Jhin, The Virtuoso, is a high burst AD carry in League of Legends that uses his victims as his artwork and sees true beauty in their death. This guide will breakdown Jhin's build path, as well as look at synergies and counterpicks for Jhin. It will also provide insight into more contemporary takes of Jhin's optimal items as well as provide tips for improving your Jhin gameplay.

Abilities

Jhin’s passive is his gun, Whisper, and it is Jhin’s main source of damage and what makes Jhin such a unique AD carry. Jhin has a bullet and reload system where his gun can hold up to four bullets. Jhin’s fourth shot is a guaranteed critical strike that does 150% physical damage that also is an execute that deals 15%/20%/25% bonus physical damage based on the enemy champion's missing health. Jhin's fourth shot can be used on turrets but only deals 50% bonus physical damage. After using all four bullets, Jhin will reload his gun which takes two and a half seconds to complete. Jhin will also reload his gun after being out of combat for ten seconds. Jhin can use his other abilities while he is reloading and reset the reload timer by using an ability while he still has bullets in his gun.

When Jhin fires a critical strike, he gains a burst of 4%-44% (based on level) increased movement speed plus %0.4 per %1 increased attack speed. Because of Jhin’s bullet and reload system, his attack speed is fixed and does not scale with items. Jhin’s gun converts additional attack speed and critical strike chance into additional attack damage (+ 40% of his critical strike chance) (+ 25% of his bonus attack speed) and can critical strike on the other three bullets in his gun, with the movement speed buff and lowered critical strike damage applying here.

Jhin’s first ability is known as Dancing Grenade. Jhin selects an enemy target and launches a grenade at that selected enemy target, dealing physical damage to them. The grenade will then bounce up to three more enemies dealing the same amount of damage. If the grenade kills a target however, the base damage of the grenade will increase by 35% for the subsequent bounces. So if you kill a minion with the first bounce of the grenade, the next three bounces will deal 35% more base damage. If the grenade kills two enemies, the next two bounces will do 70% more base damage and so forth and so on. The grenade does not prioritize champions and the damage will also increase if Jhin kills the last enemy target the grenade bounced off of before the grenade hits its next target as if the grenade had killed the target itself.

Jhin’s second ability is Deadly Flourish. Passively, whenever Jhin or any ally champion damages an enemy champion, they become marked for four seconds. Whenever Jhin activates his Deadly flourish, he stops in place for three quarters of a second and fires a long skinny skillshot in a straight line that passes through minions and stops on the first enemy champion hit. If that champion has been marked by the passive of this ability, Deadly Flourish will root the enemy for 1 to 2 seconds based on points put into the ability (1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2.0). Jhin will also gain his passive movement speed boost whenever he roots an enemy champion with Deadly Flourish.

Jhin third ability is a trap based ability known as Captive Audience. Jhin places a flower-like trap on the ground that goes invisible after one second and will remain on the ground for three minutes. Jhin can hold up to two of these traps and also grant a small area of vision around them. When an enemy champion or minion walks over the trap, it will activate, slowing enemies by 5 for two seconds before detonating, dealing magic damage to all enemies caught within the blast. This blast will also go off when Jhin kills an enemy champion with the same slow and wind up time applying.

Jhin ultimate is known as Curtain Call. On activation, Jhin puts together his full gun and gains massive range and a much wider field of view while not gaining any extra vision. By recasting Jhin’s ultimate, Jhin will begin to start firing off four bullets with a one second cooldown in between bullets that deal physical damage, increasing from %0 - 00 based on the enemy’s missing health. Each bullet passes through minions and stops on the first enemy champion hit, applying an 80% slow for half a second. Jhin’s final bullet on Curtain Call is a guaranteed critical strike that applies the execute but does not apply the reduction in critical strike chance.

Building Jhin

Jhin specializes in high amounts of burst damage and long range setup for his team and will usually have more physical damage than most other AD carries due to the nature of his passive. So while damage is a strong suit for Jhin, the same cannot be said for his mobility, as most high mobility champions will be able to jump onto Jhin with no problem.

When discussing what runes to take on Jhin, it is important to optimize lane sustain and survivability as well as getting the most benefit from your passive movement speed.

Fleet: Fleet footwork outclasses other keystones for Jhin on the Precision tree because Jhin does not benefit from doing more damage-per-second (dps), rather he needs hit hard and hit fast, so fleet allows Jhin to sustain in lane and gain a quick burst of movement speed to help Jhin get out of sticky situations.

