He beats the **** out of people with a lamp. How can you not want to play a guy like that?
Jax is a fun champion, who can be a really pain in the ***. This guide is not that traditional and it does not have as much AP as many other guides for Jax, but I've tried it and it has given me some nice results. Please read & try the guide, before you comment or vote. It is quite annoying to get downvotes from people, who obviously haven't read the guide or tried it. I hope you will enjoy it :)

It is seldom the case where a champion is defined by his actions after joining the League of Legends rather than before. Such is the case for Jax, for whom the argument could be made that he is the most prolific tournament fighter currently at the Institute of War. The self-proclaimed ''Armsmaster of the League'' has rattled off a streak of consecutive wins that to this day has not been matched. Concerned that the perceived objectivity of the battle arenas would be questioned by a fighter who was unbeatable, the League at one time created special sanctions for Jax. The burly fighter responded by imposing his own special condition as a means of protest ? he limited himself to fight using only a brass lamppost. Neither the League's sanctions nor his own put a significant dent in his winning ways. The League has since rescinded its sanctions, but Jax has not. To this day, he fights and fights well with his trusty brass lamppost.

''Be advised - there have been an outbreak of lamppost-shaped bruises in the League of Legends.''

Pros:
- Great damage early game.
- He can get quite tanky, even though he buys damage items, due to his passive.
- If he gets fed early game, he can be unstoppable in mid-late game.
- Can be build quite versatile imo, though he has some core items.
- Has some nice escape mechanisms (doge, stun, jump to a allied minion)
- A decent farmer, due to his high AS and his E-ability.

Cons:
- He lacks AoE damage and only has CC, if he dodges.
- He can be a bit useless in teamfights, if his isn't fed and the team isn't doing that well, compared to other melee champions like Xin Zhao & Mr. Yi.
- He is somewhat item dependant -> He needs Guinsoo's Rageblade fast, and also some survivability.

I prefer defensive masteries on Jax, since he just benefits too much from them to pass up on them. The extra dodge chance scales well with Jax's E-ability. More HP is also nice and the extra AS/AP also works fine in cooperation with Guinsoo's and your ultimate's passive.
I go with 9 in offensive, in order to get that 15% magic penetration, which benefit your spells, since they do magic damage. The extra AP & CD is also a nice little boost. + You can also boost your summoner spell exhaust.
Sadly ghost can't be boosted, but I don't think that it's worth more than 4% reduced damage, nor 15% magic penetration.

I go with magic penetration marks, since his spells do magic damage. Quite standard..

I go with dodge seals, since it is Jax, the dodgeking. Scales well with your E-ability, and your mastery nimbleness.

For glyphs I use 5 AP runes and 4 magic resistance runes. This gives more damage and more defensive stats in early game.

For quintessences I go with dodge, for the same reasons as with seals.

- This passive is one of the best in the game in my opinion. It makes you able to get quite some survivability, and still be able to dish out alot of damage. This passive will grant you 1000-2000 HP extra, simply from your damage sources from your items. (AP+AD). It also makes Jax really viable as hybrid, which is sweet when you are fed, since the enemy tanks needs both magic resistance and armor to stop you from wrecking them apart.


- This is your main harrasing skill, and the one to max first. It does reallly good damage early game, as well as lategame (if you aren't underfed). It is great for chasing, as well as escaping. (You can use it to jump to allied minions, in order to escape a gank). Use it to engange a fight, to flee and to harras.


- Empower is synergizing really well with your jump. Q-W-E is simply your combo. I recommend that you always charge your jump up with empower for more damage (unless you only need that last hit to get a kill). It is great for taking down buffs faster and it scales all right with both AD and AP. Remember that it deals magic damage, so if the enemy tank scales magic resistance, you should maybe go with more damage on your normal attacks or go with magic penetration.


- This is basically what makes Jax a dodgeking. When maxed, it provides +18% dodgechance, which will bring you to about 30-40% dodge with runes and masteries. That will make you sick in 1v1 against AD champions, especially melee, who has to be near you to damage you. Then active is great for escaping, aswell as getting kills. It is also great for farming in mid-late game, where it deals enough damage to clear minions. In teamfights you can sometimes stun several enemies if they are clustered. That will give your team an advantage, though only for a second.


- The passive is plain sweet beans, since it scales awesomely well with Guinsoo's, Black Cleaver & Frozen Mallet. The more you beat up a person, the more damage you do. This makes you awesome 1v1 and also in teamfights, but it will make you focused, since you need to be taken down, before you have full stacks on Guinsoo's and your ultimate.
The active will help you when targeted by spells like Crowstorm & Absolute Zero, or when going 1v1 against a caster.

