Jax Build Guide by BluAnimal

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my second MobaFire guide. This guide will be covering Jax, the Grandmaster at Arms, and in-depth advice on how to play him.


Credits to MobaFire for letting me host and create this guide.

Credits to Riot Games for creating a great game and a fun champion.

Credits to you, the reader, and anyone who +votes this guide up. :)

Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.

Pros / Cons

spaaaaaaace

Pros + Unrivaled late game potential + Amazing 1v1 duelist + Few counters + Great farmer with Grandmaster's Might + Uses both AP and AD, making him difficult to counter + Sexy voice and amazing skins ;D

space

space

Cons - Rough early game (before level 6 and/or lifesteal) - Vulnerable to CC - Champions like Kennen can zone him - Riot hates him :(

Masteries

Summoner's Wrath for the Ignite bonus or Exhaust bonus.

3/3 Brute Force for early farming and harassing.

4/4 Alacrity to scale with your passive and also get to Weapon Expertise .

1/1 Weapon Expertise for the armor pen. since we won't be using armor pen. items or runes.

4/4 Sorcery Jax loves his cool downs, especially on Empower.

1/1 Arcane Knowledge magic penetration, again because we lack magic pen. runes or items.

3/3 Vampirism to stack with your Greater Quintessence of Life Steal, Hextech Gunblade and Wriggle's Lantern if one chooses to build it.

3/3 Sunder Again more armor penetration, see Weapon Expertise .

1/1 Executioner is useful for finishing off low health champions, or tanks such as Shen. Although the usefulness of this is debatable when you're hitting hard already. For those who don't wanna waste a point on Executioner you can swap it for Summoner's Insight for the cooldown on your flash.


1/3 Resistance Free magic resistance against the occasional AP champion you may encounter.

3/3 Hardiness for all the AD champions you'll face in top lane.

4/4 Durability Woo! Free health per level, unlocks Veteran's Scars.

1/1 Veteran's Scars 30 bonus health at level 1. Increases survivability.


Summoner's Wrath for the Ghost bonus.

3/3 Brute Force for early farming and harassing.

4/4 Alacrity to scale with your passive and also get to Weapon Expertise .

1/1 Weapon Expertise for the armor pen. since we won't be using armor pen. items or runes.

4/4 Sorcery Jax loves his cool downs, especially on Empower.

1/1 Arcane Knowledge magic penetration, again because we lack magic pen. runes or items.

3/3 Vampirism to stack with your Greater Quintessence of Life Steal, Hextech Gunblade and Wriggle's Lantern if one chooses to build it.

3/3 Sunder Again more armor penetration, see Weapon Expertise .

1/1 Executioner is useful for finishing off low health champions, or tanks such as Shen. Although the usefulness of this is debatable when you're hitting hard already. For those who don't wanna waste a point on Executioner you can swap it for Summoner's Insight for the cooldown on your flash.


1/1 Summoner's Resolve for bonus gold on use of Smite.

3/3 Hardiness to increase durability against those neutral creeps.

2/2 Tough Skin more durability against those neutral creeps, unlocks bladed armor.

1/1 Bladed Armor Ah... I have a love/hate with this mastery... I love the fact that it allows me to clear the jungle faster, especially the first run through. But when it comes to giving away my blue buff to my mid champion they always seem to not be able to burst it down and grab the buff, resulting in Mr. Golem hitting me, taking damage and giving me blue buff. which I don't have a problem with actually. :D

Runes

• Greater Quintessence of Life Steal: Hands-down my favorite Quintessences in League of Legends. 3 of these bad boys gives you 6% lifesteal, which with your mastery tree gives you 9% lifesteal, or a free Vampiric Scepter at level 1. They'll give you great sustain in lane, especially against the current most popular top laners such as Fiora, Riven, Gangplank, Olaf and Jax.
  
