I initially had plans for a different build for this week, but some information came into light that made me reconsider that build, so I'm tabling it for now. Instead, I stepped up another build that I was planning on doing. Fortunately, this build is for a druid, which means I now only have an investigator build to complete before doing a build for every released class! It's worth noting that this build and the gear for it is picked in a vacuum without consideration for what adventure it may be in, so certain options might be better in specific situations.
With that out of the way, let's get into the build for Janna, the Storm's Fury from League of Legends!
JANNA, THE STORM’S FURY
CHARACTER Janna
SOURCE League of Legends
GOAL Janna is an ancient spirit of winds and weather who serves as a protector who has most recently been spotted in the seedy underbelly of Zaun. Janna is a ranged support champion that usually sees service in the support role, where she bolsters allies and hinders foes with her mastery over weather. She is typically seen wielding a staff that she uses to channel her magic. Janna’s passive is Tailwind, which increases ally movement speed towards her and increases damage of her attacks and her Zephyr based on her own bonus movement speed. Howling Gale creates a whirlwind that damages enemies and hurls them skyward, Zephyr passively grants her an air elemental that boosts her speed and can be activated to damage and slow a foe, and Eye of the Storm allows her to shield an ally while boosting their damage for its duration. Her ultimate ability is Monsoon, which pushes all nearby enemies away from her while healing all nearby allies over a short period.
LEVEL 1 As always, our build begins with our ABCs –ancestry, background, and class. To capture Janna’s long-lived feel and for the physical resemblance, we’ll take elf and then add the sylph heritage, intrinsically tying us to the winds and the weather. As a sylph, the low-light vision we get from being an elf develops into darkvision. Being an elf gives us automatic boosts to Dexterity and Intelligence with a flaw to Constitution. We’ll take our free boost to Wisdom. Our very first ancestry feat will be Swift, which grants us a 5-foot boost to our Speed, simulating the passive effects of Zephyr.
Like we did for Anivia, we’ll take the blessed background to capture the feel of channeling divine power since Janna is an ancient spirit of the winds. The first boost from this will go to Wisdom while the free boost will bump up our Dexterity. Depending on what setting you’re using, I’d argue for Gozreh Lore or Plane of Air Lore. Instead of receiving another skill increase or skill feat, we’ll be getting the guidance cantrip.
There were only two real classes I was considering for Janna – a tempest oracle or a storm order druid. You can probably guess by the formatting that I went with the latter. This gives us an automatic boost to Wisdom before we receive four more boosts that we’ll distribute to Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 10, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 18, Cha 12). Druids are automatically trained in Nature and our order makes us trained in Acrobatics. With the remaining skills we receive, we’ll become trained in Diplomacy, Medicine, Society, and Survival. We receive two more things from our order – the focus spell tempest surge that mimics the activated aspect of Janna’s Zephyr and the Storm Born class feat so that our gaze can pierce through weather conditions that normally hinder vision.
LEVEL 2 To fulfill her role as a support type character that has healing capabilities, we can grab Battle Medicine so that we can tend to the wounds of our allies mid-combat, even when we’re out of magic. No class feats really jump out to me as a must-have for Janna at this level, but Widen Spell works nicely enough especially considering that her Monsoon covers such a wide area.
Gear: dull grey aeon stone
LEVEL 3 As appropriate for a druid, we’ll start with a skill increase to Nature, bumping it to expert proficiency. By my reading, Fleet stacks with the Swift ancestry feat to bump our base movement speed all the way up to 40 feet.
Gear: +1 staff, dull grey aeon stone, ring of discretion
LEVEL 4 We can take Natural Medicine as a skill feat so that we can heal better in wild places and use our Nature skill in place of Medicine. Zephyr specifically states that Janna summons an air elemental, so I dig the Elemental Summons class feat, which allows her to take some time to swap out one of her prepared spells for a summon elemental spell of the same level.
Gear: bracers of missile deflection, +1 staff, hand of the mage, dull grey aeon stone
LEVEL 5 This first array of ability boosts will apply to Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 10, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 19, Cha 16). This time we’ll take a skill increase to Diplomacy to reach expert proficiency in that skill. For our ancestry feat, we’ll grab Elemental Wrath and pick electricity to give us access to more storm-themed spells.
Gear: +1 striking staff, bracers of missile deflection, bracelet of dashing, hand of the mage, dull grey aeon stone, ring of discretion
LEVEL 6 We’ll invest in some Diplomacy feats, starting with Group Impression so that we can Make an Impression on multiple people at once. Current Spell is a metamagic feat that allows us to siphon the winds from our spells to create a protective barrier around ourselves. While this is regrettably limited to only us, it’s similar in function to Janna’s Eye of the Storm.
Gear: +1 explorer’s clothing, +1 striking staff, staff of healing, bracers of missile deflection, hand of the mage, necklace of knives
LEVEL 7 With the ability to now improve our skills to master proficiency, the first that will get that privilege is Nature. The Feather Step general feat feels very appropriate for Janna and if it helps with the idea, think of it as the Flash summoner spell – moving very quickly while avoiding dangers.
Gear: staff of abjuration, +1 explorer’s clothing, diplomat’s badge, +1 striking staff, bracers of missile deflection, bracelet of dashing
LEVEL 8 Given Janna’s being as a spirit of the wind, Consult the Spirits skill feat feels appropriate as her calling upon her fellow spirits. For her class feat, I like Wind Caller, granting her the stormwind flight focus spell, which she can use to fly for short periods, like her characters does on Summoner’s Rift.
Gear: bottled air, primeval mistletoe, ring of electricity resistance, +1 explorer’s clothing, +1 striking staff, staff of healing
LEVEL 9 Another skill increase pumps Medicine up to expert proficiency. We can grab Wings of Air as our ancestry feat so that we can fly for short periods of time, for the same reason that we took Wind Caller.
