Today, June 6, We lost a great summoner and awesome person by the name of Joe. Many of you know him from the Make a Wish visit he had to Riot HQ, and the subsequent sale of Jax in honor of his visit. He passed away today, and i just wanted to devote a little blurb to him in honor of him. May you rest in peace man, From one Jax player to another. I'll keep on playing Jax in your honor.

R.I.P

(i'll keep this up for awhile, not permanent though)

Here I will post what I'm working on to improve my guide, Things I have changed, etc.


FUTURE ADDITIONS (Coming Soon)

-More in depth look at mastery choices and why they are the best choice (Finished!)

-Matchup Chapter for common solo tops (Finally put in, more matchups to come!)

-More in-depth jungle guide

-Video commentaries (jungle coming tomorrow!)

CHANGE LOG

- (1/25/12) Added changelog and future additions chapter
- (1/25/12) Cleaned up the guide a bit

- (1/26/12) Changed chapter images to smaller images, should look a lot nicer!
- (1/26/12) Added more to Early Game and Mid Game chapters, and added more alternate build choices.
- (1/26/12) Added a more in depth Mastery choice!

- (1/30/12) Added a Common Solo Top Matchup chapter! (Will be expanded on in the future as well)

- (2/1/12) Updated Counter Strike with the new buffs. Also updated his ultimate duration buff

- (2/3/12) Added another viable Jungle build, and 3 more Solo top Matchups (Mordekaiser, Wukong, Tryndamere). Also Cleaned up various places and made the guide look better.

- (2/4/12) Added rune pictures, another viable rune page setup, reasons to take ghost over flash, and a teamfight chapter!

- (2/16/12) Laid groundwork for videos. Jungle video will be up soon, Recorded a mid lane Jax game as well, doesn't show much in terms of solo top matchups, but it will show off what Jax can do. Solo top vids will come after these two are uploaded.

- (2/22/12) Cleaned up the summoner spell chapter, added more detail in summoner choices, deleted promote as it's just a crap summoner all around.

- (2/28/12) Added Armor quints as a viable alternative, and updated skill order.

- (3/4/12) Added Fiora to solo top matchups section. Sorry about the wait for the videos guys, i should have a jungle video up tonight. Solo top matchups soon.
- (3/4/12) Moved Riven up to Stalemate/smart lane win section. With my runes and masteries and playing smart, you should beat her.

- (3/21/12) Added new core build with the update. Need some more testing, it's a very much work in progress, so the explanation isn't updated, but that build i've been having some success with.

- (3/23/12) Updated the Items section with a brand new Build and core! Also updated the masteries section, rune section, and teamfight section! Not everything is totally updated yet, some solo top matchups will change as well. Also the videos are coming, i did not forget about them and i apologize for not putting them up sooner.

- (3/24/12) Updated mid and late game sections, and updated the solo top matchups by moving garen, rumble and kennen to the winnable matchups and adding Vladimir to the hard matchups. Moved Teemo down a tier, as a really smart teemo can give trouble for Jax.

- (4/15/12) Added the first of many vids, no commentary yet, but i just thought to get it up there.
- (4/15/12) Updated Runes and Masteries a bit. I run Lifesteal Quints now and no more honor guard.

- (4/18/12) Added Teemo to hard list.

- (4/28/12) Will be going through some revisions lately as i take a closer look at some things. Vamp Quints are out and Back to either AD, Health, Health regen or AP quints. Just gave to little in early game to do anything.

- (4/29/12) Updated Item builds sections.
- (4/29/12) Added Solo top matchup Vs. Hecarim.

- (5/2/12) Added Maw of Malmortus and Abyssal Scepter to item builds sections, and cleaned up the solo top matchups sections a bit.

- (5/5/12) Completely rewrote the teamfights section. Added a lot more detail into it, specific scenarios and team comp builds. Going to update the Jungle section of my guide as well, give it more detail.

- (5/6/12) Updated item builds section with Atma's Impaler.
- (5/6/12) totally rewrote the jungle section, put up the first of my jungle matchups, skill orders, proper ward and ganking places, item builds and runes and mastery pages. More jungle matchups to come. Tell me what you think of it!

- (5/8/12) Added a special guest to my guide, Umashi! He's being playing Jax lately in high elo ranked and loves him. He wanted to share his opinion on him with y'all as well!

- (5/8/12) Featured! Thank you Umashi and Messiah!

- (5/8/12) Moved Pantheon to Stalemate/win lane. Should've done this long ago but just to lazy to update. You shit on Panth after level 6.

- (5/9/12) Redid his Core. Rageblade is no longer core, Guardian Angel is now core either before or after the TF, mostly after. Also updated the introduction a bit.

- (5/14/12) Cleaned up guide a little

- (5/27/12) Added Darius to the matchups section!

- (6/6/12) Cleaned up the runes and masteries section. Added new pictures, new runes and better explanations. Also cleaned up the summoner spell section a bit, getting rid of outdated information. Added the Empower nerf and my opinion on it in the opening chapter.
Added Jarvan IV to the solo top matchups section. Kennen video will come out tomorrow as well.
Added a new Jungle core build.

- (6/7/12) Cleaned up guide, removed wriggles from all matchup sections so there's no more confusion

- (6/12/12) Added Nautilus to the jungle matchup section. Also wanted to bump this guide on the front page for free Jax week. Will be checking this guide regularly if there's newbie questions to him.

- (6/13/12) Added Kayle, Nautilus, Talon, Malphite, Volibear, and Swain to solo top matchups section

- (7/24/12) Added Shen to the solo top matchups, also added a new mastery page.

- (8/22/12) Fixed the mastery set up not showing. Will be updating soon

- (10/6/12) Updated Masteries, Added ranked Screenshots, Updated Item Core. Will be adding more over the next week, along with a new video, updated top matchups (including the highly touted Jayce and Rengar!)

- (10/8/12) Added Jayce and Rengar to the solo top matchups section!

- (10/22/12) Moved Vladimir to the stalemate section. starting on reworking the solo tops chapter into a Tiered system.

- (10/24/12) Added a new Core build, Mastery, and rune page for Jungle Jax. Try it out guys, i'd like to hear opinions on it.

- (10/24/12) Moved the changelog to the top so now you don't have to scroll all the way down just to find out what's new.

- (11/18/12) Redid core. Deleted Umashi chapter as it's no longer viable (check out his guide for his opinion on jax!) Going to be extensively playing Jax on pbe to test out all the new items and combonations. Stay tuned!

- (12/7/12) The first of many updates. Everything is just barebones right now, Chapters aren't written yet, so just go by what i'm saying right now in the general stuff. Everything in the chapters section is outdated and will be updated within the week.

(1/17/13)- Redid core. Big update and ranked videos are almost done!

Jax has been my main champion ever since I started playing league half a year ago. I joined before the days of him being extremely OP, but the stories I heard intrigued me. He was the first champion I bought with RP and from then on he's been my go to champ for when I want to win.

Jax just underwent a total remake, courtesy of FeralPony. He's changed quite a lot now. Gone are the days of building straight offense on him and getting free health through his Passive. Now Jax needs to be built a bit more differently to do well, but in my opinion, he's in a MUCH better place then he was pre remake. He can still carry like a god, but now has a better laning phase against more matchups, and does more consistent in teamfights without having to rely on RNG for his stuns. He also can jungle amazingly well, and does better against magic champs because he doesn't have to rely on AA's for his stun. He's in a much better place now.





By request from some people, i finally bit the bullet and played ranked. People weren't taking my advice seriously because "lolunrankednoob" even though Umashi has given his opinion. So i decided for now to just hit gold. Might go for plat as well if i get bored enough.




Now you're probably asking yourself; "Why play Jax?"

- If you like to be in the thick of things and fighting up close

- If you like countering AD carries and Right click champs like Yi and Tryndamere.

- If you like being able to carry lategame and be able to put out massive amounts of damage really quickly

- If you like being the god of 1v1 dueling.


Those reasons should be good enough.

"But what counters Jax?"

- AD Casters like Renekton and to an extent GP give Jax a handful up top.

