This guide refers a lot to other offtank Irelias. I compliment then bash them a lot, i realized, without trying to. Understand that this build is to maximize Irelia's awesome DPS potential, while adding to her survivability. I find it slightly, mind SLIGHTLY, a waste to not use her more-than-just-powerful Hitten Style to its max potential. Of course, tank Irelia is awesome, depending on the team comp. So please don't hate on how I present this guide:)

Okay, I've seen a lot of Irelias being played in several ways, the most prominent of them being offtanks. Most of them grab Philosopher's, Mercs, and Heart of Gold first, and move on to make their Shurleyla's, Omens, FoN, etc. Not to insult them or anything (I often get those too, when laning and playing offtank) but looking at Ireilia's skill set, I thought.. why not jungle? And of course, its easy to look on youtube and see a lot of old Irelias jungling with amazing clearing times, from 3:35 - 3:55. Jungling being my main role in most games, I thought.. let's try Irelia.

ALSO !!! the build list above is not necessarily gotten in that order, or even those items, sometimes! More will be explained later on...

Basically and pretty obviously, I take a very offensive approach at jungling.
x7 Mark of Desolation
x2 Mark of Alacrity
x9 Seals of Alacrity
x9 Glyph of Alacrity
x2 Quint of Desolation
x1 Quint of Alacrity

The amount of armpen from this rune setup is around 24 (including Masteries) which is to maximize damage towards Blue and Red Buff. The rest I put on attack speed simply because of Irelia's Hitten Style. Not only does it provide you with awesome true damage, put PER HIT lifesteal. With this, not only in jungling faster, but your late game has more power into it.

Of course, I realize that many junglers go with armpen red, AS/armpen quint, armor yellow, and mr blue. I haven't tested this out yet, so I'm not sure if it would work. I've also seen video (though outdated) with ALL AS RUNES, but i haven't tried that either.

Simply, I try to maximize damage to hurry up with the jungling, and get regular 9 Utility for Exp gain and 15% extra buff time.

PLEASE READ !!!!!!

there is a very big population of irelia players that go for offtanky dps burst. Emphasis on offtanky. Rather than maximizing damage, they stack hp and get atma, along with banshees, fon, omens, etc. Great build, especially with her lifesteal and ult, makes irelia almost unkillable. However, looking at her skills, I thought she would be a perfect dps carry, too. Her lvl 5 W is almost like a stonger version of a free Bloodthirster, given the 75 true damage and per hit lifesteal. Her Q and E make her burst extremely powerful, and her ult gives her survivability that a lot of other glass cannons like Master Yi can't hope to have.

1. Start with standard cloth and 5 pots. No change there.
2. Finish Bloodrazor as fast as you can, to make your jungling much faster. (route described later)
3. From here, the combination of Wriggle's, Sheen, and Boots/Merc differ. Grab whichever you want, depending on situation. (I try to get boots then Sheen to make my ganks more powerful)
***Sometimes I switch Merc's for zerker when opposing CC is low, or focused on Suppress. Afterall, in teamfight's u already have 40% reduction on all CC
4. Sometimes, I even finish Trinity Force before Wriggle's. This happens when I find my W lifesteal to be enough.
5. Phantom
6. Atma before Warmog (esp. if I didn't skip Wriggles) Simply because of the nice damage,and Crit with Phantom is awesome. Also, the armor with wriggle's is usually enough. If not, I'm dying alot, I MIGHT get warmog's first.
7. If you get here, you can trade your boots for phantom. (only trade mercs if you aren't getting CC'd much)
OR *sell Wriggle's for Madreds razor


ALTERNATE

1-4. Always the Same
5. I've tried getting two Phantom Dancers right after another. This got my movement speed to soaring heights, and my W passive became godly, and my crit/dps was awesome.
6. Afterwards, i get an Infinity Edge, bringing my crit rate up to 90+


ALTERNATE 2

1-4. Same same same
5. After one phantom, I could get an Infinity Edge, skipping the second phantom dancer.

**with both of these alternatives, 6th items is your choice depending on situation. Could go for survivability, such as Banshee, Omen, FoN, Warmog, etc. Could stack even MORE damage and get bloodthirster. Of course, the game would most likely be over by then, or you will be uber fed

ALTERNATE 3

1-4. Same
Afterwards, if your team if mostly squishy and want you as an offtank, select choice of Omens, Banshee, or FoN. Maybe all ;]

Her W must be maxed as soon as possible for better jungling. Also gives tremendous damage at reaching lvl 5, 7, and 9 with the 45, 60, and 75 true damage. the 75 true damage almost doubles your base damage, and sometimes more than doubles depending on how much armor the opponent has. (ex. Rammus's defense ball)

E is next because of the CC helps with ganks.


Grab ult whenever possible for survivability, farm, and chasing

Q is awesome, but the increase in damage is minimal per level. The CDR per level is great, but Equilibrium Strike is more important.

Smite... no **** your jungling..
Flash - Helps with ganks, escaping, overall one of the best skills

ALTERNATIVES
Ghost- same reasons as Flash. Depending on playstyle and situation, could be better or worse
Exhaust- Helps to chase, great for gankings when ur E isn't enough to kill
Ignite- Helpful.. but your bladesurge and ultimate should finish off enemies quick enuogh..

Okay, now to the main point of the guide.. JUNGLING!!

I've tried jungling a lot with Warwick (when i started) and then champs like Nocturne, Nunu, Amumu, and Gangplank. I realize theres a huge variety of other junglers, and I'll try them out eventually, just haven't got to it yet.

ROUTE 1 - against no enemy jungler (to lvl 6)

1. Golem (Smite)
2. Wraith
3. Wolf
4. Blue buff (Smite)
5. ENEMY wraith
6. ENEMY golem (Smite if you can)

---go to base and buy madreds

7. Golem
8. Red Buff (Smite if it was at CD at step 6.)
9. wraith
10. ENEMY wolf
11. ENEMY blue buff

This should in total, take about 6:50-7:05 minutes.



ROUTE 2 (against enemy jungler)

1-4. SAME
5. If you're hp is high enough and you are confident of winning a fight, venture to enemy wraith or golems and steal/ kill enemy if you can. Against fast junglers like Udyr or even Nunu, you probably won't find anything to steal.
6. Go back to base, buy vampiric scepter/pots that you can afford.
7. Golems
8. Red Buff
9. Wraith

OR before/after Step 6, you can go for ganks.


ALSO REMEBER--- if you want, gank during the middle of routes. Drawing fb or just a regular kill is worth delaying the extra 30 seconds

*sorry for lack of pictures or video. I'll make when i can^^ hopefully soon

Irelia is a great top soloer in lane, as well as a viable mid. However, there are always other better mid laners (leave to your ap carry). If there is another jungler, Irelia can easily solo top (and yes, with this build too. Just skip the wriggles..)

HOWEVER! I find Irelia to be a powerful jungler.. as mentioned before, her ganks are deadly, and jungling allows her to farm up very well. Yes, so do solo lanes, but jungling provides with easier access to buffs and ganks. Just like with champions like Nocturne, Irelia is great in both lane and jungle. All depends on playstyle. This guide is just to put out a different style of play. (I find that in much older patches Irelia had been more of a dps carry than offtank. oh well)


And before rating, please try it out more than half heartedly. Thanks!