When playing in matches I'm often the last one to pick a champion. I will wait and see what my teammates pick and then counter pick to make sure we have a well rounded team. Lately I've been getting suck with multiple teams that would go mostly melee champions. Naturally I picked a range to counter balance them. I rapidly came to the conclusion that I disliked all of the Ranged DPS Champions, namely Ashe, Tristanna and Twitch. I set about an experiment to see if I could turn a mage champion into a ranged dps along the lines of Teemo. Below is the result, the Attack Janna, Fury of the Storm!
Story:
There are those sorcerers who give themselves over to the primal powers of nature. Originally an orphan growing up in the chaos that is the city of Zaun, Janna eked out what living she could on the streets. Life was tough for the beautiful young girl on her own. The rampant magic that characterizes Zaun was the first and most alluring tool which Janna realized could both protect and elevate her. As many magicians do, she discovered that she had an affinity for a particular type of magic - the elemental magic of air. She mastered her studies of air magic in a matter of months, almost as if she was born of it. Janna went from a street vagrant to an avatar of the air virtually overnight. Seeking to right the injustice in the world, particularly the insanity that has become the city of Zaun, Janna has brought her ethereal skills to the League of Legends.
''Do not be captivated by Janna's beauty. Like the wind, she is one gust away from terrible destruction.''
Standard templates for Janna consist of two main types, Support and AP Nuker. This guide was written in an effort to show people that there is a third option, a ranged DPS option. With her amazing movement speed and smooth attack animation she just begs to be used aggressively not sitting in the back trying to luck into tornado shots.
Skills: This section of the guide will include the listed skills and their abilities along with a brief overview of why or how we use them. A deeper insight into the tips and tricks of using Janna will be further discussed in the Tips section.
Tailwind- Increases the Movement Speed of all allied champions by 3%
Overview: Tailwind is Janna's passive, it gives a global movement speed of 3% to not only Janna, but all of her teammates. This movement speed coupled with phantom dancer and her Zephyr skill allows Janna to dart in and out of combat like lighting laying waste and disappearing in the blink of an eye.
[Q] Howling Gale: By creating a localized change in pressure and temperature, Janna is able to create a small storm that grows in size with time. She can active the spell again to release the storm. On release this storm will fly towards the direction it was cast in, dealing damage and knocking away any enemies in its path.
Janna summons a mighty whirlwind, which she can release to deal 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 / 160 (+1 per ability power) + 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 (for each second it charges) magic damage to all targets in it's path, in addition to knocking them into the air. The length of the whirlwind increases for each second it channels.
Cooldown: 12 seconds
Cost: 110 / 130 / 150 / 170 / 190 Mana
Damage: 60/ 85/110/ 135 / 160 + AP + 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 damage for each second it charges.
Overview: This spell is the bread and butter of the AP/Support builds. It scales decently with AP and has a nice knock back ability. Only problem is it takes 5 seconds to make it a valid nuke later on and any player worth his salt is gonna see the whirlwind coming and get out of the way. We pick this skill last in our skill tree and use it for a makeshift snare. There is no cast animation you can cast it while running then instantly smash Q again to shoot it out and pop your opponent up in the air. With practice you will be able to time it to trigger when your Zephyr snare runs out for great burst damage on somebody trying to escape.
[W] Zephyr: Janna summons an air elemental that passively increases her movement speed and enables her to pass through units. She may also activate this ability to deal damage and slow an enemy's movement speed. Passive: Increases Janna's movement speed by 8 / 10 / 12 / 14 / 16%, and allows her to move through units. Active: Janna launches her elemental at the target dealing 60 / 115 / 170 / 225 / 280 (+1 per ability power) magic damage, and slowing their movement speed by 24 / 30 / 36 / 42 / 48% for 4 seconds.