- Burst AP casters like Annie, Leblanc, Kassadin.

- Champions that can poke and have sustain like Yorick, Swain, WarWick, etc.


With Jax's remake, he got a better early game, so now you can fare better against more lane matches, and if you can survive with decent cs till level 6, start turning the tide of the matchup.


DRAVEN PATCH UPDATE:EMPOWER NERFS- This hurt. Not necessarily the place to hit, but it hurt him nonetheless. Personally, i would have just made Empower's mana cost scale per rank up, so Jax wouldn't have to spend almost no mana with harass post 6, but we'll see how Riot feels as the days go by. Make no mistake, this nerf did not break Jax whatsoever, he's still extremely strong.

UPDATE: Mastery choice has changed since the new update. You'll want to go a little more defensive now, for the earlier game tankiness. Since you'll be building basically glass cannon, go defensive since you'll be doing a ton of damage anyways, so why not be able to survive longer in lane? Also, the extra health, the extra movement speed, etc is a godsend with duels and chasing.





1/21/8

Let's take a more in-depth look shall we?

Hardiness: Mandatory, extra armor is always great, especially top lane when most of the time you'll be facing another AD

Resistance: Good to put one in here, but max it out instead of hardiness if you know you're going up against a magic champion.

Durability: Amazing Talent. Jax needs all the health he can get now, it's actually more important then armor and mr on him now with the ultimate change. Core talent.

Vigor: Great for in lane. More health regen=being able to stick in lane longer.

Indominatable: It may not seem like much, but early game harass this can mitigate damage from minions when you go in to harass. It's a flat 2 damage per, which is actually better then honor guard is at the early game for less talent points. Max it out.

Veteran's Scars: again, extra health is amazing. This coupled with health quints, you'll have an extra 100+ health at the start of the game. very good for Jax's laning phase.

Initiator: Very nice Talent. One of Jax's weaknesses is the ability for people to kite him around. This makes it harder for them to do so. Max this out as well.

Enlightenment: CDR is amazing on Jax. Allows you to Empower more, Leap Strike more, And have your ultimate up basically every teamfight and skirmish. Max this out.

Juggernaut: Again, Health is extremely important on Jax, so this mastery is amazing for him. Gives him the health to still be able to put up a fight without his ultimate, and makes Atma's impaler an even better item. Grab this.

OFFENSIVE TREE

Summoner's Wrath: Needed for the improvement on Ghost. If you're also taking ignite or exhaust, it's a must to have as well. Great mastery.


UTILITY TREE


Expanded Mind: This helps him out with his mana issues by giving him a little bit of an extra pool. This could mean the difference between an extra Empower, Leap strike, Counter strike, etc. Also it's ethier this or good hands, and unless you're planning on dying alot, this is the best choice.

Summoner's Insight: Take if you get teleport or Flash. If not, grab Improved Recall instead.

Swiftness: The main reason you're going into the Utility Tree. Perma 2% increased MS is nothing to sneeze at. With this, the MS mastery in defense, and MS quints, you'll have more then 350 MS at the start without boots. With boots start, you'll be packing a whopping 410 MS. That's amazing to get out of ganks and sticky situations.







21/9/0





More Offensive. Not AS viable as before, since you'll be going glass cannon already, but if you want all the damage, then go for it. Take the armor and health masteries in the defense tree for help in the laning phase. You'll do some great damage, but will be squishier without your ult. Will have to be more careful.

Runes are Attack Damage Reds, Armor Yellows, AP per level Blues, and Either AD, Flat Health, or MS Quints. The AD reds help with last hitting, trading in lane, and help a bit for your ultimate. Armor yellows is to survive in lane against AD bruisers, and AP per level blues are for more damage on Empowers, ult Passive Procs, and extra MR on your ultimate.

Many quints are viable on Jax. If you're kinda new to him and trying to get his Attack Swing and last hitting down, Take the AD quints to help you ease into it. Going up against a lane you know will be aggressive from the get go? Flat health helps with the early game harass really nice. I've been playing around with MS quints now, and by god, they are amazing for Jax. With the initiative mastery and these quints, you'll have 350 ms with no boots start, and over 400 ms with boots start. That's amazing for someone like Jax! Once you start getting him down, i recommend switching over to the MS quints for the added utility.

If you are going against a magic damage champion, then take health per level yellows and flat MR blues. I also recommend taking Flat or scaling MR if they have an AP jungler like Nautilus or Fiddlesticks.


"Why per level glyphs?"

Because AP per level glyphs are overall better for Jax. Jax scales into late game very well, as well as it helps his ultimate more and more as you grow in levels. You won't need the flat AP's damage until level 6 really, and by then the per levels have almost caught up.






more defensive oriented. If you feel like you're going to be focused or ganked alot, switch the ap blues for MR flats or scaling. Will help you survive more.

Teleport is a great utility spell. Every solo top should really run it, as it's great for helping out a team fight, dragon fight, setting up ganks, and getting from base to lane without missing any CS. This enables Jax to farm better and able to blue pill back, heal up, and get right back into the action.

Why take Ghost over Flash?

- Jax needs that chasing ability Ghost brings

- After counter strike, Jax really has no hard CC or built in slows to stick to his target. This helps his ganking ability and helps him stick to people that run away when his counter strike is up.

- Jax already has a sort of Flash in his Leap Strike ability. This is why Wriggle's is great on Jax. He can Leap Strike to any minion, Allied Champion, or Ward. So laying down a ward real quick then jumping to it is in itself a flash. Same with jumping to allies. Ghost also let's you get away from Bad
situations in conjuction with Counter Strike. Pop ghost, pop CS, then laugh as they blow gap closers to get to you, only to get stunned in the process.

-Ghost allows you to back off from a fight as well, whereas Flash basically makes you commit to a fight as soon as you blow it.

: Flash is still a very good summoner spell as well. If you want that instant gap closer/gap clearer then go for flash, or if you don't plan on having wards on you, then flash might be a better option for you to have so you can get over walls and ledges. Also, if your team has good cc, flash becomes a better option because you won't need that chasing ability as much.

Also works if you want to be more aggressive and bursty. The healing reduction is nice on solo top matchups like irelia, tryndamere and gangplank, so it's always nice to have if you want to have an aggressive lane.

great for winning solo top duels. Always make sure to pop this when you go in for the kill, as this makes jax even more feared as a duelist.

Jax is usually a heavy focus cc wise in teamfights. Being able to wreck squishes if left alone is Jax's forte, and most people know that. So most teams will usually blow cc on Jax to try and keep him off their squishes, Cleanse takes care of that nicely.

If you want to be aggressive in lane as well and keep healthy against your lane opponent, heal is now a viable option. Great to have if you're getting harassed a lot. I'd really consider this if you aren't going bilgewater cutlass or anything with sustain or health early.


Take if you're jungling. NO jungler should jungle without smite, period. Buff control, dragon control, baron control...it's just to good of a summoner spell to not take. If you plan on jungling and don't take this, you'll be in for a rough first jungle clear, then a rough game as the enemy jungler walks in and steals every dragon and baron you try.

This is the one spell that would be good on a champ like Jax, but exhaust and ignite outshine it still. You can still be kited and cc'd using this, and the Cooldown is really long. I'd still take teleport, exhaust or ignite before i touch this.

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



Jax's new passive. Every time Jax attacks an enemy he gains 4-10% increased attack speed (stacks up to 6 times). It's basically half of his old ultimate. It's nice to have in the early levels now as he can dish out more dps in trades, but it was nerfed by 40% and compared to his old passive it's kinda...lackluster.





Jax leaps towards a target. If it's an enemy, he attacks it and deals an additional 70/110/150/190/230 (+100% of Bonus attack damage) (+70% of ability power) magic damage.

Cooldown 10/9/8/7/6 seconds
Cost 65 mana
Range 700



Jax's gap closer and get the hell out ability. With the remake came a shorter CD and better base damage early game, but reduced ratios as now it only scales with bonus attack damage instead of total. This move defines good Jax's from bad ones. You can use this ability to jump onto wards, allied champs and allied minions as well. A good Jax will use this to get away from ganks and get out of sticky situations.

