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Recommended Items
Runes:
Sorcery
Resolve
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+2% Movement Speed
+65 Base Health
Spells:
Flash + heal
Flash
Heal
Items
Ability Order Spell order
Tailwind (PASSIVE)
Janna Passive Ability
Champion Build Guide
About me
Hi everyone!
I'm Yanou, a Janna otp who has peaked challenger on EUW! I am normally consistently hovering ~400LP master and I stream almost all of my games on my Twitch!
I always get loads of questions every stream, which is why I decided to make a guide where I explain everything. Hope you enjoy the read and learn something from it!
Contents
1. introduction why i like janna so much janna's pros and cons |
2. before game all viable items moonstone or helia? |
3. in game ability usage, laning phase, roaming warding |
Why Janna & pros + cons
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Summoner spells
Heal is amazing on Janna and works very well with her kit. A lot of great Janna players exclusively run Heal on her. |
The aggressive runes/build have been nerfed, so I don't think it's really worth going for Ignite anymore. It can still be good on a rare occasion, but you should for sure primarily run Heal. I personally don't run Ignite at all, Heal is simply too good on Janna. |
I personally never take Exhaust and in my opinion you don't need it if you play good because of Howling Gale and Monsoon. |
Runes
The most common keystone choice is either Summon Aery or Arcane Comet, however Summon Aery is better. This is because Arcane Comet actually has a much longer cooldown than Summon Aery, meaning that if you play lane properly and poke well and as much as you can, you end up dealing more damage over time with Summon Aery. On top of that it increases your shields, so overall Summon Aery has more value for Janna. Guardian and Glacial Augment are bad.
Manaflow Band speaks for itself. |
Celerity over Transcendence, because Celerity increases Janna's movement speed which is very valueable. On top of that, you don't need the cooldown reduction that Transcendence would give you at all. |
Gathering Storm is great, because it scales very well which is what you're going for with the build I like to play. I also like Waterwalking though, it's not a bad option for sure. |
Relentless Hunter got nerfed along with Shurelya's Battlesong, and Font of Life got a very nice rework, making Resolve tree the best option right now. |
Revitalize is better than Bone Plating as it gives a lot more value to your shields/healing. If you position very well and don't do bad trades / don't get caught you are fine without Bone Plating. |
Bonus:
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+2% Movement Speed
+65 Base Health I prefer +65 base health over 10-180 extra health scaling per level, as Janna's laning phase can be rough and the tiny bit of extra health could make a difference.
All viable items
Dream Maker is the best support item for Janna. Zaz'Zak's Realmspike was only good paired with Imperial Mandate, but that build got nerfed for 3% HP damage a few patches ago, and as of patch 14.9 they also gutted w max, making the build genuinely not worth it anymore. If you play good and don't get caught, you should never need Celestial Opposition and Dream Maker simply provides more value than Solstice Sleigh. |
It is never worth to go Mercury's Treads or Plated Steelcaps, and the movement speed and passive you get from Boots of Swiftness is worth more than the CDR you get from Ionian Boots of Lucidity. Boots of Swiftness and Synchronized Souls are both viable, I will list the pros. My preference goes to Boots of Swiftness. Pros: 1. You're instantly fast af and don't need to wait for the upgrade from Synchronized Souls. 2. You don't lose movement speed in combat like you would with Synchronized Souls, it's extremely broken cuz it makes it easier to sidestep, escape, and you can literally just walk out of enemy champs etc. |
These are the new boots and they're okay! The pros for these boots are the fact that you instantly get the fast recall, which is super op for tempo. The out of combat movement speed is also very nice, but I personally think Boots of Swiftness are a better choice (and most high elo Janna one tricks on the ladder go these as well). |
Moonstone Renewer is truly a core item for Janna because of how well it works with her kit. This should generally be in your build every game. |
Shurelya's Battlesong has been nerfed and isn't worth rushing anymore, but it can still be good to build once you've finished your core some games! |
Staff of Flowing Water can be great after your core if you have a fed AP champ on your team. |
I pretty much build Redemption on Janna every game because of how great it works paired with Moonstone Renewer and Monsoon. Even just in general, you can really make the difference with Redemption even if you are far away. Great item. |
Mikael's Blessing is pretty situational but can be great! I don't think it's ever really worth rushing, but it can be a great 3rd or 4th item if needed due to enemy comp. |
Ardent Censer can be great when you for example have a Twitch, Jinx or Vayne, but is never worth rushing. I personally rarely build this item, simply because other items are better on Janna. |
Vigilant Wardstone can be a good 4th item after you've for example finished your core. It lets you place 2 control wards, which is amazing when facing Evelynn or Rengar and it also gives great stats! |
It feels kinda bad to build Oblivion Orb, but you can do it if you notice your team really needs antiheal but no one is building it. If you do end up building it, just buy the Oblivion Orb and sit on it, only build it into Morellonomicon once all of your other items are finished. |
It can be nice to go Mejai's Soulstealer when the game is a complete stomp, or if you've finished several items and don't really need anything specific and aren't dying. |
Echoes of Helia is viable on Janna now and very strong! Currently the go-to first item. |
Dawncore is now also viable since the new changes, read the above! It's basically the equivalent of Rabadon's Deathcap for enchanters. |
Locket of the Iron Solari honestly shouldn't really be in the list and it's kinda troll to build but it CAN be good on a very very rare occasion if it's your only hope to survive in for example a 45 minute game. |
Moonstone or helia?
