• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 08:31
CEST 14:31
KST 21:31
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Power Rank - Esports World Cup 202526RSL Season 1 - Final Week8[ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall15HomeStory Cup 27 - Info & Preview18Classic wins Code S Season 2 (2025)16
Community News
Weekly Cups (July 14-20): Final Check-up0Esports World Cup 2025 - Brackets Revealed19Weekly Cups (July 7-13): Classic continues to roll8Team TLMC #5 - Submission re-extension4Firefly given lifetime ban by ESIC following match-fixing investigation17
StarCraft 2
General
RSL Revival patreon money discussion thread Esports World Cup 2025 - Final Player Roster Power Rank - Esports World Cup 2025 Why doesnt SC2 scene costream tournaments Heaven's Balance Suggestions (roast me)
Tourneys
Esports World Cup 2025 Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $8000 live event RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series
Strategy
How did i lose this ZvP, whats the proper response
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 483 Kill Bot Wars Mutation # 482 Wheel of Misfortune Mutation # 481 Fear and Lava Mutation # 480 Moths to the Flame
Brood War
General
Flash Announces (and Retracts) Hiatus From ASL BW General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Corsair Pursuit Micro? Pro gamer house photos
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL 2v2] ProLeague Season 3 - Friday 21:00 CET The Casual Games of the Week Thread BWCL Season 63 Announcement
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers I am doing this better than progamers do.
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread [MMORPG] Tree of Savior (Successor of Ragnarok) Path of Exile CCLP - Command & Conquer League Project
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread The Games Industry And ATVI Stop Killing Games - European Citizens Initiative
Fan Clubs
SKT1 Classic Fan Club! Maru Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Korean Music Discussion [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Ping To Win? Pings And Their…
TrAiDoS
momentary artworks from des…
tankgirl
from making sc maps to makin…
Husyelt
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Socialism Anyone?
GreenHorizons
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 721 users

[Champion] Jax

Forum Index > LoL Strategy
Post a Reply
1 2 3 4 5 52 53 54 Next
Two_DoWn
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
United States13684 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-07-20 18:37:55
July 19 2011 18:49 GMT
#1
[image loading]
I own this skin. It is awesome. Be jealous. Be very jealous

Jax, The Armsmaster

Jax is one of those champions who has seemingly always swung from violently overpowered (dodging turret shots) to underpowered and weak at the whim of the balance team. At his hight, it was said that a Jax who could not 1v5 an enemy team and survive was a terrible Jax. His subsequent nerfs and buffs left him a place mostly ignored until a few short months ago when a couple of buffs helped pull him from the brink. Jax is still one of the most fearsome late game carries, and with decent peaks of power all throughout the game, he is still a force to be reckoned with.

