Jax is a Tanky DPS champion who thrives on enemy mistakes. His initiation and execution combo with - - will spreads fear and despair and the stellar DPS from - - together with a natural tankyness from - let him duel with ease.
I take Jax to the jungle because he combines all the qualities a jungler really longs for: clear speed, sustain, strong jungle domination and ganks - all due to one skill: Counter Strike. My guide will focus on this skill; we will max it first, we will use it aplenty and we will master it to wreak havoc. Lastly, because farming the jungle offers less income than on a solo lane, I will suggest a very unusual build that nevertheless gives him everything he needs to win. Jax's late game is unparalleled and once there, he can carry his team.


I suggest very unusual runes (AD,CDR), skillorder ( ) and items (Zeke's Herald, ) - but notice that there is a reasoing behind these oddities that I will try to explain in this guide. Compared to the "normal" Jax build (just look at the top rated guides) it will have several weaknesses but also strengths, so learn when you can use it properly.

Clearspeed and Sustain - Your first priority lies in clearing your jungle as fast as possible, you need jungler items like and some form of lifesteal and health regeneration. Ganks - Your ganks need to have a lasting impact. Exhaust and your early damage help in this regard, but one way or the other, you need to bring your jump-stun to perfection. Duelling - Jax is a weak duellist as long as is on CD. Because he uses said ability for jungle and ganks, it is vital to rank it up quickly and to buy some CDR so he can use it repeatedly. Duelling with up is a breeze. Wards - Vision on mid lane and enemy jungle is one of the biggest contributions a jungler can make for his solo lanes. Also, wards are essential on Jax because they allow him to jump around with his . So buying a is a decent option. Auras - If you provide your team with bonus stats, that is like giving them a massive gold lead. Just one aura item can provide your team with 1k global gold. Every team needs and Zeke's Herald. Since your support will only afford one aura item, you should buy them as a jungler, your ganks will be a lot stronger and you can help your team even if you do poorly. Your kit - Use it right. Do not spamm and rank your Empower, it is used exclusively to reset your AA timer and stack your ult passive faster. Never save your ult and stun, smash things with it. Stun and jump the right targets.


Cooldown Reduction - This stat has the highes impact on Jax's performance. The difference between 10% and 40% CDR is huge, because every second of damage counts. One more stun, one more leap decide his score. Attack Damage - His abilities have excellent scaling and he has a high AS value, so AD makes his damage explode. Since AD also gives him Armor, it is even more desireable. Health - With all his DPS and resilience, Health is his weak spot. Buy it early, buy a lot of it. Every good item should also provide you with HP. Mana - You need one for consistent use of . No more no less. But you will need it. Some Mana Regeneration from is nice but not neccessary.


Ability Power - Jax has decent AP ratios, but his AD ratios are better and AD items offer more benefits to junglers. As with AS, be happy if you happen to get some free AP but dont prioritize it. Attack Speed - There are sadly no AS items that won't make you squishy. If you get AS, be happy about it, but dont build high AS items before CDR, AD and HP. Movement Speed - You can jump, so this is not essential. As you can see, is the perfect luxury item for Jax. But don't you dare rushing it. Concerning Armor and MR always remember that your ult and Aegis should give you enough of these. Buying resistance is never wrong - if you want to counter a specific ability combination or champion - but should not be rushed before HP and CDR.

Summoner Spells: take and . Go 21 offense masteries with one point for for -10 MR/Armor on and the rest into CDR and AD. Put the rest of your points into defense. Runes: take a full AD/CDR page (9x , 3x 8x , 1x , 9x ). Starting with a generic AS/AD-Armor-MR-MS/AD/AS page works, too (For some reason MobaFire doesn't aknowledge the existence of AD Seals, take Armor or AD, they both work well).

My choice of runes and masteries will surprise Junglers and Jax players, but the reason behind this is that it allows you to really shine in clearing your jungle and hit hard when ganking. It also allows for some tanky first items. All this thanks to that will quickly clear the jungle with it's huge base damage and a +1.0 AD ratio. Also, combined with his already high base AD and the +1.0 AD ratio on and , your ganks can burst anyone. The CDR runes and masteries provide you with 10% CDR right of the bat. Together with blue buff/your early CDR items, that already lets you get as close to the cap as needed. Faster jungle clear at the cost of MR is a decent tradeoff in my opinion.

