Is Irelia jungle better than top lane?

darkdill·Sep 5, 2014·2 votes·1,145 views

Honestly, I've found myself having more success as Irelia in the jungle rather than top lane. She can do everything adequately (farm, gank, invade, etc.), doesn't have a real vulnerability, and can adapt quickly if things go wrong. That, and even if she falls behind, she can go tanky and still be relevant. In top-lane, she gets countered easily, frequently has to deal with opponents who can outperform her in some way, etc.

So should we be using Irelia more as a jungler than a laner?

11 Comments

Daemion ZerimarSep 5, 20142 votes

Might just be really good luck

12talesSep 5, 20142 votes

As much as I love Irelia jungle, her god awful clear time, awkward itemization and difficult skill orders make it inideal, in my opinion. She lacks any particular synergy with any of the four jungle items, and you have to get pretty damn fed to actually complete a trinity force in time to be relevant.

So, although jungle Irelia is fun as hell, no - top Irelia is way, way, way better. Her vulnerabilities as a jungler are numerous and abusable.

ZhuganSep 5, 20141 votes

Well, she'd have a bit of a give and a take jungling. I imagine its not the safest clear early, but that would allow Irelia some really potent ganks against winning enemy lanes. She transitions into the right kind of items for a jungler too, which is a plus.

Probably her biggest weakness would be clear time compared to some of the faster junglers, but that likely wouldn't be too big an issue unless your mid laner is totally unwilling to help you in the jungle if you are getting counter jungled or ganked in the jungle.

That said, having Irelia as a jungler really downplays her best role (splitpushing) because she'll be slower to hit her power spikes without a whole lot of successful ganks. Although, again, she can be very good in team fights if played appropriately.

Very little of this comes as someone who has played Irelia, but from the perspective of a person who has laned against Irelia a whole lot on a wide variety of champions and so has seen lots of what is good and bad about her on the receiving end of her kit.

GanksLikeGast0nSep 5, 20141 votes

I too have had great success with Irelia in the jungle. Her clears are actually pretty decent and she can easily adapt at any point in the game she needs to. As for counter jungling, she is such a powerful duelist I have found that I can not only dissuade being counter jungled, but I can easily bully the enemy jungler more often than not.

12talesSep 5, 20141 votes

You can literally go blue->wolves and smite both of them. Her first clear is about twenty seconds short of 'decent.'

Lee Sin could go Red->Wraiths->Blue->her Red and she might not be there yet.

GanksLikeGast0nSep 5, 20141 votes

I don't know how you play irelia, but I am going to disagree with both of those statements entirely. The combination of AS/AD runes and offensive jungle masteries paired with hiten style and properly timed blade surges make for pretty ok clear times. Not the fastest, but definitely not slow. Additionally because of hiten style and her tendency to split push she abuses attack speed better than most champions. Given that wriggles/flare grants attack speed, AD and eventually magic damage it synergizes amazingly well with her kit, and grows with her as the game progresses, further increasing her late game potential. I also took a look at your lolking to see if you had a significant amount more experience with irelia than I do and notice that you appear to exclusively play bot matches. Now there is nothing wrong with that, however PVP and bots are RADICALLY different. Perhaps try her again as I described and see if it works better for you. It may just be a difference in play style as well.

12talesSep 6, 20141 votes

You could test her clear speed in a 1v0 custom game if you wanted to. With AS Quints, AD Marks and standard 21/9/0, she finishes Red->Wraiths->Blue at 3:27 or so. Compare to Lee Sin (3:15), Elise (3:12) or Evelynn (3:09). That's really slow, and it doesn't actually improve much because she lacks AoE damage.

Wriggle's doesn't have any particular synergy with any part of her kit except blade surge - she doesn't have any AS steroid, and her only ability that applies on-hit effects is on an ass cooldown. It gives attack speed, sure, but not enough to be amazingly synergistic with her W - with rank 5 Hiten Style, you're getting about 15 extra true damage per second from the AS. Nice, but no Master Yi.

Magic Damage has no synergy with her kit, although it doesn't really matter since you're not generally building penetration on irelia. Maybe ghostblade.

Also, I don't exaggerate when I say that I've literally spent hours optimizing jungle Irelia's itemization and jungle pathing. You can see some of my work here, if you like.

GanksLikeGast0nSep 6, 20141 votes

I will definitely look over that when I have time, thank you for providing it. As for the 1v0 I feel that is inaccurate as it doesn't account for leashing. I will also point out that lee sin has a notoriously fast initial clear due to his ability to Q-aaX2-Q(execute damage)-smite. The other jungles you pointed out are in a similar position, particularly Elise with her current health-ult-missing health-smite. And while it is good to compare with the top tier, champions are going to understandably come up short. As for comparing her true damage to master yi's, I prefer hers as it also comes with a s**t ton of sustain. Her ganks are also more reliable, and it is easier to shut down a yi. I am by no means saying she has an exceptionally fast clear time, or that she is best jungle NA. I am however saying that she is entirely viable and should not be discounted.

12talesSep 6, 20142 votes

I am by no means saying she has an exceptionally fast clear time, or that she is best jungle NA. I am however saying that she is entirely viable and should not be discounted.

I don't disagree. Lee Sin remains the most popular jungler by far, however, and lagging nearly fifteen seconds behind him has a lot of potential to end ugly. The OP claims that she lacks real vulnerabilities, which I believe her poor clear speed constitutes.

It's also worth mentioning that, not unlike Leona, Irelia's comparatively low GPM just powerfarming her jungle makes her somewhat reliant on ganks or global gold to maintain respectable income. Where yeah, a Yi is going to have a pretty hard time finding ganks, but he's still going to be relevant in the mid to late game if he can't pull any off.

GanksLikeGast0nSep 5, 20141 votes

I will say that I do agree with you that the newer trinity force irelia does not translate well into the jungle. However the season two/season three BORtK irelia does, and the AS sustained damage allows her to split push and quickly drop towers if need be. The cutlass/BORtK active also improves ganks as well with the additional slow.

GanksLikeGast0nSep 5, 20141 votes

Oh, and I have found she works best with feral flare. Even if it doesn't transform, the AD/AS synergizes amazing with her kit, and who doesn't like a free ward? And if it does transform you are now doing three types of damage, making it nigh impossible to itemize against. :P