Jayce Build Guide : An Extensive Jayce Guide to Diamond (Season 5)

Preamble

HELLO! I play on the NA servers under the Summoner name kellpak. I am a diamond 4/5 main. I have been playing ever since i started playing ranked in season 3. In season 3 i played 292 ranked games on with a 57.9% win rate end ended the season in gold. In season 4 I have played 486 ranked games on with a win rate of 52.9% and have gotten up to Diamond 4. I was originally inspired by Shy who was the Korean powerhouse at the time in top lane. I play almost exclusively in top lane however I have taken him mid in some occasions when my team needed it. I have played him through all the metas in the last several years and I would like to share how I play in case you wanted to pick him up in your repertoire of champions.

Introduction

is THE SNIPER in League of Legends (screw you ) and is a very fun champion to play as. Your + combo can take and ad or ap carry down below half health with one hit and his kit make him a versatile pick in both the top and mid lane. excels in poke and quick skirmishes with his large burst and quick disengage and even has enough sustained damage in cannon for with his to rival Ad carries in damage. He also brings strong utility with a large speed up from and can kite very easily with it when used properly.

Pros / Cons

Pro's:

Con's:

Runes

how you use your runes one depends heavily on your match up and play style. Your defensive runes should generally be tailored to who you are against on the other team (do they have a lot of ap? ad? can you get away with being squishier? how much sustain do they have?). your offensive rune choices are more based on your play style than anything else.

MARKS:
1) Arm Pen
2) flat AD

You generally have the choice between flat ad or armor pen for marks. I like to take Arm Pen marks personally. AD give you a stronger laning phase and allows you to hit harder from range and cs easier. Arm Pen give you a strong mid to late game as armor pen scales better with your abilities than flat AD.

SEALS:
1)flat armor
2)scaling armor
3)flat health
4)scaling health

Seals matter more based on lane opponent or team composition. It is important to note that scaling health/armor are better than flat after level 6 so if you are not concerned with taking damage earlier on its usually better to opt for scaling runes. You would take flat armor against an AD lane opponent or if their team is heavily ad based. you would take health seals against Ap lane opponents as you wont be needing the armor as much.

GLYPHS:
1)flat cdr
2)scaling cdr
3)flat magic resist
4)scaling magic resist

Glyphs is where you need to make a choice based on survivability or consistent damage. If you want to make the greatest damage impact possibly opt for cdr runes. If your lane opponent has a lot of magic damage or the entire enemy team is heavily magic damage based you would want to get magic resist instead. I run a mix of 3 scaling cdr and 6 flat cdr runes 99% of the time just because I prefer the extra spell power and damage from cdr over the magic resist. Most of the time, even if the team is very Ap based, most Ap caster (like ,, or ) can still be poked down without ever getting close to them since they dont have sustain, so you wouldn't need the extra magic resist unless you were caught out in their combo.

QUINTS:
1)flat AD
2)flat Armor Pen
3)Movement speed
4)Attack speed*

Quints is usually either flat ad or armor penetration. AD will give you more laning and bullying power early on while Armor pen give you a better mid and late game impact. I personally run armor pen because i love having my core build and seeing one empowered shock blast take their carry to under half health. Some people like to run movement speed on him for extra kiting but I honestly have never tried it because i favor poke damage over movement speed.

*The reason why I put attack speed as a choice is touch an interesting subject. In the season 4 world championship, Samsung White mid-laner PAWN ran attack speed quints on . Now, attack speed actually does very little for as a stat since he is very burst heavy on hammer form and cannon form has w up every 3 seconds with give max attack speed for 3 shots. Pawn picked these to fit his play style because he liked them better even though in most cases AD or Armor pen would have been more useful. He probably did it because of the increase responsiveness when auto attacking in lane or something to do with his earlier laning phase. PAWN was the ONLY player at worlds to run attack speed on with most everyone else running a mix of AD and Armor pen runes. So learn from PAWN. If you find something you like and it works for you, use it, even if no one else is doing it. There is no reason to change something if its working for you. so experiment with your build! Find what you like!

Masteries

will usually run 1 of two main set ups for masteries

21/9/0 OR 21/0/9

The main masteries you want out of the offensive tree here are:

1)all 3 points in so your and hurt that extra little bit more
2) AND since you will be cycling between auto attacks and spells constantly in lane and team fights/skirmishes
3) for the extra damage
4)3 points in so you can snipe people off more easily
5) and for the extra AD

The other points depend on build. If you got all scaling cdr glyphs and want to build into , then you wont need the 5% cdr from since you would already cap out at 40% without it. In this case you can put these points into instead. Some people like getting maxed out, others prefer getting . See what you like and make that work. I personally run 4 points in with and only 1 point in .

