Talk:Jax/@comment-24227129-20131219064608

Okay, okay, I've revised my build. Here it comes:

Masteries: 30/0/0 taking every single physical and magic damage increase and all the extra damage buffs but ignoring cooldown reduction, expose weakness, double-edged sword, and minion damage increases. Taking back expose weakness and taking off frenzy is also viable.

Runes: Armour penetration marks, armour per level seals, magic resist per level glyphs and attack damage per level quintessences.

Items: Normally Doran's shield; without it, you're a bit of an exposed target early so you can't go in and out of minion zone without some danger.

Boots of speed.

Rageblade.

Upgrade boots to either of these: Ninja Tabi, Treds, Greaves, Swiftness. The usual: Tabi for physical threat, Treds for magical, Greaves for throwing away defense. Tabi and Treds are the main boots and Jax (it used to be just Tabi until they took away dodge). Greaves is generally more of a main item on champions like Tryndamere and Olaf who benefit from ignoring defense. Almost all carries benefit from these one way or another. Perhas the least viable is Swiftnesses, since Jax requires combat stuff, but they still have a very specfic boost.

Trinity Force: Phage, Sheen, then those attack speed things. Switching this order in favour of the item you need the most is advisable, but this is my standard order.

This is where you start to get your fun.

Hextech Gunblade

Blade of the Ruined King

Phantom Dancer

Bloodthirster

If you wish, you may switch Bloodthirster (or Phantom Dancer but that could be underestimating the importance of his attack speed) with Gaurdian Angel.

Whether or not to choose an emphasis on ad or ap is important. Jax's ultimate active gives bonus armour based on ad and resistence based on ap. I usually perfer ad because it's Jax's primary damage source; the ap damage output is reduced to 70%'s and 60%'s whereas it's generally higher in ad since a LOT of his ad damage comes from basic attacks. This is why attack speed is important. The passive ultimate occurs as bonus damage in addition to basic attacks so adding ad still helps it. Also, the active ultimate increases armour at a higher rate per ad than resistence per ap. When facing high magical threats, I switch emphasis on ap slightly by using Nashor's Tooth instead of Phantom Dancer. If every single opponent is magical then I may take of Bloodthirster as well. But generally, my primary stat is ad. That's why I get armour penetration marks and ad quintessences.

Items which people sometimes get which are generally stupid: Warmog's armour, Atma's Impaler, Randuin's Omen, Banshee's Veil, Black Cleaver is all right but doesn't have as much presence as Bloodthirster.

Why? Because he's not a bloody tank. If you build him that way, you'll end up on the brunt of the offense defense balance. He's a carry, and very potent when played carefully so as not to expose himself and viscously so as to apply his formidable offense. There are some carries, like Olaf or Jarvan, who rely more on defense but, as displayed on his damage metre, Jax is reliant on pure offensive thinking and careful positioning. Of course, there are situations where you may need an item just like those, but only in specific cases.