Jax Build Guide by PH45

Hello, I'm PH45, and this is my Jax Guide. Hello and welcome to my Jax guide. I go by the username of PH45, but usually I go by the name Patrik. I am a long time League of Legends player (started back in Season 1). I'm a top lane main, and I picked up Jax as my main champion back in Season 5 and have played him mostly ever since. I've been Diamond since Season 7. I have about 2 million mastery points on Jax when adding up all of my accounts, so needless to say I have played him quite a bit. 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 Jax. Jax is a bruiser style champion, who can really be very diverse with his builds and playstyles. You can play him as a splitpusher and duel almost anyone late game, or you can build him more tanky and peel for your carries, or just go all out and build him as a burster (although not recommended most of the time). Jax is a great champion to pickup as he isn't necessarily the most complex champion mechanics wise, but rather requires matchup knowledge. Knowing where to be and what to do at the right time as Jax is the key to utilizing him to his fullest potential.

Flash: Best summoner spell in the game. Flash gives you the capability of getting over walls or quickly getting in range with Leap Strike. Overall just no a no-brainer of a summoner spell.

Ignite: I wouldn't really bother taking Ignite on Jax. Sure it can help you score early kills but the spell scales so badly compared to Teleport it's just not worth it. Especially if you lose lane hard it will feel extremely bad to have this summoner spell when you could've just had Teleport to help you out in a losing matchup/bad lane phase.

Teleport: Teleport is the second choice in 99% of cases in top lane for Jax. Most of the time it enables you to splitpush and teleport to teamfights or skirmishes if you aren't near the fight when it breaks out. It can also help you in tough matchups where you have to back a lot early.

Smite is mandatory for jungling so if you are jungling take it. Often I like to take red Smite when I'm jungling as Jax for the added dueling power, although blue Smite isn't bad either especially if you need the slow for certain kind of targets.

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 Jax is a very strong fighter once he picks up a couple items, and in late game he can be a monster in the right hands.

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 Jax can be very punishing. It is really hard to get back to the game if you fall behind a lot and especially then if the enemy team keeps denying you XP and CS.

Precision is arguably the best choice for Jax. It gives him a lot of things he wants like free damage, healing and also tenacity which is really important on a melee champion like Jax.

As the keystone of choice I have picked Conqueror. Damaging abilities and attacks grant 2-5 adaptive force for 6 seconds and it stacks up to 12 times. At max stacks you'll heal for 9% of post-migitation damage. This means you'll heal less the more resistances your opponents have. For jungling Press the Attack is the superior choice (although Conqueror is okey in jg now). In top lane Conqueror is the better keystone right now. Press the Attack gives you more damage towards the target you have attacked with 3 consecutive basic attacks and it also increases damage to them from all sources for 6 seconds. Jax can pretty reliably proc Press the Attack and gets great benefit from using it, but I think Conqueror is the better keystone on top lane right now, Press the Attack is better suited for jungling.

Next one on the list is Triumph. Short and sweet, it can save you in a clutch situation or just grant you some HP back in a intense teamfight. Recently I've tried running Presence of Mind and it feels really nice in lane since while you fight the enemy you get mana regen, which helps Jax a lot if you need to wither down your opponent.

Next are the Legend tier runes, from which all are fine really, although I think Legend: Tenacity and Legend: Bloodline outweigh Legend: Alacrity. Legend: Tenacity helps a lot vs high CC comps, or even vs lower CC comps it can still be really valuable. You should alter your choice depending on your matchup and enemy comp. If your opponents have a lot of CC or lockdown then Legend: Tenacity should be an obvious choice. If however the enemy team has little-to-no CC then Legend: Bloodline is a great choice due to the sustain it offers, especially since my builds usually don't include lifesteal.

Lastly from the Precision tree we have either Coup de Grace or Last Stand. I like Last Stand on Jax since you'll be in the middle of the fight most of the time so you'll take damage anyways and deal more damage with it. With Coup de Grace your targets melt faster when you get them below 40% HP, which Jax can do relatively easily when snowballing. Both are fine but personally at this moment, I prefer Last Stand.

Inspiration helps you with early laning and trading as you get movement speed while using potions and some extra sustain with cookies.

Biscuit Delivery will help you to sustain in harder lanes if you are knocked low early. Also can be used to regen some mana and it also gives some permanent mana on consumption or when sold.

When you activate a potion you will instantly heal for half of the total healing, and also get movement speed while the rest of the duration keeps running. Utilize this while trading to keep up with your opponent.

If you want to go for more defensive runes then take the Resolve tree.

For the first rune I would probably Bone Plating. It helps you in lane with your trades. After it procs it reduces the damage your opponents next 3 attacks/abilities deal to you. This is useful during trades in lane phase.

Second rune choice is Demolish. It allows you to push towers down even faster, especially now that turret plating is added to the game this will help you take down those plates faster than ever. After Unflinching got changed I've been running it in most cases when running Resolve since tenacity and slow resistance is always really nice to have.

• 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.
  
• 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.
  
• 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.
  
• 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.
  
• 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.
  

Trinity force Trinity Force has always been a core item on Jax. It has nice boost on his attack speed, health, damage, spellblade proc and also ramp-up damage with the new Threefold Strikes passive, which increases your base AD when you hit enemy champions or structures. It gives some extra AD, AH and movement speed for your legendary items with its Mythic passive.

Divine Sunderer This item feel quite alright on Jax. It gives a good amount of HP and AD, and it also gives hybrid penetration for your legendary items. It's quite nice since Jax deals hybrid damage. It also has a spellblade passive that deals 10% of targets max HP as physical damage on-hit.

Plated Steelcaps This item is just Ninja Tabi but renamed. Good for autoattack reliant matchups and also vs fed ADC's etc. Most of the time I go these boots unless the enemy comp has heavy CC which can be an issue.

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.

Ionian boots of Lucidity I often like Plated Steelcaps or Mercury's Treads, but you can run these boots to have more ability haste. These will help you have your abilities up more often and your summoner spells have lower cooldown too. With more ability haste you will have your Counter Strike up more often, so you can block autos more often.

Sterak's Gage This item is really good for teamfighting since you will be hitting the enemies and taking hits, which will give you stacks of healing. This means you can live for extended durations in fights even while taking a lot of damage since it gives you a shield when you would be reduced below 30% HP.

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.

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.

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.

Ravenous Hydra This item alright on Jax now since it gives omnivamp, and it also gives you waveclear. Problem is it's still purely offensive item which is't really what Jax wants. I personally still prefer Titanic Hydra but this item can be viable in some cases.

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.

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 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 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.

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.

Ward hopping and trinket choice

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.

Jax can be played in multiple ways. He can splitpush very effectively, especially in mid- to lategame with the Titanic Hydra rush. He can escape sticky situations with his ward hops and with that put constant pressure on the lane he splits. He can also be played as a frontliner if your team lacks a tanky champion since Jax gets naturally tanky with Grandmaster's Might and a couple of tank items and you are set. He can also assasinate squishys even when building tanky, so if your team is fighting and you see the enemy ADC caught off guard you should try to assasinate the ADC if possible.

Jax is extremely good champion at taking advantage of an lead and carrying your team to victory! He can be difficult to play against comps with lot's of heavy CC but even that can't stop the Grandmaster in some cases. 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 Jax are discovered Have a great time splitpushing and smashing enemies as Jax! 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