If you’re looking for an interactive top laner in League of Legends, then this Jayce guide might be perfect to help you master him! Here’s a full rundown of Jayce, the Defender of Tomorrow!
New to League of Legends? Or, maybe you want to learn a new champion… This fully-explained Jayce guide might be what you are looking for! It has everything you need, from runes to builds & tips on how to play him!
Due to it being the preseason in League of Legends, this Jayce Guide will be updated as and when patches go live. That means it’ll be relevant for whenever you find yourself needing it! In case you want to learn other champions, check out our other League of Legends Champion guides by clicking here!
League of Legends Jayce Guide – Runes & Summoner Spells
Jayce has a big variety of rune sets. This is mainly due to the two different weapons he wields: Mercury Cannon & Mercury Hammer.
Starting with the most traditional one, Jayce’s main keystone will be Conqueror. With the quick combos and switch of weapons, he can stack it really quickly.
Since he’s very mana hungry, you will go for runes that help him mask the problem: Presence of Mind & Manaflow Band are chosen for this reason (they will be present in the other rune sets as well).
Jayce focuses on achieving as much Ability Haste as possible in order to spam the abilities in rotation. Transcendence is perfect for that as it lowers the cooldown on takedowns.
The second set of runes is extremely effective if you need to keep good spacing with your enemies, both when poking/engaging and when escaping from them.
Phase Rush’s boost of MS and the +10MS from Magical Footwear make it really easy for Jayce to reposition. With the current state of the game, in which most champions have ways to gap-close (even more now, with the recent item changes), Jayce has the option to move swiftly out of nasty situations.
Go for Time Warp Tonic if you plan on starting with Corrupting Potion (more to that later), otherwise go for Perfect Timing.
Lastly, the last keystone you can go for is Electrocute. It works best when you want to focus on poking the enemy with extra damage. You can proc it a few times and then finish him off when he’s low.
Remember to focus on building heavy AD when choosing this rune as it will deal more damage. On the other hand, however, if enemies get really tanky you might struggle playing Electrocute. Avoid this if you’re against at least 2 tanks.
League of Legends Jayce – Build & Skill Order
Jayce’s item build revolve around Attack Damage & Lethality. Focus on those two stats when choosing the items to buy.
Eclipse is one of the strongest items in the game right now: it gives everything Jayce needs. It’s the perfect dueling item.
Buying Manamune is very effective if you’re planning to play Jayce as a poke-carry top laner. In that case, start the game with a Tear of the Goddess and finish it after the Eclipse.
After that, you can either go for Yoummu’s Ghostblade for more agility or Edge of Night, if you want to go more defensive. Umbral Glaive is strong if you need to clear vision, while Black Cleaver is stronger when enemies have stacked a lot of Armor.
For defensive items, Death’s Dance & Guardian Angel are the best for Jayce. If you’re struggling against magic damage, go for Maw of Malmortius instead.
As for boots, choose according to the situation. Mercury’s Treads are always effective due to the very high amount of crowd control. Ionian boots of Lucidity can be rushed for the Ability Haste in the early stages of the game and sold later.
 To the Skies! / Shock Blast (Q) | 1 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 | ||||||||||||
 Lightning Field / Hyper Charge (W) | 3 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 13 | ||||||||||||
 Thundering Blow / Acceleration Gate (E) | 2 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | ||||||||||||
 Mercury Cannon / Mercury Hammer (R) |
Jayce’s maxing order is very straightforward. Max Q, W and E last. At level 2, you can decide on whether to take E or W, depending on what you want to do. At level 3, you can max Q once again if you want to poke the enemy for more damage.
During the Laning Phase…
Jayce’s strength as a top laner relies in the range advantage he has over many other top laners. Make sure to abuse that during the laning phase. Try to auto-attack the enemy when he approaches to farm minions: you can also use W to add more damage to it. The same thing can be done with the Q’s. Don’t always pair them with the E, otherwise you’ll run out of mana.
Switch the order when you use the E-Q combo: Q-E will surprise the opponents and switching back and forth between them will make your moves less predictable.
If you do a good job at poking him, you will be able to go for a kill or make him lose experience & gold because he has to recall. Anyway, you will come out ahead of him.
Then Later into the Game
Jayce is at his strongest in the mid-game: he outperforms a lot of the champions when played correctly. Your goal is to push your lead further and trying to close the game as soon as possible.
Play with your team, especially around objectives, using your combos to poke enemies from a long distance. Landing an empowered Q on a squishy target will most likely half their hp or even more than that. Don’t be greedy and play it slowly without being greedy: you’ll win if you’re patient enough.
Takeaways
Jayce is a very atypical top laner. While he’s not that hard to pick up, mastering both forms requires quite some practice. Knowing when to use each spell and how to manipulate waves is the key to dominate and snowball.
Once you’ve learned these things, Jayce will become a very strong pick, particularly as a counter!
Hope this guide helped you learn more about Jayce, the Defender of Tomorrow! What are you waiting for? Go try him out!
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