With Season 7 just starting, and your placements are probably happening right now, it's a great time to look at 2016's favorite ADC, Jhin, and how he will fare in 2017.

Jhin had an excellent 2016 season following his release in February. He was the highest contested AD Carry throughout most of the year (except for those patches were Lucian took over) and is still doing pretty well. Most of the common tier list websites still place Jhin as a Tier 1 ADC (Nerfplz, etc.) along with Twitch and Caitlyn. But there's something different about what people are building on Jhin since the season reset.

Picture courtesy of probuilds.net

All these players are now building a Crit Build instead. So why's that?

Well, the changes to Armor Penetration into Lethality pretty much made building Youmuu's Ghostblade and Duskblade of Draktharr weaker before you hit level 8. Levels 1-8 are where Jhin is looking to snowball his early game, so he took a hit from these changes. But do those first 15 minutes of a game make building Essence Reaver optimal? That's why I'm here.

Purpose

The purpose of this article is

To inform the benefits and drawbacks of both the Crit Build and Lethality Build on Jhin
To help you make a decision on when to take which build

Crit Jhin

Typical Build:

Essence Reaver
Boots of Swiftness/Ionian Boots of Lucidity
Rapid Firecannon/Phantom Dancer
Infinity Edge
Mercurial Scimitar
Lord Dominik's Regard/Phantom Dancer/Guardian Angel

Even throughout Season 6, building Crit Jhin was always the safer option. The CDR, damage reduction, extra range, and tons of movespeed on crit are all excellent tools for keeping an immobile AD Carry much safer. But the damage of the Armor Penetration build was so undeniable, it made this build completely obsolete.

But all of these things come at a price. Your damage takes a big hit before you get your third item. Jhin has a limited amount of shots, so crit chance isn't as beneficial for him as some other AD carries. Basically, if RNG screws you, you could be in big trouble. However, later into the game, every single auto from you should be a crit, and each one will hit for around 1300 damage. That's pretty bonkers if you think about it, but that's with full build.

Here's a look at how long each game at your rank lasts:

Picture courtesy of leagueofgraphs.com

What this tells us is, more often than not, you're not going to be making it to that late game position. Games are short, and you need to adjust your build for the situation.

So here are the benefits and drawbacks for playing Crit Jhin

Benefits

Much safer (PD's damage reduction, big movespeed steroid etc.)
Better for the long run (after 30 minutes, Crit Jhin should be better than Lethality)
Luck can help you!
30% CDR -> more Curtain Calls!

Drawbacks

Does not snowball well (when you have 3 kills, Essence Reaver doesn't help you further the lead)
Curtain Call has much lower damage
Luck can screw you!
Very item dependent; if you can't CS well, it will take a long time before you will start doing some damage

Verdict - You should build Crit Jhin if:

Your game looks to be generally even or only a slight lead for either team
The enemy team has a lot of divers (Maokai, Vi, Rengar, Leona, Zed, etc. anybody who can jump you with ease)
You lost your lane

So now you know when you have to build Crit Jhin. But how do you go about the new Lethality Jhin?

Lethality Jhin

Typical Build

Duskblade of Draktharr
Boots of Swiftness/Ionian Boots of Lucidity
Youmuu's Ghostblade
Rapid Firecannon/Phantom Dancer
Infinity Edge
Lord Dominik's Regards/Mercurial Scimitar/Guardian Angel

With the nerfs to Youmuu's Ghostblade, the change to Duskblade of Draktharr, and the change to Armor Penetration into Lethality, everyone thought this build was pretty much dead. But it still packs a punch.

The most major change in how you build this now is rushing a Duskblade instead of a Ghostblade. The removal of the attack speed steroid from its active made it a significantly weaker item, and doesn't help you with your snowball. And that's all you need to know really.

This is a build made for snowballing.

You aren't going to be rushing a Duskblade when you're 1/3/1 in lane. You're only going to be building this way, when you have an early lead that you're looking to snowball into a quick game finish/solo carry. The reason for this is, your Duskblade and Ghostblade help you continuously get picks and do more damage the lower level your enemy is.

This build becomes much weaker past the 35 minute mark, so I suggest you begin slowly exchanging your items in for the Crit Build.

Picture courtesy of champion.gg

With that said, let's look at the benefits and drawbacks of my personal favorite way to build Jhin, Lethality.

Benefits

You can solo carry with this
Curtain Call and Dancing Grenade are significantly stronger
Helps you with picks and snowballs an advantage quickly
No RNG involved! (Until you build your crit items!)

Drawbacks

Weak when behind
Very immobile
Weak between the 30-40 minute mark
Expensive items
Ineffective against big tanks (Poppy, Maokai, Nautilus, Zac etc.)

Verdict - You should build Lethality Jhin if:

You won your lane, and it looks like you're the only one who did
You have a good amount of peel
An early game focused composition

What you should take away from this is when to build either Jhin build and how you should adjust your playstyle accordingly to which build you have. Go try both out for yourself and pick a favorite. Until then, thank you for reading.

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