Heya and welcome to my guide to Jayce. I'm Sanun,a top laner who have played League Of Legends since season 1. Jayce is one of my most played champions and started playing Jayce around his release. I'm Diamond on multiple accounts on EUW and pretty known for my Jayce top and mid. I'm here to share you the secrets about Jayce top and mid and how to be a hyper-carry with him. This is my fourth guide so feedback is appreciated!

Jayce is a champion you typically see bullying top lane (and for good reason).
He's ranged and melee, is a lane bully vs melee matchups, and even has 6 abilities at level 3! Needless to say, his early game is a force to be reckoned with. However, recently he's been seeing some play in another role, mid lane.
From his competitive usage as a flex pick in draft to solo q as a pubstomper,
Jayce has made a resurgence in the mid lane. His ability to obliterate squishy mid- laners, out pressure the enemy mid laner early in 2v2 skirmishes, and to pressure the sidelanes from the mid lane have earned him a spot on more than just tank island.

Pros:
+ Can kite
+ Strong then mastered
+ Good burst from range- and melee-form
+ Good damage output
+ Wins solo lanes
+ Range advantage
+ Beast in Early/Mid-game

Cons:
- Squishy
- Weak late
- No powerful ult
- Need a good team comp for him
- Get interrupted easily
- Weak in teamfights

Flash is one of the summoner spells that is available in League of Legends. Most of the time, everyone will have Flash as one of the two summoner spells they can equip before getting into a game as it is considered to be an important and must have spell because it grants you the ability to instantly switch your position to wherever your cursor is pointing at within a 425 units range, and this allows players to make creative plays as well as escaping from the brink of death.

Since season 4, there are almost no summoner spells in League of Legends that have a bigger impact than Teleport. Sure, Flash is a big deal and can change a team fight, but Teleport determines everything from which objectives you can take, to whether or not you can fight, to where each individual player can and should be standing on the map.

In fact, until patch 8.23, even just starting a Teleport then cancelling it could be enough to turn a fight, or save your team’s bot lane. But, after this most recent preseason patch, Teleport can no longer be cancelled. And that’s probably a good thing.

Now, when you want to impact the map with a teleport, you have to be absolutely sure it’s a good idea. No more faking teleports to get enemy teams to back off of a fight, or to bait teleport out of your opponent, if you start a teleport in season 9, you’re teleporting.

This is the kind of change that, rather than making one playstyle weaker, actually impacts the entire game itself. At the highest levels of the game, map movements will have to be more purposeful, while things like tower dives can be done with a little more confidence, knowing that the enemy team will have to either decide not to help the target of the dive, or commit everything to help them.

If you have kill-pressure, go for ignite. If not, just pick TP and farm up and be ready for dragon. You can still pull up a good teamfight TP if the opponents overextend a lot and you team has good CC. Ignite also falls off hard as the game goes, so you have to abuse it and snowball and close the game before its 'late'. Champions like Kled (which can use his ult to get into places/fights and have more map pressure AND can also kill ppl with ease). That means you can use your ult kinda like a weaker TP and go with ignite, therefore he's more forgiving with ignite than most top champions.

Passive / Mercury Cannon / Mercury Hammer :

Jayce's passive actually has a lot of hidden power most people don't realize
Every time you switch you can move through units and gain increased ms for 1.25 seconds

The first auto attack in ranged form with reduce armor and mr of the opponent, but it will be slower than your regular autos so be careful of this.

Try to stay in hammer form for extended fights because not only does it give you burst on your first auto, it also gives an insane amount of armor and mr as you hit levels 6/11/16.

(Q) To the Skies! / Shock Blast :

Melee Form:

Strong engage/all-in tool inside and out of lane.
If you Q the minions near your opponent, the damage and slow will still hit them if they are in range of the radius.
Don't always rely on this, this spell is easily flashed out of, interrupted, and generally very telegraphed.
Neat Tip - If you do get off your melee Q and they stun you during your hammer auto, your auto will still go off on the target.

Ranged Form:

This ability if your bread and butter for poke, damage, the whole 9 yards.
Try to hit it as often as possible during the early laning phase but don't spam it as you will go oom very quickly.
It explodes in a radius where it hits, use this explosion to try and hit unsuspecting targets through minions.

