One of League of Legends’ oldest support champions is once again breezing through the competition—though it isn’t exactly clear why.
Janna has risen once more to the top of the support meta, currently sporting a 53-percent win rate across all ranks, according to League stats websites OP.GG and U.GG. But the champion has not been subject to any changes—neither directly nor to the items she tends to build—over the past several patches, making this rise to the top a direct result of other changes, such as Riot Games finally tackling the growing power of Maokai.
Janna’s popularity fluctuated following the start of the 2024 season as an identity change to the champion at the end of last season became further convoluted through new, returning, and removed items that accompanied the season’s start. Within the last several months, players have experimented with numerous different builds for Janna, particularly those that increase her damage output—thus altering her playstyle further from a champion that simply stops enemies from engaging successfully.
This became particularly useful with the rise in popularity of Maokai as a support, alongside items such as Trailblazer and Solstice Sleigh, all of which provided groups of players with ample speed to catch disengaging enemies. Janna proved to benefit even further with the removal of Mythic items, no longer requiring players to choose between Shurelya’s Battlesong or Moonstone Renewer and instead welcoming both of those items—among others like Imperial Mandate—into her arsenal uncontested.
Currently, Janna’s ideal fully upgraded support item is Zak’Zak’s Realmspike, normally equipped by mages that flourish in the support role, such as Lux and Zyra. But the sheer amount of damage that Janna received back into her kit through her W and passive bring out her upgraded poking strengths further.
Janna has yet to take over professional play in the same way she’s received increased priority in solo queue, though. The champion has not yet been picked by any of the major regions, only occasionally appearing in various Challengers scenes, as supports like Senna, Nautilus, and Maokai have taken priority.
Janna is not listed as part of the change list for Patch 14.6, which is currently available for testing on the PBE with a live release scheduled for March 20. Should the champion continue to flourish in solo queue, it’s possible that Riot may step in before the patch hits the live servers. But based on her low pick and ban rates, it remains unclear if this will be the case.
