Janna

Janna is the roster's anti-engage answer. Howling Gale charges before you release it, knocks up everything in its path, and cuts an enemy charge in half. Monsoon pushes everyone away from her and heals while she channels, which solves most dives on your carry with a single button.

Eye of the Storm isn't just a shield: it also grants attack damage to whoever you protect, and it can be cast on a turret. A Janna who plays it well turns defence into a winning trade. What she doesn't have is durability, a reliable lockdown, or any real kill pressure in lane. If your idea of a botlane is forcing kills at level two, pick someone else.

She is the best answer in the mode against teams built on a single initiation. Zephyr lands on the initiator and slows them before they arrive, the tornado throws them back, and Monsoon erases whatever engage was left. Add the Tailwind passive, which hands movement speed to your whole team, and you get permanent map control on rotations.

The downside is harsh. With no targeted lockdown you never truly pin anyone down, so a team that forces your hand with several engage threats drains your kit fast. Your health bar is tiny, Monsoon is expensive, and Howling Gale needs charge time, which means reading the fight before it starts. Release it on reflex and it accomplishes nothing at all.

Your goal isn't kills, it's making the lane impossible to lose. Ride the Zephyr passive for the movement speed and the ability to walk through units, and only activate it for something specific: slowing an enemy who steps up, or breaking away from a gank. The moment you activate it you lose that mobility until it comes back, and you become suddenly catchable.

Keep Howling Gale charging behind the wave whenever you feel the enemy jungler coming. It's your only button for cutting a charge at range. The shield absorbs poke, but it also absorbs the first hit of a trade, so cast it as your carry commits rather than after you've eaten damage. The attack damage it hands over is what makes the counter-trade genuinely winning.

The first spike is Monsoon. From that point on, a dive on your carry is a losing bet for them, and your presence in botlane changes how the enemy team approaches the dragon. Don't hoard it out of fear of wasting it: it's better spent early on a double commitment than never spent at all.

The second spike is cooldown reduction plus Shurelya's Reverie. The extra group movement speed, stacked on Tailwind, produces rotations the enemy cannot match and turns any won skirmish into a free objective. Janna scales less through damage than through how often she can refuse a fight entirely.

Stand level with your carry, never in front. Your job is to see the engage before anyone else does, so watch the flanks and the fog, not the melee. Start charging Howling Gale the moment you suspect an entry: a fully charged tornado on an initiator is worth far more than an instant one on three minions.

Monsoon centres on you, not on a target, which means accepting that you'll be in contact at the worst moment of the fight. Take that risk, pushing a dive off is worth it. And remember Eye of the Storm works on turrets, so shield the inhibitor tower while they push it. Almost nobody uses that, and it saves whole bases.