I usually grab this first against ranged opponents, maxing it second after Empower.




Jax charges his weapon with energy, causing his next attack to deal 40/75/110/145/180 (+60% ap) bonus magic damage.

Cooldown 7/6/5/4/3 seconds
Cost 30 mana



Jax's bread and butter skill. This ability is low cost, allows Jax to trade blows well, allows him to last hit under towers easier if need be, and combined with Leap strike or his ultimate can dish out some great burst damage. I max this one first because the short CD and high damage at the later levels are a better trade off then maxing leap strike first.




Jax enters a defensive stance, dodging all incoming basic attacks for 2.0 seconds, and reducing the damage of AoE attacks by 25%. At the end of the effect, Jax deals 50/75/100/125/150 (+0.5 bonus attack damage) physical damage and stuns nearby enemies for 1 second. This spell deals an additional 20% damage (up to 100%) for each attack dodged. This attack can now be ended early to deal the instant stun.

Cooldown 18/16/14/12/10
Cost 100 mana
Range 400


The biggy skill that got shined and polished up. Everyone was wondering what would happen to Counter Strike when dodge was taken out, and this is the result. Now instead of having a constant % chance to dodge an attack, Jax now has an on-demand 100% dodge rate for 1.5 seconds, then at the end of the duration he stuns everyone around him, increased by AD and how many attacks you dodged.


One thing to never underestimate is the damage component on it now. Early game if i'm going solo top against another melee, i'll take this first, AA the enemy champ, pop this as all his minions attack me, and pop off some very nice burst damage to him. Never underestimate the damage this can do in the early levels.

The one bad thing is this is now on a pretty long Cooldown until level 5, so use it wisely to set up some harassment or get away from ganks. It dodges on hit abilities like GP's q and such as well as Auto Attacks.

UPDATE: With the buff to Counter Strike, now you'll be able to pop off the stun MUCH easier. This buffed his jungle ganks, his teamfighting capabilities, and his mitigation with the reduced 25% AoE damage while he's dodging. It was a much needed buff, as Jax could still easily get blown up as soon as he jumps in a teamfight.



Passive: Every third consecutive attack deals an additional 100/160/220 (+0.7 ability power) magic damage.

Active: Jax Strengthens his Resolve, Gaining 25/35/45 Armor (+30% of your AD) and 25/35/45 Magic Resist(+20% of your Ability Power) For 8 seconds.

Cooldown 80 seconds

Cost 80 mana

Range 100




Jax's new Ultimate is a lot more Defense Oriented now then the old one. It's kinda like his old pre remake ultimate, but much better as it'll give more MR, and now adds Armor to the equation. This is the skill that makes Jax scary to take on 1v1 and what keeps him alive in a teamfight if he is focused. This was a huge buff for him, make no mistake about it. Lately, i've seen people throw around the "IT WAS A NERF CUZ NOW HE DOESN'T GET AS MUCH FREE GOLD STATS FROM HIS ULTIMATE!!! WAHHHH RIOT SUCKS!" Please don't listen to these people. They are either retarded, building him Metagolem still, or trolls who have no idea what this did for Jax. This allows him to build the damage that he lacked pre remake without the ultimate active, and still not get blown up in teamfights. It lasts 8 seconds, which in a teamfight is a LONG time. Also the 80 second cooldown is pretty short, and with the right masteries, it'll be even shorter.

as soon as a teamfight starts, jump onto the squishy and pop counterstrike. Once the enemy team starts focusing you, THEN pop your ultimate. Don't prepop your ultimate unless you are COMMITTING to a teamfight. Bad Jax's will pop this to early, the enemy team will see that and back off, and now he will be ultless, making him a prime target to hit.

Don't underestimate the passive on this ulti. Once you get your ult, you should be able to really start dishing out the damage. A great harass combo is to Auto attack twice, pop your Counter strike, Leap strike onto the champ, hit the stun and then pop your empower. your attack will deal the Empower damage ON TOP of the extra bonus magic damage of your third strike, dishing out some great damage before they can even retaliate if you timed your Counter Strike right.

VS Ranged: Max first, followed by , then , taking at 6, 11 and 16.

VS Melee: Max , then , finally and of course taking when possible.

"why Empower over Leapstrike?"

Because Empower is lowcost, resets your attack swing, and in the later ranks has a very short cd and high damage. If you're getting ganked a lot or pressured then take Leap strike for the reduced Cooldown, but other then that Empower is the way to go.

UPDATE: Put some more points into Counterstrike earlier, unless you need the reduced CD of Leap Strike. The reduced CD and extra damage of Counter Strike pays off more if you can stick to your opponents without using Leapstrike as a crutch. It also will allow you to win more duels and tradeoffs with the increased damage and decreased cd.

UPDATE: With the new ult change, Jax just turned into an amazing Teamfighter with it up. He can now go full glass cannon builds like before and still survive. This opened up a lot of new build paths, the rebirth of Hybrid Jax, and kinda the death of Tanky Dps Jax.

Start with against anything not AD. AD's start .

On your first back, you want to grab either and a against AD's, and against AP's .

So many of you are probably looking at the Nashor's Tooth and going "What the hell?" or "you just copied Umashi and Maknoon!" Partly true. Umashi and I have been testing out Nashor's for awhile now, he just got to the update before i did :p. And i'll admit it, i didn't give Nashors a try on Jax until Maknoon showed it off. To be honest, i never gave much thought to CDR on Jax. I was a fool. CDR is extremely amazing on Jax, and Nashor's shows it off as much as it can. the AS is great for ult procs, it gives a good amount of AP, and the CDR coupled with the CDR in the defense tree will give you lighting fast empowers, 4 second leap strikes, and the ability to counter strike twice in good teamfights, which is huge. Nashor's was underrated on him and now that i've been testing it thouroughly i can safely say its core on him.

So your first big item should be a , then a Vamp scepter for sustain, then the . After that, start working towards your TF. TF gives everything Jax needs. AD, Health, AP, Mana, AS, Crit, and MS. The Sheen proc makes your burst hit even harder. It's an amazing item on him that should always be apart of his core build. Rageblade isn't core on him anymore, as you won't really have time in teamfights to be able to ramp up the stacks, and a rageblade thats not ramped up isn't really worth it. With that extra money, you get a TF faster and a GA, which basically makes it GG as a Jax with a GA is basically just broken.

If you're getting bursted and focus fired, or don't have much initiation and need the GA earlier, get a Nashors, then GA, then focus on building TF.

UPDATE: Rageblade is still a great item on Jax, but there are times where you will not be able to jump in and stick to your target with just the Gunblade proc. If you are facing teams with lots of slows, CC, or kiting abilities, and you need burst damage/ slow procs more then sustained DPS, after the Gunblade go right into a phage>Sheen>Zeal and finish the trinity force, and just skip the Rageblade. After Trinity Force, go GA

After all those items, start going for a gunblade to finish it out.




Against balanced teams with good CC and/or kiting abilities, this item just doesn't hold up anymore. It's still a great item on him, don't get me wrong, but being melee, and being a high priority target to cc and attack, Jax won't be able to ramp up those stacks in a teamfight, making this item subpar. Skip it now, get your TF earlier, and get a GA at the end. You do a ton of damage with GB and TF, and GA makes you a god.

I'm actually really starting to love this on Jax against double AP teams. Skip the rageblade, after trinity force grab this, make sure to grab an early negatron if it's a problem, then keep it and build this after TF. Excellent item for Jax.

Also a good item. If you're going against say a burst caster top or an AP that can do damage quickly like say Swain, Ryze, Annie, kassadin and the likes, get this. just buy a vamp scepter after a dorans blade and use that for the sustain.

If you want the slow. always decent.

AD Jax has been rebirthed with this change. Heavy AD teams can be countered by you going Full AD and laughing as they do no damage to you with your ultimate up.

Still good, especially if you're going AD Jax, i'd rush this first. But it did get nerfed, and if you're going hybrid Jax, you'll have all the sustain you'll need with Bilgewater Cutlass and Gunblade.

