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Wild Rift Irelia Guide: Best Build, Runes, and Gameplay Tips

The Blade Dancer

In League of Legends: Wild Rift, Irelia is an Ionian warrior usually played in the Baron lane and possibly the Mid lane. Her kit features a high-skill floor and ceiling design, making her one of the hardest and most rewarding champions to master in the game. Moreover, her kit revolves around the use of marks, her passive, and her 1st ability Bladesurge to dance on the battlefield and destroy the enemy team one by one. In this Wild Rift guide, we’ll take an in-depth look at the best builds, runes, spells of Irelia along with tips and tricks to help you master her, let’s get into it!

We also have previously discussed how to master playing with LoL Wild Rift heroes like Ammu, Master Yi, Jinx, Braum, Dr. Mundo, Akali, Yasuo, Singed, Jax, Darius, Ashe, Lulu, Miss Fortune, Blitzcrank, Teemo, Xayah, Rakan, Corki, Shyvana, Janna, Katarina, Leona, Pantheon, Diana, Galio, Fiora, Rammus, Sona, Kai’Sa, Rengar, Kha’Zix, Nasus, and Renekton. So make sure to check these hero guides as well. For now, let’s focus on Irelia.


Ability Analysis

Irelia is a champion with the common five skill sets of one passive and four actives. In this Irelia guide, we are going to see how her abilities in League of Legends: Wild Rift work and when you should use which skill to be in the best shape in the current rank season.

Passive – Ionian Fervor

passive

Hitting enemies with abilities grants 8 (scales with level) bonus Attack Speed for 6 seconds, stacking up to 4 times. At max stacks, attacks deal an additional 14 magic damage (14 +25% bonus AD) on hit. Attacking enemy champions refreshes the duration. An ability grants multiple stacks upon hitting multiple champions.

  • This ability along with her Ability 1 is her bread and butter.
  • Fully-stacking this ability makes Irelia very powerful, especially when paired with Conqueror. Make sure to utilize this well by auto-attacking and using Ability 1 when available.

Ability 1 – Bladesurge

skill 1

Dashes through an enemy, dealing 49 physical damage (10 + 60% AD) and healing herself for 9 (14%). Bladesurge’s cooldown is refreshed if the target was Marked or dies to bladesurge. When aimed, Bladesurge will prioritize targets it will reset on. Deals 150% damage to minions.

  • This is Irelia’s main damage tool. To be able to use it effectively, use it on Marked targets by Ability 3 and Ability 4.
  • Don’t be afraid to use it all the time in the laning phase in order to clear waves and stack your passive as fast as possible.
  • This ability applies hit-on effects including Spellblade from Sheen or Trinity Force, Blade of the Ruined King, Red Buff, and many more.
  • Make sure to know your damages and marks since missing its cooldown refresh on a minion or champion can be very punishing, mainly due to Ability 1’s long cooldown.

Ability 2 – Defiant Dance

skill 2

Hold: Defends with her blade for up to 1.5 seconds, taking 50% (50 + 7%) reduced damage.
Release: Whips the blades forward, dealing 42 physical damage (10 + 50% AD + 40% AP), increased by up to 100% with charge time. It cannot be interrupted.

  • It’s Hold stance can sustain lots of important damages or abilities so use it smartly.
  • Simply clicking it can be very valuable in stacking your passive and Conqueror.
  • Using it on a minion wave is enough to put minions on health low enough for your Ability 1 refresh.

Ability 3 – Flawless Duet

skill 3

Sends a blade to the target location. Maybe recast within 3 seconds to send another blade. The blades converge upon reaching their destination, dealing 70 magic damage (70 + 80% AP), stunning for 1 second, and Marking enemy champions and large monsters hit for 5 seconds.

  • This ability is very important and missing it can be punished depending on the matchup. Hit it as much as possible especially due to its long cooldown.
  • Its first cast can be sustained for quite a long time, enough for you to cover range and run a distance before using the second cast.

Ability 4 – Vanguard’s Edge

skill 4

Fires a storm of blades that deals 125 magic damage (125 + 70% AP) and Marks enemy champions for 5 seconds. The blades explode into a wall for 3 seconds upon hitting an enemy champion. The bladewall deals 70 magic damage (75 + 70% AP) and slows by 90% for 1.5 seconds.

