Hello there,

Im a Bronze player from England. I know what your thinking 'Oh a guide from a Bronze Rank Ignore' however Jarvan is my best champion and I wish to impart the slight knowledge I have onto others. I have used Jarvan as a jungler since near the end of season 2 and I am personally far from being good as im in bronze, but I have a lot of experience with jarvan, so I made this guide to share my knowledge of him.

In season 2 and the start of season 3 jarvan was incredibly underplayed, but with several of the S3 changes (Penetration Scaling / Bulwark->Locket Patch) made him just that little bit stronger, which was enough for the pro's to notice how strong he is and pick him up. Just look at the world championship final with how SK Telecom T1 played him. I think you noticed his potential.

Jarvan himself has always been a strong jungle pick since early 2013 and though he has been nerfed he still is a very good champion to use due to being a tank and initiator.

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+ Jarvan's Strengths
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+Slightly higher base armor thanks to his standard
+An AoE slow around him
+An AoE cc that also deals damage
+Terrain control via ult
+An AoE armor shredder
+AS aura standard
+Easy to play champion just requires skill to master
+The best counterganker in the game
+A Shield that scales based on the amount of champions hit
+Has no pick bias in draft/ranked
+Always useful and relevant all game
+Extremely mobile
+Great Pre-6 Ganker
+High burst damage

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- Weaknesses
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- No sustain
- Low DPS
- Mana issues if you don't plan when to use your q-w-e-r
- Not the best base stats
- His Initiate is his escape

These in my opinion are the best choices for maximizing Jarvan's Passive and Q-E combo potential. I have experimented with Cooldown Reduction Glyphs however it was very situational depending on their team. If they have a strong ad team the CDR Glyphs are the better option than against an ap team because of his Arm/M.Res via levelling up.
In my opinion there are no right or wrong runes, it is how you experiment with them and how you want to use them for your champion to make him/her your own.

Jarvan is very versatile when it comes to masteries, there is no 'correct' build for his masteries. His masteries can be played in any way from heavily defensive to heavily offensive. The reason I put the masteries mainly into offensive is due to the build being damage lacking ignoring the armour penetration. Having 21 invested into Offense means that he can get a 13% boost of armour penetration which helps you demolish their tanks and their squishys when you initiate for your team to then finish them off. You can even solo a team with a fully built J4 and come out with a penta. I've done it once however I was lucky due to taking their tank out first when he was solo. Anyway that's off topic. I find having the 21 in Offensive more useful than a defensive or utility buff as your build gives you the defense you need and utility wise, you are always stealing their blue so you never have to worry about not having a blue to spam your skills and that's just what J4 is about QE spam.

Machete + 5 Potions are the typical jungle start.

First back aim for Spirit Stone + Boots 1

Golem / Brutalizer are the main core of this build, you need the cdr asap early game with the bonus armour pen because it will make your q-e combo all the better and more spammable.

Final Build:
Banshee's for taking the CC skill and shrugging it off like Leona's ult or stun which would be focused at you when you initiate. Randuins for team control combo with your W. Locket because it works so well with Jarvan, its now perfect for him since the Runic Bulwark update due to it being the two items he would have wanted in the past combined, it just works. Homeguard is always useful with boots 2 because you can get to their nexus in 13 seconds from being up. I prefer Boots of Movement to Boots of Swiftness or Lucidity on J4 because it gives you so much more presence in jungle and lane as you can get across the map so much faster which is more important than reduced slows and better CDR.

Optional Choices:
Heavy AD team? Switch Banshee's or Randuin's for Sunfire Cape.
Got 3k spare gold and want to rip people to ****? Take Hydra as it makes you almost untouchable and your clear time will boom dramatically.
Frozen heart is there if you need cdr and you dont feel Randuin's will do the job for you. Very situational.

I used to never get J4's "W" until around level 13 because he had so much presence early game however with games getting shorter it is becoming more necessary to have it at level 3 rather than maxing q early and having a Rank 2 Standard. Starting with the standard gives you the AS boost and Armour boost in order to clear camps quickly and efficiently. If you time it right you can get two standards off against blue buff and it means you have no need for a leash. (Even if they are useful, you can clear it in the same time solo). Cataclysm is sometimes the bane of some people. A lot of them assume it's your initiator when really its your chase. You should Q-E a champion or their team to initiate, W then Rand. Omen to slow them enough for your team to terrorize them without them being able to escape far. You would only use cataclysm as an initiator if their team was in your sphere of cataclysm where you would hit them all and you had an ally champion who could destroy them whilst they were trapped. Quite often Cataclysm can be a hinderence for your team instead of being helpful. This is why J4 is better suited with champions who can take advantage of his Ultimate. His passive will rip people to **** anyway.

This is a very basic Jarvan guide. I will add to it as I become a better player. Hope it helps in ANY way. Tips for what to add/remove on the guide appreciated for the next update of the guide.

Updates to come:
Champion Matchup
In-Depth Skill Review + Tips
Jungle Clear Time Stats
Tips and tricks for if behind