Riot Will Nerf Enchanters in the Top Lane

Janna top is OP. We know this, we have all witnessed it. River Janna is sweeping solo queue and it seems she is unstoppable. Who would let such a demon loose on our favorite video game?

If you haven’t touched League of Legends in a while, you might be extremely confused, so let’s quickly go over what this new Janna build is, why it’s OP and what Riot is doing to bring normalcy into our games once more.

Janna Nerfed in Patch 12.03 B-Patch 

Janna has been the most notable champion when it comes to the 'enchanter + Smite in the top lane' meta. So, what has Riot done? Of course they nerfed her! Here are the exact nerfs Janna received: 

• Base Movement Speed: 330 ⇒ 325 
• W - Zephyr Bonus Movement Speed: 8/9/10/11/12% ⇒ 6/7.5/9/10.5/12%
  
• E - Eye of the Storm Enhanced Heal and Shield Power Duration: 5 seconds ⇒ 4 seconds (upon slowing or knocking up at least one enemy)
  

So, for anyone enjoying the current Janna meta, you'll have to sadly live with these nerfs. 

What is Janna and Smite Top?

This is a new strategy in which Janna takes Smite, builds a ton of movement speed and roams the map over-and-over denying the enemy jungler farm and supporting your own jungler, bot lane and mid lane constantly.

Does Janna top care for the top lane? Not at all. She will help her lanes get so far ahead that even if you leave the top lane alone, the enemy champion has no chance of solo carrying the game. The rest of their team will be too far behind.

So, you buy your normal support items, pick up mobility boots and rush up and down the river, gaining a huge advantage and helping snowball the game. Sounds crazy, right? Well her win rate sits at almost 60%, which means Riot needs to do something about this. 

What Are the Riot Devs Doing?

Riot Games developer Matt Leung-Harrison explained that the balance team is aware of this strategy and that they are actively working on fixing the issue. Multiple people have complained on Reddit about this new top lane trend. This will likely get fixed in Patch 12.04 with how oppressive it is.

What has been tested? Well, Leung-Harrison explained that they’ve tried limiting how many players can buy support items, but that failed, since they figured trolls would buy the support item, leaving actual supports defenceless.

So, more testing has to be done to figure out how to nerf this new strategy that has been ravaging the top lane. Will we see even more Janna and Karma top in the coming weeks, or will it even get hotfixed?

Which Champions Are Affected by This Strat? 

The most notable champion that has been abusing this strat is Janna. Ever since her changes in LoL Patch 12.02 she's been a solid support and is one of the strongest champions in the game. She isn't the only enchanter though who can abuse the smite and top lane combo. 

Karma and Zilean are also offenders, since they can speed themselves up to really run from lane to lane in hopes of a gank. So, your favorite support champions might be seeing a nerf in their near future. Riot has to fix this before Renata Glasc is relesed and she starts abusing smite as well.