Quinn, when played correctly, is impossible to beat as Jax in a 1v1 before getting your first item, if you don't take Phase Rush. Play to scale, and max your Q over your W in this lane, for better trading. Don't use your counterstrike(E) when leaping on quinn, you want to use it when she disengages away from you using her vault to avoid damage. If you're struggling, build ninja tabis and a ruby crystal to stave off her early game. After two items, you should be able to make her into pheasant soup.
Heimerdinger
The literal definition of anti-interaction, this little cheeky piece of **** is quite annoying to lane against. A good heimerdinger will be able to zone you out, and in good circumstances, even 1v2 vs you and your jungler if you misplay. Try to kill his turrets with your E up, and use your leap to avoid getting hit by his grenade.
Tahm Kench
With the recent changes to the frog, he's become an extremely obnoxious laner. You have to play practically perfectly into tahm, and avoid his tongue strikes. This is easily done by simply sitting in the middle of your own minions, or by side stepping his Q entirely if you feel comfortable with it. Just dodge the matchup entirely if possible.
Illaoi
Difficult matchup, if you play the early game poorly. Her level 1-5 is her weakest point, and as a result, you want to abuse that as much as possible. Let illaoi shove into you, and freeze on her and deny her CS by standing next to her caster minions while avoiding her pull and tentacle slams. Punish her whenever she tries to go for CS. If you let illaoi get a lead early, you will suffer horribly in the late game as you won't be able to really ever duel her. Never use your Q post level 6 to engage on her, use it as a disengage tool instead. Remember to kill her tentacles, and build executioners. Have fun playing DDR against this dumb thing :)
Jayce
This matchup is actually surprisingly not as difficult unless you're against a Masters+ Jayce player, or at the minimum mid diamond. Jayce, if played correctly, will zone you off of the first 3 waves, and then all in you at your tower when you are still level 1 and he is level 3. If he zones you, then try to stay as healthy as possible for his towerdive at level 3, but if he doesnt, which most jayce players dont, then just passively gain exp and try to last hit at least a couple of minions. Overall, not a very difficult matchup in lower ranks, but extremely painful in higher level play. Take phase rush if you want to play for lane only. Rushing hullbreaker second after sunderer here isnt the worst idea either.
Gragas
Literally the most obnoxious champion to play against top lane as Jax. He will bellyflop your leap, and harrass you with his casks. You get poked out, and you don't really have a way to engage on gragas at all. Build sustain and try to survive lane, because later you outscale him, or better yet, just dodge the match if you can. Take grasp of the undying as well.
Kennen
Pikachu here is a little obnoxious piece of poo, but he's not really in meta for a reason. Nerfs to his free resistances that he received while using his lightning dash and his overall itemization being relatively gutted made him a far easier laner than in previous seasons. Don't eat free harrass from his auto attacks and shuriken throw, and take trades after 6 utilizing your passive. Use your E defensively to avoid auto attack damage rather than offensively.
Try to stack some tenacity early if possible. you can also take grasp or phase rush depending on your playstyle into kennen if you feel confident as well.
Akali
Difficult lane due to her consistent harrass poke with her Q and having 4 different escapes(smoke, E, ult, AND flash), but overall not that difficult of a lane, honestly. Akali's level 1 is about on par with Jax, and you have a better level 2 than her. Abuse that as much as possible, and take a big trade early. Before she hits level 6, make sure to have a vamp scepter and a ruby crystal for some sustain/tank stats to survive her 100-0 damage at level 6. If you don't have both of those, stay under your tower until you have some more health. Instead of Botrk, you can start building Wits End after triforce against Akali, if she's too much of an issue for you. Overall, not the worst matchup.
Gangplank
After the recent nerf to his Q, GP has become a much more tame matchup compared to how he was before. Generally, you want to not engage on him prior to 6. Let him use his Q on you if he doesn't have fleet footwork or grasp of the undying up, but use your counterstrike to block his Q if he does early. Play passive, and wait for your jungler to come or just farm up until 6. At level 6, if you have plated steelcaps or a vamp scepter, you should be able to run him down with ease or trade relatively easily into him by autoing a minion twice, then leaping(Q) and auto + E-> W, then disengage or keep going depending on the situation. Still a very challenging matchup if you dont have low ping.
