Jinx/Strategy

Bot lane
Jinx is a versatile marksman armed with an arsenal of eclectic weapons. Her assortment of arms wreaks a ton of havoc, enabling her to deal brutal bouts of damage at the expense of mobility. One of the most important facets to playing Jinx is harnessing the power of Switcheroo! to safely harass her enemies from a distance with her rocket launcher before unleashing a hail of minigun pain when the moment calls.

Despite her lack of built-in escapes, Jinx stores a few maneuvers inside her hyperactive brain that help her avoid ganks. Flame Chompers! briefly snares encroaching junglers, a well-timed Zap! discourages pursuit and careful management of objectives provide a massive speed boost thanks to Get Excited! triggering when a tower falls. And towers will fall. Clearing waves through liberal use of her rocket launcher's area of effect attacks, Jinx brings constant lane pressure. Keeping her opponents on their heels, or making it impossible for them to pressure her, helps ensure she makes it to the mid- and late-game stages where her tremendous potential truly shines.

One thing, though, that remains to be said: there's almost never a time when a Super Mega Death Rocket isn't just about the best possible answer to any problem. Jinx's ultimate is a global execute that picks up speed as it hurtles towards an unsuspecting victim's facial area. Whether KO-ing a low-health enemy team during an early-level Baron fight from across the map or nailing a retreating foe for the last-second kill, there's nothing a well-placed Super Mega Death Rocket can't do. Except hit non-champions. It can't do that.

Teamfights
Jinx begins to dish out the damage once teamfights break out. Lacking reliable peel or protection for herself, though, she relies on her positioning and her teammates to keep her alive while she sends her enemies screaming. Jinx's range and damage remain potent throughout the game, making her ideal in a composition built around long-range poke. In the heat of battle, using her rocket launcher and Zap! from a distance helps whittle down enemies until she scores a kill, while Flame Chompers! create zones that opposing champs would do well to avoid. Once Get Excited! triggers, Jinx unlocks her clean-up potential, quickly repositioning to avoid threats and mowing down stragglers trying to run away.

Skill Usage

 * strength as a marksman comes from her high scaling damage and ratios, ability to kite well with and, being able to finish off enemies with , and ability to continue the carnage (or disengage promptly) with.
 * reveals the area it has been dropped and has a large range. Between and  Jinx should never have to face-check a bush.
 * The bonus movement boost from is triggered with both kills and assists within 3 seconds. You can launch a  at a far off teamfight to get an assist and to gain the movement speed boost you need to reach that teamfight and finish the job.
 * You can also watch other lanes and see if there is any of your ally in need of help, and launch to help them and maybe even get a kill, or help you with chasing your victim.
 * Because Jinx lacks a spell escape, positioning in fights to get a fast kill and activate  is critical. Remember that  damage is front-loaded, and is excellent for one or two critical shots but has much lower DPS when compared to .
 * As a general rule, if the enemy team is grouped up and you are at a distance, open with  and a few shots from, as well as well-placed  to maintain distance. Only go into 525 range if you can get the kill quickly with  and escape without being locked down.
 * If you find yourself surrounded by the opposing team, it is often best to try to shred one enemy down with the super-high  DPS, allowing you to escape with a quick  and .
 * When chasing an enemy, you can maximize your damage by efficiently orb-walking (a very helpful but somewhat difficult tactic to master where one stutter-steps away from enemies between auto-attacks) with, then switching to  just as they step out of your 525 basic attack range. Your stacks will be retained, and with good orb-walking, this can net you up to three extra rocket hits without enchanted boots.
 * have a delay before they are activated, so if you are chasing or are being chased by an enemy, don't throw it directly on them.
 * You can use the snare time of that ability to land a perfect.
 * The delay is seconds, which is relatively long and somewhat easy to avoid. Use it in conjunction with CC such as, , or  as a surefire way to land it.
 * You need to remember when you should switch between and . Using  with some lifesteal is useful for sustain and farming without pushing the lane too much (as the attack speed bonus can easily clear waves of minions almost as efficiently as, and with her immense attack speed steroid, she can take down turrets very fast.  is useful for harassing, for pushing, and last hitting enemies with low health that are just out of range.
 * Remember that  can critically strike, and the critical damage is applied to everyone caught in the splash radius (modified by armor, as usual). This is especially useful for clearing minion waves and to spread the damage during teamfights.
 * has the highest scaling mana regen out of every champion in the game. As her cooldowns are relatively long early on and one should not be using too often, she should not have serious mana problems later on in the game.

