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Shoes of Focus
Chronos' Pendant
Bancroft's Talon
Gem of Isolation
Rod of Tahuti
Obsidian Shard
Chronos' Pendant
Bancroft's Talon
Gem of Isolation
Breastplate of Valor
Bancroft's Talon
Void Stone
Rod of Tahuti
Obsidian Shard
Polynomicon
Soul Reaver
Aegis Pendant
Greater Sprint
Greater Purification
Combat Blink
Vampiric Shroud
Shoes
Healing Potion
Mana Potion
Y
B
A
X
Janus, GOD OF PORTALS AND TRANSITIONS
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Who is
Janus?
Janus is a god of portals and is a mage in SMITE. He has a nice amount of damage and also some utilities. He could be used as a carry who is focused on dealing damage and last hitting gods or be used as a damaging support who deals some damage while providing utilities to his teammates
What is in this guide?
This guide will cover a lot about Janus from itemization, skills, gameplay and many more. If you like it, upvote will be a pleasure. So, enjoy it and give me feedbacks if there is something wrong with my guide. I love feedbacks
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Pros
+ High Base Damage on 2+ High Utility + Nice CC + Scale Well with Items + Worldwide Ult + Seriously, Portals Janus has a high damage both on base damage and scaling which makes him a great carry. Other than that, he has a high amount of utility and CC that can help his other carry and even help your tanks to land their CC and even giving kills potential to your assassins. Finally, his ult is worldwide and also provides portals which can be used to snipe enemy or chase enemy if it doesn't hit them
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Cons
- All Skills are hard to land- Land portal can mess up ally skills - Hard to catch up when behind - Very very long ult channel time
With all of his goodness,
Janus has his down too. All his skills are a hard skillshot which makes it hard to learn him. His CC is also unreliable and can even mess up his allies. If he get behind he has low damage. His ult also takes forever to be channeled making him unable to use it in teamfight. But, with much learning, we can ignore his weakness and be able to use him with his best potential
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Passages: Passagges is Janus' passive which is quite useful. If you are able to use Portal or Threshold before a fight, you will have more damage. This fits perfectly with his ult to enter a teamfight Portal/ Threshold beforehand. But make sure the skill is not in cooldown when it begins Unstable Vortex as both vortexes are affected, dealing max bonus of 37.5% magical scaling
Portal: Portal is Janus signature ability. BUT, you should ALWAYS maximize it last. This is a common mistake for most player that play him, maximizing it first or second. The damage scaling per level is meh and it is the only thing that is upgraded each level. [[Unstable vortex scales much better with lower cooldown and Threshold gives more utility when upgraded and even have about the same scaling of damage (when the mark is activated. Portal to escape or to engage or even damage. Use it wisely because it has a long cooldown Portal is much more useful than anyone thought. A special chapter is written below
Unstable Vortex: This is Janus main damaging ability and the bread and butter. Not much to say except the unique path it takes. It scales very good and cover a large area, so max it first if you are a mid laner Portal to set up an enemy to be hit by both vortexes
Threshold: This is a great utility skill. It can boost your movement speed, slows enemy even making your skill deals more damage. It's an AoE too. Max it second for more utility when playing mid or first when playing support Portal or enemy is too far to be slowed, use it on yourself since it will boost you up and activate your passive
Through Space and Time: This is Janus ultimate. It can deal burst damage to far away enemy, to build portal to run or to chase. You know have CC immunity on it so hit them on their face :D lol. Careful though, you don't want to die since the channeling time is long. Threshold since it is the easiest skill to hit and will make your other skills also easier to hit. Then go with Portal to make them unable to run so you or your teammates can get to them. Finally, try hitting the enemy with both of your Unstable Vortex. Through Space and Time since it now still enable you to move. Portal and follow up with Unstable Vortex. Threshold can be used for you only and you can use Portal to close the gap as Unstable Vortex already deal ton of damage. Unstable Vortex can be used both for clearing waves as well as poking enemies.
Starting Items
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Vampiric Shroud This is a really great starting item for any mage. It gives you that nice stats for a cheap price while also giving you a lot of sustain. Before your 2 can one shot a wave, learn to last hit a minion so you gain its passive and can sustain the lane more |
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Healing Potion/ Mana Potion Buy some potions so you can sustain in lane for sometimes longer. If you like to run out of mana, buy more mana potion. Meditation is not needed. While buying mana potion can be more expensive, it doesn't take any active slot. |
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Any Actives If you can sustain your lane more or their skills can cause you trouble, buy this with less potions. Sprint against early game jungler,  Purification Beads against  Ares roamer or any  Hades,  Aegis Amulet against  Vulcan or  Ao Kuang or  Poseidon. But never meditation. Buy mana potions if you want more mana
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Shoes of Focus Cooldown reduction is really great on Janus since he has so much utility to offer. Shoes of Focus is a nice addition to you cdr items. Every god should always have a boots/shoes/tabi too because the movement speed is very good. Shoes of Focus is good if you have many damage dealer as well in your team
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 Shoes of the MagiThis is an alternative to Shoes of Focus if you have less damage dealer in your team or you just want to deal more burst than more sustain damage or utility
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Chronos' Pendant Chronos' Pendant is good because it even serve more cdr since we are looking for more utility. The mp5 is really great too so you can sustain even more. Though, if your team is behind or the jungler is a dangerous assassin or enemy's hunter is snowballing, don't buy this, it offers no defense
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Breastplate of Valor If you want more defense and you are behind, this offers more defense than Chronos' Pendant. Though, it doesn't provide any power so make your choice wisely (damage or defense). It doesn't protect you from magical damage though
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Bancroft's Talon With the recent nerf to Polynomicon, Bancroft's Talon can be a better item for Janus. The power it gives is outstanding and it gives him lifesteal that help him to sustain in lane and win a duel
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Gem of Isolation Janus has 3 damaging ability which makes this item pretty powerful. His 2 can deal damage and slows them while his 1 deals damage at the end which is good because after they are banished, they are slowed. His ult damage will be able to slow enemy far away as well
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Void Stone Sometimes, after casting Portal you will get close to an enemy which can activate its passive. And most of the time you will use Unstable Vortex from a close range as well which is good. Though, ult will rarely have any use with this. But it offers some magical protection which is good if you are a bit behind
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Rod of Tahuti This is a must buy for any (at least almost all) mages. Not only it provides you with 100 magical power, it boost up your magical power by 25%. So if you have 400 magical power after this item's own power, it will give you even 100 more magical power (doesn't stack with itself). So, buy it |
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Obsidian Shard Late game, enemy will be pretty tanky. Buy this to ignore their magical protection. While it doesn't seem really good against other squishy, it is the only penetration item that is good for him (except shoes and voidstone]. You have no dot/small enough cooldown for spear of magus and you don't basic attack for  Demonic Grip.
