Janna Build Guide by eiensiei

I'll try to keep this short, but if you're only interested in the guide feel free to scroll straight down!

I'm Anca, 21 y/o League streamer - I started playing somewhere in Season 5 (ended Gold V) and I quickly became really passionate about the game, wanting to learn more and get better. I was a Lux mid one-trick for a couple of years, reaching as far as Master with her and right now I probably have somewhere around 2 million points on her combined on all my accounts.

However, while Lux is still my favourite champion ever, one day I tried the support role (enchanters specifically) and realized I enjoy the chill roaming playstyle a lot more and so I swapped to being a Janna/ Lulu main, reaching Challenger early in season 10 and then being consistently Grandmaster for the rest of it/finishing Grandmaster. And that brings me here, making a guide for my 2nd favourite champion!

Abilities

Items

Warding

Laning Phase

Mid Game

Late Game

Passive

You can use Tailwind to either stay in front of your bot laner as you both walk to lane and offer him bonus movement speed, or as a way to help allies run away from a fight faster.

Q

Janna's Q is a very powerful CC ability. A fully charged tornado can take enemies by surprise both in and out of lane, but you can also Flash- Howling Gale and release it immediately to give your opponents almost no time to react. Alternatively, it's a great interrupting tool as it stops a lot of abilities in the game (ex: dashes such as Leona's Zenith Blade, Jarvan IV's E-Q, Lee Sin's Resonating Strike or channels such as Katarina's Death Lotus). Before teamfights it's a good idea to ask yourself which abilities you're able to stop with your Q and use it accordingly. If you're getting chased, cast your Q in the direction you're running to instead of towards the enemy that's behind you, that way even if they try to Flash you can still release it and knock them up.

W

In lane this is your main poking tool, along with autoattacks. Can be used while chasing down enemies to slow them for your team to catch up or, in the reverse situation, slow enemies trying to chase your team down. You lose your bonus movement speed and ability to move through units when this is on cooldown.

E

Straight-forward ability. You can use it to save or buff up your teammates. Can also be used on towers. If an enemy died after taking at least one tower hit from a tower you've shielded, you will get an assist (or a kill, if there was no other teammate dealing damage to the enemy).

R

Janna's R can be used in a multitude of ways. Whenever you fight and your Eye Of The Storm is not enough to save an ally, you can try saving them with your R, you can use it as an interrupt on channels or dashes, or even just use it to knock back opponents that flashed onto your carry. You can also use it to knock back enemies chasing you or in lane if both you and your carry are low and he needs to stay for a couple more waves to get his item.

Moonstone Renewer You always want your first buy to be a mythic item, and Moonstone Renewer is the best option due to the utility the heals provide and the mythic passive empowering your other legendary items with 5 ability haste.

  

Ardent Censer When playing with hyper carries (ex: Jinx, Twitch). If your ADC is playing something like Miss Fortune or Jhin, but you have other teammates that make use of Ardent Censer (ex: Kayle top, Master Yi jungle), you should still buy it, but you can build something else before it in that case.

Staff of Flowing Water If you don't have a hyper carry on your team, this item is the next best thing instead of Ardent Censer, and it's definitely what you want to buy especially if you have an AP carry bot laner.

 

Redemption Buffs heals and shields, can potentially help you apply AoE Ardent Censer, solid 3rd/4th item all around.

Mikael's Blessing If the enemies have any kind of targetable CC ( Shield Vault, Frozen Tomb), Mikael's Blessing is a must. You don't have to build it just because the enemies have a Thresh, but I strongly recommend it.

Zeke's Convergence If I need Armor and I have a hyper carry that can make good use of it, Zeke's Convergence is a great buy.

Vigilant Wardstone When you reach level 13, buy Stirring Wardstone. It will automatically turn into Watchful Wardstone once you've placed 20 stealth wards, increasing your stealth ward and control ward placement cap by 1 and also granting you 25 Ability Haste. Upgrade it to Vigilant Wardstone eventually for 40 ability haste and 10% movement speed.

Chemtech Putrifier When playing into heavy healing champions (ex: Soraka, Senna, Yuumi) and your ADC can't afford to buy an early Executioner's Calling, spend 800g and buy an Oblivion Orb to keep in your inventory for Grievous Wounds that you can later either sell completely once your team has healing reduction or just upgrade into Chemtech Putrifier.

Mejai's Soulstealer If I'm ever in base and am left with 350g, I'll get a Dark Seal. If I get 8-10 stacks on it, I'll upgrade it to a Mejai's Soulstealer.

Boots of Swiftness If you back with 900g and want to roam, get Boots of Swiftness.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity If the game doesn't specifically call for Plated Steelcaps or Mercury's Treads, then Ionian Boots of Lucidity are worth it because of how valuable CDR/Ability Haste is on Janna.