- After the increased price on Doran's items I prefer getting items, that you can build into items in your core build. I go with this armor item for early game survival and to get Ninja Tabi really fast, so you can dodge like a baoss. Start with this 3x HP pots and 1x mana pot and head to your lane.


The only boot choice for Jax, if you ask me. The dodgechance is too good for Jax, to miss it. The extra armor is also a nice little thing to have. If you really really want other boots go for CD-reduction boots or CC-reduction boots. I just don't recommend other boots than this.


(+80 HP from passive)
- Your next item focuses on more damage. Getting this will increase your damage output, and it is being build into Guinsoo's Rageblade, so it is a must have.


(+195 HP + HP from Rageblade's passive)
- This is Jax's core item imo. It synergizes so well with the passive from his ulti. The more you hit, the more AP and AS you get. That means you also get more HP, from the extra AP. Not much, but a little. Just an overall great ****ing item for Jax. Don't pass up on it.


- More AS works well with Guinsoo's and your ulti. I like to get this dagger, before Phage, but you can also get Phage first. Both ways work. This is being build into Black Cleaver, so you are gonna get it no matter what, if you want the cleaver.


(+ 54 HP from passive)
- The passive on this badboy works so well with your high AS. A good item for Jax. You can build this into Frozen Mallet for more survivability, but also into Trinity Force for more damage. Both items works well on Jax, so it depends on the game, which one you should choose.


(+155 HP from passive)
- This may seem a bit surprising, but this item works so well with Jax's abilities. It will be a matter of seconds, before the enemy is down 45 armor. You will wreck enemies apart, because it scales so well with your ulti's passive, Phage's slow and Guinsoo's passive. Remember that this item also provides 165 HP from your passive.


(+90 HP from passive)
- The passive on this will make you really hard to flee from. You will have so much HP if you get this item, which is awesome for HP-tanking. If enemies have Madred's Bloodrazor, you luckily have tons of dodge chance against the high AS, which Madred's provide. However, you might want to grab some magic resistance if they have more than one champion with Madred's Bloodrazor. This also gives a nice amount of damage, which provides even more HP. You can also go with Rylai's Scepter instead of this. I think they work equally good on Jax. Frozen Mallet's passive just work with every hit, which synergizes well with his ulti's passive and Guinsoo's passive. Go with the one you like best from Rylai's Crystal Scepter & Frozen Mallet. I tend to change between them, depending on mood and whether the enemy team stacks magic resistance or not.


(+330 HP from passive)
- A sick item for Jax. It provides a lot of damage and a lot of AP, which scales really well with your spells and it provides you quite some HP. Remember to use it's active to get more burst on your opponent. This will also make you able to stay in the field for a longer period of time, due to the lifesteal and spellvamp.

With these 5 items you will have additional 1470 HP, without your 6th item, which means you can be a bit tanky, while still tossing out tons of damage. With Rabadon's as last item, you will have about 2000 extra HP. That means you can almost be a HP/dodge tank, but you shoul, however, not be initiating.

This leaves a spot open for one of the optional items. Since Jax is versatile, you can't follow the item sequence 100%. You might need survivability against a fed caster or AD carry, then you should go for either magic resistance or armor. Try to find the balance between getting damage or survivability during the match, because I can't tell you when to get what, if I don't watch the game. I can only try to guide you. I recommend going with an AP item for the last item slot, if you need damage, since Jax scales best with AP.
Remember to buy wards as well. Especially if the enemy team has a jungler, who ganks often. Warding Baron and Dragon is also a good idea.
Getting elixirs is also a nice way to boost yourself. All elixirs scales well with Jax in my opinion.

- Jax needs CD-reduction, especially if he can't have the blue buff. He also need survivability. Getting this item will provide you both those things. It can be build into Frozen Heart, if you get that far in the game. If you need armor, you might want to grab this before you finish Frozen Mallet. You can also get CD-reduction from other items like Randuin's Omen or Morello's Evil Tome.


(+ 140 HP from passive)
- If you need magic resistance and you still want damage, Abyssal Scepter is a nice choice. It also helps your casters, so they can get items with more AP or Void Staff.


- Gives you tons of magic resistance, when fascing a heavy caster team. It also provied movement speed, which is a nice stat on Jax. The HP reg helps you stay in lane longer. You can replace this with Frozen Mallet, if you feel the need for a lot of magic resistance.


(+150 HP from passive)
- If you skip Frozen Mallet, you might want to grab this. It's passives is great for Jax, especially when going with a lot of AD. It gives tons of stats that benefits Jax, like MS, HP, AS, AP, AD etc.


