League of Legends Jhin Mid Guide

by ayman910910

Table of contents:

1. Pre-game essentials: Starting items, Runes, Masteries, Summoner spells, Boot choices, and Skill build.

2. Our perfourmance begins: How to play the laning phase and being able to understand your matchups.

3. Setting your mind in motion: Roaming, Mid-Late game focuses, and Teamfighting.

4. Mini-ADC Jhin update: Four people who still want to play him there.

5. Additional resources: (Jhin mains subreddit, Item Sets exported, Trap placement map four laning phase,etc)

Pre-game essentials

Starting item: Doran’s Ring

Why Doran’s Ring? When you’re Mid lane Jhin you want to be able to waveclear, harass, and farm with Q. Doran’s Ring restores FOUR Mana upon killing a unit. Your Q jhinerally has low Mana cost so when you combine the low Mana cost of Q with the Mana regen aspects of Doran’s Ring, you end up with a really healthy Mana pool to play with. It gives you 2 health potions instead of 1 which allows you to have more aggressive trading and overall extra health to work with. If you didn’t take Doran’s Ring you’d notice yourself running out of Mana rather quickly and being fourced to back early or lane without Mana. Your Q has a nice 60% AP ratio too, so not only does Doran’s Ring give you a good chunk of sustain in the Mana department, but it also empowers your Q when you’re farming, harassing, waveclearing, etc. Your E has a 100% AP Ratio too, so it helps a bit more when you’re using E to waveclear and push waves fast.

Runes: You’ll choose one depending on the match-up.

First off, what gives with the random movement speed quint in the rune pages? Most Mid laners have 325-335 movement speed (few reach 340). Jhin, himself, has 330 movement speed. You’ll be trading a lot with auto attacks and don’t want them to simply run away. Having the slight movement speed help goes a long way in fourcing auto attack trades.

• Jhin Mid vs AD: You’ve got a mix of Lethality marks and AD quints along with a movement speed quint. Lethality marks synergize well with your kit because you have high base damages so the Armor pen goes a long way. You also have AD quints because you still want to have a reasonable amount of AD to farm with. AD Midlaners are jhinerally squishy too. The Ability Power runes are there to complement your Doran’s Ring because you won’t be needing Magic Resist glyphs against an AD Mid laner. It’s more potent when you take AP glyphs, but, you do have the option of taking regular Magic Resist glyphs four other members of the enemy team

Contains: 1x MS Quint, 2x AD Quints, 9x Lethality Marks, 9x Armor seals, 9x AP flat glyphs (Can replace with Magic Resist.)

• Jhin Mid vs AP: You’ve got a mix of Lethality marks and AD quints along with a Movement Speed quint. Same thing applies here about Lethality marks and AD quints. However, instead of taking Armor seals, you will be taking Scaling Health seals. You won’t benefit much from Armor seals in an AP match-up, so it’s preferred to take Scaling Health seals here. You end up getting Armor per level unlike Magic Resist. So, you wouldn’t want to ever replace the Scaling Health seals with Armor seals into AP match-ups. You’ll be taking Magic Resist glyphs. I take 3 Scaling MR glyphs with 6 MR flat glyphs because they even out with 9x MR glyphs at level 9. I find mages to be more threatening in terms of damage after the laning phase is over.

Contains: 1x MS Quint, 2x AD Quints, 9x Lethality Marks, 9x Scaling Health seals, 6x MR flat glyphs, 3x Scaling MR glyphs.

• Jhin Mid vs blind match-up: Sometimes you’ll be against an enemy team comp where the Mid laner can be one of two champions. One of them being AD and the other being AP. You’d want to be safe in this situation, so you’ll be taking both Armor seals and Magic Resist glyphs.

Contains: 1x MS Quint, 2x AD Quints, 9x Lethality Marks, 9x Armor seals, 6x MR flat glyphs, 3x Scaling MR glyphs.

Situational Lethality mark to AD mark conversion: The main benefit to converting all of the Lethality marks into AD marks in your rune pages is that you’ll do more damage to minions with everything you’ve got. If you’re against a match-up that focuses on shoving and avoiding fights, then you’d want to do this to keep up your shoving power so you don’t end up being pushed into your own tower four the entire laning phase. Examples: Anivia, Sol, Taliyah, Orianna. However, I’ve found this isn’t really necessary until low/Mid diamond. People below low/Mid diamond can be heavily abusable by Lethality as they do not focus on shoving and avoiding fights.

