Proposed Janna Rework
I've been a Janna main for years, 2 out of the 3 that I've been playing League to be exact, and Janna suffers from a very prominent issue; her kit is to good to the point that even the smallest buff or nerf will severely affect her and make her unplayable or god tier. Aside from needing a Visual Update, because lets be honest, Sacred Sword Janna's hair makes her classic look like it's still in 2009, a Gameplay Update would also fix some issues. Part of the reason why Janna suffers from the being to good part is also because she's one of the easier champions to play, with a very low skill floor. My changes are to help increase her skill floor, as well as allowing for more skill expression, and a way to change up an issue that's common with Enchanters. I'll only be talking about abilities that I think need changes, so if an ability isn't on here, it's because I think it's perfectly fine.
Her Passive
Janna's passive has been somewhat lackluster till recently, when they changed it up and added a damage boost, which is nice and all, but I think it can do better. Currently, it gives a 8% movement speed bonus to all allies walking towards her, and converts 25/35% of her bonus movespeed at levels 1/10 to extra damage on her W and her autos. This puts more incentive to max out her W first, for the damage and because W gives bonus movement speed, allowing her to do even more damage.
My idea doesn't change her passive as much as it adds to it; have her passive also convert 10/15% of bonus movespeed into extra healing and shielding power at levels 1/10. This would still keep her shield strong while she max's out W first, and before somebody comments that that would defeat the point, I'll get to it when I talk about her shield. Adding this to her passive would put even incentive, not only to max W first, but to also get more movement speed items, such as Shurelya's and Twin Shadows. My reason for adding this to her passive is to address two main issues with Enchanters.
The first is that many Enchanters, and I'm pretty we've all seen this on a Soraka before, usually just build Redemption and/or Ardent Censor, then go full tank after that, turning them into little else but CC bots that can also heal and shield their team. My small addition to her passive would reward players for trying new builds and not just sticking with the default, as well as address the second issue. So many Enchanters play the same to each other that you basically build the same thing on all of them every single game, with little variation. Rakan was a good change from this, with multiple build paths for him, and I feel that my change would allow Janna to also have the choice of multiple different build paths, not just the default Enchanter build.
Her Shield AKA Her E
First to address the issue that I said I would when talking about her passive, obviously if she gets bonus healing and shielding from bonus movement speed, with heavy incentive to max W first, her base shield amounts would be lowered to keep the balance. Onto the main point, my change for Janna would be something completely unseen in league as of yet, and would recreate shielding. To put it simply, it would be a complete overhaul of how her E functions.
Instead of simply pressing E on an ally, Janna instead would create an AoE, around the size Morgana's W, probably smaller, and when allies walk into it, they get a shield for 4 seconds, with the shield giving bonus AD, as it still does now. The area itself would last for 4 seconds, and if the area fades before the ally's shield is popped, for when they walk into it well after it was cast, or if the ally walks out of the zone, their shield would remain for 2.5 seconds before disappearing. (Side note, I really want to get rid of the decaying shield, which I honestly think is pretty fucking stupid, because not only do you have to worry about the enemy popping the shield, it pops itself overtime.) It shields the first ally to walk into it, or if casted directly below a group of allies, the one closest to the center. This last bit is just something I was spitballing with, but I think it would be quite unique if that at max rank this ability could shield up to 2 allies.
Again, base shield amount would be lowered to remain balanced.
Her Ultimate
This is more a fix than anything, but the biggest issue with Janna's ultimate is that it can hinder your team as much as help it, and a lot of the time you get punished for using it. Literally, nothing is worse than using it to save a teammate, only for it to save the enemy instead. My change is simple; the knock back is based on how close the enemy is to Janna, closer you are, farther you get knocked back. This is simply to avoid cases where an enemy is right at the edge, but still gets full force knock back.
The base heal amount would probably also need to be lowered.
Final Assessment
What I hope to do with this is to put Janna in a position where she has more choices, not only with what abilities to max first, but also what to build, and even playstyle, giving Janna players the option between defensive or aggressive. I also hope to make her one of the more skill oriented support champions, such as Nami and Rakan, more so to balance her out, but also so Janna players don't get so much hate for playing a "braindead, click to win" champion, as so many like to put it.
Visual Update
I just hope she looks something like this. The artist is Thomas Randby, who know works at Riot as Riot Hylia. It's amazing work.
