When principal League of Legends champion designer August “August” Browning first teased the new Janna rework slated for patch 12.1, it was met with backlash from the community.
Riot Games’ original plan was to buff Howling Gale’s (Q) damage to make it a stronger offensive spell, and remove the reward mechanic that reduces the cooldown of Eye of the Storm (E) when Janna slows or knocks up an enemy champion.
This was not received favorably by the League of Legends community because pulling off advanced combos with Howling Gale — which isn’t easy to do since it’s one of the hardest charge kill shots to land — and being rewarded for it differentiated good Janna players from masterful ones.
As patch 12.2 is drawing near, Riot August posted an update on Twitter with revised changes that overall, buffs the out-of-meta ranged support.
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Base Stats
- Move speed increased from 315 to 330
- AD per level increased from 46 + 1.5 per level to 52 + 3 per level
- Attack range decreased from 550 to 500
Passive Tailwind
- Janna no longer gains 8% movement speed, but rather, only gains 8% movement speed when moving towards allies
- (Removed) Her attacks and W no longer deal bonus magic damage based on her bonus move speed
Howling Gale (Q)
- Mana cost decreased from 60-150 to 60-100
- Minimum range increased from 1,000 to 1,100
- Maximum range increased from 1,750 to 1,760
- Travel time decreased from 1.5 seconds to 1.25 seconds
Zephyr (W)
- Range increased from 550 (edge to edge) to 650 (center to center)
- Slow duration increased from 2s to 3s
- Cooldown increased from 8-6s to 12s
- Damage increased from 55-175 to 70-190
- Passive move speed increased from 6-10% to 8-12%
Eye of the Storm (E)
- Cooldown decreased from 16-12 to 15-9
- Time before shield decays increased from 0.75s to 1.25s
- Shield amount decreased from 80-220 + 0.7 bonus AP to 80-200 + 0.65 bonus AP
- Impairing an enemy champion’s movement grants 20% heal and shield power for 5 seconds
Monsoon (R)
- Healing tick rate increased from 0.5 to 0.25
- Total healing remains the same
After this Janna rework, she would definitely be weaker during the laning phase as her auto attack range has been nerfed, and she will not be able to poke as easily without taking high risks.
While Zephyr’s (W) range, slow duration, movement speed, and base damage has been buffed, it’s balanced out by a longer 12-second flat cooldown.
The good news is that Riot Games plans to bring back a variation of the reward mechanic to Eye of the Storm in this patch 12.2 Janna rework. Instead of reducing its cooldown, players will be rewarded with additional heal and shield power for an extended duration.
And so if you combo and build right, Janna’s shield overall would last longer, especially since her shield decay duration has been buffed.
Janna rework in patch 12.2 makes her scale better from mid to late game
The third key difference from Riot August’s first update is that Moonson is also getting a buff in patch 12.2. An increased tick rate means she’ll be able to heal faster upon cast.
While Howling Gale is still getting a buff, with reduced mana cost, and improved range and travel time, its damage will be kept the same.
“Janna players didn’t seem to care about damage in Q, so we cut the damage buff to add power elsewhere,” explained Riot August.
Overall, this Janna rework means that she will scale better from mid to late game, but still might not be enough to bring her back into the competitive meta.
This Janna update will head to the PBE server for more testing before it’s slated to go live in patch 12.2.
READ MORE: Teased Janna update for League of Legends patch 12.1 receives backlash
