Hey guys, I'am Jolo. My League of Legends name is drowhaxor and I play on NA. I have played Jax quite intensively and I feel that I can share you my extensive knowledge of Jax.

Before I talk to you about Jax I have a few notes:

Try and get the nemesis Jax skin, it looks so awesome!

Maybe you are asking yourself if this guy know's what he is talking about? Although I admit I'am kinda weak on the mechanical side of things, I make up for it with my intellect.

I have a measly 170 wins on NA as I don't play a lot but rather I spend tons of hours watching streams of high elo players (scarra, dyrus, wingsofdeathx and many more) and going on forums and websites such as (reignofgaming, mobafire, clgaming.net, solomid.net and many more.)

This is my first guide, so forgive me for my guide looking unprofessional and not as fun to read. NEED MORE PICS but no clue on how to do it.

This is a guide, what this means is you do not have to follow every bit on this, feel free to be as creative as you want this is merely just a helping tool.

If you feel the need to downvote this guide, please tell me why, so I can improve. Anonymous downvotes are really frustrating.

What's the reasoning behind my runes?

All of the runes in here are primary runes, what this means is that these runes give you the best effects for each category (marks, seals, glyphs, quintessences.) For more info go here, (http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Rune.)

Movement Speed Quintessences

(+4.5% ms) - The primary reason for choosing these quintessences over other quintessences is that it helps Jax to escape ganks, chase low health priority targets, and just overall mobility. With these quintessences, Jax has 399ms (with masteries) with level 1 boots. This then means that instead of spending gold on level 2 boots you can spend your gold on your important core items, building them faster.

Attack Speed Marks

(+15% attspeed) - Yeah you can argue that Jax does not need any more attack speed due to his passive but these runes actually complement his passive! These runes help Jax's passive to build stacks faster resulting in a higher dps. These runes are like matchsticks to a fire.

Armour per lvl Seals

(+24 armour at 18) - Jax is a lategame champion so he would also need late game runes to bolster his effectiveness at the phase where he shines. Jax already deals MONSTER damage that is why we need him to be tanky.

Magic Resist per lvl Glyphs

(+25 magic resist at 18) - Jax is a lategame champion so he would also need late game runes to bolster his effectiveness at the phase where he shines. Jax already deals MONSTER damage that is why we need him to be tanky.

Summoners Resolve

- improves my summoner spells (cleanse, heal and smite)

Resistance

- gives 6 magic resist, helpful against ability power champions

Hardiness

- gives 6 armour, helpful against attack damage champions

Tough Skin and Indomitable

- very strong masteries, with these 2 masteries you won't take any damage from caster minions and little to no damage from melee minions (these 2 masteries allow for very aggressive plays)

Durability

- gives 108 health at 18, makes you tanky which you NEED

Veteran Scars

- +30 health is nothing to scoff at, this might dictate whether you live or die

Initiator

- +3% ms, movement speed and tanky champions synergise well

Siege Commander

- enemy turrets have 10 less armour, very useful as Jax loves to split push and crush turrets

Juggernaut

- increase max health by 3% and reduce cc by 10%, Jax has the highest base stat health in game if I recall correctly so this synergises very well on Jax and 10% cc reduction is a nice bonus

Summoners Insight

- improves my summoner spells (flash, teleport)

Good Hands

- reduces time spent dead by 10%, comes handy late game, revive quick - get into teamfights quicker

Improved recall

- reduces recall by 1 second, time is of essence so yeah the faster you get back in your lane the less exp and gold you lose.

Swiftness

- +2% ms, movement speed and tanky champions synergise well

Exhaust

- good for 1v1 late game

Ghost

- you already have flash, not very useful

Heal

- surprising useful, good for baiting specially with Jax's ultimate

Revive

- I have never tried it, I don't think it's good

Smite

- very useful when jungling

Surge

- pretty good if you want to go aggressive

Cleanse

- really useful, perfect for killing enemy carry in a teamfight

Clarity

- don't really need mana

Ignite

- good for 1v1 early to mid game, good for ks'ing

Promote

- never ever ever get this

Flash

- mandatory on Jax

Teleport

- get into teamfights quicker

Clairvoyance

- just get wards instead

What summoner spells I use:

Slot 1:

Heal - when enemy team is poke heavy or if they have a diving composition
Smite - if I'am jungling
Cleanse - I love cleanse on Jax as I always get focused with lots of crowd control when charging to enemy team carry, good against a heavy crowd control team
Teleport - I love using teleport, especially useful if you are split pushing, when a teamfight happens, just teleport to the nearest ward then start killing everyone on the enemy team.

Slot 2:

Flash - good safety measure and very handy especially when you are playing aggressive

Level up your ultimate every time you can. That means level 6, 11 and 16.

First spell to level up is Empower. If you have 5 points in this spell you will have 3 seconds cooldown, Sheen proc works every 2 seconds and that means you can proc it almost with every Empower. This gives you huge amount of damage.

Leveling Leap Strike and Counter Strike depends on game situation.

If the enemy team is AD > AP level up Counter Strike first. You need to dodge as many autoattacks as possible and leveling up Counter Strike lowers its cooldown.

If the enemy team is AP > AD go for Leap Strike first. You need to jump in, stun them, deal damage and jump away. Leap Strike cooldown gets lower if you level it up.

