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Jayce Build Guide by Kitten Milk

Middle A Comprehensive Guide to Mid Jayce (Updated for Season 4!)

Middle A Comprehensive Guide to Mid Jayce (Updated for Season 4!)

Updated on February 21, 2014
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Kitten Milk Build Guide By Kitten Milk 11 1 384,744 Views 18 Comments
11 1 384,744 Views 18 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Kitten Milk Jayce Build Guide By Kitten Milk Updated on February 21, 2014
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Introduction


Welcome to the definitive Mobafire Mid Jayce Guide. If you choose to play mid Jayce (good choice, by the way), you'll probably get lots of comments like "lol noob Jayce is top". After trying this build out, though, you can just give them a little ":)" and proceed to be the most important member on the entire team. Mid Jayce is extremely good and is a great counter to AP champs and mages alike. His kit gives him a crazy amount of utility and damage, and his tendency to roam as well as his linear poke makes him a great choice for mid.

It's interesting to note that Jayce mid isn't that foreign to high ELO players - although it isn't seen as much now as it used to be. So, let's dive right in and see what's up with this awesome, versatile champ.
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Pros / Cons


PROS
+Amazing, long range poke with Acceleration Gate and Shock Blast
+Arguably the best AS buff in the game with Hyper Charge
+Great team utility with CC in the form of To The Skies!, Thundering Blow and Acceleration Gate
+Amazing waveclear
+Has great burst on top of poke, unlike champs like Nidalee
+Good diving potential
+Stands out in mid lane as a very fast turret-taker-downer
+Extremely mobile due to Hextech Capacitor and Acceleration Gate

CONS-
-Fairly squishy
-Goes OOM frequently early-game before Tear
-Relies partly on skill-shots
-Required to go into melee range to pull off full combo
-No built-in sustain
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Runes and Masteries


Runes

Precision
Fleet Footwork
Phase Rush

The runes for Jayce Mid are fairly self explanatory. Armour and Mage Resist Glyphs/Seals give you more staying power in lane whether against an assassin or an AP champ, and also give you more tank later in game. Flat AD marks as well as the AD quint give you a sharp power boost early game when you need it, and the lifesteal quints give you awesome sustain, especially when paired with a Doran's Blade.
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Items


The items you build on Jayce are very important, and they're very different from items you might see on most ADs, and especially different from those you'd see on most mid champions. I'll be highlighting the uses of various core items in this section as well as displaying some other options.

Starting items




Longsword three health pot is the optimal start for season four Jayce. In Season three, I would have recommended a Doran's blade, but it's not as good now. The reduced sustain and AD makes it not as worth it, even with the reduced price. Moreover, Jayce builds so many things early from longswords that picking up one early means you'll get your important items that much faster.

Core Items


Tear of the Goddess/Manamune/Muramana

--- ---
These items are incredibly important for the Spell-Based AD champ that Jayce is. You want to buy your Tear of the Goddess on your first back, no questions asked, and you need to start stacking it immediately. It's always worth it to stack your tear at base and while you're roaming around if you have enough mana. You can effectively stack it with skills like Acceleration Gate, Shock Blast, Lightning Field, and Hyper Charge. Unfortunately your Tear of the Goddess no longer stacks by your ultimate, so it will take a little bit longer, meaning that you should stack it whenever possible.

Remember as well that your Melee Form Abilities use far less mana - and more importantly your Lightning Field gives you mana on each Melee Basic attack, so feel free to farm in melee form and spam your abilities if you're in a free lane.

Once you have your Muramana, be sure to activate it when in team fights. A good way to get some quick damage against a single champion is to toggle Muramana and Hyper Charge them, as it is a single target ability.

Brutalizer / Black Cleaver

---
The next thing you'll want to rush as Jayce is your The Brutalizer. It gives amazing stats to Jayce, providing him not only with some flat AD but much-needed CDR to pull of his combo and APen to counteract the measly Cloth Armor that your scared AP lane opponent bought after you killed them three times. You don't really need to upgrade to Black Cleaver right away, but you can snatch it before you finish Bloodthirster if desired.


Booties

--- ---

You're going to pick up Ionian Boots of Lucidity around 80-90% of all the games you play. The amazing CDR is just too good on Jayce to pass up, and you will easily reach 30+% CDR in your final build. However, it's always important to analyze your situation. If you're struggling against a lane or a team with heavy CC, like perhaps a Fiddlesticks, Mercury's Treads are very worth it to dominate your lane as well as provide some MR. Finally, Ninja Tabi are worth it if you're against another AD champion in lane or their team just has a lot of AA/AD based damage.

