My thoughts about Jarvan, as a Jungle main and an ex-top lane main.
Hello guys.
I wanted to share with you my thoughts about 
as someone who plays him (and champions similar to his original playstyle - AD-caster off-tanks), because I feel that right now, is not in a good spot, and is not really viable, and I'll further explain that.
It's a long read post, be warned.
TO BE ULTIMATELY CLEAR, I DO NOT SUPPOSE IS UNDERPOWERED OR DESERVES HUGE BUFFS. JUST EXPLAINING WHY I THINK HE'S IN A BAD SPOT NOW, AND SOON WILL ADD MY IDEAS OF HOW IT COULD BE FIXED
I'll start with explaining a bit more about , the way I see him.
First of all, the best position as of now for is the Jungle. The main reason to that is that nowadays, after so many top laners got reworked, his kit is just lacking, compared to other champions. 's matchups in the top lane have never been easy, especially when the armor on his E got removed.
His only chance to win is lane is only by outsmarting his opponents, which also isn't always helping, especially when the opponents know how to play against . I will further extend about lane matchups in top lane (at the end of this thread, for the sake of those who are not interested in reading it), and explain why in almost every single one of them, the enemy naturally has the upper hand.
So, now that we declared why is better as a jungler than as a top laner, we should understand how he should be played.
The most correct way to play should be as an off-tank, for the simple reason that he is a very good initiator with a decent AD scaling on his Q and R, and while he is really good at initiating fights, he's not really good at escaping a fight, once he actually dived into the enemy team - which is what he excels at. Another reason why you want to build some AD on him is so he could have some dueling potential, while not relying on his team completely if he builds full tank, and the fact that your ultimate locks enemy champions in a cage with you for 3.5 seconds(!), giving you a good amount of time to attack them, assuming they wont escape it.
Another reason why you dont want to build tank on him, except the fact that it makes him completely reliant on his team is that his base damage isn't very high, his clear is bad (when building tanky), and just about 90% of the champions have a non ultimate ability that counters his ultimate's core - locking down enemy targets. Not only that, but if you want to pick a full tank, you have much better options nowadays because so many champions can benefit much better from building resistances than does, while having a much less counter-able lock down potential 
So, why not build as full glass cannon? first of all, it feels pretty much wrong to the champion. When you look at you see a well armored warrior with a deadly weapon, and while you believe he could cause a lot of damage, you'd also expect him to be able to endure some damage. (to some people this point may seem irrelevant, but actually the first impression you get from a champion is from its look, and a well designed champion is a champion whose appearance and theme is represented also by their playstyle. Secondly, as already mentioned, 's kit is not meant to be kit of an assassin, as while he does have a really good way to get into a fight, he has no way to get out of it once he gets into it (that assumed, the opponents you want to lock down with your R actually know to not be in range of his ultimate by itself, without needing to use eq as a gapcloser). If you'd like some assassin jungler you'd be better off picking 
who has a much bigger damage output and has a way to escape also after getting in.
Very well, now that we have explained where he fits into most now, and what is the right way to play him, we'll dive to the core of this thread - Why does feel underwhelming to play as, and is not in a good spot right now?
Simply because he is outshined by so many other champions, due to their kit being fuller and more forgiving, or feeling less counter-able, while having tools in their kit that make them feel better when building their originally-intended playstyle-fitting build. The reasons which he feels underwhelming to play in jungle :
-
Naturally slow-ish clear, especially compared to other meta junglers like
or not so meta picks like 
. (Remember, his passive was changed to proc once every 10 seconds on same target until level 7, then 8 seconds until level 13, which decimated his early clear) What common to all these picks are is that they also have an efficient way to sustain themselves throughout their jungle clear, whereas Jarvan has no particularly good way to sustain himself in the jungle, which is just the next point. -
No natural sustain, or fast clear speed to keep him in good health. While his shield is a decent 50 hp shield, it's not very effective as it has 12 seconds cooldown, and it takes a point off in either his E or Q, which makes his clear slower so overall he keeps losing HP over time, and usually you don't really want to gank when you have just about 50% health. which is what he has once he finishes his buffs, unless he buys 3
at the beginning instead of 
(which you really want to get to be able to sustain your hp and mana - regardless of buffs - once you upgrade it to 
), which will put him 150 gold behind, which believe it or not is very crucial, especially with his disadvantages over other junglers, as presented. -
is good in early ganks, especially cheesy level 2 ganks, however, it feels awkward to execute such a gank due to the fact that they usually end up only forcing summoners and not any early kills, while leaving himself behind and prone to invades and buff steals, due to the fact that in order to clear effectively he has to use his spells which are on high cooldown in the early levels and which will drain him out of mana after 2-3 camps, if he has no blue buff, and is very vulnerable once he used them to clear his camps. And again, also because he has no effective sustain to keep himself relatively healthy (65%+ hp). So while you do really want to early gank as - one of his strengths, you're caught between a and a really really really hard place. In other words early ganking is an important component of 's strengths, but it feels unworthy/too risky to try, as in exchange he is likely to fall behind if the gank wasn't super successful (got kills and enemy summoners down, assuming enemies wont die without using summoners) - which is very hard to execute (especially if enemies are not playing badly), and not always possible anyways if there is no early hard cc coming from his team.
