Jhin Build Guide by Furbidden

Introduction

Heyo! My name is Furbidden.

Let me start by saying that Kindred is my all-time favorite champ, and that I main them as ADC. That's relevant because I fell head over heels for Jhin because he shares a similar element. He's beautiful and poetic much like Kindred. They're artistic and paint death as beautiful. Though for reasons unknown, this is my first guide. Shocking that I've not made a Kindred guide first. But I decided to get the jump on the new champ's design this time. So let's get started!

A Quick Note

This guide is under construction, and I will add more or update it as I discover new things worth adding.

Thanks for taking the time to check out my guide though!

Pros / Cons

Summary

At first glance, Jhin seems basic. But that's the remarkable thing. Most extravagant people in the world seem ordinary on the surface, but are in fact much more complicated. Jhin is complicated. His passive can be confusing, his Q is tricky to properly land, and why the fudge does he have traps like Caitlyn. What even is this champ?

I see that quite a few people think that Jhin doesn't benefit at all from attack speed. And that's where they'd be wrong! Attack speed makes this champion shine. The focus of this build is crit chance and attack speed, so let's see how and why below.

Unique Skills

Whisper - Jhin's pride and joy. The love of his life. His hand cannon which chambers only four bullets. On the fourth shot, it guarantees a critical strike and deals an additional percentage of the target's health in physical damage. It fires at a fixed attack speed, so items that give you attack speed are useless as far as actually gaining any attack speed.

Jhin's critical strikes deal 25% reduced damage but grant a percentage of movement speed based on attack speed, as well as a percentage of bonus attack damage based on attack speed and critical strike chance. This means that the more attack speed and critical strike chance you have, the more damage you deal and the more movement speed you gain with each shot fired. Dancing Grenade - This is Jhin's Q. A tricky, but potentially lethal ability. Not exactly a skillshot, but it might as well be one. Dancing Grenade is a target ability. When it hits its first target, it bounces to a second one, then to a third, and lastly to a fourth, so long as the targets are within range of course.

The tricky thing about this ability is that each time it kills a target, whether it be a minion, monster, or champion, it deals 35% more damage on the next target. This effect applies to each bounce. So, potentially, the fourth time it bounces, it could deal 140% more damage. The difficult part is setting up to make the fourth bounce hit the enemy champion. Though, if nothing else, it's a really good wave clearer. Deadly Flourish - The spotlight of Jhin's kit. Well, aside from Whisper, of course.

This incredibly long-range skillshot deals physical damage to everything in a straight line and stops at the first champion hit, dealing 65% of the damage to any minions along the way.

As a sort-of passive, enemies that are hit by Jhin's basic attacks, Lotus Traps, or allies within the last four seconds are marked. Marked enemies that are struck by Deadly Flourish are rooted for a short time, which especially useful when ensuring you deal the killing blow.

This is the core ability. As Jhin's auto isn't super long, using this to root enemies and saving the last two bullets will definitely ensure killing blows. Captive Audience - These are Jhin's traps. These can be thrown on the ground like Caitlyn's traps, except these Lotus Traps turn invisible like Teemo's mushrooms.

They stick around for two minutes and Jhin prepares a new one every so often. It also holds up to two traps at once, and you can place as many as you want.

When a Lotus Trap is stepped on, all nearby enemies are revealed for a short time, and leaves a small area that slows enemies inside it. After a moment, the area explodes dealing magic damage. Passively, when an enemy champion is killed, they will spawn a Lotus Trap which will detonate after a short moment.

These traps are especially useful to place in the river bush and tri-bush, as they act as extra wards that will reveal and slow enemy junglers that are attempting to gank. You can also use them for wave clear as the explosion deals a lot of damage in an area. Curtain Call - Jhin's grand finale! His ultimately most beautiful performance. Curtain Call is an insanely long-range skill shot that allows Jhin to fire four shots in a cone-shaped area in front of him. Each shot stops at the first champion hit and slows them by a great amount for less than a second, dealing physical damage with each shot. The damage is increased by 2% for each 1% of health missing, which means that the less health they have, the more damage you do.

As four is Jhin's favorite number, the fourth shot will always crit for a greater amount of physical damage. And if you cancel the ult early, Curtain Call's cooldown is refunded by a small amount for each unused shot.

This skillshot completes Jhin's kit in that it's the necessary second wind he needs to catch slippery enemies. Jhin can't be everywhere at once. And enemies are going to get away. Using this will secure kills from afar without worry of being focused. I would use this only to secure kills, but if you're late to a team fight, this also helps catch back up and turn the tables really quickly.

