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Welcome to my second guide on Mobafire! My first build (jungle Zyra) was more of a fun build to use in normal games. This guide is a deep guide about Janna and concludes many tips for supporting your carry to the victory. So get ready for a quite long guide but after you have read the whole guide you will be a better Janna/support player - atleast I hope ;).

About the writer

My ingame name is Sneeuwuiltje and I play on the EUW server. My main role is support and at the time of writing this guide I am in Silver V and rising fast. My main supports are Zyra and Janna. My native language is Dutch so if you find any horrible grammar faults please correct them in a comment. I wanted to make a Janna guide because I think she is an underrated support and I don't see many Janna players making full use of her potential.
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Pros + Amazing peeling skills + Big shield which increases AD of carry + Ultimate can displace the enemies team in teamfights + Underrated movement bonus for the whole team + Great synergy with many ADC + Nice slow and double knock-up for channeling abilities Janna excells in peeling: getting the enemy assasins off your carries. She can do this by using her tornado and ult. Her goal is to protect the AD carry. She should stay by his side the entire game. If the enemy team has many assasins and your carry has a weak early game, Janna is your best pick!

Cons - Squishy - No sustain in lane - Her ult can ruin a teamfight when used wrong - Quite mana hungry so you have to know when to use your skills - Easy to learn but hard to master her - Hard to synergy with AOE compositions because of her ult If your ADC is more an early game champion and wants to play agressive Janna might not be the best option. Her initiate isn't very strong and she has no sustain, she benefits more from poking and freezing the lane. Her ult can ruin some AOE ults: more on that later in the synergy chapter.

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The game already starts in champion selection: knowing when to take a certain champion and why is very important. There are 3 things you have to remember when taking a support:
- Which support does synergy with our ADC in lane?
- Which support counters the enemy champions?
- Which support does synergy with the whole team in teamfights?

I have a small "theory" for taking a support to win botlane which I always try to follow. Following this theory doesn't win your lane by rule because it also depends on individual skills, junglers and other factors, but it gives you an advantage in winning trades/fights. It could be you disagree with the theory behind it, but I think you can use it to choose your support.

Theory

There are 4 kinds of supports: Burst, sustain, peel, poke. Some supports are placed in 1 category, some are a mix.

• Burst: This kind of support wants to win the lane by hard engaging and using their full combo with their carry to k.o. the enemy. Examples are: Leona, Thresh, Blitzcrank, Taric
• Sustain: This kind of support provides the ADC to stay in the lane as long as possible by healing them and/or giving him mana. Examples are: Sona, Soraka, Nami, Taric, Alistar
• Peel: This kind of support excells in keeping your ADC safe by enabling the enemy assasins to burst him down by using shields and displacements. Examples are: Janna, Lulu, Alistar, maybe Nami
• Poke: This kind of support wants to use his range to poke the enemy adc/support while being safe. Examples are: Lulu, Zyra, Sona

OK, now we have placed the supports in the categories. Every category "counters" another, and some are "even". By "counters" I mean you are more likely to win trades/fights. Ofcourse there is a huge influence by individual skill and junglers.

• Burst > sustain: The burst support wants to engage as hard and as soon as possible, preferably on the ADC. Sustaining lanes are more squishy and can't handle an all-in combo well.

• Sustain > poke: When trading in botlane, a sustaining botlane most of the time wins the trade because they can heal up while the poking botlane can't. Ofcourse the sustaining team can't take too much free poke.

• Poke > peel: A peeling botlane is effective when the enemy is close in range, but the poking botlane just stays out of range and pokes all the time. The peeling support can't sustain the carry/himself.

• Peel > Burst: When the bursting team tries to burst the peeling team down, the peeling support can nullify the burst damage pretty well and eventually win trades.

Now that you know that Janna is a peeling champion, you know she counters burst supports like Leona. However, I don't think Janna does well vs Blitzcrank. Take Leona vs Blitzcrank.

Synergy

Janna synergies a lot with adc's who need protection in early game. By peeling the enemies for your carry, he will be able to dominate in late game.

Good synergy

• Kog has a weak early game but a beast late game. Janna her shield gives his damage boost an even more boost.

• Tristana is also weak early game, together you have 4 disengages to keep the enemy of her.

• : Varus has no form of escape, shielding him for more ad when he loads his q is easy. Don't use your ults together though.

• : A lot of cc, no form of escape, shield her when she uses her w.

• Your q together with his axes deals a bunch of damage, no form of escape. Don't use ult together.

Medium synergy

• Her shield makes his pokes stronger, but Ezreal has a pretty good escape ability. Sustaining supports like Sona fit him better. Ults are also hard to combine.

