Concerning Janna
Janna, like always, has been, and still is, a top-tier support. But personally, she doesn't seem to be a top-tier champion in terms of design. I want to look at her kit and identity, and what really makes Janna.....Janna. This is more of a discussion piece than anything but I would like to point out 2 things I've noticed about Janna.
- Her identity. Janna is titled 'The Storm's Fury'.......which is weird. Nothing about her fits the Fury. Janna herself (according to lore and JoJ) seems to be a very kind, and flirtatious person. It's not like she's batshit crazy and summons giant storms when she loses her temper. Her kit is strange as well. Her kit and defensive, and, in a sense, soothing. Her passive is Tailwind......no Fury here. Howling Gale.....this one fits I guess. Zephyr. Zephyr makes the least sense when regarding Janna's title. Zephyr literally means 'a song gentle breeze', and it could a nod to Zephyrus, a greek wind god, who is the gentlest of the 4 greek wind gods. Not to mention Zephyr is a cute little bird. Eye of the Storm, this one makes sense, and also doesn't make sense. It makes sense gameplay-wise because the AD bonus, it doesn't make sense because the eye of the storm is the calm center of a cyclone or hurricane. The ability is putting the person is the safest place. Then there is Monsoon. This ability heals.
Just from her kit, nothing seems to make sense with her title, and when you think about it, this confusion could translate into her gameplay as well.
- Her Kit: Her kit looks fine on the surface, but it has a long running streak of being very strong and successful. In all the threads read, people can never make up their minds about what makes Janna so strong. Is it her kiting? Her CC? Her shield and ultimate? Well I have a different answer. It's the AD bonus on her shield. I have Janna at level 7 Mastery and I have been using her as my main support since I started playing the game, and the one way I manage to win my games that usually never fails me, is when I abuse the crap out of her shield. When playing Janna, you should always max her shield first, always. But lets her do 2 things. She can both easily keep her ADC alive, and she can make them extremely powerful in trades. The shield is already large, and with Windspeaker's Blessing and the recent changes to Ardent Censor and Mikael's Crucible, the shields are even stronger than before. Making it really hard to kill ADC's when the shield is used properly. The AD bonus is the other problem. Even though it was nerfed slightly, the AD bonus is the biggest problem. By already making it really hard to kill the ADC, Janna then basically gives them a BF Sword for a few seconds. Regardless of who the ADC is, I always abuse this, and get my laner very fed, very quickly. Janna's job is supposed to be kiting with cc, and protecting with shields and heals, but the added damage bonus is just the cherry on top.
The other things is, why AD? It really doesn't make sense with her playstyle and thematics. Some kind of damage enhancer does make sense, but giving them more AD doesn't
So what do you guys think? Should she be reworked to fix her gameplay and give her a more thematically correct and sound identity? Or should she continue to dominate the botlane with her hookcity homeboys and lack a decent character design. I personally think she could use a rework, and definitely change her title to 'The Storm's Embrace' since that is the only thing that I can think of that makes sense.