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Cost: 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80
ManaRange: 600
Overview: This is our power ability and the ability that makes this build possible. At level 5 this skill gives us 16% movement speed, coupled with 3% tailwind and then +12% from phantom dancer gives us + 31% movement rate over most over other champions. This is stacking of movement speed puts you into the realm of the great chasers like Warwick and Blitzcrank. Zephyr allows you to dart in and out of combat, often running down a side lane to pop out of the grass behind them as they run from a group fight to pick off easy low life champions. Another useful tidbit is this skill doesn't interrupt the attack chain. If you use this ability when you are auto attacking you can time it so that you Attack, Zephyr and then instantly auto attack again. This is clutch early game when coupled with Eye of the Storm early game for easily dominating your lane.
[E] Eye of the Storm: Janna conjures a defensive gale that shields her target from incoming damage while increasing their physical damage. Janna shields her target, absorbing 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 / 300 (+1 per ability power) damage and increasing the targets attack damage by 24 / 30 / 36 / 42 / 48 for 12 seconds (can target Turrets).
Cooldown:12 seconds
Cost:70 / 90 / 110 / 130 / 150 Mana
Range:800
Overview: Eye of the storm coupled with Zephyr is how we dominate our lane early game. Being able to ignore the first couple auto attacks or their first ability/nuke when jousting in lanes is crucial for lane survivability early on. This spell is a life saver when you lane against other dominant harassers such as Ashe, Teemo or Gangplank.
[R] Monsoon: Janna surrounds herself in a magical storm throwing enemies back. After the storm has settled, soothing winds heal nearby allies while the ability is active. Janna knocks surrounding enemies back and channels healing winds, restoring 60 / 100 / 140 (+0 per ability power) health to nearby allies each second.
Cooldown: 120 seconds
Cost: 200 / 275 / 350 Mana
Range: 725
Overview: This is the other spell we largely ignore for most of the game. Without going AP there is very little power to an already underpowered ult. I tend to pick up one point of Monsoon after i have rank 5 in both Eye and Zephyr. Its very handy in escaping from enemy ganks which is pretty much the only reason we use it.
Runes: Since I started working on this character template after beta was over and I no longer have access to the free runes I will have to update this section when the store is open. For the most part Im going to try to make a rune book of Crit Chance and Movement speed along with Armor Pen.
Masteries: I go a simple 21/0/9 build with her for right now. I have a couple ideas I want to try and will update this guide as I get the talent tree points to try them out.
Spells: As of right now I almost always go Exhaust and Heal for my two summoner spells. Having double snare almost guarantees you an early game gank or two. Late game it helps you keep your allies alive by exhausting whatever carry or DPS user the enemy has as soon as the fight starts. Heal is integral to our early game survivability and cant be exchanged. I have tested out some other spells, but I have met with sub-par results. The low cost of your spells means you rarely need to use the mana heal. All of your Movement speed items means that ghost is virtualy useless. Ignite isnt to bad, if I just COULDN'T use Exhaust, I would probably switch it to Ignite but it's still not as good as Exhaust.
Skill Progression Tree:
There are basicly two types of skill progression for the attack Janna, A) The Harrasser and B) The Harrassed and they are both very similar.
A) The Harasser
B) The Harassed
Items: The section that seperates this build from all the other Janna builds, the items ! There is alot of temptation to try and juggle both AP and Atk damage through the use of items like Guinsoo's and Nashors Tooth. I just cant justify the gold investment into these items with the limited damage return they offer. Maybe if there was 2-3 more hybrid items that worked both attack and ap I might see it, but alone they are to costly for the return they provide for this template.
Early Game Items:
Meki Pendent + 2 Health Pots
BerserkerBoots
Mid Game Items:
Zeal
Last Whisper
Late Game Items:
Infinity Edge
Phantom Dancer
That is a very basic untailored item build that generaly does well in games. With proper useage of Zephyr for harassment/kills and Eye of the Storm for hitpoint defense you can very easily stay in your lane from the time the match starts till you have 2300 gold. At that point you go buy your Zerker boots and your Zeal. From there you build your items based on the champions you face.
If you are facing alot of HP heavy units or tanks you would modify your build. Switch out Infinity edge for Black Axe and ignore Phantom dancer and get Mandreds Bloodrazor. The attack speed from Razor makes up for the attack speed in Phantom while the HP attack covers the missing Crit Chance. Most tanks besides Singe dont move very fast so the missing movement speed from not building Phantom is acceptable.
