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Caitlyn should have lane priority for the first few levels as she can continue to use her q on the wave to push. Try to use your rocket AoE on the minion wave to stop her from pushing you under your tower, where caitlyn can use traps to zone you off of your wave. At level 4, you have the same range as her while using rockets. Don't be afraid to auto trade with her at that point, but try to avoid trading with her if she has her headshot up. Wait until she uses her headshot to last hit before trading. Stay in your minion wave to avoid isolated q damage or try to dodge it. Be mindful of where she puts her traps, she can place traps slightly above or behind your tower(depending on what side of the map you are on) to make them nearly "invisible." Avoid hugging your tower while last hitting. You will eventually outscale her so as long as she doesn't beat you too badly during the early laning phase this can easily be a winning matchup for jinx.
Draven
Depending on the skill level of the draven player, this matchup can be one of the hardest adc matchups in the game. Paired with an aggressive support, he can make your laning phase absolutely miserable. While you do outrange him in rockets, he can use blood rush to get in range of you to punish your harass. You can try to auto him in rocket form while he is moving back to catch an axe, or use the splash damage from the rockets on the minion wave to poke him if he's trying to play too aggressively. You will hard outscale draven so long as you remain even in gold with him, so if you struggle with the draven matchup I would recommend playing passively and trying to position the wave near your tower so that your jungler can look to gank. You can also take exhaust in order to seriously reduce his damage during an all in. Draven is useless when behind so the best way to shut him down is by either outplaying him 2v2 or waiting for your jungler to gank. Buy control wards to set up vision near river to set up for a gank. When he dies he loses almost all of his stacks, and making sure Draven doesn't cash in should be your highest priority.
Ashe
Ashe can be frustrating to play against, although she is currently in a rather weak state. You can do short, one auto trades with her in rockets since you have equal range to her at level 1 and in later levels you strictly outrange her in terms of auto range. While laning, try to stand in your minion wave to avoid poke from volley. Keep in mind that if a minion is low enough to die to volley, the arrows will pass through that minion. Ashe players use this as an easy way to get harass off in lane against unaware players. Pay close attention to your positioning when playing against ashe, and try to avoid getting hit by her enchanted crystal arrow, which is her strongest form of setup and pick potential against you. Consider taking cleanse to cleanse the stun or build Galeforce to dodge her ultimate.
Aphelios
The threat level of Aphelios changes depending on what gun combination he currently has. At level 1, he barely outranges you with Calibrum. This means that it is possible to auto trade with him. Aphelios level 1 is probably the weakest in the game as he has no ability so use that to get priority in lane by pushing with rockets. When Aphelios has Gravitum, be careful of his all in potential since he can root you for his support to follow up with more cc. When he has Infernum, try to position yourself away from your minion wave to avoid getting hit by the splash damage from his auto attacks.
Ezreal
Ezreal is probably the easiest adc matchup jinx can get, as long as you play it correctly. Remember that when playing against ezreal, you should always stand in your minion wave to avoid his mystic shot poke. You can poke him with rocket autos while standing in your minion wave for relatively easy harass during lane. On your first back I would also recommend getting berserker greaves in order to make dodging his abilities easier.
Jhin
When playing against jhin, avoid standing too close to your minions to avoid taking harass from his bouncing grenade. Avoid trading with him when he has his fourth shot ready, and try your best to dodge his w to avoid getting rooted. If jhin is paired with a support that has a lot of cc, consider taking cleanse in order to avoid getting cc'ed to death. Picking up berserker greaves early on can help you dodge his w and r. Buying a refillable potion will keep you healthy in lane, since Jhin fourth shot does bonus damage based on missing health.
Kai'Sa
Kai'Sa has extremely low auto attack range at 525, making it easy to poke her down with rockets during lane. Try to space her out and harass her with single autos in lane and back up before she can trade back with you. Stand behind and in your minion wave to avoid her w damage entirely and reduce the amount of damage you take from her q. You do not want to ever be isolated against Kai'Sa so stick with your support and hide in your minion wave. If you defensively and chip away at her health in lane, the matchup is not that difficult. She'll usually beat you in a straight up all in, but if you play smart and poke her down it's definitely winnable for jinx. Just remember to avoid getting isolated by Kai'Sa and assassinated.
Kalista
Despite Kalista having a lower auto range than jinx using rockets, she can easily close the range on you by using her passive to hop in range. Kalista paired with a hard cc support is extremely deadly for jinx, and you probably will have to play extremely passive and wait to outscale her in teamfights. Once Kalista hits level 6, never walk up to auto her as she can easily ult her support on top of you and cc you to death. If you can manage to hit your w on Kalista, you can severely low her attack speed as any slows Kalista receives will also lower her jump speed. Once you reach level 9 you'll have so much more range that the matchup might become more playable at that point, but your main goal should be to stay even in cs and outscale her in teamfights.
Lucian
Lucian isn't really that great of a bot laner right now, and his extremely low range makes it easy to harass him with rockets. Focus on playing on one of the sides of your minion wave and continue to reposition to avoid getting poked down by his q through the minion wave, which is his only reliable way to poke you down. If he dashes into you, switch to minigun and try to hit him with your w while he's locked in his q animation or while he's autoing you. Once you get more levels in your q, it becomes increasingly difficult for lucian to lane against you as you continue to gain a greater range advantage.
