Jax is an extremely strong top lane pick. He is able to outscale many bruisers due to his kit giving out tons of free stats as well as amplifying every full item he completes. Jax has very few counters in top lane, can go even in most top lane matchups, or because of his strong duelist kit shut down many of the traditional top laners who are considered top tier.

Jax has a somewhat fragile early game where he is the most vulnerable, but if you can overcome his weaknesses in that early phase he'll come back mid and late game and completely dominate the flow of the game. If you can dominate early, then you basically win the game because of how well Jax amplifies with items and how strongly he scales.

Jax has not changed much from Season 2 to Season 3, but because of how strong health is right now, he has the potential to be broken. Warmog's Armor is a must-buy on most champions, and Master-At-Arms will allow you to abuse the health gain better than most tanks in the game. Additionally, with Blade of the Ruined King becoming Core on Jax, you're able to effectively counter health stackers as well.

In this guide, I will tell you how to use the champion with arguably the strongest duelist skill set in the game, and how to abuse that skill set to carry Solo Queue games.

I see no reason why to take anything else.

Flash is good for a lot of reasons. It lets you Flash > Empower > Leap Strike for the killing blow, lets you escape, lets you Flash > Stun, etc. Some people say Flash isn't necessary because you can always Leap Strike to a ward, but you won't always have wards, mana, etc. Flash is generally more reliable in clutch situations.

Ignite is generally used to secure early kills or cut down the healing potential of some champions. Not much to explain.

Why not take...

Ghost?
Ghost lets you stick onto someone like super glue. While that is nice and Jax sometimes has trouble sticking to targets, that is totally unnecessary. Mid game Jax already has a Phage, a stun, and a Bilgewater Cutlass, and sometimes maybe Enchantment: Furor. Those items alone are already enough to stick to targets, and if you get CCed far away, you will have Flash up to instantly get back into that carry's face. Ghost does not give you that luxury, and sometimes that's all it will take to bring you down.

Exhaust?
You're already a great duelist, and you don't need another slow.

Cleanse?
Quicksilver Sash/ Mercurial Scimitar does its job a lot better. You cannot Cleanse suppressions, but you can QSS/MS it.

Teleport?
Actually, you can, but that means giving up on Flash or Ignite. IMO this is better on champions who can actually split push effectively. Jax is not a split pusher, he is a tanky DPS assassin.

I do not recommend other runes, as these runes give us the strongest possible early game, which is what we need to focus on.

This passive is meh early on, as 24% bonus attack speed isn't a lot especially if you want to freeze the lane and can't attack consecutively. But keep in mind that because Attack Speed was nerfed in Season 3, and late game it can give up to 84% AS, it's one of the strongest and most gold efficient passives in the game.

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Leap Strike is Jax's escape, engage, and chase tool. It has pretty big range and does a decent amount of damage, also on a pretty short cooldown. This isn't primarily used for damage, mostly for closing gaps or jumping to nearby minions or wards to escape.

This ability is mostly for utility, so take one point in it at level 2 and max it last. If you need a lower cooldown to use this as a gap closer, max this second.

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Empower is Jax's main source of sustained damage. Early on it's mostly used to trading, and end game it's used to boost your DPS or stack your passive faster. Because Empower does magical damage, and you mostly build flat AD, maxing this first will make it extremely hard to itemize against you.

Max this first.

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THIS IS OP. 100% dodge completely nullifies all basic attacks and their on-hit effects. That means Irelia will not damage you with her Hiten Style, Darius will not cripple you with Crippling Strike, etc. The fact that this lasts for 2 seconds and stuns everyone for 1 second afterwards is just icing on the cake.

Usually, you should max this second to reduce the cooldown and get in as much auto-attack mitigation as possible, but if you need Leap Strike more/don't need auto-attack mitigation then max this last.

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The passive acts as your free harass and trade. It does a LOT of damage early on, and makes Jax stupidly hard to itemize against. Additionally, it synergizes a lot with your passive, making fighting and winning 1v1 against a Jax a stupid mistake. During lane phase, you should look for opportunities to apply the third hit onto whoever you're laning against for harass, using Leap Strike if necessary.

The active is what makes Jax incredibly powerful, and possible broken, late game with the Warmogs meta right now. What it basically does is it makes you tankier for every point of damage you build. No other champion in the game becomes tankier solely from building damage. Also, with the new health stacking meta, the efficiency of your free resistances will benefit you more than how it did in Season 2.

Take this whenever possible.

Starting Items

I only recommend starting with these items. As opposed to other starting items, these literally let you win every single all-in fight. Additionally, Elixir of Fortitude doesn't restore health, it grants it, meaning the health increase is INSTANT and is NOT reduced by Ignite, making it very strong for baiting or surviving DoTs. Lastly, the Elixir lasts for a whole 4 minutes and is a HUGE boost in early game power.

You also start with a sight ward and potions for lane sustain.

