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Jarvan IV Build Guide by

Prince of DPS (Very Much under Revision)

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4 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author RogerDeath

Jarvan IV Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (4) More Jarvan IV Guides

Spells:

Ghost

Ignite

Ability Order

Jarvan IV Passive Ability

Introduction

This is a quick (literally) build that allows Jarvan to have one of the quickest attack speeds thanks to his . He can easily become one of the better BDers thanks to this skill and a heap of AS/AD items, and I wish to show everybody how it works.

I do wish to note that this build will probably not be the best for those that are wanting to do massive amounts of damage to enemy champions. Once they realize you are stacking lots of AS/AD they will almost certainly get more armor to stop you from killing them so easily.

With this guide, I will first highlight the reasons I pick certain things and then in the next section I will make a short summary of what I mentioned (hereto refered to as the TL;DR versions). This will be used on all the sections save the Summoner Spells due to the nature of that section.

One last note before the actual guide starts. This is my first guide I have done for any champion, and is infact the first real build I have created without looking at another guide. I would appreciate any information that can be provided to improve the way that this guide is written/presented and advice for future guides (if there will be any).

Version History

V 1.0.0000 Initial Release (~4AM MST 3/4/2011)
V 1.0.1000 Updated Items Section (~11AM MST 3/4/2011)

V 1.0.2 Changed Title
V 1.0.3 Added Gameplay Videos section

V 2.0.0 Massive Overhaul (~1:30PM MST 4/27/2011)

V 3.0.0 Overhaul #2

Gameplay Videos

V1 Gameplay

V2 Gameplay

Runes

First off, you want to go with nine Greater Mark of Desolation. Because the counts as a physical attack, getting better armor penetration will help the skill do more damage quicker. Obviously, since we are going to be going attack speed this will also help maximize the amount of damage done through his auto-attacks.

For you seals, I decided to go with nine Greater Seal of Vitality. This will give Jarvan more survivability since we are getting no armor or health items for him, save for the lifesteal from The . Surviving longer is always a good thing, and even with a few of these seals I have been able to survive where I should have died.

The glyph of choice should be nine of the . Since the not only gives a passive effect but also an aura with its active, this becomes almost essential to use not only in team fights, but also when working on taking down enemy turrets, requiring this to be used more frequently. Besides, who doesn't love using your abilities faster to help your team take down enemy champs?

Finally, picking up three gives our Jarvan build more damage as he levels up. At the beginning of the game, you will notice that you are doing slightly more damage then you would be with the old es that we were using, but you are slower. However, when it comes to mid-/end-game you really won't notice a significant speed loss but will be doing more damage then the old build (and we are faster to build up our AD).

Runes TL;DR Version

9x Greater Mark of Desolation Greater Mark of Desolation
9x Greater Seal of Vitality Greater Seal of Vitality
9x Greater Glyph of Focus
3x Greater Quintessence of Might

Masteries

I go with a semi-standard build of 21/0/9. This is because we really want to be able to do extra damage and have better attack speed from the Offense tree, and several of the features of the Utility tree will allow us to be able to better

Offense is a standard DPS build, designed so that we can do maximum damage to our targets quickly. Since only one ability () is based off of AP, it does not make enough of an impact to put a point into Archaic Knowledge (especially with as little AP we will be getting with this build).

In Defense we nothing. I used to have some survivability from this tree, but it was really only significant early on in the game and quickly became negated by heavy damage. It is for this reason that I decided to shift over to the Utility Tree instead, as it offers more viable gameplay changes.

Utility offers Jarvan a fair bit, and it helps him stay in lane longer. With our first tier we gain extra health and mana regeneration as well as a slight lessening of the time penalty from death. Continuing on, we are now going to be recieving a significant boost to our experience farming and this should allow us to out-level our opponents (even more so if 2vJarvan). Lastly, I use our last point to get us some extra gold, which may not seem like much but it does help.

Masteries TL;DR

Just look up top. Honestly, if you are just going for a short version of this guide I doubt you would even look farther then there anyways...

Items

And this is where the guide has really changed. I'm going to leave the old TL;DR version up for those that actually liked this build and used it, but most of these things have changed.

As much as I HATE the Doran's items, I must admit that there are few starting items that are better for Jarvan then . Slight life-steal, more health, and extra damage are quite nice, though this item will be outdated fairly quickly by some of the other items we are getting.

Now that I got that out of my system, our first REAL item is actually a left-over of V1: . I have yet to come across a better set of boots for a damage oriented Jarvan....

Another hold-out from the last version of this guide, I have given more priority to this time around because of the attack speed bonus and the health AD bonus as well. While the that we got after our boots last version had a better attack speed, it lacked MUCH damage in the long run for Jarvan. Its on-hit is also handy when dealing with tanks or the like (-24 armor to Dragon anybody?).

Ok, it seems like this was less of a giant change as it is a reordering because still shows up here. Damage and life-steal that gets better as you kill more things, making it easier for you to kill said things? Give me one good reason that a champion that is going to be relying on his auto-attack shouldn't get this item!

