Jayce Build Guide by Preminance

Introduction

What's up, guys? This is my first MOBAFire guide (or forum-related guide for that matter)... so if it doesn't look pretty, I'm sorry :p

But! This doesn't mean that I don't know what the hell I'm doing; everything I put in this guide is from my knowledge of the game (been playing for over a year and half now) and personal experiences of playing Jayce (and solo-top). So far, he is my favorite solo-topper to play: "Why?" you ask? Well, let's find out!

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What makes Jayce different from the rest?

A fairly simple question... with a fairly simple response. Honestly, the 9001% legit response is that HE DOESN'T FALL-OFF! Ever! No matter the circumstance, with this build, you'll be not only useful but excel in the overall game- (that means you'll carry!) Also... he has a gun AND a freakin' huge hammer, why wouldn't you choose him?


PLEASE leave some feedback! I need to know what to improve/add to this guide and make it better, so tell me anything I forgot or something you'd like to see. Thanks!

Pros / Cons

The fact that Jayce has 2 different skill-sets might make him seem a little overwhelming to some... and this part is to tell you that it's worth learning him! And he's actually quite easy to pick-up :p

Runes / Masteries / Summoner Spells

Runes

These are the recommended runes that I believe Jayce works the best with:


So now, I'll list the runes+masteries manually and explain why I have them and any substitutes.


/\ = Recommended rune
~~ = Alternative rune

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Masteries

The way I'll list masteries is the amount of points in each tree, like so: x-x-x
Then I'll explain the reasoning behind each set-up. Kay, here we go.


Here are my recommended masteries for Jayce:

21-9-0

21 down the offensive tree is pretty much standard for any bruiser. Taking the points in Sorcery gives you a little more liability for escaping ganks/harassing with your skills.


The 9 in defense supports the meaning of the term "off-tank" :p
BE SURE TO SPLIT 2 POINTS BETWEEN ARMOR AND MAGIC RESIST FOR THE DEFENSIVE TREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Most solo tops have one or two tricks up their sleeves that deal either mixed or pure magic damage. Best to prepare accordingly, right? So split the points between Hardiness and Resistance .

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Now, here is another set-up that would work if your role is to be more of a pure-tank than an off-tank:

9-21-0

9 in offense is just filling in the rest of your points here, cuz honestly, do you want extra damage from Weapon Expertise (hint: yes) or some pointless buff-timer increase by Runic Affinity ? Thought so.

21 down the defensive-tree makes you... well, tanky! You're basically getting all the masteries that reduce incoming damage such as Honor Guard and Reinforced Armor , and since the turret damage changes, the 5% reduction from Safeguard REALLY helps.

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As for

Summoner Spells

Generally (99.9% of games) I take the ever-so-common Flash /Ignite combo. However, there are some spells that are worth mentioning as replacements.




Here are your options for your first (utility) spell:

Flash
Ghost
Teleport


Now that you know your options, here's why I take Flash over Ghost:

Flash lets you INSTANTLY chase for that kill we were talking about earlier and INSTANTLY get away from the wolf... compared to Ghost that GRADUALLY does both. See the difference? And, do I have to re-iterate that Jayce is a freakin' track-star already? But, if you STILL think it's absolutely necessary, then fine. Take Ghost.

Since you NEVER want to play a solo-top without any form of escape ( Jayce has a lot of movement speed, sure, but he doesn't have a real escape method like Caitlyn's 90 Caliber Net.), either Flash or Ghost are necessary. However, an aggressive spell like Ignite is NOT necessary at all. This is why Teleport is a viable option; simply replace it with an aggressive spell you would've taken like Ignite or Exhaust.

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Now that you've decided on a utility spell, let's look at the options for the aggressive ones:


Ignite
Exhaust
Heal (yes, I'll explain it...)



Ignite lets you DO MOAR DAMAGE to the target while Exhaust GRADUALLY slows them down and lets you laugh as they do no damage for 3 seconds. Which do you want? Cuz in this situation it's up to you... I'd take either, but prefer Ignite cuz I'm always on-fire when I play Jayce (see what I did there?)



