Counter Janna: How To Counter Pick Janna

Janna is a support champion that can also capitalize on her AP scaling and play mid lane. She has a powerful shield, and area of effect heal (that also serves as crowd control), and a knock-up. In this article, we explain how to effectively counter Janna.

Best Janna Counter Picks

• Sona
• Nami
• Sivir
• Blitzcrank
• Diana
• Nidalee

Star Guardian Janna

Janna Counter Picks

Now that you know who counters Janna, you can finally counter pick Janna in any matchup. Let’s take you through some tips on how to use a few of these champions who are counters to Janna. After, there is a general section explaining how to use any LoL champion as counters for Janna. After all, if you know how to play against Janna, you can play safely and effectively to defeat Janna in a lane.

Sona

• Do not use Sona’s speed buff if Janna’s slow or knock up is available; only follow up with it after her CC abilities have been used.
• Sona has a consistent poke and will easily outdo Janna’s shield. She can also counter Zephyr with her speed boost leaving Janna weaker than usual. Additionally, Monsoon cannot stop Crescendo.

Nami

Nami’s Tidal Wave is a good counter to Janna’s Monsoon as it not only cancel’s Janna’s channel but also displaces anyone attempting to heal inside of it.

Sivir

Every time you see Janna prepare her Q, prepare your E and have mana sustain forever. Your E also blocks the damage and knock up.

Forecast Janna

Tips For Playing Against Janna

• In lane, if Janna shields herself, it leaves her ADC more open to harassment/being killed. Do not focus her at that time. Destroy her ADC.
• Interrupting Janna’s ultimate by using a stun/silence/knock-up/displacement will stop her from using her AOE heal.
• Try to avoid Janna’s tornado by listening to the windup and predicting the direction it will go.
• Take care of your positioning when you think she may use her ultimate, as it can displace you to an unwanted place.
• During early game, try to force Janna to use her shield early (through damage, movement feints, etc.) Then wait for it to wear off, so you can use your higher damage spells on her. This can severely cripple her presence in lane or force her to go back, potentially leaving her ADC defenseless or turning her into an easy kill.
• When facing with Janna’s Howling Gale always be on the move to avoid getting hit.
  • Always be on alert if she is hiding in the brush as hidden gales can be a nasty surprise.
• Janna’s medium is speed, so applying hard crowd control can slow her down for an easy catch.
• Do not attempt to pursue Janna through towers under fire, as dying from a shielded one scores her a kill. Janna’s ridiculous amount of CC and heals/shields also make her very hard to kill and she can potentially delay opponents long enough for her to receive assistance.
• Howling Gale’s damage output is moderate, but it needs a few seconds before it can deal its full damage. Quickly avoid the spell’s path to avoid the damage.
  • Have your team stagger to avoid the knock-up, which can be used easily almost instantly.
• Be careful of using predictable dashes such as Lee Sin’s Resonating Strike around  Janna as she can easily cancel it with a quick Howling Gale.
• By late game, Eye of the Storm becomes a huge bulwark of health. Be careful of getting baited into killing one of her low health allies. She may suddenly give them a very strong shield.
• Do not underestimate Janna’s mobility, as her Zephyr increases her movement speed passively and allows her to move through minions.
  • Using Zephyr as a slow removes her movement speed bonus while it is on cooldown. Baiting her to use the slow and then attacking her with a gap-closer can render her more vulnerable. However, this will only really work if Howling Gale and Monsoon are already on cooldown since she may use those in response.
• When you see Janna channeling her Monsoon, quickly disable her to prevent her from healing her teammates.
  • If your team cannot easily stop it, retreat. The healing from Monsoon can be so gigantic that gives her team near invulnerability while it lasts- it is best to cut your losses, and try to re-engage again later before Monsoon goes off its significant cooldown.
• Although Janna is mainly played as a support, her damage output is still okay due to decent AP ratios from Howling Gale and Zephyr. Do not neglect to build magic resistance if she builds heavy AP.

Victorious Janna

By using the champions who counter Janna and the LoL Janna counter tips above, you can now develop a strategy to help you, as a summoner, become an effective counter to Janna players.