It’s not hard to argue that Jhin offers everything you could want in a marksman – and then some. He has a versatile kit, a dominant laning phase, and the ability to take part in team fights as either a long-ranged sniper or an up close and personal gunslinger. And even though the recent patches have brought a lot of changes, Jhin still holds his rightful place as a top-tier bot lane pick.

ABILITY OVERVIEW

Passive: Whisper

Jhin’s gun chambers four shots, the last of which always crits and applies extra damage based on a portion of his target’s missing health. After firing all four shots, Jhin takes a moment to reload.

Jhin’s crits deal less damage than normal, and his attack speed doesn’t actually scale with attack speed. Instead, Jhin gains attack damage from any attack speed and crit chance he earns through itemization and runes, while crits give him a burst of movement based on his attack speed.

How to use: Jhin’s passive is a core concept that differentiates him from other marksmen. It allows him to do damage in bursts weaving in spells between auto attacks. Your fourth shot is your primary trading tool – use it to finish enemies off or to win trades and back off before they can retaliate.

Q: Dancing Grenade

Jhin throws a canister at a nearby targeted enemy. After landing, the canister bounces up to four times on other nearby enemies. Killing an enemy with Dancing Grenade causes the following bounces to deal extra damage.

How to use:The low cooldown and mana cost make this skill ideal for getting CS that you would otherwise miss. The bounces provide a great deal of damage from a safe distance (especially, if they kill their targets), but the ability can also act as a point-and-click damage spell. Remember, if you’re going for a kill, always fire your Q first before going for the final shot, since it deals more damage based on the missing health.

Dancing Grenade in trades. Video clip courtesy of Captain Zedpool.

W: Deadly Flourish

Passive: Enemy champions that have been struck by Jhin’s basic attacks, Captive Audience, or any allied damage are marked for a few seconds.

Active: Jhin fires a massively long range shot that damages all enemy minions and the first enemy champion in a target direction. If the enemy champion he strikes has already been marked, they’re briefly rooted, while Jhin himself gains a burst of movement speed.

Champions marked are rooted and Jhin games Every Moment Matters' movement speed.

How to use: Deadly Flourish gives Jhin something that few marksmen have – an ability to make a pick. A well-timed bind can secure a kill or create an opportunity for a game-winning engage. Not to mention that it offers quite a bit of damage and a reliable way to chain your spells.

E: Captive Audience

Jhin places a trap on the ground that turns invisible after arming. Enemy champions that walk over the trap trigger it, revealing and marking them with Deadly Flourish and creating a large slowing zone. After a brief pause, the trap detonates, damaging all enemies inside its explosion.

How to use:Captive Audience gives you quite a bit of utility, but in terms of damage – not so much. It’s incredibly rare that someone will actually stand in the trap’s AoE long enough for it to explode. That being said, this skill definitely has some uses. For one, you can place traps in brushes to gain vision or to act as emergency wards. You can also set up traps in choke points for better zone control and their slow will definitely come in handy against pesky bruisers.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this skill is that sometimes you may not want to level it up at all. As a rule of thumb, you can skip putting a point in traps if both your lane opponents are ranged. In this case, an extra point in Deadly Flourish will add a lot of damage to your trades while traps will, at best, only serve as temporary wards.

R: Curtain Call

Jhin fully assembles his weapon before taking aim in a target direction, revealing all marked targets in a huge area. He can then fire four rounds that stop at the first enemy champion struck, slowing them and dealing damage based on their missing health. Jhin’s fourth and final shot with Curtain Call deals massively increased damage and is guaranteed to crit.

How to use:Curtain Call is Jhin’s trademark ability. With its help, you can start fights, set up ganks, finish off runners or take part in a team fight when you’re being zoned. In general, you should always aim for the squishier and less mobile targets, like marksmen, mages or even certain supports.

Using Curtain Call to finish off stragglers. Video clip courtesy of Captain Zedpool.

Don’t be afraid to hold your fire if you don’t see an opportunity for a clear shot, but don’t wait too long either. On another note, people will often try to juke your first shot. If you end up missing, I’ve found that firing right in the same exact spot will land you a hit more often than not, as most people will immediately juke back. Take this tip with a grain of salt, though, since it depends on the player you’re facing.

