Janna Build Guide by culater_0726

Introduction

Firstly, I want you guys to note that THIS GUIDE IS NOT MADE FOR RANKED. So please don't take one look and go "OH GOD. AP JANNA GG. KK. I DOWNVOTE. BYEBYE." That's just rude.

So, what's the purpose of this guide?
As a support player, I've played all sorts of support, the easy and hard ones, and often bump into AD Carries who think they're too good and I'm just too dumb. But no, really, our jungler is here chasing their AD Carry to the tower, and they stand behind farming. Or maybe another scene would be, I ward the dragon and I ward the tribush and clearly their jungler is coming, but they're still going to push push push and die die die and then QQQ and RQ in the end. Really?????

What started this guide was a game that was just too inspirational for me. That day I luckily didn't lane with a -sigh- carry, but the other support did. We had some 'across-team-friendly-chat-chats' and in the end the support on the other team

(His carry ended up with 2/13/5, or something like this, I can't remember too well. All I remember was that it was a really bad score.) Honestly, I pity him.

Which lead to this guide.
So what can this build do for you?
This build provides you with ridiculous shield, max cool down and damage more insane than a AP Carry without letting your carry go to heaven in the first 3 second of a team fight all because of her high AP ratio. Let's get started yes?

Pros / Cons

PROS Massive Shield Ridiculous Damage Great Utility Can actually Carry When you carry, your team goes nuts.

SPACE

CONS Too much CC breaks Janna along with her squishiness. Higher learning curve amongst all supports (Example: Face roll supports like Sona and Soraka)

SPACE

Runes

RECOMMENDED RUNES
- This gives you Magic Pen which helps deal damage, especially early game where you need to harass the other team in your lane. Harassing for a support makes a huge difference. Explain later.
Seal of Replenishment - Janna is a very mana hungry support, just like all the other supports out there. Even though not as desperate as Sona but still pretty desperate. Especially if you're going to harrass.
- Gives you a total of 15% Cool Down reduction at the start of the game without buying anything. CDR can do a lot for you. It means you can knock people up more often, harrass/slow more often and shield more often.
- Bigger shield, more damage, more heal from her Monsoon, why not? Personally I think it's a better choice than Magic Penetration Quints because of her High AP ratio but then and again, what suits you.

ALTERNATIVE RUNES
Runes are split into two types. The flat ones and the increasing ones. The flat ones are better early game while the increasing ones are better late game. It all depends on you. As long as your runes have something to do with either CDR, AP, Mana Regen. then you should be fine.

IF, you have trouble surviving, you can consider Quintessence of Health or something along these lines.

PLEASE, NOTHING TO DO WITH ATTACK DAMAGE, ATTACK SPEED OR OTHER UNNECESSARY RUNES.

And even though it's very tempting, but no Greater Seal of Gold or Greater Quintessence of Gold. With decent play skills, three GP10 items (your Philosopher's Stone, Heart of Gold and Kage's Lucky pick) should be more than enough for you.

Masteries

That one point in the defensive tree is to make up for the amount of healing that Janna lacks as a support. In late game, your Monsoon will do a lot of healing (if you don't fall behind) but during early game, you'll have to rely on your Heal. Especially if the other team has supports where they out-sustain you very easily. Examples would be Sona, Taric, Soraka, Karma, Kayle and Nidalee.
However, If you think that 1 point doesn't make a difference, you can use it on Mastermind in the utility tree.

Summoner Spells

Ghost: Ghost is a skill which helps you with your survivability. It also helps you to position your Monsoon.

Flash: If you don't like the idea of taking Ghost, Flash is also viable as a survivability and positioning spell.

Heal: Helps squishy Janna and her team mates to survive, many supports take this.

Exhaust: Exhaust is a decent spell in top, mid and bot lane. It helps with survivability (If used defensively) and makes ganks a lot easier for your jungler.
Ignite: If you're going mid or top and is looking for a kill, Ignite is legit.

Clairvoyance: Decent support spell, but Heal and Exhaust is better.


The other ones that aren't mentioned Clarity, Revive etc. are useless and not recommended.

Choosing your lane

READ THIS SECTION ACCORDING TO THE LANES YOU'RE PLAYING IN. EVERY LANE HAS A DIFFERENT WAY TO PLAY WITH THIS BUILD.

