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Spells:
Exhaust
Cleanse
Ability Order
Martial Cadence (PASSIVE)
Jarvan IV Passive Ability
Chapter 1
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Hello, and welcome to my Guide for JARVAN IV - The Exemplar of Demacia
As this is my first guide, I'd really appreciate comments, criticism, and advice--especially if you vote. Thank you!
Published: 14 June 2011 Last Updated: 16 June 2011
Yes, the build only contains 3 core items. You are a tank--I cannot give you a build that will work in every game. Read the whole guide, especially this.
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Table of Contents
I. Preface
II. Pros and Cons
III. Skills and Skill Sequence
IV. Summoner Spells
-- Other Viable Summoner Spells
V. Runes
VI. Masteies
VII. The Build Sequence and Beyond
-- Situational Items
VIII. Laning & Play Style
-- Early Game Phase
-- Mid Game Phase
-- Late Game Phase
IX. Closing
X. Changelog
I. Preface
II. Pros and Cons
III. Skills and Skill Sequence
IV. Summoner Spells
-- Other Viable Summoner Spells
V. Runes
VI. Masteies
VII. The Build Sequence and Beyond
-- Situational Items
VIII. Laning & Play Style
-- Early Game Phase
-- Mid Game Phase
-- Late Game Phase
IX. Closing
X. Changelog
This guide assumes you are reasonably familiar with the game (i.e. you know standard abbreviations, are familiar with common tactics like backdooring, leashing, and ganking, and are comfortable playing as a coordinated team, both in teamfights and securing the "big" neutrals).
This build excels in early-game laning, survivability (of course!), and is considerably strong in late-game damage. If played properly (in my opinion), it falls short only during the mid-game, as most of your non-base damage comes from
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Pros
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Cons
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Your easy last hits, your initiation burst, your melee harass. Poke, poke, poke :3
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Range: 770
Cost: 45 / 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 mana
Cooldown: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 seconds
Physical Damage: 70 / 120 / 170 / 220 / 270 (+1.1 per bonus attack damage)
Armor Reduction: 10 / 14 / 18 / 22 / 26 %
General advice: *never* ignore secondary components on abilities. Damage on a stun, perhaps, or Armor reduction on a damaging active. Max this first, use it to poke the squishy ranged who dares defy your will, or just get last hits you can't otherwise reach. A more powerful, but expensive, harass, is a skillful Standard drop followed by a Dragon Strike to knock them up and put yourself in melee range, and finishing with one or two autoattacks, thereby proccing your innate.
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Cost: 75 mana Radius of AoE: 600
Cooldown: 20 / 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 seconds
Shield Strength: 50 / 90 / 130 / 170 / 210
Extra Shield Strength: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 per nearby enemy champion
Slow: 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 %
Jarvan's a pretty mana hungry champ, so be smart in your use of Golden Aegis. In a teamfight, use its per-enemy bonus to shield yourself up to 410 health (a lot more raw damage when you consider your high resistances). In a gank, use it to chase. Do not, however, use it because you don't like small pokes in the laning phase, or you'll be running on fumes in no time.
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(Active): Jarvan IV throws a Demacian flag to a nearby area, dealing magic damage to enemies in the area and granting his passive bonus to nearby allies and again to himself for 8 seconds.
Cost: 60 mana Cooldown: 12 seconds Range to Center: 830
Attack Speed Bonus: 10 / 14 / 18 / 22 / 26%
Armor Bonus: 10 / 14 / 18 / 22 / 26
Magic Damage: 60 / 110 / 160 / 210 / 260 (+0.8 per ability power)
Whoa. Up to 52 armor and 52% attack speed without a single item. The other half of your knockup, Standard is amazing in teamfights since it grants your passive to yourself (stacking) and your allies, giving you assists just for the buff. Max this second.
