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Janna
JannaSquare
General Information
TitleThe Storm's Fury
Real NameJanna Windforce
PronounsShe/Her
Release DateSeptember 2, 2009
Cost1350 BE 585 RP
PrimarySupport
SecondaryMage
Statistics

HP
570 (+ 90)

HPR
5.5 (+ 0.55)

MP
360 (+ 50)

MPR
11.5 (+ 0.4)

MS
330

AD
47 (+ 2.5)

AS
0.625 (+ 2.95%)

RNG
550

AR
28 (+ 4.5)

MR
30 (+ 1.3)
Developer Info
DDragon KeyJanna
Integer Key40
External Links
Universeuniverse.leagueoflegends.com
Game Info Wikileagueoflegends.fandom.com

Janna is a champion in League of Legends.

Lore[]

For outdated and now non-canon lore entries, click here.
  • Biography
  • Story #1
  • Story #2
Armed with the power of Runeterra’s gales, Janna is a mysterious, elemental wind spirit who protects the dispossessed of Zaun. Some believe she was brought into existence by the pleas of Runeterra’s sailors who prayed for fair winds as they navigated treacherous waters and braved rough tempests. Her favor and protection has since been called into the depths of Zaun, where Janna has become a beacon of hope to those in need. No one knows where or when she will appear, but more often than not, she’s come to help.

Many of Runeterra’s sailors have strange and unusual superstitions, which is no wonder as they often live or die by the tempestuous whims of the weather. Some captains insist on pouring salt onto the deck so the sea doesn’t notice they’re from the shore. Others make sure to throw the first fish they catch back into the water as a show of mercy. It’s not surprising, then, that most implore the wind itself for steadfast breezes, calm seas, and clear skies.

Many believe the spirit Janna was born out of these prayers.

She started small. Seafarers would sometimes spot a bright blue bird just before a healthy tailwind billowed their sails. Others could swear they’d hear a whistling in the air right before a storm, as if to warn them of its approach. As word of these benevolent omens spread, sightings of the bird grew more common. Some swore they had seen the bird transform into a woman. With tapered ears and flowing hair, this mysterious maiden was said to float above the water and direct the wind with a flick of her staff.

Seafarers created ramshackle shrines of seasparrow bones and shining oyster shells which they tucked into the bows of their ships. The more successful vessels built their shrines as figureheads on their masts, hoping their more ostentatious displays of faith would be rewarded with even better winds.

Eventually, Runeterra’s seamen agreed upon a name for this wind spirit: “Janna,” an ancient Shuriman word meaning “guardian.” As more sailors came to believe in Janna and made increasingly elaborate offerings to gain her favor, she grew ever stronger. Janna helped explorers traverse new waters, blew ships from treacherous reefs, and – on particularly starless nights – wrapped the comfort of a warm breeze around a homesick sailor's shoulders. For those sailing with ill intent – pirates, raiders, and the like – Janna was sometimes said to blow them off course with sudden squalls and storms.

Janna took great joy in her work. Whether helping people or punishing the deserving, she felt happy to watch over Runeterra’s oceans.

For as long as Janna could remember, a single isthmus separated the western and eastern oceans of Valoran. In order to move from the west to the east, or from the east to the west, ships would have to brave the long, incredibly dangerous waters around the tip of the southern continent. Most ships subsequently made offerings to Janna for strong winds that would expedite their perilous journey around the rocky coast.

The city fathers of the bustling trade city on the isthmus’s coast tired of watching ships make the long trek around the southern continent, which could often take many months. They hired the most innovative scientists to use the rich chemical resources recently discovered in the area to create a massive waterway that would unite Valoran’s major seas.

Word of the canal spread like a pox amongst sailors. Such a passage would open up boundless trade opportunities, allow for easier passage through dangerous waters, reduce time at sea and introduce the transportation of perishable goods. It would bring the east to the west, the west to the east, and above all: it would bring change.

With the canal in place, sailors wouldn’t need Janna’s winds to keep their ships safe from Valoran’s cliffs. They wouldn’t need to build elaborate shrines or watch the stormy horizon for bluebirds. Their ships’ safety and speed no longer depended on an unpredictable deity, but the ingenuity of man. And so, as construction progressed over the decades, Janna fell out of favor. Her shrines grew ragged, picked apart by gulls, and seldom was her name whispered, even as the waters grew sharp and choppy with winter.

Janna felt herself weaken and her powers fade. When she tried to summon a squall, she’d only conjure a light draft. If she transformed into her bird form, she could only fly for a few minutes before needing to rest. She’d meant so much to those at sea only a few years prior – was this how easily they could forget someone who just wanted to keep them safe and honor their prayers? Janna was saddened by her slow decline into irrelevance and as the canal reached completion, all that remained of her was a faded breeze.

The opening of the canal was a joyful celebration. Thousands of chemtech devices were placed across the isthmus. The city fathers gathered for the ceremonial igniting of the charge as travelers from all over the world watched and waited, smiles on their faces and pride in their hearts.

The devices activated. Chemical fogs of molten rock bloomed. Booms echoed through the isthmus.

The cliff faces began to crack. The ground began to shake. Those assembled heard a roar of water and a hiss of gas.

That is when the screaming started.

In the years to come, no one would know the exact cause of the disaster. Some said it was the instability of the chem bombs, while others argued it was a miscalculation by the engineers. Whatever the cause, the explosions caused a chain reaction of earthquakes that shook the isthmus to its core. Entire districts collapsed into the ocean, and nearly half of the city’s denizens suddenly found themselves fighting for their lives against the clashing currents of the western and eastern seas.

As thousands sank beneath the tides, they begged for help, praying for someone to save them. They called out for the name that, until recently, their hearts had always beckoned in times of great danger on the high seas:

Janna.

Struck by a sudden surge of desperate pleas for aid, Janna felt herself materialize with greater power than she’d ever felt before.

Many of those who had fallen into the water had already drowned, but as clouds of toxic chem-gas leaked from cracks in the streets, poisoning and suffocating the hundreds of people unlucky enough to breathe them, Janna knew how to help.

She disappeared into the bleak, billowing gas, its acrid grasp overwhelming the helpless victims of the great canal’s birth. Holding her staff high, she closed her eyes as wind swirled around her, the vortex so powerful that those who had summoned her feared they might be swallowed whole or ripped to pieces. Her staff glowed a brighter and brighter blue until she finally slammed it down, blowing the gas away in one ferocious burst of air. Those who had summoned Janna caught their breath and looked upon the woman who had saved them, vowing never to forget her again.

With that, a gust of wind blew through the streets, and Janna was gone… though some swore they saw a bright blue bird make a nest high atop the iron and glass spires overlooking the city.

Years after the city called Zaun was repaired and the shining town of Piltover was built above it, Janna’s name endures in countless stories that tell of the wandering wind spirit who appears in times of great need. When the Zaun Gray grows thick, some say Janna blows it away, then vanishes as quickly as she came. When a Chem-Baron’s thug goes too far or a victim’s screams go unanswered, a fearsome torrent of wind might sweep through the alley and aid those who others are unwilling to help.

Some say Janna is a myth: an optimistic fairy tale that Zaun’s most desperate tell themselves to bring an ounce of hope to their hour of need. Others – the ones who think of Janna when the wind whistles through narrow corridors of the city or huddle around handmade shrines (now crafted of scrap and gearworks rather than bird bones) – know better. When the gust rattles the shutters and blows the laundry off the line, Janna is surely in the air. Every Progress Day, no matter how cold the weather, the believers throw open their windows and doors so Janna can blow away the stale air of the year past and welcome the new. Even skeptics can’t help but feel their spirits lift when they spy a curious blue bird swooping through the streets of Zaun. Though none can be sure when, how, or if Janna will appear, most everyone can agree on one thing: it’s nice to have somebody watching over you.

Do not fear the winds of change – they will always be at your back.

- JannaSquareJanna

DEEP BREATH

They think Zaun is where the losers live.

They won’t admit it, of course – they’ll smile through their teeth and pat us on the back and tell us that Piltover would be nowhere without Zaun. Our hard workers! Our bustling trade! Our chemtech that everyone in Piltover pretends they don’t buy, except they constantly do! Zaun is a vital part of Piltover’s culture, they’ll say.

All lies. Obviously.

They think Zaun is where the idiots go. People too stupid to make it in Piltover’s golden towers.

People like me.

I spent months dealing shimmer so I could afford to apply for Clan Holloran’s apprenticeship. I studied every crusty, dog-eared book I could find on gearwork machinery. I built a prototype gearbrace for people with broken or arthritic wrists that increased their mobility. I did everything I could have done to earn an apprenticeship in Piltover. I even made it to the final stage of the vetting process: a face-to-face meeting with Boswell Holloran himself.

They said it was a formality. Just a way to welcome me to the family.

He entered the room, looked down at my Gray-stained clothes, and laughed a strangled, joyless laugh. He said, “Sorry, my boy – we don’t take sump-rats here.”