Miss Fortune
While laning against Miss Fortune, the biggest thing to keep in mind is her q harass bouncing off your minions. If she last hits a minion with her q, the target it bounces to will automatically get crit by it. Of course you should move away from your minions that are about to die to her q, but also keep in mind that she can use her q to bounce off your healthy minions to poke you. If you consistently avoid her q poke, the matchup is winnable for jinx and you will typically win all ins as miss fortune does less damage when hitting the same target because of her passive.
Samira
Samira can be a difficult match up when paired with the right support, but her low range makes her an easy target to harass in lane. Use rockets to harass her when she walks up to cs and try to poke her down. If you get a good angle to hit her with your w, it could bait out her parry allowing your support to look for an all in. If you feel threatened by Samira, take exhaust in order to cut down her all in potential. Do not use your ultimate until her w is down or she'll just block it. Try to bait it out first with either rocket auto harass or your w. You will hard outscale and outrange her late game so as long as you go even you'll win late game. Keep in mind that she can no longer e through allies so use that to your advantage if you catch her out of position.
Senna
Senna is a very difficult matchup for jinx as she can match your scaling range and out sustain you with the healing from her q. She can also outrade you if you are going for a short trade as an auto q from her will proc her passive and heal her for just about all the damage you deal to her. Senna works best early game in short trades as she deals damage to you while healing just about all the damage you deal to her. If you have an aggressive support, you can easily all in senna as you will win the extended trade since her passive has a cooldown and it is difficult for senna to avoid hard engage if she is playing too aggressively.
Sivir
Sivir is a low range adc so poking her down with autos should not be too difficult, but you have to keep in mind that she can still hit you with her q when you go to trade with her or cs. Stand in your minion wave to avoid getting hit by an isolated q, and never throw random w's at her as she can just regain her mana by blocking them with her spell shield. If she goes the lethality sivir build, you need to completely focus on dodging her q's as the deal an insane amount of damage. For that reason, I would recommend buying berserker greaves and a refillable potion on your first back to avoid her harass.
Tristana
This is a very difficult matchup for jinx. Your high range in rockets is basically negated by how far she can jump with her w, and she will beat you in all ins with her ridiculous bomb damage. Consider taking exhaust against her to avoid getting one shot by her bomb. If she wastes bomb on somebody else this would be the opening to trade with her, otherwise focus on simple poke with rockets. Play safe and scale up against Tristana, it is almost impossible to beat her 2v2 and you will never beat her 1v1.
Twitch
You probably won't see a lot of twitch, but he is a pretty strong pick into jinx. A few things to remember is to never walk up alone when twitch is off the map. He can easily ambush you from stealth with his q and pick you off for a free kill. He scales just as well as you, and has just as much range as you when he activates his r. Try to remain aware of where twitch is at all times, as he is much weaker in vision compared to when he is stealthed.
Varus
Varus is extremely dangerous when he goes lethality since his poke will be difficult to dodge with no mobility. Consider taking cleanse to cleanse his r and pick up an early refillable potion to stay in lane longer. Buy berserker greaves to have a better chance at dodging his poke.
Vayne
Vayne is a fairly easy matchup for jinx as her weak early game is easily abusable and allows you to scale. If the situation calls for it, you can easily get priority in lane with rockets since Vayne has no waveclear. When trading with Vayne, use rockets to poke her when she goes for cs. Make sure you do not get autoed 3 times since silver bolts is Vayne's only way to outrade you. Never attempt to 1v1 Vayne since she can easily pick you off and assassinate you post level 6.
Xayah
Xayah is another easy matchup for jinx. Abuse her low auto range by poking her with rockets in lane. Avoid getting lined up by her feathers as they pass through the minion wave. Stay vigilant about where her feathers are to avoid getting rooted.
Alistar
Alistar can be extremely deadly as jinx is an immobile carry and he can point and click lock you down for a few seconds with all his cc. Abuse Alistar level 1 by playing aggressively and try to take control of the lane, but once Alistar hits level 2 you have to respect his combo as it could lead to your death. Also keep in mind that Alistar can attempt to q flash and w you into his adc, which basically just means you're dead.
Bard
Bard is fairly easy to play against. A few things to keep in mind are: Don't line up with your support and get both of you stunned, when bard is missing he can portal himself and his jungler into your lane to gank you, and his ultimate can be used to set up picks against you since you have low mobility. If you struggle with avoiding bard r, you can build Galeforce to dash out of it to avoid getting picked.
Blitzcrank
Always play in your minion wave and respect his hook. If you ever get hooked in lane you are almost guaranteed to die, so try to make sure you always have a wave to hide behind. Do not trust in your own ability to dodge his hook as just one hook hitting you can lead to your death. If you feel uncomfortable playing against blitzcrank, I would recommend building Galeforce to dash away from his hook. Just remember, always hide behind your minions so he can't hook you.
Braum
Bard is fairly easy to play against. Stay in your minion wave to dodge his q. His r is pretty easy to dodge unless you are already cc'ed, and remember that his wall and block your w and ultimate.