Malphite
Malphite is practically the anti-thesis of Jax. This is technically a winnable matchup, but you will never be able to superscale and carry 1v9 against this... rock. His Q harrass is difficult to lane against, and you will never really have more impact than him in a teamfight. You eventually CAN beat him, but you need at the very minimum two items to duel well vs a malphite that has itemized correctly. Make sure to start Dorans Shield and take resolve tree with the regen rune + personal choice.
Riven
Laning vs Riven goes up in difficulty the higher rank you are playing at. Good Riven's will consistently chunk you with their Q W, and then use their E to disengage, allowing them to freely harrass you. Riven also can 100-0 you at level 6 if played correctly. Eventually, you do outscale her at 2-3 items, but she's extremely obnoxious in lane to deal with, and you can lose lane with even 1 mistake. Difficult lane, but with ult changes to jax, she's become a lot more tame.
Gnar
Annoying as shit to deal with, but once you have some sustain from vamp scepter, you should be fine as long as you aren't constantly eating his Qs and eating free auto attacks from him. Just farm up until 6, wait until his rage bar is down, and go for free harass onto him/run him down with botrk, or play for mid game pushes with hullbreaker + triforce. Overall, not that hard of a matchup. When you leap onto him, dont use your E, and use E instead as a disengage tool in order to not get hit.
Teemo
Annoying rodent, that's actually somewhat difficult to deal with if the teemo player uses correct runes. In general, just wait until level 6 to all in. Rushing null-magic mantle and/or starting Dorans Shield is extremely valuable in this lane. Don't use your W when you're blinded by teemo, and just orbwalk while you wait for the blind to dissipate. Overall a simple lane.
Alternatively, start dorans shield and take Second Wind under the resolve tree, and play slowly. Difficult lane in higher ranks, but not too bad in low elo.
K'Sante
Fucking disgustingly annoying champion. Not hard to deal with in lower ranks as most ksante players are pretty bad, but in higher ranks, hes extremely difficult to deal with due to his extremely efficient trades and insane bulk. Tether his Qs, and engage into him only after he misses a Q. Sidestep the knockups from his 3rd Qs, and use your counterstrike sparingly as he can tank the damage and kidnap you deeper into his side of the map with his push or his ult.
Aatrox
Aatrox is a champion that fully relies on three things;
1.) you not building executioners calling
2.) you not building executioners calling
3.) you not building executioners calling
:)
Dont get hit by sweetspot Qs, and build armor if you struggle vs him. Give some CS if necessary when under tower. Your level 6 is far stronger than his, so play aggressively if you manage to do well level 1-5.
Cho'Gath
Depending on whether chogath is played tank or AP greatly changes the difficulty of the matchup. AP Chogath is terrifying if you get chunked by his E -> W -> Q combo, as its almost unavoidable. Chogath can also Q from inside bushes, denying you the initial audio/visual que of chogath stomping his foot before his Q rupture. Avoid getting hit by his Q at all costs. Trade into him and deny him CS when his E is down, and try to all in him before he's able to poke you down.
Tank Chogath is a bit easier, and you can build vamp scepter + ruby crystal early, before finishing off the botrk or sunderer to effectively fight chogath if you struggle vs him. Again, avoid getting combo'd whenever possible, and deny chogath CS to deny his healing from his passive.
Fiora
Skill matchup that becomes progressively more difficult the higher rank you become. Avoid getting hit by her vital procs(fiora passive), and trade her with your E, but do NOT try to stun her unless you like gambling. You can actually sidestep her parry with your counterstrike up, if you have good reaction speed, but it's a difficult combo to pull off. If she gets fed, get executioners calling and plated steelcaps to tide you through until you can build your core items.
With the new update to jax, your all-in at level 6 vastly dwarfs hers, so take advantage of that. :)
Garen
With the advent of stridebreaker changes that happened a little while ago as well as the changes/buffs to Jax, Garen isn't quite as good as he used to be. However, he is a somewhat difficult lane, in that if you fuck up a handful of times(he smacks you with his Q(silence), he spins around you and you were texting your girlfriend and half your health is gone, etc), life is gonna kinda suck. This is a skill matchup, in that you need to not get killed early and give him a lead. If you feel confident, build botrk vs garen. If you don't have 100% confidence, go for building sunderer.
