A Bruiser Guide to Counter Jayce

It’s official: Jayce is awesome. It took a long time for people to realize this; the complexity of his character meant that it took the general populace a fair amount of time to figure out how to build him optimally. It turns out that disregarding his capabilities as an AD carry and building him towards a strong, early game bruiser build provides him with an incredible amount of damage, along with a fair bit of tankiness and the ability to out-trade nearly any laner in the game by jumping onto them and applying his combo more quickly than most others.

However the reason his combo is so incredibly efficient is his ability to disengage immediately after he is done; few people have the ability to continue the fight after a Jayce player has decided he’s done with it, and this part of the reason he is so strong. If you allow a fight to end on Jayce’s terms, rarely will you be able to have a hope of winning a trade with him. However, what about if you were to keep him fighting longer than he wanted?

This is where champions that have multiple dashes may start to shine. Lee Sin saw a great deal of play top lane in the past, but has fallen somewhat out of favor. He isn’t really any weaker than he was before, but the champions that he had good matchups with started to taper off in popularity.

However, his ability to keep Jayce from easily disengaging may prove to be invaluable. Not only is Lee Sin incredibly mobile, he also has a fantastic dueling potential, and it is high for a similar reason that Jayce’s is. Instead of having three abilities before level six, they both have six, and while this may seem like a superficial difference, the ability to constantly be doing something with your resources, whether it be mana or energy is extremely important. 

However the main reason Lee Sin comes off as a strong pick is his ability to keep Jayce from getting away from him. Every single one of his abilities can help Lee Sin stay on top of his lane opponent even after being knocked away; if Jayce ever presses E, Lee Sin has both his Safeguard and Resonating Strike to keep on top of Jayce and keep the fight going. However, this does also come down to player skill, as the fact that Lee Sin’s Q still hits minions will make it more difficult to hit Jayce consistently, however this will not prevent all of them from hitting, and a good Lee Sin player will still regularly be able to make it a profitable trade.

Lee jumps in, Lee jumps in again.  You can explain it with his Q and W.

Lee Sin also has the advantage over Jayce of having his own self sustain after the initial trade. Jayce has no way to naturally regain or protect his own HP, whereas Safeguard and Iron Will give Lee Sin a shield as well as lifesteal, and even armor to make the trades as efficient as possible. During his time of popularity in top lane, he was well known for being an extremely effective trader; even his E is a huge attack speed debuff, and even though Jayce’s damage comes primarily from his abilities, being able to reduce both autoattack and movement speed is going to be an advantage.

Irelia has been a recent solution used by a few solo top players notably during the World Championships. Her ability to retaliate and start a fight just as quickly as Jayce can, as well as her ability to frontload a great deal of damage with her Equilibrium Strike gives her the capacity to put out similar damage, as well as re-engage with a quick Blade Surge after Jayce knocks her away.

This is a picture of Irelia; whom I speak of.

She also has the advantage of having her own built in sustain. By battling him efficiently, and then turning around and using her Hiten Style to sustain a bunch of her health, Irelia is capable of grinding out an advantage where many would not be able to. Her sustain isn’t limited to just farming creeps, though. If she has Hiten Style active during a fight with Jayce the combination of true damage and self healing makes it very difficult to fight her. It allows her to be one of very few people who are able to out duel him and push him out of lane.

Not only this, but Irelia scales extraordinarily well into the late game, and is extremely well known for being able to stick to and kill an enemy carry as well as, if not better than anybody else. Being able to outclass Jayce in this regard will allow her to be doing things other than having to worry about whether or not the opposing bruiser is doing a better job than her. The only way that will realistically happen is if she falls way behind in lane, or loses out due to some timely ganks from the enemy jungler. Not to say it is impossible for Irelia to lose to Jayce in lane, this is far from true, however she does successfully alleviate a slew of the problems that he presents.

This is who Irelia kills.

Naturally, these aren’t the only two champions that are capable of dealing with Jayce. If you are able to re-engage after he knocks you away to continue putting damage on him, then you will eventually have an advantage. However it is important not to overstay your welcome, as the fact that Jayce has six abilities still has the potential to wear you down. Jayce is strong, but he is not nearly the force that he is made out to be in top lane.