Hallo AmbitiousFlo,
I am a main Jayce player since late Season 4. I think this topic needs more debate from Jayce players only. The issue is only Jayce mains know what is wrong with Jayce at this moment and what it takes to bring him back to his former glory. I will address the problems with Jayce and some histroy, in order to identify what is wrong with Jayce in the current meta and why he doesnot really work often we need to go back in time and move the spotlights on where Jayce was doing ok and when his "Free fall" started.
Season 2:- Jayce was about rushing Tforce there was absaloutely nothing special about Jayce in that Season.
Season 3:-Manamune changed now it can transform into Murmana, ever since Manamune became a core item on jayce since Manamune stacks well with Jayce W hyper charge. Jayce would build Manamune 1# followed by 4 Blackcleavers +1 Sword of the Divine, and just like Riven with her Blackcleaver and 5 bloodthirster Jayce was broken as hell. After the same item stats stack was removed Jayce went back to normal.
The build was tear of goddess-->Brutalizer--> Last Whisper. Jayce was a monster in that season, he was a siege god, an assassin if fed early. his E+Q combo was dangerous. Tear eventually was nerfed and Jayce could no longer stack tear using his R. Jayce became a sleeper.
Season 4:- This is where Riot and the rest of the world were shocked eventually leading to sever Jayce nerfs. Three Korean players called Narakyle, SSW PawN and even SSB Dade abused Jayce to an extend where SSW managed to win worlds 2014 partly because of PawN's Jayce. Jayce players would rush Tear of Goddess followed by brutalizer and then Last whisper. At this point this Jayce at his most powerful spike, this occurs at around 17 minutes of the game assuming Jayce has few kills/assists. Jayce would run to other lanes hitting E+Q bringing squishies like ADC, Mages other assassins to 50% HP. Jayce would run exhaust even Zed and Talon couldnot match him. Jayce still had bad match-ups like vs Fizz and Syndra but he a hexadrinker rush fixed that.
Season 5:- In my opinion this is where the Jayce "Free fall" started. During the preseason, Brutalizer was removed, and split into Serrated Dirk and Caulfield's Warhammer, in addition Last whispe also lost its flat armor penetration. Jayce became very unpopular due to these changes,Jayce is changed a bit he is no longer needs to throw points into his R all of his abilities now scale 6 times in stead of 5. Jayce is still potent in this season. Trinity force now gives Critical chance, Jayce builds Manamune+Essence Reaver+Inifnity Edge+Trinity Force Jayce walks to vayne presses W if 2 or more aa crits that was a 100% kill. I remember during the Ascention mode I would every time pick Jayce and get this build, I would wait in the bushes and ambush with just W(During ranged mode)---->Hammer mode presses Q W wait for the 3 attacks then E in most cases I would kill them after the second 2 aa or 3rd aa.
This build was broken as hell but it had way too many drawbacks. It requires Jayce to have the 3 most expensive Items at the time. So getting to the late game was a real challenge, it also rendred Jayce useless vs tanks. Jayce would have to opt to stay behinde and keeps firing those crits on Maokai.
Season 6:-Trinity force changed it no longer gives crit, the build that many Jayces used to run in Season 5 is no longer viable. In this season Jayce was roll the dice. He either gets a head/fed early game skipping tear of goddess and snowball till 25 minutes end the game or allow the game to last longer into the late game and in most cases the team with Jayce loses almost always. In this Season However during Worlds 2016 Jayce was contested heavily and Korean teams would pick him against Meta champions like Gnar and Kennen. Jayce in during worlds performed OK, but in rank games and normals he was rarely encountered.
Season 7:- An introduction of duskblade a lethality item ment that Jayce can build that with Ghostblade into Blackcleaver and wipe out squishes. However Jayce is still weak very weak, weaker than Talon zed and others. Jayce was strong at around 25 minutes having 2 lethality items and Blackcleaver, yet Jayce failed to close games again just like in Season 6 and Season 5 even when far a head. Jayce is unable to break the defences and risk a tower dive unless insanely fed which was impossible to reach. Many players would pick tanks and at this point would stand between Jayce and the backline for instance Maokai absorpes the shockBlast+Gate combo damage done to Maokai is insignificant Jayce and his team are unable to commit to a dive because of the high risk of a reverse sweep. Jayce players were forced to skip tear of goddess (One of Jayce core items that what really made him a monster late game) to rush the lethality items to be useful during the mid-early late game. Once the game reaches late game Jayce is unable to be effective as he was in Season 4.
Season 8+Present:- Last whisper is reworked back to give 35% flat armor penetration plus the introduction of a third lethality item. Faithful Jayce players finally get to experience heaven again as in Season 4?, Not really. Jayce is still suffering from a number of issues. First Jayce is unable to dish out enough damage during the late game versues teams who know how to play around him and those who know how to position their backline and frontliners. Jayce is forced to purchase Tear of goddess+3 lethality items+Mortal reminder/Lord Dominik's Regards in order to blow squishes. This was a problem it means Jayce is skipping BlackCleaver an item that provides him with tankiness Jayce is very squishy even an adc with just 4 items can blow Jayce if he gets caught.
Jayce is strong early-mid game if he gets early kills and is a force to reckon with, some Jayce players still skip tear of goddess and go for BC+2 lethality items+Last Whisper+GA this build works for Jayce who gets a head early game but skipping tears means Jayce late game will be literally useless. Some main hard core Jayces like me and other Koreans who play Jayce mid ( Not top ) rush tear after ghostblade then another lethality items mostly Duskblade into last whisper and GA. Jayce is still weak late game. Why is this despite the reverse of Last Whisper?, the answer is simple. Jayce W Hyper Charge his main damage ability was nerfed post Season 4 preSeason 5. This means Jayce is not doing enough damage even when a head as he used to during Season 4.
Ok now let us write it all in a condensed text.
Jayce Season 2---> Tforce Rush nothing special.
Jayce Season 3---> Jayce is revealed as a powerful Champion if players perfect his mechanics.
Jayce Season 4---> Jayce is the most broken champion in the game as a result the 2014 Worlds was won partly because of mastering this champion.
Jayce Season 5---> Brutalizer+Last whisper are removed or changed, Jayce fell from Grace. Jayce has one viable crit build: Powerful but too many drawbacks.
Jayce Season 6---> Jayce is roll the dice very weak. Jayce is unpopular, the champion becomes absaloutely useless post 20-25 minutes.
Jayce Season 7---> Jayce is recovered a bit with the introduction of Duskblade, still very weak and is unable to close games post 25 minutes even when a head.
Jayce Season 8+Present---> Jayce recovered but not compeltely, needs to build 3 Lethality items+last whisper+Tear in order to get the most out him. Very risky Jayce is blown away easily by Bruisers with 4-5 items or by Adc with lesser items if caught.
So back to your question how do we fix Jayce.
It is simple it is damn simple,
first Riot needs to buff Jayce W as it was during Season 4.
second Last Whisper and Blackcleavers need buffs as well. Last whisper should get back to 40% flat armor penetration and BlackCleaver needs to shred more armor percentrage per attack than it does nowadays.
Jayce was ok in Season 4, just because SSW PawN crushed everyone with his Jayce during Worlds and in his ranking games it doesnot mean the champion was really broken, it means he was broken when only PawN played him because he had a team that worked around his strength. Jayce winrate in Season 4 didnot indicate something was wrong with Jayce.
I keep hearing this stupid idea of Jayce rework. Jayce is fine he doesnot need any reworks.
