I am Tyler "ecco" Spesick and am the former mid player for the LCS teams "Team MRN" and "Team Velocity eSports!"

I've been playing a great deal of adc these past few weeks and as a result have taken a great liking to the newest champion to join the League of Legends, Jinx! She is a great deal of fun who is /extremely/ strong. There are always little things that I can be doing and improving on and it's overall a great experience playing her. Definitely one of the most fun champions in the game. This guide will give a general overview over Jinx as well as go over the more complicated things with her as well!

Pros

1. Super fun.
2. Extremely high attack speed early gives her a ton of tower/objective control.
3. One of the longest AA range in the game with Fishbones activated.
4. Longe-range, AoE damage late game.
5. Zap is stupid long-range, high base-damage skill that is fairly spammable.
6. Has an AoE root.
7. Super Mega Death Rocket is one of the best executes in the game and is also global.
8. High base attack-speed for Pow-Pow allows you to build straight damage for your first two items.

Cons

1. Has lowest base movement-speed in the game as well as no real escape.
2. Very vulnerable to assassins and needs baby-sitting in team-fights.

Jinx overall is a very universal pick as she works well with most compositions but one thing that is fairly vital to Jinx surviving in teamfights is that she /needs/ someone who can help keep her alive. Whether it is a heavy peel support like Janna or Nami or a mid like Orianna, it is soooooo important. If you are left alone on your own as Jinx against a Jax or a Gragas without your summoners, wave goodbye to your healthbar because you will die.

Also, it is good to have a consistent form of engage that can follow-up on your Zap! Zap is surprisingly a very strong lead-in for engages so having someone like a Jarvan IV or a Nocturne to capitalize on your Zap! connecting is very important.

Flash and Barrier have been the staple for adc for an extremely long time and that doesn't change for Jinx. Barrier has phenomenal synergy with champions that lifesteal because it increases their health-pool (sort of) which gives you more time to gain back that lost health and potentially live a lot longer than you would have. It also allows you to be the most aggressive out of all of the other summoners for the same reason.


Flash and Cleanse is your only other choice. This is something that I have actually never gone on Jinx in my roughly 30 games with her because cleanse is just not very good at all on ad-carries that don't have an escape. There are times though where I would go cleanse. Against a heavy catch comp (such as having an Elise + Lux/Morg) or laning against an Ashe + Janna lane would be times where I would consider it.

9x 9x 5x 4x 2x 1x

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Greater Mark of Attack Damage Greater Seal of Armor Greater Glyph of Magic Resist Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration Greater Quintessence of Life Steal Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage

This rune-page has become the staple for adc near the end of season 3. It allows you to forgo having to put any points in utility which will help your laning a great deal as you can then put 9 into defense. Overall, these runes are very laning-centered and by far the best choice to run on Jinx.

This mastery page is the bread and butter for ad-carries currently. There is no really no reason to deviate from this page for Jinx because it gives you everything you need.

I never really change the order that I obtain these abilities. I know that some players favor maxing W first before Q but I don't really see a reason to. The base damage and scaling on Zap! makes it a very strong 1 point wonder until lvl 8 so I think the extra range for fishbones and attack speed from Pow Pow makes it better to max first imo.

Get excited! (Passive) Get excited! is one of the most interesting passives in the game because it has /so/ much downtime. During trading, majority of laning-phase, sieging, etc it literally does nothing for you. But the time that it does do stuff for you it is incredible. Gives you amazing kite/chase during team-fights and also fairly strong splitting power. There isn't really much strategy to this passive as it is extremely straight-forward but one thing you can do to help you in team-fights is to get a little bit of damage on everyone on the opposing team. That way you'll get an assist if your team destroys their back-line and your passive activates!

Switcheroo! Switcheroo is a very interesting and unique ability. It allows you to switch between her two guns, fishbone and pow-pow, with each giving you unique things about them. Pow-pow gives you stacks that increase your attack-speed (by a rediculous amount) but also makes you range very short at 525. Fishbones gives you insane range (scaling from 600-700 depending on the rank of your Q) and also boosts your damage to 110% with AoE. This skill is just insanely strong. It gives you soooo much passive attack-speed from level 1 on which gives you incredible turret killing power as well as objective control. Fishbones also gives you strong harass with your strong range as well as good wave-clear. Just make sure not to spam fishbones too much because it will eat your mana and you need a good amount of mana to spam in a few Zaps. When in close combat while melting tanks or anyone close to you have pow-pow out. It does much more DPS to single targets and also makes it much easier to kite efficiently. When the enemies are clumped or just further away you want to be using fishbones. Also, it's good to note that you are a sieging machine with your 700 range to hit turrets as well as Zap! to poke the opponents!

Zap! Zap is a 1500 range skill-shot with some of the highest best stats and scaling in the game. You can use this ability to harass in lane, poke down the enemy team while sieging a tower, or even use it as a way to set up an engage. Its slow is so immense that you can actually use it to engage. It is just a ridiculous move because everything about it is incredible. The only con about it is that it's fairly easy to dodge if you don't set it up well because there is a good amount of travel time and it is also shown where it is going to be traveling before it actually fires. You can also use this while fighting up close to help kite your opponents that will be chasing you down. You can actually cancel your auto-attack animation with the cast animation of Zap! so right as your bullets/rocket leaves your gun, start charging up your Zap! to maximize damage!

Flame Chompers! Flame chompers is arguably Jinx' most powerful move. It is on a fairly long cooldown but it provides an aoe root that can proc 3 times. This coupled with her Zap! is pretty much the only way she can attempt to peel for herself since she has no real way of escaping. Flame chompers also allows for her to follow-up very well on aggressive plays because they become activated extremely quickly after being casted. Whether or not use them defensively or aggressively, make sure they connect!

