Jack combines excellent survival skills and sustained firepower. He lacks a big killing skill but makes it up by being nearly un-killable himself. This means he relies heavily on his regular attack and sustained engagements to do damage.
Story[ | ]
When Jack first started as a magician, people didn't pay much attention. There were dozens of street performers peddling their tricks, and it was nearly impossible for newcomers to get any kind of attention. Jack's bright suit and strange mask drew a few curious souls, but it wasn't enough to hold their attention. Nevertheless he began his performances in a drab alley, with only beggars and vagrants for an audience.
Jack's performances were an instant sensation. His show was so magical and surreal that people could not resist. His tricks seemed to be actual magic, and his smooth-talking and friendly manner made him extremely popular. Before long, Jack was the most famous performer on Magic Row, commanding incredibly long lines just for a seat. He didn't sell tickets to his show but he was in such demand that people would pay others to line up for them. Speculation began to whirl as to what was under that mask. Some said he was a gang leader, others said wealthy royalty, and still others believed he was a CEO who did this as a hobby. He never revealed anything about himself, though, and that only added to the allure.
<The greatest show in the world, 12/31 ONLY!>
It was a day that a famous prophet had claimed would be the end of the world. Curious spectators filled the Great Hall, filling it to capacity for the first time in its history. There was a nervous buzz before the lights dimmed, and then Jack burst into view, the bright lights illuminating his brilliant suit.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Jack's Grand Show! I assure you, tonight will be a night to remember!"
The show started with a box trick after the thunderous applause died down. The box was a typical routine, but this box was transparent. Jack took an eager volunteer for the audience and put him in the box. He raised the sword high, the stage lights glinting off the cold steel. People gasped and thrilled at how real the sword looked. Then he thrust the sword down into the box, and silence filled the theater. The box was filling with something red, and the volunteer inside writhed in pain. People were not sure if this was part of the show until Jack began stabbing again and again, prompting screams from his hapless victim.
It was just as he said, a night to remember!
Abilities[ | ]
Passive/Special - Dice Roller
Jack's passive ability, Jack rolls his die every 30 seconds and gains the following effects for 30 sec.
Attack Speed +2% x Roll.
Attack +1% x Roll
Rolling a 6 grants a bonus, resulting in an 18% Attack Speed bonus and 9% Attack bonus
Notes: • If you have Terminus Hack Zero, it increases the duration to 42; allowing it to stack with Roll The Bones./ Weirdly enough with Terminus Zero Hack it will stack with itself
• Damage: N/A
• Ability Type: Buff
• Range: Self
• Cooldown: 30 seconds
• Cost: 0 Mana
Ability Video
Ability 1 - Sleight of Hand
Toggles through suits by pressing the skill key, granting different effects to regular attacks.
Spades(Blue): Ignore 10% (15% with Coated Card) of Defense.
Diamonds(Yellow): Gain 10 (15 with Coated Card) gold per minion kill (Only if you deal the killing blow, bonus gold is only given to you)).
Hearts(Red): 10% (15% with Coated Card) damage dealt restored as health.
Clubs(Green): Reduces enemy Movement Speed by 20% (30% with Coated Card) for 1.5 seconds.
Notes: • Cooldown can only be reduced through unique equipment, Hearts does not count towards Lifesteal Cap.
Bonuses from Coated Card only applies on Wildcard hits.
• Damage: N/A
• Ability Type: Active
• Range: Self
• Cooldown: 0.5 sec
• Cost: 5
Ability Video
Ability 2 - Wildcard
Plays the Joker in the deck.
Counts as a regular attack.
Notes: • Affected by Breath of Fire, affected by Blind
• Damage: 150% Regular Attack
• Ability Type: Buff
• Range: 1000 Units
• Cooldown: 6 Seconds
• Cost: 20
Ability Video
Ability 3 - Misdirection
Jack hides beneath an umbrella, evading attacks for 0.5 seconds (1.0 with Tricky Tailcoat) and entering stealthing mode for 2 seconds (4.0 with Tricky Tailcoat).
