Talk:Jarvan IV/@comment-4499945-20130206222239/@comment-128.153.219.180-20130207014015

Raknut's wall of text inc.

1) Toplane J4 isn't my specialty, and in the times I do play him, I've yet to face Elise. I'd suggest just starting with Magres and focus on farming. You'll be much more useful lategame, so just try to hold out, hope for jungle ganks.

2) Standard jungle yellows and blues; armor and magres, respectively, though the latter can be flat, scaling, or anything in between (I generally go with scaling, just because). I normally take AD reds with MS quints, but I've heard ArPen works really well with J4 for both marks and quints. At the end of the day, it's up to you.

Skill order is E->Q->E/W, R>E>Q>W. Certain people (Nash, I know you're probably going to read this) prefer to just not spec into his W until they absolutely have to, but I still take at least one point in it early. I just like it because it can give me more assistance in a gank, or an alternate (albeit weaker) disengage/escape from invaders. But again, at the end of the day, it's up to you.

Sounding like a broken record here, but route is, once more, up to you. Jarvan can do a standard (heh) wolves+blue start, or he can go straight for his red. In either case, you'll want plenty of damage on the camps, more so if you want to get a smiteless buff start. Against agressive, invasion-type junglers like Shyvana, Shaco, etc; basically anyone who I KNOW will try to fight me at my red, I'll more often than not do a red start, making sure to get help from my teammates. Overall, I just prefer starting red, because like with Shen and Lee Sin (my other two main junglers), J4 has terrific level 2 ganking potential, even more so if he has red buff on top of everything else.

Build(s) (know this wasn't explicitly asked for, but I'm a nice guy) is obviously a Machete+5 start (much as I abhor the Machete), typically going into Madred's, and, if you want, Wriggle's. Boots of Mobility are probably one of the better options right now, for obvious reasons, but Tabi+Mercs are still just as strong as ever, depending on the matchups.

For offensive items, Black Cleaver is almost core on him, seeing as it allows him to really just outright shred squishies' armor into nonexistence. Triforce is worth grabbing if you're really far ahead, as it gives you a decent mix of sustained and burst damage; I used to always grab an early Phage, but the price increase has made that a little harder. I personally have a soft spot for Zeke's because the aura can turn your entire team into pseudo-AD carries. An honorable mention goes to Ravenous Hydra, just because it works so stupidly well with your ult.

As far as defensive items go, Warmog's is everybody's favorite right now, but I personally prefer Randuin's, because the passive and active are absolutely ludicrous with Golden Aegis. Magres is a little harder to itemize for now; if your support isn't building one, definitely grab a Runic Bulwark. Every team should have one anyways, and it helps make you stupidly tanky as well. Other options to consider for general defensive items (though I haven't really tried them) would be Locket of the Iron Solari, Maw of Malmortius (hybrid damage/defense, but it works, especially against mage-heavy teams), Guardian Angel, Sunfire Cape and the like.

All this being said, you shouldn't try to stick to one, concrete build for jungle J4. For starters, it's the jungle, and you're not going to get as much farm as you would top or mid (mid J4 too good), but also, Jarman has so much raw versatility, versatility that's virtually unmatched at this point in the meta. You have to decide not only what works best for you, but what also works best for your team. If your carries keep getting dove, build CDR/tanky-auras and peel for them. If your team needs an initiator, get something to help mitigate burst damages. If you're really far ahead, just rush a Black Cleaver and jump straight on the enemy carry. You're Jarman; if you know what you need to do, you can do it.

That's about all I have to say on the matter. All in all, the best piece of advice I could give now is to just try him out. His kit offers so much that it's hard to explain it all. Experience will help you more than anything, but I'm glad to offer my input.

Wall of text over. Now go play J4 (soon to be known as the mighty LU BU!!!)

-Raknut.