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Jinx Build Guide by

Diamond Top Jinx - Zapper Trapper [26.17]

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Guide Discussion (15) More Jinx Guides

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Runes:

Inspiration

Unsealed Spellbook

Magical Footwear

Triple Tonic

Jack of all Trades

Sorcery

Manaflow Band

Transcendence

Bonus:

+8 Ability Haste
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+10-180 Bonus Health

Spells:

Barrier

Flash

Items

Start

Core

Final Items

Example Finished Build

Ability Order

Jinx Passive Ability

More Jinx Counters

Champion Build Guide

The Author

Hi! I’m Aqua Dragon. I’ve spent many seasons hovering around Diamond with a wide variety of off-meta builds. Back in Season 4, I reached Master tier with AD Malzahar Jungle. These days, I live in Korea, where I teach English and play in Korean solo queue.

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What is Jinx Top?

What's Zappenin?

Top Jinx sounds extremely unintuitive until you realize a few things:

Zap can reach a cooldown short enough to chain into itself.
The slow lasts long enough to line up the next shot.
Each Zap still hits hard.

This means that after one Zap, it becomes feasible to hit someone with several more in a row. The low cooldown lets you chain unrelenting Zaps back-to-back.

Enough haste also lets Chompers stay on the ground almost constantly. You can turn a fight into an infinite minefield.

The combination of these things makes 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 near-permanent Chompers requires a huge amount of Ability Haste and a hefty pool of mana.

The big advantage 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 heavily punish passive laners. Objectives disappear, plates get shoved for, and roams destroy everyone. A hypercarry can make the gamble of, "That's fine if you do that; I'll kill you later anyway." This Jinx build is extremely powerful in the mid game, but it is no hypercarry and cannot just farm passively at Mid or Bot. That gamble does not pay off.

The linear nature of Mid also makes hitting people with Zaps extremely difficult, if not outright impossible at times. At Bot, the passive playstyle gets shoved in especially hard, and splitting experience makes it take 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 waves and farm from an enormous level of safety. Chompers are also great for surviving dives, as long as you do not get crashed into by a massive wave.

✔ Pros

Zap chains into itself once the build comes online
Chompers can cover fights almost constantly, fishing for a game-winning root
The ultimate becomes cheap enough to fire often
Great anti-freeze power; can play safely into brutal lanes
Spellbook plus the role quest gives two Teleports for safe lane access
The ultimate provides map relevancy during the lane phase

✘ Cons

Very passive laning phase; weak early game
Very dependent on proper wave management to avoid dives
The ultimate can be difficult to land from top lane
Low attack speed makes pushing down towers difficult early
Can't easily weave autoattacks between the nonstop Zaps
Low movement speed

Runes

Pazappa the Trapper

Unsealed Spellbook is basically "Teleport, the Keystone". It serves as a great way to have more safety, which means more money, which means more damage. More information about other keystones below.

Inspiration Primary

Unsealed Spellbook

Spellbook supplies the first Teleport and defensive spell access; the role quest supplies another Teleport later.

Magical Footwear

Magical Footwear is effectively just money, and Cash Back takes too long to catch up.

Triple Tonic

Triple Tonic preserves the second early Q point, while Biscuits trade that progression for more lane sustain.

Jack of All Trades

Jack of All Trades helps reach the Zap-chain breakpoint; Approach Velocity barely changes the end result of fights.

Sorcery Secondary

Manaflow Band

Mana is desperately necessary for Zapper Jinx, and Axiom Arcanist is too situational to replace it.

Transcendence

Gathering Storm offers more AD, but Transcendence gets the build online sooner.

Shards

Ability Haste, Adaptive Force, and Scaling Health

There are only so many ways to word "more Ability Haste," alright? The adaptive shard reaches minion-killing breakpoints, and Scaling Health fits a lane built around stalling.

What About Arcane Comet?

The choice not to go 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 Zap's damage quite a hefty amount. But the exclusion 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.

