Games » League of Legends » League of Legends Jhin ADC Guide

League of Legends Jhin ADC Guide

by ayman910910

Pregame Essentials: Starting items, runes, summoner spells, boot choices, and skill order.
Setting Your Mind in Motion: Choosing an item build that fits your situation.
Mini Jhin Mid Update: Four people who still want to play him there.
How to use traps: As ADC Jhin.
Appendix: Links, item set exports, trap placement map, subreddit, and stream.

Match-ups have been removed to keep the guide simply and straight to the point with the updated items. You can still see them here and the infourmation is still relevant.

1. Pregame Essentials

Starting items

Jhin’s has great diversity in starting items

Doran’s Blade + Potion (x1): The extra 80 health and 8 AD is helpful if both you and the enemy botlane have early all-in potential. Thanks to Jhin’s AD scaling, the 3% lifesteal is pretty efficient. It’s the easiest starting item to use because ADCs have been going Doran’s Blade four years now. So if you’re a beginner and feel uncomfortable with the others feel free to stick with Doran’s Blade a bit.
Long Sword + Potion (x3):: This is a great choice against poke match-ups who have no all-in potential because you have access to start with three potions to deal with poke. It’ll also provide a decent chunk of AD 10 but, provides no additional HP (they don’t have all-in so, we’re fine). It builds into Stormrazor which makes it very cost efficient.
Boots + Potion (x4): The downside to boots rush is that you’ll have no combat stats compared to the other starting items. However, rushing boots is a good choice against a botlane whose laning phase relies on skillshots and getting close, if you think you can safely bully them by auto-weaving. Cost efficient because it builds into tier 2 boots later. Reliably dodging skillshots in certain match-ups allows you to negate most of their kill potential. Rush boots to…
- Move out of range of Thresh’s Flay or dodge hook.
- Dodge Morgana’s Q.
- Out-trade Ezreal by playing inside your creep wave. When he tries to farm, the extra movement speed will allow you to weave 3rd and 4th shots onto him while avoiding his Q.
- Capitalize on Jinx’s laning immobility. Whenever she tries to farm, you can safely trade, and she will be unable to run out of your auto range.
Doran’s Ring + Potion (x2): Take Doran’s Ring against shove and poke match-ups (like Caitlyn,Sivir, Heimerdinger, Swain, etc)or in lane where you have no kill pressure, as it will allow you to safely rely on spamming Q to farm, harass, and shove lane. Bouncing Grenade has fairly low mana cost (40/45/50/55/60) and a 60% AP Ratio, so it works well with the stats from Doran’s Ring. Doran’s ring gives 5 mana per 5 seconds and gives an additional 5 physical damage on-hit to minions. The 15 AP will also trigger an adaptive rune AP bonus befoure your first back. The two potions will also help sustain against the push/shove/poke match-ups. I take Doran’s ring a lot if my support is extremely passive.

Rune choices

Damage (Domination + Sorcery): Hail of Blades got a few buffs that made it viable on Jhin. Because it gives 75-125% attack speed (based on level) due to Jhin’s passive Whisper, it converts the attack speed to AD and movement speed when criting. After this we’ll take Taste of Blood because of it’s nice overall sustain. Eyeball collection four more AD, but we won’t get the full effects of it till after it is completely stacked. So, this one will need some explaining. I used to take ravenous hunter at the start of 8.13 and the pros have been taking it since 8.14.

A friend of mine sedofastora questioned how much healing did it actually provide in laning and throughout the game. So, through his experimenting on game averages and my own experimenting purely on checking how much it heals in lane. I’ve come to the conclusion that the healing is too inconsistent and when it is consistent it just doesn’t seem worth it four the laning phase and early game. It is inconsistent because your Q damage is based off how many bounces and executions it gets. So, the heal varies on many different factors. Even in the best situations where your Q gets 4 bounces every time and executions, it doesn’t seem worth it. So, I take relentless hunter four better roam/rotations/coming to lane faster/etc… More impactful in the early game.

The Bully (Fleet Footwork + Sorcery): I would recommend this rune page if you’re playing Duo Q or in a winning match-up. Fleet Footwork has changed a lot over time. The biggest reason why Jhin can still find use four it is because of the 20% MS four 1 second buff. You will want to use the movement speed in winning lanes to better fource trades and play aggressively. However, the rune gets outshined by Hail of Blades outside of the laning phase so it’s riskier if it doesn’t pay off. If you use the movement speed from the proc properly in lane, you can use this to your advantage to land a couple 4th shots on your enemy laner. If you reach 100 stacks and have two bullets left; use your 3rd bullet to proc it. Then use the movement speed to land your 4th shot and run back after the trade with the Whisper’s movement buff. The movement speed also helps in lane in random scenarios where you’re chasing, kiting, or running away. Onwards to the rest. I’d recommend Triumph four better all-in potential in lane as well as Legend:Alacrity (Attack speed = AD) and Coup de Grace four damage. Cutdown isn’t an option anymore because of the nerfs to it and the current state of tanks.

