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Recommended Items
Runes:
Inspiration
Sorcery
+8 Ability Haste
+10-180 Bonus Health
+10-180 Bonus Health
Spells:
Barrier
Flash
Items
Ability Order
Get Excited! (PASSIVE)
Jinx Passive Ability
Champion Build Guide
The Author
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Hi! I’m Aqua Dragon. I've been hovering in Diamond / Master with Malzahar Jungle for multiple seasons now! In former seasons, I was an AD Jungle Malzahar main.
I also play: Also, check out these off-meta creations by community members!
Want to to discuss or watch this build?Join our community of off-meta lovers! |
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Zap cooldown is 2 seconds! The 80% slow is 2 seconds long!
- Can easily reach 800 damage on each Zap!
- Chomper cooldown becomes 5 seconds, and Chompers last for 5 seconds.
- Excessive chompers in fights can easily get a game-winning root.
- Can eventually shoot an ultimate every 20 seconds.
- Great anti-freeze power; can play safely into any lane.
- Ult provides some map relevancy during the lane phase.
Cons
- Very passive laning phase; Weak early game.
- Very dependent on proper wave management to avoid dives.
- Ult can be difficult to land from top lane.
- Low attack speed makes pushing down towers difficult early.
- Can't easily weave in autoattacks between the nonstop Zaps.
- Longer than expected queue times.
- Low movement speed.
What is Jinx Top?
What's Zappenin?
Top Jinx sounds extremely unintuitive until you realize a few things:
1. Zap can get a 2 second cooldown.
2. Zap slows targets by 80% for 2 seconds.
3. Zap can easily hit for over 800 damage.
This means after one Zap, it becomes feasible to hit someone with multiple more Zaps in a row! The low cooldown on Zap allows you to chain unrelenting Zaps back-to-back.
Furthermore, Chompers eventually can be brought down to a 5 second cooldown, and each Chomper lasts on the ground for 5 seconds. This makes it possible to permanently have out Chompers starting at level 13!
The combination of these things it feel like you're playing Jinx on URF mode.
Why Top Lane?
Reaching that power is the tricky part. Attaining the coveted zap-chains and perma-chompers requires about 100 Ability Haste and a hefty pool of mana.
The big problem is that Top lane is the lane that least punishes the time it takes to scale up to this power.
Unless you are a hypercarry (which Zapper Jinx is not), both Mid and Bot lanes heavily punish passive laners. Dragons and grubs will be taken, plates will be shoved for, roams will destroy everyone. A hypercarry makes the gamble of "That's fine if you do that; I'll kill you later anyway." However, this Jinx build, while extremely powerful mid-game, is no hypercarry, and so can't just farm passively at Mid or Bot. That gamble doesn't pay off.
The linear nature of Mid-lane also makes hitting people with Zaps extremely difficult, if not outright impossible at times. At Bot, the passive playstyle is shoved in especially hard and splitting EXP means it takes even longer to reach the critical power spikes that Zapper Jinx needs to thrive.
Jinx also has the tools to survive at Top compared to other Marksmen.Zap has enough range to unfreeze any waves and to farm from an enormous level of safety. Plus, the chompers are great for surviving against dives, as long as you don't get crashed into by a massive wave.
Runes
Pazappa the Trapper
100 Ability Haste is uniquely and crucially important for Zap Jinx that wants to minimize the slow time between each Zap shot.
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Unsealed Spellbook
Provides Teleport without needing to commit to Teleport. Rationale against Arcane Comet noted further down. |
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Magical Footwear
Magical Footwear is effectively just money, in a way that outperforms what Cash Back can do. |
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Triple Tonic
Triple Tonic lets you put a second early point in Q without delaying Zap or Chomper progression; biscuits are still nice, but not quite as good as more range and attack speed. |
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Cosmic Insight
Jack of All Trades gives a nice bit of AH for reaching the 100 AH dream. Approach Velocity barely impacts the end result of fights. |
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Manaflow Band
Mana is so desperately necessary for Zap Jinx. |
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Transcendence
Transcendence's speeds up the build toward the critically important 100 Ability Haste point, which is more important than more AD. |
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Ability Haste, Health Scaling, and Health Scaling
There's only so many ways to word "100 ability haste", alright? The scaling health is more useful when stalling out the laning phase. |
The choice not to go Arcane Comet on an artillery playstyle like this may seem initially strange. The Zap slow all-but-guarantees the comet will land, and Gathering Storm helps boost up Zap's damage quite a hefty amount. But the exclusion of it can be summarized in a single sentence:
It's too unforgiving.
