Janna Build Guide by SaintMount

Introduction

Hello! I am SaintMount and welcome to my Dominion Janna Guide! I'm making this guide because when I used Janna, in my third Dominion game, I was amazed about her utility in the new mode, and since, I haven't stopped playing her, ending up first in some of the games.
In this guide I'll be building her as a Capturer. I know this may sound kinda random, but if you read the guide and have played Dominion, you'll se what I mean.
This is only based on my experience and opinion, and it is not perfect nor the only way to play Janna, so I'm open to advice and constructive criticism C:. I've put a lot of effort in this, so I encourage you to Upvote and +rep me if you like the guide.
(I'm not an English native speaker, so please excuse me if I make mistakes)

What the holy winds is a Capturer??

A Capturer is a Champ whose mission is to capture CP that are not being defended. To do this you need to be fast and have ways to escape, because capturing alone is a very dangerous thing to do and we don't want to feed the enemy c:. So they usually buy Survivability items too and Priscilla's Blessing is Mandatory. This role is very much appreciated in the game because you put constant pressure in your enemies, just like a good jungler is supposed to make enemies scared to leave their turrets, a good Capturer should make them afraid to leave a CP alone and take one of yours, and even if you don't manage to capture or neutralize a CP, which will happen if your enemies aren't dumb, you, at least, made them waste time so your teammates can advance.
It's crucial that you are among the ones to rush to the windmill at the beginning of the game, with no stops. You should be joined by a fast melee fighters and a tanky champ, or just anyone who can manage to keep enemies away. The ideal situation would be if they protect you while you capture, joining you if there's no danger.

You can read more about Dominion Roles in the Zemiazas' "Dominion Guide: Roles and Teamwork".
These roles are not "Riot made", but I find them very accurate and helpful, so I encourage you to read that guide too c:

The Champion

The dear Janna is a Mage/Support type champ, normally you would build her full of auras or AP, but in this mode, Supports aren't all that necessary, and there are other powerful mages (though she can be Very tough with enough AP). Instead, this build focuses on her new role, appearing out of nowhere, capturing a CP, and getting out ASAP and Alive. This is what this set of items provide, but we'll talk about them later.

spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace

Pros + // Great mobility + // Awesome escape abilities + // Global speed buff + // Very useful for your team

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Cons - // No damage output with the Tanky build - // With this build and role, you don't take full advantage of your big support capability. - // not much engagement in battles. space space space

Summoner Spells

The summoner spells I believe are the most viable are:

Ghost: More speed! how can you say no? It helps you rush to the windmill at the beginning to take it first, and throughout the entire game.

SPACE

Flash will be only used for escaping when you get in a very difficult situation, always try to flash through walls when possible.

SPACE

Cleanse along with your high speed will help you get away from everything. Personally I don't like to take it since we are getting Quicksilver Sash, but, if for some reason you won't, feel free to select Cleanse.

SPACE

Exhaust: some people take this spell too, it's just fantastic when escaping from one enemy, and it has great utility for the rest of your team.

SPACE

Masteries

For Masteries I get 0/9/21, for the utility and a little bit of survivability, focusing on Quickness , Presence of the Master , the masteries of your summoner spells, increased duration of the Speed Shrine buff and a little bit more of HP regen.

Update: With the 2 points in Utility Mastery The speed buff lasts a LOT, I found myself not seeing the buff animation when I step on it, and it was because I already had it from another Shrine! So this way, you'll almost always have the buff on you C:

Runes

With this rune setup I aim for more survivability, and increased speed. Not much else to be said

Items

Core Build

Boots of Mobility: We start with these for obvious reasons, You need that speed right Now! You are not supposed to be participating in many fights (just whent somebody comes to stop you) so you'll benefit from the 5 movement speed most of the time, and when you don't, you have means to run away. Boots of Swiftness is also a viable item, it's more consistent, you should use it if you feel that you'll need the constant speed to escape.

Priscilla's Blessing: This is kind of an obvious choice in any capturer. Being able to capture faster is just a dream come true, and it even comes with a little nice active and health regen!, just perfect.

Warmog's Armor: The best Item in the game for bonus HP, so it's perfect for us. If you find yourself with nothing to do (you control most CPs for example) you can go ahead and kill some minions to to fill it up a little (DO NOT spend a lot of time in this! focus on your role!)

From here you can go mainly one of two ways:

The AP-Tankyish Way:

With this way, you'll be far less tanky, but you'll have much more utility too! If you want to make the most of the support capabilities of Janna, this is your build.

Guardian Angel: This item is what makes those nasty Disrupters see you and go "Maaah". Not only it gives you a good amount of armor and MR, but its passive will discourage anyone who tries to kill you, ain't that awesome?. And, of course, if they try anyways, and even manage to kill you, you'll just revive and run like a B*tch.