• Cait has a strong early game and she is hard to burst down. A poke/sustain support fits her better.

• Graves is a tanky and bursty carry. He benefits more from a burst support like Leona.

• I don't have alot of experience with playing with Twitch but I think Janna synergies well with him.

• Same as with Twitch

• Vayne needs protection in early game and Janna provides this. Also nice extra movement speed for Vayne. Lulu imo is better for Vayne because of her ult.

Bad synergy

• Strong early game, ults are horrible together.

• Synergies better with burst/poke supports. Already has escape mechanism.

• Very mobile, high burst.

Teamfight counters

Janna has a lot of utility in teamfights like displacing the enemy carries from their tanks but more important to displace the enemy from your carries.

Janna hardcounters these champions in teamfights:

• When he ults, Janna ults him away before he can use Zhonya's.

Take a look at this video:

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• Same as Kennen ult.

• Zed ults your carry? Blow him away and his Death Mark deals no damage!

• Any channeling champion like Katarina, Nunu & Willump, Miss Fortune

• Any champion that wants to be on top of your carries.

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• Greater Mark of Armor: Helps you for surviving/winning trades with the enemy ADC and in teamfights.
  
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: Cheap glyphs for magic resist against the enemy AP carry.
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: Helps you for surviving/winning trades with the enemy ADC and in teamfights.
  
• Greater Quintessence of Gold: Best quintessences for supports. As a support you don't get alot of money so these runes will help you getting money faster for items.

• Summoner's Wrath Reducing MR and armor of enemy by 10

• Durability , Hardiness More durability in lane or team fights.

• Summoner's Insight 15 seconds less cooldown on Flash.

• Meditation , Mastermind , Artificer Fast regeneration for using abilities, spells and items for the carry.

• Greed , Wealth More starting gold gives more starting items, getting gold faster.

• Biscuiteer A cookie that heals HP and mana. Good for using after a trade.

• Explorer A free ward for 60 seconds. Good for using to prevent a lvl 1 invade or to do a lvl 1 invade. Also used to have vision of lane bush.

• Intelligence , Nimble More cooldow reduction and movement speed.

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Flash: Helpful for escapes, chasing, initiating and much more. When the enemy botlane is close to your turret, you can surprise them and flash behind them to ult them into your turret!

Exhaust: Common pick for supports to exhaust the carry. He will receive a slow and huge attack speed reduce. With Summoner's Wrath you also reduce his armor and magic resist.

Ignite: When your carry takes Barrier/ Cleanse and your enemy team has alot of heals you can consider to take ignite to counter it. Try to avoid taking kills with it though.

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• Tailwind: Your entire team gets 3% bonus movement speed when you're alive. May not seem a spectacular passive but you'll see the difference when your team gets chased or is chasing.
  
• Howling gale (Q): Janna channels a tornado which deals damage and knocks up enemies in its path. The longer Janna channels the more damage/longer knock up.
  
  Tips:
  • If you press q again right after the first q, the tornado will flow immediately. This is often used to knock up fleeing or engaging enemies.
  • Can be used to knock up channeled abilities.
  • Clears waves quite fast when you let it channel to its highest damage.
  • When you can Zephyr your target, you'll knock him up even easier with Howling Gale.
  • Play Video
• Zephyr (W): Passive: Janna can move through enemies and gets up to 16% bonus movement speed. This bonus movement speed is lost when Zephyr is on cooldown. Active: Deals damage and slow an enemy up to 48%.
  
  Tips:
  • When you're getting chased by more than 1 enemy you could consider to not use Zephyr on 1 champion because you will lose your movement speed bonus.
  • Use this before you use Howling Gale for easier use.
  • Play Video
• Eye of the storm (E): Janna gives a friendly champion a huge shield for the next 5 seconds and buffs him with up to 50 Attack damage.
  This is equal to an extra BF sword!
  
  Tips:
  • Try to use this always on an AD champion because he will do more AD damage. If your AP carry is getting burst down shield him ofcourse.
  • Try to predict when your AD carry is about to poke (like Varus Piercing Arrow) so he deals more damage and win the trade.
  • You can also use this on turrets!
  • Play Video
• Monsoon (R): Knocks all surrounding enemy champions away and you heal your surrounding friendly champions till you end the channeling (up to 4 seconds). This ult can win you the teamfight or lose it! It's good versus channeling abilities but try not to use it too fast when you play in an AoE composition.
  
