When facing Cho'Gath in lane, pay attention to his position when he uses Vorpal Spikes. Don't get hit by the spikes to avoid the slow and if he fights you with them make sure to dodge the damage with your Counter Strike. Key here is to dodge his Rupture and then take an extended trade/all in. Your goal is to punish him in early game where he is weak, but keep in mind that he can sustain quite quickly if allowed to touch the wave. Also be careful if you are low HP as he can quickly delete you with his Feast.
Illaoi
You need to play aggressively in lane early before she gets 6 since after that it's a lot harder to force on her. If you set her behind early you can keep abusing her. While playing against Illaoi it's important to dodge her Test of Spirit. After she misses that you are free to trade with her as she misses a good portion of her damage when she can't utilize the spirit from it. Your E also dodges her W, which can deny a good amount of damage from her. If she ults and you know you can't finish her at that moment Q away as she heals for a good amount when she deals damage in her ult. Remember that post 6 if she hits E on you, she can definitely kill you even if she is behind.
Aatrox
Aatrox can be tricky depending on how good they are. He is in a pretty strong state currently so he is a popular pick. Important thing in this matchup is to dodge his key points of his Q. It is also important to walk out of his W from the side before it retracts you to the middle as it basically guarantees him a key area hit on his Q if you stay in the area. Trade while he uses the first 2 procs and then quickly jump out before the 3rd one lands. If he misses his W you can try to all in him. Just dance around his Q procs as they chunk you a lot. When his ult is down he is a lot easier to kill since he won't have his added mobility.
Akali
This matchup is often really annoying but winnable. Level 1 you can walk up to her since she can't utilize her empowered auto vs your E. Just be careful of her kiting out of your E and then re-engaging. Try to not eat too much poke from her Q and try to sidestep her E. When she uses shroud you should look to disengage or optionally utilize target champions only and try to click in the shroud if she emerges from it. Post 6 you need to be careful of her mobility since she has 3 dashes to avoid your E. Grasp is good in this matchup since short trades are favored, and also utilizing attack move when she comes out of her shroud helps you to land your attack on her immediately.
Darius
This lane is Jax favored but a good Darius can be tricky to deal with. Important thing is to block his W with your E and don't let him get his passive to 5 stacks on you. If you can't run out of his Q circle Q on him so you will be in the inner ring, denying him his heal and extra damage. All in if he misses E, just be careful since most Darius's run Ghost so they will have kiting potential with it. Flash Ignite is recommended in this matchup since Ignite screws Darius quite hard.
Dr. Mundo
Dr.Mundo usually just stalemates lane by tossing cleavers from outside your Q range. You can destroy his canisters that his passive tosses out when he ignores CC, this will deny him the healing and also it won't lower his passives cooldown. You want to try to snowball on him early if possible since later on he will be taking a long time to take down. You can rush bork in this lane or go it 2nd, but you'll definitely want it since Mundo likes to itemize a bunch of HP.
Fiora
Skill matchup. Be careful when using your E since if she ripostes it you will pretty much die to her as she stuns you with it as well as cripples you. It is best for you to try and upkeep your E for the maximum duration as most Fiora's will try to predict you to use your E's stun earlier than the end of the duration. If the vital is in a bad spot walk out of her vision so the vital reappears in a different spot. If she ults and you can't kill her quickly ward jump out since she deals true damage aswell as heals herself for quite a bit. Tabis are good in this matchup aswell, but building damage to kill her will be important, as building defensive stats wont help you really since she does true damage. Good thing to remember while she has ulted you is to hug a wall with one vital so she can't proc it, meaning she won't get her healing area.
Gangplank
Really passive lane for most part as GP tends to play pretty safe early on. You can try to cheese him in the furthest bush near his tower, when he goes for the wave. His Q poke can be annoying so you kind of have to kill him before he pokes you down. You can deny his Q poke with your E but you run out of mana quickly that way. Try to bait out his oranges and when it's on cooldown then all in him. While fighting him prioritize destroying his barrels as otherwise he will slow you and chunk you hard with them.
Garen
Most Garen's just run Ignite and play to win the lane during early. His W was made to last for 4 seconds at all ranks which makes it really annoying to try to all-in him. You don't want to sit in his E for free, and make sure to block his Q with your E. After his E runs out you can engage on him, wait out his W before finishing your stun for maximum stun duration. You have to remember to keep his passive down if you want to wither him down, as otherwise he will regen his hp back up quickly. Also at 6 be mindful of his true damage execute on his R.
