Matchup Bible : Irelia Toplane

Quick Quick

Daruis is a very difficult matchup for Irelia. His oppresive laning phase alongside his outscaling and good teamfighting makes it difficult. Do not fight him level one in most cases, 2-5 is your best kill window. Playing around tempo & waves is super important becaue he doesn't bring Teleport Teleport and is very gankable especially without his Flash Flash or Ghost Ghost. Dodging his Apprehend E is very good, always use your Defiant Dance W to block at least one of his Crippling Strike Ws. Always Bladesurge Q to him to prevent his Decimate Q from hitting if it will. Never let his Decimate Q hit you. Armor is always good into him, tracking his Ghost Ghost timer is also important.

Overview

Daruis is a very difficult matchup for Irelia. He is a very strong lanebully who matches irelia's strength at all early phases of the game, making it very difficult for her to get ahead, which Irelia relies on. He scales very well and is a strong teamfighter, his waveclear is fairly good without Tiamat as well. He can match you very easily on the sidelanes, and is impossible to deal with if he gets ahead. Irelia needs to hard outplay daruis, but it can be playable or won in some cases, and good execution coming out of laning is required to finish the game without dying to Daruis, who can statcheck you very easily down huge amounts of gold in the right opportunities.

Low-Elo Guide

Pre-Laning

Irelia v Daruis

Unflinching can be swapped for Overgrowth if the enemy team comp (Mid/Jg/Sup) don't give a lot of value.

Standard starting, Dshield won't help.

Buy boots as soon as you can.

Ideally you can buy full boots or vamp on your first back.

Standard First Item

Hullbreaker is standard, if you are ahead Frozen Heart is insanely cheap and gives insane value - especially if enemy mid/jg is heavy AD. Deaths dance is a must at some point, steraks works well to prevent his R and resets. Zhonyas is also fine as a 6th item.

Standard Sums.

Don't level anything up until the minions come out. Level up Q only if he is clearly going to give you room to CS or you have a kill angle, otherwise E start is much safer & easier. If he zones you especially it can help you pick up a few of that CS.

Pre-6 Laning

The most important thing against daruis is to get to the lane as soon as you load in. It's very bad to get the lane too late because Darius can take the first Bush and prevents you from face checking and makes you have to burn a ward to find out. Get to lane and get to the first bush as fast as possible, and if he comes to the first bush (which he very likely will) make sure you exit in a way that will make sure you know if he stays or moves back to the middle bush. Hard respect the spacing especially since he has ghost. Moving on the next priority that we have is figuring out what spell he started with. It's incredibly important to know if he starts with his Crippling Strike W or his Decimate Q. Generally, Darius will start with his Decimate Q if he wants to fast push the wave or get prio guaranteed, and his Crippling Strike W is much more common in lower ELO because he uses it to be oppressive earlier on. If he doesn't show any spells and he's just pushing the wave you cannot contest. Never level up any of your spells. He starts pushing the wave or something happens. If he does not reveal his starting spell, and it is clear that he is zoning you off of the minions, start Flawless Duet E and take the minions as many as you can get from range and make sure you get the XP. Dares cannot punish you as bad as someone like Riven for walking up an XP range because he doesn't have good burst damage. Now it is very likely in lower Elo that most Daruis will not zone you or punish you as hard as they could early. They might walk up to you before the minions come, but after they come they might give you enough room to come to the minions and maybe even last hit them. In this case, it is sometimes okay to start with Bladesurge Q. Now, let's talk about kill angles and what to do depending on what spell he starts.

If he starts Decimate Q and uses it to hard push the wave, it's actually possible to kill him. His Decimate Q early on has a 9-second cooldown, which means if he he hard pushes the wave a little bit too late, and his melee minions are low enough for you to kill three of them and then Bladesurge Q to him for the Ionian Fervor fourth stack, it is possible to kill him. You have to be very careful to not get hit by his second Decimate Q. He will probably only have enough time to Decimate Q again once. You can either flash it or just stay close to him and position well, it depends if minions block you and how he moves. This is a possibility where you can kill him early if he starts Q, but you need to go fast, you need to go right after he uses Decimate Q, and only if there is an opportunity with the minions. Another thing to keep in mind, and that's very important, is if he sticks with the wave and then tries to get level two as soon as possible. It might also occur that while you are running him down, his second wave gets there, and that second wave might cause you to lose the fight. It is important to note how close your wave is so you can know how close his second wave is. Don't fight if the second wave is almost there, he can play around the bushes and get level 2 and then absolutely kill you.

