In a game with 160 champions (including the soon-to-be-released Renata) and hundreds of items like League of Legends, unconventional playstyles have never been in short supply. However, they often only prove effective for a select few players and rarely become trends in solo rankings. For an unconventional playstyle to become a trend, it must possess some extraordinary strength to be utilized by players; one example can be seen in Corki building multiple AP items with devastating rockets.
Then the League of Legends community created a playstyle that seemed like a “troll game” but is, in fact, very effective: Top Lane Janna with Smite. The first player to come up with this idea was a gamer on the Western Europe server named HappyHappy2, who climbed to Master rank with an approximate win rate of 70% across two separate accounts. According to U.gg statistics, this playstyle currently holds the highest win rate in League of Legends at a staggering 55.96%. So, what is the real secret behind this playstyle?
The first thing we need to clarify is that although theoretically Janna will go Top Lane, in practice, the player will have to continuously roam and attack opponents. With the Smite spell, Top Lane Janna can easily steal resources from the enemy jungler. In this position, losing just 1-2 jungle camps or a single buff can significantly weaken you compared to your opponent.
This leads to the team with Top Lane Janna often having a significant advantage in the jungle position, which can be converted into major objectives and towers. Meanwhile, the trade-off is that the enemy’s Top Lane can farm freely. Remember that with the changes to the Teleport spell, the Top Laner typically does not move too early, and their impact is not very substantial in the early game. As a result, even if they farm well, if the other lanes are too weak, they won’t be able to achieve much.
Another factor we need to mention is the new Bounty system recently added to League of Legends in the Pre-Season 2022. Specifically, a team that is theoretically behind in gold when destroying a tower or taking a major objective will receive additional gold. This allows players who are at a disadvantage to still have a chance to turn the game around and secure victory.
Leveraging this, Top Lane Janna players can roam constantly to ensure their gold is comparable to that of a Support player. At this point, your team will always be considered at a gold disadvantage, while in reality, they are stronger than the opponent. Consequently, when your teammates destroy towers and major objectives, they will receive extra gold, creating a significant gap compared to the player in the same position on the opposite side.
To build an effective Top Lane Janna, you should choose the Iceborn Gauntlet rune page along with points like Future Market, Cosmic Insight, and Perfect Timing. For the secondary tree, you should select Domination with the Zombie Ward and Relentless Hunter points. These runes will help you roam for ganks quickly and create a significant snowball effect in vision against the opponent.
In conclusion, Top Lane Janna with Smite is a playstyle that exploits the sensitivity of the jungle position to render opponents ineffective in this role early in the game. It also takes advantage of the new Bounty system of Season 12 to funnel significant gold to the carries while Janna herself does not require much gold to be strong. If you are not skilled in laning but still want to win when playing Top Lane, Janna with Smite is an extremely reasonable choice.