A storm is rising at Worlds. After staying under the radar for much of the 2014 season, Janna has made a huge resurgence in the first days of the 2014 World Championship. The Storm’s Fury has been all over the place in Taipei, knocking anyone in her path up and away.
So far, she’s found great success, having been picked in 7 of 12 games, and only dropping a game in her very first appearance. Since then, she’s been protecting hyper-carries and squishy mages, storming her way to six victories in a row.
Let’s take a look at how she’s done it.
All’s calm
If you take a look at many Janna players’ item builds, you may notice something interesting. A lot of them build Mejai’s Soulstealer. Typically known as an item players build to prove how much better they are than their opponents, pro supports seem to think it’s core to her build.
The reason for that is simple: Janna rarely dies, and gets tons of assists. With her insane peeling ability and shields to keep herself alive, she’s easily able to get the five Ability Power stacks required to make the cheap item worth the purchase. Quickly, her shields get hefty, her slows debilitating, and her heals robust.
Of course, those abilities aren’t just good for keeping Janna alive. She more than excels at keeping those needing protected from danger. And the more protecting she does, the stronger her defensive capabilities become.
So why is that pseudo-snowballing protection so strong right now? Well, mostly because hyper-carries are so highly valued in the current meta.
Get away from me
It’s a bit odd that it took so long for Janna to come to the forefront of the supporting world, as much of this season has been primarily focused around hyper-carries. No one is quite as capable of carrying the fledgling damage dealers through their rough early moments quite like Janna.
In theory, a Leona/Tristana lane should be Kog’Maw’s worst nightmare. The late game-focused ADC has no abilities of his own to escape from the dives that the pair are able to execute.
Enter Janna. It happens off camera, but just before Lustboy and WildTurtle pick up the double kill, Jay’s Leona had dove directly onto the pair, hoping to stun them long enough for Bebe’s Tristana to pick up the kill.
Unfortunately for her, Lustboy was ready for it. He swiftly knocks them away with Monsoon, up with Howling Gale, all the while shielding Turtle with Eye of the Storm. With the damage prevented and the extra Attack Damage the shield provides, the play more than makes up for Kog’Maw’s weak early damage, and allows them to turn around the engage.
Whipping through teamfights
Her defensive capabilities don’t stop in the laning phase, either. Once again, Lustboy’s play against TPA perfectly highlights what Janna can do.
The best way to stop a siege composition is to dive headfirst into them, bringing down as many people as possible. The combination of ultimates from Rengar and Orianna is a great way to do that.
Once again, Lustboy knew what to do. As soon as Winds’ stealthed Rengar crossed into a Vision Ward’s sight, he landed a Howling Gale to stop his advance, followed by slowing his retreat with Zephyr, allowing his team to bring down TPA’s chance at breaking the siege.
Late in their game against Royal Club, TSM knew they have to contest Baron. But watch as they realized exactly who is in the middle of the pit - Zero’s Janna. With him standing right next to the big worm, there was no real way to safely engage on Royal Club. As they hesitated to try and solve the puzzle, SHRC spun around to engage, and took a decisive teamfight victory.
The mind games that Janna provides are just as powerful as her abilities themselves. If teams can’t figure out how to get around her rising winds, she’ll continue her rampant success at Worlds.
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