Berserker's Greaves aren't great, as when Jayce is in the range to auto-attack he should either be using Hyper Charge (which renders AS irrelevant) or be jumping onto the enemy champion to melee them after using Hyper Charge. In either case, AS isn't the best stat to build, especially in the boot slot.

Great Options


-- Last Whisper is necessary if your opponents start building armor (which they should). Between Last Whisper and Black Cleaver as well as Mercury Cannon, you should be able to shred through quite a lot of armor. You should get this either after or before Bloodthirster depending on whether they start building armor early.
-- -- Bloodthirster will sometimes be your fourth item on Jayce - the lifesteal gives him great sustain and it's not too hard to build up. Infinity Edge is a great 6th item as well if you don't need a defensive item, as it gives you a lot more AD as well as some powerful crits. It's much preferred to build damage over straight Attack Speed or Crit Chance, as Jayce in general is more about the abilities than the Auto-Attacks.

-- Guardian Angel is a very useful 6th item on Jayce, as it provides strong defenses as well as giving you a second wind. You will be focused down because you're so damn scary, so it can be useful late game to double your carnage and double the fun.


-- Maw of Malmortius is amazing if there's a lot of straight AP on the opponent's team. You can even rush an early hexdrinker after The Brutalizer to help you out in the mid-game. It gives you some nice offensive stats as well, which is always useful.

-- Spirit of the Elder Lizard seems like a very good alternative to brutalizer as a second item after tear, but I need to investigate it a bit more. Here's why it would be good.

Extra damage from the burn is massive for Jayce's poke and autoattacks. He can farm wraiths over wall and get free sustain as well as gold. More gold = more happy Jayce. Extra AD is nice, too.
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Spells


Ah, spells. Spells are what make Jayce the awesome Champ and the awesome Mid-Laner that he is. This section will discuss each spell and its various merits and uses, as well as discuss some possible combos that you can chain together.

Hextech Capacitor

- In essence, Jayce's passive is basically just an extention of the definition of his ultimate. It is still a very useful passive, though.
- When you don't expect to be in combat, such as when you're running from base to your lane, you're going to want to spam your Hextech Capacitor by pressing R whenever the CDR allows you to. This will give you increased movement speed, allowing you to get back to your lane faster than your opponent, therefore giving you more farm, more xp, and more yay.
- Right when leaving your base, use Acceleration Gate + Hextech Capacitor to put a stack on your Tear of the Goddess as well as give you a major movement speed buff.
- When escaping from an unfavorable engagement, Hextech Capacitor gives you a nice speed buff to outrun your opponent. It can be used in conjunction with other skills to get away safely, which you can read more about at the end of this section.

Shock Blast

- Shock Blast is definitively Jayce's most recognizable skill. It is a skillshot with a moderately large range and blast radius (which is amplified with Acceleration Gate, but we'll get into that later).
- Shock Blast is great for clearing out minion waves. At around the point you start building your brutalizer, you should be able to take out the three mages in the back with one Shock Blast
- Shock Blast should be used for early harass in lane in conjunction with auto-attacks. Try and conserve it, though, because running OOM early is a big problem.
- Shock Blast also illuminates bushes or the Fog of War. Use it with great impunity to reveal things like Baron, Dragon, Jungle Camps, and just to scout a bush.

Hyper Charge

- Hyper Charge is considered by some to be the best Attack Speed steroid in the game. It increases your AS for the next three attacks to the maximum 2.5. This spell is much more useful than people give it credit for, because they see the bad early AD scaling and are turned off. If you max it early, you get amazing potential to knock down turrets fast as well as increased waveclear and good harass on lower-ranged opponents.
- Hyper Charge is much more spammable due to its low mana cost. Use it when clearing a jungle camp, pushing a lane or doing Dragon/Baron as often as you can to speed up the process.
- Hyper Charge procs on-hit effects and is a single-target spell, meaning that it has great synergy with Muramana
- Hyper Charge can work in hammer form too! (and very effectively). Activate Hyper Charge in cannon form, switch to hammer form and To The Skies!, and proceed to rapidly whack them with a large stick. In all seriousness, this is really useful because the attack animation in hammer form seems faster (I think). More importantly, it places you close to your opponent while still doing massive damage, and lets you follow up with a (Flash) Thundering Blow

