Discussing Janna and some options that make her kit be less shield/more play making potential.
"Oh god not Janna again, for fucks sake this must be the 97th-"
I know, I'm sorry. Please hear me out. I think it'll be worth your time (there's a tl;dr too, scroll to the bottom if you want).
So let me get this off the bat: I'm a Janna player. I play a good amount of her, I like playing her, I think I know her pretty well. What that means is that I've been monitoring how Riot's been looking at her for the past few weeks and deciding on my own opinion in the matter, the opinions of both other players and Janna mains excluded (These are my thoughts, after all). Long story short: I agree with the people who say that Janna's shield has been unfair in the past and further to that point I think there's more potential in her kit to be pushed further in a better, more skill-oriented direction. This post is a collection of kit changes/ideas that I think would benefit Janna in the long term and make her more fair/profitable to learn while also eliminating the stigmas of her as just a shield bot (which I hate because honestly it's true). So, let's get started.
There are plenty of ways to address Janna's reworked kit and how to push it further in the right direction, this direction being that a Janna player should have to utilize their ENTIRE kit better to get the same effect as they could before. This means that in these kit changes I'll be primarily looking at nerfing her shield and potentially her ultimate in favor of buffing what can be considered the more challenging aspects of her kit (such as trading in lane, initiating with Q etc etc). It won't be perfect and I'll be honest, there's a good chance Janna will always be known as the shield bot of League. But hey, I can try.
The way this thread will be organized is as follows:
- Ways to 'buff' Janna's kit
- Ways to 'nerf' Janna's kit
- What's the best route to take with Janna? - THE REAL CHANGELOG
**Remember, I want a MIX of buffs and nerfs. I'll be giving the changelog I'd ideally want in the final section. **
Buffing Janna
There are a few ways to do this:
Base Stats (B):
- Base AD increased from 46 to 48
This one is simple enough: Give Janna more strength in trading power that also isn't reliant on her passive scaling. Pretty much a revert of the rework, doesn't seem too bad does it?
- Base Movement Speed increased to 325/330 from 320.
How do you buff Janna's kit in the most effective way outside of her shield? You buff something relating to her movement speed. 5 movement speed on its own may not seem like a lot but on most champs it's pretty significant, even more so on Janna because of her W passive + regular passive. Doing this buff would improve her damage on her passive, her speed (which is good for multiple things such as roaming and making it back to lane/teamfights quicker)
Tailwind (Passive):
- Scaling changed to 25% at all ranks from 15/25/35% at ranks 1/7/13
Early game buff, late game nerf. Gives Janna more trading power early where it's more necessary and cuts it off late as a tradeoff. This makes her late game less oppressive (even if it is by a slight amount) and hence increasing her need to snowball from laning phase. On its own it's negligible - It's not meant to be on its own though.
Howling Gale (Q):
- Knockup duration changed from 0.5-1.25 to 0.35-1.5 (from no charge - fully charged).
What's an annoying part of Janna's kit? When she throws a tornado with no charge at you and it still peels well. What's an annoying part of Janna's kit for a Janna PLAYER? People not properly getting punished for getting hit by the tornado. This change fixes both of those issues with a compromise: Janna's uncharged Q gets less power and her fully charged Q gets more. This promotes her ability to set up plays/peel with a more thought out tornado versus a rushed one while also not completely destroying her uncharged Q in the process.
(It's to note that while I'd also want to put in a damage change here that would benefit charged Q it wouldn't really matter - Janna's Q damage is probably the most irrelevant part of her kit, at least when she's playing support. Buffing/nerfing it wouldn't really change anything).
Zephyr (W):
- Base movement speed given increased from 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10% (+ 2% per 100 AP) to 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12% (+ 2% per 100 AP)
Another revert, similar goal to the base movement speed increase but this time focusing on something else - Maxing W first. This has popped up recently because of Janna's changes and is something that I'd love to see more versus the traditional E max and this change (combined with some others) is aimed at attempting to put a stronger priority on her laning and damage. After all, the more movement speed the more damage!
- Minimum damage increased to 80/135/190/245/300 from 60 / 115 / 170 / 225 / 280
Again, meant to encourage maxing W first. I'll explain more about this below in my final changelog.
