**the guide is not 100% complete yet** Jayce is an AD caster that plays as an early game bully that transitions into a poker/assassin, and later an ADC. He is among the highest skill cap champions and thus practice with Jayce should reward you well. Though mostly played in the mid or top lane with similar success, ADC Jayce is not completely terrible and jungle Jayce is sort of viable. This lane flexibility makes him great as the champion chosen for one trick pony styles. The build is more "meta" than fun or innovative. This is why it is focused on the early/mid game rather than the late game. This style is generally seen in higher elo where games do not last as long.

Pros

+ High damage, speed, and range poke + Powerful single-target disengage + Ranged + Deals a lot of damage

Jayce's most iconic skill and his strongest pro is the QE Combo which does godly amounts of poke damage (only to squishies though). In the top lane, Jayce's range bullies out most melees. His disengage with Thundering Blow, Acceleration Gate, and Hextech Capacitor can get Jayce out of duels, but ganks by multiple champions will be difficult to get out of.

Pros

- Unforgiving if played incorrectly - Long initial cooldowns - Weak this patch/meta - Takes a lot of damage

Jayce in this meta is not very good. AD casters in general got shafted in season 6, especially the ones that abused armor penetration. Because of his high skill cap, mistakes, such as missing a QE Combo or an accidental melee transform, will kill you near instantly since Jayce is squishy and can get stuck in his long cooldowns.

I currently run this setup for most match-ups. It's meh early game, but it makes Jayce's midgame ridiculous and prevents him from going completely obsolete in the late game.

---

• Greater Mark of Critical Chance: 1 AD usually won't change the course of a fight, but a crit can instantly win you trades. Just one rune so that you aren't at 0%.
  
• Greater Mark of Attack Damage: Scales with Jayce's high ratios, helps with farming, and is the best rune for harassing early.
  
• greater mark of armor penetration: An alternative to AD marks. Farming becomes harder and harass is slightly weaker, but by your first AD item buy, it crushes low armor targets (especially if you buy an early Serrated Dirk). I don't run a Greater Mark of Critical Chance (or any other flat damage rune) with these because armor penetration scales exponentially.
  
  

  ---

  
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: Main defense against AD champions. It reduces minion damage too, making AA harass not as taxing on Jayce's health.
  
• Greater Seal of Scaling Armor: I haven't tried these, but losing early armor seems quite detrimental since all champions deal mostly AA damage in the early game. Still might be good though because Jayce doesn't have an efficient way to get armor in his build.
  
• Greater Seal of Scaling Health: Another defensive option instead of, or in combination with, armor. This is mainly used versus AP champions because armor is way too good to pass up against AD. I prefer scaling over flat because small amounts of health go obsolete extremely quickly.
  
  

  ---

  
  
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: The main form of damage reduction against AP champions. I use these versus high early kill potential AP laners.
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: Not as good early game compared to its flat version, but gives you a lot of free MR later. I use these versus magic damage tanks that I don't build MR against.
  
• Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction: You can run 9 glyphs and 1 quint of this to get 10% CDR. I don't have a build that uses this effectively yet.
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction: To skip a 20% CDR item/combo, run 9 glyphs and 1 quint of this to get 20% CDR at lv 18. This is the setup I run versus standard teams. Or, you can run 6 glyphs to get 10% CDR, similar to the Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction setup (you don't get the full benefit of the runes in the early game though).
  
• Greater Glyph of Attack Speed: See Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed. I like running these versus a melee, AD laner to pressure the early levels hard.
  
  

  ---

  
  
• Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage: See Greater Mark of Attack Damage.
  
• greater quintessence of armor penetration: See greater mark of armor penetration.
  
• Greater Quintessence of Cooldown Reduction: See Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction. *only 1 should be used*
  
• Greater Quintessence of Scaling Cooldown Reduction: See Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction. *only 1 should be used*
  
• Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed: This is actually better than the Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage when it comes to AA harass because it can get Jayce an extra AA in trades which is obviously better than a few points of extra AD. It also improves his rubbish early game attack speed to be possibly better than AD runes for last hitting, AA animation cancelling, and orbwalking/kiting. There is the obvious downside of being useless when it comes to scaling his abilities and is actually counter productive in scaling his Hyper Charge, but runes are meant to be only useful in the early stages of the game before they become obsolete.
  
