Hello everyone, welcome to this humble guide. I am Aeolian Melodies from the NA servers. You may have seen me on the Janna Mains subreddit, and/or on the LoL official boards, and/or in game! I have been a support-only player and a Janna main for over seven (!!!) years - which means since I started LoL in late 2010. Through that time, I played countless Janna games and did countless plays (good and bad), and gave her countless builds (yes, good and bad too). My friends list has also gathered countless summoners* who added me solely for my Janna.

I have been thinking for a very, very long time about putting this all together and writing my own guide to try and help new Janna players learn the ropes with her, and perhaps get more and more people into playing the champion I have enjoyed so much and for so long. I am not sure I would ever have dared had Waffle (from the Janna subreddit) not encouraged me :)

This guide will (attempt to) gather everything I have learned about Janna so far. I do not pretend that my way is the only way, or even the best way: it is the best for me, playing Janna this way has worked for me for the longest time, and that's it. This guide is intended to help new Janna players. If you are a veteran Janna, I hope I can show you some new stuff too, but a lot of it you will already know. Do take note that this guide assume that you are new to Janna but not to the support position. If you are looking for advice about how to support in general (proper ward placement, importance of looking out for teammates, importance of letting allies farm, etc.), you are unfortunately not going to find what you want here. This is a guide about support Janna intended for people who already know how to support, but do not know how to do so with Janna.

Disclaimer: I don't play ranked (much). I play support. I play Janna. If you wanted to see a high elo Janna guide, or if you believe one needs to be Diamond and above to know anything about a champion, then I kindly invite you to press back space and find another guide, as you will not find what you are looking for here.

* Untrue - I could count them, I'm just not bothered to do it.

CHANGE LOG

January 7th 2017: Fixed a LOT of issues with formatting thanks to this guy: http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/making-a-guide-101506 . Added a screenshot for runes. Cleaned up some text too. Added icons for the ADCs in the bot lane synergy section. Hope the guide is more agreeable to the eyes now! :)

January 9th 2017: Added Tristana, Twitch, Varus and Vayne to bot lane synergy (section effectively complete - until Riot releases another ADC, that is). Added quotes in the bot lane synergy section for funzies.

April 22th 2018: Whew *dusting off this place*. Updated the guide majorly to fit new runes, new items, and the new way to play Janna following the mini-rework she received towards the end of season 7. Added ADCs to the match up sections, which only had supports up until that point. Added Xayah to the "synergy" section, she was not released the last time I touched up my guide. NOTE: Ka'Sai missing from both the match up and synergy section, because she was released when I was on a major LoL break and am not familiar enough with her kit yet, so I am not comfortable enough giving an opinion as of now.

Flash is not really up for debate. In a game where positioning is absolutely everything, the ability to instantly re-position yourself, whether it is to avoid death or make an awesome play, is way too good to pass up. It should be noted that Janna is one of the very few champions (in my opinion) who can actually live without Flash; she is safe and fast enough to get out of bad situations without it, and she does not especially need it to make plays. Some Janna players (SilentGale comes to mind) actually do pretty good carrying Heal+Exhaust, because they have adapted their playstyle to being flash-less. Having it in her back pocket, however, allows for a lot more freedom in my opinion, so I never go without it.

The real discussion is between Ignite and Exhaust. Though Exhaust is the most popular choice on her, as it naturally fits into her playstyle as yet another peeling tool, Janna can make great use of Ignite as well. Personally, Ignite is my favoured spell, because it helps her asserting lane dominance, though I am flexible and swap it out for Exhaust in certain situations. Many players tend to stick to one or another, personally I believe that Janna's ability to work with both in different situations is a testament for her versatility and a very good thing overall.

If the enemy has strong duelists that could seriously harm your ADC (Zed, Master Yi, Fiora, Jax, etc.)

If the enemy has high burst champions who get shut down by Exhaust (Katarina, Akali, LeBlanc, etc.);

If your ADC is immobile, thus can use all the peel you can find;

If the enemy ADC is immobile (will get shut down and locked down by Exhaust easily)

If you want a summoner spell that will be relevant all game;

If your team lacks CC (be it for protection or for sticking power);

If you think you are going to play it defensive bot lane;

If you are not sure what to expect;

Exhaust is probably the best choice in your situation.

However:

If you want the most possible kill pressure in lane;

If you are confident that your kit (and possibly item actives) is all you will need to control the flow of fights;

If the enemy ADC is mobile, thus quite unhindered by Exhaust;

If your ADC is mobile, so he does not need extra-peel;

If the enemy has champions that thrives on self-sustain (Mundo, Warwick, Maokai, etc.);

If the enemy support is a healer (Nami, Sona, and most of all Soraka);

If you are confident that you can dictate the pace of bot lane and be aggressive;

If you want a spell that gives Janna something she does not already have (damage) instead of a spell that gives yet something she has plenty of (peel and CC)

;

Ignite is probably what you are looking for in your situation.

Overall it comes down to playstyle, and Exhaust is a safer choice whenever you are in doubt, but there are situations where Ignite would serve Janna very well, so it should not be entirely disregarded.

