This build has been archived by the author. They are no longer supporting nor updating this build and it may have become outdated. As such, voting and commenting have been disabled and it no longer appears in regular search results.
We recommend you take a look at this author's other builds.
This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page






Your votes and comments encourage our guide authors to continue
creating helpful guides for the League of Legends community.
For Tristina, she just R me, peels with Q and then W if she is in danger.
When i walk back in, she peeled me a lot already and at my tail 4 of her teammate chasing me while waiting for their CC cooldown.
When i can jump again, they probably have their CC back online to lock me in. And my team still do nothing since 75 % of my games, my ADC is bad. Not sure why T.T
Can you give me a little more specific instruction? Thank you.
Against Vayne, BoRK + tri force move speed usually lets you catch her as long as you don't get stunned.
I have no problem with other ADCs beside them. (i mean, they have 2 fail-safe. I only have one jump. Ofc it's hard.)
Edit: Tried out build and works like a charm we were 0 they were 7, I when I got a kill i managed to gain some ground. Top left lane for a bit so I destroyed it in one go. Managed to kill 1 more, then the real fun started.
This build is well worth the time trying out!
gonna give an up vote!
Score: 14/2/10 Victory
2. Because Randuins and Warmogs doesn't give HP? Where does it say GA is core and should be bought every game?
3. BoRK also has an active which gives decent burst and let's you stick to squishes so you can actually kill them. Gunblade only has a slow. This is actually preference. And Attack Speed doesn't mess with empower.
4. Ignite to kill people in lane and snowball. Flash to catch up to people who Flash. Taking Ghost + Exhaust severely gimps your kill potential in lane. Also, if you run Ghost Exhaust late game you get peeled easily and become useless.
5. Because highest MR item in the game? Passive works well with life steal/spell vamp/BorK active?
6. How is it contradictive
Jax is a sustained DPS anti carry. You build some damage, some tankiness, and you **** on carries.
2. Guardian angel is an item for hard glass carries while for jax hp items are better since he they make his ulty last longer which gives higher def that guardian angel.
3. Jaxes main job is to take down carries and squishes , therefore blade of the ruined king not only messes with empower but also his passive becomes usless since carries and other squishes have no hp to begin with(hexblade is better by far).
4. Ignite meh spell for jax since gost and slow can help u deal similar extra damage ealry game if jax is at full stacks and late game these spells help u take down carries that would otherwise would be able to escaspe u like ez, trist or kassadin with help of flash and there abiliy and then come back and finsh u and ur teammates off since uve wasted time damaging some1 u couldnt kill.
5. As for spirit visage i dont even know why u put it here.
6. Putting items aside the rest of the guide was great thought ur advises and play stile contradictive to ur items.
The guide is well organized and looks great, but I don't agree with a lot of things you say.
"Jax is not a great split pusher".
Actually, he's one of the best, while your passive on your ult doesn't hit towers, your attack speed passive is excellent for killing towers. Jax clears waves and autos towers down faster than most any other champion including ADCs.
No, he isn't.
He's a good split pusher. He can 1v1, 1v2, and sometimes 1v3. He can take down towers quickly with his passive and
But compare him to champions such as
Zed W E Q's a minion wave and they all die. He stacks a ton of AD + Blade of the Ruined King, so he takes down towers even faster than Jax. He has a reliable escape on a short cooldown if you build him properly (CD Boots + Brutalizer) and it doesn't need a Ward. Zed is an assassin who can instantly gib a squishy, instead of having to DPS them down.
Rengar's QQ obliterates towers, and he has a very strong escape on a relatively short cooldown. He has AoE with
Tryndamere can 1v1, 1v2, 1v3 under enemy towers. He is an ADC meaning he will have very very high DPS late game, he has a reliable escape, and he has natural steroids and is extremely difficult to kill due to his ultimate and mobility.
"I do not recommend other runes,"
Not even a mention for Hybrid or Armor Pen Marks or Life Steal Quints? All three are excellent choices and Jax is not actually weak early game so focusing purely on stats before level 6 wastes potential. Life Steal Quints can be great in a lane vs. a Xin Zhao who has some small amount of built in sustain that you'll need to counter with your own sustain and the extra 6% life steal is a lot when you have 200 or more AD late game.
Hybrid Pen makes you weaker at levels 1-2. Armor Pen is stupid since you do 50% magic damage. Life Steal Quints I forgot (haven't updated guide in forever).
Jax is strong at level 1 and 2, IF the person you're laning against uses auto-attacks. Level 3 is strong as well IF they use auto-attacks frequently. Levels 4 and 5 are trash.
If you run Life Steal Quints against a Xin you will lose lane because you will lack the damage to kill him when he jumps on you, period. You don't counter sustain with sustain, you counter sustain with kill potential.
6% Life Steal heals you for 12 hp if you have 200 AD. Since you don't normally build armor pen, that 12 hp is cut down even further. A squishy carry will have ~100 armor late game. Your life steal quint investment heals you for an additional 6 hp. Wow, so good. I'd rather have extra damage to strengthen my early game so that I don't get **** on and be irrelevant.
