Hello, I'm PH45, and this is my Jax Guide. Hello and welcome to my Jax guide. I used to go by the username of PH45, but nowadays I go by the name Patrik. I am a long time League of Legends player (started back in Season 1). I'm a Master tier top lane main, and I picked up Jax as my main champion back in Season 4 and have played him mostly ever since. I've been Master tier from S11 onwards and maintained it for most of S12. My currently played EUW main account My secondary EUW account I also got multiple other accounts but right now I'm mainly playing on the account I listed above. I stream my ranked grind almost daily on Twitch! 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. 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: Ignite is a very powerful tool to have in lane phase since it has a relatively low cooldown, and it can give you a good edge in a duel in lane. Especially if the lane is snowbally, or your opponent has healing in their kit, this can make the difference during an all-in.

Teleport: Teleport is nice since it helps you in tough matchups where you have to back a lot early on and it still gives you pressure on the map later on. You just have to keep in mind that before 14 minutes you can only Teleport to towers, after that point you can Teleport to minions, wards and some allied constructs.

Ghost can be coupled with Flash to deal with more mobile enemy laners or even comps. I like to run Ghost vs champions like Gnar, Jayce and Vayne for example. You can also in some matchups do Ghost and Ignite, though I mostly prefer Flash and Ignite.

Pros + Excellent duelist + Can fight almost anyone late game + Really good scaling + Great splitpusher + Has a built-in escape with ward + Leap Strike + Has an auto-attack reset + Gets naturally tanky in fights when using Master-At-Arms, as it gives you a good amount of resistances. 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 by CC - Hard to get back in the game if behind - Requires matchup knowledge - Has some difficult matchups - Can sometimes struggle with teamfighting - Jax is quite a mana-hungry champ - If you miss your R, you miss out on damage and resistances 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

As the keystone of choice we have Lethal Tempo. The recent change to Lethal Tempo made it a really strong choice on Jax, since he likes attack speed and it also increases attack speed range at max stacks. The effect also stays up if you can attack enemy champions constantly, so you can get a lot of value of this is if you can stick onto enemies.

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. You can also run Presence of Mind to help with your mana problems, but often I find Triumph to be really good for surviving skirmishes and teamfights, or even just dives.

Next are the Legend tier runes, from which I recommend Legend: Tenacity 90% of the time since there is so much CC in the game. However if the enemy team has little-to-no CC then Legend: Alacrity is the next best choice. Legend: Bloodline is quite nerfed nowadays especially after the durability patch.

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.

Personally I like to take the attack speed rune cause it makes queing autos smoother in general, other than that it's just standard offensive shard and most of the time HP shard, since it scales better compared to the resistance shards, although armor/mr can sometimes help during early parts of the lane phase.

Inspiration

Biscuit Delivery will help you a bit during laning phase with your lacking sustain and it will also give you a bit of extra mana upon consuming the cookie which is good since Jax is a very mana hungry champion.

Cosmic Insight will give you some summoner spell haste and a bit of item haste as well, so your summoner spells will be off cooldown a bit earlier. This is helpful especially when running something aggressive like Ignite or Ghost during lane phase, since you will have your summoner spells up usually earlier than your opponent, giving you the advantage. You can swap this out for Magical Footwear if you feel like you don't need the summoner spell haste, and you don't need boots during early lane phase.

• 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 magic damage to them, increased by 20% for each attack dodged, up to a 100% base damage 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.
  
• Master-At-Arms (R): It's passive enables Jax to deal bonus magic damage on every third basic attack within 2.5 seconds of each other. Upon activation Jax swings his lantern around him, dealing magic damage to nearby enemies. If he hits a champion he gains some armor per champion hit, as well as 60% of that value as Magic Resist for the next 8 seconds. During this time the passive damage applies every 2nd attack instead of every 3rd.
  

Divine Sunderer This item is really nice on Jax. It gives you decent amount of HP, so you can frontline early in the game, and the item still gives you 40 AD and the 20 haste which are beneficial stats for Jax. On top of that the Moonflair Spellblade proc deals some of the targets max health as physical damage on-hit and heals you for a decent bit if the target is a champion. The mythic passive also gives hybrid penetration which benefits Jax greatly, although it isn't that strong these days anymore.

Trinity force Trinity Force has always been a core item on Jax, though currently it's outshined by Divine Sunderer. It has nice boost on his attack speed, health, damage, Sheen 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. I'd only really go it if enemy team is full of squishies or if you are committing to sidelane pushing with Hullbreaker.