He never even sat down.

So now I’m back here. In Zaun. One more idiot.

The Gray rolls through the streets, welcoming me back. Most days, it’s thin enough that you can breathe deep without coughing up something wet. Today, though, is what we call a Grayout. You choke with every breath. Your chest feels tight. Can’t see much past your fingertips. I want to run, but I know there’s nowhere to run to. The Gray feels like it’s closing in on me, crushing me, smothering me.

These are the times I pray to Janna.

Not everyone in Zaun believes she’s real, but my mother always had faith. She told me a bluebird hovered outside her window on the day of my birth, and she knew – she knew – it was Janna telling her I was going to be fine.

She was wrong, of course. I wasn’t fine, in the end. Couple of years ago, she – my mother – died while sump-scrapping, and I had to raise myself with the few gears she left me. Then, the usual: couldn’t make friends. Got beaten up a lot. Boy I loved didn’t love me back. Tried to study, tried to think my way up to Piltover. Couldn’t. Figured Janna had forgotten about me.

But I still keep the pendant my mother gave me: a wooden engraving depicting the bluebird she saw. Just in case of moments like these.

So I sit on the wet ground because I don’t care enough to find a bench, and I take out the bluebird pendant I always keep tucked in my shirt, and I talk to Janna.

Not out loud, of course – don’t need people thinking I’m some chem-burnt freak – but still, I talk to her.

I don’t ask her for anything. I just tell her about my day, and the day before that, and how scared I am that I’ll never become anything worthwhile and that I’ll die down here knee-deep in the Sump with nothing to show for it just like my mother, and that sometimes I just want to run away somewhere I can breathe and stop being so frightened and not feel like crying all the time and how I hate myself for feeling like I want to cry because I have it so much easier than some other people, and how sometimes I think about throwing myself into the chem pools of the Sump, just throwing myself in with my mother where I’d let myself sink to the bottom and my lungs would fill with fluid because then it’d be over, at least. I tell Janna I hope she’s okay. I hope she’s happy, wherever she is.

That’s when I feel the breeze caress my cheek. Just a light flutter, but it’s there. Soon, I can feel it blow hair across my face. The wind whistles loud and fast, and soon it’s whipping my coat in the air and I feel as though I’m at the center of a maelstrom.

The Gray swirls before me, pushed up by a breeze that seems to flow from everywhere at once. The fog slowly dissipates, and I can see other passersby on the Entresol level watching it float away.

The wind stops.

The Gray clears.

I can breathe.

Not just small, cautious gasps, but deep breaths that fill my lungs with cold, fresh air. No longer veiled in Gray, the sun shines past the towers of Piltover into Zaun itself.

I can see the Piltovans above, peering down at us. Without the Gray clouding their view, they can see us from their lofty bridges and balconies. I don’t think they like it very much. Nobody wants to be reminded they live above a slum; I see a few scowls.

That’s when I see him again: Boswell Holloran. Holding a sweetcake in his hand, looking down at me again. An expression of disgust on his face, just like before.

I’m so busy staring at his contemptuous face that I don’t notice the presence behind me until her hand is on my shoulder.

“It’s okay,” she says, and I know without turning who it is.

She squeezes my shoulder, then kneels and crosses her arms in front of my chest, pulling me into a hug.

“It’s going to be okay,” she says.

DEEP BREATH

Strands of her hair fall onto my shoulders. She smells like the air after a long rain.

“It might not be okay now. You might not be okay for a while. And that’s fine. But someday, without knowing exactly when or why or how it happened, you’ll feel happy,” she says. My face is warm and wet and I don’t know when I started crying but it’s a relief, like the clouds are clearing, and I hold her arms and she holds me, just telling me over and over that it’s okay, that she’s here, that things will be better.

I don’t know how long she holds me, but soon I see everyone on Zaun’s Entresol and the balconies of Piltover above are staring.

Before I can say anything, she says, “Don’t think about them. Just take care of yourself. Will you do that for me?”

I try to speak, but instead I just nod.

“Thank you,” she says, and she kisses my wet cheek and gives me one last, quick squeeze.

She rises and glides past me. For the first time, I see her in her entirety – a tall, ethereal figure that I would’ve assumed was from my imagination if she hadn’t just touched me. I notice her long, pointed ears. Feet that don’t touch the ground. Hair flowing in the wind, even right now when there isn’t any. Eyes so blue I feel a little cold just looking at her.

But then she smiles, winks, and says, “You’ll want to watch this next part.”

There’s a massive gust of wind, so fast and sharp I have to cover my eyes. When I open them again she’s gone, but the wind is still blowing. It blows up toward Piltover and its gawking citizens.

It whistles as it picks up speed and strength, and the Pilties run for cover but it’s too late, the breeze hits them full force, sending their frocks sailing and mussing their hair. Boswell Holloran shrieks in terror as the wind launches him off the balcony.

It seems as if he’s about to plummet toward certain death, but another gust of wind shoots up toward him, and his descent slows significantly, as if the wind is guiding him down. You wouldn’t know it to look at him, though. Even though he’s falling with all the velocity of a tumbling leaf, He screams the entire way down. Very high pitched. Very undignified.

His clothes flap upward, smacking him in the face as he descends, until he’s hovering a few inches above a puddle.

“I –,” he begins, before the wind disappears altogether and he plops ass-first into the puddle, ruining what I assume was a very expensive ensemble. He yelps in a mixture of surprise, pain, and irritation, splashing around like an angry child. He tries to get to his feet, only to slip and fall back down all over again. If I’m being completely honest, he looks like an idiot.

And I can’t stop laughing.

CITY OF IRON AND GLASS

“Hurry up, Wyn!” shouted Janke. “The Rising Howl’s on its way!”

“I know!” he shouted back. “You don’t need to tell me!”

Wyn could hear the squeal of greased iron and the taste of metal tingling on his teeth. The interior of the vent pipe he was climbing vibrated with the hexdraulic elevator’s approach.

He pushed his back against the beveled ironwork, keeping his cramping legs braced on the opposite side. Looking up, the square of light that was the way out of the pipe seemed impossibly distant. A head appeared above him; his older brother, Nico.

“Almost there, little man,” said Nico, reaching back to offer his hand to Wyn. “You need me to come down?”

Wyn shook his head and dug deep, pushing with his spine straight as the muscles in his legs burned. Step by step, he inched upward until he was close enough to reach for his brother’s hand.

Nico grabbed his wrist and hauled, pulling him from the pipework. Wyn landed badly and stumbled, falling flat on his face in the cliff-side alcove known to every kid in Zaun. The space was barely wide and tall enough for them to stand next to each other with a sheer drop at the edge. Maybe ten yards beyond the edge were the elevator’s three support columns, each two yards wide and wrought from heavy ironwork.

Feen stood at the farthest part of the ledge, looking down with a manic grin. The wind billowed around him, his patchwork clothes flapping and his hair wild. Kez stood next to Nico, her cheeks flushed with excitement. Janke beat a nervous tattoo on his thigh with the palm of his hand, glowering at Wyn.

“You almost made us miss it.”

“Howl ain’t here yet,” snapped Wyn. “We ain’t missed nothing.”

Janke glared at Wyn, but with Nico here, he didn’t dare say or do anything. Back at Hope House for Foundling Children, Janke was a bully, but a bully it was sometimes handy to have around when low-rent Chem-Baron thugs fancied kicking downward.

Kez reached to help Wyn up. He smiled and took her hand.

“Thanks,” he said.

“My pleasure,” she said, leaning in to be heard over the noise.

Wyn smelled the caustic soap she’d washed with that morning - like chemical lemon juice. Given the nature of this excursion, she’d made an effort with her clothes too, digging out an old dress from the boxes of clothes discarded by kids who’d outgrown them, or who’d left the foundling home when they got too old. Wyn had beaten the worst of the dust and grime from his own threads, but he suddenly felt acutely scruffy next to Kez.

“I’ve never ridden the Howl,” she said, still holding tight to his hand. “Have you?”

The screeching roar was getting louder. The clattering rattle of the elevator’s mechanisms echoed deafeningly from the dripping, algal-green walls of the alcove. Feen was looking back at him and Janke had an ugly grin plastered over his face. Fear of looking like a dumb kid made the lie easier to tell.

“Me? Yeah, loads!” he said, knowing instantly it was a mistake. Wyn glanced over his shoulder. The others were gathered at the edge; legs braced, leaning into the wind.

Wyn leaned close to Kez’s ear.

“Sorry, I don’t know why I said that,” he said. “I ain’t done this before. Not never once. Don’t tell the others, but I’m crapping it.”

She let out a relieved breath.

“Good. I didn’t want to be the only one.”