Acceleration Gate

- Acceleration Gate is Jayce's range form E. It creates a gate that you or other allies can run through to boost your speed. Furthermore, casting a Shock Blast through Acceleration Gate will increase the blast radius, damage, and projectile range by 40%.
- Acceleration Gate and Shock Blast should be used to constantly harass your lane matchup or poke from a distance in team fights. You should be wary of the high mana costs early game before you get tear though.
- When doing the Acceleration Blast combo, you should always cast your Shock Blast before your Acceleration Gate. This gives your opponent less time to react. It might take a while to get the hang of, but it's worth learning.
- There are two ways to do the Acceleration Blast combo. The first, which is more useful in the laning phase, is to aim directly at the point you want to hit and smartcast your Shock Blast followed by Acceleration Gate. The second, more suitable for dangerous teamfight situations, is to cast your Shock Blast and then cast your Acceleration Gate right on top of you, as this will give you an escape method in case they decide to focus you.

To the Skies!

- To The Skies! is a great Gap Closer. It also slows down the enemy, meaning that it's much easier to land Jayce's skillshots and prevent enemies from escaping.
- To The Skies! is a great engagement skill for ganks, as it allows your jungler to get in the action while your opponent is slowed.
- To The Skies! is probably Jayce's most potent waveclearing ability, and can easily take giant waves of 30+ minions out in a very short period of time.
- Refrain from switching into melee form and using To The Skies! too much at Level 1, as it doesn't do too much damage and puts you painfully close to your enemy.

Lightning Field

- Lightning Field gets much, much more flak than it deserves. It scales on AP, but actually does quite a bit of damage even if you don't invest in it.
- Lightning Field is great for wave-clear - at max level it can easily finish off the minions that To The Skies! didn't while you attack the cannon minions.
- Always activate Lightning Field after attacking an opponent with To The Skies!, as it does quite a lot of damage as well as being generally scary and distracting
- As it has a fairly low mana cost, don't hesitate to spam Lightning Field whenever possible to stack up your tear.
- Lightning Field includes a passive mana regeneration on-hit while in hammer form, which is very useful for increased sustain and tear charging.

Thundering Blow

- Thundering Blow is effective for flat percentage damage, but it also has a very useful knock-back. You can catch unsuspecting enemies and knock them into your turret or just knock them back into your team mates
- Thundering Blow can also knock people over walls. Although it's hard to pull off, it's a ridiculously gratifying feeling.
- If you need some help escaping, use Thundering Blow on your opponent to knock them back as you run away.
---

Mercury Cannon - - - Mercury Hammer

- The effects on Jayce's ult depend on which weapon you switch into. Mercury Hammer gives you bonus magic damage on the first hit and increased defensive stats when switching into it, and Mercury Cannon gives you a first hit armor and MR shred.
- In general, these effects are more of a nice bonus and extra burst than actual planned tactics. There's not much to say about them.

Combos


Jayce thrives on combos. It is one of the things that make him as fun to play as he is, and you should learn and practice his combos before attempting to play him in a ranked game.

1. The Q-E (OR IS IT E-Q? [dun dun dun])

~~ + ~~

While in the Mercury Cannon form, Jayce's main source of damage is the Q-E combo. The basic idea is that you cast a Shock Blast and then an Acceleration Gate, which the Shock Blast passes through. This gives the Shock Blast bonus range, blast radius, and damage, and is effective for both waveclear and heavy harass/poke on enemy champs.

2. ESCAPE!

~~ + + ~~ (or reversed)

If you end up against something you can't or don't feel like fighting, you need to get out of there. Luckily for you, Jayce's kit is perfect for just this. Acceleration Gate and Hextech Capacitor give you a massive speed boost that lets you get a major movement speed buff that will allow you to outpace most enemies. If you are still being chased, however, you can hit them with Thundering Blow, knocking them back and giving them a dent in their skull that may make them reconsider chasing you. This should easily give you enough time to escape.

3. Standard Full Combo of Death

~~ + + + + + + + + + ~~

If anything manages to survive this, they're clearly cheating. The standard combo opens with an Acceleration Gate + Shock Blast, weakening your opponent and giving you a movement speed buff to run through and continue the combo. You follow up by switching to the hammer and unleashing all three of your abilities to further destroy their health bar, and then switch back to the cannon to finish them off with Hyper Charge, another Shock Blast, and maybe even Ignite.

