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Recommended Items
Spells:
Flash
Ignite
Items
Ability Order
Martial Cadence (PASSIVE)
Jarvan IV Passive Ability
Introduction
Welcome to my first guide ever on the best top laner ever, Jarvan IV - Exemplar of Demacia! While Jarvan can also jungle, this guide will more focus on him being a top laner, filling the role of AD Offtank.
I fell in love with Jarvan when playing with him with a couple buddies of mine and just fooling around with him in bot lane. After noticing the power he has in harass, sustainability, disruption, and his amazing damage output, I decided to try him seriously. I have never looked back or regretted that decision. Being able to knock up a majority of the enemy team, if not all, and then trap them with you can be an amazing tool. Not to mention Jarvan IV has many tricks and nuances that will keep even the most advanced players entertained. This guide will be in depth, lengthy, and may seem like a gigantic wall of text.
I hope everyone enjoys the guide and will find it useful! Should you have any questions, concerns, comments, criticisms, or suggestions, feel free to comment and I will try to get back to you!
As a fanatical fan of
Jarvan IV, I may be slightly biased in the Pros and Cons of him, but I will of course do my best to try and outline them.
Pros
Cons

Pros
- Good Harass Early Game
- Good Burst
- Can get Tanky
- Good Crowd CC
- Good Single Target CC
- Good Chasing Potential
Cons
- Susceptible to long range harass
- Non-sustaining without items
- Mana Hungry Early Game
- Q + E combo costs around 100 Mana for escapes
The runes listed above are the ones I found most useful throughout the entire game. The scaling works well when you start to get into teamfights and the initial Armor, Armor Pen, and Damage will help you survive top lane and harass better then normal.
--- 9x
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist
--- 9x
Greater Seal of Armor
--- 9x Greater Mark of Armor Penetration
--- 3x
Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage
--- 9x

--- I found these to be the most useful, especially when you know you will not be facing an AP based top laner (
Kennen,
Vladimir,
Swain, etc.). If you know that you will be fighting an AP Top laner,
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist will probably be a better choice.




--- 9x

--- For top lane, you will usually be facing an AD Champion, and I found that flat Armor Seals are the most effective at keeping you alive. Feel free to replace these with Magic Resist or Magic Resist/lvl though.
--- 9x Greater Mark of Armor Penetration
--- Marks of Armor Penetration help your early game harass quite a bit. In addition to your passive, a single auto attack will be very detrimental to their lane presence, especially against non-sustaining top laners.
--- 3x

--- The base AD I found to be preferential to other Quints, simply due to the fact that it will help you last hit, and improve your base Q,
Dragon Strike, damage for harass in the early game.

Since this build is based off of playing
Jarvan IV as an Offtank AD character, the 9/21/0 Mastery build is ideal, especially since you can take full advantage of the outstanding new Defensive Tree.

Explanation of Masteries
Offensive Tree








Defensive Tree
Before I even list the masteries and the explanation for why I put them in here, I just have to say that I absolutely love this tree. The power it can contain is simply incredible.



















Skills
Passive:

Q:


W:

E:



R:


While there are several combination of summoner skills for
Jarvan IV, there is one combo that I have found most effective. However I will discuss all the summoner spells in regards to their usefulness to
Jarvan IV] as a top lane AD Offtank.
Clarity -- You should not have too much mana trouble with Jarvan. If you do, just cut back a little back on the harass, unless you are getting kills. If you are having trouble with mana even after cutting back on harass, consider getting Catalyst the Protector for base mana, as it will build into more useful items then normal mana regeneration items. All in all, never get this on Jarvan.
Garrison -- This is a guide for Summoner's Rift. As this spell is not supported on Summoner's Rift, I will not discuss it.
Ghost -- Ghost is a very nice spell, handy for catching up to fleeing enemies, or fleeing yourself. However, you should have enough slows to stay on most, if not all, enemies. I prefer
Flash over this, since you can use
Flash to get over walls, or get out of your own ultimate.
Ghost is a nice spell, I just find
Flash to have better synergy with Jarvans' toolkit.
Revive -- Outside of fun, trolly things such as Zombie
Karthus or Movespeed
Rammus, I don't find Revive to be all that useful. It is on a very long cooldown, with not a lot of useful benefits. Also, by picking this, to make it useful you must die. In most cases, I try to not die. Just a general rule of thumb.
Smite -- Must have for junglers. Great spell for securing major buffs, or even pushing lanes. However, this guide is not for jungling, and as such,
Smite will not be horribly useful to you.
Cleanse -- Since you will have resistances and health, single CC will most likely not instantly mean you will go from full to 0% health in 2 seconds. Your tenacity and shield will give you enough time to make an escape in almost all cases. If you are facing a heavy CC team, consider
Mercurial Scimitar instead. While not a horrible choice, it is certainly not close to the forerunners in my opinion.
Teleport -- This is an interesting spell I have considered trying out multiple times but have never switched from my tried and true
Flash and
Ignite. By taking
Teleport you put immediate pressure on the enemy team. Any fight can quickly have you join, or you can get to towers to defend, return to lane faster, do sneaky ganks, etc. I recommend taking
Teleport if you have a team that wants to be somewhere, together, fast. A heavy ganking team, a heavy pushing team, or a team designed around getting major objectives suddenly is where
Teleport will shine. I would replace your
Ignite with it, as you will probably need your
Flash since it is a great utility spell.
Barrier -- Create a shield around you. Basically your
Golden Aegis only weaker. If you are in a tough situation, there is a very small chance that
Barrier will do a better job of keeping you alive better then
Flash. I just don't feel like another shield is really necessary.
Exhaust -- Slows enemy and reduces their damage. A great spell for dueling or chasing. However, I find
Ignite to be better lane game as it reduces heals and can secure kills, and as mentioned before, between
Frozen Mallet and
Randuin's Omen, you already have good chasing power.
Ignite -- Ignite. True damage. Possibly my favorite summoner spells,
Ignite gives you that extra bit of damage, reduces healing during skirmishes, finishes off low health fleeing enemies. If you decide to go into the
Summoner's Wrath
mastery, when
Ignite is on cooldown, you will also get 5 additional attack damage and ability power.
Clairvoyance -- Reveals a small area of the map for 5 seconds. Not terribly helpful as for 75 gold, you reveal an area for three minutes. If anyone is going to pick up this spell, it should be the support, as you need to focus on winning your lane since it is just you and the enemy in most cases.
Flash --
Flash! Savior of the Universe! Basically teleport a short distance instantly. Go over walls, chase, run, initiate, etc. Some really great plays can occur because of this spell. With Jarvan, one of the most useful mechanics I have found is to
Cataclysm someone or someones when you are trying to escape, then flash out. YOUR FLASH WILL NOT REACH OUTSIDE YOUR ARENA IF YOU FLASH IMMEDIATELY AFTER ULTING! YOU MUST MOVE A VERY SMALL AMOUNT BEFORE FLASHING!