Riding the Rising Howl was one of many rites of passage for the kids of Zaun. Like reaching the top of Old Hungry with all your limbs intact, cutpursing a baron’s man or playing knock-and-run with a stilt-walking sump-scrapper. Zaun had a seemingly endless procession of insanely dangerous tests you had to pass to truly count yourself a hard-bitten street kid.

But gathering his courage to leap from the rocky ledge, this test seemed to Wyn to be the craziest. The scream of the approaching elevator was getting louder, filling the alcove with the shriek of metal on metal and the boom of ratcheting gears.

Nico stood, leaned out and stared down, turning back with a crooked grin and a thumbs up. He bent his knees and threw himself out from the cliff. Arms and legs flailing, he vanished from sight. Not wanting to be shown up, Janke went next, hurling himself from the ledge with a wild whooping yell. Feen followed his friend, laughing like a maniac.

“Ready?” yelled Wyn, his words drowned out by the Rising Howl.

Kez nodded. No way she could hear him, but she got the message. She still hadn’t let go of his hand. He grinned, and they ran toward the cliff edge. Wyn’s heart was in his mouth, beating like a pneuma-hammer against his ribs. His step faltered, but it was too late to stop now. He reached the edge of the cliff and leapt into the wind, yelling a defiant roar of fear and bravado.

The ground vanished beneath him. Only empty air between him and the lower levels of Zaun, hundreds of yards below. Sheer, undiluted terror seized Wyn. It clamped him in a smith’s vice and squeezed the air from his lungs. Wyn saw himself tumbling to the ground, windmilling his arms as if he might suddenly learn to fly like the cliff-shrikes. He looked down. The ovoid, glass and iron shape of the Rising Howl was below him, coming up fast.

Nico, Janke, and Feen were already on it, clinging to its baroque latticework frames or braced against its structure. Wyn slammed into the thick glass and rolled. He flailed for a handhold, sliding down the curve of the outer windows. His sweaty palms slipped. His feet scrabbled for purchase. Anything to slow his descent.

Nothing.

“No, no, no...” he gasped, sliding over the curved topside toward the edge. “Janna’s mercy!”

An updraught of wind flipped him over onto his front and he saw a bronze hook standing proud on the giant elevator’s side. He threw himself at it, and it seemed the wind at his back gave him just enough of a push to reach it. His fingers closed on the metal and his sliding descent to oblivion halted.

With the threat of a long fall, followed by a hard stop, averted, Wyn was able to get his feet under him and looked around for Kez. He saw her higher up, laughing hysterically at having survived. Wyn felt the urge to laugh, and couldn’t stop grinning like a lunatic as he clambered up to where the upper surfaces of the Rising Howl were less angled.

Nico gave a whoop when he saw him and punched Janke in the arm.

“See? Told you he’d make it!”

Wyn clambered to his brother, his legs rubbery as a shimmerfiend’s after an all-night bender. He sucked in a great draught of clean air. Down in the Sump, the air had texture, but getting higher, it had a sharp clarity that made him pleasantly light-headed.

“Not bad, little man, not bad,” said Nico, giving him a slap on the back. His older brother coughed and spat a wad of gray phlegm onto the glass. Nico wiped his lips with his palm and Wyn couldn’t help but notice the brackish residue left on his hand.

“Yeah, no bother,” said Wyn.

Nico laughed at his bravado. “Worth it though, eh?”

“It’s beautiful,” said Kez.

Wyn had to agree. Far below, this part of Zaun spread over the rocky floor of the canyon in a glittering, bottle-green swathe of light and color. Vapor rainbows arced over the Factorywood and spiraling plumes of shimmering smoke danced over the chem-forges. From up here, sump pools wavered like emerald mirages and the winking hearth-lights in the darkness were like the stars he rarely saw from Hope House.

Tears pricked Wyn’s eyes, and he told himself it was the keenness of the wind. High above, Piltover shone in towers of ivory and bronze, copper and gold. Beautiful also, but Zaun’s beauty was lived in. Its streets were filled with life and vitality, every one bearing a heaving, bustling mass of humanity. Wyn loved Zaun. For all its faults, and there were many, its sheer unpredictability and exuberance gave it a pulse you didn’t often find up in Piltover.

Wyn looked down through the glass beneath his feet to see scores of people staring up at him. The passengers of the Rising Howl were used to folk hitching a lift upward, but that didn’t mean they liked it. A few were Zaunites, but most of them were well-heeled Pilties, returning after an evening spent in the gaslit commercia arcades, glass-ceilinged food parlors, or pounding music halls of Zaun.

“Bloody Pilties,” said Janke. “Coming down to slum it in Zaun. Think they’re living dangerously, but at the end of the night they run back up to Piltover.”

“Be a lot less coin flowing down in Zaun if they didn’t,” pointed out Kez. “Pilties do well outta Zaun, and we do well outta them. And how many grand days out we had up in Piltover? Remember the fireworks over the Sun Gates last Progress Day? Remember that Piltie girl you were sweet on? You talk big, Janke, but you’re the one always wants us to head up top.”

They laughed as Janke went red.

“I’ll give ‘em something to look at!” said Feen with a grin. The scrawny lad shucked the braces from his shoulders, dropped his trousers, and planted his ass on the glass ceiling. “Hey, Pilties, there’s a new moon out tonight!”

And like a dog dragging its backside along the ground, Feen let himself slide down the glass with his ass-cheeks splayed for the viewing pleasure of the people below.

They laughed uproariously at the horrified expressions of the elevator’s passengers - men covering the eyes of children and shaking their fists at the filthy Zaunites.

“We’re not going right up top,” said Nico, getting his breath back and wiping tears from his eyes. “Babette’s is on the Entresol level.”

“We ain’t even sure Mama Elodie’s gonna be there,” said Janke.

“She’ll be there,” said Wyn. “I saw the playbill on her desk. Painted picture of her singing on stage, sure as Gray follows Day. But we gotta hurry, she goes on at eight bells and it’s already gone six!”

Mama Elodie was the mistress of Hope House, a foundling home dedicated to the welfare of the many orphans created in the wake of the disaster that tore Zaun apart. Initially funded by the families who would go on to become Piltover’s clans, more than two hundred orphans had been cared for within its walls. But in the century or so since its opening, the institution’s fortunes had waned as the money from the newborn city on high stopped flowing. The wealthy upsider families eventually decided they’d assuaged their guilt with enough gold, and that was that.

Mama Elodie was the only member of staff to stay on when the funds dried up, a dark-skinned woman who said she was an Ionian princess. Wyn suspected that might just be a story to charm donations out of the Chem-Barons, but he liked it when she told how she’d chosen to see the world instead of living a boring life in a palace. Wyn couldn’t imagine turning your back on wealth like that, but he’d never met anyone else from Ionia - even when he’d run errands for seafarers down at the docks.

Every waif and stray in Hope House had heard Mama Elodie singing as she cooked and cleaned. Her voice was extraordinary, and Wyn had fallen asleep to her lullabies more than once as a babe in arms. Wyn had been delivering a cup of herbal tisane to Mama Elodie when he’d seen the folded playbill for Babette’s Theatrical Emporium tucked under a sheaf of dog-eared letters. He’d only had time for a quick look, but swore on a chest of golden gears that it was Mama Elodie, dolled up in her best finery and singing on a footlit stage. She’d seen his look and sent him on his way with a cuff round the ear and a sharp rebuke for being nosy.

He told the others what he’d seen, and within the hour they’d formed a plan to sneak out and see her sing.

“Look!” yelled Wyn, nudging Nico in the ribs.

Nico looked down and nodded, seeing the uniformed conductor shouting into a flexible speaking tube.

“He’s warning the staff above to watch out for freeloading Zaunites,” said Nico. “But it don’t matter. Remember, we ain’t riding it all the way to the platform.”

“So where we getting off then?” asked Feen, clambering to his feet and, mercifully, hauling up his trousers.

“There’s an old winch mechanism just below the embarkation platform,” said Nico, pointing upward. “The cowl’s nice and flat and wide, and next to it, there’s a vent pipe that’s lost its cover.”

“We’re going to have to jump again?” asked Wyn.

Nico grinned and winked.

“Yeah, shouldn’t be a problem for a seasoned pro like you, eh?”

Wyn let out a shuddering breath, his palms bloody where they’d grabbed the rusted cowl of the winch. His second jump into thin air had been just as gut-wrenchingly terrifying, but at least this time he’d known he could do it. The Rising Howl continued upward on its way, and Wyn was glad to see it go.

At least heading back down to Zaun would be easier. They’d take the steps cut into the sheer rock or slide down the dizzying screw-stairs plunging through the overhanging structures cantilevered from the side of the cliffs.

The winch cowl was right next to an open vent, just as Nico had said it would be. The inside reeked of toxic runoff, but at least it was mostly dry. Thankfully, it was large enough to stand upright, which meant it had likely carried a whole lot of gunk and deposited it down into Zaun.

“Where does this end up?” asked Kez, careful to avoid the greenish slime that pooled in depressions in the iron.

