hey all you herps, derps, and trolls. this is my first posted build on a jungling. this isn't a full guide, as i haven't played her for very long, and am neither the best player or jungler nor the worst, but i have a fascination with tanky junglers and only recently remembered i got drunk one night and bought this champion. so here it is, the aftermath of me rambling and refusing to play Olaf or Amumu in the jungle.

comments on the build are welcome, as well as votes.

***NOTE***

for some reason, the movement speed and a few other stats listed above are incorrectly labeled, Irelia will have about ~500 movement speed fully built.

to be honest, why the hell not? passive lifesteal on units as well as structures, true damage, low cooldowns and mana costs, she has relatively fast movement speed and she is quite tanky, being mostly made up of resistance and health items.

building her tanky is my preferred choice to play her, as her abilities deal fantastic damage without needing any other items besides Trinity Force and her Hiten Style.

with 3 movement speed items, over 200 armor and magic resistance, a spell shield, a badass way to slow down melee attackers by dealing AND receiving damage as well as another slow and stun, it's clear that building Irelia this way gives her an incredible amount of durability and utility while letting another player snag solo top lane and having an edge on the enemy team.

Irelia's route is similar to most. start at the blue buff and clear the entire jungle from blue to golems, killing both wolf and wraith camps and taking enough time for you to have Smite up in time for the lizard buff.

even if you don't have a blue leash, Irelia can still clear the entire jungle with minimal effort, using Hiten Style right off the bat as you hit the largest creep in the camps. after your first run through, obviously, your route will change based on whether or not your team needs lane presence, though i typically will stay in the jungle until i have 800 for Philosopher's Stone before Recalling the first time.

if you are lucky and get in on a champion kill then snag Boots as well, if you don't have enough, Vision Wards are ALWAYS necessary. if you have leftover gold, spend on wards. i don't even think about it anymore, as long as they are being used and ganks and stray enemies are being seen before they do anything, that 75 gold is much better than giving the team ~300 gold + exp. make it a habit, and encourage your team to ward as well.

Irelia's items are in a kinky order, with there being a 1600 gold gap between getting your Wriggle's Lantern, but i am a huge fan of the gold per 10, especially when dealing with the jungle nerfs. the Philosopher's Stone stays in my inventory until i am ready to build Banshee's Veil, milking the Wriggle's Lantern as much as i can for a mini- Smite for jungle clearing and having at least 1 Ward before i build Guardian Angel and have a full inventory.

as far as the debate between Randuin's Omen and Thornmail, the Active and Passive on the Randuin's Omen makes fighting in any teamfight incredibly derp for both teams, combined with Ionian Fervor when they decide to focus you. because Randuin's Omen reduces movement and attack speed, as well as giving reasonable armor, health, cooldown reduction, and health regen, the choice is quite obvious. as well as the fact you will have over 200 Armor and Magic Resistance, taking on another 2 seconds to the Active use.

having Force of Nature as well as Banshee's Veil will shut down any AP carries in your game that decide to focus you, and Guardian Angel will guarantee you living through teamfights. of course, this assumes you aren't grouped with totally ****ing terrible people, and that you aren't initiating every fight alone. the 2 items also have secondary stats, which will prove to be more useful even if the enemy team doesn't have too much AP.

Mercury's Treads will be the boots you will want to use 95% of the time. unless the enemy team is composed of, let's say, Miss Fortune, Master Yi, Nidalee, Nasus and LeBlanc, I would say **** the Mercury's Treads and go with a Ninja Tabi, seeing as how they have no hard CC. the Tenacity will stack with your Ionian Fervor and giving you more resistance for that ever-so-sexy Randuin's Omen and generally keeping your *** safe.

Flash and Smite are the 2 more preferred choices for my play-style, being something that has evolved by my continued use of loving Nidalee's Pounce to get over walls and cliffs. i can't tell you how much i love Flash, but then again i don't really need to.

Ghost, Surge, Exhaust and Ignite are the other alternatives. Ignite, Surge, and Exhaust all require a point in Offense tree to have it improved, but Runic Affinity is a must-have for jungling, and i don't like to use summoner spells that i can't improve in my masteries.

Surge isn't great, it giving an AP benefit only to your Equilibrium Strike, and the attack speed isn't necessary.