• Greater Quintessence of Life Steal: These are used to sustain through minion aggro and miscellaneous sources of damage. Don't run 3 of these, you'll probably lose too much early game damage, run 0~2 depending on how much sustain you need. These are only used with a Doran's Blade start because with almost any other start you get more than just one potion for passive sustain.

---

Doesn't matter. I get Savagery because Jayce already has good out-of-combat movement speed from Acceleration Gate/ Hextech Capacitor spam.

All three are viable. Assassin is good on any aggressive solo laner. Runic Affinity would be better for Jayce mid if you get Blue Buff often. Secret Stash is fine for any multi-potion start and is probably the best for Corrupting Potion.

Merciless for more damage. Learn to play and itemize around your mana problems if you are having any. New mana items and base mana buffs make this easier than in season 5.

Dangerous Game helps you survive close early fights and is especially powerful in team fights. Half of Bandit is useless on Jayce and the other half generates too little gold for a carry champion.

Precision gets Jayce closer to penetrating 100% of an enemy's armor. Also, the flat magic penetration isn't totally useless; it helps his Lightning Field, Thundering Blow, and Thunderlord's Decree . The latter two deal a surprisingly high amount of damage because no one builds magic resist against Jayce.


Thunderlord's Decree is the best early game mastery for carry champions (only weaker overall than Grasp of the Undying, which is in the tank/support based tree). Jayce has additional synergy with it through the rapid hits of Lightning Field / Hyper Charge in both forms. Stormraider's Surge , after buffs, is quite fun to run versus teams that are squishy enough to reliably proc it against, but the lane pressure lost from not having a damage mastery is painful.

---

"What? attack speed is BAD on Jayce! Why would you go that over spell damage?" Because of the reasons stated in my explanation of the Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed. In the early game, that attack speed from Fury will assist in farming, harassing, auto canceling, and activating Thunderlord's Decree . It just creates a much smoother gameplay of Jayce. Does this choice matter? Honestly, no, which is why I use the one that feels smoother. I still use Sorcery against lanes I rely heavily on the QE Combo though.

Depends on your start. Doran's Blade start needs as much sustain as possible so Feast . Double Edged Sword is probably better if you start with a multi potion build.

Vampirism gives sustain from both Jayce's AAs and spells. Natural Talent is a trash mastery; it scales slower than the pace it becomes obsolete.

Jayce's meager CC does not last nearly long enough and isn't in a spot in his combo to be useful for Oppressor . By process of elimination, Bounty Hunter .


Battering Blows because Jayce deals primarily attack damage.

Fervor of Battle gives you synergy with Hyper Charge and AA harass potential that possibly surpasses Thunderlord's Decree in extended trades. The problem is, Jayce prefers to fight in quick skirmishes. Versus tanks that can draw out fights and/or champions that you can efficiently kite, Fervor of Battle can be viable, though it falls off late game when it needs attack speed to be useful. Deathfire Touch is mediocre because of its reduced effectiveness on AoE spells. Warlord's Bloodlust is in a fairly weak state and has mediocre synergy with Jayce's kit.

Global presence, less downtime in lane/stacking Tear of the Goddess, and objective control. Note that Jayce's Teleport ganks are meh because of low CC and his squishyness.

Yes. Always.

Kill pressure. More damage. Deeps. Whatever you like to think of it as, Ignite just gives you that extra bit of damage to win duels.

The basic set of defensive summoner spells Heal, Barrier, Exhaust, Cleanse, are also viable but are mostly for Jayce mid. Not mentioned means don't use that spell (in SR).

Instead of being able to level up his ult, Jayce can level his basic abilities up to level 6.

Max Q first for solid, reliable damage. W is usually maxed second for tower killing and to match its timing with Muramana, but E can be maxed second against champions that Jayce needs extra trade power and CC against.

Start Q 99% of the time, W if for some reason you are jungle, and E against high level 1 kill pressure champions that you are not confident against.

At level 2, get E if you are getting ready to trade; W if you are pushed under tower for easier farming.

At level 3, get Q again unless the lane scenario has changed. By level 4 you should have all of Jayce's skills.