Gnar
You can't really kill him easily as he will just jump away if you engage on him. He will just poke you with his Q and his W's damage. Get Steelcaps and after he uses his jump then engage on him while it's on cooldown. While Gnar's jump is on cooldown he is a lot easier to deal with, just don't let him proc his W passive as that gives him movement speed to kite you. Also keep in mind that it's easier to fight mini Gnar due to how much squishier he is compared to mega form.
Gragas
Really boring lane since if you try to jump on him or stun him, he will just E on you and negate your jump aswell as stun you briefly. Just farm and try not to fall for his bait's as he can set up for ganks quite well with his E and ult. If he misses E though feel free to go hard for a trade or all-in. Problem with Gragas is as well that he just spams W to sustain during laning phase, which makes it hard for you to chip him down bit by bit. I prefer to run Grasp in this matchup since you don't really get extended trades here.
Irelia
Pretty free lane for Jax. Dodge her stun blade and be careful of her Q'ing around. Keep track of her passive stacks as her fully stacked passive will deal a lot of damage.
Jayce
One of the tougher matchups for Jax. He will poke you a lot and if you engage on him he will melee form E you away. You can build early Steelcaps and try to bait his E. The best moment to engage on him is when he swaps back to cannon form as then he cant knock you away. Jayce's are usually pretty squishy so if he gets caught he should be relatively easy to kill. I prefer to run Grasp here.
Pantheon
Very tough matchup as he will just keep poking you with his Q and if you jump on him he will just stun you and back off from your E range. You do outscale but its hard to get through lane phase. Grasp + DShield combo is the safest way to go about this lane.
Kennen
He is really annoying and slippery. Kennen will poke you a lot and zone you away from wave, and quite honestly I feel that this matchup is just not playable if Kennen has some insight on how to play their champion. Either run Grasp for stronger short trades or just go Fleet and sustain up. You can chunk him with Q auto W but if you get poked out too much you are probably screwed. Care for jungle ganks as his ult sets up ganks quite well.
Kled
Dodge his W's procs with E and you should do good. Avoid getting hit by his Q and you should win all ins against him. Careful however since he gets courage quickly when hes attacking a champion so back off if you are low hp since he get's quite a lot of hp back just by attacking you a couple of times.
Malphite
Malphite is kind of boring but most Malphite's are really bad and he is quite punishable especially early. If he E's but you want to continue the trade just keep moving instead of trying to finish the slow auto off. Beware at 6 since his ult is really strong cc that can enable the enemy jungler to get a free kill on you if you aren't careful. Malphite will be hard to deal with later on in sidelanes since killing him takes such a long time and you will burn a lot of mana doing so, so either just keep clearing waves or make him burn his ult so he wont have it for teamfights. You can run Grasp for this matchup to beat him up early.
Maokai
Can be semi-difficult to kill as he has built in sustain and he can just Q you if you try to jump on him. After 6 and with a couple items he shouldn't be a problem to you though. Again, be careful since he can setup ganks quite well.
Nasus
Try to make use of his weak early game. Try to force him away from minions early levels and try to get the wave to bounce to you while you cheater reset. If you play smart you can win this matchup but later on his W's attack speed and movespeed slow will make it hard for you to kill him. Ask your jungler for a gank or even a dive if you can kill him since he will eventually scale to a raid boss.
Olaf
Don't let him get too many E's on to you as it deals true damage. He also gets more attackspeed the lower his HP gets so be careful of that. If he misses his Q and throws it far away from himself then you can try to fight him as he misses a lot of his damage without his axe spam. After 6 he can avoid your stun and keep running at you if he keeps hitting you so be careful for that. Just remember to not get baited by him being low HP since his W gives him a shield that can make a difference in a fight.
Poppy
Her W will deny your jump so try to bait it out and jump on her when it's ended. She will get quite tanky and still deal good amount of damage so she might be hard to deal with especially early with her shield and stun. Try not to stand near walls as she can stun you with her E if she gets you against the wall.
Quinn
Annoying poke and will just E away if you jump on her. You can't do much unless she misplays so sustain and farm what you can and wait for your jungler. Biggest chance you have to fight her is when her E is down since she cant get out of your E range then. Later on you can burst her down but early you should not have too big of a chance on killing her. Early Steelcaps will help in this matchup.
Renekton
Lane bully, but winnable even during early parts of lane and you eventually outscale him. Be careful at early levels since if he has fury built up his w and q deal a lot of damage. Block his W with E and you should win the trade if you back off after. After 6 you should have quite an easy time against him with poking him with your ult + W proc. Tabis recommended in this matchup.
