This is my first guide, and it's a build I've been personally working on, and it seems to work well for me. I don't play ranked games yet, but if someone wanted to try it in a ranked game and let me know how it works, that'd be awesome.

v1.01:

Credits:

AS - Attack Speed
AD - Attack Damage
LS - Life Steal
CC - Crowd Control (Stuns, Snares, Roots, Silences, etc)
DPS - Damage Per Second
AP - Ability Power

Chasing - Chasing after an opponent.
Tower Diving - Running within range of an enemy turret to get a kill.

- Relatively fast jungler
- Built in on-hit healing
- Amazing ganker
- Good chaser
- Amazing DPS output late game
- Passive reduces CC





- Can get rather squishy without defensive items
- Late game, you get focused down
- Stun only works when you're at a lower HP% than your opponent
- Expensive items
- Dependent on kills

Greater Mark of Attack Speed - Attack Speed works best for Irelia, in my opinion. The more attacks you land, the more you're healing with Hiten Style.

Greater Seal of Armor - Gives you a little sustainability early game, less trips back because of less damage being taken. Could be subbed for Attack Speed Seals as you see fit.

Greater Glyph of Attack Speed - Same reason as the marks, it's going to help throughout the whole game.

Greater Quint of Alacrity - No need to reiterate.

I choose 21/0/9 for jungling. Allows for easy ganking.

- Start with Cloth Armor and 2 Health Potion for opening jungle. If you're comfortable with your route and your leash, you can stick with 1 Health Potion and be completely fine.

- Next, pick up Madred's Razors, as Wriggle's Lantern is too good for jungling not to get.

- Pick up a Boots or Berserker's Greaves for the AS, unless they're CC heavy or AP heavy, then pick up Mercury's Treads. Your call on this one.

- After your level 2 boots, finish Wriggle's Lantern for the LS and the free wards. The jungle is yours now.

- Your next goal is building towards Trinity Force. Again, the order of which you build is your personal choice, but I get Phage first for the slow, health, and AD. Afterwards, it's normally situational on whether I want to move faster and the AS of Zeal, or Sheen for it's Proc. Both are equally as viable in my opinion. Remember that Bladesurge is an instant proc from Sheen, so use that to your advantage.

- After Trinity Force, I start building my Zeke's Harbinger, for the LS, and AS. I get Recurve Bow before Vampiric Scepter because attacking faster heals you more than the VS, and with On-hits for Phage, their is no escaping you.

- At this point, you can sell your Wriggle's Lantern if you want, for a faster B. F. Sword, since you should be more present in lanes and you now have the LS from Zeke's Harbinger. Use the B. F. Sword to build towards Black Cleaver, for the AS, AD, and the armor reduction. This is about the time where people start to hate you.

- Your last 2 items should be Infinity Edge for the AD and Crit Damage, and Phantom Dancer for the Movement Speed, Crit Chance, and insane amounts of AS. You should now be near unstoppable in any 1v1 as long as you CC right.

Bloodthirster is an awesome item when it's fully farmed, and if you can spare the AS, you can substitute Zeke's Harbinger for this, if your team has another person with Zeke's Harbinger, or a lack of AD characters.

Madred's Bloodrazor is also a really good item for Irelia, since it provides a decent amount of AD, a large amount of AS, and some armor to boot! Not to mention it has an awesome proc for eating away those tanky toons. You can substitute Phantom Dancer or Black Cleaver for this.


If you're aiming for more survivability, than by all means, grab a Warmog's Armor and Atma's Impaler. The two work beautifully together, and you'll find yourself staying alive much longer in team fights where there are more AD based characters, and also give you a good amount of AD in the meantime.

If they are throwing a lot of AP your way, with hard-hitting nukes, grab a Banshee's Veil for the MR and the spell negate.
You can also grab a Hexdrinker for champions like Karthus, which will ease his Requiem by a lot, and you'll walk away more often.

Guardian Angel is also a good choice here, for the armor, magic resist, and the built-in revive. Oh, they thought they finally killed you?! Let them think again!

Passive: Ionian Fervor - Reduces the duration of stuns, slows, taunts, fears, snares, and roots for each nearby enemy champion. 10% for 1 champion, 25% for 2 champions, and 40% for 3 champions and above.

Priority should be your R Transcendent Blades. The blades shoot wherever your courser is aimed, so make sure you keep your cursor over the target, or predict where they may move to.

I max W Hiten Style first, because you're jungling, and the healing/true damage is a must.

After W, I max out E Equilibrium Strike for a more reliable CC.

Lastly, I max Q Bladesurge, taking one point at level 2 as a gap closer.

When engaging, you should always pop W Hiten Style for the extra True Damage. Luckily, activating Hiten Style doesn't negate your passive Ionian Fervor, like Yi's does. Try not to open with Q Bladesurge, unless you're picking off a low health opponent, or you really need to get into the opponents face fast.
If you can, save your E Equilibrium Strike for a stun if they start wacking you hard. Use your Ult Transcendent Blades] if they run with low HP, or if you're by creep waves, for extra Life Steal.

Smite is a must for jungling.

I take Exhaust, with the Mastery for it, to turn the tides of battle in my favor, and retreat if I must.

Other acceptable Summoner Spells:
1. Ghost - Chasing made easy.
2. Ignite - Always nice to have a bit of extra damage, but you shouldn't necessarily need it.
3. Surge - More Attack Speed? Why not?
4. Teleport - Allows for getting from one side of the map to the other quickly to gank.
5. Flash - Flash is always useful for escaping/chasing.

Non-acceptable Summoner Spells:
1. Garrison - You're not a support/tank. Unless you Tower Dive a lot, you shouldn't take this.
2. Heal - You really shouldn't need Heal, because of the Life Steal that you have.
3. Revive - Specced into Good Hands, and if you're doing well, you shouldn't die much, anyway.
4. Cleanse - Your Passive gives you CC reduction, and if you grab Merc's Treads, it stacks with the passive, so CC should be practically negligible.
5. Clarity - I don't really run out of mana, since I'm jungling and have Blue Buff up a good amount of the time.
6. Promote - Why would you use this as a jungler?
7. Clairvoyance - This could be helpful, but I never tend to use it, because supports normally run it.

Get a Leash for Blue Buff, and continue to Wolves, Wraith pack ( Smite blue wraith), Double Golems, Wolves again. Go back to shop, should grab Madred's Razors. Red buff after Madred's Razors and then continue on with normal route. Grab Dragon as soon as you can, normally around level 7 if you have a Health Potion left.

Once Irelia reaches level 3, and grabs her second point in Hiten Style, you don't really need pots for jungling, so save whatever you have for Dragon and/or ganking.

Once you hit level 5/6, you can start ganking effectively.

Mid Game: Once you get Trinity Force, you become a serious threat to any lane, more so if you have competent team mates. Ganking is extremely important, so do that whenever you see anyone over-extended, or if your team mates could use some help. Never turn down a kill, unless you're unsure of where opponents are on the map. This is where those wards from Wriggle's Lantern come in handy. Zeke's Harbinger just gives you and your team the AS and LS to end fights in a much cleaner manner.
Continue to jungle when not ganking, unless there are lanes to be pushed or kills to be earned.

Late Game: FARM, FARM, FARM! Late game, your items are a bit more expensive, so you want to complete it as soon as possible, right? Get that gold. Farm kills, creep waves, and jungle camps in that priority. Grab Dragon whenever up. Once you complete your build, buy some elixirs, and enjoy seeing people rage.

Irelia is an amazing character, with a lot of potential. Have fun face-rolling whole teams with the amount of Life Steal and Damage output you have. Remember, it's not fun till you "Ace".