  • Using this ability then immediately using Flash can extend its range and make it less predictable.
  • Its 90% movement speed slow can secure a hit from Ability 3.
  • Missing this ability will remove a lot of value from Irelia especially on team fights/skirmishes since it can apply marks to multiple targets.

Skill Up Methods for Irelia

In easy matchups, you would generally want to take Ability 1 first since you can kill them easily with a fully stacked passive + ignite. Against even and hard matchups, you would want to take Ability 3 first and wait until level 2 at least before doing anything on the laning phase. Max Ability 1 first on any scenario, followed by Ability 3, then finally Ability 2. Take her Ability 4 when available.


Best Runes Setup and Spells for Irelia in Wild Rift

Runes Setup

Wild Rift Irelia Guide

Keystones

  • Conqueror – this is the ONLY keystone rune that should be taken on Irelia since it synergizes so well with her kit. Moreover, it makes her all-ins and her passive scarier.

Domination

  • Brutal – it is her standard rune that is effective in any given situation. Moreover, it makes her early game more effective which is required since she relies on snowballing or staying slightly ahead.
  • Gathering Storm – it can be a viable choice if you are looking forward to scaling, especially on the mid-game where she can get her Blade of the Ruined King power spike.
  • Hunter-Vampirism – it is another viable choice though it requires killing all enemy champions to reach its maximum potential. It will provide decent Attack Damage to Irelia, and lots of value from Physical Vamp which she can use extremely well with her Ability 1.
  • Champion – only take this rune if you are confident with your skills and sure that you can sustain the effects towards mid-game at least since dying twice will completely remove the rune’s effect.

Resolve

  • Bone Plating – this is Irelia’s standard resolve rune since it gives her more fighting power in the laning phase.
  • Conditioning – if you are looking for more defensive scaling, this rune can be valuable especially if you are looking forward to not building any defensive items.
  • Second Wind – against ranged matchups, you can take this rune for sustain though Bone Plating can be enough.
  • Adaptive Carapace – it is a good rune on Irelia for the same reason as Bone Plating. If you prefer this over Bone Plating, it is fine though Adaptive Carapace provides more value on close situations where the bonus defenses kick in.
  • Hunter-Titan – since Irelia can be shut down by CC, taking this rune will give her more resistance to it. Take this rune against CC-stacked enemy compositions.

Inspiration

  • Manaflow Band – it is Irelia’s standard rune since it removes her mana issues in the laning phase.
  • Sweet Tooth – it will provide more sustain in the laning phase similarly to Second Wind and also give decent gold.
  • Mastermind – if you like split pushing and destroying turrets, take this rune. However, this will remove the utility provided by the other inspiration runes mentioned before.

Best Summoner Spells

  • Flash – it is a must-have on Irelia since she has no escape options besides hitting her Ability 3 and Ability 4, and her Ability 1 is not reliable enough. Moreover, it synergizes well with Ability 4 and can save her in case she messes up.
  • Ignite – this rune is the most ideal rune next to Flash since it will give Irelia more killing pressure.

Best Builds for Irelia in League of Legends: Wild Rift

Here is the standard item setup guide for Irelia in Wild Rift. However, these items can be interchanged and even be replaced depending on the game and personal preference. Here’s the more detailed section of the guide comprising of the best builds for Irelia in Wild Rift.

Wild Rift Irelia Guide

A good non-standard and interesting build that you can try for yourself is a Blade of the Ruined King + Manamune + Sunfire Aegis core item build. This build provides lots of valuable offensive and defensive stats for Irelia and an extremely empowered Bladesurge. To make this build work, you’ll have to take Vamparic Scepter and Tear of the Goddess on your first call, then complete the Blade of the Ruined King on the next recall, followed by Manamune and finally Sunfire Aegis. This build comes online only in mid-game to late-game but is extremely powerful once achieved.

