Jax Build Guide : Mr Jax - complete guide :: League of Legends Strategy Builds

Archiving this guide

This guide will be archived from obvious reason (no time for update) after the next champion rotation. Till I update it, it stay hidden.

Introduction

Greetings Summoner!

Welcome to Mr Jax - Complete guide made by 87alphaone.

You may ask if I have enough experience to make a guide. Im playing League of Legends since April 2011. I have played almost 2000 normal games, over 500 rankeds in Season 2 ending at 1400 Elo mark. My rating in Season 3 is 1575 so far, but I will improve it!

Before the guide for Mr Jax actualy starts I have few notes:

English is not my native language, so please excuse little mistakes. They are here even after reading this guides more than 100 times. (Im not seeing tree for whole forest.) So if you find some spelling mistakes, let me know via comments or PM, I will fix it.

The composition of this guide is made to simply lead you where you want. Simply said, the guide is divided into sections, which are divided into chapters with sub-chapters inside.

In description of every section will be the date of last update or revision, so if you are checking my guide more than once, you can simply see if I added something new or not.

Under the date of update/revision is the status of the section. For example with new patch come some important change, but I dont have time to update, so I only notice it there.
The status will be UP TO DATE/NEEDS SMALL UPDATE/OUTDATED.

DO NOT be scared of wall of text. Some chapters just need it!

I write WITHOUT apostrofs ('). It requires to change my keyboard settings from Czech to English language and that is kinda annoying.

This is a GUIDE, not BUILD and NOT a DOGMA. That means if you will just follow the cheat sheet above you will fail horribly in 9 from 10 games. Read through whole guide, it will help you to understand the ideas behind this guide.

If you feel the need to downvote this guide, please tell me why, so I can improve. Anonymous downvotes are really frustrating...

So without further ado, lets get started!

--- GENERAL STUFF ---

Few following chapters contain some general informations. This stuff is good to know, because it belongs to basics of League of Legends gameplay.

In this section you will receive:

Brief info about shortcuts in my guide (and generaly in LoL)
Reasons why the Hybrid is the best option for Jax

Last update/revision: 27th December 2012
Status of informations: UP TO DATE

Shortcuts/terms explanation

I feel like this chapter is pretty neccesary, because sometimes I write faster then I think and there can be some terms (or shortcuts) I actualy didnt wanted to use, but it happens. So here is short explanation of those shortcuts (or other terms) you can notice in this guide, including short explanation how it works and what is good to know.

Click the spoiler to view.

Spoiler: Click to view

The way of Hybrid...

There are actualy 4 posibilities how to build Jax. Lets look at them, compare their pros/cons and say why yes/no.

AD Jax focuses at dealing massive physical damage with high attack damage, attack speed and lifesteal to get some survivability. His runes, masteries and items totally skip any AP stuff.

Main disadvantage is very low damage from spells. AD Jax can be easily countered by armor like any other AD champ (Tryndamere, Yi, Xin...). However this can still work against pure AD teams.

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AP Jax focuses at dealing massive damage from his spells. Masteries/runes/items are adapted to increase his AP. Survivability is granted by spellvamp.

AP Jax has pretty cool damage from spells, but when they are on cooldown...his physical damage is low. However this can still work against pure AP teams.

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Hybrid Jax combines the advantages of AD and AP Jax into one. Hybrid deals both physical and magic damage. AD > AP or AD < AP splits Hybrid Jax into two more options. Survivability is granted by both lifesteal and spellvamp. Generaly AP and AD Hybrid have some common items, actualy these two:

Why is Hybrid the best option? Because he is very hard to counter. If you want counter Hybrid, you need both armor and magic resists. But if you build both, your damage will be so low, that you will be (almost) no threat for the enemy team. Only one category of champs can do this: TANKS! But everyone knows: NEVER FOCUS TANK!

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AP Hybrid Jax is AP > AD (capt. Obvious). AP Hybrid deals more magic damage, his spells are extremely strong (Q+W combo with 1K damage) and physical damage output cannot be overlooked too. AP hybrid is certain dead for squishes. But for example can ruin whole Q+W combo.

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AD Hybrid Jax buys some AP, but dominant is AD. This way how to build Jax is what I preffer, what is my guide about. Your spells deals a tons of damage (Q+W combo for 600-800 damage). With attack speed of 1,9 with and your passive you deal extreme damage, that can be extremly hard countered. You open fights with your spells and follow with devastating physical damage. Items to build are mentioned in next chapters.

Play AD Hybrid Jax, you can try those other options, but this one gives the greatest damage/survivability balance.

--- BEFORE THE GAME STARTS ---

In this section I will talk about actions you should do BEFORE the game starts.

It contains talking about:

Runes
Masteries
Summoners Spells
Skills and skill sequence

Last update/revision: 29th December 2012
Status of informations: UP TO DATE

USE THE SAME WITH DIFFERENT NAMES... Runes

Runes can significantly change if you fail or not. Possible choices are written below, followed with few setups.

Runes are sorted from most favourites to those less ones.

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RECOMMENDED RUNE PAGE

+ 8,55 AD (easier last hitting, bonus damage for Leap Strike)
+ 12,69 armor (early game defense)
+ 24,3 MR at lvl 18 (late game defense)
+ 78 HP (early game boost, if you go jungle, take Greater Quintessence of Life Steal)

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MARKS

Greater Mark of DESOLATION

Recommended: - flat AD bonus, 9 x 0,95 = 8,55 bonus AD

Viable: greater mark of desolation - 14,94 point of armor penetration plus 6 points from plus 10% from will make your autoattacks penetrate most armor of squishes or at least reduce some armor from more tough targets.

Viable: - with whole set of this runes, you will have 14,13 combined penetration instead of 8,55 magic penetration OR 14,94 armor penetration.