Rabadon's Deathcap: Our beloved Rabadon's, how pitiful would our lives be without it (?). After playing some games with the older build (no AP) I found myself not very helpful to the team, besides the whole capturer rhing, so I've decided to add AP in order to:
A) Make your shield stronger, which is Awesome; and
B) Improve your healing a bit, wich is nice.

Abyssal Scepter: not only it gives you a juicy amount of MR, but, combined with Rabadon's Deathcap's passive, 97 AP! plus its MR reduction aura. An item to take into consideration.

The Hardcore Tank Way:

With this build you'll have less utility for your team, but will be pretty much indestructible and be able to soak damage for your comrades.

(Note: the order of these items depend completely on your situation, some may rush Quicksilver Sash before anything, or maybe your enemy team has a lot of AP casters, so you'll go for Force of Nature instead. It's up to you)

Frozen Heart: A great Armor Item for Janna, not only it provides 99 armor, which is only beaten by Thornmail's 100 armor, but it also grants a lot of mana and CDR, along with a Really cool passive aura.

Force of Nature: Another great item that synergizes very well with our build. It gives you more MR than any other item in the game, and a whole lot of HPRegen, which is wonderful for our role.

Quicksilver Sash: One of the most underrated items in the game. It can free you from pretty much everything, not only regular CC effects like slows, stuns or fears, but also ult's, from Warwick's Infinite Duress to Malzahar's Nether Grasp (?), so don't underestimate it! (and Always remember to use your Actives!)

Optional Items

Randuin's Omen: Great item and it has a good synergy with your role. It grants you a good amount of HP and HPregen, just what we are looking for, and its passive, combined with the active, makes you unchazable. You can either get tankier, replacing your Rabadon's Deathcap for this, or go the other way, and get this instead of Warmog's Armor and Guardian Angel, along with Abyssal Scepter and Rabadon's Deathcap. This will make you more squishy, but will grant you more AP and a nice aura.

Shurelya's Reverie: Well, to be honest, I wouldn't take this item, it doesn't really gives us what we really want, but if you really enjoy its active, and like to make people faster (?!) go ahead -

Skills

(Innate) Tailwind:
Increases the movement speed of all allied champions by 3%, the bonus is lost when Janna is dead.

This Innate just Rocks in Dominion. Giving your whole team more speed is really helpful and I find it essential, as many others do. As you know, they lose it if you die, so... try not to c:


Howling Gale:
Janna summons a mighty whirlwind. She can activate the spell again to release the storm. On release the storm will fly towards the direction it was cast in, dealing magic damage and knocking any enemies in its path into the air for 0.8 seconds. The damage done and the distance traveled by the whirlwind increases for each second it channels to a maximum of 3.
-Maximum Range: 1700.
-Cost: 90/105/120/135/150 mana.
-Cooldown: 14/13/12/11/10 seconds.
-Magic Damage: 60/85/110/135/160 (+0.75 per ability power).
-Additional Damage: 25/30/40/50/60 per second charging.

This is one of your damage spells, but we don't really use it for the damage, seeing that landing it fully charged is kinda hard. It's more useful for it's knock up when escaping or just to disrupt the enemy team. A little trick is to point the gale in the direction you are running to, so when enemies get "pass" it, thinking they are now safe, you send it and get away easily (this is not the best thing to do in some cases though).


Zephyr:
(Passive): Janna summons an air elemental that increases her movement speed and enables her to pass through units.
-Movement Speed Bonus: 8/10/12/14/16%.

(Active): Janna launches her elemental to deal magic damage and slow an enemy's movement speed for 4 seconds. The passive is not active while the ability is on cooldown.
-Range: 600.
-Cost: 40/50/60/70/80 mana.
-Cooldown: 12/11/10/9/8 seconds.
-Magic Damage: 60/115/170/225/280 (+0.8 per ability power).
-Slow: 24/30/36/42/48%.

Oh, the beloved Zephyr (what a cool name!). It is what turns janna into Janna The Storm's Fury. As said before, Movement Speed is essential in this role, so this ability is something to take into consideration. Not only its Increased Speed % makes you one of the Fastest champs in the game (matched only by Rammus, Zilean or Evelynn) but also its slow is very powerful and useful, specially if they are in you CP, they get some Turret hits and then your teammates finish the deal. You should be very careful with its use though, when you use it you lose the passive, making yourself slower, if there is more than one champ chasing you try not to use it, instead use Howling Gale or your Monsoon.