Mastery page: One page to rule them all

Ferocity: You’ll be taking Sorcery because it amplifies Jhin’s ability damage (Q,W,E,R). Taking Feast because you’ll be focusing on trading while also staying healthy yourself. Natural Talent because it’ll give you extra damage and you won’t need Vampirism with Warlord’s Bloodlust around. You can choose Battle Trance or Double-Edged Sword. It’s personal preference. Take Battering Blows because you’re an AD champion. Warlord’s Bloodlust because Deathfire Touch got nerfed a while ago and in the current meta it’s benefits are lackluster on Jhin compared to the ones he gets from Warlord’s Bloodlust. Having it allows you to have better sustain from the start of the game till the end. It also allows you to delay Lifesteal items.

Resolve: Take Recovery if you don’t see yourself buying any resistance. Otherwise, take Unyielding. Take Tough Skin if you want to reduce damage taken or Explorer if you want to have a boost to your roaming power. Take Veteran’s Scarsbecause you’ll want higher max HP vs Mid laners. They tend to try to burst you a lot. Insight because when you’re playing Jhin Mid you’ll need to be mobile, so having reduced cooldowns on flash and ghost is really helpful. Fearless is also a choice to make trades stronger and help against burst mid laners.

Summoner spell & Boot compliments

Flash is mandatory. It is way too important to your mobility and play-making potential to miss out on.

Ghost will be the most common 2nd Summoner spell you’ll end up taking. It adds another layer to your mobility. It also allows you to better play around ganks, kite, reach backline, follow-up, chase, etc.

Exhaust would be the 2nd Summoner spell if you’re against an AD Assassin or AP burst mage/assassin. Examples: Zed, Talon, LeBlanc, Fizz.

Cleanse is the 2nd Summoner spell you’d want to take against no-counter-play CC. A great example would be TF’s flash with yellow card on a jungle gank. The only counter-play is to get Cleanse or QSS. It also allows you to mow down champs like TF because they wouldn’t be able to CC you while you chased them.

You do not want Barrier, Heal, or Ignite. They’ll only help Jhin in the laning phase to be safer or more aggressive. You want Summoner spells that are extremely useful not only in the laning phase, but also Mid to late game.

Ionian Boots (Usually paired with Ghost) – 900g: This will be the primary boot choice four most games. It’s one of the cheapest boots in the game meaning you can get it rather quickly. It reduces the cooldown of your Summoner Spells by 10%. Having your Summoner Spells off cooldown quickly is crucial to Mid lane Jhin. You’re allowed to be more aggressive with lower Summoner Spell cooldowns, which means you’ll have more playmaking potential.

Ninja Tabi (Usually paired with Exhaust)- 1100g: One of the more expensive boots. It, however, is a must buy into every AD match up Mid lane. +30 Armor and reduced damage from all basic attacks by 10%. You are to rush Ninja Tabi against AD match-ups and bully them with the movement speed advantage. You’ll also be a whole lot harder to trade with or kill.

Mercury’s Treads (Usually paired with Exhaust) – 1100g: Another one of the more expensive boots. This is a must buy if you’re against an annoying AP match-up like LeBlanc or Fizz. The Magic Resist is the biggest reason why you’re buying it. You usually stack it with a Hexdrinker or QSS later. The Tenacity is helpful too.

Note: You can pair any boot with any combination of Flash + Summoner Spell. I added the “Usually paired with” to give a Jhineral idea of the best combos.

Skill Build

From level 1-6 it should be Q>W>Q>E>Q>R. After this max R, Q, W, E in this order.

Do not skip traps. The traps will act as extra wards when you’re Mid. You’ll want to place them in bushes connected to jungle routes the enemy will take to gank. Traps help with waveclear. There are many other uses, such as 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, etc.

Our perfourmance begins: How to play the laning phase and being able to understand your matchups.

How you should play the laning phase: Jhin plays around his Q’s and auto attacks in the laning phase. Into most match-ups you want to be super aggressive within the first few levels of the lane by being up in their face with auto attacks and Q spams. You have sources of healing from Warlord’s bloodlust, Feast, and 2 potions with Dring start so do your best to harass and be aggressive. If you end up with even trades you come out on top because of you having better sustain than most match-ups and the fact that you do more damage the lower they are. This part is crucial to getting your big lead. The worst case if you don’t do this is that you’ll end up farming and scale instead of snowballing hard. Here are clip examples to show you how you should be trading in-lane. Example 1, Example 2, Example 3. One other thing you’ll be doing often in the laning phase to try to snowball is to get them low and finish them off with your ultimate. Rammus assists me in getting Vladimir low and I finish him off. Most of the time you end up getting them low yourself with the trading methods I’ve provided. Example.

Don’t fourget about the jungler. You’ll be using yellow trinkets, control wards, and your traps to take care of yourself.

• Jhin Trap ward guide: https://youtu.be/9iR7BSeepL0

Match-ups: After reading about the match-up goto the item build to learn how to use it in the match-up.

