With “Support Item Sololane” adjustments set for League of Legends patch 12.4, is 'Smite Janna Top' finally being addressed?

While League of Legends patch 12.4 will put a larger focus on balancing champions next week, those will not be the only highlights of the new patch as Riot might address the 'Smite Janna Top' funnel exploit.

Over the last couple of weeks, top laners have been picking enchanters in the lane and slotting them with Smite, essentially exploiting the new bounty system that was introduced with the new season.

Whilst the strategy worked decently with almost any enchanter support like Lulu, Zilean, and Karma, it was Janna that made the most of it. The 'Smite Janna Top' funnel strategy soon became a staple in the higher ranks of solo queue, and the pick got quite close to achieving a perfect 60% win rate, the highest out of all the top laners in the game.

Fortunately, it seems that Riot Games is finally going to address the issue in patch 12.4, and as Riot Phlox pointed out in the above tweet, the next update will bring adjustments to support items for the solo lane.

---

Riot Games might finally nerf 'Smite Janna Top' in League of Legends patch 12.4

While it’s not yet certain the type of update that Riot Games will be looking to introduce to address the exploit, one fact is for certain that the developers are aware of the funnel strategy and will bring some much-required changes to it.

Recently, the design lead of the Summoner’s Rift team, Riot Phroxzone, opened up about 'Smite Janna Top' and mentioned that while it does require changes, the developers are not yet aware as to the type of tweaks that they should be introducing.

Phroxzone stated,

“We're aware that players are disappointed to not see a fix for roaming enchanter tops for the patch. It's something we've been prioritizing trying to solve. IF we're able to gain confidence in a solution, then our priority will be to try to get it out, but no plans as of yet.”

This is one of the primary reasons why League of Legends patch 12.4 will be targeting support items for solo lanes, instead of tweaking Janna’s kit directly. Hopefully, this will address the funnel strategy as much as possible and reduce its potency in the season 12 meta.