Jax is a melee dps, blessed with ungodly scaling both offensively and defensively. He also is one of the few champions capable of dealing a tremendous amount of magical and physical damage, making him extremely hard to itemize against. With proper farm Jax should be nigh unkillable, while at the same time be able to jump to a target, kill them, and jump to another. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Patch Notes
+ Show Spoiler +
V1.0.0.121
Leap Strike can now target wards again, but will now reveal wards for two seconds when used in this manner.
V1.0.0.120
Leap Strike attack damage scaling reduced to 70% from 100%.
V1.0.0.118
Leap Strike no longer locks Jax, allowing him to cast spells while leaping.
V1.0.0.114:
Leap Strike now prefers to target enemies over allies when your cursor overlaps both.
V1.0.0.109
Leap Strike: cooldown reduced to 13/11/9/7/5 from 17/14/11/8/5.
Counter Strike now shows a brighter particle when Jax has recently dodged an attack and Counter Strike is ready.
V1.0.0.104
Empower now properly procs Rylai's Crystal Scepter.
V1.0.0.103
Recommended items updated.
Equipment Mastery: tooltip updated to show health gained from each source dynamically.
Leap Strike:
Ability power ratio reduced to 0.7 from 0.8.
Cast time reduced by 20%.
Travel speed increased by 20%.
Empower:
Now only deals damage to a single target rather than to an area of effect.
Now resets Jax’s autoattack timer when cast.
Base damage increased to 75/110/145/180/215 from 40/60/80/100/120.
Ability power and attack damage ratios increased to 0.4 from 0.2.
Mana cost reduced to 20 from 35.
Cooldown increased to 9/8/7/6/5 from 5 at all ranks.
Tooltip corrected to accurately state it deals magic damage.
Fixed bugs where Empower incorrectly did less damage when used at the same time as Leap Strike or each 3rd Relentless Assault strike.
Counter Strike: base damage increased to 80/110/140/170/200 from 80/100/120/140/160.
Relentless Assault:
New Active: Grants 20/35/50 + Jax's dodge percent in bonus magic resistance for 5/6.5/8 seconds upon activation.
Costs 80 mana.
Cooldown of 60 seconds.
Buff icon now dynamically shows the number of Relentless Assault stacks which Jax is benefiting from.
Tooltip correctly indicates that Jax gains up to 10 stacks of Relentless Assault.
V1.0.0.101
Counter Strike now has a buff that shows the duration of the effect.
V1.0.0.94(b)
Health per level reduced to 83 from 86.
Base movement speed reduced to 325 from 330.
V1.0.0.94
Empower cooldown changed to 5 seconds from 7/6/5/4/3 seconds.
V1.0.0.83
Base armor per level reduced to 3.2 from 4.
Fixed a minor tooltip typo with Empower.
Leap Strike is no longer castable while immobilized.
Equipment Mastery health gained from attack damage reduced to 3 from 4.
V1.0.0.82
Leap Strike ability power ratio reduced to 0.8 from 1.0.
Counter Strike ability power ratio reduced to 0.6 from 0.8.
Relentless Assault ability power ratio reduced to 0.7 from 1.0.
V1.0.0.81
New "Choose Me" voice over in PVP.net.
V1.0.0.79
Equipment Mastery health bonus reduced to 4 health per damage and 2 health per ability power.
Empower:
Base damage reduced to 40/60/80/100/120 from 45/65/85/105/125.
It now gains 20% of both attack damage and ability power as bonus damage.
V1.0.0.72
Fixed an issue with Jax's Leap Strike that was causing the damage to fail in some cases when interacting with targets in brush.
V1.0.0.63
Improved Leap Strike's responsiveness; you can now move much sooner after striking (but not attack).
V1.0.0.61
Leap Strike cooldown reduced to 17/14/11/8./5 from 21/17/13/9/5.
Empower:
Cleave increased to 60% from 50%.
Duration to power up reduced to 3 from 4.
Updated damage per second values to 25/35/45/55/65 from 20/25/30/35/40.
Ability positions were modified: Leap Strike is now Q, Empower is now W.
V0.9.22.16:
Counter Strike:
Increased Cooldown from 4 to 4.5.
Reduced Ability Power from 1 to .8.
Reduced Dodge% from 10/12.5/15/17.5/20 to 10/12/14/16/18.
Relentless Assault:
Reduced Attack Speed per Level from 8/12/16% to 6/10/14%.
Empower:
Can no longer crit.
Fixed an issue causing Empower to not proc.
V0.9.22.15:
Leap Strike:
Now gives Jax a slight speed boost upon landing.
Increased bonus damage from 30/60/90/120/150 to 50/75/100/125/150.
Counter Strike:
Increased Dodge% from 8/11/14/17/20 to 10/12.5/15/17.5/20.
Relentless Assault:
Reduced hits to proc from 4 to 3, Reduced Damage to 140/170/210.
Can now be held across targets for up to 2.5 seconds.
V0.9.22.7:
Increased Movement Speed from 315 to 325.
V0.8.22.115:
Stats:
Increased base armor from 18 to 22.
Increased health per level from 78 to 86.
Counter Strike:
Reduced cooldown from 5 to 4.
Increased duration of Dodge proc from 4 to 7.
July 10, 2009 Patch:
Leap Strike:
No longer cause double hits.
Relentless Assault:
Fixed a bug with this skill interacting with Neutral Minions.
Empower:
Now grows its damage on a per level basis instead of cleave %.


Abilities
+ Show Spoiler +

Passive: Equipment Mastery: Jax's prowess with weapons and armor increase his fortitude as he gains equipment:
Jax gains 3 health per point of attack damage received from items.
Jax gains 2 health per point of ability power received from items.

Pretty much the ability that makes Jax who he is. Build damage, get tanky. Self explanatory, never to be overlooked. Auras that effect damage (Sona, for example) will give him bonus health, but only increase his total health and leave his current health where it is. Moving away from the source will return his health to normal. If above his natural limit, he will return to full health.

Q: Leap Strike: Jax leaps towards a target. If it's an enemy, he smacks it in the face with his weapon, dealing magic damage.

Self explanatory. Leap in air, land on face, hurt a lot.

W: Empower: Jax charges his weapon with energy, causing his next attack to deal additional magic damage.

Again, self explanatory. If used before casing his q, empower will apply the buff on the leap strike damage directly, instead of waiting for Jax to strike the opponent.

E: Counter-strike: (Passive): Increases Jax's dodge chance.
(Active): Jax stuns surrounding enemies for 1 second and deals magic damage to them. Usable only within 7 seconds of dodging an attack

This is the other ability that makes Jax who he is. The only skill in the game that has synergy with dodge. When you are lucky, this skill is an aoe stun that can grab multiple members of the enemy team. If not, you are looking at a character with only 2.5 active abilities.

Ultimate: (Passive): Jax's basic attacks increase his attack speed for 2.5 seconds (max 10 stacks). Every 3rd consecutive attack deals bonus magic damage.
(Active): Jax's speed allows him to reduce incoming magic damage. For few seconds his magic resistance is increased.

While seemingly mundane, Jax' ultimate is one of the most effective in the game. It eliminates the need to build any meaningful attack speed items beyond a rageblade, and provides a tremendous increase to his damage. At the same time, the MR, combined with your massive health pool from his passive will usually be enough to keep you alive while you finish the offensive parts of your build. Plus its always a great way to prevent Karthus from sniping you with his ult.


Summoners
Ignite flash. Flash for escapes and aggressiveness, Ignite for the kills.

