If you’ve ever been executed by Jarvan’s flag in League of Legends, then you probably know about his AP build. But if you’re an off-meta enthusiast and want to try the best full AP Jarvan build, you’ve come to the right place.
AP Jarvan has a few strong points that are rarely utilized by his AD bruiser build. The playstyle focuses more on supporting and providing AoE attack speed buffs, so it’s a great off-meta support build to try out.
However, if you build only offensive AP items on Jarvan, his E becomes an extremely powerful poking tool that does lots of damage with each cast. So it’s possible to play Jarvan as an off-meta mid laner too.
In this post, I’ll talk about both the AP carry Jarvan build as well as the support AP Jarvan build. Both are fun playstyles and you should try them out.
How Does AP Jarvan Work?
Jarvan has only one ability that scales with ability power – his E, Demacian Standard. When activated, Jarvan throws a spear/flag where your cursor is and damages all enemy champions that stand there. The damage is magic and the AP ratio is super high (80%).
However, that’s not all.
After casting Demacian Standard, Jarvan gains bonus attack speed for several seconds. But if allied champions stand next to the thrown flag, they also gain this buff and have increased attack speed.
Now, the amount of attack speed Jarvan receives and gives to his allies grows with every ability point spent in his E. And if you max it out first, it’s really an impactful spell early on.
So, there are two ways to take advantage of Jarvan’s E with AP items.
First, you can either build like an AP mid lane carry and simply spam your E to deal damage from range throughout the game. Or second, you can build supportive AP items to improve your E overall and provide your ADC with more utility.
Both playstyles are viable but there are key differences between them.
Playing AP Jarvan in the Mid Lane
Playing AP Jarvan in the mid lane is all about trading favorable early on, poking the enemy as much as possible, and staying safe.
By building ability power, you gain more upfront range damage during the laning phase but also lose the sustain this champion usually has from his AD build. So be aware of that.
Depending on the matchup, your job is to simply spam your E button. With the early game runes such as Summon Aery and Scorch, you actually deal decent damage with Jarvan’s Demacian Standard.
You definitely want to avoid extended trades, especially after you purchase your first AP item. AP Jarvan simply doesn’t have enough damage to keep on fighting after using the Demacian flag. Sure, the bonus attack speed is useful early on but it isn’t enough from the mid game onward.
When teamfights start to break out, you want to use your E in the same manner and keep poking the enemy team, especially before an objective such as the Dragon. Lowering their health bars even a bit can help your team win the fight.
Other than that, Jarvan is great at setting up kills for his teammates because of his crowd control, even with a full set of ability power items. So don’t be afraid to be the initiator of fights if you see the opportunity for it.
And don’t get me wrong – AP Jarvan actually has bonkers damage. But as the game goes on and your opponents start to build against AP, you lose that early game power. So, don’t forget to use your CC and create advantages in other ways.
Read Also: AP Sejuani Build Guide
Supporting with AP Jarvan
If you’re wondering why AP Jarvan is a popular off-meta support pick in LoL, trust me, there are good reasons for it. Jarvan support was even played in a professional match by DRX against T1 a few years back. And here’s the video proof of it.
Let’s start with the fact that Jarvan IV is one of the few support champions in the whole game that can grant bonus attack speed to his fellow ADC partners. And this is incredibly powerful on a few particular marksmen for dominating the bot lane early on.
For example, Jarvan and Draven are one of the best combos to play in the bot lane. Since Draven’s damage mainly comes from his basic attacks, Jarvan can simply throw the flag forward and allow Draven to triple his damage. This is how they can easily win trades and get lots of kills in the laning phase.
And another big reason why AP Jarvan is a good support is a secret synergy between his flag and the keystone Summon Aery.
You see, because Jarvan’s E grants a buff to an allied champion, it also applies the shield from Summon Aery onto them. But if Jarvan has AP support items in his inventory, each time he shields an ally he transfers all those effects onto them too.
To clarify things, let’s say that I have Staff of Flowing Water and Ardent Censer while playing Jarvan. Well, when I shield my teammate with a flag, I’ll also give them the passive effects from both of those items.
