Hello I am Watson the 8th also none by thegreateyebrows on twitch. You might know me from Rio's, Zianni's, Doubtfull's or Kipi's chats(all of whom you should follow they are much smarter and more qualified then me). If you are from there HI good to see you. Im a complete and utter noob but I do love playing jax and I have yet to see another guide that builds him like I do or at least one that's up to date. I started S9 and am slowly getting better while I certainly have the hands of a scrub I like jax and thought I might help those with hands who just lack the game knowledge. I main jungle but if you want to learn the role I there are smarter people to watch and better writers to read (cough cough imdoubtfull and virkayu are where you go to learn jungling as a role) but I wanted to offer some wisdom on jax. Though I will admit right now im playing alot more Rengar than jax. But if you ask me the lore on jax is still cooler. Also... lamp post jokes.

Ok... so... Preseason changed freaking everything. There as so many things that could be great on jax jg and top. Sunderer currently seems absolutely crazy on jax and feels dope to play so im gona run that. If you wana go sun fire on him (which is understandable that item is straight wacky right now) go for it try it. Jax can make good use so many different stats even ap jax works. Go for it try it so much of this new stuff is good on him. But I will say the build I have listed is a good real bruiser build. Ok so update as of 12/12/20 im convinced trinity is superior to sunderer unless the enemy is omega tanky.

So yeah right now both sunderer and trinity are great. I think trinity is the better pick over all with the attack speed it gives. Also I have to to not that the new trinity feels GREAT, the extra passive it received is lovely. Sunderer is the pick into any really tanky team comps. So you rush one of those two as your mythic item unless you decide to get weird and go for a different mythic. Next item is gona be BORK or blade of the ruined king. Its a bit lamer after its active got turned into a passive. Still very cool tho and has almost perfect stats for Jax. But after those two items you are still really rather squishy but you will have alot of damage. Ult is gona be necessary to keep you alive at this point. After those two items you should be finishing your boots if you have not already. Thats 3 items down. You have 3 items slots now to fill out. You then have all sorts of defensive items to pick from. I usually end up going something like titanic hydra - steraks gage - DD. Personally im just in love with the new DD(deaths dance) so I take it alot even when it may not be truly optimal. I say you will want one of the two tiamat items 4th as its passive is just really valuable on the single target jax. I vastly prefer titanic hydra as the tank you get from it is great and it gets more AD from building health and I like stacking health on jax. The new steraks is great still good on jax just like the old one and I often take it 5th item. I rarely find a reason to not take it. Its pretty universally valuable. Your first two items are your real damage you will get AD from your last items but i dont want to take 3 more very aggro items as that limits you into only fighting on ult cool down. I like my jax to have actual tank stats. dead mans - force of nature - spirit vissage are all options. Those last two items are really where you need to adapt to the enemy team.

I dont have fancy images to put in yet so its gona be bare bones

-passive- every time you auto attack you gain a stack which grants you attack speed and stacks up to 8 times the more you smack stuff the faster you smack stuff. This is why jax is great at taking towers.

-q- your q is a point and click leap that deals a little damage and lets you leap to an enemy champion, enemy minion, a monster, or a ward. It lets you ward hop so if you are smart unlike me you can use it to get out of a risky fight. I used to max e 2nd and q last but i have since changed my view point having q to go in and out of a fight more often and just for its raw mobility is super valuable so i max it second. Using jax's q well and creatively is what makes good jax players.

-w- empowered auto that makes your lamp glow deals bonus magic damage that scales with ap. first skill you max so you can spam it about every 4 seconds and since you take ravanous hunter it heals you. This is one of the reason some ap on jax is great. You can hit w to empower your q to finish people off. Use it when taking towers to get a passive stack faster and take towers a little faster.

-e- the real meat and potatoes of jax makes your immune to auto attacks and then stuns when it either runs out or is recast. its damage increases the more damage you avoid with it. also decreases the damage or any aoe abilities that hit you so when its on the most dangerous thing to you is single target ability damage.

-R- Jax's ultimate is a two piece ability with a passive that grants additional magic damage which scales with ad. The active grants you lots of bot armor and magic resist for 8 seconds pretty simple

this is all still pretty accurate though I will look at it soon. I just wanted to note the new Jg items make Jax's clear so much better.


90% of the time i play jax i start with a red leash then full clear. I get red-crugs-raptors, then i check if there is an obvious gank if not maybe take a scuttle then continue with the rest of the clear going wolves-blue-gromp. Full clearing is good because level 3 jax is pretty darn weak and he needs to hit 6 fast. He can gank at 3 though so if you have a good opportunity go for it you will most likely get a flash. Jax has a strong fast clear even before 6. Don't fall into the trap of rushing tiamat early its really not worth it you clear little monster fast enough and it delays you real power spikes.

So the above section was written for I believe season 9. And it mostly still holds true. Jax clears just fine using w and e. I like starting red clearing full red side looking for a gank and then clearing blue side. But thats me there are other clears you can do.

Jax is not to complex when it comes to combos or anything like that but you should really learn the timing on his e counter strike as its the key to playing him its always painful to q in after counter strike goes off. Note that jax has a reasonably good level three and can gank at that point but really power spikes hard at 6. So i don't recommend trying to duel a warwick without help at level three focus in stead on helping your laners secure kills. Jax does not have a terribly hard time taking objectives like the ever so important dragons. He can solo them at 6 but it will get you rather low so be really careful when you decide to do that.

I would also like to note say you are ganking mid you want to walk towards your target start your e and try and bait their flash so you can q them to stun them and them not have a flash.

I use god staff and jaximus. Some like mecha I personally hate that skin, I find it very squishy. All of the others are fine they are all close to base jax and there for very snappy. But I find god staff very clean and I love the style. I dont like the worlds one cause i just don't like any of those skins. Angler is nice and kinda memey. Jaximus is top notch. Temple is great its probably his second best skin after god staff. Nemesis and warden are fine I can use them nothing wrong with them just not as appealing as the other skins. I hate vandal and mighty jax. Vandal messes with the lamp to much to feel good. And I don't like goofy skins so I don't touch Mighty.

I am keeping everything written here the same while I continue to update the guide during preseason. I wanted to mention that 1. pta might be better now 2. take tenacity over attack speed in your second small rune. The tenacity is just generally really valuable and you will build attack speed at some point.


You can see the runes i recommend above. The main branch is pretty basic, triumph for that heal and little extra gold, alacrity for attack speed, and Coup De Grace for that little extra damage. The keystone i take in Conqueror. A name with a good ring to it. It gives that sweet increasing damage for the first 6* hits. Jax can stack it very fast. Press the Attack can be a good rune for jax and it is theoretically a better rune for ganks as you can stack it quicker but i feel it is simply not as good. Jax loves the early skirmishes it gives him chances to get ahead and lets him flex his strength as a duelist. And conqueror is a much stronger rune for those circumstances and it scales better so i say even for jax in the jungle it is the best keystone choice.

For the second tree its domination and I take Sudden Impact and Ravenous Hunter. Sudden impact is good but its the one im least confident about being optimal the magic pen and lethality is certainly good and it applies with every q but im not sure that cheap shot is not better. But sudden impact is still what i take.