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Why not J4 support? (calling tank supp mains)

JarPoop IV·7/21/2017, 3:39:05 AM·5 votes·2,136 views

I've played JarvanIV since God knows when and I love that champion to death.

Recently, in light of all the tank support items and stoneborn pact, I've been trying JarvanIV support and it honestly feels pretty strong despite the weaker lv1 fight compared to other tank supports. His synergy with support items are just frigging amazing.

Let's first look at the kit. His passive Allows for extra easy procs of relic shield and decent trades without building damage.

His q shreds armor which is a direct buff to his and the adc's damage. Enables his combo which is the main form of cc

His w God with the buff a few patches back, he scales amazingly with health. This also procs stone born pact constantly every few seconds and with a gargoyle Stoneplate and a locket, the Shields and heals and get pretty crazy.

The e AS buff which is another buff to non caster adc's. Enables his combo

His ultimate Probably one of the best things about him playing support. Enemies often underestimate the effectiveness of the wall in terms of peel and the nuke is also pretty good. This is frigging amazing if played with mf or jhin. Also helps junglers with long distance engages.

Item synergies As j4 support, what you wan is mainly health and Shields to take advantage of your w, stoneborn pact and just inflicting buffs,debuffs and sticking like a flag in your enemies backs.

item 3109 Has absolutely everything j4 wants. Cdr, health, and the ability to stay near your adc, shielding away the damage they take.

item 3190 By building health, locket in conjunction with your w and stone born part's bonus health, your Shields will just be massive

item 3193 This is a must. Holy shit. This item just makes all of j4 supports aspects stronger. Stronger heal on stoneborn, strong w stronger everything

item 3050 Now this is a new one. I've tried this with join and so far it's pretty decent. Not too set on it yet cuz it feels a bit weak. The passive plus his ultimate basically ensures that everyone gets ignited. But personally I prefer to use locket over this.

item 3071 Not exactly a support item but it helps with armor shred. Enchanter ish and MOAR CDR

item 3068 Edited in: totally forgot about this. This one is just a j4 thing. Its frigging amazing due to his r trapping people with you in your sunfire cape range and just having decent tank stats in general. This in conjunction with zeke's convergence also makes you this sort of passive aoe damage storm. However, the trade off is less support items.

Playstyle So far from the games I've experimented with, you basically play as a tank support buff bot. Massive Shields and armor shreds plus AS buffs, constant knock ups with the soft cc on the ultimate and pretty decent roam potential. However his early game seems a tad bit weaker than other tank supports due to him requiring scaling to truly succeed. (also, i add 3 points in e followed by r>w>e>q for bigger shields and shorter cooldowns on e. the cool down on e is slightly longer than that of q. adding e brings the gap closer.)

Edit: Pointers from discussions so far

Basically, there are supports who do similar things (namely: Leona Alistar Nautilus ) Defensive steroid in lane not up to par with tank supports mechanically more demanding compared to above mentioned supports.

All in all, he seems like a decent support. Tank support mains, any thoughts?

62 Comments

HaIlMonitor7/21/2017, 3:43:34 AM5 votes

His ultimate. Probably one of the best things about him playing support. Enemies often underestimate the effectiveness of the wall in terms of peel and the nuke is also pretty good. This is frigging amazing if played with mf or jhin. Also helps junglers with long distance engages.

Vayne ....

Beas7ie7/21/2017, 4:15:33 AM4 votes

Jarvan really is not only great support but one of (if not THE) most versatile champs in the game. He can do well in Literally! every lane. He can top, he can mid, he can jungle(his first clear is a bit of a challenge and he'll be weaker 1v1 early on against most other junglers, but after his scaling and items kicks in he can turn into a monster) he can support. He can be built bruiser, full tank, or even assassin.

Really he should be the considered THE best support as support is meant to help and the best thing Jarvan does is "help".