Again, only if you decide to commit to AD Jax, get this.

AD Jax. Gives him the damage and lifesteal. Sell Wriggles for this later game.

AP Jax is now viable against AP heavy teams, so this is also a great item for him as the passive will still make his Auto Attacks hurt.

Like i said above, if you're going Mid Jax/AP Jax, this is a must have.


Meh, not as good on him anymore since the nerf. Working towards a trinity force will give him overall more damage and more effective health via his ultimate. If you decide to go Mallet on him, then grab this. But otherwise, i'd skip it.




Hell no.

This ult change was really the death of Tanky DPS Jax. Warmogs is no longer needed. Sure, youll be unkillable, but now you won't have your ultimate to dish out damage, so you'll be largely ignored.

AS Jax is still meh, and if you really want to do that, is better.

Like every Champ, Jax has his strong matchups and weak matchups. Here i will discuss his strong ones, stalemates, and weak matchups, and what to do with each.






-These matchups are lanes that Jax should win from the start, barring any jungler babysitting the lane.

- Passively farms, enabling Jax to also farm up, and harass whenever he can. When he goes to poison your creeps, start your counter strike, whack him, use empower, and then jump away on a creep before he can fling you. A farmed Jax is a lot scarier then a farmed singed.

START WITH: or

- Shyvana suffers from the same weakness Jax does, in the fact that she has no built in sustain. What Jax has over her, however, is CC, a gap closer, and the ability to deal quick damage and get out. By level 6, be wary of how much rage she has and surprise dragon ults. Don't engage her when she has her Burnout up, as you will eventually lose in that exchange thanks to her passive. If she uses it to clear minions waves, harass her as soon as it ends. Shyvana's push the lane easily, making it easier for your jungler to land some easy ganks.

START WITH:

- New champ time and boy is she fun to play against as Jax. You straight up hardcounter her. Early levels just focus on farming, as she will win trades in levels 1-3. Once level 4 comes around though, start bashing her skull in. Empower procs her riposte, but still does damage to her since it is magic damage, pop counter strike when she uses burst of speed to negate it, and laugh as you win every exchange because she can't hit you. Once level 6 rolls around, really start harassing her with your 2 hits on minions, then Leapstrike, empowered auto attack ultimate passive. You'll start doing some massive damage to her. The best part about this matchup? Counter Strike dodges her ultimate strikes! So once level 6 rolls around and she's stupid enough to duel with you, bait her burst of speed out, then q to a minion or fight it out, but don't use counter strike. Keep going at it with her until she either runs, or uses her ultimate. As soon as she uses her ultimate on you, pop counterstike and laugh as she misses all of her strikes except the first one. Fiora is also a strong champ, so you'll be seeing plenty of her as time goes on.

START WITH:




- Early game, she'll be able to freely harass you with her Q. Focus on farming until you can grab a Wriggle's. If she uses her Q to last hit minions, jump to her, pop your counter-strike, then see if she pops her shroud. If she does, let the stun go off and walk away. More often then not the stun will hit her, enabling you to leave. If she doesn't pop the shroud, hit her with a quick empower as well until she does, then get out. As time goes on, you should be able to start winning the lane.

START WITH:

- Another farm off. Just focus on farming when you can, and make sure to DODGE THOSE RUPTURES!!!! Cho's passive helps him big time in lane, so overall harassing him is a hard thing to do. A good cho will keep his mana to harass you when you come up to farm, so always be wary of a screech. If he misses a rupture on you, immediately pop your counterstrike, and do an Empowered Leap strike to him. Once the stun goes off, back off to your minions. What you want to do is try and make the cho waste his mana on farming creep waves via Rupture and Scream to get back health that you harass away. An OOM Cho is easy pickings in a duel. Once level 6 hits, be extremely wary for feast. Once he uses it on a creep, go in for a duel, using Counterstike>Leap strike>AA>Empower and ult passive and active. It should REALLY put the hurt on him.

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- Dodge those cleavers, and you should be golden. Mundo's love to harass via cleavers, so getting behind minions is imperative. Focus on farming at the start, harassing Mundo when possible. When he procs his burning Agony, get the hell away and let him try and chase you while draining his health. Also be wary of his Masochism, as it gives him great AD to duel with. Once you hit 6, you should be able to deal some great damage to him via harass and making him pop his ulti to regenerate. As long as you dodge those cleavers and focus on farming and being smart with when you harass, the lane should go in your favor.

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- He WILL beat you early game. Make no mistake about this. A smart GP will harass the hell out of you with Parley, making you play very passively. The only advantage this gives you is that as long as GP is harassing you with Parley, he isn't farming to his full potential. There's two scenarios that can happen: Either GP harasses you constantly, which means you need to play as passive as possible, focusing on farming and getting that bilgewater, or GP plays passive, focusing on farming using parley himself. If he does this, get as much harass as you can on him. Every time he q's a minion, combo him. If he pops his E, back off. Once level 6+ rolls around, and you grab your bilgewater, you should start to turn around the lane if you played smart early on. Your overall damage output increases dramtically at 6, while his really doesn't unless you're standing in his ult. This is when you can start freely harassing him, dueling him and being aggressive. If you start to fight him and he pops his ulti on you, get the hell out of it unless you KNOW you can kill him, which is usually not often. Leap strike onto a minion, run out, etc and live to fight another day. It will be much easier to kill him knowing his Ult is down.

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- This is just a farm fest. She has more sustain then you early on, so just focus on farming until you get your Bilgewater Cutlass. If Ire has any brains, she'll try to farm as well, so just stick to the farming until level 6. If she tries to instigate anything, pop your Counterstike and hit her with an empower. Be wary of her W being up.

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- Harass, Harass, Harass. This matchup is all about screwing with the Nasus. Any Nasus with a brain will realize he has to farm his Q to be relevant late game. Early game you have the upper hand with your damage, make him pay every time he q's. The bad thing is Nasus has a built in exhaust, which sucks for a champ like Jax, but make him blow it on you, harass him, make him waste mana, etc. His passive gives him some nice sustain, but if he's constantly getting harassed, then he won't have time to use it to good use. Once level 6 rolls around, you have great harass output. Combo him, make him pay, then get out. You can't duel with a nasus that has an ulti and wither up unless you have a gunblade.

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- Early game harass him whenever he Q's a minion wave. Your Counter Strike negates all damage done by his Ruthless Predator, but does not negate the stun. Good thing is this abiltiy technically stuns renekton as well, and after the ability is up, he gets stunned by your Counter Strike right after. Focus on farming, paying attention to when he Q's, or when He starts to E towards you. This is a sign he's going to Stun you, so make sure you have Counter Strike ready. Renekton has to win his lane really to be relevant later on, so if you can survive the harassment until you grab a dorans and bilgewater, you should be able to beat him with ease. DON'T FIGHT HIM WHEN HE'S ULTED!

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- You should win the harassment if he tries anything, seeing as how udyr's tiger stance gives you some nice dodges on you counter strike, giving you more damage when it ends. Beat him into farming with turtle stance, then just start farming yourself. You really can't beat him out of lane, but you can make him passive.

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- Harass him early. At first, the lane is a stalemate. Everytime you can, harass him when his rage is low. When he pops his Mocking Shout, Jump away on a minion for the duration. You want to keep harassing him, making him pop his Q over and over again to heal. Once you hit 6, start really going at him. He has his ult, but Jax straight up counters people like tryndamere. Once you grab your cutlass, you should win this fight. Max counter strike first, because you'll need it.


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- Harass him before he harasses you. His EQW combo hurts, but Wukong suffers from the same drawbacks Jax has. No built in sustain. Harass him as much as you can, make him pop his clone, get him before he gets you. The one who harasses more in lane will be the winner. Q to him, auto attack, empower, then pop counter strike to get the most damage out of his minions that will be focusing you. If he's smart, he'll pop his clone, enabling you to either guess which way he's going (usually retreating or into the bushes) or to walk back to your creeps unharmed.

