Jarvan is one of the funniest solo tops I´ve ever played, but there is not so many jarvan players out there so I´m gonna make a guide that explains how to dominate with the demacian prince.

This guide will also teach the inexperienced about how u play solo top and what role u will have for your team.

If you´re thinking about buying a new solotop I would recommend that you try Jarvan IV out if you play well then you can eaisly dominate your lane. One of the biggest advantages you will have when you play jarvan is that everyone underestimates him and thats makes it much easier to get your combos in. Nobody really knows how much a Jarvan can hurt early/midgame.

If you pick up Jarvan you wont regret it if you follow my guide you will demolish other toplanes and Jarvan is a very nice choice in ranked solo queque I dont know how viable hi is in ranked teams though. But if you play by this guide you can easily climb out of elo hell and probably higher, so now if you decided to give jarvan a shot then lets get to the real guide.

Pros +Often underestimated +Capable of doing huge damage +Really strong early mid game +Is capable of oneshooting carries midgame +Pretty tanky without building tank early mid game

space

Cons -Jarvan is easy to gank -Jarvan cant do any damage if he misses his combo -Jarvan is really weak lategame -If his ulti used incorrect it can **** up your team -Has no really cool skin ;)

Martial Cadence:Jarvan IV exploits his target's opening, dealing 6/8/10% of the target's current HP as magic damage. This effect cannot occur on the same target for 6 seconds.

I think Jarvans passive is really nice and I love using it in my combo for harass and that would be E>Q and that knocks them up in the air and then you land one auto attack that will trigger your passive and that does so nice damage early/mid game. Another thing you can do with this passive level 1 is to auto attack your opponent when he goes for the lasthit, this is done when you are level 1 and it does not work against champs that are agressive early on.

Dragon Strike (Q):Jarvan IV extends his lance, dealing 70/115/160/205/250 (+110% of attack damage) physical damage and lowering the Armor of all enemies in its path by 10/14/18/22/26% for 3 seconds.

If it contacts his standard it will pull Jarvan IV to its location, knocking up enemies in his path.

Cooldown 10/9/8/7/6 seconds

Cost 45/50/55/60/65 mana

Range 500

One of your main damage dealer when you play jarvan if combined with your e ability it also decreases armor and thats nice to. Use this as often you can in lane too harass and you dont always have your E up so autoattack>Q and it will do pretty nice damage. You should also use it like that if you feel you will lose the trade if you go in with E>Q.

Golden Aegis (W):Jarvan IV forges a 50/90/130/170/210 (+20/25/30/35/40 health for each nearby enemy champion) health shield for 5 seconds, which slows surrounding enemies by 15/20/25/30/35% for 2 seconds.

Cooldown 20/18/16/14/12 seconds

Cost 75 mana

In my build I don´t really use it a lot laning the slow is nice and the shield to but the damage you get from specing in E and Q I think is better than specing in this. The biggest reason I dont use this in lane is that it burns all my mana too fast and I want that mana for hitting my E>Q combo.

Demacian Standard (E):Passive: Grants Jarvan a bonus 10/13/16/19/22% attack speed and 10/13/16/19/22 armor.

Active: Jarvan IV throws a Demacian flag to a nearby area, dealing 60/105/150/195/240 magic damage to enemies in the area and granting his passive benefits to nearby allies and again to himself for 8 seconds.

Cooldown 13 seconds

Cost 60 mana

This is a really nice ability combined with your dragon strike it knocks up enemies in the path between you and the flag gives a 22 armor 22% attackspeed to your allies when activated which is really good.

Cataclysm (R):Jarvan IV heroically leaps at an enemy champion, dealing 200/325/450 (+150 of attack damage) physical damage and creating an arena of impassable terrain around them for 3.5 seconds.

Activate again to collapse the wall.

Cooldown 120/105/90 seconds

Cost 100/125/150 mana

Range 600


Even though many think that this ability is used only for trapping enemies this is a really good nuke and a good way to finnish of enemies in your lane. I usually use E>Q and then R that will probably get a kill at level 6 with the ignite plus som auto attacks. It is true that you can flash out of your ulti but its worth it though you are trading a 100 sec cd against a 200 sec cd thats a trade I would do everytime(if flash gets wasted let your jungler know for an easy gank and kill).

I start with boots because the movement speed makes you harder to gank and it makes it easier to avoid harass/harassing.


On your first back you buy this is costs 950 but if you dont have to leave the lane I would say that you farm untill you got about 1200-1300 and then you can buy a Long Sword or something else you need.

or or against ap and
This is what you want for the midgame and wich item you get is depending on what you are facing and how you play as summoner but you get brutalizer when you feel that you can steam roll your lane, or wriggles when you face Vladimir or someother champ you need the sustain against.

or
This is your core build after this what you buy depends on the situation if you get your trinity pretty early your gonna do so much damage and after the trinity you start building into tank.