Galio
Galio can engage on jinx fairly easily with his knock up and taunt combo. You need to respect his dash range and try to space him out with your rockets. You could consider taking cleanse in order to cleanse his taunt during fights or if his team has a lot of cc.
Gragas
Respect his flash body slam combo and ult as that will likely be his bread and butter engage against you. Try to avoid his q poke in lane as the slow can set up his other forms of cc and lead to a potential pick on you.
Janna
Janna can't really do much against you at all. if she goes to w you trade back by autoing her with rockets. Eventually you should be able to just completely outrange her in later levels. The only other thing to worry about is her tornado but with such a long charge up time you can simply walk out of it in most cases.
Karma
Karma can be a tough matchup if you struggle with dodging her q's. Try to stand behind your minions but a little bit further back as to not be hugging them, since she can still hit you with her q if you are too close to them. pick up an early refillable pot to stay healthy in lane and sustain her poke.
Leona
Leona is a tough matchup for jinx. You should go cleanse unless you are absolutely confident that your support can peel you. Consider going Galeforce to dash out of her ult as once she gets level 6 it will be difficult to avoid getting picked by her.
Lulu
Lulu will mostly be buffing up her adc so you shouldn't have to worry about getting harassed by her. She has relatively short range so if she plays too aggressively you can punish her with rockets. if she puts pix on you, try moving in unusual ways to avoid getting hit by her follow up q.
Lux
For a support, lux does a lot of damage. I would recommend building berserker greaves early on to dodge her binding and e, and pick up a refillable pot to sustain through her poke.
Morgana
As long as you play behind your minions, Morgana can not do anything against you. Her w poke damage is minimal, and her only real threat is her binding. As long as you can avoid that, you should be fine and scale for free.
Nami
When trading with nami you want to avoid running into her since her w bounce will go back to heal herself. Dodging her bubble should be pretty easy, but if you want to be safe pick up berserker greaves to make it even easier.
Nautilus
In early levels, play behind your minion wave to avoid getting hooked. Once he hits level 6, you need to be careful of his point and click knock up on his ult. Since you are very immobile, you need to watch your positioning in lane to avoid getting caught out by his hook.
Pyke
Position yourself to dodge his hook, and be warned that pyke with hail of blades does tons of damage on his own. It might be smart to build galeforce to avoid getting caught out by him. His hook has the lowest cd of any hook champion at 10 seconds, so a good pyke will always look to play aggressively. Use rockets to get lane priority to build up a large wave to hide behind.
Rakan
Rakan isn't too dangerous, just be mindful of his w engage. He becomes a lot stronger when he hits level 6 as you have to worry about his flash engage but during early laning he shouldn't be much of a problem at all.
Rell
Rell has a huge amount of cc and without galeforce or flash you could easily get picked off. My advice is to get used to how far she can travel with her w. If she misses w, you and your support should look to punish her. Also, be aware that when she remounts she can flash on you for a flip.
Seraphine
Depending on how much cc the enemy team has, you might want to run cleanse into Seraphine due to how much cc she has in her kit. Her ultimate is really hard to dodge and has insane range, so if you choose to not go cleanse you might want to pick up a Galeforce to dash out of it.
Sett
While hexflash Sett isn't nearly as strong as it used to be, Sett paired with an aggressive AD can make laning difficult. He will likely try to flash on you early to get you to blow your flash, and from there he'll run into a bush and look to engage using hexflash. As long as you have a support that can properly peel you, this matchup shouldn't be too difficult.
Sona
Sona won't do much except poke you with her q auto. Try to set up the wave near your tower because sona is easy ganks, and laning 2v2 shouldn't be much of a problem. At level 6 she does spike somewhat once she gets her r but other than that she doesn't pose much of a threat.
Soraka
As long as you can dodge soraka q she poses absolutely no threat to you. Pick up an executioners early on to counter her healing and you should be fine.
Tahm Kench
Watch out for kench q as the slow can be deadly, but other than that he shouldn't be able to do much to you.
Thresh
Thresh is deadly for jinx, as a low mobility adc you have to be careful about his hook. If thresh stands near a wall he might be setting up to lantern his jungler in for a gank, so keep that in mind. Watch out for thresh's flay auto damage as well, as thresh himself can do a ton of damage.
Taric
The only threat that taric poses his hitting you with his stun. Normally you should be able to position outside of its range. If he starts charging his stun and runs towards you, he might be planning to flash on you to guarantee the stun.
Yuumi
Yuumi doesn't do anything. Just stand in your minion wave to dodge her q and you should be good. Buy executioners early to negate her healing.
Zilean
Zilean can be annoying, try to not get double bombed by him. A trick you can do against Zilean is that if you get hit by his bomb, you can drag the bomb to your minion wave to make it push towards you.
Kog'Maw
Kog'maw is a fairly easy matchup. Try to bait out his w by going for an auto trade with rockets, and back off. Kog'maw is extremely weak without his enhanced autos from his w, so use this time to harass/trade with him.
Alistar
Alistar can both peel and engage for jinx in lane and in teamfights. Use W following his combo to slow them so he can chase more easily with his stun. Wait for Alistar to hit his auto attack stun before throwing down your chompers to guarantee your chain cc.
