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Unpopular opinion: Jax IS balanced

Soul Dealer··2 votes·4,149 views

First and formost please don’t hate me for saying this. Remember this is just my opinion based on what I see in game and some discussions I have had with some of my friends. Secondly I’m not even going to touch on conquer here because that rune should not have been in the game to begin with and does makes not only Jax but a lot of champions kinda ridiculous, so I will be focusing on jax without this rune and based on his kit and standard items.

So a little background on me. I am a Jax main who is currently in silver ( LOL silver scrub I know😂) and I currently have almost 600k mastery points on Jax and am level 7 mastery with him. I used to main one of his biggest counter, malphite, and have gotten a lot of insight on Jax form friends in gold diamond and challenger tier. So with our further ado here are my thoughts.

I have heard a lot of people saying Jax in op and completely broken but I disagree. I believe that people say this because Jax is not broken but very good at punishing mistakes. If you chase him, over stay or (if Jax is the jg) overextend, he will punish you for that.

Here are some points/tips to better understand how Jax plays and his strengths/ weaknesses

  1. Jax excels at 1v1’s and can win 1v2’s somewhat easily so don’t play to this strength. Remember league is a team game so group up on him. He can’t kill you whole team unless he is super fed.

  2. Jax’s e does more damage the more auto attack’s he dodges up to a certain percent. I still see people AAing him when he activated his e, DONT DONT THIS, stop AAing and use abilities or try and walk or dash away from it instead.

  3. Don’t pick champions he counters into him. When I first pick Jax I still see people pick champions like Tryndamere and Darius into him. These champion rely on aa or have abilities that are enhanced aa that Jax can easily dodge with his e. If your top pick some like pantheon who can all in Jax very easily, or malphite who uses abilities and has a built in attack speed slow to counter Jax. If your jingling against jax pick champions who like to farm a lot and focus objectives more. Jax will like to gank a lot so take advantage of that to steal some of his jungle farm.

  4. If your laning aginst Jax play VERY passively for his first 3 levels because he will have the advantage. After that ask your jg or mid lane to come top for a gank. Jax has a weak early game so exploit that. The key to stoping Jax is shutting him down early then pressing that advantage before he has a chance to come back.

  5. If Jax is the jg then get vision. Vision is super important and can let you know if Jax is on his way to gank. Ward river,tribush and the jungle if you can. Most jax’s Invade the enemy red for their first camp so take advantage of that. Lay a trap for him at the red or have your jg take his.

  6. Jax’s items are very expensive. His core item is trinity force which is the most expensive item in the game. Deny him cs where you can. If your playing a ranked champion poke the hell out of him. The less cs he has the longer his items take to get.

  7. CC is Jax’s worst nightmare. If you have a champion the has multiple hard cc in their kit then focus Jax with it, he will die quick if he can’t move.

  8. His passive and ult have timed fall offs. After a few second of not aa his passive stacks fall off so wait for him to not aa for a few seconds then go in on him. Same thing with his ult, if he aa twice then stay out of the range of his q for 3 seconds so he can’t jump and proc his ult.

  9. His early cool downs are very long. His e is 16 seconds and his q is 10 so wait for him to use these then go in.

  10. Itemize aginst him. Any items that gimps aa, such as Randuins omen or thornmail is very good aginst him and will hurt him a lot.

  11. And finally, learn how to end games. I have seen so many instances of Jax getting so behind and is unable to help is team very much but still ends up winning and doing good because the enemy team either prioritizes kills over objectives, or let’s the game go on for 40+ mins allowing Jax to farm and get his items to get back in the game. If Jax is behind push that advantage and get objectives and fight him while he is weak.

TL:DR Shut jax down early and don’t pick champions he counters into him if your laning against him. Get vision if he is the jg and play safe if you don’t know where he is. It wise aginst him and pick early lane builles or champions who like invading the enemy jungle to pressure him.

In conclusion Jax is a balanced champion with a lot of counterplay. He feels bad to play aginst because he can punish peoples mistakes very harshly. I hope all of you can use these tips to help in future games aginst Jax and just in general as well.