4. Kitten Milk's Super Saucy Alternate Combo of Death

~~ + + run behind them + + + + + +

In this super secret combo that you now know (you're welcome), you actually open with melee form. This allows you to slow them down, do damage, run behind them and knock them back towards your turret. At this point, you have plenty of time and damage to switch into the cannon, shred their Armor and MR with Hyper Charge, and finish them off with a well-timed Ignite and Acceleration Gate + Shock Blast.

5. Alternate #3 - the Ultimate 1v1 combo in lane

~~ + + (Don't actually auto-attack, just press W) + + + Hyper Charged AutoAttacks + + +

This is an absolutely amazing combo when you're committing to an all-in. By using your Hyper Charged autoattacks in hammer form, you reduce the time the combo takes, increase the amount of time they're in Lightning Field, and it's much harder to flash from for your opponent. (if you do the AAs in cannon form and they are scared of a finish, they'll flash away and you'll be stuck unless you follow. Because the slow from To The Skies! is applied before they have a chance to really flash and you're closer to them, it's easier to catch up and finish them off). Also, the damage generally takes people by surprise.

There are many more situational combos involving Flash, and just general 1v1 matchups in which a certain combo would fare better than the ones listed. Be inventive, and try new things and who knows - you might find a super secret saucy combo of your own.
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Skill Sequence


Skill sequence is rather a matter of contention between a lot of Jayce players, and a lot of it comes down to personal preference and situational decisions depending on your lane. There are three main ability sequences to follow, the first of which is the one I use most often.
Ability Sequence
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

This ability sequence maxes Q first (which is imperative) and focuses on W second. Most people like to max E second, but I find W to be superior. When maxing E, all you get is increased damage on your Thundering Blow in the way of percent damage. However, these skills mostly come in handy when vsing an opponent. In contrast, maxing W first gets you increased damage and waveclear with your Hyper Charge, but more importantly it lets you take down objectives like jungle camps, dragon, baron, and turrets much much faster. Jayce becomes much more of an effective splitpusher when his w takes out 1/3 of the turrets health. Furthermore, your Lightning Field gets a major damage buff as well as its passive mana regeneration increasing, giving you more sustain and an easier time charging your tear. You might wonder why R isn't leveled up at 6/11/16 as well. This is because leveling up Jayce's R just isn't as useful as leveling up his other skills. It merely amplifies the passive when changing stance, and isn't worth the point.
Ability Sequence
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

This is the standard Jayce skill sequence, which gives you higher percent damage onyour Thundering Blow and reduced cooldown on your Acceleration Gate. I mean, if you want to be BORING go ahead with this sequence ;) Honestly though, maxing E may be preferable on certain matchups - especially ones where your opponent is stacking health. If I'm against something like a Cho'gath, I'll max E first. It should be noted that this skill sequence does level up R at 6/11/16, which I still don't agree with, but I thought it was worth putting in purely because it is the mainly played skill order.


In conclusion, you can really chose whatever skill sequence fits your personal playstyle and the lane that you're in. Try them all out, but don't be stuck into any personal one - as it will change from game to game.
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Jungle Camps, Roaming, and the importance of Blue Buff

ROAMING/GANKING


Jayce is a very, very mobile champ with Hextech Capacitor and Acceleration Gate. Furthermore, he has tremendous gank potential with his high damage, team speed buff, as well as his CC with To The Skies! and Thundering Blow. You should always be looking to roam top or bot for some kills/assists, especially when you've pushed your lane and the other lanes are pushed towards you.

When ganking as Jayce, you'll want to run straight in. Because of your various speed buffs, you can get to people in lane if they're pushed far enough up even if they do have a ward in the river, as long as it isn't too far down. Make sure to ping that you're coming so your teammates can engage right before you get there. Once in lane, go into hammer stance immediately and To The Skies! onto the highest priority target. Then, run behind them and Thundering Blow them towards your team. If there is any chance that they have enough health to continue running away, run ahead of them and poke back with auto attacks and Shock Blast until they die.

If your gank is successful, which it should be, remember to pay attention to the other lanes and decide whether it's worth staying to help push down a tower in the lane. If your own lane partner is still mia, you can help push, but if they see you bottom and are pushing in towards your tower, it's much better to go defend it than it is to stay and push down bot tower three seconds faster.

