Hello! My name is Eqxilibrium and I am a Diamond 2 Jungler on the North American server. As of right now, I have 251 games on Jarvan IV with a 59% in Season 9. I have climbed from Silver to Diamond this season mainly using Jarvan IV. You can find my OP.GG here.

I like Jarvan IV because he is a stable, very adaptable pick to fit most team compositions. Not only can he play as an AD burst assassin, he can play as a solid tank engager, and a bruiser. AP Jarvan IV support for the real ones. Jarvan IV is almost always present in the meta, whether it be in pro play or solo queue. He is a very easy champion to learn. Feel free to ask any questions in the Discussion tab, and I'll reply as fast as I can, to the best of my ability.

As most champions are balanced in League of Legends, Jarvan IV is no exception. What are his strengths and weaknesses?

Pros ~

Strong early game
Good, long range engage
Adaptable builds
Easy to learn
Flag provides vision
Decent waveclear
Strong teamfight presence

Cons ~

Squishy early
Easy to kite without Cataclysm
Cataclysm damage can be flashed
Long cooldowns early on
Doesn't scale as hard as many other junglers

Jarvan IV is a very adaptable champion so it's important to know which items can have a big impact on your game. Often you'll find yourself buying damage items in the early game, and transition into tankier items in the mid/late game.

This is first item you will complete on Jarvan IV, unless you're going for a tankier build from the get go. I personally do not build Stalker's Blade as I feel Challenging Smite is much more valuable than Chilling Smite in small skirmishes and teamfights. If you can't catch the enemy with Flash, Demacian Standard into Dragon Strike, and Cataclysm, it isn't worth chasing. These 3 gap closers should be more than enough, and so for that reason, Chilling Smite is very unnecessary for Jarvan IV

A must have item for Jarvan IV. The armor penetration, damage, health, and CDR are far too valuable for him to miss out on. Completing this item in the early mid game will ensure a smooth transition into the mid/late game. Hitting your full combo with a few auto attacks will break your opponent's armor alongside the armor penetration with Dragon Strike. Side note : NEVER build Trinity Force on Jarvan IV. Not only are your cooldowns way too long for you to proc Trinity Force, you will not be tanky enough to survive on the frontline.

If you ever get Skirmisher's Sabre - Warrior and Black Cleaver completed before ~16/17 minutes, buy Guardian Angel. This item will help you snowball yourself and your laners and provide a smooth transition into the mid/late game.

A must have item if the enemy team is loaded with burst. You want to stay alive long enough for your carries to deal damage, so Sterak's Gage will help you with that. Be careful when purchasing Maw of Malmortius alongside Sterak's Gage as their passives will not overlap.

This is a situational item that can greatly affect your game in certain matchups/team compositions. I only buy this after completing Skirmisher's Sabre - Warrior if I am ahead and don't need to go tank. If the enemy team has 2 or more AP based carry champions I would consider either buying this early if you're ahead or 3rd/4th if you're even. If you're behind, buying MR items like Spirit Visage will be much more valuable.

A really strong damage item that can help you assassinate squishy targets, like ADCs. It's passive helps clear out enemy wards really fast, and it's slow can help gap close for your team. This item can be bought at any stage of the game, and really snowballs leads.

To me, Tiamat is a very controversial item among melee junglers, such as Jax, Lee Sin, Rengar, and Nocturne. I will make a separate chapter for Tiamat and why you should NOT buy it on Jarvan IV.

Jarvan IV isn't like a traditional tank champion, like Sejuani, Zac, or Rammus. Jarvan IV's kit has a much more engage and lock down style, he has very little crowd control aside from the Demacian Standard into Dragon Strike knock up and the slow from Golden Aegis. Tank Jarvan IV's objective in teamfights in to lock down enemy carries and soak in all the damage. What items can help him with that?

A frontline item that will definitely allow Jarvan IV to survive longer when he engages. It is very easy to proc Gargoyle Stoneplate's active and passive when you engage as you have a very long gap closer with Demacian Standard into Dragon Strike and Cataclysm. Finish off the engage with Golden Aegis as it's slow can be very useful and the shield scales with each nearby enemy champion and Gargoyle Stoneplate.

If you have an enchanter support like Soraka or Janna on your team, or an Ocean Drake, the value of the item increases as it's passive increases the healing you receive.

This is a great item on Jarvan IV as it allows him the further increases his chase potential and gives time for his team to follow up.

Similar to Dead Man's Plate, Randuin's Omen gives Jarvan IV's team time to follow up after his engage due to Randuin's Omen's active. If the enemy team has champions like Gangplank, Corki, Yasuo, or any Critical Strike based ADC such as Jinx and Caitlyn, this item is a must have.

Thornmail is such a good item if the enemy team has Auto Attack based champions and/or tons of healing, such as champions like Aatrox, Yasuo, Soraka, or Zac.

A great substitute item to Spirit Visage if the enemy team has AP champions with consecutive spell damage, such as Teemo, Heimerdinger, Rumble, or Singed.