• Are you playing against a AD melee? Bully them as hard as you can using your ranged advantage. Harass with Q spam and fource trades with auto attacks. You’re trying to get a lead pre-6 since most AD melee champions have their powerspikes at level 6. Run Exhaust. Examples: Zed, Talon, Yasuo, etc. Use the Anti-AD-Burst build.
• Are you playing against Le Blanc,Fizz, Syndra,etc? Ban Le Blanc. It is the only lane where you cannot outplay her unless she’s far below your own skill level. Her laning is too strong against you. Focus on farming safely against Le Blanc. You can abuse Fizz pre-6 but, after level 6 he becomes the 2nd most problematic champion four Jhin mid. Run Exhaust. If you end up playing against one of these use the Anti-AP-Assassin build. You can use this if you have trouble with other champs.
• Are you playing against a typical AP mage? Abuse their pre-6 as hard as possible. Similar to AD melee match-ups, focus on harassing with Q’s and fourcing trades with auto attacks. Run Ghost. Examples: Lux, Ahri, Ryze, Cassio, Malzahar, Orianna, etc. Use the Ghostblade Build or Infinity-Edge-Rush build.
• Are you playing against a very poke heavy laner? You can trade to trade or abuse them in the early levels but, as they gain levels and items they start to safely poke you while farming very well. You’re going to want to use the Anti-Poke Build to be able to lane well against them without being poked out of lane. Run Ghost. Examples: Xerath, Ziggs, Azir, Orianna.

Itemization

Theres a new item set import system on League. If you’d like all of these in your client download this the item setfile from google drive. Go to “League Client” > “Collection” > “Items” > “Import Item Sets”.

These are all choices. In no specific order. You’ll choose the item build that best fits the situation.

As always buy a Last Whisper as soon as its needed. Zeal/Zeals = 1 Zeal item or a combination of two. SHIV + RFC, PD + RFC, etc.

• The Anti-AD-Burst build: I saw an Anti-Burst build on Jhin from Youmuus’s channel. It looked like exactly what I needed against AD match-ups. So, I made a few modifications and improvements. You’ll be taking Exhaust and building Ninja Tabi> Death’s Dance> PD > IE> RFC >Situational items. Ninja Tabi will give you a movement speed advantage and make you tankier so you’ll have an easier time trading and will be harder to all-in. Death’s Dance will provide you with an early Vamp. Scepter which, when combined with Warlord’s Bloodlust, will allow you to stay at full HP making it harder to all-in you when you have Ninja Tabi and Exhaust. Once completed, Death’s Dance will give you a high amount of AD as well as the damage delay benefits among other things. Phantom Dancer will give you damage reduction as well as extra movement speed when in combat, in addition to its passive movement speed. After Phantom Dancer you’ll want to get IE so you don’t fall behind in damage wise. You’re free to choose whichever items you see fit after this.
• The Anti-AP-Assassin build: This build is strictly to stay alive in lane and be able to farm safely. Hexdrinker>Mercury Treads> IE> Zeal/Zeals> Situational items. Hexdrinker will be first to provide with you Magic Resist and the magic damage blocking passive. Mercury is next primarily four its movement speed and Magic Resist. After purchasing these two items you’ll want to start working on scaling items such as IE with Zeal/Zeals. Situational items come after. Very low damage at the start but, its necessary against match-ups like Le Blanc or Fizz.
• Ghostblade build: This one is rather classic coming from Jhin ADC and being implemented into Jhin Mid. Ghostblade>Infinity Edge> Zeal/Zeals > Situational items. If you’re feeling confident about snowballing mid and being able to kill the mid laner a lot by fourcing fights with the Ghostblade active use this build. Ghostblade falls off if you’re unable to snowball yourself with it so be careful. The items after Ghostblade will help you scale into the mid to late game.
• Infinity-Edge-Rush build: This is another item build coming from Jhin ADC and being implemented into Jhin Mid. You go this build if you want to farm and have the best mid to late game powerspike. Infinity Edge> Choice of boots> Statik Shiv> RFC> Situational items. If you’re snowballing hard, a little, or just farming without getting kills. This is the build you’d want to go. Its very reliable and has a strong mid game powerspike once you get all 3 cores.
• Anti-Poke build: You’re going this build so you can stay in lane without being bullied out of it through poke and not taking too much damage when hit by poke. Vampscepter>Hexdrinker>Mercury>IE>Zeal/Zeals> finish Vamp + Hexdrinker into final forms.

Setting your mind in motion: Roaming, Mid-Late game focuses, and Teamfighting.

Roaming: Most of the time you’ll have access to Ghost. If you find a lane overextending pre-6 and you think you can flank with Ghost then go four it. Many times a top laner or botlaners will overextend all the way to your teammates tower and they’ll be missing HP. You can try to walk over there if you shoved your lane and try to find a good angle to gank them with Ghost. You’ll activate ghost and simply orb walk with auto attacks. Once you get level-6 pay attention to the map and try to assess what opportunities you have four a potential gank with your W + R. I recommend ganking a lane that has CC, no summoner spells, or has an enemy champion that is low on HP.