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Range: 650 Radius of Wall AoE: 300
Cost: 100 / 125 / 150 mana
Cooldown: 120 / 105 / 90 seconds
Physical Damage: 200 / 325 / 450 (+1.5 per bonus attack damage)
Accompanied by a terrifying war-cry, Cataclysm is the coolest, albeit trickiest to use, of Jarvan's abilities. Use it to trap runners (even a
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Other Viable Summoner Spells
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Greater Mark of Desolation: A fantastic mark both for deceptively strong early-games and the best end-game dps.
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Also consider:
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Also consider:
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Greater Quintessence of Desolation: Same reasoning as Marks. Other options are available if you wish to lean even *more* tanky, but I've found this build suffices.
Also consider:
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9/21/0 is very standard for most tanks, but a second viable build would be 0/21/9, with points placed in Good Hands, Expanded Mind, and Meditation. I chose the Offense Tree as a secondary focus to both buff Exhaust and your already-powerful innate damage, something I consider more valuable than both Good Hands and the five mastery points dedicated to assuaging Jarvan's mana hunger by choosing the Utility Tree.
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Beyond that, you're a tank--nearly every item you get is situational.
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Remember, though, you want to be focused. You have to give the enemy team a reason to focus you, and sometimes your
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Build order largely falls to good judgement--remember you are a tank first!
Situational Items
As you are a tank, you'll spend literally every game picking the best three items from this list for your scenario for your remaining slots. This section attempts to give you a general outline for the scenarios in which you'll find each item useful. Assess the enemy team, watch how they build, and react accordingly.
Offensive
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Defensive
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Quicksilver Sash size-32 I occasionally find myself taking this if the enemy team has too many debuffs or too much CC. Its moderate-to-high MR combined with a low-cooldown Cleanse make it more than worth its low cost, especially if you opted for another summoner spell.
Sight Ward
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Early Game Phase
In the current meta-game, you'll usually take the top solo-lane, but it's possible for you to mid-lane against appropriate champions. As a powerful last-hitter, you usually don't want to duo-lane unless it's with a character meant to give last hits to their partner (most support champions come to mind).
Harass with
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As a strong damaging character with great survivability, you'll find Jarvan is an excellent pusher. Exercise caution in pushing, however, as doing so leaves you vulnerable to ganks from the enemy jungler or any other MIA character.
Recall as necessary, making sure to leave your lane covered (either by lack of an enemy or presence of an ally), lest you allow a freefarm or some of your tower's health to the enemy.
Mid Game Phase
This phase separates the men-Jarvans from the, uh... boy Jarvans. Jarven? I dunno. That could use some more thought. By this time, laners usually fan out, pushing and ganking in various lanes. Barring the necessity of your presence elsewhere, try to stick to the top lane, continuing to poke and push (this time, however, you'll notice you're not as damaging, as
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Should you reach a tower and deem it safe (even if an enemy is there), drop a Standard (not on them! You don't want to piss off the tower :P) and start wailing on it. Assuming you don't die, a couple of your hit points is well worth a couple of a tower's hit points. Use your abilities as outlined in Skills and Skill Sequence to execute ganks, towerdives, and teamfights.
Late Game Phase
Once you've got your build fleshed out, you can take a helluva punishment and still give the reds no choice but to focus you with your gamebreaking CC, artfully executed initiation, and respectable damage, both sustained and burst. Continue using your skills as previously outlined and lead your team's charge to victory!
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Of course, what's a guide without some help? :)
I'd like to thank the following people:
MOBAFire Staff and Community for helping me through a lot of my noob days and getting me to where I am today!
DuffTime for his Offtank Guide and Jarvan Guide, which inspired me to take up tanking and offtanking in the first place--the roles I now consider my specialties,
SixSonatas for his lovely post concerning guide content and formatting, and
You, for reading and (hopefully) providing feedback!
What, I'm allowed to kiss up, right? >_>
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14 June 2011: Published
16 June 2011: Revamped build, attempted to make guide much more general purpose.
To be added/Under Construction:
Troubling Champions and Countering Them
Combat Tips, Tricks, and Strategies
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