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Jarvan IV Build Guide by Sloshy

Tank Jarvan IV: The King of Top Lane (S6)

Tank Jarvan IV: The King of Top Lane (S6)

Updated on February 11, 2016
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Sloshy Build Guide By Sloshy 300,020 Views 7 Comments
300,020 Views 7 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Sloshy Jarvan IV Build Guide By Sloshy Updated on February 11, 2016
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Choose Champion Build:

  • LoL Champion: Jarvan IV
    Jarvan IV Titanic Hydra
  • LoL Champion: Jarvan IV
    Jarvan IV Ravenous Hydra

Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Teleport

Teleport

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Who Am I?

Hi guys, my name is Sloshy32 and I am a Gold Jarvan IV top lane main. I first picked up Jarvan when he was on free rotation back when I wasn't even level 30 in Season 4. I wanted to share my Jarvan build and how I play him with the Internet because Jarvan was the champion that got me to Gold.
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Pros and Cons



Pros
+Super strong early game
+Quite a bit of crowd control
+Great at level 1 fights
+Good trades
+Very easy to CS with
+Snowballs hard
+Has a lot of burst damage
+Can be played both as an assassin and a tank
+He's the Dunk Master
+DEMACIA!

Cons
-If you miss his EQ combo it can potentially put you in a very bad situation
-Has trouble when behind
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Summoner Spells


: You always want to take this summoner spell because you can flash out of your Cataclysm making for some pretty sick escapes. Also, you can use your flash in the middle of your Demacian Standard- Dragon Strike combo to knock up enemy champions that you flash into.
: You can use this for teleport ganks bot lane and to teleport back to lane if you back or get killed.
: Only take this if you're going to win lane really hard.
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Abilities


: Jarvan IV's first attack on a target deals 10 % of their current health as bonus physical damage. capped at 400 damage. This effect cannot occur on the same target for 10/8/6 seconds.

You want to use this as much as you can in conjunction with Dragon Strike as this will make them take 10% of their current health along with Dragon Strike which also does quite a bit of damage making for some good trades unless your in a bad match up.

:Jarvan IV extends his lance, dealing physical damage in a straight line and lowering the Armor of all enemies hit for 3 seconds. Additionally, if it encounters his Demacian Standard, it will pull Jarvan to it, knocking up enemies along his path.
Cost: 45 / 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 mana
Cooldown: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 seconds
Physical Damage: 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+120% bonus AD)
Armor Reduction: 10 / 14 / 18 / 22 / 26%

This is Jarvan's bread and butter ability, used for crowd control, damage, AND armor shred! If you're playing Jarvan you ALWAYS max this first.

:Jarvan IV shields himself for 5 seconds, which, upon activation, also slows surrounding enemies for 2 seconds. The shield gains strength for every nearby enemy champion upon activation.
Range: 300
Cost: 30 mana
Cooldown: 20 / 18 / 16 / 14 / 12
Slow: 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35%
Shield Strength: 50 / 90 / 130 / 170 / 210
Additional Shield Strength Per Champion: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60

When you're laning as Jarvan you take this to help you win trades as the shield can block a little bit of damage and the slow can help you escape your lane opponent or jungler as well. You want to max this ability last.

: Jarvan IV throws a Demacian flag to the target location, dealing magic damage to all nearby enemies. The flag then remains for 8 seconds, granting sight around it and providing an aura that grants Demacian Standard's bonus attack speed to all nearby allies
Passive: Jarvan IV permanently has bonus attack speed.
Cost: 50 mana
Cooldown: 13 / 12.5 / 12 / 11.5 / 11
Bonus Attack Speed: 10 / 13 / 16 / 19 / 22%
Magic Damage: 60 / 105 / 150 / 195 / 240 (+ 80% AP)

Alright, so this ability is probably Jarvan's most versatile ability. Demacian Standard is a great ability as it provides vision for scouting, can be used with his Dragon Strike to knock up anybody in his way, and provides bonus attack speed to himself and everybody around it. Always place this ability down if your taking a turret or team fighting as the extra attack speed can really help. Finally, this ability's aura gives you free assists so if you see one of your allies about to kill an enemy, place down a flag to get the assist if you're not needed elsewhere. You want to max this second.

: Jarvan IV dashes to the target enemy champion, dealing them physical damage and becoming immune to crowd control during the dash. Upon impact, he creates a circle of impassable terrain for 3.5 seconds that grants sight around it.
Jarvan IV can reactivate Cataclysm to instantly destroy the circle.
Cost: 100 / 125 / 150 mana
Cooldown: 120 / 105 / 90
Physical Damage: 200 / 325 / 450 (+ 150% bonus AD)

To be honest, this is probably Jarvan's most underrated ability besides Golden Aegis. People generally think this ability needs buffing because almost everyone can pass through it but I don't really mind because this ability is either meant to be used as a damage nuke, a method to trap an enemy after they've used their escapes, and to set up bigger ults like The Equalizer. Also, Cataclysm can be used to counter cc because he is immune to crowd control during his jump towards the enemy. This is the main reason why Jarvan is good against Yasuo top as Jarvan can ult through his tornado which makes Yasuo's ult useless. To finish this segment off, let me warn you that this ultimate can have negative effects which can potentially lose you a fight. You do NOT want to trap your carries in Cataclysm with enemies.
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Items


Starting Items
: Right now, this my favorite starting item right now as it gives good sustain and a little bit of extra damage.
: This is a pretty decent start as it gives Jarvan some attack damage and life steal but the downside to this item is that it only lets you have ONE Health Potion which really leads to a lack of sustain. Only buy this item if you know that you're going to win.
: This starting item is good if you're in a match up against champions like Riven, Renekton, or Tryndamere. Cloth armor isn't as good as it used to be because you can only buy 4 potions now. It's still a good start as it gives you good chances of survival in some hard match ups.
: I usually only take this against champions like Teemo. I would recommend not getting this unless necessary.
: Always get this. No exceptions.

