Jax Build Guide by Atonifex

Introduction

This guide is still in the process of being updated to Season 3. I'm working on it, and I'm changing it as fast as I can. Most notable changes will be in the item build above, and the situational items section farther on. Enjoy!

Hello, this is my second guide. I hope you like it, still learning out how to use mobafire. Going to say thanks to jhoijhoi up front because of her templates, and her excellent How to Make a Guide, Guide which can be found here. So here is my Jax guide. The build works very effectively, and is heavily tested. Please post comments and i'll be sure to respond to them. Here is the Jax Champion Spotlight to start it off.

Pros/Cons

Pros +//Very Strong 1v1 +//Fast Clearing Times +//Great Burst Damage +//High Survivability Late Game +//Amazing Sustain In Jungle +//Nice Combos

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Cons - Expensive Build - Not Very Tanky Early Game - Well Plaved Flashes Prevent Ganks - Has Been Nerfed Recently - Early Game He is Mana Dependant - Requires Lots of Money

Masteries

Standard AD masteries + Bit of Defensive Masteries. Its personal prefrences whether you like the Thornmail thing, or the 30 bonus health, both work fine, I like the health personally. The armor masteries help your jungling even better.

Runes

I take Mark of Desolation Greater Mark of Desolation for damage. Flat AD or AS would work fine as well.

For SealsI take This is pretty much the standard for any jungler and there's real alternative.

For Glyphs I use You can go for Scaling MR, or CDR, i just don't have those, but those are the alternatives to it.

Lifesteal Quintessences are the best for this slot, they along with the Lifesteal Masteries, give you almost full health throughout your jungle. I suppose you could go for flat or scaling AD, or Flat Healh, or maybe even armor, but Lifesteal is definetely the best, however it does cost a bit.

Abilities and How To Use Them Most Effectively

(Passive) Every time you auto attack your attack speed increases, stacking up to 6 times. With a Trinity Force and this stacked 6 times you get around 1.7 attacks per second, which is definetely acceptable, considering you haven't even bought any real AS item. If you get caught fighting an enemy champion you will do more damage the longer you fight him.

(Q) You leap to target, if enemy it does damage. Tips&Tricks You can jump to wards, allies, minions, enemies, or enemy champions. If you do Empower right before this you will immediately do the Empower damage, as well as Sheen when you get it, as well as its own damage. If a skill shot is aimed at you, you can avoid it by jumping somewhere else, or on to the enemy launching it. Purpose:This is your main gap closer, and you can use this to gank, escape ganks, use this to go through walls (when you plant a ward and jump to it). Spellshields negate the damage from it, but you still jump to them.

(W) When you use this, your next basic attack will do increased damage based upon your Ability Power. NOTE: this immediately resets your attack timer, so to use it most effectively you should do an auto attack, then immediately press Empower to attack immediately. It is almost always better to Leap Strike, then Empower rather than the other way around. This ability greatly increases your burst damage, and that is why I would max it immediately.

(E) For 2 seconds Jax will dodge all incoming basic attacks (excluding turrets). After 2 seconds, or when reactivated, which can be done after 1 second, he stuns everything around him for 1 second. This is excellent for when your in the middle of the teamfight, and people just see you and automatically attack you. Then you have a stun on 4 or 5 of them while you and your team beat them up. Tips%TricksWhen ganking, or catching up to someone, pop this right before you Leap Strike and when you get there you will immediately stun them. You can also use this for escape, it works against almost anyone, because not only will you dodge their attacks, but if they're next to you will stun them without even changing direction.