• Greater Mark of Attack Damage: The early AD given from these allows easier early farming and allowing you to jungle.
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: Provides resistance against the rare AP top lanes such as Vladimir and Kennen. You'll want these over Greater Glyph of Magic Resist because they'll scale into late game without you needing to buy a magic resist item besides your Mercury's Treads.
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: Allows resistance against the AD champions most frequently top lane. Also useful for defense against neutral creeps when jungling.

• greater mark of desolation Self explanatory
  
• Greater Quintessence of Health Allows more survivability in early game
  
• Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage Synchronizes well with your AD marks, making you an incredible bully in early game.
  
• Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed Cause who doesn't like more movement speed? Jax is an assassin and benefits greatly from movement speed. This paired with your Trinity Force will net you roughly 450~ movement speed.
  
• Greater Glyph of Attack Speed Decent replace for magic resist when you're jungling.
  
• greater seal of vitality Health per level. You won't notice the effects immediately obviously, but you'll come out of late game with more health than you'd expect. All around great runes for any kind of melee carry.

Summoner Spells

Flash A must-have in my opinion. A great skill for closing the gap for that Empower Leap Strike combo, or if you need to get away and quick.

space

Ignite Ignite is useful for securing that first blood, and great for reducing Swain, Dr. Mundo or another regen. champs healing. If you want the extra damage early, or need it for a champion like those two, take it.

space

Cleanse Cleanse has quickly become one of my favorite summoner spells. It's incredibly useful for escaping stuns, slows, taunts, fears, snares, etc. I usually take it if the enemy team has Maokai or Lux. It's also useful in top lane to prevent ganks, as well as removing DoTs such as Teemo and Ignite.

Exhaust Exhaust is a great spell late game for slowing down that crazy fed Vayne, and can also be used defensively when ganked up top. You can also use it offensively after you're level 8 or 9 in top lane and going head to head with someone.

space

Ghost A good alternative to flash. The only reason I don't recommend it on lane Jax is that CC can easily shut down your escape. I do however think it's an incredible spell for jungling, for closing in on a gank or escaping one that went downhill.

space

Smite Necessary to jungle, self explanatory pretty much. You'll want Summoner's Resolve in the defense tree as well, to get the bonus 10 gold on each usage.

Ability Explanation

Relentless Assault
Each auto-attack increases Jax's attack speed.
Every time Jax attacks an enemy he gains 4 / 6 / 8 / 10 / 12 / 14 % increased attack speed for 2.5 seconds. This effect stacks up to 6 times. Will still stack if the attack is dodged or misses due to a blind.

Leap Strike
Jax jumps to a target (This can be a friendly champion, friendly minion, enemy champion, enemy minion, friendly ward, enemy ward or neutral creep)
Jax leaps towards a target. If it is an enemy, he attacks, dealing 70/110/150/190/230 (+60% of his ability power) (+1 per bonus attack damage) physical damage.
Empower
Jax's next auto attack deals bonus magic damage. (Resets auto attacks!)
Jax charges his weapon with energy, causing his next attack to deal 40/75/110/145/180 (+60% of his ability power) as magic damage.
Counter Strike
Jax dodges all incoming auto attacks for 2 seconds. Can be activated again to stun nearby champions.
Jax dodges all incoming basic attacks for 2 seconds and reduces AoE damage by 25% while he is dodging. At the end of the duration, Jax deals 50/75/100/125/150 (+0.5 bonus attack damage) physical damage to nearby enemies and stuns them for 1 second. This spell deals 20% (up to a maximum of 100%) increased damage for each attack dodged. Jax has the option to activate the ability again after 1 second to end the effect early.
Note: Counter Strike can dodge Parrrley and Blade Waltz.
Grandmaster's Might
Jax receives bonus armor and magic resistance upon activation. Jax's every third hit passively inflicts extra magical damage.
Passive: Hitting 3 consecutive times enhances Jax's next attack for 100 / 160 / 220 (+70% of ability power) bonus magic damage.

Active: Jax gains 25/35/45 (+30% of his bonus attack damage) armor and 25/35/45 (+20% of his ability power) magic resist for 8 seconds.