“Comes out just behind the Bonscutt Pump Station, I think,” said Nico.

“Don’t you know?” said Janke. “I thought you’d done this before?”

“I have, but it was about a year ago and I ain’t too sure the layout’s gonna be the same as it was.”

They followed the pipe as it rose and twisted through the rock. The metal groaned and creaked with the movement of the cliffs.

“The cliffs are muttering again,” said Kez.

“What are they saying?” asked Wyn.

“Nobody knows,” she answered. “Mama Elodie once told me the rock was still sad about what happened when they split the land to make the canal. She said that every now and then, when the rock’s sorrow gets too much, it sobs, and that’s what shakes the earth.”

“So for all you know, this might end in a wall of rock or a barrier of twisted metal?” said Janke.

“Could be,” said Nico. “But I doubt it. Look.”

Nico pointed to thin spars of light up ahead. Swirling motes of dust hung in the air, and Wyn saw a rusted ladder rising into a square-cut channel in the pipe.

“Looks like we got ourselves a way out,” said Nico.

Wyn had only traveled to Zaun’s Entresol level a couple of times in his life, and on each occasion it had left a singularly vivid impression on him. Situated just below the notional border between Piltover and Zaun - a fluid and ever-changing line at best - the Entresol was a flourishing hub of cosmopolitan commercia arcades, supper-clubs, recital halls and joy houses, making it one of the most populated districts of the cities. It was also widely regarded by the people that lived and toiled there as the place where the real work of Zaun got done.

Emerging from the pipework, they’d quickly got their bearings and navigated toward one of the main thoroughfares. Wyn and Kez were the only ones who could read well enough to decipher the cursive street signs, and Kez led them to a wide boulevard thronged with the most amazing people Wyn had ever seen.

Men and women from Piltover and Zaun happily mingled on the cobbled street, dressed in colorful finery and plumed hats. The women wore pleated dresses with scoop-lined necks and brightly colored sashes. The men looked dashing in their long frock coats and polished boots that wouldn’t last a day in the muck below.

“Everyone is smiling,” he said, feeling the corners of his mouth twitch upward in imitation. “And laughing.”

“You’d laugh too if you weren’t struggling every day to feed yourself,” said Janke.

Wyn started to reply, but Nico shook his head. Janke had come to Hope House older than most foundlings, and was on the verge of having to leave and find his way in the world. Small wonder he was bitter.

Wyn understood that bitterness. After all, who didn’t want more than they had? Who didn’t want to live somewhere nicer if they could? The harsh reality of the world was that folk lived as high as they could afford. Most folks were content with their place in the grand scheme of things, but Wyn yearned for a life spent in a place where he could walk hand in hand with a beautiful girl, take in a show, and eat a meal under the moonlight whenever he wanted.

On impulse he took Kez’s hand, and when she didn’t pull away, his heart beat harder than it had when he made his first jump. With Nico in the lead, they strolled down the center of the street like they had every right to be there. Which, of course, they did, but the stares their grimy attire attracted made it clear that, while no one was going to kick them back down, they weren’t exactly a welcome sight.

For a moment, Wyn fantasized that they could stay here forever, walking along a street of glowing chem-lumens, surrounded by people who could direct them to the best delicatessens with the creamiest crag-duck confit, or advise which plays they simply had to see. He pictured himself dressed like a dandy, greeting his fellow citizens and doffing his hat to visiting clan representatives.

“Is that a cultivair?” said Wyn, pointing to a latticework dome of smoky glass leaning out from the edge of the cliff.

“I think so,” said Kez. “I’ve only ever seen them from below.”

An iron bridge and taut cables tethered the glass dome to the rock, and they paused to take in the beauty of what it contained. Behind the glass, a small forest of tall trees with broad leafy canopies were tended by a robed gardener with a tattooed and shaven head. A riot of flowers, with petals of red, gold, and blue stood out in contrast to the greenery within. Wyn had never seen anything quite so beautiful in all his life. He waved to the gardener, wishing he could walk with Kez through the forest, smelling the perfumed blooms and feeling the soft grass between his toes.

The gardener smiled and waved before returning to his duties.

A series of bells rang out. Wyn counted seven in total.

“Come on,” he said urgently. “The show’ll be starting soon.”

Janke turned to Nico. “You sure you know where this place is?”

“Babette’s? Yeah, I know it,” said Nico, covering his mouth as he coughed again. “I took Aleeza there once, when I had a few coin to my name after I beat that merchant from Bel’Zhun in a drinking contest.”

Wyn remembered that night well, watching in disbelief as his brother threw back shot after shot of kouaxi, a potent spirit the Shuriman had said was made from fermented goat’s milk. They reached twenty shots before the merchant finally keeled over. Nico was hungover for a week before he could spend his winnings.

“It’s just up here,” said Nico, as they entered a cavernous plaza hollowed out from the cliffs.

People thronged the wide open space, talking, negotiating and haggling over who knew what. A few people with metallic augments strolled through the plaza, each bearing the sigil of one of the Chem-Barons, but they were few in number and attracted more than their fair share of wary glances.

At the far end of the plaza stood a grand structure of vivid color and noise. Barkers shouted inducements to enter and handed out playbills. Fluted columns of black marble veined with gold formed the building’s giant portico, over which was a series of statues of wild animals, dragons, and armored warriors. Greenish chem-lights illuminated them, and the wavering flames made it look like they were alive.

“I give you Babette’s Theatrical Emporium,” said Nico, taking a deep bow and pointing to the brightly-lit structure.

“What do you mean we can’t come in?” said Nico.

The two doormen were well-dressed, but no amount of finery could conceal their experience in hurting people. Snaking tattooes covered their necks and wrists, and one of them had a mechanized arm that buzzed with something energized. A shok-club maybe? Or something even more deadly? Or perhaps it just wasn’t working very well.

“We can pay,” said Kez.

“It ain’t the money, girly,” said the first doorman, a man Wyn mentally christened Chem-Breath.

“Then what is it?” she demanded.

“You ain’t dressed right.”

“Indeed,” chimed in the second doorman, the one with the buzzing, mechanical arm. “Mistress Babette expects a certain level of... hygiene in her guests’ sartorial selections. Your attire falls somewhat below the expected standard, I fear.”

“Yeah, so go and crawl back to where you came from,” said the first.

“Where we came from?” said Kez, incredulous. “This is Zaun ain’t it? This is where we come from, you stupid sump-sucker!”

“Get lost, ya snipes,” said Chem-Breath. “This part of Zaun ain’t your Zaun.”

“Fine,” said Nico, turning and walking away. “Let’s go.”

“Wait, what?” said Wyn, as he and the others followed Nico. “We’re just going home?”

His brother waited until they were out of earshot before responding, making sure the crowds at the entrance obscured them from the two doormen.

“‘Course not,” said Nico. “Stupid of me. Forgot the first rule of the Sump: Only marks go in through the front door.”

They traversed the length and breadth of the plaza for ten minutes before finding what they sought. Wyn kept one eye on the theater doors. People were still going in, so the show probably hadn’t started.

“There,” said Feen, pointing to a sudden plume of emerald smoke gusting from a nearby roofline. Feen worked for Gray-Scrape Malkev, a ductwork maintenancer who threw a couple of cogs the scrawny lad’s way to worm through the narrow ducts and clean off the scum when the breather pipes got too clogged.

The source of the smoke was an eatery that looked as if it served a fusion of Zaun street food and upscale Piltovan cuisine. The diners were languid, artist types, and the food looked almost too beautiful to eat.

“That’s a shared pipe if ever I sniffed one,” said Feen. “See, you can smell the food from the kitchens and the burn-off from the crystal burners up at Babette’s.”

“I knew there was a reason we brung you along, Feen,” said Nico, leading them down the alley cut through the rock between the eatery and the theater. Heavy crates hauled up from the docks were stacked against the wall, and hissing, groaning pipes sagged overhead. Burly men hauled crates inside, grunting with the effort. None of them paid the kids so much as a second glance.

Feen traced the routes of the ducts with his fingers, counting and listening as they gurgled and rattled. He sniffed the air and grinned.

“That’s the fella,” he said, pointing to a narrow vent that passed into the rock-face.

“You sure?” asked Janke. “I don’t wanna find you picked it wrong and we get flushed out over Zaun.”

“I ain’t wrong, sump-raker,” said Feen. “You crawl through enough soot and slime like I have, you get a nose for what leads where.”

They waited until the men working for the eatery took a break before using the crates to climb up onto the roof. Feen quickly found them a crawl-hatch on the side of the pipe and prized it open. Wyn blanched at the fumes leaking from the hatch.

“Is that safe?” he asked.

“Safe enough for a sump-snipe,” said Feen. “Trust me, you’ll get more grit on your lungs walking the Black Lanes than you will from the fumes in there.”

Wyn wasn’t so sure about that, but Feen crawled inside, swiftly followed by Kez. Janke went next, and Nico gestured to the pipe.