Summoner Spells






































If you are reading this guide I am pretty sure you are aware of how important items are to League of Legends. Therefore, I will simply just right into what my personal preferences are for Jarvan IV, along with other potential items to consider to flavor for your taste.
Starting Items
Boots + 3
Health Potion
First Back
Vampiric Scepter or
Phage + Sight Ward if enough gold.
After this you want to build towards you main core item set if you are facing a balanced opponent with no particular getting outrageously fed. You generally want to finish your
Frozen Mallet followed by
Bloodthirster. After that you want to determine who is the biggest threat to you and build that appropriate counter items, either
Randuin's Omen or
Maw of Malmortius
Your final item can be your choice. It is extremely rare you will get far enough into the game to actually be able to get your final item. If you do however, feel free to choose between offensive, defense, or both. I personally choose
Warmog's Armor just because it turns your already impressive health into a solid bar of absolute tank.
Boots
Since you will be in the middle of the fight for the most part, the tenacity gained from
Mercury's Treads will be invaluable. However, should you be facing a particular annoying AD based teamed focused around right clicking,
Ninja Tabi would not be a bad choice.
As for the enchantments, I have personally found a favorite within
Enchantment: Homeguard. It allows you get back to lane a little faster, and should you need to do an emergency recall back to base to defend, you will arrive with full health, mana, and a nice speed buff to surprise anyone or anything trying to destroy a precious inhibitor or turret. There are two other choices that are what I would recommend should you not find
Enchantment: Homeguard to be your style:
Enchantment: Alacrity -- The base movement speed is helpful in a variety of ways, whether it be chasing, running, moving to join a skirmish, or simply returning to lane. A solid choice.
Enchantment: Furor -- Similar to Alacrity, just with a slightly more increased move speed on the condition you have dealt single target damage. I would not recommend these for
Jarvan IV since he is a predominantly melee champion and multiple hits on a target will be tough before getting your
Frozen Mallet. However, should you find yourself chasing a lot and falling just a little short of the kill, this enchantment could come in handy.
Bloodthirster -- A very solid item for both damage and lifesteal. I find it to be the most consisten tlifesteal item and almost always worth the 3000 gold used to buy it.
Frozen Mallet -- While others may not consider this to be an offensive item, I feel that just the consistent slow alone helps you get kills, and therefore should be classified as an offensive item. It gives you great chasing power, a slight bump in attack damage, and not a small amount of health.
Black Cleaver -- Ah.
Black Cleaver. Health, Damage, Armor Shredding, Cool down Reduction. All great things. I used to buy this all the time on
Jarvan IV when I first started playing him. It is a great item if you wish to go for more damage in exchange for a little bit of health and resistances. If you are facing an enemy team that is particularly armor heavy, picking this item up will probably be well worth you gold.
Trinity Force -- A very solid item, albeit extremely expensive. Even though
Trinity Force gives you a little of just about everything (Health, Mana, Crit, Slow, Spellsword, Damage, etc), I just don't find it to be worth the 4200 gold it is listed at, especially since you should already be getting a
Frozen Mallet with your
Phage.
Atma's Impaler -- With the amount of health you will be getting,
Atma's Impaler is not a horrible choice. Instead of
Warmog's Armor you may want to pick this up for more damage.
Last Whisperer -- Same with
Black Cleaver in terms of armor penetration. More up front "armor penetration", so it is very helpful should you only be getting one or two shots off on an enemy.
Ravenous Hydra -- The alternative to
Bloodthirster. I find this item to be more useful if you are facing an enemy team that has an above average amount of melee characters. If you use this item in combination with
Cataclysm, you can do quite a bit of damage with a lot of lifesteal. This item is also great if you are finding yourself facing huge minion waves you need to clear quickly.
Maw of Malmortius -- A very solid item, and my personal choice for magic resistance. The additional damage is also quite helpful and the passive shield has saved my life more then a couple times.
Frozen Heart -- While this is a solid armor item, it gave you mana you usually don't need and no health. You can get the armor and health from Randuin's better. Unless you are going against a heavy Attack Speed physical damage team, I would not recommend this item.
Guardian Angel -- A great item that will let you jump into the fight, tank the damage, do your damage, and come back for second helpings. As a nice final item, I usually get this if teamfights are close and that second life will make a difference in swinging the fight.
Ohmwrecker -- My favorite Catalyst the Protector item. Armor, Health, Mana, and a great passive for pushing, diving turrets, or taking down the nexus's turrets. Gives you something to build a Catalyst the Protector into later in the game.
Randuin's Omen -- Personally my favorite armor item. Both the health and armor are substantial. The first passive is enough to really slow down a tough target attacking you. The second is an amazing Active ability that allows you to kite, get away, chase. It is simply another slow to your already impressive arsenal of crowd control.
Runic Bulwark -- Oh Runic Bulwark. How I love thee. However, I find this item is more suited for the support to pick up. However, if your support does not, or you simply want a solid item that gives Health, Magic Resist, Armor, and Health regeneration in one item, definitely pick this up after as your third or fourth main item.
Sunfire Aegis -- Nice item but I just find
Randuin's Omen to be better overall. The goal is to have the enemy dead before the passive can really do enough damage to make the damage worth it.
Banshee's Veil -- Once again, a nice item and something to build your Catalyst the Protector into. If you are facing a balanced team, an early Catalyst the Protector will be well worth it and will give you options later. The magic resist is nice, as is the spell shield, but the damage from
Maw of Malmortius is more appealing to me personally.
Warmog's Armor -- 1000 extra health. and regenerating 1.5% of your health every 5 seconds. Both of those are solid stats, especially in combination with the resistances you already have from your items, masteries, and runes.
Mercurial Scimitar -- Unless you are facing a very heavy CC team there are better options. ( Maw of Malmorius)
Core Items and Build Order
Starting Items


First Back


After this you want to build towards you main core item set if you are facing a balanced opponent with no particular getting outrageously fed. You generally want to finish your




Your final item can be your choice. It is extremely rare you will get far enough into the game to actually be able to get your final item. If you do however, feel free to choose between offensive, defense, or both. I personally choose

Boots
Since you will be in the middle of the fight for the most part, the tenacity gained from


As for the enchantments, I have personally found a favorite within






Offensive Items












Last Whisperer -- Same with




Defensive Items












Jarvan be a great farming, with lane clear should he need it, or substantial last hitting prowess through his passive
Martial Cadence. Last hiting shouldn't be a problem, and since Jarvan does have his passive, he has slightly more leniency in how much health a minion has when attempting to last hit it. However, there are some things you should remember and try with Jarvan:
As a general tip for farming: If you are not moving with your team, move to get creeps. Do not wander around. Go to whereever you can farm the most creeps in the shortest amount of time. If you are in bot lane, and top lane has a wave of about 15 creeps, it may be better for you to simply farm double golems and wraiths. By the team you would have reached top lane, some of the enemy creeps would have been dead and you would have lost both experience and gold that you could have achieved faster. If you have the time and clearing power, clear on your way. Kite the neutral monsters as best you can on your way to your destination.