As for the remaining 9 points:
21/9/0 helps more in top lane or if you are concerned with getting bursted since the extra survivability it gives can help a lot in lane. MOST TOP LANE 's WILL TAKE 21/9/0. On the other hand, If you want more mana regen since is very mana dependant you can take 21/0/9. This would also allow you to get either or if you are going to be handed buffs often. MOST MID LANE 's WILL TAKE 21/0/9.

Spells

YOU SHOULD ALWAYS TAKE ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS!!!!!!!!!!
is the most versatile summoner spell in the entire game and it is very crucial that you run this at all times. It is too good not to take.

Now that we have that out of the way, you have a couple viable options for your second summoner spell.

1)

is what you take if you are going top lane and you want to be able to have a larger game presence outside of your lane. It is very strong and if you can get a good bot lane it will usually net you a kill or two if it is set up right. This also lets you split push fast with your W in cannon form and then join your team for team fight or baron. It would also be recommended to take if you lane is difficult to stay in since it lets you make plays other places or keep up your cs in lane more easily when you are getting bullied.

2)

is an amazing summoner spell on . He has loads of damage but what he doesn't have is an easy way to deal with high burst damage (say from a zed for example) or high mobility to escape if an enemy jumps on his face. protects jayce from bursty all in assassins and can help kill a high priority target in the late game like an enemy or adc. Exhaust also gets better as time goes on since it cuts a person damage significantly in a duel or a team fight. Consider taking in any lane you take if you want to duel the other person.

3)

is a very aggressive summoner spell to take and you usually want to take it if you want to be aggressive in lane and try and get an early kill or is you are against a champion on the other team with large sustain healing (mundo, warwick, soraka, sona). This a very good spell for snowballing a lane in solo que, however its effectiveness is much more one-dimensional compared to or since it can only be used aggressively.

4)//

I clump all these together because you generally would not need to run these over the other three spells but they are good niche options if you need them. / are good if you are up against a high burst lane opponent and you don't want to take or you just want the extra health over the damage reduction. is generally only used if you feel absolutely terrified when you look at the enemy team and see a mid, top, jungle, adc, and support, and say to youself.... "I REALLY need " otherwise I really wouldn't take it.

Skill Sequence

MAX FIRST:/
You max you Q first of any spells because it is what makes the champion he is. It gives a good burst of AD damage from Q in both forms and is on a relatively low cool down. You want to use to poke and clear waves. (At level 5 an empowered can clear the back row of minions and by level 9 when q is maxed you can clear the caster minions row with a normal if you have some AD on you like a manamune.) also explodes at the end of its travels or if it hits an enemy unit meaning that you can use your to get vision of people or jungle camps in the fog of war or over a wall and jump to the target with (you can do this to gromp if you wanna get over the wall). You can also check baron, dragon, or either buff as well by sending a shock blast into it to reveal the area without risking your life by getting too close.

MAX SECOND:/
You max second because it gives you an incredibly high AD damage output when ranked up thanks to the 3 rapid fire empowered auto attacks. As a bonus, it also gives you more mana back per auto attack in hammer form when you skill it up so it helps keep your mana up in the later part of the lane if you can get some auto attacks on creeps in hammer form. is not as great since you generally don't want to stay close to people for too long but it deals a good amount of magic damage in an AOE while you are beating someone in the face with your hammer and it can help clear minion waves faster as well. A fun trick is to use your first to empower your next 3 auto attacks and then switch to hammer form and jump on someone or a minion wave with . This will make you attack 3 times rapidly in hammer form allowing you to jump in, beat them up quickly, and then hammer them away with to win the trade. This will also give you mana back on all 3 auto attacks so its a more mana efficient way of farming and harassing.

MAX THIRD:/
You max E third because all you really get from leveling up E is extra %health damage on which you wont use as often as W or Q for damage. You get a bit more speed from your upon ranking it up but that is not useful as the other two skills. As a tip, you can throw your gate down into a bush or over a wall to gain vision of that area as well while your gate remains up. You can also throw your gate down over you or behind you if you are trying to run/kite away from an enemy chasing you and then turn around to fire a Q quickly once you pass through to allow you get the empowered Q damage while running away with the gate speed boost.