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Polynomicon Though Polynomicon has been nerfed, it is still a viable item when you are trying to split push. If you are in a long game and it's a stalemate, buy this so you can splitpush better and win the game for your team
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Soul Reaver This is a good item against enemy adc that is pretty fed (lot of health, no protections) as it can burst them before they can deal any sustain damage. It is great against a warrior too. |
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Aegis Pendant This is a good item against any burst enemy mage ( Poseidon, Ao Kuang,  Ra, scylla, etc),  Neith. It can nullify their damage. Though you will still be cced. But i prefer this more than  Greater Aegis since you can move so you can make yourself in a good place to place a portal. Though Greater Aegis might be better against Poseidon or Ares and maybe Neith
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Greater Sprint Greater Sprint is good too because you will move with montrous speed when stacked with your Threshold passive. It is also great to escape many slow ( Ao Kuang,  Nemesis,  Kumbhakarna, etc)
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Greater Purification A pretty nice active when facing a hard CC enemy ( Ares, Hades, etc) thought, it won't stop the stop the damage. It can also be used offensively by reducing your cooldwon so you can instantly have 2 Unstable Vortex (with max cooldown reduction) or a portal ready at a faster time
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Combat Blink This isn't as good as other item since he already has his portal. Though, you can use it to blink so you can safely use his ultimate or to combat blink through  Odin's ult
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Time to learn how to play Janus in real game
Early Game
Early game is no big trouble for Janus. Take a point on Unstable Vortex for early clear and poke. Use Unstable Vortex to clear the waves. A great farming way with his 2 is to stand right by the side of the enemy melee minions and aim one of the vortex to the melee minions while the other one to the ranged minions. Try to last hit them so you gain health and mana from Vampiric Shroud. Do this so you level up.
Next, take a level on Portal for more damage in poking or escape a very early gank. Make sure you are safe if you want to use your Portal offensively.
At level 3, you can decide to either level up your Unstable Vortex or Threshold. If your enemy is a good pusher, leveling Unstable Vortex is a good idea so you can push at the same rate. Though if you are against a bad pusher, take a level on Threshold is a good idea for its utility. Keep farming safely and poke a bit overtime and take potions for sustain until you reach level 5.
Mid Game
If you reach level 5 without feeding the enemy, congratulation, you have reach mid game successfully. Your enemy laner and you might want to back now and regain some health and mana and buy items. Quickly rush your shoes (focus or magi) and maybe another tier 1 item or an active and get back to lane ASAP.
Now, you should be a bit more aggresive since if you can make them low, your ult can kill them if they are careless. Maximize Unstable Vortex for the best damage output.
The best thing about Janus is that he offers lane pressure to all lanes around him. If your teammate in other lane is in trouble, use your ult (if possible not seen by the enemy close to the enemy side towers and keep portaling there. You can also ult to trick enemy mid that you are going to other lane while meanwhile your jungler is coming through the portal to gank.
You can use your Portal> Threshold> Unstable Vortex to damage enemies. The banish from Portal and the slow from Threshold will enable your teammates to damage the enemies after your combo.
Finally, don't forget to keep your lane pushed to the enemy before helping other lane. If your lane is pushed to you, you might lose your tower and make your team in a worse position.
Late Game
Late game you should be fine if you are doing fine. Keep using your combo against reckless enemy and try to get objectives.
If you see your team is having a teamfight and you are not there, use your ult to their position and use the portals to transport there as soon as possible. Your ult is also a great finisher against running enemy. Though the channeling time is very long.
Janus is a great splitpusher using his Through Space and Time especially because we bought polynomicon.
Not much to say about late game other than, stick with your team (unless you are split pushing), use ult from far away (to fire giant if enemy is doing it), deal as much damage as possible from your combo especially spamming Unstable Vortex and try to get as many objectives as possible.
This is a small section to supporting as Janus
Support Janus GuideIn this chapter, i will discuss mainly on the subject of using Portal.
Many people don't use Portal to the best potential it could reach. Usually people just use it to pass through wall or damage enemy. But, you actually could use it by going downard with it to dodge many skills. In this chapter, we will discuss what skills can be dodged using Portal. Downward portal is very important in Arena because there is no wall to pass (just a little)
RedorangeyellowgreenCurrently mage only
redorangeyellowgreenThank you for reading this guide for Janus, the God of Portals and Transitions. If you see any mistake, please leave a feedback. Until next guide. Good luck and good game
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"This item does not increase your current Magical Penetration by a percentage of it, but makes it so that your magical attacks ignore 33% of your target's Magical Protection."
I would like you to update this guide because I must say this is an amazing guide. Janus now gets CC immunity on his ult. I am not a personal fan of