Jarvan IV, like all champions, has a very specific way to be played. He works great as a tank or AD off-tank in top lane, and a great AD off-tank when in the jungle. What most people don't realize about Jarvan is that his damage output is crazy when fine-tuned. This guide will show you how to fine-tune that to match your play-style, whether it be aggressive with poke, passive, or anywhere in between.

This guide is designed for Jarvan to be solo in the top lane. He can be duo top if there is no jungler, but as you will soon find, Jarvan doesn't play well with others.

So what can Jarvan do that makes him such a threat if left unchecked?

Jarvan's basic abilities allow for a surprisingly high amount of poke along with sustain in lane and some of the best escape and chase mechanics in the game.
The combination you will be using the most is your E and your Q together. this provides for poke, cc, bonus armor pen, bonus attack speed, and a very good engage.

E will drop your "Demacian Standard" which will do AoE damage wherever you choose to place it, it also gives off an aura providing increased attack speed.

Q will extend your lance and deal damage while lowering the enemies armor.

How are those THAT good?

Well, if you use your Q in it intercepts where your E is currently placed, you will be pulled to it while knocking up enemies along the way. *note you do not need to use E to use Q you can simply extend lance by it self* it can be a great way to chase opponents down or to escape an otherwise deadly situation. Beware trying to use this to turret dive will usually not end well at lower levels!

So we covered the damage, but why is he such a good tank?

W grants you a shield that will absorb a good amount of damage which increases depending on mow many enemy champions are near, and slowing those around you.

So lets recap... He can poke very well... he can knock up... he can slow... he has a shield... he gains bonus attack speed... he lowers armor... and he can engage or disengage at will.
HE SOUNDS WAY OP

The thing about Jarvan is that he is very mana heavy and has long cooldowns early game. Therefore people who try to spam abilities early game against someone with high sustain (or even cloth armor with 5 health potions start) will be out of mana fast and susceptible to ganks. He also has low sustain damage until higher levels making going against champions with a heal, like tryndamere, or a natural tank, like malphite more difficult. A passive beginning is recomended but if you can get a few auto attacks in and and ability every now and then you can scare most champions out of some early farm.

So what is Jarvan's 4th ability?

R Jarvan jumps on an enemy champion and deals lots of damage while creating a arena of impassable terrain

This is such a game changing move in team fights. you can separate the team, isolate a fed enemy, or trap the whole enemy team for use of other AoE ults, such as Miss Fortune's or Sona's.
Many Jarvan make the mistake of saving the ult for the "perfect moment" to trap as many players as possible. But his cooldown is short enough (at 16) to use about once per fight. Many will argue on who to target or how to use this ult to split teams but if you have an enemy who is putting out crazy damage you can easily shut them down with a little help from your team.

How can you shut down someone who is fed with Jarvan?

Its all about the engage. If your engage isn't right you will most likely be punished for it. But a perfect engage with 1-2 team-mates with you can turn a game around

So what is a perfect engage?

The most ideal engage to have would be to use E and hit the intended target follow up with Q to rush to them dealing further damage and knocking them up. follow up with your R to trap them and continue damaging them. Use your W to get the shield and the slow and (while auto-attacking the whole time) re-use Q to finish them off.
With any luck your team-mates will have done some damage while you were using Jarvan's full combo

Jarvan is a very tanky and durable engage but don't sacrifice him like a meat shield as his abilities benefit the entire team.