Janna Build Guide by CookiesNCream

Introduction

NOTE: (As of October 19, 2012) To be honest, I really think Janna is starting to fall off as a viable support. With the current meta, you're finding more supports either with sustain ( Soraka), poke ( Sona), those who are easily able to set up kills ( Blitzcrank), or a combination of these things. Janna's only sustain is her shield, which is unreliable. Also, she can't poke well at all, and cannot set up kills for her ad carry unless you ult them backwards (which is also unreliable and typically needs Flash). Seriously, whatever Janna has, Lulu can do better. This has really been acting as a disincentive for me from playing Janna, so this guide isn't going to get updated often any longer, until she experiences some kind of buffs in the upcoming patches.

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Hello ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to my more-or-less incomplete guide here on Mobafire. Because I have yet to master the subtle art of creating fantastic guides, things are going to be unnecessarily long and ridiculously boring...so bear with me. I'll try to pretty-it-up as much as possible to minimize the number of complaints, but grab a few dozen cups of coffee to stay awake while you sit back and read through my guide.

Janna was my first ever support champion that I bought, and I've been using her to babysit ridiculously horrendous AD carries ever since. This guide is specific to supporting a viable, ranged AD carry champion, in bot lane, in 5v5. Any other champions in bot lane with you may result in disastrous defeats or embarrassingly easy wins.

With the most ridiculously overpowered ultimate that counters every other ultimate in League of Legends, Janna is sure to be a support to leave you breathless*

* Charges may apply

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Pros and Cons

• Tons of CC
• Great mobility / movement speed
• Easy to learn
• Eye Of The Storm gives Attack Damage
• Counters a wide range of ultimates
• Only costs $2.95 a minu...whoa, too far

• Can potentially save enemies
• Monsoon is the only way to heal
• Difficult to master
• Howling Gale must be charged for full potential
• Difficult to single-handedly win the game
• Starting to become overshadowed by other supports (she is basically under-powered now)

When to Use Janna

When do you want to pick Janna as a support?

If you want to know which AD carries synergize well with Janna...basically all of them. Janna is quite unique because all her skills can be used defensively and offensively. Whether you have an aggressive champion or a passive farmer, Janna can complement each and every one of them with her collection of skills.

This does not mean, however, that Janna is the best with every single AD carry champion; other supports may have better synergy with certain carries than Janna does, such as Graves + Soraka; Vayne + Blitzcrank; Tristana + Leona; etc.

I have yet to find the "ideal" AD carry with Janna. Corki, Vayne and Varus all come pretty close for different reasons, but I still have to play more games, as I usually get ended up babysitting ridiculously mediocre players in bottom lane whenever I solo queue.

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Although it is important to pick Janna to ensure a good laning phase, you want to be able to use her skills outside of laning, typically during team fights. Janna has a knock-up with Howling Gale and a knock-back with Monsoon. Using these two skills, she can literally turn the tides of the game, for better or for worse.

For example, any enemy champion with a channelling ultimate is when you want to use Janna. This includes, but isn't limited to:

• Fiddlesticks
• Katarina
• Karthus
• Malzahar
• Nunu
• Urgot
• Warwick

Also, Janna can counter any champion that requires them to be close to the enemy to be of any assistance. By this, I usually mean AoE ults that surround the champion; for example:

• Amumu with Curse of the Sad Mummy
• Fiddlesticks with Crowstorm
• Kennen with Slicing Maelstrom
• Rammus with Tremors
• Talon with Shadow Assault
• etc.

Laning Partners

Ok, I know I said that basically all AD carries work with Janna, but there are some champions that are better than others. This section will cover who, in my opinion, have the best synergy with Janna.

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Ezreal

Ezreal is a really good champion when played by the right people. His Mystic Shot has really good scaling with attack damage, so Eye Of The Storm works really well with it. Ezreal also has attack speed from his passive, so having that attack damage boost from Janna's shield makes him pretty strong early game. Ezreal usually doesn't need frequent heals because he pokes from afar, and can Arcane Shift away if he gets caught. Offensively, he can easily catch up with his E if you happen to land a critical Howling Gale, Zephyr, Exhaust, or put the enemy out of position with Monsoon.