Offensive Items

  • Blade of the Ruined King – since Trinity Force was nerfed, this item will now be Irelia’s main core item. She’ll need all the stats provided by the item and will give her a massive power spike. Moreover, it synergizes extremely well with her kit since she auto-attacks and sticks to her targets a lot. Also, it’s passively applied to her Ability 1 as well.
  • Trinity Force – despite getting nerfed, Trinity Force is still a staple item on her she can use all the value of the item efficiently. Moreover, this item’s passive, Spellblade, works with Ability 1.
  • Executioner’s Calling – against heavy healers, you’ll need to buy this item as your first item. However, it’s not necessary to upgrade it since Irelia deals mixed damage and does not benefit from Armor Penetration that much.
  • Black Cleaver- this item can be picked up if you like the Armor Penetration it gives. It makes your Ability 1 hurt more and also gives valuable stats for Irelia.
  • Manamune – a kinda off-meta item pick for Irelia, though this item can be fitted as Irelia’s core item though it is significantly weaker before it gets upgraded. However, once upgraded, it can be arguably stronger than Blade of the Ruined King, though both items can be fitted in the same build. Also, it completely removes Irelia’s mana issues in all phases of the game.
  • Sunfire Aegis – believe it or not, this item is used by high Elo players on Irelia as an offensive item in PC. This item may provide defensive stats, but its passive will give Irelia more damage that scales with health which she will be building eventually. Moreover, her Ability 1 procs the items passive and can be utilized well since she generally sticks to her targets.

Defensive Items

  • Sterak’s Gage – this item is Irelia’s standard defensive item, it provides a balance of offensive and defensive stats along with a strong shield passive. Moreover, it enhances her base attack damage which synergizes well with Trinity Force and her Ability 1 since they scale with base AD.
  • Death’s Dance- this item gives valuable defensive and offensive stats for Irelia. Moreover, its passive will give Irelia more room to fight back and play around in skirmishes, team fights, and 1v1s.
  • Guardian Angel- just like the two previously mentioned items, it also gives a balance of offensive and defensive stats. Moreover, its passive gives Irelia more room to make aggressive and risky plays without losing too much.
  • Randuin’s Omen- this item gives highly defensive stats which specifically counters physical damage and critical hits. Build it at all cost against fed Tryndameres and Yasuos.
  • Frozen Heart- a less popular option, this item gives Irelia a good amount of armor and a strong AoE attack speed slow effective against auto-attack reliant champions like Tryndamere, Master Yi, and ADCs.
  • Maw of Malmortious- it gives a similar purpose as Sterak’s Gage though it’s designed to counter Magic Damage.
  • Spirit Visage- if you don’t like Maw and is looking for other magic resistance item, then you can opt for this item. Moreover, this item synergizes well with Irelia’s kit since she’ll generally build Physical Vamp items.

Boots

  • Gluttonous Greaves – this item synergizes well with Irelia’s kit since she deals mixed damage.
  • Mercury’s Treads – if you need magic resistance and tenacity to counter CC, then take this item.
  • Plated Steelcaps – if there are a lot of auto-attack-reliant champions on the enemy team, take this item. This item provides armor and the passive works on any type of auto-attack even on magic damages like Gragas Ability 2 and Twisted Fate Ability 2.

Enchantments

  • Teleport Enchant – since Irelia will generally stay in the side lanes on the later stages of the game, this enchantment will be very efficient on her. Moreover, it gives her the opportunity to split push and handle the sidelanes, and join team fights when needed.
  • Statis Enchant – if you are looking into a team fighting more than split pushing, then take this enchantment. This will give Irelia a defensive option when she messes up, or go for risky plays and engage in team fights on her own.
  • Protobelt Enchant – similarly to the Statis Enchant, take this when looking for more team fights. However, instead of a more defensive approach, Protobelt Enchant will give Irelia more offensive options to engage and close up distances. Though, it can be used defensively as well to dodge important abilities and open-up distances similarly to Flash, if not for the fact that it does not go through walls.
  • Quicksilver Enchant – if the enemy team has tons of CC and you get overwhelmed to some extend, make sure to take this rune along with the Mercury’s Treads.
  • Glorious Enchant – this enchantment will provide more engaging power to Irelia, though it is not the best choice for her.

