EPT![[image loading]](http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120703044126/leagueoflegends/images/thumb/8/89/Jayce_OriginalSkin.jpg/1000px-Jayce_OriginalSkin.jpg)
Patch History:
+ Show Spoiler +
V1.0.0.150:
Thundering Blow:
No longer deals any flat base damage (still deals % max health damage and has a bonus attack damage ratio).
Fixed: Stun no longer sometimes lasts beyond the knockback duration.
Acceleration Gate:
Mana cost increased to 50 from 30.
Unfortunately with the Thundering Blow nerf, maxing E first is no longer viable (he lost around 1/3 - 1/2 of his damage from his E). It feels that it is now better to leave E at rank 1 and max Q/W first.
V1.0.0.147b:
Thundering Blow:
Mana cost increased to 40/50/60/70/80 from 40 at all ranks.
V1.0.0.145:
General
Improved the responsiveness of his basic attacks, primarily in Hammer stance
Fixed: The first basic attack after swapping to Mercury Cannon is now more responsive
Jayce is a melee/ranged hybrid champion with a versatile kit. He does a mix of physical and magical damage, but most of his abilities strongly scale with AD. In general, he can do a bit of everything in the game in terms of damage, poking, peeling, chasing, tanking, and wave clearing (the only thing he lacks is sustain), but he doesn't do any of these particularly well when compared to a champion who specializes in any of these particular aspects.
Abilities
Innate: Hextech Capacitor
Jayce gains 40 movement speed for 1.25 seconds and ignores unit collision each time Transform is cast.
Beside the free movement speed bonus, the lack of collision is essential for certain combos. More on this later. In general this is a passive that defines his playstyle.
Q:
To the Skies (Hammer Form)
(Active): Jayce leaps to an enemy, dealing physical damage to his target and to enemies in the area, slowing them for 2 seconds.
Shock Blast (Cannon Form)
(Active): Fires an orb of electricity that detonates upon hitting an enemy or reaching the end of its path, dealing physical damage to all enemies in the area of the explosion.
In hammer form, Jayce's Q is a gap closer with decent CD and AOE damage/slow. Note that this ability does not allow Jayce to follow his target even though it is targeted; instead he lands at the position of his target when he initially casted the ability. This means that Jayce's opponent can completely dodge this ability if he uses Flash or some kinds of blink while Jayce is en-route with this skill. Otherwise, as all gapclosers, this is a very useful ability on Jayce. It is also part of his wave clear.
In cannon form, Jayce's Q is a strong ranged poke that scales strongly with bonus AD (in combination of E). It is very taxing on his mana, but it also does a lot of damage and it is relatively easy to land due to its range and missile speed. Also note that this ability can be used to check brushes because explosion from his Q provides vision.
W:
Lightning Field (Hammer Form)
(Passive): Jayce regenerates mana each time he strikes an enemy while in Hammer Stance.
(Active): Creates an electric aura, dealing magic damage over 4 seconds to nearby enemies.
Hyper Charge (Cannon Form)
(Active): Jayce gains a burst of energy, increasing his attack speed to maximum for 3 attacks. These attacks deal varied damage depending on rank.
Jayce's W's passive provides mana per hit while in hammer form. This encourages Jayce to attack with hammer form, but in general (on the top lane) you can only last hit minions with hammer form when the opponent is missing from the lane. Nevertheless, it is an useful ability.
In general, Jayce's W (beside the passive portion), in either form, provides only additional damage. This means that you should use them as often as possible so long as mana/CD permits.
In hammer form, his W does AOE magic damage around him for a few seconds. This is probably most useful for wave clearing. This is also his only ability that scales with AP.
In cannon form, his W provides a steroid that gives him maximum attack speed for three attacks. This means that any other forms of attack speed bonus on him is void when he activates this ability, which is something to keep in mind when choosing items for Jayce. It provides Jayce with a quick burst of damage that is useful for dueling and taking down towers. Furthermore, you can use W then switch to hammer form, giving you three quick attacks that also makes you regain some mana. This ability also resets your autoattack cooldown, so you can actually get off 4 attacks very quickly if you are positioned well.
E:
Thundering Blow (Hammer Form)
Deals magic damage equal to a base amount plus a percentage of the target's maximum health, knocking the target back a short distance.
Acceleration Gate (Cannon Form)
Deploys an Acceleration Gate for 4 seconds, increasing the movement speed of all allies who pass through it for 3 seconds. This bonus fades over the duration.
If Shock Blast is fired through the gate, the missile speed and range will be increased, and its damage will increase by 40%.
In hammer form, this ability is a
In cannon form, this ability synergizes with his Q as well as providing a speed boost for him and his team. In teamfight this functions similarly to Shurelya's Reverie. It is also useful to use this to get to a lane faster, since it is very cheap to cast. This ability can also be used to check brushes, but the range is fairly short.
R:
Transform: Mercury Cannon (Hammer Form)
Transforms the Mercury Hammer into the Mercury Cannon, gaining new abilities and ranged attacks.