Bard
Bard isn't what you want in lane. He doesn't provide reliable cc or peel for jinx. You can follow up on his stun or ult with chompers to layer cc.
Blitzcrank
Blitzcrank can set up kills for jinx in lane and layer a ton of cc for a kill. When he hits his hook, throw down your chompers to guarantee they hit.
Braum
Jinx can proc braum passive very easily and he provides a good amount of peel for her. His q slow also provides you with an opportunity to more easily hit your w in lane. Wait until you get the stun off before throwing down your chompers.
Galio
Galio offers a fair amount of peel and cc for Jinx. Use zap to follow up his knock up and throw down chompers after they get taunted.
Gragas
Gragas offers a fair amount of peel and disengage for jinx. You should be able to throw your chompers down to follow up his body slam and he can use his r to peel people off you.
Janna
While Janna offers very little in lane, if you get her on your team you can play passively and play to scale. As long as you aren't too far behind, she should be able to peel most threats off you while providing you with bonus AD from her shield.
Karma
Karma doesn't have a lot of reliable cc for you to play off of. Try to win early as hard as you can with poke before she starts to fall off. You should be able to get priority in lane in most matchups with Karma.
Leona
Leona provides a massive amount of cc to lock targets down and allow you to easily follow up with chompers to add even more cc. You should easily be able to hit all your abilities off her cc and auto whatever target she focuses. Leona level one is weak, so play passive until levels 2 and 3 before you look to fight.
Lulu
Jinx lulu scales insanely well into late game, and the laning isn't even that bad either. She can peel for you with polymorph or speed you up even more with whimsy. She provides a solid amount of shielding and healing with her e and ult. The attack speed she gives you is great when combined with get excited to clean up fights.
Morgana
Morgana is a decent pairing with jinx. You get her black shield to negate any cc that might hit you. You can also easily hit chompers off of her binding which makes for some easy setup.
Lux
Lux is similar to morgana, except she provides more damage rather than cc immunity. At level 6 if she catches the enemy adc with her binding you might be able to one shot them with your full rotation.
Pyke
Pyke isn't that great of a pairing with jinx in lane, but in teamfights and scraps in the river he can help her clean up with his r when he executes low hp targets. This causes Jinx's passive to go off so she can pop off.
Rell
Rell provides a good amount of engage in teamfights, and her ult helps group up the enemy team for jinx to deal massive splash damage with her rockets. She also provides a pretty strong laning phase, overall a strong pairing with jinx.
Rakan
Rakan provides minimal cc early game and lackluster healing with long cooldowns. In late game teamfights, Rakan might be able to hit a good r and allow jinx to clean up, but overall not a very strong pairing.
Nami
Nami isn't that good with jinx, as she provides minimal amounts of cc. Her healing isn't that great either, and typically jinx nami can be ran down by more aggressive bot lanes.
Nautilus
Nautilius provides easy cc and follow up for jinx with his hook, auto attack root, and the point and click knock up on his ult. He can hold a target down long enough for jinx to get all her abilities off, making this a strong pairing.
Senna
Senna is just another adc botlane. Unless in a specific counter matchup, you will get ran down by engage supports like leona, thresh, and nautilus.
Seraphine
Seraphine has an OK laning phase an excellent scaling. Charming a group of enemies with her ultimate allows jinx to deal good aoe damage with rockets. She also provides a decent amount of shielding, healing, and movement speed with her w.
Sett
After hexflash and Sett got nerfed multiple times, he's no longer as strong as a support as he used to be. While Jinx can be aggressive, she doesn't work well with Sett as it is hard to get your chompers down properly with his cc.
Sona
If you can survive lane phase as Sona Jinx you'll have insane late game, but that's a big "if." You'll have to play very passively until you both manage to get your items and outscale the enemy botlane in teamfights.
Soraka
Soraka can try to keep you alive with healing, but with the only cc in her kit being a slow and maybe a root it will be difficult for her to peel people off you. Heals are great but they aren't that effective if you just get one shot.
Tahm Kench
Kench has one of the best denial abilities in the game by being able to devour you, but it has such a long cooldown that he has really fallen out of meta as of late. Unless you are picking it into a very specific dive focused enemy team, Kench isn't that good with jinx.
Taric
A good Taric ult can change a teamfight, but he doesn't offer much in lane and only offers his stun as peel. Taric likes adcs that can go in and hit his stun like tristana, but jinx likes to play back. I wouldn't recommend this lane.
Thresh
Thresh has it all: peel, engage, and damage. He can help you reposition or escape ganks with his lantern, set up kills with his hook, and peel enemies with his box and flay. You can easily hit your zap and chompers off his cc to set up some easy kills. Thresh is an amazing support in the right hands, and he can help jinx at any point in the game.
Yuumi
Yuumi provides jinx with extra stats, a heal, a movespeed increase, and an attack speed increase. Sadly, her lack of a presence in lane makes her an absolutely terrible support and you are likely to get steam rolled unless you play completely passive.
Zilean
Zilean can ult you and prevent you from dying and give you an insane movespeed boost, but has a relatively weak laning phase. I recommend playing safe and attempting to scale with Zilean and carry fights late game.
