Note: Moba doesn't actively add Jax's passive to his health on the display in game he will have 4k+ with his full build (they also have the mana wrong on his empower skill... gona try and get em to fix that)

So you look through the champions in LoL and you come across this, a strange three fingered character in a near purple get up and you have to thing, "Who is this lamppost wielding badass?". Well i'm here making this guide to tell you not only that but how to play himas well as i can! Jax is an amazing champ, obviously one of my favorites, and i think if you can get a feel of how he works he will be one of yours as well.

Please leave comments to any additions or alterations you thing should be instanced I'll make sure to do what i can thanks :D

If you disagree with an item choice or mastery choice i have all my explanations in the guide following but I'm open to hear your opinions.

Pros
1. one of the best 1v1 in the game if not the best
2. Insane amounts of damage
3. kick *** using a lamppost
4. Fun to play

Cons
1. like many champs, vulnerable to CC (crowd control... stuns snares disables)
2. Will often be focused
3. Slight weakness to magic especially when ulti is down

At the moment the ONLY item with dodge in the game is sadly, Ninja tabi i DO how ever hear there are plans to issue more into the game in the near future *crosses fingers*

HOW DODGE WORKS because people are often confused
Dodge does NOT add flat onto its self. to calculate dodge lets say you have Three ninja tabi (this is with out runes and masteries Which is a silly idea by the way) Your first tabi gives you as it says 12% dodge BUT the SECOND ninja tabi gives you 12% to dodge of the remaining 88% that you do NOT dodge (100%-12% from the first), an additional 10.56% totaling 22.56% with two boots, the third gives you 12% to dodge the remaining 76%, 9.12% more effective dodge summing to 31.68% dodge chance.

This is adding multiplicity and because of the rules of its communitive properties order done is not relevent OR IN ENGLISH When you find your ACTUALY dodge amount it wont matter if you put in your item with 50% in first or your item with 3%$ dodge in first it will come out to the same number.

Side note Dodge Seals and Dodge Quint's are calculated individually into the equation.

Hope this cleared some stuff up!

OKAY first things first the obvious and most important thing to do is DO NOT DIE. To be effective jax needs to have a decent early game, and explodes mid and late. Try not dto do anything wreckless early and you will be rewarded.

At level one, Leap strike is hands down your best ability for two reasons.
1. Its your hardest hitting move
2. It your escape AND chase function
Lets say your not paying attention and stray down the bottom lane and face check a bush... OH NO ITS A TRAP! But do not fret, behind you close to the tower are minions and your fellow lane partner (wondering WTFBBQSAUCE get back!) So what do you do? SIMPLE! Leap back into safty and live for another engagement of battle!

Next thing you will want to do as you level is be able to get all of your abilities because they are so unique they all add so much to Jax you have to get them A.S.A.P.

Level two is Empower!
at this point players are being cautious trying to see who has the upper hand in the lane, as well as farming minions to get and edge in the game as soon as they can. Empower is a lovely ability to last hit minions with too much health to auto attack, though you will not want to too often for Jax has a slight mana problem early game, always be cautions because you are vulnerable with low mana (who woulda thought)

Three? DODGE MOAR! i mean Counter Strike!
The first level of counter strike gives you a whopping 10% free dodge! AND another button you can press! Counter strike is a wicked ability because its
1. good for mid or late farm (early is to much mana issues and to little hp)
2. A counter if you get jumped by a melee champion trying to gank you, gives you time to react, jump, and run away, or beat his face in depends on the situation.

After this your skill priority is quite simple

Your ulti should be leveled up EVERY TIME it is possible it is way to amazing

Then your Empower, its low mana cost and low cool down make for a killer skill

If neither of those is an option, Leap strike is next, it offers a shorter cool down and more damage, but not better than empower in most situations.

Lastly is Counterstike "WAIT WHAT? didn't you just say it was awesome?" Coutner strike IS awesome but after the first level you only gain 2% (which is quite diminished through the fomrula because of its small amount.. see my prior chapter) extra dodge and a little base damage in addition, making it the least useful.

Harassing, SAFTLY.
Melee and harassing aren't often put in a sentence together but under certain contidions Jax can accel.
1.You have mana
2. DODGE!
You can harass with your nuke anytime with your basic combo of Empower, W, (putting it on que) and initiating an attack with Leap Strike, Q, making your next hit trigger your Empower BUT this leaves you vulnerable as you run out of your enemies range. The answer? YOUR THIRD SKILL. The one side effect of having a champ with rng is you can't predect when it happens but, while laning your bound to get hit by minions, all of which do nothing but poke you with Auto attacks which means, you can dodge them... ALL of them. When this occurs you can make a decision (you have seven seconds total) to use your full combo as harassment and deal a large amount of damage to your enemy IF you see it safe to do so with minimal backlash if any.
1. Put your W on que for your next attack
2. Jump at your Target with Q
3. While in range of your target (You do NOT have to land yet they just need to be in range) hit your Counter strike, E and finnaly...
4. Run back to safty! hopefully not taking any enemy champion damage in the process.
CAUTION this doesn't always turn out right, even the best thought through things can go wrong... ESPECIALLY if the enemy champ has a quick fire stun in a moderately long range... so i wouldn't advise doing that in an enemy tower under most situational circumstances... just sayin.

