With the recent resurgence of Jarvan appearing in the jungle, players are beginning to realize the usefulness that Jarvan can bring to his team. As it stands in leagues such as the NA & EU LCS, you’re seeing Jarvan mixed in with champions that provide big portions of damage and AoE crowd control. When a team picks up Jarvan you’re likely to see an Orianna or Lulu also picked up and thus expect to see Jarvan’s ult used to group up as many individuals from the enemy team as possible.

However, those are some of the things you take note with Jarvan as a jungle. When you push him into another lane such as mid, the way you play him changes from a utility style champion to a more assassin focused one.

Now you’re probably asking yourself why you’d pick a Jarvan for the assassin role over many other more popular champions such as Zed, Kha’Zix or Rengar who also aren’t exclusive to going mid, and there really isn’t much difference between the champions. Jarvan is much more similar to Rengar in the sense that he’s looking to burst a champion down almost immediately, and doesn’t have an innate escape to get himself out of harm’s way once he dives in. This can be a pretty big disadvantage because it means if you fail your job, you’re probably going to go down shortly after jumping in. However, the strength in Jarvan mid comes with his presence and strength as a mid laner.

Strengths of Jarvan Mid

The advantage of putting an assassin like Zed in the mid lane is the fact that he has decent wave clear and is a resourceless champion, meaning you’re able to trade every time your opponent does. Although Jarvan uses mana to trade, his Q can be used to whittle down your opposing mid laners health multiple times before you actually run out of mana. Jarvan’s strength in mid comes from the fact that his trade range is 770, and the ability’s damage doesn’t have a travel time from beginning to end, meaning the damage comes out quickly and is hard to dodge. What makes him even better is that his gap closer is 830 range.

After a couple of times poking with your Q, and maybe even getting in an auto attack or two to proc your passive, you’re usually able to spend some mana on an E + Q combo to dish out further damage and place yourself right on top of the opposing mid laner. If you’ve already hit two Q’s beforehand and successfully land the E+Q combo on your opponent, he’s likely not going to stand there and trade back and thus is forced to back away from further taking auto attack damage against you. This is ultimately how Jarvan establishes lane control, and once you get that control, it’s extremely easy to hold it due to the large range that you’re able to travel with an E+Q combo. If you play your cards correctly and the minion wave isn’t sitting close enough to his tower, you’ll likely be able to zone away the opponent from getting any CS as they won’t want to get in range of another E+Q combo.

Now for whatever reason, if you happen to fall behind early due to using your combo to gap close only to find the jungler waiting and set up for you, all is not lost. As said previously, Jarvan’s Q is a great way to get some free trades against the opposing midlaner due to its high range, thus landing it and moving away before giving your opposing midlaner a chance to react to the trade is highly possible.

You still play mostly the same way as if you were ahead, however just be a little more hesitant when attempting to kill your opposing mid laner. Jarvan’s lane relies highly on control but if you do get behind and pushed to your turret he has an easy time clearing waves and getting last hits under his own turret.

What should I build?

The final thing I should mention is item choices. Since you’ll be playing Jarvan like an assassin, going for heavy amounts of damage is not only recommended but rather required. Any advantage you get in mid lane from items allows you to further propel yourself ahead of the opposing mid laner, and items like Brutalizer and Tiamat/Ravenous Hydra are extremely strong choices as your first few damage item pickups. Having the Tiamat active go along with your gap close and passive allows for a larger amount of burst to be displayed which makes instantly taking down your target a possibility later against champions that are also focusing on building damage over defense.

After you pick those items up, things such as Last Whisper and Hexdrinker should be considered based on the enemy’s purchases or team composition. If they have a lot of magic damage, you’re going to want that extra magic shield on you to allow you to live a little longer while in the middle of the enemy team. Likewise, if they’re starting to build a lot of armor, getting further % armor pen to go along with your Q’s penetration is a great way to nullify the purchases they’re making to soften your blows against them. Getting some tenacity via Merc treads is also recommended as you’ll want to actually be able to auto attack an enemy you’re on and are likely going to be a heavy recipient to crowd control if you dive onto their back lines.

Overall, I usually end up building four damage items, and then getting a defensive item such as Randuin’s Omen or Guardian Angel in order to make sure that the job I do gets done.

Concluding Thoughts

As it stands currently, Jarvan mid isn’t seen all too much. However, I definitely believe that he has a lot of potential currently against a lot of the top picks you see in mid lane. The only matchup that I’ve had a bad time against was Kayle, and as of late it seems she’s transitioning more into the top lane over mid. She’s also currently a high priority ban which further makes her a rarer occurrence to be spotted against you.

I’d also be slightly hesitant on picking him against champions that can kite very well and have a lot of shields and absorbs such as Lulu, as your kill potential on those kind of champions is a lot lower than most others. Overall, if you’re facing champions with low lane mobility like Twisted Fate, Kassadin (Pre-Level 6), and even those with some mobility like LeBlanc and Fizz, you should have an easy time trading and getting a kill advantage in your lane.

Just be weary that the more pressure you place on your opponent, the more likely you are to have a jungler come and visit your lane. I hope there are others out there that pick up Jarvan mid, as he’s a ton of fun to play and quite viable in the lane as well.