Ignite isn't a spell i use often, as i mostly play hybrid tanks and hybrid support/carries, and i would much rather get Exhaust over this any day. with less resistances, damage, and movespeed, as well as a more noticeable "KILL ME FIRST" sign around the character, it will be more beneficial to your team, and killing their movement is much more deadly in this game than damage over time.

this leaves Ghost, which is a viable alternative, but using this build will give you close to 500 movement speed, and if you need a Ghost to escape someone that can catch up to you with your Equilibrium Strike, Randuin's Omen, Trinity Force, Mercury's Treads and Force of Nature, you better damn well record that game so i can give you permission to use Ghost.

then again, this build is purely of my own opinion, so you can feel free to use anything on this page to alter and morph into something you can use effectively.

the purpose of building and playing Irelia this way is to ensure a couple different things in a game, which will be decided by how i chose the skills.

1) to have a tanky character in the jungle fulfilling the role of either carry or main/offtank
2) to clear the jungle fast as possible, with enough health and mana for ganking
3) to have proper ganking skills

Irelia can fulfill all of those by starting with the one and only, ladies and gentlemen, the Hiten Style ability. not only does she gain health restoration on units AND buildings, but she gains a massive amount of true damage on top of it all on a relatively low cooldown. so, i not only choose Hiten Style first, but i max it asap as well. Bladesurge will not give you proper sustainability or damage to clear the jungle with better times, and it will also eat your mana quite thoroughly.

taking Hiten Style at level 1, i always take Bladesurge at level 2. this will speed up your jungle slightly, depending on your mana and whether or not you have blue buff, and i will usually only spam it in the jungle to kill the biggest creep in the camp asap. other than that, i generally don't use it often except to jump in the camps. i also take this 2nd because of the gap closing ability for ganks that you can start doing at level 2. i will max this ability 2nd

this leaves our last main ability, Equilibrium Strike. i take this at level 3 for the stun/slow needed for ganks. i don't use this ability unless i need the slow or stun, seeing as how you won't have much ability power and your true damage from Hiten Style will be your main source of damage. i max this ability last, since it doesn't gain much benefit from this build, and you only gain .25 seconds of slow/stun per rank, which isn't much. slow % stays the same, so no need to put more than 1 into it until later in the game.

Runes are self-explanatory, the basic cookie-cutter runes for an AD jungling champion.

Greater Mark of Desolation will be your bread and butter for clearing the jungle a bit faster while your Hiten Style is down, and since the ability ADDS damage on top of your basic attacks, instead of doing only true damage, it will benefit you more than, say, Greater Mark of Attack Speed. righto.

next up, we have Greater Seal of Armor, giving you fantastic starting armor paired with your Cloth Armor. comparing between Greater Seal of Defense, yes you will grab an additional 12 armor at level 18, breaking even with Greater Seal of Armor at level 10, but this amount is miniscule when your starting armor will push you further up and saving Health Potions for ganks instead of blowing them to get through 1 jungle clear. also, the 12 extra armor will not make a big difference late-game, as you're not near enough 300 armor as to where it will give you another .5 seconds on your Randuin's Omen active. moving along.

for our Glyphs, we have Greater Glyph of Magic Resist, giving us some base MR to use during our early game ganks. once again, comparing with Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist, this flat MR will obviously be less than per level, again breaking even at level 10, but you will be ganking earlier than level 10, and that will also be around the time you're building up your first couple items. the same as everyone else on the team, by the time you pass and get into the level 12-15 area you should have your Trinity Force and buying your Negatron Cloak for Force of Nature immediately afterwards. Greater Glyph of Magic Resist prevails, let's look at our quints now! yay!

Greater Quintessence of Endurance, Greater Quintessence of Vigor, and Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed all will tie in with what Irelia works with, as far as keeping her health high, her regen nice and topping her off with Hiten Style, and some more movement speed to keep her (somewhat) fast before she gets her boots. picking between all 3, deciding which one to get was a task i wasn't happy thinking about. so i got one of each. they all play a nice part in her spec and build, and round her off like a G6.

this do be my first build, and like i mentioned earlier, i don't claim credit to be the greatest Irelia player or jungler out there. i merely got trashed, played a character in a different way, and found something that works. just like everybody else on the site who posts a random guide.

i appreciate feedback of any kind, and tips involving making jungling any easier, more fun, or tweaks on the items can be left in the comments, obviously. you weren't born yesterday, were you? i hope not.

please don't forget to vote if you read through my build and enjoyed it/tried it out.