Urgot
Somewhat difficult matchup. Your trading pattern is extremely weird here, in that you actually lose level 1 and 2 hard. You beat him after level 3-5, and can outplay him post level 6. Try building Plated Steelcaps + Sunderer into urgot, then BotRK. The only shitty thing about this lane is that because urgot gets to scale into the late game, he becomes honestly more reliable/useful than jax in the late game in teamfights, so try to splitpush and force him to stay away from teamfights as much as possible, or pick him early before teamfights.
Gwen
A relatively strange lane, her level 1 actually beats yours unless the player is horrible at her. You basically piss on her after level 3 until 6, and then it becomes a relatively even lane again. At level 6, you want to dodge her full snip combo by sidestepping or leaping to the side, and then keep dueling her. Try not to duel her within her shroud, and disengage entirely, as it has a fairly long cooldown(22sec).
Poppy
I find that a lot of Jax players seem to struggle against poppy, but I generally don't really have a hard time vs her, even in masters/gm. sidestep/tether around her pound(Q) harrass, and never leap on her to engage. Look to trade with her by walking up after she uses her Q and it expires and start autoing and using W while having your counterstrike(E) up. don't stand next to walls and get stunned, and only use your leap to disengage or after she's used her ring. Build Sunderer first, or if you're extremely ahead, you can rush BoTRK as well.
Nasus
Not particularly threatening in the early game, but his level 6 all in is actually better than yours if he itemizes correctly and he trades well in lane. You also pretty much autolose nearly every 2v2 situation with you and your jungler vs him and his jungler post level 6.
Just deny cs, and try to freeze. Punish him when he walks up for CS with a auto W reset combo, and only use E to trade if he attempts to siphoning strike(Q) you.
Use your leap only to disengage from unfavorable fights or to chase him down to kill him/deal additional damage.
Darius
Don't get hit by the tip of his spin(Q), by either stepping out of it, or jumping in on him using your Q. When he goes to auto attack you, use your counterstrike to block his auto and his slow(W). Never let darius get to more than 3 stacks on you, as anything more than that is dangerous. This matchup is pretty easy for an experienced jax player.
Honestly more of a knowledge matchup than anything else really.
Nocturne
A relatively strong threat, this is a similar lane to warwick in that its pretty cheesy, but somewhat more difficult. Nocturne has high waveclear, unlike warwick, and has a semi-global ult, along with similar levels of sustain. Your trading pattern is to avoid his Q(shadows), and walk up to him, using E, and auto W as a trade, then leap away before his fear activates. You easily outscale him, and will beat him after 1-2 items.
Warwick
This is a cheese lane, in which if he doesn't get kills, he falls off pretty hard. Usually they take barrier + flash, so be careful of all-inning and dying due to warwicks passive. Your E blocks his bite that heals him, and also blocks his ult damage, so don't get bitten by the mangy dog. Build some sustain, and get some heal reduction. It's a pretty easy lane.
Dr. Mundo
With his rework, Mundo has become a far more interesting matchup compared to before. Try to trade with him early level 1-3, by using your stun to push him in the minion wave and deal damage. Popping his passive actually deals true damage to him, so make sure to hit him with your stun, and then deny him the healing from picking up his canister by stepping on it.
If he plays safe, very difficult to punish without significant help from your teammates.
Build executioners calling early if you're struggling in this matchup.
Camille
Camille is an interesting matchup for Jax, in that this is a skill matchup, but it's in Jax's favor. Pretty self explanatory, but don't get hit by camille's outer sweep, by either walking out of it, or jumping onto her. Block her empowered second auto attack using counterstrike. Avoid fighting against her when he procs her passive shield, and fight after its down. You generally want to rush sunderer in this matchup, but in lower ranks, you can often get a botrk and a ruby crystal and outtrade + sustain her.
Irelia
A pretty easy matchup, most lower rank Irelia's struggle vs Jax. Your entire lane depends on basically dodging her stuns, and not fighting her when she is fully stacked on her passive. Fairly simply lane.