The days of armor penetration Jhin have long passed, so it will be rare for you to 100-0 a target with your ultimate, but it’s still a powerful tool in the right hands.

Standard skill order:  > > > 

RUNES, MASTERIES, AND SUMMONER SPELLS

Runes

Since the lethality change, most players switched their runes to three AD quints, nine AD marks, nine MR glyphs, and nine armor seals. So your rune page should look like this:

Jhin's Rune Page.

Jhin doesn’t scale from attack speed as much as other marksmen, so pure damage works out better. But you could swap one AD quint for a life steal one if you want more sustain.

Masteries

There’s nothing ground-breaking in the Masteries department either. Deathfire is the best choice since it synergizes with your spells and adds quite a bit of damage, so you want to be running something like this:

Mastery Page for Jhin.

Depending on your allied champions or the enemy composition, certain things can be switched up here.

For example, if you have some form of sustain on the team, you can swap out FeastforFresh Blood and Vampirism for Natural Talent. Keep in mind that the former choices are still usually better, since Jhin generally avoids building life steal items early on and you won’t always have a pocket Soraka babysitting you.

Double Edged Sword is another mastery you can swap out if you see that you’re up against a tough lane (ex. Cailtlyn, Zyra) or certain assassins that are hard to deal with (ex. Rengar). You don’t really want to give up kills because of your mastery preference, so look into getting Bounty Hunteror Battle Trance instead. But if you’re confident in your play and your laning phase doesn’t look particularly difficult, Double Edged Sword is the best pick.

I’ve also seen some players opt for Greenfather’s Gift instead of Dangerous Game. While I can see its benefits for the laning phase, Greenfather’s Gift becomes very situational in later stages of the game. Besides, Dangerous Game has saved me so many times that I think it’s just an overall better pick.

Summoner Spells

Pretty straightforward here: if you’re playing Jhin in bot lane you pretty much always want Heal and Flash. If you’re playing him mid or top, you might want to look into getting Ghost, Barrier, Heal, or Exhaust depending on lane matchups and team compositions. Although I’m not entirely sure why you would bring a solo lane Jhin upon yourself and your teammates. And, in case you’re wondering, he doesn’t make for a good support either.

ITEMIZATION

Standard Build

Armor penetration is no longer king, since lethality is a significantly weaker early game stat. And because the early game focus was the whole purpose of the old build, most people have started building crit instead. Here’s how your build should look like:

Jhin's core build. It's quite expensive!

Essence Reaveris just an all-around great item. It offers damage, crit chance, cooldown reduction and a way to restore your mana, which is borderline broken on a spell-casting marksman like Jhin.

Boots of Swiftness, when combined with Jhin’s passive movement speed, offer a surprising deal of mobility in fights. The choice is reinforced by the fact that Jhin can’t really use Berserker’s Greaves to their full potential. In theory, something like Mercury’s Threads or Ninja Tabi could work as well, but it’s better to dodge enemy skill shots altogether than to get hit while having a slightly better chance of surviving.

Rapid Firecannon has been a staple marksman item for a while. Bonus range combined with a boost to Jhin’s already powerful auto attacks make this item a perfect fit for the champion.

Infinity Edge is the icing on the cake of every crit build. With this purchase, your crits will pack a punch, which is always welcome, considering how much you’ve invested into this stat.

Lord Dominik’s Regards is the ultimate tank-buster. As a marksman, it will be quite common for you to fight enemies that have more health than you, which makes it a great pick in almost every situation. But don’t hesitate to swap it for a Mortal Reminder if the enemy team has a lot of sustain.

Finally, Mercurial Scimitar gives you the much-needed life steal while providing some magic resist. Getting to the fights and staying in them will be significantly easier with it, and if things go south you can always use the item’s active for that free Cleanse and a speed up.

Situational items

The important thing to realize here is that Jhin’s itemization, just like any marksman’s, is situational. Sometimes you might want to rush your Lord Dominik’s Regards as a third items against a team with several armored tanks or get an early Quicksilver Sash to counter point-and-click CC. You should always think of the ways to optimize your build for any given game. To give you a few ideas, I’ll describe some of the more situational purchases below.