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- She hurts, a lot. Whenever she starts her Q combo, back off until it's done, then go in for harass. A good Riven will wait until you're up close, stun you, then go off on you with her Q's. If this happens, pop counter strike and back off, this minimizes the damage she does, and should make her back off. If it doesn't, once the stun goes off on her, hit her with a quick Q+W combo then back off. You have to play smart with this matchup, and find your openings to harass her. If you can get out of this matchup with a decent cs and or/matched with her, later on you should be able to overtake her.

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- Playing a lot more Garen's recently, and i've noticed that actually Jax does well against him. I was wrong with this matchup at first. The biggie that i noticed is Counter Strike actually Dodges all Damage from His Q, and makes his Spin to Win 25% less effective because it's AoE. That's a HUGE counter to garen, as that's a lot of damage you can avoid with just a single skill. Garen's silence will still go off, but no damage will be done to you. Harass him early, take Counter Strike first, and everytime he charges up to you, pop it, let him hit you, then follow him around and harass him. When he spins, back off, if you can't, then pop counter strike to mitigate as much damage as you can. Once you hit level 6, start harassing the hell out of him. If he tries to Q you, again, pop counter strike and commit to a fight. Garen won't beat you.

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- This matchup is all about positioning and playing smart. A smart Jax will turn this either into his favor or into a stalemate, depending on how good the kennen is. The trick here is to NOT GET HIT BY SHURIKINS!!!!!! Trust me, you'll have a hard hard time against kennen if he can keep hitting you with his q, because then that's just free harass with his E as well without wasting an Auto attack passive on you. focus on farming up until level 6, when you can try some harass. Make sure your always behind your minions, if he focuses on harassing you, you'll be beating him in CS, as Kennen won't hurt you that much in the early levels, unless you get hit by his Q repeatedly, then you'll be in for a rough ride. but if all the kennen has going for him is getting marks on you by waiting for his passive AA shuriken to hit you, then hit E, that's not much damage, and he's losing CS by pushing the lane and focusing on you. Like i said, get to 6, then try to go for some harass. This is where you find good kennens and bad kennens. When you go for a harass combo, you'll need counter strike to do some damage. jump onto him, pop counter strike, then hit it again as soon as he goes into his cocaine ball. Now watch what the Kennen does, if he uses E, then backs off to a safe distance and hits you with Q, it's a pretty decent kennen, and you'll have to focus on farming more then harass. If he backs off, doesn't even use E or Q, then it's a bad kennen and you'll have fun with him.

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- Another Champ i was wrong about. I honestly have a confession here, when i wrote this guide the first time and put Rumble in the hard lane matchups, I was thinking pre remake Jax. Pre-remake Jax had a hard time with Rumble, new Jax does not. Case in point: Counter Strike is again a godsend for you. His flamespitter barely touches you when it's up, so don't be afraid to get aggressive with him from the start. What i usually do is level one fight him. hit him once, get minion aggro, pop counter strike as he thinks flamespitter will do damage to me, then laugh as a huge chunk of his health disappears. Don't get hit by harpoons, and you will be golden. Again, level 6 is the level to start really bringing the pain on him via your two hit minion leap strike empower passive proc combo. NEVER DUEL HIM IN HIS ULTIMATE!

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- Again, another lane that you have to play very smart to come out on top. This is also all about dodging skill shots. If you can't dodge Undertow, you'll have a very hard lane. If you can, grats, you can hold your own against Olaf. Don't try to take him head on from full health on, his true damage is a bitch to take. What you have to do is pop in and out, whittling his health down, to the point where you can hold your own against him. When you commit to a duel, don't pop counterstrike until he pops his vicious strikes, so look for the signs. This mitigates as much spell vamp and lifesteal as you can. Once level 6 rolls around, it'll be easier to harass him, but watch committing to a duel as Ragnarok is a death wish to you.

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- He can freely spear you, freely harass you, and his passive blocks your AA's, your Q, your W, anything you got. Play as passive as possible unless he's farming with his Q. Then he's a bad Pantheon and you should destroy him once you get the chance. Once level 6 rolls around, you'll be able to start destroying him in lane, as long as you kept up with him in CS. Panth scales horrible unless he's fed out the ass, so you outscale him big time. He also can't keep up with your harass after level 6. Just survive till 6, then the lane is yours.

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- This matchup will be changing here soon as i get more information. I haven't faced many Darius' top as Jax yet, but from what I've played so far you beat him in lane after 6. You both have the no sustain thing going on, but you output more damage then he does, and get as tanky then him later on as well. Be wary of his Q spam early on as you try to cs, as it does hurt and applies his passive, which can hurt like a bitch as well. Your counter strike negates the damage on his W, but doesn't negate the passive. you can trade with him nicely with counterstrike, but early on you get beat until level 6. Once you hit 6, start really putting the pain on him via harass. he can't outduel you if he tries to fight. Beware of his ultimate though, do not go in for a fight when you have 2 or more stacks on you already, or you'll prolly end up dead

- Pre-6, he will beat you. He has better harass then you, a Good steroid, and cc/shield that will make it hard to trade with him. Don't get in sights of his E>Q knockup combo, as early game it's devastating. Keep on the move, and cs as well as you can. If he does come close, hit him with an AA>Empower>then counter strike for minion aggro and extra CS damage, then follow him as he retreats and hit him with it. After, run away before he retaliates. If the Jarvan is smart, he'll just poke you down with Q, then go in for the kill with E>Q when you're low enough. Keep on the move at all times and try to predict when he will poke you with Q, and dodge it. Once level 6 comes along, your damage outdoes his. Start with the 2 hit minions then leap strike>Empowered ult proc, and just whittle him down to where you're comfortable enough to go in for the kill. Your harass and burst>His, and you'll be able to outduel him easily. Beware of diving him after 6, for ultis under tower aren't fun. Pack flash instead of ghost in this matchup, you'll need it.

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- Shes starting to get more popular now top lane, and Jax is a good counter to her. Be aggressive early on, don't let her freely harass you. When she Q's you and starts to AA you using Holy Fervor, Don't be afraid to jump on her and take the fight to her. Your counter strike dodges her Holy fervor AA's, and if you get it off early, itl make the extra bonus damage from Q very very minute. Kayle hates people with gap closers and people that she cant kite. Jax is both of those wrapped up into one. She's squishy early on, abuse that. Post level 6, harass her everytime you can with her combo, and you'll win lane with ease.

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- This matchup can be a bitch if they have a good dps jungler/ganking jungler. Solo top Nauti sucks hard. You beat him in lane, but the real problem is his limitless amount of CC that will make you a tasty meal for the enemy jungler. Your counter strike doesnt dodge his passive, but it makes his AoE deal less damage. He's squishy early on, abuse that and be aggressive with him. Most nauti's will just try to farm lane and become an immovable object, so the trick is to keep an eye on him. The second he becomes aggressive? Get out, it means his jungler is there. Once level 6 comes around, really take the hurt to him. Don't let him get his cs and become an immovable object.

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- He's an easy matchup, but be cautious as if he gets an early kill of you, hel start to kick your ass. Be cautious of jungler ganks, but other then that be aggressive with him. Try not to take to much rake harass. If he uses rake often, wait until he gets low on mana, then go in and really give him the pain. Noob Talons

- this has been a long time coming. I apologize for taking so long on Shen considering how popular he can be. For Shen, he's going to kick your ass early game, make no mistake about it. Jax has mana problems early and no sustain. Shen has sustain and energy, which is great for laning phase and early game. Every time you come to cs, you'll take a vorpal blade+ki strike to the face, and if you try to trade with him, he will come out on top everytime. He just beats you early. Try to farm and go defensive, getting as much cs as you can. Call for jungler help early as well, try to get an advantage on Shen. If he doesn't press the attack in your vulnerable levels, you'll end up kicking his ass once level 6 rolls around and you start doing more damage then him. double dorans and vamp scepter is a must asap against him.

