Counter Tips & Tricks To Beat Irelia In League Of Legends

Irelia is a melee range AD Bruiser, Similar to Renekton or Riven. She has an insane amount of damage, mobility, and carry potential. While most people like to play her top, Many korean Pro’s such as Showmaker and Chovy love playing this champion Mid. She is a strong snowballing champion, with insane solokill potential. Her kit is perfect for mechanically talented players who love to win by dominating lane.

Like most other assassins, Irelia spikes hard, on her first 1-2 items, while falling off significantly in the late game. That being said, she has to play aggressive, snowballing the game out of control before the enemies can stabilise. An experienced Irelia player is capable of consistently getting leads in lane, and converting those leads into rift heralds, dragons, as well as towers. Your job playing against Irelia is to not feed her, if you are even against an Irelia up to 2 items, you are doing well as most champions will outscale her in the mid-late.

So how should you beat Irelia? Let’s go step by step.

Irelia’s Abilities

• P:Irelia gains a stack of her passive whenever her abilities hit an enemy champion or enemy minion.
  At maximum stacks, Irelia’s basic attacks deal additional bonus magic damage on-hit.
• Q: Irelia dashes towards the enemy target, dealing physical damage, applying on-hit effects and Heal power healing herself.
  Her Q resets upon consuming a mark, and resets if the target dies to or shortly after Bladesurge has completed.
• W:Irelia charges for up to 1.5 seconds, during which she reduces incoming physical damage by 50% at the end, Irelia swipes with her blades in the target direction, dealing increased damage based on the time that it was channeled for. This ability can be cancelled to do reduced damage.
• E: Irelia sends a blade to her target location. Upon recast of E, Irelia sends another blade to the new target location, stunning all enemies in between the 2 blades. Landing an E on an enemy champion marks them, allowing Irelia’s q to reset if she q’s the marked enemy champion.
• R: Irelia launches a barrage of blades in the target direction, expanding outward upon hitting an enemy champion and dealing magic damage to all enemies hit, as well as marking them.
  After expanding, the blades drop on the ground, forming a spade-shaped perimeter around the enemy champion hit for 2.5 seconds. Enemies that pass through the blades are dealt magic damage and are slowed by 90% for 1.5 seconds.

Tips to play against Irelia

• Tip 1:

Since Irelia is largely auto attack based, stacking her passive fully gives her a ton of damage and attack speed. This should be the main thing you consider when going for trades against Irelia. An Irelia with 5 stacks and an Irelia with 1-4 stacks is a completely different champion. Remember to track her passive and make sure that she has low/no stacks before you go for trades. Constantly click on Irelia to check the number of stacks she has and remember not to trade if she has 5!

• Tip 2:

To prevent Irelia from stacking her passive by Q’ing minions, you can stand on top of low health minions, so that when she tries to q, she will q you instead of the minion and lose her q.

Irelia High-Level Strategy

Irelia does really well into both tanks and carries, But suffers greatly when it comes to fighting bruisers. By far, the best way to beat Irelia is to beat her in champ select. Directly counter pick her by picking melee bruisers into her. Good examples of this are Renekton, Garen, Kled, Sett, all of which completely destroy Irelia, Especially in the early game where Irelia is looking to snowball. I especially recommend picking Renekton, who destroys Irelia and doesn’t get outscaled too hard in the later stages. Be very careful not to pick squishy immobile mages into her as she can kill you easily. Examples of bad picks against Irelia are champs like Vel’Koz, Syndra, Corki.

Playing against Irelia

Irelia’s main goal is to destroy lane as hard as possible. As a result, it’s best to try to farm safely and outscale her. Good wave management is key here. Good Irelia’s will typically try to freeze the wave to force you to walk up. If this happens, ping your jungler to come over and break the freeze. Due to her insane gap close, trying to break the freeze yourself will almost certainly result in your death. Usually, if your patient, the Irelia player will get frustrated and start pushing the wave. You can then farm safely under the tower.

In the early game, the best way to deal with Irelia is to constantly slow push the wave into her. By slow pushing the wave, she has trouble stacking her passive as the stack will run out. This also ensures that she can never threaten a freeze as the wave will also be too big. Stacking a big wave also allows you to get a “cheater recall”, or “free-recall”. Do this by instantly recalling after crashing a big wave. This allows you to go back and get items, regen health and mana, while getting back to lane missing only 1-2 minions if done correctly. By constantly doing this, she does not have any window to kill you early game.

