Jayce Guide Wild Rift
Hello, I am Talanwr. I Finished rank 6 in season 13 peaking at 163 marks Sovereign playing only autofill. I have reached rank 5 in wild rift in both season 13 and season 14. I have been rank 1 Jayce in NA in 3 separate seasons. Once playing him only mid lane and the other two times playing him mostly baron lane and occasionally mid lane. And I have played over a thousand Jayce games with nearly a 60% win rate.
If you are interested in content related to Jayce as well as wild rift as a whole, check out my youtube and twitch channels both under the username Talanwr.
Jayce Build Wild Rift
Items
Jayce’s build is largely focused around damage through lethality items. However, into more tanks there are some small changes to be made.
1st item: Boots of dynamism - These are the boots you should use nearly every game. They give you very strong early damage and you should typically look to crash a wave and recall as soon as you have the gold for these boots.
2nd item: Yomuu’s ghostblade/eclipse - You will go yomuu’s ghostblade into squishy matchups such as mages, Adc’s, and most assassins. Eclipse will be your item into most bruisers and tanks. If you do not know which item to choose just default to eclipse.
3rd item: If you chose eclipse as the first item then use Yomuu’s ghostblade as your second item. If you chose yomuu’s ghostblade as your first item then go Duskblade of Draktharr.
4th item: Mortal reminder/Serylda’s grudge - Go Mortal reminder anytime the enemy has some healing and only go Serylda’s grudge when there is little to no healing on the enemy.
5th item: Black cleaver - Always black cleaver 5th
6th item: Sterak's gage/Guardian angel/Maw of Malmortius: Sterak’s as the default last item. Guardian angel when most of the damage being dealt to you is AD and Maw when most of the damage being dealt to you is AP.
Enchant: Typically build enchant after the third item. Stasis as your default enchant and quicksilver enchant if they have lots of crowd control
Additional build notes:
Replace youmuu’s or duskblade with the following items in the following scenarios Serpent's fang: Use serpent's fang into heavy shielding comps.
Edge of night: Use edge of night when the enemy have lots of single target crowd control abilities such as twisted fate gold card and ashe ultimate:
If you are lazy and want an exact build for every scenario then use the following build: Boots of Dynamism, Eclipse, yommu’s Ghostblade, Mortal reminder, finish stasis, Black cleaver, Sterak's gage.
An alternative bruiser build for top lane that works well into more tanky matchups is boots of dynamism,sundered sky, trinity force, black cleaver, mortal reminder, edge of knight with the same runes as in the first build, but instead of coup de grace, get cut down.
Runes
Jayce runes do not change much.
First strike, brutal, coup de grace, legend alacrity, bone plating
The only changes to runes will be giant slayer in place of coup de grace if the enemy are quite tanky.
Some prefer the conqueror keystone rune into more tank heavy matchups however I will explain later in the guide how to utilize first strike into tank matchups. But if you prefer the conqueror play style it is an option for a more 1v1 focused side laning build.
Ability Order
1st Ability, 2nd Ability, 3rd Ability
However on level 1 you will take 1st Ability. On level 2 you will take 3rd Ability and on level 3 you will take 2nd Ability. But for levelling up abilities the order is 1st, 2nd, 3rd.
Summoner Spells
Flash - It’s op and pretty obvious why you should use flash
Ignite - The goal is to stomp lane and ignite helps you to do that
Combos
During the combo portion I will refer to the hammer form as melee form and the cannon form as ranged form. There are many combos and you can really mix and match the combos depending on scenarios. I will describe the combos in order of complexity.
Before talking about real combos there are a few important notes. First is that switching between forms gives you movement speed for 1.25 seconds and each time you switch forms the first auto attack will be buffed. For ranged form this buff is more damage on your first auto and your first auto attack will reduce enemy resists for 5 seconds. For melee form your first auto attack will deal more damage. Also note that melee form has more armor and magic resistance.
The first combo is that Jayce can use his ranged second ability then switch to melee form and have fast auto attacks in melee form.
Second, Jayce gets mana back from auto attacking in melee form, this is why I do not prefer manamune as part of his build path.
