Hi guys, my name is Fireaxe and i'll try to help you to play Irélia solo top. This guide is how to play her as a bruiser.
I've decided to do this guide because i saw a lot of bad or too old guides. Let me introduce myself: I have currently 1650 elo, and i'm playing Irélia since she was created. It's my first guide, so if you see some mistakes don't hesitate to comment it.

Pros:
- Very good Bruiser, if it's not the best.
- Good mid and end game.
- Snowball.
- Good regen.

Cons:
- Bad early, can be hard counter.
- Bad to protect your carries.

Irélia is a melee tanky/AD. She is extremelly well to focus the ennemies carries because of her passive and dash abilities.
Because of that, i play her with armor pen, armor, magic resist and attack speed.
Why ?
- red: Armor pen is more effective than AD in her, because she don't have many spell witch need it except Q and E.
- Yellow: You are a tank, so you need armor to top lane.
- Blue: Same than yellow, but it's for late game, when you'll tank in team fight.
- Quint: Irélia do a lot of AD with her W, witch ignore ennemies armor. And W's passive heal herself, one hit = 6 -> 13 hp and awesome dammages.

I use 9/14/7. It's simply because Irélia is a Bruiser, and she don't need dmg.

There are many builds items for Irélia. I'll explain first the most usual build and then differents possibilities.

Irélia's items change when she is versus an AD, an AP or a specific champion.
The first build is to play versus a traditionnal top, like GP, Warwick or Udyr.

- first, i choose boots with 3 potions. You can also buy armor and 5 potions. Versus an AP like vladimir, boots are more useful, like vs a distance like Nidalee.

- Irélia is strong in lane because she have a very good regen. To complet this ability, i buy a wriggle. Wriggle is good because Irélia have a bad early, and a good regen.

- Now i don't have any problem to play in my lane, i choose my boots rang 2 according to the ennemi top.

- Next item is Wit's end. Why ? With wriggle, you have armor, regen and dmg. With Wit's end you have magic resist and AS. And we saw that AS is very useful on her.

- You need HP, buy a frozen mallet. It's also possible to buy a Warmog, but Mallet's passive is really strong, and the Hp's bonus on warmog has been nerf.

- To complet mallet's and have many armor, buy an Atmas.

- To be a perfect bruiser, buy a force of nature.

- Finally, you can buy a Guardien Angel, or dmg. As you want, but remember you are here to tank, it depend of your team. If you are the only one who can tank, buy Angel, also you can buy Infinity edge.

Your are in a game where the botlane feed, a MF can 2 shoot your team ? Buy armor !
Your stuff: Hp + Armor (look at the second build).
The combo thornmail and Frozen heart is very good vs a AD carry.

A terrible Cassiopea is incoming, you need magic resist.

You have big problem vs a olaf or a Riven top ?
Irélia have a bad early, it's possible to lose a matchup. If you are in a very bad situation buy armor boots then wriggle. Now, there are a item to save you, Warden's Mail, because it's a excellent anti AD. You'll regen a lot, have many armor and dodge. After you can do a normal stuff, and end it with randuin's Omen.

A don't think there is specifique items vs a AP top. Do your best, and normaly you can win late game.

If you are on fire, and if you have many tanky allies, you can build like a DPS. It's very hard in teamfight, because if you jump likeAboss in the ennemis team, you'll die instantly. So, wait your team initiate and focus carries or the bruiser who focus you.

Ignit to burst, flash because it's a little bit cheat...
In team you can play with Teleport, but it's more difficult in lane.

It's possible to play with Ghost and Heal. If you are vs a malphite or a counter.

Notice that:
- You hate early charac on top.
- You like play with an other bruiser like udyr.
- You like when a ennemi carry can't jump/dash.
- You ****ing hate Akali, malphite and Olaf top!

When you play top, don't push. You have a bad early game, so if you can be safe under you turret, it's good. When you are 4, you can start to be more aggressive. Test your ennemi lane, but don't be greedy. Remember that you need to farm, and farm and farm. And then, buy the early stuff for destroy the top lane. With wriggle + boots rang 2, you can with vs a large majority of character.

Irélia must initiate the fight and dash on the ennemi carries. You are strong, you want to stop the carry, and then yours can be safe.
If you when strat a teamfight, you can do a double jump on the ennemi team. To do that, i must spotting a creep you can finish, dash on, he die so you can jump again on an ennemi.
Be carefull, if you didn't said you do that, your team can join you too late, and you'll die alone.