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- Can be a hard matchup, or easy matchup depending on how you play this and how he plays this. AD Rengar can be beaten once level 6 rolls around. Early game before hand? He can beat you for the sole fact of Manaless sustain. His early game burst is pretty godly, and even if you try to zone him out and be aggressive, he can just stay in bush and abuse his passive for last hits on minion creeps. Good thing? Your Counter Strike dodges his Q damage, but it's hard to time for the simple fact that it's an AA reset and instant, but keep this in mind as you go up against him. When you go for bullying or harass, make sure to do it quickly and get out. Early game with his W up, Rengar will outduel you. Stay up in farm till level 6, and you should start putting the hurt on him. If you can manage a kill or gank early game and set him back on his heels, you will snowball with ease. AP Rengar i have never faced, so i cant comment on that.

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- A hard lane for the sole fact that he can sustain and is ranged. You can win this lane if you're aggressive from the get go with him, and he tries to duel you early. Abuse the bushes for this matchup, Level Q at level one, and jump on him early. Most vlads won't know what to do when you get aggressive level 1, since they'l have Q 99/100. If you can get an advantage early against him, an early kill, an early jungler gank, etc, you can kick his ass and snowball against him.

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- He sustains better then you, deals early game damage better then you, and is bulkier then you. The best you can do here is keep dodging his Q's, and farming. Once 6 rolls around, you can start trying with the harass.

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- Cry. Im serious, a decent Yorick will zone you, harass you, and beat the hell out of you, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it. Farm under tower, or call for a lane switch. Yorick is a terrible matchup for Jax.

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- At best, you will stalemate with warwick. You won't be able to push him out of lane, so focus on farming. He will be able to harass you easily with Q, which really sucks. There's not much you can do about this matchup, he just has the sustain that you don't. Try and harass him at level 6, make him waste Q just to heal and go oom. Once you get some sustain, you can keep up with him

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- VERY hard lane. all morde will do is push push push, and deny you from farming with his E. Let him waste it on minions, and then when his E is down and his shield is low, harass him, then walk away. Good thing about Mordes is that they push like no tomorrow, enabling your jungler to get the jump on them. Focus on defensive and farming under tower until level 6. Once you hit 6, start harassing him whenever his shield is low. Don't get into a duel with him unless you know you can kill him before he kills you, as a Morde with ult, ignite, and his full combo does a LOT of damage.

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-Yeah, yeah, climbing dat elo, i've noticed that you guys were right about this matchup. A well played Teemo can beat the hell out of a Jax, especially if they're really aggressive. You'll need a lot of jungler help on this guy, try and farm as much as you can, he'll push tower a lot, opening him up to ganks. Play defensively until you can grab a bilegwater, then try to harass. I'd buy double dorans with this matchup as well. Credit goes to my friend Kevinwakawaka who's the Teemo master and convinced me to finally change this after much thought. He'll be even more annoying now with the buffs he got this patch.

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- Fuck this guy. No seriously, Fuck him. a good malphite will kick your ass up and down the lane. His Q hurts, slows you so you can't retailiate, and is magic damage, making it harder to counter early on. Decide to go in and try to harass? Lolno, lemme just slow you with my huge AS debuff, while kicking your ass with the extra damage i get from stacking armor. Oh, you baited it? Who cares, i still have my passive that blocks a nice chunk of damage, not to mention brutal strikes and my Q. This matchup is terrible for Jax. A champ that stacks armor, has an AS debuff, and is hard to kill? No thank you. Just try to farm and call for jungler ganks early. If you can get a leg up on him, you will fare better. Focus on building burst damage over AA damage, since the AS debuff and armor stacking will kill most of your physical damage.

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- Another hard lane just for the fact that Voli does good damage while building tanky. He deals good burst, can set up jungler ganks real well, and has a nice bait passive that will fool you the first couple times you face him. Just try to farm, and fight back if he does try to harass. Watch for his flip, as that's usually a tell tale sign that the enemy jungler is about to converge on you. Once you hit level 6, you can start harassing better, but by the time that comes around he'll be tanky as hell. Just focus on csing and hope he isnt aggressive and his jungler stays away.

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- Lol, good luck with this lane. Swain destroys Jax from the get go. go up to last hit a minion? Take an E to the face, plus a couple Auto Attacks that do more damage because of E'd passive effect from level 1. Once he hits 3? Try going up to a minion and not taking a Torment and Lazer bird to the face. If he lands a nevermove? GG, you're dead. Swain just absolutely shits on Jax. IF you can get an early jungler gank and kill swain early, you CAN snowball ahead of him and end up dealing more damage then he does to you. But if not? You'll be in for the hardest lane Jax can have. Unless the Swain is stupid and doesnt harass you every time he can. If he plays passive, FOCUS ON FARMING THROUGH LEVELS 1-5 EXCLUSIVELY, DONT TRY TO HARASS. DONT PROVOKE HIM, LET HIM PLAY PASSIVELY. If he lets you farm and only minor harasses you to where you can cs properly, then once you hit level 6 with some dorans and vamp, you can start out trading him via burst, and make him use his ultimate to lifesteal back, making him run out of mana. Most Swains wont let you get anywhere near creeps without taking a lazerbird and torment to the face though, so most times you might wanna go middle, you'd prolly fare better there.

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- This guys a bitch. Right now Jayce is the king of top lane, with really no counters to his amazing utility and lane presence. He has so much utility that it's almost impossible to effectivly lane against him. Abuse the bushes here and only come out to last hit, and pray to god he doesn't ward them. Just focus on farming as much as you can and call for early jungler help. If the Jayce has a brain, he'll be harassing you every chance he can get, and hitting you with hammer form E every time he has a chance, which does percent magic damage so it hurts. If you can get the jump on him early game, and that is a HUGE IF, you can outscale him by level 8-9 and start to win trades. Or if he is hesistant to harass or commit to fights, this gives you the chance to do some harass of your own or keep up in farm. Jayce has no innate sustain, so if you see and openings to put the hurt on him, do so then back off quickly before he can retaliate with hammer form. Once level 6 rolls around, start harassing him when you get the chance. YOU MUST DODGE Q+GATE SHOTS OR YOU WILL LOSE THIS LANE, PERIOD. YOU MUST STAY ON YOUR TOES!

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-Early game you want to be focused on farming. Poke enemy champs with an Auto Attack and then Empower when they come up to CS, but don't overdo it. Make sure and use your Counter Strike at opportune times as well. You want to be able to just survive until level 6.

-Once you hit 6, your damage will increase big time. This is when you can start harassing the enemy laner with ease, and start to zone them. When your Counter Strike is up, Auto Attack a minion twice (or two quick last hits), pop your Counter strike, then Q over to the enemy champion. If you time the CS right, you should stun them as soon as you land on top of them. As they are stunned, Hit your Empower for some massive burst damage via Empower and your ulti passive. Then either run back before they retaliate or keep bashing them if you think you are strong enough to duel them and come out on top.

-One more time, FARM FARM FARM!!!!!

-Always look for gank opportunities with teleport. Bot lane is pushed up to your allied tower? Teleport in on a ward from the bush behind them, and go to town on the AD carry. The burst you put out post 6 should be devastating with your teammate's help.

- Now you should be getting farmed and teamfights should start breaking out soon. You should have your gunblade completed, and working towards your Guinsoos. Don't ever forget about the gunblade active, it's amazing for chasing and dealing that last bit of damage. Teleport allows you to still keep farming and pushing lanes while keeping tabs on your team. If anything breaks out, teleport in.

- Mid game teamfights, your job is to jump on that AD carry and beat them into submission. Jump onto them, then pop Counter strike and your ultimate to mitigate as much damage as possible, and start wailing on them. Blow Counter Strike early if you think they will try and blow something to get away from you, stick on them as much as you can. If they blow flash, use your Gunblade active and pop ghost. They won't be able to ditch you. Everytime Empower is up, keep using it. That low cooldown is amazing for sustained dps now.

- You want to target squishies with your W+Q+E Combo, hitting W everytime it's up.

-If you can, try and charge up your passive stacks on minions before you jump in on a teamfight. It ramps up your dps from the get go, allowing more damage, more ult passive procs, and more lifesteal, which can save your life.

