Can Irelia be a full tank? My friends need me to tank most of the time and I use Maokai jungle a lot, but the jungle can get a little old and boring. I know Irelia tends to build tanky, but how is she as a straight tank?

She's completely different than Maokai as Maokai tends to CC and back away, whereas Irelia has to go full dive and tank everything. But she definitely works. Just build Triforce/Wit's End and then pure tank.

Anyway, she really does need TriForce, but you get a lot more gold than in the jungle, so you'll be fine.

I once built tank Soraka because no one on my team wanted to do anything to counteract the other team getting fed. I just walked straight in and took hits for a few seconds while the rest of my team got into a good position and then joined the fight. We actually managed to win that game.

Point is that anyone can become a tank if you build the items. Some champions just have skills that lends themselves to being a tank (damage reduction, heals, etc.). Having said that, tank Irelia really does work. Once you have that trinity force, bladesurging to an enemy generally gets a reaction of "Oh s***!" The stun, true damage, and innate healing ability scare a lot of people, so they're more than happy to focus you.

Basically, tank Irelia works, and I've done it on several occasions. The only downfall (and major downfall at that) of tank Irelia is that she can't peel enemies off of teammates or support them. (Irelia's stun will often turn into a slow simply because the tank maintains a lot of hp while the enemy teams' drops.)

Irelia has one form of CC and its single target and unreliable. If the opponents have any brain in them, they'll just ignore you since you do almost nothing after your E.

There are much better options out there.

Irelia is supposed to dive carries, that's her skill set's best use.

Go malph or shen for more tankiness.