Ok the first real combo is in ranged form and is the main poke from jayce. Simply shoot your first ability and tap the first ability again right after. Tapping the first ability will place your third ability in front of you which increases the damage, range, and splash radius of the first ability.
Next will be the flash combos. The first flash combo is in ranged form. Simply first ability, flash, tap first ability.
The melee form flash combo is similar to the lee sin ult flash combo. First ability onto your opponent then third ability flash to knock someone in the direction you want.
The next combo will start in melee form and is an extension of the previous combo to get max dmg afterwards. Once again first ability onto your opponent, second ability mid air, third ability, flash, ultimate then first skill, tap first skill, second ability, auto attack.
The next combo will start in melee form. Typically this is used when surprising someone from a bush. First you will use your melee first ability, then as you are mid air click your second ability, then once you land auto attack and immediately third skill the enemy away, then click ultimate to switch forms and immediately use first skill then tap first skill again as explained in the previous combo, click second ability, and auto attack.
This next combo is the maximum damage combo for Jayce and I strongly recommend going into the practice tool and practicing until you can consistently do it. Start in ranged form. Do the first combo explained with first skill then tap first skill. Auto attack then click second ability, auto attack, ultimate, first skill, second skill mid air, auto attack, third skill, then auto attack as they are being knocked back. The attack speed from the ranged second ability gives you enough attack speed to auto attack the enemy as they are being knocked back by melee third skill. Squeezing auto attacks in between abilities is extremely important, do not be lazy about this.
Same combo but with first skill flash first skill.
Game Strategy
For the next section there will be separate explanations for baron lane and mid lane.
Jayce Baron Lane
Jayce wins nearly every early game matchup because of the fact that he has 2 spells at level 1. Utilize this early advantage to look for level 1 all ins on nearly every champion. If you do not know whether or not you win the all in then you should try to all in and learn for future games. Make sure you do not all in near minions except for in really easy matchups such as kayle. The main champions you cannot all in level 1 include Riven, Akshan, Lucian, Fiora, Aatrox, Yone, Yasuo, Garen, Darius, and Urgot. Just because you cannot all in these champions at level 1 does not mean you lose the matchup. In these closer matchups make sure to auto attack in ranged form to remove their bone plating, if they have second wind then obviously do not worry about timing trades the same way as with bone plating. Only take big trades when you have first strike and bone plating up and they do not have bone plating. Maintaining lane priority by pushing waves is important. Make sure you keep the enemy wave slightly lower than your own wave in order to gain level advantages. Take your most aggressive trades on these level advantages. Each time the enemy goes for a last hit make sure to poke them with your ranged form. Once they are low enough use the full combo described in the combo section to all in the enemy. Melee form is typically used in lane after landing poke with ranged form or when you need to gain mana back. As a squishy champion in the baron lane. you have to be aware of jungle pathing. Make sure to take more aggressive trades when your jungle is on your side of the map. Also focus on building up big waves and ideally getting scorpion as well to set up a turret dive on a low health enemy with your Jungler. The benefit to stacking these waves and diving is that you gain much more from one kill since you will have ample time to take turret platings. The downside is that you are more susceptible to ganks. So only do this when you have flash available or when you know you are safe. As a general rule Jayce is a hyper aggressive champion in early game whose focus is getting gold at all costs. Even if the cost is your life.
Early Game
You will play mid game differently depending on how the early game went. If you come out of early game ahead then you will focus heavily on snowballing your lead as much as possible. The goal is 900+ gold per minute all the way up until elder dragon meaning you will have at least 4 items plus enchant by 18 minutes. The way you push your leads is through side lanes. Focus on taking your own lane's outer turret first. Once you have done this try to shift into the other side of the map and take that outer turret as well. Continuously focus on taking any side lane waves that are on your team's half of the map. Take camps from your Jungler, take camps from the enemy Jungler, take gold from your Mid, from your ADC, from everyone. I cannot emphasize enough how selfish you must play on Jayce. His sole purpose in any game is to deal as much damage as possible. This means you need as much gold as possible. Make sure you push sides past the halfway point about 30-60 seconds before dragons are spawning. Then use that time to recall and join the fight at dragon. To conclude, when you get an early lead focus solely on getting gold until an objective is spawning, then rotate to that objective and carry the fight with your gold lead.
