Jax Build Guide: The Champ by PotatoWorship

My Jax Experience

Hello, and welcome to my Jax guide! I've played quite a lot of Jax, and he feels stronger than ever in the start of Season 4. He dominates every champ in a 1v1 fight, and there's nothing you can do to stop a fed Jax. People tend to underestimate his dueling potential and it's not difficult to snowball out of control as Jax. I hope that my guide can help you get better or get into the Grandmaster.

I originally picked up Jax because I had decided that I was good at dueling people 1v1, but did not own many champs that did so in a masterful way. Jax does. He is my favorite duelist, and one of the best ones in the game. His dodge, stun, and empowered W's make for excellent trading and 1v1 potential. He's not too hard to pick up, but takes some time to master.

EDIT: 7/27/2014

Wow, it's been a while since I updated this guide. I last touched it right when Feral Flare came out, and since then people have really realized that Jax is OP. I haven't gotten to play him in ranked hardly at all for about a month or two now, so I'm doing the best I can to update this guide and keep it relevant.

Pros / Cons

Pros

-epic duelist
-can delete squishies lategame
-does tons of damage while being tanky
-few hard counters
-can gank well
-excellent lategame presence
-autoattack based (screw their silences)

Cons

-bad early game
-autoattack based (blinds can shut down)
-no innate sustain
-can be unforgiving if you fall too far behind

Runes

These will help you bring down your foes quicker than ever, and get more procs off your ult passive. These are a must-have on Jungle Jax, since you will be trading a for a .

Runes

These will be incredibly useful against fed APCs or top laners that deal magic damage (think ). Good all-around runes for use on lots of champs.

Runes

If you're jungling with Jax, armor runes are almost essential to avoid taking lots of damage from monster camps. However, if you're going top against someone like , , or , you may want to roll with instead. Armor isn't worth much against them, so you will just want the health for more survivability. Keep the armor against the likes of or .

Runes

Jax loves him some Lifesteal quints. Since he has no innate sustain, they will work wonders combined with the early for your dueling and lane sustain. An alternative would be Flat AD Quints or MS Quints, but in most cases life-steal is a good pal of yours.

Summoner Spells

Good Summoner Spells

Flash is a gap-closer, gap-extender, wall-jumper, play-maker... you get it.

Ignite is great for extreme healers (Mundo) or finishing someone off.

Ghost lets you chase people down for that juicy kill gold.

Exhaust stops enemies in their tracks, and helps you catch the fast ones.

Smite is the super epic awesome helpful jungling spell. Jax can actually jungle pretty effectively, and I'll talk about that later. Take if jungling.

Okay Summoner Spells

Teleport lets you splitpush or join your team at a whim. This would be in the "Good Summoner Spells" section, but due to its cooldown, it's not incredible.

Heal got buffed! It's really pretty nice now, especially in tough matchups. However, I would still recommend taking , , or instead.

Cleanse can help against teams with hard CC, so nothing can stop you from going in deep.

Bad Summoner Spells

Jax has mana issues early, but not THAT bad. Don't get this.

If anyone on your team is going to take this spell, it should be the support. You need spells to help you fight.

Please don't take revive. It's a noob trap for people who die a lot. Don't die a lot. Don't take revive.

Barrier is like a worse heal that doesn't have a built-in minighost, is only temporary, and doesn't remove grievous wounds. Why take it?

Jax's Abilities

Range: 700 Cost: 65 Mana Cooldown:10/9/8/7/6

Jax's Q is the ability know as Leap Strike. It is his gap closer/widener. You can Empower your next Leap Strike to deal extra damage. This skill can jump to enemy and ally units, and you can also jump to wards, making Jax very mobile on Summoner's Rift.

Description: Jax leaps towards an enemy and strikes them with his weapon.
Effect: Jax leaps to a target unit, dealing 70/110/150/190/230(+1.0 Bonus AD)(+0.6 AP) physical damage if if is an enemy.

Range:0 Cost:30 Mana Cooldown:7/6/5/4/3

Jax's W is his "bread and butter" ability. It is what makes his damage so high when combined with the sheen. It makes his next autoattack or Leap Strike deal extra damage. It is an autoattack reset, and if used properly can cause Jax to autoattack immediately after Leap Striking to his target.