As for Heal, you may be asking, "Why the hell is it under the aggressive spell category?" Well, I'm putting Heal under the aggressive spells because the ONLY reason you'd EVER take it on Jayce is for THIS reason:



What I mean is if you're at about ~300 hp at level 6 and you're laning against a Riven who has ~500 hp at the same level, chances are she's gonna try and kill you. If you have Heal, then you can WAIT FOR HER to engage on YOU (don't be stupid), pop your Heal after a few hits, and you've won the fight. Final words on Heal: "It's all about dem big plays 'doe!"

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Utterly useless. Why? Well, what you're saying is you want to come back to life... just to die again? Cool, you're also about to get reported for feeding.

Did you think you were jungling?

"I WANT IT CUZ I GET BIGGER AND GET AP!!!!!!" Lol, no.

You're so fast already... if you use this, you're just gonna get Infected Cleaver'd again in 4 secs anyway rofl.

Jayce has ABSOLUTELY no mana problems. There is no point behind this spell.

Were you planning on pushing a tower with your new friend you made (or should I say... Promote'd)?

You're not the support, silly :p

Skill Sequence / Explanation

This section is a quick briefing on Jayce's skills as well as why you should rank them the way I propose.

Jayce's passive is that whenever he transforms between his cannon and hammer, he ignores unit collision and gets a quick move-speed buff. All there is to say 'bout that one.


Jayce's first ability is: (hammer) He jumps to a target, dealing an AoE damage-slow. (cannon) He fires a skill-shot AoE nuke that has a fairly small blast-radius. However, its damage (ESPECIALLY when used in-sync with his E) makes up for its lack of size. And it scales off AD, woo! MAX THIS FIRST! This is your main-damage output in the laning phase (in both the cannon and hammer mode) because you'll be focusing on buying your Tear of the Goddess


Jayce's second ability is: (hammer) He becomes electric-man, shocking people in a circle around him for a few seconds. This is AMAZING damage when in a 1v1 with someone or just chillin', farming creeps. And, the added-benefit to it is that you gain mana for EACH AUTO-ATTACK while holding your hammer! Truly amazing. (cannon) He "hyper-charges" his gun to shoot off 3 pulsed rounds. At ranks 1+2 they deal less damage than regular auto attacks, but once you get to rank 3 OHHHH BABYYYYY, does the damage come out! MAX THIS LAST!


Jayce's third ability is: (hammer) He knocks back a target-enemy, dealing (damage that scales with your AD) + a % of their max hp. (cannon) He deploys a fairly large-range gate that, when himself or allies pass through it, gives a move speed buff that diminishes over time. BUT! A little secret and the main reason behind this being useful at all is that, if you shoot your Q through it... it buffs it by 40%! This means it goes 40% further 40% faster, and does 40% MORE DAMAGE!!!! :D MAX THIS SECOND!!



Jayce's ultimate ability is that he can transform between a short-range melee fighter to a medium range "I can hit you, but you can't hit me" fighter. But, that'd be kinda lame if that was ALL his ultimate did, right? Here's the secret: (cannon) You shred their Armor and Magic Resist by a flat amount for a period of time. This is great when you're coming back to lane; just instantly hit them and shoot a Q off for some damage. (hammer) Your next basic attack deals additional magic damage. "Well... come on, that's all we get for having a huge freakin' hammer?" Actually, nope. Here's the best benefit about it: You also gain bonus armor and magic resist! This buff lasts FOR AS LONG AS YOU HAVE THE HAMMER OUT! Amazing, right? Here are a few things to remember:

1. It doesn't cost mana! So you don't have to worry about this ability for performing a wombo-combo.
2. The synergy with your passive is actually useful! If someone comes up to gank you, or when you're heading back to lane, use it! The quick movespeed buff WILL help.
3. You get different abilities according to which weapon you have selected, so you MUST pay attention! If you try to use your skill-shot Q when you're on hammer-duty... well, sorry :p

Playing Jayce: Early Game (Farming/Harassing)

If you are familiar with the role of Solo Top at all, then you know that the team heavily depends on you to do well in order for Mid Game (team fights) to go in your favor. If you're not familiar with Solo Top, then basically this means: IT IS ALL ABOUT EARLY GAME! If you perform well in the early phase of the game, then it will carry over into Mid Game, ESPECIALLY with Jayce.