Now, the second possibility is that he starts Crippling Strike W. This is going to be much more common the lower ELO that you are. If he starts Crippling Strike W,know that he can run you down if you walk up to hit minions, especially with Ghost Ghost. Watch his animations to see if he starts Crippling Strike W, and it is actually possible to kill him if he starts Crippling Strike W contrary to common belief. Darius's Crippling Strike W still retains a cooldown even when he kills an enemy with it. He gets refunded the mana but not the full cooldown. This is actually very important early on, obviously if he ever misses a Crippling Strike W, which you should be monitoring, it's an easy kill, it's super easy, you win because it's on such a high cooldown if he misses (it doesn't kill the minion he uses it on). But, back to level one, if uses it on a minion and you see an angle to get Ionian Fervor four stacks onto him, it is possible to kill him. You need to be careful, though, you need to space well and you need to make sure that you take minion aggro in the best way possible. Make sure you don't lose the Ionian Fervor stacks at any point because then he will just kill you. If he does end up disengaging sucessfully, you can use this advantage of Ionian Fervor four stacks to push and contest the early lane prio. It's very important to mention that fighting level one needs to be very well executed. That is why, regardless of what he starts, I would suggest just start Flawless Duet E, farm safely and not throw the lane level one, because while he can't Teleport TP back, you're going to have a very hard time crashing the wave realistically before he can get back even if you kill him early, which will probably leave your wavestate is a very unfavorable position. It is good to take Defiant Dance W level 2 if you kill him (Assuming you didn't take Flawless Duet E first) so that you can fast push the wave faster.

Alright, now that we've discussed the possibilities of killing him early, let's talk about what to do from level 3 onward. Darius might crash level 3 and cheater recall for a long sword, although it's fairly uncommon in lower ELO, and honestly, when I do see him do that he recalls for boots. It is important to get as much CS as possible, as in any matchup, but you must be profieicnet at csing under Tower. Whenever he hits level 3, it is very easy for him and very predictable for him to just Apprehend E you when you are trying to Bladesurge Q a minion to last it. That is why I would suggest to last hit normally instead of last hitting with Bladesurge Q, because your Bladesurge Q puts you in a very akward position. Now, I'm aware that you can't last hit the Castor minions with an auto attack early on, but you can prep them either while the melee minions are dying, or with any ability. At level 3, it is the best window that you have to kill him with an All-in, just make sure to either dodge his Apprehend E with a Bladesurge Q, or anticipate it and use your Defiant Dance W to block his Apprehend E, AA, Crippling Strike W damage.

Darius Apprehend E cooldown is 26 seconds rank one. If he ever misses it, or you bait it, you can kill him. Make sure to Defiant Dance W his Crippling Strike W and dodge his last Decimate Q with your Bladesurge Q (the less health he has, the more his Decimate Q heals, so save your Bladesurge Q to make sure you prevent his healing) And, obviously in order to do this, you need Ionian Fervor four stacks.

At this point in the lane is still the best window you have to kill him. As much as you might be afraid of his lane bullying, it is so important to note that your Defiant Dance W damage reduction is so massive in fights. You can kill him, and at this point it really just becomes a skill matchup. Generally, you won't hit 6 first, but if you do, you obviously hard win that engage. And, as mentioned, the single most important top for this whole matchup is to Bladesurge Q his Decimate Q so he doesn't hit it.

Post-6 Laning

Alright, now that we are moving on to post 6 laning, there's one very important kind of 'combo' or 'trade pattern' you need to know. When you go all-in, you have 3 Bladesurge Qs that you can use on him. One from your Flawless Duet E unsteady, one from your Vanguard's Edge R unsteady, and one normal Bladesurge Q. Every single one of these cannot be waisted, they must be used only and exclusively to dodge Daruis's Decimate Q. That means you must manage to get the Ionian Fervor passive from minions before fighting, and most importantly you must space out your Flawless Duet E and Vanguard's Edge R so they don't overlap & unsteady doesn't run out.

It is important to note that daruis loves extended trades where he can get his passive fully stacked and multiple Crippling Strike Ws or Decimate Qs off. However, your auto attack range is largee than his. You can space him pretty well if you use the minions, your whole gameplan is don't let him free hit you, and only fight on your terms. That is, only fight when you want to fight and are ready and have all your Ionian Fervor stacks. It is fairly telegraphed when he will CS, if he misses a Crippling Strike W or wastes a Decimate Q while you have a good way to get Ionian Fervor stacks and get on top of him, you can look to fight him.

If he gets ahead, don't look to fight him ever. If you get ahead, look to perma fight. Get armor as soon as possible, because his Apprehend E gives passive armor pen, but he doesn't level it up until level 14, so armor is insanely strong into him early on. He is very gankable if not ahead, just make sure to be dodge and respect his Decimate Qs. He will pick one of you - either your jg or you, to try and get Hemorrhage five stacks on. If he picks you, you can simply disengage. space him, don't hit him. Ideally, do it befor he gets Hemorrhage five stacks so it doesn't stack on your teammate. He is generally squishy if you don't let him land a Decimate Q, the ony armor he builds is Dead Man's Plate deadman's and Plated Steelcaps steelcaps.

