PSA: Janna AP Mid is very strong right now. (Likely downvoted to oblivion, also long)

This post will contain an unpopular opinion. If you choose to not read it, that's fine, but I ask that you think critically and don't just tote "NO DMG LAWL BAD BUILD" before commenting. Thanks

I've played Janna as a Mage since season 1, all through her massive changes and nerfs over the years. Right now, Janna is a very strong ap mid, and I'd argue she's stronger now than she's ever been, and certainly as strong or stronger than typical meta mids. There are many matches where she can come out ahead, and very few where she's at a disadvantage. Due to her kit's dual nature of support and damage, she mostly fits into the same type of teamcomp as Karma or Lulu mid; teams where you already will have a secondary AP dmg source. Such as, Annie bot, fiddle jungle, rumble/vlad top, etc etc. But you're not limited only to this type of teamcomp; even with a full AD team, that's 4 potential targets for your +100 AD Buff, and even with armor stacking, that's going to hurt a lot.

Due to the extreme range and power on her Q, Janna can easily boast the highest cs on both teams, almost guaranteeing a 45% CDR, 500 AP build with multiple support items if desired. Why is this useful? Late game, you can constantly shield your carries for 600+ HP and give them a +100 AD bonus. You can aoe heal for thousands of combined damage, putting even Soraka to shame with how game changing your ult is. This can be far more impactful than a simple aoe nuke. Most AP Mages have an element of risk where they can fall behind from a bad lane matchup and have their damage and usefulness suffer bigtime.

One of the best parts of AP Janna mid is that she's almost impossible to shut down. Due to her kit containing multiple forms of protection, mobility, and disengages, she excells against Assassins, such as . These champs require early kills to start their snowball, and Janna mid is one of the best at denying this. She can instantly interrupt dashes, shield from poke, and recover from combo's easily while pushing relentlessly so they can't roam, while able to get every cs in lane.

Other champions she will excel against include skillshot reliant champions such as - they will struggle to land a single skill on you since you move faster than any other champion, and can fly over minions. Since Janna has a high-damaging point and click nuke with a slow, a typical combo is simply bait a skillshot and watch it miss, fly through the wave, W, quick Q knockup to prevent retaliation, then auto enhanced with shield for a Thunderlord proc. Most champs without a self heal won't be able to take this on a sustained basis, and won't be able to do anything back to you since you can shield their harass.

Champions where Janna struggles would be champs with point and click nukes/stuns, such as . These champs are dealt with by simply ignoring them and focusing on farm and roaming. Her Q outranges these champions' danger zones. Janna is also a great ganker due to her speed & disables, so even in a subpar matchup, she still has options.

The only exception where Janna will clearly be at a disadvantage is because he can stop Janna from farming at all, and can shield all of her harass. Fortunately, most of the community agrees with how annoying and repressive his kit is, and he's the most banned champion, making Janna mid a very safe pick. Besides him, there aren't any champions I can think of where Janna can't excel.

Some good items to build on Mid Janna include: - a good rule of thumb is to calculate 45% CDR using supportive items (Zeke/Grail/Censer), runes/masteries/boots of lucidity, and then stack pure AP for the rest. Janna typically doesn't need any defensive items because she can do her thing from so far back, she's rarely in danger. In teamfights later in the game, Janna is mostly played as a typical support, and sticks with the ADC - the difference is that her spells are obscenely strong with AP behind them, meaning your ADC can stay alive for quite a long time, far outdamaging the output of most typical mage mids, along with huge objective control.

I'll be happy to write a full guide for this if the community wishes. Just wanted to see if anyone has any interest at all. People in ranked games have been pretty cool with my pick - occasionally there's the one jerk who thinks the game is automatically over because of Janna Mid, but those are very few and far between, and those are the people I made this post for. Almost all of the Teamwork honors I've gotten this season have been from people impressed with Mid Janna.