Not recommended if you're not very good with Janna. You'll often lane against off-tank characters (characters who can actually take some decent amount of damage without dying) like Lee Sin, Warwick, Riven, Akali, Jax, Garen and the list goes on. Unless you know how to 'zone' and last-hit creeps really well, or else you'll find that you lose your lane within the first five minutes. If you're quite confident with your Janna, you can try this lane. The key is to harass the player against you. The moment they farm, you Zephyr them and immediately back out before they have a chance to bite you. If you see the chance to kill them after you use Zephyr, follow up with your Howling Gale and Auto-attack. Generally, It's very hard to kill at top lane with Janna before you get your Needlessly Large Rod and your Sheen. You still get your GP5s, even though you're farming, but it's hard for you to get kills, just like how it's hard for them to kill you. The GP5 items will give you a good lead with your gold.

Personally, I think MID LANE is the hardest lane to play as AP Janna. Your opposite team's AP Carry either has 'NUKES' or higher burst damage than Janna in the early phase of the game. You'll have a very tough early game and there's a high chance of you feeding. This includes characters like Kassadin with OP Silence and Ahri with ridiculous taunts from Charm or maybe LeBlanc and her Q-R-W-E-I IGNITE YOU SOME MORE- combo. And seriously, they can harass you more than you can harass them. However, if you do insist playing in this lane. Go with the same build, but skip your GP5s. Your GP5s won't help you much with surviving or killing as they provide little damage, little sustainability and little survivability. Farm up in this lane and rush for higher AP items first. Janna's high AP Ratio will help you burst down the other AP Carry before they burst you down. One thing is, if you're laning against an AP Carry with no/little NUKE or CC, you can use Howling Gale or Monsoon to break their combo after they use their first skill in the whole combo. If you sense a combo coming (for example, if they suddenly start running to you) cast Eye Of The Storm at the start. They'll have to deal quite a bit of extra damage (meaning one full combo probably won't end you) if they want to kill you. Either way, playing in Mid lane takes a lot of experience as Janna, you'll have to understand how Janna functions and how the other AP Carry functions. You'll also have to learn to aim your Howling Gale and time both your Howling Gale and your Monsoon.

Don't take your AD Carry's farm or else they'll rage at you, because they're AD Carries. In replace of the farm, you have your GP5 items. Harass their AD Carry as often as possible and make it hard for them to farm. Don't use Howling Gale to harass because you'll find that you end up pushing the lane. Just use the Zephyr that you've maxed first and you'll be surprised with the damage that it can deal. You'll find that playing as AP Janna gives you and your AD Carry more survivability that you both lack with your Eye Of The Storm. With your Zephyr and your Howling Gale you'll deal the damage that some AD Carries lack because they for some reason deal no damage at all. (I bet they took their AP RUNES) Ward up if you have the extra money. HOWEVER, If you find that your AD Carry is brainless and needs to check his eye sight, then don't bother with the wards. They'll waste all your money. If you think your carry is too dumb to carry you, then go ahead and take their kills. Your build is built to carry late game anyway. If they can't carry, YOU DO IT FOR THEM. Like what all those players out there are trying to indicate to me everyday. To support, you have to tank, make sure no one dies and most importantly, CARRY THEM.

Skills and Fights

• Tailwind: Tailwind is a good passive for not just Janna but the whole team. It helps to escape, chase and harass. It ensures not just you, but your whole team to run faster than the other team. There's lots of games which my team mates always say to me "Janna, I love your passive <3" even before the game starts.
  
• Howling Gale (Q): Howling Gale is a pretty broken ability. It allows you to continuously knock people up. The longer you charge it, the more damage it deals. THIS DOESN'T MEAN YOU MUST CHARGE IT. There's no point in charging it to the max and not hitting anyone at all. Time it and aim it, or don't time it at all if it's too hard for you. Knock up your opponents and mess up their actions. In bot lane, it makes your AD Carry take 2 hits less from their carry if you don't miss your shot, it stops enemy from getting away, and stops enemy team from chasing your team member. The cool down of this ability gets lower and lower the more you level this ability which makes it devastating for the other team.
  
• Zephyr (W): Zephyr has a shockingly high AP Ratio and is your main source of damage with this build. The slow makes it the best harassing tool if you play wisely. Use it when enemy team members are escaping. Keeping in mind, the passive of this ability gives you an incredible amount of bonus movement speed. However, the moment you cast this spell is the moment you lose the passive until it's off cool down. If the enemy team has more than one person chasing you, no point in using it. You only end up slowing one person and making yourself run as slow as they do. Just Eye Of The Storm yourself and wait for you Howling Gale to be off Cool down. If necessary, use Monsoon.
  
