Hi Guys, my name is Strider and I am a Master Yi main on the NA and EUW servers. I know what you're probably thinking 'wait, you're not Hashinshin, you're just some random pretending to be him'. I understand how the title of the guide can be confusing, I put Hashinshin's name in the title because I wanted to publish a guide on how NA's super top plays the Grandmaster at Arms. I do watch him a lot so I hope you'll allow me to share with you what I have seen. He does run a slightly different build and has a slightly different playstyle from other Jax players out there and I wanted to share that with you guys.

PROS + Jax is relatively easy to learn and fast to pick-up + Naturally tanky with his ultimate, Grandmaster-At-Arms + One of the best duelists in the game, especially in the later stages + One of, if not the best splitpushers in the entire game + AoE stun from Counter Strike which can be used to set up some great plays for your team + Leap Strike is one of the best mobility spells in the entire game. It can be used to close the distance on any clickable object.

CONS - Weak wave clear if you don't purchase Tiamat - Shut down with hard CC - Weak early game - Weaker teamfighting capabilities when compared to other champs

#1. Empower 3 / 4 / 5 / 7 / 9 #2. Counter Strike 1 / 8 / 10 / 12 / 13 #3. Grandmaster's Might 6/ 11 / 16 #4. Leap Strike 2 / 14 / 15 / 17 / 18

> > > This is the standard skill order used by Hashinshin. You want to max Empower first as leveling it up will give you more damage to work with than any other skill. Counter Strike is typically maxed second so you can get it on a lower cooldown. You want Counter Strike on the lowest cooldown possible because this is the spell that allows you to win almost any duel, so the more often it is available the more likely you are to win the fight. Leap Strike is maxed last. In the appropriate situations you can change your skill order and max Leap Strike second over Counter Strike. You want to do this when you are vs champ who can easily kite you. Putting points in Leap Strike reduces its cooldown allowing you to close the distance on them more frequently.

SUMMONER SPELLS - FLASH: Flash is one of the most fundamental summoner spells in the entire game. There is a reason every player takes this spell no matter who they're playing as save for a few exceptions like Yuumi. The ultility provided by it and its capability to be used offensively and defensively make it an invaluable summoner spell. Hashinshin takes this in every game he plays so you should too. TELEPORT: Teleport is the best summoner spell to run as a top laner. The reason it is used so much is because the lane is so much longer, so people use it to get back to lane quickly so they wont miss out on too much minion experience and gold. If you get ganked and die it can be very helpful to be able to return to lane instantly and not have to many consequences. It is also great for providing pressure in the late game as you can be splitpushing on the other side of the mpa from everyone else and when a teamfight breaks out you can teleport in to help them. Or you can use it to backdoor the enemy team.

KEYSTONE Hash uses Conqueror in every game. Conqueror provides him with AD as he stacks it, and at max stacks, heals him for 15% of his damage dealt. This is the best rune to run on Jax as he is usually engaged in prolonged fights so it will help keep him alive, he is also able to stack it relatively quickly due to the auto-attck reset provided by Empower. HEROISM RUNE For the Heroism rune we always take Triumph. Triumph restores 12% of your missing health one second after getting a kill. Similar to the reasons I listed above for Conqueror, the sustain this rune provides you with is insane and will definitely help you cluth out some fights. The bonus 20 gold you get on kill is helpful too to get your items faster. LEGEND RUNE Legend: Tenacity is the strongest rune here at the moment. I recommend you always take the tenacity rune because Jax is heavily countered by it, the less time he spends cc'd the more time he can spend whacking enemies. A good alternative here is Legend: Alacrity when vs teams with little to no cc, however this will rarely be the case in season 10 so you can just stick to Legend: Tenacity.

COMBAT RUNE All three of the combat runes are viable on Jax, however Last Stand is the rune of choice for Hashinshin. Last Stand can be very useful when against those early game champions like Darius and Renekton he wont beat early game and the fight may come down to the wire. Last Stand can help you clutch out in those situations. CONTRAPTION RUNE Magical Footwear is a very good rune to take on late-game scaling champions, this is because this rune is basically giving you 300g for free which means thats 300g more you're going to have available which you can spend towards your big items like Blade of the Ruined King and Trinity Force. Jax has a very expensive build so any way you can reduce the cost of it should be taken advantage of. TOMORROW RUNE Biscuit Delivery is one of the most op runes to run in the top lane. The free biscuits provided to you allow you to stay in lane longer and handle more abuse from the opposing laner, this is good because Jax does have quite a few matchups that he can lose.

For your Rune Shards the first two are always going to remain unchanged. You always want and as they allow you to clear the jungle easier on your first clear. The third rune shard is the one that will be require frequent adjustment. You want to take either or depending on who the enemy mid laner is. Since you are going to be mid a lot it is expected that the enemy mid laner will try to harass you while you are trying to farm, so take whatever resistance will counter them to give yourself an easier time.