Jack gains the following effects while stealthed:
Movement Speed +15% (+30% with Tricky Tailcoat)
Damage Taken -15%
Notes: • The umbrella explodes after 2 seconds. Attacking while in stealth or dashing will instantly reveal you but taking damage will not allowing you to move with great freedom, also you are unable to move while hiding for the first part of the skill so take that into account when you use it, however you have 100% evasion during the start-up so you will not take damage. Pushes for some reason affect you during the evasion frames/ Affected by Terminus Zero Hack
Jack rolls two dice and gains the following effects for 30 seconds.
Attack Speed +2% x Roll.
Attack +1% x Roll.
Rolling a 6 grants a bonus, resulting in 18% Attack Speed bonus and 9% Attack bonus.
Notes: • Resets Dice Roller cooldown. If you have Terminus Hack Zero, it increases the duration to 42 seconds meaning it can stack with your passive.
As a fun fact, if using Terminus Hack Zero it is possible to roll 3 sixes resulting in a massive bonus of 54% Attack Speed bonus and 27% Attack bonus.
• Damage: N/A
• Ability Type: Buff
• Range: Self
• Cooldown: 60 seconds
• Cost: 30
Ability Video
Ultimate - Disappearing Act
Consumes 25% of Max Health for Jack to reappear 900 units away with the following effects:
Ignores all restricting effects except grappled and silence
If the skill breaks Jack free of active restricting effects, it gains an extended cooldown of 60 seconds
Cannot be used when Jack is below 30% Health.
Notes: • Unique Item Master's Wand not only removes health consumption but allows use under 30% health too; not explicitly stated in item description. Additionally extended cooldown is applied on top of the base cooldown meaning pre-emptive use of the skill is vital to repeated use.
Popular Common Equipmentinsert chart with common gear
Jack Advanced Equipment Suggestions
Jack seems to favor equipment that boosts Critical Rate, Critical Damage, Attack, Attack Speed and Lifesteal and of course any equipment that receives bonuses from hitting thresholds for each of these stats. Additionally any equipment that has a chance to trigger effects due to hitting targets is also incredibly useful due to Jack's ranged nature, piercing attacks and focus on Attack Speed, meaning its very likely that the effect will trigger over a short time span.
How you build Jack largely determines how he should be played, focusing on Attack Speed means he should be played as a Backline DPS, focusing on Critical means he should be played as a Backline Burst, focusing on Lifesteal means he should be played as a Frontline Sustain. But note this is purely recommendation and since he is rather versatile you should experiment with what is best and change as the situation demands it.
Additionally what equipment you pick will give you a number of different options in a game, such equipment at Master's Wand allows you to use it to chase down opponents just a well as it is an escape or Twlight's Call which drastically reduces enemy movement speed on Critical Hits, although its bonus does not stack with Sleight of Hands Clover, so the slow increase is a minor 10% and Coated Card provides the same benefit albeit not as frequently and only when Wildcard hits.
Anything here not quite your fancy, here's a few pointers for building Jack:
Jack is a sustain-striker, he naturally has 10% Defense Bypass for being labeled as a Striker, 10% Lifesteal with Hearts. 10% additional Defense Bypass with Spades and 20% Movement reduction with Clubs. While they don't count towards your cap, take this into account in case to avoid repetition or unnecessary stacking.
His damage is decent but he only has Clubs to force opponents to linger around longer, as such it is often in your best interest to build Attack and Critical Rate and Attack Speed as he relies almost exclusively on his regular attack to do damage.
Jack is naturally mobile between Disappearing Act and Misdirection as such you can safely exclude boots from your build, however I find that the Crimson Sprinters work very well with his kit but you can replace these with Hunter's Claw for a more damage focused mobility build.
It is in your best interest to include some sort of Defense Bypass item, Jack's damage is lower to compensate for his high Attack Speed. Master's Wand is highly recommended. Stacking Defense Penetration is also viable since he already has 20% natural Defense Bypass with Spades.