JUNGLE CAMPS



It's important on any mid laner to be farming your own and your opponent's wraiths (and sometimes wolves), and Jayce is exceptional at clearing these camps. In general, you should shoot a Shock Blast into the wraith camp and then follow around it for a To The Skies!, which should kill all of the little wraiths, the big wraith following soon after.

A handy, Jayce-specific trick for taking the opponent's wraiths is to merely Shock Blast + Acceleration Gate into the Wraith camp. If aimed correctly, this can take out all three of the little wraiths, and doesn't even require your lane opponent to be losing or MIA. This should kill the wraiths unless you are below level seven or severly underfarmed/have fed.

Finally, when clearing jungle camps such as buffs and golems, you can jump over the walls if you time it correctly. Shoot a Shock Blast and immediately switch into your Hammer form and spam To The Skies! on the place where the buff will appear. If timed correctly, you will jump over the wall. This is also useful as an escape trick

BLUE BUFF



Make sure you communicate to the jungler that you need a blue buff. A lot of junglers will not be used to seeing Jayce mid, and probably have never played him in either lane, so they won't realize how centered he is around Mana Regeneration and CDR. Even though Season 4 decreased the CDR efficiency of Blue Buff from 20% to 10%, it's still a very useful thing to have.
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Lane Matchups

- Difficulty 9/10
Ahri was possibly one of the most annoying champions for Mid Jayce to face before her minor charm rework, and now is even more annoying. The fact is is that Jayce is going to take some Charms sooner or later, and it's unavoidable. This is for a couple of reasons. The first of which is that Jayce's main poke/source of damage is in on a predictable, linear scale and can not be cast through minions, similar to Ahri's charm. This means that unless you are playing extremely far back, getting in position to land an Accelerated Shock Blast will also put you in position for getting hit by a charm. Secondly, if you try and To The Skies! the Ahri, she can guaranteedly hit her charm on you even before you get the damage off by Charming in your direction. Finally, after she hits 6, she gets an even larger edge on you. Not only does her ult give her extreme mobility, which Jayce hates, but it also lets her dodge basically all of your skill shots and gives her more chance to land that all-important charm. If you are playing against Ahri, I would suggest only trading with her after she's used her charm and missed it. Furthermore, you should focus mainly on farming and roaming. Ward both sides of your lane, buy an early Hexdrinker, and hope for the best.

- Difficulty 6.5/10

Akali is quite easy to handle before 6. You can continuously poke her with autoattacks and Shock Blast while only taking a small amount of poke from her Mark of the Assassin You aren't completely shut down by her Twilight Shroud either, as you can just throw a Shock Blast in or even just jump in with a To The Skies! if she reveals herself and activate your Lightning Field, which at early levels isn't the most fun thing to take constant damage from. However, after level 6, Akali becomes annoying and scary. Like most champions with multiple gap closers, she can stick onto Jayce even after you Thundering Blow her back by simply reactivating her Shadow Dance. Play safe, poke continuously, and try not to let her snowball. This lane is certainly winnable, especially if you can get a kill early on, but it does require some care.

- Difficulty 3/10

- Anivia really doesn't have a whole lot to do much to Jayce with. Her Flash Frost is very easy to dodge, and before 6 she has practically no pushing potential. Try and bully her constantly, and if you see a chance to kill her and pop her egg, don't hesitate. Although Jayce is quite bursty, he also has a lot of sustained damage because of his low cooldowns and naturally strong auto-attacks, so her Rebirth won't really matter, as you can simply kill her twice most of the time. A fairly simple lane.

- Difficulty 6/10

- Annie counters Jayce a bit more than most bursty AP champs purely because she isn't as immediately susceptible to his burst and his range. Early on, her autoattacks and Disintegrates will do quite a lot of damage, and you should try and stay back, poke her a bit, and farm up. Be constantly aware of her Pyromania stacks, and try and go in when she has only 0 or 1. As the game progresses, you're going to want to pick up a Hexdrinker. At this point, if you've been farming well and haven't been killed, you can usually out-duel an Annie. Although she has high burst, she doesn't really have any way to get away from you if it doesn't outright kill you, meaning that it's usually pretty easy to just mop her up.

- Difficulty 5/10
- Brand is sort of a more finicky, higher skill-cap Annie. so you want to deal with him in a similar way. If you can dodge his stuns, which should be pretty easy with your high mobility, you can usually get onto him and drop him fairly quickly, as he doesn't have innate mobility. As always, be conscious of his burst and build a Hexdrinker if you're getting too far behind.