Comet and Gathering Storm add damage, but Spellbook helps hold under tower dives, creates safer recalls, and lets you carry useful backup summoners into teamfights instead of spending the whole game on . That safety creates more gold over the match, which makes up for the damage loss and then some.

If you'd like to choose Arcane Comet despite these notes, swap Unsealed Spellbook for Arcane Comet and Jack of All Trades for Gathering Storm. You could also consider Precision secondary for the helpful power of . Godspeed.

Build Order

Breaking Down the Building

Create Item Set

Tear start is tempting, but Jinx barely stacks it before the first recall. W and E are not used often early, and Q rockets do not stack Tear. With Long Sword, Jinx can start with Refillable, which provides much-needed sustain.

↓

→ → →

↓

→ →

The extra Long Sword before Lucidity helps reach the caster-minion breakpoint. The completed core then provides the haste, mana, and armor penetration needed for the Zap chain.

↓

Final Items

Tech offensively or defensively from here as needed. Axiom Arc's passive isn't very useful, but it's a very good haste statstick.

Stage of the Game

Learning to Give a Zap

Early Game

In the early game, your goals are to:

Survive until the mid game
Zap from far away to farm
Ult enemies when you see a recall

Farm Up!: Zapper Jinx does not have a good early game at all. You might land a few free autos, but your ultimate objective is to survive using your rocket range and Zaps.

Rely on Minigun When Possible: Fishbones is nice for its reach, but you still want to use Pow-Pow whenever possible to avoid pushing the wave too much and getting partially stuck on a freeze.

Put a Second Point into Q: Although you want to max Zap and Chompers quickly, a second early point in Q remains worthwhile. lets you take it without giving up those super nice skill progressions.

Farm From Afar with Zap: Zap has an absolutely absurd range that is nearly impossible to punish. Spellbook can cover rough resets with or , so do not panic over every bit of mana. Unsealed Spellbook gives one Teleport, and the role quest gives another afterward. That is an absurd amount of safe lane access.

Punish Freezes by Going Back: If the enemy top laner is trying to freeze, 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 jungle pressure.

Keep an Eye Out to Ult Recalling Enemies: Hitting an ultimate on a moving target from across the entire map is literally a coin flip. To improve your odds, aim for recalling enemies: they are stationary, often low, and easy to predict. The ultimate becomes cheap enough to use freely, so go for it even if the shot is not certain.

Mid Game

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

Welcome to URF: By now, the core has pushed your haste high enough to mark a major power spike. You can chain down foes with multiple Zaps in a row!

Reach Chomper Uptime: Your next major spike is near-permanent Chomper coverage. It is tough to remember in chaotic teamfights, but keep throwing them down. They have no cast time.

Follow Up Ally CC: Hitting the first Zap can be difficult, but if an ally slows or stuns a target, they become a prime candidate for a Zap chain. Zapper Jinx works best as follow-up artillery.

Use Ult Often: The ultimate is on a short enough cooldown that hoarding it becomes the bigger mistake. Do not save it only for executes or you may find yourself not using it at all.

Avoid Autoing Much in Fights: Your autos individually hit a bit hard, but the low attack speed makes it unfeasible to weave them in from a safe range while also Zapping, Chomping, and Ulting. Just rely on Zaps unless a few autos will finish the target.

Late Game

The role remains largely similar:

ZAP INTO ZAP INTO ZAP INTO ZAP
Your pushing speed is pretty good now!
Avoid getting caught

More of the Same: Zap things, throw down permanent Chompers, ult often, siege; it is more of the same. If you get caught, that might be game over, however.

Set Up Walls of Chompers: Chompers are large enough to seal off a jungle entrance for as long as you keep replacing them. This is great when enemies are trying to move in and contest a major objective.

Chomp Relentlessly: As long as you have mana to spare, use 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: By late game, the attack speed from levels is finally high enough to melt towers down. Use that speed to your advantage.

Thanks!

Thanks for reading! This build has been a lot of fun to play,
and don't be afraid to reach out with any questions!

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