League of Legends: Wild Rift Irelia Gameplay Tips

As we figured out Irelia is a Fighter usually played in the Baron lane and possibly the Mid lane Always remember that the Wild Rift’s Map is a mirror so make sure you understand the map side before starting to lane. According to her gameplay, we can break it down into three phases. Our League of Legends: Wild Rift Irelia guide includes the perfect game plan for the early, mid, and late game.

Early Game

Irelia is quite strong in the early game (1-7 minutes). However, she is quite reliant on getting her 5 stacks passive and hitting her Ability 3 and Ability 4. Make sure that you are patient with your spells, generally the longer you wait the less likely your enemies can dodge them. Be careful with being overly aggressive in the lane with Irelia as well since she is easy to gank and you should only push up if you know you can 1v2. Irelia is great at 1v2’s as long as you hit a double E on both the jungler and baron laner and you have a stacked minion wave and a stacked passive. However, this is VERY risky even as an experienced Irelia so it is better to only all in if you know where their jungler is (eg. they are ganking dragon lane).

Wild Rift Irelia Guide
Irelia in Wild Rift

Irelia is all about patience because the moment you fall behind with her it is VERY hard to get back into the game as her scaling is subpar and she is only useful if at least slightly ahead. Take deep breaths before you do anything and ask yourself if it is the right thing to do. You are at your strongest once you complete Blade of the Ruined King, you can duel almost anyone and can team fight very efficiently. Moreover, make sure you let your team initiate the fight or skirmish and distract them though because you are going to be very squishy at this stage of the game.

Mid Game

Mid-game is usually the point from 7 to 15 minutes into the game. Irelia is quite strong in the mid-game and at this point, you have some tank items that allow to you last a bit longer than if you were just at your Blade of the Ruined King.

Wild Rift Irelia Guide
Irelia in the battlefield

You still want to let your team initiate fights or wait until the enemy team initiates on your team. This will allow you to clean up and land your abilities easier. You can still kill squishies relatively quickly and you will be able to impact the fights greatly. Ideally, you can end the game during this period as later in the game you become more of a disruptor than anything.

Late Game

Wild Rift Irelia Guide
Wild Rift Irelia Guide

This is the point where Irelia cannot kill squishies as easily and tends to do much less damage in comparison to mid-game. At this stage of the game, you should focus on being a front line for your team but not engaging unless your team has 0 engagement. It is still better to wait for the enemy team to engage or if you have a well-engaged champion on your side of the team to engage for you so you can land all of your abilities without issue. A lot of top lane champs outshine you at this stage of the game but you can still do a lot of damage to the enemy team if you land your spells and get to their backline and distract their squishies.

Pros and Cons of Irelia

Pros

  • Very strong when her passive is fully stacked
  • High skill ceiling/ very rewarding to master
  • Snowballs very well

Cons

  • When she is behind, it is very, very hard to come back to the game.
  • Not as strong on late-game
  • Relies on fully stacking her passive in the laning phase
  • “Win lane = win game” kind of champ
  • High skill floor/ difficult to master

Matchups for Irelia in Wild Rift

This section will be divided into 3 parts depending on their threat. Easy translate to match-ups where you will have the utmost advantage all throughout the game, Fair is a skill matchup and will generally depend on who’s better while Hard matchups are champions that beat you for some reason like countering your kit and out scaling you.

HardFairEasy
AkaliCamilleDr. Mundo
WukongDariusKennen
FioraGragasSinged
JaxMalphiteVayne
RenektonNasus
TryndamerePantheon
Rengar
Riven
Yasuo
Teemo

Final Thoughts

That’s all for our Wild Rift Irelia guide. If you genuinely want to get better or at least good on her, you’ll have to put up some time and effort on playing her again and again. Also, pair the micro-skills that you’ll get from playing her with good game knowledge and macro to win more games and hopefully climb into higher ranks. Irelia is one of the strongest champions in the game when mastered along with Riven, so make sure to invest time in playing her and reap the rewards. Best of luck with your games, and have fun on the Rift!


That’s all for today’s League of Legends: Wild Rift Irelia Guide. Do you prefer to use Irelia in any other way? Let us know in the comment section below!

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