I mentioned them earlier in this section, but its time for it to really shine now. now comes at a point in the game where we have good amounts of damage already going so we can work a little more on the attack speed side of DPS. Move speed, crit chance, and a whopping 55% increased attack speed really help this item shine on Jarvan's auto attacks.

Remember me mentioning crit chance a sentence ago? Well I've kept going with that theme and have now decided that an should NOT be the last item we get in our build. Good damage without mentioning the extra crit chance and the bonus to crit damage (stacking with our masteries) make this one solid item for an auto-attacker.

If you have yet to sell of the you got earlier (and honestly, you should have sold it by now) then now is the time to sell it to turn it into our final item: . The ONLY item suggested by Riot that I actually incorporate into this build, but I did not do so because it was suggested (usually I find their suggestions to suck). More armor (stacking with our passive/active from ), more crit chance (bringing us to a total of 73% crit chance), and extra damage based on our health. Yeah, I think Riot actually had a good pick for Jarvan!

Items TL;DR Version (V2)

Doran's Blade
Berserker's Greaves
The Black Cleaver
The Bloodthirster
Phantom Dancer
Infinity Edge
Atma's Impaler

Items TL;DR Version (V1)

Berserker's Greaves
Phantom Dancer
Madred's Bloodrazor
The Black Cleaver
The Bloodthirster
Infinity Edge

Skill Sequence

I choose to level up the quickest because it has the passive attack speed/armor buff that can be doubled by throwing down the flag. This is where a good chunk of your AS will end up coming from, so getting it as soon as you can is going to help you destroy turrets quickly.

Because you will mostly be dealing with turrets with this build, getting your is not really necessary until you can level nothing else up, but spending a point in it at level four allows you to at least have some protection if an enemy champion decides to attack you while you are working on a turret.

is going to be mostly for minions or last hitting close to death minions late game, but early game is going to be the best way to do damage to the enemy team without getting yourself in harms way too often. Getting a point in it at level two and every level that you aren't getting more points in Demacian Standard or Cataclysm will allow you to have it maxed out at about the time that you are finishing up your Manamune (earlier if you are doing well in your lane).

is not going to be an often used skill, but should still be gotten every chance you can get. During team fights it can help isolate a single foe from killing a teammate or helping a teammate's AoE attack/ult get off to damage multiple foes. If you find yourself getting tower dived, use this skill on them to trap them and have the turret rain attacks down on them, often doing enough damage to either kill them or deter them from killing you. Be careful to not use this on people that have escape skills or because they will only really be affected by the damage and not the barriers.

Skill Sequence TL;DR Version

Levels 1,3,5,7,9

Demacian Standard

Levels 2,8,10,12,13

Dragon Strike

Levels 4,14,15,17,18

Golden Aegis

Levels 6,11,16

Cataclysm

Summoner Spells

Suggested Spells

is by far one of the best abilities for backdooring champions to have. If your minion wave dies off, or if an enemy champion shows up, and you are right at the turret attacking it this can often save your life by letting you get out of there before the turret/enemy champion finish you off.

is the other spell I chose to use. It easily allows you to do enough damage to kill an already weakened opponent, lower an opponent's ability to heal, or force the opponent to disengage you because their health is getting low. Using it at the right time is a little hard however, so this is something you must learn to use.

Workable Spells

works well thanks to the fact that Jarvan just eats mana like crazy. The reason I don't use it is that it can't be spammed as often as you run out of mana.

could easily be switched out for Ghost, and would even allow you to trap somebody in and get out without the opponent hurting you (too badly at least).

slows down your opponent and would allow you to smack them several times when they normally would have gotten away. This shouldn't be an issue though since you will have more move speed then most enemy champions will have by the end of our build.

would help you stay in your lane longer, but at the expense of either being stuck in the fight longer or losing a small DoT advantage.

gets you somewhere really quickly, and can be great if a minion is attacking a turret you want to destroy. The cooldown timer on this skill and its lack of versatility is what excludes it from my usage.

gets rid of all those nasty CCs on you and prevents you from being stuck in new ones for longer. Only useful if you know you are getting a team that has massive amounts of CC.

Avoid These Spells

can be a major loss to your build, not to mention that your not only provides line of sight but also gives teammates a teleport platform.

is best on other support characters. While shielding a turret is nice, your job is to take out the other team's turrets, not to protect yours (at least in late game).

is wasted on Jarvan. Healing shouldn't a big issue and you will be stacking enough attack damage that it would only be useful (if only barely) during a team fight.

to be honest, would not be here if it were not for the nine minute(!) cool-down and how the revive times got reworked at all levels.

If you are thinking about taking Smite then you are probably going to be jungling, and this isn't a jungle Jarvan guide. For our purposes, you should NEVER take this spell.

Summary

This build is meant to allow your team the ability to have a massive central defense and still be able to press the enemy hard. Backdooring on Jarvan is a mid to late-game style but can be viable if your team can succeed in holding the enemy team's attention instead of being spread out.