-Jax is also a pushing machine. His Counter Strike can clear minion waves extremely quick, not to mention his fast attacks and damage with his ult passive. Jax can take a tower down very very quickly with full passive stacks and some damage items. This is a good reason for taking teleport, as you can be split pushing a lane, but teleport in when your team needs you.

Once Late game rolls around, you should start becoming a terror that rivals old Jax in carrying style. Actually, New Jax can teamfight BETTER then old Jax (thats right, i said it. He's more consistent in teamfights and doesn't have to rely on RNG procs for his stuns and dodges anymore, not to mention a better defensive steroid.) With Gunblade, Guinsoo's, and Atma's, you'll be dealing out a TON of punishment, and be extremely tanky with your ultimate up, able to survive the hardest of bursts. When the teamfight starts, jump onto the enemy AD carry or AP carry, AD carry preferred, and start whaling o them. For extra burst damage, don't forget to use your gunblade active, as that basically makes it almost impossible for them to get away from you without blowing flash or having someone try and peel you off of them. With the new ultimate, your sustained damage just shot through the roof since you are able to buy damage damage damage and still survive. Keep ramping up your passive and guinsoo stacks, and once the AD carry is out of the fight, either move onto the next squishy, or try to help out your own squishies by jumping onto anyone who's on top of them and popping counter strike to get your squishy time to get out, and try to get the enemy to focus you.

Since Empower resets the auto attack swing, use it to ramp up your passive stacks even quicker, since it's a 3 second CD at max rank.

Always remember to pot up as necessary. Priority is . Reason for this is Red gives you Health and damage, which is always needed since you're melee. Blue pots give you more damage on Empower And your ult, which is great, but not as important as health and damage. Agility is more conveinence then anything, as it does synergize with your passive.



Also: A tip.

- JAX IS NOT AN INITIATOR! DON'T THINK THAT YOU ARE A GOD BY BEING ABLE TO LEAP STRIKE INTO THE TEAM AND POPPING COUNTER STRIKE! YOU WILL GET CC'D AND DESTROYED, AND THEN YOUR DAMAGE IS GONE! DON'T PICK JAX THINKING HE CAN INITIATE, HE SHOULD NEVER DO IT UNLESS IT'S A DUEL!

Playing Jax well in a teamfight can make or break you. Knowing when to jump in, when to use your ultimate, when to pop your counterstrike, when to pop your gunblade active....all of those things require timing and knowing what your enemy team comp and playstyle up to that teamfight has been.

Let's break it down some, because a getting into a good position and knowing when to go in as Jax is CRUCIAL.



- Yummy, you will become a wrecking ball with this. Play this super aggressively, not being afraid to jump into the fray and initiate with your ultimate active+counter strike onto their AD or AP carry. A jax that can't be cc'd or kited is a very, very, scary thing. If you have initiation on your team, let them start the fight, then immediately Leap strike onto either the AD or AP carry, preferably the AD carry. As soon as you land, use your gunblade Active and immediately pop counter strike. They will try to run or flash away, but the Active on gunblade will still keep them in range of you by the time counter strike is up, if you played it right. Once counter strike goes off, pop your ultimate active, as you can usually wait longer to pop it against no cc teams because you won't get chained CC'd. If you get focus fired earlier though, pop your ultimate as soon as you leap strike.

Your burst damage is massive, and with the lack of CC, you'll be sticking onto the squishy like no tomorrow. They'll go down extremely quickly. After they are dead, you have plenty of options depending on how the fight has gone. If their AP carry is still up, get on top of him and start bashing his skull in, making sure to pop counter strike when it's up so he can't get away. If the AP carry is dead and gone, clean up duty is required. If you AD carry is getting molested by a tanky dps of some sort, pop your counter strike, leap strike onto the enemy, and immediately end the cs for the stun. This allows your AD carry a small window to put some space between him and the enemy, and if you get a TF/phage slow proc, it'll make it harder for the tanky dps to get to him. This will make him turn his attention towards you, or run. Either scenario is bad for him, as a late game Jax is a big no no to fight against without help. As always, if your Bot lane shut down their AD carry, then consider going after the AP carry instead. Whoever is the biggest threat to your team, shut them down.




This is a bit trickier, and what seperates the good jax's, from the GREAT Jax's (badum tsh). A Jax that is CC'd to hell and back, won't do much in a teamfight. This is where I focus more on Burst damage with Jax, and not sustained damage, as you WILL be a high priority target to CC. Drop the Rageblade for an Early Sheen and Phage for maximum burst damage. After you finish Trinity, go either Abyssal or GA. This is where you have to time when you go into a teamfight correctly. DO NOT INITIATE, LET YOUR TEAM INITATE FOR YOU. Teams like this are where Ghost comes in really handy.

Let your team initiate, then WAIT for some CC to be blown. As soon as you see an Opening onto one of their squishies, Pop your ultimate, then Counterstrike, Then do an Empowered Leap strike combo onto them, You want to do as much burst damage as you can at once. As soon as you land onto their squishy, Immediately end the stun and pop ghost. Start whaling on them and wait for the inevitable peel/CC. As soon as you get it, Activate your gunblade onto the squishy, and start moving towards them. Ghost and the slow from GB will keep them in your sights. Leap strike onto them in neccessary as well, since it only has a 5 second cd with masteries and max rank. The advantage here is that if you built right, you will have already done MASSIVE damage to the enemy carry, before he could have even gotten away. Since you built more bursty, once they start throwing CC your way, it will be to little to late, as either A: you've killed the carry, or B: you've taken them basically out of the fight, having to blow flash over a wall and running for the hills. So basically the CC used on you was worthless. Meanwhile, your AD and AP carries are tearing them all a new one because they focused you when they shouldn't have.

An important thing to note here is that Taking a Carry out of the fight is almost as good as killing them. If they're extremely low and can't fight anymore, there is no use chasing them and abandoning your team. Let them run, Jump onto the AP carry, and make him sweat. If the AD carry comes back, he'll be extremely low, and a prime target for a W+Q burst.




The good thing about Jax, is he is very flexible when it comes to his builds. He's hard to counter build against, because His ultimate passive and Empower both deal magic damage, while Counter strike, Leap strike, and AA's do Physical. You counter his physical part, he'll build more AP and Burst. You counter his Magic, he'll build more physical and sustained.

He also has an advantage of being able to counter build others more effectively then most champions can, as his ultimate gives him bonus armor and MR based on how much bonus AD and AP he has. Enemy team really Physical heavy? build a BT after Gunblade, do more AA and Leap Strike damage, and get a ton of Bonus Armor from your ultimate. More magical? go Gunblade>Phage>Abyssal scepter or Maw>gunblade>Abyssal, and laugh as their burst does basically nothing to you, while your ultimate passive and Empowers hit like a truck. Build to counter your enemy. Most times though, you will want to go Hybrid because most teams are not like this.

Jax is a good jungler now. Good clear time, stays healthy in the jungle, and good ganks IF YOU CAN TIME HIS COUNTER STRIKE RIGHT! <<<< THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR JUNGLE JAXES TO LEARN!

Pros to Jungle Jax:
-Good ganks if timed right
-Good Burst
-Can Clear relatively well
-Can dragon very well after 6
-Can snowball real well
-Great at dueling other junglers counter jungling wise.

Cons to Jungle Jax:
-Only form of CC is on a relatively long Cooldown at the start, and can be mistimed.
-Can't really stick to targets without redbuff
-can fall behind if you don't get many successful ganks.

There are many ways to build Jungle Jax:


CORE #1: [imgext=]

This is basically the safe way to build Jungle Jax. It gives him good sustain in the jungle, very fast clear times with wriggles, extremely fast dragon and baron clears, good dueling potential, and safe ganks. This is what i started out with, and it works. As soon as you can, sell the wriggles for a phage or sheen.