Masteries
21-9-0. Grab 3 points in Crit% and the Ap bonus on the first line. A full 4 in the cooldown reduction on the next. Next line sees improved ignite, Magic pen, full armor pen. Full 3 in attack damage, 2 in crit damage, 1 in Havock.

In the defensive tree, grab 3 in mr, 1 in armor, then fill out with dodge and nimbleness.

This set up lets you grab all the yummy stuff from the offensive tree, while at the same time grabbing the nimbleness that so helps your E proc.

Runes
Flat ad reds and quints, dodge yellows, mr/lvl or flat mr blues, depending on which you prefer.

Flat ad is for your early game burst, dodge is for e, mr is for living longer against burst. Simple and easy.

Skill Order
QWQEQR R>Q>W>E. This maximizes your damage, which is basically all you want to do as Jax.

If your lane opponent is a ranged carry, Id advise getting a point in E at 2 and W at 3, just to help ward off harass a little bit with a few dodge procs.

Items
2-3 Dorans blades, Ninja tabi, Hextech Gunblade, Guinsoo's rageblade

Yes, this is only 3 real items after the dblades. You have options after you get your core of gunblade&rageblade. Banshee's Veil if you need MR. Deathcap if you want some ap damage and scaling. Blood thirster if you want to deal more ad and grab some lifesteal. Atmas if you want damage and armor. Trinity force is a good mix of both ap and ad, and the extra proc from sheen always helps. As stupid as this sounds, you need to feel out the game and decide what you need. Everything is situational after the core is complete. I typically like to get a BV as soon as my core is done. Spellblock is very strong, especially on someone with as much killing potential as Jax. You never want to be forced out of the fight for any reason, and BV will help with that.

Unfortunately, this is the difficult thing about Jax- completing the core items. Ideally, you want to have 2 or 3 dorans blades, Ninja Tabi (or merc treads if they have a ton of CC), a Hextech Gunblade, and Rageblade as soon as possible. The problem is getting there.

You have a couple ways to start. Boots+3 is the median, allowing you to have a decent ammount of sustain through pots, while at the same time allowing you to harass with speed. Dorans blade is the offensive option. You hit harder, but will be forced to back more often. Cloth+5 is pure defense. You can stay in lane, but you wont hit hard. In truth, none of these options are all that great. You will feel the pain of not having whatever aspect you didnt grab, either the sustain of boots or the offense and health of the blade. It is for this reason that you NEED to get whatever you dont have as soon as possible. This means grabbing one or 2 blades, or boots, or tabi.

The next thing you want is your pickaxe and cutlass. If you can grab it without having to get more than a single dblade, do it. If you need to delay in order to survive, buy dblades instead. But the instant you grab your cutlass and level 6 you turn into a lean mean killing machine. From there you just complete your gunblade, then finish rageblade. I prefer to go ad first on the rageblade as well, but it is users choice.

After the core, just buy what you feel you need. BV, Deathcap, Blood thirster, Hourglass, Atmas, Trinity, even tankier options like sunfire are acceptable. Realistically, any item in the game that has AD or AP or is a tank item is a good item on Jax. You are a melee dps. Your first thought is survival. If you dont need defense, then build offense.

Suggested Luxury Items: BV, Deathcap, Blood thirster, Hourglass, Atmas, Trinity Force, Void Staff, Rylais, Will of the Ancients, Guardian Angel, Sunfire, FON, Frozen Mallet, ect.

Playstyle
*YOU MUST SOLO- YOUR CORE ITEMS ARE NECESSARY FOR YOUR SUCCESS. THE FASTER YOU GET THEM THE BETTER*

This is where things get REALLY tricky. At level 1 and 2, Jax is a beast. He will dish a ton of damage with leapstrike and empower, and if your lane opponent is lacking on MR or armor, your runes will make short work of them. Yet by level 3 and 4, most opponents are capable of fighting even, or even slightly ahead of him, especially ranged carries. This is where you start to notice the lack of sustain or damage and health, depending on what you started with. Do your best to farm, the ad runes really help with last hitting, so you have no excuse. Harass safely if you can, using w>q>auto to deal a frightening amount of damage. The instant you start to get pushed back, if you have the gold for items, go back and get them. The longer you stay HEALTHY in lane, the better. If you cant stay healthy, but stay in lane, you do no good to yourself or anyone else. Jax needs to be ahead or even with his opponent early on in this stage. You walk a fine line between harassing and getting a kill and setting yourself up to dominate the game, or dying and being useless for the majority of it.

By level 6 you should have at least boots 1 and 1 or 2 blades. It is at this point you become deadly. Your ultimate passive gives you an extreme damage increase, and you are one of the few champions happy to fight in the midst of minions, as that is the most effective way to draw procs on your e. w>q in, then stand there and hit. If the enemy is stupid enough to trade blows with you, kill them. Otherwise simply do what damage you can, then regen with pots and autoattacks until you feel safe to harass again. Again, however, your main goal is to continue to farm. If you can farm champions, do so. Otherwise, farm minions.

As soon as you get your cutlass, you can really start to dish out the pain. Just jump in, empower, stun, and hit things. Use the passive on the cutlass only to slow someone you might not have a stun for. The more often its up, the better chance you have of killing someone. At this point you should be able to drive your lane back. Roam if you can, killing champs whenever possible. Very few can take you 1v1. Take advantage of that. Focus on finishing your core and starting whatever luxury items you like.