Plated Steelcaps Mostly I'll only ever buy Plated Steelcaps (and it will be a rush buy in that case) when the enemies have an early roaming AD mid laner (ex: Talon) and an early ganking AD jungler (ex: Lee Sin, Jarvan IV) or if the enemies are simply all AD. Note: can also be a good idea to rush if you want to put your local Draven player on suicide watch.

Mercury's Treads Plated Steelcaps reasoning, except for AP/strong CC.

Oracle Lens Once you've got the first Spellthief's Edge or Relic Shield upgrade, it's time to swap over your Stealth Ward for Oracle Lens.

Control Ward Control Wards count towards a support's full build. You should always have a designated slot for Control Wards and should always replenish it to the max (2) when in base. The only exception to this is the first time you leave the base. Any other time, you should always have 2 Control Wards in your inventory and use them appropriately (until you reach level 13 and can buy Vigilant Wardstone, that is).

Elixir of Iron Good buy when full build or when an important fight is about to break out (ex: for Baron Nashor or Elder Dragon ).

These are the best places to place wards in, and luckily most of them are fairly generic as they can act as both defensive wards for one team and aggressive ones for the other.   What's important to keep in mind is that the line of vision you provide for your team should shift throughout the game to match whether you're winning or losing lane, which towers fall and which objectives are available, so don't be content with letting your wards expire at Baron Nashor while your team is preparing for the Elder Dragon .   Whenever there is nothing happening on the map, you should back, buy more Control Wards and replenish your Shard of True Ice charges.

Level 2 Power Spike Both bot laners get level 2 after being in XP range of the first wave dying + the 3 melee minions in the second wave. Level 2 champions have a slight HP advantage and a huge ability advantage over level 1 champions, which is why you need to help your ally by attacking the melee minions in the second wave, so that you get level 2 before your opponents. Let's go over the possible scenarios: You get level 2 first Once you're really close to level 2 and know you will get it before your opponents, start walking up to them so that you may take full advantage of it when it hits. You get level 2 at the same time This is all very anticlimactic, since you're probably not going to do much if you both hit level 2 at the same time. Just stick to your plan of poking whenever possible. Your enemies get level 2 first Recognize when the enemies are about to get it and if they start walking up to you, run back towards your tower. Especially if it's something like a Draven + Thresh.

Trades Recognize key cooldowns from your opponents and play around them. Has Blitzcrank missed his Rocket Grab or has Morgana missed her Dark Binding? Play aggressively for the next 10-20s since they have no real way of punishing you for it. Has Nami used her Ebb and Flow or her Aqua Prison? Use your Zephyr on either her or her bot laner and weave in 1 or 2 autoattacks, but don't prolong the fight further than that. If you do, the enemies get their skills back up first. If, however, your enemies are holding back from using their abilities, you will need to bait them out first. Play on the edge of their skillshot range, switching your positioning slightly to be in range for their engage/poke, and they will eventually cave in and try to catch you. Your Howling Gale is an amazing tool to force an all-in or just to poke out the enemies. You can cast it in the alcove (or any other place the enemies don't have active vision on) to surprise them. Try to aim it towards where you think they'll be a few seconds from now, not exactly where they are when you start casting. Use a short ping to let your laner know where the tornado is headed. Note: If the enemy support plays with Guardian or Bone Plating, get it out of the way with an autoattack before using your Zephyr.

Lane Positioning As a support, your job is to always play in front of, or parallel to your bot laner and notice how when the enemy support does not adhere to this, it makes your job of poking down the enemy carry that much easier. Pay attention to your minions getting low on HP (especially cannon minions), because the enemy carry will try to last hit them and that's your opportunity to walk up and poke without getting poked back (they will have to choose between farming and dealing damage to you). If the enemy carry is alone in lane, you can walk up and harass, you can try to keep him out of XP range for his minions, or even attempt forcing an all-in. If you do decide to go for that last one, it's usually a good idea to go into fog of war and lull the enemy carry into a false sense of security that you have left the lane, and go all the way around if it allows you to position yourself behind him.

Wave Control This is not a guide to gain extensive knowledge about wave control, this is just the bare minimum you need as a support to give your carry a lead, or at least to not put him behind. If you two desperately need to back, try doing so on a cannon wave, so that the enemies can't completely push it in, or that even if they do, the cannon minion tanks 6-7 tower hits, allowing you and your carry to get back to lane in time for XP. If you have just gotten a kill and want to back, push in the wave first. If you have just gotten a double kill early and want to back but don't have time to push in the wave because the death timers are so short and you have no wave clear, leave more enemy minions than allied minions, depending on where the wave is (if it's closer to your tower, you will need to leave 3 caster minions, if it's closer to the middle of the lane, 1-2 casters are enough). Note: before your carry gets items, help them farm caster minions under tower; do so by attacking them once.