GL HF and I hope to see you all on the rift.

22 Comments

Mordepool5 votes

He is a walking stat check

Soul Dealer1 votes

{quoted}

He is a walking stat check

No he is not. You don’t have to have more items or kills then him to kill him. Use cc use the utility at your champions disposel to kill him.

Mordepool1 votes

Mordes just a free kill to an equally fed Jax. The only counterplay I have is flashing the stun. So you have to excuse my cynical comment but I see that stat check every other game. There are worse champions but he is problematic

Allkh1 votes

Don't talk about cc and utility when talking to morde mains please it hurts

Hotarµ5 votes

Jax excels at 1v1’s and can win 1v2’s somewhat easily so don’t play to this strength. Remember league is a team game so group up on him. He can’t kill you whole team unless he is super fed.

So... don't fight him at all is what you're saying? Even people like Darius and Illaoi can be countered easily in 2v1 or 1v1 situations. Jax can not because of his point and click gapcloser and high damage output.

He gains too much for building no resistances. Honestly, how often do you see a Jax build more than 1 tank item? He doesn't, because he gets free stats for doing absolutely nothing. If you want to have healthy conversations about Jax you need to acknowledge that his kit isn't fun to fight, isn't healthy, and he is currently a ball of stats.

Soul Dealer1 votes

{quoted}

So... don't fight him at all is what you're saying? Even people like Darius and Illaoi can be countered easily in 2v1 or 1v1 situations. Jax can not because of his point and click gapcloser and high damage output.

He gains too much for building no resistances. Honestly, how often do you see a Jax build more than 1 tank item? He doesn't, because he gets free stats for doing absolutely nothing. If you want to have healthy conversations about Jax you need to acknowledge that his kit isn't fun to fight, isn't healthy, and he is currently a ball of stats.

I don’t think you know how Jax works. Almost all Jax players build at least 2 and sometimes 3 tank items and he doesn’t get stats for doing absolutely nothing. Also Nasus is known as the 2v1 champion and people don’t complain about him being able to 2v1 or even 3v1

Hotarµ3 votes

https://gyazo.com/4953da33e4cf3011fd3942f097ef493b

Jax core items. ^

If you're going to tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about, you better make sure YOU'RE correct.

Soul Dealer1 votes

{quoted}

https://gyazo.com/4953da33e4cf3011fd3942f097ef493b

Jax core items. ^

If you're going to tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about, you better make sure YOU'RE correct.

Yes use one of the most unreliable sites for champion builds to determine what a champion’s core build is. Go ahead and do this for me, go play Jax for ten games in ranked building what they say then go play another ten games building trinity>boots>titanic>randuins>spirit visage>then either ga or streaks. Tell which is better after that. Building tanks items on Jax is SUPER important. Guinsoo’s is only used in lower ranks to hyper carry but that is because people in lower ranks don’t know how to play as well.

Hotarµ1 votes

Building tank items is super important on any top. What you don't realize is Jax doesn't have to, and that's the problem. He can skate by the entire game doing absolutely fine because he built item 3078 item 3124 item 3146.

In Guinsoo's alone:

  1. He gains 40-80% from his passive which now stacks twice as fast because of Guinsoo's.
  2. Tons of extra AP + AD from Guinoo's and the bonus AA damage which also convert to tons of bonus Armor + MR.
  3. Double On-hit effects stacking with these insane interactions above PLUS his Ultimate passive.

Add in the fact that he's got bonus true damage from conqueror, blocks AAs while still putting out respectable damage, and is impossible to escape unless you're a hypermobile champion (meaning standard summoner 4 and average dashes will not work) and you should have no problem seeing Jax's issue. This entire explanation is from ONE item.

Jax has the same problem that Master Yi has. His entire kit revolves around 2-4 core items that he single handedly breaks because of the interactions with his kit. Jax's kit is outdated, unhealthy, and _is currently the hardest stat check kit in the game. _ You're just biased because you main Jax and don't want to admit the issue, and that's where our discussion ends.