“Your turn, little man,” said Nico.

Wyn nodded and climbed inside, following the sounds of scraping knees, cursing and coughing. Feen was right about one thing; the air in here was pretty rank, but nothing like when the Gray closed in and made every breath a battle. Nico climbed in behind him and he settled into a rhythm of shuffling forward on his elbows and knees. Light filtered in through cracks in the metal where it had split, but that ended the minute the pipe plunged into the cliffs.

“How much farther?” called Nico from behind him, the sound resonating weirdly in the pipes. He received no answer, only echoes. Wyn tried not to think of all the reasons why there was only silence. Had the pipe emptied them out over the cliffs as Janke had feared? Had the others hit a pocket of gas that had knocked them out or suffocated them? Or maybe the rock hereabouts was sad too, and had chosen to crush the tiny figures crawling through it.

Just before the thought of being crushed to death by melancholy cliffs paralyzed Wyn with fear, a hand reached down from above and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck.

“Got ya!” hissed a voice as he was hauled up through a hatch that had been invisible in the darkness. He cried out in alarm and struggled before he realized it was Janke pulling him up. He was deposited on a wooden floor in a lightless room. No, not lightless, a thin bar of light shone from beneath a nearby doorway. As Wyn’s eyes adjusted, he saw the myriad paraphernalia of the performer’s art stacked haphazardly around the room; shelves upon shelves of masks, garish costumes, theatrical backdrops and fake props.

Feen was laughing as he pranced around the room with the top half of a horse costume on his head. Kez wore a golden crown with paste-gems studded around its edges and a bright red stone at its center. Janke swung a wooden sword, its blade painted to look like gleaming silver.

Wyn grinned as Nico climbed from the pipe behind him. He felt light-headed, but couldn’t tell if it was from the fumes or the elation of getting inside.

“Nice work, Feen,” said Nico, dusting himself off and coughing out a wad of gray phlegm.

Feen threw off the horse costume and beamed at this unaccustomed praise. He started to speak, but then they heard the beat of drums and the skirl of pipes.

“It’s starting,” said Kez.

The interior of Babette’s was no less impressive than its exterior. The main hall was adorned in colorful fabrics, gilded balconies, and a vaulted ceiling decorated with stunning vistas of sweeping forests, soaring mountains, and achingly blue lakes. An enormous chandelier of sparkling crystals hung from the center of the ceiling, wheeling constellations that sent beams of splintered light through the chamber.

Hundreds of people filled the space, revelers in fashionable attire and dancers who had shed their coats and inhibitions both. A raised stage at one end was home to musicians who played from the heart, a pounding, driving beat that shivered the blood and got your feet tapping. The music was infectious and Wyn laughed as Kez dragged him onto the dance floor. The sight of five sump-snipes anywhere else might have provoked a reaction, but here, amid the spinning dancers and singers, it barely raised an eyebrow.

They moved with the ease of those who knew how to slip out of a Piltover warden’s grip in a heartbeat. Feen stomped and threw his arms around like a madman, all elbows and knees. Janke shuffled and bobbed his head, lost in his own private world of music. Nico danced in a weaving pattern, smooth as you like, pausing every now and then to flirt with a pretty girl. Wyn waved as he and Kez twisted across the dancefloor, spinning each other around with euphoric abandon.

The music was so loud they couldn’t speak.

He didn’t care.

Chemlights threw a rainbow at the chandelier and it exploded in a dazzling borealis of colors in splitting lozenge patterns. Wyn lifted his hands, as if trying to catch the light. Kez threw her arms around his neck and reached for the lights as well. He smelled her soap and sweat, the perfume of her hair and the heat of her body. He never wanted this moment to end.

But it did.

A meaty hand came down on Wyn’s shoulder and he felt the crushing disappointment of a moment that might never come again being snatched away from him. He cursed at the interruption, but the swears he was about to unleash died when he saw Chem-Breath the doorman looking down at him.

“Didn’t I tell you to go back to the Sump?”

He glanced over at Kez and saw her chest heaving with excitement. She nodded, and the answer to his unasked question was in her outstretched hand.

Wyn laced his fingers in hers and yelled, “Run!”

He squirmed from Chem-Breath’s grip and they bolted toward the heart of the dancefloor. Kez gave a wild yell and they wove through the dancers as if they were playing hook-dodge in the Sump. They ran hand in hand, Chem-Breath right on their heels. He barged through the dancers, but Kez and Wyn had run the streets of Zaun since they’d learned how to use their legs. They’d given the slip to wardens, chem-thugs, and vigilnauts alike.

A fat doorman was no challenge at all.

They heard Chem-Breath’s enraged shouts even over the music, as if he were singing along to it. They led him on a merry chase, ducking between the gyrating dancers and singers. Kez held tight to his hand. Wyn couldn’t help but laugh even as they let Chem-Breath get close. Then, just as the man’s hand reached for his shoulder, Chem-Breath fell to the dancefloor, smashed in the face by Feen’s flailing elbow.

They left him rolling on the ground. Wyn couldn’t remember a feeling this intoxicating. His every dancing, running step was in time with the beat of the music. Each soaring chorus felt like it had been written especially for this moment. They laughed like lunatics through the light and sound, united in a way they’d never known before.

Then the music stopped. The lights were extinguished and a single chem-burner focused its illumination upon the stage. The suddenly stilled dancers gave a collective sigh as a woman rose from the center of the stage. Magic or stagecraft, Wyn didn’t know or care, it was a magnificent entrance.

“Mama Elodie,” said Kez.

Wyn knew it was her, but still couldn’t match the stern, matronly mistress of Hope House with this goddess before him. She wore her long hair tied up in an elaborate series of braids threaded with beads of mother-of-pearl and jade that glittered like newborn stars. She wore a radiant green gown that hung in sweeping folds and which shimmered like silken spider-skin.

She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

Mama Elodie raised her head, and the music built from a slow, glacial pace to a rising heartbeat. Her head lifted in time with the music and her dark skin shimmered with diamond dust. Her eyes swept the crowd, seeming to fix everyone in Babette’s with her soulful gaze. She smiled, as if surprised to see so many people, and the warmth of her almond eyes reached everyone who saw her. Wyn felt her goodness enfold him, feeling as if burdens he didn’t know he carried were being peeled away, layer by layer.

And then she began to sing.

The words were unknown to him, but they flowed like honey, half spoken, half sung. Every note drifted like leaves on a warm, summer night, flowing in spirals around the room. Her voice rose in pitch and volume, and Wyn felt his skin tingle with its touch. He let Mama Elodie’s song wash over and through him. Wyn felt a swelling feeling of connectedness between him and Kez. Her eyes met his and he knew she felt the same.

But it was more than that.

Wyn felt a connection between him and everyone in the audience, a sense of oneness and harmony he’d never known or dreamed was possible. Mama Elodie’s hands sculpted the air as her powerful voice filled the chamber with harmonies that penetrated skin and bone and made every edge within them smooth. Sweat sheened her skin, and veins stood out on her neck.

However she was making this music, it was clearly taking a toll.

The light filling the chamber dimmed as her voice grew softer and softer. The notes melted like snow in spring, sunset over a winter ocean. Tears flowed down Wyn’s face, and he knew he wasn’t the only one crying. Dozens of men and women wept, reaching toward Mama Elodie and imploring her to continue. She swayed on the stage, the song nearing completion.

Slowly, so very slowly, she descended through a trapdoor into the stage until she was gone. Mama Elodie’s voice grew softer and softer, until it was little more than a whisper.

Soon, even that was gone.

The chamber was entirely dark now. Wyn let out a shuddering breath as the house lights gradually came up. He blinked as his eyes adjusted, seeing how low the chemlights had burned. How long had Mama Elodie’s song lasted? Hours? Minutes? He had no way of knowing for sure. Wyn felt exhausted, but renewed at the same time. His thoughts were lighter, his lungs feeling clearer than than they had in months. He turned to Kez, and saw she too felt the same sense of rejuvenation. The audience members were smiling; friends and strangers alike embracing in the shared magic of what they had just experienced.

Nico, Feen, and Janke came over, and every one of them had experienced some profound revelation. What that was, Wyn couldn’t know, but that every one of them felt changed was clear.

“Did you...?” said Wyn.

“Yeah,” said Nico.

They hugged, five orphans from Zaun, sharing a brief moment of belonging they would never know again. By the time they broke apart, it was to see the two doormen, Chem-Breath and Buzz-Arm, standing with their hands balled into fists. Chem-Breath’s nose was askew on his face. An improvement, thought Wyn.

“I believe we told you to go home,” said Buzz-Arm.

“Bloody sump-rats,” snapped Chem-Breath, still nursing a bleeding nose. “Think they can give us the runaround.”

He thumped one meaty fist into his palm for extra emphasis.

