We may see Jarvan eventually in the jungle or even in the top lane played as an AD Bruiser. He is preferred by many players because of his Demacian Standard (E) and Dragon Strike (Q) combo, also known as “Flag and Drag” which provides a pretty good knock up for ganking or initiating a team fight. He deals a decent damage even if he is building full tank and brings a decent utility to his team, thanks to that we can take him in the duo lane as a different and surprising support.

How it helps your ADC?

You can offer Attack Speed bonus to your Marksman with the Demacian Standard (E) which gives huge benefits in damage trades, team fights and objectives. In addition to that, the Dragon Strike (Q) will lower the impacted enemies armor when your “Flag and Drag” hits them, making sure your ADC always deal more damage than he can by himself. You can peel him to with your combo if he gets grabbed or hooked, also if anyone will get on top of him like Zed or Rengar you can ensure they will face you first. With your ultimate you will like to use it always on the enemy Marksman or anyone who is focusing yours, if it is a low mobility champion you can force a Flash, Heal, Exhaust or Ignite (as they are the more common Summoner Spells in the duo lanes) from the enemy team to get out of your Cataclysm (R).

Laning phase

As a Tanky Support, you would start with Relic Shield, Health Potions and Warding Totem (Trinket) and with your Demacian Standard (E) for early vision in the map or bushes. Then at level 2 go for Dragon Strike (Q) and you will start making presence in the lane. If you play aggressive, you would like to go in at level 2. It is similar to a Leona play style; you go in focusing the ADC. Level 3 is a good option to go in too, land the combo, burst the enemy with your passive and slow him with your Golden Aegis (W) so your ADC can catch up if he is far and deal more damage and a shield that can be significant in the trades. You can poke with either your (E) or (Q) it depends in how far is the target from you.

Doing your job as a Support

When you play this role, you look out for a champion that can annoy your enemy in many different ways and help your team. Jarvan can perfectly accomplish this, you can zone the enemies in the lane or for an objective, you can easily make plays with your Flash and the combo, ruin enemy plans in a dangerous bush as well or giving information to his teammates of an enemy position. Moreover you can get early Boots of Mobility and start roaming in the other lanes applying pressure as many LCS players do when their ADC is in a good position for that.

Build

You will usually build as a normal tanky support with Sightstone, maybe in late game change your Boots of Mobility for Mercury's Treads or Ninja Tabi, finishing the support item to Face of The Mountain, then getting into the real tank items like: Randuin’s Omen, Sunfire Cap (this is an offensive and defensive item and it is cheaper than the Randuin’s, but you get less defensive stats. The Randuin’s gives you and active that will slow your near opponents and reduce the attacking enemy attack speed so you decide what item you will buy and see the results), Frozen Heart, Warmog’s Armor, Banshee’s Veil, Spirit Visage (to combine its passive with the Warmog’s passive) and Locket of the Iron Solari if the enemy team got a lot of AP damage.

There is an specific item that is very important and I think that one of my favorites when supporting, which is the Mikael’s Crucible, not many supports build it but it helps a lot when the enemy team got for example a Pantheon, a Morgana or a Rammus for three examples of CC (stun, snare and taunt respectively) since it removes all stuns, roots, taunts, fears, silences and slows on an allied champion, besides it heals the ally so you can save him from many situations.

Runes

This is up to you; it depends on your play style if you are more aggressive and want to deal more damage you can play with 9 flat AD Marks, 9 flat Armor Seals, 9 flat Magic Resist Glyphs and 3 AD Quintessences. Or if you are only looking to tank and winning trades in lane you can use 9 flat Armor Marks, 9 flat Health Seals, 9 flat Magic Resist Glyphs and 2 Quintessences of flat Health and 1 Quintessence of flat Armor. I will recommend you the following runes because it will give you more health at leveling up.

Masteries

This first one will give you the option to get passive gold and also an extra potion when the game starts.

This second one is the tankier but it won’t give you that extra gold.

Summoner Spells

I highly recommend Flash always for making plays or escaping. You can lock people inside your Cataclysm and escape safely or preventing your ADC to get focused. Ignite or Exhaust? Is a question I always did when I started playing support as I think many first timer supports would do, but I got you the answer:

- Take ignite when you want to do more damage or reduce the Heal from the enemy ADC or any healing ability like Mundo’s ultimate or Swain’s ultimate.

- Take Exhaust when you have an AD Assassin in the enemy team.

- Don’t take Exhaust when the enemy ADC has an easy escape like Ezreal’s Arcane Shift, Corki’s Valkyrie, Tristana’s Rocket Jump, etc. Or you will have to make sure it has already been used or it will be a wasted Summoner Spell.

Conclusion

This may be an Anti-Meta pick but I consider it a really good one and I know one day it will be prioritized in Solo Queue or Team. You will have to practice your “Flag and Drag” and when to use it or not, all is about the experience, always improving and having fun.