MAX FOURTH:/
Your R ability is what allows you to change stances and otherwise gives you a passive armor and magic resist buff in hammer form and special on hit effects for your next auto attack. the on hit bonuses are not as worth is to get since you generally will be attacking other things with your % armor shred in canon form and the extra magic damage in hammer form, while nice, is only used when you burst some one in hammer form. basically, since you are and your main role is poke people from far away before engaging, the on hit effects from auto attacks and extra armor and magic resist bonuses are not generally needed. This is why you level us this skill last.

Items and Build

CORE:

's main build is meant to make his skills hurt.... a lot. His has very high base damage and good ad scaling. His also give you 130% of your AD for your next 3 attacks meaning that building AD and armor penetration give him the best results for damage. Since he is spell based for his damage you want to max out on cdr as well. getting 40% cdr (the max in the game) allows you to spam your empowered and also leaves you with a down time of only 2-3 seconds between giving you more damage in general. some people like to rush as a second item, however it costs 3800 gold and only helps you (it helps a little bit, however getting a and only costs 3637 gold, AND they improve the functionality of all your spells by giving you massive armor penetration, 65 AD in total (only 15 less than , and cdr to boot. Basically damage gives you more damage, armor reduction gives you more damage, cdr gives you more damage, and all of these come very cost efficiently through his core build. Get these.

WHATS NEXT:

After your core you need to see what the other team is building, how fed they are, and how much your poke will stick. (by "stick" i mean the damage you do won't be healed back by the time you can shock blast again. This is why is so annoying to play against.) If you need a LOT more damage and you can auto attack freely in fights without getting insta-gibbed you want an . With the auto attack boots on your W, you are bound to crit HARD in team fights and when you do their carries will die instantly. If you need more sustain because you are getting focused, get a . The life steal on it will keep you health while you are auto attacking them and your shock blasts still hurt as much as if you had an infinity edge. the choice to get either black cleaver vs. youmuu's depends on who you are hitting more in fights and how tanky the enemy team is. If you have quick access to their back line carries or their team is rather squishy then get a because the additional flat armor pen it gives will give you more damage against the enemy than the % armor pen that black cleaver gives over time. If the other team has a big front line that you cant get past ( + or something similar) then get a for the % armor shred. with a beefy front line chances are you are focusing down the enemy tanks first in fights with the rest of your team and getting to the carries later, thus you will want to melt them as fast as possible. Guardian angel and banshee's veil are the two main choices for a defensive item. is really good if you are being dove in team fights as it will allow you to live through the burst and come back after your team has hopefully put some good damage onto their team. is really good if they have one or two big engage spells as it will completely negate their attempts to + you or something similar. Banshee's also gives you extra health to live through enemy burst much better.

NICHE ITEMS:

/

These you will hardly ever use on but they my show up in your build once in a while. The most common items from this list that you would want are quick silver sash/mercurial scimitar and maw of malmortius. / is your get of jail free card if the enemy team lands one crippling cc skill on you that you need to get out of (, , ) or if you are up against a and need to cleanse his . is a generally decent item to replace the main defensive items if the enemy team is more ap based (usually double AP and/or with a adc) as it gives you the magic shield and magic resist in addition to damage. If going for Maw then you would generally buy early on into the game (after your brutalizer or even right after manamune if you need it in lane) and then fully upgrade it later into the game since hexdrinker is a much more efficient item that its full upgrade and it still gives you a good shield. and are bought if the other team has too much long duration cc that you need the tenacity for. , , , and are all good options if the other team is all AD or mostly AD (think all AD with a top or something more supportive than damaging). can be used if the other team has a very fed or who does a lot of true damage and you just need to survive the initial burst or if you just want a bunch of health. is what you might want to get in place of blood thirster if you want the cdr because you had to get rid of ionion boots for defensive boots or something similar. is a fun item on but is really more of an item to get if you are stomping the other team outright and just want a semi-tanky damage item to finish your build. I only build if I desperately need to kite someone on their team like a or and even then you only buy this as a optional defensive item after everything else as a fifth or sixth item. is what you get if you need sustained % health damage and an optional slow for kitability (against a or usually). Other than those two champions and maybe there really is not a reason to get BoRK over a blood thirster.

Laning

STARTING BUILD:
There are 3 main starts that you will use on jayce

1) and 3
This gives you good starting damage and sustain in lane with the health potions to be able to harass and farm for a good while. The main advantage of this build is that it gets you to your mid game spike faster than any other build since long sword builds into and . This way you don't spend money on a just to sell it later.