Ability Sequence Order

With this skill order you want to take Leap Strike first for two reasons: It can secure you that early kill. It can prevent them from doing the same. At level 2 it's up to you to take Empower or Counter Strike. I'd take Empower in most cases, unless they have a Fiora, Tryndamere or other auto attack heavy champion. Max W Empower first since it's on the lowest cool down and gives you the most damage over time, plus it has a low mana cost. Maxing Leap Strike or Counter Strike next is up to you. I usually max Q next though, because putting points into Counter Strike usually doesn't give you much other than a lower cool down and more damage returned.

The only difference between this order and Lane Jax is the fact that youmust take Counter Strike first. It'll help reduce the initial damage from wolves and blue buff. Next you should put a point into Empower at level 2 to speed up the jungle. At level 3 you can put either another point into empower or a point into Leap Strike if you want/need to gank a lane. Continue maxing Empower when possible, your ultimate whenever possible, and then Leap Strike or Counter Strike, depending on your preference.

Items

That right there is your starting items. The boots are useful for dodging skill shots or just general harassment, the health potions keep you in lane longer and you already have a jump start on your build with the boots. Other options include...

Personally not a fan of doran's blade first. A great item if you're behind in farm or having a rough time in lane, but anyways. These are pretty hilarious to take for the sole purpose of running down your lane at level 1 with 15% lifesteal from Vampirism , Greater Quintessence of Life Steal and Doran's Blade along with 70-80 attack damage. Doran's blade can be exceptionally useful item to secure a lane as well. One or two Doran's can almost guarantee a safe and farmed lane. Just make sure the cost doesn't put you too far behind your build. Credits to TehAsian for the tip on securing a lane as well. :)

I prefer this to Doran's Blade because Jax thrives off of ability power early game, making Empower and Grandmaster's Might really make them second guess attacking you. Mana regen. is also great on Jax, letting you spam your skills just a bit more.

Annnother Doran's item. The health regen., armor and extra health is all appreciated on Jax, but you'd be better off taking Cloth Armor...

I'd say this is the other good choice besides Boots of Speed, giving you an early start on your Wriggle's Lantern if that's what you want to build. (I personally don't like wriggle's.) Along with 5 Health Potion you're set for lane for quite some time. I'd strongly recommend this against Riven, Fiora, or another AD heavy champion. If Wriggle's isn't your style you can always build the cloth armor into Ninja Tabi.

A good item for top laners universally. A free Sight Ward every 3 minutes, lifesteal, armor, attack damage and an incredible farming tool. I honestly prefer rushing a Bilgewater Cutlass for the active and incredible attack damage spike. It boils down to personal preference, however Wriggle's can get you back on your feet quick in a rough lane.

Your first big item if you didn't get a Wriggle's Lantern. If you did get the lantern then put this off until after your Trinity Force. This item gives you incredible attack damage and lifesteal, plus a great active for chasing down someone after a fight. I try and stay in lane and farm until I can go back for the first time and buy a Pickaxe.

Great boots for a lot of top laners nowadays. Jax unfortunately is focused a lot of games, and CC is definitely not a good thing for you. They also give you some nice magic resist so you can put off a Negatron Cloak until lategame. Pick these up if they have at least 2 forms of hard CC.

Good boots if they have a fed bottom lane, Tryndamere, Fiora or other auto attacker. You can build your Cloth Armor from earlier into Tabi if you need to. 9/10 games however I'd recommend Mercury's Treads.


By now you should have your completed boots, Bilgewater Cutlass or Wriggle's Lantern and either completing or working on your Sheen/ Phage. Keep warding the river, and if possible pick up another Sight Ward or two and ward for your jungler and mid lane. Call MIA and participate in any team fights that are nearby. Try and get your tower down by the 15-20 minute mark so you can begin roaming for kills.

A great item on Jax and a lot of top laners. Gives you some health and attack damage as well as some decent CC for chasing (which you will be doing). Save it for Trinity Force. You should take this before Sheen if you're having a hard time staying in lane/chasing. Jax doesn't have much CC besides his Counter Strike and most players carry Flash nowadays so you really wanna pile on the slows.

