Why Should I Learn Jax?

Jax has always remained a solid pick for top lane. He is a relatively easy champion to learn and pick up if you wish to play a new champion, but most of all, he is fun to play. If playing aggressive is your style, than you have found the perfect champion. Jax's abilities are the opposite of those of Aphelios. Simple and not confusing. He has a solid kit, where every ability is viable and usable. If you hate long cooldowns, Jax has a perfect balance of CDR, where his most used abilities are available in seconds, and his ultimate will be up for every teamfight without having to wait over a minute. If you scale Jax well, you will be able to crush entire teams. He is not at all hard to master, but he always leaves room for you to improve on how you play him. If that doesn't convince you enough, he uses a lamppost as a weapon to give his enemies a fair fighting chance.

Spells

Exhaust can really help during 1v1 or help slow down a fleeing enemy champion just enough for you to land your Q on them and finish the kill. I choose exhaust over Ignite because it can be used both defensively and offensively, providing versatility in terms of 1v1 combat, which you will see a lot of playing Jax. Flash is standard, and will allow for escape and extending range of your abilities. For your alternate spells, Teleport can get you back to lane/split-push faster. Teleport falls off in value the later the game goes. As it is, Jax is a very nimble champion, both with his Q, and the extra 10 movement speed from Slightly Magical Footwear, so I usually settle for the extra dueling power that Exhaust gives. Flash goes without saying. It is the best value for a summoner spell.

Runes

Conqueror is the best keystone for Jax. it provides much sustain needed for dueling. Jax is a duelist, your goal is to survive by taking damage and receiving it equally. Triumph will help against those times that you duel in a 2v1 or even a 3v1. If Jax is played correctly, his scaling will allow him to take on even 4v1s when fed. Triumph will help him stay alive in these situations. Legend: Alacrity, will give permanent attack speed, which is very important for Jax as every 3rd attack will deal extra damage, so attack speed is a very important stat for Jax. Last Stand provides more value than any other rune in that category. You will constantly be battling with low health as Jax, and Last Stand will make it much easier to survive. In order for Jax to scale correctly, he needs help mid-game to start stacking kills. Inspiration is the ideal secondary for this, even better than Resolve. Magical Footwear will drive down the cost of boots, allowing for Jax to build his items faster (not to mention gaining extra mobility), and Time Warp tonic will do amazingly with Corrupting Potion when in the early phase of the game, giving you movement speed and instant healing. Any attack speed is a must to best use his ultimate passive, so choose extra attack speed for bonus buffs, as well as adaptive force and armor. I see some people taking the Domination tree for Jax's secondary runes, but that makes Jax's late game stronger where he is already strong. What Jax needs help with is getting fed enough early game to make him a monster late game, which is why I take Inspiration as his secondary since Inspiration gives a great headstart.

Ability Sequence

Empower is your best damage dealing ability on Jax. It also resets your auto attack, which makes it very helpful in dueling, you will want to max it out first. E is unlocked first because it is the most useful for pushing aggressively early game, and will help negate most damage and provide CC. I cannot stress enough how unlocking your E first is the most useful ability. You can win so many fights level 1 because of it. Your leap strike is evolved second for movement and initiation. Upgrade your ultimate whenever you can, as it provides the best survivability in dueling when you can use it. Because of how useful his abilities are, Jax has the best opportunity for early kills at level 1-3.

Main Build

Bringing Corrupting Potion is a must (Doran's Blade is the only other viable start, but I take Corrupting Potion over Vamp). It is the best sustain, which you will need as playing Jax aggressively early game is a key to scaling fast. After that, build Blade of the Ruined King first. If your game goes well, you will see that you will unlock your boots before you can finish Blade of the Ruined King. I recommend that you prioritize Blade of the Ruined King even if you can afford boots, as you will hit a powerspike once you have finished that item. You have two choices for a mythic item. Divine Sunderer or Trinity Force. Both are viable, and it is in only certain situations where one is better than the other. If you are going against more tanky champions, Divine Sunderer is the better option. Against more squishy and mobile champions, Trinity Force outperforms Divine Sunderer. Steraks Gage is the next option after mythic for health and sheilding to keep you alive during teamfights. Staying alive against burst champions will now be a problem for Jax during the later game, so be sure that you prioritize getting Sterak's Gage. You might even have to buy Sterak's Gage before you buy a mythic. Death's Dance and Guardian Angel are both great options for tankiness and survivability when you get into your late game.