-
's combo can be actually hard to land, especially when its knockup width has been decreased, and the harder it is to land the more far is from his opponents. That means that unless the enemy opponent is overextending or unless you can close the gap between you and the opponent fast, you have a mediocre chance to land that combo. Unfortunately to , he has an average base movement speed - 340, and no efficient way to close the gap between him and his target without using his combo. meanwhile other ad caster-initiators either have a point and click initiation, which is much easier to land like
, have higher base movement speed than him - 
, or have an efficient way to close the gap between them and their targets, without using their primary damaging source - -
Generally
is very prone to early invades, not just after an unsuccessful gank, as written before - due to slow-ish clear, no efficient sustaining, long cooldowns in early levels along with the need to use skills to efficiently clear. -
All of these reasons, added to the fact that a lot of champions have a non ultimate ability that can completely deny the core of his ultimate (locking down targets), along with the fact that since his ultimate became AoE damage, flashing/using some ability (like
E, 
Q) after Jarvan used his ultimate but fast enough to actually not get hit by it will not only deny the core of the ability, but also will deny the damage (if managed to E out of 's ult range before managed to land and actually create the ult / while he is mid-leap, will not take any damage), contribute to the feeling that is in a bad spot right now.
**And we're not yet finished.**
is stuck in awkward position right now as Ill further explain. Generally, the stats/items you really want to get on Jarvan are -
-
damage :
(for reasons written above + better clear) -
movement speed : boots+item (you have an average base movement speed, while if you want to be able to be ganking efficiently you need that bonus movement speed in order for your combo to have more success chance, and so you'll be able to apply a lot of pressure in lanes as you're supposed to do, while not falling behind in gold and exp as gank-prioritizing
will get due to naturally slow/costly clear). Nowadays people rush combat stats over t2 boots, and anyways picking up a t2 boots isnt so effective in terms of getting movement speed, as the t2 boots you want to get are either 
. Im not a big fan of 
after they got nerfed, and anyways as I said people get combat stats really soon nowadays as junglers, and this item grants none. (You'll have to sell it later on and buy other boots which is waste of precious gold on such a gold-hungry role like jungler) and also 
got nerfed as well and grant only 10 more movement speed than other t2 boots without giving combat stats. -
tankiness - health and armor specifically [buying armor without health isn't effective, enemies will usually have more ad than ap, and anyways health is a secondary stat to counter mages as most of the mages are all about burst - unlike adcs who are dps -, and you can survive their burst by either stacking early magic resist which you dont want to do, or health which you should get anyways]
-
asap because your most problematic stage of the game in terms of sustain is the early, as it is to every jungler in the game.
So, what's the problem?
You can't rush so many items so early on in the game, which is the part where you really need to shine as a champion who overall has good ganking potential. Your base stats are not high so you really need the tankiness from items to be able to jump into fights without risking dying, or be able to duel the enemy jungler if it finds you or is found by you, and you also want that to boost your clearing and help you not fall behind, which also answers your need for damage, but you are left out without the high bonus movement speed you want as your speed is average but you really want to be applying a lot of pressure to multiple lanes, farming well, and being able to contest objectives like dragon all together.
_"but hey, you can rush 
->
->->
and that answers all your needs!" _
Yes and no. This build costs 5250 gold, which isn't a lot, but you usually get that amount of money after 15th minute, (In one match I was 9/3/27 and got fed pretty early in the game with decent farm, I had 5.4k gold by 15th minute) which is becoming already mid-game, while the most important part of the game as a jungler is your early game - and in the early game is when you really want to be the tanky yet hurting and really fast. Also you get the bonus movement speed only after finishing , which from the items mentioned in the buildpath, you should get last - which will be too late for your very crucial early game ganks and gameplay.
Also, not every game goes by plan, sometimes you fall behind, sometimes the enemy midlaner is getting fed and you actually need magic resist more than provide you with, and then all this beautiful plan on paper isn't as good anymore.
All this, while meanwhile other top tier junglers , either have higher bonus movement speed/higher mobility in kit, or items which are part of their build path that grant them a good amount of movement speed. (
->
/ 
->
)
Still not yet finished
-----Hey guys, Im taking a break and I will continue writing the end of this post within a day, Ive been working on it for over 3 hours now, I'll be adding some more context in a while, the two next paragraphs are not yet finished and are due to change----
's kit is getting older and older, especially when every champion that is nowadays released is more powerful or has a very strong advantage, next to older champions.
's kit isn't forgiving at all, due to the fact that his shield is very mediocre post very early levels (1-5), as the only thing it scales with is the amount of champions it hits, which is usually 1 in top lane, and due to the fact that his main initiation/escape - his EQ combo, relies on 2 different skills with 2 independent cooldowns. After Jarvan uses Q, he is very vulnerable for (10/9/8/7/6) seconds, as his main damaging skill and his dash are both on that cooldown, and after Jarvan uses E, he will not be able to dash to a different location for (13/12.5/12/11.5/11) seconds.