DISCLAIMER: This guide will assume you know the basic mechanics of both League of Legends and Jarvan IV.

Hello, and welcome to my jungle guide for Jarvan. This guide will explain everything you will need to know for being an annoyance who shoves his lance and gathers kills. He is an extremely good melee carry, and can easily carry a team to victory if played correctly.

Sadly, in his carry dps form, he is very squishy and fairly easy to kill because of his required proximity to enemy players. On that note, he is best suited for ganking and 1v1 encounters, and disrupting the enemy team in team fights. He should try to avoid initiating team fights, but should take every opportunity to kill opponents where he has an upper hand.

This is Jarvan's passive. On his auto attacks he will deal 10% of the target's current health as bonus magic damage. This can not exceed 400 damage, and can only happen once on a target every 6 seconds. Essentially, its just free damage.

This is Jarvan's primary source of damage, excluding his auto attacks. Its a skill shot that will deal damage to anything within the skillshot indicator. It also lowers the targets armor. If this hits his Demacian Standard on the ground, it will pull him to the standard. Anything in the path of the pull is knocked in the air.

This is Jarvan's defensive mechanic and slow. Anything within a small AoE of Jarvan will be slowed when he casts this. He also gains a shield, which is increased depending on the number of enemy champions in range of him. Generally, you would use this when chasing someone, or just to protect yourself from incoming damage.

This is Jarvan's main ability. It gives him increased armor and attack speed, and does damage upon landing in a small AoE. When you place it on the ground, it gives you and your allies the same amount of armor and attack speed as the passive, essentially doubling the effect for you, and increasing your allies armor/attack speed. However, this ability is mainly used for the passive, as well as the grapple effect it has in conjunction with Dragon Strike. Essentially, you can use this to initiate or escape. On top of all these wonderful effects, he can cast this in the fog of war, and it will act as a ward for a short time.

This is Jarvan's ultimate. It creates a barrier around the person he casts it on, encasing them in a circle with Jarvan. Other players near the player you cast it on can be encased as well. This barrier can be taken down by Jarvan whenever he wants, by pushing his 'R' again. It can be flashed out of, spun out of, or any sort of teleport that moves your character from one place to the next. E.G. - Flash, Shaco's Q, Jarvan's Q+E, Kat's E, etc. Good for ganking, and isolating one person from a team fight.

Marks: Armor Penetration is good on any physical character.

Seals: Armor seals will make jungling much easier, as well as give you some survivability.

Glyphs: Attack Speed is what Jarvan is all about. The goal is the have max attack speed by the end of the game.

Quintessences: Health will make jungling easier, and gives you more survivability.

Jungling without this on Jarvan is a guaranteed death in the jungle. You will not be able to jungle at Level 1 without this.

An all around good summoner spell, and useful on almost every champion. Good for chasing, or fleeing.

Jarvan is primarily good for shutting down squishy casters and 1v1 encounters. He can initiate small skirmishes as well as escape from large battles.

His goal is to pick off the squishy enemies, and then leave the fight if need be.

Because of his great cc, via QE combo, he can easily stop an enemy in their tracks and take them down in a matter of seconds. His QE combo is especially useful for getting behind the bulkier enemies, and getting straight to the squishier characters.

His ultimate is also crucial for team fights and ganking. He should use it to isolate the squishier characters. He should also time his QE combo to CC them as soon as the barrier from his ultimate is taken down, making for an easier kill.

If you are confident in your ability to live throughout team fights, get these. These are my preferred boots, because of the attack speed bonus.

If you're not so sure about your abilities and want to play it on the safe side, get these. Slightly less damage, but greater survivability. These should also be your go-to item if the enemy team has a lot of CC.


More lifesteal, more damage. Theres really no contest. Get this item.

Increases damage, and damage on crits. This will change your crits from 600 to 1000.

More crit to go well with Infinity Edge, as well as increased attack speed for more damage output.

Good against tanks, and even more damage/attack speed.


Only ever get this if they are caster or CC heavy or if it is your last item. You should replace Wriggle's Lantern with this after you have a full build.

Only get this if they have lots of physical carries that are taking the time to focus you. Replace Phantom Dancer with this if you need both Banshee's Veil and Thornmail.

These items are what I have in a typical end-game situation. It provides enough lifesteal to keep me alive during team fights, and an extremely high amount of damage paired with his already insane attack speed because of Demacian Standard.

You should first start at the Dual Golems. Be sure that Demacian Standard hits both, as the AoE is big enough to do so. Smite the first one, and kill the 2nd one. Use a health potion the second you take damage, and then proceed to use them every time the buff wears off.

From there you should move to Wraith camp. Use your QE Combo to knock them up, kill the smaller ones first, then the large one. Do not use ANY abilities after you use the QE Combo for wraith camp.

From Wraith Camp, you move the the wolves across mid-lane. QE combo to start them off, kill the smaller ones, then the bigger one. Again, do not use anything after the QE combo.

From wolves, you will do blue buff. By now, smite will be up. Focus the golem, kill it with smite, and then move on to the two smaller lizards. After this, you will be level 3, and will be making your first trip back to base.

Buy a Vampiric Scepter.

Go to Dual Golems again, kill them both.

Afterwards, go to Red Buff. Kill it, smite will be up by now.

Proceed to jungle until you get enough money for both a Wriggle's Lantern and a Dagger.

[VIDEO SOON!]

In combination, these two abilities provide you with CC as well as a great initiating and escaping tool. This combination can also be used to leap over walls. It acts similar to Tryndamere's spin, or Shen's taunt, but with a slightly larger range.

Also, the max range of Demacian Standard matches perfectly to the max range of Dragon Strike. By this I mean, if you put your Standard down at the max range, then use your spear pointing at it, you will get dragged to your standard.
This ability is primarily used for isolation, as previously stated. It is not considered indestructible terrain, meaning, for instance: Poppy can not stun people on the wall in conjunction with her charge. This also means that while escaping, you can easily use this ability, and then use your QE combo to get out, while leaving them trapped behind you.

All in all, Jarvan is a great champion with extremely good ganking capability and damage output.

Please leave comments about what you think of this guide and any suggestions you have to improve this build.

Thanks for reading.

-QuasarLeginan

[Thursday, April 28th, 2011] - Jarvan, the Lance Thrusting Jungler was released on Mobafire.com
[Saturday, April 30th, 2011] - Jarvan, the Lance Thrusting Jungler was released on Leaguecraft.com