VS
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Echoes of Helia is currently very strong and this should be your go-to first item in any average game. It's value paired with Moonstone Renewer is insane. I'd say this is my first item in at least 80% of games. |
Moonstone Renewer is great to rush into a rough lane like double poke, or all-in like Draven Nautilus. It's also great to buy first when the game is looking completely lost and your only hope is keeping 1 teammate alive, or randomly winning a good fight. |
You always go Dream Maker. Dawncore is a super good item, it's essentially Rabadon's Deathcap for enchanters. If enemy has burst, it can be better to go Redemption third instead of Dawncore. The rest of the build is always situational, you can refer to the 'Viable items' chapter. |
You always go Dream Maker. After you finish Redemption, the rest of this build is situational. Rushing Moonstone Renewer indicates a hard game, so that's why I put Mikael's Blessing third as example because that's what I often find myself needing in these kinds of games. |
Match-ups
Pyke is my perma ban. I find this matchup absolutely unplayable because: 1. A good Pyke will start Oracle Lens level 1 (and insta clear any ward) and sit in the bush and pressure you, causing you to be forced to completely give up prio which is very bad for Janna, you don't want to be pushed in constantly. 2. Because of point 1, Pyke will have first move, meaning he will always be first and most likely outroam you. 3. If you or your adc gets hooked, it's just death. Blitzcrank or Nautilus hooks are a lot easier to dodge (imo), and even if you get hooked you still have a chance of walking out. Pyke hooks you, stuns you, you die. 4. Map will be completely dark. Side note: beware of his lvl 1 invade / cheese
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Blitzcrank is another very very bad matchup for Janna. Laning phase is fine (as long as he doesn't have an adc like Samira or Draven) because you can just stay behind minions, but problems will arise during the mid-game unless you're extremely ahead.
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Senna meta was super disgusting but I don't really see her anymore these days. Very hard lane and when she was high pickrate I was banning her. You get outranged, outpoked and outsustained. Play super defensive and you can’t really do anything unless she used her abilities. Don’t try to trade with her. Try to get your jungler to gank as lane will most likely be pushed in perma and make sure to always have a control ward on you to be able to reveal her. Facing her when she’s adc is fine cuz she has to farm and can’t constantly bully u |
Sona actually counters Janna pretty hard but most Sona players are pretty bad and don’t know it. Laning phase is pretty unplayable vs a good Sona, she outranges, outpokes and outsustains. You have to try to bait her Hymn of Valor (Q) and space very well, you can’t ever trade as long as she has it up. Sona usually doesn’t roam too much and wants to scale in lane just like Soraka, so take advantage of that. You need to roam and get advantages on the map before she outscales you. Also respect her Crescendo (R) when she has it up and keep in mind she could Flash on you. |
I’d say this matchup is Nami favoured, and if she has a Lucian its unplayable. I never pick Janna into that lane, always go Soraka in that case. (Beware of the lvl 1 cheese if you’re playing vs Nami Lucian! )
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I’d say this matchup is pretty dependent on the adc picks, but it’s pretty playable overall. Level 1 you wanna start Zephyr and try to get prio. Stay behind your minions to not get hooked and Zephyr + auto whenever possible. Try to understand the full bot matchup and think about the adcs. If your adc is better early game, you can maybe get hooked on purpose and still win the 2v2. You can do this to bait them to fight you when your jungler is near as well. There is also many scenarios where its better to tank the hook for your adc. It’s very important to understand when you can & can’t roam in this matchup since Nautilus is great at diving your adc. Refer to the corresponding chapter for more info on that. Also make sure to cover entrances level 1 and be ready to run bc nautilus is great at invading