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SEALS

greater seal of vitality

Recommended: - 9 x 1,41 = 12,69 armor

Viable: - 9 x 5,35 HP = 48,15 HP right from the start of the game

Viable: greater seal of vitality - 9 x 19,5 HP = 175 HP at lvl 18, lvl bonus is 9,72 HP plus 6 HP from makes cca 16 additional HP per lvl

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GLYPHS

Recommended: - stacking MR runes for late game MR, Jax gets very low lvl bonus for MR

Viable: - 9 x 0,05% CDR per lvl = 8,62% on lvl 18

Viable: - 9 x 0,99 AP = total 8,91 AP

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QUINTESSENCES

Greater Quintessence of desolation

Recommended: + 78 HPs

Recommended: +6% lifesteal

Viable: 3 x 4,95 AP = 14,85 AP

Viable: Greater Quintessence of desolation 3 x 3,33 ArPen = 10 ArPen (plus 15 points from 9x
greater mark of desolation plus 6 points from plus 10% from will make your autoattacks penetrate even more armor of squishes or reduce some armor from more tough targets.

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Few notes:
Since passive no longer provides HP from bonus AD and AP, the runes dont have to maximize the starting potential. Now they can focus two things: 1) boost early game (i.e. HP runes) and 2) boost late game (lifesteal). Before the patch was great to take AD/AP runes and benefit from bonus HP, but now the situation is quite different.

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PANIC... Masteries

Like with the runes, masteries can significantly change if you fail or not. Some of them helps right from the start of the game, some helps later when you get few kills and you get stronger.

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OFFENSE MASTERIES

- 1/1 - I want to keep using , eventualy , so the one point here is a must have to improve both of these spells.

- 3/3 - +3 AD deffinitely worth it.

- 4/4 - +4% attack speed helps with stacking up ulti and Rageblade.

- 4/4 - 4% CDR. Show me someone who dont want shorter cooldowns. But we need it for following masteries.

- 1/1 - 10% armor penetration. Great! After + combo Jax deals physical damage so this deffinitely helps.

- 1/1 - 10% magic penetration. This was nerfed from original 15%, but thx to add of previous mastery it doesnt matter too much. This helps to + combo to smash through enemy magic resistance and passive.

- 3/3 - 3% Lifesteal. Good for start with .

- 3/3 - +6 Armor penetration. More penetration = more damage. Jax is damage dealer, you want more damage.

- 1/1 - 6% increased damage to targets below 40% of their HPs. Personaly I like reduced CD on Flash more, but this is more logical option if you already invested 20 points in Offense tree

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DEFENSE MASTERIES

- 3/3 - +6 magic resist.

- 1/3 - +2 armor

- 4/4 - +6 health per lvl. Small buff for early game, that increases till the end of the game. Its no miracle, but better than nothing.

- 1/1 - +30 Health at start helps with First Blood.

Note: split 4 points between and how you prefer.

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WORKS, BUT I USE DIFFERENT... Summoner Spells

There are many summoners spells you can choose, however not all of them are good for Jax.

RECOMMENDED SUMMONERS SPELLS

Tip: place as D. If you missclick it, nothing happens. If you missclick , you can switch to "rage" state and smash your keyboard. Tested.

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Lets look at all Summoners spells, compare them and check some tips when they should be used. Summoners spell that are NOT LISTED here should be NEVER used.

is free card to get out of the jail, to get kill, to dodge skillshots, to jump over wall. Its the most usefull spell from all Summoners spell. In high ranked games you will see 10 es.

drasticly reduces outcoming damage from AD DPS (, , , , ) and slows them. At least one piece of should be in every team.

is spell used to secure kills and to shut down massive HPs regenerating champions (, )) or to make extremely happy after his ulti ends and he burns. At least one should be in every team, however its mostly common (and must have) pick for AP carry playing mid lane.

is spell to remove CC. I suggest this spell in ranked games, if you see enemy team full of CC. It may be viable to buy instead. Into normal games I do not recommend.

if you want more speed to catch up enemies, or to run from them. Viable option if you are below lvl 12 as Summoner. Even if is ok spell, you will lack the "I can jump over wall" stuff.

is good at Summoners Rift while playing solo top. DO NOT pick at Twisted Treeline NO!

is a must have if you are the jungler. No discusion. While laning this spell is kinda useless.

Yes! Some say its "spell for noobs", but it can save you so many times. I suggest this spell if you are new to Mr Jax, or low summoner lvl.

Rest of summoners spells are not viable for Mr Jax!

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Now you should know why I prefer and . Both of these spells can be used offensively and defensively. That means both of these can give you a kill ( and hit him last time to get kill, slow the enemy and reduce his damage to get a kill) and both of these can save your life (you are running with low HPs, to slow enemy down or away).

SAME AS SSs... Skill Sequence - skills under focus

First part of this chapter will explain spells and the second part will explain lvling order.

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is Jax passive. With every autoattack you land, your attack speed gets increased by % value. This value increases every 3 lvls and stacks 6 TIMES. Bonus with lvls are these:

1-3 : 4% attack speed bonus (total bonus is 24%)
4-6 : 6% attack speed bonus (total bonus is 36%)
7-9 : 8% attack speed bonus (total bonus is 48%)
10-12 : 10% attack speed bonus (total bonus is 60%)
13-15 : 12% attack speed bonus (total bonus is 72%)
16-18 : 14% attack speed bonus (total bonus is 84%, that is 1,5x attack speed bonus from Phantom Dancer)

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is Jax Q. It is your close gap spell. Use this spell to catch enemies or to run from them. Awesome part of this spell is, that it can target even friendly units! That means little Shacos, Teemo mushrooms, wards, minions, champions. Use this spell for faster movement over battlefield. You can jump even over wall with this spell.

