Irelia’s passive is Ionian Zeal and gives her 6 seconds of additional attack speed when she hits enemies with her abilities. This effect can be stacked up to 4 times. If Irelia has fully stacked her passive, she also receives additional magical on-hit damage. As long as Irelia is in battle, her attacks renew the duration of her passives. It is therefore important for Irelia to stack her passives as quickly as possible before a fight or at the start of a fight, as this significantly increases her damage output.

At level 1, you start with Irelia’s Q, the “Storming Blade”. When this point & click ability is activated, Irelia jumps forward to hit her target and heals herself. If the target was previously hit by Irelia’s E or Ult and is marked or dies from the Q, the cooldown is reset and the ability can be used again immediately. This reset mechanic makes Irelia very mobile as long as she can lash minions with her Q or her opponents are marked by her other abilities. Q is Irelia’s most important ability for clearing waves and an important source of damage, which is why she is maximized first.

At level 2, you take Irelia’s E “Flawless Duet”, in which she sends out 2 blades that fly towards each other. Enemies hit are stunned for 0.75 seconds, take magic damage and are marked for 5 seconds. You have 3.5 seconds to cast the ability again after the first E activation and place the second blade. This is also possible while Irelia is affected by CC. If you do not activate the ability, the second blade will be placed at Irelia’s current position. Irelia’s E is a skillshot of the unusual variety, but with a little creativity it is very powerful and can stun several opponents. Just as important as the stun is the mark that the E puts on your opponents, as this gives you additional Qs and thus significantly increases your mobility and damage potential. As the E is harder to hit than Irelia’s other abilities and is therefore less reliable, it is maximized as the last ability.

Your last basic ability at level 3 is Irelia’s W “Dancing Resistance”. When you hold down the W, Irelia charges an attack for up to 1.5 seconds, dealing more damage the longer she charges it. She herself takes reduced damage while charging. The maximum W damage is already reached after 0.75 seconds, so it is up to you whether you use the remaining duration of the damage reduction or let go early to deal the damage faster. You can also only tap the W if you only need a small additional burst of damage. The W is primarily Irelia’s defensive tool, allowing her to soak up some damage in the middle of a fight. Ideally, you want to use it before strong enemy abilities hit you to mitigate them. Since a properly timed W can heavily influence the outcome of a fight in your favor and you have 2 seconds less cooldown per ability point on her, she is maximized second.

Irelia’s ultimate ability is “one blade length ahead” and is leveled at levels 6, 11 and 16. When activated, Irelia hurls a large number of blades that fan outwards explosively when an enemy champion is hit. Enemies hit by the blades take magic damage and are marked for 5 seconds. The blades then form a wall for 2.5 seconds, damaging enemies and slowing them by 90% for 1.5 seconds when they move through it. Passively, each level in your ult also reduces your Q cooldown, which further increases the power spikes when upgrading your ult.

Standard allin combo E->R->Q->AA->E->AA->Q->AA->W->AA->Q->AA: before your allin, you ideally want to stack your passives as much as possible, if that’s possible. You start the allin by placing your first E and then engaging your opponent with the ult. With your first Q you dash at the opponent and after an autoattack you reactivate the E to stun your opponent. It is worth mentioning that if you are fighting several opponents, you can alternate between further Qs and autoattacks as long as you have markers left. Eventually, however, you will use the E to get one or more more marks and follow up with another autoattack and Q. If you hit several enemies, the same applies as before. If you have no more markers left or if you see a strong enemy ability coming towards you, activate the W. You can then use your last Q and further autoattacks to pursue your opponent.