(+330 HP from passive)
- You already have one, but you can get another one, since it scales insanely well with your spells. It will also grant you more than 300 HP, due to your passive. Two of these equals 660 extra HP. If you get into really late game, and you have no more room for items, you can swap this with Guinsoo's for more damage and HP.

Deathfire's Grasp
(+120 HP from passive)
- It will give you CD-reduction and quite some ability power. And it will give you sick burst damage, when you jump an enemy. It will make you almost invincible in 1v1 fights, since you have a huge advantage from the burst. Along with the Black Cleaver, you will be able to tear even tanks apart. Get this if you lack damage, but not survivability.


- This item has been nerfed. again. But it's active and passive is still useful for Jax and it scales well with his high dodge chance. It provides quite some armor and some HP, which makes you harder to kill.


(+ 475 HP from passive and Rabadon's passive with full build)
- This badboy will give you a sick damage output, and roughly 300-400 HP (with it's passive as well) and 475 with your other items included (Guinsoo's + Gunblade). Get it, if you want more damage, but not that much survivability from armor and magic resistance. I love getting this item as the last, since it gives you so much HP as well as tons of damage.


(+ 200 HP from passive)
If you need armor, but also damage. This provided nice survivability and awesome damage. Lovely item, with a lifesaving active (sometimes).


(+ 320 HP when fully stacked)
- If you absolutely dominate from the beginning and you feel your opponents are bad, Mejai's can give you great damage as well as CD-reduction when fully stacked. When you stack up this item you will get more and more HP as well. + It's cheap for it's use, when you are getting fed.


(+ 160 HP from passive)
- This is an awesome item for Jax. The 3 second cooldown on it's passive fits well with Jax's abilities. It gives tons of AP and the passive is great for pushing towers. It also provides MS and MR, which is both good stats on Jax. I love this item in matches, where teamfights are equal, and pushing towers changes the outcome of the match.


(+ 140 HP from passive)
- If the enemies stack magic resistance, then this item will help you shred through their defense. Remember that your abilites do magic damage, which means you want magic penetration, in order to make your abilities do more damage.

If you have other suggestions feel free to tell me, I'm open to new ideas.

As Jax, you normally go for a sidelane, which means you will have a laning partner. I recommend that you go with someone, who has some hard CC or a slowing ability, since your only CC relies on you to dodge.
This is champions as Sion, Xin Zhao, Nunu & Willump etc. (though Nunu is best as jungler)
I can also recommend laning with someone, who is also a bit tanky, but can deal some damage.
Like Malphite, Maokai, Mordekaiser & Dr. Mundo.

---

So what do you do in your lane, as Jax?
- Well, basically your job is to harras your enemy, in order to scare them, so they are denied a bit. Your main damage output will be the combo Empower + Leap Strike. If you don't face any AD hero, you might want to skip your E-ability in lvl 3 and go for more damage from your Q or W abilities. Use the combo on the squishiest enemy and try to go for early kills, since Jax relies on that a bit, to become really strong in lategame. Getting red buff really helps you, since it gives you some CC from it's slow. If not it can be hard to chase an enemy, when exhaust is on CD.

How do I kill my opponents in the lane?
- First you use Empower to improve the damage from your jump, then you jump the enemy, and hit them 1-2 times, before you exhaust them. Make sure your lanemate is ready for this, so pinging your target is a good idea. Hopefully this combo along with your lanemates damage is enough for a kill. It might require 2 jumps to finish off the enemy, but basically this is how you do. If you face an AD melee champion, remember to use your E-ability as often as possible, in order to get an advantage. This will really help you against champions as Xin & Yi.

In late game, you should put up wards, so you and your team can gank the enemies. Jax is great at ganking, since he is awesome 1v1, so going 1v1 in the forest can be a good way to start a push, since your team will be 5v4 for about a 1-1 minute. Just make sure, that the enemy team can get to gank you as well. Farm as much as you can, until you reach full build (if that is possible)
In teamfights your job is to take down the squishees, with you sick combo W-Q. Stun as often as possible, in order to create some chaos amongst the enemy team. If you have Lich Bane, try to go push a bit when possible, but do take care. In teamfights you must never initiate, unless your team is totally wrecking and you almost can't die. Let a tank initiate and then try to isolate the squishy carries and take them down. You can also jump around on several enemies and stun them, to make their teamwork harder to cooperate. Jax can be a anti AD-carry, due to his dodge and his stun. AD champions will lose, if they target him. If Jax is left unnoticed, he can easily get a triple kill or more (kinda like Poppy).

I hope you enjoyed the build and that it will help you.
I don't have that much more to say..

My first pentakill was with Jax.. WEEEEE xD
Go do the same!

Please leave constructive feedback, also after the 20 first votes.