(R) This is the ultimate. For a relatively long duration you recieve bonus armor and magic resist, based on a flat ammount + how much AP and AD you have. Its on a relatively short cool down. This should be used whenever you take serious ammounts of damage. During teamfights, use this with counter strike and you will become VERY DIFFICULT TO KILL. You can also use it when your escaping, or baiting if you take serious damage. Tips%Tricks on the passive, every 3rd hit you do bonus damage. If your are in lane, or get caught against an enemy jungler get yoru two hits on a minion, then jump on them, and have insane burst damage.
W is maxed first because it does the most damage. Obviously you would get ult when you can. Next Q is maxed, also because itsually does more damage than E, and helps your burst damage, the main source of your burst is coming from Q and W, not E. Finally you max E because there is nothing else :)

Here is a video showing you how to maxiimize your use of Leap Strike and Counter Strike. Even though he has a different build, and is top you can still learn from how he uses the abilities. ALso its pretty funny how many times he jukes out this gank.

Jungling Route

1. Start on wolves, get mid, and anyone else who doesn't mind (top if your on bottom, bot if your on top). Have them auto attack the wolves. NOTE: don't have them leash wolves, only auto attack. This is because, you have a dodge and a stun, and can get more auto attacks if they're right next to you. With the Quints, and auto attack help, you should come out of them at full health. It gives you a headstart.

2. Head to blue and do it, get mid or anyone else listed above, to leash and do a bit of damage to blue. Leash means to aggro, that way your jungler has time to attack the golem before it attacks the jungler. If you had help on wolves, you should be starting blue right about the time that it spawns. You should be level 2 now and have gotten Empower (W).

3. Continue to wraiths. Auto attack big one, then dodge, then another auto attack then follow up with a quick W and another auto attack will take care of it without taking any damage from it.

4. Head to golems. Do same attack sequence as in #3. You should be able to get Q now, which will allow you to gank.

5. From here you can either gank a lane, or go for red. After this step almost everything depends on that specific game. Give your blues after this to mid, unless they aren't mana using champs(like Vladimir or Katarina) or if you had an early death from counterjungling, or a failed gank and your AP doesn't mind if you have it a 2nd time. After that though blue should almost always go to your AP.

In case that does make sense, or you just like watching videos, here is an example. The wraiths at the end are optional, I sometimes do it, sometimes not. Earlier ganks tend to be more effective than later ones. Once you are level 3 you can gank immediately when you choose.

Purposes of Jungling

You may, or may not know what exactly you are trying to do when you are jungling. The purpose is not just to gank lanes and get kills. Yes, that is a part of it but not the whole thing.

Help losing lanes.
Ward the map.
Counterjungle.
Take over lanes while someone goes back.
Gank lanes.
Give blue to your AP carry.
Take out towers when the enemy champions who should be there, are across the map, and you see that you are safe to take it out.

Now that you know what you are trying to do as a jungler you can divide your time between doing these things. If you are jungling and you are close to a lane that is being ganked, you can go gank it and turn the tides. If they are across the map and there's nothing you can do about it, keep on jungling.

NOTE: Never push a lane that you are taking over from a laner, unless the enemy champion in the lane is seen in another lane, or anyone close. If that is the case then push the enemy tower, then get out.

Counterjungling

Counterjungling Your Enemies

Simply put, what you do is you simply go into your enemies' camps and take their jungler's creeps. However doing it safely, and effectively is what you need to know.

Safe times to counterjungle:

If you have a ward somewhere which reveals him to be a safe distance away from you
If you have a ward that will show if an enemy is coming before it is too late
If you see the enemy jungler in a lane (if they're ganking and you are nearby in some situations you should go and see what you can do to help)

Times when you should not Counterjungle:

When you see lanes closest to you suddenly go mia simultaneously(this is sometimes a clue, but othertimes it could just be that their lane is pushing to where your minions can't see them. You will need to use common sense here)
If you hear or see something suspicious(like Shaco's laughter, or the sound his boxes make, or eve's invisibility)
If you have a ward that reveals that they, or laners are coming and you won't be able to finish the minions off and escape easily
If there is a lane that really needs help(that takes priority over counterjungling in most cases)
If the enemy jungler is ganking a nearby lane and you can come in and change the tides in your team's favor

