Hi all. I'm Agiond, and I'm a huge fan of Jax and his awesome skillset. First of all, I must say two things:

1: I'm not a native english speaker, so forgive me if I make some mistakes. All help is appreciated to write it right.

2: I'm not a high ELO player, and i'll never be one. So if you are a high ELO player, it's possible that this guide don't work for you.



This is also my first guide. I usually find that what other guide authors say is enough for me with other champs, but on Jax I haven't found any guide that really helps me (only Paintballreturns has a good Jax's Guide, but it still doesn't work for me). So I've decided to make one, trying to explain every detail as good as I can.

Unfortunately, I can't upload any video gameplays because LoL Recorder hates me and doesn't work on my computer. So I must apologize for being unable to show you some videos.

Jax can also be an effective jungler, but he is stronger on solotop. Let the jungle to those who shine in it.
It's possible that I expand this guide with a jungle chapter, if you people want it. But why now, let's focus in his best role.




On lore, Jax is THE champ. He was unbeatable, so the leader of the League created special restrictions for Jax, so as a protest he created his own restrictions: he could only fight with a brass lamppost. The League has since rescinded its restrictions, but Jax has not. And he still wins.


Ingame, he is a hybrid bruiser. He can be a kind of assassin, or a high damage bruiser to fit better in the current meta.
He has one of the highest snowball potentials in the game, but the best of it is that he DON'T fall off lategame. In fact, lategame is his stronger stage.



This means that he does mixed damage: physical and magical. So it's not enough for the enemy team to build armor to just ignore you.
This is one of his advantadges, but not the only.



All champs have strengths and weaknesess. So let's see Jax's ones:

Pros:
-High overall damage
-AS boost
-High mobility
-Only champion with the dodge mechanic
-He is a strong mid/lategame champ (strong with only 2 items)
-AoE stun

Cons:
-Mana hungry to counter ranged harass
-No innate sustain
-No innate tankyness
-Countered by CC and burst damage

As always, you can change them by your personal preference. Full armor runes against heavy AD team, full MR runes against an AP champ, HP/5 quints against hard lanes,...

This one is my core runepage and should shine against all favorable and challenging match-ups.






9 x Flat AD reds: They give you earlygame dominance on trades. AD is better than ArPen because you do mixed damage, so only 60~70% of your damage benefits from it.

9 x Flat armor yellows: Quite core runes for solotop champs. HP/lvl could also work, but not that good.

9 x Flat MR blues: This is personal preference. Some junglers and top champs have at least one skill that does magic damage, so it helps. MR/lvl works better if neither the toplane and jungler do magic damage.

3 x Lifesteal quints: In one word: Sustain. Once you have your sustain is awesome and noone can outlane you. I really love them.
In hard earlygame lanes HP/5 quints are better to survive, so it's up to personal preference.

Again, let's think about Jax's strengths and weaknesess. He isn't tanky, so let's give him some armor, HP and reduced incoming damage. So we improve his earlygame. We also get Juggernaut & Legendary Armor, to improve his mid/lategame. 4%HP is always good and %MR and %Armor sinergies perfectly with our ult. More tankyness? Yes please.

So with 21 on defence we improve Jax's survavility early to lategame and make his early trades safer.



9 in offense is obvious: We want damage. Fortunately in S3 it's a simple choose: Take AS, AD and ArPen.

Ignite - It helps to get early kills. I like to play very aggresive with Jax, so ignite helps me a lot on geting first blood. If you harass since lvl 1, once you are lvl 3 you can get a kill easily if your enemy is on 50% HP (E+Q+AA+W+E+AA+Ignite)

Flash - Is the enemy too far from your Q and he feels safe? Flash is why Jax says "Surprise! I'm back!": Flash + Q and say "hello"




Sometimes you will know that you are against a much faster team. Udyr, Singed, Shyvana, Teemo, ... all them are a pain to deal with, because they are fast as hell. This is when ghost is a good pick over flash.

- Jax is a great split pusher, and this let you have better dragon control. Great to gank bot from lane brushes if your bot team places a ward. I get it when I know that my botlane will be in trouble, so I can teleport to gank their lane.
The question is if I want to be more aggresive on my lane or being able to help my botlane.

- If you know that you are going to be harassed all day long, this helps. With lifesteal quints + early / you should not have so many sustain problems, but if you get counterpicked with a high harass/sustain champ, this sumoner spell will save your life more than once.

- Personally I don't like it on Jax, but if noone on your team has picked exhaust, you should take it.

- CC destroy Jax, so a spell that erase all CC on you is wonderfull. Problem is that we can only pick 2 sumoner spells, not 3. But a QSS does the same and gives MR, and it's quite cheap. So if I get CC'ed a lot i get a QSS and problem solved.

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


On lvl 1 it gives 4% AS per stack, up to 6 stacks. It will end at 10% AS per stack, wich is great. At lvl 18 you'll seem a machinegun with a lampost.