Gear: +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, bottled air, boots of bounding, staff of abjuration, diplomat’s badge, +1 striking staff
LEVEL 10 Four more ability boosts, whoo! We’ll apply them to Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 10, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 20, Cha 18). We can change how the world around us behaves with the Influence Nature skill feat while Storm Retribution is a class feat that lets us use tempest surge as a reaction to push enemies away when they attack us, behaving slightly like her Howling Gale.
Gear: air elemental wayfinder, +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, greater staff of healing, bottled air, diplomat’s badge, +1 striking staff
LEVEL 11 This time around, we’ll apply this skill increase to Diplomacy, bumping it to master proficiency. While this only applies during exploration, Pick Up the Pace is a general feat that allows us to speed up our allies, like her Tailwind passive.
Gear: +2 striking staff, air elemental wayfinder, triton’s conch, +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, bottled air, boots of bounding
LEVEL 12 With the Continual Recovery skill feat, we can Treat Wounds more regularly. We’ll also pick up Primal Focus, which makes it then when we Refocus, we regain 2 focus points instead of 1, allowing us to more freely make use of our focus spells in combat.
Gear: +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, +2 striking staff, staff of nature’s vengeance, air elemental wayfinder, lover’s gloves, shock weapon rune
LEVEL 13 The next skill to get to master proficiency will be Medicine. With the Airy Step ancestry feat, we receive another reaction that’s slightly stronger than Storm Retribution, letting us step into fog or mist that grants concealment but that we can see through thanks to our Storm Born class feat.
Gear: +2 greater striking staff, +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, greater boots of elvenkind, staff of nature’s vengeance, air elemental wayfinder, triton’s conch
LEVEL 14 We’ll take another skill feat from the Diplomacy tree, this time grabbing Glad-Hand so that we can Make an Impression quicker though at a penalty. Timeless Nature is class feat that completely halts our aging process, adding to Janna’s timeless nature as a spirit.
Gear: spell-storing weapon rune, +2 greater striking staff, greater cloak of elvenkind, +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, staff of nature’s vengeance, druid’s vestments
LEVEL 15 This time around, we’ll take our ability boosts to Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 12, Dex 19, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 21, Cha 19). This skill increase applies to Nature, boosting it to legendary proficiency, which I’m mostly just taking because it feels appropriate for a druid and no others are really jumping out at me. Likewise, Breath Control is a general feat that makes us more resistant to inhaled threats and given its involvement with air, and because of how much time Janna spends around Zaun, I liked it.
Gear: +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, spell-storing weapon rune, greater cloak of elvenkind, +2 greater striking staff, greater boots of elvenkind, druid’s vestments
LEVEL 16 I’m not even sure this item is still in the game, but the Paragon Battle Medicine’s ability to remove certain conditions is akin to the effects of Mikael’s Crucible, a classic support item back when I played. On the offensive side, Overwhelming Energy allows us to bypass the resistances of our enemies with our spells, which is very handy when we’ll be focusing on specific elements.
Gear: greater shock weapon rune, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, greater staff of nature’s vengeance, spell-storing weapon rune, +2 greater striking staff, hummingbird wayfinder
LEVEL 17 We also get our Medicine skill up to legendary proficiency with this skill increase. By taking the Eternal Wings ancestry feat, we can make our ability to fly permanent. Nevermore shall we have to deign to touch the ground.
Gear: +3 greater striking staff, greater shock weapon rune, dragonscale amulet, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, spell-storing weapon rune, greater cloak of elvenkind
LEVEL 18 With the Legendary Medic skill feat, we can remove even graver conditions using just our skill in Medicine. With Invoke Disaster, we receive our final focus spell in the form of storm lord, allowing us to unleash the full fury of a storm.
Gear: headband of inspired wisdom, +3 greater striking staff, true staff of healing, greater shock weapon rune, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, major ring of electricity resistance
LEVEL 19 This final skill increase will see Diplomacy get up to legendary proficiency while our last general feat will be Incredible Initiative because it’s always helpful to have the jump on our enemies.
Gear: +3 greater resilient leather armor, headband of inspired wisdom, voyager’s pack, +3 greater striking staff, greater shock weapon rune, dragonscale amulet
LEVEL 20 This final set of ability boosts applies to Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 12, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 22, Cha 20). This skill feat has no real bearing on Janna’s abilities, but we got Diplomacy up to legendary proficiency, so we might as well make use of that with Legendary Negotiation. Finally, we can use Leyline Conduit from our class feats to cast a 5th-level or lower spell once per minute without spending a spell slot. Channeling this sort of power feels appropriate for a character that is supposed to be an ancient and powerful nature spirit.
Gear: +3 major striking staff, major staff of nature’s vengeance, +3 greater resilient leather amor, headband of inspired wisdom, moonstone crystal ball, orange prism aeon stone
CONCLUSION I know it looks like I missed out on a lot of Janna's abilities, but the truth is that many of them will be replicated through her spells. Howling Gale can be performed through punishing winds, the primal spell list affords us a slew of protective spells, and Monsoon is pretty much a three-action heal. I know I gave her a staff as a weapon, the runes of which would be on the magical staff she carries, but I imagine she'll be using cantrips between her more powerful spells during most combats.
Be sure to lemme know what you think of the build. Does it work? Does it represent the character? Would you ever use it? What other characters should I build?
If you want to join in on the discussion of these builds and the ones I do for monsters or just hang out with a bunch of fellow TTRPG nerd, check out the Discord server. We also have a Twitter where we try to post teasers for the blog and are trying to get some milestones made up for. The only class I haven't done a build for is investigator, but the next build probably won't be that because I want to try a build for another DbD character.
Have a fantastic Friday!
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