Items

Infinity Edge - A core item. A must have. Attack damage and crit chance, and increases crit damage.

Essence Reaver - The second core item. Same thing as Infinity Edge but also gives CDR based on crit chance. With this and Infinity Edge you'll reach Essence Reaver's CDR max.

Phantom Dancer - The third core item. This gives the most attack speed, which means more damage. It also adds to movement speed which will play an important role in this build.

Rapid Firecannon - Generally this is the next best item to get after Phantom Dancer. The crit chance and attack speed add to the deadliness of this build. It also gives more movement speed which helps with the kiting element of this build.

Statikk Shiv - I am aware that this gives more attack speed which gives more damage. But it gives less movement speed. Honestly, it's a small difference between damage and mobility, so it's up to you. I personally like the energized attack on the Statikk Shiv more, but in duels and team fights, Rapid Firecannon's energized attack will hurt more.

Death's Dance - An ideal buy. This peaks out your damage, gives life steal, and maxes your CDR. A good sixth item.

Blade of the Ruined King - Also a good sixth item choice. While it deals less damage than Death's Dance or Youmuu's Ghostblade, this is a good choice for the life gain, and the active. The active steals even more health, and even steals movement speed, making you an even more monstrous kiting machine.

Youmuu's Ghostblade - Attack damage, armor pen, CDR, and an active that gives attack speed and movement speed. This is just a really great sixth item. It only does a little less damage than Death's Dance, but it has armor pen which is good against tanky teams. This is a great final touch to the build if you just need that extra bit of armor pen without going overboard. Oh, and maxes CDR so that's a plus.

The Bloodthirster - Basically the same as Death's Dance. A great defensive/aggressive item. A good buy in place of Death's Dance if you don't care to lose the last 10% of CDR to get more life steal. Basically a more passive version.

Mercurial Scimitar - A good damage item with some MR, life steal, and escape. If they have a fair amount of AP and CC, this is a good item to grab. Also really helps if the other team is really good at landing skillshot snares and you're having a hard time avoiding all of them.

Lord Dominik's Regards - Basically a tank shredder. If they have a super tanky team with lots of armor, this will cut right through it.

Mortal Reminder - Not a recommended item to get, but if the other team has significant enough heals to turn the tables in team fights, this is a good buy. As a good example, if the enemy team has a Kindred, this will reduce the healing of anyone inside their ult, after it pops, whom you attack. And as someone who mains Kindred, their ult is a huge game changer, so if it's just them on the enemy team, I'd still probably take this item.

Maw of Malmortius - One of my fave MR items. This is a good middle road between Mercurial Scimitar and Banshee's Veil. Not to mention, it gives armor pen and attack damage as well, and the passives are really great too. The armor pen is especially nice because, chances are, AP champs are going to build Zhonya's Hourglass, and Maw of Malmortius will help tear through that.

Banshee's Veil - Sometimes, you just have to do things you don't want to. Build all damage and die in one shot from Annie fire? Or slap a Banshee's Veil on the build and give her the middle finger? If the other team's AP is getting out of hand, buy one of these. The passive shield is useful against those deadly one shot skills and Blitzcrank grabs, and the health bonus and health regen help ensure you don't keep dying.

Guardian Angel - I hate this item. I really do. I generally refuse to use it because I think it's cheap and lame. BUT, there's no denying its value in team fights. As an ADC, you are deadly, but also very squishy. Chances are, you're going to be focused. Usually, with an ADC's range and good team support, it'll be difficult for the other team actually do much to you. But sometimes, the match up can be too difficult, and your team can't do much to stop them from charging through to take you down. If you're getting focused and your team can do little to nothing to stop them, buy this. It could potentially turn the battle around.

But, in my experience, more often than not, everyone leaves you and you come back with four enemy champs standing around you ready destroy you. So, this buy will usually be rare, but it can still be viable, which is why I put it up here.

Berserker's Greaves - The preferred boots for the build. More attacks speed means more damage, as stated before.

These were clearly designed by a caveman.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity - Cheaper than Berserker's Greaves, and gives CDR. A good buy if you're playing passively and more utility, like if you decide to buy Blade of the Ruined King or The Bloodthirster instead of Death's Dance or Youmuu's Ghostblade. As an added bonus it reduces summoner spell CD too, so that's nice. Vision Ward - One of the most important items in the game. It's always important to carry at least one. Vision changes everything!

Farsight Alteration - And be sure to get this too. The range on this is much, much greater than a regular ward, and has no limit. Even though it's visible, can't be ported to, and has one health, vision is still vision, and is still important to have.