Knight's Vow is a SUPER situational item that you should only build if you plan to rely on someone else to carry your game, such as Vayne or Kassadin. I would NOT recommend this item unless you are very far behind and have a strong carry as your win condition. If you ever find yourself in a situation like this, Locket of the Iron Solari is a good item to buy, as it increases the amount of damage your carry can take and is very cheap.

These are the items I recommend for going tank on Jarvan IV. Although I have put it here, I do not recommend playing tank Jarvan IV as relying on good teammates to climb in Solo/Duo Queue is not a good, stable way to climb. You want to rely on yourself to deal damage and snowball the game to win games and climb the ladder.

I am putting this item here because I DO NOT recommend this item on Jarvan IV. Tiamat only will it slow your build by 1325 gold. You can say that it clears up your clear speed, but if you look at the damage charts after your games, you will notice that Jarvan IV is often NOT the main damage dealer, unless you're building as an assassin. Even then, playing Jarvan IV as an assassin requires you to build Duskblade of Draktharr after your Skirmisher's Sabre - Warrior. Building Tiamat before your Duskblade of Draktharr requires you to sacrifice 1325 gold. For what? You're already building lethality and damage. Since Duskblade of Draktharr costs 2900, you'll have it before 15 minutes if you're active on the map. Having all that lethality and damage at such an early game phase should already make your clear really fast. Tiamat is such an unnecessary item because Jarvan IV should be focusing on ganking and securing kills in the early game, not farming. If you spend the entire early game farming, you will lose against scaling champions or to losing lanes. Titanic Hydra is such a bad item on Jarvan IV because it is so expensive and offers very little. If you're ahead, Dragon Strike and 3 Auto Attacks onto the melee minions should be enough to clear a non-cannon wave. In the late game, Jarvan IV does not do as much damage and will only burst opponents down for your carries to finish them.

Here are statistics from when I did really well in my Jarvan IV games. As you can see, even though I went full bruiser, I never did the most amount of damage to champions in the game. Your job as a bruiser Jarvan IV is not to deal the most damage in the game, but to focus all your damage on the priority targets and soak in some damage.

Jarvan IV undeniably has one of the strongest level 2's in the game. You can try to cheese top/bot after your buff, but I would wait until your laners have some sort of immediate crowd control. For that reason, I start ganking at level 3, unless a fight is going on.



For my early game pathing, I normally start Red Brambleback into Raptors, crossing mid into Wolves, then Blue Sentinel. You can also reverse this pathing if you plan to gank a specific lane early on. At this point, you should either look to gank one of the closest lanes, gain vision, or go kill Gromp and look to kill/contest Rift Scuttler if your lanes have priority. If you're in a match up where the opposing jungler is weak in the early game, you can try and look to invade. You should NEVER engage in a 1v1 with a jungler without lane priority. Jarvan IV excels in early skirmishes, so try to ping your teammates if you can.

Here is another early game pathing that will give you an early level 3. Full red side clear is the most popular and fastest ways to get you to level 3, and Jarvan IV can utilize this pathing to win the early game.



You start out with Red Brambleback into Raptors, finishing with Ancient Krug. Note ; this cannot be done using the blue side as Wolves and Gromp do not provide enough experience. You can now gank the closest side lane or mid lane if you can check off most of the ganking list below. If not, go clear your blue side and look to pick up Rift Scuttler and gain vision.

If you know where the opposing jungler is after clearing your red side jungle, you can even wait in the brush by the blast cone in the blue side jungle and attempt to kill them/steal a camp, or wait for them to gank and then countergank them. If you can do either one of these successfully, make sure you clear out the enemy blue side jungle to further push yourself ahead.

Before you gank any lane with any jungler, make sure you ask yourself most of the things on this list -

- Can you CC/lock down the enemy immediately?
- Do you deal enough damage to kill the enemy?
- Does the enemy have summoners spells? If so, can you force them?
- Do you have any idea where the enemy jungler is?
- Is your laner healthy enough to engage in a fight?
- What is the state of the lane/minion wave?
- Can a kill in this gank turn into an objective?
- Have you cleared the enemy vision in the nearby area?

These are very important things to ask yourself as it can give you an idea on how to make the right decisions and on how to snowball/win a game.

So now that we've gotten to level 3 and are confident we can pull off a successful gank, how do you gank a lane as Jarvan IV? Because of his kit and the way his Flag N' Drag with Demacian Standard into Dragon Strike work, you can gank any lane by simply rushing straight in. But that doesn't always work out. Rather, you should always clear vision in the nearby lane you're trying to gank. A gank will never work if the enemy knows it's coming. If the lane is warded and they aren't backing off, make sure the enemy jungler or mid laner isn't nearby. You can always get counterganked. This makes sure that the enemy doesn't turn the momentum back onto you if you failed a gank. Always try to bait out any CC the enemy has. Try to walk as close as you can by using Golden Aegis then using Demacian Standard into Dragon Strike. Remember, you can also flash at the end of the drag to increase the range of the knock up.