League of Legends Update Nerfs Janna, More Fixes Coming for Top Lane Enchanters

League of Legends players who’ve been actively playing in the last patch or so have probably seen at least a couple of Enchanter champions leaving the bottom lane in favor of the top lane. A top-lane Enchanter meta has been growing in popularity lately with Janna being one of the notorious offenders, so it’s no wonder then that Riot Games has confirmed it’s looking into this playstyle’s problems and will have solutions on the way. In the meantime, Janna herself has been nerfed to dial back some of her power gained in Patch 12.2.

The Janna nerf and the comments about these support champions calling the top lane home were listed in the patch notes for Patch 12.3. The initial patch itself didn’t mention the notes, but it was updated again on January 4th to push out a hotfix for the champion. Those nerfs can be found below along with context on why they were decided on.

Janna Nerfs

• BASE MOVE SPEED 330 ⇒ 325
• W – ZEPHYR BASE BONUS MOVE SPEED 8/9/10/11/12% ⇒ 6/7.5/9/10.5/12%
• E – EYE OF THE STORM ENHANCED HEAL & SHIELD POWER DURATION 5 seconds ⇒ 4 seconds (upon slowing or knocking up at least one enemy)

“Janna’s 12.2 changes swept Summoner’s Rift by storm, making her one of the strongest and most popular supports,” the patch notes said. “However, it wasn’t clear just how strong of a nerf she needed last patch due to a Glacial Augment bug that interacted with her Q and R a little too well. Even after the hotfix, Janna remains very strong with Glacial and other runes, so we’re lowering her early roaming power and her enhanced heal and shield window.”

As for the other Enchanters and their dominance in the top lane, Riot continued to say something was coming, but the devs didn’t say what. Those changes will be separate from this Janna nerf, so it looks like more is planned for her, too.

“These changes are not intended to address her (and other enchanters’) recent top lane strategy,” Riot continued. “We’re working on a separate solution for that and will update as soon as we have an accurate forecast.”