Now I will write about playing mid game when you are behind. The goal is also to get as much gold as possible but your focus shifts from side laning to split pushing. When ahead you side lane which means you go to side lanes to push the wave and go back with your team when it is pushed. When you are behind you will split push, meaning the goal is to take towers and draw the enemy towards you. Make sure that when you are split pushing it is done on the opposite side of the map of the objective which is spawning next. Similar to playing from ahead you will still want to join the teamfight of 3rd dragon if it is a soul deciding fight , and of course join for the elder in most scenarios as well.
Mid Game
For late games make sure the waves are pushed before crucial teamfights. During teamfights take control of a bush with your team and poke the enemy squishies as much as possible before going all in. Generally stay in ranged form until you see an opportunity to one shot an opponent. At this time of the game you can one shot any squishy with a full combo and can take nearly half of their health with a simple ranged first ability combo. Do not focus on killing the tanks as they will soak up nearly all of your damage at this point. Overall, be patient and poke people until you see an opening.
Late Game / Teamfights
Jayce Mid Lane
In mid lane typically look to ward the enemy raptors level 1. This will give you vision of the enemy jungle pathing and will give you a chance to all in the enemy mid laner away from minions. Do not do this ward if you lose the all in against the enemy mid. In mid lane you can usually push the first wave very hard into most matchups and focus on getting level 2. Once level 2 use your ranged combo for early poke. Only keep the wave neutral into very weak early champions such as veigar. After hard pushing the first wave you will want to keep the second wave only slightly lower health than your own wave. Similar to in baron lane you will play around level advantages and poke the enemy when they go for last hits. Make sure to recall after you have enough gold for boots. After the boots recall you will start hard pushing the wave and roaming. Only to come back when you see an easy kill or when the next wave comes. When roaming, focus on rotating with your jungle, timing your wave crashes with his clearing in order to create better gank opportunities in tandem with your Jungler.
Early Game
As mid lane you want to allow your ADC and support to come to mid after the first dragon. You will then side lane on their lane and play the same way as described in the baron lane section so I will not repeat myself in this section. Now sometimes your ADC and support will not rotate to mid and you just have to stay mid. When this happens, focus on pushing the wave as soon as it reaches mid. This gives you time to once again look for as much gold as possible by taking enemy jungle, your own jungle, other laners gold etc. Additionally focus on rotating with your jungle as much as possible in the mid game when possible. As in baron lane, the main focus is to have as much gold as possible for key fights over dragon soul, baron, and elder dragon.
Mid Game
Late game is the same in both baron lane and mid lane except for one difference. If you are mid lane it is more commonly your job to push the mid lane wave right before key objectives spawn.
Late Game / Teamfights
Matchups
Jayce struggles against most tanks, especially those with poke and ways to avoid his poke. Tanks who can cancel his melee first ability such as Gragas are also hard. And tanks with armor stacking abilities are also extremely hard. The most difficult matchups are Malphite, Gragas, garen, Ornn, and Sion. Ranged lane bullies such as Akshan and lucian have slightly winning matchups into Jayce if they take exhaust, however these matchups are winnable for skilled Jayce players who focus on poke and farming to two items to outscale and one shot them. Riven should lose to Jayce in a matchup of equal skill, however one mistake versus Riven leads to an unwinnable lane. Most bruisers will beat you very hard the second you give them a lead.
There is one important note for beating these tank counters in lane. Understand the goal is not to kill them but rather use them as free gold. Trade only when you have first strike and bone plating up and trade heavily to get maximum gold from first strike. Always keep the lane pushing that way even if you get ganked and die you will not give up any turret plates. Then use this gold lead to focus squishy champions in teamfights. Also use your fast turret pushing to outpace the tanks on side lanes in the mid game.
Jayce Counters
If the champion is squishy, Jayce probably wins. Jayce is especially good at stomping late game squishy champions such as Veigar, Kayle, Kassadin, Kennen, Teemo, Vayne, Vladimir, Lissandra, Seraphine, and Orianna.