- At mid levels, with enough damage,
Dragon Strike will one hit caster minions.
- Should
Dragon Strike not kill caster minions
Demacian Standard should finish them off.
- Using your
Demacian Standard +
Dragon Strike combo will slightly extend the range of
Dragon Strike, allowing you to catch an extra minion or two.
- Should you not get
Ravenous Hydra, use your passive to spread the damage when pushing. Hit multiple minions, then
Dragon Strike to kill them all.
As a general tip for farming: If you are not moving with your team, move to get creeps. Do not wander around. Go to whereever you can farm the most creeps in the shortest amount of time. If you are in bot lane, and top lane has a wave of about 15 creeps, it may be better for you to simply farm double golems and wraiths. By the team you would have reached top lane, some of the enemy creeps would have been dead and you would have lost both experience and gold that you could have achieved faster. If you have the time and clearing power, clear on your way. Kite the neutral monsters as best you can on your way to your destination.
Due to Jarvan's unusual toolkit involving his
Demacian Standard +
Dragon Strike combination, it is important to time your crowd control with your teammates in the laning phase while trying to execute a successful gank attempt. In general I usually let the Jungler or character ganking use their CC first, as the enemy usually is not expecting it. With their crowd control in place, make sure to time your combo as close as possible to the ganker's crowd control ending, to achieve maximum lock down. If you overlap, a portion of both crowd controls are wasted, increasing the chance of the enemy escaping.
Also, if the enemy has
Flash or a flash like ability, (
Arcane Shift,
Distortion, etc), wait for them to use the ability before using your knockup. This will allow you to judge if you will be able to chase and kill them. If you do not, and they use their escape mechanism after your crowd control, you will have fewer options to use and chase them. This especially applies to your ultimate
Cataclysm.
Cataclysm will simply be for damage if they just flash or blink out of the arena, leaving you in it and having to react fast to deactivate and chase. However, if you burn their flash before using
Cataclysm or your
Demacian Standard +
Dragon Strike combo, they will be stuck and you will have a better chance of killing them since they lost their escape options.
Be sure to communicate how you want to execute ganks to your teammates for maximum effectiveness.


Also, if the enemy has








Be sure to communicate how you want to execute ganks to your teammates for maximum effectiveness.
For the final section, I thought I would share a couple neat little combinations I enjoy doing with Jarvan.
The first is your ability to make the best out of getting turret dove. As long as you have at least 130 mana, you have plenty of options. My favorite is baiting them as far into turret range as possible, then using your E + Q combination to knock them up. This will leave them in the turret for 1-2 extra turret shots, and allows you a small amount of distance. This is also useful against multiple enemies diving you, as you can usually hit most or all of them.
The second is engaging teamfights. Usually your E + Q combo to knock up as many as possible is how to want to engage. However, should you be facing a team with a lot of channeling abilities such as
Nunu & Willump,
Galio,
Miss Fortune,
Katarina, you may want to save this combo to interrupt those ultimates. Usually you should focus the squishy damage dealers with this combination.
Demacian Standard +
Dragon Strike +
Martial Cadence will often do almost 50% of a squishy characters health. You can then either use
Cataclysm to try and finish them off, or to use on a group of enemies to keep them busy while your carries poke from the safety outside the arena.
Never forgot you can use your
Demacian Standard +
Dragon Strike combination to close distance. If you have a low healthy enemy who is keeping their distance, but still sticking around, simply E + Q and then
Cataclysm to them to finish this off. Alternatively, you can use the combo to escape over walls.
The first is your ability to make the best out of getting turret dove. As long as you have at least 130 mana, you have plenty of options. My favorite is baiting them as far into turret range as possible, then using your E + Q combination to knock them up. This will leave them in the turret for 1-2 extra turret shots, and allows you a small amount of distance. This is also useful against multiple enemies diving you, as you can usually hit most or all of them.
The second is engaging teamfights. Usually your E + Q combo to knock up as many as possible is how to want to engage. However, should you be facing a team with a lot of channeling abilities such as








Never forgot you can use your



Well guys, that's it. I know it was a long tedious ride, but if you read all of it, THANK YOU! Hopefully this will help people learn
Jarvan IV. As mentioned before, if you have ANY comments, concerns, questions, criticisms, or suggestions, please let me know! I will try to keep this as updated as possible!

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