“It’s time for you to leave, and I can’t promise it won’t be painful,” said Buzz-Arm, sounding almost apologetic.

“There’s no need for that,” said a melodious voice behind them.

Wyn let out a relieved breath as Mama Elodie put a hand on the back of his neck. Her fingers were warm and he felt a calming sensation flow through him at her touch.

“They with you?” asked Chem-Breath.

“They are indeed,” replied Mama Elodie.

The two doormen looked as though they wanted to take this further, but came to the conclusion that arguing with the headline act in front of her bewitched audience probably wasn’t a good idea. The doormen backed away, making eye contact with each of the kids to let them know that they may have escaped a beating this time, but coming to Babette’s again would be a really bad idea.

Wyn turned to face Mama Elodie, but whatever magic she had woven on stage was now entirely absent. The Ionian princess was gone and the Zaunite housemistress was back. She glared at them with hard, flinty eyes.

“I should have let them give you a good beating to teach you all a lesson,” she said, ushering them toward the front door of the theater. The others nodded in mute acceptance of her anger, but only Wyn caught the glint of amusement in her eye. Even so, Wyn could see a great deal of menial labor in all their futures.

“You were amazing,” said Kez as Mama Elodie marched them from the theater and turned toward Drop Street. The late-running descender to Zaun had a station there, so at least they’d be spared more jumping onto elevators or a lot of stairs. Nico, Feen, and Janke waved and ran off, old enough to head home on their own without needing to ask permission. Wyn didn’t mind; he was with Kez and Mama Elodie, so he’d enjoy this moonlit descent to Hope House.

“Where did you learn to sing like that?” asked Kez.

“My mother taught me when I was a girl,” said Mama Elodie. “She was of... an old Ionian line, though her voice was far superior to mine.”

“It was a beautiful song,” said Wyn.

“All the vastaya songs are beautiful,” said Mama Elodie. “But they are also sad.”

“Why are they sad?” asked Wyn.

“True beauty is only beautiful because it is finite,” said Mama Elodie. “That is why some of their songs are too sad to sing now.”

Wyn didn’t really understand. How could a song be too sad to sing? He wanted to ask more, but the farther they walked from Babette’s, the less important it seemed.

He looked up. Chemlights and reflected stars shimmered on the city of iron and glass as they navigated the cliffside streets toward home. Wyn saw a sliver of moonlight peeking out from behind the clouds, and took a deep breath of clean air, knowing it might be his last for a while.

“You know you’re all scrubbing floors and pots for the rest of the week, yes?” said Mama Elodie.

Wyn nodded, but didn’t mind. He was still holding Kez’s hand. A week of scrubbing seemed like a small price to pay.

“Sure,” he said. “Sounds good.”

Abilities[]

Tailwind Tailwind [Passive]
Area of Effect: 1200

Active: Nearby allies gain 6% bonus Movement Speed when moving towards Janna, and her basic attacks and Zephyr (Ability) Zephyr (Ability) deal bonus magic damage on-hit. Magic Damage: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35% (based on level)
Howling Gale Howling Gale [Q]
Cost: 90 / 95 / 100 / 105 / 110 Mana Cooldown: 14 s Range: 1100 - 1760 based on charge time

Active: Summons a whirlwind, which deals magic damage to enemies in its path and knocks them into the air for 0.5 seconds.

The whirlwind can be charged up to 3 seconds. For each second charged, it: deals bonus magic damage; knocks up for an additional 0.25 seconds (max 1.25); travels 25% farther.

Magic Damage: 55 / 90 / 125 / 160 / 195 (+50%)
Damage per Charging Second: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 (+10%)
Max Damage: 85 / 135 / 185 / 235 / 285 (+80%)
Zephyr (Ability) Zephyr [W]
Cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 Mana Cooldown: 9 / 8.5 / 8 / 7.5 / 7 s Range: 650

Passive: Janna gains bonus Movement Speed and can move through units.
Active: Deals magic damage to an enemy and slows their Movement Speed for 2 seconds.
Movement Speed: 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10% (+2% per 100)
Magic Damage: 55 / 90 / 125 / 160 / 195 (+60%)
Slow: 20 / 24 / 28 / 32 / 36% (+6% per 100)
Eye of the Storm Eye of the Storm [E]
Cost: 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90 Mana Cooldown: 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 s Range: 800

Active: Shields an allied Champion or turret a shield for 4 seconds. The shield absorbs damage and grants Attack Damage until it is fully depleted.

Each ability that slows or knocks back an enemy champion refunds 20% of this ability's cooldown.

Shield: 80 / 115 / 150 / 185 / 220 (+55%)
Bonus Attack Damage: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 (+10%)
Monsoon Monsoon [R]
Cost: 100 Mana Cooldown: 150 / 135 / 120s Area of Effect: 725

Active: Summons forth the might of the wind to knock surrounding enemies back and restores Health to nearby allies each second for 3 seconds. Heal Per Second: 100 / 150 / 200 (+50%)
Max Heal: 300 / 450 / 600 (+150%)

Patch History[]

Patch 10.11

W base damage decreased later.

Although we believe Battle Janna is her best approach to the lane, her harass is weathering her enemies a little too well. Trimming down this ferocious tempest’s poke a tad.

Zephyr (Ability) W - Zephyr

BASE DAMAGE : [55/90/125/160/195]
55/85/115/145/175


Patch 9.11
W cooldown now scales; base damage decreased late. E cooldown now decreases when Janna CCs enemies; cooldown decreased early, increased late; shield increased.

Right now, Janna feels like a poke mage early in the game instead of a peeling and shielding support champion. We're taking this opportunity to encourage more kinds of interaction between her and everyone else than point-and-click harass, especially in lane, so she can get the most out of all her abilities.

Zephyr (Ability) W - Zephyr

COOLDOWN : [8] 8/7.5/7/6.5/6 seconds
BASE DAMAGE : [55/100/145/190/235]
55/90/125/160/195

Eye Of The Storm E - Eye Of The Storm

PASSIVE Each ability that slows or knocks back an enemy champion reduces Eye of the Storm's cooldown by 20%
COOLDOWN : [18/16/14/12/10]
16/15/14/13/12
SHIELD : [70/105/140/175/210]
80/115/150/185/220


v8.19
Passive movement speed to damage conversion increased.

Janna is currently struggling to find a home in the bot lane in a meta dominated by some of her beefier counterparts. Her defensive attributes are already as powerful as we’re comfortable pushing them right now. We’re increasing her early game poke damage for players that are able to play her aggressively and want to harass their opponents every chance they get.

Tailwind Passive - Tailwind

BONUS MOVESPEED CONVERSION TO DAMAGE : [15/25/35% at levels 1/7/13]
25/35% at levels 1/10


v8.12
Shield decays after a brief delay.

Unlike other gifted shields, Eye of the Storm comes with bonus AD that enemies want to knock off as quickly as possible. If we went with a duration reduction, waiting the shield out still wouldn't make sense as a form of counterplay since you'd just be letting Janna's carry hold onto free stats. Nuking the shield would end up feeling worse too, since there'd be much less buff duration to deny. By contrast, a decaying shield makes damage on the shield more effective while keeping the payoff for blowing it up satisfying.

Eye Of The Storm E - Eye Of The Storm

DECAY Eye of the Storm's shield now decays over its duration after a 0.75 grace period


v8.8
Movement speed decreased. W damage decreased.

Janna is just too effective overall.

Base Stats

MOVEMENT SPEED : [320] 315

Zephyr (Ability) W - Zephyr

BASE DAMAGE : [60/105/150/195/240]
55/100/145/190/235


v7.22

BASE ARMOR : [19.38] 28


v7.20

Resurfacing our Janna followup for those who might’ve missed it between patches. Though 7.20 itself isn’t bringing any additional balance changes, we’re still keeping a close eye on her.

If you’re curious as to what prompted the below changes, we put together a boards thread around the time Janna’s first hotfix went out.

Base Stats

BASE MOVEMENT SPEED : [335] 320
BASE HEALTH : [525] 500
BASE MANA : [409.52] 350

Tailwind Passive - Tailwind

BONUS MAGIC DAMAGE : [35%]
15/25/35% bonus movement speed at levels 1/7/13

Zephyr (Ability) W - Zephyr

COST : [40/50/60/70/80]
50/60/70/80/90 mana

Eye Of The Storm E - Eye Of The Storm

SHIELD STRENGTh : [80/120/160/200/240]
70/105/140/175/210


v7.19

After the earlier changes, Janna is still pretty strong. Our goal was to weaken her overall (especially in her ability to passively protect an ally), but also to incentivize her to trade with autos in lane. Right now, her autos are not just worth trading with, they're strong, so we're dialing that back. We're also bringing her shield values down to continue weakening her passive protective ability.

