Something crazy is about to happen in Piltover and it smells like someone’s up to no good! Who else would cause such a ruckus other than the notorious madwoman herself – Jinx! With the countless wars and events happening around Runeterra, nothing will stop her from doing what she does best and that’s to create chaos while leading the authorities in a wild goose chase. With the help of Pow-Pow and Fishbones, we’ll discover the deadliest way to utilize the loose cannon in this S10 Jinx Guide.

The Infamous Loose Cannon

Once a sweet innocent tinkerer from Zaun, Jinx has grown up to be one of the most notorious criminals in Piltover. Nobody knows why this sweet girl has suddenly gone rogue but one thing is for certain – she won’t stop sending a message. Living for the sake of creating chaos, she leads Piltover’s finest into a frenzy chase thanks to her obsession with Vi. To this day, Jinx remains at large and always aims to cause chaos in the bustling city.

With the rise and fall of AD Carries in League of Legends, Jinx remains to be a popular comfort pick among professional esports players. She has even appeared in some esports games in 2020 even though she stands very low on the tier list. While the tier list shows her to be on the bottom half, Jinx actually has a useful kit which allows her to stand against even the more popular picks in the meta today. In this Jinx guide, we’ll discover the best way to play the loose cannon in your games.

Jinx’s General Playstyle

Jinx has a unique playstyle (or not since Aphelios exists) that allows her to freely switch between guns to fit the kind of attacks she wants to use. As a traditional ADC, her main damage source comes from her basic attacks but has a kit that allows her to trap enemies in place just enough that she can release her relentless attacks. She is a reserved ADC that only goes in to deal damage when the enemy is caught in an unfavorable situation.

Jinx Guide: Skills and Rotation

Jinx Skill Rotation is super basic and is only used for engage or pursuit purposes. Since she’s an AD Carry, she’ll rely mostly on her basic attacks to deal most of her damage but using her skills at the right time will prove to be helpful. In this Skills Jinx guide, we’ll learn how each of her abilities apply in the different situations and when to use them so that you aren’t tempted to keep spamming them to find the perfect engage.

Passive: Get Excited!

Innate: After an enemy champion, epic monster, turret, or inhibitor dies after being damaged by Jinx within 3 seconds, she’ll gain 175% bonus movement speed which decays after 6 seconds.

In addition, she gains 15% total attack speed and removes the attack speed cap during that time.

The important thing to know about utilizing Jinx’s passive is not to Get Excited! yourself. A common mistake that players do is that after gaining the extra movement and attack speed they try to rush in and go after enemies alone. As an ADC, you should always stay in a safe position where you won’t get caught out by enemies who have CC threats. Keep calm and read the situation before trying break your position in teamfights.

Switcheroo!

Toggle: Jinx switches between Pow-Pow, her gattling gun, and Fishbones, her Rocket Launcher.

Pow-Pow – Attack with Pow-Pow grants her a stack of Rev’d Up which grants her bonus attack speed stacking up to 3 times. The first stack is twice as effective. Each stack fall one at a time and will be refreshed if Jinx attacks them again with Pow-Pow.

Fishbones – Attacking with Fishbones will modify attack damage to 110% to the main target and will deal splash damage to all enemy units surrounding it. Attacking with Fishbones will consume mana, grant her bonus range, but reduces her attack speed by 25%. Critical strikes will affect attacking with Fishbones. These attacks also will not help refresh stacks on Rev’d up.

Pow-Pow is most effective when fighting isolated enemies or when trying to focus down priority targets. Fishbones is excellent in clearing out minion waves and fighting against long ranges to stay safe. When trying to avoid getting CC’d or caught out by enemies, use Fishbones to maintain a safe position in teamfights and deal splash damage from the enemy frontline. Only use Pow-Pow if you’ve established a safe environment to get up close and personal.

Zap!

Active: Jinx fires a shock blast in a straight line after a brief delay dealing Physical Damage to the first enemy it hits and slowing them for 2 seconds.

Zap is a skillshot that is extremely easy to dodge and will produce basic attack downtime during cast animation. Only use Zap to farm minions or catch out enemies where the skillshot is undodgeable such as corridors or near a wall. Zap isn’t primarily used to increase damage output so only use it in pursuits or harass. It’s an excellent skill to force your opponent to go a different direction to set them up for your allies.

Flame Chompers!

Active: Jinx places down three Flame Chompers which will fully activate after a 0.7 second delay. After 5 seconds, the chompers will explode dealing magic damage to all enemies within the area.

If an enemy champion steps on an activated Flame Chomper, it will explode prematurely and root them in place for 1.5 seconds. Enemies can only trigger 1 Flame Chomper at a time.

Flame Chompers is primarily used to keep Jinx safe or to cut off an enemy’s escape route. Since it takes a while to fully activated, it’s best that you place them down a small distance away from the enemy to give it time to charge. Try to use these chompers to zone out enemies from walking straight towards you and give you a safe distance to auto-attack them. Dropping chompers in the middle of a clustered teamfight will allow you to trigger all of them at once.