Also, everytime you ult you have to type in /all "IM HELPING!" or some variation of that. Not doing so IS reportable.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/pGgh8ud.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/StlRbd6.jpg[/img]

Mysticman897/21/2017, 3:59:03 AM3 votes

J4 is in general strong right now, so that might be biasing his results in off-roles.

That said, I'm broadly a sup main, and I feel like he's probably ok as an off-meta support pick, particularly if you happen to be good at j4. Don't expect he'd really fit as a meta pick, as theres plenty of other tank supports that offer more lockdown potential.

Would have concerns with his ability to peel, particularly if you fall behind at all, since his cc involves gap closing through enemies, which is prone to leaving you in a bad spot. Alternatively you use eq to escape, but then your adc is kinda left to the wolves.

Possible support budget concerns.

BlkStar1007/21/2017, 4:33:33 AM2 votes

Ive been abusing the new thornmail with Shen support . Even the new component applies Grievous wounds . Now that thornmail gives hp and that i feel like it's strong item for supports too .

Tldr: Try the new thornmail too

Partybringer7/21/2017, 4:11:44 AM2 votes

j4 works with Mordekaiser adc i think

RogueWill7/21/2017, 4:20:32 AM2 votes

The high mana cost, the low poke abilities and the low tank steroids bring him down quite a bit as support and is played more like a kill lane. If that's what you are into then perhaps you should go for someone like Pantheon and go with a similar build.

Randomonium7/21/2017, 3:32:19 PM2 votes

As someone who loves Jarvan I now feel compelled to try this.

Cremepie7/21/2017, 3:28:36 PM1 votes

Hes useful as sup but hes simply not as useful as say Leona for engage or Braum for Peel. He certainly has more damage than those two but hes got unreliable CC so its a risk. He doesnt have any tools to protect his ADC which is what every support wants these days, you know to make your ADC a Kill god and never die. I won't deny he is fun as hell as support, and your right he does well at what he wants to do, but other champions are just better at keeping their ADC in the game. That being said I think I might try him with Frozen Mallet as I've done with Shen support and see if that is good enough for peel as well.

MLDzXnRRR7/21/2017, 6:29:37 PM1 votes

I have played some Jarvan support over the years. He has too many problems - Mana, gets poked, pushes the wave when using his poke, falls off super hard without building AD and the enemy team can ignore you. Maybe if RITO changes the tank items, he would be more viable, but then why not play Nautilus or something else as tanks support? If you are after playing bruiser as a support, Pantheon is way better, because he will kill the enemy support (if it is janna, lulu etc) or the ADC, if the support is tanky, at lvl 3 and snowball your ADC. You also need ignite. Pantheon is the only troll support that used to consistently take the tier 3 tower or inhibs years ago before all the snowballing changes in my games. He is pretty good, but also falls off, so you stomp, or get stomped. GP support was also pretty good pre-rework.

Denims Wrath6667/21/2017, 4:20:32 PM1 votes

one of the best tank supports is cho with smite. sure you CANT fight early, but lategame after a few dragon noms and kses you're huge. get your locket and stone plate and you're set to nom their mid or support in 1 r.

RookPusher7/21/2017, 4:30:11 PM1 votes

I'd also add Banner of Command. It's a nice armor/MR item with CDR, and a speed boost, not to mention some great tower pushing.

JarPoop IV7/21/2017, 5:12:18 PM1 votes

I encourage all J4 Players to try this out if they are interested in playing support but don't like the current tank support choice. For tank support mains, if you are bored, could look into this but playing support j4 is going to definitely be more challenging to play than other tank supports.

AmetDeCrypt7/21/2017, 3:54:19 AM1 votes

same reason people don't play fiora support

they work, but they are somewhat item dependant, and their kits center around locking one person down leaving them somewhat unable to get back to their carries should they need sudden peel. it'd be mostly a kill centered lane so if you bring along an ad who knows what they're doing go nuts, but soloq support they don't quite keep up with the rest.