In order to give yourself an edge early on its strongly recommended to always including either or both Coated Card or/and Breath of Fire, they will give you great sustain early on and fit nicely in any build. They should also always be one of your first 3 items. Priority should be Coated Card, Boots, Breath of Fire, everything else.
Since Jack has both his passive and Roll the Bones to give him an Attack Speed boost don't feel the need to include an Attack Speed item early on, they can usually wait until your 4th or 5th item slot depending on the build, Fury of the Wilds is always a welcome addition to any Jack build but Gambler's Die ensures a minimum of 12% Attack Speed bonus and 6% Attack bonus
Unlike most other Hypers, Jack's skills are basically all utilities, as such it is strongly recommended to stay away from cooldown items that don't include Lifesteal or Critical Rate.
Strategy[ | ]
Jack is an elusive target that relies heavily on well timed escapes and engagements combined with high sustainability to dish out big damage numbers. As a jack of all trades he doesn't have any apparent strengths nor weaknesses which gives him a lot more reliability as a Hyper, being just as effective at the start of a fight as he is at the end of it. However lacking any form of stun or any significant chase down makes it difficult for Jack to secure kills often times forcing you to rely on teammates outside of big team fights and since his DPS is heavily reliant on his basic attacks and the only way to improve it without items is his passive Roll the Dice and active Roll the Bones he can sometimes feel underwhelming early in the match.
Playing Jack effectively is often a judgement call of the current situation, deciding when to fight and when to flee. Since Jack can dish out a surprising amount of damage you'll want to stay in the back whenever possible cleverly avoiding stuns, pulls or pushes so that you can continue to deal damage all throughout the fight. However in a pinch Jack can serve as the center of attention with a large amount of Lifesteal, a steady flow of targets and with an escape available he can easily pull attackers off the trail of a teammate or serve as an off tank while the tank takes a moment to recover or refresh cooldowns and just as easily disappear.
But effective play will often revolve around how well you manage your cooldowns. Since few item combos allow you to build a high cooldown, high critical rate and high lifesteal Equipment set while also including some key items, cooldown is often a forgotten stat for Jack in favor of dealing more reliable damage. Because of this Jack is often plagued with long cooldowns that affect how effective he can be in consecutive fights or when being focused down. As such it is vital to learn the proper times to use skills in order to keep your momentum and force opponents to waste important skills on you.
Misdirection has a short window of 0.5 seconds of evasion or 1.0 second of evasion with Tricky Tailcoat and a large 17 second cooldown, you'll mainly want to use this when attacks would greatly affect your damage output or move you and only affect a single target or a small area. Attacks such as Jennifer's Ultimate, Louis' Ultimate, most stuns or pulls and any attacks like Tatyana's Micro MIRV or Kurenai's Kunais that hit multiple time but deal great damage if they all hit. Other attacks like Shasha's Tick Tock Curse can also be avoided this way to avoid unnecessary damage. However if you need to quickly build distance or there is an attack that affects a large area or if you are in a bad situation then Disappearing Act should be used. You'll often want to use this to escape pushes such as Arslan's Ultimate or Athena's Charge, escape a bad situation if you get stunned or grappled or if you are being chased down and quickly need to build distance but be aware the distance isn't too impressive and it doesn't remove DOT effects, slows or remove lock on abilities like Tatyana's Guided Rockets, as such it is often in your best interest to avoid using Disappearing Act if you are below ~50% health unless these effects are not present.
Understanding what Jack is capable of in each stage of the fight and in each situation is critical to your success with him. The biggest advice for playing Jack is to play smart, he is capable of trading with some of the scariest DPS monsters in the game and he can easily avoid attacks and re-position himself giving him huge advantages in the middle of the fight meaning that as long as you stay focused you can outplay any Hyper you are up against. Furthermore, his sustainability is overly impressive and because of this he rarely needs to return to base, throwing out a Wildcard combined with Breath of Fire is usually enough to heal from nothing to full with a few targets present.
