Janna’s Rise as a Top Lane Champion in League of Legends
Janna, The Storm’s Fury, has been gaining popularity as a top laner in the competitive League of Legends scene. With her Moonstone build, she has been soaring through the competitive queue with an impressive win rate of over 60 percent.
Unlike most players, some are choosing to play Janna in the top lane to support their team and scale into the late game for victory in ranked matches.
Unexpected Rise in the Top Lane
In Patch 12.2, Riot made changes to Janna’s kit, buffing her base movement speed and adjusting her playstyle from an aggressive support to an enchanter. This unexpected shift has revived Janna as a top lane pick, especially against tank champions with poor waveclear.
Effective Summoner Spells and Runes
Players often choose to go for Flash and Smite as Summoner Spells. Flash helps Janna avoid engages and shield allies, while Smite allows her to roam freely with the jungler and secure objectives like dragons and Baron.
Janna players typically take runes from the Inspiration Tree, opting for Glacial Augment for the slow, Perfect Timing for a stopwatch in teamfights, Future’s Market for early item completion, and Cosmic Insight for ability cooldown reduction. In the second tree, Domination is commonly chosen, with Taste of Blood for lifesteal and Relentless Hunter for extra movement speed.
Janna’s Playstyle in the Top Lane
Janna starts the match by farming comfortably against the enemy laner until reaching level three. From there, she starts roaming the map, assisting her jungler in clearing camps and supporting her teammates with frequent ganks. Picking Spellthief’s Edge allows her to poke enemies with Howling Gale and earn gold easily.
Janna is particularly strong against tank champions like Ornn or Gragas, as they struggle to push waves quickly and punish her absence in the lane. The recent addition of the Objective Bounty system also minimizes the impact of losing towers. Janna should be picked late in the champion selection to counter weak top-side champions.
Janna’s Mid-Game Role
In the mid-game, Janna’s role is to disrupt the enemy’s plans and boost the kill potential of the mid and bot laners while assisting the jungler. Her passive ability, Tailwind, provides movement speed to rotate quickly and kite enemy players. However, Janna should avoid taking experience points from laners to ensure their power spike. She should only go near a wave to gank.
Empowering the Jungler and Teammates
By drawing enemy players into teamfights, Janna allows her team’s jungler to power farm and become a carry in the late game. Junglers like Kayn and Jax benefit greatly from this strategy. Janna’s early-game support item also grants access to vision wards, providing constant visibility of the enemy team’s movements. Allies can make better decisions and catch enemies while rotating, further enhancing their lead in the mid-game.
Overwhelming the Enemy
The constant roams and pressure from Janna force the enemy players to play safe, granting priority to the mid and bot lanes. Janna excels in teamfights with her slows, shields, and healing from her Ultimate. As a result, the game becomes one-sided, with the allied team being able to win teamfights and finish the game efficiently, while the enemy team struggles to catch up.
Potential Nerfs in the Future
Although players find Smite Janna oppressive and annoying, Riot Games has not addressed this pick yet. However, it is expected that Janna will receive nerfs soon to revert her back to her prime support role in the bottom lane.
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