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It's really good buy right now though into some popular picks like Darius, Garen and Sett since you'll be able to slow them down and tear their HP bar up, so it might be a worthwhile pick into those matchups if you aren't in need of tankiness during mid game.
It's hard to answer this kind of question as it differs for every game, but you should itemize depending on which champions are strong. If the enemy has a high burst AP-mage like Syndra, consider maybe building Maw of Malmortius instead of Sterak's Gage. Against assassins consider picking up Guardian Angel at some point since it allows you to return to the fight a second time in case you are focused first.
Also consider trying out Death's Dance. It's an offensive item with a defensive side. The bleed passive allows you to heal back up in some cases where you'd normally die. This item combined with Spirit Visage makes you really hard to kill if you can just get damage in on your opponents.
Other than that I can't really say much since there isn't a build that fits all cases. As Irelia you sometimes have to accept that you will die in a teamfight but you can make a big difference with your E and R so you should still look to group unless your team absolutely has no chances of winning teamfights, in which case you look to split.
It might be alright on Irelia if you actually only want/have to splitpush and match an opponent, but otherwise I think there are better options as an item for Irelia. She doesn't really utilize Lethality too well and her ult anyways is a bit of a teamfighty ult so she really brings value to teamfights.
If you are planning to go it in a game, I'd say you go it after Trinity Force. Either as second item or after Tiamat, although again everything is situational. Definitely not as first item though.
On Irelia I feel Tiamat is really good since you can just push waves so insanely fast after that. You can roam easily or just keep your enemy laner in lane if the situation requires so. Also you can get a stack of Conqueror with it so you get it up even faster.
You can delay Tiamat though for faster Trinity Force powerspike. Sometimes you aren't required Tiamat early but overall I feel Tiamat is core for Irelia.
I think I updated the runes somewhere last month but I forgot to update the runes explanation. Fixed it now though!
Both secondary trees are fine. I originally liked Sorcery due to Nullifying Orb helping with clutch situations. It can occasionally save you since it's kind of a mini Hexdrinker. Transcendence is a great choice on scaling champions since the CDR is really beneficial, and if you go over the cap it just translates to more damage.
That being said I feel Inspiration is the more friendly way to go especially if you are starting out since the runes are more ''forgiving''. Both Biscuit Delivery and Time Warp Tonic offer sustaining tools and also some help for trading which definitely helps during lane phase.
Personally I prefer Inspiration as I've gotten so used to having Time Warp Tonic that it kind of feels weird if I don't have it, although of course that's just a personal bias.
does this work on mid?
Also in mid lane some people rush Wit's End against AP champs early to combat magic damage.
I ask because i was using her in practice tool and most of her skills are AP based. If you go AP you also get 94% damage reduction on one of her 2nd skill (that's the highest i got).
Full AP Irelia is pretty much a thing for gamemodes like URF or normal games. As AP Irelia your Q damage will be significantly weaker, thus you will be relying on your other abilities to do the damage.
Full AD Irelia isn't something you want to do either since most of the time you will be dashing into the fight into the middle of your opponents due to you first ulting and then Qing onto multiple targets, and you need to withstand their burst. That's where items like Sterak's Gage and Titanic Hydra etc come in.
As a conclusion, I'll say both of those builds can work in certain situations/rankings etc, but are they good? Probably not, and most certainly not as good as the trident true bruiser Irelia.