Core Items
: This is the item for Jarvan you want to buy when you're winning lane and want to snowball because it provides a higher power spike on Jarvan than Titanic Hydra.
: This is the item you want to buy on Jarvan when you want to be the tank of your team or if you go even in lane. (Remember that you can switch between Ravenous Hydra and Titanic Hydra for FREE.)
: As far as I'm concerned, this is the only item that can replace an Hydra on Jarvan. Buy this if your lane opponent is building armor against you. Jarvan's armor shred with this item is INSANE. Also, you can buy this alongside either of the Hydra's for some AOE armor shred.
: I've been trying this out recently on Jarvan and it is actually great on him. You generally want to buy this item after Ravenous Hydra because it gives you much more survivability with the bleed and the passive where physical damage heals you is amazing in conjunction with Ravenous because it does AOE damage.
: This is the item you want to buy if you want armor and health. This is a great item on Jarvan because it gives you some extra burst damage and increases your movement speed to help you catch up to your enemies like Teemo.
: This is a great alternative to Dead Man's Plate because it improves your team fighting and the tank stats are similar. The only reason I prefer Dead Man's Plate is that Sunfire Aegis aggros turrets.
: Only buy this item if the enemy team does a lot of crits.
: This item is good if you're sieging a lot because you'll likely get poked down and the health and health regeneration give you enough sustain to survive long sieges.
: This is generally going to be your main magic resist item.
: Only buy this if you have someone on your team that heals you. Otherwise, Banshee's Veil is the better choice.
: Buy this item if your support or jungler don't already have it.
: This is a very good low cost tank item on Jarvan that helps you survive fights a little bit longer and gives you a little bit more damage.

Situational Items
: This item is very situational because it only really works on champions that are going to stack a lot of health like Shen and even then it's not that great due to recent nerfs.
: Only buy this item if you're going into a farm lane against champions like Malphite.
: Rush this item if you're going against an AP top laner like Teemo or Ryze.
: Only buy this item if you're going against someone with good healing like Volibear.
:Only buy this item if the enemy team is full ad or they are heavily auto attacked based.
: I will experiment with this item soon and will update this section when I have a good grasp on how good it is on Jarvan.

Elixirs
: This elixir makes you more tanky and gives you more damage if you have Titanic Hydra.
: This elixir gives you more sustain and makes you do more damage.
You can take either of these elixirs and you'll be fine.
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Laning Phase


When you start laning as Jarvan you want to try and get as much cs as you can while trading with your lane opponent with Martial Cadence and Dragon Strike when he goes in to get a cs. (You want to use Martial Cadence first and then use Dragon Strike because your passive scales off of current health). Also, you also want to try and poke them down with Dragon Strike at but when playing Jarvan IV you can't spam it too much or else you will run out of mana. When you hit level 2 (After killing 7 minions!) you can try a level 2 all-in with your Demacian Standard- Dragon Strike combo because Jarvan IV's level 2 is INSANELY strong and few top laners can out trade you at level 2. If your level 2 all-in was successful, you likely got first blood or a flash. If they use flash, don't be afraid to flash aggresively to get the kill if you can. Just another thing to note: You have a slight advantage over some melee top laners because Jarvan's attack range is 175 while champions like Shen, Olaf, and Jax have a attack range of 125 so you can trade safely without being in their auto attack range to proc Martial Cadence.
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Roaming

In the laning phase as Jarvan IV when you push the enemy laner into their turret, you can try for a roam mid lane or try for teleport gank bottom lane. When you teleport bot, make sure that the enemy duo is fully committed to the fight. If they are committed to the fight they will generally not be able to react properly to your Teleport which might lead to a kill or two that can help you snowball the game. When you roam mid make sure your lane is pushed and try to gank mid as if you were a jungler. Try to hit the enemy mid laner with your EQ combo and if they flash, use Cataclysm. This will usually end up in a kill unless they are highly mobile like Zed.
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Team Fighting


When you're team fighting as Jarvan you either want to try and set up area-of-effect abilities with your Cataclysm by trapping as many enemy champions inside, peel for your carries, or try to assassinate the enemy ap or ad carry that does the most damage if you have enough damage to one shot them. Remember that you can initiate fights with your Demacian Standard- Dragon Strike- Cataclysm combo.
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Pick Potential

Jarvan has incredible pick potential as he can cover a lot of ground with Demacian Standard - Dragon Strike - Cataclysm. Also, when you're trying to pick an enemy off, always use Cataclysm after they've used their escapes like Flash.
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Champion Synergy

: You have good synergy with Yasuo because your EQ can knock up and you can set up other knock ups like Glacial Fissure with your Cataclysm.
: Jarvan IV has great synergy with Anivia because her Glacial Storm is about the same size as your Cataclysm making for some great teamfight opportunities.
: Viktor is great with Jarvan because he can use Gravity Field and Chaos Storm inside of Cataclysm pretty much instantly winning you the teamfight unless they have a Kindred.
: Orianna works well with Jarvan if you can trap multiple people in Cataclysm and she uses Command: Shockwave inside of it.
: Wukong works well because his Cyclone synergizes well with Cataclysm.
: Katarina synergizes well with Jarvan because Death Lotus and Cataclysm work extremely well together. Katarina can ult inside of Cataclysm or ult outside of it.
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If you liked this guide...

Check out my friend Arrexel's Yasuo guide over at
http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/yasuo-carrying-you-like-the-wind-season-6-443658
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Thanks For Reading!

If you read the whole guide, please tell me what you think about my guide and what I could improve on it.
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