I have built him at times according to what is needed (team wise) and how things are turning out for our team (such as how teamfights are going) but personally I have fallen in love with my AD jarvan build, many bash it, but I find it many times very effective.

Philostone, HoG, merc treads are the 3 always grab items I go for, without a doubt no matter which build.

If I am going AD I will grab (afterwards)

Avarice blade, Brutalizer, Phage

Turn the AB and Brut into Youmuu

Zeal, Frozen Mallet, Phantom Dancer

my last 2 items I usually grab is Blood Thirster, and then black cleaver to finish it out

Gives me decent health, strong attack speed, strong armor pent, and 55% crit chance, I've had alot of decent games with this build, despite the fact I get bashed for building it. (if anyone has some better tweaks please let me know, I love testing out builds)

Tank Jarvan I go

Triforce, Merc Treads, Atmas, Warmogs, Banshees, GA (sometimes grab FoN, Randuins, Sunfire, and Aegis all pending on the other team)

Gives me a tanky build to take alot of abuse, allows me to initiate strong, deal out some dmg, and I can focus their high dmg output players



My question is what do most people find better in jarvan, a strong powerful AD champ, or a tanky jarvan who can eat some damage, and can still with his passive output damage.

Take this with a grain of salt due to my low level, but I played Jarvan all week when he was free, and I can tell you what I enjoyed.

Most games, I built him with a very tanky base build, then went from there with an eye towards AD. Atma's, Warmog's, and Frozen Mallet were the only items I got every game. I had a ton of health and armor, while maintaining fairly high damage. From there, I'd just built to suit their team. If I had another tank (had an Amumu or an Alistar several games) I'd let them do the tanking thing, and I'd work an Infinity Edge or Black Cleaver into the build somewhere in place of a tank item.

From what I can tell, he's best built not as a pure tank, but as a VERY tanky DPS.

I had a lot of fun with him I hope that helps!

You are not tank if you have Trinity(not even a good item on Jarvan since his skills are supposed to be used in one combo instead of spaced out).

Atmogs + situational defensive item is the way to go for tank jarvan.

You want to actually NOT die in mid-air when you initiate.

Agreed ^^

Atmog's tank Jarvan is best.

This is my "You-ain't-gettin'-nowhere-even-wit-all-yo-flash" Jarvan build.

Philosopher's Stone
Mercury Treads
Heart of Gold
Warmog's
Atma's Impaler (can be bought before warmog's if you need that small boost of damage)
Force of Nature
Upgrade Heart of Gold to Randuin's Omen
Grab Shurelyries (sp?) for the free 3-second team ghost (to escape or chase, this thing's amazing)

I've had a lot of luck with that build, since almost everyone takes flash, and it's still not enough to get away from me. Everyone thinks flash makes Jarvan useless. This Jarvan makes flash useless.

It depends if you are playing ranked or PUBs. In PUBs you will probably be the only tank option since most people have downs and want to play 5 carries. So you are kinda forced to build tankish or you get WTFPwnd anytime you initiate.

I think everyone would agree the best Jarvan is a off-tank dps and a great initiator. The problem is getting a pure tank/initiator in the queue with you.

Overall, I tend to go a tanky DPS route rather than a glass cannon.

Masteries
0/9/21 Picking up Nimbleness and running Flash + Ghost/Exhaust/Ignite/Teleport

Runes
Marks: Armor Pen
Seals: Dodge
Glyphs: MR per level (or flat)
Quints: Movement Speed

Items
Regrowth Pendant + Health Potion
Philo Stone + Boots 1
HoG
Upgrade Boots to Ninja Tabi
Phage
Trinity Force

At this point you have your core: Philo Stone, NInja Tabi, HoG, Trinity Force
Get what you need.

Need Tenacity? Upgrade to Miracle
Need Armor? Atma's/Upgrade to Randuin's/GA/Thornmail
Need MR? FoN/QSS/Banshee's Veil
Need Health? Warmog's
Need Damage? Atma's/Bloodthirster/Ghostblade/Last Whisper

Example of a typical end-game build:

Miracle, Ninja Tabi, Randuin's, Trinity Force, Last Whisper, Banshee's Veil

You might get to the point where you should replace Miracle, so sell it and buy based on what you need.

There are a lot of great responses here and I just want to highlight a couple things.

To answer the original question, tank or off-tank Jarvan are superior builds to a straight AD build in most situations. Jarvan's main weapon is his utility - knock-up, aoe slow, impermeable ring of death - and initiation power with damage taking a back seat. Even on a full tank build though his passive still grants him a good amount of burst without few or no damage items. A pure damage Jarvan can work, but it leaves him too squishy to take full advantage of his skills. There are many champions who do melee right-clicking a lot better than Jarv.

The second best thing about Jarvan, behind his great cc, is his incredible flexibility with items. As the original post alludes to, he can fill many niches on a team and can adapt his build on the fly with incredible ease. There are a few items, however, I feel are essential in (almost) any game:

Philosopher's Stone (and Heart of Gold): Jarvan relies on his skills to win battles but his mana pool is that of a warrior. The Philo Stone solves the early game mana puzzle, provides gold, and builds into amazing items, making it essential early on even if you don't upgrade and just sell it later. The Heart of Gold grows into a great item too, but I don't recommend it if you won't for sure get Randuin's Omen later as you can save the 825 gold for an earlier...

Phage: As much as I laud his utility, Jarvan's knock-up doesn't last very long and his slow doesn't slow that much. Whether you build Trinity Force for the damage or Frozen Mallet for the hp and super slow, the Phage is a great boost to early game survivability and utility especially as Jarvan's flag toss makes armor less of a priority.

Banshee's Veil: Obviously don't build it if you don't need the magic resist at all, but the Veil is great for stopping those pesky spells which would otherwise prevent you from charging into the enemy team and wreaking havoc. Sure, the Quicksilver Sash can do this too, sorta, but the Veil also gives good chunks of hp and mana which Jarvan definitely needs. Quick tip: If you can't afford the Veil straight up, buy the cloak and hp crystal first as they are the most important components. Also, finishing the Veil from there costs exactly 1500g and nice round numbers are easy to remember.

My build is trinity force and frozen mallet extra extra extra SLOW

I don't think phage and frozen mallet slows stack...do they?