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


This is what gives Jax his high mobility. You can jump on an ally(minion or champ) or a ward to go away, or you can jump on an enemy to deal damage. Notice that it scales at 100% AD + 70% AP, wich it gives you a very high harass just by jumping.
With the new patch you can use before doing to deal its extra damage on the damage, so you do an empowered jump and can go away unharmed.





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. Your next AA will do extra magical damage. The good thing is that resets your AA timer, so you can do an AA and then to do 2 fast hits.
Remember that its damage increase on AP.






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


In one word: DODGE. This skill makes you scary as hell, because not only let you dodge atacks, it even let you stun everyone around you.
Note that when you activate it, it has a 1 second delay untill you can activate it again to stun.
The damage it does while isn't great, it helps a lot on early kills IF you manage to dodge 5 attacks (from enemy minions or champs), so it does 100% more damage.
So what you wanna do is AA+W the enemy champ and pop E, so you get the minions aggro and can dodge their attacks, increasing your E damage. You'll force a flash (wich you can go in with Q ) or grab an early kill.
This is why lvl3 Jax is so scary.





(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



Before I said that lvl3 Jax is scary, but lvl6 Jax is a nightmare.
Every 3rd attack you'll do extra magical damage, increased by AP. Also when active, you get a bunch of armor and MR, what helps you to survive longer on teamfights.
The active is a better version of the old ult, so now it gives armor and more MR.

A good Jax will abuse this passive. 2 hits on a minion and use the 3rd on the enemy champ. I'll explain how to abuse it on the Tips & Tricks section.

The good thing on Jax is that you can max the skill you want depending on each situation.

Are you scared for enemy ganks? Max to reduce its CD so you can jump in and out quickly. It also helps when there is an enemy jungler (that ult hurts) or an enemy . Those global ults let them appear from your back and no ward can alert you. So you need some escape mechanism.

Do you wanna do tons of damage? Max to increase its damage and reduce its CD to something absurd (3 sec CD on lvl5? That's called spamming)

Do you wanna be unkillable? Max to reduce its CD. Also it helps a lot when your jungler comes to gank: On lvl 5 it has 10 sec CD, so land a full combo when the jungler is about to reach your lane, and then use stun again when your jungler comes in for a gank.




That's because I always have wards. So I see the enemy jungler coming so I don't need low CD on to jump out. This way I can play more aggresive, so I win close to all trades and dominate my lane.



As I said before, wards save lives. If you see the enemy jungler comming, you can react on time. gives you better lane dominance, so I max it second. I want it on low CD so I can do the full combo more often, or I can take 0 damage from the enemy's trades.



As Jax you have the hability to win teamfights with only one skill:
This AoE stun will help your team to grab a coulpe of kills, or even an ace. If you manage to stun 3 or 4 guys on the enemy team, this will make you win the teamfight.
Don't be afraid of flashing in to land your stun! Your job in a lvl1 teamfight is to stun as many people as you can, so if you can stun more people flashing in, DO IT! It'll give your team a huge early advantadge and you always can grab on lvl 2 if you are afraid of a gank because you don't have flash.

OR



Are the more common starting items. On toplane 90% of the time you'll be against AD bruisers, so you need that armor. Also it helps for an early .



This start is smarter when you face a skillshot champ. It's the core start against , AP , , , , , and . Most of these champs aren't a common pick for solotop, but sometimes they go there and early boots will help to dodge their skills.
A note on : If she is good, she will always hit you with her , so it's a close decision between or .



When you know that you are going to be f*cked, get this. , they all will destroy you early to midgame. So you need something that helps you to survive early on. Take instead of so you can go base early on to buy and if you have the gold.

is your "Oh f*uck, i got counterpicked" item
More explanations on the Top-Lane Matchups section.



Posibly the best starting items right now. Nowadays almost every jungler will gank top at lvl 2-3, that means you MUST be aware of it. Starting with a ward helps a lot if you put it around min 3. Also Fort Pot will give you the early advantadge to get a FB.







A note on : I'll never get tired of saying this: THEY SAVE LIVES! Try to always have 2: One for warding, the other for jumping ( + = . So you'll have 2 )

In wich order should I buy , and ?
- against heavy sustain champs:
Or simply when you want to focus on farm safe. It's the safe option.

- when you are dominating the lane or you are close to dominate. Abuse its pasive with (and with your ult's passive post-6 ) and it will allow you outlane close to any champ.

- when you are losing, your jungler has low CC, against true damage spammers like or (note that on Irelia I'd try to build first unless she's dominating)

NOTE: It's just a guide, not the "real way to go". The same champ played by different players will change 100% the way to face him. The best counselor is your own experience.





&

BEWARE THE FOTM: This little guy will boost your damage through the roof.


The first thing I must say: DON'T FINISH ... yet.
Or you could just rush which will boost your damage and sustain. With its active, this item gives you some survival.