- Difficulty 3/10
- Cassiopeia's skills are fairly easy to dodge. Try and bait out a lot of her damage or wait until she uses her skills to farm, and then jump on her. Like other mid champions, she doesn't have high mobility and has no escape methods outside of her Petrifying Gaze, so feel free to whale on her if you get the chance.

- Difficulty 4/10
- Cho'Gath is just annoying, and fortunately rare. It's pretty easy to dodge his Rupture and Feral Scream, although if the Cho'Gath is skilled he'll cast them on himself when you To The Skies! onto him. Just try and constantly poke him down, punish him for taking CS, and go in for the kill if he gets low enough. Against Cho'Gath, I recommend getting at least a couple of early points in E before maxing W second, as his HP stacking can be quite annoying.

- Difficulty 4/10
- Although Diana's ult does give her multiple jumps and high mobility, like Akali, she is significantly less annoying. She can be easily poked/bursted down low game, and her dependence on mana and lack of burst makes her much less of an immediate threat than Akali. However, she is still very scary when fed, so don't get overconfident. Try and bait out her Pale Cascade before all-ining her.

- Difficulty 5/10
- Elise is potentially annoying, but Jayce's high damage can usually outburst his spidery form-changing cousin. Be careful not to take too many Cocoons, and be wary of jungler activity. Try and push and out-farm Elise, and punish her if she goes into her spider form to farm. Go for quick trades rather than long, drawn-out fights.

- Difficulty 3.5/10
- Fiddlesticks epitomizes annoying, and his Reap and Terrify can stop your burst short. However, his main source of damage and recovery, Bountiful Harvest is easily interrupted by Thundering Blow, making him offensively ineffective and unable to sustain as much as he usually does. Poke him early game outside of the range of his Reap and go in on him if he drains a minion. Get Mercury's Treads early on, and be constantly mindful of his ult and jungler activity. Vision is key in this lane.

- Difficulty 3/10
- Jayce is actually quite an effective counter to Fizz. EArly on, you can make his laning phase hell with constant pokes. You will win trades if he tries to in on you early, although you should wait until he uses his Playful / Trickster before you To The Skies!, as it is avoidable. After he hits 6 and gets his Lich Bane he is significantly more scary, but if you shut him down properly early game he still shouldn't be too big of a threat. Remember to keep tabs on his position at all times, as a good Fizz will constantly try and roam.

- Difficulty 1.5/10
- Poor Gragas. Early game will be absolute hell for the chubby drunkard, as you can constantly poke and outtrade him. Especially with the recent Barrel Roll range nerfs, you can constantly avoid his own poke and punish him in return. If he tries to on in you, you can simply slow him and knock him back. This anti-mage doesn't have a chance against Jayce.

- Difficulty 3/10
- The new Heimerdinger is certainly an UPGRADE! from the new one, but it still doesn't fair well against Jayce. As the game progresses, you can easily demolish his turrets with a Shock Blast or just plain auto-attacks, nullifying most of his damage and gaining some extra gold for yourself in the process. His other two skills are hard to aim and even harder to aim on a high-mobility champion like Jayce. Heimerdinger doesn't have any mobility whatsoever, so feel free to go all in on him as soon as you destroy his turrets.

- Difficulty 2/10
- Not much to say here. It's a Karthus. Very low mobility, easy to kill, easy to dodge exploding potatoes. Try and deny farm and be mindful of Requiem at all times, even when Karthus is dead ;).

- Difficulty 2.5/10-
- Jayce is actually an amazing, amazing Kassadin counter, which is all the more pertinent given Kassadin's moment in the spotlight as the best mid laner. Early on, you should be aiming to constantly deny and punish Kassadin with Shock Blast and auto-attacks. If Kassadin doesn't respect Jayce's lane dominance and doesn't stay back farming with Null Sphere, Jayce can easily kill him. After 6, Kassadin becoems slightly more annoying but should still be pretty easy to outtrade and shut down. Remember to activate your Hyper Charge and shot a Shock Blast before his Null Sphere hits you, as you can get off a ton of damage even while silenced and continue your burst after the fact. As always, be mindful that dash/blink moves like Riftwalk can dodge your To The Skies!