Another great item on Jax. Some ability power, mana for any problems you may have had with spamming skills and most of all an incredible passive that deals double attack damage after using an ability. Can you say Empower for 400? You should take Sheen before Phage if you're doing good in lane (with a kill or more, you're farming without problems or they have very low harass). This will boost your damage on Empower and Leap Strike.

Combines your Phage and Sheen into an all around great item. Movement speed, critical chance, attack speed, an on hit slow, 150% bonus AD damage after using an ability, ability power, mana, health, attack damage all in one inventory spot.

This should be your next item after Trinity Force unless you're having some problems surviving. This combines your Bilgewater Cutlass with a Hextech Revolver giving you some nice ability power with spell vamp., and buffing your active's range and damage tenfold.


Alright, you've got your damage and sustain from Hextech Gunblade and Trinity Force, and you've got 3 spots left. We're going to use those for boosting our damage more and also building resistances. You should be coming out of 30-40 minute mark with around 3,000 health. That's when it's time to build Atma's.

18% crit chance and 45 armor, but what we really want here is that passive. Converts 1.5% of your health into attack damage! That's roughly 40-50 extra attack damage coming from an item with critical chance and armor. Fair trade-off.

This right here, incredible. You've already got your slow on auto attack from Trinity Force, and you've got Counter Strike for stunning, now all you need is a guarantee slow on Leap Strike as well. With Rylai's you get more health to go with Atma's Impaler and some ability power, because Jax is best built both AD and AP. Start with the Giant's Belt because that's the main reason we build this. If you don't need the extra AP go ahead and build a Warmog's Armor instead.

So now you've got...

• Mercury's Treads
• Trinity Force
• Hextech Gunblade
• Atma's Impaler
• Rylai's Crystal Scepter / Warmog's Armor

So what should your final items be?


Lots of armor, a good passive and a good active, and more health for Atma's Impaler. The Heart of Gold should be built first and if you're having a hard time in lane build it after Bilgewater Cutlass or Wriggle's Lantern. Gold/time items are a great way to get back into the game.

So their AD carry is extremely fed. And how do we counter it? Thornmail. Reflecting 30% of their damage is kind of hilarious to watch Caitlyn kill herself from your stack of health and armor.


Some great damage, a bit of magic resistance and an awesome passive that's gonna absorb most of the magic damage from someone's burst. The passive is also incredible for when you're solo'ing someone. The lower you get, the harder you'll hit. This item can be the difference between Veigar bursting you from 3000 to 0 or you surviving with 300 and killing him for it.

I'm personally not a big fan of QSS, but if the CC is hurting that much, it's time to invest. It also gives some handy magic resistance for the price. It's more effective than Cleanse with a lower cool down and applying the cleanse to a wider variety of CC. ( Warwick's ultimate)

This is my preferred item for magic resistance. It has a sweet passive that resists the next spell cast on you, and you'll have that effect again in 45 seconds. One problem with it though is someone with easy poke or AoE damage can easily pop it and leave you without it for a team fight. It also gives you some health and mana, which compliments Atma's Impaler nicely.

A decent item for Jax. Good magic resistance, great health regen. and a nice little movement boost. This item goes great with another regen item or stack of health *cough cough* Warmog's Armor


Honestly it seems like a bad item on Jax, but at the rate you farm you can have full stacks before the next team fight begins. And nothing says carry like 50% lifesteal from your items, runes and masteries. I would say there are much better choices though.

It used to be an incredible must-have item on Jax before he was updated majorly, but it's still a great item that syncs well with his passive. It gives you both AP and AD so you'll be harder to counter and your ultimate will be just a bit stronger in the Magic Resist department.

A great item for this build because you're going to end up with near 4,000 health you're going to be dealing some killer damage from Atma's Impaler and Maw of Malmortius goes great with health as well. The lower your health is, the harder you'll be hitting. Also you'll be getting a great shield for 400 damage if a spell would be leaving you below 30% health. Great against casters like Veigar and Ryze.