(W) Lightning Field / Hyper Charge :

Melee Form:

Use this in combination with melee form Q to finish off the backwave of minions.
Don't always use this for damage during all ins, it can waste mana for damage they are just going to dash/flash out of.
Use this to get minions lose enough to last hit on tower

Ranged Form:

This is probably your strongest ability up close and personal and it does insane damage when leveled.
You can use this and then switch to hammer form for a triple auto in melee form.
Try to auto once before using this ability, its activation resets your auto attack timer, enabling you to fire off 4 autos in rapid succession for maximum damage.

(E) Thundering Blow / Acceleration Gate :

Melee Form:

This is your main disengage tool and a good engage if you can position it right.
If you're feeling froggy you can flash behind you enemy and E, essentially insecing them a short distance.
If timed properly you can use this to send people back to the beginning of their dashes.

Ranged Form:

Using this in conjunction with your Q will hypercharge it, causing it to deal more damage and move faster.
If you cast it close enough to your model you can cast it lengthwise, letting you use the speed buff for longer.
Always Q->E never E->Q. Not only does it telegraph your poke, it's slower and won't be as accurate.

My go to starting item on Jayce is dorans blade for a variety of reasons.

It gives you additional sustain in lane on the item itself.
If makes you a bit beefier with the additional hp.
It also provides just shy of a long sword's worth of AD which is super good for Jayce's trading early.
Overall it's just the best item to buy for virtually every matchup mid and top lane wise.


I take corrupting potions in heavy harrass lanes that I'm either...

Not comfortable in (don't know the matchup too well) or
I will get bullied really hard early and need the extra sustain.
Matchups like Syndra and Cass come to mind of matchups where (if you're against really good players) the added sustain might be necessary.


Youmuu's Ghostblade : Strong item for Jayce, has everything he wants in one item. MS, a strong active for his QE into hammer form follow-up, lethality (broken atm), AD, and it's relatively cheap.

Go Ghostblade first if you value the out of combat movement speed and active. It gives Jayce a lot of early mobility for getting ganks off early and pressuring the map more effectively. For these reasons, I recommend going ghostblade in a game where you are even or behind and need the added mobility to help snowball a lead or pressure your other lanes.

Duskblade of Draktharr : A strong item I oftentimes find myself buying early either 1st or 2nd. The damage it provides is rather absurd in combination with his other core items and makes dealing with squishes all the more easier.

Go Duskblade first if you value lane dominance and more burst damage with its passive. It also has the unique blackout passive which is a good psuedo sweeper for early vision control around dragon/their jungler. For these reasons, I recommend only going Duskblade first if you have a substantial lead that you can translate Duskblade's strengths in early vision and damage into (where you don't need the mobility as much).

The Black Cleaver : Provides considerable CDR, tankiness, armor shred, and a fair bit of AD. Good 2nd/3rd item for added tankiness and utility. Only go this second item over Dusk/Ghost if you need the tankiness badly or the armor shred for your teamates sooner rather than later.

Guardian Angel : Strong 4th/5th item for teamfights where another life will make a huge difference. Additionally, it got reworked to incorporate some ad and armor, making this item not a complete waste on the offensive front.

Boots:

The way I see it, there are only a couple options for boots on Jayce in the current meta...

Ninja Tabi : A clear choice into all AD teams or heavy AD matchups. I find myself running these into the likes of Talon, Zed, etc...

Mercury's Treads : These are strong boots for heavy CC teams, not necessarily a lot of magic damage. Only buy these if the tenacity is worth it, use Maw of Malmortius if you want substantial magic resist.

Trap Items!:

Tear of the Goddess / Manamune : This item may seem good because of its usage in professionally play and how mana hungry Jayce is as a champion. However, and especially with the recent lethality changes, this delays so much of what makes Jayce an insanely strong early-mid game champion. Yeah you scale better due to how strong the fully stacked item is, but the point of Jayce is not to scale with the opposing mid laner; it's to snowball the game from the get-go and stay that way until you win. For this reason, I think tear is a trap build that ends up not playing to Jayce's strengths (at least in soloQ).