Late game and teamfights are what separate bad Jax' from good ones. With a gunblade and level 11 you can take baron with 2 or so teammates. With 16 and your core, you can take it basically alone. In a teamfight, stay back until someone on your team engages. Play the anti carry role: wait for the enemy team to blow their cc and burst, then jump in, killing everyone from squishiest to sturdiest. Mash w and e whenever they are up.

Thats really all I have for now. If I forgot something, let me know. This guide is based on Dyrus' on solomid, tempered by what I have found to be the most effective.

Old guide here
+ Show Spoiler +
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=166409
"What is the air speed velocity of an unladen courier?" "Dire or Radiant?"
NeoIllusions
Profile Blog Joined December 2002
United States37500 Posts
July 19 2011 19:02 GMT
#2
If you lane bot (which I don't think it's that bad), I would open Blade Blade like you suggested. Laning top I'd still go Cloth + 5 hp pots though. Watching saint play Jax vs a number of different solo tops (mostly against Kenikth, mind you) was rather interested. Wriggle's is almost a must I would say. Damage is less than a Cutlass (for Gunblade) and slightly less Vamp but you get +Armor, +ward, +Madred proc.

Jax loses out early on against Yorick, Udyr, Nidalee, breaks even with Kayle (matchups I've seen on the stream) but around levels 8-11, Jax wins lane back. At top, you have access to Blue and Red fairly close by and with either buffs, you assert lane dominance. With Wriggle's, takes Jax about 5-6 seconds to finish a buff camp and return to lane in time to spam more WQ.
ModeratorFor the Glory that is TeamLiquid (-9 | 155) | Discord: NeoIllusions#1984
Two_DoWn
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
United States13684 Posts
July 19 2011 19:07 GMT
#3
I dont like wriggles in lane, and probably never will. In my opinion, especially after the nerf to wriggles that removed the 200 point heals, going blade blade cepter give Jax gives a similar amount of regen, and gets you closer to culass. I also feel that while the ward is good, the proc is next to meaningless since your ulti lets you smash through creeps effectively without it.

And I definitely agree about the matchups. He is the strongest level 2 champ in the game, and probably one of the weakest level 5's. His ult goes a long way to pulling him back in terms of damage and viability in lane. And with it you can win the lane back as soon as 6, as late as 8 or so. With help from your jungle you can stay ahead of your opponent and likely win the lane before then, but otherwise you will need to be patient. NEVER get behind though. Going down a level or a kill can spell disaster for your entire game.
"What is the air speed velocity of an unladen courier?" "Dire or Radiant?"
NeoIllusions
Profile Blog Joined December 2002
United States37500 Posts
July 19 2011 19:22 GMT
#4
On July 20 2011 04:07 Two_DoWn wrote:
I dont like wriggles in lane, and probably never will. In my opinion, especially after the nerf to wriggles that removed the 200 point heals, going blade blade cepter give Jax gives a similar amount of regen, and gets you closer to culass. I also feel that while the ward is good, the proc is next to meaningless since your ulti lets you smash through creeps effectively without it.

And I definitely agree about the matchups. He is the strongest level 2 champ in the game, and probably one of the weakest level 5's. His ult goes a long way to pulling him back in terms of damage and viability in lane. And with it you can win the lane back as soon as 6, as late as 8 or so. With help from your jungle you can stay ahead of your opponent and likely win the lane before then, but otherwise you will need to be patient. NEVER get behind though. Going down a level or a kill can spell disaster for your entire game.


Opening Blade means you're hugely susceptible to lane harassment. Yorick and Rumble will omnom you (Yorick heals with E, Rumble will likely outattrition you with EQ early game and be spec'ed 21 Defense). Just two examples.

Wriggle's is more for the free ward (don't have to back every few minutes to buy one) and faster completion of Red/Blue. It's a tradeoff of +13 AD and a slowing Proc for a whole bunch of utility. I was wrong previously, Wriggle's is 18% Life Steal, Cutlass is 15%.
ModeratorFor the Glory that is TeamLiquid (-9 | 155) | Discord: NeoIllusions#1984
BluzMan
Profile Blog Joined April 2006
Russian Federation4235 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-07-19 19:35:46
July 19 2011 19:27 GMT
#5
I for once don't think Jax needs a Rageblade in his build. Gunblade and Triforce are his core items and afterwards you'd wanna build almost pure tank to deal all that damage and stay alive. GRB adds a nice amount of damage, that's true, but it's snowballing nature does not mitigate, but instead augments one of Jax's most glaring weaknesses (needs time to kick in during fights) and it provides zero utility when Jax severely lacks one. Gunblade's active, while useful, is NEVER going to be enough to kill someone, you will just get kited to infinity. MS+Slow from Triforce is instrumental for melee DPS who normally can't stick to their targets and the Sheen proc is good for damage considering how often you cast something in a full-blown fight.

