelia dashes 100 units through the target enemy's location, and upon collision or arrival, she deals physical damage, applies on-hit effects, and heal herself. Bladesurge deals 150% damage against minions.

Bladesurge's remaining cooldown is reduced to 0.4 seconds upon collision of targets marked as ', and is reset if the target dies to or during Bladesurge's dash.

Flawless Duet can be cast during the dash.

Cooldown9 to 6 4

Defiant Dance

W

Active - Hold: Irelia channel for up to 1.5 seconds, reducing incoming damage by 60% (+ 7% per 100 AP). The charge cannot be interrupt. Defiant Dance can be recast within the duration, and does so automatically afterwards.

Recast - Release: Irelia swipes in the target direction, dealing physical damage to enemies nearby and within a line, increased by %. She also retains the damage reduction for 0.5 seconds.

Defiant Dance's recast can be used while affected by cast-inhibiting crowd control. If Ionian Fervor would expire during the charge, it will instead refresh every 0.25 seconds for the remaining charge and be retained for 0.5 seconds after the recast is initiated.

Cooldown14 to 11 4Range775 / 895

Flawless Duet

E

Active: Irelia sends a blade to the target location for 3 seconds. Flawless Duet can be recast after 0.15 seconds while the blade remains, and does so automatically after the duration, though not if she is unable to cast abilities.

Recast: Irelia sends a second blade to the target location. Once both blades are placed, they fly toward each other over 0.25 seconds, afterwards dealing magic damage to enemies within a line between them. Enemies hit are also stun and standard sight for 0.75 seconds.

Flawless Duet's recast can be used during Bladesurge and the cast time of Vanguard's Edge. Each of the blades' travel times are 0.25.

Cooldown12 to 9 4

Vanguard's Edge

Ultimate

Active: Irelia launches a barrage of blades in the target direction that deals magic damage to enemies hit and standard sight them for 1 second. Upon hitting an enemy champion, the blades explode into a wall and deal the same damage to enemies hit.

The wall forms around the enemy champion hit for 3 seconds and grants sight of its surroundings. Enemies that pass through the wall for the first time are dealt magic damage and slow by 90% for 1 second.

Cooldown70 to 60 3