Eye of the Storm:
Janna conjures a defensive gale that shields her target from incoming damage for up to 5 seconds. The target will also gain an attack damage bonus for 5 seconds. It can target turrets.
Cooldown: 10 seconds.
-Range: 800.
-Cost: 70/80/90/100/110 mana.
-Shield Strength: 80/120/160/200/240 (+0.9 per ability power).
-Attack Damage Bonus: 14/23/32/41/50.

Although I love Janna´s shield it's no really useful in the Tank way. If you go AP instead, keep i mind that this is one of the most powerful shields in the game, so use it wisely. The AD boost is cool either way and it can help an AD DPS Ally greatly.


Monsoon:
Janna knocks surrounding enemies back and channels healing winds, restoring health to nearby allies each second for 4 seconds.
-Cooldown: 120 seconds
-Radius: 725
-Max. knockback distance: 950 (estimate)
-Cost: 200 / 275 / 350 mana
-Heal Per Second: 70 / 110 / 150 (+0.35 per ability power)

Janna's breeze of love(?!). Just like your Shield, with no AP the healing is minor, and we use this mostly for the great knock back, which can get you out of a tricky situation in the Inside Roads, or save an Ally. You can also use it when you want to interrupt a group of champs taking one of your CPs, or to prevent an Ult, like Nunu's Absolute Zero, Malzahar's Nether Grasp [when it's not you the ulted one), Katarina's Death Lotus, Fiddlesticks' Crowstorm (wich is really cool) and pretty much everyone that depends on them being close to you or your Allies (you can also take everyone out of a dangerous area, like Gangplank's Cannon Barrage or Pantheon's Grand Skyfall)

Skill Sequence

AP-Tankyish Way:
> > >

We give priority to Zephyr for its speed, and to get lower cooldowns, so when we use its active, you have it back soon. We always max Monsoon when possible for the CDR and improved healing. Eye Of The Storm over Howling Gale because we want a strong shield, and we use Gale mostly for the Knock up.

Hardcore Tank Way:
> > >

Pretty much the same as stated above, but since our shield will be pretty weak, we'll take Howling Gale for the reduced cooldowns.

Dangerous Champions

Here I will give some information about the champions that I think can give you some trouble. It's a work in progress, and I will add more whenever I have time and see a new threatening champ.

Kennen, The Heart of the Tempest

Kennen is a champion that is hard to master, he depends a lot on combos, thus you'll find a few not very good Kennens around. Anyways, when a Kennen is good at landing his combos properly, he can become a real threat. Kennen's deal starts with his innate Mark of the Storm. Every time one of kennen's abilities hit you, you get a mark, at 3 marks, you are stunned for one second. "Just one second? That doesn't seem very dangerous..." Well sure it doesn't, but the thing is, a good kennen can manage to stun you two times in a row, this means at least 6 abilities landing on you, 6 very damaging abilities, since Kennen`s AP ratios are not low, combined with several auto attacks that may be enhanced by one of his abilities passive dealing up to 80% plus magic damage. On top of this, with Lightning Rush Kennen gets even faster than you, and he has two AoE spells that can be casted while in this mode. Just add one enemy champion that came across you two, and you are Dead, specially if your build is unfinished or not very tanky.

What can you do? Well, if you manage to see how that Kennen plays, you'll know what to do. If he's not very good, don't even bother for him, just take into account that he can stun you at least once. If he is good, but goes with an AD build, you can be a little more relaxed, since his abilities won't deal a lot of damage, and he can't autoattack while in Lightning Rush form. Given the case that he is good and goes AP, well, just try to not get near him, or to save your ult for the times you encounter him, which will be very helpful if he uses his ult Slicing Maelstrom.

Nocturne, the Eternal Nightmare

This is not a champ to get cocky with, he has a set of skill that can counter you easily. Duskbringer will allow him to chase you effortlessly by following the Dusk Trail you'll leave. His Shroud of Darkness will protect him from the effect of one of your escaping abilities, like Monsoon's knock back or Zephyr's slow. With Unspeakable Horror he will give you Fear for 2 seconds, time in which you can't escape effectively. With Paranoia he can just launch himself at you from pretty much everywhere. As you see, he is almost built to get you, so do not underestimate him.

