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The Janna Problem

The Salt Seraph·1/18/2020, 9:33:50 PM·2 votes·1,666 views

Right. So I'm a Janna main. I love playing her and have climbed out of silver with her alone. BUT I have my problems with her. She's super easy to play with point and clicks but feels so unrewarding to play at times. Sure, landing a max wait tornado is godlike prediction at times and her peel is second to none but honestly? I feel like she should be More than a peel support. Her name is Janna, The Storm's Fury. She doesn't feel like a tempest at all. Her Q has a long windup time compared to all other supports, her shield falls off late game due to its scaling and her Zephyr is just.. Odd. It slows, does little damage and has to be unused to gain the passive effect. Her ults nice with the knockback but when you can't shove a Jarvan over his Cataclysm for an outplay, it can be rather bad. Sure, the team wide heal is Really nice, I won't lie. But surely she could do more, right? Surely she could be more of a proper Tempest?

Let's take her passive first. It increases movement speed for allies moving towards her. At the same time it converts movement speed into more damage. Okay. So she's suppose to be an auto attack support, right? something like Lucian being a caster ADC. Nah. Rarely this ever comes into play. That extra damage simply puts her on par with other supports. Why don't we change it a little? How about instead of on her Auto attacks, it increases damage on her Spells? That'll put it more in line with her champion kit overall anyways.

Her Q, Howling Gale. a Tornado that winds up for about 3 seconds before flinging itself out towards wherever you placed it to go. Okay, this falls more in line with her name. A tornado is definitely a Storm's Fury. But the damage it does? Not even close to being useful. The CC is always useful but when you have to wait 3 seconds and try to predict your enemies movements 3 seconds ahead of time makes it much harder to land compared to other forms of CC that not only last longer but deal a LOT more damage. 160 damage with 35% AP scaling at max rank. What other ability has such Low scaling at such ranks? I know Morgana's Q doesn't. That thing Chunks. Sure, you could make the argument that Janna is a healing caster. She doesn't build damage like Morgana does. But if you put the same build on each champ against each other, Morgana still wins. If we can't increase the base damage, why not increase the ap scaling on it then? From 35 to 40? Or even 45? Make it more impactful. Make it worth putting points in.

Her W, Zephyr is the odd ability. It increases her movement speed by up to 10% with a 2% ap scaling. I can see Why they would limit it harshly in theory. But it doesn't work much in practice. It only gives you that bonus when it's not on cooldown. With her current build path, you're getting Mobi boots anyways. The movement speed doesn't have much impact most of the time. Why not get rid of that 'On cooldown' part? Make it perm? It'll fix a lot for that ability as a whole and would make it more scaling in the late game especially during fights. It'll allow you to reposition much better and support your team and you'll be a proper wind spirit again!

Her E, Eye of the storm is a shield that increases your attack damage while its active. But it's a decaying shield. I know it was made decaying because it was too strong otherwise but maybe give it more scaling because of that? It goes away much faster than other shields and doesn't do as much as others. The one good part of this ability is that its CD lowers with each slow you put on an enemy. This is a big reason why her Q, Howling Gale needs a better rework than what it has. Give it more reliability in the end.

Her R, Monsoon is an AoE healing ultimate that pushes enemy away from Janna to a certain amount of units away. The healing is great for Teamfighting. But does it fit with her title as the Storm's Fury? Or even the name of the ability itself? Monsoons are devastating most of the time. They cause flooding and such harsh winds. Why not place a movement speed Slow for enemies while inside the Monsoon if they decide to enter it again? That would constitute the Harsh winds aspect rather nicely and keep the overall theme safe on it.

Now I know this suggestion doesn't make full on her Storm's Fury name but overall, it would make Janna a little more impactful and give her a much better identity than 'The peeler'. She has such a High winrate but feels so boring to play at times.

If you have any ideas on how to make Janna more enjoyable to play as and not entirely a bother to play against, leave a comment down below! I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on the matter and would love even more to hear your suggestions on this matter. Does Janna need a full rework or only a soft rework? You decide!

19 Comments

HalexUwU1/19/2020, 1:07:39 AM5 votes

Honesty I think Jannas kit is one of the best designed ones in the whole game, nothing about it really feels unfair

I dont think they should change it

Posui Gart1/19/2020, 12:55:23 AM4 votes

Her passive feels weak, both the ms and the damage parts, but they are ALWAYS on. Those little bits of damage add up over the game quite well, as well as those bits of damage your ADC didn't receive because he had just enough ms to outrun an enemy/dodge a skillshot.

Her E is decaying because, unlike other shields, her shield has a bonus AD added to it. At the time they nerfed most shields they got their duration reduced, but if they nerfed Janna in the same way, the AD bonus would be nerfed too, so they replaced it with the decay.

