Jinx is one of the more popular and recognizable champions from League of Legends. Since she’s going to be featured heavily on the upcoming animated series, Arcane, set to hit screens this fall, there’s no doubt that her popularity will continue to skyrocket. Here’s how you can get started playing the Loose Cannon.

Despite being called a loose cannon, you can’t play Jinx with that kind of attitude. All ADCs need to have careful positioning and good wave management in order to succeed. That being said, Jinx is still a pretty strong champion even if you’re new to playing ADCs. Her mechanics aren’t all that difficult and it’s easy to snowball the game when you have even the smallest of leads. She has a very low skill floor but a very high ceiling. So if you learn to master her properly, she can take you all the way to high elo.

Champion Abilities

In our opinion, Jinx is one of the most complete ADCs out there. She has an attack speed steroid, good burst damage, a global ultimate, and some crowd control. While it’s true she lacks a true escape tool, her passive is good enough to get her out of dangerous situations when activated.

Passive – Get Excited!

Whenever a champion, tower, inhibitor or Epic monster that Jinx has dealt damage to within the last 3 seconds is killed or destroyed, she gains 175% decaying Movement Speed and 15% Total Attack Speed for 6 seconds. While excited Jinx can exceed the Attack Speed cap. Subsequent procs make Jinx even more excited, stacking the Attack Speed bonus.

This is one of the abilities that makes Jinx a strong hyper carry. It helps her clean up during fights and just overall increases her damage output. The move speed bonus she gets whenever she scores a kill or an assist also helps her with kiting enemies or escaping from sticky situations.

Q – Switcheroo! 

Toggle: Jinx swaps weapons.

Fishbones, the Rocket Launcher: Basic attacks deal 110% Damage to Jinx’s target and all nearby enemies, gain range, fire 10% slower and drain Mana.

Pow-Pow, the Minigun: Basic attacks grant bonus Attack Speed for 2.5 seconds. This effect stacks up to 3 times. Stacks fall off one at a time and only benefit Jinx’s first attack after switching to Rocket Launcher.

This is the biggest reason why Jinx is a strong hyper carry. The attack speed steroid from Pow-Pow increases her damage output by a lot. Fishbones, on the other hand, is also pretty good especially during team fights where the damage can splash if the enemy team is grouped together.

W – Zap!

After a short delay, Jinx fires a shock blast that deals physical damage to the first enemy hit and slows it for 2 seconds.

Zap is a good source of burst damage. It has very good range too, making it an effective poke tool that can also slow the opponent for a decent amount. 

E – Flame Chompers!

Jinx tosses out 3 chompers that, once armed, explode on contact with enemy champions dealing magic damage to nearby enemies. The champion that sets off the chomper is also rooted for 1.5 seconds. Chompers explode automatically after 5 seconds. Enemy champions only take damage from one Flame Chomper per cast.

Jinx’s only form of hard crowd control. It can root enemies in place and allow you to freely dish out your damage. Great when used at choke points as it can guarantee an enemy getting rooted. 

R – Super Mega Death Rocket!

Jinx fires a rocket that travels in a line, exploding on the first enemy champion hit. Enemies caught in the explosion take magic damage equal to a base amount (this amount increases over the first second the rocket travels) plus a percentage of their missing health. The primary target of the explosion takes full damage, while nearby enemies take 80% damage.

Since this is a global ultimate, Super Mega Death Rocket is incredibly versatile. You can use it in a lot of ways like securing a kill when an opponent gets away or just assisting your teammates with some good burst damage when you’re too far away to help. It can also be used to steal objectives like Baron or Dragon when you and your team can’t contest. You can have fun with Jinx’s ultimate.

Runes and Item Builds

When it comes to items, your focus on Jinx is increasing her damage and attack speed. Basically, you’ll do whatever you can to max out her damage output.

Starting Items

Nothing too fancy here. Jinx always starts the game with a Doran’s Blade and a couple of Health Potions. It has everything and ADC needs in the early game like health, damage, and a bit of lifesteal. A great alternative would be Cull. Although this is only useful if you’re against a champion who can counter you. In this case, Cull will help you stay in lane and farm minions until you have enough damage and items to go toe to toe with your enemies.

Mythic Items

All ADC Mythic items are good on Jinx. The best choice is Kraken Slayer since it synergizes incredibly well with Jinx’s abilities. You’ll go for this item in almost every game. Galeforce and Immortal Shieldbow are pretty good too but they aren’t as good as Kraken Slayer and are better used only in certain situations. Try to see which ones you need in every game. When in doubt, you can never go wrong with Kraken Slayer even if it makes you a little easier to kill.

Full Build

After your Mythic item, your next build would be Runaan’s Hurricane. It gives Jinx additional attack speed for more DPS and widens her range during team fights. For boots, always go with Berserker’s Greaves for the bonus attack speed. Next, go for Infinity Edge for damage and crits. At this point, you would be dealing enough damage that can take out the enemy team if you positioned yourself right. For your next item, the best option would be a Lord Dominik’s Regard. This allows you to shred tanks or any champion who has more health than you. Finish off your build with Guardian Angel for additional survivability and more damage.

Other Viable Items

You can mix and match most ADC items on Jinx. As long as they have damage, crits, attack speed, or any combination of the three, it would work well on Jinx. The Collector is good for executing low health opponents. Blade of the Ruined King gives you lifesteal and some on hit damage. Bloodthirster also gives you lifesteal while giving you some decent damage and critical strike chance. Phantom Dancer is also great and works well with Jinx’s passive. If the enemies have a lot of healing, you can go with a Mortal Reminder for its anti healing properties. There are a lot of different builds for different situations. The one we have here is the general item path you can go for if you’re unsure of what to build. That being said, we encourage you to learn more about the items so that you can figure out which ones will work best for you and your situation.

Runes

For runes, your focus is to give Jinx more attack speed to increase her damage output. To do this, go with Precision as your primary tree and take Lethal Tempo as your keystone. This allows you to bypass the attack speed threshold and with all the attack speed buffs you’ll get from your items and abilities, this keystone will greatly improve your DPS. Next, take Presence of Mind for the mana regeneration, Legend: Bloodline for the lifesteal, and Coup de Grace to help you deal more damage to low health targets. For your secondaries, take Taste of Blood and Ravenous Hunter from the Domination tree. These will help you sustain and increase your lifesteal. For rune shards, take Attack Speed, Adaptive Force, and Armor.

Useful Tips

1. The Minigun from Jinx’s Q is better when you want to do single target damage while the Rocket Launcher is great during teamfights. Learning when to use which can go a long way and help you improve your damage.
2. Jinx is a scaling champion so she’ll be a little weak in the early game. She can be easily countered by high burst champions like Draven or Lucian. Ban these champions during champ select so that you’ll have an easier time.
3. For summoner spells, always take Flash and Heal. This will go a long way in keeping you alive and increasing your survivability. Other viable alternatives for Heal include Cleanse and Barrier. Cleanse is great when against high crowd control opponents while Barrier is good against enemies with high burst damage.

So there you have it! That’s all you need to know about playing Jinx 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!