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Abit about Jarvan

At the moment Jarvan IV is in the top-3 Greatest Junglers. He can be played as an off-tank bruiser or as a full-on-tank with AD (atack damage); AS (atack speed) and alot of armor-pen. He Is an important asset to every team and can turn a situation around if played correctly. Plus he can has 3 natural cc's and you can even add more (usually i have about 5 cc's in total, no one can escape me). He can lose to stronger junglers, like Vi or Hecarim, but by ganking he can make a great difference, especially if a team member has an AoE stun.


I made this guide since i saw that there is no guide for Jarvan IV that shows all of his play-styles correctly, Even the highest rated one didn't appeal to me. As I said he is a really good champ (and my 2nd favorite at that!) and i was quite sad that no guide exploited him to his full potential.
This is also my first guide so i hope you like it.

(ps: this is my first guide ever)

Pros: -Has 3 cc's -Naturally tanky and MANLY -One of the best junglers -Great ult -natural escape -Nobody can escape him

Cons: -His q+e combo is a skill-shot -Not the greatest dualist -Succefull Gank dependent -Can be abit tricky at the begining -Can be melted as a bruiser if he uses ult on the enemy team

Tankier builds

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If you want a bruiser Jarvan or

If you want a tanky Jarvan or

AD focused Masteries

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Movement Spells

I recommend this item on any Jarvan, since it Can help you get out of your Cataclysm or help you get in position to cast it, also in addition to your Q+E combo this spell can help you get some distance between you and your enemies.It is the greatest positioning tool in the league.

Except for chasing or running away this item doesn't serve a purpose on Jarvan IV, since if you cast your ult and you want to get out of it, the only way to do it is by Q+E-ing your way out, but if you get silenced, you are pretty much dead.

This item is really good for Team-players, because you can teleport to wards in bushes and flank bot or mid or top, knock em' up with your Q+E and Cataclysm on them, then you can just pick them off.

Other Spells

You all know this spell, it lets you kill fleeing targets. It is quite useful since it deals true damage. I recommend using this item when you are going really aggressive, because tanks don't really need this spell.

This spell is great for when you play more supportive-ly. You should target with it very AS reliant targets like adcs or fleeing targets, in both cases it is a very powerful tool.

Basic Jungle spell (and with reason), It is very useful early game when you are not assisted in jungle and late-game for Baron nashor .

I recommend having this spell on tankier J4 tops, since it can give you some extra survival in TF and it allows you to engage better, but it is fairly short so you need to time it just right, otherwise it's useless.

Kind of self explanatory, but J4 can also be quite the support tank in TF so yeah. Definitively last pick for me, but it may come in handy. (use it when more people are around you)

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and what i have to tell you about them

His Passive Jarvan IV has quite the unique passive which lets him survive the jungle with ease as it helps you clear large creatures faster. It has a long cooldown when applied on a single target so i recommend maxing out the damage by hitting multiple opponents. (check out laning and jungle chapters to learn more about this ability)

His Q and main damage dealer Dragon Strike gives Jarvan IV Damage, Range and Poke pottential, in order to finish off his enemies. I recommend maxing this ability first, if playing in a lane, as it is quite the good harrass tool, but beware as it drains your mana fast so save it for ganking. (check out laning and jungle chapters to learn more about this ability)

His Shield/AoE-Slow This ability is an important part of Jarvan's combo as it can give him a shield and a slow, it is perfect for engaging. I recommend using this ability either when you land your Cataclysm or when it breaks, it can also permit you to land your Q+E combo on someone as it can provoke them to flash away, you then knock-'em-up and deny their flash. (check out laning and jungle chapters to learn more about this ability)

His passive/active AR+AS boost This Ability is essential for Jungle Jarvan, it gives you extra armor and atack speed, making Jarvan IV a natural off-tank. I recommend grabbing it first on lane and jungle Jarvan, and maxing it out first on jungle Jarvan. It can also be used to check bushes, deny escapes and buff your AS reliant teammates. (check out laning and jungle chapters to learn more about this ability)

His Ult + His 3rd CC and trap This is the 2nd Greatest Jungler's ult right after Amumu's Curse of the Sad Mummy, the only difference is that this deals physical damage to only 1 taget and opponents can escape it so it is a good idea to have forced someone to flash I recommend grabbing it as soon as you can. (check out laning and jungle chapters to learn more about this ability)

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and all you need to know about them

Jungle Items

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Let's get down to business

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Initial Jungling

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You should always start with blue and take Demacian Standard as a first ability, because of the armor and atack-speed boost. Ask for pull, you can do it yourself but you take more damage and it takes a longer time to clear Blue.
Note: If you are counter-Jungling it is better to not use smite, if your counterpart is a fast jungler.
You should now be lvl-2, I recommend taking Dragon Strike as it allows you to use your knock-up combo.

Up next are the wolves. They are essential to jarvanIV no matter if he is counter jungling or clearing his own jungle, as long as you don't want to gank quickly, they are essetial. Even when you are opting for an early gank i recommend first clearing the wolves and then proceeding forward.