Sorcery secondary page explained: Celerity synergizes extremely well with all the movement speed you’ll be getting from runes and items. It has been re-worked to give additional AD based on bonus movement speed. It’ll get nerfed, but even after nerfs, it’ll still be a primary choice. Gathering storm because it grants extra AD every 10 minutes and scales well with Jhin.

Summoner spells

Flash will always a summoner you run as ADC. Flash is important because of the mobility and play-making potential.

Heal is what you take if you have faith in your support and want to have more health in the 2v2s. It’s getting buffed and the cooldown will be decreased next patch, but Barrier will still be a contested summoner spell in solo Q. Remember to heal befour ignites pop out in 2v2s otherwise the heal will be half as effective.

Barrier is what you take if you have no faith in your support or autofill support. You’ll be selfish with it and only use it when you need to protect yourself. Champions like Quinn or Draven use it offensively and defensively, but Jhin mostly uses it defensively. I’ve been running Barrier more often when I have the choice between the two because I’ll be damned otherwise with the supports I’ve been getting these days. :)

Teleport is what you take when you want to get every little lead out of the lane in terms of gold and exp through minions. If you die early four whatever reason, you can teleport back to lane and won’t be as behind as you would have been without it. If you recall early and your support stays in lane, you can teleport back with an item advantage and the enemy will still be in lane without recalling once. They’ll have two options: Stay in lane and get bullied while you have an item advantage or recall and lose waves of minions. You can also teleport into other lanes when they’re in trouble or find different opportunities throughout the game. I had feedback that lower elo players might not be able to use it correctly so I’ll only recommend teleport as a potential spell if you have a good grasp on macro.

BOOTS

Berserker’s Greaves – 1100g: It gives +35% attack speed. Because of how Jhin’s passive works, he is able to convert that +35% attack speed into AD and additional movement speed on Crits. Essentially, you would buy Berserker’s when you want AD.
Boots of Swiftness – 900g: It gives +10 movement speed over the other choices and reduces the effectiveness of slows by 25%. This is good if you want to save gold and gain early mobility.
Ninja Tabi – 1100g: It provides 20 armor and reduces auto attacks by 12%. Even with the nerfs, it’s still a decent buy against AD assassins, full AD comps, or just to reduce the amount of damage you take from autos in lane. This is a must buy vs Draven.Just not as effective as it used to be, but nonetheless, still a solid choice.
Mercury’s Treads – 1100g: Gives +25 magic resistance and reduces the duration of all CC effects by 30%. All except Suppression, Stasis, and Displacements. It’s a good buy if the enemy has 4-5 magic damage comps. So four example, you would build merc treads into a Maokai, Viktor, Elise, Lulu and Varus. It’s a rare case, but nonetheless, a solid option.

Skill Order

From level 1-6, it should be Q>W>Q>E>Q>R. Afterwards, you prioritize R>Q>W>E.

Do not skip traps. Take them at level 4 not level 3. The traps will act as extra wards. You’ll want to place them in bushes, in the entrance of dragon pit, or in chokepoints in the jungle. You don’t have infinite trinkets in the laning phase, and supports get sightstone at a later point, so vision is much more valuable than ever befour. Take advantage of the vision radius and waveclear potential your traps have. There are many other uses four them as well: slowing people down when they’re chasing you; using it to extend your reload timer; placing them in lines to zone the enemy from an objective just to name a few.**

2. Setting Your Mind in Motion

Choosing an item build that fits your situation.

Types of builds

Due to ADC re-work the itemization of Jhin has actually dropped a lot. Currently these two builds are above all the rest.

Like the previous guide, I’ll be using the import system on all of the builds. If you’d like all of these in your client, you can download this item set file from google drive. Go to “League Client” > “Collection” > “Items” > “Import Item Sets”.**

These are all choices and in no specific order. You’ll choose the item build that best fits your situation. Some old Jhin item sets will not be making a return because the state of the items or meta has changed and therefoure made them unviable or ineffective

