Vex vs Irelia Counter Pick

A 537-game sample on patch 16.13.1 is solid enough to trust, and it has Vex winning 57.9% of the time against Irelia. Her passive explains most of it. Doom ‘n Gloom periodically amplifies her next basic ability so it fears enemies and cancels their dashes, and it builds charge whenever a nearby enemy dashes. Bladesurge resets its own cooldown on a Marked or dying target. Irelia sets up this counter without trying, just by playing her normal kit.

• Reach sits at 550 against 200, so every approach means dashing into a champion whose Mistral Bolt speeds up mid-flight.
• Staying power: Irelia is much tougher at level 18 with 2,585 health and 115.9 armor, compared with 2,358 and 98.7, so a long brawl while she stacks Ionian Fervor attack speed is a fight you won’t win.
• Defenses: Defiant Dance reduces only physical damage during the charge, so it does little against a mixed damage profile.
• Resources: both champions spend mana and move at 335, and Irelia’s 65 base attack damage against 54 makes any extended trade beside a wave lopsided.

The usual mistake is spending Looming Darkness on the wave and having no slow zone left when Irelia commits. Timed well, Gloom plus an interrupted dash removes her only approach tool, and Shadow Surge finishes her from outside Vanguard’s Edge. The matchup is rated easy at a difficulty of 5, but 630 base health against 590 keeps early all-ins genuinely dangerous.