IT WAS WINDY : Tailwind percent of bonus movement speed dealt as magic damage reduced at early levels from [35%] 15/25/35% at levels 1/7/13
SHIELDS DOWN : Eye of the Storm shield decreased from [80/120/160/200/240]
70/105/140/175/210  

E cooldown increased at early ranks. Janna’s basic attacks are stronger. Q base range increased; moves faster when charged.

This is a big set of changes which, combined with the Ardent Censer changes below, add up to say “Janna isn’t a shield bot in lane anymore.” Most directly, eight extra seconds on Eye of the Storm’s rank 1 cooldown makes choosing when to shield a decision with real consequences if Janna chooses wrong. From there, we’re teasing out a more aggressive, risk-taking playstyle from the rest of her kit. Many of these changes read oddly in a vacuum, so go through ‘em with this in mind: a Janna who’s hitting you with attacks and abilities is a Janna who’s standing in threat range with her defensive tools on cooldown. Putting all the pieces together, 7.19 is a net power-down for Janna (and we’re prepared to take further action to ensure that’s the case). Die-hard veterans will find success as they navigate her new risks and rewards, but bandwagoners will be staring at significantly grayer screens.

Base stats

ATTACK RANGE : [475] 550
BASE ATTACK DAMAGE : [52] 46
ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH STAT : [3] 1.5
ATTACK SPEED GROWTH STAT : [2.61%] 2.95%
BASIC ATTACK MISSILE SPEED : [1200] 1600
BASE HEALTH : [487] 525
HEALTH GROWTH STAT : [78] 70

Tailwind Passive - Tailwind

ZOOM Janna now benefits from Tailwind’s 8% movement speed increase
PECK Janna’s basic attacks and single-target spells deal bonus magic damage equal to 35% of her bonus movement speed
ZOOMING PECK : Tailwind’s 8% movement speed increase counts toward its bonus magic damage. So, at Janna’s base movement speed of 335, Tailwind grants 9.38 bonus magic damage by itself.

Howling Gale Q - Howling Gale

COST : [90/105/120/135/150]
60/80/100/120/140 mana
COOLDOWN : [14/13/12/11/10]
12 seconds at all ranks
RANGE : [850 - 1742.5]
1000 - 1750 based on charge time
PUNCTUALITY Howling Gale now always reaches its endpoint in 1.5 seconds, meaning a fully-charged cast moves 75% faster than an instant cast

Zephyr (Ability) W - Zephyr

COOLDOWN : [12] 8 seconds
SLOW DURATION : [3] 2 seconds
PASSIVE MOVEMENT SPEED : [9/11/13/15/17%]
6/7/8/9/10%
RANGE : [600, measured between hitbox centers]
550, measured between hitbox edges (range increased vs large targets, decreased vs small ones)

Eye Of The Storm E - Eye Of The Storm

COOLDOWN : [10 at all ranks]
18/16/14/12/10 seconds


v6.6
E bonus damage and R disable time down.

From a holistic, top-level view of League, Janna’s role as a protector fits rather well into the eternal rock-paper-scissors of ‘tank-carries-assassins’. The issue (as is always the case whenever Janna’s too strong) is how well she can protect. At present, Janna’s strengths are shutting down not just divers and assassins, but almost anyone aggressor there is. We’re pulling back on some of the extraneous power she provides when enabling counter-engages while ensuring her ‘keepaway’ style of disengage is intact.

Eye Of The Storm E - Eye Of The Storm

ATTACK DAMAGE ON SHIELD : [14/23/32/41/50] 10/17.5/25/32.5/40

Monsoon R - Monsoon

DISABLE DURATION : [0.75 seconds] 0.5 seconds


v5.22

In a world without mana potions (and generally less early mana regeneration), we've identified a few champions for some emergency rations, giving early mana boosts until they can get their footing and purchase items to make up the deficit. This also means we can really understand which champions relied on mana potions as a crutch to limp through the early to mid game, and we can give additional love if necessary. Mana Regen

The following champs have +2.5 base mana regen per 5 seconds:


v5.17
R's AP ratio lowered. Q's range lowered on initial cast.

If Janna’s about one thing, it’s disengage. Fighting tooth and nail to keep her team away from yours - frustrating though it may be - is her thing. So naturally when she starts to see ubiquitous play, even in situations and compositions where disengage isn’t even called for, we start to raise our brow a bit. Removing some of her extraneous power such as CC-chaining with quick-cast tornadoes or ulting solely for a team-heal are all about narrowing that ‘forever kiting’ identity even further. Can’t be good at everything, Janna - that’s a job for Draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaven.

Tailwind Passive - Tailwind

ANY WAY THE WIND BLOWS : Fixed a bug where Tailwind was not immediately falling off of allies moving away from Janna

Howling Gale Q - Howling Gale

MINIMUM RANGE : [1100] 850
BONUS RANGE WHILE CHARGING : [20% increase per second] 35% increase per second

Monsoon R - Monsoon

RATIO : [1.8 ability power over 3 seconds] 1.5 ability power over 3 seconds


v5.5

"We're continuing our comprehensive pass at the game's older character textures. As with previous installments, our goal is to improve parity with newer releases and make sure everybody looks at home on the newly-updated Rift. Reminder: texture rebalancing isn't meant to replace - and doesn't delay - larger-scale updates! "
  • Cho'GathSquareCho'Gath
    • Base, Gentleman, Jurassic, Loch Ness, Nightmare
  • JannaSquareJanna
    • Base, Frost Queen, Hextech, Tempest, Victorious
  • TaricSquareTaric
    • Base, Armor of the Fifth Age, Bloodstone, Emerald
  • WarwickSquareWarwick
    • Base, Big Bad, Feral, Firefang, Grey, Hyena, Tundra Hunter, Urf

v5.4

Janna's passive now only affects champions who run toward her, but the movement speed bonus and range have been increased. Janna's personal movement speed bonus has been entirely moved to W so she loses more speed when she casts it.

As one of the premier supports at defending the back lines, few champions can shut down initiators and divers quite like Janna. That said, it's never made a lot of sense for someone who's so good at denying aggression to also be real good at enabling it (ever been chased by a Janna team?). Bonus movement speed's strong like that. Changing Janna's passive from being 'always good' to 'situationally good' solidifies her as the Queen of Disengage (also the Storm's Fury, apparently). As an aside, we realize that if Janna leads the charge she can still enable some high-speed chases, but a Janna on the frontline is maybe not the best.
  • Tailwind Passive - Tailwind
    • [REMOVED] IT'S A W NERF, SORRY : Tailwind no longer gives Janna bonus movement speed
    • [NEW] GET TO THE JANNA : Tailwind now gives all allies in range a movement speed bonus only while they are moving toward Janna
    • MOVEMENT SPEED : 5% 8%
    • RANGE : 1000 1250
  • Zephyr W - Zephyr
    • BASE PASSIVE MOVEMENT SPEED : 4/6/8/10/12% 9/11/13/15/17%

v5.1

Q got slightly skinnier.

"Janna's the type of champion whose kit keeps her consistently powerful. Even when she fails to see widespread play competitively, she's never far from showing up and surprising the world with just how useful she can be. These days she's back to her old tricks - namely, protecting carries and disengaging teamfights for days on end - but while digging deeper we found that her Tornado's width was actually hitting much wider than the particle indicated. Refactoring it to match the visuals certainly decreases her power, but in a way that promotes the type of dodgeability she needs to not dominate the support role."
  • Howling Gale Q - Howling Gale
    • MISSILE WIDTH : 150 120


"We're making readability improvements to a bunch of the champion portrait icons which were added or updated over the past few months."
  • PORTRAITS : The following champion portrait icons have been updated:
    • Azir, Cho'Gath, Ezreal, Gragas, Graves, Janna, Jarvan IV, Kayle, Kog'Maw, Lee Sin, Malphite, Maokai, Orianna, Renekton, Rengar, Rumble, Shyvana, Sion, Talon, Tristana, Udyr, Vayne, Veigar, Viktor, Zilean

v4.19

W's cooldown stays the same at all ranks (aka higher at later ranks).

"While this isn't a very large change, we want to create harder choices for Janna for when she should use her W, giving her enemies more windows of vulnerability to engage on their target (or her!). "
  • Zepher W - Zepher
    • Cooldown : 12/11/10/9/8 seconds 12 seconds at all ranks

Splash Updates

"As we've mentioned previously, the splash art team is engaged in a long-term effort to update our oldest base splashes. A few more are ready to go this patch!"
  • SPLASH : The following champions have received updated base splashes (click the portraits for the full image!)

v4.13
Janna's passive range has been increased, and Q now starts counting down the cooldown as it charges

"Some small buffs for Janna, given she's still very strong as a disengage support champion."
  • Tailwind Passive - Tailwind
    • RANGE 800 ⇒ 1000
  • HowlingGale Q - Howling Gale
    • NEW HURRAY FOR HURRICANES Cooldown now begins when the Howling Gale begins casting, rather than when it releases
    • KNOCKUP DURATION 0.5 - 1 second ⇒ 0.5 - 1.25 seconds

v4.1 Summary: Monsoon now channels immediately on activation and the channel duration has been reduced. Additionally, we’re increasing Monsoon’s heal per second and total heal amount. Since we removed a lot of Janna’s invisible power, we can now buff up some of the cooler parts of her kit. Since Monsoon is one of Janna’s big moments in the spotlight, we decided to throw caution to the wind and buff her up with more healing potential and immediate gains.

