
[11.7] PH45's In-depth guide to Jax, the Grandmaster!
By PH45 | Updated on April 5, 2021x

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Choose Champion Build:
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Top Lane
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JUNGLE JAX
Runes: Read the notes
1
2
3

Precision





Inspiration






+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor
Spells:
1
2
3
The classic way


Flash

Teleport
Items
Ability Order Max vs melees and usual matchups


Relentless Assault
Jax Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies


Extreme
Major
Even
Minor
Tiny

None
Low
Ok
Strong
Ideal



Pantheon
Be careful about his empowered W as that can hurt quite a bit when he combos in his other abilities. When he uses his E, Q behind him to be able to deal damage to him. You still outscale him so you should be fine if you don't int the lane. Early armor helps a decent bit.


Champion Build Guide

Hello, I'm PH45, and this is my ![]() Hello and welcome to my ![]() ![]() ![]() My currently played EUW account I also got multiple other accounts but right now I'm mainly playing on the account I listed above. Check out my YouTube channel where I occasionally post League related videos! Now on to ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Pros
+ Excellent duelist + Can fight almost anyone late game + Extremely strong late game + Great splitpusher + Has a built-in escape with ward + Q + Has an auto-attack reset + Gets naturally tanky in fights when using R as it gives you a good amount of resists ![]() |
Cons
- Can be shut down with CC - Hard to get back in the game if behind - Requires matchup knowledge - Has some difficult matchups - Can sometimes struggle with teamfights Falling behind as ![]() |

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As the keystone of choice I have picked ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Next one on the list is ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Next are the Legend tier runes, from which all are fine really, although I think ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Lastly from the Precision tree we have either ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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If you want to go for more defensive runes then take the ![]() |
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For the first rune I would probably ![]() |
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Second rune choice is ![]() ![]() ![]() |

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Relentless Assault (Passive):
Jax gains bonus attack speed for 2.5 seconds every time he lands a basic attack, stacking up to 8 times. This falls off one stack at a time. To utilize this passive in lane auto attack minions as much as you can before engaging the enemy so you have more attack speed to fight with.
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Leap Strike (Q):
Jax leaps to targeted enemy while dealing physical damage to the target. It can also be used to jump on wards, plants, Thresh lanterns etc. If you use your W before using Q the W's damage will be applied on top of your Q's damage.
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Empower (W):
Jax's next basic attack or Leap Strike within 10 seconds deals bonus magic damage. It is also an autoattack reset so after your auto attack has landed activate this for and immediate autoattack. It also adds 50 extra range on the empowered auto, which can make it easier to hit for a quick poke or trade.
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Counter Strike (E): When activated the first time
Jax will block all incoming auto attacks for 2 seconds aswell as will take 25% reduced damage from all area of effect abilities. At the end of the duration or when reactivated
Jax stuns nearby enemies for 1 second and deals physical damage to them, increased by 20% for each attack dodged, up to a 100% increase. This is the key to winning melee matchups at level 1. Just auto minions for your passive and then auto the enemy while near his minion wave so your E's damage increases.
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Grandmaster's Might (R): It's passive enables
Jax to deal bonus magic damage on every third basic attack within 2.5 seconds of each other. When activated
Jax gains bonus armor and bonus magic resistance for 8 seconds. Once you hit level 6 in lane auto minions twice and then Q onto your enemy and autoattack and follow with immediate W for a good amount of burst.
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Trinity force![]() ![]() |
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Divine Sunderer This item feel quite alright on ![]() ![]() |
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Plated Steelcaps This item is just ![]() |
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Mercury's treads Pretty self-explanatory, get this if the enemy laner or the whole enemy comp has a lot of CC as it can shut you down pretty well. |
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Ionian boots of Lucidity I often like ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Black Cleaver Actually a very nice item now, gives good amount of HP, some Ability Haste and AD, and the passive shreds enemies armor still. It also gives movement speed per stack on Carve for 2 seconds which helps you to stick onto targets. |
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Thornmail If the opposing team has lot's of healing champions or just a fed AD champ with healing this is the perfect item. Taking basic attacks reflects magic damage back to attacker and applies a 40% Grievous Wound, and immobilizing enemies will apply a 60% Grievous Wound instead. |
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Randuin's Omen Good choice against AD champions, especially vs those who run crit. The active slow is nice, and it also reduces enemies attack damage by 10% and critical strike damage by 20% for 4 seconds. It also reduces incoming damage from basic attacks by up to 0.5% of your max health, capped at 40% of the attack's damage. |
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Ravenous Hydra This item alright on ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Titanic Hydra Still gives you nice waveclear and it also gives a nice amount of HP and 30 AD, and basic attacks deal additional physical damage to the target and to enemies behind the target. The on-hit damage also applies on structures which helps you push faster. It has no active anymore though, so no auto reset. |
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Blade of the ruined king This item is still really good vs high hp enemies. It gives AD, attack speed and lifesteal, and 10% target's current health damage as physical damage for melee's. It's active effect is now moved to it's passive. After basic attacking a champion 3 times it deals magic damage and steals 25% of their movement speed for 2 seconds. |
Splitpushing is a good way of pressuring the enemy team.
Jax excells at it for multiple reasons:
His passive gives him more attack speed and he can take turrets down pretty fast after he get's
Sheen. You just auto-attack and right as the attack has landed you use
Empower for the auto attack reset and at the same time you get a
Sheen proc. Also having
Titanic Hydra or
Ravenous Hydra helps splitpushing as your waveclear is improved by those items.
Jax is also a strong splitpusher since he can duel pretty much anyone in the later points of the game and if you are ahead splitpushing is a great way of giving the enemy team pressure around the map.
Also thanks to his mobility with
Leap Strike,
Jax can escape sticky situations with his ward hop mechanic which makes him somewhat slippery as he can jump over walls.
When splitpushing you are essentially leaving your team 4v5, so your team needs to be aware of what you are doing. The idea of splitpushing is to either attract attention to you, so the opponents send 1-2 or more champions to deal with you which leaves your team free to take objectives with the overpower they have. The other case is that the enemy leave you unnoticed and try to take down your team, in which case your team needs to be aware of the risk and back off before it's too late. When this happens you push the lane you are splitting as hard as you can as you can get surprisingly fast multiple towers down from a lane.
When splitpushing vision is a really important thing. Try to have vision around the area you are pushing so you know when to back off if the opponents try to gank you from the fog of war. Also keep an eye on the minimap to see how many of your opponents are visible, and where they are. Think of who you can solokill and who you can't, who you can possibly 1v2 etc.
If you have
Teleport while splitpushing you can also consider
Teleporting into teamfights. If your team can hold on the fight while your TP is channeling you can win the teamfight with the element of surprise if the opponents first thought it will be a 5v4 fight for them. Before you tp consider which option gives your team the most advantage. If the fight is already lost pretty hard, push as much as you can and back, remember to keep vision on objectives like
Baron Nashor
and
Dragon
depending on the lane you are pushing since if the opponents kill your team they are likely to do one of these objectives if possible.

