League of Legends Jayce Guide

The Defender of Tomorrow is your champion of today. Jayce is one of League of Legends’ most complicated champions since he is one of the very few champs that use two forms with multiple unique skills in each form. Mastering this champion can take a while since he uses concepts that require a lot of mechanical skills. In this Jayce guide, we’ll be introducing the basics on how to play this champion to get you started on how you can make him your main champ in the future.

The Defender of Tomorrow

Starting out as a promising young inventor, Jayce wanted only one thing – progress. After he was tasked with researching a mysterious crystal, he attracted the interest of Viktor, an old friend and fellow scientist. Viktor wanted to use the crystal to empower himself but Jayce refused. After Viktor forcibly took the crystal from him, he had no choice nor any allies to take it back from Viktor. Knowing he had no one to turn to but himself, he created the Mercury Hammer, a tool that would help him towards progress.

Jayce has always been a popular pick in professional play because of the versatility of his kit. Since he can utilize being a long range champion so efficiently similar to an AD Carry and have the standard characteristics of a traditional bruiser, he can play the game however he wants to. This will further be explained in this Jayce guide.

Jayce General Gameplay

Jayce is categorized as a bruiser but can play the role of a marksman really well. His strength lies in his excellent dueling prowess and extremely powerful poking power. Jayce is also an excellent Split Push Champion that can go to the side lanes and wreak havoc on the enemy structures. Due to his versatile kit, he can go anywhere on the map and can play the role of the main carry or a substantial damage contributor. This Jayce guide will shed more light on his abilities as a champion.

Jayce Guide – Skills and Abilities

Jayce has two forms – Hammer Form and Cannon Form. Both forms have different set of skills which we’ll be highlighting on this Jayce guide. Knowing when to use Jayce’s hammer and cannon forms are quintessential to his power as a champion.

Passive: Hextech Capacitor

Innate – Each time Jayce switches from his Hammer Form or Cannon Form, he gains bonus movement speed and gains Ghost for 1.25 seconds.

A very straightforward passive, Hextech Capacitor allows Jayce to gain continuous bonus movement speed if he has enough Ability Haste. This is also a good ability to get when switching from Cannon Form into Hammer Form.

Q: To The Skies! / Shock Blast

To The Skies!

Active – Jayce leaps towards the enemy target’s location and smashes his hammer on the ground. Enemies within the area of impact are dealt Physical Damage and are slowed for 2 seconds.

Shock Blast

Active – Jayce fires a shot of concentrated electricity towards a direction. The shot detonates after reaching a certain distance or if it collides with an enemy unit. The shock blast deals Physical Damage to all enemies around its detonation point and briefly reveals the area.

If Shock Blast passes through Acceleration Gate, the blast zone will increase, the range and power of the shot will be increased by 40%, and will gain increased speed.

Jayce’s Q abilities are his main damage dealing abilities. To the Skies is perfect to deal excellent AoE effect damage and close the distance between him and the opponent. Shock Blast is a less aggressive option and is usually only used alongside Acceleration Gate to maximize its effect. Both abilities are also used for maximizing CS but you should try using it when the enemy champion is close to the minions. A common tip for the Shock Blast + Acceleration Gate combo is to put up the Acceleration Gate first before Shock Blast to make it less predictable.

W: Lightning Field / Hyper Charge

Lightning Field

Passive – While you are in Hammer Form, each time you hit an enemy with a basic attack, you restore mana.

Active – Jayce surrounds himself with electricity, dealing Magic Damage to all enemies around him for 4 seconds.

Hyper Charge

Active – Jayce gains 300% bonus Attack Speed on his next 3 basic attacks within 4 seconds. These basic attacks will have modified damage and can critically hit. This ability also refreshes Jayce’s auto-attack timer.

Lightning Field’s passive offers so much value for Jayce as he is extremely mana dependent. Try to stay in Hammer Form for a while once you switch into this form to farm a bit of your mana back. Keep in mind that if you use Hyper Charge before switching to Hammer Form, you can still gain the bonus attack speed to make mana farming a bit faster. Hyper Charge can also kill wards before they turn invisible. Use these abilities to increase your damage output on enemies or waves.

E: Thundering Blow / Acceleration Gate

Thundering Blow

Active – Jayce swings his hammer at the target enemy, dealing magic damage and knocking them back a short distance towards a direction. The damage from this ability is capped against Monsters.

Acceleration Gate

Active – Jayce deploys a gate made up of pure energy for for seconds. Both him and his allies gain bonus movement speed when they pass through the gate that decays over 3 seconds.

Acceleration Gate is an excellent escape tool or pursuit mechanism that allows you and your teammates to gain bonus movement speed. Remember to always place this gate a short distance in front of you so that you can pass through immediately. Thundering Blow deals a good amount of damage and is useful for peeling yourself from the enemy after a combo or when under threat. When you position yourself properly, you can even use this skill to displace the enemy champion farther into your territory or towards your turret.