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Core

Get this ASAP. 90% of bruisers in top lane will just stack health through Sunfire Aegis or Warmog's Armor, making this extremely effective against them. It's also not that expensive for what it does. OP item that counters the meta.
Tons of damage^TM. But anyway, this item is really strong on Jax. It gives a bit of everything and greatly increases your sustained damage through the Sheen proc.
Randuins makes it very difficult for an ADC to kite Jax, and it also increases your resilience to AD Carries. This is a must considering the fact that you're going to be sitting on an AD Carry's face every team fight.

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Boots

CC reduction and MR is always good on Jax. The worst thing that could happen in a fight is being CCed so often or so hard that you cannot get your passive stacks up and die as a result. Tenacity will help reduce CC duration so you can get to the enemy carries easier.
If you aren't worried about CC or you need auto-attack damage reduction against whoever you're laning against ( ), then buy these. Ninja Tabi makes it harder for the enemy AD Carry to kill you late game too, which makes it easier to survive in fights as you reduce the most major damage source from the other team.
Buy Boots during lane phase, but hold off on Tier 2 boots until team fights start happening. Jax has enough mobility with Leap Strike to forgo 20 Movement Speed in return for some more damage.

Makes you stick onto carries extremely well. This + + 's active will guarantee that no carry can escape without a lot of help from their teammates. And even then, sometimes it's not enough. Upgrade boots into these when teamfights start.
If you need them to defend your base, or if you need to recall then rush to baron or something. They're really useful.
Enchant your Boots with Enchantment: Furor if you need to stick to Carries in a team fight. Otherwise, build Enchantment: Homeguard.

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Situational Damage

This is still good on Jax. If the enemy team is more AP oriented, or if you want more burst from your abilities, then buy this instead of Blade of the Ruined King. Or, if you're fed, go trolol and buy both.
If you're against a double AP team composition, which rarely happens now. But it still happens, with say Elise top and another AP Mid. The shield will really mitigate a lot of their damage, as well as giving you a good amount of AD. I'd keep it at Hexdrinker and upgrade it later in the game though.
If you're approaching a full build, and if you bought Ninja Tabi, then Zephyr is the way to go. It gives you Tenacity without sacrificing the auto-attack mitigation from Tabis, and also gives a lot of attack speed and move speed to reach carries faster.
So they had a Malzahar. But really, CC screws you over really hard, and a lot of times I had to build this just so I wouldn't lose the game.
I don't like this item. This is best as a mid game item, but the problem is your core items ) are MUCH more important and better, and there's no room to buy this during mid game unless you're literally 100/0. Plus, it's a glass cannon item.

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Situational Defensive

If you're dying first every teamfight, buy this. Otherwise, no. But you'd be surprised how often people like focusing you when you dive their carry.
Do you need an on-demand AoE permaslow to chase or protect your carry? This doesn't happen every game, but sometimes you'd need it say vs Singed.
More suitable for a bruiser, IMO, and Jax isn't a real bruiser. This is good against all the AD Assassins running around, though, because of the health and armor it gives. Also has extra wave clear with the passive.
If no one on the other team has a Blade of the Ruined King, buy this first instead of Randuin's Omen, and buy Randuin's Omen as a last item. It's just raw health which synergizes with Master-At-Arms, making you unbelievably tanky.

Early Lane Phase

[Harass] Spoiler: Click to view Wait for them to get in auto-attack range, then use your Empower to reset your auto-attack and hit them. If they decide to fight back, use Counter Strike to mitigate damage, Leap Strike up to them to keep them range, stun them and back off. After level 6, be more aggressive, wait for the third hit of your ultimate, then Leap Strike to close the gap and Empower to deal damage. This is VERY difficult to out-trade early on. [Counter Engage] Spoiler: Click to view Early on, just focus on farming. If you see your opponent engage, pop Counter Strike to mitigate damage and trade back with Leap Strike and Empower, using the stun duration to disengage. Don't do this every single time, though, because Counter Strike has a long cooldown and is easy to bait out. Jax's early dueling power comes mostly from it, and if it gets baited out and wasted, you can lose many trades, and that can snowball into a lost lane. [Show Dominance] Spoiler: Click to view If you have any sort of advantage however, YOU should start trades with Leap Strike and Counter Strike. You should also stand close to dying allied minions so that when the enemy laner comes in to last hit, you can hit them with an Empower and possibly start a fight. The point here is to push your advantage as much as possible so you can show dominance and farm in peace, reaching late game faster and more easily. [Trade Properly] Spoiler: Click to view Try not to take too much damage from trades, though. Jax has no innate sustain, and against some laners such as Yorick(extremely sustained) or Darius(high harassment) that could be a problem in the long run. However, Counter Strike is an excellent way to both win trades and completely avoid damage. Therefore, try not to fight until it is off cooldown. You are not late game Jax yet, so be patient and just try to farm up.