"Ghost... Is totally unnecessary."
Against champions with built in speed steroids, such as Singed, Ghost is superior in every way to Flash. Flashing forward to hit Singed one extra time is useless, Flashing backward to try to out run Singed only prolongs the inevitable. Being able to pop Ghost to stick to Singed for 3 more autos or to run away from Singed while you're being ganked, is a much better option and Ghost's cool down is much shorter than Flash's. Plus, Ghost helps you split push by allowing you to run from the enemy team easily when they try to stop you. Ghost is also much more viable for team fights seeing as you already have Leap Strike to close gaps, why would you want to again Flash forward for one more auto on an ADC when you could Ghost and get in 5 more instead?
See, this is why we build
Singed is a bad example. You Ghosted? Well, he ghosted too. And he has
Ghost doesn't help split push. You lack a reliable escape and you can't avoid CC as easily as if you had Flash.
Yeah, I have
Also, I build Blade of the Ruined King, Trinity Force, Zephyr, Furor Boots, and Frozen Mallet. I don't need Ghost to stick to ADCs.
"Activating Empower then using Leap Strike is a very effective form of harassment, especially if you know you can't auto-attack to follow up afterward."
It's actually better to Leap Strike, and immediately use Empower while harassing. This allows you to get in 2 attacks in the amount of time you would get in 1 attack in the scenario you described because Empower resets your auto attack timer allowing you to hit immediately after you activate it.
Implying people who have good Jax mechanics would actually read the guide. Guides cater to new players, so I tried to use simple mechanics and tips to help them get better.
Plus, "especially if you know you can't auto-attack to follow up afterward."
"Use this to FORCE and WIN early trades to put yourself at an advantage, but don't get too cocky." This is referring to Counter Strike.
You shouldn't force fights with Counter Strike at all. It's high mana cost and long cool down. You should try to harass without using it and if the enemy player chooses to keep fighting after your burst combo you should use Counter Strike to further win the trade. In some matchups, such as against Tryndamere, using Counter Strike before you get into a sustained duel can result in your death because if you jump onto Tryndamere with Counter Strike active he will wait for it to fade and then begin to trade you in return and with his early game crit chance he will win these trades. You can't Counter Strike Tryndamere and run away either because of his slow and spinning strike.
Yeah, I think you misinterpreted me here, and/or I wrote it wrong.
You use Counter Strike to mitigate as much auto-attack damage possible. That's how you win trades. You don't wait to take damage, you learn when they want to engage and pop counter strike then. If they don't want to engage, you start a fight.
There's also something called "baiting escapes." It's when you jump onto Tryn as if you're looking to all-in, and if he wants to fight you fight, if he spins away you don't use Counter Strike and you back off. Either way, you know his playstyle and can adjust when Counter Strike's CD comes back up.
"No other champion in the game becomes tankier solely from building damage."
Not true, Riven's shield scales off of AD. Xerath's passive converts 15% of his AP into Armor. There are most likely other examples of this as well.
True. I'm stupid.
Riven is false though. That's artificial tankiness. It's not really the same.
"In his pre-6 state Jax is at his strongest at level 3 and weakest at level 5."
No, just no, when Empower has 3 points in it you are not weaker than when it has 1 point. If anything you're much stronger because Leap Strike does not add much damage to your burst where as each additional point in Empower does especially because it will reset your auto attack timer and allow you to hit faster than most other champions in the game.
"Relative" strongest and weakest. You will lose to Darius at level 5, but win at level 3.
"Never initiate fights."
Oh my God no, you should be initiating most team fights unless you have a pull or a Zac on your team. Jax is one of the best initiators in the game. He just has to leap to the enemy ADC and activate his dodge and ultimate and suddenly he is a tanky champion that takes no auto attack damage and is about to stun and kill the ADC. Seriously wtf? Jax's entire kit is designed for initiation and bursting a high value target to death instantly and then brawling with the low damage champions for the rest of the fight. You can't initiate like an idiot, but as soon as the opportunity arises you need to jump on a carry. You put Merc Tread's, Zephyr, and QSS in the build notes, why on earth would you still be afraid of CC? What's more, if the enemy team uses their CC on you, then your ADC and APC are both left untouched and able to rip through the enemy team without fear of dying. You also have Randuin's, GA or Spirit Visage, Warmog's, defensive boots, and the health from Tri Force, you're practically THE tankiest player on any team with those items which would allow you to survive an enemy team's burst especially with your ultimate and dodge active.
"He just has to leap to the enemy ADC and activate his dodge and ultimate and suddenly he is a tanky champion that takes no auto attack damage and is about to stun and kill the ADC."
I don't know what elo you're at, but at Diamond the ADC is all the way at the back. Leap Strike doesn't have 1500 range. I can't get back there without being out of position and killed.
"Jax's entire kit is designed for initiation and bursting a high value target to death instantly and then brawling with the low damage champions for the rest of the fight."
No, you just described
"You can't initiate like an idiot, but as soon as the opportunity arises you need to jump on a carry. "
Yeah, as in the enemy carry is 800 elo and stands at the front of his team, which doesn't happen at anywhere above Bronze.