As for the opener, I've been going boots+3 before the Q nerf (btw, why the fuck would someone even consider nerfing Jax lol) and after countless attempts at different openings I'm quite positive it was the best opening for all but the most crazy duo lanes (either retarded healing or retarded damage where those 10 AD meant a difference between a lvl 2 kill or just a fountain trip) where Doran's Blade was preferred. Idk about now, didn't play Jax after his nerf much since I was pretty much demoralized by how badly he was nerfed. Cloth+5 is bulletproof, it should work pretty well, Doran's in a solo especially after the nerf seems like a very very sub-optimal choice. Q doesn't scale that well with AD now and without boots, I simply don't see how you will gonna make that AD work on your autoattacks, you won't land any vs a ranged champion and a melee champion will make more damage standing and fighting than you will until level 6.
You want 20 good men, but you need a bad pussy.
Two_DoWn
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
United States13684 Posts
July 19 2011 20:10 GMT
#6
I generally open boots+3 at this stage, unless I am going to get someone I KNOW I will shit on, like Viegar.

As for triforce, it is a luxury item on Jax, no more. He likes everything it offers, and needs none of it. He has no glaring need for the slow, as he can jump. Same for the movespeed. The sheen is very nice, and worth picking up on occasion. The biggest problem with triforce is the cost. Its ~1500 gold more expensive then the rageblade, and again, offers very little that jax needs. Rageblade has great synergy with his ult, passive, and its low cost allows you to build defense sooner. Your argument that Jax needs defense only points to this conclusion: a low cost item that MASSIVELY increases his deadliness, allowing him to build some resistances faster? Why not. For Jax and his kit, a rageblade does everything that a triforce would do, only for less cost.
"What is the air speed velocity of an unladen courier?" "Dire or Radiant?"
BluzMan
Profile Blog Joined April 2006
Russian Federation4235 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-07-19 22:22:56
July 19 2011 22:18 GMT
#7
On July 20 2011 05:10 Two_DoWn wrote:
I generally open boots+3 at this stage, unless I am going to get someone I KNOW I will shit on, like Viegar.

As for triforce, it is a luxury item on Jax, no more. He likes everything it offers, and needs none of it. He has no glaring need for the slow, as he can jump. Same for the movespeed. The sheen is very nice, and worth picking up on occasion. The biggest problem with triforce is the cost. Its ~1500 gold more expensive then the rageblade, and again, offers very little that jax needs. Rageblade has great synergy with his ult, passive, and its low cost allows you to build defense sooner. Your argument that Jax needs defense only points to this conclusion: a low cost item that MASSIVELY increases his deadliness, allowing him to build some resistances faster? Why not. For Jax and his kit, a rageblade does everything that a triforce would do, only for less cost.


You're like stating exactly the opposite of what I wrote =))) Jax cannot stick to people, period, his jump is nice but compare that to any melee DPS (let's pretend Garen doesn't exist) and they either have MS steroids or some form of stun/slow ON TOP of a gap closer. Take Xin, Irelia, Yi, hell, even Shaco or Trundle. Jax doesn't have anything but an extremely unreliable 1 second stun and that pretty much guarantees you will never get close to any decent ranged DPS (Ashe, Corki, Ezreal, Trist, Vayne, whatever else). Jax deals immense damage even without damage items, he needs to be able to land it. Gunblade/GRB simply asks for "please kite me". Imagine you jump at Ashe, Ashe starts to run. Since you have exactly the same MS as her, you can only run as well and hope for a stun proc or something. You deal no damage running, even if you have 10 Infinity Edges.

Also, how is Triforce giving stats you don't need:

HP to get some extra survivability on a melee champion - check
AD - check
AP - check
Slow - check
MS - check
Sheen proc - check
Kickstarter AS to make you reach critical mass in fights faster - check

Well, you can argue that you don't need mana and crit (well, no, crit is fine), but Triforce is like the best item in the game for a hybrid melee champion regardless of who he is.
You want 20 good men, but you need a bad pussy.
Flakes
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
United States3125 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-07-20 08:06:16
July 20 2011 07:45 GMT
#8
Well, if I built Jax as a 21/9/0 high-dps 1-man cleanup crew, then I would be perfectly happy with gunblade-->rageblade. Jax will roll face in fights smaller than 5v5, and also vs teams that have burned their initiating CC. Remember if someone has the same MS as you, then they have to be constantly running away, while Jax gets a leap strike+empower in every 5 seconds, not including the gunblade slow. Farming up a Rageblade feels nice as well, since pickaxe/blasting wand give Jax a lot of stats he can use right off the bat, and its combine cost is lower than sheen/phage (more immediate raw offensive stats per gold spent, instead of HP/MP). Also building Triforce takes up a lot of bag space, giving you less time to benefit from early dblade stacking.

Through his passives and ratios, Jax can make use of more items than any other champion in the game, hence his title of "Armsmaster." I 100% believe that there are many viable ways to play him and that this is intentional in his design. Jax gets a lot of damage for free and scales well with offensive stats, so going Gunblade-->Rageblade with offensive masteries is a "Min/Max" style of play, foregoing utility for raw DPS. Substituting Triforce for Rageblade is a "Compensatory" style build, substituting some sustained DPS for some utility (MS, slow proc, HP/MP) and maintaining high burst later into the game with the sheen proc (part of the 4k gold price tag).

