Janna, Lulu, Zilean, Karma… all enchanter supports are crushing the top lane meta, even approaching a 60% win rate
Roaming enchanters in top lane (with smite) and completely abandoning their role — has made its presence felt yet again in season 12.
The nasty strategy, pioneered by former LCS top laner Lourlo, sees champions such as Janna, Karma, and Zilean take smite in the top lane and completely abandon the role to roam across the entire map to support junglers, secure objectives, and create a false loss for the team.
As a result of many players’ responses and frustration, League of Legends developers are on the case, and nerfs are already on the way. Janna, in particular, has reaped the benefits of this role-swap meta, with the champion reaching nearly a 60% win rate in high-elo.
Riot Games developer Matt Leung-Harrison acknowledged that his team is already working on fixes and apologized for the delay.
“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.”
Riot considered restricting each team to only one support item every match — one on each side — but abandoned the concept after seeing how effective it might be for trolls. Enchanters top is unquestionably a viable option till these promised nerfs are implemented.
Janna is still the clear choice for the strategy, but if she’s banned or chosen instead, champions like Karma, Zilean, Lulu have all appeared as viable choices for the approach as well.