In the mid game, her kill potential becomes incredibly strong, especially after she gets BOTRK as she can then 1 shot ranged minions with her q and have an insane engage range onto you. After she gets BOTRK, you have to play incredibly safe, especially if you are down a flash. Be ready to give up some cs at this point as she can 1 shot almost every mid lane champion. Be very careful of ganking Irelia at this point, as she can easily 1v2 many situations, especially if you and your jungler dont have alot of cc.

Similarly to Yasuo, Irelia is much stronger when she is fighting around minions, where she gets free healing, mobility and passive stacks from her q. As such, one of her biggest weaknesses is that she is quite weak in jungle fights, as such, try to force 2v2s with your jungler at river, where its very difficult for her to keep her stacks unless she is very far ahead. You can also try to pick her off when she is rotating in the jungle as, once again, she is weak without her 5 stacks.

In conclusion, while Irelia is very strong early, she falls off significantly after her first 2 items. If she does not get a lead, she will have a tough time playing teamfights later on as she isn’t super tanky and does not have a reliable way to get on top of your carries.

Irelia Match-Ups

Irelia vs Kled

Kled is one of the strongest picks into Irelia due to his strong 1v1 potential. Be careful not to let Irelia dodge your q with her dash, as she can dodge a lot of your damage this way. Becareful also not to let Irelia block your W damage with her W. Play slowly and you should slowly outtrade her.

Irelia vs Garen

Garen is the easiest champion you can use to counter Irelia. Save your W for her stun, and you should win almost every trade. Be careful of very extended fights with her 5 stack passive as you can get out damaged if the fight goes on long enough. Take short trades with your q and e and then look for a solokill once she is low.

Irelia vs Sett

Sett is a champion that can bully Irelia in the early game. It will be very difficult for Irelia to outtrade you due to your pit grit passive. Make sure to save your W until you are confident that you can land it as she can dodge it with her Q. In teamfights, save your spells to peel for your teammates. If Irelia dives your backline, Make sure to ult her away and lock her up with your e stun. Sett should be able to neutralise Irelia in all teamfights and frontline effectively for his team.

Irelia vs Darius

As Darius, rush an early Tabi as it gives you more combat power that any other early game item. To guarantee that you land the E, E behind you after she Qs on top of you. Follow it up with an AA>W>Q and then run her down with a ghost. You should be able to kill her easily if she ever mis-positions.

More on topic: Tips to Counter Darius

Riven vs Irelia

Riven vs Irelia is an even skill matchup.where either champion can win, Although riven is slightly favoured in the 1v1. As riven, the most important thing is not to unload your double cast or your R2 into Irelia’s W. One of the best ways to beat her 1v1 is to E on top of her, usually, most Irelia’s will cast W to try to avoid your double cast damage. At this point, cast R and wait for her W to finish. Once her W is finished, fast-combo into R2 to finish her off.

Irelia vs Tryndamere

Trynd vs Irelia is a very good matchup for Tryndamere. Irelia has a very hard outtrading you as you damage her with your auto attacks. Be Careful of fighting against her BOTRK powespike before you manage to get to your ER as she can beat you on her power spike. Mid to late game, keep split pushing to force Irelia to try to come and match you. Since you are stronger, you will draw at least 2 people and your team will be playing 4v3 elsewhere. Be careful not to get solokilled pre 6 as she has a really strong early game all in.

Irelia vs Fiora

Fiora vs Irelia is a skill matchup that favours fiora. As Fiora, you can easily parry Irelia’s E as it is quite slow. One important thing to note in this matchup is also that Fiora’s W reduces the attack speed of champions it hits. As Irelia is largely auto attack based, landing your W should allow you to win all trades with her. Just make sure she does not dodge it with her Q.

Irelia vs nasus

Against Irelia, try your best to farm early game and do not let her snowball. Once you hit level 6, she will have a lot of trouble fighting you 1v1. In the mid-late game, split push to force multiple members to respond to you, causing your team to have a numbers advantage elsewhere.With ghost, you can easily run her down after 6 with your strong 1v1 and gap close with W.