  Tips:
  • Mostly used to just knocks the enemy champions away from your ally but it also gives a nice heal when you channel it for 4 seconds.
  • You can use Flash to get into a good position for using Monsoon.
  • More examples of using Monsoon are explained in championcounters.
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> > >

Always level up Monsoon when you can for lower cooldown/more heal. Then Eye of the Storm has highest priority for more shield/attack buff. Max Zephyr second for extra movement speed bonus and slow. Max Howling Gale last but invest 1 point at lvl 2 for early peel for your carry.

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Starting items

For regaining your mana faster after a trade/fight. Janna is quite mana hungry so this will help you.

Sight ward

3 wards will be enough to stay in lane for a good amount of time. I explain how to use them in the warding section.

For regaining your health faster after a trade/fight.

Situational starting items

When your enemy has an Evelynn or Twitch or if you want bush control you can replace some wards/health pots with a sight ward.

Early items

Philosopher's stone

More health/mana regeneration AND you gain 5gp/10 secs more. The earlier you get this the more profit you gain. If you buy it in first back you should buy some new wards too.

Gives you 180 health + 2 free wards to place. You gain 4 charges when you go back to base. The earlier you get this item the better cause you spare the gold for buying wards. Get this before philo stone when you have enough gold for it in first back.

Gives you some flat health and more important cdr. This will build into locket/Shurelya's.

Mid game items

Now you're able to place 3 free wards. You get 5 charges everytime you back. This is one of the most important items on a support as you carry free wards with you all the time (till you run out of charges). It also gives you some health.

Only buy boots after you got sightstone and philo, because boots are nerfed and you already are fast with your passive + Zephyr. When midgame starts you can buy 2d tier boots to outrun almost every enemy champion! The cooldown reduction is used for faster tornadoes/shields/zephyrs.

Nice extra armor and cdr and its active gives a nice extra shield in teamfights.

Situational mid game items

Kage's lucky pick

When you're behind in gold you could buy this item to get your much needed gold faster. Don't buy it before philo/sightstone though. Sell this item in late game or upgrade it to Twin Shadows.

When you can't manage your mana properly you can buy this item. Upgrade it in late game to Mikael's Blessing.

Late game items

Excellent item to engage/disengage teamfights. Also used for chasing/escaping.

Very usefull item that gives armor and mr to you and your surrounding team. Can be upgraded to Runic Bulwark when enemy team has a lot of AP.

Upgraded Aegis of the Legion. This item gives nice magic resistance and armor to your entire team.

Situational late game items

This item has been buffed recently and is upgraded out Chalice and philo. Its active heals your teammate and removes all stuns/fears/silences/taunts/roots. Nice item to have when the enemy team has a Shen or Fiddlesticks.

Good MR and its active reveals the 2 closest enemies and slows them. Good for engaging but I like the other items better for Janna.

Enchantments

I like this enchantment when you're ahead because your team will even get faster when they face you. When you're behind you should take other enchantments.

Gives you a nice movement speed bonus.

When your behind you should buy these wards to be back in the game sooner.

Wards are very important to win the game. They give vision of your enemies so you can see if someone is about to gank you, killing dragon and many more. Placing wards is mostly the job of the support but other players should ward too. In this section I will explain where to place wards and when.

Laning phase

In this phase you want to prevent the enemy jungler to gank you and to see if he invades your jungle. You can also ward lane bushes to know what the enemy support is doing (like blitzcrank) or prevent laneganks. Assuming you are playing bot these places are good places too ward.

The ward in the river prevents the enemy jungler to gank you from river and invade you when you're purple side and you have vision of dragon. The ward in the tribush prevents the jungler to invade you when you're blue side and gank from behind dragon. The 2 wards in the lane bushes prevents lane ganks and if you want vision of the enemy support like Leona or Blitzcrank to dodge the abilities. When you're on blue side you can place an extra ward in the tribush behind purple turret to prevent lane ganks from junglers like Lee Sin and Zac.

Mid game + late game

In this gamephase you want overall map awareness since everyone starts roaming. Vision around objectives like baron and dragon are very important now. It depends if you're on blue/purple side and if you are winning/losing. If you are losing it's more important tot have vision in your own jungle while if you are winning it is more useful to have vision in the enemy jungle.

Blue side:

The blue spots are when you are blue and losing, red is when you're blue and winning. Black should always be warded. When you are on purple side, red becomes blue and blue becomes red.
You can ward at other places too ofcourse but these are the most used places.

Thank you for reading my guide for Janna support. I hope you learned some things and will try this build in games. If you see some mistakes, you have a question or you want me to add some other chapters you can place a comment.

Plans on updating:

[*] A detailed description about using your abilities in teamfights


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