Talk:Jarvan IV/@comment-4499945-20120628144804/@comment-4677525-20120629071642

Hey Tenebros, I'm reposting a wall of text that I wrote about 3 pages back with some modifications. The build paths are in bold if you don't want to read the whole thing:

Jungle Jarvan is what I have the most experience with so I will field that one first. When I play Jungle Jarv I almost ALWAYS play him as though I am main-tanking. This is because Jarvan's damage output is so high early to early-mid game and his ganks are so strong that typically you don't need the damage to rack up early kills and assists. Instead, I tend to go more for mostly defensive items: Cloth + 5--->Wriggles, Merc treads, then (depending on how the match goes), Frozen Mallet or Warmogs for health, and then FoN + Atma's. Recently, I have started adding Heart of Gold to the build as a possible option to build into Randuin's and for some extra gold income.

Keep in mind that the way I play jungle Jarv is to maximize survivability so that I can stay alive while they continuously focus me. Jarv's damage output WILL fall-off the longer the game goes on but his utility will not - the longer you stay alive the more disruption (and ultimately damage) you can do. Leave the heavy dpsing to someone else (typically assassins, mages and AD carries).

It's been a while since I have played him solo top so I wouldn't be the best person to ask about that. Although if I did revist it I would try a more DPS-heavy build like: '2x Dorans Blade, Merc Treads, Brutalizer, Frozen Mallet, and maybe BT and selling Brut for Last whisper. Maw of Malmortius is also a great item choice and Trinity Force' is a potential option for both Jungle and Lane Jarvan (if you feel you can afford it).

I'd build him more DPS because laning is a whole different beast from jungling. In my mind, Jungling Jarv is designed to enable and laning Jarv is intended to shut-down. If you can harass the lane opponent and crush them, then there won't be a real late-game damage fall-off to worry about with Jarvan. Jarvan, despite not having sustain, has a lot of natural tankiness from his E + damage from Q and passive. This means that he can trade positively against a lot of top lane champions and can potentially shut-down the lane.

I believe it was Guardsman Bob who coined the term: "Win lane, win game." If I pick solo-top Jarv that is pretty much what I intend to do: Crush the lane and let my utility crush the game! Again, this is THEORETICAL, though; while I endorse my JUNGLE build follow the LANE build at your own discretion. XD

Just some additional notes: for jungling Jarv, I typically take 2 points in E at levels 1 and 3 and then max it second after Q. My masteries are 9/21/0. For runes I take 8 armor pen and 1 AD marks, 9 armor, 9 MR/lvl, and 3 AD Quints. Even though additional AD marks will optimize your jungling, I prefer more Armor Pen because it makes his passive deal more damage.

Hope this helped :)