League of Legends: Janna Guide
Introduction
Janna is gaining more and more prominence in the professional League of Legends scene after being ignored for a long time. She has a lot of tools in her kit that make her a powerful support champion on Summoner’s Rift. Check out this guide and see if Janna, the Storm’s Fury, is a champion that fits your playstyle!
Runes
Greater Mark of Armor x9- Janna needs help surviving against all the harass she gets from the enemy ADC since she is one of the squishier support champions in the game. Definitely a must-have for Janna.
Greater Seal of Gold x9- You actually have two options here. If you REALLY want that extra survivability, you can go for Armor yellows, but since you should already have Armor marks (along with the use of her shield), you don’t really need it, so Janna can actually get away with using Gold Seals, which will help her obtain some important items early on in the game.
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist x9- These are absolutely necessary for Janna. She really doesn’t get much magic resistance from her item build or her mastery set-up, plus she is a little weak early on, so Janna needs all the help she can get to prevent magic damage from hurting her.
Greater Quintessence of Ability Power x3- Janna’s shield and ultimate scale really well with ability power, and those are the two key abilities in her kit, so if you want to make those even more powerful while maximizing her damage at the same time, then Ability Power quintessences are essential.
Masteries
When it comes to masteries, I like to put a lot of focus in offense for the ability power and cooldown reduction and in utility for all the great support stats, so the defensive mastery tree isn’t really a primary focus when I play Janna. For the offensive mastery tree, my most common set-up is 9 points in Sorcery, Mental Force, Arcane Mastery, and Expose Weakness. She really benefits a lot from Sorcery and the CDR it gives, since her Q, which is one of her key abilities, has a high cooldown early on. The rest of the stats in the offensive mastery tree that I usually pick up give Janna ability power, which like I said before, scales really well with her kit and make her defensive capabilities and damage stronger in battle.
For the Utility mastery tree, there a ton of useful stats for Janna. If you want to focus on the extra movement speed her passive gives off and build upon that, then Fleet of Foot and Wanderer are good stats to pick up a few points in. Janna has pretty high mana costs early on as well, and the Meditation stat is great for mitigating that downfall. The extra gold that Greed, Scavenger, Wealth, and Bandit really help Janna become an effective support and get the items she needs to aid her team in combat.
Summoner Spells
Exhaust and Flash are what I pick when I play Janna. Exhaust reduces an enemy’s movement and attack speed, armor, magic resist, and damage, so it is definitely one of the best, if not the best defensive summoner spells in the game. In conjunction with Janna’s Q knock-up and W slow, you can pull off some nice plays since the enemy will be hurting badly if you pull off a well-timed Exhaust spell. When used in a correct manner, Exhaust can slow the enemy and make it easy for your allies to get in the middle of a teamfight and finish off anyone that poses a threat. Flash is pretty much a mandatory pickup.
Abillities
Tailwind (Passive)- If only this is was still a global passive….either way, this gives increases the movement speed of your nearby allies by 5%, which is still useful for getting into battles, or alternatively, fleeing away from battles.
Howling Gale (Q)
This ability is so great for disengaging. Basically, Howling Gale summons a whirlwind which knocks up enemies and deals damage to them. You can charge Howling Gale for up to three seconds, and the longer you charge it, the more damage you deal. The knock-up and travel length of the whirlwind will also be greater. However, Howling Gale works best if you instantly cast it without charging so you can land some good CC on the enemy. Alternatively, Howling Gale can be used for pushing your lane and clearing minions, but again, this ability is best used for disengage.
Zephyr (W)
A single target slow the deals damage and gives Janna a movement speed bonus passive? That makes for a very powerful ability. When used with Howling Gale, this can help set up kills for your ADC quite nicely. Even though Janna isn’t inherently aggressive, you can go that way by getting into fights and using this ability. However, Janna is best played on the back line where her squishiness won’t do her in, so you won’t be going aggressive too often.
Eye of the Storm (E)
Arguably Janna’s best ability. You can shield an ally (or turret) for 5 seconds and grant extra attack damage to the ally that the shield is used on. Any shield is great to have. Janna is able to protect her allies and keep them safe from high-damaging enemies with Eye of the Storm. Good timing with the shield is essential as well, because if you use the shield after the fact, it does no good and doesn’t protect your ally from the damage being put out. For instance, if Caitlyn is the enemy ADC and she has Headshot up and she is about to auto-attack your ally ADC, you want to be able to use the shield before the auto-attack hits you the shield can mitigate the damage. If you are in some sort of trading situation or a 2v2 battle in the bottom lane, and Janna has her shield up but the enemy support doesn’t, then you will have the upper hand if you use it at the correct time for a bait.
Monsoon (R)
Monsoon has a variety of different uses. Obviously, it heals your allies for a certain amount per second, but it can also knock back enemies as well as acting as a disengage. If you want to knock back the enemy, it is actually best to wait until after they jump in or use a gap closer, then you can pop Monsoon to gain some distance between your team and the enemy. Have a TON of experience of Janna and know how to use her correctly? You can pull a tricky Flash+Monsoon combo and knock the enemies back into your team, or alternately, into a tower for some damage. That can tilt the game on its head and can be a powerful move to get your team back into the game, but I only suggest pulling off that trick if you are a super experienced Janna player.
Build
Janna’s build is malleable depending on what your focus is, but this is what I typically build on her. If you want to focus on building up Janna’s CDR, then Boots of Lucidity along with Morellonomicon or perhaps a Locket of the Iron Solari are viable items on Janna. Plus, the Locket of the Iron Solari adds yet another shield into play. If you want to build upon the movement speed that Janna has in her kit, then Boots of Mobility could be picked up too.
For me though, I find that Janna scales really well with ability power, so I go for an AP-oriented route. Getting a Sightstone is also important for being ahead of the vision game and setting up wards across the map so your team can gain an advantage. Frost Queen’s Claim is a multi-faceted item that is great for gold income (although it can be sold later on for a more AP oriented item), mana regen, CDR, and ability power, so you should try to build that ASAP on Janna. I then like to focus on Janna’s ability power and pick up Rabadon’s Deathcap for a nice extra boost. If you feel like you are getting shut down often and you want to stay alive to help your team in fights, then picking up Zhonya’s Hourglass is a good idea. The last item is situational, but I usually pick up Banshee’ Veil. A lot of teams run double AP comps (like an Orianna mid and Lulu top for example), and a Banshee’s Veil is one of the best defenses against high-damaging spells.
Janna, while reliant on good timing and good positioning, can do so much for her team in fights. She has so many powerful tools in her kit. A knock-up, a slow, a heal- Janna truly has it all and more. Janna has stayed under the radar for a while and is finally picking up some steam in competitive play, so be sure to test her out and see if her skillset works for you!
Kelly Stith