Janna Champion Update

Rilea -

After years of struggling to find a consistent place in the meta and being outshined by other enchanters, Janna has received a slew of changes. Not only do these changes appear to be an overall buff, but they have shifted her identity from a poke mage in lane to a utility enchanter outside of the laning phase.

Balance Changes

  • Movement speed, attack speed and attack growth increased, but attack range decreased
  • Passive (Tailwind) - Janna only gains bonus movement speed when moving toward ally champions
  • Janna’s basic attacks and Zephyr (W) no longer deal bonus magic damage based on her bonus movement speed
  • Howling Gale (Q) - travels much quicker and a greater distance, but costs a little more mana in the late game
  • Zephyr (W) - range decreased and cooldown increased, but deals more damage and grants a little more movement speed
  • Eye of the Storm (E) - whenever you slow or knock-up an enemy champion with Janna’s abilities, you now gain 20% heal and shield power for 5 seconds instead of reducing Eye of the Storm’s cooldown
  • Shield strength increased, cooldown decreased, and shield starts to decay after a greater amount of time
  • Ultimate (Monsoon) - now heals every 0.25 seconds, instead of every 0.5 seconds

Laning Phase

Prior to the changes, Janna excelled in the laning phase by maxing W and making favourable trades. However, Janna is now considerably weaker in lane:

  • her auto attack range is much lower
  • W’s cooldown is much higher and has had its ranged reduced
  • Glacial Augment is currently the strongest keystone rune on Janna, meaning you can’t take advantage of the Aery or Arcane Comet damage

Consequently, it is no longer optimal to max W first as your goal in lane isn’t to poke the enemy down; instead, it’s better to max E for the increased shield and reduced cooldown while playing safe in lane. Generally, you will not want to use your W too much unless it’s a free trade, as the increased cooldown means you are much slower and thus more vulnerable to ganks and damage. Your Q should be used to disengage from the enemy or interrupt a jungle gank, while your E should be saved for whoever is taking damage.

Janna used to be a pretty strong roamer due to her innate CC and increased movement speed from her passive, maxed W and taking the Relentless Hunter rune. However, due to the passive movement speed nerfs and the fact E should be maxed first, roaming on Janna is nowhere near as strong.

Team Fights

Though Janna’s laning phase is much weaker, she now shines outside of the laning phase. Glacial Augment’s slow scales with heal and shield power, which Janna now gains every time she CCs an enemy. By combining this items like Redemption, Ardent Censer and Staff of Flowing Water, the slow becomes incredibly strong in addition to the plethora of CC Janna already provides.

Your team fighting playstyle hasn’t changed much (peeling for and protecting your vulnerable carries), but it's now even more important to land Howling Gale as it’s the only way to proc Glacial Augment outside of your ultimate. However, the order you cast your abilities has changed slightly in some situations. Before the update, it was optimal to shield an ally before using your Q or W as landing these abilities would reduce the cooldown of your E. Now that you gain 20% heal and shield power for CCing an enemy, it can be better to land this CC first and then use your E for a stronger shield, unless your ally is in imminent danger and needs the shield instantly to survive.

Build

This rune page is flexible, as it’s viable to take Perfect Timing instead of Magical Footwear or Unflinching instead of Font of Life if you are against a lot of CC. Shurelya’s Battlestong used to be the best Mythic on Janna, but Moonstone Renewer is now a good choice due to the heal and shield power it provides to increase Glacial Augment’s Slow. Consequently, you also want to build items with heal and shield power like Redemption, Ardent Censer and Staff of Flowing Water, but Chemtech Putrifier is still optimal against teams with a lot of CC. Spellthief’s Edge is still a great starting item, but Relic Shield is now more viable as poking down enemies in lane is no longer a priority.

Summary

For now, these changes feel like an overall buff given the amount of raw utility Janna can provide outside of the laning phase, but the changes will require long time Janna players to adapt their playstyle.

-Rilea