Edit: Also the ranked and ELO comments don't matter. The majority of players are in Bronze-Gold which are the same people that complain about him. He's unfun for the masses. If you or I were high elo it would be a different discussion, but we aren't.

VoraciousX3 votes

{quoted}

Yes use one of the most unreliable sites for champion builds to determine what a champion’s core build is. Go ahead and do this for me, go play Jax for ten games in ranked building what they say then go play another ten games building trinity>boots>titanic>randuins>spirit visage>then either ga or streaks. Tell which is better after that. Building tanks items on Jax is SUPER important. Guinsoo’s is only used in lower ranks to hyper carry but that is because people in lower ranks don’t know how to play as well.

Yeah, because his OP.GG build is so much more tanky. Trinity Force Essence Reaver Titanic Hydra is the tankiest core build I've ever seen. Those 1 second Qs that take half your health must be so hard to play with considering he's building that Titanic hydra that also STILL increases his damage. But yes he builds so tanky..

Soul Dealer1 votes

Any Jax that builds essence reaver is a troll. That item is never built on him

VoraciousX2 votes

{quoted}

Any Jax that builds essence reaver is a troll. That item is never built on him

OP.GG would like to have a word with you: http://na.op.gg/champion/jax/statistics/top

item 3078 item 3508 item 3748 18% pick rate, 68% win rate.

Soul Dealer1 votes

{quoted}

OP.GG would like to have a word with you: http://na.op.gg/champion/jax/statistics/top

item 3078 item 3508 item 3748 18% pick rate, 68% win rate.

I never trust op.gg it’s a bad website and unreliable

VoraciousX2 votes

{quoted}

I never trust op.gg it’s a bad website and unreliable

It's not unreliable. Last I heard it was one of the closest to Riot's information. It does however use Korean stats.

Ragnaveil2 votes

The guy is clearly not in his head anymore.

Tesladin3 votes

Of course he is balanced. Every champion in league is balanced.

Just the Lip1 votes

hes been the same champ since like season 4. hes always been a good pocket pick and decent top laner if played correctly.

nothing has changed, just a few items, and while he is strong af, especially if u feed him, hes not so overpowering u cant do anything,

i agree with you, hes strong as hell, but not unbalanced.

Power Cosmic1 votes

Jax's Counter Strike is likes of Olaf's ult, but instead of erasing cc it cancels damage, while also packing a hard stun of its own. Figuring it has the power of an ult, the cd is crazy short and that is where most of his laning/trading power lies. Having the perpetual threat and advantage of Counter Strike, he is definitely not balanced. They have to noticeably increase the CD on Counter Strike in the near future.

Soul Dealer1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Power Cosmic,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=gHE84g2T,comment-id=0004,timestamp=2018-10-04T07:53:21.632+0000)

Jax's Counter Strike is likes of Olaf's ult, but instead of erasing cc it cancels damage, while also packing a hard stun of its own. Figuring it has the power of an ult, the cd is crazy short and that is where most of his laning/trading power lies. Having the perpetual threat and advantage of Counter Strike, he is definitely not balanced. They have to noticeably increase the CD on Counter Strike in the near future.

That would absolutely destroy Jax. His e doesn’t negate all damage. Just use abilities if his e is up he can’t dodge those

Power Cosmic1 votes

{quoted}

That would absolutely destroy Jax. His e doesn’t negate all damage. Just use abilities if his e is up he can’t dodge those

He scales very hard so by definition in a MOBA his early/mid game cant be that easy or strong. Trade carefully get gold and then carry.

HommeGoujon1 votes

I just ban him every game because once he gets Sheen, all I can do is stay under my turret (even tho I'm ahead in gold and kills). So much fun!

The only time I don't ban him is if a team mate wants to play him.

You're talking about denying him CS but at the same time "don't trade with him early" or late, or EVER! He's the one denying me CS coz I can't get close enough without him destroying me.

Made You UpSett1 votes

okay so why does riot want to remove/nerv essence reaver with the statement that jax and riven abuse it too hard?

If the removal of an item doesn´t show i dunno what does

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