I compensate even further than Bluzman, building Jax 9/21/0 with tank items after Gunblade, to allow me to enter fights earlier and make use of my aoe stun when I can hit the most people with it. If my games lasted long enough I'd get Triforce towards the end, but unlikely a GRB (part of GRB's strength is its early cost-effectiveness, end-game you can get more out of a single item slot).

On July 20 2011 04:02 NeoIllusions wrote:
+ Show Spoiler +

If you lane bot (which I don't think it's that bad), I would open Blade Blade like you suggested. Laning top I'd still go Cloth + 5 hp pots though. Watching saint play Jax vs a number of different solo tops (mostly against Kenikth, mind you) was rather interested. Wriggle's is almost a must I would say. Damage is less than a Cutlass (for Gunblade) and slightly less Vamp but you get +Armor, +ward, +Madred proc.

Jax loses out early on against Yorick, Udyr, Nidalee, breaks even with Kayle (matchups I've seen on the stream) but around levels 8-11, Jax wins lane back. At top, you have access to Blue and Red fairly close by and with either buffs, you assert lane dominance. With Wriggle's, takes Jax about 5-6 seconds to finish a buff camp and return to lane in time to spam more WQ.



I've never done remotely bad vs. a Nidalee, especially starting cloth+5 or cloth+3+mana pot. As for early Wriggles, Jax wipes out creeps plenty fast on his own, hp pots + dblade stacking should be enough for healing/AD, and Jax shouldn't need armor in lane beyond tabi (if anything I'd pick up an early null magic mantle, depending on matchup). Also the proc doesn't work with gunblade spell vamp
Two_DoWn
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
United States13684 Posts
July 20 2011 14:20 GMT
#9
On July 20 2011 07:18 BluzMan wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 20 2011 05:10 Two_DoWn wrote:
I generally open boots+3 at this stage, unless I am going to get someone I KNOW I will shit on, like Viegar.

As for triforce, it is a luxury item on Jax, no more. He likes everything it offers, and needs none of it. He has no glaring need for the slow, as he can jump. Same for the movespeed. The sheen is very nice, and worth picking up on occasion. The biggest problem with triforce is the cost. Its ~1500 gold more expensive then the rageblade, and again, offers very little that jax needs. Rageblade has great synergy with his ult, passive, and its low cost allows you to build defense sooner. Your argument that Jax needs defense only points to this conclusion: a low cost item that MASSIVELY increases his deadliness, allowing him to build some resistances faster? Why not. For Jax and his kit, a rageblade does everything that a triforce would do, only for less cost.


You're like stating exactly the opposite of what I wrote =))) Jax cannot stick to people, period, his jump is nice but compare that to any melee DPS (let's pretend Garen doesn't exist) and they either have MS steroids or some form of stun/slow ON TOP of a gap closer. Take Xin, Irelia, Yi, hell, even Shaco or Trundle. Jax doesn't have anything but an extremely unreliable 1 second stun and that pretty much guarantees you will never get close to any decent ranged DPS (Ashe, Corki, Ezreal, Trist, Vayne, whatever else). Jax deals immense damage even without damage items, he needs to be able to land it. Gunblade/GRB simply asks for "please kite me". Imagine you jump at Ashe, Ashe starts to run. Since you have exactly the same MS as her, you can only run as well and hope for a stun proc or something. You deal no damage running, even if you have 10 Infinity Edges.

Also, how is Triforce giving stats you don't need:

HP to get some extra survivability on a melee champion - check
AD - check
AP - check
Slow - check
MS - check
Sheen proc - check
Kickstarter AS to make you reach critical mass in fights faster - check

Well, you can argue that you don't need mana and crit (well, no, crit is fine), but Triforce is like the best item in the game for a hybrid melee champion regardless of who he is.

In a teamfight, I dont care if someone runs. My job is to kill them or make them run. As long as their dps is gone, I have done my job. If I jump, empower, whack twice before they run, thats 4 rageblade stacks, 2 ult stacks, and half a squishies hp. I can then jump to whoever ISNT running and kill them. At which point I will be full up on both rageblade and ult stacks. Jax should NEVER be running on the ground, unless its a 1v1 situation. His jump should be the only movement skill you use in a fight, otherwise you are standing still and hitting things and trying to draw empower stacks.

Plus, the only ones who can really kite Jax are ranged champs with a slow (ashe, corki with triforce, ect). Only in order to kite you, they have to aim at you. With ~30% dodge chance. Which means you WILL draw a counter strike charge. Which means you WILL be able to w>q>e and flat out KILL them. For a hell of a lot less investment than triforce.
"What is the air speed velocity of an unladen courier?" "Dire or Radiant?"
nyxnyxnyx
Profile Joined April 2010
Indonesia2978 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-07-20 15:21:11
July 20 2011 15:20 GMT
#10
i just got stomped in a normal by a tabi hog warmog atmas jungle jax

i dont know how to feel about that. pro or no?
cool beans
Two_DoWn
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
United States13684 Posts
July 20 2011 15:26 GMT
#11
I dunno. Its iffy at best. Id say no just because you can get the same health as the bonus from warmogs with a gunblade, and still grab an atmas if you want it. But his ult does let you beat people up even without any bonus damage, so it realistically is just a tanky version of Jax, which can be good.