In higher ranks, it becomes more about becoming observant of her passive stacks, and calculating her Q execute range on minions. Avoid engaging on her right before level 6, as she can near instantly clear a wave if it comes to it if she plays correctly and then surprise you.
Kled
One of your easier matchups. Practically all of his damage comes from his W empowered auto attacks, so just... use your E lol. His only real harrass is his bear trap, that only does major damage if it activates it's second proc, so try to avoid the second proc. Build Botrk and just run him down + outsustain him in lane. Play slowly, you outscale him anyways.
Renekton
Renekton players cry when they see Jax, tbh. You outscale, you do more damage, you counter 80% of their kit, what else is there to love? The biggest caveat with this lane is that you must, at all cost, block his W, his stun, with your E. Otherwise trades are extremely inefficient, as he has built in healing with his Q, and you don't. Rush Botrk into him if you're winning, if you're not, get plated steelcaps and build sunderer into botrk. Pretty easy matchup, amongst one of the easiest altogether.
Rengar
Depending on the rank(yet again), this can be an extremely easy or somewhat challenging matchup. You cannot leash your jungler in this lane, because you have to run immediately to top lane and into the bushes to get a major advantage in this lane. Stay in the bushes and deny him his leaps for free ferocity stacks. You outtrade him easily in the early->late game, provided you aren't idiotic and let him auto you over and over again from a bush. The only threat you face is if the rengar has a jungle duo, and constantly invades you. I highly recommend taking ignite into this matchup over TP, and building vamp scepter + ruby crystal into BotRK. This is a fairly easy lane if the enemy rengar isn't basically Scrubnoob or Dakar. Honestly, if I didn't get shit on recently in a custom by Dakar 's rengar top, I wouldn't even put him as a minor for difficulty.
If you somehow lose this lane, build plated steelcaps and get sunderer. Please don't lose this lane below masters. It's sad.
Sion
A weird matchup, because you can choose to greed out or play slow in this matchup. Sion is actually extremely easy to kill early, so it's often worth it to greed out and look for trades into him. The matchup is as simple as just don't get hit by a charged Q, basically. You can leap out of it, you can sidestep it, you can even leap onto him before he charges it enough to knock you up and then auto him from behind. If he survives laning phase though, he becomes extremely tanky and hard to kill. BotRK into Sunderer is highly recommended if he becomes a threat. I also recommend freezing waves so you can try your best to deny him CS.
NEVER LET HIM FREEZE OUTSIDE OF HIS TURRET, IT WILL BE NEAR IMPOSSIBLE TO BREAK IT AND WILL FORCE YOU TO ROAM.
Sylas
Actually a stupid easy matchup for jax. His early healing can be annoying, but you actually outtrade him hard at all points of the game if you just use your counterstrike(E) correctly. If you struggle against him, build an executioners calling and a vamp scepter to outsustain him. Only use your E when trading auto attacks, or right before when he's trying to dash back to you and knock you up. Merc treads are great here, obviously.
Volibear
Pretty easy matchup. You actually dont take damage from 2/4 of his abilities with your E, his claw and his stun. Use your E wisely and block his abilities, trade, and then safely disengage by walking away or using your leap(Q). Once you have sunderer and BotRK, you will win every engage vs him for the most part.
Mordekaiser
Super easy matchup overall, Avoid getting hit by an auto attack after being hit by his Q E. Your level 6 is stronger than his, and you want to trade into him using E -> Q -> auto -> W, and then keep auto attacking while your E is up. Disengage once you hit your stun. Rinse Repeat.
Maokai
Don't use your leap to leap to him to engage, as he can disengage easily with his knockback, and your Q costs far more mana and does less damage than his knockback. Instead, try to engage on him by walking up and auto attacking, and using your Q to leap back on top of him after he's used his knockback to deal more significant damage to him. Build Botrk or Sunderer first here, depending on your preference. I personally prefer botrk.
Kayle
You bully the angel really hard. Like, if you lose this matchup, idk what ur doing but its wrong. Go for sustain first(vamp scepter), and just engage on her at all opportunities. If you feel like being a mega dick, freeze the wave after she harasses you with her abilities, and just goomba stomp on her face whenever she tries to walk up for CS. Theoretically, she can outplay you if played correctly post 13 or so, but by that point you should be significantly ahead of her in both exp and items so you should win.