At this time your sustain is amazing, your damage over the roof, all you lack is... survival. So get to it! You must be tanky enough to abuse your insane damage on teamfights (a dead Jax doesn't deal any damage).

In few words: tanky items. is a must and you need to start working on a . How to start the Randuins depends on the enemy team. My basic rule is: Start with if the toplaner does True Damage or magical damage. Otherwise, start with







Part of the greatness of Jax consists in that there is no final build to him. There is not a "go to" build for him, there are thousand.

Now you should end your . End if you can or need extra damage after TriForce.

I'd recommend to build tank items to survive in teamfights.





vs double AP team:


This is when both enemy toplaner and mid are AP champs. Not as common as it was some time ago, but still hard to face. I usually run because it synergies so great with our passive. is great against ult, but not much more.


vs heavy AD team:


Are you facing an enemy AD top and an enemy AD jungler plus the enemy AD carry? You need some of these items.
is a great item, AD + lifesteal, yes please! It allows you to hit harder and get healed. It's great when you already have some armor items so you don't get killed instantly.

is a bit underused right now. Get it if you have lots of HP so you can really benefit from its passive.

will help you a lot against AA champs because they will kill themselves. When you are facing a fed Lee Sin, this is going to help.

will help you survive the enemy AD carry. Its passive lowers their AS by 20%, as giving you a lot of armor, mana and CDR. If you run out of mana, need to spamm more your W and you wanna shit on the enemy AD carry, this item is for you.

is the jewel of the crown. It's a core item, but I also wanna put it here to insist on how good it is. Health, armor, AS and MS debuff when they attack you AND another MS debuff on active. Go into the fight, activate this and see how all enemies can't escape. Great to abuse enemy bad positioning.


too much CC on the enemy team?
into

In one word: CLEANSE. When stuns are getting you killed, this item will keep you safe. Warwik's ult, Malzahar's ult, Skarner's ult, ...


are you getting focused?


It's a core item, but as Randuin's Omen, I want to insist on this item. They kill you, but no problem, you'll revive and keep fighting. Who needs a Zilean on your team when you can buy this?


are you snowballing hard?


Kinda "I'm 6/0 and I wanna go 20/0 at 20 min mark". When you are far ahead, dominating toplane and ganking mid succesfully, then you should think about this item.
Also remember it has been reworked. It still gives you AD, AP, AS plus AS+AP stacking, but now it even gives 20% AS + 10% lifesteal + 10% spellvamp when you fall behing 50% HP untill you exit the combat. This item will keep you safe and stromping enemies faces on teamfights much more than you could ever imagine.
This item is made for Jax.

Also Zephyr is being great on Jax if you are confident enough to "instakill" enemies and getting back to safety.


Vs heavy HP team


Take a look:
All of them benefit from stacking lots of HP. If you face 2 or more of them, get this item.
Sometimes other champs will stack tons of HP, so then you should also buy this item.

We no longer get HP building AD and AP (old passive). So now we don't get tanky by building damage items.

We lost 40% AS boost (one of the old ult's passive became a nerfed new passive)

Riot removed dodge from the game (only our still has it). The old Jax got very high survavility because of insane amounts of dodge, wich let him dodge half of the attacks he recieved. Jax was a tank not by stacking armor or MR, but by dodging attacks.
This is what hurted us more.


So think about it: Riot removed our special tankyness.
Now we are squishy and all tankyness we get is: 2 sec of 100% dodge by and 8 sec with improved armor and MR by active.
This, alone, isn't enough to keep us alive.

If you don't believe me, just check it out by yourselves. Glass cannon build will get you killed in no time.





Lots of new items and reworked ones. Fortunatelly, our core items haven't been nerfed. So we can still build Jax the same way we did. BUT, there are some situational items that need to be looket at:


is a upgrade, so we can take it instead of . It's a situational item that gives us less sustain than , but lets us take down easily some heavy HP champs.Pick it when the enemy team has 2-3 champs with lots of HP.


is a cool new item. It will replace our , so be carefull. Less damage, BUT an AoE slow.
Take it when you are having troubles with kitting champs.
Not recommended otherwise.


is a towerdive item. Its tanking stats aren't that good (many other items give better tank stats) but if you plan on towerdiving a lot take it. Quite useless lategame.
Not recommended unless you plan on towerdiving 24/7

If Jax has a weak stage, it is early game. But it doesn't mean that he is bad on early.

I'll point 3 main goals in this stage:

1- Hit lvl 3 UNHARMED
Leave cs if you need to, but don't take any damage. It's not worth it and it can put you in a very weak situation: unable to trade hits, pushed under tower, high loose of cs and an early recall.


2- Once you hit lvl3, play aggresive
I'll try to explain it easily: Jax has no sustain. And toplane is a sustain fight. So you need to be very aggresive to push back the enemy, you need to outlane him. This way you can force an early recall or a first blood.
Jax has one of the stronger lvl3, so abuse it.