I have three sets of runes that I use for Janna depending on the game and who I will be facing.

https://imgur.com/a/GUvDn9D

- This is the most "basic" or versatile setup, helping Janna with poking, utility and self-sustain via biscuit delivery. If you can only afford one page dedicated for Janna, I would suggest this one.

- Sorcery as the main tree is a no brainer for Janna: it is loaded with runes and stats she wants and uses well. I don't think any other tree is worth putting in primary for her.

- Summon Aery VS Arcane Comet VS Phase Rush is an easy choice; Phase Rush has no use for Janna, so let's get that out of the way first. While you can make a case for the added poke provided by Comet, Summon Aery remains the superior choice with its much lower CD, proccing off auto attacks as well, and Janna using both sides of that keystone given that she pokes in lane and has a shield.

- Manaflow band VS Ultimate Hat VS Nullifying Orb: used to be, MFB was the no-brainer here, because it gave a lot of free spells that helped you a lot through the laning phase. The reworked version is not nearly as good, Janna has a very large mana pool and doesn't want/need a bigger pool in my opinion, so I have removed MFB from my builds and replaced it with Ultimate Hat, which allows Janna to use one of the most game-changing abilities more often. Nullifying Orb does not really fit Janna, nor does it provide her something she wants or needs.

- Celerity VS Transcendence VS Absolute Focus: Celerity is the rune of choice here. The small amount of AP it will give you is not the main focus: the main focus is the movement speed, very useful early to move in and out of poke range better - especially since the recent nerf to Janna's base movement speed. A case could be made for Transcendence, as it's easy to overcap CDR on a regular support build and get value from that rune, however, it only starts giving you something at level 10 (where it gives you CDR) and it will likely take a few items before you overcap your CDR, so while this rune can be good, by the time it starts helping you, Celerity has been doing a lot of work.

- Gathering Storm VS Scorch VS Waterwalking. Waterwalking is out of the question (frankly I don't know what they were thinking with such a situational rune being in the final slot). The real debate is Scorch VS Gathering Storm. In theory, Scorch adds to your damage in lane and should be the best option, in practice, it got nerfed so many times that when I swapped it out for Gathering Storm (for science!), I did not even notice the damage drop. Gathering Storm has AMAZING value - it provides a lot of free AP, and because Janna scales well with AP and is naturally a strong champion late game, she loves that rune.

- For our secondary tree, here we are going with Inspiration and opting for Biscuit Delivery, which provides additional sustain in lane (very welcome on a non-healing support like Janna), and Magical Footwear, which provides you with free, slightly faster boots. The only drawback of Magical Footwear is that you are locked out of getting boots until they are granted to you by this rune, however typically as Janna you would not want your boots sooner anyway.

- Cosmic Insight could be seen as a decent alternative to either Biscuits or Boots, however I personally don't like it much as 5% cdr it not that noticeable.

This is my basic Janna rune page, my "use this first, ask questions later". It provides Janna with absolutely everything she wants to lane in my opinion. I do have alternatives rune pages for her, swapping out the secondary tree to suit more situational needs.

ALTERNATIVE #1: RESOLVE SECONDARY

https://imgur.com/a/yPH0Ds8

Again, we are maining the Sorcery tree, with zero changes compared to the previous setup, because it's simply what suits Janna the most. We are, however, swapping our the Inspiration tree in favour of the Resolve tree for our secondary rune path. This rune setup is something I use when the enemy bot lane has burst (as opposed to poke for the previous setup) and will be trying to 100-0 us - examples of such lanes would be Leona + Draven, Blitzcrank + Jinx etc. Just picking Resolve secondary gives you added HP, and we will further enhance our durability with out rune choices:

Revitalize is a must when going for Resolve secondary with Janna. She doubles-dip in it because she has both a shield and a heal in her kit, and it even makes clutch shields more likely to save low health allies.

Chrysalis is what I go for my other rune slot in that tree. It provides some free HP at the start of the game (useful vs high CC + high burst bot lanes), and later, when you don't really need that HP anymore, poof, it becomes AP. Magic.

Another alternative to Chrysalis, if you just want to be more durable for the whole game would be Bone Plating, if you are struggling with positioning a bit more.

Some people opt for Font of Life, which I am not a fan of, first of all it requires your ADC to really work well with you (not always the reality outside of a premade), and secondly even when he does, from my experience the sustain it gives is barely noticeable. Plus, the rough lanes where you would be considering this rune are precisely the lanes where you can't reliably use it. It's not worth the slot.

The other runes in that tree are just not interesting for Janna, they're more suited to true tanks.

ALTERNATIVE #2: DOMINATION SECONDARY

The following rune page is only recommended for Janna's easier lanes:

https://imgur.com/a/EgPsYZZ

Again, keeping Sorcery as our main tree, yada-yada.

This time we are swapping out Inspiration for Domination, which has a bunch of interesting stuff for Janna, actually.

Cheap Shot suits her poking pattern (W -> AAs) nicely, provided that you are able to land a few auto-attacks after Zephyr (hence why I mentioned this was suited for her easier lanes), lane domination (see what I did there) should ensue.

Zombie Ward is our second rune of choice here, even after some nerfs, the double whammy of GETTING VISION after removing it from the enemy team is very powerful. Never underestimate how long these wards can stay up, providing free vision, simply because the enemy did not walk into that specific bush.

