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Support is a very important role, no matter the ELO or even if it is a simple Normal game. It's role is to support the team, by negating damage and CCing the enemies to allow your team to reach their full potential. Supports also ensure the team has sufficient map awareness in order to provide and negate gank opportunities.

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Strengths Very High CC Has 2 AoE CCs High mobility Movement speed passive Good Shield with AD boost

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Weaknesses Heal has high CD No heal during lane phase Santa's not real Neither is the easter bunny

07/12/12 - Updated the Items, Runes, Masteries and Summoner Spells. Still a lot of updating to do..
23/08/12 - Updated the Items, Runes and Summoner Spells.
23/03/12 - Updated the skill section regarding EOTS.
12/02/12 - Added the Locket of Iron solari and made some minor changes to the item section.
17/12/11 - Fixed small mistakes, added which items you shouldn't take.
16/12/11 - Completely changed the guide.
05/12/11 - Updated the summoner spells, runes and masteries.
13/09/11 - Unarchived the guide.
29/06/11 - Changed the build, runes and edited the team work regarding sacrifice.

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Flash is the best spell as it provides a means of escaping bad situations. However, it is usually used to cover for positioning mistakes, so don't over-extend just because you have flash. Flash is specially good on Janna because it allows for flash+ulti combinations.

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Being a support is all about providing utility for your team, and almost neutralizing an enemy is a very good spell to have and can turn battles around or ensure a kill. It makes a huge difference during the laning phase as it can easily stop the AD carry.

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Clairvoyance is one of the best spells for a support when the team has good coordination. It lets you see a huge area anywhere the map which is usually used to track the jungler, prevent ganks, check for buffs, check for dragon and baron, peak at the jungle so you can move safely, etc.

I suggest Flash and Exhaust for normal games and solo/duo queue. Clairvoyance is best left for team plays, as it take a bit of coordination to make full use of Clairvoyance.

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The utility tree is pretty straightforward. You need the mana and mana regen, the cooldown reduction and the ward bonus. The other masteries aren't that good, but the gold ones help you the most.

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The defence tree is chosen because it provides a lot of HP, some resists and a better heal. The only good mastery in the offence tree is the +4% CDR, which still pales in comparison to the resistances and hp you can get.

Masteries are rather dependent on your play style, so 0/23/7 and 0/17/13 may be a better choice.

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You don't need to deal damage, but you will need to tank some. Flat armor is chosen because you need armor early game due to laning against an AD carry.

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Again, you're squishy and you will be focused if they get the chance. Flat armor is chosen because you need armor early game due to laning against an AD carry.

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Scaling MR is chosen because it gives 2.7 resistance at late game opposed to the 0.7 or 1.5 the other runes give. You usually won't need much MR during laning phase, and at level 10 scaling MR already surpassed flat MR glyphs.

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Greater Glyph of Replenishment

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If you keep getting out of mana before philostone then you'll need this. Flat Mp5 is chosen because you'll quickly get philostone which solves your mana issues.

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Gold/10 is pretty straight forward. You need gold/10 as you won't be getting any kills or CS.

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If you find yourself too squishy with gold/10 quints you may want to change one or two for some HP.

I have the same runes on all supports due to my limited rune pages, therefore these runes might not be the best for Janna but work well with each support.

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Everyone gets faster while you're alive. Quite honestly, this is probably one of the best passives in the game.

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You launch a tornado in the chosen direction. It can charge and becomes stronger, increasing the damage, range and knockup duration. Click Q to launch it or it'll launch automatically after fully charged. The levels increase the damage and the mana cost, and you don't want either of them.

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Increases your speed and let's you avoid collisions while it's cooled down. Use it when you're chasing or when you're running from a single enemy. The levels increase the speed, slow and damage and reduce the cooldown.

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The shield provides an AD boost to the champion so use it on your AD carry. The AD boost ends when the shield is broken. You can cast it on towers to protect them from damage.

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This spell pushes enemies away so use it to save your team or scatter the enemies. Use it to push enemies away from Baron/Dragon and across the wall to easily steal it. Use it to push enemies away from their team and across walls during team fights. Use it with flash for better positioning and for an unexpected ultimate.

START Sight Ward

Mana Regen ACE x3 Prevent Ganks ACE x3 Health Regen

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EARLY Philosopher's Stone

Regens +Gold ACE S Health +Gold ACE S Speed ACE

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Versus Weak CC ACE Versus Strong CC ACE Unless Tank Buys

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LATE

S Cheap Stats ACE S Good Active ACE S Optional Item

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EXTRA Sight Ward

Counter Several Wards ACE Essential Map Awareness ACE Counter One Ward

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Philosopher's Stone

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These items will provide the gold you need to buy wards and finish your build. The regens are incredibly useful to let you stay in the lane for much longer. The HP lets you survive burst a lot more easily since supports are pretty squishy.

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Aegis provides you the survivability you'll need, specially the MR. The aura gives +13.5% effective HP to all your team mates, which is pretty good. Don't buy it if someone else already has it though, just get the boots right away.