Blade of the Ruined King

Trinity Force

Blade of the Ruined King and Trinity Force are going to be the two major items we are building every game on Jax. Blade of the Ruined King is so broken right now that we just wanna rush it as fast as possible. It gives a lot of stats that are very useful on Jax such as AD, attack speed, life steal, and on-hit damage. Once you have this item you can basically run down anyone provided they don't have a lead on you. Trinity Force is purchased next because it synergizes very well with Jax's kit. It gives him more AD and attack speed, as well as some cdr, mana and health but what its really good for is the passive from Sheen. The spellblade passive gives Jax a ton more damage on his attacks as he able to activate it very frequently due to the low cooldown on Empower. Trinity Force gives Jax al the tools he needs to carry out his function in a game which is to duel and splitpush.

Armor

Magic Resistance

Health

DEATH'S DANCE The reworked Death's Dance is one of the best items in the game in my opinion. It gives you a bit of everything: damage, armor, mr, cooldown reduction and healing. When going against of balanced physical and magic this is a good item to go. Since its rework I would almost say this item is core, I build it in most of my games but if you find the enemy team are kiting you well there are better options for you.

RANDUIN'S OMEN Randuin's Omen is pretty much the best armor item in the game. I always recommend buying this when the enemy team has at least two champions who build critical strike chance. Most teams will always have at least one in the form of their ADC, and if they have a Yasuo mid or Tryndamere top you need this item. I sometimes just get this if the enemy team just has Caitlyn or Jhin because their crits are huge late game.

THORNMAIL Thornmail is a great buy when you need the grievous wounds to reduce the healing on the enemy team. If they have champions like Vladimir, Aatrox, Soraka or Yuumi you cant go wrong with this buy. When super ahead I suppose you can go Mortal Reminder but in most games Thornmail will be your best bet as you want the survivability it provides.

FROZEN HEART I do not recommend buying Frozen Heart for the majority of your games, it is only useful in very specific ci***stances. The best stat Frozen Heart provides is its high armor and what does armor do? Armor directly counters lethality. I have only built this item once ever and that was when I was against a Zed mid and a Varus ADC building lethality.

GUARDIAN ANGEL Personally I do not build Guardian Angel that much but I do recognize the value the item provides. I think that Guardian Angel can be a good buy if you find you are getting focused a lot and you can trust your team to cover for you while you revive.

SPIRIT VISAGE Get Spirit Visage when against teams with at least 3 magic damage based champions. This combined with your Mercury's Treads and Death's Dance will make you near unkillable on magic resistance alone, and then your gonna have the insane bonus healing that this item provides as well.

ADAPTIVE HELM Adaptive Helm is only good into teams with mages and in particular mages with short cooldowns or with spells that deal damage over time. I'm talking about champions like Cassiopeia, Anivia and Malzahar etc. I dont find myself building this item that often but like Frozen Heart it is there for those very niche scenarios.

MERCURIAL SCIMITAR Mercurial Scimitar is a must buy against champions with hard cc that they can just point and click on you. You always want to buy the Quicksilver Sash component of this item first so you can use its active. I always recommend buying this item when against Malzahar or Mordekaiser for example.

MAW OF MALMORTIUS Maw of Malmortius is a good item to buy when vs AP assassins like LeBlanc and Ahri. Its passive is similar to that of Sterak's Gage which gives you a shield upon losing health quickly, the only difference is Maw of Malmortius gives you a magic damage shield rather than a normal shield. Maw of Malmortius also gives you a huge boost in lifesteal and spell vamp when its lifeline passive triggers, helping keep you alive.

STERAK'S GAGE Similar to Death's Dance I would almost say Sterak's Gage is core on Jax as well. This item is just made for funneling because when team fighting if the enemy team has any brains at all they are going to try and focus you. This means you will face a huge burst of incoming damage from them as they all unload their abilities on you. This means that you will most likely always proc the passive shield from Sterak's Gage and this will keep you alive for longer as well as giving you more tenacity so you can move better.

-OR-

Ninja Tabi > ARMOR I only pick up Ninja Tabi's when against an AD top and they have at least one other AD champion on their team (this will usually be the case in the form of their ADC). Ninja Tabi have this really good passive which reduces the damage from auto-attacks by 10%, and for a lot of AD top laners a good portion of their damage comes from auto-attacks making this one of the best defensive items to pick up. Consider where the enemy teams damage comes from, is it abilities or auto attacks? If auto attacks then I suggest you pick these up. Mercury's Treads > MAGIC RESIST + TENACITY I go Mercury's Treads when they have at least 3 magic damage users on their team. It can also be very useful to pick these up when you need the tenacity provided by its passive for when you're going against a heavy CC team. If you are against a team where you know you will have to build Ninja Tabi in champ select but they also have a heavy CC team, you can opt for the Legend: Tenacity rune to get around this problem.