Triumph: Triumph allows Jhin to stick around in teamfights even if he is chunked out of them. Jhin’s sheer range on his ultimate and second ability allows Jhin to stay back and rack up takedowns while staying very distant in fights.

Legend Bloodline: Bloodline circumvents the need for Jhin to build lifesteal for one of his items. As previously stated, Jhin does not gain more attack speed from runes or items, he only gains physical damage and movement speed from bonus attack speed. Tenacity helps, but Jhin can purchase Mercury’s Treads as his boots which is more than the Tenacity Jhin would receive from runes. Therefore; Bloodline gives Jhin the most bang for his buck when it comes to utility in his runes.

Coup de Grace: This rune allows Jhin execute enemies easier with any of his damaging abilities. This rune choice falls in the same line with Fleet footwork, Jhin lacks any true dps, as most of his damage comes in a burst form. So making sure that enemies die when you damage them is very important because maximizing your damage output on Jhin in teamfights is imperative to playing Jhin.

Manaflow Band: Manaflow is a personal choice, as it keeps Jhin healthy in lane when it comes to mana. This will be discussed in more detail later on in the article, but Jhin is at his best when he can spam his Dancing Grenade to poke enemies and zone them off of waves, so making sure you have the mana to use your grenade to put the pressure on your opposing laner as well as following up with a deadly flourish is very important for Jhin’s laning phase.

Celerity: Celerity provides the most benefit for Jhin to help give a boost to his low mobility. Jhin’s main source of mobility is the burst of movement speed he receives whenever he lands a Deadly Flourish or critically strikes an enemy. Celerity helps Jhin quickly sprint away from oncoming threats more frequently.

Two adaptive force and one armor is also standard on Jhin because it helps Jhin’s early damage in laning phase as well as give him some resistances to other AD carries, but do not be afraid to take two armor or magic resistance runes depending on the lane you are playing into.

There are some other runes that you can also take on Jhin, and feel free to use these as you please as Jhin has a lot of variance that one can use within his Runes.

Presence of Mind: This lets Jhin maintain his mana in teamfights so he can constantly fire off Deadly Flourishes and Dancing Grenades. Triumph is slightly more optimal however due to Jhin’s ability to use Manamune effectively and efficiently, so there is no need for Jhin to take presence of mind when Manamune fixes any mana issues, but more on that item later.

Nimbus Cloak: Nimbus Cloak is a very strong rune right now in League, as it gives most characters a much easier escape and dodge abilities easier or lets them catch up to enemies easier. However; while Jhin can certainly take Nimbus Cloak, it forces Jhin to play less aggressively in lane due to not have Manaflow Band to help with early mana costs.

Gathering Storm: Gathering Storm helps Jhin scale much harder, but Jhin ends most games at full build around 600+ physical damage, so adding some more physical damage just does not outweigh the benefits of more kiting and mobility or making sure that you can use your abilities more in lane.

When building items on Jhin, there are a few items that are absolute must-buy staples on Jhin, while other items come down to situation and preference. But much like runes, there is a lot of variance out what you can do with Jhin’s build.

One of Jhin’s must-buy items is Infinity Edge. It provides Jhin with just about everything that Jhin needs, bonus physical damage, critical strike chance as well as boosting the damage from his critical strikes that his passive reduces. This item is usually the first or second full item you should buy on Jhin, as it massively increases your damage output in fights because your critical strikes now do more damage to enemies.

It is important to note that when you are building Infinity Edge, you buy the Pickaxe and B.F. Sword because it gives Jhin more flat damage that the bonus physical damage that Cloak of Agility’s critical strike chance gives you.

Another core item for Jhin is Rapid Firecannon. It gives Jhin bonus physical damage from the 30% attack speed as well as the 25% critical strike chance as well as 7% movement speed for more mobility. This item's ability of bonus range once Rapid Fire Cannon is fully energized with movement and basic attacks helps Jhin safely output damage in teamfights. The name of the game with Jhin is range if you couldn’t tell. So the more range you can get, the better.

After the core items of Rapid Fire Cannon and Infinity Edge, Jhin’s build has some variance. The most important thing when building Jhin however is getting to a point where at least three of your four auto attacks critically strike. Optimally, you want every non-guaranteed bullet to critically strike because your critical strikes are your main source of mobility and damage in the mid-to-late game. So building to where you have 75% to 100% critical strike chance is the most optimal build path for Jhin.

