Irelia

Detailed Tips

1. 01

   Respect Irelia Level 1 - Irelia’s level 1 can be very strong if you play directly into it. Irelia’s level 1 goal will be simply trying to get her 4 passive stacks from minions, allowing her to Q onto you and auto attack you down. This is one of Renekton’s biggest mistakes within the match up, to where he doesn’t respect this and lets Irelia kill him. As Renekton, you can either play to shove the wave if you’re there first, to avoid Irelia getting her level 1 all in, or you can simply wait it out and let her shove the wave. I personally prefer letting Irelia shove first two waves, otherwise if I shove the first two waves, Irelia can abuse the 3rd and 4th wave crash to stack on her passive and get her fast back, or allow her to maintain her passive damage to out trade Renekton.

2. 02

   Play For Level 2/3 Kill Angle - Once letting Irelia push the first two waves into our turret, we can look to play more aggressively with the wave on our side. Make sure to use our wave state, to force more aggressive plays by utilising trades onto Irelia when she Q’s a minion. Punishing her minion dashing is absolutely free for obtaining damage onto her, as long as we don’t W her W and hold her damage accordingly. Once doing this optimally, we can either instant kill Irelia within a fight, or we can look for a kill on our next ability timers.

3. 03

   Play Around Minions - As previously mentioned, Irelia’s deaths or kills are all determined under how you’re playing around her minions. Irelia will always use them to land her E’s, as she can easily mask her E ability onto the minion, then target from that minion onto you to land her damage. Try to always be observant and anticipate any form of engage, by short clicking side to side or towards her, as these will easily allow her to make a mistake and lose out her winning trade potential. Spotting out any of your low HP minions when trying to run across to Irelia can also be a great way to cut her off and also anticipate her own movements, which are very linear when you really play off these conditions.

4. 04

   Avoid Comboing Into Irelia W - Irelia W provides Irelia with the ability to survive Renekton’s burst if used correctly, however it should be in Renekton’s best interest to always play around her W to ensure he gets the max damage possible. Try to spot out how Irelia W’s, if she uses it for wave clear or uses it as soon as you engage onto her, simply auto attack her down and hold your abilities, as once she comes out of W you can look to one shot her.

5. 05

   Play Waves Accordingly - Simply assess whether or not you want to play for freeze, to help you deny XP and CS, while presenting yourself more opportunities to create fights. Or, play to shove waves to create proxy angles, tempo resets or create a dive opportunity. Renekton has all the cards to do whatever he wants with wave management. Also respect that if your laner tries to proxy, simply proxy back or coordinate a kill on them with your jungler.

6. 06

   Abuse Renekton's Early Game - In this match up Renekton is essentially able to do whatever he simply wants. With that said, really hone into your strong early to mid game strengths to help you dominate and win the game. Play to deny your enemy of gold and xp, play to proxy and generally lead any top side skirmishes with your insane lane advantage.

7. 07

   Heavy Trades - Being that Renekton carries a lot of high damage, Renekton is able to just jump on his target nearly at will. Whenever your laners present you with the ability to jump on them, simply take the opportunity to burst them as much as you can. If you didn't kill them already from that, use your options of freezing or your tower diving ability to help you finish off your opponent.

8. 08

   Respect Irelia’s R - Irelia’s R can be a great tool for her being able to have another Q, providing her more damage alongside her on hit playstyle. Irelia R isn’t so impactful against Renekton in 1v1, however it should be said that when it comes to teamfights, Irelia’s R can be a giant tool in providing her easy access to carries. Make sure you always do what you can to deny Irelia’s chances of killing your teammates with your high utility stun and damage playstyle.

9. 09

   3 Points Q > W Max - W max is another great playstyle into Irelia, as it hard counters her melee up close playstyle against your high damage and heavy CC approach. Within most stages of the game Renekton will be able to successfully 1v1 Irelia with the right items and combos, so make sure to play optimally for the situations and follow all the previous tips to shut down Irelia.

10. 10

    Build Eclipse, Black Cleaver or BoTRK - Go Eclipse for consistent power through mid game and damage mitigation with the shield. / Go Black Cleaver for additional CDR and other versatile stats for utility based gameplay. / Go BoTRK to one shot and snowball with a damage focused build.

11. 11

    Mid Game + Teamfighting Tips - Irelia’s general role is to essentially hard split push and look for winning skirmishes with her team comp. Irelia’s main weaknesses stem from the lack of agency in being able to close out games, with her overall R and flash reliant playstyle. As Renekton we can easily answer Irelia in side lane, as long as we build heavy damage items such as eclipse or bork. As Renekton we can easily shut down Irelia with our team if you ping them towards your side of the map, which subsequently allows you to remove her from the map to take objectives or teamfight with ease. Within general teamfights, try to peel off Irelia from your team if she looks for an engage with her R. Irelia will try to focus your backline, so try to use your CC and damage to lock her down and instantly make her a non factor.