If you are playing a match against alot of HP light champions you can move the Infinity Edge down in front of Last Whisper.
There are a few items which aren't to bad but I have met with mixed results so dont often use them. If you are just have a terrible time with their DPS focusing you, you can pick up Frozen Mallet. This gives you some extra DPS along with another snare to help you get away when you get low.
Somebody else mentioned that instead of last whisper to use Starks Fevor to supplement my attack speed. I tried it and it was "ok". You never do big bursts of dps, as your more of a sustained DPS champ so the hitpoints you regen via life steal are pretty negligible but its not a "bad" choice should you want to try something different.
The one item I haven't been able to thoroughly test is Trinity Force. It seems like it would be awfully good, but it is very expensive so I haven't tried it yet. I will update the guide as I test this item extensively and find out if it has a home somewhere in the ATK Janna Build.
Tips and Tricks (work in progress)
In this section I plan on going over some of my choices in the skills and items that might seem alittle strange along with the reasoning or tactics behind the choices.
Early Lane Domination
This is a very important time for your champion as it sets the tone for the rest of your match. Early game you want to make sure you spam your Zephyr as much as possible. It has a ******edly low mana cost and almost always allows for an extra auto attack or two as they run away. Make sure when you do shoot your snare at them that you have killed a majority of their creeps so they dont auto target you and wreck your hitpoints. Once you have Eye of the Storm start casting this then running in and snaring for even more damage. You would be amazed at how fast a non-tank player can be pushed out of a lane by creep diving with Eye up. After awhile they will learn that when you cast Eye they will back up and run away, this serves two purposes for us. Firstly everytime you put on your shield and run to their mage creep line and they fall back they are not only not getting gold from last hitting creeps, but depending on how far back they move, missing XP from the warrior creep deaths. Secondly it will setup possible traps later where you forgo the shield and just creep up slowly till you can leap forward and snare them. Time this tactic with a friendly to gank, and cast eye before you chase to add additional damage onto the pile.
Mid Game Ganking
Once mid-game time hits and people start to move around in lanes is where you really shine. Hopefully you have your boots, zeal and working on your next damage item by now and you can freely zoom around the map. Find somebody wish half life, go to the weeds and wait for them to get close. Jump out and snare and you and your teammate should be able to kill him before he makes it back to his tower. By now you should have a couple levels of Eye and with it up you can take a hit or two from the tower without getting hurt to badly. Be careful of this tactic as the towers damage grows exponetinaly and while it may do 0 damage the first strike, 50 damage the second, the third is going to take a huge chunk out of your HP total.
By the time you are level 10 you should have 4-5 levels of Eye of the storm. At this time you can easily solo the lizard buff with no problems taking virtualy 0 damage due to the recast time on Eye. By the time the lizard breaks the buff it refreshes in a second or two allowing you to keep it up and speed through it. This is very important to your ganking as it stacks with your zephyr for an even more brutal snare and allows you to dish out more damage till you get your DPS items.
Late Game Winning
Late game is pretty simple. You continue the lane ganking you started in mid game and up the ante with more and more dps as you gain your items. Whenever one of the enemy champions strays to far you should be there, waiting in the bushes to swoop out and demolish him. Keep up constant pressure, with your movement speed you can jump from lane to lane with ease and whenever there is a temporary stalemate at one of the towers you should dart off to another lane to push a creep wave or two and then come back. This may not seem like a big deal but I've lost count the number of towers I've killed with just creeps by stalemating them in middle then pushing the top or bottom tower before they can realize im gone. Make sure to incorporate Howling Gale into your arsenal late game for group fight disruption and 1v1 chasing.
End
This guide is a work in progress and as I try out new item combos or talent tree masteries I will update it as I see fit. Comments and Criticism are always welcome aslong as its constructive and well thought out. Hope everybody not only enjoys guide but also the fun and power that is the Atk Janna.