Description: Jax charges his weapon with energy, causing his next attack to deal additional damage.
Effect: Jax charges his weapon with energy, causing his next basic attack or Leap Strike to deal an additional 40/75/110/145/180(+0.6 AP) magic damage.

Cost: 70/75/80/85/90 Mana Cooldown:18/16/14/12/10

Jax's E. This is Jax's ability that lets him hold down the enemy, and it is a crucial part of his combo. How you use this spell drastically affects your success in lane. Many Jaxes will just use this before their jump; this is wrong. You should press E while in midjump, and reactivate it as soon as possible if the enemy flees to stun them. If they try and fight you, just dodge their attacks and then stun them. This is, in my opinion, the difference between a good Jax and a bad Jax.

Description: Jax's combat prowess allows him to dodge all incoming attacks for a short duration and then quickly counterattack, stunning all surrounding enemies.
Effect: Jax enters a defensive stance for up to 2 seconds, dodging all basic attacks and taking 25% less damage from AoE abilities. After 2 seconds or if reactivated again, Jax stuns surrounding enemies for 1 second and deals 50/75/100/125/150(+0.5 Bonus AD) physical damage to them. Counter Strike deals 20% more damage for each attack Jax dodged (Max: 100% increased damage).

Range:0 Cost:100 Mana Cooldown:80 seconds

Jax's R. This ability is good for tough duels or hary teamfights. The bonus Armor and Magic Resistance he gets synergizes with the defensive mastery points in . It will help you survive all-ins against anyone. However, the passive is what really shows about Jax's ultimate. His passive combined with empower can hit like a truck, and in lane you can autoattack a minion twice before jumping on your opponent so you get the third hit's proc on your first hit of the trade. The passive is considerably cooler and, I think, more helpful than the ultimate.

Description: Every third consecutive basic attack deals additional magic damage. Additionally, Jax can activate this ability to strengthen his resolve, increasing his Armor and Magic Resist for a short duration.
Effect: Passive: Every third consecutive strike, Jax deals 100/160/220(+0.7 AP) additional magic damage. Active: Jax strengthens his resolve, granting him bonus Armor and Magic Resist for 8 seconds. Armor bonus is equal to 25/35/45(+0.3 Bonus AD). Magic Resist bonus is equal to 25/35/45(+0.2 AP).

Passive Ability

This passive is a great fit for Jax. It allows him to thrive in sustained duels with the enemy by getting more ult procs and autoattacks off faster.

Description: Jax's consecutive basic attacks continuously increase his Attack Speed.

Early Game

Lane phase is the earliest phase of the game. This is also where Jax is his weakest. I didn't say he was weak, but it is his least-strong point of the game. After level 3, you will have your full combo and be able to trade with your lane opponent. I suggest that you mostly just try to autoattack harass, since your mana will go down the toilet if you use your full combo every time it's up. On your first couple of backs, you'll want to pick up the for lane sustain and the chasing active. I immediately build afterwards for the damage increase and mana it gives. You will always want to build the next, because it creates a HUGE power spike for Jax. The that comes afterwards only helps Jax more. Once you have these two items built, your lane opponent will severely struggle to fight you, let alone kill you. This is when you want to start roaming, because you will be able to gank mid easily if they're overextending. If you manage to take your opponent's tower, ward the enemy jungle. The jungler may be vulnerable if you are in the area, and you can steal their buffs or camps.

Midgame

Mid game is where you become a huge pain in the arse. Jax is a beast at splitpushing, and he's also an incredible duelist, so I see many Jax players attempt to roam, or just fight their top lane opponent to death. There's one thing you need to consider in the midgame: are you applying pressure somewhere? Are you taking jungle camps, towers, or at the very least farming top? Anything you can do to try to gain an advantage forces the enemy team to react to you, which is true on any champion. HOWEVER, it is a far larger task to react to Jax than most champions. If you send one person top, it is very likely that Jax will just kill them, get farther ahead, and pressure more. If you send too many people top, you have shut down Jax but risk letting the rest of his team take objectives elsewhere. This is why Jax is such a scary champion, because he can draw at least 2 people to stop him which gives his team an easy 4v3. However, if your team really needs you to carry super hard, going top and dying to 4-man ganks repeatedly is not the way to do it. Apply pressure in a smart way; buy wards, watch the map, rotate objectives. Always be watching for a good aggressive . Your build should be around , , and perhaps a , , or .

IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW WHEN SPLITPUSHING:

Make 110% sure your team knows not to play aggressive when you are splitpushing. Not that they shouldn't take any easy picks they get, but until someone shows to stop you, they must remember they are in a 4v5 and will likely not win it unless the enemy misplays. All they have to do is keep the enemy off their tower while you win the game for them. If the enemy tries to recall, they should not allow that to happen.

Late Game

Late Game is where it comes down to your own game instinct. Look at the enemy team, and look at yours. Figure out who you can kill and who can kill you. Think of different ways to apply pressure with or without your team, and communicate often. You should have almost 6 items at this point, and be very much a monster. This is when the enemy team has to send at least 3 people to stop you, but this is not something they can really afford to do. Keep applying pressure, and take any chances to get off a clean 1v1 with anyone on the enemy team. As long as you don't get baited or countered hard, you should win due to your strong duelist kit. Watch for opportunities to backdoor the enemy team. They will come up to stop you almost every time, but the only time that matters is the one time they don't notice or only one person notices. I've played too many games as Udyr, Jax, or Nasus where the enemy just does not ward their jungle and groups as 5 mid and allows you to get easy inhib towers or inhibs while your team holds them off mid. Look for these opportunities because Jax has O-K teamfights, assuming the enemy team knows how to peel and kite.

Jungling

I DO NOT RECCOMMEND ON JAX. HERE IS WHY.

Jax has a great jungle presence if you gank often early. He does not need the extra attack speed from flare, and he should not be farming enough for it to be worth it.

Teams Jax Works With

Leona is just one example, but he works great with other tanks that have great engage and can stun everyone. Jax should never be the first one to engage since you will get focused by the team immediately.

Again, I'm using Thresh as an example. Anyone who can capitalize hard on enemy mistakes or bad enemy engages works well, but Thresh's super slow on his ultimate made me use him as the example.

Anyone that can also deal a lot of damage will help Jax out in fights. He can't kill everybody, can he? My point is, usually Jax will hold down the enemy team along with his team's frontline while their carries melt them from a safe distance.

Lane Matchups

consists largely of a skill matchup for Jax. If Teemo uses his randomly for harass, you are free to jump on him when it's on cooldown. However, if he saves it for your engage, you will both sit there Dodging and Missing. You will still usually win trades due to the stun at the end of your dodge, but squishy little Teemo isn't that difficult to kill post-6 if you bait his blind.

is a rough lane until level 6. He has much better sustain than Jax does, and will win early trades unless you burn mana on . However, once you hit 6, feel free to engage on him. Jax will roughly win an all-in against an Aatrox with his ultimate, although I would recommend getting his passive down before going for the complete all-in. As with most champs, Jax can easily duel Aatrox post-6, or more specifically post- and . Ignite is very helpful for all-ins!

can really bully Jax pre-6, so make sure you don't take too much harass before you all-in her. This lane becomes a skill-matchup post-6, however, because a good Riven may be able to outdamage you, but an "eh" Riven will get outdueled. Very similarly to Aatrox, fighting Riven when her ult is down gives you a big advantage in the fight. If you do end up dying a few times, however, this lane is one of the most unforgiving.

A good can really make your life hard. Sure, he won't stomp you in lane, but you can't stomp him either. Unless he makes the mistake of all-inning you when you both have two items, you will have a very difficult time killing him alone. Lategame, if Shen picks up a few kills he is one of the few champions who can stand up to Jax when played right. With a few good ganks, you might be able to get some kills off of him and get big enough to dominate.