My style merely relies on doing a ton of damage in exchange for a HAIR bit of tankiness until the core is done. Afterwards I could easily see myself with an atmas and maybe a sunfire for the same level of tank with much more killing power.
"What is the air speed velocity of an unladen courier?" "Dire or Radiant?"
barbsq
Profile Joined November 2009
United States5348 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-07-20 17:20:52
July 20 2011 17:18 GMT
#12
one thing i'd point out, esp on this champ, is there are a fuckton of items that actually work decent on jax, and adding them i think would be a good idea, even if you dont use them. For example, rylais, triforce, wriggles, etc are all valid options, and can go under the 'situationally good' sort of thing. Having a set 'you have to do this' item build kinda bugs me, esp on a champ as versatile as jax.

edit: also having a solo lane vs duo lane doesnt really have much of an effect on farm if your teammate is a support, which is very common nowadays.
Look at this guy, constantly diluting himself! (╮°-°)╮┳━┳ ( ╯°□°)╯ ┻━┻
Two_DoWn
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
United States13684 Posts
July 20 2011 17:54 GMT
#13
I am gonna have to go back into the luxury items section, but I thought I made it pretty clear that most every item is good on Jax, so long as it has AP and AD. The only YOU MUST DO that I feel exists is Gunblade>Rageblade.

As for duo vs solo, it is my opinion that jax struggles in a duo lane because 1- he is melee, and already struggles with ranged dps in lane, and adding another enemy to that party does not bode well, even if he has some help.
"What is the air speed velocity of an unladen courier?" "Dire or Radiant?"
Simple
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
United States801 Posts
July 20 2011 22:27 GMT
#14
id rather have jax in the jungle than in a duo lane. if a duo youll prob lose out on cs, and your harass will become negligible if theyre running a support/healer bot
Two_DoWn
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
United States13684 Posts
July 21 2011 02:10 GMT
#15
Agreed. He just cant handle any of the current bot lane parings to any great success. And if a support is there to heal away any harass he does, he is doubly screwed.
"What is the air speed velocity of an unladen courier?" "Dire or Radiant?"
clickrush
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Switzerland3257 Posts
July 30 2011 18:29 GMT
#16
does it make sense to build a melee autoattacker so squishy that relies A) on getting 10 attacks off to build up his ult and B) has to be attacked alot so he can aoe disable..?

basicly the longer the fight the better he gets IMO.

what is wrong with just an atmogs build or sth like philo, banshees, atmas, mallet? gunblade is strong on him but why take it so early on?
oGsMC: Zealot defense, Stalker attack, Sentry forcefieldu forcefieldu, Marauder die die
rwrzr
Profile Joined February 2010
United States1980 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-07-30 20:10:48
July 30 2011 20:09 GMT
#17
Fun Jax storytime!

Jax starts 0-6 feeding a Rumble (lolz), but we manage to stay in the game thanks to some good teamwork and alistar (me) and ashe going to work on bottom.

So I convince the Jax to stop being aggressive and suiciding into rumble and just farm everything. Long story short Jax goes on a 15 minute farm spree while we defend and have 2 inhibs die and respawn.

We end up with Jax being so fed that even though ashe and orianna die instantly in teamfights jax cleans up and we win.

TL;DR Don't be stupid aggressive. Jax is a beast.

Also everyone in the game ends with 150+ CS and un-selfish alistar ends with 88 CS.
FADC
0123456789
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
United States3216 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-16 15:49:37
August 16 2011 04:36 GMT
#18
I play Jax for fun, but it seems almost impossible to lose with him even though I try to do bad, just playing him with latest patch is like 80%+ win rate on a side acc around 1700's. He's a really strong early game champion, mid game champion, and late game champion with really one hard counter beyond early game. I think people would call this Overpowered.

Skill Build: E, Q, W or Q, depending, then whichever skill you didn't take at lvl 3. R>Q>W>E

Item Build: Boots + 3 pots for most lanes, unless the lane is really harass heavy like pantheon or gangplank, which you go Cloth Armor + 5 hp pots.

Depending on how the early laning stage goes, follow up with the core of doransxhow many you need, ninja tabi, hextech revolver, gunblade, moonflair spellblade, rageblade, cleanse sash or fon or atmas depending on enemy team comp, and finish with one of the other 3.

I make a general item guide because depending on how lanes go, you might not need the dorans and can go straight for the ninja tabi and other items. If the lane has a lot of burst potential or it's really close, you can't really cut dorans for higher tier items.

For skills, I go e first for a few reasons. E allows you to fight lvls 1-2, jump on people and follow up with a stun, and then follow it up with another stun as you auto attack them. If you jump into people without e, you will eat a lot of harass and dmg. That e is really important to ensure you can actually continue agression and deal dmg. Your burst really comes later in lane starting from around lvl 1 w and higher than lvl 1 q.

For masteries I go 9/21/0. It makes you more tanky, and allows you to actually take some dmg in lane, and is stronger overall for jax. 21/9/0 gives you higher damage, but again, against most lanes the problem isn't dealing enough dmg. 0/9/21 is a pretty good option because it gives you buff duration +, and mana regen for more uses of q,w, but I usually find that I end up with just enough mana to do what I need to do in lane so the mana regen isn't really needed, and jax usually gives up buffs to others, but he's still really strong with buffs.