Ingenious Hunter is something people pick a lot too if they get Domination as their secondary tree, it's a decent choice if you plan on building a lot of actives (which I generally do not, hence my choice not to use that rune). If I were to use it I would swap out Cheap Shot.

Tailwind is Janna's passive: champions running towards her gain 8% bonus movement speed - effectively giving her Captain Boots Enchant even after the removal of Boots Enchants. Many people tend to downplay or entirely forget the existence of this innate, but please do not fall under this category. 8% bonus MS is nothing to scoff at, you should always keep it in mind when rotating, going back to lane, and retreating: lead your allies (without going too far ahead) so that they have the speed advantage.

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Howling Gale [Q]

is Janna's most famous ability, and possibly the one that gets on enemies' nerves the most. Despite that, it should be maxed last, and it should not be used lightly (both for the mana cost and for the opportunity cost of having it on CD because you used it for a futile reason). Upon casting it, Janna will aim and place down a tornado: once fully charged or after pressing Q again, it will fire in the direction it was cast. Neither placing nor releasing the tornado will stop Janna's movement. Placing, charging, and releasing the tornado do not put Janna in combat: hitting enemies with it will. Charging it increases the knock-up duration, speed, range and damage. Despite that, often Howling Gale will be instantly released (double-tap Q) for instant CC. Bar a fully charged tornado, Howling Gale moves relatively slowly and has average range, so enemies can outrun it if you place it too far: as a rule of thumb, if you can W them first, you will be able to knock them up.

Howling Gale will stop dashes (but not blinks), save for the very few that make the champion impossible to CC or target, and it will also overwrite any displacement ability from your allies on enemy champions. This means that if a Blitzcrank pulls a target towards you, and you Q them, they will be stopped mid-air and drop to the ground before reaching Blitzcrank. This also works with Janna's own displacement, meaning proper timing will allow you to cancel Monsoon's push-back with Howling Gale's knock-up, which can allow you to isolate a target, or can also be a good way to get the disable and heal from Monsoon without pushing enemies to safety.

Howling Gale counts as a displacement ability, thus it cannot be Cleanse'd, Crucible'd, QSS'd, and tenacity effects do not lower the CC duration.

Releasing a previously placed Howling Gale while channeling Monsoon will not interrupt Janna (but placing down a new tornado would).

Howling Gale (while flying, not while being placed down or while charging) is a projectile for the purpose of Braum and Yasuo's walls.

Howling Gale enables Yasuo's ultimate, Last Breath.

Be warned that there has been a bug on this ability for the longest time, whenever casting Q leaves you with not enough mana to cast a second one, double-tapping Q will first give you the sound and warning that you can't cast this ability right now, then you will be able to Q again to release the tornado; be careful about timing clutch tornadoes when on low mana.

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Zephyr [W]

is both an active and a passive ability. The active is a point-and-click single target slow that actually does decent damage, especially since we are maxing this in lane. Using Zephyr will stop Janna's movement for the time she is throwing the bird (quite short, but still worth noting) and will naturally put her in combat as soon as she hits something (drastically dropping your speed if using Mobility Boots). Using the active will disable the passive for the duration of the ability's cooldown - so for this reason, when you are trying to escape (especially multiple enemies), it is generally better and safer to hold onto this ability and keep your passive.

"But why," I can hear you scream, "Why, Aeolian Melodies, WHY???" I'll tell you why: because the passive is extremely good, so something's gotta give. The passive part of Zephyr is what grants Janna her godlike speed, making her the fastest champion without the use of a temporary buff such as Ghost or Master Yi's ultimate.

The second part of the passive side of Zephyr - which many people disregard, but I believe you should abuse the hell out of this - is that it makes Janna unaffected by unit collision. In the past, you have gotten angry at minions acting like a wall of bricks while your champion derps around trying to find his path, have you? Well, rage no more, my friend, with Janna this is a thing of the past. You should learn to play around this ability, as it gives Janna a tremendous advantage when playing against skillshot-of-death champions (she can literally be IN her minions while harassing them), and when running away (run THROUGH the minions while your enemy is forced to either risk getting stuck or go around).

I strongly recommend smart-casting this ability if you do not default to smart-casting everything, as without smart-cast this ability's shortish range tends to yield frustrating "go off, dammit, GO OFF" situations.

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Eye of the Storm [E]

serves as both Janna's primary protection spell and her mean to buff her ally. The protective barrier can absorb quite a lot of damage, which makes learning to time it properly crucial. And the only key to that is: practice. You need to be able to predict enemy damage incoming to shield correctly. Be too slow, and you will shield after your ally has taken damage; be too trigger happy, and the enemies will wait out the duration of the shield, then unleash their damage. This is a very punishing mistake to make, given the long-ish CD of that ability in lane. Very few things in this game deal instant damage: most of the time you will have a delay either because it is DoT, projectile-based, or it is an ability with a cast time.

Casting Eye of the Storm does not stop Janna's movement, nor does it put her in combat.