Your new best friends! Occasionally.

Youmuu’s Ghostblade is a shadow of its former self but there’s one thing that you can’t take away from it – movement speed. With Ghostblade’s active, you become a lot more mobile in team fights. Just remember that if you want to get this item, you’d have to do it instead of an Essence Reaver to make use of its earlier power spike – and this will considerably slow down your scaling.

Maw of Malmortius has lost a lot of raw power, but it’s still one of the best anti-burst items. Get this if they have fed AP champions that can delete you with a single combo, like Veigar, Annie, or Syndra.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity can be used to cap out your cooldown reduction rate. As a bonus, they reduce the cooldowns of your summoner spells, so it’s not a bad purchase if you think that you’ll be Flashing a lot (say, from a Malphite’s ultimate). Just remember that you lose quite a bit of movement speed and slow resistance in return.

Berserker’s Greavesis a tricky one. I know I’ve dismissed these before, but even though you can’t quite use them to the same extent as other marksmen, attack speed still gives Jhin damage. So if you want raw combat stats, this might be the pick for you.

Phantom Dancer is a viable fourth item option to get that 100% crit chance. There’s no better feeling than critting with every single auto attack when facing multiple squishy targets. The damage reduction passive is great as well since it increases the odds of your survival against assassins and bruisers. But if the enemy team has a robust front line, something like Lord Dominik’s Regards will always be a better buy.

Statikk Shiv is another item that you can use to cap out your crit chance. It offers more burst and has better wave-clear than Phantom Dancer. Still, Jhin doesn’t lack in both of these departments. Get this item if you think you absolutely need more damage and don’t have to worry about someone diving you in team fights. Otherwise, Phantom Dancer is a better choice.

Bloodthirster is a great sixth item if you don’t need Mercurial’s active. The item provides much more in terms of raw stats, and the shield doesn’t hurt either. Get this if you have a strong frontline or good enough mechanics to reliably dodge CC.

Edge of Night is an item people often forget when discussing marksman builds. Yet it provides all the right stats – damage, cooldown reduction, and movement speed – with an added bonus of being a Banshee’s Veil that you can activate at will. Only downside is that you have to wait a few seconds for the shield to kick in, but if you trust yourself enough, buy it against heavy CC and AP threats.

Banshee’s Veil is a great pick-up with more of a focus on defensive stats. It will always be a solid option against AP threats, even more so in cases when you don’t think you could charge up your Edge of Night in time.

Guardian Angel. The ultimate item against one-and-done champions, it will help you survive against the likes of Rengar, Katarina, and Kha’Zix – stuff that tries to go for that game-winning one shot but runs out of steam when it fails. Get it to avoid dying to that one fed assassin. Keep in mind that you can always sell your Guardian Angel while its revive passive is on cooldown – only to buy it back later when it’s up again.

It’s easy to forget about Sterak’s Gage, but you definitely should consider it as a viable anti-burst option. It’s not quite Guardian Angel, but it offers plenty of raw stats like health and attack damage, while also having a life-saving passive on a 60 second cooldown. Even its components provide decent value for the money. Get it if you’re struggling with AD assassins or a mixed damage champions.

Misc

These items aren't something you'd want to get in every scenario, so it’s useful to know when and why you’d want to buy them.

You never know which one of these will be the tipping point.

Cull is an investment. Buy it if you don’t have enough gold for any major items and can get it early on. It also helps if your lane is a passive one instead of a constant brawl. Once your Cull is stacked, don’t hurry to get rid of it – after all, the item offers combat stats, so sell it only if you don’t have any inventory space or can make a bigger purchase with the added gold.

Refillable Potionis similar to Cull in a sense that it’s also an investment. As a marksman, you pretty much always want to carry a couple of potions with you, since the health they give you can be a true life-saver – but you’re not thrilled about spending money on them. A Refillable Potion is a perfect solution. With it, you will always have something to replenish your health and can comfortably save money for your core items. Don’t get it too late though because you’ll actually end up running out of inventory space selling it for more useful items.

Control Wards are not as important for marksmen as for other roles. Even so, it’s a good idea to pick up a few of these in case you want to place extra wards or secure vision control for objectives.

