[@Riot] Let's Help Fix Janna!
Oh boy, it's that time again in every season where we look at our one and only beloved Wind Mage, Janna, the Suppressor of Skill Expression. [sg-janna]
#Disclaimer of Disclaimers: The movie, the game, the reimagining, the remake based on the novel of the movie.
I slapped this together really fast as a source of inspiration for the Riot Team to take under consideration for Janna's 'low interactivity' stance and how to fix it. All the content here is my opinion, and constructive criticism is more than welcome. Heck, I challenge you to make your own additions and modifications to Janna on how you would like to see her changed and played. The more inspiration and direction we can give them to properly fix our wind mage the better the end result will be, and to hopefully prevent Riot from gutting another support due to new items and meta shifts.
#Thoughts on the current changes
######PBE changes as of 2017/09/14 (Written @ 6:08 PM) With the plight of recent changes to Janna on the PBE, we see some significant changes to her coolest ability, Howling Gale, which admittedly has the most thought put into it comparatively to her other skills outside of 'Oh god spooky swing man is schmoozing on my carry with his long hook.' It now always reaches it's destination in 1.5 seconds, which is sound. It's still a wonderful guessing game tool when you're retreating from enemies and they HAVE to avoid being hit by Gale to reach you.
The changes to Tailwind are lame, as it serves to to 'give' Janna back her 15 missing MS without removing it. You also deal bonus magic damage based on bonus movement speed, which is an interesting concept, but one that lacks any inherit ties to her theme. "The wind mage deals more damage based on how fast she's floating," is basically what the ability reads and it's very lame in context. Also, don't we already have a powerful AD steroid imbued shield? Wouldn't it be cooler to make that a bonus effect on the shield itself? It would make it more useful on melee units and Sivir.
Eye of the Storm got slapped one the wrists, and there's more inherently wrong with this ability than simple numbers being moved up and down. But before we can truly rip into this ability and start changing it as a whole, how about we take a look at a different ability? An ability so 'meh' that is deserves a new quick look.
#Zephyr, the ability with no identity
Let's do a quick sum of what this ability does: click on target, deal a slow and damage. Is there any major decision making to this ability? Probably not. The most interesting thing about this ability is that you command your familiar to use Self-Destruct, just minus the explosion. I feel like if we want some major decision making on Janna's part, we should change the ability that doesn't provide anything but a passive movement speed buff that makes Janna the 'master of getting to places and putting wards down. Like a boss.'
How about this, instead of a point-n-click or linear skillshot, let's take a burnt page from the grimoire of a gargoyle. Imagine, Zephyr is now a circle ground targeted ability where Janna sends her familiar to a target location. It creates a wind trail that grants movement speed as it glides to the location. Once it reaches it's destination, the familiar lights up and explodes into a vortex of wind, slowing the pursuit of enemies and while still granting allies the MS buff. Enemies caught in the explosion are slowed instantly for maximum, whilst enemies who just entered the storm are slowed slightly, ramping up the longer they stay there. If an enemy leaves the circle, or the circle reaches the end of it's duration the slow persists, degrading over time. This ability does no damage on it's own, and is purely used as a catalyst for a future change for Eye of the Storm.
Reasons why this would invoke decision making:
- What area can I block off to suppress that assassin's path?
- How long can and where should I charge Howling Gale in anticipation of my enemies escaping Zephyr?
- What if I throw Zephyr towards the enemy carry and support to stall them? Would we be able to out maneuver the J4 weaving in from our tribush? Can I get him with Howling Gale before he Standards?
- What if I approach from the side, remove the wards, and speed boost our jungler into lane? What if I sweep the wards from the bottom bushes and cause some havoc with a stray Gale and combo into Zephyr?
If the ability is too effective, here are some additional levers besides numbers:
- High base CD, but is reduced if Zephyr hits an enemy in the eye of the storm (ha)
- Zephyr glides faster towards enemy champions, but is slower with no clear target.
- If a jungler comes from Tri, it's still effective as a runaway tool (and punishes bad planning on the jungler's side if they manage to escape)
- Reduce the area of effect that the tailwind Zephyr leaves on his path
Anyways, let's move onto another ability Janna 'doesn't have to make decisions about' and see if we can make a meaningful change.
