League of Legends: What to know about reworked Janna and Tahm Kench

League of Legends (LoL) is going full speed ahead with Season 2022, with the introduction of this year's first new champion, Zeri, as well as adjustments to the Hextech and Chemtech dragons, and a myriad of other balance changes.

While all the aforementioned changes were exciting, what has gotten some heads turning is the release of reworked champions. With some of the champions on the Rift becoming outdated over time, players have long been asking the developers to update some of their favorites and make them competitive once again.

Patch 12.2 dropped the first two champion reworks: The Storm’s Fury, Janna, and the River King, Tahm Kench. After some adjustments, playtesting on the Public Beta Environment (PBE), and feedback, Riot has finally revealed the reworks.

Let’s break down the biggest changes to these two champions:

Janna

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The Storm Fury Janna got a champion makeover on the Rift. (Image: Riot Games)

Janna is one of the classic support picks, but she hasn’t really gotten any updates since patch 10.11 two years ago. Since then, playing Janna hasn’t been as fun as it used to be, even if she managed to keep a respectable 51.02% win rate.

Compared to other enchanters, Janna hasn’t been able to shine as much, even though her ability to poke at enemies can be quite useful. She wasn’t the best healer (we had Soraka for that) nor was she the best in crowd control and shielding.

The developers made sure that the new Janna changes all that, without taking away from her “classic playstyle and identity.” The focus of the update was to highlight Janna’s shielding and peel as well as make her a premium pick in the bot lane once again.

Base Stats

(+) Movement Speed: 315 à 330

(+) Base AD: 46-71.5 à 52-103

(+) AD Growth: 1.5 à 3

(-) Basic Attack Range: 550 à 500

Passive – Tailwind

Tailwind: Janna gains 8% bonus move speed only while moving toward allied champions. (Bonus move speed for allied champions moving towards Janna unchanged.)

FAST & FURIOUS (Removed): Janna's basic attacks and W – Zephyr no longer deals bonus magic damage based on her bonus move speed

Q – Howling Gale

This is one of the best changes to The Storm’s Fury. Janna’s Q ability seems to drop smoother than before, and a .25-second buff in her time to destination makes it much easier for Janna players to harass their opponent.

Apart from that, the increased range of this tornado changes the way players can use her on the Rift, moving from using it primarily as a defensive move to something that can also be used offensively to push a lane forward, disrupt the enemy skills, and more.

(+) Mana Cost: 60/90/100/120/140 à 60/70/80/90/100 mana

(+) Minimum Range: 1000 à 1100

(+) Maxium Range: 1750 à 1760

(+) Time to Destination: 1.5 seconds à 1.25 seconds

W- Zephyr

The changes on W haven’t been as mind-blowing as Q, but generally, Zephyr has still improved by a mile.

The increase in the Slow duration can make all the difference in team fights, and allow your allied damagers to take down the opponent.

The W skill also deals more damage and gives Janna more bonus move speed.

(+) Range: 550 (from edge ot edge) à 650 (centered)

(+) Slow Duration: 2 seconds à 3 seconds

(-) Cooldown: 8/7.5/7/6.5/6 seconds à 12 seconds at all ranks

(+) Base Damage: 55/85/115/145/175 à 70/100/130/160/190

(+) Bonus Move Speed: 6/7/8/9/19% à 8/9/10/11/12%

E- Eye of the Storm

Although there’s a nerf on the Shield itself, all other changes are quite positive. Janna players can use this skill more often with the shorter cooldown, and the shield lasts much longer than it used to.

A friendly Forecast (Updated): Innate – Whenever Janna's abilities slow or knock up at least one enemy champion, she receives +20% heal and shield power for 5 seconds.

(-) Shield: 80/115/165/220 (+70% AP) à80/110/140/170/200 (+65% AP)

(+) Cooldown: 16/15/14/13/12 seconds à15/13.5/12/10.5/9 seconds

(+) Shield Decay Starts after: 0.75 seconds à1.25 seconds

R – Monsoon

Healing Tick Rate: 0.5 seconds ⇒ 0.25 seconds (total heal amount unchanged)

Tahm Kench

The Kench has been unbenched from the Support Role. (Image: Riot Games)

Tahm Kench’s last rework was more recent (11.13). The dev team wanted to lower his priority in pro play but keep him competitive in the top lane because “historically, his top lane win rate has been higher than that of his support.”

This year’s rework wanted to give a chance to support Tahm Kench players who miss playing him in that role, all while still keeping his priority in pro pick-ban rates fairly the same. And after some more tweaks, they’ve decided to buff the River King as support and nerfing his other abilities to “keep him in check up there.”

This is good news for Kench supports who missed him, but pretty bad news for Kench top laners, given that there are other item and champion buffs that can affect his role in the Baron lane. We’re also hoping while these changes still would keep his pick-ban rate good, these would be enough to un-bench the Kench in League tournaments.

Q – Tongue Lash

(+) Enemy Slow: 40% à 50%

E – Thick Skin

(adjustment) Amount of Damage Stored into Grey Health: 45/50/55/60/65% à 15/25/35/45/55%, increased to 45/50/55/60/65% if there are two or more visible enemies nearby (dead or alive).

(+) Amount of Healing Restored From Grey Health: 30-100% (levels 1-18) à 45-100% (levels 1-18)

R – Devour

(+) Ally Shield Upon Devour: 400/500/600 (+100% AP) à 500/700/900 (+150% AP)

(adjustment) Move Speed upon Devouring Ally: Slows Tahm Kench by 30/20/10% while ally is swallowed à Grants Tahm Kench 40% move speed for 3 seconds (regardless of swallow duration).

For more details on Patch 12.2, check out this article.

Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.

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