• Eye of the storm (E): Blocks damage as well as the fact that it gives you 50 extra attack damage until your shield effect is either up or broken. (That's like a free BF SWORD!) Unlike your other skills, leveling this skill only grants you a bigger shield but provides no CDR. However, because of its 0.9 high AP Ratio, you can shield around 685.365 in 10 seconds and triple this amount in 20 seconds because of the CDR from your items. I DID THE MATHS FOR YOU. Which is like, granting your AD carry (or yourself if you're the carry) extra 2056.095 health within 20 seconds (Not even counting your heal). So there we go, free tank for ya.
  
• Monsoon (R): Monsoon is an ability that relies heavily on your positioning and timing. When you cast it, it pushes the enemy away from you with Janna being the center point. This means, if you place yourself somewhere silly, you'll end up saving the enemy team. However, in team fights, you can save your team by pushing the other team away from your team member. Another thing you can do is to get in the centre of the enemy team and separate their whole team in all directions so they can't help each other out. This means your team can kill them one by one. Be careful when you choose to do this, only do it if you're sure you can come back out alive or when you're sure your sacrifice will ensure an ace or something like that.
  
  One thing to note is, when you use this skill, if you don't move, it will heal your allies who are within the circle of your Monsoon. Again, watch your position and your timing when you use this. Just because it heals doesn't make you unstoppable. I remember one time when I got stupid. We were 5v5 in mid lane and I used my ultimate to push the opposite team away from my team and forgot to escape. So they jumped back on me and killed me. Happy memories. Either way, keep in mind that CC (crowd control abilities) also stops your heal as Monsoon is a channelling spell.

IN FIGHTS
Each time you cast a spell, your Sheen or Lich Bane effect will proc, so you auto-attack the opposite team member before you cast the next spell. This includes not just your Howling Gale and Zephyr but also your Eye Of The Storm.

So it should work something like this:
Zephyr -> Auto Attack Once -> Eye Of The Storm -> Auto Attack once -> Howling Gale -> Auto Attack Once and repeat.
If necessary, use ghost and run ahead of them and use Monsoon to push them back so they don't get away.

By the way, Here's the maths for that combo at end game with full build:
675.99 Zephyr -> 494.85 Lich Bane -> 0 Eye Of The Storm -> 494.85 Lich Bane -> 531.1375 Howling Gale (without charging) -> 494.85 Lich Bane = 2691.6775.
And her low CD at end game allows her to do this non stop with her Athene's Unholy Grail granting her endless mana. That's why I said she's better than brainless AD Carries who can't position themselves and die in 3 seconds even if they get full build.

Items

- These boots provide you CD which is what makes Janna OP.
- This is your main source of AP. There was one time when I played on my smurf account and took three rabadons. It felt real good...
- CD is a MUST for Janna, but to ensure that this MUST can be used effectively, this item provides Janna with endless mana. It also provides 15% CD , magic resistance and a decent amount of AP.
- What makes Janna less than other AP Carries is the fact that she only has 2 damaging abilities (even though they deal quite a lot of damage), Lich Bane makes up for the other 2 abilities which she doesn't have.


- Like it or not, people focus carries. This item provides you with armour against any source of Attack damage as well as a fair amount of AP. The most important thing about this item is its active ability. If you're on the edge of dying, use it and you'll be invincible for 2 seconds.
- Smart people will grab Magic Resistance, but that's ok. Show them who's boss.
- Good use for early game, and if you have a problem with Ionian Boots of Lucidity, you might as well take this.
- If the CC on the other team is like, TOO MUCH, take these shoes.
- If they're AD heavy, this might be a good plan.
- I understand, not everyone remembers to activate Zhonya's Hourglass. This sounds good yea?
- Wrecks all the AP carries in this world.
- Personally, I don't like this item on Janna, but if you don't like the idea of looking so squishy, here's an option to consider.
Shurelya's Reverie - If you decide that Supporting > Carrying (must mean you have a good AD Carry then, lucky you) then you can get this for your team's sake.
- Remember how I spoke before about how CC is just too much for Janna? Yea, here's your solution.
- Good against team who all have a lot of health. The active is just too OP.
- Some people like to stack AP... so like, yea, suit yourself.
- Spell Vamp OP. Need I say more?

Summary

SONA > JANNA. NVM, they're both ****s, I like both of them.
Anyway, thank-you for taking your time to read this guide, if you feel like I left out anything or there's other things that you would like me to add, please leave a comment and let me know. Thank-you :)