When I first started with Jarvan I was convinced he was awful. I was having trouble landing Demacian Standard, his Dragon Strike combo felt clumsy, and his ultimate screwed my teammates as often as it helped them. I’m not willing to say I’ve sorted out all of those issues, but things have definitely gotten better.

For starters, I’d encourage anyone to ignore Phreak’s build. If you’re going to lane, it’s important that you be able to harass, and harassment is much easier with a reliable skill. Most players are fairly active in lane, so his Demacian standard can be tough to land. For that reason, I take one rank of Standard and his shield and focus on leveling Dragon Strike. The damage is pretty solid, but more importantly, it’s easy to land. With a good lanemate or careful play in a solo lane I was typically able to snag a few kills.

That said, the Standard/Dragon Strike combo still feels very clumsy. It is possible in some cases to cast Standard and then Dragon Strike before Standard lands. Also, Standard has a fairly long cooldown. If it doesn’t land in the right spot, you might be stuck wishing it was off cooldown.

My opinion on his ult is basically the same as it has always been. I think it’s a bad idea. It’s situational at best, the damage is negligible, it is easily countered with Flash or any of the dash skills, and it is fairly buggy around terrain. I actually watched my character walk over the Cataclysm from the outside and get stuck inside the ring earlier today because pathing wouldn’t let me walk elsewhere.

On the whole, I think there were some interesting ideas for Jarvan, but most of them don’t work in practical application. He’s not bad but he’s also not great and the clumsiness of his main combo and his ult mean I’ll probably leave him on the shelf.