  • Monsoon R - Monsoon
    • Now begins channeling immediately upon activation (from an initial 0.25 second cast time)
    • Total channel duration reduced to 3 seconds (from 4 seconds)
    • Heal per second increased to 100/150/200 (+0.6 ability power) (from 70/110/150 (+0.35 ability power)
    • Total heal amount increased to 300/450/600 (+1.8 ability power) (from 280/440/600 (+1.4 ability power))

v3.15
"Given our recent support changes, Janna could use a mana cost decrease like the other ult cost reductions we've made. We're still keeping an eye on this weather lady, so stay tuned for more change."

  • R - Monsoon
    • Mana cost reduced to 100 at all ranks (from 100/150/200)

v3.14
Summary: We're removing Janna's global passive and making it a local effect while increasing the movement speed bonus. We've also reduced the overall damage of Howling Gale, but it will scale more with ability power the longer it is charged. The active and passive movement speed affecting portions of Zephyr now also scale with ability power. The ability power ratio of Eye of the Storm's shield has been reduced, but it now has the added benefit of providing additional attack damage based on Janna's AP.

Context: We've been saying for a while that we wanted to hit global passives that provide hidden power, and we're using this opportunity to tweak Janna's Tailwind. As for her Tornados, the additional ability power scaling per second means that Janna will need to fully charge her Howling Gale in order to do high damage at end game.

  • Passive - Tailwind
    • Tailwind is now local instead of global (800 range)
    • Tailwind movement speed buff increased to 5% (from 3%)
  • Q - Howling Gale
    • Now gains +0.1 Ability Power ratio per second that Howling Gale is charged before release
    • Ability Power ratio reduced to 0.35 (from 0.75)
    • Charge damage reduced to 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 (from 25 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60)
  • W – Zephyr
    • Passive self-movement speed buff now scales at +1% per 50 Ability Power (0.02 AP ratio)
    • Passive self-movement speed buff changed to 4 / 6 / 8 / 10 / 12% (+0.02 Ability Power) (from a flat 4 / 7 / 10 / 13 / 16%)
    • Slow debuff now scales at +3% per 50 Ability Power (capped at 80% total)
    • Base slow reduced to 24 / 28 / 32 / 36 / 40% (from 24 / 30 / 36 / 42 / 48%)
    • Ability Power ratio reduced to 0.5 (from 0.6)
  • E - Eye of the Storm
    • Attack Damage buff of the shield now scales at +1 Attack Damage per 10 Ability Power (0.1 AP ratio)
    • Ability Power ratio reduced to 0.7 (from 0.9)

v3.09

  • Monsoon
    • Fixed a bug where the buff icon countdown didn't properly match the 4-second channeling time

v3.04

  • Howling Gale
    • Fixed a bug where the knockup duration was not increasing based on charge time
    • Knockup duration when fully charged increased to 1 second from 0.75 seconds

v3.03

  • Monsoon
    • Mana cost reduced to 100 / 150 / 200 from 150 / 225 / 300

v3.02

  • JannaSquareJanna's basic attack should now feel more responsive

v1.0.0.152

  • Base Movement Speed increased by 25.

v1.0.0.144

  • Zephyr
    • Ability power ratio reduced to 0.6 from 0.8
    • Bug fixed where Janna would sometimes retain the passive bonuses while Zephyr was on cooldown

v1.0.0.142

  • Zephyr
    • Passive movement speed reduced at earlier ranks to 4 / 7 / 10 / 13 / 16% from 8 / 10 / 12 / 14 / 16%
    • Slow duration reduced to 3 seconds from 4 seconds
  • Monsoon cooldown increased at earlier ranks to 150 / 135 / 120 seconds from 120 seconds at all levels

v1.0.0.138

  • Howling Gale now knocks the target further into the air the longer it is channeled (now 80 + 10 per second channeled from constant 100)
  • Monsoon
    • Mana cost reduced to 150 / 225 / 300 from 200 / 275 / 350
    • Knock back distance reduced to 875 from 1000

v1.0.0.136

  • Eye of the Storm attack damage bonus is now lost if the shield breaks

v1.0.0.122

  • New models and textures for Janna and Tempest Janna
  • All new animations for her and her skins

v1.0.0.120

  • Tailwind now deactivates while dead

v1.0.0.112

  • Monsoon no longer slows enemies who re-enter the storm

v1.0.0.106

  • Tailwind will now persist for her allies while Janna is dead
  • Eye of the Storm duration reduced to 5 seconds from 10
  • Monsoon
    • Heal per second reduced to 70 / 110 / 150 / from 90 / 130 / 170
    • Slow reduced to 30% from 40%

v1.0.0.94b

  • Howling Gale cooldown modified to 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 seconds from 10 at all levels

v1.0.0.94

  • Howling Gale knock-up time reduced by 33%
  • Fixed a bug with Eye of the Storm where the particle would linger after the shield effect had been removed

v1.0.0.87

  • Howling Gale mana cost increased to 90 / 105 / 120 / 135 / 150 from 80 / 95 / 110 / 125 / 140
  • Eye of the Storm mana cost increased to 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 from 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100
  • Zephyr
    • Reworded the tooltip to indicate that Janna loses the passive boost while it is on cooldown
    • Fixed a bug where ranking up Zephyr only gives the additional movement speed after Janna has refreshed the buff

v1.0.0.86

  • Base damage increased to 49 form 46
  • Fixed a bug with Howling Gale that was causing inconsistent damage
  • Decreased the collision width of Howling Gale
  • Eye of the Storm
    • Ability power ratio increased to 0.9 from 0.8
    • Base shield amount decreased to 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 from 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 / 300
    • Damage buff changed to 14 / 23 / 32 / 41 / 50 from 24 / 30 / 36 / 42 / 48

v1.0.0.83

  • Howling Gale no longer tosses H-28G Evolution Turrets into the air

v1.0.0.82

  • Base mana per level reduced to 64 from 78
  • Base armor increased to 9 from 7.4
  • Howling gale
    • Mana cost reduced to 80 / 95 / 110 / 125 / 140 from 80 / 100 / 120 / 140 / 160
    • Cooldown reduced to 10 seconds from 11 at all levels
    • Damage per second scaling incresaed to 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 from 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40
  • Eye of the Storm
    • Mana cost reduced to 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 from 70 / 85 / 100 / 115 / 130
    • Duration reduced to 10.5 seconds from 12
    • Cooldown reduced to 10.5 seconds from 12
    • Now grants a new attack damage buff, "Cyclone Strike" which persists through the shield breaking
  • Zephyr active cooldown reduced to 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 seconds from 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 / 9
  • Monsoon now slows enemy units from 40% that re-enter the storm after being pushed out

v1.0.0.79

  • Fixed a bug where Eye of the Storm was not adding Janna's correct AP ratio

v1.0.0.70

  • Eye Of The Storm is now instant cast

v1.0.0.63

  • Monsoon
    • Cleaned up knock back effect to hit the correct area, increased knock back distance, and made knock back more consistent
    • Duration reduced to 4 seconds from 6
    • Heal per tick increased to 90 / 150 / 210 from 60 / 100 / 140
    • Ability Power Ratio increased to 0.35 from 0.25
  • Howling Gale
    • Mana Cost reduced to 80 / 100 / 120 / 140 / 160 from 110 / 130 / 150 / 170 / 190
    • Cooldown reduced to 11 from 12
  • Zephyr Cooldown reduced to 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 from 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10

v1.0.0.52

  • Eye of the Storm
    • Mana Cost reduced from 70 / 90 / 110 / 130 / 150 to 70 / 85 / 100 / 115 / 130
  • Adjusted the selection radius to match her size

v0.9.25.24

  • Changed name from "The Avatar of Air" to "The Storm's Fury"
  • Zephyr
    • Increased cast speed
    • Now properly labeled as a slowing spell

v0.9.25.21

  • Added missing health regen per level
  • Added missing mana regen per level
  • Rearranged spell keys
  • Howling Gale
    • Increased ability power ratio from 0.65 to 0.75
    • Reduced maximum charge duration from 4 seconds to 3
    • Increased damage per second from 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 to 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40
    • Increased base damage from 50 / 70 / 90 / 110 / 130 to 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 / 160
  • Eye of the Storm
    • Reduced ability power ratio from 1.0 to 0.8
    • Increased duration from 8 seconds to 12
  • Zephyr ability power ratio reduced from 1.0 to 0.8

v0.9.22.16
JannaSquareJanna released


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