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Corki

This is some-what situational and there are many Corki players who don't like being supported by a Janna. This is because Corki is a short-ranged burst champion, vulnerable to harass. Usually a healer support such as Taric and Sona can prove to be more useful. However, I mentioned that Corki IS a burst champion. This means one well-placed knock-up with Q, knock-back with R, or even a critical slow from W can allow Corki to Valkyrie in, trigger E, and use Q, basic-attacking the enemy with his Hextech Shrapnel Shells and finishing them off with R all the while your shield is up. But yes, he is vulnerable during laning, so confer with your AD carry first before picking Janna.

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Vayne

Well, Vayne is good with any champion. Play defensive early game, shielding often, getting her lots of farm. After she gets some tankiness from doran blades and possibly when she has B. F. Sword is when you should start getting a bit more aggressive, slowing and knocking-up enemies so that she can follow through with Tumble and Condemn.

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Varus

Well, Varus IS good with Janna, but no one plays him anymore.

I'll add any others that people feel work well with Janna, and also as I play more games with less-incompetent AD carries.

Supporting

In the current meta of 5v5 Summoner's Rift, the AD carry goes bot lane with a support. The AD carry must receive full farm. Gold is extremely important for carries because usually all their damage comes from items. Obviously, you can't make the AD carry a better farmer, but you can maximize his/her gold gain by not disrupting their farm. This means no basic attacking, no last-hitting, no spell spamming, etc. The only time you should attempt to last-hit is if the AD carry recalls, or if you need only a few 100 gold to finish an item, such as Aegis of the Legion or Shurelya's Reverie.

Additionally, the AD carry must survive. This means you must use everything in your power to protect that digital figurine of pixels. This does not mean, however, that you blindly charge when all five enemies come to gank your lane to save your carry who got caught (that guy must have no map-awareness whatsoever >_>). Of course, you could try to Flash into the angry mob and hit that R key, praying you somehow managed to save your carry while looking pro enough to make it to the season 2 international tournament finals. Well, yeah, if this scenario were to ever occur, you probably should try to Q and R while spamming the ping button on bottom lane to try to save him. But flashing in is just ridiculous....

Where am I going with this? I can't remember.

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Supporting 101

• Buy Sight Wards and Vision Wards
  
• Use Sight Wards and Vision Wards
  
• Do not touch minions (unless under tower and need to help in last-hitting)
• Do not spam abilities
• Shield your carry if they get attacked / are attacking
• Follow-through if they get aggressive
• Get assists
• Buy GP/10 items
• Buy more wards
• ???
• PROFIT
• Buy more wards
  

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I has a question: how do you harass as Janna during laning?
W the AD carry, E yourself, auto-attack, auto-attack, auto-attack.

Runes

In bottom lane, you may be attacked a lot by the enemy carry, depending on their playstyle. Flat armor marks are used to survive those early basic attacks, because first blood / kills are the last thing you want the enemy carry to have.


More armor.



Magic resist scaling is horrendous with Janna so getting these will help a bit during team fights.


As the support, gold may be hard to come by if you don't get assists. 3 gold per ten will help in getting early GP/10 items as well as have enough money for wards and such.

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Optional Runes:

Greater Seal of Gold: You can substitute armor seals for these, depending on your preference. Usually combinations of 0, 4, or 8 of these with the rest flat armor seals works well. Note that one Greater Seal of Gold will give you 42.75 gold by 30:00 (45 gold every 30 minutes).

Greater Glyph of Armor: Getting too many GP/10 seals will give you less armor. Replacing MR-per-level glyphs with these can come in handy.

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Armor vs. Health, or, more specifically, Greater Mark of Health vs. Greater Mark of Armor

9 Health marks will give you 31 health.
9 Armor marks will give you 8 armor.

Against an AD, 8 armor is going to be more effective than 31 health.

However, health is better against magic damage and true damage. But, really, if you have an aggressive AD carry with magic damage such as Tristana or Kog'Maw, you should really be getting MR glyphs instead, and get armor marks to negate their basic attacks.

So, yeah, overall, Greater Mark of Health < Greater Mark of Armor.

Masteries

Improves Flash

More mana for longer lane sustain.

Again, more mana for longer sustain.

