I've been trying out Jax over the past week and I've found that he's really fun... but so far not very effective. He's really strong at certain levels but tapers off quickly. It just seems that anything he's good at, someone else (or at least someone else that I've purchased) does better.

Moving quickly towards squishies in a group battle and killing them - Tryndamere does it better because if they shift their DPS towards him, he will ult and kill the squishy. But then again he's Trynda****ingmere. I find with Jax I just get focus fired and have to run away very quickly. I could stack more HP, but then I wouldn't be killing the squishy, just hurting it a little.

Having a strong early game - A lot of heroes do it just as well, if not better (eg Nunu). It's hard to beat Jax in a 1v1 fight early on, but he doesn't seem to have the same kind of impact on the early game that champions like Nunu and Teemo have.

Chasing - Kassadin does it better.

Any decent build for Jax seems to be very expensive. He needs high attack speed, dodge, health, and either AP or damage. Maybe a mana item. I get Starks/Tabi's and then I have issues. Trinity costs too much and leaves me with low health. Frozen Mallet costs a lot and I end up hitting like a sponge. PD costs too much and I get nuked and owned. With any build that doesn't involve an early Sheen or Philo Stone, I oom quickly... but Philo Stone kinda sucks and early Sheen means no increased attack speed.

Does the AP build work? Does it offer anything another hero can't do better? Wouldn't his dodge be too low unless he has runes?

I want to buy Jax this week, but 3150 IP is hard to justify for a hero that doesn't seem to do very well. Am I just doin it wrong? Does he require runes to work? What do you people do?

Jax is a carry, he is better than any of the heroes you listed late game except for Tryandamere for obvious reasons... Not to mention once he hits 6 if you use your summoner skills well most heroes just flat out cant kill you 1v1

kassadin does rape jax ur right

^Still rapes. Riftwalk, Cleanse, Ghost, Flash, etc.

i play jax alot, I feel confident versus most enemies 1v1... but 1v1 is not what LoL is about. all your augments are moot.

Jax can deal ungodly amounts of damage in a fairly short period of time. With an AoE stun, he can even perform well in teamfights. If you use your summoner spells properly, you should be fine. Jax's builds do often cost a lot of money, and for that, you should consider doing some occasional jungling, and *definitely* should keep the dragon down.

whenever someone picks jax in one of my games, i die a little inside. jax does suck.

jax does use trinity force. he needs some attack speed and liz buff to get his kills.