Trinity Force : It's got a bit of everything, mana, attack damage/speed, and a passive that helps make Jayce feel really clean to play. However, is it a strong item on Jayce? No. In my opinion, this item is a jack of all trades item that doesn't allow you to specialize at anything, something Jayce needs to snowball. In the splitpush, it may seem good, but items like Black Cleaver or Blade of the Ruined King fill this role much better and are less costly than Trinity Force. What about teamfighting? Beat again there too, you just get more damage and utility out of items like Ghost/Dusk which are also a lot cheaper. The alternatives to this item are just too good which is why I feel it is a trap build.

As Jayce, you should be using the first 10 to 15 minutes of the game to accumulate advantages on your opponent. Whether this be kills, cs, or tower gold, you should aim to use Jayce's exceptionally strong early pushing power and damage to take the early game by the balls.

In terms of laning, Jayce is not quite as dominate mid lane as he is top lane. Unfortunately, mid is home to some of the most dominate lane bullies around so certain matchups can prove difficult. Especially around good players, Jayce's abilities are easy to read and predict, requiring careful knowledge of when and how to strike.

For starters, lets just go over a few tips that will improve your laning phase...

Never auto the enemy laner too close to creep aggro. While you might apply pressure and even deal more damage to your opponent, the minion aggro you draw will unintentionally push to lane to the opposition. A good player can use this and bait you closer and closer to tower, forcing you to play more passive lest you get camped by the enemy jungler. Only do this kind of harassment when the auto is worth the damage from minions.
Conserve your mana in lane. Don't wildly spam Q's hoping for him to walk into them. Take conservative trades, all-ining when he overextends.
Don't be afraid to commit for an extended fight/trade. Jayce may have excellent burst but his absolute strength, against most midlaners, is his extended damage over a 4-7 second window. Between all 6 of your abilites, and your AD power autos, you can deal a lot of damage even outside of one form's abilities. Use this to your advantage and go for these sorts of trades after they've waste a key ability or spent a lot of mana.
The best times to all-in are when they are closer to your tower. Try having the opponent harass you near tower, you can use their aggression to melee Q to the creeps closest to them slowing and damaging them in the process. This will oftentimes take them by surprise and allow you to all-in with the rest of your ranged form damage.

On Jayce it's important to participate in any skirmish your team might be having in the early to mid game portions of the game. Your superior early game power will oftentimes pull out ahead of standard champions, creating an advantage you can snowball from.

To expand on this, roaming on mid lane Jayce is super important. Although you may stomp your lane opponent, or may even been up a fair bit of cs, the cold fact of the matter is that most mid laners will outscale you into the late game. There isn't much point in trying to scale with them because if you do your fighting a lost war. Instead, you should use Jayce's superior early game to snowball other lanes and use your pressure in order to end the game fast.

Jayce's Mid game scaling is where he can shine once he has his Ghostblade - Dusk combo no one can contest your dives if done properly or in teamfights where you should either go for their backline or protect yours first then engage etc etc. My point with this section is that if the games not over within 20-25 minutes or less and I dont mean that its ending as in the nexus is exploding but rather by the 25 minute mark your team has complete control of sieging / Drag & Baron control / Enemy jungle vision you can keep playing the game in your favour and hopefully either get a FF from the enemy or ending the game before it goes into late stage.

If you've made the game go past 30 Minutes at this point Jayce's scaling has begun to fall off and he slowely becomes more reliant on having good teamfights over what you can be capable of by yourself. If your struggling in games that go on for this long try reviewing what made the game turn out like this whether it was from your leading actions or if your teammates go 1-10. This late in the game it's about objectives over kills because if one person dies that can give the other team a baron / other objectives.

This is the end of my guide, I hope you enjoyed it and learned a lot about our Defender of Tomorrow Jayce. If you have any questions or want to watch some educational high elo content, then be sure to follow my stream on https://www.twitch.tv/Sanun
Here I will be streaming a lot in the near future.
GL HF with Jayce!
Thank you for reading my guide! if you have any feedback or questions feel free to comment. Upvotes are heavily appreciated!