For runes, I go physical dmg reds, dodge yellows, ap/level blues. The Quints can be switched up with either physical dmg quints, or dodge quints. I run this setup because I like to own people from the getgo, early on around 1-2 with auto attacks and stun, and then get the natural transition into burst after 3-4.

Teamfights: There are really two ways to teamfight with jax. If your team has a tank, then wait for the tank to initiate with their natural form of whatever CC they have to initiate with, then hop in after they take absorb some CC like an assassin. If your team has no tank, then you have to initiate with a leap. I would recommend trying to get a stun proc and then jumping into as many people to hit that stun proc, or aim for a squishy, hit them with a burst, take the dmg and then leap or flash out. After your initial initiation, try to lifesteal back up and go back in, or aim for safer targets to get lifesteal off of and then go in. If you're too low, just b.

Jax's only hard counter is SOTD on enemy carry because until a later stage of the game you're not going to have much dmg reduction and those things hurt. Other counters are mid game CC when you don't have your moonflair spellblade or cleanse sash because they really shut you down. After that, there's really nothing that can shut you down, and you're an invincible melee. You have free reign on squishies with leap, stun, slow from gunblade, and heavy burst.
arnath
Profile Joined May 2010
United States1317 Posts
August 16 2011 05:00 GMT
#19
What is his one hard counter?
gtrsrs
Profile Joined June 2010
United States9109 Posts
August 16 2011 05:54 GMT
#20
On August 16 2011 13:36 0123456789 wrote:
For skills, I go e first for a few reasons. E allows you to fight and kill lvls 1-2, and dominate and maintain lane control, which is better than higher burst out of w and q first lvls 1-2. I'll finish this guide tomorrow.


i disagree completely. part of jax's strength is his ability to outright win a lane at level 2 or even level 1 with the MASSIVE damage on Q and W. E is totally auxiliary and kinda gimmicky.

also what's with people saying morde is a direct counter to jax? i've yet to lose to a morde or even get CLOSE to feeling threatened unless their jungler just camps my lane
i play ... hearthstone =\^.^/= Winterfox
1 2 3 4 5 52 53 54 Next
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Esports World Cup
10:00
2025 - Day 1
Astrea vs HeRoMaRinELIVE!
Lambo vs TBD
Clem vs TBD
Solar vs Zoun
SHIN vs Reynor
Maru vs TriGGeR
herO vs Lancer
Cure vs ShoWTimE
Classic vs Rogue
Serral vs ByuN
EWC_Arena4215
ComeBackTV 2020
TaKeTV 511
Hui .466
Berry_CruncH338
3DClanTV 296
Fuzer 243
Rex243
CranKy Ducklings164
EnkiAlexander 155
mcanning121
UpATreeSC107
Reynor103
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
EWC_Arena4215
Hui .466
Rex 243
Fuzer 243
mcanning 121
UpATreeSC 107
Reynor 103
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 32515
Barracks 2589
Bisu 2039
Jaedong 793
Mini 770
EffOrt 681
Stork 621
Larva 457
firebathero 408
Soma 349
[ Show more ]
ToSsGirL 163
Soulkey 143
Pusan 136
Snow 132
ZerO 94
Rush 90
Backho 71
PianO 61
Sharp 46
Free 37
soO 36
Movie 34
Sea.KH 33
sSak 21
Noble 20
Shine 19
Icarus 18
JulyZerg 16
zelot 16
yabsab 11
sas.Sziky 6
Terrorterran 4
ivOry 3
Dota 2
XcaliburYe391
BananaSlamJamma294
Counter-Strike
x6flipin733
oskar130
markeloff90
edward60
Super Smash Bros
Westballz26
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor81
Other Games
singsing2595
B2W.Neo1377
crisheroes317
SortOf146
ArmadaUGS79
Trikslyr24
ZerO(Twitch)19
Organizations
StarCraft: Brood War
lovetv 11
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV605
League of Legends
• Nemesis3268
• Stunt814
Upcoming Events
Esports World Cup
21h 29m
Esports World Cup
1d 21h
Esports World Cup
2 days
CranKy Ducklings
3 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
4 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
4 days
Bonyth vs Sziky
Dewalt vs Hawk
Hawk vs QiaoGege
Sziky vs Dewalt
Mihu vs Bonyth
Zhanhun vs QiaoGege
QiaoGege vs Fengzi
FEL
4 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
5 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
5 days
Bonyth vs Zhanhun
Dewalt vs Mihu
Hawk vs Sziky
Sziky vs QiaoGege
Mihu vs Hawk
Zhanhun vs Dewalt
Fengzi vs Bonyth
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Xiamen Invitational
Championship of Russia 2025
Murky Cup #2

Ongoing

Copa Latinoamericana 4
Jiahua Invitational
BSL20 Non-Korean Championship
Esports World Cup 2025
CC Div. A S7
Underdog Cup #2
FISSURE Playground #1
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25

Upcoming

CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
BSL Season 21
RSL Revival: Season 2
SEL Season 2 Championship
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
FEL Cracov 2025
HCC Europe
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.