Synergies
IdealStrongOkLowNone
Alistar
Alistar can both peel and engage for jinx in lane and in teamfights. Use W following his combo to slow them so he can chase more easily with his stun. Wait for Alistar to hit his auto attack stun before throwing down your chompers to guarantee your chain cc.
Bard
Bard isn't what you want in lane. He doesn't provide reliable cc or peel for jinx. You can follow up on his stun or ult with chompers to layer cc.
Blitzcrank
Blitzcrank can set up kills for jinx in lane and layer a ton of cc for a kill. When he hits his hook, throw down your chompers to guarantee they hit.
Braum
Jinx can proc braum passive very easily and he provides a good amount of peel for her. His q slow also provides you with an opportunity to more easily hit your w in lane. Wait until you get the stun off before throwing down your chompers.
Galio
Galio offers a fair amount of peel and cc for Jinx. Use zap to follow up his knock up and throw down chompers after they get taunted.
Gragas
Gragas offers a fair amount of peel and disengage for jinx. You should be able to throw your chompers down to follow up his body slam and he can use his r to peel people off you.
Janna
While Janna offers very little in lane, if you get her on your team you can play passively and play to scale. As long as you aren't too far behind, she should be able to peel most threats off you while providing you with bonus AD from her shield.
Karma
Karma doesn't have a lot of reliable cc for you to play off of. Try to win early as hard as you can with poke before she starts to fall off. You should be able to get priority in lane in most matchups with Karma.
Leona
Leona provides a massive amount of cc to lock targets down and allow you to easily follow up with chompers to add even more cc. You should easily be able to hit all your abilities off her cc and auto whatever target she focuses. Leona level one is weak, so play passive until levels 2 and 3 before you look to fight.
Lulu
Jinx lulu scales insanely well into late game, and the laning isn't even that bad either. She can peel for you with polymorph or speed you up even more with whimsy. She provides a solid amount of shielding and healing with her e and ult. The attack speed she gives you is great when combined with get excited to clean up fights.
Morgana
Morgana is a decent pairing with jinx. You get her black shield to negate any cc that might hit you. You can also easily hit chompers off of her binding which makes for some easy setup.
Lux
Lux is similar to morgana, except she provides more damage rather than cc immunity. At level 6 if she catches the enemy adc with her binding you might be able to one shot them with your full rotation.
Pyke
Pyke isn't that great of a pairing with jinx in lane, but in teamfights and scraps in the river he can help her clean up with his r when he executes low hp targets. This causes Jinx's passive to go off so she can pop off.
Rell
Rell provides a good amount of engage in teamfights, and her ult helps group up the enemy team for jinx to deal massive splash damage with her rockets. She also provides a pretty strong laning phase, overall a strong pairing with jinx.
Rakan
Rakan provides minimal cc early game and lackluster healing with long cooldowns. In late game teamfights, Rakan might be able to hit a good r and allow jinx to clean up, but overall not a very strong pairing.
Nami
Nami isn't that good with jinx, as she provides minimal amounts of cc. Her healing isn't that great either, and typically jinx nami can be ran down by more aggressive bot lanes.
Nautilus
Nautilius provides easy cc and follow up for jinx with his hook, auto attack root, and the point and click knock up on his ult. He can hold a target down long enough for jinx to get all her abilities off, making this a strong pairing.
Senna
Senna is just another adc botlane. Unless in a specific counter matchup, you will get ran down by engage supports like leona, thresh, and nautilus.
Seraphine
Seraphine has an OK laning phase an excellent scaling. Charming a group of enemies with her ultimate allows jinx to deal good aoe damage with rockets. She also provides a decent amount of shielding, healing, and movement speed with her w.
Sett
After hexflash and Sett got nerfed multiple times, he's no longer as strong as a support as he used to be. While Jinx can be aggressive, she doesn't work well with Sett as it is hard to get your chompers down properly with his cc.
Sona
If you can survive lane phase as Sona Jinx you'll have insane late game, but that's a big "if." You'll have to play very passively until you both manage to get your items and outscale the enemy botlane in teamfights.
Soraka
Soraka can try to keep you alive with healing, but with the only cc in her kit being a slow and maybe a root it will be difficult for her to peel people off you. Heals are great but they aren't that effective if you just get one shot.
Tahm Kench
Kench has one of the best denial abilities in the game by being able to devour you, but it has such a long cooldown that he has really fallen out of meta as of late. Unless you are picking it into a very specific dive focused enemy team, Kench isn't that good with jinx.
Taric
A good Taric ult can change a teamfight, but he doesn't offer much in lane and only offers his stun as peel. Taric likes adcs that can go in and hit his stun like tristana, but jinx likes to play back. I wouldn't recommend this lane.
Thresh
Thresh has it all: peel, engage, and damage. He can help you reposition or escape ganks with his lantern, set up kills with his hook, and peel enemies with his box and flay. You can easily hit your zap and chompers off his cc to set up some easy kills. Thresh is an amazing support in the right hands, and he can help jinx at any point in the game.
Yuumi
Yuumi provides jinx with extra stats, a heal, a movespeed increase, and an attack speed increase. Sadly, her lack of a presence in lane makes her an absolutely terrible support and you are likely to get steam rolled unless you play completely passive.
