LoL Wild Rift Janna Build & Guide (Patch 5.0) - Runes, Counters, Items, Ability Analysis

S Tier

Class: Support

Recommended Lane: Dragon

Best Janna Wild Rift build guide for Season 11 Patch 5.0 of WR. With our Janna guide you will learn which items to build, runes to select, skill order, who counters Janna, and how to use abilities properly.

Recommended Builds

Starting Item

Boots

Core Items

Complete Build

Runes

Starting Item

Boots

Core Items

Complete Build

Runes

Janna is a mysterious, elemental wind spirit who protects the dispossessed of Zaun, a beacon of hope for those in need. Janna is an enchanter support that excels in poking opponents, dealing damage and different forms of crowd control, as well as shielding, healing, and buffing her allies.

Janna Wild Rift Build Recommendation

Here are Item Build Recommendations that works on this champion and which are the best build for Janna Wild Rift in this patch.

The Wind Spirit

This is the standard Janna Wild Rift build which grants her a balance between utility and survivability.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity – Boots is rushed on Janna because her 2nd, Zephyr‘s passive damage scales on movement speed. This boots give ability haste as well as spell haste which reduces the cooldown of your summoner spells. You can delay enchanting your boots to build your next item first. Her enchantment options are the Locket Enchant for an on demand team shield, Redeeming Enchant for the reveal and heal, or Shadows Enchant for the scouting ghosts that slow down enemies.
Boots of Mana – As a support character that uses a lot of skills, it is beneficial to use a Boots that provides a lot of Mana Restoration.
Ardent Censer – This is an extremely powerful item on Janna because it grants your ally that you cast your 3rd, Eye of the Storm, bonus attack speed and magic damage on their attack. This makes your 3rd, Eye of the Storm, an overpowered buff.
Harmonic Echo – Adds a healing effect to your 3rd, Eye of the Storm and ultimate, Monsoon by building up harmony which is stacked through moving or casting abilities.
Staff of Flowing Waters – Staff of Flowing Waters is a good item for Janna. When she heals or shields an ally, both will receive ability haste and AP.
Protector’s Vow – Adds a passive shielding effect that activates when you or a nearby ally is damaged.

The Storm Spirit

Targon’s Buckler [This item has been removed from WR]

Protect Enchant [This item has been removed from WR]

Alternatively, you can opt for a support Janna Wild Rift build that also increases her defense. Aside from the carry, enchanters and mage supports are considered to be assassins’ or bruisers’ prey during clashes. With this, rest assured that Janna will not be eliminated quickly.

Runes for Janna in Wild Rift

Aery – An amazing Keystone rune for enchanters because it enhances your poke damage as well as your shielding and healing effects.
Weakness – slowing or knocking up an enemy champion will also make them receive more damage.
Loyalty – Increase your and your nearest ally’s dual resistance.
Pack Hunter – Increase your movement speed and grants you and a unique ally bonus gold on takedowns.

Spells

These two are the best spells you can equip for Janna Wild Rift.

Exhaust slows down the enemy and reduces their damage output. It is a useful spell for protecting your carry against burst damage assassins and it can be used to secure kills as well.

Flash is necessary because Janna has no natural escape mechanism which makes her an easy champion to pick off. You can also do surprising moves with Flash in combination with your abilities.

Skill Order

2nd, Zephyr, is maxed first because it is your most reliable source of damage. 3rd, Eye of the Storm, is maxed next for its defensive and offensive utility but consider maxing it first if your ADC is ahead in the early game. It can even be maxed first when facing a hard lane. 1st, Howling Gale, is maxed last because we’re only getting it for the knock-up. The damage is secondary. Get a point in your ultimate when possible.

Abilities

Tailwind

Passive

Passively gain 8% Movement Speed. Nearby allied champions also gain this bonus when moving towards Janna.

Howling Gale

Active

Summons a whirlwind that gains damage, range, and knock-up duration as it charges up (max charge at 3 seconds).

Re-cast: Launches a whirlwind, dealing 60 to 120 magic damage (60 + 40% AP to 120 + 85% AP) and knocking up enemies in its path for 0.5 to 1.25 seconds. Each second charged increases damage by 20 (20 + 15% AP), knock up duration by 0.25 seconds and travel range by 25%.

The whirlwind always reaches its destination in 1 second.