Elixir of Wrath is the finishing touch of your build. When you get to six items try to keep it up at all times. Sometimes you might even want to get it earlier when you don’t have enough gold for a major item and a do-or-die team fight is coming up.

Phew, that was a lot of words! But I think that about wraps up the itemization topic, so let’s get to the actual gameplay!

PLAYING JHIN

When to pick?

A good way to judge a champion’s strength is whether you can blind pick him comfortably. And Jhin certainly fits this rule. But while you can find success with him in any game, Jhin thrives in an environment where there are multiple squishy targets for him to burst down. Just like any marksman without a dash, he’s weak against hard CC. Assassins pose a threat to him, but not nearly as much as you’d think, since Jhin can always use his Curtain Call and Deadly Flourish to attack from long range. His kit is built around burst instead of consistent damage, which makes him sub-optimal against multiple tanks.

Generally, you want to avoid picking Jhin when they have a huge frontline – two tanks and champions that can boost their survivability like Orianna, Janna, or Ivern. Ideally, you want a good lane matchup as well. Speaking of which…

HARD MATCHUPS

Jhin has a strong laning phase but he still has some weaknesses that come with being a champion with no escapes and a fairly straightforward trading pattern. First, let’s look at the enemy marksmen.

Marksmen

Caitlyn. She has a range advantage over you, an even more dominant laning phase, great pushing power, and good scaling. She’s just an all-around great pick right now. Coupled with a support like Zyra or Nami, she’ll turn your lane into a nightmare. Your all-in is stronger that hers and at level 6 you get a lot of kill pressure. But it will be hard to find an opening for a straight up fight, since she has so many tools to disengage with. Use your Dancing Grenade bounces to get her low from a safe distance and try to catch her out with a snare and Curtain Call combo. Just don’t force the fight too much. Instead, try to match her poke and wait for mistakes or for your support to set you up for an all-in. Oh, and try your hardest to match her push – you never want to be pushed up under your tower against a Caitlyn.

You can kite but you can't run! Video clip courtesy of Lunatica.

Draven. His auto attacks hurt more than yours and with his movement speed boost he can run you down with little to no counter play from your side. Try to poke him from afar and avoid all-ins, because he’s going to beat you in a prolonged trade. Once you reach six, you should focus on getting his health down to the point where you can use your ultimate to finish the job. If you’re feeling outmatched, it might be a good idea to turn your lane into a farm fest. This is a volatile matchup where even a single kill can lead to the lane snowballing out of your control, so it’s oftentimes better to be safe than sorry.

Ezreal. You have an initial advantage over him – provided you don’t trade away from your creeps – but the matchup becomes increasingly difficult as the game goes on. Ezreal has enough mobility to dodge your skill shots and go for an all-in at the same time. Try to stand behind minions to not take too much poke damage and use your early game advantage to make his life miserable. As long as you’re keeping up with him in CS and kills, you should have a fair fighting chance in trades. But you never want to deal with an Ezreal that’s actually ahead.

Twitch. This matchup really shouldn’t be that difficult. After all, you have all the tools to punish a Twitch pick but that’s only true for the early game. Later on, as he gets his items, you’ll find yourself under constant risk of getting murdered from stealth. Bully him as much as possible early and try to take down his tower to get out of the laning phase before he gets his power spike. Also, keep in mind that he can and will try to duel you whenever you’re alone, so stick together with your teammates.

Vayne is the same as Twitch. You have a lot of kill pressure on her during the early levels but once she gets her ultimate, you’ll find that she can easily outplay you. Stick to the same strategy: push your early advantage to the max and group with your team after taking her tower. If you absolutely have to trade with her, do it in short bursts and position in a way that’s not susceptible to an all-in.

Ashe. She isn’t that dangerous by herself but she can set up a lot of plays with her ultimate and even cancel your Curtain Call with it. There’s no good way to dodge it either apart from flashing, so try to keep the lane closer to your turret if you sense a gank coming. Keep in mind that your early game is still a lot stronger than hers. Just make sure to go for short trades and back off while your spells are on cooldown.

But marksmen aren't be-all and end-all of bot lane. In fact, supports will often pose a bigger threat to you.