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Supports play defensively so you're usually not in range to be targeted and so Ionian boots are a better choice. If the enemy team has strong CC and you find yourself being targeted it's probably best to take Mercury's though, a dead support is useless.

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Shurelya's is a pretty cheap item for the stats you get, even without taking into account the gold philostone has been giving you throughout the game. Remember to make use of it's active to chase and run away as it's very common to forget it's active.

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The locket's active synergies with Aegis very well due to the extra resistances and it has a pretty big range so you don't have to get closer to the enemy, and let's you get assists on all the kills. It's a bit expensive, but it compliments Janna lack of heal.

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Optional (5th) Items:

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Zeke's Herald

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If you have 2+ AD in your team then get Zeke's as it'll help the team a lot. Get this before the Locket and remember that it has +15% CDR so don't get Ionian Boots and build Kindlegem earlier on to compensate for the CDR loss.

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Banshee's is a good pick against a strong AP carry or just a heavy AP team. The shield also lets you block skill shots from hitting other members of your team.

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If you have an AP heavy team then, just like Zeke's, this item will help the team a lot. Get this before the locket.

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If the enemy team has champions such as Amumu, galio or malzahar then you'll need a QSS to counter the CC and reset the fight. Build it before Shurelya's.

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Frozen heart is only useful against very heavy AD teams. Skip Aegis and get it after Shurelya's. You'll want to get either Mercury or Ninja's depending on the CC they have.

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Rabadon's is the item to get if you're not getting hit at all, so the defensive items become useless, and your team doesn't benefit from the other aura items that much. It's a very expensive and "selfish" item, but it does provide a huge boost to your shield and heal.

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Sight Ward

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Sight wards are for warding common intersections and places of interest. Vision Wards are for when the enemy placed a ward there as well. Elixir is used to counter a multiple wards instead of several vision wards.

The reason why the item build has only 5 items instead of 6 is because you'll need a slot for wards. If you feel that you're getting more gold than needed then you can always replace the heart of gold.

In order to provide map awareness you will be placing wards on key spots and using clairvoyance to track down missing enemies.

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Use the first clairvoyance right at the start in the enemy base to check the builds. The second and third are used on the enemy jungler's first and second buff. If you see that the jungler is missing then he might gank at level 2. Warn your team. The other CVs are used to check the Baron/Dragon or on the river/jungle to prevent ganks. Try using a CV before you place wards as well to make sure it's safe.

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Sight Ward

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Wards are placed throughout the game to gain control of the map. They can be placed for defensive or offensive reasons, as well as controlling key objectives such as baron and dragon. This next map shows the best spots for wards for each team. Keep in mind the places you ward depend on whether you're attacking or defending. The Buffs, Baron and Dragon should be warded before they respawn.

Remember, where you ward depends on what you want to see. Early game you'll want to prevent ganks to top and bot lane, but at late game that'll be useless to you. Also, the spots on the map are the most used spots, but you'll most likely have to use other spots. If you're cornered and forced into playing very defensively then you'll need to ward your jungle.

Sight wards provide 25 gold when destroyed and make the enemy waste gold. Oracle can also provide a good source of income and as long as you don't die it'll pay off with the number of wards destroyed. If you know there's an enemy ward where you want to place yours just place a vision ward instead. It gives you 25 gold back and makes them lose their ward.

Another aspect of map awareness is controlling the objectives. By objectives I mean Baron, Dragon and the buffs. This is done by typing in the chat when it will respawn. The respawn timers are 7 mins, 6 mins and 5 mins. So, if a dragon dies at 27:50 type "dragon 3350". If the enemy red buff dies at 27:50 type "their red 3250". Any format that is easily understood is acceptable.

When playing a support your team will rely on you for several things:

• Warding and using Clairvoyance correctly.
• Buying Oracle's to destroy enemy wards or see invisible champions.
• Babysitting your Carry by ensuring he's allowed to last hit all the mobs.
• Calling in misses and noticing gank possibilities for both teams to prevent and create ganks.
• Provide as much utility as you can through heals, CCs, Buffs and other spells or items.
• Never die unless it's to save someone else (but don't die if he's going to die anyway)

If you're playing support on solo queue it will be incredibly hard to carry or make a difference in the game since you're supporting the team. Your only chance of turning the games in your favour is to do your job perfectly and make no mistake.

• If you provide proper map awareness then you will be able to prevent and arrange ganks.
• If you destroy their wards then they can't gank as easily and are prone to making mistakes.
• If your team mates are stupid and over extend you will need to warn them to fall back.
• If they still over extend you will need to save them with whatever spells/items you have.

Janna is easy to learn, but incredibly hard to master (if not the hardest). Warding may be a little difficult at first, specially if no one else helps you (which will be the case when playing solo), but eventually you'll know where you want to have wards. Pay attention to ganks (both teams) and how your teams move so you know where wards can be useful. With that said I wish you good luck when playing support, specially on solo queues.