You'll be dropping a lot of wards every game, so this helps quite a bit.

360 gold every 30 minutes is nice.

Get this so you can get if necessary

Pretty straight forward

Put only two points here because that's really all you need

Spam them shields

One point here actually helps decently. You'll get a very slight increase in health regen, which is good against some lane harass

Flash and Exhaust will come off cool down much faster :D

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More armor = better sustain

Might as well put a point here, because nothing else will help.

Because you typically don't get items, health is extremely important for survivability.

More health to make you stronger D:

Summoner Spells

Yes, take Flash. Never start a game without it. It'll save you from giving up kills to the enemy as well as allow you to get closer to land a critical Howling Gale, Zephyr, or Eye Of The Storm. It also helps in positioning Monsoon, which is of the utmost importance.

The all-round defensive and offensive spell that really helps getting kills early game, and becomes an invaluable late-game spell as well. With this, you now have four CCs.

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Situational Spells

The following summoner spells are highly situational and should only be an alternative to Exhaust, and not Flash.

Heal: This is something the AD carry should get because it will have a diminished effect if you use it to help your carry. In high elo play, AD carries will get Heal or maybe Cleanse, but if, for any reason, they decide to get Ignite while having no method of sustain, then you maybe should get it. It's kinda hard to be adamant about this though....

Clairvoyance: A really good global spammable spell to help see enemy movements and check dragon and Baron Nashor. However, warding lanes / the jungle make this less useful.

Abilities

Get Q first if : planning a five-man jungle invade
Get W first if : planning to roam level 1 (put down some wards, see where enemy jungler is starting)
Get E first if : going straight to lane
Get R first if : you somehow hacked the game

Q : Monsoon is rarely used to heal my team. Why take levels in it at 6, 11, and 16?
A : Cool down reduction.

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Global movement speed while you're alive. Stay alive, contribute to team survivability.



TIPS AND TRICKS

• Stay alive.

THE Janna spell. A spammable AoE knock-up. Hmm... what can you do with that? I wonder.



TIPS AND TRICKS

• Disrupt everything.
• Don't use it during laning to harass because you will push / mess up farm / go out of mana
• The more you charge, the longer the range and the bigger the knock-up.
• Release it early whenever required
• Use to chase / escape
• Disrupt everything.

Although this is one of Janna's lesser flashy skills, it is what makes Janna one of the most mobile champions in the game.


TIPS AND TRICKS

• Use it to help secure a kill (without actually killing the champion yourself)
• Use it defensively to help your carry escape
• Don't rely on this to get away from your enemy if they are chasing you. You will slow them, but you will be slowed as well. The only time you should use it to help yourself escape is if you become slowed or snared.
• Single-handedly steal Baron with it. (I've done it before)

THE supportive skill. Shield + Attack damage is just...I don't even know how to describe it. Absolutely get this at level 1, and level it up as fast as possible because it is the only method of sustain.

TIPS AND TRICKS

• SMART CAST.
• Use it defensively when your carry is being destroyed, and offensively when your carry is destroying.
• Practice practice practice using this skill. Clutch shields are what make pro Janna players, pro Janna players.
• Use it on your AD carry or any other AD DPS champion when you take down turrets, dragon, baron, etc. for that attack damage boost.

A SECOND AoE CC spell. Using this correctly will save your teammates / ensure a kill. However, you can easily save the enemy by knocking them away.


TIPS AND TRICKS

• Disrupt everything.
• Knock champions into your team / turret
• Knock-backs go through terrain
• DO NOT Flash into the 5 enemies and hit the R key to try to disperse them. NEVER INITIATE WITH THIS OH GOD.
• Channel the spell whenever you can. However, sometimes it's much better to end it early so you don't kill yourself.
• Don't be too afraid using it solely to heal your team. It can help a lot.
• Disrupt everything.

Items

Situational Items

After your core build, you should go for either Shurelya's Reverie, Aegis of the Legion, or Zeke's Herald.

Shurelya's Reverie is the most cost-efficient item, and gives you some tankiness and cooldown reduction, as well as that movement speed buff which is really strong mid-late game.

Also, every team needs Aegis of the Legion. Seriously. You just...win games with it. Try to aim for this if your tank doesn't get it. Aegis of the Legion is quite beneficial as it comes in multiple cheap parts, so you get a lot of tankiness as well.