Against Tanks Build

If you are going up specifically against multiple tank champions, this build should help you out. Building tanks are the best way to counter Jax, as their health and armor can really be hard to outlast in a duel. This build using Black Cleaver and Divine Sunderer will help you penetrate their armor and bring them down while giving you some sustain to outlast them. One thing for me to address is when you are going against a bruiser. A lot of people categorize bruisers as tanks when they really aren't. Bruisers include champions that balance health and damage. When going against a bruiser it is better to build Trinity Force, not Divine Sunderer, but still keep Black Cleaver. Look at the threats page above to see what to build against certain champions.

Against Magic Damage/CC Build

Magic Damage can really slow Jax down. If you are playing against magic dealing champions like Ahri, you will want to build extra magic resistance mid-late game. Mercery's Treads will give you some Tenacity and Abyssal Mask gives a large amount of Magic Resist and health, as well as beautifully pairing with your E. If you are fed you can also build Wit's End against magic teams.

Elixirs

In the rare occurrence that your game lasts long enough for Elixirs, choose Elixir of Iron if you want more survivability and Elixir of Wrath if you want more damage.

How to Play Jax Early Game:

Jax is a scaling champion. What does this mean? It means that Jax does best when he is taking kill/assists early game to gain enough gold and XP to always be slightly better than his opponents. Jax snowballs really easily, and once he has gained enough power, he can single-handedly wipe out entire teams. This makes early game your most important phase to determining if you will carry with Jax during the match or not. You must get kills. I cannot stress enough how playing aggressive with Jax early game is important to scaling well. Jax can 1v1 most champions early game. If placed against a counter, temporarily take another lane to help another teammate to secure a kill or an assist. Then move back to your own lane to farm and defend. Keep doing this as much as you can to rack up your kills or assists. CS is very important when playing Jax. Try to get your auto attack to always get the last hit on creeps and minions. Items are very important to unlocking Jax's full potential, and they are expensive. There is a reason you bring Corrupting Potion and Time Warp Tonic onto the battlefield. Sustain is your friend when battling against champions to get those early kills. You will find that if you do get kills and assists early on in the game, you will significantly start to grow stronger and stronger. This is how you play Jax early game. Look for any kills and assists you can get. The inspiration runes and your early items really will help you sustain and lane. If you cannot seem to get any kills or assists, it is time to analyze your enemies. Change your build to better suit fighting against your opponents. If you are dealing with AP Burst champions, build Steraks Gage to help you survive. If you are having trouble with tank champions, build Divine Sunderer and Black Cleaver to help you take down tanks. The items listed in this guide do not completely have to be built in that order. Improvise. Get those kills and assists. Without them, you will have a very hard midgame and even worse endgame. I cannot stress the importance of kills in your early game. That being said, do not feed the enemy team. Keep a level head to avoid feeding the enemy and keep yourself aware of all the spells, abilities and available options you have for taking out your enemy in a duel. Have escape options. I will discuss how to do all of this in a later chapter.

How to Play Jax Midgame

Midgame is all about splitpushing (described further in the Tower Buster section). Jax is a champion not meant for sticking in one lane. Help your teammates secure kills, roam the jungle between your lane and the neighboring lane, take objectives when you can, but your main focus is to help apply pressure on more than one lane. Jax is a highly mobile champion and can cover much ground, especially with his Q, which we will get into later. Jax plays more as an assassin other than a brawler. Single out champions to dish out damage to when you find yourself in a teamfight, prioritizing those who are of most threat to you and your team. Always be on the lookout for available kills, and work with your team to coordinate assassinations of enemy champions or surprise attacks. You never want to be doing nothing with Jax, most of his revenue of gold should be coming from kills and assists. If you cannot go up against the enemy team, stick to farming minions and ask for assistance from teammates. However if you did scale correctly early game, midgame should be a breeze.

How to Play Jax Endgame

This is when you should carry playing Jax. Objectives and assassinations will be your focus endgame. Start applying more pressure and shift your focus from kills to turrets and jungle monsters like the Drake and Baron Nashor. Whenever an enemy does come to defend, you will be scaled enough to defeat them 1v1. If multiple enemies come to defend, it is paramount that you call for support to initiate a teamfight. Jax is not the best champion at teamfights (if he is not fed), so try and select a champion that is dealing damage away from the whole brawl to take out. If you are extremely fed, the game should not last much longer because you will be able to 1v5. Keep placing as much pressure on objectives as you can. Jax will be able to dematerialize minions in 2 or less hits and take out full-health turrets in less than 10 seconds. Midgame and Late game will be easier than early game. Playing with Jax, your success is decided before you get into the endgame. If you are still struggling to survive in teamfights, play passively and lure and stun enemies into your turrets for the extra support.