I don't recommend starting with wolves as you lose some mana, your teammates can take your XP and you don't level up if you successfully clear the camp.

Lets talk about which abilities you want The first thing you want is Demacian Standard, because of the AS and Armor which enables you to clear jungle faster and take as little damage as possible, alternatively you can take Dragon Strike for ArmPen and damage, but it does imply that if you don't want to take a lot of damage in jungle you will have to go full tanky in runes and mysteries. The reason that i do not recommend the full ad variant is that your team will have to get another tank, it might give you some advantage, but if you can't rush down the enemy team in under 30min they will begin stacking armor, rendering you obsolete. You should for that very same reason max-out demacian standart early but you can choose to max out Dragon Strike first, i recommend (if you do the 2nd) to take as much health and sustain as you can get, since you don't want to go back every 2 seconds.

Counter-Jungling

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So first of all, When should you play counter? Now, Now... You need 2 requirements in order to counter someone:

1. Are they squishy or do less damage? Basically can you take them head on or no

2. Do they have a lot of sustain? Do they have alot of health-regen ability

So if 1 is YES and 2 is NO. then you are in luck! Only one more thing to be cautioned about is the possibility of them setting traps like Shaco's boxes or some kind of a CC that is annoying.

Most Junglers reach red about the time you have cleared the wolves and you are crossing the River, if not just don't clear the wolves, that leaves you a little before lvl3, since Lizards and Golems give you 95% of the XP required to level up.
Don't worry you still have enough time to position yourself in the bushes on the Lizard (those who let you see the Creature). Wait until the beast is lower than 500 than smite it can E+Q your way in, or if the enemy is too powerful or has back-up just E+Q your way out of there. Either way you just stole red and are now lvl3 while your counterpart is only lvl2, That is a HUGE difference in power.

You can now gank as lvl 3, having a slight advantage over your opponents or just grab your own red to ensure your counterpart doesn't receive the buff, also this puts you in lvl4, and that is a very important thing, although you just ate your 2 reds!

Always look at your mini-map it shows you which creatures have re-spawned, although with a slight delay. And think! You might be able to take their buffs right under their noses if you know what you are doing. Try to deny your counterpart any farm or buffs, and keep him dead for as long as you can :D since you are a medium duelist you should opt for 1v1 if you have, farm, damage, health and level advantage.

If you want to deny your counterpart completely of buffs, go more aggressive and take Attack damage and Attack speed items earlier, for most junglers i recommend taking the Spirit of the Ancient Golem for a health advantage. The thing about J4 is his early jungle presence and you should exploit that to the maximum by timing your jungle and making successful ganks.

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Tips and Builds

What i like to do in jungle is take as much cc and movement speed as possible as early on and turn into a tank late-game, for that i take mostly defensive masteries (9-21-0), armor penetration Quintenstances, armor glyphs, magic resistence seals and 6 ArmPen marks with 3 AttSpeed marks. This gives me early damage and tankiness with Demacian Standard.

Here are some Jungle paths i use:


Remmember that you can take a sight stone in order to provide wards for top and mid and also get some health. This can also help you to counter the enemy's jungler.

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General Info

J4 is Very early gank dependable

If you are off to a bad start, your team might be in serious danger if you don't take some more gold. Since i was inactive for quite some time and descended to bronze 1 (although i am in qualification for silver V at the moment) i found out that if your team is pushing lanes you can't gank, so if your team are a bunch of douschbags don't pick j4 or try to completely destroy the enemy's jungler.

It is very important to avoid wards

So for example lets say you want to gank bot but you know they have a ward on drake or somewhere there, so they will know you are coming miles away, The soution to your problem is to go above drake into the enemy's jungle and then going descending into their bushes,

(Note: it is a general misconseption to then go into the river, DON'T DO THAT, wait for the minion wave to pass and then go down in the direction of the tower, but don't let it hit you )

And pop up behind them and E+Q your way into their rears.
Always think smart and out manouver your opponents, that is the greatest virtue of J4.

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I know very well that I should not post incomplete guides, but i don't have the time to finish it in 1 day, heck i started this guide at the beginning of summer.

For those who see some outdated info Runic Bulwark, i know and i am going to fix them very soon like a day since i publish it.

I do not play alot of j4 top, although i know how to play him, but if you have tips please tell me, in order to put up a good top lane guide.

I need to rework some stuff and this weekend i will be dedicating at-least 2 hours to polish my work, so if you see something wrong, please tell me i gladly accept feedback and i will respond as soon as i can.

And again please don't post comments saying its incomplete, i know it is but i don't know if i will ever have time to finish it, although i am fairly certain next week i will be releasing the final version of this guide.

And i am not posting this guide for nothing, i am posting it to see how well it works and what people think of it, so i can make it more complete, i just need a bit of inspiration to complete it.

Thank you for reading this and thank you for understanding.

Oh and one day i will bring myself to do the runes, its just tedious since they are kind of apparent and require a bit of my time that i need to complete more important stuff.