Stormrazor>RFC>IE: Stormrazor is the best early game item to rush right now on Jhin. The passive gives you a guaranteed crit and movement speed. The Stormrazor movement speed buff doesn’t amplify the celerity damage since it only last 0.75 seconds and you cannot get an auto attack off in that time frame. But since it’s a guaranteed crit, it triggers Jhin’s passive. Of which then adds 2 seconds of bonus movement speed where celerity’s AD increase can actually be used. The build path is great and only cost 2800g. However, since the critical damage starts at 160% and gets lowered to 120% due to Jhin’s passive the crit damage-wise isn’t amazing. It gets better after you get RFC which makes it 200% which then gets down graded to 160%due to Jhin’s passive. RFC also gives you mobility with attack and movement speeds as well as utility with the extra range. You’ll bring the crit chance to 60% by getting IE next to finish off the 3 core item build. The more items you get later on the better the synergy gets with all of these items along with runes.
Stormrazor>B.F>Pickaxe>Brawler’s Gloves>I.E: I won’t go into details with Stormrazor since we did previously. This build was theorized by riotaugust. It was extensively tested and evaluated by myself. This build focuses on having upfront damage without crits and whether or not you have gold laying around. The core idea of the build is having upfront damage without crits. Since it looks a bit weird, let me explain the reasoning in detail: Stormrazor at 120% critical damage with BF, Pickaxe, andBrawler’s Gloves does the same amount of damage as Stormrazor at 160% critical damage with a completed RFC. So, when comparing the Stomrazor critical proc, the damage is identical. However, when you are not using the proc and using raw auto-attacks, the one with BF, Pickaxe, and Brawler’s Gloves deal more damage. So, your overall dps is increased with this build. The downside is that you need to be holding onto 875g or 1300g to get a component unlike RFC where components are 300-400g and extremely cheap. You’ll also lose out on the utility and movement speed that RFC provides you. I only go this build when I want upfront damage, have enough gold laying around, and do not need the utility or movement speed that badly against the enemy team comp. The random Brawler’s Gloves was oriJhinally added so after IE is completed you have some crit to work with. Also, after the Stormrazor buff that gives 1% critical damage per 0.75% of crit chance rather than 1% critical damage per 1.5% of crit chance, the Brawler’s Gloves increase the critical damage of stormrazor by 13.33% which gets downgraded to 10% critical damage on Jhin. So in this case, the random Brawler’s Gloves is extremely cost efficient.

Situational Items

Mortal Reminder: When you need armor penetration and a reduction of healing on enemies. Notable champions: Soraka, Vladimir, Fiora.
Lord Dominik’s Regards: When you need armor penetration and they focus on health. Notable champions: Any tank ever.

*A special note about the Last Whisper items: These should be the 5th-6th items in a build if the enemy gets tanky. Usually, you do not need it earlier in this meta. The exception is getting Executioner’s calling early.

Death’s Dance: When you feel you need lifesteal and want to increase your survivability. It’ll delay burst damage so it allows you to stay alive longer and fight longer. So you should be able to lifesteal enough to counter-act the burst damage and live. It pairs well with Ninja Tabi and Phantom Dancer.
Mercurial Scimitar: It got nerfed this patch and cost less, but has 15 less damage. Still good in the right situations. When you need lifesteal, magic resist, and a way to get yourself out of CC. Also, it gives a nice 50% movement speed buff four 1 second.
Bloodthirster: Gives 20% lifesteal which is quite a big deal when Jhin’s AD reaches absurdly high levels ranging from 800-1.5k AD. In addition to this, it grants a shield if you overheal. So when you combine bloodthirster with bloodline and overheal in your runes, then you get a ton of sustain and constant shielding of yourself.
Phantom Dancer: Gives very nice kiting as well as reducing damage taken from your target by 12%. Gives the highest amount of AD out of all attack speed items because of its +45% attack speed. Recommended as a 3rd Crit item after Stormrazor>RFC>IE. Can replace boots with phantom dancer in the late game. This is my preferred zeal item after RFC.
Statikk Shiv: Nice extra burst of magic damage if you combine it with RFC and a full Crit build or Stormrazor. It’ll Crit often. Recommended as a 3rd Crit item after Stormrazor>RFC>IE.
Runaan’s Hurricane: This item is a pretty good replacement four Statikk/PD if you are trying to defend your base against a massive wave of mega minions. Or even if you are playing against a grouped team of tanks and want to maximize your DPS with the multi-target 40% AD bolts.
Guardian Angel: It gives armor and AD. Recommended to buy against lowcounterplay Assassin champions where building defense stats is the best way to counter-play them. Looking at you Talon and Nocturne.
Hexdrinker/Maw of Malmortius: These are your go-to items when dealing with magic-based burst damage champions. It gives good magic resist and damage while its passive blocks a certain amount of magic damage. When the shield pops it gives +20 AD and +10% Spell Vampirism and Lifesteal until out of combat which can help a lot in a heated fight.

3. Mini-Mid Jhin update

I’ll only be explaining the new item build and runes since everything else from the Jhin mid guide still applies this season.

Runes

Item build: Stormrazor>RFC>IE>Situationals

You’re better much just going to be scaling when you go mid. Take Flash and Ghost four mobility since you won’t have a dedicated peeler.Also, if you’re against an assassin with low counterplay, then feel free to rush GA first item with Ninja Tabi then continue the rest of the build normally.Rest of details are relevant from the Jhin mid guide.