Tower Buster Build

Jax is a split pushing champion, meaning that he will be in a sidelane taking towers while the rest of his team is applying pressure in another lane. This forces the enemy to make two unfavorable decisions:

1. Send a group of two or more to shut you down and risk losing a teamfight in a sidelane.

2. Ignore you and risk losing towers in a sidelane.

Since Jax is a dueling monster even with only a small kill lead and can easily 1v1 any champion, the pressure of him leaving his team to take towers in another lane (splitpushing) forces the enemy team to make one of the two choices above. The idea behind the Tower Buster build is that it will completely melt towers. Trinity Force was buffed in the 11.7 patch where its passive will stack against towers. Paired with the Demolish rune and Jax's splitpushing playstyle and ability, you will absolutely melt towers. You can even use this in the early game to take tower plating and gain a gold advantage over your opponent which will get you ahead of the game when it is time for you to splitpush. We build Trinity Force before BORK to have that tower destroying capabilty. Sheen (for Trinity Force) and Recurve Bow (when you build BORK second) are priority items.

Ability Spells

- Place Exhaust when against a burst champion. If they deliver their burst while Exhausted, it will reduce the damage received by 40%.
- Place Exhaust when an enemy champion is trying to escape to slow them down and secure the kill. This can also work if you are being chased to slow down the enemy and give you an opportunity to run further away.
- Flash to extend your Q range and leap on a champion much further away. You can use this while channeling your E to stun a champion further away as well.

Warding

- Place wards in optimal places for disengaging from a duel. You can use your ward to jump from a duel back to safety. Most effective early game.
- If you are running from an enemy and have nothing to jump onto, place your ward in the direction you want to go and quickly jump to it with your Q. This will give a nice distance between you and the enemy if you are quick enough.

Ability Combos

- Press E before you use your Q to jump on an enemy to immediately stun. Be sure to use your Q before your E times out.
- If you are against an AP Burst champion, try to predict when they will use the majority of their burst damage and pop your R to make most of your armor and resistance.
- Auto attack and then press W quickly after to deal extra damage and then reset your auto attack
- If your passive is not fully stacked or not stacked at all, in the laning phase, make sure to hit some minions to stack your passive before engaging in a duel so that you have max attack speed from the get-go and will not have to waste time building it while you are dueling.
- Use your E as early as you can during a duel so that it will be ready by the end. An exception to this is with AA reliant assassin champions in which you should save it for their all-in combos to make use of your E's dodge ability.

Rune and Item Tips

- Chasing or running away from an enemy champion can be helped by consuming a Corrupting Potion, as Time Warp Tonic will provide extra movement speed.
- Using a Corrupting Potion right before engaging in a duel will provide extra damage and a little healing during the engagement.
- When you hit low health, unless you are against a champion that has an executing ability against low health champions, do not disengage if your enemy is also on low health. You will most likely have a close scrape, but you will increase your chances of dying if you retreat and your enemy tries to chase you, especially if they are a ranged champion. Allow Last Stand to kick in. You will be surprised how many close scrape duels you will win. If you do not win close scrapes more than 2 times, it may be time to rethink your strategy and not go 1v1 with said champion anymore until you have help, or until you hit a powerspike.
- Auto attack in between your abilities! This is very important to stacking your Conqueror rune. The more you can stack your Conqueror rune, the more sustain you will have in battle. Jax already stacks Conqueror fast, but you can stack it even faster if you remember to auto attack between abilities.

Powerspikes

- Your first powerspike is when you unlock your ultimate. You will have greatly increased survivability when you unlock your ultimate, especially in 1v1.
- Blade of the Ruined King will be your second powerspike because of the variety of stats it provides. It is the most prioritized item on the list and will greatly help you with dueling.
- Your last powerspike is when you get Sterak's Gage. It provides so much health and shielding that it makes a huge difference when dueling. If you find that you are not surviving well, Sterak's Gage should be prioritized over other core items. Keep track of the ability on Sterak's Gage, it can be the deciding factor between you surviving a duel and losing.

Your Most Dangerous Enemy

Your most dangerous enemy is yourself. I see many Jax players becoming overconfident after they've been fed a few kills and take on the entire enemy team by themselves. This usually will turn out badly. Even if Jax is fed, you shouldn't be looking for Pentakills all game. Your goal is to split-push and continuously place pressure in two lanes. Yes, Jax can take on entire teams, but it shouldn't be his goal, and he certainly shouldn't leap into a 5v1 under enemy tower just because. Becoming overconfident after being fed a little will completely destroy your scaling.

Thank you for reading my guide! If you like what you saw in this guide feel free to check out my other guides (more coming soon).

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