**UPDATED FOR NEW SEASON**

currently on a 7 game winning streak with jungle jarvan in ranked play.

*Has received major update*

Jarvan became my main some time a go. I learned that he offers an amazing suite of abilities with extremely high overall utility. He really doesn't have much of a counterpick, although malphite kinda qualifies. I began to claw my way outta elo hell with jarvan and eventually got a six win streak going in single entry ranked. I also got to a 65 percent overall win rate with him. Then ran into a tough section, then started winning again. This guide reflects all of that learning. I currently have a 60 percent single entry win rate playing jarvan in ranked.

Best Teammates: Obviously you want a balanced team. Jarvan is almost always either top lane or jungle. Both are very solid. I have also run him as support a few times and felt he did well. But, he specifically does well with other champs that have a decent amount of cc. It is much easier to land an E, Q combo onto an already stunned, stopped, or slowed opponent, and quite easy to extend an already existing stun right into a pop-up. A full stop immobilize champion like morgana, etc make landing that combo a breeze. Cho'Gath is basically the ideal partner bringing complementary cc, solid magic damage, and tanking.

Pros:

- strong teamfighter w/ aura's, cc, damage, and tanking
- versatile, top lane, jungle lane, strong pusher
- escape moves, initiate moves, can leap barriers
- fast jungle clear with new item mechanics

Cons:
- early mana problems can lead to issues against high sustain opponents
- can be susceptible to aggressive duelist counter-junglers

**UPDATE** I really think Jarvan has benefitted immensely from the recent changes, this build is very powerful.

With the new changes machete plus 5 health pots is very powerful. I buy boots then spirit stone although you should definitely try to go back with at least enough for that basic level of upgrade. I'll upgrade my boots to mobility boots next, then add a vampiric sceptre followed by avarice blade. You might consider finishing the crest of the ancient golem if you want early tankiness and cc reduction, otherwise I finish the botrk next.

I always start at red, then wraiths, then wolves, then blue. Jarvan is an obscenely good ganker, and when moving it at boots of mobility speed can surprise almost anyone. The botrk is nice because it typically gives people a really good chance of securing the kill when they are helping you, not to mention its amazing damage and lifesaving proc.

As I said earlier he can be counter jungled by duelists and must be wary. Careful use of the free ward can prevent some of this, as well as taking steps to ensure you keep your health up. He has good escape moves and ghost, but sometimes these abilities are down. You really are dependent on having teammates with decent map awareness that can pounce on over aggressive junglers. I use a lot of pings and warn people bigtime when i've got a gank coming in.

Jarvan is a decent top although I think there are better ones. I now think crystalline flask is the only way to go. Jarvan's basic tactic is to stand in the magic land between 600-800 and drop pokes on people. This works great if you have plenty of mana and your opponent doesn't have much sustain. It can also really fall apart if you make some foolish choices against a difficult opponent. I definitely urge a conservative role here and would try to play under my own tower as much as possible, using your abilities primarily to last hit mobs. You then reverse hardcore when your jungler gets there for an e,q into ult combo. I didn't add a lot of late item choices here but will add that merc treads are going to become really tempting as you look for ways to make up your lost tenacity. The fundamental essence of the late game jungler build is essentially the same anyways.

For support I really like the heal spell with then gold per kill nearby support item. You need both mana and health regen and thats exactly what you get. I suppose you could really fiddle with the masteries if you were a hardcore support person, hard to beat those base masteries tho.

Merc treads for top/support + alacrity: You can suspend them if you are going against an ad non cc champ, but they just build really well into his item needs. I have included alacrity as the boot enchant in this guide. I really have no strong opinion on which is best, most fundamentally I think its important to upgrade your boots before the relatively expensive purchases.

Mobility Treads + Crest: just obscenely awesome combo for a jungle jarvan. clear times becomes soooo fast and ganks really powerful. awesome combo.

Vamp Sceptre/Cutlass/Blade of the Ruined King: The scepter is a solid early damage/sustain purchase with a very cheap upgrade to cutlass. The blade itself was absolutely made for Jarvan, with its nasty on hit proc is improved by ranks in E and the runes in this build. I tend to buy this item earlier and earlier the more i play.

Avarice blade/Atma's: A really good item that makes a top or jungle jarvan into a lategame beast. I will suspend finishing this item for absolutely as long as possible in order to maximize the gold benefit. That plus crest and you should be rolling in the bank. I built a lot of ghostblade in the past, but he already gets a solid arpen boost from dragon strike. Atma's is just solid.

Guardian Angel/magic resist: I almost always build this. I tend to think that if you have a lot of health and you are going against a standard team with about 1.5 solid magic damage champs, then you really don't need a lot of magic resist. An early negatron cloak goes a long way. The resurrect is great and should just about revive you when your e,q combo is ready to go again. For heavy ap damage opponents my first counter choice is almost always hexdrinker into maul of malmortius. With the massive tenacity provided in this build banshee's seems appropriate only for radical circumstances.