- Difficulty 1.5/10
- Katarina gets countered so hard by Jayce it really isn't fair. Like other melee champs, focus on poking her early game, as your poke will far outdamage her Bouncing Blades. If she tries to go in you will easily outtrade and kill her. Once she hits 6, she is no more threatening, as her Death Lotus can be interrupted by your Thundering Blow. Just remember not to waste your Mercury Cannon CD too much and you should easily dominate this lane.

- Difficulty 7.5/10
- LeBlanc is quite challenging to fight. She has multiple gap-closing moves, a Silence, and just a whole lot of burst. Furthermore, she can dodge most of your moves with her Distortion. Try and dodge her Ethereal Chains and play safe, buying a Hexdrinker and focusing on farm. Remember that if her burst doesn't kill you or you manage to dodge it, you can go in and deal a lot of damage to her in return, as she has very little sustained damage.

- Difficulty 4/10
- Lux is annoying and hard to kill, but all of her damage is in the form of easily dodge-able skillshots. Try and bait out her Light Binding before you To The Skies!, as she can hit it every time if you don't. Outfarm her and go in when she wastes her moves or is low mana, and you should be able to win with little difficulty.

- Difficulty 3/10
- Very similar to Lux, just with a less effective shield vs Jayce. Dodge her Dark Binding, don't To The Skies! unless she's already used it, and harass her with auto-attacks, which will ignore her Black Shield.

- Difficulty 4/10
- If Nidalee wants to hit you with her Javelin Toss, she'll be forced to be susceptible to the much-harder-to-dodge Accelerated Shock Blast. Unlike her spears, your Shock Blast still destroys her at close combat, even more so after the recent 3.14 Nidalee nerfs. If she puts herself in range of To The Skies!, go in for it, as she can do very little damage close range and you can knock her back with Thundering Blow. Try not to step on her Bushwhack, and if you do, don't trade with her.

- Difficulty 3.5/10
- Orianna can be traded with pretty evenly throughout early and mid game. If you can dodge her damaging skills ( Command: Attack and Command: Dissonance), you should go in on her and punish her. After she hits six, be mindful of her ability to Command: Protect to bring the ball to herself followed by Command: Shockwave and Command: Dissonance to deal heavy damage and disrupt you when you're casting To The Skies!

- Difficulty 5/10

- Ryze is extremely ineffective against Jayce early on. You can easily outtrade him and you can still damage him while you're rooted with your Shock Blast and Hyper Charge. Once the root wears off, jump onto him with To The Skies! and proceed to outtrade him. However, once he starts to itemize with things like Frozen Heart or Iceborn Gauntlet, he becomes much harder to deal with. At this stage, though, laning phase should be over already.

- Difficulty 5/10

- Swain can be annoying, with his high sustain, decent burst, and ability to stop you in your tracks with Nevermove. Wait until he misses Nevermove to try and trade, and focus more on farming. Wait for jungle activity to try and kill him, as he does have very little built-in escapes outside of his Nevermove. Remember to use auto-attacks constantly while trading and use Ignite early in a long fight to nullify some of his health regeneration.

- Difficulty 4/10

- Similar to Brand. If you can dodge the stun from Syndra's Scatter the Weak, trade with her. Constantly poke, dodge her Dark Spheres, and be constantly mindful of her burst with her Unleashed Power. If she's not shut down early, building a Hexdrinker would be a great idea.

- Difficulty 4/10

- Similar to Akali in that he can be punished early and has a method of dashing straight to you. However, unlike Akali his Cutthroat is only usable once, so he can be knocked back with Thundering Blow. However, his Shadow Assault is much more annoying than Akali's Twilight Shroud as you can't randomly Shock Blast in and hope for the best. Pretty easy to shut down, but also not the easiest to kill after he hits level 6.

- Difficulty 4/10

- Teemo is annoying purely because your auto-attacks become useless after being hit by Blinding Dart. For this reason, you might want to max E second instead of W for the increased % damage on your Thundering Blow, as it will be more useful in trades than missed Hyper Charge shots. You still have a large amount of burst without your auto-attacks, and your poke with Accelerated Shock Blasts will easily chunk Teemo down. Mind the mushrooms, though.

- Difficulty 3/10

- Twisted Fate is pretty easy to lane against as Jayce. You can stay out of range of his Wild Cards and Pick A Card and chunk him down very quickly with Accelerated Shock Blasts. Because he has no real sustain or escape paths, he's very easy to destroy after his Pick A Card has been used. Make sure to ping when he hits six, and don't stay in lane if you're low and he has Destiny available.