What can you do to avoid a dreadful death? Well, first of all, if he's chasing you, don't go in a straight line, Duskbringer is a skillshot, use this in your advantage. If he has his shield on, just wait two seconds, and then throw something at him. When you see Unspeakable Horror RUN! if you manage to get out of its range before 2 seconds, the fear will not activate. Finally, when he uses Paranoia, try to get into a brush ASAP, if he can't see you, he can't jump at you.
All this precautions and your good friend Frozen Heart should keep you alive c:

Rammus, the Armodillo

Rammus , this is one though opponent in Dominion. A lot of summoners use him as a capturer, and since he is a tank, building him tanky is more effective than you. The flaw with him is that he only gets super fast when using Powerball wich has a considerable cooldown, and no other escape mechanisms. Why is he dangerous? Not only can he catch you without breaking a sweat, but he can also stun you when he does, then taunt you and make you follow him anywhere he wants, add another enemy there and ... good luck c:

How to counter him? Well, basically, don't underestimate him, Never, and even less if he is not alone. Your abilities, when well-landed, should be enough to stop his Powerball, but this means counting on your Howling Gale and Monsoon to get away from him, so try not to use your ult unless it's really necessary. And, of course, don't forget his taunt, if you are near enemies, and he's around, it's usually a good idea not to get very close.

Questions and Answers!

Here I'll post any of your questions and my replies c:

Q: When you're capping and you see in your mini map that a champion is very close on tapping you. Do you run away immediately or you let them hit you before you let them chase you?

A: Depends on how close are you from capturing and the enemy. If I am really close to capturing a CP I usually take the risk of getting hit. Nevertheless, as you know, there are dangerous champs out there, so you have to take into consideration who champion is coming for you, if there's the possibility of more coming soon and how has it played along the match. At the end, one hit hardly ever ends up in death if it is just one champion, but if there are two, be a lot more careful and you might want to run 80% of the times because one hit means less speed from your boots (plus, distracting two enemies at the same time is just great!)


Q: Once you Capture one, do you rush to the second open tower or you defend and wait for someone to defend it for you before you move to your next target to capture?

A: If I have just captured a CP which is the third your team has, and you see an enemy Right there, waiting to capture it, I would probably defend it for some time while pinging that CP. There have been times in which there were 2 enemies trying to capture one CP of mine. I just leave the CP area and throw gales at them, togheter with auto attacks and Zephyrs, making them waste a Lot of time interrupting their channels. Eventually one of them will have to stop you, and if they chase you, that's more time they are losing.
If I have just captured a CP and you see no one coming to get it, I would just go for the next one.
If they are being defended by one squishy champion, you can go there and harass them. With some luck, you might even be able to deal some good damage or an ally will come to help in taking it. If it is a good Tanky Defender, I would just leave them and go help my teammates do something. Remember you may not do a lot of damage or have a resistant shield (with no AP) but you have a powerful slow, one massive knock up and one massive knock back.


Q: You're in the middle of the map. You see team fights 4v5 on the right and you see 2 open towers on your left. Where do you go?

A:This is very tricky. It would be very strange if this happens, because if you are being a very good and annoying capturer, there'll always be someone looking for you. Given the case that it does happens, you need to know how good your teammates are, and how many CPs you have. If you have more CPs than the oppose team, you can go join the teamfight if you don't thrust your allies a lot. If you do thrust them, go capture! Most of the times someone will leave the fight just to get you, so you are already helping your allies. If you have less CPs than them, take the chance and go capture. If they come after you, you at least neutralized a CP, preventing some Nexus damage. If they don't come for you, you would have captured a CP (or even two!), preventing even more damage or dealing damage to them. In both cases there seems not to be a wrong way to go, just analyze the situation and follow your instinct c:

Change log

9/26/11 - Changed an error in my Skill Sequence, so Zephyr gets maxed first.
9/26/11 - Improved the Item chapter and changed the build, adding the Optional Items section too.
9/27/11 - Changed the main build at the top, added a new build. Changed the items chapter. Updated the skills descriptions to match the new builds. Added Exhaust to the Summoner Spells Chapter.
10/03/11 - Changed the Masteries in order to grab the 2 points on Utility Mastery .
10/03/11 - Added the "Dangerous Champions" chapter.
10/03/11 - Added Nocturne to the "Dangerous Champions" chapter.
10/04/11 - Changed a bit the "What the Holy winds is a capturer??" chapter.
10/06/11 - Added Kennen to the "Dangerous Champions" chapter.
10/07/11 - Added the "Questions and Answers!" chapter.
10/14/11 - Added Rammus to the "Dangerous Champions" chapter.

Special Thanks

I want to take the time to thank Zemiazas for his Awesome guide about Dominion Roles and Teamwork, which helped me a lot to understand the basic game's mechanics; and to JhoiJhoi! whose marvelous guide on Making A Guide is Epic, as she states herself.

9/26/11 Thanks to Dont, for the idea on the use of Randuin's Omen and other thoughts.
9/27/11 Thanks to Tierus for his thoughts on the build.

(Sorry if I assume you are male, but if your profile doesn't say, I will do that :P)

Summary

So, this is it. I hope you find the guide useful and thank you a lot for reading it, please comment/vote/+rep if you liked it, and if you didn't, comment! so I can make it better C: