Hello everyone, and welcome to my new Irelia guide.

You're probably thinking, "What the hell, Irelia can JUNGLE?!"

While yes it is not typical, it is a viable option. Considering that Irelia is a champion who needs either farm and/or lots of kills and assists, she either needs a solo lane... or she could jungle!

Feel free to leave suggestions/comments.

Also do note, the second "build" shows the six final items, and the stats she will have with them, since in the first build I am simply showing the order I like to buy items in.

Pros

• Irelia is very tanky.
• Her damage is great, even if you only have Trinity Force as your DPS item.
• She has a ton of mobility!
• Her passive makes it next to impossible to keep her CC'd, when coupled with Mercury Treads.
• Her passive on her W heals her every time she hits, and when activated does True Damage as well!
• Once you have your first two tank items, you become pretty much indestructible.

Cons

• If you screw up your jungle, you are messed up for the rest of the game unless you go join a lane.
• She can be very squishy until you get your first defensive item.
• You need god map awareness in order to put her mobility to use.
• She's best mid/late game, after she has gotten good farm.

There are only two mastery builds I like to use on Irelia, whether I am jungling or whether I am solo/duo lane. Why? It's pretty simple, I really don't like throwing points into Offense when it comes to Irelia, I personally think she benefits much more from the Defensive and Utility trees.

My primary build on Irelia is 0/21/9, and my secondary build is 0/9/21. I prefer 21 points in Defense, but putting those points into Utility can be quite good on her as well. I think this is one of those things that is going to chalk up more to what you prefer, versus what may or may not be best.

After all, what is best for one person may not be best for another, due to everyone having different playstyles.

That being said, if you want to build tanky for Irelia, I do not suggest putting points into Offense.

Now, in the two builds up top I did not include my Mastery variations, because I almost never use 0/9/21. However, if it is something you wish to try, then I am posting screenshots of both here for you.

Ahhh, runes. There seem to be almost endless variations. However, with Irelia I have very few rune builds that I actually like on her.

Now, let's talk about runes for a moment.

• Marks, sometimes also called "Reds" cater to Physical Attack. You are limited to nine of these.
• Seals, sometimes also called "Yellows", cater to to Defense. You are limited to nine of these.
• Glyphs, sometimes also called "Blues", cater to Magic. You are limited to nine of these.
• Quintessences, usually referred to as "Quints", give extra bonuses and specialize in Utiliy. You are limited to three of these.

Depending on the champion, sometimes you will buy for example a Seal that does not specialize in Defense, or a Glyph that does not specialize in Magic. With Irelia however, both my rune build's adhere to the individual rune specialties.

Marks

There is honestly only one choice for Marks.

Greater Mark of Desolation are in my opinion the best Marks for any AD Champion to use, they are great early, mid, and late game, whereas some Runes seem to only be good early-on before you get most of your build.

I like to choose Runes that will be useful the entire game, not just for 5-10 minutes.

Seals

Honestly, you have two (good) choices here.

You can go with either or . Dodge can be very handy, but it's not as consistently useful as armor is.

The chance to dodge can be great, but it's just that - a chance. And honestly, if your Seals are your only Dodge chance increase, then you probably won't be dodging much of anything except the occasional minion attack.

Armor increase, however, reduces the overall physical damage you take. Which when coupled with and , means you should be losing a lot less HP at the start of your jungle, as well as help you all throughout the game by increasing your armor by a very nice amount.

I have seen some people who like to go mana regen, but honestly whether I am laning or Jungling, I have never had mana issues on Irelia. I also think that mana regen Seals are a waste of space when it comes to Irelia, she benefits far more from Armor or Dodge.

Glyphs

GLYPHS. This is another one of those things where there is only one good choice.

is the only Glyph I would ever consider using on Irelia. So many people like to play AP-based champions, and honestly, many AP champions hurt like hell. This flat increase to Magic Resist will help a lot early game, as well as later on.

Quintessences

Personally... I have been using for Irelia, because the increased movement speed is very nice, and helps lend to her mobility early game, while helping her achieve nearly 500 movement speed with a late game full build.

There are however, of course, other options.

• would be very helpful at the start of your jungle, and quite possibly before and after Trinity Force is completed. Quints are however the only place I would consider tossing in Attack Speed, I would not personally advise going Attack Speed on any other Runes.
• could be rather sexy, but are situational at best. In the rare event there are not many if any AP characters on the enemy team, these Quints become pretty much useless for that game.
• Greater Quintessence of Desolation what can I say, Armor Penetration is sexy.
• reduced cooldowns is very nice on Irelia, considering her burst combo has a fairly long cooldown (making fast movement speed useful for catching up...)
• some junglers and solo laners like to go with the bonus gold.
• would only do well when coupled with , otherwise, I definitely would not suggest going with these. There are better choices.
• I put these at the bottom of the list, because after LV18 they are useless. However, if you're concerned about leveling fast, you may consider these as an option.

As I mentioned in the Introduction, the first build is buy order, the second is to show you the final stats.

> > x3 > > > >

The above items are your starting items, and in the most likely order - if you're able to afford Madred's Razors when you get back to base however, definitely buy those. Its rather difficult to kill Blue and Red before you have them, if not impossible.

By the time you hit LV6, you should have the items I mentioned above. With Wriggle's and Merc Treads, and LV6, you can start ganking lanes. You're still relatively squishy at this point, so you must be aware, and be able to get out if things go bad. The more you die, the less useful you're going to be.

Now then, once you have gotten Wriggle's and Mercury Treads, it is time to start building your .

There's two options for you to go from here.

You can start by buying a or a first, and then the one you didn't buy first comes after. Unless you're absolutely freaking amazing, its best to buy two of the items and then finish off the Trinity Force, instead of saving money like some people tend to do.

Trinity Force and Wriggle's Lantern are the only damage items you should need, assuming you don't have a bad team composition.

So now you should have Wriggles, Mercury Treads, and Trinity Force. Your next items you should build are...

>

Once you have your Guardian Angel, you will pretty much stop dying (if you have been dying at all yet). The boost to your Armor and Magic Resist are too good to pass up, and the resurrection passive is extremely nice. A lot of people don't understand that Irelia is tanky, and try to focus her down first. So in the event you do die, you can resurrect and most likely kill any remaining enemy champions.

Warmog's is a great survivability item as well, because of the increase to your HP. I recently just started using this on her, and I'm sad that I didn't use it sooner.

Now that you have , you may or may not be able to build a sixth item. I honestly still have yet to play a game where I end up getting to build anything after Warmog's, because the game pretty much gets ended or the enemy team surrenders after that.

However, there are a few choices for you here. Personally, I would go with a or if I needed more Magic Resist. Wit's End is nice for the Magic Resist and Attack Damage, and FoN is nice for the Magic Resist and Movement Speed, which gives you more mobility.

If you feel that you don't need another defensive item, however, you could always go for an AD Offensive item. My suggestion would be a or .

Jungling on Irelia still is an odd concept to me, but it is extremely fun. It's rather different than jungling on Nocturne, but in a good way.

~I will add pretty images as soon as I can.

Starting

Buy your and put a point into .

Head to the Wraith camp, and the blue Wraith - leave the three red one's alive.

Head to the Wolf camp, kill all three wolves, starting with the big one - using the active on helps here.

Put a point into when you hit LV2.

Head back to the Wraith camp, and use and to burst the remaining wraith's down.

When you hit LV3, put another point into .

Head to the Golem camp, and use and to burst the golem's down. If for some reason the Golem's are doing a lot of damage to you/criting you too much, don't be scared to run away and B. I would rather that you run away and come back to them, versus staying and dying to them. It's always embarrassing to die to creeps.

When you hit LV4, put a point into .

If you still have a good amount of HP, go back to wolves and kill them again. You're basically going to go Wolves > Wraiths > Golems until you get your Madred's Razor. You (should) be able to have Madred's by LV4 or so, however.

Once you have your Madred's Razor, head over to the Blue Golem, pop a , jump on it's face, and use . Don't forget to use your Q, W, and E as necessary to burst Blue down. Make sure you kill Blue before his minions. Once Blue is dead, heal up by killing his minions, and then move on.

At LV5, put another point into .

At this point you can start building your , which coupled with make CC's last next to no time on you.

Continue to jungle until you are LV6, you may want Blue and Red before you gank, but that is up to you.

Remember to use 's active! This basically free ward is extremely helpful, especially if you plan on soloing Dragon.

Speaking of Dragon, I don't suggest trying to kill him until LV8. LV8 is the earliest I have personally been able to solo him, but if you want to try him before, consider getting help for it.

You don't really *need* to jungle after 6, but I suggest doing it between ganks, instead of just running around like an idiot as some people do. You're still Irelia, you still need farm. Get those buffs and kill those creeps! Especially if your enemy's team has a jungler, make sure you are at least getting your side's buffs.

If you are having trouble surviving the enemy team for some reason, consider buying a and/or before finishing your Triforce. The do not cost much money, and the added Armor and Magic Resist will help hold you over until you finish and .

You should also consider purchasing wards and maybe even an depending on who you are fighting against. If the enemy team has and/or , the Oracle's will really help avoid those boxes and shrooms, as well as let you take out any of the wards the enemy team has decided to place on the map. ;)

There are good games, there are bad games, and there are downright ugly games. I figured I would share my games with Jungle Irelia here. I do not always jungle on her - sometimes I solo top, sometimes I get stuck in a duo lane, and sometimes I just don't play her at all because she doesn't fit into the team comp.

Regardless, here's some of my Jungle Irelia games, I'll add more as I play Jungle Irelia more.

Brief Summary of These Games

-Note, I'll shove the screenshots down at the bottom of this chapter.
-Note, I'd like to mention that I am using in Win's 1&2, and Loss 1.

Wins

1.) 17/8/13 - In this game, I was getting wrecked early-game by the enemy team's AP characters, and a screwed over by a few people on my team who did not know how to play with a Jungler. Almost all of my deaths were before I finished my .

2.) 13/3/14 - In this game, two deaths were before I finished my . The third was after I resurrected, and had three champions and two turrets on me at the Nexus. Yeah. Not getting away from that. lol.

Losses

1.) 0/2/0 This game I screwed up my jungle at the start, but continued to jungle once I realized what was wrong (I tried to kill Blue before I had to Madred's, and instead of moving to something easier, I kept trying like an idiot.) Once we hit the 20 minute mark, the team decided to surrender because we all ended up vastly out-leveled, and our bottom pair of champions fed Talon horribly.

Screenshots