Stormrazor is the usual starting item for Jhin. It gives him a good amount of starting bonus attack damage from the bonus attack speed and critical strike chance. It also lets Jhin set up his Deadly Flourish and Curtain Call with Stormrazor’s 75% slow once it is energized.

Stormrazor costs 200 less gold to build compared to Infinity Edge, so it gives Jhin some utility for a cheaper price for his first item.

Phantom Dancer gives Jhin the same bonus stats as Rapid Fire Cannon, but whenever Jhin auto attacks an enemy champion, Phantom Dancer grants 7% bonus movement speed for two seconds. It also has a lifeline passive, where if Jhin were to fall below 30% maximum health, he gains a 240-600 (based on level) damage shield that decays over two seconds. This item has a 90 second cooldown upon its activation.

A combination of three of these items or even all four items gives Jhin his 75% to 100% critical strike chance, it also gives Jhin a good amount of utility, damage and range as well as defensive tools for him to optimize his damage in late game teamfights.

For Jhin’s fifth item, there are a lot of options that can work depending on the situation that you find yourself in.

Mercurial Scimitar is one of these optional items because it gives Jhin a much needed out to hard crowd control as well as a good amount of damage and additional lifesteal to add on to Bloodline. Build this item when you are against champions that have easy, hard crowd control that can shut you down in teamfights.

Mortal Reminder and Lord Dominik’s Regards both serve the same purpose, if the enemy team is stacking armor against you, these two items help penetrate that armor and let Jhin work down tankier characters. Buy Mortal Reminder when the enemy team has champions that either have champions that have healing built into their kit or are stacking multiple lifesteal items as well as stacking armor.

Death’s Dance and Guardian Angel both should be bought when the enemy team has champions that can easily jump onto Jhin and chunk/kill Jhin early in team fights. So these two items help Jhin stay in fights longer and absorb more damage thanks to the added resistances.

Maw of Malmortius should only be purchased whenever you are playing against a heavy magic damage team. If that is the case, you can either not purchase Phantom Dancer or replace Phantom Dancer with Statikk Shiv to maintain your critical chance and stick to only one lifeline passive.

In terms of boots, Jhin has the luxury of building defensive boots like Ninja Tabi and Mercury’s Treads. Ninja Tabis provide armor and basic attack reduction and Mercury’s Treads provide magic resistance and tenacity. Feel free to build whichever ones better fit the current situation you are playing in. Boots of Swiftness also works because of the bonus movement speed and slow reduction, but building defensive boots feels more optimal.

There is one more item that can be built on Jhin, and while it may be seen as a newer, off-meta build, it is currently gaining more traction as a staple Jhin item. That item is Manamune. While the meme of “every ADC builds Manamune” is floating around on Reddit, Manamune on Jhin feels so much better than most other starting items.

Manamune itself grants bonus attacks damage equal to 2% of your maximum mana as well as refunding 15% of mana spent on abilities. It grants up to three charges every four seconds, and basic attacks as well as mana expenditures (abilities) consumes a charge, grants +5 bonus mana up to 750 mana. Once Manamune hits 750 mana, it transforms into Muramana. Muramana consume 3% mana on basic attacks and single target abilities to deal %6 current mana as bonus physical damage on these abilities and basic attacks.

This item is relatively cheap, only costing 2400 gold and its components, Tear of the Goddess and Pickaxe, cost 850 and 875 respectively. Compared to Stormrazor and Infinity Edge that cost 3200 and 3400 gold respectively, Manaune gives Jhin more scaling while maintaining some early power because of the stacking effect on Manamune.

When the item reaches Muramana, it will usually give up to 40 to 50 bonus attack damage, so the item can potentially give Jhin a bonus 85 attack damage when fully stacked. Compared to Infinity edge’s 80 bonus attack damage for its 3400 gold price as well as Stormrazor’s 50 attack damage for its 3200 gold price, Manamune becomes one of the most cost-efficient items that Jhin can build. It also helps his mana sustain in lane because of the refunding ability of Manamune as well as buffing the damage output of his Dancing Grenade since it can only hit one enemy at a time.