Eye of the Storm also provides your target with bonus AD (up to 40, and scaling up with AP), which will be loss when the shield is broken, meaning that the best possible target for your shield is a champion with high attack speed, good AD scalings, and who typically stays far from damage: hello, allied marksman.

When using it to buff your ADC's damage, always keep in mind that damage is calculated as it hits and not as it is fired off: it is wiser to only shield when the Headshot/poking ability is actually flying towards an enemy champion to avoid wasting mana when your ADC actually turns around to last hit a creep or whiffs his skillshot.

Eye of the Storm can be used on towers, protecting them and boosting their damage. Janna will take credit for any killing blow landed on champions (but not minions), and if an ally gets the kill instead, she will be granted an assist.

You can use Eye of the Storm on the champions icons on your HUD: this is very useful to make sure you are shielding the right target when many people are very close to each others, especially with smartcast which is way faster and smoother but can actually be quite dumb sometimes.

As a rule of thumb, your shielding priority should be whoever is about to die > ADC > AD assassins & AD bruisers > tanks > AP assassins and mages > yourself.

I strongly recommend smart-casting this ability if you do not smart-cast everything by default, it will make your life much easier, it will make the shields come out a tad faster and avoid many "I just died in your aaaaaaaaarms toniiiiiiiiiiiiiiight" moments for your allies.

I also recommend, if you have a gaming mouse, binding self-cast E to a mouse button (this can be done in-game, through the key binding options) which will allow you to clutch-shield yourself much faster.

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Monsoon [R]

is Janna's most crucial, hardest, and flashiest ability. If this does not make you feel like a goddess, nothing about supporting ever will. It is an extremely powerful ability that can easily reset a team fight that did not go in your team's favor. Janna will first knock-back enemies surrounding her, then channel for a short duration, healing allied champions within the AoE of the storm. Cast again, use any other ability or move to break the channel early.

You will mess up that ability when learning to play her, there is no other way to put it. You will use it too late and see allies die, you will use it unwisely and save enemies: that's okay. Don't let it get to you. Keep on practicing her, and these moments will be few and in between as you get better.

Monsoon will only put Janna in combat if she has affected enemies with the knock-back.

Monsoon enables Yasuo's ultimate, Last Breath.

Monsoon is not considered a projectile.

Monsoon, like Howling Gale, cannot be removed by any CC-removal effect, neither can it be reduced by tenacity effects (as a displacement, it is calculated in distance rather than time).

As of 6.20, Monsoon can no longer push enemies through walls - player-generated walls (Anivia's, Jarvan's ultimate for instance) and actual walls on the map behave the same. Enemies will be briefly disabled when the wall stops their movement.

Monsoon can be used as a panic button, to reset a team fight, to heal your team through a Baron, to knock an enemy into your team/tower, to split & isolate enemies, to send a special gift to an allied Yasuo, to push enemies back into your teammate's AoE ability, to cancel channeled abilities, and even to angry a Kindred:
Play Video

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Hey, everything she does is awesome. What is my skilling order?

There is nothing ground-breaking about my skilling order, this is pretty standard for most Janna players.

Pick and max your Zephyr first to better trade in lane.

Max your shield second. The reason why we are not maxing it first is because the CD is so long early on that focusing on it will give Janna sub-zero lane presence. As a rule of thumb, I max W during the laning phase and start to max E when the laning phase ends (regardless of whether W is fully maxed or not at this point), then finish W, then Q.

Take points in R whenever available, as the increased healing & lowered cooldown are nothing to scoff at.

Max Q last, as it is a one-point-wonder skill despite being Janna's signature spell. Leveling it significantly increases the mana cost (up to 150 - to put this in perspective, most champions' ultimates, including Janna's, cost 100 mana), while providing nothing but a bit more damage on the ability.

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Howling Gale or Eye of the Storm at level 2?

This is a legitimate question. I showed WEQW in the grid, because this is my most common path, however I do go WQEW or WQWE sometimes, it all depends.

If the enemy bot lane can go in on you and Howling Gale can prevent it (Leona, Thresh, etc.);

If you are worried about an early gank;

If you want to play it safe;

If the enemy ADC has a dash that you might want to interrupt to mess up early trades;

If you think you can set up your ADC for a nice early first blood if you use both W and Q;

It is probably better to take Q at level 2.

- If the enemy bot lane is based on poke rather than engage;

- If the enemy bot lane has engage that Howling Gale can do very little against (Morgana, Zyra etc.);

- If you are not worried about getting ganked before you hit lvl 3;

- Overall, if the added damage to your ADC and the shield will make your life better at level 2;

It is probably wise to opt for E at level 2.

The full build displayed in the core section is what I would end up with in a typical game. Some items not present in the "most absolute core" may get switched out depending on the team's needs and the pace of the game. The key to adequate support itemization is to adapt. A good support build differs from one game to another, because a good support build will react to what your team and the enemy team are doing.

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Coin VS Spellthief

This used to be a debate. Then Ancient Coin became objectively better than Spellthief's Edge on everyone (thanks, OP Censer meta of late S7). Then (now) Spellthief is clearly the superior option on Janna: her new playstyle to max (or at least put 3 points in) W early and poke the enemy with it, paired with her (FINALLY) buffed AA range makes her a very good user of this item and I see very little reasons now to forgo the added pressure and superior combat stats from Spellthief's Edge. You get similar gold to Coin, with better trading power.

