As Season Six of League of Legends draws near, professional and casual players alike are experimenting with the overhauled mastery system, new item choices, and in-game strategies. Whenever a new patch drops, especially one as massive as 5.23, new champions and play styles come to the forefront, offering a competitive edge to players that can adapt quickly to the current metagame.

Arguably the change that has affected solo queue and low elo meta the most in patch 5.22 is the buff to Guinsoo’s Rageblade; a previously niche item that gives stacking ability power, attack damage, and attack speed. In addition to boosting its base stats and reducing its cost, patch 5.22 also gave the item a unique passive that allows basic attacks to deal AOE damage, making it perfect for fast wave-clear. In patch 5.23 the item cost was slightly increased while a future nerf was announced, so now is the time to use it!

The result of this single item change has been an incredible indirect buff to hybrid champions that scale with attack speed. Champions like Jax, Xin Zhao, and Kayle, whose abilities scale directly off of attack damage and ability power, have enjoyed inflated win rates and carry potential. These champions are especially strong in lower elos where the enemy team is generally less coordinated and skilled at peeling and chaining crowd control abilities, which is the only major counterplay to these hybrid, attack-speed monsters.

Any low elo player that wants to climb the solo queue ladder should seriously consider learning these champions and building Guinsoo’s. Practicing two of these champions should be enough to insulate you from most pick and ban phases. However, in my opinion, Jax is the strongest champion with the item and the easiest to carry with.

Jax Jungle

In the jungle, Jax should play more of a passive role. Start Hunter’s Machete and Refillable Potion. On your first back, upgrading to Hunter’s Potion is a good choice for near infinite sustain, even surpassing the sustain given from last season’s Ranger’s Trailblazer. Stay safe and only look for counterganks or ganks that are extremely opportune. Focus on farming until you hit level six.

I recommend this mastery page, which provides good jungle sustain and late-game scaling 

Once you have your ultimate passive, the additional magic damage on every 3rd auto attack, you can start to win trades against most opponents. However, do not commit too heavily to skirmishes until you have hit your two-item power spike: Guinsoo’s Rageblade and Devourer.

If your team is falling far behind in the early game consider building the Warrior jungle enchant instead of Devourer. Devourer is ultimately more powerful, but its strength is contingent upon your ability to reach 30 stacks and become sated. If the enemy team is constantly pressuring your jungle or your laners are so far behind that they need to take your camps, building the Warrior enchant can help to speed up your scaling.

Build a Hextech Gunblade after your Rageblade is complete. The active on the item will help you stick to and burst down squishy targets. If you decide to build a Stalker’s Blade remember not to smite an opponent until the slow from your Gunblade wears off, as the slows do not stack.

Go tanky after those three items. Focus on builds that provide large amounts of health. Items like Randuin’s Omen, Warmog’s Armor, or Dead Man’s Plate are all great choices. Jax’s ultimate grants him a large amount of free armor and magic resist on a low cooldown. Increasing your health pool multiplies the effectiveness of these free stats.

Once fully built, swapping a health item for a Guardian Angel can often help to turn the tides of the final teamfight. If the passive is down, however, do not hesitate to switch it out for a different item. Guardian Angel is relatively gold inefficient. Without its passive up, it is not as valuable.

Most of the time you do not want to engage fights for your team. Though Jax can soak a lot of damage between his ultimate and Counter Strike, he is more effective at cleaning up fights once they have dissolved into smaller skirmishes. Engage pick plays when your team has sufficient vision control, but allow your support or top laner to start the large scale fights.

When teamfighting, try to focus priority targets but do not tunnel onto them and allow yourself to be collapsed on. Jax’s hybrid damage can easily melt through most frontline tanks. If you are unable to find the enemy carry, start hitting the closest target and stacking up the bonus damage and attack speed from your Guinsoo’s.

Jax Top

Jax does well in most popular top lane matchups in patch 5.22. He does well against champions like Darius, Irelia, Yasuo and Fiora. Even in frustrating matchups against lane bullies like Gnar, Renekton, and Jayce, Jax can negate fair amounts of damage with Counter Strike.

I recommend this balanced mastery page; it sacrifices the offensive stats of Natural Talent for extra sustain with Vampirism

I recommend starting either Doran’s Blade or Doran’s Shield with a Health Potion. Though the new Corrupting Potion seems like an appealing choice, I find that a Doran's item in conjunction with the Vampirism mastery provides more than enough sustain and extra combat stats.

If you feel confident that you can kill your opponent a few times before the laning phase ends, Ignite is a strong choice in this patch. The pace of the game has changed massively and Dragon has become a less important objective. As a result, Teleport is not as vital in the early stages of the game. However, Teleport can be an effective tool lategame when you can start split-pushing. Either Summoner Spell is viable, contingent on your playstyle.

Farm hard until level six. If your lane opponent tries to trade, use Counter Strike and respond accordingly. A well timed Counter Strike can completely deny most attempts at bullying the lane. At level six, however, look to play aggressively. Auto-attack a minion two times to proc your ultimate passive and leap to the opponent to land the third strike. Remember to use your Empower immediately after an auto-attack to reset the auto-attack timer.

Rush your Guinsoo’s Rageblade and Hextech Gunblade. Once you have the Rageblade and Bilgewater Cutlass you should be able to duel almost any opponent. Build tanky, with an emphasis on health, and put your carry shoes on.

Though Guinsoo's Rageblade will likely get nerfed before the start of Season Six, a hyper-carry champion like Jax will likely still be strong. Adding the Grandmaster at Arms to your champion pool is incredibly valuable and can help you to develop the carry mindset necessary to climb.

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