Get Zeke's Herald if your AD carry is extremely fed, or you have 2-3 champions who will benefit from this item. This item also builds from Kindlegem, which is a really good item.

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Other Items to Consider: Soul Shroud, Locket of the Iron Solari

Soul Shroud: Buy this if your team has at least 2 casters who are constantly mana-hungry.

Locket of the Iron Solari: this is a really good tanky item on non-sustain supports like Janna.

And that's it!

Warding

As the support, you want to get into the habit of spending a lot of your money on Sight Wards and Vision Wards. However, don't fill up your inventory with 10 sight wards and blow it all in one roaming session. You need to be efficient with wards and give sight to areas that will actually matter. What is beneficial about wards? Your team will almost never get caught if you have good sight. You'll be able to see the enemy team gather in a bush to try to catch a stranded player, and effectively plan to counter-gank their team.

So how do we ward?

Hopefully no one needs to be told where to ward. If anyone is new to the game, there probably won't be any ganks / roaming in low-level play, so it doesn't even matter (no one plays the support role in low-level play either, I think).

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If you really must know :

During Early Laning

• Sight Ward Dragon to be able to see the neutral monster, and to see anyone coming from the river.

• Sight Ward the tri-bush to be able to see any enemies coming through there.

• Sight Ward the bottom river brush only as an immediate source of vision. Although it gives sight of enemies in the bush, it's not reliable as it gives you less time to react.

• Finally, the bottom two bushes at the side are favorite camping spots for supports and junglers. Sight Ward there if necessary.

Learn to Counter-Ward

You see the enemy support come with five Sight Wards. He/she goes mia for a few minutes and returns with 0 wards. This is when you should probably inform your team that the entire jungle is warded, and quickly try to buy a few Vision Wards to clear them. It is important to remember that during early-mid game, it's really ideal to buy a lot of Vision Wards. Don't let the 125 gold price act as a disincentive to packing your inventory with them. Use two, three Vision Wards to clear your lane, and inform your jungler to gank. You should also try to get Dragon as soon as the jungle has been cleared of wards.

Make sure you know where your enemies are when you place / clear wards. Get your AD carry + jungler to zone the enemy when you do so, or else you will get caught.

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Other Warding Areas?

• Baron Nashor.

Baron is the absolutely 100% place where you should be using Vision Wards. (Contradictory because the image below has a Sight Ward >_>)

Make sure you can see Baron, but also make sure you can see the paths leading to the nest:

Other Warding Areas?

You can't go wrong warding any place with multiple paths:

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Finally, warding blue / red buffs can be advantageous. Put the ward in the bush, but make sure you can see the monsters at the same time.

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Oracle's Elixir?

Get this as early as you can. Don't make rash decisions while having Oracle's because you are REALLY squishy and WILL get targetted down. Always make sure you know the enemies' positions before clearing wards, and, if necessary, get your AD carry or jungler to zone the enemy before clearing the jungle. If the enemy has an Oracle's, don't stop warding unless you have zero pressure on the map. Constantly place wards but inform your teammates about it, and you can effectively ward-bait them to take it down.

How to Win Games as Janna

Disrupt everything.*

Shield.

Ward.

* Excluding your AD carry's farm

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Supporting in solo queue is tough, mostly because your AD carry can be mediocre. Also, your jungler can be derpy and doesn't get Dragon or gank whenever you clear wards in the jungle. It is difficult to turn the tides of a losing game when playing a support, and the road may be long before you start getting paired up with higher-elo bot lane partners. The most important thing you can do to help your team to victory is, of course :

Disrupt. Everything.

Shield.

Ward.

Change Log

Does anyone read this stuff?

• 24/08/12 -- Published my guide
• 24/08/12 -- 5 minutes after I published the guide, I remembered I had to add masteries >_>
• 15/09/12 -- Added banners and laning partners
• 21/09/12 -- BIG BIG CHANGES D: This guide was, in every sense of the word, WRONG. Fixed it up real nicely, and now it (sort of) has (some) accurate information!
• 19/10/12 -- Added note about her starting to become underpowered in the current meta
  

Going to add :

• Whatever