Zilean
Zilean can ult you and prevent you from dying and give you an insane movespeed boost, but has a relatively weak laning phase. I recommend playing safe and attempting to scale with Zilean and carry fights late game.
Hi I'm Kingamazin, a challenger ad carry main. I mainly play Jinx and Kai'Sa, and have consistently been at least Grandmaster for the last three years. This is my first guide and I thought it would be a good idea to do it on one of my favorite champions Jinx, especially since she has become so popular as of late.
In this guide I will cover itemization, summoner spells and runes, laning concepts, teamfighting, and everything you need to know as an ADC main looking to pick up Jinx.
Summoner Spells
For summoner spells you will typically want to take Flash and Heal. Flash is a common staple for just about every champion in the game. It can help you reposition, escape a gank, flash in to finish off a kill, or dodge a skillshot. As a highly immobile adc, your best friend will be Flash to get out of sticky situations. Alternatively, when your flash is down you should play more reserved in lane and try to avoid getting caught out by the enemy support/jungler/mid laner.
For your other summoner spell, you will typically take Heal. This can change based on the enemy team composition, but Heal will typically give the best value as it will effect both you and your support. When using Heal during an all in fight bot lane, you should try to either save it until you or your support is low to bait in the enemy or use it instantly if either of you are missing health in order to avoid the grievous wounds effect from Ignite. Some other common uses outside of just healing an ally are to speed up yourself and an ally to escape a gank, speed up your support or jungler to secure their cc, or using the heal movespeed to dodge a skillshot with Nimbus Cloak.
Another alternative summoner spell you could take to replace Heal is Exhaust. I recommend taking Exhaust against extremely aggressive adcs such as Draven, Kalista, Tristana, or Samira. during a fight bot lane, you want to use your Exhaust in order to reduce their kill potential on you. An example of this would be exhausting Tristana after she places her Explosive Charge on you to reduce her burst. If the enemy team has multiple burst focused champions/assassins, taking Exhaust could save your life against their combo. A few champions you might want to consider taking Exhaust against are Zed, Riven, Nocturne, Rek'Sai, and Talon. Of course, there are many more potential threats to you than just the champions listed, so as a general rule of thumb you should take Exhaust against any of the adcs I mentioned if you feel like you might be at risk of dying. Otherwise, Try to judge the enemy top, jungle, and mid laner and determine if multiple of those champs have easy ways to get onto you and one shot you.
Another potential summoner spell that could benefit you depending on the enemy team composition is Cleanse. The most common scenario you would want to take Cleanse in is if the enemy botlane has a heavy amount of crowd control that is difficult to avoid through just positioning alone. Examples include Leona, Thresh, Ashe with her Enchanted Crystal Arrow, and Varus with his Chain of Corruption. If you have to go Kraken Slayer, Cleanse will help keep you safe from getting chain cced and killed. If the enemy team has a lot of crowd control but their botlane doesn't, a simple Quicksilver Sash should suffice. If you don't feel comfortable taking Cleanse for whatever reason, pick up a Galeforce for your mythic item and go Heal instead.
Barrier is another summoner spell you could take, although I typically advise against it. Heal is just so much better since bot lane is a 2v2 lane, and Barrier only helps yourself. It doesn't even give you the movement speed that heal does. With that being said, you can take Barrier if you have an enchanter that wants to take Heal. The most common example of this is Yuumi going Heal and Exhaust. In this case it makes sense to take Barrier or Cleanse depending on the enemy team.
Why Lethal Tempo over Conqueror? Some would say it's preference, but I have a few points as to why I think Lethal Tempo is better. It scales better with the true damage provided by Kraken Slayer, which is the mythic item you will be buying most often on Jinx. It synergizes well with her passive attack speed granted by Switcheroo! and getting resets from Get Excited!. By the time Lethal Tempo activates, you should have probably auto attacked around four times to get the bonus attack speed from Phantom Dancer giving a huge boost to your attack speed. You can also play around fights with Zap! and use that to trigger your Lethal Tempo, before going in with the increased attack speed. I also find that Conqueror takes too long to stack and you get the benefits from Lethal Tempo more quickly.
Take Presence of Mind to regain some mana when harassing your opponents using Switcheroo! in lane. In teamfights, Jinx can burn through mana extremely quickly using her rockets along with her other abilities. getting a reset with Get Excited! will also activate Presence of Mind, restoring some of your mana. The last thing you want is to be stuck in minigun when you really need the range of your rockets.
Take Legend: Bloodline to incorporate some lifesteal into your build. Jinx typically doesn't get any lifesteal from her build unless you build Bloodthirster as a fourth or fifth item choice, and often times there will be better items available to you. You will already have enough attack speed so that Legend: Alacrity isn't needed.
For the final rune in the Precision tree, take either Coup de Grace or Cut Down depending on the enemy team. As a general rule to apply, take Cut Down if the enemy team has two champions that typically stack health items in their build. Against squishy teams, take Coup de Grace instead.
As for the Sorcery tree, take Nimbus Cloak to gain extra mobility when you use a summoner spell. As an immobile adc like Jinx, having an extra amount of mobility will help you reposition in a fight or escape a gank more easily.