Irelia vs jax

As jax, look for short trades with Q-W. If she tries to trade back, use your E and parry all of her damage. Once you hit 6, you should be able to easily win every 1v1. Early Tabis will also help in this matchup to greatly reduce her damage. If you’re ahead, try to freeze on her as she has no real way to break the freeze without dying.

teemo vs Irelia

As teemo, be careful to save your Q in order to avoid her AA damage. If you do use your Q in a trade, immediately back off as you are very vulnerable to her damage. Get an early tabis against her as she will then have a lot of trouble trading with you. You can consider Grasp in this matchup.

illaoi vs Irelia

Illaoi vs Irelia is quite a hard matchup for Illaoi. Irelia has the ability to avoid most of your damage, especially your E and Q, with her Q. In this matchup, try your best to land E whenever she goes for a minion and poke her out. As your ult gives you CC-Immunity, you can use it when Irelia is looking for the stun to parry it.

Irelia vs urgot

As urgot, try your best to get your shotgun shots off on Irelia, as that where the majority of your damage is. Whenever she goes for a minion, use your dash to punish her and follow it up with your shotgun pellets to outtrade her. If you can freeze the wave outside your tower, do it as if she goes for a q on a minion to CS it, you can easily use your flip to bring her into tower range, giving you a free trade/kill.

yorick vs Irelia

As yorick, be careful about using your ghouls as past level 9, Irelia is able to 1 shot your ghouls for free stacks. In this matchup, get a Tabis as it helps greatly with your 1v1 potential. If she wastes her Q, try to trap her with your cage, spawn your ult and kill her or force her flash. Be Careful once she gets BOTRK as she has very high kill potential then.

Irelia vs yasuo

Yasuo vs Irelia is quite an easy matchup for Yasuo. As Yasuo, stand near your low health minions so that when Irelia uses Q to Cs, You can Q her for free damage. Take note that Yasuo’s Windwall can be used to block both Irelia’s E and Irelia’s Ult. The windwall will block the entire E as long any part of the E hits the windwall. As such, Irelia cannot ever stun you as long as you have Windwall. Another thing to take note is that good Irelia’s will reactively hold w when you are going for a knock-up into ult combo. To avoid this, try surprising her with a E-Q-Flash
Aka “beyblade” combo. This makes your combo incredibly hard to react to and will cause Irelia to be unable to parry your damage.

Irelia vs aatrox

Aatrox vs Irelia is a very volatile matchup, try to call your jungler to try and gank Irelia early, as your gank set-up is very strong with your knockups and your W. In general, the champion that gets a first kill is able to snowball the lane really hard as both champions are melee and cannot Cs when behind easily. If you’re ahead, freeze the lane to get a huge cs lead as she cannot walk up without dying. If you’re behind and she freezes, remember to call your jungler to break the freeze as 2 people to reduce the chance of you dying.

akali vs Irelia

Akali one of the best counters to Irelia, Especially in the Mid lane, her shroud makes it incredibly difficult for Irelia to all in her or even trade with her, as akali’s Q into passive combo far outdamages the damage that Irelia can put out. Constantly pressure her by going for a Q-Passive auto everytime she tries to go for CS. Slowly but surely, you will slowly win the lane. Be very careful when your shroud is down, as this is the only window where Irelia can look to punish you.

Irelia vs sion

Sion vs Irelia is usually just a farm matchup. Sion has a hard time killing Irelia due to her mobility, and Irelia has a hard time killing Sion as Sion becomes unkillable after he gets his Bramble Vest + Tabis. Try to farm as best as you can and be very careful not to die early as that’s the only time that she can realistically kill you.

renekton vs Irelia

Renekton vs Irelia is all about the renekton W, while Renekton destroys Irelia, Irelia can go even in trades if she manages to parry the Renekton AA>W>AA>Q combo. Try to bait out her W by Aggressively E’ing forward on top of her. Most Irelia’s will panic and cast W. From here, stand next to her and wait out her W. Once her W is over, Unleash your full combo into her and she will lose every time.

shen vs Irelia

Shen vs Irelia is a really good matchup for Shen. In teamfights, Irelia has a hard time killing your backline due to your taunt as well as your dodge-field. In this matchup, it’s very important to use your dodge-field wisely as the cooldown is quite long. Don’t use your dodge-field until she has fully committed to fighting you. Rush Bramble + Tabi and you will become unkillable.

