The winds of change have blown into League of Legends’ support role thanks to two consecutive patches of adjustments targeting Janna, and it seems that players are finally becoming accustomed to her newly-regained power—in the form of a completely new look for the champion’s runes of choice.
As part of Patch 13.22, Riot Games sought to make Janna a more viable option among a larger number of players after the champion had fallen into counterpick obscurity, complete with reverted changes to her entire kit that allowed for a more active, aggressive playstyle. The Storm’s Fury made her way onto the buff list once more in Patch 13.23, with some players still feeling dissatisfied with the build direction they were being forced into, thus leading some players to adopt a new strategy: Hail of Blades Janna.
Part of Janna’s initial changes returned the champion to a previous state where she was rewarded for harassing enemies in lane—much like a typical enchanter does—through the use of her basic attacks and W, Zephyr. In doing so, the movement speed-focused champion regained some tools that allowed her not only to speed herself up passively, but deal more damage the faster she is, allowing players to deviate from the Glacial Augment build that had been associated with Janna for over a year.
And though Summon Aery and Arcane Comet remain some of the quintessential poking keystone runes that Janna should bring to lane, some players have looked towards the movement speed ratio on Janna’s passive as a way to focus more on basic attack-centric keystones like Hail of Blades. This rune rewards Janna for constantly chipping away at her lane opponents with basic attacks, granting her stacking attack speed for a short duration while maintaining the bonus magic damage done based on her movement speed.
Janna can also capitalize on this rune well due to the plethora of crowd control options present in her kit, allowing her to slow any enemy that tries to escape her range before she can proc the rune again. Even her E couples nicely with this build, as using it on yourself—which isn’t normally the most optimal strategy when playing Janna in her standard support role—provides her with some extra attack damage while the shield persists, essentially turning her into an ADC that will only scale further the faster she can go.
As of now, Arcane Comet and Summon Aery remain the most popular keystone runes for Janna players internationally, though it’s likely that players will continue to experiment with the strengths and weaknesses of Hail of Blades, potentially turning it into a new best-in-slot in the near future.