Things to remember:

+ Close gap
+ Can target friendly units (except traps)

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is Jax W. When you press your W button you have few seconds to use it. Basicly it charges your lamppost with energy, that is released with following autoattack. It RESETs your autoattack timer, so you can make combo like this: AA - W - AA. This will land two autoattacks (one empowered) in very short time. Additional, if you have the damage dealt will be devastating.

Things to remember:

+ Resets autoattack timer
+ Procs Sheen

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is Jax E. It is the spell that makes Jax what he is. This spell needs practice when to use it. If you press your E button, you will DODGE ALL INCOMING AUTOATTACKs and reduce AoE spell damage for 25%. The dodging part takes exactly 2 seconds, then you deal some damage and STUN every enemy around for 1 second. After 1 seconds of dodging you can press E again to end dodging and stun instantly, but you lose that AoE damage reduction. Important parts of this spell are DODGE and STUN, not damage.

Things to remember:

+ Dodge autoattacks for 2 seconds
+ Stun for 1 second after dodging
+ 25% AoE damage reduction
+ Can be ended after 1 second
+ Dodges Fiora ultimate!
+ Dodges Warwick ultimate (if you manage to press E before he jumps on you)

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is Jax R - ultimate. It has passive and active part.

PASSIVE

Every third following autoattack deals bonus magic damage. It makes PFTHH sound. If this effect is ready to use you will see small icon above your HUD (fist with eye). You HAVE TO land this attack pretty soon (cca 2 seconds) after previous autoattack or it is lost! If you manage to land AA + Empower + Sheen damage proc + PFTHH, you deal ridiculous amount of damage.

Things to remember:

+ Bonus magic damage every three autoattacks
+ Needs to be charged

ACTIVE

This active part of ultimate is survivability stuff. So if you activate it, you receive bonus armor and MR. The received value is base value (25/35/45) plus % of your current bonus AD and total AP! The bonus lasts 8 seconds.

What does that actualy mean? It is actualy much better than it looks like, because if you are facing heavy AD team you build AD items and get more bonus armor from ulti. Similar if you are facing heavy AP team, you build AP items and get more MR bonus from ulti. Looks pretty well.

One last note: If you read previous paragraph once again and then remember the stuff I was talking about Hybrid Jax, you will realize one awesome thing. As Hybrid you are hard to counter, BUT you can pretty easily counter AD and even AP champ, just by buying AD/AP items.

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SKILLING ORDER

Lvl up your ultimate every time you can. That means lvl 6, 11 and 16.

First spell to lvl up is (W). If you have 5 points in this spell you will have 3 seconds cooldown, proc works every 2 seconds and that means you can proc it almost with every . This gives you huge amount of damage.

Lvling and depends on game situation.

If the enemy team is AD > AP lvl up first. You need to dodge as many autoattacks as possible and lvling up lowers its cooldown.

If the enemy team is AP > AD go for first. You need to jump in, stun them, deal damage and jump away. cooldown gets lower if you lvl it up.

WORKS, BUT IT CAN BE DONE WAY BETTER... --- ITEMS ---

This section is LONG. You will know everything about items you should buy and how to choose if there are some alternatives.

This section includes:

Items
Buying order

Some items in this chapter are pretty straight, but some of them needs your judgment, your play skill and your brain to decide which one is the best for you in the current situation. Of course, I will help you and give you a touch when to use what.

The idea behind this build was to make balanced build to be "noob bulletproof". I mean it should work no matter how is the enemy team composed. You just have to recognize what is actualy going on and how to react correctly.

This build contains:

Starting item that should be sold later
Boots
Basic build - Hextech Gunblade and Trinity Force
Health item
Offensive/defensive Atma's Impaler and/or Armor item
Magic resist item

Last update/revision: 28th June 2012
Status of informations: UP TO DATE

Items 1 - starting items, boots, Wriggle's, basic build

STARTING ITEMS - CHOOSE ONE OPTION

Doran's Shield gives the biggest starting HP bonus from Doran's items. It gives you even the armor bonus and HP regen (you will start with 17HP/5secs).
Regrowth Pendant + Health Potion is great item if you plan to rush philosopher's stone. Its great item providing HP and mana regen and gold per 5 secs. You can sell Philo stone later, if you sell it, it repays its price in 18 minutes (cca).
Boots + 3x Health Potion are great in case you know you will play solo top vs some strong harraser (Olaf, Nasus, Gragas). You will use that extra movement speed to dodge his skillshots.
Cloth Armor + 5x Health Potion if you know you will build Ninja Tabi. You dont get any HP regen bonus, but you have 5 Health Potion (that means 750 "hidden" HP) to replenish your HP pool.
Doran's Blade is good for soloing top. I suggest this item IF you have 3x Greater Quintessence of Life Steal. With lifesteal from Vampirism you will start with 12% of lifesteal and that is pretty good. There is one disadvantage: if you want to heal up, you need to attack minions, but you will push them and that is not good. It is okay if the enemy doesnt know what "last hiting" is and push them too.

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BOOTS - CHOOSE ONE OPTION

Boots are a must have item with every champion. Pretty obvious bonus is increased movement speed. Boots are your first and long time one and only defensive items.

Ninja Tabi gives armor bonus and reduces basic attack incoming damage by 10%. I take these always if the enemy team is heavy AD, or if Im more affraid of their AD carries. Commonly said take these if enemy team is AD > AP.
Mercury's Treads gives magic resist and Tenacity. Tenacity is great non-stacking ability that reduces the time of CCs at you. Take these boots if the enemy is AP > AD.

If you are not sure what boots to take, for example enemy team is balanced or for any other reason go for . Jax has better lvl bonus for armor than for magic resists. You can ALWAYS change your boots during the game if the game goes different than you though. ALWAYS take boots. Do not play without them!