R: Transform Mercury Cannon / Transform Mercury Hammer

Transform Mercury Cannon

Active – Jayce transforms his weapon into Mercury Cannon. After transforming, Jayce’s next basic attack will reduce the target’s Armor and Magic Resist for 5 seconds.

Transform Mercury Hammer

Active – Jayce transforms his weapon into Mercury Hammer, gaining bonus armor and magic resistance. After transforming, Jayce’s next basic attack will deal bonus magic damage.

Jayce starts the game with his Transform abilities and their rank can’t be increased. Transforming his weapon will change his attack range and abilities.

Knowing when to use Hammer Form and Cannon Form is the most important requirement when playing Jayce. As we mentioned in this Jayce guide, you’ll have different situations where you’ll want to use these forms. Passive farming is the best state for Hammer Form and aggressive trades is where Cannon Form excels.

Jayce Guide – Items and Builds

Next up on our Jayce guide, we’ll be discussing Jayce’s items and builds. The primary stat that this champion utilizes the most is Lethality, making his burst capabilities extremely powerful and give him a deadly amount of Attack Damage. Jayce uses a lot of resources but is able to compensate for the fact that his kit allows him to refund a portion of the resources he takes while playing from a safe distance depending on the form he chooses.

Starting Items

Tear of the Goddess – Thanks to the update following the preseason patch, Tear of the Goddess is now available as a starting item. This item fully enables Jayce to be more of a lane bully by constantly trying to shoot his Shock Blasts or To the Skies! at an enemy champion which will be refunded. This also enables him to get his Manamune a lot faster compared to before.

Core Items

Eclipse (Mythic) – Eclipse is the must-have mythic item for burst-type lethality champions like Jayce. The requirement for this ability to gain the full effect can be fulfilled when he properly executes his Hammer Form combo or is able to maximize his Hyper Charge. This item also partially enables his damage to be relevant in the later stages of the game thanks to the Armor Penetration passive bonus that other legendary lethality items get.

Manamune – This item expands Jayce’s mana pool significantly and powers up his attacks based on the amount of mana he has. It’s an important item for him to consistently execute his burst attacks and keep dealing long-ranged Shock Blast combos to harass the enemy.

Recommended Items

Youmuu’s Ghostblade – Primary lethality item that helps burst-type champions pursue enemies or get away from unfavorable fights. The passive movement speed also allows Jayce to switch lanes and get out from split pushing when he senses danger.

Edge of Night – Another important lethality item for champions that like to get up-close and personal. The spell shield prevents Jayce’s combos from being denied by a single CC. It also adds a layer of survivability thanks to the shield and HP.

Serylda’s Grudge – This item is used to counter the fact that lethality falls off really quickly into the mid-late game. The high amount of Armor Penetration that this item offers is enough to make him relevant into the later stages of the game. It’s also the most reliable source of Ability Haste for Jayce.

Chempunk Chainsword – Another balanced option between Attack Damage and Health. This item is the primary Grievous Wounds option for bruiser champions. Use this item when the enemy team has a lot of healing sources.

Maw of Malmortius – Jayce’s main weakness is that he can easily get bursted out of the fight or can get assassinated from the backline. This items offers a bit of Magic Resistance and shield to help him survive a bit longer.

Guardian Angel – If Jayce is really the target for the opponent’s aggression, this item allows him to soak all of the important abilities from the enemy’s side and gives him a second chance to burst his enemies.

Jayce Guide – Runes

Primary: Precision

Keystone: Conqueror – Jayce has three paths he can choose: Conqueror. Phase Rush, or Electrocute. We personally chose the Conqueror path to make him commit to fights instead of going in short bursts.

Presence of Mind – This rune prevents Jayce from bleeding out his mana pool whenever he commits to a fight. The increased mana regeneration and mana rewards when he damages or kills an enemy allows him to stay in fights longer.

Legend: Alacrity – Attack Speed is an important stat for dealing damage and refilling his mana via the passive bonus of Lightning Field. As long as Jayce is able to farm consistently, he’ll be able to build up a lot of Attack Speed so that he doesn’t purely rely on bursts to deal damage.

Last Stand – Since Jayce will most likely be placed below 60% HP in most fights that he dives into, this rune offers him more damaging options.

Secondary: Inspiration

Magical Footwear – Lethality users like to be ahead in itemization since letathality, as a stat, falls off really quickly when they’re behind. This is why Magical Footwear is a good rune to have since it saves you 300 gold that you can use elsewhere.

Biscuit Delivery – Adds a bit of sustain in the lane both in terms of HP and Mana. Also, you can choose to keep these biscuits and sell them later on for a bit of additional gold to buy your items a lot quicker.

Jayce Overview

To conclude our Jayce guide, we’ve talked about how this champion is able to become an incredibly high damage source in the front line or back line. The amount of things he can do in the game is only limited to the imagination of the player using him. To maximize playing Jayce, you’ll need to come up with everything you can possible imagine. Mastering this champion isn’t a walk in the park but is extremely rewarding when you pull him off!