The next attack in Cannon Stance reduces the enemy's armor and magic resist for 5 seconds.
Transform: Mercury Hammer (Cannon Form)
Transforms the Mercury Cannon into the Mercury Hammer, gaining new abilities and bonus armor and magic resist.
The next attack in Hammer Stance deals additional magic damage.
Transforming into the cannon form gives armor shredding and transforming into the hammer form gives magic damage for the next attack. These are autoattack modifiers that work on the next attack. Additionally, while in the hammer form you get bonus armor and magic resist.
Note that the autoattack portion is pretty derpy. For some reason, it makes your next attack really, really slow. This makes this part of the ability really hard to use unless you pre-activate your W in cannon form before you transform or use W after you have transformed into the cannon form.
The MR is especially important for Jayce, because he does not have MR growth per level otherwise (MR/lvl is common for most bruisers except maybe Poppy). If you expect to take damage, switching to the hammer form is a no-brainer.
Since this ability does not cost mana, you should be spamming it as your CD permits so you travel faster.
Runes and Masteries
For masteries, you can either go for a standard 21-9-0 set up, emphasizing on attack damage
For runes, a standard AD carry runepage is recommended (flat damage red/quaints, flat armor yellow, flat MR blue) because he scales really well with bonus AD.
Items
Jayce can be built in many ways, but he should use a bruiser-type build. In general, start with cloth 5 or boots 3/4, and go for Phage, two Doran Blades, and boots-2 (Ninja Tabi or Merc) for the early laning phase. You may also consider the Brutalizer, Wringle's Lattern, and/or just a Vampiric Scepter. After that, consider going for Trinity Force or the Frozen Mallet depending on if you want more damage or more kiting.
After this, a good choice is to build Frozen Heart, as Jayce strongly benefits from CDR/armor and mana is always welcome. Otherwise, choose to build damage/tankiness depending on what your team may require since Jayce is versatile.
Combos
Combos are important for Jayce since he has a lot of abilities to work with. In general:
To deal damage: (start with hammer form) Q -> W -> E -> R (to cannon form) -> W -> autoattack 3 times -> Q + E.
Chase: (ideally start with cannon form) E -> W -> R (to hammer form) -> Q -> W -> walk pass the target while he ignores unit collision -> E.
As mentioned previously, his W provides no utility and it is used almost exclusively to deal damage. Therefore you should use it as much as possible in a combo. Also, CDR is very useful on Jayce because being able to switch between his two forms is very powerful while he waits on the cooldown on his abilities in the other form.
Laning
In general Jayce should be played on the top lane. I don't believe he is a good bottom lane AD carry because of his lackluster range (500) and his only steroid (W) nullifies his other attack speed bonuses.
His play style is a mesh of Nidalee and J4. In general, Jayce is a strong pusher because of his W's steroid in cannon form and his AOE waveclear with his Q/W in hammer form. Against his lane opponent, his poke is similar to J4 in the sense that he goes in with his gapcloser, attacks, then walks out.
Jayce is fairly strong against most melee range bruisers such as Darius and Jax because of his ranged attack and disengage with E; he is also strong against some ranged bruisers such as Kennen, Teemo, and Vladimir because of his gap closer. However, he does not have sustain, his burst is mediocre, and his escape is pretty bad. He is really weak against high sustain laners with range such as Swain and Nidalee. He is also fairly weak against Irelia as far as I can tell.
Teamfight
In general, Jayce can either seek out the opposing AD carry like a typical bruiser, or he can help protect AD carries with CC's from the hammer form as well as speed boost from cannon form. He also has a very strong poke with his Q+E combo in cannon form and autoattack steroid. Therefore, there are multiple roles he can play in a teamfight. Unfortunately he doesn't do any of these things particularly well, since he is not as tanky as Olaf for diving, not as strong as Nautilus for CC, not as strong as Blitzcrank for peeling, not as strong as Janna for disengaging, and not as strong as any AD carries for damage. Typically you will choose a role to play in a teamfight (based on your team's composition) and build his items around this role.
Additional Tips
- Sometimes when you want to knock a target into your team, it is better to use the gapcloser (Q) on something BEHIND your desired target; this way you deal the same amount of damage, but you do not need to walk pass your target (or have to rely on the no unit collision bonus from the Innate if you are already in hammer form).
- Note that in cannon form his E extends his Q's range to a fixed amount no matter when his Q actually goes through the gate. Therefore, it is advised to cast his E as close to him as possible so you can use it to cast Q as well as speed boosting.
- Even though his W in cannon form gives him maximum attack speed, this can still be reduced by attack speed penalties such as the Frozen Heart.
- Note that the bonus speed from his E in cannon form fades over time, but it can be renewed upon touching the gate again, so it is occasionally useful to set up the gate in a way such that the direction of travel is parallel to the gate, instead of perpendicular to it. This way you always get the maximum speed bonus as long as you are touching the gate.+ Show Spoiler +