Her Q being extremely inreliable if max charged is a problem, and it was adressed earlier when they made her Q speed scale with charge time, effectively nerfing instant Qs and buffing charged Qs. But in most situations its still better to 100% hit with a short CC than 20% hit with a long CC. And there isn't really a way to buff long-charged Qs. Its damage is weak because its AOE. Buff its base damage and suddenly Janna mid is a problem, she will permapush lane from safety with no actual lane counterplay. Buff her scaling, and again, AP Janna becomes a game-stalling machine, with ability to clear waves easily as well as preventing any kind of agression.

Her ult is op. Unless baited or blocked, it straight up removes most assassins and divers from the game. Its not nerfed yet only because it does almost nothing against ranged champions, and usually there is at least one in every team.

Overall, buffing Janna is hard because she is already strong at doing her things(peel/disengage), and if buffed, can straight up remove some team comps and strategies from the game. If she really needs a buff, I thing something that does not affect her current strenghts would be ok. So no buffs to her W movespeed and definitely no slow on ult. Perhaps some champion only bonus damage on her Q that scales with charge time(maybe even %hp damage), E bonus AD increased/switched to adaptive, maybe some damage on her R if she fully channeled it(because, just like with Q, R is often used just as a knockback tool and cancelled afterwards).

Rewt1/18/2020, 9:55:38 PM3 votes

Here is what you missed about the Q vs Morgana's Q.

Morgana's Q is a snare. You can still auto attack while snared. So it gets to have a higher Duration and Damage.

Janna's Q is a Knockup. This will stop you from attacking,

Also. Snares are reduced by Tenacity. So buying Merc Treads will help significantly. But Knockups are not reduced by Tenacity. Janna has so much power in her kit that she can't really be buffed. the champion has so much utility and so much of that utility is non-interactive.

Metal Janna1/19/2020, 4:35:13 AM1 votes

Have you tried any other enchanters? I was a Janna main for a short while but decided I like Orianna's style a little better. Better passive, better shield (in CD anyway), and an ult of similar power but more varied usefulness.

Upgrades1/20/2020, 4:06:06 AM1 votes

As a Janna main with who reached platinum 2 with her last season and have over thousands of games on her, I feel she is in a very solid spot in my opinion. Her q is used for disruption, not damage, rarely ever do I leave it charged up for 3 seconds. Generally I dont even let the q charge for even a second unless I know for a fact im gonna hit it. Damage is not what you play Janna for, she is an extremely defensive champ which can get boring for most to play. A perfectly placed and timed q can win teamfights by itself. You burn their engage with Q. You use it similar to a thresh flay

In regards to W, You forgot to mention that it allows you to avoid unit collision which can help you evade and bait out counter champs in lane(hook champs in particular, by dancing in minions). You use W for the cripple and to catch people in skirmishes. The poke is only really relevant in lane but falls off afterwards midgame. Another thing id recommend is to build cdr boots rather than mobis, the cdr is invaluable on Janna because you want to be firing off your spells asap so you can get your E cd reduced quicker, mobis is ok but for janna I would beg to differ just because roaming with janna feels meh, you'd rather want sit in lane and try to scale and survive early game (where you are weakest at)

In terms of her E its decaying but if you just use it right when the ad carry starts auto'ing you will be fine. The synergy with ardent and athene's makes the shield overloaded. Halfway into your build, when you shield the ad, youre basically giving them a pair of BF swords, a recurve bow, onhit damage, a heal, and a rather beefy shield. With all of these things considered. 0.75 seconds (the rate at which it decays) is more than enough time in teamfights. It really doesnt feel like it either, feels much longer than that.

R is ok, I see youre trying to make her spells make more sense with their titles.

Just from what I see, it seems you are not satisfied with how much damage Janna is doing, but thats not what you play her for, you play her to DENY damage. My damamge in games rarely ever breaks 10k. You're a passive defensive peeler, not a poke mage. She is not flashy by any means, she carries games subtly

Thats just my 2 cents at least. [sona-playing]

ZephyrDrake1/20/2020, 5:17:58 AM1 votes

So... you are saying that Janna's shield falls off due to its scaling? Like what? Pretty sure that the scaling on her shield and the base value on it are among the highest in the entire game when it comes to shields so if her shield falls off then every single shield in the game falls off even harder than hers. Also knowing how to use your Q effectively is one of the most rewarding things in the game. You could just insta throw the Q or you could mind game the enemy completely by having the Q go opposite to where you are going and let it sit the entire channel time. Her W is literally free poke in lane and a decent enough kiting/chasing tool in the skirmishing/teamfighting phase of the game and a well timed R can can make or break fights.

Is she an easy champion to pick up? Yes but I can tell when an experienced Janna player vs someone who barely plays her at all. She is meant to be THE disengage support.