I didn't know whether or not to put this is New Players, General Discussion, or Guides and Strategies; but I'm newish (level 21 and pretty bad) so I thought this would be a good place to ask.

So I got Jarvan, and I'm really enjoying playing him. This is the way I currently build him (almost complete DPS) and I would like some critique on it:

Runes: Average melee DPS runes - armor pen, attack speed, attack damage, critical strike chance, some armor, some health

Masteries: 21/0/0 (I'm level 21, but I plan on filling the rest in with Utility when I'm able)

Summoner Spells: Ghost/Clarity (I like to harass a lot early game, and Jarvan doesn't exactly have the mana to do that, especially since I don't always hit my skillshots)

Items:

• Cloth Armor + 5 Health Pots
• Boots of Speed + Heart of Gold
• Mercury's Treads + Catalyst the Protector
• Banshee's Veil (unless the enemy team doesn't have particularly mean abilities or AP)
• Phantom Dancer
• Last Whisper
• Atma's Impaler

• Should I go for survivability first? Or is getting kills earlier more important?
  
• Is the Heart of Gold worth it? It helps me get some items more quickly while providing armor, but I rarely get to build it into Randuin's. I usually just end up selling it for Atma's or something. Can I build the Cloth Armor into something better?
  
• Are there better things to get for Jarvan than Phantom Dancer, Last Whisper, and Atma's? I realize that Bloodthirster, Madred's Bloodrazor, Stark's Fervor, and Infinity Edge can be really good on him, but I haven't tried them (except Inf Edge really late game).
  
• Should I consider Sunfire Cape instead of Randuin's?
  
• Also, random question not related to build: Does Jarvan's E provide sight? I usually take Q first to poke the bushes, but if E gives sight, it's obviously much better for that.

I haven't played enough of Jarvan to really comment definitively on your build. He's still new and so there's no "best" way to play him established yet.

That being said:
1 - Survivability vs Offense is a fine line and generally depends on the game. You have a lot of tanky champs? Get offense. You the tankiest guy on the team? Rush defense. They have a Karthus? Rush that BV! etc.

2 - HoG is a great item in general. Combined with your Merc Treads, you'll have a decent amount of tank for early/mid game.

2a - I think your build is nice and tanky but you're going to be doing squat for damage until your...5th or 6th complete item. You might consider squeezing in an early Brutalizer or Wriggles after you get your HoG and boots.

3 - PD doesn't synergize well with Jarvan. His passive is on a timer so hitting more often won't proc it more often. You'd be better off spending that gold on a raw damage item like Black Cleaver or something. Atmas is a great item, especially with your tanky build. I think the rule of thumb is that once you have 2k HP, it becomes worth the cost. The more HP you have beyond 2k, the better it is. IE isn't a great way to spend money on him, IMO.

4 - You should. I don't like Randuins on him because of his W doing pretty much the same thing. Sunfire synergizes well with his ult and his initiation in general. Also Frozen Heart is another good tanky item that I think you might consider instead of those two. The AS debuff aura again synergizes well with him being in the middle of the fight.

5 - Yes it sure does! It also has a longer range than Q so it's a better choice even if it didn't.

Thank you very much! I will get started on reshaping my Jarvan build.

Let us know what works for you. Like I said, he's still new so you never know when you might stumble onto something uber that nobody else has thought of before.