#Eye of the Storm, the ability that does one thing TOO well with no drawbacks.
The biggest problem with Eye of the Storm, is that not only does it provide a huge damage buff, it also applies one of the biggest single-target shields in the game. So big surprise when Ardent Censer started granting attack speed AND more damage + life-steal, who would have seen the negative impact it would have bot lane? Unfortunately this isn't a topic about Ardent Censer, but I will say the item is more balanced if it's used for heals more than shields. Heals in-game have more drawbacks, (Can't go above max HP, grievous wounds, drain caster HP, long base CD or high mana costs.) than shields do. (Barriers go above max HP, no direct way to reduce shields, shields stack on other shields, sometimes have high mana costs)
No, the biggest problem Eye of the Storm has when it comes to decision making: you don't need to make a decision. The decision is done for you. You can try shielding another ally, like the front liner, but they won't always benefit from the Ardent+AD steroid. You can give it to the mages, but they never auto-attack. You always give it to the ADC. But who said we shouldn't allow it so an enemy can be affected by the Eye of the Storm?
Taking obvious inspiration from Help, Pix!, Janna now applies a shield on allies, that grants them the shield and removes minion block. If Janna casts E on an enemy, you summon blades of wind that slice at their armor, increasing damage dealt by other allies and dealing damage over the course of like 3-5 seconds. If Janna casts Eye of the Storm on an enemy affected by Zephyr, others affected by Zephyr also have Wind Blades. Imagine that cool VFX with the new skins coming out, eh Riot?
What this will do:
- Is my Zephyr out, or is it available so I can reduce as many targets resistences as possible?
- Does someone need my barrier more than the damage increase?
- Is my ultimate up? Will I disrupt too many people unintentionally if I use it to heal my team?
If it proves to be too powerful, here are some balance levers I can think off of the top of my head:
- The shield range is different from the debuff range.
- When Janna uses Eye of the Storm offensively, it now has a visual projectile. (Along with VFX of blades of wind on a character)
- If it becomes to potent with magic abilities, either make the values different (20% Single Target, 10% AoE, 5% Dot | 20% Physical, 10% Magic, 5% True Damage) or make it an armor/mr debuff.
With this split, Janna has to make decisions on what she thinks her team wants. Zephyr no longer does damage on it's own, but the more enemies she hits, the more effective Eye of the Storm will be, and the happier mages will be if it's a damage amp. Ally got ignited? No problem, shield. Varus charging arrow? No problem, shield your ally. Kled coming into your Sivir+Janna bot lane? Get ready to kill, because you throw Zephyr at your enemies and watch them suffer in horrible agony as you summon blades of wind that shear their defenses and cause your burst damage to be even more bursty.
... I just wanna watch the world burn I guess
Anyways, enough of me rambling. Let's hear your thoughts. Got inspired for your own ideas? Write them down in the comments below! I'm sure Meddler senpai is lurking around here somewhere just waiting to talk these over with the devs. [sg-jinx]
#Too Long : Did Not Read
- If we want Janna to be more proactive, we can't leave her in the state she is in. She's never going to be truly aggressive without abilities that properly entice an aggressive play-style. Just mere number changing and tacking on strange additions to Tailwind isn't going to fix what is making Janna so unappealing to fight bot-lane or in general.
- Zephyr is now a ground target, that leaves a wind trail that increases MS, and then explodes into a vortex of wind at it's destination that slows enemies a great deal who are caught, and gradually if they walk into it. (Deals no damage)
- Eye of the Storm now removes minion block. AD component removed, instead, if casted on an enemy it deals damage over time and debuffs them with a damage amp. If they're affected with the debuff from Zephyr, they spread like Malefic Visions to others who are also trapped by Zephyr.
- If we are going the number crunch route, we're going to cause Janna to become less enjoyable to play. I know you guys think frustration is okay, but frustration in part of being nerfed to do less than her peers at what she does best isn't going to truly fix her. It's just a band-aid solution until you figure out you need to rework her abilities.