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You have 1 job in this lane: don’t get hit by her Starcall (Q). Soraka outscales you, she’s very slow early game so make sure to take advantage of that. Outroam her and get your team ahead. Beware of when she's level 6 and let your team know she has Wish (R) up. |
Ashe (support) is another pretty disgusting lane, a good Ashe will just completely zone you and your adc from the wave. Especially in combination with another poke champ like varus, this matchup is rly unplayable because you literally just cannot lane. Don't ever walk up or try to trade her. Ashe usually doesn't really roam because it's a lane bully, so you can takr advantage of that by outroaming her. Enemy bot will constantly be pushed in tho so you should ping your jungler for ganks, and if you survive laning phase and didn’t get fully stomped the game is pretty chill as long as you don’t get hit by Enchanted Crystal Arrow (R) because Janna is 100x Ashe in mid-game teamfights. |
This is a skill matchup but can be very rough if she has poke adc like Ezreal, Caitlyn or Varus. Try to stay behind minions so she can’t Q you, and don’t get hit by mantra Q. You can play whenever she used her Q. Janna is a lot more useful than karma mid-game imo because you can shield people from her Q, and Q her so she gets cced and can’t land her root etc. You just need to not get stomped by her in lane and the game should be okay. |
A good Lulu player will start Q and bully you pretty hard in lane, but you outscale her very hard after laning phase. In this lane it’s very important that you space well and bait out her Q, then you can go for a trade. A single Lulu E+Q will literally deal 35%+ of your HP lvl 2-3 so beware of that. As long as lulu doesn’t have a fed hypercarry (auto-attacker) to play for in the mid-game, she isn’t too scary and Janna just outscales. |
Rell can be kinda scary with an adc like Draven or Samira but Janna actually counters rell. Howling Gale cancels rell W, and if she somehow still gets on top of your team you can ult her away. You need to time her flash very well and respect her whenever she has it up so you can’t get flashed on. |
Pretty chill matchup, Alistar is completely useless level 1 so make sure you get prio and get as many Zephyrs off as possible, make sure to respect the level 2 when you’re crashing the wave so he can’t flash headbutt you into his turret. In teamfights you can also just q him or even ult him away if needed. You can cancel his headbut with q and also the auto he needs to get off to stun someone. |
This matchup kinda depends on which adc he has. If he has like Caitlyn Aphelios Lucian its gonna be rly rough, you can just never trade and you can try to outroam him. If he doens't stomp lane you will be a lot more useful after laning phase. You need to be smart about trading in general, bait his abilities out first. |
Janna counters Rakan, you can cancel his W if you're fast enough and when he uses R you can use your own R to push him away as well. Pretty easy matchup, beware of the level 1 cheese if he has for example Xayah. |
Another pretty easy matchup, Braum doesn't do much in lane and you can easily poke him down on early lvls, same concept as Alistar. Just dont get hit by his Q and respect his passive. You should outroam him hard. |
Her E is super short range and you can easily bait it out and space it. You can also cancel/delay her Q with your Q. As long as you don't get hit by her E this should be an easy matchup. |
Level 1, check if he has Death Sentence (Q) or Flay (E). You can see this (top left) by clicking on him, if he has E, there will be an extra icon. You can easily bait out & space his E, his hooks are also pretty dodgeable with how fast Janna is. It's important to try to get prio vs him, and if you win lane the game is pretty chill as Janna is way more useful mid-game. Make sure to ping your midlaner whenever Thresh is missing. |
Yuumi, whenever the champ is in a good state, is actually pretty good into Janna. The matchup is kinda like Soraka but worse as you just literally can't interact with a good Yuumi. Lane revolves around not getting hit by Prowling Projectile (Q) and you get outscaled so you need to try and get a lead early by outroaming her. Don't forget, whenever you cc Yuumi when she isn't in an ally, her You and Me!goes on cooldown and she's unable to reattach for a few seconds. Whenever she hops out of her adc in lane, use your Howling Gale on her instantly and focus her. |
Ability usage, laning phase, roaming & mid-game.
