How to win the jungle race as Jarvan IV against Graves · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
Read from Jarvan IV's seat: the race windows this plan plays for against Graves.
| Stage | Read | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 Clear | Respect Graves | True Grit armor plus point-blank double-shot autos win any close-range brawl — Jarvan IV has no answer to that at level 1. End of the Line plus knockback autos shred melees holding a buff pit on their half of the map too, so skip the level-1 crossing and answer the pressure cross-map. |
| Level 2 Skirmish | Respect Graves | Quickdraw (E) True Grit armor stacking lets them out-trade in tight jungle lanes, and Jarvan IV has no clean answer to it on the second camp — True Grit armor plus point-blank double-shot autos win any close-range brawl. Fight him in the open where his pellets spread, never inside a tight buff pit, and give up the second buff rather than the kill. |
| Level 3 Route | Respect Graves | The window at the opening scuttle belongs to Graves: Smoke Screen's blind caps a kit that wins almost every close-quarters exchange. Your own line is real — the full flag-drag combo plus Golden Aegis shield is a flexible level-3 duel — but it arrives second here. Fight him in the open where his pellets spread, never inside a tight buff pit, then give up the level-3 river fight. |
| Levels 4-5 Macro | Respect Graves — Path Opposite | You lose the 4-5 duel. He uses 4-5 to take your camps, because True Grit stacking makes him the better invader — so let them have that half of the map and cash the other half faster. |
| Level 6 Breakpoint | Even Ult Window | Collateral Damage adds a dash-reset execute to their close-range shred, and Cataclysm answers it almost exactly. Decide this one on setup — vision, numbers and cooldowns — not on the ultimate comparison. |
| First Item Spike | Sundered Sky / Eclipse | Completing your core item triggers a massive damage, health, and burst multiplier that completely overpowers traditional brawlers or isolated targets. Graves' first item is a large step in raw damage — the double-shot at point blank starts removing squishies outright. |
| 2+ Items Scaling | Danger — Graves Outscales | The clock is your enemy. He shreds anything in a corridor and holds a side lane against most of the map, so close the game on the first two objectives you actually win. |
Start your clear at the Red Buff camp utilizing your E attack speed and passive to maximize early clear speed. Graves has one of the fastest clears in the game — End of the Line through two camps at once means he is level three early.
Ranked by the race windows in Jarvan IV's plans — the jungle race carries no win-rate sample.
The full Jarvan IV vs Graves report continues with scuttle & dragon rules, invade windows and safety boundaries, the top-side objective fight, macro rotations and the win condition — plus the live enemy-jungle tracker that shows their start, clear and gank timers in game.
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Graves pressures 5 of the 7 windows in this race — survive the early game and scale into your windows.
Not exactly — Graves pressures 5 of the 7 windows, so Jarvan IV is playing catch-up and has to lean on the map.
Playing the other side? Graves vs Jarvan IV guide →
All Jarvan IV jungle matchups →
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