My name is Allaeus, and i am a Diamond Jungle Main. My favorite champ being J4.

J4 is a highly versatile, mobile, tanky, and damaging champ. He brings to the team many assets. (Large aoe slow, lock down, knock up, armor shred, strong initiation, and a strong AS aura)

I feel J4 is strong in the current meta. Supporting that High damage tank sterotype, he is a great pick if the team is lacking some cc and/or initiation.

Jarvan excels, as well as kinda harshly fails at the early game. I know i know two contradicting statements but let me explain.

Early Game Pros:
Strong ganks
Good map preassure

Early game Cons:
Subpar clear
Can't 1v1 most enemy junglers.

That about explains it. J4 clear is pretty weak compared to most others in the current meta at the early stages of the game. (easily fixed in reference to the guide.) Thus leaving you with two options. 1. Abuse his early game pressure and gank the living hell out of a couple lanes, and hope for a kill. (or blown flash for later ganks) Or 2. Farm as fast as possible to scale into the mid game, seizing only opportunities to counter-gank or ganking only when camps are down if you dont have enough for a significant buy. Both options are appealing in their own rights, but i think this sums up why J4 early game is kinda trash.

On the other hand he is an extremely snowbally jungler. His build path is dank. His ability to capitalize on down sums is dank. And his scaling is super strong. If he gets fed early the enemy team might as well afk for you'll be kicking their ***es up and down the right so hard.

So essentially just look for good counter-ganking opportunities by keeping a close eye on their jungler with some strategically placed wards. And if they are on the otherside of the map go take their jungle. Make the transition into mid game as easy as possible by denying the enemy jungler some gold.

J4's strong point. Whether it be his ability to pick off an enemy, or his ability to start a fight at the right oppurtunity, the mid game is his time to shine! knock some dudes up! Slow some dudes down! Lock some dudes in your arena trap of death! The sky is the limit!

But in all seriousness. J4 is an extremely strong mid gamer. Rotate well, and keep wards up at all times. Use his e instead of facechecking. (Very useful tool for it allows for quick initiation if you find someone out of position.)

I play J4 as a disrupter. Meaning i get in the faces of the backline, or i peel for my carries if we lack other sources of it. His ult is an extremely vital tool when it comes to this. Meaning if you ult at the right time, it can change the game completely. BUT if you ult at the wrong time it can severly hinder your team. (The famous lock your adc in place strat) Look for any oppurtunity to land a multiple man ult on the back line. Its base damage is high and will chunk squishies as well as keeping them in place, whether it be keeping them from the fight, or picking them off to kill. A good use of jarvan ult that i like to do is use the ult to cut off an entire piece of the jung, or locking teams in baron/dragon pit. Use this for counter initiation. ex. Malphite ults you back line, ult the person at the front of their team. (not malphite) to disrupt the initiation and keep their team from following up, allowing you the quick pick on malphite.