This is what makes Jarvan such a powerful support. Not all players fully understand or even expect you to be able to cast such big and effective shields with Jarvan, so you can always surprise your enemies with this pick.
On the other hand, Jarvan can also heal his teammates with items like Moonstone Renewer. His crowd control is amazing for setting up 2v2 fights in the bot lane and can even lock the enemy carry in his Cataclysm.
Read Also: AP Xhin Zhao Build Guide
Runes for Playing AP Jarvan
- Summon Aery
- Manaflow Band
- Transcendence
- Scorch
- Sudden Impact / Shield Bash
- Ultimate Hunter / Revitalize
This is a pretty straightforward early game rune page. Of course, our main keystone is Summon Aery for all the reasons I explained above. But to put it shortly here, it allows you to deal bonus damage and shield your allies with Jarvan’s E.
When you go for poke with Jarvana’s flag, you also trigger Manaflow Band and Scorch. The first rune helps you stack more mana so you don’t depend on mana items. And the second one adds a bit of burn damage to your flag so each cast is a bit stronger than usual.
With Transcendence, you get bonus ability haste and you refresh your abilities faster during a fight. It’s a very useful rune, especially as a support Jarvan.
For the secondary runes, we prioritize Sudden Impact and Ultimate Hunter on mid lane AP Jarvan. Sudden Impact gives you more armor/magic penetration while Ultimate Hunter adds bonus cooldown reduction to your ultimate so you can use it more often to score kills.
But if you’re a support Jarvan IV, the better choice for secondary runes is Shield Bash and Revitalize. With Shield Bash, you also get bonus armor and magic resist when you use W. And with Revitalize you boost your overall shield power, especially to teammates on low HP.
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The Best Items for AP Jarvan
- Luden’s Tempest / Moonstone Renewer
- Shadowflame / Staff of Flowing Water
- Rabadon’s Deathcap / Ardent Censer
- Void Staff / Redemption
- Zhonya’s Hourglass / Mikael’s Blessing
- Ionian Boots of Lucidity
Since the two AP Jarvan builds for mid lane and support are completely different, I’ll go over them one by one.
With Luden’s Tempest and Shadowflame, you’re essentially going for as much upfront poke damage as possible. Luden’s is a great mythic item that does bonus damage when you first hit an enemy which is true for Shadowflame too.
Your mid and late game power spikes come from Rabadon’s Deathcap and Void Staff. These two items heavily influence the power of Jarvan’s E by increasing the AP and magic penetration. And you definitely need them.
As for defensiveness, Zhonya’s Hourglass is the best item to go for. It will make you a bit tankier and allow you to save yourself when you dive deep into the enemy backline.
On the other hand, support AP Jarvan goes for Moonstone Renewer first and either Staff of Flowing Water or Ardent Censer second. Moonstone helps you heal your teammates during a fight and the other two items are helpful for buffing casters and marksmen.
When you reach the late game Redemption and Mikael’s Blessing can help you become the best support in the game. AoE healing your team and cleansing your AD carry from a stun can win you the fight and the match, so definitely go for those items.
And the most useful boots are, of course, Ionian Boots of Lucidity.
Read Also: AP Pantheon Build Guide
Skill Order and Summoner’s Spells
Since our primary spell here is Demacian Standard, we first max out Jarvan’s E. The bonus damage and attack speed are essential for winning the early game. Then we can max out Q and in the end W.
For Summoner’s Spells, I always go Flash + Ignite no matter whether I’m a support or mid laner. Ignite gives you a lot of pressure early on and Flash is simply necessary for creating plays on Jarvan.
Conclusion
AP Jarvan has been one of the most fun builds I’ve recently played in League of Legends. The damage is so unexpected from this champion and this ability in particular that it’s simply too funny. But I can also say the same for giving your allies huge shields and watching the enemy players panic in confusion.
All in all, AP Jarvan is a great build and I recommend you try it out. And if you’re interested in more similar builds, go to my off-meta builds page and take a look there.
Read Also: AP Hecarim Build Guide