For the other rune, I recommend taking Gathering Storm. Jinx is one of the strongest late game hyper carries in the game. Gathering Storm helps enhance your damage even further as the game continues. Since Switcheroo! rockets deal 110% of your physical damage, any additional attack damage you gain from runes makes them even stronger.
On your first back, try to buy a Noonquiver, Refillable Potion, and a Control Ward. Noonquiver gives an excellent mix of attack damage and attack speed, and makes csing extremely easy for you. Refillable Potion is very gold efficient and helps provide solid sustain to cover up any damage you might take from trades. On every back, you want to try to pick up a Control Ward. Since you have no ability to dash or blink as Jinx, you have to rely on solid vision and game sense to track the enemy jungler. Throw your Control Ward down in whatever river bush is closest to your tower, and clear enemy wards that get placed there.
If you can't afford Noonquiver, your second best option would be to pick up Berserker's Greaves. They provide a great amount of attack speed and mobility. The added movespeed helps you space out the enemy adc in trades as you can use Switcheroo! to poke them with rocket autos.
In most games, pick up Kraken Slayer as your first item. Kraken Slayer synergizes extremely well with your kit, and the mythic passive granting attack speed helps you get even more rockets out. Jinx can use her minigun to dish out multiple procs of Kraken Slayer quickly in a fight, and Lethal Tempo allows you to auto even faster. Jinx is an auto attack based adc. Kraken Slayer amplifies your auto attacks with the most damage possible. If you have not already done so, finish Berserker's Greaves now.
For your second item, build Phantom Dancer. It provides extra movement speed for kiting, attack damage, and the most attack speed out of any zeal item. This makes sure you get as many autos off as possible with an insane amount of attack speed. The small amount of attack damage that Phantom Dancer gives helps scale up your rocket damage as well. It also synergizes well with Switcheroo! as stacking up your minigun stacks will also provide Phantom Dancer stacks.
For your third item, grab an Infinity Edge. At this point you will have 60% crit chance, which will activate its passive, granting a boost to your critical strikes. It also provides a ton of attack damage. If you can get to this point while remaining even with the enemy adc, you'll probably start to take over the game. Three items is the key on jinx, and you'll notice that your rockets and Zap! will deal an insane amount of damage.
After you finish three items, the build you go relies heavily on what you need against the enemy team.
If you need to kill their tanky frontline, pick up a Lord Dominik's Regards for the armor pen it provides.
If they have a lot of crowd control, buy a Mercurial Scimitar.
If you keep dying to assassins, buy a Guardian Angel.
If you feel like nothing is threating you or you need to hard carry the game, buy a Bloodthirster
If they have a lot of magic damage, you could consider buying a Maw of Malmortius.
If they have an excessive amount of healing, pick up a Mortal Reminder.
Alternative Item Choices
With the introduction of mythic items in season 11, builds are no longer as cut and dry as they used to be. ADC itemization is the best its ever been, and we have a ton of options to choose from depending on the game. With that being said, knowing what to build can be overwhelming at times. I will try to provide a general overview of when you should build specific items.
Immortal Shieldbow is your other mythic option. Unfortunately, you lose a lot of damage if you choose to build this item. I would only recommend ever building this item if you are playing against MULTIPLE assassins that are trying to kill you. otherwise go Kraken Slayer or Galeforce.
I would go Runaan's Hurricane when playing against at least 2-3 melee champions. You get the maximum value from the splash damage when the enemy team clumps up together and takes the aoe splash damage from the rockets. If you don't think the enemy team is going to clump up much in teamfights, or you are playing against a team featuring mainly ranged champions, stick to Phantom Dancer.
Rapid Firecannon is good against an enemy team that has a ton of ranged champions, or you feel like you won't be able to get in range to auto attack without instantly dying. Keep in mind, Jinx's Switcheroo! rockets provide 725 range when maxed out, so you should be safe to auto attack in most cases. I will almost never build Rapid Firecannon, but I wanted to throw the option out there because I know some people love the item.
Early Laning
Great, you have an idea of what runes and items to build on Jinx. But how do you lane on her? What are her champion specific strengths and weaknesses? You keep getting hooked and die and type "support diff". You push up to their tower with no vision and die to the enemy jungler, typing "better jg wins" in chat before giving up. If this sounds like you, I'll try my best to give you some tips and tricks to avoid certain mistakes and improve your chances of winning.
When laning, keep in mind the abilities of the opposing bot lane. Respect engage supports who can hook you or cc you for long periods of time. Use rockets in Switcheroo! to poke the enemy adc with your additional range. Switcheroo! rockets start at 625 range at level 1, and every point you put into the ability increases the range by 25. This means that at level 5, you will have 675 range, which is almost more range than every other adc. Use that increased range to your advantage, and try to survive your early laning phase. While jinx is a hyper carry, her early game isn't that bad. With a good support, you can win 2v2 and snowball out of control for a quick win. The added attack speed from [switcheroo!]] in minigun form allows you to take down towers quickly and get tower plates.