Quits- Early game jax is pretty squishy unfortunatly, low dodge low hp and low defenses thought not the worst. that is why i just about ALWAYS use Health quints to make sure i don't go squish if i'm the target of an early game gank which is quite common. He is often targeted because the other team want to keep him down, a slightly fed jax is game changing. Though Dodge quints are nice there are quite expensive and are not guaranteed to be effective, thanks to RNG (random number generation) i would rather flat health but do as you please.

Mark- Hands down the only viable option is Magic pen. At end game i realize that he has 2.5 attack speed and hits for quite a bit of physical damage but this is NOTHING compared to the amount of AP Burst from his abilities in addition to his ulti's passive. Not to mention it helps way more with early-mid game burst anyways than armor pen would by a long shot regardless how you build Jax, . ( All his abilities do magic damage)

Seals- Just like Glyphs is an obvious choice for me, Dodge seals all the way. They give you the most for your IP, more effective for their cost than Quints and dodge sure as hell doesn't hurt.

Glyph- My personal favorite type of glyph i run with on must every champ is CDR, cool down reduction. The maximum CDR you can get is 40% because there is a hard cap and if you think about it, when reach you do 40% MORE abilities. Why would you not want to reach for such an amazing edge on other champions? With jax in particular more cdr means less dodges that are put to waste because your stun is still on CD, more leaps so you can get that last hit on the sivir who just ulti'd and is running away at 200 miles an hour, or that last hit with empower on baron so the other team can't steal it from you. CDR is simply over powered and i love it that way.

My choice in masteries is simple, 21/9/0. I go deep into Offe4nse because the 21 point talent increases your magic AND physical attacks by 5% so you don't loose any benefit from it. as well as picking up a little attack speed and damage that will help early game (not to mention 15% free spell pen). Also i sub spec in defense mainly for the extra 2% dodge (its little buy why not?) AND the extra run speed on dodges. In a practical scenario, your chasing down an enemy whos just a little faster than you and right out of leap range, a minion or enemy champ hits you with an auto attack and you dodge! Now, not only can you catch up with the running champ but you can leap AND stun them. This happens more often than you would think and i personally wouldn't run a game with out it.

Just a heads up, over all this build has JUST a LITTLE over 2.5 attack speed so near none is a wasted stat, and gives 40% CDR with blue buff or Blue Potion. I like to maximize around the caps for optimal performance.

Doran's Sheild- This item is to most people optional and its debatable but in 5's in particular i feel its highly beneficial to counter Jax's early game squishyness.

Ninja Tabi- at the moment the ONLY dodge item in the game, i wouldn't see why you wouldn't get it because its near necessary.

Guinsoo's Rageblade- This is one of the most amazing items in the game, especaily for Jax. Not only does this item sync amazing with your ulti, stacking with each other to get to max attack speed as soon as you can, but fully charged gives you 35 AD 32% ATTK Speed and a whopping 93 ability power (which works with your passive as it stacks up). All these stacks for such little gold is just too good to pass up.

Rabadon's Deathcap- This is an uncommon item choice but i do not see wh. This item gives a mass amount of AP as well as 30% EXTRA AP from what you have. Besides the giant damage boost, this also works with increasing the health gained from your AP part of your passive, by 30%. Free hp? i'd say yes please.

Hextech Gunblade- Another splendid hybrid item, This gives you a lovely chunk of AP and AD but more importantly 20% Lifesteal and 20% Spellvamp. Being that Jax is already quite tough, this item helps Jax take on those tougher enemies and get those double, triple, quadra, and penta kills while walking out with barely a scratch.

Nashor's Tooth- This item is one of my favorites and i think is a little underused in most games. When finished this thing gives a whopping 25% CDR. When i build a champ i generally love getting close to the CDR cap but this items stats are just perfect for Jax. Attack speed CRD Ability power and just a little Mana regen that helps out quite a bit.

Trinity Force- Your first impression is likely "WTF why not lichbane your pretty ap heavy!" and my response is a little extra damage isnt worth the extra stats TrinF gives Jax. The proc off trinity force is about 100 damage less than if you build Lichbane BUT with out trinity force you miss out the rage of stats that Trinity force brings, including a small sorce of crit which is enough to work with when you already have 2.5 attack speed thanks to Zeal, and a little extra hp, a slow, AP and AD, as well as increased movement speed, all which benifit Jax more than a little ap.

Personaly i use Ghost and Exhaust

Ghost- great for escaping and catching up for a nice jump/empower

Exhaust- Jax can be bursted down like any non tank champ, might as well have something to stop while you hit them harder than they can imagine.

Flash- a nice spell in general but it maybe removed from the game and i generally prefer ghost anyways.

Teleport- Its nice with saving tower but Jax will be more concerned with pushing if anything with this. It can be a game saver in 5's but in most cases ghost works just as well.

Rally- ... if only they made this better it would be spectacular especially if spec'd into