Post-Laning Phase

Now you're out of the laning phase, it gets much simpler. You cannot really contest his sidelaning if you are even. Respect him and wait for him to push in, or if you beat him to the lane, look to fast push and rotate for your team. Side laning in this matchup isn't a great idea, because unless you are up a good amount of gold, and even if you are, one mistake andDaruis can easily run you down with ghost. You can still sidelane, and you obviously shouldn't drop waves, but don't over push or event contest in the middle, with ghost daruis can run you down fairly easily.

The fundmental idea of post-laning against someone without Teleport teleport is to hold them in the sidelanes, and teleport to a fight if it looks favorable. If Daruis doesn't get ahead in laning, yes he will outscale you, but you have a better teamfight and with Teleport teleport you have much more agency than he does. Don't let him get kills on you in the sidelane, and his Ghost ghost is useless. The worst thing you can do on this matchup, especially if you won lane, is to 50/50 a fight in sidelane, even 75/25 a fight. If you just get the CS, don't drop waves, and teleport to the fights and objectives, you will win the game. That means you should sidelane opposite to the obj when one is coming up, so someone needs to match you. Generally in low-elo, no midlaner would ever realize they need to match you because they have TP, and daruis would be compleley unable to lane into any midlane mage anyway, so you'll either see a good angle to fight, Teleport teleport in and 4v5, or if no one matches you, you can still Teleport teleport in, but you get to decide if it looks like a good fight. If not, remember the tower and CS gold on sidewavesis guarenteed, your teammates playing a teamfight well is not. Pick the one that will yield the best outcome most often.

Always remember that once Daruis gets a reset, he is thanos. On the chance he picks you to get his Hemorrhage five stacks, try to space him before he gets it. You cannot just kinda hit Daruis, you either need to focus and one shot him (he is easily caught out, especially with very limited mobility), or compleltey ignore him and go to the carries, it depends if they have good peel or not. Daruis cannot be half ignored, his Hemorrhage passive cannot be understated with his rank 3 Noxian Guillotine R. Your job will be to 100% ignore him and dive the squishies.

Extra Details & Tips

First let's go over buildpath. Rushing Plated Steelcaps Steelcaps is so strong into daruis, especially if you get an early kill. It greatly reduces him damage. Obviously you are still rushing Blade of The Ruined King BORK, but you want to prioritize Vampiric Scepter > Recurve Bow > Pickaxe. I find that recurve bow honestly feels better than pickaxe, even if I have the gold in this matchup. Always pick up Refillable Potion refils, if you don't you are just throwing. After finishing Blade of The Ruined King BORK, you can decide where to go next.

Going Frozen Heart frozen heart if enemy jg/mid are AD is insanely strong, yes as a second item, but only if you are ahead. Standard if you are ahead is still going to be Hullbreaker Hullbreaker, and then you can go Frozen Heart frozen heart if the enemy team comp justifies it (3/5 are AD, at least two are auto attackers) and you are ahead. Otherwise, Death's Dance Death's Dance is an insanely strong pickup. For fourth, you can look at Sterak's Gage Steraks if they have a bursty mid / jg, or if they have a lot of CC, or Wit's End Wit's End if they are 3/5 AP. You generally want to buy Wit's End wit's or Terminus terminus at some point for attack speed. If they are armor stacking (at least 2/5, with their sup being somewhat tanky), you can definitely pickup a Terminus Terminus for insane dueling power. To wrap up the build, going Sundered Sky Sundered Sky I personally find really strong for the mid to late game teamfights, especially if i've built quite tanky and I am ahead. Otherwise, Guardian Angel Guardian Angle should be pretty standard. Sixth you can look to sell your Plated Steelcaps Steelcaps (or even Armored Advance Armor Advance) and buy Zhonya's Hourglass Zhonyas (if they have 3/5 AD, or any champs who Zhoynas is broken against). No that's not a joke, unless they have a Caitlyn, Zhonya's Hourglass Zhonyas is an insanely broken item, and it actually helps a lot with your one shot potenial, increasing your Defiant Dance W, Flawless Duet E and Vanguard's Edge R damage by a lot, while also giving armor. If you can engage for your team with your Vanguard's Edge R, which slows, and then do your damage before Zhonya's Hourglass Stasis, it's really impactful, and you can prevent Daruis from getting his reset or any of the other champions who are counterd by stasis.