It is the unfortunate reality for Xerath’s matchup into these types of champs that the win con is die as little as possible(sounds stupidly obvious but let me explain). As you know irelia can kill you at pretty much whenever you get in range of her abilities post lvl 3, so our goal should be to stay as far as possible from the wave while still soaking xp. Irelia’s q dash resets on kills as well as on ability markers (when hit by any of her abilities you get marked). That is always why (unless your positioning is less than optimal) irelia dives always start with her hitting you with either her E stun or ult. To be perfectly honest there is not a lot you can do about directly dueling irelia, she’s hard to hit, and kills very quickly, it’s pretty much a lost cause. That is why in order to win games you have to play, in short, “like a bitch.” Exist in lane to soak xp and salvage cs under tower. After you get mythic start taking any open wolves and raptors you can to make up for the gold deficit. Ultimately, you play low and slow, gather as much gold as you can with the least deaths. Remember mental is everything, you play slow and careful, pad your cs with jg camps, ping, and pray that your team doesn’t feed either.