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Boots: what are Janna's options?

As a champion who is not focused on damage, Janna has quite a bit of freedom in her choice of boots. Let's have a look.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity are what I favour now, they're a cheap source of early CDR for your shield, and the added bonus of lowering the cooldown of your summoner spells is very valuable. If your build will overcap CDR with these and it bothers you, you can swap out Celerity in favour of Transcendence in your runes, and voila.

Mobility Boots are what I get if I believe my presence is required everywhere at once. These boots will always be a strong option for her - I feel they play the best to Janna's greatest strength, which is her insane map presence. It is also worth noting that since killing wards no longer puts you in combat, Janna can cover a very large terrain with one cast of Oracle's Lens, increasing her control on vision by a decent margin.

Boots of Swiftness are a decent alternative if you believe higher in-combat speed will serve you better, and/or if the enemy's crowd control mostly consists of slows.

Ninja Tabi & Mercury's Treads are solid options if the enemy team's damage is one-sided, and/or if they have one specific champion who is the only threat. I would not put too much emphasis on the tenacity from Mercury's Treads, as you will often die anyway even if the CC that just caught you was slightly reduced. Focus on not getting caught to begin with.

Sorcerer's Shoes : Maybe in ARAM or featured mode. Stay away on Summoner Rift and as a support.

Berserker's Greaves : ... be serious.

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To Mejai or to not Mejai

Mejai's Soulstealer looks like a godsent for a champion like Janna who scales decently with AP, racks up lots of assists and rarely dies.

I tend to get Dark Seal on my first back (unless we are getting destroyed), alongside my Frostfang, and then I see how it goes. It works and I get 6+ stacks? Upgrade to Mejai's Soulstealer and rack up that free AP. We start getting destroyed the moment I buy it, like this thing is bloody cursed? Sell it when you need the gold/slot.

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Censer first? Athene first? Redemption? Locket?

I generally end up getting all three items (unless one needs swapping our for something my team needs more). In most games, I will be rushing either Ardent Censer or Athene's Unholy Grail. If I am paired with an ADC who uses Censer especially well, such as Tristana, Twitch, Vayne or Jinx, I will most likely rush Censer, starting with Forbidden Idol which gives Janna some helpful stats in lane anyway.

If my ADC is not a big Censer user, such as Jhin or Ezreal, or if the enemy bot lane has a mage support, I will most likely get an early Chalice of Harmony into Athene's. The regen and MR will help my laning phase, and Athene's is a fantastic item on champions like Janna - the mana regen to AP conversion passive is amazing, given that your core items all provide mana regen, and the fact that your pre-mitigation damage (so no magic penetration needed to maximize this) give you charges that you can turn into a heal with your shield is pretty icing on a delicious cake.

I get Redemption as my second (rare) or third (more frequent) item. The AoE heal is very strong, however after many changes the item is not that great to rush as your first main item anymore, due to the early active being less powerful than it used to be, plus it now scales with % healing/shielding bonus that you get from your other core items. Redemption can be stacked upon your ult for massive AoE healing, used to turn around a fight before you get there/after you died, etc. It's a great item.

Redemption is strong, however, do not over value it; if the enemy mostly has instant burst, the delay on Redemption means it's not that useful. In those situations, you would probably be better served by a Locket of the Iron Solari, even though it scales with bonus HP, which Janna does not build a lot.

Items such as Twin Shadows and Shurelya's Battlesong are highly situational - one to help a pick-oriented team composition, the other to help an engage-oriented team composition - but still worth considering if the need arises. They are not strong enough (compared to the alternatives) to warrant a spot in your core build, but there are definitely games where they can/should be picked up.

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When to upgrade Frostfang to Remnant of the Watchers

Simple: whenever you have nothing else left to do with your gold. Back when Sightstone and Eye of the Watchers existed, I strongly advised rushing Sightstone -> EotW because it was the fastest, cheapest way to start controlling vision. Remnant of the Watchers is more expensive than Eye of the Watchers was, and Frostfang will (basically) transform into the "legacy" Sightstone for free after gaining enough gold with its quest. Ever since the change I've been putting my gold to better use by sitting on Frostfang and moving on to my core items, with great success.

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When to build AP, when to build tank and when to build utility?

Janna has quite the build diversity. My personal favourite is a utility build with some AP to enhance Janna's own utility. Ardent Censer, Athene's Unholy Grail and Redemption are very powerful support items that play to Janna's strengths of protecting and strengthening her teammates.

While many people run a build similar to mine, you also have people who run her with a lot of tank items and just get in the fray, and you have the complete opposite end of the spectrum with people building her full AP every game. Everything works if you know what you are doing and play in a way that makes it work. For instance, building full tank and playing extremely conservatively is essentially wasting the gold you invested to make yourself so sturdy, and on the other hand building full AP and not playing carefully will get you killed in .2 second, and then who cares how much you can heal/shield with that build, you're dead.