But, this also means that Early Game is the MOST IMPORTANT phase of the game as Jayce! So, there are a few key things you must do in order to secure your status as a person NOT to be reckoned with: (These are listed in order of priority)

1. Last-hitting creeps

(DO NOT push the lane to their tower until you have a Sight Ward! I usually am safe pushing to about 1/2 way between their tower and the middle of the lane (where the creeps meet at the first wave)... but NEVER go to their tower before wards!) I recommend last-hitting in cannon mode because it's easier (you have range while most Solo Tops are melee), and you can do #2 A LOT more effectively.

2. Harassing your opponent

(This means auto-attacking them with the cannon and using the almighty E+Q= BOOOOOOOM! combo (cannon-mode.) I don't recommend trying to 1v1 a melee opponent until level 4, then you have some HUGE harass.

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Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the almighty wombo-combo! This combo is all the harass that you'd ever need in top, even enough to kill your opponent in just A SINGLE combo! So, without further adu, here it is... the Wombo-Combo!

• Start off in cannon mode and use your E Thundering Blow / Acceleration Gate while setting-up a clear shot with your Q To the Skies! / Shock Blast... once you're sure it will hit (remember, it's AoE), launch your Q To the Skies! / Shock Blast through your E Thundering Blow / Acceleration Gate (applying the 40% buff that I already explained). This is a RIDICULOUS amount of damage, even at level 4!
• Then proceed to hammer mode, jumping on top of the poor soul you're laning against with your Q To the Skies! / Shock Blast (this is AoE as well). Try to remember to activate your W Lightning Field / Hyper Charge in mid-air to start it's AoE damage too. If you can, move behind them (they're slowed, remember?) and knock them back the way you came with your E Thundering Blow / Acceleration Gate, which deals a nice 8% of the max health (yes, at rank 1) too :D
• Land AT LEAST one auto-attack to proc it's bonus magic damage, and then chase them, switch back to cannon mode when you can, and finish them off with a final E+Q combo.

After you perform this wombo-combo, you'll be pretty low on mana. Don't fret, though! Chances are you either killed your opponent or made them recall... so all you have to do is switch to hammer mode and auto-attack the hell outta creeps! Remember, you gain mana for each strike and the mana gained increases as you rank-up your W Lightning Field / Hyper Charge.

In order to have a successful early game, all you have to do is perform the Wombo-Combo, wash, rinse, and repeat :) That's really it. BUT! Remember your priorities!!!!!!

Farming > ATTEMPTING to kill someone (you won't ALWAYS get the kill, you cocky bastard :p)

Follow this section accordingly, and I promise that you will ALWAYS win lane during Early Game.

Playing Jayce: Mid/Late Game (Team Fights)

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So... now that you've picked up a few kills, have tons of cs (cuz, you know, you didn't miss ANY cs during laning, of course...) and have most of your core items, let the Mid Game commence! From here on out, your priorities change from cs'ing in lane to paying attention to your team. Whatever your team is doing, try and be there with them. Of course, there are exceptions such as every lane (mid, jung and bot) are at Dragon and the enemies don't have any Sight Wards. In a case SUCH AS that, stay top and farm some more. But if you're preparing to fight or need to control Dragon, head on down and help out; you do A LOT of damage. Just use your head, and everything will turn out great :)

If you notice that your team is preparing for a team fight (such as: you're at an enemy tower getting ready to push it down), then you NEED to poke the enemy team. Jayce's poke is PHENOMENAL. All you do is (in cannon form) keep shooting your To the Skies! / Shock Blast through your Thundering Blow / Acceleration Gate. Prioritize the enemy squishies (their AD and AP carries are generally the two squishies) as your targets to hit. Following this build, that should do about 500-700 damage EVERY TIME it hits. That's an INSANE amount of damage. The object of poking them down is to get them low enough so that your chances of winning the team fight you're about to have are greatly increased (if not inevitable...) or so the enemy has to back-off from whatever objective you're trying to take, and you can safely obtain your gold :)