Super Mega Death Rocket! Super mega death rocket is one of the best executes in the game. It scales incredibly hard with ad and also adds extra damage depending on the poor soul's missing health that it connects with. Because it does serve as an execute, it is best to save this move to finish off an opponent. It is does not work very well with an engage unless their entire team is clumped in an a Jarvan cataclysm or something similar. It also has a very quick cast time so you can use it similarly to your Zap! where you can cancel your auto-attack animation to cast your super mega death rocket. Lastly, it is a global move so if you see a low healthed opponent backing in a bush, send the rocket over his way and enjoy your free gold as well as getting excited!

The starting item for Jinx is the same as the starting item for every other adc which is a Doran's Blade. There really is no better option as it gives you everything you need for the first stage of laning. Gives you extra health, gives you a pseudo life steal, and gives you damage. This is a great starting item because above all else, it'll keep you in lane the longest.


On my first back I try and have at least 900g to pick up Berserker's Greaves. Most players try and stack a lot of damage first and foremost on adc but I feel like with how terrible Jinx's escaping and pursuing is without boots 2 it is just best to get it first. Plus the attack speed is pretty good with her passive.

After I pick up my Berserker's Greaves, I will build towards a Bloodthirster to achieve the most damage I possibly can for early to mid-game. This is because your Zap! and Super Mega Death Rocket! both scale extremely well off of ad (as does fishbone as well). The argument against this would be to build an Infinity Edge first but I believe that her early game is strong enough to warrant stalling an infinity edge until later in the game to help maximize your early and mid-game damage.

Lastly, I pick up a Last Whisper to compliment my early pick up of bloodthirster. It will give you roughly ~250 damage ad total as well as a ridiculous amount of armor penetration which will cause your spells to do the most damage they possibly can for mid-game. This emphasizes her poking/sieging aspect more than her consistent/team-fight damage. The reason you can get away with stalling attack-speed so much is because once Switcheroo! is maxed you get up to 130% attack-speed from it which is more than enough for mid-game.

Once I have my core, I then go back and pick up some attack speed with a Phantom Dancer. It will help a great deal with Jinx' sustain and consistent damage in team-fights as well as her kiting abilities. Depending on whether their comp has a lot of cc I'll pick up a Quicksilver Sash now. If not, then I'll stall it a bit and pick up an infinity edge first. Because Jinx is such low mobility it is important to pick up a QSS after phantom dancer to help keep her alive and moving in team-fights. Finally, I will then finish up my build with a mercurial scimitar to maximize my potential damage.

Jinx works very well with sustain supports ( Nami, Sona) as well as Zyra. They are all very poke heavy, strong in all-ins, and have peeling which is what is necessary for Jinx to play with. Since they are all very long-range and strong laners this emphasizes Jinx' strength in lane of poking with her Zap! and Fishbones.

Things to be weary of when picking Jinx into another bot-lane is dive heavy lanes. Zyra is very strong against Jinx because of her lock down and so is the rather unpopular Leona but she is /very/ good against her. Corki, Graves, and Vayne are arguably the strongest picks against Jinx because they can really get in on her in all-ins and just destroy her soul. Against these champions you really have to position perfectly to survive and win the lane.

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Jinx' laning is very push heavy. Mostly you will be harassing with fishbones as well as Zap!. The problem with playing really aggressive and doing heavy trades with Jinx is that she is super vulnerable to ganks and all ins. If Flame Chompers! was used aggressively in the lane and then a Jarvan IV comes flying in behind, you are pretty much dead. Use flame chompers sparingly and only use it aggressively when it is proper to. Remember that Jinx has the lowest base movement speed in the game as well as no get out of jail free card like most popular ad carries have right now.

Keep the lane pushing for the most part as you destroy towers extremely quickly but like I said before be very weary of engaging too hard on the enemy. Once you hit 6 it becomes a lot easier to finish off targets that you have poked down so be patient. The way Jinx is balanced is that she does ridiculous amounts of dps in close range and has stupid strong poke but she is one of the weakest champions in the game when someone gets in her face. As a result, playing Jinx will help your positioning a great deal because of how severely punishing she is.

During the mid-game you want to be forcing a lot of fights as a team. Due to Jinx's such intense tower pushing power with the attack speed for pow-pow, range from fishbones and poke from Zap! make her a crazy strong sieger and dragon/baron dancer. You want to crush the opponent's outer turrets as quickly as possible with your team so you can group up and force stuff as a team because this is where Jinx excels. Having her team by her side to peel for her and be her front-line allows her to do the most damage possible. In small skirmishes she is much more vulnerable to be getting picked off so don't force as many of these unless they don't have a lot of aggressive, assassin champions.

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Make sure to stay fairly far back before any potential engage happens so you don't have to blow your flash at the beginning of the fight. Dance around in the poking around with fishbones and your spells and always try and keep range on the front-line that is diving you. You almost never want to go ham on Jinx where you'd go deep into their back-line unless you had a Get Excited! proc and were able to quickly mow down a considerably weakened back-line. Play safe, poke, mostly use pow-pow on the front-line for highest dps possible, and above all stay alive.

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Once you reach late-game, your damage is through the roof. You will have your Quicksilver Sash by now which allows you to play a little bit more aggressive and forward without the fear of getting caught once and being one shot. With that said, that doesn't mean you play like an idiot and are up front with you front-line when dancing around objectives. You are /still/ really squishy without many ways to escape the clench of assassins. The good thing is though, is that front-line will now completely melt to the bullets that pow-pow will be projecting into their soft, little stomachs.

As for game-plan for your team it is the same as mid-game. You and your team should be sieging towers and after getting an inhibitor down, clearing around baron, then either baiting it or doing it. Jinx is a baron killing machine so if you have a 10 second window where you can hit baron uncontested then you kill that bad boy.