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WRIGGLE'S LANTERN - WHEN AND WHY

is on of the best cost/effect item in whole League of Legends. If you just look at all of those stats it gives: AD, armor, lifesteal, minion bonus damage proc, FREE WARD every 3 minutes. Too good to just overlook. Ok, so this is nice, BUT there are games when you need it and when not. You should use IF:

You have extremely hard lane oponent ( Yorick).
You need better lane sustain.
You are jungling

is NOT GOOD IF:

You have easy lane with kills and creep score advantage.
You wanna rush Sheen. The prize of Wriggle's Lantern is 1600 gold. That is Sheen and almost Ruby Crystal. Make a decision if its worth to buy or not.

Everyone knows that wards save lifes. Dont forget to use it. You will mostly buy some additional wards, but the one free from is a great benefit.

can target friendly units. You already know that. The trick is to place ward behind wall and jump on it. This requires great TIMING and low LATENCY. If you can, use it. If not, you still have .

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BASIC BUILD

After you choose starting item and boots according to game situation, its time to continue with build. First two things you wanna build are these:

Why these? gives greatly survivability thanks to lifesteal and spell wamp and totally increases your damage output with bonus AD/AP. Dont forget the great ACTIVE! Its the stuff that can secure you some kills. boost your overall performance with almost everything you can imagine (HP, mana, AD, attack speed, slow, Sheen proc etc). I was testing the optimal buy order and here it is! (Its a custom made image)

Sheen practicly doubles your damage. Check in table below for the actual values. As you probly know the AD is made from two values: basic AD (increases with every lvl, Jax lvl bonus is 3,375) and bonus AD (granted from items/runes/masteries). If you use any spell you have few seconds to autoattack. If you manage to do that you deal bonus damage. Now the good part: your starting basic AD is much bigger than bonus AD so your autoattack deals practicly DOUBLE damage. With cooldown of 2 seconds on Sheen and 3 secs cooldown on Empower you deal quite a punches with almost every hit.
Phage gives two stats and passive ability: AD, HP and slow. All of this is very usefull! HP for survivability, AD for greater damage output and slow for easier chasing. Keep in mind that slow works only from autoattacks and with only 25% chance. The target is slowed for 2,5 seconds. At lower lvl you should manage to land 2-3 autoattack while he/she is slowed and apply slow again.
Bilgewater Cutlass gives first significant AD bonus. Second ability is lifesteal. With 3x Greater Quintessence of Life Steal and lifesteal from Vampirism you have 24% of lifesteal (or 27% if you started with Doran's Blade). DO NOT FORGET to use Active ability! Its damage is not epic, but can still secure a kill. But that SLOW, thats why you want to use it. Use it when the enemy is running and your Leap Strike is not ready. Do not initiate with that slow!
Trinity Force (=TF) should be finished right after the Bilgewater Cutlass. Third component of TF is Zeal that gives attack speed and movement speed bonus. With finished TF you have 437 movement speed and that gives you great advantage while running/chasing (from) enemies. You still have all the benefits from all three components (slow etc). There is a "TF damage proc" stuff that increases your damage much more after spell cast. Check the damage bonus in the same table as for Sheen.
Hextech Revolver is first item for significant AP bonus. Survivability stuff is represented by spell wamp that helps, because you heal not even from autoattack, but even from spells.
Hextech Gunblade is last item from BASIC ITEMS. I try to finish it completely right after the TF without buying separately the Hextech Revolver. Stats provided by this item are so great: AD, AP, lifesteal, spell wamp and Unique active! DO NOT forget to use it.

Now you know what to build and in which order to buy those items. My last advice is when to go back for buy. I made a table for that:

Important part of the table is the second column. Those are the golds you need to have to buy an item. Keep in mind that these prices are BASIC without additional gold for any potions or wards. Use this as a basic info, but always add 100-150 golds for buying wards or potions! Totall value shows the price of whole build.

Now you can tell: I have spend 9K of gold but I have only 3 items! Yes, thats true, but you have the most expensive items in your build. Its common that other players will have 4-5 items, but the totall value is the same!

Tip: You want to confuse your enemy. Its possible and its pretty easy. I do not recommend to do this very often, because it is not just ideal, but try it! Whats the deal? At first trip back after you finished your boots buy and . The enemy who sees it will say "omg, noob Jax, building catalyst the protector!" Yes, thats what you want. He will stop taking attention, because he thinks you are a nubcake. But you know, you are NOT gonna build that. Spend a little more time at line farming until you have golds for finishing and (1700 gold). Go back. Buy both of these. Go back to line. Laugh :-) (tested, works)

Last note: Twisted Treeline games mostly ends before you manage to finish .

Items 2 - health items, Atma's, armor, MR

HEALTH ITEMS

With finished and you have pretty good damage. Now its time to improve your survivability. There are three items in which you have to decide the one you want to buy. Lets start this sub-chapter with little table comparing these Health items.

Always try to start build health items with . Lets look at benefits that you can get. It is pretty clear that the prize of health items is almost the same.

+ Lowest HP bonus
+ 80 bonus AP
+ Spells slow target for 35% for 1,5 seconds.

+ Average HP bonus (from Health items)
+ 20 bonus AD
+ Slow from autoattacks for 40% for 2,5 seconds.
- You already have autoattacks slow from Trinity Force

+ Huge HP bonus
+ Health regen
- No bonus AD/AP
- No slow
- Needs to be stacked, but stacks are NOT lost after death

If you ask me what to buy, I tell you: "depends on game". If you have good CS and some kills the is the best option. You will slow with autoattacks and even with spells. You receive 500 bonus HP and 80 bonus AP. That AP bonus almost doubles your current AP (cca 180 AP together).

