Do you ever feel like 5 champion abilities aren’t enough? Well you’re in luck! Jayce is a champion that has over 8 abilities and offers a unique playstyle that can surely carry your team to victory. Here’s how you can get started playing him.

Most champions are either melee or ranged though there are some exceptions to this and Jayce is one of them. This is a big reason why a lot of players tend to avoid playing him because they think that he has a high skill ceiling. While it’s true that he can be a little difficult at first but if you had a basic understanding of his kit’s fundamentals you would see that he is a great champion to invest your time in. 

Champion Abilities

Jayce’s kit revolves around him making use of both his melee and ranged forms. This opens up a lot of potential playstyles and different combos that can change the tides of your matchup.

Passive – Hextech Capacitor

After casting Transform, Jayce gains 40 Movement Speed and can move through units for the next 0.75 seconds.

A great passive that rewards players who make full use of Jayce’s ability to switch between melee and ranged. It works like a mini ghost and can be useful in a lot of situations.

Q –  To The Skies!/Shock Blast

Mercury Hammer: Leaps to an enemy dealing physical damage to nearby enemies and slowing them for 2 seconds.

Mercury Cannon: Jayce fires an orb of electricity that detonates upon hitting an enemy or reaching the end of its path, dealing physical damage to all enemies in the area of the explosion. If Shock Blast is fired through an Acceleration Gate, the missile speed will increase, and its damage and range will increase by 40%.

Right off the bat you can see that Jayce can deal a lot of burst damage with his first ability. In hammer form, it’s a great source of burst damage and excellent wave clear. In cannon form, it fires an orb that also deals burst damage but increases damage, range, and speed when combined with Jayce’s Acceleration Gate.

W –  Lightning Field/Hyper Charge

Mercury Hammer:

Passive: Gains Mana per strike while in Hammer Stance.

Active: Creates an electric aura dealing magic damage over 4 seconds to nearby enemies.

Mercury Cannon: Gains a burst of energy, increasing Attack Speed to maximum for several attacks.

In hammer form, this ability gives Jayce some mana sustain and additional DPS when activated. In cannon form, this increases Jayce’s attack speed by a huge margin. It’s great when trading with your opponent. Try to use Hyper Charge then switch back to hammer form for some insane DPS.

E – Thundering Blow/Acceleration Gate

Mercury Hammer: Deals magic damage and knocks them back a short distance.

Mercury Cannon: Jayce deploys an Acceleration Gate for 4 seconds, increasing the Movement Speed of all allies who pass through it for 3 seconds. This bonus fades over the duration.

In hammer form, Thundering Blow is a great source of crowd control thanks to its knock back. There are a lot of combos and outplays you can do if you fully master this skill. For instance, you can come up with a combo that ends with Thundering Blow and knocking back your opponent towards your turret. In cannon form, this ability gives Jayce a lot of utility thanks to its movement speed buff to you and your allies when you pass through it. It also empowers your Shock Blast when it goes through the gates. Shock Blast plus Acceleration Gate would be your primary combo when you’re in cannon form.

R –  Transform: Mercury Cannon/Transform: Mercury Hammer

Mercury Cannon: Transforms the Mercury Hammer into the Mercury Cannon gaining new abilities and ranged attacks. The next attack in Cannon Stance reduces the target’s Armor and Magic Resist for 5 seconds.

Mercury Hammer: Transforms the Mercury Cannon into the Mercury Hammer gaining new abilities and bonus Armor and Magic Resist. The next attack in Hammer Stance deals additional magic damage.

This is Jayce’s signature ability and what he is best known for. Thanks to this, he is a very versatile champion that can address many needs for your team. He gets bonus buffs every time he transforms and these can all help with your overall damage. This ability cannot be leveled up and is readily available at level 1 so you can level up all of your other abilities to level 6.

Runes and Item Builds

Jayce is typically played in the top lane or the mid lane. Whichever role he finds himself in, the focus of his builds are the same: stack damage. Your focus as Jayce is to increase your damage output to the point where you can one shot your enemies.

Starting Items

When playing as Jayce, the standard starting item would be a Doran’s Blade and a Health Potion. This gives you damage, health, and a bit of sustain thanks to the omnivamp. It also helps you farm minions more efficiently. This is the best start to Jayce but another viable alternative would be to start with Tear of the Goddess. Since Jayce is a very mana hungry champion, you’ll be incorporating a Manamune into your core build later on. Buying Tear of the Goddess early on can help you stack it up immediately but gives you less in terms of raw stats and damage. 

Mythic Items

For your Mythic item, you have two choices. The best choice for Jayce is Eclipse. It has damage, sustain, and lethality that makes Jayce an oppressive champion to lane against. It also has a shield that increases his overall survivability. The alternative to Eclipse is Duskblade of Draktharr. Duskblade also gives you a lot of damage and turns you invisible whenever you helped or scored a champion takedown. Personally, we would go with Eclipse for most of your games but Duskblade has an edge when you’re playing in the mid lane.

Full Build

After purchasing your Mythic, you should work on finishing your Manamune next. This increases your damage and gives you additional mana. For boots, go with Ionian Boots of Lucidity for the cooldown reduction since Jayce’s abilities in the early levels have very long cooldowns. Next, build Youmuu’s Ghostblade. This is a cost efficient item that gives you damage and lethality plus an active that gives you bonus movement speed. Pretty handy for escaping ganks or initiating one. After that item, your next purchase should be Serylda’s Grudge. This gives you bonus armor penetration, damage, and adds a slowing effect on all your damaging abilities. Finish off your build with a Guardian Angel for damage and survivability.

Viable Items

There are plenty of viable items on Jayce. If it increases your damage, you can argue that it can be added to your core build. The Collector is one of the best items you can buy on Jayce since it gives you both damage and lethality plus its passive helps you execute low health targets. Edge of Night is another lethality item that works well with Jayce. It gives you a passive spell shield that can block potentially lethal spells or crowd control especially if you’re in the mid lane. Sterak’s Gage is another great item that increases both damage and survivability thanks to its bonus health and passive shield. Lord Dominik’s Regard is a great pickup when against tanks and Chempunk Chainsword is great against enemies with a lot of heal. We urge you to mix and match items to see which works best for your preferred playstyle.

Runes

For runes, you have a lot of choices on Jayce depending on your playstyle. For this guide, we’ll be focusing on runes that increase your overall survivability and damage during extended trades. When you’re just starting out, you’ll find yourself in situations where you have a prolonged fight. So for your keystone, go with Conqueror for the extra damage in long fights. Next, take Presence of Mind for the mana sustain, Legend: Alacrity for the bonus attack speed, and Last Stand to help you win all in fights. For secondaries, go with Magical Footwear for the free boots and Biscuit Delivery for additional sustain in the early game. For Rune Shards, take double Adaptive Force and Armor.

Useful Tips

1. Jayce is weak in the early game and can be useless when he falls behind. Play it safe before you finish your Mythic item and try to get your Jungler to gank your lane.
2. Be sure to switch stances often. A lot of new Jayce players just stick with one stance for the entirety of the game. This makes you miss out on a lot of potential damage that you can get just by knowing when to switch stances.
3. For summoner spells, always take Flash and Teleport whether you’re playing in the mid or top lane. Exhaust, Ignite, Ghost, Barrier, and Cleanse can be good alternatives for Teleport but make sure that you can use it well in your matchup.

So there you have it! That’s all you need to know about playing Jayce in League of Legends. Be sure to check back with us again for more awesome guides on your favorite games. Have fun and we’ll see you on the Rift!