Supports

Zyra. She’s the strongest laning support at this moment that can make any marksman’s life miserable. She can catch you out with a bind and you have no real way of dodging it apart from juking or flashing. And she deals damage. A lot of it. Stay away from her plants as they’re her main source of poke and wait for her to overextend or pray for a gank. Also, get your Boots of Speed as early as possible to have a better chance at dodging her skill shots. Other than that, just farm it out and wait for later stages of the game where she’ll be just another squishy champion for you to focus.

Brand. Another support with a ton of damage. Boots are your best friend here, since they allow you to dodge his Pillars of Flame, which are the bulk of his early game damage. If you juke his stun, you can play aggressive until it’s up again. Also, watch his positioning – a lot of Brands walk up too far out trying to get their spells off, and Jhin can punish this heavily with his Deadly Flourish. Once he gets his ultimate, make sure to never stand too close to your allies and – if you are – run away in the opposite direction to decrease the number of bounces.

Vel’Koz. He’s not as powerful as Zyra or Brand, but he offers a lot more poke. Even so, he can be scary in an all-in, as you don’t have an easy way of dodging his stun and he gets a ton of burst starting from level 3. His full combo followed by an ultimate can pretty much delete you, but even tanking a part of it might put you in the kill range for his marksman. Watch for his skill shots and hide behind your creep wave. Once he’s missed a few abilities you can walk up for a trade. Just like Brands, Vel’Kozes often get carried away trying to land their skill shots, so be ready to punish any positioning mistakes with a well-timed snare.

Bard. A good Bard will make sure you never get a full Curtain Call off by countering it with his ultimate. He can easily catch you out with a Magical Journey and his stuns coupled with his burst are absolutely brutal in lane. Try to stand away from the creep wave to ensure that he can’t land easy stuns – once he misses, he doesn’t really have a lot to offer in a trade apart from his empowered auto attack, so take this chance to punish him. Also, track his ultimate – if it’s up, you should consider just getting into a fight rather than starting a Curtain Call and turning yourself into a sitting duck.

Karma. There’s no other way of saying it – Karma is a pain. She can spam her poke from a long-distance, shield her allies from your spells, and set up ganks with her snare. Not to mention that her Mantra amps up any of her abilities to eleven. Don’t let a Karma lane push you in, since that will lead to you taking free poke. Stay behind your creeps and keep track of her Mantra cooldown as this is where she’s strongest. The longer the game goes, the weaker she becomes, slowly devolving into a shield bot. This is even more evident at level 6 when you can pressure her with the power of two full-fledged ultimate spells instead of one.

Nami. While not as problematic as some other picks, Nami has everything she needs to make your life difficult: a stun, a slow, a healthy dose of sustain, and a long-ranged ultimate to interrupt your Curtain Call. Her bubble is a slow skill shot, so she’ll mostly try to hit it where she thinks you’ll go next. Keep that in mind and go the opposite direction. Even though she has a heal, it costs a lot of mana and an oom Nami is practically useless, so don’t hesitate to take beneficial trades. Or work together with your support to set up an all-in.

Leona. A good Leona will make even standing close to the creep wave seem like a huge risk. Any positioning mistake can lead to an all-in, so watch your step. If she misses her E, use this opening to poke her marksman or zone him from the minions – just keep in mind that she can still cast her ultimate or flash onto you. Once she gets behind, she falls off hard, but when she snowballs – she snowballs hard. If you’re not confident, it’s better to farm safely instead of giving up kills.

It feels great when it's that easy! Video clip courtesy of Captain Zedpool.

Alistar. Point-and-click CC is never a good thing to deal with for a marksman, much less for someone as immobile as Jhin. Alistar isn’t that powerful early game but he gets harder and harder to deal with as your match goes on. Make sure to abuse his weaker laning phase early on and work together with your support to poke down the enemy marksman. Cutting down Alistar’s health pool won’t hurt either, as it will make him less prone to go for an all-in. Also, keep his Pulverize + Flash combo in mind – he can easily use it to put you under his turret or set up almost guaranteed ganks.