If you have hard game and spend a lot of time waiting for respawn go for . The huge HP bonus will make all the difference between death and life. HP regen will help you to sustain in game (you dont have to recall so often).

is my less favourite item. You already have autoattacks slow, HP bonus is not much bigger than from . 20 bonus AD is pretty good, but no miracle.

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ATMA'S IMPALER

It doesnt matter so much which one of Health item did you buy, but now its time to use all that HP to get some more AD. Great item for this is . 1,5% of your total health is converted into AD. Additional you receive armor bonus and some critical chance. I said sooner, Jax is not crit champion, but now you have 33% critical chance and that means every third attack will deal critical strike.

Simply said, for every 1000 HP you have you receive 15 bonus AD. Depending on your lvl you will have cca 3000 HP and that means 45 bonus AD.

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Note: So far you build damage items granted by Basic build, some Health item and Atma's Impaler. The building order is NOT A DOGMA. If you feel you need more HP sooner, build at least . If you need some MR, get it before . USE YOUR JUDGEMENT to buy the optional item for you.

Items listed in next two sub-chapters are deffensive items. I split them into Armor items and Magic resist items. Of course if enemy team is heavily AP you will be ok with only , but you will need two Magic resist items etc. Always check in game score table, what is the enemy team building and how can you counter them.

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ARMOR ITEMS

armor bonus is not enough to survive that super fed ?. Dodge + stun + Exhaust is not enough to kill him? Ok, that means you need more armor to counter him. Of course, this section works against every AD champ, not just that one noobish OP champ.

There are two big options in Armor items you have to recognize.

Category 1) You are being focused.

Category 2) Your team is focused. I mean, they dont focus you, but you still want to help your team.

Lets have a look at possible choices:

+ Highest armor item in whole League of Legends - 100 bonus armor
+ Extremely cheap (2000 golds)
+ Returns 30% of incoming damage from autoattacks as magic damage.
- Helps only to you, no one else, that means its Category 1) Armor item.

+ High armor bonus rating - 99 bonus armor
+ 20 % CDR
+ Bonus mana (its still + even if you already have enough mana)
+ Slows enemies Attack speed by 20% in 1000 radius.
+ Category 2 Armor item. If you are in teamfight, it helps to your whole team.
- Price (2775 golds)

+ HP bonus
+ Lowest armor bonus from listed Armor items - 75 bonus armor. Still A LOT!
+ HP regen
+ Minor CDR (5%)
+ Defense mechanism: if you are hit you have chance to slow that enemy AS and movement speed
+ Awesome ACTIVE: Slow ALL surrounding enemies and reduces their AS
+ Category 2 Armor item. If you are in teamfight and use ACTIVE, it helps to your whole team.
- Price (3075 golds)

Last note to this sub-chapter is the armor value and the damage reduction. First 3 colums of the table works in case you keep your and buy some Armor item. Fourth column works if you keep and do NOT buy any Armor item. Columns 5,6 and 7 works if you sell and buy and some Armor item, last column works if you sell and do NOT buy any Armor item.

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MAGIC RESIST ITEMS

Magic resist items are quite a similar to Armor items. Again you have to decide if you are facing one annoying AP champ who can burst you down, or you need long-time sustain with some additional bonus stats. Lets start with summary of MR items:

Again, you have to recognize two categories of enemies and how can you counter them, or at least make them less annoying.

Category A) You need to block 1-2 annoying spells like stuns, snare, ulti etc.

Category B) You need constant defense against long-time harrasment. I mean: one spell is not a problem, but four are.

Lets look at possible choices:

+ Highest MR value - 76
+ 8% bonus movement speed (with TF ready you will "run like hell")
+ 40 HP regen per 5 seconds + 0,35% of max HP regen every second
+ Category B) MR item. High MR value protects you during long time period and HP regen replenish your HP pool in between enemy harrasment.
- Price (2610 golds)

+ Bonus HP and mana
+ Average MR - 50
+ Blocks ONE enemy spell every 45 seconds - Unique passive
+ Category A) MR item. Spell shield will save you from one spell, but then you are unprotected.
- Spell shield is very easily destroyed by Ashes Volley etc.
- Price (2715 golds)

+ Average MR - 56
+ Cheap (1440 golds)
+ Pocket Cleanse every 90 seconds
+ Category A) MR item. Pocket Cleanse can remove debuffs, but thats all.
- No bonus stats

+ Bonus attack speed
+ Deals bonus magic damage with autoattacks
+ Cheap (2000 golds)
+ Category B) MR item. Slightly increase your MR value, but in long time protection is not ideal.
- Very low MR bonus
- MR have to be stacked to get some decent value

+ Bonus AD
+ Super cheap (1400 golds)
+ Spell shield absorbing 250 damage for 3 seconds.
+ Category A) MR item. Spell shield that activates if the game goes wrong will help against 1-2 spells.
- Terrible MR bonus - only 30 points! (Still better than nothing, but...)

+ Simply said, this item is upgraded Hexdrinker
+ Spell shield absorbing 400 magic damage for 5 seconds.
+ Bonus AD
+ Bonus AD for missing health. (note: the shield activates if you have 30% of your HP or less, that means you are missing 70% of HP and that is 28 bonus AD)
+ Category A) MR item. Spell shield that activates if the game goes wrong will help against 1-2 spells.

Here is a table that works similar to the one in Armor items. Comparing items you buy you have quick idea how much magic damage you will block.

Now comes the question when to buy what. That is pretty hard question and I can give you only few ideas what to do.

