Firstly may I thank you for the time you have dedicated to reading this guide and hope you learn something from it.
Ironguard Contract is, in my opinion, one of the most misunderstood items in lowertiers and even at 'the hotness' it is rare to find a team mate in the solo queue that will fully utilise it. Ironguard Contract is an item that lays the foundations for the game and with the help of this guide your gold and experience economy and awareness will dramatically improve.

So what does Ironguard Contract actually do? It allows the weilder to earn 20 gold for every 5th hit they take from minions or monsters, gives +5 health regrneration and earns 20% bonus gold from any kills of monsters or minions your allies make. Put simply, you gain gold if your ally gets last hits on minions and you gain gold if you take damage from creeps.
This means that if the weilder of Ironguard Contract tanks the creeps but leaves last hits to their jungle ally they can clear the jungle faster (due to 2 heroes attacking one creep), while having the both of them gain gold due to the 20 gold for every 5 hits and bonus gold from being around your last hitting ally. Furthermore, the bonus health regeneration partially mitigates all the damage the wielder will be taking. This means your ally is on full health and ready to invade/repel invades in case of encounters with the enemy. Another bonus is that this method of farming makes sticking together in the jungle viable economy wise so if one enemy hero is encountered a quick 2v1 nets your team a bit of extra gold, or in a worse scenario, a fighting chance when against the enemy jungle duo.

But what about experience?! I here you cry! Well never fear, experience is split between heroes if they are in the vicinity of a kill so having the two of you stick together will not leave the weilder severely underleveled. However, as the split is not equal it is reccomended to do a bit of solo jungling or taking a few lasts hit for yourself in the early mid game. A good way of doing this is taking a few of the health minions when you begin to worry about your health.

As the Ironguard Contract costs only 250 gold you can buy 2 Scout Trap, 4 Halcyon Potion or 1, and 2 of each respectively. The initial choice allows for extra vision and protection from ganks while the second maximises your survivability. However, due to the cooldown on the Halcyon Potion and health regeneration of the Ironguard Contract i reccomend the final item choice. This allows for survival in the first encounter as well as a scout trap in your tribush or your lane bush, this allows for you to have warning of jungle invades or attempted ganks on your laner.

But now for the real reason I am writing this guide. As previously mentioned i reccomend one team member wields the Ironguard Contract, tanks creeps in the jungle, but allows their ally to take last hits. By now you should understand why this is optimal so please, at the start of the match see if one of your team mates bought it and if so stick with them and utilise this strategy, if not you should consider purchasing it for yourself. Bear in mind that you can sell it later, you do not have to upgrade it and if used properly it will quickly start netting you profit. Use this knowledge to understand why someone is annoyingly trying to beat you to camps or 'steal' your kills. STOP WITH THE '?' PINGS, THEY ARE PLAYING THE GAME PROPERLY.

In the lane:
Although reccomended for use in the jungle, Ironguard Contract can be used in the lane. While sitting in the lane bush you are close enough to qualify for bonus gold. This allows you to sacrifice a bit of farm time to aid your laner when they are struggling. A good example of this is how a Catherine can sit in the bush for 10 seconds before initiating with merciless pursuit.

Once again, thank you for reading and I hope I didn't ramble too much. See you in the fold ^.^