Eye of the Storm (E):
I'm not buffing this shit. As a Janna player who's been on both sides of the coin: Fuck this shield.
Monsoon (R):
This is a tricky one. On one hand I want to take something big out of Janna's E (like it giving AD) and put it into her R instead (for instance, making it knock people over walls again or putting back in the feature where it slowed anyone trying to come back into the circle) but on the other hand it's already a good ability as it is and if anything I'd be nerfing its healing power. There IS potential here for buffs but honestly I don't think that touching her ultimate is the solution - There's a reason it wasn't touched in her rework, it's a solid ability right now.
Nerfing Janna
Once again, there are a few ways to do this.
Base Stats (B):
- Armor per level decreased to 3 from 3.8 (total armor at lvl 18 lowered from 84 to 73)
There is a problem if you're getting hit by ANYTHING as a Janna player. You're supposed to be squishy and have to position very, very carefully. This potential armor nerf would reinforce that but would probably be accompanied by an early game armor buff (it'd still be a nerf late but I'd also want to buff her armor early to give her more dueling potential there so it evens out).
Tailwind (P):
- Effect radius decreased to 1000 from 1250
Basically: If you want your team to be able to use your passive, be closer to them. Makes Janna have to stay at least a bit closer to her team and make her risk herself that 2% more.
Eye of the Storm (E):
The main offender. Let's consider our options.
- Cast radius decreased from 800 to 700.
If you want to shield you can't just be a screen away - Be closer, be more brave.
- Bonus AD given decreased to 8/13.5/19/24.5/30 from 10/17.5/25/32.5/40
You can't just expect your ADC to do everything with the AD you give them, you have to contribute too. Just pressing E and expecting your Twitch to 1v5 is a horribly mentality to have and this change discourages it - You want to maximize your potential, use your entire kit instead of relying on the AD you give your carries.
- Uptime decreased from 5 seconds at all ranks to 3/3.5/4/4.5/5 seconds at ranks 1/2/3/4/5.
This is a popular one - Decreasing the shield uptime to make her shields more properly placed. This is tricky because this is actually a pretty substantial nerf just on its own, to have both less reliable shield uptime & as a result less potential to utilize the opportunities it gives would hit Janna's supporting ability pretty damn hard and also force her to max E first (which I don't like). The change is here, I just don't think of it too fondly because it would require putting more power into her E when it IS up and I'd rather just nerf her E for now.
- Base shield amount decreased to 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 from 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 / 210
10 hp. Can actually be pretty important, believe it or not.
Monsoon (R):
Again, this is tricky. Janna's disengage is REALLY good with her ult but to nerf this would be pretty harmful as well. If anything I'd go for the base heal amount per level but I'd rather refrain from touching this ability, again it's pretty solid.
The best route to take Janna (my changelog)
Alright, you endured the hard part. Now time for my personal list on what should be changed and why:
Base Stats (B):
- Base AD increased from 46 to 48
- Movement Speed increased from 320 to 325
- Base Armor increased from 19.384 to 23
- Armor per level decreased to 3 from 3.8 (Total armor at lvl 18 decreased from 84 to 77)
Tailwind (P):
- Effect radius decreased to 1000 from 1250
Howling Gale (Q):
- Knockup duration changed from 0.5-1.25 to 0.35-1.5 (from no charge - fully charged).
Zephyr (W):
- Minimum damage increased to 80 /135 /190 /245 / 300 from 60 / 115 / 170 / 225 / 280
- Base movement speed given increased from 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10% (+ 2% per 100 AP) to 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12% (+ 2% per 100 AP)
Eye of the Storm (E):
-
Cast radius decreased from 800 to 600.
-
Base shield amount decreased to 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 from 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 / 210
-
Bonus AD given decreased to 8/13.5/19/24.5/30 from 10/17.5/25/32.5/40
tl;dr: I advocate for Janna getting more reward out of her play making potential and utilizing her entire kit to the fullest versus standing back and being a shield bot. The specific change list above is in my opinion the best mixture because it both requires Janna to be closer to do her work and utilize her autos/W/fully charged Q more to their fullest instead of just shielding. These changes are subject to balancing.