Items:

- start with level 1 Boots, 3 Health Pots

- get Sheen to out damage your opponent

- now get Phage to slow enemy down because you know you can kill the enemy

- get a Bilgewater Cutlass, this gives you lane sustain and good damage + a unique active (150 damage and 3 second slow)

- now complete your Trinity Force, it gives you nearly everything Jax needs - it gives you attack damage, ability power, health, attack speed and movement speed (I think you will have 450+ ms after Trinity Force)

- now complete Hextech Gunblade, it gives you what Trinity Force has not given you yet - it gives you lifesteal, spell vamp and the bonus ability power and attack damage is pretty huge + the unique active (300 damage and 3 second slow)

- get a defensive item like Guardian Angel (gives armour and magic resist), as on teamfights they will try and focus you because the enemy now know you have a MONSTER damage

- get Warmogs for a health boost, as a Guardian Angel would not be enough later on

- now get Guinsoo's Rageblade for OVER 9000 DAMAGE (gives attack damage, ability power, and a stacking passive which gives lots of ability power and attack speed), since you are tanky enough you will be able gain 8 stacks (max stacks possible) off this item and keep it for quite some time before you finally go down, this item enables Jax (with sufficient tankyness) to be able to go 2v1 or even 3v1 late game and win, this is like the small cherry on top of a cherry on an icing on the cake

- if the game is still not finished sell your level 1 boots, and buy Aegis of the Legion as it is very useful on teamfights, do not worry you would still have 400+ movement speed

Reasonings:

Why not finish Trinity Force first before building Bilgewater Cutlass?

Basically Bilgewater Cutlass helps you kill an enemy quicker due to it's active (damage and 3 second slow.) I consider Trinity Force as a luxury items because a phage and sheen basically does what a Trinity Force does. The only difference is Trinity Force gives complementary stats to Jax.

Why Guardian Angel first before Warmogs?

Guardian Angel gives you armour and magic resist which Warmog's dont. It also complements Jax's ultimate and that it also gives you 750 health which is only 170 less than a fresh Warmogs and 520 less than a fully stacked Warmogs.

Why not get Wriggles Lantern?

Although the stats it gives are really good and the unique active it has synergises well with Jax. The prize of Wriggle's Lantern is 1600 gold. That is a Sheen and almost a Ruby Crystal. Make a decision if its worth to buy or not.

Why not get gold per 5 items?

Going for the gold per 5 route is in my opinion, not optimal. This route will give you a hard time as it will be harder for you to 1v1, gank and win teamfights resulting in NO KILLS/ASSISTS and a loss in laning pressure (your enemy in top will have an easy time.) I suppose it's good if you are just going to passively farm minions under your turret.

Tips:

- try to use your Bilgewater Cutlass/Hextech Gunblade unique active when they start running back so they get slowed
- sometimes it is better to have a Force of Nature and a Frozen Heart instead of Guardian Angel and Aegis of the Legion
- for some reason, when I use my Empower skill, my next autoattack always procs a slow with my Phage/Trinity Force, I don't know if it is a bug or not

At first, there are 2 roles you can play, you don't want to play anything else. These roles are:

Summoners Rift solo top lane
Summoners Rift jungle

All of these three roles have common two things:

All CS is for you
You get more exp while playing solo

In laning phase Jax is really good at trading, he excels at short bursts so try to harass the enemy champion before trying to go all in.

Cheeky Monkey:

- get close enough to the enemy champion
- activate Counter Strike, then Leap Strike towards the enemy champion
- now use autoattack, then Empower, then another autoattack
- then go back to a safe distance and wait for your cooldowns
- rinse and repeat
- go all in (usually when the enemy champ's health is less than half or one third)

Tips:

- pre 6 Jax burst is good, but not good enough for an all in
- Jax usually can't win 1v1's till level 11 unless you harass the enemy champ first
- before every fight, try to use your ultimate, especially in teamfights
- hiding in brush then using your combo is very lethal (Jax loves brush)
- after finishing your combo, it is good to go back hiding in brush
- Jax's Leap Strike works on friendly units such as WARDS (wards + Jax = awesome plays)
- late game, you have 30% health and enemy carry has 70% health, you can still KILL THE CARRY

Your main role in every teamfight is shut down and kill enemy AD/AP carry. This sounds pretty easy, however you should pay attention while doing this.

Search and Destroy:

- approach enemy AD/AP carry in the best angle possible
- try to get as close as possible
- when you are close enough, activate your Counter Strike
- use Leap Strike on the enemy carry
- autoattack then Empower
(These combo is usually enough to kill/severely damage a late game carry)

However, if you see that your primary or secondary target is too far for safe engage, just focus whoever you can. Its always better to kill someone than no one.

Target priority is this:

AD carry
AP carry
Support
Offtank
Tank

Jax excels at three things (try to maximise on these scenarios):

Jax is good at 1v1, 2v1 or even 3v1. Very few champs can win against Jax.
Killing squishy champions. Jax's burst is insane.
Split pushing and destroying turrets. One of the fastest split pushers.

If you are reading this, CONGRATULATIONS! YOU MADE IT! PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE, YOUNG PADAWAN! I APPLAUD YOU!

I hope this guide helped you and gave you a widened knowledge of Jax. If not, send me a personal message (jolo_0027@yahoo.com) or write a comment and tell me, what I should add or improve. If something is not clear, do the same, I will try to improve my guide. I will gladly answer to your comments or personal messages. Mostly I do that in the same day, or the day later.

So now you know how to play with Jax, you know what runes, masteries, items to get. You are now well prepared and on the way to becoming a toplane terror. I wish you goodluck!

Also I want to thank all the Jax players I have spectated, played with, played against that had no knowledge about Jax. You guys motivated me to do this guide! Hopefully you guys see this, I dedicate this guide to you.