If your enemy jungler is a mana dependant champ, like Jarvan stealing a blue, while giving your own to your mid will cripple your enemy jungler's middle game. However, the same goes for you if they steal yours. Good times to steal is is anywhere from 7:00 to 8:30, maybe 9 minutes. the closer to 7 the better. If you get it right as it comes up, there's a good chance that they won't be there just waiting for it. When your counterjungling you generally want to leave one of the small creeps there, so that they have to clear it, then the respawn timer counts. For instance, one of the small blue wolves, or a small wraith, or a small lizard guy in the golem/red camps. Counterjungling gives you an edge over the enemy jungler. Overall jax is a pretty strong 1v1 due to his dodge/stun, bonus damage and MR and armor on ult, and Q to chase, and W for a quick burst.

Ganking

This is a short explanation on how to gank with Jax. You can skip over this is you want to if you are an experienced jungler but i'm still going to go over it.

The easiest ganks to do are when the enemie(s) on the lane that you are ganking start fighting with your own laners. This works especially well if people like Kennen or Vladimir use their escape moves (Lightning Rush; Blood Pool) while fighting. This gives you time to enter in with your own lane's cc and damage as an advantage. In any gank your going to want to pop E right before you Leap Strike (Q). This way, by the time that you get at that champion, they will be stunned almost immediately. Only very well placed flashes, or a timing mess up will prevent the stun. From then get some basic attacks, followed quickly by W's because you immediately auto attack again.

If you have a more timid team, or they are waiting for you to initiate, then you want to close their escape(for bot or top ganking) by getting your Q in range of the side of the map, that way they can't escape except for running through our area.

For ganking mid you want to see if the enemy champ gets close enough that you barely have to run, if at all to jump on top of them and stun. After that its pretty easy for almost any AP who has common sense and knows how to play LoL, to get their spells off, resulting in a forced Recall, a kill, a "wasted"/used flash, or at least a pressure relieve. That is the goal of your ganks. The point is not always to kill but to get your lane to win.

Entrances

If your on Blue Side

Ganking Top as Blue: This depends on if you think/know the enemy has a ward, and how pushed they are.
If no ward and They are past the middle of the river, its the regular bush on the left.
If they're pushed to their first bush, then walk into the 3 way bush just over the wall from Baron
If its warded then you might want to enter their side of the jungle where the wraiths are, and go behind the red camp, then go through the 3 way bushes, and cut them off

Ganking Mid: Regardless of which side you gank from, or are on(topPurple side or bottomblue) you want to get behind the enemy, through the bushes, if unwarded, or on the pathways between the walls that seperate the middle bushes, and the wall that is the forest.

Ganking Bot as Blue: YOur only real way to gank, unless your Shaco, or someone who has a natural flash-type ability is to go in te bush by the river(this is for if you are on the BotBlue side).

Ganking Top as Purple is almost luck in higher skill levels, where warding is very common. Almost any ward can prevent a gank, so you want to be able to get in the bush fast and out fast, before your enemy has any time to retreat.

Ganking Bot as Purple: you can go thorugh the standard river bush, which is one of the more frequently warded places, as well as dragon (you want to avoid this early game when ganking bot) and baron (which is obviously only warded late game.

Here are some examples of how ganks look and work.

Taking Over Lanes While People Recall

While playing Vlad, i realized the importance or knowing how to take over lanes as a jungler in general. Several times i have killed Warwicks, and Jarvans, so i thought i should address this. First thing, never push a lane that you are "borrowing", unless there is no one on the enemy team to stop you, and they are across the map, in another lane, or seen by a ward in the jungle far away. You just want those Last Hits so you can get MONEY.

For "Borrowing" Mid

If you have an AP against you, say Lux you want to dodge the skill shots (obviously). With Lux for example, you can move to the side from her Q, and for some reason, moving forward towards her, like if you Leap Striked her, she always misses her E. Keep in mind this for all AP. Also keep in mind cooldowns, and keep pressure, or you can harrass some. Many are bad at close combat, like Xerath for example. He can burst you, but it probably won't kill you, then you'll just be getting free hits while he's chained in the air.