Synergies and Counters

Jhin in lane can be a very oppressive laner, due to his ability to deal high amounts of damage to other AD carries in such a short amount of time. Pairing Jhin with a support that can easily set up a Deadly Flourish as follow up as well as assist in kiting for Jhin is the perfect support to pair with Jhin. Champions like Thresh, Bard and Leona let Jhin flourish in lane and perfectly set up Jhin to let him fire away at the enemy AD carry and support.

Jhin works best in team comps that can survive an initial engagement and counter attack because of Jhin’s long range abilities, Jhin can easily root and slow enemies who are trying to disengage from the fight, then execute them with a quick critical strike. Team compositions that are focussed on diving the enemy backline are not as optimal because Jhin will be isolated because of the fact that he does play fights from such a distance, so if anything, make sure you stick with your team if they plan on diving the enemy blackline

Jhin thrives against AD carries who are shorter ranged and need to scale or want to play a defensive lane, such as Kog’maw, Sivir, Vayne, Ezreal, Twitch, and most enchanter supports. He struggles against aggressive lanes that can jump on him and lock him down early and often, such as Lucian, Kalista, as well as Nautilus, Leona, Pyke, and Thresh. Most other lane matchups go even and are based on the skill and knowledge level of each player on their respective champions.

Jhin struggles against team compositions with multiple flankers and divers, because Jhin’s one tool for mobility is his movement speed, assassins can flourish against Jhin in the mid game because Jhin has not reached his apex speed and must stay stationary for extended periods of time.

Practical Tips for Improving Your Jhin

When playing Jhin, it is important to maximise your damage when you think a teamfight is about to break out. This means that at the start of a fight, it is important to have all four of your bullets ready to go. Never try to start a fight with your fourth bullet because once you fire that bullet, you have two and a half seconds of suboptimal damage output relying on your abilities. It would be better to either stay out of combat to reload, or use that fourth shot to shove in a wave or help clear a ward so you can reload. Jhin has 15 different ways to output damage in teamfights: four auto attacks, four shots on his ultimate, four bounces of Dancing Grenade, Deadly Flourish and the passive and active abilities of Captive Audience. So, starting a fight with your fourth shot eliminates three of those damage sources, which in turn eliminates around 20% of your maximum damage output (Jhin’s autos will do more damage than abilities, so it is not a true one-to-one ratio of equal damage).

Your Dancing Grenade is your easiest way to poke out and wave clear in the early game. Use it on the back three caster minions once one of them becomes low enough for the grenade to kill it, this will guarantee that the grenade receives at least 5 bonus damage plus enemy laners usually play around the casters, so it becomes a very reliable source of early damage to force the opponent to play more defensive, letting you set up plays with your Deadly Flourish.

Here, Jhin uses his Dancing Grenade to not only poke out the Aphelios, but it also sets up a Deadly Flourish into Thresh hook. Jhin also throws a Captive Audience on top of Aphelios to make his escape harder and finishes him off with a fourth shot.

You should always look to play around your traps in a skirmish or teamfight, they provide a great source of kiting and also deal a decent amount of damage that the enemy does not expect. Throwing it on top of crowd controlled enemies is a great way to guarantee either a blown summoner spell or a kill.

Curtain Call has a ridiculous range and its hitbox is slightly outside of the shown area, which is important when trying to finish off low health enemies. It is also useful to set up kills for your team, as the slow will help your allies quickly catch up to enemies as they try to run. But pay attention to your surroundings, tunnel visioning on a low health enemy could lead to your demise as mobile champions will try to pick you off while you are stationary.

Here, after losing his Veigar to the ganking Ahri, Jhin finishes Morgana off with a quick fourth shot and flashes away, but gets exhausted just before Morgana dies. Jhin utilizes the passive of Captive Audience to slow Ahri just enough to reload his gun and set up a point-blank Deadly Flourish. Jhin follows that up with another Captive Audience trap and two quick auto attacks before backing up to his turret while the Captive Audience goes off with Ahri on top of it. With no mobility or crowd control left for Ahri, Jhin finishes Ahri off with a Curtain Call, which means it's curtains for Ahri.

Closing Thoughts.

Jhin is one of the most unique champions league has released and shatters the contemporary mold for AD carries. If anything has been learned from this guide, it is that Jhin is a high burst long range AD carry that thrives against shorter-ranged AD carries that do not want to play aggressive. With this guide on your side, hopefully you will be able to use Summoner's Rift as a canvas to paint your masterpiece, using your enemies as the paint.