Reign of Gaming

If you want to carry as top lane, don't play tank.

You also got to be aggressive top lane. In your early experiences at top lane, you'll probably get punished more often than rewarded, but in the long term it's worth it. You'll be able to understand that champion's limit and it's potential. Once you learn that champion's weakness and strength, then you will understand matchup. A lot of factors that involve being successful in the top lane is trial and errors. Lots of high risk and high reward. Because you will need to be able to outplay your opponent without the aid of your jungler, no matter if that champion counters your champion or not.

You should just pick one solid champion that you enjoy playing top. Avoid picking champions just because you see them in tournaments. Just play one champion that you enjoy playing and master that champion.

Also watch top player streams.

Hello, I main Irelia. I've been playing her exclusively (every chance I get). I'm currently 1745 and 1745 because of her (and I plan to reach Diamond with her, not impossible!). I don't have much advice for you generally, more of what you should do against X champion, even then, there are so much possibilities. I think what you should focus on while playing Irelia is understanding the top lane and her matchups. Understand who you are facing against - their cooldowns, if your opponent is ad/ap, summoners, etc. use that as leverage. Try to bait out their ignite before engaging full force, because it will screw up your sustain.. As a top laner, make sure you know where the enemy jungler is at all times!

I've tried chalice Irelia vs Darius. But that's just because I don't really care who I'm up against, any chance I get to play Irelia - I'll take it. I'm not even 100% sure if chalice even works or if I just outplay Darius. I've lost and won couple games against him. He's just really annoying to deal with. My reason behind the chalice is to prioritize maximum Blade Surge farming, so I'll never run out of mana just from safely farming with your "Q" + the mana to keep your Hiten style up for sustain is always nice. I asked myself, "why bother buying armor, when his ult just rips through it?" I think the biggest bully Darius does to Irelia is just his bleed stacks which deals magic damage. The MR from Chalice helps you deal with that. I think smart Darius players would try resist using their Q to harass you, because then, they'd always overextend from pushing the lane so it's not much of a deal for me. Besides, his Q has a pretty long cool down so I'm not too worried about that either. I think chalice won't counter darius (and you certainly should not rely on chalice alone to counter him), it's more of a way to deal with him. I also build Merc threads and Witts End.

It's just my experience with Darius. Could be a bad build as Irelia vs Darius, could be good - I don't know. But it has worked for me in the past, more or less.

a little late, but here is my take:

Top: Not a lot of smart top laners. I haven't lost my lane top yet, even when I am countered (which is 99% of the time)

Junglers: You either get the smart jungler or you get the dumb junglers.

Middle: Middle are usually better than everyone else.

Bot: Sometimes the support carries better than the ADC.

People generally buy more wards. I think what will make you succeed in this bracket is simply by being smarter. Take control of your team, but prove your skills before giving orders. Most of the time your team doesn't know you guys are in the lead and all they do is just farm or dance around mid waiting for something to happen.

Just focus on your role, because you can't control your other teammate. As long as you are better at your role than your opponent, you will win more than you lose.

I am 15-6 1706 elo :)

top rating: 1730 elo

11-5 Irelia

 http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/19642672

In my opinion, if you want to be cheap, play Darius - next to him are Jax and Singed. Otherwise, go with Irelia. I've seen a lot of 1900~ just from playing Darius. Not particularly bagging on Darius by the way, I just probably hate champions that counters my main :P

In my experience, all I did, really, was practice Irelia. Everyone else are quite easy. Jax is quite similar to Irelia (or how I see it, because the better I am at Irelia, the better I am at Jax). Malphite is relatively easy to play. And same about everyone else on top. The only champions I have trouble with are Nidalee, Jayce, and Olaf.

Thank you so much! :) This, I will have to look into and try out! I'll probably have to use my Transcendent Blades more conservatively now, because I just rapidly press "R" and hope it hits something. Thanks again for your post, it's very thoughtful and informative & will help me so much reaching my goal! I will continue to play Irelia, I never seem to get bored of her. Hopefully, she is still very strong in season 3. Thanks again! :)

Awesome! Thanks guys! I very much appreciate these response :)

Hey guys, I've posted a thread here asking about Irelia some months ago and I'm still playing her exclusively. I'm currently 1650, been using Irelia in ranked past 5-8 games or so. I'm quite confident with my abilities as her, meaning people can probably counter pick me and I'll still be able to dominate. There is 1 match up that is pretty annoying to deal with and that is Darius. I don't want any response saying not to pick Irelia against Darius. I am very well aware that Darius destroys Irelia. My question is: How can I deal with Darius top as Irelia? Item builds/strategies/w.e. Please be descriptive as possible! And by the way, do you guys know any good Irelia videos I can watch? Preferably from Wickd or any other excellent Irelia users.

Thanks, you guys! :)