Riven
Abuse her cooldowns. She can burst you quite quickly with her combos and run away before you get a chance to trade. Very slippery so hard to kill once she gets some levels. If she misses her stun then try to fight her as she can't create distance as easily then. At 6 she gets a big spike in her damage so be mindful.
Rumble
He can just force you out of lane with his flamespitter and harpoons. Get some magic resist and after 6 you can just auto minions twice, then Q onto rumble and auto + W for a lot of burst damage, tho keep in mind that he can kill you pretty easily if you eat his Q and stand in his R.
Shen
Shen deals a lot of damage with his Q so be careful about tanking too many hits from him. Also pay attention to his swords position as if he draws it through you he will deal more damage to you with his Q autos. Generally you want to E just before he taunts you so he doesn't get free damage on you. After 6 he will ult to other lanes and pressure in that way so either be ready to cancel his ult with your E or be ready to TP to help your team or if your TP is down the force down towers top and warn your team.
Teemo
Quite hard matchup, he will just outrun you with his movespeed and they often even rush boots just to be more slippery. DShield + Fleet is probably most consistent way to go about this matchup since you can't guarantee Grasp procs on him due to his blind.
Trundle
Block his Q with your E and be careful when he ults you as it removes some of your resists and drains your hp over time. Don't give him lead in lane and you should win him.
Tryndamere
Don't get cheesed early by his crits. Save your Q for re-engaging him after he spins away. You outscale him, especially after you get Steelcaps and some levels. Early Sheen helps your burst trades a lot, after 6 you can just auto a creep, then Q on him and auto + W to chunk him. Most Tryndameres run Ghost so be careful of them running you down after your E runs out.
Vladimir
Very rough matchup since he will just outtrade and outsustain you if he plays correctly. It's also really hard to hit your stun on him since they will just utilize pool to avoid it. DShield and Grasp/Fleet are your best bet to surviving the lane and just try to never walk up when he has prepped his empowered Q. You should look to trade after he Q's a minion.
Volibear
Block his Q with your E and don't stand in his E area and you should win the lane. Your E also blocks his W, just keep in mind to let the mark run out before re-engaging unless you are certain you can kill him. Beware of his dive potential with his R since it disables your tower.
Yasuo
Very slippery once he has his E leveled. You can trade with him early but be mindful that he will dodge your E if you fight him in a minion wave. You can block his Q damage if his Q doesn't hit minions at the same time. After level 6 you should be able to outrade him with your Q + passive R proc. Steelcaps are good against him aswell.
Singed
Can be annoying, don't chase him unless you are confident you can kill him. This matchup overall is very low interaction matchup as they will most of the time go proxy so you have to stay at your tower to farm. Singed isn't in the best spot right now in terms of power so he shouldn't be too big of a threat during later stages of the game. Some run ignite on Singed so be careful of that as he deals surprising amounts of damage with or without it.
Sion
Dodge his Q and you should be fine. Gets pretty tanky so might be hard to kill until you get some items. After he dies run away as his passive form deals quite a lot of damage.
Wukong
Play careful as he has quite a bit of burst damage. Also at level 1 most of them start E so don't blow your E until he has dashed in or you will lose the trade. Block his Q with your E and wait to stun him after he comes out of his stealth. At level 6 he will probably try to all in you so care for that. Steelcaps are important in this lane. Also keep in mind he can recast his ultimate for a second knockup so he can keep you CC'd for longer, which can setup ganks quite easily.
Vayne
Seen rarely in top lane. Can be tricky to deal with since she can push you away with her E if you try to jump on her or stun her. Best advice is to get Steelcaps and after she has used her E then Q on her and chip her bit by bit. Careful at level 6 as she can stealth and move away from your stun and just throw you to a nearby wall and stun you.
Ornn
Get's quite tanky and has somewhat of an advantage in lane with his forging items. After a certain point you won't probably be able to kill him since he get's tanky but you can try to shove him under his tower. Make sure to save your E for his W+auto combo.
Camille
Relies on autoattacking a lot, so you should be fine if you manage to block her Q, especially the true damage one. She can be difficult to gank if she has her E up since she can just hop over walls with it so if your jungler is coming for a gank try to bait her into using it. When she casts her W run towards her or Q onto her to deny her the healing and the slow. You can also cancel Camille's E, when her hook hits the wall and starts pulling Camille, stun her then and it will cancel the ability. At 6 be careful of her dodging your stun with her R, since that might cost you the fight.
Kayle
Care for her empowered E auto and try to not trade when she has lowered your resistances with her Q. Smash her early so she won't get to her powerful late-game state since at that point you are pretty screwed. Post 6 she gets a bit more annoying due to becoming perma ranged.