Personally I believe there is no need to build Janna super tanky: positioning is her best survival tool, and unless the enemy threats heavily target you, there should be no need for you to go for tank items. If, however, you tilted the enemy hard enough that they actually aim for you, well by all means, tank up to be able to withstand the damage and spam your mastery emote when they target you yet again and get mauled by your whole team.

As for full AP builds, I believe they have their place if you can play accordingly (full blown AP is the squishiest Janna build). I am not a big fan of aiming for damage with Janna ( Sorcerer's Shoes, Luden's Tempest, Void Staff etc.), but going for AP items that have a touch of utility or other good stats make sense.

In my eyes, though, you should only build AP Janna if it will truly benefit your team. As the support, you should always put the team's best interest first.

Janna naturally fits most ADC in lane and in team fights, provided you and your partner know what you are doing. Name an ADC who does not want free AD and one who does not like endless peel - I dare you. Sure, she is not always the absolute best option, but she is one of the very few champions you simply cannot go wrong with a "pick X first, ask questions later".

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ASHE

"Do not mistake mercy for weakness."

Pros: High poke with W, strong trades with her Q + Janna's shield, amazing utility with E+R+her multiple slows, she can provide the engage in your lane, high AA range (beaten only by Caitlyn from the get go and Tristana after some levels), endless kiting from both champions.

Cons: Highly squishy, immobile, less DPS than some other marksmen.

My overall thoughts: This is and has always been an excellent lane, and Ashe is one of my favourite champion to support with Janna. Ashe and Janna complement each others beautifully, playing to each others' strengths (you shall not reach us) and covering for each others' weaknesses (Janna's peel makes up for how immobile Ashe is, Ashe's arrow makes up for the lack of engaging tool in Janna's kit).

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CAITLYN

"Boom. Headshot."

Pros: Extremely high range to abuse the damage provided by Janna's shield, strong AD ratios, decent utility with traps, typically plays an aggressive poke lane which is something Janna supports very well.

Cons: Janna is at her best late game and at her weakest early game, Caitlyn is kind of the other way around, this can be good OR bad. Depending on the enemy team comp, Janna can feel a bit overkill to support a Caitlyn since she has her own escape and high range.

Overall thoughts: Generally speaking a lane you can't go wrong with and that has very little counters.

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CORKI

"Speed of heat!"

Pros: High poke, high burst, has his own mobility so you are a bit more free to use Q and/or R in an offensive fashion, overall this is an annoying and safe lane.

Cons: Corki does not exactly need the godly peel Janna provides and would probably prefer a support who packs more offensive potential, he does not have the best AD ratios to abuse the shield either. Tends to go for a more caster-oriented build rather than pure auto-attack which is what Janna would support the best.

Overall thoughts: Overall not a bad lane, a good champion + a good champion is rarely a bad setup, but not optimal as Corki does not really need nor abuses what Janna can provide.

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DRAVEN

"Let's admire me for a bit."

Pros: Insanely high damage made even more insane with your shield, great snowball potential - on Draven's side, having Janna as his support is good because Janna is statistically among the lowest kill champions, and it is paramount that Draven gets his kills. She provides him with the peel he needs to stay ahead once he gets there. It is also worth noting that thanks to her W passive, Janna will rarely, if ever, body-block Draven when he tries to catch an axe.

Cons: Not enough people play him. For real though - the one con I can think about is that should he fall behind for any reason, he is one of the worst at getting back on track and Janna is not that amazing at getting someone back on track, she's more about making sure they don't fail in the first place.

Overall thoughts: I am biased as hell because my best ranked experience was in season 4 getting to plat with my friend who played Draven while I supported him with Janna every single game. Garen-teed first blood at level 2 (or 3 if we got lazy) from shield -> axes -> tornado -> stand aside -> exhaust -> axes to the face combo of hell. The lane is very scary if the Draven and your communication are good.

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EZREAL

"You belong in a museum."

Pros: Extremely safe poking lane (yes that is all I have to say for this case).

Cons: Mixed damage carry with average AD ratios. Highly mobile and does not need Janna's peel. Sometimes goes blue build making Janna's peel even more of an overkill to have. Caster-type ADC, Janna prefers auto-attackers. Tends to go Tear 1st item which more often than not will mean lost trades with Janna as his support.

Overall thoughts: Despite what you may think, I like Ezreal - just not with Janna. This is a rare case of two good champions not going well together and really not helping each others. Whoever picked the 2nd part of bot lane when his ally had Janna/Ezreal locked in did the lane a major disservice.

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GRAVES

"They picked the wrong fight."

Pros: High burst, somewhat mobile & tanky, good AD ratios.

Cons: Very short range, little to no poke. Janna can seriously mess up his ultimate with hers, tread carefully and communicate well.

Overall thoughts: I don't have much experience with this lane as Graves is more often than not found in the jungle since his rework, but so far not so good. He does not play to Janna's strengths at all (and neither does she play to his), and would probably fare better with a lock-down CC support like Leona, Nautilus, or even Alistar or Thresh.

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JHIN

"Through my work, you shall transcend."

Pros: High range, strong poke, decent crowd control with traps + uber long ranged snare. Janna's peel easily makes up for his lack of mobility. Jhin abuses Janna's shield quite well and win poke wars easily thanks to his passive and her shield.