This is the way to do it: Get close to the enemy champ, without using if posible (it wastes a lot of mana and you need it if the enemy jungler appears). AA+W+E+AA+W+E and go away.
Autoatack + W BEFORE Counterstrike! You want the minion aggro, because you can turn it against your enemy: Our Counterstrike hits much harder if we dodge attacks, and every minion attack dodged counts.


3- Farm
It may seem stupid to mention it, but it's easy to forget to farm when you are harassing your enemy all day long.




Now the harass mechanism expands into a new universe. Jax can still harass with the combo mentioned before, but now we can do even much more damage by abusing the passive.
Also, now we can outrade even without using any mana. Just 2 hit a minion and use the 3rd against the enemy champ.

Teamfights will come soon, so get ready. You should have finished boots, , and at least. Now is time to work on and , and once the teamfights begin you'll understand why. You'll be a priority target, just as our carrys.

Now more than ever is time to farm, harass the enemy toplaner, gank mid and even invade the enemy jungle. And always go to the teamfight to help your teammates.
Some extra creeps aren't worth the life of one of your teammates. It may seem stupid to say so, but many people still forget it, even at high ELO (just watch some streams and you'll see it).


At this time Jax should be one of the stronger champs in your team.
Now your basic mechanic should be something like this:

LOOK AT YOUR MINIMAP


-Yes. Then push your lane fast and gank mid.
-No. Read next step.


-Yes. Push lane and go invade his top jungle leaving a lesser wrath/wolf and the minor golem (if you are on blue side)
-No. Read next step.


-Yes. Push lane and go mid for a countergank
-No. Read next step.

If you don't know where the enemy jungler is and/or your midlane is pushing, stay at toplane and afk farm. You need your lane under control so you can push it when you need to add some pressure at top so you can roam safely.




You should push your lane asap and go to help them, UNLESS you see the enemy toplaner and jungler around toplane (because it's a free dargon)

There is not much to say here... or too much.

Jax is a great splitpusher: You can destroy turrets really fast. You can also clear minions waves at lightspeed, so you can push a lane really fast and be far away when the enemy reacts.

Dragon control is essential and that extra gold can make your team win. Just watch some TeamSoloMid videos on the last torunament, on Las Vegas: They won some games because they had dragon control, and that bunch of gold make them win.

Baron control is also a need, but don't get greedy: Baron buff wins as many games as it make loose. Many people overextends when they have baron buff, initiates fights under turret, ... and many retard things.


The key words here would be map awareness, baron/dragon control and teamfights. In that order.

You need to know where the enemy team is to take the right decisions, as a player and as a team. This is imperative.

Now close to every teamfight will be to get control of dragon and baron. You (you and your team) need to be on dragon/baron 10 sec BEFORE it spawns, to have time to ward properly to see the enemy team comming. As you see, map awareness is the key. Never start Dragon/baron if you don't know where the enemy team is.

I'll explain it more in the next chapter, but here are the basics:
Jax is an anti AA champs, so your first objective is to tear appart the enemy AD carry. But never initiate! You should be the second champ charging into the fight, never the first or you'll get killed and loose the teamfight.

First of all, read these two words again: TEAM FIGHTS

It means that you need a TEAM, the full team. None of us is John Rambo, so we need some sort of team to kill the enemy.

The other word is FIGHT, not flee. We need the entire team to fight if we wanna win, so if some guys on your team begin to flee on every fight, it's our job to motivate them to stand together and fight. This is called leadership, and if noone on your team plays as a leader, you should take that role. If not, the most probable thing is that you loose the game.


That being said, let's focus on the fight. I'll point some important thinks to note on a teamfight:

1- We are playing Jax, not Chuck Norris: DON'T INITIATE!
Someone needs to initiate the fight, but you should not be that one. Jax isn't tanky enough to initiate, as simple as that.

2- Hit the enemy AD carry
That's basically your job: kill the enemy AD carry. That's why we have a dodge skill + stun, to shut down the enemy AD carry.

3- Try to stun as many enemies as posible
Here comes the hard part. When should I pop the stun? We can dodge OR we can stun, so it's a hard choice. Personally I try to stun as many people as I can, if not, I just hit the AD carry and stun him.

Some of them I've already explained them, but it's never bad to tell them again.


The way to do it is doing 2 hits on an enemy minion, and then use the 3rd against the enemy champ.
You can combine this with and proc! This deals massive damage in just one simple hit.



And don't use it to ward. + =
Plant a ward and then jump on it. This way you can jump over walls as you do with flash.



Yes, we can do it, and in two ways:
1: E+Q+AA+W+E -> go away
2: AA+W+E+AA+W+E -> go away

With the first one you are unexpected. With the second one you deal more damage, but you are more previsible, but you still have to go out in case of danger (jungler/mid approaches,...)



As great as it sounds. AA+W for massive damage in just one second.