Story:
There are those sorcerers who give themselves over to the primal powers of nature. Originally an orphan growing up in the chaos that is the city of Zaun, Janna eked out what living she could on the streets. Life was tough for the beautiful young girl on her own. The rampant magic that characterizes Zaun was the first and most alluring tool which Janna realized could both protect and elevate her. As many magicians do, she discovered that she had an affinity for a particular type of magic - the elemental magic of air. She mastered her studies of air magic in a matter of months, almost as if she was born of it. Janna went from a street vagrant to an avatar of the air virtually overnight. Seeking to right the injustice in the world, particularly the insanity that has become the city of Zaun, Janna has brought her ethereal skills to the League of Legends.
''Do not be captivated by Janna's beauty. Like the wind, she is one gust away from terrible destruction.''
Standard templates for Janna consist of two main types, Support and AP Nuker. This guide was written in an effort to show people that there is a third option, a ranged DPS option. With her amazing movement speed and smooth attack animation she just begs to be used aggressively not sitting in the back trying to luck into tornado shots.
Skills: This section of the guide will include the listed skills and their abilities along with a brief overview of why or how we use them. A deeper insight into the tips and tricks of using Janna will be further discussed in the Tips section.
Tailwind- Increases the Movement Speed of all allied champions by 3%
Overview: Tailwind is Janna's passive, it gives a global movement speed of 3% to not only Janna, but all of her teammates. This movement speed coupled with phantom dancer and her Zephyr skill allows Janna to dart in and out of combat like lighting laying waste and disappearing in the blink of an eye.
[Q] Howling Gale: By creating a localized change in pressure and temperature, Janna is able to create a small storm that grows in size with time. She can active the spell again to release the storm. On release this storm will fly towards the direction it was cast in, dealing damage and knocking away any enemies in its path.
Janna summons a mighty whirlwind, which she can release to deal 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 / 160 (+1 per ability power) + 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 (for each second it charges) magic damage to all targets in it's path, in addition to knocking them into the air. The length of the whirlwind increases for each second it channels.
Cooldown: 12 seconds
Cost: 110 / 130 / 150 / 170 / 190 Mana
Damage: 60/ 85/110/ 135 / 160 + AP + 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 damage for each second it charges.
Overview: This spell is the bread and butter of the AP/Support builds. It scales decently with AP and has a nice knock back ability. Only problem is it takes 5 seconds to make it a valid nuke later on and any player worth his salt is gonna see the whirlwind coming and get out of the way. We pick this skill last in our skill tree and use it for a makeshift snare. There is no cast animation you can cast it while running then instantly smash Q again to shoot it out and pop your opponent up in the air. With practice you will be able to time it to trigger when your Zephyr snare runs out for great burst damage on somebody trying to escape.
[W] Zephyr: Janna summons an air elemental that passively increases her movement speed and enables her to pass through units. She may also activate this ability to deal damage and slow an enemy's movement speed. Passive: Increases Janna's movement speed by 8 / 10 / 12 / 14 / 16%, and allows her to move through units. Active: Janna launches her elemental at the target dealing 60 / 115 / 170 / 225 / 280 (+1 per ability power) magic damage, and slowing their movement speed by 24 / 30 / 36 / 42 / 48% for 4 seconds.
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Cost: 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80
ManaRange: 600
Overview: This is our power ability and the ability that makes this build possible. At level 5 this skill gives us 16% movement speed, coupled with 3% tailwind and then +12% from phantom dancer gives us + 31% movement rate over most over other champions. This is stacking of movement speed puts you into the realm of the great chasers like Warwick and Blitzcrank. Zephyr allows you to dart in and out of combat, often running down a side lane to pop out of the grass behind them as they run from a group fight to pick off easy low life champions. Another useful tidbit is this skill doesn't interrupt the attack chain. If you use this ability when you are auto attacking you can time it so that you Attack, Zephyr and then instantly auto attack again. This is clutch early game when coupled with Eye of the Storm early game for easily dominating your lane.