Blade of the ruined king This item is really strong, especially vs high hp enemies. It gives AD, attack speed and lifesteal, and 12% 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. The problem I find with this item is that you are very squishy if you rush it, and before you finish it, you aren't going to be that strong.

Spear of Shojin A good HP option for Jax that also gives him other benefits. The item gives good amount of AD, really good amount of HP and some Ability Haste, and it gives you more ability haste based on your bonus AD. After most recent change this is a really good 2nd item. It also gives you increased movement speed based on your missing health, which will help you to catch up to targets.

Plated Steelcaps This item is just Ninja Tabi but renamed. Good for autoattack reliant matchups and also vs fed ADC's etc. I only really go these boots if I'm behind vs autoattack reliant champion, since most of the time your Counter Strike already helps vs autoattacks and Ionian Boots of Lucidity gives you less cooldown on your E.

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.

Abyssal Mask The new Abyssal Mask seems like a pretty good item for Jax when you need some MR against enemy team. Not only does it give you tankiness with 500 HP and 40 MR, but also 10 AH and some mana pool which Jax struggles with quite a bit. It also gives you mana restore and healing with its Eternity passive, which restores mana based on damage taken from champions and heals you with spell casts. It also reduces nearby enemies MR and gives you bonus MR for that, which can help your magic damage teammates deal with opponents.

Sterak's Gage Sterak's Gage is a decent item for survival, especially when you need to survive some burst. It gives you 50% of your base AD as bonus AD, and the shield it grants you once you are taken low enough HP is based on 80% of your bonus HP. The shield decays, but it lasts a decent time so it can be a worthwhile pickup if you need some HP and survivability from burst damage.

Hullbreaker This item will offer you more power for applying pressure in a sidelane. You get good stats from it (60 AD and 400 HP + 150% base HP regen and also 5% movespeed), and the passive gives you bonus armor and MR, and you deal 20% bonus damage against structures, if you have no allies near you. In addition, nearby allied siege and super minions will gain bonus resistances and deal 200% bonus damage to structures as well. This item is really strong if you are sidelaning, and the stats on it aren't bad even while grouping.

Anathema's Chains Anathema's Chains was designed for tanks, but Jax for sure can utilize this item as well. Whether laning in sidelane or in a teamfight scenario, this item will be useful in the sense that it can make you take 30% less damage from a single threat on the enemy team (a fed mage for example), and the target enemy will also have 20% reduced Tenacity near you, which makes them more vulnerable to getting picked out. The item also gives a lot of HP and some ability haste as well (650 HP and 20 AH) which are both greats stats on Jax. You can buy this vs single AP damage threat, and potentially skip out on building MR because of one champion only.

Black Cleaver Actually a very nice item now, gives good amount of HP, decent amount of 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.

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.

Titanic Hydra Still gives you nice waveclear and it also gives a nice amount of HP and 30 AD, and on top of that you get AD equal to 2% of you bonus health. Your basic attacks also deal additional physical damage to the target and to enemies behind the target, and the on-hit damage also applies on structures which helps you push faster. It has no active anymore though, so no auto reset.

Wit's End I like to build this item in combination with Divine Sunderer since the item lacks attack speed. This item brings attack speed, but also movespeed on-hit and extra damage for your auto attacks. Also you get a good amount of magic resistance which is nice. This item feels definitely underrated currently for how good it is.

Death's Dance Death's Dance is a decent choice if you want both offensive and a defensive item option. It stores some of the damage you take (both physical and magic damage) and deals the damage to you as a bleed instead. If a champion you've damaged within the last 3 seconds dies, the item heals you for 50% of your bonus AD, which can help you survive in teamfights. Other than that, it gives you AD, haste and armor.

Frozen Heart Frozen Heart is a really undervalued item. It's really cheap and it gives good stats like mana that Jax has issues with if you have to stay on the map for extended periods or long fights, armor which is always nice to have vs physical damage, and also Ability Haste. On top of that it gives you damage reduction vs basic attacks and slows nearby enemies attack speed by 20% which can be really huge. Great item to pickup vs a lot of physical damage, especially if you find yourself needing more mana.

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. You can get 2 Sheen procs by utilizing your Counter Strike. First cast obviously gives you the Sheen proc, but you have to manually reactivate it when your Sheen cooldown is refreshed to actually proc it again. The automatic recast of Counter Strike does not grant a Sheen proc. Also having Titanic Hydra or Ravenous Hydra helps splitpushing as your waveclear is improved by those items, but Jax rarely opts for either item currently.

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 Master-At-Arms 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 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 lots of heavy CC but even that can't stop the Grandmaster at arms 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