W->Q will now deal the extra damage on the Q, not in the next AA. Use it to deal some fast damage and run away!

Posibly the most important thing to learn to play Jax succesfully is when to pick him. He is not a safe first pick, and he has hard times against heavy AP teams.

Jax is an anti-AD team, what should be the rule in the current meta (AD bruiser top, AD bruiser jungle, AP mid, AD carry and suport). However, if you pick Jax first you let the enemy team react on time and take a counter to Jax, or get a heavy AP team. And we don't want that.



As Jax you want a lane where you can farm, play aggresive to outlane the enemy champ, or at least get some early kills. You want to be able to push your lane and then go gank mid or invade the enemy jungle.
Jax is the best duelist in the game, so you wanna abuse that.

Jax is a good pick when:

Enemy team has:

• An AD bruiser top, not an AD caster.
• The enemy team is AD based (only one AP in their team)
• The enemy team hasn't tons of CC or kiting habilities.

Ally team has:

• An initiator.
• Some CC habilities.

When most of this conditions are true, Jax is a good pick. As you can see, picking Jax is more conditioned on what the enemy team has instead of what our team has. That's because Jax isn't a good first pick: You need to see what the hell is picking the enemy team to know if Jax is a good pick or not.



Obviously the opposite of all of the above. Double AP comps, AD caster on top, heavy CC enemy teams, ... All of these make a bad idea to pick Jax.

Jax is a bad pick when:
Enemy team has:

• Double AP comp
• AD caster top (Pantheon, Yorick, GP,...)
• Heavy CC team.

Ally team has:

• No initiation
• No CC

Here it comes, the "user manual" for Jax. Here i'll explain how to fight against most toplane common picks, wich are favorable/challenging/get wrecked, wich item start with, usefull tips & tricks against that champ (if there are any),...

This champ section will have this structure:

Evelynn
What the hell do against champ, tips & tricks, ...
Starting items:



These are those who you are best at.




Akali
Play passive untill lvl3. She can deal some damage with her , also don't get close to her when you've been hit by it or you'll get huge damage.
The key here is to play passive 'till lvl3, and then do the basic combo: Q+AA+W+E if she does hes smoke cloud just go away, if not continue with AA+W+E and then go away.
Doran's Shield should keep you safe because she should be unable to hit her proc on you.
Starting items:


Fiora
Pray for this match-up. You are the best counter to Fiora. All your skillset seems made to kill her: High damage, dodge her ult, stun, ...
Just don't fight her on lvl 1. She'll do more damage to you, and you don't want that. Wait till lv 3 to bring the hell to her. Pop your when she uses her , so she wastes all her AS boost. Also don't hit her when her is up, because it does some damage to you. will proc it too, but you'll do damage because it's magical damage.
Starting items:


Kayle
Some pro players have been playing Kayle top, so she has come from her exile and people realized that she's a good counter to many common toplane champs.
Fortunately, Jax has the skillset to counter her. Kayle is based on high AS and harassing with her .
The idea is simple: don't let her hit you. To do so, you can just go away when she pops it (it's easy to see) or you can pop .
What you should do is play passive untill lvl3 (as always), and then wait for her to pop her . When she activates it, E+Q+AA+W+E-> go away. Why wait to do the combo till she pops her E? Because you wanna go away while she has it on CD, so she can't return damage on you.
This is the safe way, but you can play even more aggresive once you have : Wait untill she finishes her , then Q+AA+W++AA+W and go on untill she pops her E again. Then use E+ and go away ( if necessary to go away or if you don't have it on CD )
Starting items:


Nidalee
You counter both, AP and AD Nidalee. I'll focus on AD Nidalee because she is the most common pick, but the only thing you need to do against AP Nidalee is just stay behind your minions.
AD Nidalee will try to harass you with AA all day long, so as always, play safe. on lvl1 helps a lot, but don't pop it untill it's necessary because it needs a lot of mana, and you'll need it to kill her.
Once you have your 3 basic skills, play as always: Q+AA+W+E+AA+W+E-> go away. She is a ranged champ, so you'll probably have to use to go in, but if you can get her in melee range hold up your Q if you need to jump away.
Starting items:


Shyvana
She has the same problem as us: no sustain. So will win the one able to outrade the other, and here is where Jax shine: massive damage.
Shyvana will win all trades before lvl3, so keep your distance. When she pops and/or just go away to don't get hit. If whe tries to pursue you, her will go down quickly (she needs to AA to get more time in it). If not, she'll probably will hit some minions, so she will use her on a minion. That's when you should go in and hit her (AA+W before lvl6. 2 AA on minion, W+3rd on Shyvana post-6)

Care of her ult if you see her fury up. She gets very tanky and deal some massive damage when she is in dragon form, so go away when she pops it (jump on an ally minion, + over a wall, ... whatever you need to gtfo.
Starting items:


Xin Zhao
Not trolling, some people still play him. His early game is freaking strong with her charge, AS steroids and knock-up. But surprise! Jax is back. Xin Zhao is an AA champ, an easy prey for Jax.
As always (i'm getting tired of repeating this so much) play safe untill lvl3. Then farm, and try to AA+W when Xin gets close. You can even deny his farm by standing between your minions and his, so when he gets close just AA+W him.
Save for when she tries to harass you and pops his AS steroids (it's easy to see).
It should be an easy win if she don't gets an early kill on you. But that's why i say you: PLAY SAFE untill lvl3
Starting items:




You can win them if you play right, but they also have their mechanism to kill you. The key idea on these champs is: Play smart




CassiOPeia
Sorry, but I had to do the joke. Insane damage at insane range. She is not a common toplane pick, but sometimes she goes there.
There is not much you can do apart from don't getting hit by her . It will be hard, but once you are lvl3 you can jump and stun her and deal massive damage, and there isn't much she can do about it.
In this game your jungler can be your best friend, or who throws your lane.
In this game i'd try to get and then rush . It'll save your life and maybe you'll be able to get a kill.
Starting items: or


Chogath
A strong enemy. Most Chogaths will just farm, trying to ignore you and sustaining through cs, and that's where you can hurt them. Chogath is very vulnerable earlygame, so take advantadge on it. Also he has to be on melee range to farm, so you should be able to hit him easily. Just dodge his
If Cho tries to hit you with his , just wait for him to use one and then AA+W+E+AA+W+E-> go away
If Cho doesn't use rupture, then you should use the same combo, but back when he uses it.
Starting items:


Gangplank
Keep this in mind: HE WILL BREAK YOU EARLY.
Play safe, farm as much as you can, and when he you, use Q+AA+W+E-> go away.
If you feel like you are getting low on mana, just farm and use potions. He will run out of mana quickly, and then is when you can go in to harass him and outlane that pirate.
An early is all what you need to keep your HP pool on a safe range just by farming.
Once you hit lvl6 you can destroy him easily by abusing the 3rd hit of your ult's passive.
Starting items:


Garen
Boots are your counter to him. Farm, wait him to pop his silence so you go away. If he does his "spin and win" just go away. All you need to do is waiting for he have those two skills on CD, then go in with AA+W+E+AA+W+AA+W+E and destroy him. Even if he retaliates when he is off CD, you can keep hitting him (specially post-6) and kill him easily. If you can land ONE combo, you can hunt him down and grab a kill. Remember that active deals damage and slows, so use it to avoid him to run away.
Starting items:


Hecarim
I've just fight a few, so I don't have a huge experience against them on toplane. They usually are junglers.
But as far i've seen, they are quite easy to deal with Jax. Their has some range, and it's quite spammable, so think about them as a ranged champ. They'll try to zone you out spamming q on you. All you need is to wait untill lvl3, and then Q+AA+W+E+AA+W+AA+W+E and go out. Their and are AoE, so your counterstrike reduces 25% of its damage.
It's close to impossible to run away from Hecarim, so be smart and just fight when you "know" you can win the trade.
Starting items:


Irelia
Better nerf Irelia... again and again...
Seriously, she's still a pain to deal with. The only way to win her is... don't fight her. At least untill you have . If you try to trade with her, sure, you'll win the first one. The problem is... once she is on lower HP than you, she can stun you and melt you down with her true damage.
If you see her using , wait untill it's off and then try to harass her.
is your best friend here, so if she jumps on you activate it inmediately.
Starting items:


Jarvan IV
Plazmuh is making J4 a strong toplaner, and many people follow him.
Dodge his , his combo and never let him AA you. If he does, hit him with all you have and run away before 6 sec, because he'll have his passive up again and he'll deal more massive damage on you.
They key here is to play very passive early, and only start trading once you have and .
Even with his passive, it is still a good idea to get some HP because he can only deal %HP damage once every 6 sec, so you have 6 sec to bring the hell to him before running away.
Starting items:


Kennen
I hate that little hamster. But it's not as bad as it seems.
All you MUST do is playing behind your minions, so you don't get hit by shurikens. If Kennen comes close and use through your minions to farm them, pop and stun him AA+W and then get back. He will loose the trade by far.
Ask for a gank and force him to use BEFORE the jungler arrives. So he'll have it on CD when the jungler comes and it'll be easy to grab a kill.
Starting items:


Lee Sin
He "should" be a Jax counter, but he is recieving heavy nerfs each patch, and you can deny his high damage just by standing behind your minions. Don't let him you and you'll be fine.
On lvl6 you should be able to outlane him, and once you have and he should be easy to kill.
If he doesn't rush , you'll outlane him easily once you get because you'll have higher sustain.
Starting items:



The rock. It's a stalemate because you can't kill him and he can't kill you, so just farm farm and farm. Early lifesteal is the key to survive his AP harass so start the Cutlass with the .
Starting items:


Nasus
It's painfull to explain how to deal with Nasus, because he and Jax are my main toplaners.
Nasus has a weak spot: his crappy earlygame. So don't wait untill lvl3 to begin harassing him, do it on lvl 1 if you can ( on lvl 1 is great to avoid minions aggro and turning it into more damage).
Don't let Nasus farm his damn or he will snowball the entire game. Ask for ganks if you need to, but don't let him farm.
Care with his because it's an AS and MS debuff, and it hurts a lot.
Starting items:


Olaf
Yes, that big guy can be easily killed with Jax. His true damage really hurts and there is no way you can deal with it, but you can deal MUCH more damage to him if you play it right.
Play safe (or try to it) untill you get .
If he gets close to use on you, get ready. Once he has used it he gets minion aggro, so Q+AA+W+E+AA+W+E-> go away. This way he gets a lot of damage by you and your minions.
Once you have and only use when he pops his . This way he can't sustain from hitting you and you can hunt him down easily.
Starting items:


Renekton
He has a great earlygame, and he can destroy you if you don't play smart. If you see him poping or he dashes to you, go away (if he dashes, just jump away).
Once you are on lvl 6 don't use to go away, just pop and face him. This way you'll do some damage to him, so you'll force him going back. Save to go away when he ults. You DON'T want to fight him when his ult is up.
Starting items:


Riven
Her bunny skin is OP.
Now seriously, she's a pain to deal with. High damage from early to lategame, high mobility (higher than ours), stun and OP ult.
All you can do is trying to play safe. A smart Riven will wait untill you are close to use her stun and then Q+AA+Q+AA+Q+AA you. So as soon as her stun is out, pop AA+W+AA+W+E and go away. She'll probably try to dash out, so you can choose to hunt her with Q or let her go away. She has high CD on her skills, so i'd use to go for her to deal some more hits, and then go away before her Q is off CD.
On lvl6, NEVER stand on your turret at low HP. She can kill you with her ult from safe distance, so go to the base.
Starting items:


Rumble
I used to think about him as a Jax counter. But with the remake, he is no longer a counter. With his will deal 25% less damage, and that's his main source of damage.
Try to harass him when his is on CD and he comes close to cs. When he pops it, just use and hurt him.
Starting items: OR


Shen
If your team failed and didn't ban him, he'll hurt you.
Abuse him before he gets warmogs. Force him to use his to farm.
What really works here is an early , so you can outsustain his harass. Then just AA+W+E+AA+W+AA+W+E and go away. He can't stand against your high damage, and once you are lvl 6 his taunt will turn against him because your ult's passive will deal huge damage on him.
TIP: Remember that you can break his ult with your stun.
Starting items: OR


Singed
This guy has a global taunt, I swear. Everyone tries to chase him.
There are some basic rules here:
-Don't chase him.
-Don't get pulled (if so, Q to safety)
-Farm
Do it, and you'll be fine and farmed.
Starting items:


Tryndamere
Another AA based champ, so Jax should be able to shut him down. In fact, Jax does it.
Try to play safe 'till lvl3, then AA+W+E+AA+W+AA+W+E-> go away. Don't fight him without if he has his fury full.
Make him use his fury to get healed, and then keep harassing.
Care of his lvl6, because he gets immortal. Get for this match-up, because it''ll kill him when his ult is out.
Starting items:


Udyr
Udyr can be some kind of counter if you don't play it right. He has tons of sustain, so untill you get lvl6 he will win all trades, and even zone you out.
Abusing your ult's passive can help you to outdamage him, but his deals massive damage, so play smart.
Just try to not get stuned so he can't switch to tiger and destroy you.
The key here is . Pop it when he comes to hurt you with tiger and laugh at him, so you can deal some damage and back off to safety.
Starting items:


Wukong
His hurts a lot, specially if he uses after the combo so you'll hit a mirage. Fortunately, this takes tons of mana from wukong, so he can't spamm it. So take advantadge on it and harass him as much as you can.
is again your best friend, and abusing your ult's passive will win the lane for you.
Starting items:


Warwick
Thanks to Endrance and Tortillagirl for some feedback about this match-up. Wariwik can be easily destroyed with the proper playstyle. If not, he will give you some hard time.
The key here is at lvl 1. Just get at lvl 1, so you can go to Warwick AA+E and keep autoatacking him untill the stun. Then go away into a brush or back to your minions. Why do this? With the first AA you get the minions aggro, so when you pop you dodge all those atacks, so your will do more damage. On lvl 2 get and just do the same but using W after the first AA.
Starting items:


Darius
A very strong enemy to face on toplane, but fortunately, he is not so hard for Jax. The key here is to play as passive as you can untill lvl 6. If he catches you with his pop and hit him with all you have, once you stun him, back to a minion (if you try to go back on foot, he'll just hit you with his in the high damage range.
A smart Darius will try to range harass you with his , so be aware of it.
Once you are 6, all you need is to land your basic combo. Just don't get cocky if you are on 50% HP, because he can instantkill you with his ult (garen v.2.0 )
Starting items:


Jayce
This guy can be very tricky. He'll be on ranged form most of the time, so he'll try to harass as much as he can. If he tries to harass you with abilities, he'll run out of mana soon and you can take advantadge on it. If not, be ready for a very long fight.
If he gets Hammer stance (melee), wait for him to attack one minion (so he wastes the extra damage), get close to him (WALKING! ) and attack him. If he pushes you back, you still can jump and hit him.
If he stands on ranged form, you'll need perfect timing with your stun. E+Q+E+AA+W and walk away. Remember that he does %HP damage, so be carefull. I'd highly recommend to avoid fighting untill you are lvl 6.
Starting items:


Rengar
Well... Rengar is a bit tricky. A good one will always stand near brushes and just abusing his passive to last hit and then go back to brushes. He is really squishy but hits very hard (he can instantkill you at lvl 1). So play passive, last hit all you can, and wait untill 6.
If you see 4 ferocity stacks on him, don't get close untill you have your off CD. You need to dodge his double combo, our you'll be in trouble.
A ward in the brushes will be extremly helpfull.
Starting items:




If you see any of these champs, never ever pick Jax. They are hard counters to him and will tear him apart.




Mordekaiser
The only way to survive him is to abuse his weak earlygame. As for a gank as much as you can, because you need it. Once morde has he will just farm and push the lane. This puts him in a weak spot, open to ganks, so you should have your jungler ganking top 24/7.
Never stand near your minions, so he has to choose between harassing you or hitting minions to farm and get the shield up.
Try to use the brushes on your favor, jump on him when he has low/no shield and stun him, then just back off.
Starting items:


Pantheon
As GP, he will harass you all day long, but he has better skillset for 1vs1, and he can grab a kill very easily.
Play safe, don't overextend, farm under turret if you have to, ask for ganks, ... and let the time go on. Pantheon gets weaker on every minute if he doesn't get fed (and he is made to get fed, so take care). An early can be a good idea, just after
Always say ss/mia when he disapears from your lane, so he can't grab kills on other lanes.
Starting items:


Teemo
He is a counter to all AA champs, you included. His blind will make you fail all your hits, also his poison will hurt you by a ton, and his mushrooms keep him safe from ganks. He always has brush control.
All you can do is play safe, wait untill lvl 6 and then 2 hit a minion, Q+AA+W+E+AA+W+E -> go away. should keep you alive.
An early should help you survive him.
Starting items:


Vladimir
Ranged harass + high sustain + pool... wtf can we do against him?
He has a bad earlygame, so once you hit lvl 3 Q+AA+W+E+AA+W+E and back off. Vlad has some CD on his skills, so try to abuse it. If he does his early when he has high HP, he will loose a lot of HP (20%) so it'll we worth it.
Starting items:


Yorick
Tons of ranged harass with high sustain. He can spamm you to dead.
Just one thing: play always near brushes, so when he spawn his ghould you go in a brush so they loose you as a target.
If you try to harass him, use so his ghouls do 0 damage.
You can eventually win the lane once you have and because of your high burst and sustain, and he can't heal all that.
Starting items:

Jax is a very funny champ to play. You can jump, deal massive damage, dodge and stun. That's funny as hell.

If you can Duo Queue and your friend picks a jungler, you should never be worried about who tries to counter you on toplane, because on lategame you can shurely kill him. All you need is patience, farming as well as you can and learn when to jump and when to not.


I hope this guide helps you as other guides and friends helped me before.

Enjoy Jax, he is a great champ.


If you have any doubts, just comment it and I'll try to answer asap.



P.D: As I said on the beginning, I'm not an english native speaker and this is my first guide. So all suggestions are welcome. Please comment, and if you don't like something, please tell me what is it before clicking the dislike button.








NOTE: I'm a TSM fan, but Dyrus has not done any song about Jax "yet".



OVER 17.000 VIEWS!!!! Holy sh*t!! That's why I love this community, you are great!
Please, whether you like this guide or not, comment about it and say why! Your opinion matters, and if you make a strong case, I'll add it to the guide.

Okay, more than 50.000 visits. Is this a dream?

12 May 2012
Warwick match-up changed. Thanks to Endrance and Tortillagirl for the feedback.

02 June 2012
Darius match-up added.

12 June 2012
-Tested that the current nerf on is negligible. It lowers a bit our pre-6 trade potential, but nothing to worry about.
-Resumed item build cleaned.

11 July 2012
Added Jayce Match-up. Be carefull with the new "Lee Sin" (high skill cap, high reward)

02 september 2012
Rengar update. A bit late update, but no, I've not forget about you.

09 november 2012
MASSIVE CHANGES. Item build changed, more explanation on early stages of the game, ... Hope you guys like it.

07 december 2012
S3 upgraded. If you guys find something S2 related, please tell me so I can change it

12 april 2013
Some item build changes