Jarvan IV is definitely a tad squishier since they removed the armor scaling from 
Demacian Standard. That said as far as builds go are you interested in top lane, jungle, or he has a niche spot as an aggressive support? I almost exclusively play him jungle so I can help there, but not so much with lane or support.
The first thing I would check is if you are using smart casting with him or not? If you aren't you should. Having to click twice really makes his Q+E combo hard to hit.
Other things to note his shield from Golden Aegis gets stronger based on how many people he hits with the AoE. That can help with his feeling squishy.
Also Martial Cadence does a lot of damage which is why you can build him reasonably tanky and still dish out damage, but it has a fairly long cooldown, so if you have more than one target you want to autoattack them all once, like Nautilus unless you really feel you need to focus one target. (Side note, I wish they would add a timer to it like they have for Nautilus and Udyr so you have a better idea of when to switch targets).
As far as build goes, I run Arm Pen marks, Armor Seals. 6 MR + 3 sMR Glyphs, and Atk Dmg Quint. I run the 6 flat MR because Jarvan's ganks are good as soon as he hits level 2, so I can assume I'll likely be taking some magic damage early and don't want to instantly melt to it. Besides he burns too much mana with his abilities if you run CDR glyphs unless you are running Ranger's Trailblazer for the sustain, which actually is totally viable since he has a built in slow, though I do run Stalker's Blade on him to make ganks more reliable if I miss my knock up. Masteries I go 21-9-0.
Item build depends on the game and needs of my team. I always build Enchantment: Warrior as the upgrade to my jungle item. The armor shred on top of the armor shred from Dragon Strike and your runes really bring the pain. After that the build varies. If the enemy has a bunch of tanks and I am doing well I will pick up a second The Brutalizer, which I almost always build into a Black Cleaver if my team has at least one other source of AD damage, though it is usually my last item/upgrade.
If I am doing well and the enemy team is mostly squishy and my team lacks wave clear then I will pick up a Tiamat after completing my jungle item.
If however I am behind I usually pick up a giant's belt after my jungle item is complete. This is a little gut feeling though. Everytime I have though to myself I should start building defense on J4 and I haven't I have regretted it.
The downslde on building defense on J4 is that you become almost entirely reliant on you team to carry the game and you get to be a meat shield albeit with some very unique methods of setting up picks and engaging and/or isolating members of the enemy team.
Oh yeah, his flag is super useful for a lot of things. You can actually teleport to it if you don't have a ward to drop. It gives you vision of where it is planted and it is a good idea to place it a bit behind you when you are attacking structures so you can quick Q to it if you need to scoot.
Demacian Standard. That said as far as builds go are you interested in top lane, jungle, or he has a niche spot as an aggressive support? I almost exclusively play him jungle so I can help there, but not so much with lane or support.The first thing I would check is if you are using smart casting with him or not? If you aren't you should. Having to click twice really makes his Q+E combo hard to hit.
Other things to note his shield from
Golden Aegis gets stronger based on how many people he hits with the AoE. That can help with his feeling squishy.Also
Martial Cadence does a lot of damage which is why you can build him reasonably tanky and still dish out damage, but it has a fairly long cooldown, so if you have more than one target you want to autoattack them all once, like Nautilus unless you really feel you need to focus one target. (Side note, I wish they would add a timer to it like they have for Nautilus and Udyr so you have a better idea of when to switch targets).As far as build goes, I run Arm Pen marks, Armor Seals. 6 MR + 3 sMR Glyphs, and Atk Dmg Quint. I run the 6 flat MR because Jarvan's ganks are good as soon as he hits level 2, so I can assume I'll likely be taking some magic damage early and don't want to instantly melt to it. Besides he burns too much mana with his abilities if you run CDR glyphs unless you are running Ranger's Trailblazer for the sustain, which actually is totally viable since he has a built in slow, though I do run Stalker's Blade on him to make ganks more reliable if I miss my knock up. Masteries I go 21-9-0.
Item build depends on the game and needs of my team. I always build
Enchantment: Warrior as the upgrade to my jungle item. The armor shred on top of the armor shred from Dragon Strike and your runes really bring the pain. After that the build varies. If the enemy has a bunch of tanks and I am doing well I will pick up a second The Brutalizer, which I almost always build into a Black Cleaver if my team has at least one other source of AD damage, though it is usually my last item/upgrade.If I am doing well and the enemy team is mostly squishy and my team lacks wave clear then I will pick up a
Tiamat after completing my jungle item.If however I am behind I usually pick up a giant's belt after my jungle item is complete. This is a little gut feeling though. Everytime I have though to myself I should start building defense on J4 and I haven't I have regretted it.
The downslde on building defense on J4 is that you become almost entirely reliant on you team to carry the game and you get to be a meat shield albeit with some very unique methods of setting up picks and engaging and/or isolating members of the enemy team.
Oh yeah, his flag is super useful for a lot of things. You can actually teleport to it if you don't have a ward to drop. It gives you vision of where it is planted and it is a good idea to place it a bit behind you when you are attacking structures so you can quick Q to it if you need to scoot.
Depends on where you're going - top or jungle?
As a top laner Jarvan kinda has to build a bit of damage then go into full tank, essentially just dive-bombing the enemy carries later on in the game.
As a jungler Jarvan just goes full tank (Warrior enchantment into locket for ap / randuins for ad into more tanky items)
You normally want to skill R>Q>W>E as the shield helps quite a bit later on in the game.
The main problem with Jarvan is that once you go in, you can't easily go out. You need to be able to nail the timings of initation, especially in early ganks and skirmishes, where you'll have to predict where potential enemies are that may disrupt your gank / fight.
That being said Jarvan does have a great one-two-three initiate with his EQR that's extremely simple to utilize. Just nail the timings down and you'll be great.
As a top laner Jarvan kinda has to build a bit of damage then go into full tank, essentially just dive-bombing the enemy carries later on in the game.
As a jungler Jarvan just goes full tank (Warrior enchantment into locket for ap / randuins for ad into more tanky items)
You normally want to skill R>Q>W>E as the shield helps quite a bit later on in the game.
The main problem with Jarvan is that once you go in, you can't easily go out. You need to be able to nail the timings of initation, especially in early ganks and skirmishes, where you'll have to predict where potential enemies are that may disrupt your gank / fight.
That being said Jarvan does have a great one-two-three initiate with his EQR that's extremely simple to utilize. Just nail the timings down and you'll be great.
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So, Jarvan's super weird for me. His play-style's been iffy for a while, including his distribution. I checked out a few builds/guides and nothing I've seen really sells it for me (commence lynching). So I was curious as to how you guys build him. I max Q first, E second, and W last and get either Locket/Heart as a first item. He feels tremendously squishy without health items and fairly weak without damaging items. Almost everyone I've asked says to build tank (sometimes with a Hydra built first) but I just can't get a hang of the prince. His kit is super good and his scaling is hilarious but it's unhelpful to pick him in ranked simply because Rammus was banned.
I really, REALLY appreciate the help. <3