Buy Irelia or Kennen for top lane? How is Irelia in this meta? Is she good in solo queue? Is she bad without farm? I am 1820 ELO but I rarely play top lane but now I want to dedicate my time to becoming a much stronger top laner.

Kennen is a great mid, but I would suggest Irelia for the solo top role.

Kennen. For one he never loses his lane if you're any good with him. There is no second point. That was it.

If you are sure you only want to solo top, I would go with Irelia. However, Kennen can play solo top, AP mid, or AD bottom all with a high level of success and therefore is a better champ if you want to be able to switch roles.

Irelia is a bit weak early but after a few levels she's is just an immovable object in lane. Kennen in pretty versatile in where you want to send him.

They are both pretty different so its just more about whose playstyle you prefer.

Kennen is the boss master of any lane he harasses like nobody's business. Get one of each skill by level 3 and attack enough so your next attack has the mark of the storm buff on it. Use E to get close going straight through creeps, auto attack giving one mark, toss out a shuriken (q), then use W to give them that final mark and they're stunned! Auto attack once more and if they back off try to land one more Q or if they come at you just hide behind your creeps, with this combo you can take down 1/6-1/4 of most champs health or more if you get that second Q off. The key is timing it so your auto has the mark of the storm buff.

Once they over extend you can go into W mode AND FLASH while still in W mode end up right on their head and bob is your grandfather FIRSTBLOOD ^^

And the biggest bonus? KENNEN HAS NO MANA!!! You can mash face around every 15 seconds and make everyone QQ.

Q is also really good for last hits because it has a redic low c/d amount and low energy cost.

kennen is a bit better for team enages. irelia is better from 1v1 and ganks. personally, i say go with kennen

Depends on your play style really. Do you like ap range casters or ad melee fighters? Irelia can be built either tanky dps, or attack speed with lifesteal. Kennen can go straight ap, or tank Kennen, or even ad Kennen (I suggest not ad kennen until you play several games with ap kennen first).

Both have really good farming capabilities, both have gap closers, both have stuns (Kennen has better stun potential though). Irelia has sustain right away though with her Hiten Style (true damage if you activate it for massive damage early on if you decide to trade auto attack blows). Kennen can easily get sustain with hextech revolver.

I can keep the list going and going, but really it just boils down to your play style: Do you like to rush into a team fight and cc them down while doing lots of magic damage? Or do you like to jump on the squishy champ and/or be able to do 1v3s (or higher) and be able to soak up a lot of damage?

For solo top play Irelia, this is how you play her

Buy Wriggles
Win Lane
Buy Triforce
Win Game

Relia all the way, Kennen is good, Requires more skill but Relia is just nasty if you get good with her.