At first look (AGAIN) at enemy team and recognize the threats you are facing. Jungle Fiddlesticks in enemy team? What does it mean for me? He will jump with ulti, fear me and I can do NOTHING. Ok, take Banshee's Veil. Spell shield will block fear and I can Flash out. Or maybe let him taste my lamppost and see who's the boss. Another examples when Banshee's Veil is good option: Karthus is fed and his ulti hurts for 800, enemy Ashe again and again opens fight with her ulti and Im in first line and get stuned, Vladimir ulti hurts a lot... Etc, I hope you get the idea.

At second you have to decide if you need MR item fast (I mean now) or if only will be good enough for next 5 minutes until you finish whole MR item. In case when you need MR fast its worth to buy some of those cheaper MR items and change it later for one of those expensive one. If you feel you are ok only with that mentioned before, go for expensive MR item.

With the Lulu patch comes and that is very interesting item. It gives some MR. Not lot like , but gives a spell shield, AD and bonus AD. Pretty good should be to buy soon and then finish later. Again, depends on game situation.

Items 3 - optional, elixirs

OPTIONAL ITEMS

+ Bonus armor
+ Bonus magic resist
+ Revives you after death with 750 HP and 375 mana, cooldown - 5 minutes

Buy this item if you jump into combat and get instafocused. You literaly die in 1,5 seconds without doing any damage. If you have you can jump in, get focused and "die". Now the enemy team focus will turn to some of your teammates, while you are laying down at ground, then you revive and can do something. DO NOT buy this item, if you are the last one living from your team after teamfight. Enemy team will hunt you down, kill once, then you revive and they kill you again.

+ Bonus AD
+ Bonus AP
+ Stacking AP and attack speed 8 TIMES
+ 32% bonus attack speed and 48 bonus AP

This item used to be one of core items for Jax, but now it fades off a bit. Bonus AD and AP looks good, but since passive no longer gives bonus HP, its purely glass cannon, stacking AP and bonus attack speed needs to be STACKED to work. I suggest this item if you are pretty fed and have good game.

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ELIXIRS

There are two situations when you should buy elixirs.

1) You have full build.

2) The game stucks at some status quo point.

In the case when you already have full build, every additional killed minion, killed champion and champion assist give you gold and it is a waste to not use it. So buy elixirs! EVERY SINGLE ONE is benefit for you. gives you attack speed to stack up faster your passive (+ some % of crit chance), gives some AP and 10% cooldown reduction. It is good if you cant have Blue buff (AP carries benefit it much more). gives some flat AD and HP bonus.

is good for clearing wards or 's mushrooms. It is A MUST if you play versus sneaky rat , underpowered purple , super annoying , monkey , ultiing etc. You got the point...

If the game stucks at some point when no one wants to initiate and you are just running there and there over map doing actualy nothing you should consider buing Elixirs. They can change the tide of battle and give you small advantage over the enemy team. And LoL is about small advantages. Good player always try to find something how to get advantage over enemies.

Items builds

Depending on the enemy team you should choose items from section above to counter them and to be hard countered. This sounds pretty difficult, but trust me, its not. You just have to analyze the game, analyze enemy team and realize what is the best for you. This may take some time, so dont be sad, if you lose, if you learnt something new.

Below this line will be some "info-spider" giving you the clues how to buy your build. I might make a picture for that if you dont like the visual appereance. I didnt list all items from Items chapter there, but the most important items are included.

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"INFO SPIDER"

Starting item

pick your preffered item (reffer with chapter Lane opponents)

Boots

AD heavy? => Ninja Tabi
AP heavy or lot of CC? => Mercury's Treads
Not sure? => Mercury's Treads

Core build - NEVER CHANGE

HP item

Sustain problems? => Warmog's Armor
Need more damage and more slow? => Rylai's Crystal Scepter

Defense items

Doing good? => Atma's Impaler
Raped by AP carry? => Negatron Cloak => Force of Nature or Banshee's Veil
Raped by AD carry? => Chain Vest => Randuin's Omen or Frozen Heart or Thornmail

6th item

Analyze enemy team, pick what you need. This is up to you now!

UNFINISHED YET... --- GAMEPLAY ---

This section is about gameplay. How to play in lane? How to play in jungle? Who can be your lane oponents?

If you feel I miss something here, just let me know and I will add it!

In this section you will learn:

General info (almost complete, only few notes will be added)
Laning with Jax (at the start of creation)
Jungling with Jax (almost done)
Lane oponents (working on, lot of work here)

Last update/revision: 17th August 2012
Status of informations: IN PROGRESS, needs spell check, formating improve and additional informations (working on it)

NOTE: Chapters marked with "***" are not finished. Less stars means more finished chapter.

General info

MATH TIME!

First thing I want to talk about is the lvl 1 Jax. Values written below contain masteries and runes, but NO items.

Health = 675 (+98 per lvl)
Mana = 265 (+35 per lvl)
AD = 71 (+3,375 per lvl)
AP = 0 (HP Quints)
MS = 325
AS = 0,663
Armor = 40 (28% reduction) (+3,5 per lvl)
MR = 35 (26% reduction) (+1,25 per lvl)

This is what you will see right after you start the game. Now if you buy your starting items, you can get this:

Doran's Blade = +10 AD ( 81 AD total), +80 HP (755 HP total), +3% lifesteal
Doran's Shield = +120 HP (795 HP total), +10 armor (50 total - 33% reduction), +8 HP/5 secs regen (16 HPs/5 secs total)
Boots = +50 flat MS, making total 375 MS
Cloth Armor = +18 armor, making total 58 armor (37% reduction)
Regrowth Pendant = +15 HP/5secs regen, making total 23HP/5 secs regen

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JAX ROLE IN TEAM/TEAMFIGHT

At first, there are 3 roles you can play, you dont want to play anything else. These roles are:

Twisted Treeline solo top lane (Jax is god tier champion at TT)
Summoners Rift solo top lane
Summoners Rift jungle

All of these three roles have common two things:

All CS is for you
You get more exps while playing solo

From written above its pretty easy to notice that you need gold and high lvl (higher than your enemy if possible) to be succesfull as Jax.