1300~ health after you get it to full stacks (which should be quick). This item goes hilariously well with your Atma's Impaler which should be netting you around 80 attack damage now from the passive. This is a great item to get if you have resistances. Because building health on health is just going to give them more health to cut through. Aim for a resistance and health item like Banshee's Veil or Randuin's Omen

Always a good choice for your final item. Every 5 minutes you can cheat death and be revived for 750 health. This goes great in teamfights if you're being focused first. "die", then once they switch targets turn around and kill their squishy carries.

I wasn't sure if warding deserved it's own section or not so it will be here for now.

Q: When should I buy a Sight Ward?
A: Every chance you have gold left over. I try to farm 2-3 extra minions before I recall so I can afford a ward or two. Don't sacrifice the safety of a ward because you want to build your [[mercury's treads[/b] instead.

Q: When should I buy a Vision Ward?
A: Whenever you see your enemy laner pick up a ward of any sort, take a vision ward so you can counter it and let your jungler gank. 50 extra gold is worth the gank.
Note: Vision Wards are also an easy and safe way to destroy Teemo's Noxious Trap while making back some gold.

Q: Where do I place the Vision Ward then?
A: Most people place the ward in the bush or just outside of it. Place the ward in the bush just to be safe.

Warding Map

• For protection from lane (depending on which lane you're in)
• Protection for your jungler and buffs
• Dragon and Baron Nashor wards. Make sure these are Vision Ward!
• Counter-jungling

Enemy Champions A-G

Enemy Champions H-P

Enemy Champions Q-Z

A Wild Teamfight Appears!

Before going any further I would like to clear something up. Jax is a great initiator... Against one or two champions max. You SHOULD NOT be the first one into the teamfight. Leave that to Amumu or Nautilus or Malphite. Once the tank/disabler initiates get in there. You're tanky enough to get into the fight early, have enough sustain to take on their team and you've got enough damage to take out your targets which are...

Jax is an incredible anti-carry, use it to your advantage. Once their team is confused immediately Leap Strike and Empower their AD carries like Graves or Caitlyn, activating Counter Strike when necessary. Other good targets would be their AP nuke like Veigar, Ziggs, Heimerdinger. The second you start taking heavy damage activate Grandmaster's Might. Don't be surprised if you can't reach these targets, they know where to be, which is at the back of their team. On the bright side Jax has a great tool for closing that gap. Do your normal Empower Leap Strike counter onto the squishy, activate Counter Strike if you'll be able to stun 2 or more targets, or if the carry is now focusing you. Activate Grandmaster's Might if you are now the focus (which will be very likely). If you can take out the carry, your job is done. If you're still alive switch to their AP champions.

When in a teamfight or if there is going to be a teamfight, do not split away from your team. Do not go grab the farm in top lane, do not go defend bottom tower. Your main focus here is going to be their team. If they have Baron Nashor' Buff do not even bother engaging a fight.

One thing you can do is set up in a nearby bush so they assume it is now 4v5. The second they initiate Leap Strike their now vulnerable carries and go to town. But if you are separated from your team always make sure you have an escape route, ex. A Sight Ward or Wriggle's Lantern to jump to over a wall.

Jungling 101

I am personally not the biggest fan of jungling with Jax but he is definitely not a bad choice. He can keep up with junglers like Nocturne, steal from slower junglers like Amumu and he has great potential for ganking. You want to start with Vampiric Scepter and put a point in Counter Strike. If you can get assistance with wolves, go for it. You want to then immediately go to blue buff right after, and mid will hopefully leash for you (implying you're not in elo hell) Put a point into Empower at level 2 then continue on to wraiths, double golems, then red buff. At level 3 you can put either another point in Empower for faster clears or Leap Strike for ganking. After a full clear of the jungle and a gank if possible, recall and pick up Boots of Speed and Madred's Razors if possible.
Leap Strike is your tool for engaging and ganking. When you go to gank a lane you should either
A. Wait for your team's lane to initiate ( Seismic Shard, Dark Binding, etc.) then engage.