Try as I might, the sheer brutality of top lane made it too inconsistent an option. While a perfect player may be able to get away with it, I found my overall match consistency improving dramatically after switching to Unsealed Spellbook.
To some extent, this makes sense. The loss of these two runes costs about 8 - 12% overall damage, but simply being able to hold under tower dives with Barrier and Cosmic Insight, having a useful summoner spell in teamfights instead of Teleport, and being able to have more versatility with Unsealed Spellbook allows for more gold acquisition over the course of the match that makes up for the damage loss and then some.
If you'd like to choose Arcane Comet despite these notes, you can simply trade out Cosmic Insight with Gathering Storm and Unsealed Spellbook with Arcane Comet. You could also consider the Precision tree as a secondary, to get the helpful power of Legend: Haste. Godspeed.
Build Order
Breaking Down the Building
Create Item Sets
Tear start is tempting, but Jinx can only get around 30-40 stacks pre-1st-back.
This is because W and E aren't used often early, and Q rockets don't stack Tear.
By buying Long Sword, Jinx can start with Refillable, which provides much-needed sustain.
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→ → → → →
3 complete items + Caulfields almost grants the 100 ability haste dream for perma-zapping.
The extra longsword before Lucidity helps for two-shotting caster minions
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Tech offensively or defensively from here as needed.
Axiom Arc's passive isn't very useful, but its a very good AH statstick.
Stage of the Game
Learning to Give a Zap
Early
In the early game, your goals are to
- Survive till the mid-game
- Zap from far away to farm
- Ult enemies when you see a recall.
Rely on Minigun When Possible: While Fishbone's rockets are nice for their reach, you still want to use Pow-Pow to avoid pushing the wave too much and getting partially stuck on a freeze.
Put 2 points into Q: Although you want to max Zap and Chompers quickly, a second point in your Q is worth it early, as Triple Tonic will allow you to get both maxed at level 13 still!
Farm From Afar with Zap: Zap has an absolutely absurd range that is nearly impossible to punish. Don't fret about your mana too much; that's what the Teleport and Clarity from Unsealed Spellbook is for.
Punish Freezes by Going Back: If it looks like the enemy top laner is trying to freeze, just use it as a chance to go back and refill on mana. Better than them going for plates. You can unfreeze the wave later using Zap, though be mindful of jungler ganks.
Keep an Eye Out to Ult Recalling Enemies: Hitting an ult on a moving target from across the entire map is unfeasible. However, if you aim for recalling enemies, you will find an easy, often-low-hp target. The ult has a low cooldown, so go for it even if the shot isn't certain.
Mid
As the laning phase ends, you can begin to zap aggressively.
- Zap into Zap into Zap into Zap!
- Start moving around with the team
- Help siege down towers
Reach Level 13 for Perma-Chompers: At level 13, you hit your next major powerspike, now able to have permanent chomper uptime. While it's tough to remember, be sure to use Chompers off cooldown in the middle of chaotic teamfights! They have no cast time.
Follow Up Ally CC: Hitting an initial Zap can be pretty difficult at times, but if an ally slows or stuns a target, they should become a prime candidate for a zap chain. Zapper Jinx works best as a follow-up artillery.
Use Ult Often: Just as before, the ult is on an extremely short cooldown. Don't just save it for executes or you may find yourself not using it at all.
Avoid Autoing Much in Fights: While your autos individually hit a bit hard, your low attack speed makes it unfeasible to weave in autos at a safe range while also Zapping and Chomping and Ulting. Just rely on Zaps unless it looks like 1-3 autos will finish off a target.
Late
The role remains largely similar
- ZAP INTO ZAP INTO ZAP INTO ZAP
- Your pushing speed is pretty good now!
- Avoid getting caught
Set Up Walls of Chompers: The Chompers are large enough to completely seal off one jungle entrance forever. Great to use when enemies are trying to move in to contest a baron or dragon!
Chomp Relentlessly: As long as you have mana to spare, you should be using chompers off cooldown when fights are imminent or ongoing. A well-placed chomper may not just be fight-winning, but game-winning as well.
Help Push Towers: Once you hit 18, your autos are actually fairly quick and can melt towers down. Use that speed to your advantage.
Thanks!
This guide was a lot of fun to write, and I hope you all have learned everything you would have liked.
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