For "Borrowing" Top

A majority of solo tops are melee ADs. As said in the pros up at the top, Jax excells at these kinds of fights, he puts out more damage, and is almost as tanky as them. You should be able to handle quite well almost any bruisers 1v1, except for maybe people who have execution ultimates (like Darius or Garen). As for others, like assassins, like Akali you have to draw them out survive they're burst. If they are fed then you might have to watch out. But anyways, survive their burst, then just keep up the auto attacking. Your dodge negates Talon's Bleeding attack i think. If you have any questions about a specific champion let me know in comments.

"Borrowing"/Aiding Bot

This kind of depends on whether both of your bot have gone back, or just 1.

If only 1 went back:

Turn the pressure up, have your other person in lane help you. Throughout your jungling you should try to be above your, or your enemies' bot levels. Kind of gives you a comparison if your behind or not. So if you have more farm or money and are a higher level, tan you and your partner can turn up the pressure, hop on them, stun them, and whack their faces off. Otherwise, don't push and just go for the last hits.

If both went back:

Go for the last hits. Don't let them push the tower if you can help it. If they're pressuring you, while they're attacking turret, then see if they will attack you, then jump and stun them.

There's a video here, its kind of long, and it shows how jax works in lane. If you can, skip to 1:13, where it starts for its effectiveness. Its a 7 minutes video just to let you know.

Money/Farming

This is an expensive build and you can easily spend up to 16k on it by late, late game. In order to get this you need to help your lanes out, by ganking, keeping your levels up, and especially CS/MINION KILLS. Minions are essential to you, by the time Mid Game ends, you want to have over 100 minions AT LEAST. In a majority of my games, I'm one of the most farmed people. Jax is already a great pusher and farmer, and when you get Ravenous Hydra you can clear minion waves of 20 in 5 seconds.

Items

The first few items are standard, start with a Hunter's Machete. If you don't have the lifesteal runes, the new jungle will be slightly more difficult, but with the 5 health pots you should be good. Get boots ASAP, then build a Vampiric Scepter and upgrade that into a Wriggle's Lantern, and start on your Mercury Treads ASAP. Afer that your going for a Trinity Force, starting with a Sheen, followed by a Phage,if in games where survivability is more important or ranked games, build Phage first, then Sheen, which will greatly increase your burst damage, making Empower hit like a truck and give you durability. Then complete Phageand get Dagger, build it into a Zeal then complete the whole thing into your

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Defensive Items

This is a section on choosing what 2 defensive items you are going to buy. On a balanced team you will have what is up at the very top of the build, , , , Armor Item, Magic Resist Item, Damage Item.
However we all know that not all teams play in the meta style, and are evenly balanced. So if you are against unbalanced teams here is what your build should look like:

Heavily AD Team With Either No, Or Weak AP
OR You could also swap out one of the 2 Armor items for Thornmail if your team already has a Frozen Heart which is better on Jax than Randuin's Omen and Randuin's Omen.

Heavily AP Teams, 3 or more AP


For your own customization of your own guide here are the options for Armor and MR counters. I've described them and their uses to the side. For some of them are personal prefrences, for instance I don't really like Guardian Angel, but I know some people who get that on almost everyone they play.

Armor Counters

This is one of the best armor items for jax, the mana from this makes sure that he never runs out, the 20% CDR is amazing, and of course 99 armor, but what really helps your team out is the aura.


This is another great armor item, if someone on your team already has Frozen Heart, then this is a good alternative, this has another active aura that if you remember it(i have a hard time remembering it) combined with Frozen Heart will GREATELY lower you enemies' AS. Frozen Heart is better than this, but a good alternative.


There are better items, but this gives you a little bit of armor, and a bit of health as well as the nice 40 dmg a second, which is 40 more dmage then you did before. There are better alternatives, but this is worth mentioning.


