Riot Games announced at the end of last year that Janna will be receiving extensive changes at the start of League of Legends’ 2022 season. While the changes were delayed to Patch 12.2, Riot has now revealed exactly how the support champion will have power shifted throughout her kit.
Riot August, principal character designer for League, detailed extensive changes to Janna set to accompany the release of Patch 12.2 on Jan. 19. These changes revert many of the updates to her kit that hit the live servers a few years ago to make her less of an aggressive support and more on par with other enchanters.
Specific aspects of Janna’s kit are being directly buffed and nerfed to compensate for the smaller changes throughout her abilities. Her base movement speed and AD are being buffed substantially, as well as how much AD she gains per level due to the removal of the part of her passive that gives her bonus magic damage on attacks based on her movement speed. As a result, her range is also being significantly decreased, affecting only her auto attacks.
Riot is hoping that players will use Janna’s Q more often than simply to protect their allies, so it’s receiving ample buffs. Its mana cost is being decreased in the late game, its range is set to be increased, and its travel time will be reduced substantially, all to create more aggression with the ability. August detailed that the team is investigating adding an indicator to the ability to show allies where the tornado is going but specified that it “might not work.”
The rest of Janna’s kit is also being adjusted to compensate for the major changes to her identity in the bot lane. All aspects of Janna’s W are being buffed except its cooldown, which is now set at a static 12 seconds, shifting the constant poke that the ability used to provide to her auto attacks and Q. Janna’s E is having its cooldown significantly reduced, though the shield amount is being nerfed heavily. Players will also no longer be able to reduce Janna’s E cooldown by impairing the movement of enemies, instead granting 20-percent heal and shield power to Janna for five seconds. Janna’s ultimate will also now heal faster, though the total healing to allies remains unchanged.
These changes to Janna are expected to be available for testing on League’s PBE soon and are set to go live with Patch 12.2 on Jan. 19. Players can now partake in the start of the 2022 ranked season, as well as look forward to the release of the newest champion, Zeri, in the same patch, accompanied by a new skin for Janna.