CORE #2: OR OR into

Alright, you may be thinking "has Paintball gone mad?" But hear me out on this build. I have been testing different set ups and comps for jungle Jax for awhile now. The biggest con of jungle Jax is falling off hard if you don't get fed out the ass with kills. So i've been trying to make up a build that plays to Jax's strengths, while being easier to build and more benificiary to the team if he doesn't get fed. This build does this. The GP/10's help with gold income, Wit's End gives him AS and MR he loves, FH gives him CDR and the AS debuff, Shurelias gives him even more CDR, Health, and the amazing active to chase or decommit, and Zeke's gives him AS and Lifesteal. This allows you to stay tanky. Your burst damage won't be as good as lane Jax, but your sustained damage will still be rediculous with the 2 second empowers and ult passive procs. This still makes you a force to be reckoned with, and allows you to also contribute to the team via the FH debuff and aura items. Try it out, tell me what you think.



If you want some firepower early, grab a doran's on your first back then go gank. Usually you don't need one for ganks though if your lanes are smart.

It's still good on him, but usually Jungle Jax can't really afford to put it in his build. He needs more burst damage for ganks. If you're counterjungling more though, then it's a solid item.

I get this as one of my last items. Very good item.

If against a heavy AD team or against junglers like Fiora or someone who's a good duelist. Good item for that.

Against an AP jungler or double AP comp? Very good item for that.





- Very easy to have your way with. Counter jungle the hell out of him, and if you find him in his jungle, kill him. Be wary after level 6 though, as he can stick to you and keep you there for his lanes to collapse on you. Other then that, make his life hell. Amu is very predictable jungle wise. I suggest taking his wraiths and red at the start, or taking wolves/blue, then wait at his red and kill him when he gets there. Very easy to counterjungle.

START WITH: or

- He's more of a ganker then anything. You can counter jungle him very well, but be wary of his ability to keep you in his jungle until help arrives. Counter jungle and Counter gank him as much as you can before level 6. Once level 6 arrives, he'll be much harder to kill in his jungle with his ultimate up. Before that though, he is squishy. Clears slow first clear, but usually hits level 2 then looks for a gank. Steal his red and caution your lanes to play it safe as not to feed him. If he tries for a full jungle clear, kill him at his red.

START WITH: or

- Cho is very safe in his jungle. He clears well, has good sustain, and can get out of trouble with well placed Ruptures and silences. The downside to cho is his ganks can be missed and his jungle path is predictable like amu's. He's weak pre 6, so if you feel like counter jungling the hell out of him, or try to kill him in his jungle, by all means do it. It keeps him in check. Just be able to dodge ruptures, or you might have a hard time. Once level 6 rolls around, be wary of his burst, and being able to keep you in his jungle with knockup, slow, and silence.

START WITH:

- Mundo is a bitch. He clears fast, he counter jungles like a boss, he can gank like a boss, and post-6, duel like a boss. The downside to mundo is his jungle isn't safe at the start, and he can be beaten in duels pre 6. He usually starts red, or your red. Make sure to drop a ward at your red and see if you can catch him calling. If you can, jump on him and surprise him. Alot of mundo's also start boots, pots, take blue then mosey on over to your red and take it before you get there since he jungles so quick. Having a ward at red entrance or the bush right by red is a godsend. He is killable before 6, so don't be afraid to invade him and take the fight to him. Especially if you can get him in his jungle on his first clear, or if he tries to level 2 gank somewhere. He'll usually be low and able to be killed. Most mundos also pack exhaust, so he can be a bitch to fight. Try and get the jump on him early and set him back. Make sure to ward your jungle as well, you'll need it.

START WITH: or

- make his life hell. Counter jungle the hell out of him, catch him at his red and kill him, beat him to a pulp everytime you find him...Fidds just isn't the best jungler right now. He can't duel well, he can't counter jungle, he's slow even in his own jungle, he's way to reliant on blue. Hell, depending on team comp, i'd invade and take his blue. A fidds with now blue is horrible. Such an easy matchup.

START WITH:

- He's one of the more harder matchups. He ganks early like a boss, can duel like a boss, and can counter jungle pretty well. Early game don't get caught in his jungle, as he can usually win the duel. Counter jungle him if you can, but don't get caught in his jungle. Ward up your entrances as well, if you can catch him and kill him early, it'll set him behind. Lee needs kills early game, or he falls off.

START WITH: or

- You can counter jungle him very well. He's blue reliant his first clear, so grab his red early if you want, or wait there and kill him as he comes calling. some maokai's start wraiths, killing them extremely quickly with sapling build ups. You want to hinder his early game clear a bit? Go over there, pop them, then run out. It'll hurt it a bit. Be wary of his dueling in the jungle though, he does do some damage with WEQ combo, it also makes you stick in his jungle, enabling his lanes to collapse and help.

START WITH:

- Counter jungle him as much as you can, but watch out for him in his jungle. If you get caught by him, you will NOT get away, so either watch for where he is at, or bring wards with you and ward his jungle so you know where he is at all times. Gets low on first clear, so if you can meet him at his red and kill him, you'll set him behind leagues. Like i said though, if he catches you in his jungle, you're prolly screwed, unless his solo lanes are retarded or he's low and doesnt want to keep you there.

START WIH:

TO BE CONTINUED




just because you aren't the support, doesn't mean you don't ward. The jungler's job is to help out with wards, by warding either your jungle entrances, the enemy jungle entrances, dragon, baron, or blue and red buff. This allows you to keep tabs on where the enemy jungler is, what he's doing, how low or how high he is, etc. It also allows you to catch them coming into your jungle, enabling surprise ganks.



This is taken from rzyol's Jungling guide (which is extremely good, btw). It explains wards, counter wards, and counter jungling wards extremely well. Knowing when and where to ward can be the difference between getting caught in their jungle and stealing their jungle buffs. It can also mean the difference between getting your buffs stolen, or catching them in your jungle and getting a kill.





Again, Rzyol's picture explains the ganking lanes perfectly. These are all the good positions to gank an enemy lane. Jax's ganking is amazingly good early game. Since his counter strike was changed to being able to be canceled early for the stun, you no longer have to time it perfectly. This helped his game a lot better. Jax has great burst early game, coupled with a 700 range gap closer into a stun. 9/10 his ganks will result in blown summoners or a kill. They are very strong.

Jax needs to gank early and often to stay competitive in the jungle. If he gets lots of assists and kills, he will scale extremely well into late game and become a force to be reckoned with. If not, he wont do as much and will drop off a bit. He's more on the side of risk/reward then most junglers. He is able to level 2 gank really well as well. If you plan on level 2 ganking, start red, grab counter strike first, then Leap strike, go into the bush, and jump on who you can. This results in either kills or a blown flash. It's easier for purple team to do this, as solo top is easier to level 2 gank.



Start , max , take at level 4 or whenever your going to gank a lane. If you feel like you need to stick to targets more, then max Leap strike first for the reduced Cooldown. first 4 levels, without a level 2 gank, should go EWWQ.





Again, before you crucify me for this, Hear me out. This page gives Jax the GP/10 masteries, giving him even more help and income to stay relevant if he doesn't get ahead. This coupled with HoG and Philo give Jax a nice steady gold income. The only thing you're missing is the CDR and Jugg talent, which are nice, but you'll be getting CDR from the build and tenacity from boots.



Switched out the AD runes for ArPen. AS blues can also work here as well. Other then that, mostly the same. MS is god on him.

Setting the groundwork for this right now. I have a jungle jax video which i recorded today, that should be up in a day or two with commentary. Solo Top Jax videos will be coming once i get some more time. The jungle video shows basic routes, ganks, etc, and uses my assassin build. It pretty much showcases everything i wanted to on jungle jax. Stay tuned, it should be up soon!

First Video is a solo top vid i had long ago against another Jax. shows really how to lane and such. This is the first vid, jungle ones will come.



Next up: Solo top vs. Hecarim. Apologies for the shitty CSing in this video, it was 4 A.M. and my game playing ability wasn't up to par. I was sloppy.



next video will be vs. Kennen.

Jax has a lot of things to bring to the table. He's a fun champ to play, not to mention he is "the champ", and who doesn't want to play him?

This is my first ever guide, so any comments or criticism is welcomed. If you have any questions just shoot me a FR and let me know, or leave a comment below. I'll try to answer as best as I can.