Mordekaiser
Mordekaiser is a pretty simple matchup for Jax. Don't get chunked by his Q too much. You can deny him his passive proc with your E since he needs to damage you 3 times in order to proc it. Keep in mind his shield stored on his second bar when engaging. Main thing is to dodge the E so you can stay on top of him for the trade. You probably want to try and chunk him and back off bit by bit early since his passive is really strong. Also remember to ult only after he has ulted, otherwise he steals your extra resistances.
Sett
Early game might be tricky due to his bulkiness and damage on W. Dodge his Q with your E and path behind him or to the sides while he casts W to avoid the true damage and beat him down after that. Just be careful that he doesn't ult you under tower post-6. You outscale him decently quickly, though his W damage will still be very high once his grit builds up so be vary of that.
Heimerdinger
Play to farm up and only engage with your jungler if suitable. Best chances to kill him are when he is out of mana or if he somehow misses his stun grenade. Dshield and second wind recommended.
Hello, I'm ThisIsPatrik, 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 username of ThisIsPatrik, or in short just 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 consistently.
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. Occasionally I might skip this for Ignite in some matchups in combination with Teleport if necessary.
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. Makes splitpushing later on easier since you can still join teamfights if needed or potentially end games if enemies give you the chance.
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 Grandmaster-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.
Resolve
Grasp feels the best right now for Jax, as it offers him better trading, sustain, and also access to a lot of good runes in general. This season I feel its harder to utilize Lethal Tempo due to waves being different, so I mostly just default to Grasp of the Undying. I'd still run Lethal Tempo into Darius for example.
Demolish will help you push towers faster for plates and also potentially to get Feats of Strength for your team.
Second Wind will help you sustain in lane a bit more, especially since Jax lacks any built-in sustain in his kit. This combined with Doran's Shield will keep you a bit healthier.
Overgrowth will give you more HP over the course of the game, which is nice since thats a stat Jax really wants.
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. I like to take the scaling HP shard in general, but for fight lanes that you want to snowball and win early you can take flat HP shard.
Sorcery
Manaflow Band will help you with your mana issues in lane and especially later on once you stack it up fully.
Transcendence is pretty nice for some bonus haste, since it's a great stat on Jax, and post lvl 11, you also get reduced current cooldowns on your basic abilities on takedowns, which can be big in teamfights and skirmishes.
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.
Trinity force Trinity Force has always been a core item on Jax. It has nice boost on his attack speed, health, damage, Sheen proc and also mobility when you hit targets. Overall feels like best choice for 1st item unless you maybe have a rough lane where you need to just clear waves, in which case you would rush Titanic Hydra.
Blade of the ruined king
While this item seems like its a good choice vs Bork is good vs high HP enemies, it really just doesn't feel like it does its job after the nerf. I have currently stopped building this item, but maybe in some rare case vs Dr.Mundo it could be worth it potentially.
Spear of Shojin
A good HP option for Jax that also gives him other benefits. The item gives good amount of AD, decent amount of HP and some base ability haste. Jax really wants ability haste, and this item is an excellent source for it.
Plated Steelcaps
I only really go these boots if I'm extremely behind vs autoattack reliant champions, 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
These boots are pretty bad nowadays, but quite necessary still with all the CC in the game. Go these vs a lot of cc, or opt for Wit's End later if you don't need the Tenacity early.
Ionian boots of Lucidity
My favorite boots for Jax. They are decently cheap, and help you have your abilities up more often and your summoner spells have lower cooldown too.
Boots of Swiftness
These boots are really strong in many cases, especially with the Feats of Strength upgrade. These will help you with slows, and overall to dodge abilities since you get so much movespeed with these.
Sterak's Gage Sterak's Gage is a decent item for survival, especially when you need to survive some burst. I however most often opt for Zhonya's Hourglass nowadays since it feels more versatile and overall better than Sterak's Gage.
Randuin's Omen
Good choice against AD champions, especially vs those who run crit. Gives some HP and good amount of armor, and the active slow is nice, and it also reduces incoming damage from crits which can be huge in some games vs a lot of crit champs.
Wit's End
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. You get some Tenacity on top of everything, which is really useful on Jax especially now that you dont get Tenacity from Precision tree.
Zhyonya's Hourglass
Really fun and strong item on Jax, and I build it in most of my games. Gives you damage, armor, and also a really strong active since you can just initiate a fight, and activate this to wait for your E cooldown to be up again.
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 opponents (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-At-Arms 3rd proc + Empower do quite a lot of damage in a short burst.
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.
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 and disengage but don't let that stop you from having fun with Jax.
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!
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