As with any jungler, + s allows for the safest and easiest start.


For your first items, you can choose from a wide range of possible items, but remember that your first goal is to get CDR, AD and HP. and are usually my first pickups, as you will need them for any major item anyway. When you can, just take the right away. A single allows you to stay on the map a lot longer and makes your really small mana pool big enough for consistent usage. The offers the most clear speed and stustain you can get for 400g, take this when you can't gank and just want to farm. Early resistance from / is a very reasonable option before ganking a lane that is ahead for some reason - you have no defensive runes. Last but not least, you need . Sight Ward and can help you invade, gank and countergank.


Pick up and and get a Zeke's Herald asap. Appart from that, , , are all nice if you think you have enough HP as it is. Another good option would be , it is very cheap and cost-effective and usefull against AOE and DOT's.


Once you get to finish your you can sell your for more HP. You will need a for , and anyway. Make sure you get as your first Triforce part, you will never need with all the cc and mobility my CDR-build offers, but you want Mana and more damage. Mostly you get Mercs, but that doesn't mean other boots should be neglected, they are all good in the right situation.


Finish the remaining upgrades and end the game.



If you want to get more tankyness, you can opt to replace with a or to get a instead of a . When your support is getting Aegis, offensive items like or are good, too.

HH Relentless Assault (Passive): A free 24% - 84% AS boost. Remember to reset your AA-timer with to stack this faster.
HH Leap Strike (Q): Huge damage (just look at the ratios) and short (3.6 sec) CD make this pretty good, but with the on top of it, its pretty much op. Jump to Sight WArds, allies and enemies.
HH Empower (W): A short CD AA-reset is always valuable for increased AS and procs. The decent AP ratio makes it even tronger. But beware, this skill can drain more Mana than any other if you are not carefull. I level it last not because it is bad - far from it - but because your other skills are that much better.
HH Counter Strike (E): Undoubtedly Jax's signature move. Usually this is left to rank last and only used for the stun, since the damage is pretty unreliable. But a 18sec CD is way too much for a jungler. Either you don't jungle with jax, or you max this first, because...

• The dodge and AOE damage reduction offer you incredible tankyness for free. 100% damage reduction on AA and 25% on the rest, thats huge if timed right. Most important of all, this allows you to temporary ignore minion damage in the jungle and to gank despite creap waves.
• 1sec stun every 6 sec is already huge, but AOE stun ? This can outright win you a team fight if executed properly - and obviously its the main use of this skill when ganking.
• Lastly the damage. With the average minion AS of 0.63 you will need to time the activation well to recieve many dodges and thus damage. If you got the hang of it, you can clear camps with one strike. The best thing that can happen to you if you gank an enemy inside a creep wave. This will ensure maximum damage and a kill (risky!).

... so just max it asap and get CDR, its worth it!
HH Grandmaster-At-Arms (R): His ult really synergizes with the rest of his skillset. Free resistances are particularly welcome for a melée DPS champion and the On-Hit-effect is one of the more powerfull ones. Also the scaling to both AD and AP is very high.


If you had to sort Jax skillset in order of DPS, it would be: > > > and this also corresponds to what the average Jax-player goes for. But for a jungler, DPS is only one of many issues to consider. In terms of utility and versatility, > > > . CC, Mobility and resilience are your priority. Lastly, while this jungle-skillorder looses DPS it acctually gains in burst damage, and has a better AD scaling as a nice by-product.

Accordingly, we start with Counter Strike and we get one point into Empower if we just want to jungler or go straight for Leap Strike if we want to gank. At level 3 we take whatever is still missing and its Grandmaster-At-Arms > Counter Strike > Leap Strike > Empower after those first 3 levels.

• Early HP is great for you, don't hesitate to stack several s (they have the same cost-HP ratio as a ).
• An early ] is very helpfull.

Thanks for reading and credits to JhoiJhoi. Feel free to post your feedback.

(But before you post, think about this: Its a miniguide, so takes those 60 seconds to completely read it and your confusions might be gone. I do many things different, and you don't have to take me to seriously; I just hope this guide helps you to get to understand Jax better.)