B. You engage by procing Counter Strike, Empower and then Leap Strike your target.

When to take Leap Strike is up to you. If your team needs a gank bad, put a point into it at level 3, then go gank the lane(s). If your team doesn't need any help at the moment put your second point into Empower and then put a point into Leap Strike at level 4.



Spawn Times
Wolves/Golems - 1:40 (Respawns every minute)
Wraiths - 1:40 (respawns every 50 seconds)
Blue Buff/Red Buff - 1:55 (Respawns every 6 minutes)
Dragon - 2:30 (Respawns every 6 minutes)
Baron Nashor - 15:00 (Respawns every 7 minutes)

Tips and Tricks

• Leap Strike can be used to jump to friendly wards and champions. This can be extremely useful for catching up, cutting off an escape route, escaping and avoiding a gank.
  
• Try and time Empower after two-three auto attacks so it immediately resets the timer, boosting your damage over time dramatically. Always activate it immediately after your second or third auto attack.
  
• You can gain minion aggro in lane, activate Counter Strike and gain bonus return damage on it because of the minions attacking you.
  
• When going against an auto attack heavy champion use Counter Strike for it's full duration.
  
• Hextech Gunblade and Bilgewater Cutlass both have incredible active's that can make the difference between life and death (for you and them). Use the extreme range on Hextech Gunblade to slow a pursuer or to chase someone down. Same concept with Bilgewater Cutlass except it has a very small range.
  
• Try and use Grandmaster's Might and Counter Strike separately. And don't be afraid to open up a teamfight with Grandmaster's Might active, it has a long effect (8 seconds) which you can follow up with Counter Strike.
  
• If you've over-extended and getting ganked Leap Strike to the incoming ganker and run.
  
• You can use Empower to fake out your enemy by activating it and walking towards them as though you're going to engage. Simply push them away/zone them and then use that Empower to take a last hit instead.
  
• Ward jumping. See below.

That simple. Drop a ward, or activate Wriggle's Lantern, Leap Strike to the ward and boom, free Flash!

Credits And Hall of Fame

Credits to MobaFire for letting me host and create this guide.

Credits to Riot Games for creating a great game and a fun champion.

Credits to you, the reader, and anyone who +votes this guide up. :)

Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.


SkullzxFeel free to drop me a message with a picture of your best Jax games and I'll be sure to post them here and credit you. :)

Summary

And there you have it. My new and improved guide to solo top and jungle Jax. I hope you've enjoyed it and learned a few things. If you found this guide helpful don't forget to leave a comment, +vote and if you're feeling generous +rep me. Thanks for reading :)

Now you have a real weapon!

Change Log

7/9/2012 -

• Quick changes to Summary and Credits
• Added Maw of Malmortius under Damage as well as Magic Resistance
• Spacing issues fixed
• Jayce information still needed
• Warding section added under Items
• Expanded Tips and Tricks
• Twisted Treeline and Mid lane Jax under construction

7/4/2012 -

• Changes to Warwick, Akali, Wukong, Volibear and Olaf.
• More detailed explanations for items.
• More detail on Team Fights.

6/30/2012 -

• More (final?) coding fixed/added/removed
• Changed difficulty on Volibear from Easy to Moderate
• Added Rylai's Crystal Scepter as final item in example build.

6/27/2012 -

• Changed some coding
• Added Skullzx to the Hall of Fame
• Teamfight Section
• Expanded Jungling Section

6/18/2012 -

• Changed Vladimir's difficult to easy and moderate. Credit: Koksei
• Added Poppy to the list of match-ups. Credit: Pluckin Penguin
• Additional viable rune choices added. Thanks: Koksei
• A Team Fights section will be added with the next update of this guide. Stay tuned :)

• 6/16/2012 - Guide Published.
• 6/16/2012 - Old Guide Archived. (Can be found here)