This is not one of the best armor items, but for situational purposes this could be an option, it would not be one of the main items, but it is worth mentioning, in case you strangely go against an extremely HEAVILY AD enemy team.


This is nice for the resurrection, if you are losing, so you can escape and heal up without haveing to wait 70 seconds or something. Also nice on offense if you dive turrets, kill the person but die before health goes down. You can use it almost like Aniva's passive. The Armor and MR is nice.

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Magic Resist Items

This is one of the best MR items in the game, gives you a bit of health, and a bit of mana, so you don't run out of that, and of course MR, but it blocks 1 spell every 45 seconds i think. That combined with your dodge can really ruin combos and things. Plus many AP carries need certain combos, and this prevents them from working sometimes.


This is pretty similar to Banshee's Veil. However if you are good at using the active it will be more useful to you. It doesn't give you health or mana, but removes all cc on active, as well as gives you slightly more MR than Banshee's Veil.


This will obviously give you MR, as well as give you more damage, and even more the lower health you will get. The Magic Shield is pretty awesome, when if an enemy AP Carry thinks he can turn around and nuke you, to realize that you had that which prevented you from dieing, then you kill him.

Late Game Buidls

Late game your going to sell Wriggle's Lantern giving you one more slot of a damage item, because you already have Trinity Force, Mercury Treads, Armor Item, say Frozen Heart, MR Item ex: Banshee's Veil, and Ravenous Hydra, you can get 1 more item. Situationally you could get another defense item if you feel like you need it, you can look above, or you could get a damage item. I would advise a lifesteal item, because not only will almost all of them do more damage, they will also increase your survivability.

Your Choices are , , for damage, or any of the Defensive Items listed above.

Phantom Dancers could but an option, I have not tested this out yet, but it could work.

Late Game/Teamfight Duties/Playstyle

With this build, your going to be kind of an offtank/initiator, your pretty tanky, but not really a tank. In the teamfights, you want to be going for the enemies main damage, AP carry, Ranged AD Carry, people who can kite and then win teamfights. In most cases its 2 to 3 people, your tanky enough, and have enough burst, as well as sustain to beat almost any one of them 1v1, so if you can scare the other(s), you will be able to take them out of the fight, while you have a 4v2 or 3 advantage for the rest of your team.

As I said at the very beginning of the guide, warding is VERY, VERY, important.
If you can catch someone, even a tank on their team out of position, feel free to stun and kill him. However, as soon as their carries come, your goal is to take them out of the fight, either by killing them, or chasing them away, or frightening them off. You are literally one of the BEST 1v1's in the WHOLE GAME. AD carries have slightly more damage than you, but you have like 5x their survivability. AP carriers can't nuke 3k health with 170 MR(your ult gets you to that high, and higher). Bruisers think they're tough, then you melt them like butter, and Darius and Garen are scrambling to get away. You have 437 movespeed. That's faster than anybody who doesn't have Phantom Dancers, or Movespeed items with the obvious exception of boots. Tanks are the only ones who can possibly give you trouble. The only way Jax can lose is if he kills himself on a Thornmail. The only main people who can trouble you are Rammus, and Shen. But that doesn't mean you can't kill them.

Your DUTY can be to INITIATE teamfights, just by leaping in, and landing a stun, while popping your ult for some survivability.

If i can figure out how to get pictures in here, I will show Scores, and Proof that this works. If you want to do it in the comments below feel free to.

Overview

To sum it all up, Jax is a:

• Strong Jungler
• Excellent 1v1
• Great Counterjungler]
• Fast Pusher
• Carry When Played "Correctly"
• Amazing Ganker

I hophe you enjoyed my guide and learned something, I'm open to suggestions, please post comments below and i'll try to get back to you, or answer any of your questions. If you want you can post your scores in the comments below as well. I can use all the votes and comments I can get :)