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Bob's Xin Zhao

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Jax, Hybrid Fighter

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Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (7) More Guides

Spells:

Exhaust

Flash

Ability Order

Jax Passive Ability

More Jax Counters

Introduction

While Jax may seem to be easy to play, he isn't at all, in fact it's quite hard. But it is a lot of fun and viable to play him.

I will not go through what the abilities do. It can easily be learned by reading the ability tooltips and simply using the spell.

Mouse-over any items or abilities to see their tooltip.

Legend

(for any abbreviations you don't understand)
Thanks to Searz for the awesome guide format! You can find it here.

What and why

This is a hybrid build because Jax scales very well with both AD and AP, dealing more damage and increasing his health at the same time. This makes and excellent choices for Jax.

While Jax's survivability is quite high against DPS champions, its kinda lacking against casters. We will try to fix that with defensive items though.

Please feel free to change around and figure things out which work for you. My build may not be optimal (it probably isn't) so go out there and play some Jax and adapt it until it fits your playstyle.

Masteries

21/9/0 or 9/21/0

Masteries are very flexible. Either you improve your early game tankyness or your damage output. Both ways are viable although I prefer the offensive way because it makes your laning a lot stronger. But you can decide to go more defensive as well, no problem at all. Just make sure to get Nimbleness because you will profit a lot from it

Runes

Greater Mark of Alacrity
Gives some nice extra Attack Speed. It synegizes well with your ultimate and it is recommended to get them because this build doesn't have a lot of AS, although Greater Mark of Desolation and are fine as well.

Greater Seal of Evasion
Makes Jax a lot stronger against physical damage dealers. It synergizes really well, you just have to use these.

Greater Glyph of Shielding
Makes Jax stronger against casters. However, since you won't need the MR that much early game, I prefer per Level. If you prefer flat runes, get Greater Glyph of Warding.

Greater Quintessence of Swiftness
Gives some really nice MS. They make you able to run away, chase, farm ... a lot easier. If you feel too squishy early game, get Greater Quintessence of Fortitude.

Summoner Spells

Flash
Has so many uses and works well in combination with .

Exhaust
Slows your opponents down either securing a kill or an escape.

Ignite
Useful to kill people early-mid game and to counter healing effects.

Cleanse
Allows you to remove CC, makes escaping and teamfights a lot easier.

Skilling sequence

Q > W > Q > E > Q > R > Q > W > Q > W > R > W > W > E > E > R > E > E

should be maxed first because it is Jax's best skill. It's just too great for escaping and chasing. Rankups give you more damage and a shorter CD.

I max second because it's really strong, it does reset your autoattack-timer. Treat as a one point wonder ability, it really is.

Standard items

Hextech Gunblade
Must-have for Jax. Has anything you could possibly need. Increases your survivability by a lot

Ninja Tabi
Counters DPS champions. Synergizes really well with and Nimbleness.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter
Gives a lot of HP (660 HP), 80 AP and a slow on your abilities. Increases your burst damage and sustained by quite a lot.

Guinsoo's Rageblade
Extremely costeffective. Increases AD and AP. Attacks and spell casts increase your AS and AP even further. Take it if you you want to increase your damage output.

Banshee's Veil
Counters casters and blocks CC/initiation spells. You should be right in the middle of the action. Take it if you have problems with casters or CC.

Atma's Impaler
Provides some nice defense against physical damage and even more damage based on your HP. Take it if you face some physical damage.

Item sequence

1:
2:
3:

4:
5:
6:

7:
8:

After the sequence is entirely situational. Just make sure to get what you need. If you have still trouble with magical damage, get more MR items. If you have trouble with physical damage, get more armor items. In general, don't use this order as a given. It is not. You have to get what you need and when you need it, not what and when I told you to get it.

Optional items

Hexdrinker
Counters casters really well. The magic damage shield really helps Jax to stay alive in team fights. As Jax the longer the fight goes the better.

Guardian Angel
Increases your survivability by a lot. The passive is quite good on Jax because he's a great cleanup champion.

Randuin's Omen
Provides an amazing defense against physical damage. The best part is the active ability. Take it if you face a lot of physical damage.

Malady
Gives a lot of AS, some AP and and a passive that reduces the enemy's magic resist on hit. This is actually really good on Jax although it's situational.

The Black Cleaver
Gives 45 armor reduction with 3 stacks. Take it if you feel confident enough to and want to improve your raw damage output.

Wit's End
Increases MR, AS and your attacks will deal 42 bonus magic damage as well and increase your MR. Take it if you face a lot of magic damage and you want to increase your damage output.

Hextech Gunblade
It works. Trust me, it is totally viable to get multiple ones. Best item for Jax. Take it if you feel confident enough to and want to offensively improve your staying power.

Mercury's Treads
While you don't want to get these every game, take them if you're forced to. The CC reduction is a must against CC heavy teams since Jax is weak to CC.

Trinity Force
The damage and utility of this item is superb. Take it if you feel confident enough to and want to improve your offensive capabilities.

Tips

Last-hitting with Jax is pretty easy. resets your auto-attack-timer and you will get quite some AD, so farming should be easy.

Grab the lizard buff if possible unless there's someone who needs it even more than you do. Lizard buff is quite strong on Jax because it helps him to stay in melee range. Your opponents won't be able to get away from you that easily anymore.

Push whenever the time is right but don't overdo it. You don't want to fight their team at their turret if you're at a disadvantage. Just don't force yourself into bad spots.

Laning phase

Jax is a strong laning champion with his ability to quickly leap forward to harrass with , and . If you play well, you should be able to get kills. However it's much more important to farm gold early. Don't overextend. Play it safe and watch the map.

Just sit back and lasthit if possible. Don't overextend, you're tough but not immortal. Try to stay behind your minions and keep an eye on the map. Continue to lasthit minions but do use opportunities to kill or harass your opponent. Use the brush to your advantage, hide in it etc.

Once you've got Relentless Assault, you will be a lot stronger than before. You can farm and fight a lot better. Keep your cool and play it safe.

Teamfights

Do not initiate teamfights. Never. You're just too squishy and you will melt in like 3 seconds, go on in after the fight was initiated. Play it safe, Jax gets easily kited around.

Look for their carry and/or caster. Go in with , followed by if it's up, followed by autoattack, followed by to hit again right afterwards, followed by another autoattack for Relentless Assault proc. Repeat.

Closing statements

You're a hybrid DPS champion. Your teamfight capabilities are great. It's not easy to kill you. If people underestimate you, make them pay for it. You can take quite a beating and still do lots of damage.

Well thanks for reading my guide. I hope it has helped you become a better Jax.