When you walk into lane, keep in mind the position of the enemy bot lane. If the enemy bot lane arrives to lane delayed, that means that they likely leached their jungler. You should keep the position of the enemy jungler in mind while laning, it isn't your jungler's job to always tell you where the enemy jungler is at all times. If the jungler receives a leash from their botlane, that likely means that he will clear his caps and path to top lane for a gank or to contest top lane skuttle crab. This means that you can probably push up to the enemy tower and secure priority for your jungler on the bot lane skuttle crab. Alternatively, if you don't leash your jungler, try to keep the wave in an even state or allow the enemy to push into you, keeping the wave just outside of your tower. This puts the enemy botlane in a disadvantageous position as your jungler can path down to gank for you.
Remember to use your wards, and buy a control ward every time you back. Vision makes all the difference, and having a solid amount of vision around botlane and botlane river can help spot out the enemy jungler or the enemy mid laner who's looking for a roam. Try to keep in mind the amount of Teleport's on the enemy team. Bot lane typically receives a lot of attention from both teams, and tracking the positions of who can show up to your lane is a useful skill that will help you win more games. Remember not to neglect your warding tricket and always ward river, especially if you plan on pushing the lane. Typically though, I would recommend keeping the wave in a neutral position or just outside of your tower. This can be accomplished by simply only attack the minions to last hit them. The enemy adc might just start brainlessly autoing the wave, and if they do that try not to get too low from trading so your jungler can help gank your lane. Your main goal should be to farm and survive lane so you can carry late game teamfights.
Mid Game Goals
After laning phase ends, typically you want to move Jinx to the mid lane to collect cs safely in the shortest lane. In the case that you have an immobile mage such as Malzahar or Orianna, it may be better to leave them mid as you continue to go bot. If you managed to take bot tower early, you should rotate mid or top to get more tower plates. Play around objective timers such as dragon or rift herald and try to move with your team to secure those. Getting multiple early dragon's can set you up for an early soul point to greatly increase your odds of winning. Try to maintain vision around the lane you are farming in, and once you hit level 9 remember to swap out your Stealth Ward for a Farsight Alteration for long range vision on objectives like dragon and baron. Continue to buy Control Ward's to help your team secure vision. Keep your cs high but remember to avoid over extending in a lane, often times during the mid game the enemy team will look for picks on you if you are too far forward. Always look at your minimap and remain aware of who is missing from the map. Nobody wants to kill anything more than the adc, so be aware that the enemy team will always focus you in an attempt to put you behind.
Late Game
Hopefully at this point your jungler will allow you to take the red brambleback for the buff. Always be around baron nashor or dragon depending on which one is spawning. if baron nashor is up, you should never be bot lane farming. That is a clear indicator for the enemy team that they should start baron. hopefully at this stage you have at least three items, and are ready to carry the game. Stick with your team as you posture around objectives and continue to farm. Before an objective like baron nashor or dragon spawns, get mid priority by clearing the wave. Ping your team to group around these objectives, clear mid wave for priority, and secure as much vision as possible. Unless you are full build, you should still be buying Control Ward's. It is not solely your support's job to set up vision as League is a team game. If you manage to get baron nashor, push down a lane (probably going to be mid) with your team while you have your top laner split push in a side wave. Be careful of flanks in pockets of fog of war, try not to tunnel too hard into just pushing a lane. Continue to watch your minimap for anyone on the enemy team that might be missing. If the enemy team collapses on your split pusher, at least try to push for the enemy inhibitor. Play carefully and stick with your support to avoid getting caught out.
Teamfighting
OK... That covers some basic macro concepts and ideas that you should be aware of as an adc main. Now for the fun part, teamfighting!
Jinx, like most traditional auto attack based adcs, likes to play fights front to back. A crucial skill you will learn as an adc is when to enter a fight. If you enter the fight and do a little bit of damage and die, you aren't playing Jinx properly.
First, assess the threats on the enemy team. Identify which abilities on the enemy team could cc you and get you killed. Let the enemy team use some of their cooldowns on your team before you walk up to auto. When a fight starts, use Zap! to poke from afar before walking up to auto attack. Zap! will active your Lethal Tempo. Use your Switcheroo! to auto the enemy team from a distance. Abuse the fact that Jinx has the most base auto attack range of any adc, at 725. Try to move around and auto attack from your max range. Usually you want to use your Flash defensively you reposition in the fight or prevent an assassin from killing you. Use Flame Chompers! to follow up on your team's cc or to peel yourself from dive. If you die too early as Jinx, you are relying on your team to carry the fight. Try your best to stay alive while doing as much damage as safely as possible. The best way to use your Super Mega Death Rocket! is to execute low hp targets since it does %missing hp damage. If you are being dove and are in close proximity to an enemy, use your Switcheroo! and swap to your minigun to deal more dps in close range. Jinx is the queen of cleaning up a fight. Once you get one kill and Get Excited! procs, use the bonus movespeed and attack speed to clean up the fight.
Conclusion
I hope my guide helps you become better at Jinx and adc as a whole! It can be discouraging at times to constantly get one shot, but as you learn your limits you should be able to have more satisfying games and pop off.
Remember, Get Excited! and get that pentakill! Any feedback would be appreciated and I'll try to answer any questions.
(P.S. check out the threat level to see a few sentences on matchups and general advice on how to play them)
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