This build is what works best for me you can easily change things thats more of your own preference and I wanted to talk about items you could get instead of Wriggle's Lantern.


This item could be bought instead of Wriggle's Lantern but I only buy if I feel like I´m dominating my lane and not really getting harassed, but this is just as viable as Wriggle's Lantern but make sure you dont buy this when your facing Yorick or any other champion that out harass you really much or out sustains you then you will need to get wriggle´s. Dont buy both it will slow your trinity to much for it to be worth it.


This item is a must if u face an ap champ top, then you get this instead of your Wriggle's Lantern you can still go Wriggle's Lantern for sustain if that is what you need. Go Phage after that if you dont face ap top then I would not recommend this item.

I guess you could go with another Doran's Blade to get to trinity faster but I only do this when I cant afford Wriggle's Lantern or The Brutalizer so that I get something to boost my ad and sustain a bit but in most cases I go straight The Brutalizer or Wriggle's Lantern cause that´s what works best for me but feel free to try other ways of doing it.



In my build you can see that in the early/mid game I go with pretty offensive items and then I just go straight tank and teh reason for that is simply that jarvan is not strong late game at all but if you go tank you will still be usefull for your team and the defensive items I´ve put in my build are pretty standard but of course you will have to adapt that to the opposing team if they have alot of ad maybe you should get Frozen Heart if your team dies to fast maybe getting a Aegis of the Legion will help. Those decisions you need to make on your own.

Remember to always buy sight ward, Health Potion when you are in lane cause many players low elo forgets that, if you have 200 gold left USE IT!!! Jarvan could easily get ganked if you dont ward. Dont forget to but Elixir of Agility and Elixir of Fortitude it really is a big diffence if u buy them or dont buy them when you have a full build.

In lane I use my E Q combo for harass and damage I dont really level my W because the extra damage you get by leveling Q and E is better. When I hit level 6 I would guess the combo should be like E>Q>R and then use ignite if I´m going for the kill and thats all you need to know about using the combo. The thing that is hard about this is to hit your E>Q combo if you miss then you wont really do the damage you need to do. W is pretty easy to use I don´t really think I need to explain that its just a shield that does aoe slow pretty nice when you initiate.

You can often bait your opposing lane with last hits to get your E Q combo in. Just pretend you are going warding or something else just back off a little when there is lots of creep with little health, when they go for the creep you use your combo on them and nearly everyone in low elo will for that its get tougher in higher elo though but I´m not that high yet so I cant really cover that.

The summoners I use and other options you could use


Do I need to say anything about this? If you dont have a troll pool or Ragnarok then this is a must its probably the best summoner in the game and its good for chasing and escaping and really great for getting your ulti and trap someone, a must with this build.

This is not a must but it is really nice on jarvan cause if you have ignite you can oneshot many opposing champions and give you an easy kill. It also gives you a nice ad and ap bonus early on wich gives you a little extra damage.

You could use this instead of ignite cause teleport gives your team great controll and you can go for early dragons, its basically like a shen ulti without the shield and that means you can help you team anywhere on the map when teleport is up.

This you would use instead of flash but I personally dont like this summoner at all if I am not playing something that can ignore cc for a while like Olaf or Vladimir. I dont think it works so well with your ulti either so meh you could do it but I dont think its that good.

You could use thie if you are in a lane where you dot expect to get any kills and the opposite is more likely flash heal could be a good combo. The thing I dont like about heal is that you cant really play that agressive if the opponent has ignite then you will be forced to play defensive and I dont really like playing defense with Jarvan.

I just dont use this so much anymore I just have a feeling tha ignite is the better choice, but I think you could go with exhaust versu Olaf or someother champion that really much damage.

Greater Mark of Desolation
I pick up these runes cause they give you the most damage through the game flat ad will only make it easier to last hit and with Jarvans passive it is not that hard last hitting anyway. I would say that these are the best marks for Jarvan and you shouldn't change them if you follow my build.

This runes are so good against ad and they acually work pretty well even if you face ap though minion damage is reduced and they are very good if you get ganked in level 2 it will help you survive during lane. You could change this if you face ap to health runes or just some flat ad runes try what you feel is the best I prefer the armor seals though.

I use this for pretty much the same reasons I use armor seals and that is to get more survivability against other champs(and ofc if you are laning against ap). In mid game when you should have gone out of your lane with the advantage you start roaming and ganking mid is something I usually do and then the magic resist glyphs will really help you.
Greater Quintessence of Vigor
This runes are really good for sustaining in the lane and not being forced to b to early, and it will make it a little more even when you face a champion that outsustains you. I do think that you can replace these runes with Greater Quintessence of Life Steal I´m not sure wich is best but I go with health regeneration though I feel I dont really get to use the life steal against some champs that will make you pay for standing at their minions to long.

in progress

in progress

in progress