It's really hard to cover everything and there is so so so many possible scenarios but I will try my best to keep it simple and to cover the basics and most crucial things that you can apply pretty much every game.
Level 1 you start Zephyr and try to get prio. Attack the minions to make sure you hit level 2 first and play around the bushes. Ideally you wanna be going in and out of them, using Zephyr on the enemy and going back into the bush before they can trade back. Don't forget the enemy jungler though, and if needed (because you don't know where he started, or know he will be bot), go ward after the 2nd wave.
Try to punish the enemies for stepping up for minions and try to stay next to your adc. Don't walk up too far by yourself while he's farming. Generally, you want to try to recall at the same time.
You don't really want to be spamming Howling Gale, it costs a lot of mana. It's good to use it here and there, walking out of vision to cast one or placing it in the bush (make sure you don't leave the bush until it goes off, as long as Janna is out of vision, Howling Gale is invisible too.)
As the game goes on, you want to be looking for fully charged Howling Gales from out of vision. Each Howling Gale you hit might grant you a kill. A great position to place it at is the enemy's auto attack range (where they stand while hitting minions or the turret) it has a high chance of landing.
Make sure to always look at the state of the wave. If there is a big wave about to crash into your turret, you need to always be there with your adc, or they might (and most likely will!) get dove. You can never leave in that situation.
This can get pretty advanced and kinda depends on how the game is going and is mostly just macro and not very Janna specific so I'm just going to keep it simple and go with a few important bullet points.
The first thing I'd like to mention is kinda random but I haven't really been able to put it anywhere. Always use Eye Of The Storm on your ally before doing anything else, because whenever you impair an enemy's movement with Zephyr or Howling Gale, 20% of the cooldown is refunded. Also make sure to remember that you can cancel lots of things with Howling Gale and Monsoon, so it can be good to save it in teamfights! You can cancel for example Death Lotus, Elastic Slingshot, Ferromancy - Crash Down / Mount Up and so much more!
Now actually onto the mid-game.
At this point, you want to be spamming Howling Gale on the waves whenever enemies are there. You don't lose anything from it, and one might hit and grant a pick.
Play with your jungler once the mid-game starts. Help your adc catch the wave mid and once they are safe again and waiting for the next one, look to do something with your jungler until the next wave comes in.
Play on the side where your jungler/carry is. If they are in the top jungle and you and your adc are mid, make sure you are on the left side of mid.
You don't facecheck at this point, unless you know where everyone is. You can use a fully charged Howling Gale on a bush as you walk towards it to keep you safe while you ward.
Ping your team. This is super important! Do something useful with the kills you get. Did you just kill enemy jungler and baron is up? Ping them to get it! Don't keep aram'ing mid.
Stay behind your team, we aren't playing Alistar and we can't save anyone when we're dead ourselves.
Make sure you always have a few wards, and recall in time to get some new ones if an objective is spawning. Don't spam-buy Control Wards, only get them for objectives.
You can use Monsoon to push the enemy jungler away from an objective as it's about to die, so they cannot Smite it.
Starting off with laning phase:
Level 1 you start Zephyr and try to get prio. Attack the minions to make sure you hit level 2 first and play around the bushes. Ideally you wanna be going in and out of them, using Zephyr on the enemy and going back into the bush before they can trade back. Don't forget the enemy jungler though, and if needed (because you don't know where he started, or know he will be bot), go ward after the 2nd wave.
Try to punish the enemies for stepping up for minions and try to stay next to your adc. Don't walk up too far by yourself while he's farming. Generally, you want to try to recall at the same time.
You don't really want to be spamming Howling Gale, it costs a lot of mana. It's good to use it here and there, walking out of vision to cast one or placing it in the bush (make sure you don't leave the bush until it goes off, as long as Janna is out of vision, Howling Gale is invisible too.)
As the game goes on, you want to be looking for fully charged Howling Gales from out of vision. Each Howling Gale you hit might grant you a kill. A great position to place it at is the enemy's auto attack range (where they stand while hitting minions or the turret) it has a high chance of landing.