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A good question that some of you might have been asking is: "So which weapon should I use during team fights?" Well, I'm here to give the answer! Based on what you've read so far about Jayce and his abilities, I hope that some of you are guessing or contemplating which weapon, cannon or hammer, is better in a fight. The answer: both! Confused? Let me explain...

There are different circumstances for both weapons, so I'll start with the cannon. Basically, YOU are the initiator for the team fights, so what better way to do so then with your Wombo-Combo! That's right, it's still packin' a punch! But, I'm getting ahead of myself... the combo is a bit different when used for an engage. So, it would start out by using your E Thundering Blow / Acceleration Gate then shooting your Q To the Skies! / Shock Blast through it (remember, you have the cannon out). "Who should I hit with the Q?" Well, everyone, of course! Just try and hit as many of the enemy team as you can with it; the more the merrier. Now that they're all missing ~250 hp or so, it's Hammer Time!

Go ahead and switch to your hammer, then proceed to find either the AD carry, or (whoever's doing better) either the AP mid or jungler.

NOTE: I'm assuming that your team is following up with you at this part, if they're not, then DO NOT engage with the hammer yet!

Now that you're ready to engage like a MAN, jump onto whoever you chose (using your Q To the Skies! / Shock Blast), activate your W Lightning Field / Hyper Charge and maul away at 'em! Remember that if it helps/if you're in position, knock (anyone) TOWARDS your team with your E Thundering Blow / Acceleration Gate! It also deals A LOT of damage once you start ranking it up (20% of their max health plus base damage plus 0.3 of your AD at rank 5.)

So, now we have the issue of stragglers. If your team didn't quite manage to secure all the kills, you have the toolset to mop-up, with ease, actually. All you have to do is chase them down (remember about your various move-speed buffs), whip out the cannon, and use your E+Q combo once more. If that doesn't finish them off, proceed with the wombo-combo :D

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Late-Game and Mid-Game are basically the same... except you have to start worrying about the threats of your towers being pushed, inhibitors being destroyed, and baron being... baron'd. I'm not your teacher of LoL, so I'm not gonna tell you EXACTLY how to play the game, but I'll say this:

Just like in Mid-Game, pay attention to your team! ESPECIALLY during Late-Game, where one wrong move, or 1 person out of position means potential disaster.

REMEMBER: The Mid-Game phase is THE MOST IMPORTANT PHASE to your team! The match victor is usually determined by the outcome of the Mid-Game, so YOU need to play a heavy role in it!

Item Builds / Explanations

Instead of making various builds for various encounters, I'll just list every item you'd want to get on Jayce and explain why (also going more into depth adding if it's an optional item or if it's necessary.)

I'll update this section for Season 3 soon!

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Boots + 3 Health pots : Not only does this make Jayce's harass much easier to land, but the added health potions gives him MUCH NEEDED sustain that he otherwise doesn't have. Start with this if you're comfortable laning vs your opponent.


Flask + 5 pot + ward : There are two distinct times in-which you'd get this start - if your opponent has heavy harass, Elise, or if you're against a jungler that will level-2 gank you, Riven or Shyvana. Even if you're just bad at dodging harass, this wouldn't be bad to start with. The flask gives you an extra 300hp and 120 mana for laning and the health pots give you 750 hp... that equals 1050 hp and 120 mana that your opponent will have to take down before they kill you. The ward is for placing in the river-bush so you will know if you're being ganked lv2.

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Mercury's Treads: Gives Jayce one of the only sources of M.R he's gonna get early on (besides your Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resists) and... tenacity! EVERY solo-top works better with tenacity. These are definite pick-up against any enemy with a slow ( Dr. Mundo), fear ( Fiddlesticks), taunt ( Rammus), or magic damage-ability ( Jax). You'll get these boots 99.9% of the time.