Cons: Highly immobile and vulnerable ADC means you gotta be on your toes to keep him alive. Attacks at a fixed speed due to his passive, so at the end of the day, he will dish out less DPS (but probably more burst) than the average ADC with your shield on.

Overall thoughts: An extremely safe lane made of 2 very strong champions. Highly annoying if played well, very oppressive if this gets ahead. You can't really go wrong there even if you both pick very early.

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JINX

"Who needs reasons?!"

Pros: Makes very good use of the shield with both parts of her Q, good overall AD ratios, Janna's peel makes up for her immobility. This lane is high poke, strong burst, and extremely deadly to a tower if left alone even for a wave or two.

Cons: Similar as Jhin, you gotta be on your toes to keep a Jinx alive (even more so than Jhin because they tend to go ham with that minigun), but if you can make it she is absolutely deadly.

Overall thoughts: In the current meta, a good Janna is probably Jinx' best chance of surviving past the laning phase. Pick Janna with confidence if you ally locked in Jinx.

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KALISTA

"None can evade us."

Pros: Just try and catch that lane. Kalista's ult can let you create more opportunities with your own ultimate without using Flash. Kalista can also literally call Janna to her side should you get separated from her in a fight and be unable to reach her in time to ult enemies away from her.

Cons: Kalista is actually someone I loathe supporting outside of a premade, the ultimate being the main reason.

Overall thoughts: It's a strong lane - but one that requires communication and I would recommend a premade ADC.

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KOG'MAW

"Hunger never sleeps."

Pros: If there was ever a marksman who needed as much peel as Janna provides, that's him. Kog'Maw builds a lot of attack speed, which means more attacks during the duration of your shield, which means more DPS overall. He also has a weaker early game that Janna can accommodate by providing a safe environment where he can farm and grow big.

Cons: Like every immobile ADC, you really have to be alert to keep him alive, because people want him dead pretty badly, and you are all that stands between him and his enemies.

Overall thoughts: A good lane if you are looking towards late game - if you want lane presence and domination, you should pass.

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LUCIAN

"By all means, stand and fight."

Pros: Strong trades. Lucian's short range means Janna's shield is more than welcome when going for quick trades in lane, as he will often make use both of the AD boost and the protective barrier. Janna is one of Lucian's best late game support, as her shield and peel make up for his short range.

Cons: His short range might mean that the shield gets broken before he can fully make use of the AD buff. He tends to take a lot of punishment in lane, where your shield is at its weakest.

Overall thoughts: I love Lucian, and I love Lucian with Janna. Solid all-around lane through early, mid and late game.

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MISS FORTUNE

"The fun begins."

Pros: Ridiculously strong trades between her Q, her W, and Janna's whole kit. Fast poking lane. Extremely hard to out-trade a good MF paired with a good Janna. Miss Fortune is a high-damage, no-escape ADC making Janna more than handy if your ally picks her.

Cons: Same as every other ADC that lacks a dash or blink (or even noticeable CC), Miss Fortune's life is in your hands when mid and late game hit, meaning you have to be on your A-game to keep the edge you gained in the laning phase. Monsoon can be Bullet Time's worse enemy if you mess up.

Overall thoughts: Very powerful in the laning phase, can steam-roll the rest of the game once they got an advantage. Lots of room to mess up between the ultimates not meshing too well (though you can actually push people back INTO Bullet Time) and Janna being MF's main way to stay alive.

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QUINN

"Fly swiftly, kill swiftly."

Pros: Well, for starters, bird is the word. Okay, jokes aside. Similar to Lucian, she is a short-range ADC who wants to bully enemies in quick trades, Janna is very good at supporting this with her shield and CC. Both champions are very slippery. This lane has the potential to be highly annoying.

Cons: Quinn loves to roam and Janna is not the best at holding bot lane on her own (no clear). Quinn also likes to go assassin-mode sometimes and that's not always Janna's cup of tea.

Overall thoughts: Decent in lane, not so impressive afterwards in my opinion. Hard to judge because Quinn is so rare...

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TRISTANA

"Is that a rocket in your pocket?"

Pros: In lane, Janna will be able to provide a safe farming environment for Tristana - which is highly appreciated, considering how strong Tristana is late game. Between Tristana's Rocket Jump and both of their ultimates, it is quite hard to force onto this lane a fight that they do not want. A late game Tristana with her high AS steroid and huge AA range is probably the absolute best target in the game for Eye of the Storm.

Cons: Bad judgment/communication between Tristana and you may mean that you screw her over with your ultimate, should she decide to go in with her W at that very moment.

Overall thoughts: An extremely safe lane and powerful late game combo - can only be ruined by miscommunication between the Janna player and the Tristana player.

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TWITCH

"What's yours is mine."

Pros: Janna offers a relative safety to the immobile Twitch. He relies heavily on auto-attacks for damage, making Janna's shield highly effective on him. The goodness of Janna's strong peel for a no-escape ADC goes without saying.

Cons: This combo is weaker early on - be wary of strong bullying lanes (such as MF+Zyra) who could blast your Twitch out of relevance for the rest of the game. If you manage to get him even, or even ahead, you still need to be on your toes to keep him alive as he will likely be the primary target for the enemy, and you are his #1 survival condition.