[Abuse Enemy Misplays] Spoiler: Click to view Always look for mistakes the enemy laner is making, and capitalize. Common mistakes are using abilities to push or farm or missing skillshots. In that case, you should almost immediately start a fight, as they cannot use that ability when it's on cooldown, and you have an advantage. Remember, bruisers rely on basic attacks about as much as abilities to deal damage, and Counter Strike nullifies basic attack and on-hit damage, meaning if they are down an ability they deal significantly less damage. [Receiving Ganks] Spoiler: Click to view When getting ganked, remember not to panic. Calmly activate Counter Strike to take less damage, then try to stun people and jump to minions or to a ward to get away. Also, try to predict jungler ganks. If whoever you're laning against is playing passively, then wants to fight all of a sudden, back off immediately because that's a sure sign that his jungler is nearby. Unless the jungler is at mid or bot, in that case fight back if you can. [Lane Control] Spoiler: Click to view Remember, early game Jax is all about surviving his weakest phase and slowly building up an advantage. If the enemy laner isn't in lane, shove it as hard as you can into his tower to deny him exp and gold and 'reset' the minions, then go back to base and buy. If he IS in lane, try not to push too hard, because you don't want to overextend too much and get ganked, you want HIM to be closer to YOUR tower. Lastly, if you have a slight advantage, freeze the lane as much as possible and zone the enemy laner. [Jax's Power Curves] Spoiler: Click to view This is an important thing to learn too. Know when Jax is strong and when Jax is weak, and know when Jax is stronger and when he is weaker than his opponent. For example, in his pre-6 state Jax is at his strongest at level 3 and weakest at level 5. Therefore, it is wise to fight at level 3 rather than 5. BUT some champions such as Kayle are still stronger than you at 3, so even if you're at your strongest state, you should still play passively because you can lose fights.

Hint: Early on, Jax's 'peaks' are at level 3, 6/7, 9, and 11. After that, he progressively gets stronger and stronger.

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Post-6 Laning
This thing again! Very few champions can fight against the sheer damage output of a level 6 Jax (honorable mentions go to / /maybe ). If you ever want to bully your lane, now's the time to do it. Every time your Leap Strike is off cooldown and you have the third hit of your ultimate up, get into their face and trade with them, using Counter Strike if necessary. When they're ~half health or less, utilize Counter Strike for the stun and kill them.

Again, freeze the lane as much as possible, or push it hard if you're ahead. Pushing the lane will stack up your passive faster, so you can be ready for duels in case they try to fight. Pushing the lane will also make you have the third hit of your ultimate up very frequently, so you're always ready to bully the enemy laner.

If your team needs more gold and experience, or you need more presence in the map, take the enemy tower so you can have more free time to roam and help out your team. If you're winning your lane, take it even if your team doesn't need it because it means you can walk down to Dragon and take that in a 5v4 while their top laner tries to push out the lane back to your turret.

Teamfighting as Jax is simple, you just have to follow two rules:
1) Never initiate fights. You are not a tank, you are a tanky, sustained DPS assassin.
2) See AD Carry, kill AD Carry.

Jax, no matter how farmed and fed you are, should never, EVER initiate a fight.

EVER.

Even if you're full build 30 minutes in.

EVER.

Because that means every single CC the other team possesses will be piled onto you. EVERY. LAST. SKILL. And that means you will be unable to do your job of killing the enemy AD Carry, which means you will lose the teamfight.

Instead, wait for some of it to be used, then jump in :D Preferably after your tank initiates while everything is a mess.

When the fight starts, activate Master-At-Arms jump STRAIGHT onto the AD Carry. It doesn't matter if it's Vayne, Kog'Maw, or whoever, just jump onto it (if they're ever close enough and stupid for you to just walk up to them, save Leap Strike for after their escapes). Afterwards, activate Counter Strike when they target you to dodge all their damage, and keep pounding away at them, using Blade of the Ruined King to keep them close to you. DO NOT let them have any breathing space, stay on them until they are dead. That is your one and only job in teamfights.

If you can't find the AD Carry? Save Leap Strike for when you do. I admit, finding a tiny AD Carry in the middle of teamfights is hard at first, but focus and you'll be able to do it.

If you didn't succeed, then you have probably died, and hopefully the chaos you have caused for the other team was enough for your own team to cleanup the fight.

If you did end up killing the AD Carry, target the squishiest members of the other team afterwards, taking them down one by one until you go down. This is usually in the order of AP Carry > Support > Bruiser > Tank. Alternatively, you can peel for your own AD Carry, because they deal more damage than you, but Jax doesn't have the best peels (situational long cooldown stun, damage, and Phage procs only...)

Jax fits into any team composition really. Any team can benefit from a super strong tanky assassin that deals a lot of sustained damage. The only real requirement is that you would need some kind of initiator, but (although not recommended) Jax can fill that role as well if he built a Guardian Angel.

If your team needs you to protect a high value AD Carry, such as Kog'Maw or Vayne, I don't recommend you pick Jax because he isn't very good at protecting carries, he's best at destroying them.

Overall, Jax is a good pick if your team doesn't need a lot of peel.

Jax is a very strong Yolo Queue pick as he has a lot of good matchups, as well as being a very strong mid to late game carry. With practice, you can be able to overcome his weak early game to create a monster to be feared. Hopefully this guide has helped or taught you to play Jax better at top lane.

~tehAsian

2/7/13
Published guide

2/15/13
Made ending of guide less 'wall of texty'

2/24/13
Changed Cheat Sheet to match what I've been using more often and recently

3/7/13
Changed Cheat Sheet, too lazy to edit information -,-

3/14/13
Edited information to match cheat sheet.