Irelia Counter Picks in League of Legends
Irelia is a popular and formidable champion in League of Legends. She is known for her strong early-game presence and early-game damage. She has strong all-in potential and can run many champions down from the get-go with her Passive and basic attacks.
Learning to counter Irelia in the top lane is crucial for any top lane main because they will often find themselves playing against her. In this Moablytics guide, we will discuss 5 good champions that you can pick into Irelia. We will also give you a sneak peak at a part of our premium feature, which is our premium matchup advice which is unique advice for each champion against each champion in LoL!
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Before we begin, I would like to emphasise that they may not be statistically the best champions to counter Irelia, but they’re very strong into her which is often just as good as the top 5 statistically best champions.
1. Warwick
Is Warwick just a fad, or is he a strong top laner now? Well, Warwick has been a decent top laner for a while now, and he has some very good matchups, including Irelia. He can easily counter her all-in and turn exchanges around, making it hard for her to get early kills in this matchup.
What to do as Warwick to counter Irelia
- Just go for short burst trades on her with your Q in this matchup. It will allow you to whittle her down, and then take her down.
- Use your E carefully in this matchup as it will help you get free kills if used properly. Just aim to CC Irelia with it, and then go for a short burst trade.
- During team fights, try to take her down with your Ultimate. It should be quite easy to pull off if you are close to your teammates.
- Keep the wave near your tower and expose Irelia to ganks. This strategy will become more potent post-six.
2. Jax
After Jax’s recent rework, he has become even stronger in some matchups. He was always good versus Irelia, but now he is even better with his more up-to-date kit. Jax can stop her from using her Passive on him, and he can counter her Q with his E and Q to either gain distance or close the gap.
What to do as Jax to counter Irelia
- Start E at level 1 and look to trade aggressively with Irelia. She will be unable to trade back with you and this should give you an early health lead.
- Play aggressive in lane and look for an all in if you’re safe from Jungle pressure. Ideally, look to trade and fight if she wastes an ability.
- Irelia main power comes from fighting in the minion wave. Try looking for fights when there are not many low health minions nearby.
- Watch out for Irelia’s Passive stacks. Do not look to fight her if her Passive is fully stacked as she will out trade you. Additionally, if she moves to trade when her Passive is stacked, activate E and try to back out.
3. Kled
Kled is another champion that is great at skirmishing just like Irelia. However, he has the benefit of having 2 health bars. Irelia tends to struggle against champions who want to fight often early too, so he is a natural counter to her.
What to do as Kled to counter Irelia
- You’re stronger than her at levels 1 and 2, which you can use to gain an early health advantage over her.
- Aim your Q at low health minions that Irelia might be aiming for with her Q, in particular a cannon minion. If it lands, you can then easily engage onto her with your E.
- Irelia has trouble if she can not step up to farm as her Q puts her in melee range. Freeze the wave next to your tower, then walk close to any low-health minions to force her to use her W or E to farm with instead. If she decides to jump in, you can engage with your full combo onto her.
- The damage reduction that Irelia gets from her W is pretty good, but it also makes her a sitting duck while channelling it. If you haven’t already, toss a Q onto her while she’s sitting still, and save the fourth hit of your W until the duration of Irelia’s Wis over.
4. Tryndamere
The fourth champion who is exceptionally good versus Irelia is Tryndamere. He is a powerful duelist who has a similar strategy to Irelia. Tryndamere wants to constantly auto-attack the enemy and he becomes stronger when his fury bar is stacked. This makes it riskier for her to go to trade with him.
What to do as Tryndamere to counter Irelia
- Irelia becomes extremely deadly once she maxes out her passive stacks. While it is still possible to defeat her once she hits max stacks, it is safer to back off and wait for her stacks to expire.
- You’re stronger than her at levels 1 and 2. You can use this to your advantage to gain an early health or kill advantage over her.
- If you are looking to dive her with your R, make sure you bait out her E first as she can stun you under tower and then use her whole combo to kill you instantly. Without the E stun, she cannot do anything to you.
- You should look to freeze the lane near your tower so you can chase Irelia down the lane if you have to. You excel at long-distance trades because of your E and having the whole lane to chase her will be enough to kill her.
5. Olaf
The final champion we would recommend is Olaf. Like some of the other champions on our list, Olaf wants to fight often early. Olaf is one of the strongest level 1 and 2 champions in the game, and he can easily kill Irelia at level 1 and 2 when she walks forward to fight. Similarly, his Ultimate completely counters her CC tool, reducing her kill potential.
What to do as Olaf to counter Irelia
- Irelia will use her Q to last hit minions by dashing towards them as they reach low health so you can use this to your advantage by throwing your own Q at the same spot where she will be when she dashes to get a near guaranteed hit on her.
- Avoid fighting Irelia when she has her Passive stacked as her auto attacks get immensely stronger, instead, wait 6 seconds for the stacks to fall off and then engage.
- Try to keep the minion wave on your side of the lane as it will be harder for Irelia to farm minions as she will have to Q in and she will thus lack an escape as she can only dash towards enemy minions and not her own allied minions making her easier to gank.
- When Irelia uses her W she reduces incoming physical damage to her so avoid auto attacking her or using your Axes but she does not reduce true damage so feel free to use your E instead.
Final Thoughts
Irelia is easy to counter when you know that she wants to fight often and uses her early-game strength to get a lead. By picking someone who wants to fight early on, you will naturally make it harder for her to win lane and kill you over and over again. As always, if you’re looking for more tips and tricks on how to counter Irelia, then make sure you sign up for your free Mobalytics account!
