In League of Legends, the champion Janna received a minor rework two weeks ago. This was supposed to make her a more useful supporter again. However, the change and some adjustments in the meta led to Janna now being played alone on the top lane and dominating it.
How is Janna doing right now? Janna has been increasingly played on the top lane since patch 12.2 and even dominates it.
Currently, Janna is the champion with the highest win rate in the game, at least when looking at ranked games (via u.gg):
- From platinum+, she wins on average 55.96% of her matches. In second place is Veigar with a win rate of “only” 54.02%.
- As a support, Janna also ranks 5th with a win rate of 53.53%.
- In the Challenger tier, the highest rank in the game, even 66.27% of all matches with Janna on the top lane are won.
Janna is so strong that a nerf is already being requested on the reddit of League of Legends. However, since patch 12.3 was released today, February 2nd, without any changes, it could take another two weeks for an adjustment.
Minor rework and new strategy make Janna suddenly super strong
What changes were made to Janna? With patch 12.2, Janna received a minor rework. Her shield on “E”, the range of her “W”, and her base attack damage were buffed. Her movement speed was also slightly increased.
Although there was also a small nerf to her attack range and her bonus damage from movement speed, this does not seem to have negatively affected her performance on the top lane.
What makes Janna so strong? Janna is not played as a classic top laner, but as a roamer. This is due to her high movement speed and the fact that she is useful in every gank with her shield, her knockup, and the slow.
Additionally, she does not need items and therefore no gold to be strong. She is already strong from the beginning and only needs a partner to deal damage.
With the new Janna playstyle, you do not farm, do not push towers, and do not even fight on the top lane. You constantly roam the map and attack enemy champions.
Even Smite is used as a summoner spell, which is otherwise only carried by junglers. The idea behind this is to annoy the enemy jungler with this spell.
This video by YouTuber HappyChimeNoises shows you exactly how Top lane Smite Janna is played:
Is Janna the only reason? No. Currently, several problems are coming together:
- Many top laners, especially tanks like Renekton or Tahm Kench, can no longer decide a match alone. Therefore, it is not so bad that they get farm and towers.
- Another reason is the new bounty system from Season 12. If a champion has more minion kills, the bounty on them increases. While Janna roams and kills enemies, the top laner constantly collects minion kills. If they are defeated once and Janna gets the shutdown, the gold difference hardly matters anymore.
Can only Janna do this? Years ago, there was the meme of “River-Shen”, where a Shen constantly roamed the map and killed enemies instead of farming in the top lane. Janna is now doing exactly that, but much better.
Currently, there is no champion that reaches the level of “Top lane Janna”. However, some users on reddit fear that in the future, champions like Karma or Pyke could take on this role if Janna is nerfed.
What do you think about the new meta with Janna in the top lane? Does the playstyle appeal to you or should Riot act quickly against it? Write it in the comments.
With the next patch, Riot Games could change something in the meta. However, that is not yet certain. However, we already know the next champion to be released with patch 12.4:
LoL shows new champ – The abilities of the “evil supporter”, Renata Glasc