---

Hextech Capacitor: A nice speed boost for roaming and chasing. The unit collision ignore helps a lot in season 6 because for some reason, Riot went full spaghetti with the minion block code.

---

To The Skies! (Q): An AOE gapcloser that requires a target. Deals high burst damage and slows. Good waveclear.

Shock Blast (Q): An AOE skillshot. Deals high burst damage, especially with Acceleration Gate. Poke and waveclear.

---

Lightning Field (W): An AOE field that deals DoT damage. Does magic damage and scales off AP, meaning that it deals almost no damage. Still decent for early game all-ins and proccing Thunderlord's Decree . Good waveclear when combo'd with To The Skies!. Passively gives mana on melee AAs, which isn't able to fully sustain Jayce's mana pool, but it helps.

Hyper Charge (W): AA reset that modifies the damage of your next 3 AAs and increases Jayce's attack speed to max. Starts off dealing lower than base damage, but eventually hits 110% (which also scales critical damage). Deals insane single target burst because of Jayce's full AD build, Muramana active, and sometimes crit. Kills towers really fast, making split pushing an effective strategy.

---

Thundering Blow (E): Short ranged, targeted knockback. Does % max HP magic damage and scales with AD, countering the expected armor/HP stacking. Allows Jayce to disengage trades with ease. When used well with input buffering, completely destroys champions that have a single-use gapcloser.

Acceleration Gate (E): Creates a stationary gate that speeds allies up. Deceptively good for disengaging fights. Send Shock Blast through it for godly poke.

---

Mercury Hammer (W): Transforms into melee mode, gaining bonus armor/magic resist. The first attack after activation deals bonus magic damage. Though it does not scale with AD, it deals a hefty amount of damage.

Mercury Cannon (E): Transforms into ranged mode, gaining range. The first attack after activation reduces the enemy's armor/magic resist by a percentage. In Mercury Cannon, Jayce's range is *only* 500, lower than the average of 550 for ranged champions. This is the mode that you will be in most of the game, and is what makes Jayce a powerful lane bully.

Basic start. Long Sword builds into a good amount of early components and Health Potions give easy passive sustain. Auto harass the enemy a good bit to abuse the high AD from Long Sword. This start is fairly weak in early trades.

The strongest start, in my opinion, now that the mastery tree gives nice sustain with Feast and Vampirism . Jayce can outtrade almost any champion with this start. Its high value also makes up for the power dip from buying Tear of the Goddess.

Haven't tried it out much, but seems like a viable start. The mana regen from the flask might be able to replace Tear of the Goddess in a split-push build.

It's a free item that gives you free wards.

---

Solves Jayce's mana problems. The build that goes Corrupting Potion and/or Essence Reaver for mana does exist, but only Tear of the Goddess (and maybe Blue Buff) can sustain the massive amount of mana required for mid game poking/sieging. Tearless builds For top lane, it it almost mandatory to go Tear of the Goddess, but mid lane has access to Blue Buff. Some Jayce players choose to forgo Tear of the Goddess and rely solely on the buff. Going tearless results in a much stronger early game (an extra 750g is worth about ~2.5 kills), a faster mid game, but a weaker late game (no Muramana). I don't recommend going tearless in lower elo because games tend to last longer, players don't manage mana as well, and there are less timing pushes.

Don't be afraid to "waste" gold on early game items. If an extra Doran's Blade is what it takes to win lane, go for it.

Buy. Wards. This costs the same amount of gold as the old Stealth Ward and can theoretically last the entire laning phase. "But what if it gets killed by the enemy jungler?" Then it just saved you from a gank, m8.

I really don't like getting an early Boots. Only get it if you are against powerful skillshots and have an odd amount of gold remaining.

---

Solid damage item with an amazing build path. The 20 Armor Penetration combined with runes/masteries can allow you to deal nearly true damage. The active is useful for pushing towers and general fight mobility. Versus armor heavy team compositions, this item can probably be skipped in favor of a more sustain/DPS/shred style item.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity, when combined with Youmuu's Ghostblade, gives a massive mid game spike. If you are against an excessive amount of slows, then Boots of Swiftness are fine. Get defensive boots only if absolutely necessary. Mercury's Treads against heavy AP or heavy short, reducible CC. Ninja Tabi against heavy AD.