Zephyr

Passive | Active

Passive: While Zephyr is not on cooldown, gain 6% Movement Speed and deal an additional 0 magic damage (25% bonus movement speed) with attacks.

Active: Deals 55 magic damage (55 + 50% AP + 25% bonus movement speed) and slows the target by 30% (30 + 0.06% AP) for 2 seconds.

Eye of the Storm

Active

Blesses an allied champion or turret with a shield that absorbs 80 damage (80 + 80% AP) and grants 10 Attack Damage (10 + 10% AP) while it holds. The shield decays over 5 seconds.

Monsoon

Active

Calls forth mighty winds of salvation to knock back surrounding enemies and restore 100 Health (100 + 50% AP) to nearby allies each second for 3 seconds.

Abilities Analysis

Innate: Tailwind

Tailwind grants Janna and her allies moving towards her bonus movement speed. This passive makes her unique because it makes her an enchanter who can roam in the early game.

Q | 1st: Howling Gale

Howling Gale is a knock-up ability that is charged up first then launches after a certain period of time or when re-casted. It deals more magic damage, knocks up enemies longer, and travels further the longer it is charged.

Howling Gale should mostly be used as a short-range knock-up ability where you’ll release it immediately after casting. This method makes it a guaranteed knock-up and damage. Charging it up for longer periods of time makes it almost impossible to hit because of course, your enemy won’t stay in place if they see you whipping up a tornado.

If you want to hit an enemy with a fully charged Howling Gale, your best bet is to cast it under the bushes or by using it as a follow-up crowd control for your ally’s CC’s like Jinx’s Flame Chompers or Jhin’s Deadly Flourish. You can also achieve this effect yourself albeit to a lower degree using the slow of your 2nd, Zephyr.

Howling Gale can cancel dash abilities like Lee Sin’s Resonating Strike or Akali’s Shuriken Flip. Of course, it won’t be able to cancel Vi’s Assault and Battery or Malphite’s Unstoppable Force.

When fleeing enemy champions, the instinct will be to cast Howling Gale towards the enemy but it is actually better to cast it towards the direction you are running to then, casting it after your enemy passes the tornado. This technique will cause most players off guard and could also potentially waste their Flash.

W | 2nd: Zephyr

Zephyr, the bird that flies around Janna, grants her bonus attack damage based on her bonus movement speed. This makes Janna’s auto attacks strong in the early to mid game and it is recommended that you rush boots on her because the % scaling on this ability is strong for a support. It also has an active component which is a targeted ability that damages and slows the chosen enemy. However, the passive component of this ability is lost while Zephyr is on cooldown.

Due to how the passive works, walk towards the enemy and attack once before using the active part of Zephyr then do another auto-attack before backing away to optimize your damage. Due to your higher movement speed and slow effect from this ability, you will be able to poke enemies without being damaged yourself.

Zephyr, the bird, disappears during the cooldown of this ability.

E | 3rd: Eye of the Storm

Eye of the Storm grants the target ally or turret a shield and an AD buff. It is especially strong on attack speed based ADCs because it will boost all the auto attacks of your target ally during its duration.

It is especially strong during the laning phase because your ADC will definitely win trades against the enemy ADC because your ADC gains a shield that will reduce the damage taken and at the same time, it increases their damage output.

It can also be used on yourself but it is better to hold it off to be used by your ADC because of how strong it is on them especially when combined with Ardent Censer.

The damage buff applies even if your ADC already “fired” his attack as long as Eye of the Storm is cast before the attack lands.

R | Ultimate: Monsoon

Monsoon is an AoE knockback and heal ultimate ability. It is primarily used for its knockback to push away enemies and disengage team fights. Its heal is just secondary because you need to stay put and channel it and it puts you in a vulnerable position because you are still squishy even with the healing effect.

You can knock an enemy back to your team by executing a Flash + Ult combo which will bring one or two enemies to your team while pushing back the rest.

Just be careful when you cast Monsoon because you might unwittingly save your opponent.

Janna Early Game Guide

Janna is an excellent babysitter in the early game. She can force the enemy to disengage thanks to her 1st, Howling Gale and keep her ADC’s HP to a healthy level by shielding them using her 3rd, Eye of the Storm before they take damage.