Giants Belt/Sunfire Cape: Just really like the item, this build has a lot of health which tends to make magic damage not a factor, esp with an aegis around, so the 45 armor is really sexy with Jarvan's innates. I really like the magic damage, just.. solid, esp for a guy in the middle of it. Health is pretty much always a good thing to buy with Jarvan given the benefit of his on-hit passive and desire to make fights last a long time.

Other optional items: Randuins for super heavy ad teams. Ruby sightstone if your support is a getting owned baddie (even still its a fairly good idea since you are zipping all over the map). Trinity is actually a really solid choice that I used to build constantly, less so now, really synergizes well with merc treads. Other dps and arpen items if your team is really tank heavy, although frankly botrk plus atmas hits really hard already.

Runes: I like arpen and ad now. Works really well with crest and helps you last hit better. Plus an early botrk gives you plenty of attack speed.

Masteries: I've converted to 9/21/0. Took me a while to figure it out. A more offense related build isn't bad, but Jarvan tends to spend a lot of time in the middle of the action, he needs defense. The extra health, armor/mr, health regen, damage resistance, and tenacity are just invaluable. I've also modified that same build for jungling. It works well.

Skill Sequence: E is for jungling, Q is for laning. Level the appropriate one early depending on your role. E is fine for laning, but Q is significantly easier to hit and the short cooldown is extremely valuable in the poke game. If you all in with an e,q,Ult combo you will definitely benefit from having some ranks in E. Its all situational. Q is also a very solid killer of escaping opponents who think their 700 range makes them safe, WRONG. I think W should pretty much definitely be maxxed last as its really a teamfighting move. You want a rank early for general utility purposes, ie ganking and escaping. And obviously you max your ult first.

Summoner Spells:

Ghost - I have replaced flash with ghost, its just more useful despite the couple of tricks you can do with flash, plus Jarvan already has a wall jumping move.
Flash - good, just not as good as ghost.
Ignite - top lane spell against your high sustain toplane nemesis.
Heal - I really like this for support Jarvan.
Smite - is for jungle. My biggest comment is that Jarvan is slightly diminished in pc fighting without ignite and real masteries. But you gotta do what you gotta do.

E,Q combo is just amazing. Its probably the best initiation/ganking move in the game. You can move over walls, quick start into an npc camp, or change the course of an entire teamfight. jarvan seems to do really well with a two tank combo and does exceptionally well when paired with someone like alistair or chogath.

The Poke Game: e and q both have like 800 range, this is absolutely outstanding. You generally want to hover in the magic space between 600 and 800 range where almost no one can get to you, yet you can drop e's and q's on them. Best when you are quite certain someone is gonna be in a specific place. Last hitting? --- BAM. Bumrushing one of my teamates? --- KA-BAM. Doing the pre-all-out teamfight dance, dropping your flag adds an intimidation factor. If you have enough mana you should be able to win or tie every long range poking contest. Thats a big if though since its basically all skillshots. Blue buff is very sweet early. Later on mana is much less critical.

The all in game: e then q, then.... he flashes, and...ULT. Absolutely devastating. You should NEVER initiate with ult unless you have to because e,q are on cooldown. You can also cover absolutely ridiculous amounts of ground with the flash, e,q, then ult combo. Nobody else can do it. and almost no one expects it. Just rules against fleeing or distant opponents.

Target Switching: In a big teamfight you might get tempted to constantly switch targets in order to maximize your passive. This is good, but it isn't great. I always felt like the best thing is to get kills, it just seems like the best target is generally the one most likely to die. Too, it seems like the game makes a slight pause after you tell it to switch targets. Thats a long time in an unpredictable teamfight. Just a thought.

Advanced: Once q is sufficiently leveled it can actually be used twice for a single e. This is two aoe stuns plus damage in about a 5-6 second period. Just devastating. So, you e,q into a big teamfight, popping everyone up, doing lots of damage, breaking morale, then immediately ult onto a caster or adc near the back of the enemy force. Well after beating on them and maybe getting a kill, you can recast q onto the flag you already dropped, and get another aoe stun damage in. If its done right your ult may even trap the enemy team to fighting around the original e,q location. Obviously you want to e,q into as many opponents as possible and you ARE the main tank. So yeah. Actually I think he can either main or offtank with this build. Really up to your team comp. Like i say, Jarvan has amazing utility.

Advanced2: Your team is getting its butt kicked, you ult to put a wall between the enemy and your fleeing teammates, then flash/E,Q from your own ult. Obviously you dont want to trap anyone inside the ult. This makes your team very unhappy.

I welcome your comments and am committed to being the best Jarvan possible.

best regards