Overall thoughts: Like every immobile late game-oriented ADC, this is a super powerful combo if you manage to 1) have Twitch survive the lane, and 2) have Twitch survive team fights.

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VARUS

"When you dance with death, lead."

Pros: High poke lane where Varus can abuse the hell out of Janna's shield to force enemies out of lane. Varus brings the engage that Janna lacks to a lane to enable kills from level 6 onward. Janna's strong peeling makes up for Varus' lack of escape and mobility.

Cons: Ultimates do not mesh well, proceed with caution and communicate well in case Varus was to panic-ult to disengage and your Monsoon as the same time, that's two CDs blown for nothing. Varus relies 100% on his positioning and your peel to stay alive outside of lane - be on your A-game.

Overall thoughts: Overall a powerful combo if played right - lots of damage, safety and utility early, mid and late game.

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VAYNE

"The die is cast."

Pros: Janna is probably the best option to keep a Vayne healthy and safe in lane - your shield mitigates a lot of the damage she would otherwise take for farming, and your tornado stops hard engages on her (most of them, at least). This is as farm-fest as bot lane gets, but mid and late game is where you and Vayne can start rolling on the enemy team.

Cons: This lane is at its weakest point in lane whereas a lot of bot laners are very strong at this point of the game: you will likely be forced into a farm lane (unless the enemy severely misplays) until ganks. 2v2 kills won't happen often before Vayne gets her first big item. It's also worth noting that poor judgement from you can totally screw Vayne over, as the line between a Vayne who's about to penta and a Vayne who's in way over her head is sometimes very thin and hard to distinguish in the thick of the action.

Overall thoughts: This is probably the strongest late game duo. Play your cards right, don't let your team give up if you are slightly behind after the laning phase, and you can legitimately 2v5 carry a lot of games with Vayne by your side.

XAYAH

"A dance with me ends in blood."

Pros: This is a lane that overall works well, Xayah has some good poke and decent early game, she can utilize Janna's shield and CC fairly well. Without her ultimate Xayah is vunerable to all-ins, but Janna is, as you very well know by now, very good at keeping people off her allies.

Cons: A more aggressive Xayah could prefer a more oppressive laning support, and good reading of each others/communication is required if you don't want to risk ulting at the same time she does and either blowing 2 ultimates instead of one (best case scenario) or saving someone she was going to kill with her own ultimate (worst case scenario).

Overall thoughts: Overall a very solid lane that transitions well into mid and late game. They don't have any blatant weaknesses together.

During the laning phase, your priority is to keep your ADC alive, and to ensure he ends the laning phase ahead of the enemy ADC - be it in farm or kills (ideally, both). That means you have to be active in lane. Do not be the Janna that cowards behind her ADC and essentially makes the lane 1v2 for him save for the occasional shield. You should never be behind your ADC - you should be parallel to them (even/losing lane), or slightly in front (winning lane).

Janna is capable of so much more than being extremely passive, and it absolutely tilts me when the enemy support picks Janna before I do and proceeds to sit on Ancient Coin afk shield bot - especially with the new CD on it. I'm not saying you should go ham every time on absolutely everything, but passive play should be saved for when you are low on HP/mana, or when you are officially getting mauled in lane.

Also, learning Janna is no excuse to be passive/overly defensive. On the contrary, being aggressive will teach you her limits far more than being passive ever will. You learn nothing from being a shield bot. You will never know how much you can do and how much you can take it terms of damage, CC, whatever, if you are not trying to create plays to begin with.

Furthermore, try and put yourself in your ADC's shoes: would you want to lane with someone who is attempting to make your lane easier by showing presence, how someone who is just sitting behind you letting you do the work and clearly is waiting for the laning phase to be over?

Here are some misconceptions that I want to see die right here, right now:

"Janna can't harass"

False. Granted, we're not talking Zyra/Brand level of damage, but with her respectable AA range and W maxing, your damage is not to be ignored. AAing costs no resource. AAing at the right time will cost no HP either if you do it at the right time: when the enemy is busy attacking something else (creep, tower, allied champion), they can't possibly retaliate if you go in and out quickly for a fast poke, and when they have used their engage tools (or when you are otherwise confident they can't hit you with it). Example here from a lvl 1 trade:
Play Video
You can see that we stood our ground and clearly came on top of that trade. This is a video of pre-change Janna (hence the lvl 1 shield) and old runes (AD marks used there), but still - just with auto-attacks and Spellthief, the damage actually adds up, and with very minimal punishment to my lane due to proper spacing from both players.

"Janna is passive and can't create opportunities"

Again, false. Janna is excellent at peeling, she is also excellent at taking advantage from enemies' mistakes. Her CC can be used to keep (or send) people away, but it can and should also be used to keep people in the danger zone of your allies.
Play Video
Many people - such as the Zyra featured in this video - are unaware that Janna can also choose to be aggressive, they get overzealous, over-confident, and do things like that: you would be crazy not to take the occasions that are handed to you on a silver platter. Janna is often seen as the no-damage champion per excellence, even months after her changes, thus people assume that she cannot possibly create a threat. Please prove them wrong.