Super Mega Death Rocket!

Active: Jinx fires a large rocket in a direction which travels throughout the map until it hits an enemy champion. The enemy hit with the rocket takes physical damage and is splashed for 80% that amount to enemies surround the target hit. They also take bonus physical damage per health missing.

The rocket’s flat damage value depends on its distance traveled starting from 10% at 0 range up to 100% at 1500 range but the bonus physical damage per health missing will always remain the same.

Super Mega Death Rocket! requires you to have full awareness of the map. You’ll need to properly aim the rocket at a direction predicting where the enemy will move towards. Also, make sure that you fire the rocket from a safe position since it takes a bit of animation to charge up that will leave you vulnerable for the meantime. It’s best to target enemies who are low on health to trigger the bonus physical damage per health missing counter.

Jinx Guide: Items and Builds

In this Jinx guide, we will be learning standard AD Carry builds that will help you learn which items give you the most efficient stat distribution to make sure that your basic attacks are hitting them like trucks. Like most marksmen, this Jinx guide will help you learn which items you’ll be prioritizing to get Attack Damage, Attack Speed, Critical Strike, and some survivability stats that will help you last long in fights.

Starting Items

Doran’s Blade – Doran’s Blade is an excellent starting item for most Attack Damage champions since it gives you extra AD to deal extra damage against champions or minions and allows you to stay longer in lane thanks to the added lifesteal.

Core Build

Infinity Edge – Infinity Edge is a must have items for champions who rely on deal Critical Strikes as their primary source of damage. It gives a high amount of Attack Damage as well as increasing the Critical Strike damage to 225% instead of 220%.

Runaan’s Hurricane – This item works best for Marskmen as the passive ability to fire extra 2 bolts will not only let clear waves faster but also deal more total damage during teams fights since you can hit more than one target at the same time. The items also gives you a lot of Attack Speed and extra Movement speed to be able to kite enemies. Finally, items that give you extra critical strike chance is always a must have item.

Recommended Items

Rapid Firecannon – This item increases your range after charging it up through moving or attacking. Charged attacks gain bonus damage. This allows you to do a bit of poke damage from a safe distance combined with your bonus range from Fishbones which was mentioned earlier in this Jinx Guide. It also helps you stack more Attack Speed and Movement Speed.

Phatom Dancer – An item to help you become more mobile during battles and gives you bit of survivability in a pinch. Phantom Dancer is important for items who rely a lot on kiting especially if they don’t have escape tools in their kit. This item is a great combination with Get Excited! as it makes Jinx more slippery and allow her to catch up to enemies easily.

Bloodthirster – Another high AD item, this will be necessary for you to stack up the damage you deal with your basic attacks. This item also gives the user a great amount of sustain by giving access to a high amount of lifesteal which overflows into a shield.

Mercurial Scimitar – An item to help you when the enemy has a high CC threat that causes you to get caught out of position. Build this only if the enemy relies on trying to CC you during teamfights.

Guardian Angel – The popular GA is used when you have a lead or the enemy team has a high assassination threat. This is useful to allow the enemy team to exhaust their resources the first time they try to take you out.

Lord Dominik’s Regard – An item to be used when facing against multiple tanky champions building armor. The extra armor penetration will allow you to melt through the frontline easier.

Jinx Guide: Runes

Primary: Precision

Keystone: Lethal Tempo – This keystone increases Jinx’s Attack Speed after attacking and allows her to exceed the attack speed limit for a short duration of time. Having extra attack speed is important especially if you’re staying on Fishbones for the extra damage.

Triumph – An important rune to help you have better sustain in extended teamfights by giving you extra HP after taking down an enemy. This rune also gives you a better chance to pull of successful tower dives. Additionally, it gives extra gold per takedown.

Legend: Bloodline – Bloodline will increase your lifesteal to help you have a bit of sustain better in teamfights or during lane. It also increases each time you kill an enemy, large monster, epic monster, or depending on your CS.

Coup de Grace – Increasing your damage against enemies below 40% gives you extra threat presence especially if you manage to poke them down. This rune will allow you to be more oppressive in fights.

Secondary: Sorcery

Nimbus Cloak – This boosts your movement speed and allows you to phase through other units after using a summoner spell. Great rune during pursuits and escapes whether you’re using your summoners offensively or defensively.

Gathering Storm – Rune that gives you bonus attack damage the longer the game goes. A must have especially for champions like Jinx who rely on having the extra damage stat more than utilities.

Jinx Overview

Jinx as a marksman may prove to be a bit outdated since attack speed marksmen aren’t heavily prioritized since they lack the needed damage to create threats. However, Jinx is able to deal a huge amount of AoE damage which separates her from the underwhelming force of other traditional marksmen. In this Jinx guide, we have discovered all her strengths and weaknesses so it’s up to you how to utilize this the best way you know how.