Mid-Late game focuses: Keep your CS up to scale and pay attention to potential picks with your team. Since you’ll have a real ADC (Ardent) on your team. You will infact scale very well in these games because you’re competing with the enemy mid laner in terms of DPS which is doable as compared to an Ardent ADC. You cannot splitpush a solo lane as hard as regular mid lane champions. So, you’ll want to farm waves and rotate. Do not push a lane too deep by yourself because you’ll get caught out. Unless, you’re fed and certain that you can duel the enemy solo laners than feel free to push deep. Play around your team because you’ll be looking to get some picks with your W + R.

Teamfighting: If you have access to Ghost then go crazy with positioning and try to get any backliners. Or, you can use it to kite better around your teammates. If you do not have access to Ghost but, to Exhaust or Cleanse play safer/closer to your team. Keep track of the enemy carries. While your ADC is dealing constant DPS you can try to burst whoever they’re currently focusing. You’re essentially a second ADC that can position more aggressively and focus more on bursting certain targets or chasing them.

Mini-ADC Jhin update: Four people who still want to play him there.

Runes: Lethality + AD mix is the best single rune page so far. Other rune pages aren’t so good anymore. Lethality marks to help your level 6 powerspike and compliment your high base damage. AD quints to give you AD with work with when farming, pushing, clearing, etc..

Contains: 3x AD Quints, 9x Lethality Marks, 9x Armor seals, 9x MR flat glyphs

Mastery: Jhin ADC

Ferocity is the same info as the Jhin mid mastery. Copying it here incase people only wanted to learn about Jhin ADC

Ferocity: You’ll be taking Sorcery because it amplifies Jhin’s ability damage (Q,W,E,R). Taking Feast because you’ll be focusing on trading while also staying healthy yourself. Natural Talent because it’ll give you extra damage and you won’t need Vampirism with Warlord’s Bloodlust around. You can choose Battle Trance or Double-Edged Sword. It’s personal preference. Take Battering Blows because you’re an AD champion. Warlord’s Bloodlust because Deathfire Touch got nerfed a while ago and in the current meta it’s benefits are lackluster on Jhin compared to the ones he gets from Warlord’s Bloodlust. Having it allows you to have better sustain from the start of the game till the end. It also allows you to delay Lifesteal items.

Resolve: Take Recovery if you don’t see yourself buying any resistance. Otherwise, take Unyielding. Take Tough Skin if you want to reduce damage taken or Explorer if you want to have a boost to your roaming power. Take Runic Armorbecause you’ll want to amplify the healing and shielding you’ll receive from your support’s kit, summoner heal, summoner barrier, Warlord’s Bloodlust, potions, etc… You’ll take Fearless because you’ll be trading a lot in the botlane and it’ll ramp up over time and save a lot of HP in the long run. Makes it harder to burst you too.

Item builds

Theres a new item set import system on League. If you’d like all of these in your client download this the item setfile from google drive. Go to “League Client” > “Collection” > “Items” > “Import Item Sets”.

You have two choices left. The other item builds that existed are no-longer recommended due to item changes or not being as good as the two choices we have now. Press F to pay respects. R.I.P: GB+RFC+IE, GB+EoN+RFC, GB+EoN+Dusk, DD + RFC + IE, ER+RFC+IE.

These were stated earlier but, copying them over incase people skipped to the ADC section.

• Ghostblade build: Ghostblade> Choice of boots (Swifies, Beserk, Ninja tabi) > Infinity Edge> Shiv + RFC or just RFC > Situational items. If you’re feeling confident about snowballing and furthering your lead then get Ghostblade. Ghostblade falls off if you’re unable to snowball yourself with it so be careful. The items after Ghostblade will help you scale into the mid to late game. Situational build.
• Infinity-Edge-Rush build: You go this build if you want to farm and have the best mid to late game powerspike. Infinity Edge> Choice of boots (Swifies, Beserk, Ninja tabi) > Statik Shiv> RFC> Situational items. If you’re snowballing hard, a little, or just farming without getting kills. This is the build you’d want to go. Its very reliable and has a strong mid game powerspike once you get all 3 cores. Standard build.

Additional Resources:

• Jhin mains subreddit
• Jhin Mid trap ward guide
• Jhin mid + adc importable client itemsets
• Jhin Seminar 4:40:00

TLDR: The higher in elo you climb the harder it becomes to compete against Ardent abusing ADCs with Jhin. You’re essentially denying your teamcomp an actual ADC much like picking Ezreal or Lucian ADC. I main Jhin mid now and it’s more impactful and fun to play than ADC Jhin.