Has synergy with Jayce's long range snipe and provides more anti-facecheck safety.

There may be a time period in which you have all these items but Tear of the Goddess is not close to stacked yet. In this blank period, sink gold into something in the "Finishing Items" section.

Manamune is gotten for two reasons: to solve mana problems, and to scale Hyper Charge with the Muramana active. Neither actually requires Manamune. Tear of the Goddess stacks at nearly the same pace solving the former issue, and upgrading when it's at nearly max stacks (by 24 min) grants Muramana when you need it.

---

This item is core versus tanky teams. It fills out your CDR and applies an armor shred. Jayce isn't terrific at applying stacks, but focusing the same target as your ADC with Hyper Charge should do the trick.

This combo is great versus teams that don't require you to build defensively. This gives you 20% CDR/40% crit. As to which should be built first, Essence Reaver is more consistent with the CDR, but Infinity Edge can provide insane burst with a bit of luck.

Great for split pushing and all-ins but not much else. Only get this item when both the Sheen and Phage passives are utilized well, or it becomes a waste. This makes your spells deal subpar damage because it has only 25 AD, but kiting becomes much more effective. Terrible to build from behind because of its rubbish build path.

These 20% CDR items can be skipped if you take CDR in runes. You lose out on the efficient stats these items provide, but the build will be faster and more flexible.

Hexdrinker is efficient against AP burst and an extra Serrated Dirk makes you do almost true damage to squishies. The combine cost is cheap too, making this item one I often get.

Both give damage, and only damage. It's probably better to build CDR/defense/anti-tank, but if those aren't a necessity then these items are fine.

The trio of life steal items. Death's Dance if CDR is not capped. Bloodthirster for general purpose life steal and damage. Mercurial Scimitar for when the Quicksilver Sash active is necessary.

Last Whisper is core against teams that build a lot of armor. Get whichever version counters more threats on the enemy team. Note that (if you get them) HP items make Lord Dominik's Regards less optimal for your build.

Hard counters burst. Though there are arguably better options against AP damage, this is the best defensive option against AD assassins.

Tank stats, AD, and easier kiting.

Assorted tank items for when sh*t hits the fan. At this point you've probably lost the game, but sometimes these are necessary for victory. You be the judge for that.

Buy one of these when at full build or preparing for a final fight/push. Basically a bootleg Vampiric Scepter/ Mercury's Treads and should be treated as such to determine priority.

There are two main types of power spikes: level-based and item-based. Power spikes are not just local, but also relative to the other champions in the game (e.g. level 1 is the theoretically strongest power spike for every champion since you just went from 0 skills to 1, but since most champions gets that same spike, it really can't be considered one).

Title colors will represent:
Power Spike
Neutral (this is only included for notable levels/items)
Power Dip

---

• Level 1
• Level 2
• Level 3
• Level 4
• Level 5
• Level 6
• Tear of the Goddess
• Level 11
• Youmuu's Ghostblade
• 40% CDR (by level 18)
• Level 13
• Muramana
• Level 14
• Infinity Edge
• Level 16

---

"Didn't you just go over that champions don't have a level 1 power spike?" Well, I did say most. Jayce is one of the few exceptions because he starts with technically three skills (including 0.5 skills for the onhit on his transforms) whereas most champions start with one. Also, since Jayce is an AD champion, his autos pack a punch. This makes Jayce's level 1 dueling potential immense, which is often the only reason that you can win certain matchups.

---

Basically the same reasoning as the Level 1 spike; Jayce is now at ~4 skills compared to other the champions' two. When proper usage of Jayce's first two levels is learned, many matchups become much easier.

---

At this level, most champions will have all three skills unlocked, meaning that Jayce's skill advantage is no longer too relevant. At this level, getting another point into To The Skies! / Shock Blast to level up two skills at once for burst potential is generally better than unlocking one of Jayce's other skills.

---

All of Jayce's skills are unlocked at this point. This is around the time that you can nab a kill or when Jayce starts to lose to his counterpicks.

---

The last time Jayce will level his To The Skies! / Shock Blast before the enemy gets their ult. Against bad matchups, this is usually the last time that you can try to salvage an advantage.