The key to beating is not letting him bully you in lane, because it's actually really easy to crush Singed early. Once you hit three, it becomes really hard for Singed to win trades against you if you position properly (don't stand in his and he has almost no damage.) You may be able to kill him before he gets too tanky, but only if you harass him early and often. Singed will zone you out if the lane phase goes on for long enough, but usually you'll be teamfighting when it gets to that point. You should not worry about your lane.

is not that difficult of a matchup for Jax. Jax can do so much more lategame than Darius that as long as you don't feed, you should be alright. However, once Jax hits level 6, it is nearly impossible for Darius to all-in you. This lane gets really easy post 6.

is a really easy matchup for Jax. Although he will become nigh immovable lategame, you can do a lot of damage to him before then. This is a matchup that Jax can win at level one. Ordinarily, Dr. Mundo can cheese people at level one with his . But since you will ALWAYS start with Jax's , this should be no problem as you can dodge his autoattacks. Once you assert lane dominance over Mundo, he can do little to get it back. Dodge his cleavers and this lane is a piece of cake.

Planned Matchups:

Optional Items

If you watch my poor-quality pentakill replay, you may have noticed that I was starting in on a . It probably wasn't a great choice for Jax, but you get the idea. If you're super fed and nobody can stop you, you don't need to be tankier. Here are some good third or fourth damage items.

is great on Jax, and even better on Jungle Jax. It gives you incredible damage to their whole team, and you will outsustain anyone. You can also clear jungle camps in seconds.

gives Jax stats he loves. If you really wanted, you could actually build this instead of the with your . Jax does hybrid damage, and this item helps with that.

Since Jax is auto-attack based, the combined with the crit chance from the can actually spike your damage by a lot. I would recommend the over this item if you're only getting one.

The is full of good stats for Jax. Critical chance, movement speed, and attack speed all help Jax kill people faster. However, it just isn't good enough on its own to be core on Jax, but if you're stomping you can pick it up.

The works really well against teams that have a decent amount of AP or magic damage. It also gives Jax a rediculous amount of attack speed, and its passive allows his basic attacks to hit a lot harder. This is actually probably a better pick than items like the or , but is still not core. If you're building this much damage, you can branch out and do what you like.

The is especially good against teams that have good amounts of CC. It also gives a LOT of attack speed, and a decent movement speed bonus. Extra AD is never anything to snort at, so Jax can really benefit from this item; however, it doesn't do much if you have no sustain or damage, so don't switch out your , , or for this. Zephyr makes a great trade upgrade to the Golem Jungle item... So, this may be more optimal on Jungle Jax.

Items You Cannot Switch Out

THESE ARE CORE. You cannot skip out on the , because its active as well as boost to your tankiness makes it incredibly difficult to kill you or run away from you. The Trinity Force is simply great on Jax. The Spellblade passive, the Crit Chance, the Attack Speed, the movespeed... everything about it is awesome. "Now PotatoWorship, couldn't that be said about any champ?" Well, if you are seriously questioning my lowlife advice about the , then look at almost any top Jax guide written by a professional. Almost every one has the Trinity Force. It's just such a huge power spike for Jax.

Summary

This is my first guide, so if there was something you didn't like or liked a lot, please leave a comment telling me why. Like so many others, Jhoijhoi's guide to making a guide was a huge help to me. I recommend it to anyone looking to make a guide. I hope that people have success with Jax, and if you have any great replays, feel free to send them! If I deem them worthy, I'll link them somewhere.

I'm definitely not the greatest Jax player out there. If you disagree with something I say in this guide, you can take it with a grain of salt. I'm just speaking from what I've seen work and what I've had work. I wish you luck, and I'll see you around on the Fields of Justice!

Change Log

Apr. 28: Finally getting up to date on these rune changes, and I will be adding in the legendary info on my next update. It'll probably replace in the jungle section and you'll just build like lane Jax.

I'm always up for suggestions on changes!

Replays

Sorry about the quality of this one, will work on it in the future. This is my pentakill.
Got any good replays? PM me and I might just post them here!

Jax Build Guide by PotatoWorship

Not Updated For Current Season

The Champ

Jax

Jax Build

Top Lane Jax

Jungle Jax

Ability Sequence

Not Updated For Current Season

Masteries

Offense: 21

Defense: 9

Utility: 0

My Jax Experience

Pros / Cons

Pros

Cons

Runes