She can also harass enemies effectively thanks to her 2nd, Zephyr’s high damage output and slow. But Janna has low HP and she does not have a heal outside of her ultimate so only poke the enemy if you are sure that they cannot fight back.

Janna pairs well with late-game ADCs because she has no good all-in but she is a great defensive enchanter so the game plan for a Dragon lane with Janna is to simply farm to scale into the mid and late game.

Janna Late Game Guide

Even in the mid and late game, always stick with your ADC unless they are farming a big wave under your turret. If that happens, support your mid or your jungler.

If your jungler is roaming, near the river, use this opportunity to ward important objectives that are going to spawn. For example, ward the Dragon pit a minute before it spawns. In the late game, always ward the Baron pit.

Prioritize the lives of your carries. Never use your 3rd, Eye of the Storm on yourself. If your ADC is attacking someone, shield them to buff their AD as well.

If the enemy team got the jump on your team and initiated on your ADC or APC, pop your ultimate, Monsoon immediately then look if using your abilities would be more beneficial because your healing can be easily countered by Grievous Wounds.

Synergies

It is highly recommended using Janna Wild Rift with the following champions as they synergize well with her.

Jinx has one of the highest attack speed in the game so she benefits a lot from Janna’s 3rd, Eye of the Storm. She also requires a lot of peeling that Janna can provide.

Kai’Sa is relatively on the weaker side in the early game because she needs her evolutions to be effective so a defensive enchanter like Janna works well with her.

All Janna Wild Rift Counter Champions

In this section, we’ll tackle some of Janna Wild Rift Counters.

Janna is weak against crowd control and pickoffs so Blitzcrank’s Rocketgrab and his combo can make short work of her. Play safely behind minions when against him.

Leona has strong early game all-ins which can easily put Janna and her ADC in danger. You have to use your 1st, Howling Gale perfectly and only use it when needed when against this prolific diver.

Seraphine deals a lot of poke-type damage and she also has a shield that can also heal when echoed so she can be an annoying enchanter to deal with especially given the fact that Janna does have a heal before her ultimate.

Pros & Cons About Janna

Here are some pros and cons if you are playing with Janna in Wild Rift.

Pros

Janna is a basic enchanter who provides everything that a support has to offer. She has both offensive and defensive utilities that make her a good pick in almost any game.
Janna has very high movement speed which makes her good at roaming and supporting the whole team from the get-go. This means that what she offers can affect the whole map, not only the Dragon lane.
She enhances ADCs to a broken extent. Her buff is a shield with bonus attack damage. When combined with Ardent Censer, Eye of the Storm makes her ADC a monster that is impossible to deal with.

Cons

Even is Janna is fast and has a lot of utility, she lacks ways to survive by herself. She has no mobility tool except for her high movement speed and she has no blink or dash ability. If an enemy gets near her if she is alone, she’s good as dead.
Her ultimate, Monsoon, can ruin a good team fight and be favorable for opponents. This will make Janna’s teammates angry at her and probably cost them the game.

FAQ's About Janna in Wild Rift

How good is Janna in Wild Rift?

Janna is a (Tier S) champion. She is one of the safest champions to blind pick among Enchanters because she counters most engage supports and can do pretty well against other Enchanters.

What role / lane should I play with Janna in Wild Rift?

Janna is a defensive enchanter support played in the Dragon lane. She is excellent at baby sitting the ADC in the early game and making defensive plays for her team.

What abilities do I level up with Janna?

2nd, Zephyr, is maxed first because it is your most reliable source of damage. 3rd, Eye of the Storm, is maxed next for its defensive and offensive utility. It can even be maxed first when facing a hard lane. 1st, Howling Gale, is maxed last because we’re only getting it for the knock up. The damage is secondary.

What items should I build with Janna?

Janna should rush her boots first because her 2nd, Zephyr’s damage scales on her movement speed then her core items are Rod of Ages, Ardent Censer, and Harmonic Echo.

What Runes should I use when playing as Janna?

Aery – An amazing Keystone rune for enchanters because it enhances your poke damage as well as your shielding and healing effects. Her other runes are Weakness, Loyalty, and Pack Hunter.

When should I use my ultimate, Monsoon on Janna?

Monsoon should be used to disengage fights when your team has been initiated on or in any disadvantageous situations where your team might be killed. If you are feeling confident, you can try to use your ultimate to push an enemy into your team or turret by Flashing first then activating it.