- Difficulty 3/10

- Veigar is very ineffective against Jayce. His ultimate won't annihilate you, as you aren't an AP Champ, and once his Event Horizon is used he has no way to get away from Jayce, and can be easily punished. He has no mobility, so if he overextends it's your cue to destroy him.

- Difficulty 3/10

- Gravity Field and Death Ray are pretty easy to avoid, and you can take advantage of his high mana dependence and lack of sustain to constantly poke him down and force him out of lane. Don't be afraid to To The Skies! onto him if he Gravity Fields onto you and you're close enough. Don't jump in on him with To The Skies! if he still has Gravity Field up, however.

- Difficulty 4/10

- As you would do with all melee champions, poke Zed down early game before he gets lots of lifesteal. Try and dodge his Razor Shuriken and be mindful of his ability to switch to his Living Shadow, especially when you're using To The Skies!. Once he gets his lifesteal and his ult, play more carefully and wait until a good opportunity or jungle involvement to go all in on him.

- Difficulty 3.5/10

- All of Ziggs' abilities are very skill-shot oriented, and Jayce is a hard champion to hit with his mobility. Although his Satchel Charge offers him an escape, he can't use it fast enough usually to dodge your To The Skies!. Play offensively, especially when he uses his Satchel Charge or Hexplosive Minefield offensively or to clear waves. Mega Inferno Bomb should be fairly easy to dodge. Keep track of his roams, and let your team know when he hits level 6.

- Difficulty 5.5/10

- Zyra can be very annoying. Although her Grasping Roots and Deadly Bloom are fairly easy to dodge, her Rampant Growth plants are annoying as well as effective against Jayce. This is because they can be used defensively to block Shock Blast, and also make it much more dangerous to To The Skies! on Zyra because she can Deadly Bloom and Rampant Growth to turn the tables on you, perhaps even snaring you with Grasping Roots and knocking you up with Stranglethorns. Try and poke from a distance, and go in when she uses her skills, as she still lacks mobility. Also be mindful of her passive, Rise of the Thorns, so you don't give her a free kill after a close, but successful duel.
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When to play Mid Jayce?

In ranked games, it's always important to be mindful of the opponent's mid composition before autolocking any champion, and Jayce is no exception. In general, you're going to want to communicate to your team that you're going an AD mid champion so they can go an AP top or AP jungler. Note that this isn't completely necessary in season 4, especially if you have a bursty AP support like Annie - moreover, Jayce has a lot of inherent and built armour penetration, making armor stacking not quite as effective against him.

Jayce is certainly a very safe first pick - he matches up well against most mids, and if people try and counter your pick, they'll end up choosing a counter top.

Some Champions (but not limited to these) that work great with Jayce:

Sivir - ADC Sivir's On The Hunt plus your Acceleration Gate makes for great opportunities to chase or disengage.
Nidalee - Nidalee is a fantastic partner to Jayce as well - between them, their insane poke makes them a great siege comp.
Elise - Elise jungle makes ganks on mid lane extremely successful - just land a Cocoon, knock them back with Thundering Blow, and proceed to kill them. The same is true for other junglers with hard CC, like Nautilus, Sejuani, or Fiddlesticks.
Kayle, Zilean, Yorick, Lulu - Jayce's relatively low cooldowns mean that he is a very effective target for an ult that either lets him live twice, deal havoc from beyond the grave, or simply gives him more survivability. This allows him to jump straight into a teamfight rather than merely poking at the outside until it's over.
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Summary



Jayce is an amazing and deadly champion in the hands of an experienced player, and he is very effective in mid lane. With his amazing burst, unparalleled poke, and tremendous wave/objective clearing speed, he is effective against a majority of the common picks for mid. If you already own Jayce and have only tried him in Top Lane, you already know what a beast he can be so you should definitely try him out in mid :). If you don't own him, get that IP and get it quick <3.


Thank you very much for reading my first ever Mobafire Guide. Jayce is one of my mains, and I'm very proud to present a side of him that isn't often showcased. I hope you enjoy this guide and are able to look past my primitive use of code and learn something. I really enjoyed making this, and I hope to be a member of Mobafire in the months and years to come. Any and all feedback is appreciated, and I will be constantly updating this guide based on user feedback as well as my own changing opinions (also if I learn any new saucy combos ;)).

Thanks for reading!

~Kitten Milk
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