Irelia vs kennen

Irelia is known as one of the best counters to Kennen due to her strong all-in and gap close. As kennen, try to constantly slow-push the wave into her to make it difficult for her to all-in you. Save your lightning rush to run away for her all in. If you really struggle with this matchup, you can consider going phase rush as it makes it much easier for you to kite her(instead of aeri).

Irelia vs gnar

Gnar suffers in this matchup as Irelia can all-in him quite easily. Do your best to kite her and poke her with your autos whenever she cs’s. You should be able to get away from most of her all-ins by jumping away after she Qs you as her q will up her behind you. When your jump is on cooldown, do not walk up as it’s very easy for her to burn your flash or kill you.

Irelia vs mordekaiser

Mordekaiser is a stat-checking champion that destroys Irelia 1v1. Early game, before you get level 6, Irelia does have the ability to solo kill you if you are not careful. Play safe and wait to get your ultimate. One of the best things that you can do against Irelia is to ult her when she places her first E down. After going to the death realm, the E will disappear and she will be unable to use her E. Furthermore, since there are no minions in the death realm, Irelia is unable to get stacks. Hence, try to ult her before she has stacked up her passive, as once she goes into the death realm she will be screwed without her 5 stacks.

pantheon vs Irelia

As Pantheon, keep poking Irelia with your Q and slowly chunk her out. Try to bait out her W by walking up towards her. If she W’s preemptively, wait for her W to end to full combo her. Be careful not to take long trades against her as she does alot of damage with her fully stacked passive.

camille vs Irelia

Camille vs Irelia is a skill matchup that heavily favours Irelia in the early game. Early game, you can try to take short trades by making use of your shield passive and going for a AA>Q>AA>Q>W combo. Save your E in case you get stunned. Since you outscale her, focus on Csing and minimising her impact on the game by not dying to her early.

Irelia vs mundo

Irelia destroys Mundo in the early game. As Mundo, sit at a distance and try to Q minions to Cs. If you do want to walk up for minions, make sure that Irelia does not have her passive stacked so that you can survive her all-in. Rush Tabis and Brambles. Frozen heart is also a good option against her to reduce her attack speed.

Irelia vs jayce

While Jayce theoretically beats Irelia, the execution is actually very difficult as you need a very strong understanding of wave management. As Jayce, you should to constantly slow push waves into Irelia, and then go for a cheater recall. If done right, Irelia will not have a window to recall while you got to go to base and buy items. Once you come back with an item advantage, freeze the wave outside your tower. From here, look to deny her xp and gold as she cannot fight you without minions around.

Irelia vs kayle

Kayle is a really weak laner and is vulnerable to getting solo killed early. The most important thing is not to lose control of your wave. Before 6 when you are still melee range, if you get frozen on, there is not much that you can do to break it without dying. Let Irelia push the wave into you constantly, and try to time it such that when the wave does end up pushing away from you, your jg is on the same side of the map. Your jg can then help you shove the wave and let you get a reset.

Irelia vs poppy

Poppy hard destroys Irelia due to her W blocking her Q. Once you hit 1 item, look for a freeze outside your tower as Irelia cannot contest the wave without you knocking her into a wall. Try to stop Irelia from roaming by getting adequate river vision as that’s the only thing that Irelia can do in this matchup. In teamfights, save your W for her Q to render her useless.

Irelia vs malphite

As you can imagine, Malphite hard counters Irelia due to his armor stacking as well as his attack speed slow. Early game, as you do have some mana issues, don’t use your q to poke her too much as it’s quite mana hungry. Save your mana for your E to push the wave and look for a reset to regen your health and mana. Call your jg for ganks after 6 as your set-up with Ult and Q is really powerful.

Irelia vs vladimir

In this matchup, Vlad can actually start Cull to expedite his scaling. Although Irelia wins you, it is almost impossible for her to kill you due to your pool and phase rush. Hence, try to farm as best as you can as you scale really well with gold. In-between waves, when you have nothing to do, make sure to take your raptors or your wolves so as to further accelerate your scaling.