His passive gives him more attack speed and he can take turrets down pretty fast after he get's






Also thanks to his mobility with


When to splitpush?
When splitpushing you are essentially leaving your team 4v5, so your team needs to be aware of what you are doing. The idea of splitpushing is to either attract attention to you, so the opponents send 1-2 or more champions to deal with you which leaves your team free to take objectives with the overpower they have. The other case is that the enemy leave you unnoticed and try to take down your team, in which case your team needs to be aware of the risk and back off before it's too late. When this happens you push the lane you are splitting as hard as you can as you can get surprisingly fast multiple towers down from a lane.
When splitpushing vision is a really important thing. Try to have vision around the area you are pushing so you know when to back off if the opponents try to gank you from the fog of war. Also keep an eye on the minimap to see how many of your opponents are visible, and where they are. Think of who you can solokill and who you can't, who you can possibly 1v2 etc.
If you have




At level 1 you can cheese your opponent (easier vs melee champs) with having
Counter Strike up, going to auto them in their minion wave, after you have attacked and minions turn aggro on you activate your
Counter Strike and keep autoattacking your opponent if you can stay in range. If done correctly you should chunk your opponent for a good hefty amount of damage and force them to pop a potion or in general just back off.
When you reach 6 a common thing to do is auto minions twice, then
Leap Strike on to your opponent, auto them and immediatly follow with
Empower. This combo will do good amount of damage as your
Grandmaster's Might 3rd proc +
Empower do quite a lot of damage in a short burst.
You can also cancel your autoattack animation with your
Counter Strike. When you have activated
Counter Strike and you have autoattacked, right as the damage from your autoattack lands re-activate
Counter Strike and this will cancel the rest of your autoattack. This is very useful if you want to do a fast combo with your W and
Titanic Hydra for example.
Sometimes after top laners and others switch to either
Farsight Alteration or
Oracle Lens but not on
Jax. On
Jax you keep
Stealth Ward so you can ward hop and potentially escape from tough spots. It's extremely useful when splitpushing and there are multiple enemies coming at you you just wardhop over a wall.
You should also note you can use your
Leap Strike on things like
Jarvan IV flag,
Thresh lantern and so on.


When you reach 6 a common thing to do is auto minions twice, then




You can also cancel your autoattack animation with your




Ward hopping and trinket choice
Sometimes after top laners and others switch to either





You should also note you can use your







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![]() Any feedback on this guide is highly appreciated, I will be updating this constantly whenever there is something to update or new ways of playing ![]() Have a great time splitpushing and smashing enemies as ![]() And of course if you enjoyed the guide make sure to subscribe on YouTube for League of Legends content! Subscribe Thank you to @Jovy for the awesome banners made for this guide! Also some of the code used in the making of this guide is from http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/making-a-guide-101506#chapter11 @jhoijhoi - PH45 |
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[11.7] PH45's In-depth guide to Jax, the Grandmaster!
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