A great trick with Howling Gale in lane is to aim it like you see in the picture, it's undodgeable because of the turret and enemies almost always get hit by it. (arrow depending on your position) |
The enemy jungler is ganking! A very common mistake is that Janna players try to hit the jungler with Howling Gale while fleeing. You should however place it as depicted in the picture, cutting off his path. This way he can never reach you unless he flashes it. This applies to literally every single scenario where you are running from someone. Use Howling Gale to cut off their path, don't place it trying to hit them in their current position as that is easily dodgeable. |
Roaming:
Make sure to always look at the state of the wave. If there is a big wave about to crash into your turret, you need to always be there with your adc, or they might (and most likely will!) get dove. You can never leave in that situation.
You generally want to walk back following the arrows you see in the picture. This way you can decide wether you just walk back botlane or need to be mid because something might happen. |
If you just crashed a huge wave (the circle) that is still under the enemy turret, you have a bigger timeframe to roam. In that case, you can just straight up walk mid, or maybe even toplane! See what your jungler is doing, maybe you guys can invade or make a gank happen. |
If you and your adc just crashed the wave, you have a small timeframe to go do something. You could go ward enemy jungle (but be careful!), invade it with your jungler, or see if you can maybe make something happen midlane. Make sure you are back in lane by the time the new wave is there so your adc can safely farm it. Generally, every time you crash a wave like that you want to go in the fog, so enemy doesn't know where you are. When you come back after the roam, stay in the fog too. Maybe the enemy botlane thinks your adc is alone and engages not knowing you're there too. 2 free kills! |
Mid-game:
This can get pretty advanced and kinda depends on how the game is going and is mostly just macro and not very Janna specific so I'm just going to keep it simple and go with a few important bullet points.
The first thing I'd like to mention is kinda random but I haven't really been able to put it anywhere. Always use Eye Of The Storm on your ally before doing anything else, because whenever you impair an enemy's movement with Zephyr or Howling Gale, 20% of the cooldown is refunded. Also make sure to remember that you can cancel lots of things with Howling Gale and Monsoon, so it can be good to save it in teamfights! You can cancel for example Death Lotus, Elastic Slingshot, Ferromancy - Crash Down / Mount Up and so much more!
Now actually onto the mid-game.
At this point, you want to be spamming Howling Gale on the waves whenever enemies are there. You don't lose anything from it, and one might hit and grant a pick.
Play with your jungler once the mid-game starts. Help your adc catch the wave mid and once they are safe again and waiting for the next one, look to do something with your jungler until the next wave comes in.
Play on the side where your jungler/carry is. If they are in the top jungle and you and your adc are mid, make sure you are on the left side of mid.
You don't facecheck at this point, unless you know where everyone is. You can use a fully charged Howling Gale on a bush as you walk towards it to keep you safe while you ward.
Ping your team. This is super important! Do something useful with the kills you get. Did you just kill enemy jungler and baron is up? Ping them to get it! Don't keep aram'ing mid.
Stay behind your team, we aren't playing Alistar and we can't save anyone when we're dead ourselves.
Make sure you always have a few wards, and recall in time to get some new ones if an objective is spawning. Don't spam-buy Control Wards, only get them for objectives.
You can use Monsoon to push the enemy jungler away from an objective as it's about to die, so they cannot Smite it.
Warding
Currently in progress but will be added shortly
Patch Notes
Only listing patches with relevant changes, updating with every patch so you can always come check if something changed!
14.7: Imperial Mandate and Zaz'Zak's Realmspike nerfed for a total of 3% HP damage. Quite a nerf and Moonstone Renewer rush with Eye Of The Storm max is a lot more viable now, but go-to build is Shurelya's Battlesong into Moonstone Renewer with 3 points in Zephyr after which you max Eye Of The Storm.
14.9: Zephyr nerf: Damage: 55/90/125/160/195 (+60% AP) (+30% Bonus Movement Speed) ⇒ 55/85/115/145/175 (+50% AP) (+30% Bonus Movement Speed) and Eye Of The Storm buff: Shield: 80/115/150/185/220 (+55% AP) ⇒ 80/120/160/200/240 (+55% AP)
This change is aimed at the Imperial Mandate rush build with Zephyr max that was already nerfed before, and pushes janna towards maxing Eye Of The Storm. It is now no longer worth to max Zephyr ever, and the build is completely dead.
14.10: Go-to runes have changed after Font of Life rework, you go Resolve tree secondary now instead of Domination as Relentless Hunter also got nerfed. Big Shurelya's Battlesong nerf, u don't go it anymore. Echoes of Helia into Moonstone Renewer is standard build now and u don't put 3 points in Zephyr anymore, just full max Eye Of The Storm.
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