LoL Preseason Guide: Great Champions for Jak'Sho

Jak'Sho the Protean has been an item that attracted a lot of attention ever since its release. While it is an interesting option for everyone who wants more resistances, it works best on tanks who can stay close to their opponents or who can also poke to start combat early.

Rammus 17 — You want more armor and MR? Jak'Sho is more than "okay," it's stellar | © Riot Games

The new items introduced in the preseason quickly stirred a lot of discussion. Jak'sho, a new tank item focused on ramping up the user's resistance is one of those who attracted interest - and as the quick buff in Patch 12.22b followed by a nerf in 12.23b showed, Riot themselves have paid attention to the dispute. The idea of a defensive item that gets stronger as the fight drags on is certainly promising, and it can show up on very different champions. So who wears it best?

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The Basics

Let's start with what Jak'Sho does. The item costs a total of 3100 gold and is built from the Aegis of the Legion, a Kindlegem and a Ruby Crystal. It gives a total of 400 health, 30 armor and magic resistance and 20% ability haste. It also gives you a +5 armor and magic resistance per completed Legendary item.

Its unique passive, however, is what attracted the most attention. For every second in combat, it gives the champion an additional +2 to armor and magic resistance, stacking up to 8 times. At 8 stacks, the bearer ascends, getting a 15% increase to their total resistances and does a burst of damage equal to 3% of their total health, reduced to 1% against non-champions, while healing for the same amount for each enemy damaged.

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Great for Tanks, Bruisers and Battlemages

There are generally three build paths for a Jak'Sho build: either you go full tank with additional health and resist items or you use it to provide mode durability to an AD or mage bruiser by adding it to a mostly damage-oriented build.

On its own, this is a standard tank item for a balanced defensive setup giving you both health and resistances, with good defensive scaling as the game goes on and you add Legendary items. It works best if you can expect to stay in the fight for a long time and have means to catch up with the enemy and keep them around - Rammus and K'sante are good examples of tanks who can stick with the opponents. These are probably the best champions to build Jak'sho on - but they are not the only ones.

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The item is also great on those who can start the combat early by landing some basic poke and are already at a few stacks when you close in. Someone like Maokai, Ornn or Gragas can make good use of this, arriving in melee while already at a few stacks and make the most use of those extra resistances, but Jarvan IV and Diana should also look into it if you plan a tankier build.

Meanwhile, mage bruisers can look at this item too if they plan to stay in the fight and can appreciate the scaling defenses. It might not be the first item you expect to build on the likes of Lillia, Vladimir or Swain, but it can help them last a lot longer and do a lot more damage. Meanwhile, the item can be straight-up amazing on Mordekaiser, who has a lot of damage in his kit and wants to be as hard to kill as possible.