Roams Buy boots and roam mid whenever possible. The time it takes you to go from base to mid and then from mid to bot is roughly the same time it takes your carry to walk from base to bot, so you are not losing out on anything and you're not risking getting your carry killed either. Maybe walk up to the enemy mid laner and use Zephyr, maybe shield your mid laner as he's taking a trade, or maybe you're there to dissuade a ganking attempt by the enemy jungler. Either way, this usually ends up with the enemy mid/jungle spam pinging question marks on you and flaming their bot lane for not being there as well, all at no cost to you. If you've just backed, if your carry backed but you have no reason to back yourself (either you have no gold or haven't gotten your Frostfang yet so you can't replenish any wards either), if your carry is freezing the wave just outside your tower, if you see your jungler wants to go mid and you think you can make it there in time as well, these are all good opportunities to roam mid, or even to leave some deep wards in the enemy jungle.

Jungle Help Contrary to popular belief, this is not a section about spam pinging your jungler to come bot lane. In fact, it's about all the ways in which you can help your jungler when he is on your side of the map in order to win the game. If your jungler is getting invaded by the enemy jungler/mid laner, go help. This is not hard to notice, as he is most likely pinging assistance, but your eyes on the minimap should see it regardless. Go help, even your mere presence can make the enemy leave, but you also have a slow, damage, hard CC and a shield. Go help. If you let your jungler fall behind in the early game, chances are he is not going to be able to impact the map at all and then you will have a 20 minute stomp on your hands where the chat is full of "jungle difference". Maybe it really is jungle difference, but if you want to win, go and help. If your jungler is the one doing the invading (or even just trying to get the Rift Scuttler ), try to get lane priority. Attempt to push in the wave with your carry, and then go hover around your jungler. You can't always get lane priority though, in which case ping your jungler to fall back because if he gets caught in there, the enemy bot will be able to rotate first, and he will most likely die.

If you were the team to get the first bot tower These are the next steps you would ideally take to snowball the game: kill the current Dragon go top with your carry and take the top tower place vision in the top side of the map kill Rift Herald use Rift Herald mid and take the mid tower

If you were the team to lose the first bot tower These are the next steps you would ideally take to stop the gold bleeding: place vision around the current Dragon either go top with your carry to match the enemy bot lane or leave your carry bot lane to catch up in farm/XP while you go top and help your top laner in the 1v2 place vision around the Rift Herald and in the top side of the map

General mid-game guidelines [read: every game is different, so what do you do if it doesn't all work out according to the "ideal" steps?] constantly change the line of vision you provide for your team depending on which objective you need to focus on next walk with your jungler to help him secure camps/kills in the enemy jungle leave behind deep wards for bonus information on the enemies look at the state of the map and decide which teammate is the most overextended in his lane, you can protect him by leaving vision in his side of the map or being there should the enemies collapse on him reset for more Control Wards + Shard of True Ice stacks and do it all over again until you manage to get picks, which will allow you to go for objectives.

• A basic idea on which objectives to focus after you get a pick/win a teamfight:
  Elder Dragon > Inhibitor > Baron Nashor > Turret
• Constantly reassess each champion's strenghts and weaknesses. Did Xerath finish Rabadon's Deathcap? Did Jhin use his Heal last fight? Keep track of everything. Telling yourself "I didn't know Vladimir had Flash" after he wipes your entire team is not going to save your LP, but knowing his summoner spell CD just might
• With supports being the only champions carrying Control Wards in their inventories in the later stages of the game, the whole map is going to be a whole lot darker, and you need to play safer. If you need to clear or establish vision, walk with your teammates, not alone
• Stick to the teammates that do the most damage in fights and do your best to keep them alive. Don't let them facecheck and be sure to stay nearby if they need to farm in a side lane, especially if the enemies have an assassin such as Rengar.
• Buy an Elixir of Iron when you know there's going to be a fight
• If you know an ability can end up killing you if it hits, Flash it
• Don't overextend without vision
• Don't overextend for vision
• Keep track of the objective timers because you need to reset and be back out on the map at least 30s before they spawn.

That's about it about Janna, I genuinely hope I've covered all there was to cover, but if you have any further questions you can always:

• leave a reply in the comment section
• catch me on my stream (where you'll also get to see me putting all these things into practice)

and I'll do my best to answer as fast and as in-depth as I can in order to help you!

If you're interested in seeing more from me I also have a guide for Lux mid, that you can find here.