[E] Eye of the Storm: Janna conjures a defensive gale that shields her target from incoming damage while increasing their physical damage. Janna shields her target, absorbing 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 / 300 (+1 per ability power) damage and increasing the targets attack damage by 24 / 30 / 36 / 42 / 48 for 12 seconds (can target Turrets).
Cooldown:12 seconds
Cost:70 / 90 / 110 / 130 / 150 Mana
Range:800
Overview: Eye of the storm coupled with Zephyr is how we dominate our lane early game. Being able to ignore the first couple auto attacks or their first ability/nuke when jousting in lanes is crucial for lane survivability early on. This spell is a life saver when you lane against other dominant harassers such as Ashe, Teemo or Gangplank.
[R] Monsoon: Janna surrounds herself in a magical storm throwing enemies back. After the storm has settled, soothing winds heal nearby allies while the ability is active. Janna knocks surrounding enemies back and channels healing winds, restoring 60 / 100 / 140 (+0 per ability power) health to nearby allies each second.
Cooldown: 120 seconds
Cost: 200 / 275 / 350 Mana
Range: 725
Overview: This is the other spell we largely ignore for most of the game. Without going AP there is very little power to an already underpowered ult. I tend to pick up one point of Monsoon after i have rank 5 in both Eye and Zephyr. Its very handy in escaping from enemy ganks which is pretty much the only reason we use it.
Runes: Since I started working on this character template after beta was over and I no longer have access to the free runes I will have to update this section when the store is open. For the most part Im going to try to make a rune book of Crit Chance and Movement speed along with Armor Pen.
Masteries: I go a simple 21/0/9 build with her for right now. I have a couple ideas I want to try and will update this guide as I get the talent tree points to try them out.
Spells: As of right now I almost always go Exhaust and Heal for my two summoner spells. Having double snare almost guarantees you an early game gank or two. Late game it helps you keep your allies alive by exhausting whatever carry or DPS user the enemy has as soon as the fight starts. Heal is integral to our early game survivability and cant be exchanged. I have tested out some other spells, but I have met with sub-par results. The low cost of your spells means you rarely need to use the mana heal. All of your Movement speed items means that ghost is virtualy useless. Ignite isnt to bad, if I just COULDN'T use Exhaust, I would probably switch it to Ignite but it's still not as good as Exhaust.
Skill Progression Tree:
There are basicly two types of skill progression for the attack Janna, A) The Harrasser and B) The Harrassed and they are both very similar.
A) The Harasser
- Zephyr
- Eye
- Zephyr
- Eye
- Zephyr
- Eye
- Zephyr
- Howling Gale
- Zephyr
- Eye
- Eye
- Monsoon
- Howling Gale
- Howling Gale
- Howling Gale
- Howling Gale
- Monsoon
- Monsoon
B) The Harassed
- Zephyr
- Eye
- Eye
- Zephyr
- Eye
- Monsoon
- Eye
- Zephyr
- Eye
- Zephyr
- Zephyr
- Howling Gale
- Howling Gale
- Howling Gale
- Howling Gale
- Monsoon
- Howling Gale
- Monsoon
Items: The section that seperates this build from all the other Janna builds, the items ! There is alot of temptation to try and juggle both AP and Atk damage through the use of items like Guinsoo's and Nashors Tooth. I just cant justify the gold investment into these items with the limited damage return they offer. Maybe if there was 2-3 more hybrid items that worked both attack and ap I might see it, but alone they are to costly for the return they provide for this template.
Early Game Items:
Meki Pendent + 2 Health Pots
BerserkerBoots
Mid Game Items:
Zeal
Last Whisper
Late Game Items:
Infinity Edge
Phantom Dancer
That is a very basic untailored item build that generaly does well in games. With proper useage of Zephyr for harassment/kills and Eye of the Storm for hitpoint defense you can very easily stay in your lane from the time the match starts till you have 2300 gold. At that point you go buy your Zerker boots and your Zeal. From there you build your items based on the champions you face.
