So. I have always loved Jax, and he was one of the first champions I bought. This was a long time ago, before the patch that changed him. Back then the idea was to get as much dodge and attack speed as you could, and hope that the other team was made of auto attackers so you could stun every two seconds. He is a different character now. The way I like to play him is as a hybrid, although mostly AP champion. All of his moves stack with Ability Power, so it only makes sense to build it on him. However, he is an auto-attacker as well, so some AD is definitely necessary, and I think that's why pure AP builds don't work very well.

GUYZ GUESS WHAT I EDITED THIS ****
Recently I went through my build, updating and editing where I've changed things in my actual gameplay. Thank you for all of your feedback!

THIS **** ISN'T EXPIRED
I still use the build and it still works so ignore the expired **** up at the top. Don't know what that's about.

These are the summoner spells I find myself most often using, although I almost always use flash and Exhaust.

Flash: Perfect for escaping through walls, flashing to get off that extra leap, just an all around good summoner spell.

Exhaust: This makes it impossible for another melee character to 1v1 you, and makes it a lot easier to catch up to people when they start to run away.

- Never initiate. You will die if you initiate a team fight. You are an assassin, to fly out of bushes and the mists to 2 hit their casters, not someone to take the brunt of the damage. The only time you should every initiate is perhaps for a gank, or if it's 1v1 and you know where the other 4 team members are.

- Don't think you're invincible. I have this problem. All too often I do crazy things like running at fights my head knows I can't win, or chasing people way to far. Try to be cautious. Don't do stupid things. Yes you have a stun but you can't stun constantly, and if they slow you chances are their team will jump on you and you will die.

- Play Smart. Don't be stupid. Don't start fights you can't win. This advice should hold through with any other champion as well.

find myself deviating from this build based on necessity. Here are some items I often find myself buying.

Malady: The new malady is actually pretty good for jax. 25 AP and 50% Attack speed are nice, but it's passive is great. It shreds enemy magic resistance, so if you find that your enemies are building some magic resist, this is a good buy. Another item to consider if they're building magic resist is a Void Staff, good AP and it makes 40% of their magic resist go away.

Hexdrinker: If enemy casters are wrecking you, Hexdrinker is a nice cheap option. At 1800 gold it gives 35 attack damage and 30 magic resist, as well as a shield that has saved my life on numerous occasions. Other good magic resist items for Jax are Banshee's Veil, Wit's End, and Quicksilver Sash. The Sash is an often overlooked item, but i love it. It gives you essentially a third summoner spell, a Cleanse, which is incredibly useful in getting rid of stuns and slows that can result in your death, while also giving you 48 mr.

Sword of the Divine: This is a nice cheap item that can be extremely helpful, but is also situational. The only time i find myself buying a sword of the divine is if the enemy team has a ton of exhausts, or champions that can blind, such as teemo.I ****ing hate teemo. The active ability to hit without fail is a lifesaver, it can allow you to kill that teemo even if he blinds and exhausts you. Otherwise, you don't really need it.


Trinity Force: Great item. Terribly expensive, but great. It gives everything, health, mana, crit, move speed, AD, AP, just everything. It has a chance to slow on hit and a damage boost after using a spell. Buuuuut I like lichbane better because it gives a huge damage boost that you need for late game. But this item is still pretty sweet.

Nashor's Tooth: Good AP item for auto-attackers.55% attack speed, 55AP, and mana per 5. The 25% CDR is awesome. I usually get this if I feel like I have time to get off a lot of auto-attacks.

Atma's Impaler: I always thought this item was kind of useless, but I've been experimenting with it lately. Once I have every item up to and including my Rylai's, I have over 3k health. So the damage boost from atma's along with the extra crit and armor is extremely useful, and if you find the other time building magic resist I would reccomend buying this item and maybe an abyssal scepter to counteract that.

Go offensive masteries. 21/9/0 is the way to go, i always have succes with it.

As for runes, i go 3 Greater Quintessence of Desolation cause i love armor penetration.
for marks i will go for Greater Mark of Alacrity, cause it is good to have some attack speed to basic attacks.
GLyph: Greater Glyph of Furor.
Seals: Greater Seal of Strength
Seals: Greater Seal of Evasion

Leap-Empower: This will be your main combo from lvl 2 onwards. It allows you to jump on someone and deal a ton of damage with just one move. It's very simple. Just activate empower and then use leap on your target, and bam you fly through the air to hit them with an empowered staff, and because empower resets your auto-attack timer, you get an extra auto-attack as well. Now I'm going to do something I hate doing. Math. I did some calculations to determine the exact damage a leap empower combo does with this finished build, considering that Hextech Gunblade gives 60AD and 70AP. So you in fact have 240AD and 280AP with your finished build. Onto calculations. Leap: 150+196(70% of AP)= 346 DMG
Empower: 215+ 112(40% of AP)+ 50 (40% bonus AD) = 377 dmg. Auto Attack: 240 dmg. Added all together, that's 963 damage, not figuring in the enemies armor. With that figured in, it's still probably going to be 700-800 damage, unless it's on a tank but you shouldn't be focusing them anyway. This is a combo you can repeat every 3.5 seconds, and in those seconds you're auto attacking and stunning like a champ. In 10 seconds you can do 2'400 damage with just leap empower, and easily another 2k or so from auto attacks, considering every third consecutive hit you do on a single target does 240+210+ 196(70% of AP)= 646. That's 646 damage from one auto attack.That's if they don't focus you. You will rarely get the chance to attack nonstop for 10 seconds. Chances are you'll get CC'd, or they'll start to attack you because they realize you're decimating their team. If you do find yourself getting focused (Odds are you will be), leap outa there and then run back in if they stop chasing you. But still. *******. When you attack 2 times a second, in 5 seconds you can just devastate a squishy. So that's the power of leap-empower. *NOTE* The math here is a little off now, because I changed my build. However, it only changed for the better, because my edit's increased my AP, so the combo actually does more damage now.


Early Game- Start out with your choice of a Dorans item. Head down your chosen lane. Try to get a lane with someone who can disable, or harass with you. Supports are always nice too. I personally love to lane with Fiddle, Sona, and Rammus and Soraka. Shen and Sion are fun too. Focus your attention on farming last hits, and once you hit lvl 2 just start doing leap-empower combos on the squishiest enemy, hopefully forcing them to go back. Don't get too aggressive, because they will kill you if you try to get them under the tower, unless they have like 100hp and you can just flash away. Once you hit level six, farm like a boss and really go for kills. The first time you go back you should have a kill or two, or at least enough gold to buy full boots and a blasting wand. If you only have enough for boots, pick up a ward or two. Put them in strategic places, by buffs, or if you want to get fancy, in places you could leap too as a get away, like in the bushes by the enemy tower.

Mid-Game- Lane as long as you want, but as soon as team action starts, go right to your team. Try and run around ganking, and in team fights always focus the squishy. Leap-empower in then run out, or keep beating on them if there team allows it. Focus on getting enough money for Guinsoo's and Hextech, and go for lizard and golem whenever they're up, especially the enemies. You can take down Golem, Lizard, and Dragon really fast after you have Guinsoo's. Backdoor if you can, you are a champ tower killer and taking down one or two towers can really help your team push.