Starter items

Core items

Offensive items

Defensive items

Situational items

Intro
In this guide I'm going to be giving you the run down on how I play Joker. I'm known through out the community for playing Joker quite well and he's my favorite blaster in the game right now. This guide is going to be my opinions and you may agree with them or you may not! Even so Joker is a really fun character who's easy to play but hard to master and I hope you enjoy playing him as much as I do! So lets get to the guide.

Pros and Cons

PROS:
Very high burst
Amazing zone control
Great escape and hard to gank in lane
Works well with other characters like Wonder Woman or Harley Quinn

CONS:
High learning curve
Difficult to land Mr. Punchy


ITEMS:
Starting Items
You have a few choices here you can go Nil Ring with Modular Health Vial (3) for a more safe lane or you can do what I do which is starting with Fatality's Energy Lance (1) with Modular Health Vial (2) and Modular Tektite Vial (2)

Core Items
After you rush towards Fatality's Energy Lance (3) Your next item to get is Psi-Scimitar (3) . You get Energy lance to 3 for the penetration and power damage it provides early game. I go PSI-Scimitar next because it helps you bully out your lane by landing a Mr Punchy and auto attack you can deal massive damage early game. This also helps you with your 3rd ability Vanish which does no damage so you can Vanish auto attack for the proc. After this your next items are core but the build order is different depending on the games current status . If you're ahead, or even doing decently you should go The Starheart (3). If the enemy team have two assassins or bruisers then rushing Neron's Contract (4) will be your savior. I only rush Nerons before star heart if the enemy team have characters such as Atomic Wonder Woman or Supergirl.

Offensive Items
Not much to really talk about here, you go The Book Of Eternity (2) every game so it's pretty much core but there are times where you can't build it early because you need other items. Cosmic staff however is a very hard item to fit into a joker build if you don't have it modded. I never really mod it on Joker because I want the raw damage and I don't feel like Cosmic does enough for me to want it at the moment. Some people do like it though and it's apart of their play style so you can go Cosmic staff instead of book of eternity mod.

Defensive Items
Neron's Contract (4) is your best friend on Joker because of your ultimate. When players jump on you which a lot will try to burst you down, throwing down your ultimate and Surprise! the Neron's active will cause them to take a lot of damage before they can even hurt you. Eclipso's Diamond (2) Is an amazing item when you have to deal with a team that has more than 1 Mirror Master's Prism (4)

Situational Items
I put Doctor Destiny's Dreamstone (4) here because the times I do go it over Eclipso is so very little. It's great for fighting tanks that have hp instead of power reflect though and can help against teams that have a lot of healing. The sustained will regeneration will keep you spamming Mr. Punchys for a long time in team fights.

Skilling
I max my Q first in lane for poke pressure. It's a difficult ability to land so you may max W first if you don't feel confident enough in your skill shots.
Mr. Punchy

Damage:70/120/170/220+ 75% Power Damage
Cost:40/55/70/85
Cooldown:6/6/6/6

Maxing W next is the best choice because it does the most damage in the kit but has a small range and is harder to hit correctly than Mr. Punchy.
That being said it's better for clearing wave and if a player ganks then you can deal a lot of damage by placing it on your self.
Surprise!

Damage:40/70/100/130+ 60% Power Damage
Bite Damage:30/50/70/90+ 25% Power Damage
Cost:75/100/125/150
Cooldown:16/14/12/10

This ability is the best escape in the game, maxing it you gain no real combat stats but it lowers the cooldown so I leave it at rank 2 and max it last.
Vanish

Cooldown:22/20/18/16

The big baby bomb is an amazing ult, with the ability to zone entire teams off a relay point by its self. You max ultimate when ever you can of course.
Last Laugh

Damage:75/110/145/180+ 40% Power Damage
Gas Damage:250/375/500/625+ 150% Power Damage

Lastly is the passive. This passive is simply amazing in every way, not only does it help you survive by giving you Power life steal it resets your cooldowns on kills and assists. I max this after putting a second point into Vanish.
Sadist

Power Lifesteal:5%/7.5%/10%/12.5%
Cooldown:1/2/3/4
Duration:5/6/7/8

Stolen Powers
Most times I use Green Lantern's Meteor Drop, Doomsday's Invulnerability or Robin's Surveillance Camera. I use meteor drop to help keep players off relays, to push lanes and of course to get kills. It's a rather hard skill shot to land and takes some practice but very useful. Invulnerability is a great ability to use vs high burst teams and most people run assassins in the jungle so using it is a smart choice. I use Robins cams and meteor most time because I want vision of the jungler before they gank me, taking damage in lane means I'd have to back eventually and that means I lose out on gold. If you have a nice jungler who will take cams for you and cam the stealth pads so you don't have too then you invul is your best choice.
Other Combos
Doomsday's Invulnerability Healing Wave - Super defensive makes you extremely hard to kill
Green Lantern's Meteor Drop Sinestro's Psychic Assault - This is all in mode. You can e onto someone, Psychic assault so your W gets full damage while doing your other abilities to combo.

Mods and Augments
The mod I always take is Psi-Scimitar to give it Skilled Attack 2. This lets you have huge burst with your auto attacks, very important for joker. Another mod I always take no matter what is Enhanced Fatality's Energy Lance this gives it +15 power damage, because it's your first item this gives you a great power spike for a low price. The last mod I use is Enhanced The Book Of Eternity for the 15 extra power damage on book. Sometimes i switch out book for Enhanced Doctor Destiny's Dreamstone if I feel like going cool down reduction build. You could also do Empowered Cosmic Staff if you like Cosmic staff.

Augments are very, and I mean very hard to determine the best but I use all Power damage and Power pen because I want early game damage.
Some want cool down reduction to help with the lack of Cool down reduction on items right now. Others use power life steal to help lane but it's up to you what you want to use.

Tips and Tricks
Here are a few tips and tricks you can use to improve your joker play.
Last hitting bait- When you see a player getting ready to go for a last hit you can throw a Mr. Punchy at them and hit 70-90 percent of the time.
Bush Bait- If you're being chased by an enemy member go inside a stealth pad and drop your Surprise! on top of your self with all of your other abilities to do massive damage fast.
Reading your enemy- While in lane start throwing a few Mr. Punchy's at the target and see how they react, most players will react the same way every time and then it's your job to read that movement to land the next Punchy.
Smart Casting A lot of people don't use Smart Casting but it's extremely useful especially on Joker. I would suggest getting use to it and you'll notice a jump in your game skill.
Use your skills smartly Since Joker's Mr. Punchy is slow and hard to land try waiting for your teammates to help line up the skill shot for you. If you have a jungler with any kind of stun then wait for them to use theirs first. That being said it's hard to judge if your teammate will land their stun or not. so be careful and take risks when you need too.

Ending
I'm going to keep this rather short and simple but with plenty of information to help you become a great Joker player. This is my first guide, I'd like to thank anyone who takes their time to read it. If you enjoyed it let me know if you see me in game.