Lissandra
A super boring non-interaction lane. Basically you leap on her and she will use her AoE freeze on you to root you in place, and then use Q to trade you. Wait until level 6, and then take more efficient trades by autoing a minion twice, then Q auto(R passive empowered) into W reset. All in her if she wastes her dash.
Trundle
Similar to master yi practically. Just use E and walk up and full trade him. Save your Q for disengage so you don't eat shit from his retribution. He has practically no counterplay against you other than hitting a lucky pillar on you midleap through the air to deny you your leap away.
Tryndamere
This is a pretty self-explanatory matchup, no offense. Don't let him hit minions for free healing when he expunges his Q, and use your E when he's trying to auto you. When it hits level 6, try to pop his ult, and then use either Q to run away, or use your E to mitigate his auto attacks. It's pretty easy, imo.
Yorick
Easy matchup. As Jax, you should kill his ghouls whenever possible when they crop up. Use your E aggressively when engaging on yorick, and use leap to leap away after a trade if he tries to trap you and deal damage. If you get hit by his soil toss, use your E to dodge the damage from his minions. Post 6, you want to kill his maiden first if at all possible, before engaging on Yorick. Always have either your E or your Q up when you're engaging on yorick, for an easy getaway or disengage. His maiden is surprisingly fragile, and will die if you rotate your abilities twice on it correctly. Overall, extremely easy to deal with.
Lulu
If played well, is the best duo for Jax other than Ivern. She offers literally everything you could ever need as Jax. Try to find a good lulu duo when possible.
Ivern
Ivern/Jax gameplay is one of the most toxic combinations in league, in that he provides you with practically all of the benefits of lulu, but he's also a jungler and will interact with you far earlier than your bobbleheaded support. Try to find a good duo, and play consistently together.
Seraphine
line them up for her to press R :)
Jarvan IV
Love all utility junglers, but j4 takes the cake.
Elise
Easy dives/ganks
Rek'Sai
Fantastic synergy for coordinated dives/roams
Sejuani
Strong pick potential + additional CC + fat tank? Sign me up for that 100%.
Orianna
Used to be one of my favorites, unfortunately ori has fallen quite a bit out of the meta now. RIP old girl.
She shields you, speeds you up, gives you resistances, and can press R with ball on top of you for a massive AoE shockwave comboed with your ult and your E.
Yuumi
Untargetable, Healing, CC, Damage Boost, and more. Getting the cat to sit on you is amazing.
Synergies
IdealStrongOkLowNone
Lulu
If played well, is the best duo for Jax other than Ivern. She offers literally everything you could ever need as Jax. Try to find a good lulu duo when possible.
Ivern
Ivern/Jax gameplay is one of the most toxic combinations in league, in that he provides you with practically all of the benefits of lulu, but he's also a jungler and will interact with you far earlier than your bobbleheaded support. Try to find a good duo, and play consistently together.
Seraphine
line them up for her to press R :)
Jarvan IV
Love all utility junglers, but j4 takes the cake.
Elise
Easy dives/ganks
Rek'Sai
Fantastic synergy for coordinated dives/roams
Sejuani
Strong pick potential + additional CC + fat tank? Sign me up for that 100%.
Orianna
Used to be one of my favorites, unfortunately ori has fallen quite a bit out of the meta now. RIP old girl.
She shields you, speeds you up, gives you resistances, and can press R with ball on top of you for a massive AoE shockwave comboed with your ult and your E.
Yuumi
Untargetable, Healing, CC, Damage Boost, and more. Getting the cat to sit on you is amazing.
Hello, I go by ImugiLoL. I am currently(Season 13) masters on my stream account in NA. I have been masters+ since season 6, and have mained jax for over 5 years now. I have also been rated the rank 1 jax in NA for multiple seasons.
This guide is still in the works, but please do take a look at the matchups counter for Jax vs other champions, as it's relatively complete! :)
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[Patch 13.4] - Imugi's Rank 1 NA Jax Guide
Build Guide By JaxIsAHobo
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