If you are facing alot of HP heavy units or tanks you would modify your build. Switch out Infinity edge for Black Axe and ignore Phantom dancer and get Mandreds Bloodrazor. The attack speed from Razor makes up for the attack speed in Phantom while the HP attack covers the missing Crit Chance. Most tanks besides Singe dont move very fast so the missing movement speed from not building Phantom is acceptable.
If you are playing a match against alot of HP light champions you can move the Infinity Edge down in front of Last Whisper.
There are a few items which aren't to bad but I have met with mixed results so dont often use them. If you are just have a terrible time with their DPS focusing you, you can pick up Frozen Mallet. This gives you some extra DPS along with another snare to help you get away when you get low.
Somebody else mentioned that instead of last whisper to use Starks Fevor to supplement my attack speed. I tried it and it was "ok". You never do big bursts of dps, as your more of a sustained DPS champ so the hitpoints you regen via life steal are pretty negligible but its not a "bad" choice should you want to try something different.
The one item I haven't been able to thoroughly test is Trinity Force. It seems like it would be awfully good, but it is very expensive so I haven't tried it yet. I will update the guide as I test this item extensively and find out if it has a home somewhere in the ATK Janna Build.
Tips and Tricks (work in progress)
In this section I plan on going over some of my choices in the skills and items that might seem alittle strange along with the reasoning or tactics behind the choices.
Early Lane Domination
This is a very important time for your champion as it sets the tone for the rest of your match. Early game you want to make sure you spam your Zephyr as much as possible. It has a ******edly low mana cost and almost always allows for an extra auto attack or two as they run away. Make sure when you do shoot your snare at them that you have killed a majority of their creeps so they dont auto target you and wreck your hitpoints. Once you have Eye of the Storm start casting this then running in and snaring for even more damage. You would be amazed at how fast a non-tank player can be pushed out of a lane by creep diving with Eye up. After awhile they will learn that when you cast Eye they will back up and run away, this serves two purposes for us. Firstly everytime you put on your shield and run to their mage creep line and they fall back they are not only not getting gold from last hitting creeps, but depending on how far back they move, missing XP from the warrior creep deaths. Secondly it will setup possible traps later where you forgo the shield and just creep up slowly till you can leap forward and snare them. Time this tactic with a friendly to gank, and cast eye before you chase to add additional damage onto the pile.
Mid Game Ganking
Once mid-game time hits and people start to move around in lanes is where you really shine. Hopefully you have your boots, zeal and working on your next damage item by now and you can freely zoom around the map. Find somebody wish half life, go to the weeds and wait for them to get close. Jump out and snare and you and your teammate should be able to kill him before he makes it back to his tower. By now you should have a couple levels of Eye and with it up you can take a hit or two from the tower without getting hurt to badly. Be careful of this tactic as the towers damage grows exponetinaly and while it may do 0 damage the first strike, 50 damage the second, the third is going to take a huge chunk out of your HP total.
By the time you are level 10 you should have 4-5 levels of Eye of the storm. At this time you can easily solo the lizard buff with no problems taking virtualy 0 damage due to the recast time on Eye. By the time the lizard breaks the buff it refreshes in a second or two allowing you to keep it up and speed through it. This is very important to your ganking as it stacks with your zephyr for an even more brutal snare and allows you to dish out more damage till you get your DPS items.
Late Game Winning
Late game is pretty simple. You continue the lane ganking you started in mid game and up the ante with more and more dps as you gain your items. Whenever one of the enemy champions strays to far you should be there, waiting in the bushes to swoop out and demolish him. Keep up constant pressure, with your movement speed you can jump from lane to lane with ease and whenever there is a temporary stalemate at one of the towers you should dart off to another lane to push a creep wave or two and then come back. This may not seem like a big deal but I've lost count the number of towers I've killed with just creeps by stalemating them in middle then pushing the top or bottom tower before they can realize im gone. Make sure to incorporate Howling Gale into your arsenal late game for group fight disruption and 1v1 chasing.
End
This guide is a work in progress and as I try out new item combos or talent tree masteries I will update it as I see fit. Comments and Criticism are always welcome aslong as its constructive and well thought out. Hope everybody not only enjoys guide but also the fun and power that is the Atk Janna.