Irelia vs swain

Swain loses to Irelia quite hard as her E is essentially useless against Irelia due to her mobility. Furthermore, Irelia out damages you when you ult, and you have no effective self-peel to survive her all in. In this matchup, rush a seeker’s armguard is one of the most gold efficient items in the game especially against AD matchups. If she does Q on top of you, try to E behind you as there will be no minions to block the E for her.

Irelia vs olaf

In this matchup, Olaf needs to snowball as he gets outscaled really hard by Irelia, try to play as aggressive as possible as you should win every all-in pre 3 items. Just be careful not to get ganked as olaf has no real mobility. You can also look for dives with your jungler as Olaf is quite good at diving Irelia as he cannot get stunned by Irelia’s Q. If you get ahead, Its important to snowball the game by getting herald and dragons with your team.

Irelia vs zed

This is a skill matchup that heavily favours Irelia. As Irelia’s W makes it near impossible for Zed to ever kill her, instead, you should look to shove the wave and roam around the map looking for kills. Get an early sweepers lens so that you can clear out vision and make your whereabouts unknown. Snowballing of side-lanes should be your main focus in this matchup.

Irelia vs rumble

As rumble, rush an early seekers as it’s really efficient against Irelia, for the most part, you can never kill her. Hence, try to keep shoving the wave with your Q and look for either roams, vision, or invades with your jungler as Irelia is not strong in jungle 2v2 since she cannot stack her passive.

talon vs Irelia

As talon, be very careful not to use your W>Q combo into Irelia’s W. You can bait this out by W’ing her, then pretending to walk up to try to Q her. If she takes the bait and W’s, wait out the W, then use your Q to proc passive and you should win the trade. After you get Tiamat, constantly shove the wave and look to roam as Irelia is very hard to kill with her W.Irelia vs trundle

Irelia vs gangplank

GP vs Irelia is a skill matchup that Irelia favoured. As Gp, try to place your barrels in bushes so that Irelia will have a hard time clearing the barrels. Try to abuse her with your Q+Grasp early game as you are really strong in trades then. After 6, be very careful of her all-in as she can easily kill you especially if you are down flash.

Irelia vs maokai

Maokai loses to Irelia very hard due to his low damage output. Try to rush Bramble + Tabi’s as it’s the best early game build to reduce her damage. Sit near your tower and play safely so as to avoid getting solo killed and letting her snowball. In teamfights you can look to constantly W her so that she can’t dive your backline as easily.

Irelia vs heimerdinger

Irelia is one of heimer’s worst matchups. Once Irelia hits level 9, She can 1 shot Heimer towers with her q. This makes heimer effectively useless against her as any towers that heimer places down is instantly destroyed. In this matchup, get an early zhonyas so that you can survive her all-in. When she does all in, spawn the Ult Tower and zhonyas, u will usually be able to survive and maybe even kill her if she misplays

Irelia vs singed

Singed does quite well into Irelia due to his slippery nature and his ability to stop Irelia Q with his AOE Ground. As Singed, go ahead and proxy farm against Irelia as it is very difficult for her to kill you. In teamfights, once she is out of position, ground her to either force her to stopwatch, or to get a free kill for your team.

Irelia vs diana

Diana into Irelia is an even matchup for both champions. In extended trades, Irelia tends to win due to her 5 stack passive. Take short trades into Irelia and try to block as much damage as you can with your W. If you’re really confident, try to cancel her Q with your ult. If u manage to cancel it, Irelia will be rendered entirely useless and you can run her down and kill her.

Irelia vs Ornn

Ornn into Irelia is a farm matchup. Although you do lose early, once you get Brambles + Tabi’s and you become pretty much unkillable. Try to get as much cs as you can and you can outscale her in the mid-late game. In teamfights, peel for your teammates and stop Irelia from diving your backline.

quinn vs Irelia

As Quinn, slowly poke Irelia out of lane by autoing her everytime she goes for a minion. Save your e for when she dives on top of you so that you can kite her and avoid her damage. Punish her whenever her E is down as she is very vulnerable then.

Conclusion

Hope this guide on how to beat Irelia was helpful and from now on your gameplay vs her will become consistantly positive. If you have questions – please feel free to leave a comment (that I will actually reply to!).

Best of luck in your games.