Your main role in every teamfight is shut down and kill enemy AD carry. This sounds pretty easy, however you should pay attention while doing this.

NEVER INITIATE! This is important. Jax is not initiator. If you try to initiate you will die so fast and it doesnt matter what items you already have. Let your tank initiate. After he goes in, you should:

localize enemy AD carry
try to get as close as possible
when you are close enough, activate your Counter Strike and use Leap Strike to close the gap
follow with AA, then use Empower to reset your autoattack timer
if neccesary use your Master-At-Arms to be more tanky (more armor and MR)
Exhaust him/her if he is trying to run away
AD carries are mostly super squishy champions (2K HPs at lvl 18, with less than 100 armor/MR)
keep autoattacking until AD carry is dead (with Empower and Master-At-Arms bonus damage its matter of 3-5 hits)

Jax excels at two kinds of fights:

Duels. 1 vs 1. Very few champions can kill you in duel
Killing squishy champions

Target priority is this:

AD carry
AP carry
Support
Offtank
Tank

However, if you see that your primary or secondary target is too far for safe engage, just focus whoever you can. Its always better to kill someone than no one.

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"KILL STEALING"/SHARING KILLS/SECURING KILLS

Ok, so...this is kinda stupid subchapter, BUT I feel its neccesary, because every second game I play, someone says: "noob, stop KS".

To be clear and to keep this subchapter short. In LoL, there is nothing like kill stealing, because its TEAM GAME. If you want to have good personal score, go play Tetris or Mario (btw if someone starts to rage about kill stealing, just say them to go play Mario/Tetris to have good personal score, they will mostly shut up or leave).

Actualy why is kill stealing pointless? Imagine that you play solo top vs someone (classic 1 v 1 solo top lane) and your jungler is coming to gang. You are engaged in fight with your enemy and he is going to die in next hit, when suddenly out of nowhere (ok, from jungle) comes your jungler and gets a kill. Stop. Dont say "noob, KS", say "gj". Why? Its all about gold. Kill is worth 300 golds, assist in 2 v 1 situation is worth cca 270 golds. Now kill plus assist makes 570 golds and kill only 300 golds. Do you see it now? Even if you dont have kill (but you have assist), your team benefits it, cause you have more gold. More gold = more items = higher chance to win the game.

Laning **********

Your main goal at lane are these:

Farm, farm, farm
Dont die
Do not lose turret
Destroy enemy turret

Jungling

JUNGLING GENERALY

So you decided to play Jax as jungler. Personaly I think Jax is much better at lane than in jungle, but sometimes you just have to jungle. Jungling is still viable options and sometimes a must if you have hard lane opponent (refer with next chapter for champions you dont want to play against).

There are few things you have to change while playing jungle Jax.

Take Smite! ALWAYS!!! and Flash.
Skill order at first 6 lvls is EWQWWR instead of QEWWWR. Simply said pick Counter Strike first instead of Leap Strike.
Starting items is Cloth Armor plus 5x Health Potion if you dont have Greater Quintessence of Life Steal, or Boots plus 3x Health Potion if you have them.
Wriggle's Lantern is kinda must have item in jungle.
Pick Summoner's Resolve instead of one point in Resistance or Hardiness

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JUNGLE ROUTE

Two simple rules in jungle:

Use Smite to LAST HIT the monster (check Smite damage with hovering mouse cursor over its icon)
Always attack the biggest monster in camp AS FIRST!

I have been experimenting about different ways in jungle and find this one pretty fast and safe, managable in one run without the need to recall.

Wolves (spawn every minute, starting at 1:40)
Blue buff (spawn every five minutes, starting at 1:55)
Wraiths (spawn every minute, starting at 1:40)
Wolves
Red buff (spawn every five minutes, starting at 1:55)
Wraiths

1:40 wolves spawn. Before they spawn, ask your mid and top teammate (if playing at the blue side) or mid and bottom teammates (if you play at purple side) to help you. YOU HAVE TO PULL THEM, or its going to be messed up. Just AA the big wolf, use and kill them. Your teammates will damage them, but you HAVE TO LAST HIT THEM. Even with damage from one teammate, you should clear wolves camp before 1:55 mark.

1:55 blue buff spawn. Ask your AP carry playing mid to pull blue buff OVER the wall and then let him to go back to his lane and farm. Bottom lane (or top lane sometimes) can help you with additional damage, but you are ok even with only AP carry pull. Just in time when the Big golem loses interrest in AP carry, pop up and work on killing him. Blue golem when he is at/below 435 HP. You are lvl 2 now. Unlock your and head to Wraiths camp.

2:15-2:25 Clear up the Wraiths camp. Attack the big Wraith first, use to receive almost none damage and to reset your AA timer whenever possible. Dont use here (its on cooldown anyway).

2:50-2:55. Head back to Wolves camp. They should be spawned already (if you are a bit slower) or you will have to wait few seconds (max 5 secs cca) to spawn again. Same as Wraiths: AA the big one, , to reset AA timer whenever possible. No here (still at cooldown).

3:30 (cca). Head for Red buff. Like before: AA, , to reset AA timer whenever possible. the Lizard for last hit. Unlock .

Now you are lvl 3. You can go for gang or recall, heal and buy some stuff. After this head to jungle again, farm up, get higher lvl... After lvl 6, your clearing speed gets massively increased thanks to that bonus damage from ultimate.

You have to find the balance between farming in jungle and ganking. If you gang too often you will be behind with your lvl and if you just farm, your teammates start to be nervous, because you dont help them.