Braum isn’t as oppressive as other supports, but his shield is a major headache. He can pretty much block most of your damage allowing his marksman to safely trade from behind his back. His stuns don’t make the lane any easier either. Stay behind your creep wave and make sure there are no enemy minions nearby for him to jump on. Try to avoid all-inning and chasing, as this is where Braum shines most. Instead, just poke him and his marksman down. Once they’re low enough, even the perfect shield won’t save them from your burst.

Laning Phase and Early Game

As a Jhin, your goal for the laning phase is to bully your opponents as much as possible. Your standard trading pattern should be Auto > Q > Auto followed by a Deadly Flourish for a bind. Your fourth shots pose a huge threat so use these to win trades or – if your opponents are smart enough to back off – to zone them from the creep wave. Your reload leaves you vulnerable, so make sure to take a few steps back to avoid a possible all-in.

Jhin can match the push from most marksmen with his auto attacks, so don’t waste your skill shots on the creep wave. Instead, poke down your opponents. Jhin’s level 2 power spike is one of the most potent ones in the game. Get your wave pushing and use it to force summoner spells or even secure a kill.

Once you get your ultimate you no longer have to kill your opponents in all-ins – instead your goal should be getting them low enough for your ultimate to finish the job.

Try to take their tower first and ping your jungler if you think there’s a good opportunity to secure a dragon.

Image courtesy of hisokatoru.deviantart.com

Mid Game

This is the part where you want to start grouping with your team. You should have your first major item finished as well as your upgraded Boots. Use this to take turrets and create picks. Ideally, you want to go to swap to mid lane together with your support, get the tower, and then rotate for the top lane turret or for the dragon. Afterwards, you can start sieging inner turrets.

If you’re going for an objective, make sure to set your traps up in choke points to slow down any enemies and make it easier to spot them. Swap your Warding Totem for a Farsight Alteration – you’ll need to be able to check brushes and objectives from a safe distance. If there aren’t any objectives coming up, you can use it to place permanent wards in your jungle.

Also, keep track of creep waves. It’s easy to get carried away by the objective game and team fights, but as a marksman, you scale with items. So find the time to be a bit selfish and get that farm. Just let your team know through pings that you’re not with them so they won’t get caught out.

Late Game

This is the part where most team fights break down. Jhin isn’t as mechanically intense as some other marksmen, but you still need to watch your positioning. Keep tabs on their tanks and assassins. If they’re obviously saving their cooldowns for you, then just pop your ultimate from afar – your opponents will most likely choose to focus someone else allowing you to walk up afterwards. Just be wary that sometimes they’ll try going for you anyway, so you might want to cancel your Curtain Call early.

The general marksman rule – focus closest – applies here as well, but as a Jhin player, you’ll have a lot more opportunities to reach their backline. Whether it’s by firing a well-timed Deadly Flourish, weaving your Curtain Call shots between their tanks or simply going for that fourth shot with a Rapid Firecannon charge – don’t miss your chance to shut down a squishy target. The sooner you delete someone, the easier it will be for your team to clean up the fight.

Late game is also where you might want to pick up your defensive items and optimize your build, so take a look at the Itemization part of this guide for possible options. For super late game situations when you have a ton of spare gold, you can sell your boots for a Zz’Rot Portal, use its active and then buy your boots back again. It will help you control the waves and, while it’s not a huge deal, even the slightest advantage can be the difference between winning and losing.

You want to stick together with your team at all times and avoid face-checking bushes. Save your trinket for the objectives and make sure your team doesn’t walk into a trap.

Speaking of objectives, Jhin excels at catching people out at Baron and Elder Dragon. There’s no better feeling than cleaning up a chunked out enemy team with a Curtain Call while they’re desperately trying to finish a major objective. As a rule, it’s better to go for kills here, but if they don’t have their jungler, your fourth ultimate shot can act as a steal as well.

Maybe it actually is that easy... Video clip courtesy of Zeber

Keep in mind though that the days where you could one-shot people with your ultimate alone have long passed, and you should squeeze out as many auto attacks as you can per team fight.

CONCLUSION

That about wraps it up! I hope this guide will be helpful in improving your Jhin win rate or prompting you to try him out if you already haven’t. I’ve made an effort to be as detailed as possible, but I’ll be happy to answer any questions in the comment section.

See you on the Rift!

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