Build Usage

 * as a marksman can become incredibly mobile and naturally gains attack speed as part of her passive ability on, lending her best statistics to come from attack damage and critical chance. Since Jinx is built for kiting and chasing, movement speed items should be included in her build if no other fast or mobile champions are on her team.
 * Note that during early game, utilizing costs mana, but does bonus damage and splash damage. Therefore, it's more beneficial to build attack damage and armor penetration first over attack speed, as too much attack speed can drain away her mana pool relatively quickly.
 * is a core damage item that needs. The critical strike chance and magnitude boost synergizes well with her innate 130% attack speed natural steroid with  and because the splash damage of  can critically strike. This means that you can deal a huge amount of damage to the enemy team with crit enhanced auto attacks from a distance. With, your critical-splash damage will be 275% of your AD.
 * Because  doesn't have the attack speed steroid for more than one attack, and stacking critical chance dramatically increases your damage output, it is also advisable to build a . It grants much needed movement speed as well as the highest critical chance bonus of any item.
 * Getting a is also a viable option, since it delivers some attack and movement speed, critical chance and the proc synergizes well with the AoE potential on her rockets.
 * Jinx needs roughly 140% bonus AS to max out her attack speed including the three stacks on . This can obtained with, and  (or some other combination). Alternately, you could build two  and a  along with  to achieve max attack speed and 100% (105%) crit chance.
 * is statistically viable due to  high mana and mana needs, especially because of  and looks perfect for her at first glance. However, it delivers less than satisfying total damage output late game and is one of the more gimmicky options. The main advantage is you will rarely have to leave your lane early game to refill mana. If you intend to go this route, it is wise to choose another item that increases mana such as  to benefit more from Awe. This route is only if you simply cannot manage your mana.
 * is a great mana based item for Jinx, as it has good damage, life steal and cooldown reduction. The passive can easily mitigate 's basic attack mana costs after clearing a wave.
 * synergizes well with both her long range on and her attack speed steroid on.
 * Keep in mind that the on-hit effect only applies only to the primary target, but not  splash effect.
 * Building an early and later into a  grants her the extra mobility she needs. The  passive combined with Trinity Force's built in percent movement speed and  allows Jinx to chase down or kite enemy champions if she manages to gain a kill or an assist.
 * Keep in note that unless has enough cooldown reduction to spam  at higher ranks, she will not fully benefit  with the  passive proc, and switching between  and  will not trigger  passive, thus making  on Jinx a gimmicky option.
 * However hitting the target with a, then a rocket while closing the range and waiting for the cooldown, then throwing down and firing off another rocket while the enemy is rooted can result in some very high burst damage that can be repeated relatively quickly. With some life steal your enemy will likely not be able to keep up with your burst damage and heal potential.
 * Despite the fact that is not able to apply on-hit effects with its splash damage,  passive is still applied because it applies on physical damage, making it a fantastic item to build on . Combined with her AoE capacity of, Jinx can effectively apply  armor shred debuff on multiple enemy teammates with .  also gives her cooldown reduction that will help her spam her abilities and extra health if she needs to fight at close range with.
 * Similarly, if you want to build almost like a ranged AD Caster in a similar vein like, , and , consider build items like  and  along with  and points in  or  for 40% CDR so Jinx can spam  every  seconds. Keep in mind that this sacrifices some of her lategame damage potential with her  in exchange for better mid-game teamfight, poking, and utility potential.
 * Having a slightly lower than average health pool for Marksman (1856 HP at level 18), building armor, magic resist or health on is highly recommended, as it will help you survive burst damage from enemy assassins. A good choice for health is the  as the huge range of  will let you freely peel for yourself when being chased, but remember that only the primary target will be affected by the slow, not the ones caught in the splash damage radius.
 * If you bought and, a possible item choice is . As this will deliver a punishing attack speed combined with . The on-hit effect will mow down minions waves and tightly clustered champions alike.

Countering

 * Try to dodge her as they have a very long cooldown early on and are her only disengaging ability.
 * At the same time, they may be used offensively to engage on you in conjunction with other CC from the support. This can often mean death as players will often follow up with, which has high damage and a slow that will make it difficult to dodge a.
 * When laning against Jinx, be wary of her using as she farms, as the splash damage will hit multiple minions at a time and anyone standing near them.
 * 's ultimate has a global range. Avoid recalling out in the open and do not walk back to base down the middle of a lane's path.
 * Because of the execute damage on, Jinx can pick up a kill relatively easily on a low health ally if you are too close. If necessary, block it early if you are healthy yourself to deny her both the kill and her passive proc.
 * has immense pushing capability early on with the assistance of . Focus on maintaining lane balance during the early game to shut out a potential tower loss.
 * High mobility assassins such as and  are Jinx's biggest threats. Have such champions focus on her during teamfights.
 * Positioning is important in maintaining health during a push or a team fight, as Jinx is dependent on landing her skillshots in order to deal damage. Always have tanks surrounding weaker champions or at the very least facing Jinx.
 * High armor items reduce Jinx's damage output severely. and the two items it builds into are the most effective defenses, as the passive attack speed slow counters her stacking attack speed from.
 * is effective, as with any DPS, at blocking much of Jinx's damage in a one-on-one fight, and can be life-saving against Jinx's ultimate or.

Champion Spotlight


Jinx/Strategy