"You put Merc Tread's, Zephyr, and QSS in the build notes, why on earth would you still be afraid of CC?"
Because it ****ing exists?!?!?!
Because puncturing taunt and
Because knockups cannot be reduced by tenacity and cannot be cleansed?!?!
Because suppression?!?!
Because there's probably more than one CC that needs to be cleansed?!?!
Like srsly. There's more than one champion on the other team.
"What's more, if the enemy team uses their CC on you, then your ADC and APC are both left untouched and able to rip through the enemy team without fear of dying."
Yeah, I wrote that in the ****ing guide. Read it and understand it before posting ********.
"You also have Randuin's, GA or Spirit Visage, Warmog's, defensive boots, and the health from Tri Force, you're practically THE tankiest player on any team with those items which would allow you to survive an enemy team's burst especially with your ultimate and dodge active."
There is no way I'm buying 4-5 defensive items on Jax unless I feel like being useless as ****. 2 maximum. Tell me how I'm tankier than our jungler, who has
and more.
This guide needs a lot of work and serious rethinking, please stop spreading misinformation to the League community.
Your comment needs a lot of work and serious rethinking, please stop talking about stuff that you apparently don't know anything about.
"Jax is not a great split pusher".
Actually, he's one of the best, while your passive on your ult doesn't hit towers, your attack speed passive is excellent for killing towers. Jax clears waves and autos towers down faster than most any other champion including ADCs.
"I do not recommend other runes,"
Not even a mention for Hybrid or Armor Pen Marks or Life Steal Quints? All three are excellent choices and Jax is not actually weak early game so focusing purely on stats before level 6 wastes potential. Life Steal Quints can be great in a lane vs. a Xin Zhao who has some small amount of built in sustain that you'll need to counter with your own sustain and the extra 6% life steal is a lot when you have 200 or more AD late game.
"Ghost... Is totally unnecessary."
Against champions with built in speed steroids, such as Singed, Ghost is superior in every way to Flash. Flashing forward to hit Singed one extra time is useless, Flashing backward to try to out run Singed only prolongs the inevitable. Being able to pop Ghost to stick to Singed for 3 more autos or to run away from Singed while you're being ganked, is a much better option and Ghost's cool down is much shorter than Flash's. Plus, Ghost helps you split push by allowing you to run from the enemy team easily when they try to stop you. Ghost is also much more viable for team fights seeing as you already have Leap Strike to close gaps, why would you want to again Flash forward for one more auto on an ADC when you could Ghost and get in 5 more instead?
"Activating Empower then using Leap Strike is a very effective form of harassment, especially if you know you can't auto-attack to follow up afterward."
It's actually better to Leap Strike, and immediately use Empower while harassing. This allows you to get in 2 attacks in the amount of time you would get in 1 attack in the scenario you described because Empower resets your auto attack timer allowing you to hit immediately after you activate it.
"Use this to FORCE and WIN early trades to put yourself at an advantage, but don't get too cocky." This is referring to Counter Strike.
You shouldn't force fights with Counter Strike at all. It's high mana cost and long cool down. You should try to harass without using it and if the enemy player chooses to keep fighting after your burst combo you should use Counter Strike to further win the trade. In some matchups, such as against Tryndamere, using Counter Strike before you get into a sustained duel can result in your death because if you jump onto Tryndamere with Counter Strike active he will wait for it to fade and then begin to trade you in return and with his early game crit chance he will win these trades. You can't Counter Strike Tryndamere and run away either because of his slow and spinning strike.
"No other champion in the game becomes tankier solely from building damage."
Not true, Riven's shield scales off of AD. Xerath's passive converts 15% of his AP into Armor. There are most likely other examples of this as well.
"In his pre-6 state Jax is at his strongest at level 3 and weakest at level 5."
No, just no, when Empower has 3 points in it you are not weaker than when it has 1 point. If anything you're much stronger because Leap Strike does not add much damage to your burst where as each additional point in Empower does especially because it will reset your auto attack timer and allow you to hit faster than most other champions in the game.
"Never initiate fights."
Oh my God no, you should be initiating most team fights unless you have a pull or a Zac on your team. Jax is one of the best initiators in the game. He just has to leap to the enemy ADC and activate his dodge and ultimate and suddenly he is a tanky champion that takes no auto attack damage and is about to stun and kill the ADC. Seriously wtf? Jax's entire kit is designed for initiation and bursting a high value target to death instantly and then brawling with the low damage champions for the rest of the fight. You can't initiate like an idiot, but as soon as the opportunity arises you need to jump on a carry. You put Merc Tread's, Zephyr, and QSS in the build notes, why on earth would you still be afraid of CC? What's more, if the enemy team uses their CC on you, then your ADC and APC are both left untouched and able to rip through the enemy team without fear of dying. You also have Randuin's, GA or Spirit Visage, Warmog's, defensive boots, and the health from Tri Force, you're practically THE tankiest player on any team with those items which would allow you to survive an enemy team's burst especially with your ultimate and dodge active.
This guide needs a lot of work and serious rethinking, please stop spreading misinformation to the League community.
You should rush it now.
brb editing guide
good guide btw