Ninja Tabi : If you're getting shut-out early game by an all or mainly AD champion up top such as Pantheon or Irelia, take these boots over the Mercury's Treads. It'll help you get back into the loop as well as the HoG /Philo you got.


Phage : Gives some snazzy hp and damage, making your job top a WHOLE lot easier/effective. And the slow-proc is extremely useful when chasing someone... if it procs :p


Hexdrinker - OPTIONAL ITEM : If you're against a solo top who's majority of damage comes from magic (i.e: Rumble or Vladimir, then GET THIS. It gives you some M.R plus a shield that blocks magic damage PLUS some extra AD. This should also be an option when you notice that your mid lane isn't doing too well, and you'll need its buffs.

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NOTE: I'm putting these items in the order that you should buy them.


Trinity Force : I swear, Jayce was built specifically around this item. He benefits from EVERY SINGLE buff that it gives. This will be your main damage output after laning phase is over, so get it ASAP after your early game items.



Sunfire Cape : You may be thinking, "wait, really? Lmao what a noob!" But I'm here to reveal to you the mystical secrets behind this item being absolutely ownage on Jayce First off, remember that hammer you have? "Yeah." Remember it's abilities? "Yeah." Well... let me explain. Here's a scenario:


So... in order to prevent mayhem like that ^ from ever happening, the almighty cape of the suns is your answer. Not only does it give you a MASSIVE health bonus (I'm being a little redundant on the effects of HP on Jayce lol) and a supple of armor, but it gives you an extra ~40 magic damage per second by just standing next to someone! And since YOU are the initiator 99% of the time, you're gonna be standing next to EVERYONE a lot :p Everything about this item is truly amazing on Jayce.



Bloodthirster : Finally! A big source of AD and that long-awaited sustain you need! Congratulations, you're gonna be 73.564% more effective now! Woo! But really, BT gives Jayce that extra AD he needs to rape even more then he already does :p




Warden's Mail : Coming in at only ~1300 gold, this item's benefits are extremely cost effective! It gives tons of armor, gives you the much needed HP regen you've been waiting for, AND has the passive (20%) chance to slow (someone who's attacking you)'s attack and movement speeds by a whopping 35%! Nice!



Randuin's Omen : Remember that Heart of Gold you got early game? Well, he's gettin' pretty lonely. Plus, finishing the Randiun's not only gives you more HP, but it improves the bonuses you got with the Warden's Mail by a LOT (AND keeps its passive), and has a neat activate-ability (it slows + decreases nearby enemy's damage for a few seconds.) So in other words, makes you even more tanky!

NOTE: I put this item as the 2nd to last because not only do I feel that it SHOULD be here, but I'm a sucker for getting more gold, and holding onto HoG as long as it takes in your build to get Randuin's benefits A LOT!



Maw of Malmoritus : If you got the Hexdrinker early, then this item is a little cheaper then normal :p However, you probably won't need the Hexdrinker in most situations, so getting this item last makes the most sense. It gives you even more AD, improves the shield that Hexdrinker gives, gives more M.R and finally, gives you an extra AD for every 2.5% of your hp that's missing!

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Overall, this build adapts Jayce into what he's meant to be: A big guy with an even bigger hammer who likes to jump into entire teams and kill them all :) In other words, it gives you some pretty large HP amounts, lots of damage (remember, your abilities will do a lot of damage NO MATTER the phase of the game!), and finally some much needed survivability from the oodles of Armor, Magic Resist, and Lifesteal.

Summary / Conclusion

First off, I'd like to say THANK YOU for reading this guide! Please give it a rating and leave a comment! I want feedback :)

Also, I will CONSTANTLY be updating this guide; adding new sections that revolve around gameplay, strategies and such. I will decide it's a finished project once I feel that there's really nothing else to say.

Once again, thank you very much for taking the time to read over this guide, and if you choose to follow it, I guarantee your Match History will look snazzy ;)