First of all, I wanna say that I'm not like that progamer next door. I occasionally rock, but in general I'm just a standard player. I chose to create a guide for Jax, because I think that is really the only one of my builds that actually makes sense :)

In the following chapters I'm going to explain my choice of Masteries & Runes, aswell as my Skill Sequence and Item Build.

Why did I spend those 9 points in the Offense tree?
- Ability Power, Cooldown Reduction and Magic Penetration are just really nice stats for Jax.

Why did I pick Defense as the main-tree?
- Well, you could actually go into the Utility tree. But if you'd pick the Utility tree, you couldn't spend the 9 points in the Offense tree, because Nimbleness and Evasion are really essential for Jax. I also think that Ardor is a nice mastery to boost Jax' Burst Damage aswell as his Attack Speed.

Why learn Empower first?
- The thing is, I don't always learn Empower as first spell. When I lane-up with a mate, I always pick Leap Strike first, because he can just run into your direction while you're getting focused, so you can jump right onto him. And I don't wanna lie - coordinating that is much easier with Skype.

Why skill up Counter Strike so late?
- I think you really just need the stun of that spell. The dodge-chance might be helpful for Relentless Assault, but I think taking that Cooldown Reduction on Leap Strike earlier is really worth it. I also feel that the 8% dodge difference between Lv. 1 and Lv. 5 doesn't change much. I almost always proc when I'm able to. (Running through creeps or towers or getting attacked by AD)

Greater Mark of Scaling Attack Damage and Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power
As Jax is a hybrid, I picked those two runes for his damage.

Greater Seal of Evasion
Boosting Relentless Assault and Counter Strike

Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration
Boosting the passive proc of Relentless Assault

[*] Starting Items:
Boots + Sight Ward + Health Potion

I prefer picking up that Boots at start, because you're so much more mobile. You can escape from melees by running and jumping onto creeps, mates or wards. So you'll almost never get caught by a melee in early game.

The importance of Sight Ward is explained in the 'Laning' chapter.
You can change it for another Health Potion and a Mana Potion if you have a supporter with wards with you.

[*] Sheen

A lot of people underestimate the power of this item in early game. Doubling your attack damage against squishys with every Empower or Leap Strike adds so much damage to your damage output, that it's really worth getting it early.

[*] Guinsoo's Rageblade

Every Jax needs this item. Stacking up with your auto-attacks just as Relentless Assault it's just perfect for him. It grants just the stats that you need.

[*] Hextech Gunblade

The burst-damage from Hextech is quite nice, and the slow is essential while jumping onto the enemy, so he doesn't just kite you when you jump onto them and you don't have Counter Strike ready.

[*] Wit's End

This actually is like an improvement of Relentless Assault - It also stacks up your magic-resistance and grants your attacks bonus magic-damage. Combined with Malady this just does so much damage, because the enemy doesn't get enough magic-resistance. Also a nice addition: You get more attack-speed to stack up Relentless Assault and Guinsoo's Rageblood faster.

[*] Malady

This is the perfect addition to Relentless Assault and Wit's End - As stated above, the magic-resistance reduction is just so nice, because it kinda acts like magic penetration.

[*] Trinity Force

Just a neat upgrade for Sheen and the slow is also a nice addition to hunt down enemies.

Sight Ward is one of the most important things for laning. Put it into their brush, or maybe even in yours, depending on how much you're getting pushed into the tower. But wait like 2 minutes before placing it, unless you want to take their brush early and you're really late on your lane. (If you're fast at buying, you'll be in their brush before they are, because of your boots) When placed, it gives you the vision to jump onto and enemy champion, standing in the brush. So this is really nice when your Counter Strike procs and you can just Leap Strike + Empower onto him, then use Counter Strike and give him another Empower hit. He'll be low on the lane and kind of a free-kill or he'll have to get back and lose a bunch of experience. It is also a nice way to escape - When you're trying to back, you can just jump onto your ward and survive.

Last-hitting is just not that hard with Jax, because you're not squishy, you can take some spell or autoattack-hits. Just make sure that you don't use Empower too often, because you don't have any kind of Mana-Regeneration Boost at the start.

My Choice:
Flash + Cleanse

I like Flash a lot for escaping. It's also really helpful if you're in their jungle, taking their buffs and someone comes onto you from behind. You can just flash over the wall and you're gone.

The reason why I pick Cleanse is that, when in a teamfight, you're most likely gonna get a stun, or a heavy slow from whatever spells your enemies have. The problem with that is, that you'll most certainly lose your Relentless Assault stacks, and with some bad luck you'll lose the stacks from Guinsoo's Rageblade aswell. And then you have to do all the **** of stacking up the buffs with your low attack-speed again. And by then, you'll either be dead or your whole team was pwned, because you couldn't bring their carries down.

I don't think that any of the other summoner spells can be as helpful as Flash and Cleanse. If you dont have Clairvoyance in your team, you COULD pick it (to lighten up brushes and engage with Leap Strike), if you don't like Cleanse.

I hope you've read why I pick Cleanse in the section above, so you can understand this ****.

When engaging a teamfight, you might try to stand back a little bit. When your tank is in there, start Leap Strike onto their carry. He might panic and attack you, but that is just what you want, because then your Counter Strike will proc. As soon as that happens, their carry is a free-kill. Just finish him off with your uber attack-speed. That's the same you wanna do with all their other damage-dealers. Just Leap Strike from player to player and auto-attack. Also always use Empower on cooldown.

If you're getting focused, because they're intelligent enough to see, that you just pick their team one by one, use your ultimate. They'll just need so many cooldowns to bring you even low health then, and if it gets REALLY close, you can just Leap Strike out onto one of your APs or a near ward. But don't make the mistake of jumping out too early. Sometimes they underestimate the damage-reduction of your items and your ultimate. They might just burst their **** onto you, and then be helpless because all their spells are on cooldown. That's a point where they'll auto-attack and your Counter Strike will proc sooo often.

If you're getting stunned, you NEED to use Cleanse INSTANTLY. I explained that in the chapter above.
And when your enemies don't have any stun with them, use it dispell slow.