---

Rather than Jayce having a power dip, it would be more accurate to say that most other champions get a massive power spike from their ultimate skills. Also, Jayce does not level To The Skies! / Shock Blast at this level, which makes him even weaker than he should be.

---

Tear of the Goddess is an interesting item. It sets Jayce's combat stats back by 750g, but allows him to use the QE Combo to farm or trade without destroying his mana pool. The net result from those two effects basically forces you to transition from going full aggro to playing more passively. It's not too bad of a power dip to be honest, but don't expect to be able to beat the enemy in a straight up duel.

---

To The Skies! / Shock Blast is now maxed, which makes the QE Combo hit like a truck. This is why Jayce spikes extremely hard in the mid game, especially because it happens close to...

---

When Shock Blast is maxed and this item is built, it doesn't matter how behind you were, Jayce gains the ability to chunk squishies for half their HP with the QE Combo. This is when you can 100 to 0 a squishy and you can duel some counter matchups (if they didn't finish a core item). This item does fall off quite hard so try to create as many advantages as possible here.

---

I know that this isn't an item or a level, but the CDR is gotten from an item. Your poke at this stage is crazy good, allowing you to send enemies back to base one by one in the span of a couple seconds.

---

Lightning Field / Hyper Charge is now maxed and Jayce has enough AD to make it achieve its "hyper scaling" potential. Most champions' secondary skill-based power spike is not very powerful (in exchange for an actual ultimate), but Hyper Charge has the ability to surpass To The Skies! / Shock Blast in damage output when...

---

If you ever doubted that you could 100 to 0 a squishy, not anymore. Just the Muramana active with a max leveled Hyper Charge can deal 70% of a champion's HP. This also allows you to use Thundering Blow offensively because it procs the on-hit damage. At this point, you can salvage a nearly unwinnable game or straight up end a game if you are ahead.

---

Points are finally placed into Thundering Blow / Acceleration Gate, allowing you to start dueling tankier champions with ease.

---

A power spike exclusive to the crit build (in exchange for a less flexible build and a weaker mid game). When this is completed, Hyper Charge will actually two shot most targets.

---

When major teamfights start happening, not having a ultimate really does hurt. However, that means that there is no ultimate to "waste" on someone; Jayce will always be at full potential each fight.

• Parallel Gate
• QE Combo
• Ranged Hammer Onhit
• Knockback+AA

---

Place your mouse perpendicular to your direction of movement to make the Acceleration Gate parallel to Jayce. Using indicators probably makes this a lot easier. Not really that important to use; just makes Acceleration Gate a little more efficient.

---

The most iconic Jayce combo. It is named the "QE" combo and not the "EQ" combo because that is the order in which the skills are cast. Shock Blast has a small cast time in which Acceleration Gate (appears instantly) can be cast. This is to reduce the time the opponent has to react. The closer the casting of the Acceleration Gate to Jayce, the earlier Shock Blast gets a speed buff which, again, makes it harder to react to. No, the placement of the Acceleration Gate has no effect on the maximum distance traveled by Shock Blast. Although it is fine to just have Acceleration Gate close to Jayce, the goal is to have it touch Jayce to get extra movement speed on both Shock Blast and Jayce. Parallel Gate can be combined with this, but is extremely difficult to pull off consistently.

---

While in Mercury Cannon, cast Mercury Hammer, and during its cast animation input an attack command (must be off AA timer) to have a ranged attack that applies the Mercury Hammer onhit damage. It has about a ~0.3 second window of success, but is quite easy to use after some practice. This is can be used for safe farming under tower when you need the extra damage, as a stronger final attack as they just leave AA range, or in your basic combo to save time and to apply extra damage in case you don't want to commit.

---

Cast Thundering Blow then input an attack command (must be off AA timer). This allows you to weave in an extra AA at the end. Usually used immediately after To The Skies! in trades that require you to avoid any return damage. Can also be used to get a little extra damage in when the enemy tries to gap close on to you.

in no specific order

• Advanced use of skills
• general mechanics
• general gameplay advice
• early/mid/late game
• specific matchups
• pictures/videos
• better BBC/formatting
• FAQ

PM me if you know how to embed .MP4 or .webm files from Gfycat.com if you want better quality videos (currently using .gif which looks terrible).

If there is anything you disagree with/want to add, please post in the comment section