Try to gang that lane, which is in trouble. I.e. bot is being pushed under turret = gang. Top lane is pushing and have advantage = no need for gang (just ask him nicely to get ward, if he wants to push like this).

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GANGS GENERALY

Gang is an action performed mostly by jungler (however if i.e. mid laner goes to help his/her bottom lane its called gang too). The reason why jungler is ganking is to get an advantage over the enemy. In this case, it means you want to attack the enemy 2vs1 or 3vs2.

Common misconception of gang is the enemy has to die and otherwise the gang was fail. That is not true!
What is succesfull gang then?

Enemy is dead and you have kill and assist - this is the best case scenario
Enemy is forced to use his/her summoners spells to avoid dead - gang again in 0,5 - 2 minutes while these spells are at cooldown
Enemy is forced to recall - your lane teammate gets exps and gold advantage

What is unsuccesfull gang?

You have used your summoners spells in try of getting kill, but enemy survived
You or your teammate had died

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GANGS - HOW TO...?

At first check yourself if you are in condition to gang. That means if you have enough HPs and mana. Gang with 200 HPs and 100 mana is not smart decision.

At second check your position and nearby lanes. For example, if you are in the top part of river, check top and mid lane for gang opportunity. You want gang the lane, which is pushed under your turret or at least closer to your turret. You dont wanna tower dive (you can, but its too risky).

At third inform your teammate that you wanna gang. Simple ping or write into chat. Ask him if the lane is warded and possible where is the ward placed, so you can avoid it.

Now you have few more seconds before the fights starts. Try to engage your enemy FROM BEHIND! Simply said, cut off his escape route. When you are close enough for , activate , jump to him/her, stun and proceed with AAs and . If your lane teammate has some form of CC, ask him to use it, before you jump. 2 chained CCs are so powerfull, leaving your enemy very short time to react after both end.

If your gank was succesfull (reffer to previous sub-chapter), go back into jungle or recall and buy something. If your gang was unsuccesfull, do the same: go farm more or just recall and try to gang other lanes.

Lane opponents A-M (written outside, formating, adding one by one)

This chapter is full with informations about your lane oponents, how to deal with them and what items are good to buy against them, including some tips and tricks versus every single individual enemy.

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WORST ENEMIES OF THE WORLD - YOUR COUNTERS

These champions are EVIL. If you have an option to play in jungle, do it. Try to not play against these, because you will have such a hard times. If you have to play against these, you will need a bit of luck and help from your jungler to hold your ground!

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INDIVIDUAL ENEMIES - ALPHABETICAL ORDER

Akali

Description: is melee assasin. Her kit is made to eliminate single target. All her spells deal magic damage. She uses energy system instead of mana - this is good for her while laning, but not so good in teamfights. She excels at killing squishy targets, but she has problems versus bulky champions. is similar to you, weak early game and huge jump in dmg output after lvl 6.

Starting item: and s

Strategy: will try to zone you with . One way (the agresive one) how to beat her is placing into it and just fight her there. If you dont have it, just step inside and her. However be carefull, because she get bonus armor and MR (and you get slowed) while in . Second way (safer one) is to wait after she throws out and then, when its on cooldown, fight her. and are very viable items against , because when she uses whole combo, she got not much more to hurt you.

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Cho'Gath

Description: is mostly played as AP tanky champion. He mostly starts to build tanky items () and then he makes a transition for AP (). If this is balanced, he is pretty tough and its almost waste of time trying to kill him. is best known for his scary ultimate dealing true dmg and growing him bigger.

Starting item: and s

Strategy: is kinda slow. Use it to your advantage! Starting with will allow you to dodge most of his s and s. He will go very fast out of mana while spamming his spells, so force him to do that. If you wanna kill him, do it before lvl 6. After he gets lvl 6, your chances to kill him are getting lower and lower with every additional lvl.

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Darius

Description: is melee offtank focusing on dealing great dmg with his spells followed with AAs. His dmg output is mix of physical and true dmg. I think he is a bit stronger than he should be, but you can beat him!

Starting item: and s

Strategy: Dont let him stack his passive on you. It deals a lot of dmg as DoT spell and buffs his ultimate. Instead of building armor and MR, go for a bit more HPs to counter his true dmg ultimate. Ask your jungler for help at early lvls. He is very vulnerable to CCs, so abuse your here.

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Dr. mundo

Description: is melee fighter. Some player consider him as tank, but thats not true. He just got a lot of HPs. He is known for his super HP regenerating ultimate and flying every few seconds.

Starting item: and s

Strategy: At first, if you know you will play against , pick instead of . Second strong option how to shut him down is to build . Its active reduces healing and regenerating by 50% with nice 20 seconds cooldown. Dodge his and you should be fine. Dont get baited under his turret while he is low on HPs. He will pop up his and kill you while regenerating lots of HPs.

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Fiora

Description: Whatever does, does several times better. You counter her hard! She is melee fighter, with giving her AS steroid and to reflect ONE of your attacks... Her is somehow ridiculous making her untargetable, but...keep reading :-)

Starting item: or and s

Strategy: Playing against is pretty easy. Before she gets lvl 6, use every time you want. After her lvl 6, WAIT. allows you to dodge her , so if she starts to jump on you, dont panic, just fight and when she uses ulti, use and kill her after it ends. Easy.

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Gangplank

Description: is a pirate. He is melee fighter with pretty nice spell kit. His ultimate is global , is his only range spell. He will often use to get our of your stun. He is kinda annoying with that shooting all the time, but managable.

Starting item: or and s

Strategy: You will have hard times at early game, because he will shoot at you 24/7. Mid and late game is yours. Force him to use for your and then jump on him again. has lower cooldown (not by much, but still), so you should manage to use your twice for his one .

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garen

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