2) +
Starting with a gives you good sustain while last hitting since it gives you 3% life steal and it gives you extra health to help in trades in lane. over all is a very cost efficient item to start with however, since it doesn't build into anything it is kind of a money sink hole. Get s if you are getting bullied. you would usually want 1 or 2 to give you extra stats across the board so you aren't bullied out of lane as easily but usually not any more as you really want to get you core items as fast as possible.

3) + 3
Start with a flask if you really just want to passively farm and sustain up with health and mana. You normally will not want to start flask since you are a bully and want your power spike ASAP. I tend to only get a flask if i find myself heavily zoned and needing to spam to farm safely, OR if I lane swap into a 2v1 lane to start.

EARLY LANING

You will want to start with your / at level 1 and harass your opponent with auto attacks every time they come in to last hit (CAREFUL TO NOT SACRIFICE YOUR OWN FARM FOR HARASS). After that, level up your / to unlock you combo and allow you to hit people hard and knock them away. at level 3 you can choose to either level / if the lane is passive, or level up / again if you want to go ham and try and get a kill. Afterwards just follow the suggested skill order.

Your main goal early is to get as much farm as you can and harass second. Try not to auto them for too long as minions will be attacking you as soon as you start autoing your opponent. If you can, establish bush control and duck in and out of the bushes to harass you opponent. hit them while out of the bush and immediately go into the bush again to drop minion aggro. rinse and repeat for easy auto harassing.

try to stay in lane until you have 720 gold or more. you want to get your as quickly as possible. It starts gaining stacks passively as soon as you get it so the earlier you get it, the earlier you will hit . backing with extra gold over that will allow you to buy extra pots and wards to stay safe in lane. Its nice to get a when you back with your since it doesn't instantly give you a bunch of mana and you may still find yourself running OOM if you are using your spells to harass and wave clear often. getting an extra is a decent pick up as well since you need 2 in order to build . try to get a fast after you get since the AD it gives really helps your laning and damage and once you get a your AD will spike even more since it gives you bonus AD base on your max mana. by the end of laning you will want to have , a , and [boots of speed]]. If you can get more, such as and maybe an extra or for your then that is even better. At times in lane you may need to get sustain to survive when your poke isn't enough (like if you are up against a ). In these situations its better to just get a to help sustain through their harass so you can farm better. you could opt for buying a bunch of s instead but that usually is more cost inefficient. You can then go on to later build the into a later in the game after you finish your core.

Team Fighting

As you really want to shove your lane advantage and snowball into early team fights since you can generally take off half of a carrie's health with one + combo once you have your , , and . At this power spike is when you can be very agressive since you will out trade most people in the game (barring a few assassins or high base damage tanks). A good player will temper their aggression based on team composition and your power relative to other players in the game.

OPTION 1: YOU HAVE A FRONTLINE
is a top lane carry meaning he deals high damage but should not be in the front of fights since he can be easily caught out and bursted down with cc. This means the best scenario for you is if you have a tanky support and/or jungler to frontline for you (think and or ). This kind of team set up will give your team initiation and peeling potential while at the same time giving you huge damage sponges on the front line to sit back in cannon form and deal as much damage as possible. you rarely want to go in with hammer form in a team fight unless their whole team is running away and low health, putting you at the smallest risk possible to get counter-initiated on.

OPTION 2: YOUR TEAM IS SQUISHY
If your team is rather squishy ( jungle with support or something similar) then your job is to kite, kite, kite in team fights and try to peel for your adc. DO NOT dive their adc in the middle of their team screaming like rambo because it worked out one time in that game you played with your friends. Kite the other team as much as possible peppering them with when you can. You can use your to give team wide mobility and kite better and you can use to peel for yourself or anyone else near you who is getting dove by the other team's front line. remember that you do the most damage when you are not dead. It may sound silly but people seem to forget this when they dive in for a kill and then die in the process trading 1 for 1. It is not worth it. Stay alive and deal damage from afar. flash if you get caught out to save yourself and kite, kite, kite.

I CAN HELP YOU!

I just my stream up and I am trying to stream regularly on twitch!

If you want me to teach you a bit about Jayce catch me when I'm online and contact me through my twitch chat. I can help you learn if you want and we can game together. :)

WIP

This is a work in progress. I will be updating this as I go along. :)

An Extensive Jayce Guide to Diamond (Season 5)

An Extensive Jayce Guide to Diamond (Season 5)

Recommended Items

Spells:

Teleport

Flash

Items

Ability Order

Hextech Capacitor (PASSIVE)

To The Skies! / Shock Blast (Q)

Lightning Field / Hyper Charge (W)

Thundering Blow / Acceleration Gate (E)

Mercury Cannon / Mercury Hammer (R)