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How To Portal With Janus

31 5 262,506
by RazeMage updated February 7, 2015

Smite God: Janus

Build Guide Discussion 26 More Guides
Choose a Build: Supporty-Carry
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Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Janus Build

Example Finished Build

Build Item Shoes of Focus Shoes of Focus
Build Item Chronos' Pendant Chronos' Pendant
Build Item Bancroft's Talon Bancroft's Talon
Build Item Gem of Isolation Gem of Isolation
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti
Build Item Obsidian Shard Obsidian Shard

Core when ahead

Build Item Chronos' Pendant Chronos' Pendant
Build Item Bancroft's Talon Bancroft's Talon
Build Item Gem of Isolation Gem of Isolation

Core when behind

Build Item Breastplate of Valor Breastplate of Valor
Build Item Bancroft's Talon Bancroft's Talon
Build Item Void Stone Void Stone

Always get

Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti

Situational

Build Item Obsidian Shard Obsidian Shard
Build Item Polynomicon Polynomicon
Build Item Soul Reaver Soul Reaver

Actives

Build Item Aegis Pendant Aegis Pendant
Build Item Greater Sprint Greater Sprint
Build Item Greater Purification Greater Purification
Build Item Combat Blink Combat Blink

Starting Items

Build Item Vampiric Shroud Vampiric Shroud
Build Item Shoes Shoes
Build Item Healing Potion Healing Potion
Build Item Mana Potion Mana Potion

Janus's Skill Order

Portal

1 X Y
Portal
2 15 16 18 19

Unstable Vortex

2 A B
Unstable Vortex
1 3 6 7 10

Threshold

3 B A
Threshold
4 8 11 12 14

Through Space and Time

4 Y X
Through Space and Time
5 9 13 17 20
Portal
2 15 16 18 19

Portal

1 X
Janus creates a portal in the world. If placed on a wall, the portal will create a passage through to the other side of the wall that Janus or any ally may use. The portal may be entered from either side, but closes after 1 use.

If placed on the ground, enemies and Janus will fall into the portal, being teleported into the air above it. Enemies take damage upon landing, and are considered banished during the fall.

Ability Type: Circle, Banish, Damage
Damage: 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 / 280 (+60% of your Magical Power)
Banish Duration: 1.5s
Wall Portal Duration: 5s
Wall Portal Range: 100
Range/Radius: 55/10
Cost: 70
Cooldown: 12s
Unstable Vortex
1 3 6 7 10

Unstable Vortex

2 A
Janus creates two tethered unstable portals, far too small to fit into, and flings them forward dealing damage to enemies in their path. Enemies hit by both portals take 15% damage on the second hit.

Ability Type: Area, Damage
Damage: 110 / 175 / 240 / 305 / 370 (+80% of your Magical Power)
Range: 70
Cost: 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90
Cooldown: 9s
Threshold
4 8 11 12 14

Threshold

3 B
Passive: Janus increases the movement speed of himself and allies each time they go through a portal or over a Threshold (max. 2 Stacks).

Active: Janus opens a multi-dimensional rift. Enemies who pass over the rift are slowed, and marked with Phase. Targets in Phase take additional Magical scaling damage when hit by Janus' damaging abilities.

Ability Type: Line, Buff
Phase Slow: 25%
Additional Scaling: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60
Rift Duration: 3 / 3.5 / 4 / 4.5 / 5s
Movement Speed: 10 / 12.5 / 15 / 17.5 / 20% per Portal
Passive Duration: 5s
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 13s
Through Space and Time
5 9 13 17 20

Through Space and Time

4 Y
Passive: Janus gains increased % Magical Penetration.

Active: Janus becomes CC Immune and blasts a ball of multi-dimensional energy across the battlefield, burning a portal into every surface it encounters within range 500. These portals last 10s, may be used by allies, and do not vanish after the first use.

Enemies hit take damage, increasing in Magical scaling the further the energy travels. Enemy gods cannot take more than 75% of their maximum Health as damage.

Ability Type: Line, Damage
Damage: 300 / 375 / 450 / 525 / 600 (+80% of your Magical Power)
Distance Scaling: 100% of your Magical Power at distance greater than 800
% Magical Penetration: 10 / 12.5 / 15 / 17.5 / 20%
Range: Global
Cost: 100
Cooldown: 110s

Welcome

WELCOME TO RAZEMAGE GUIDE FOR Janus, GOD OF PORTALS AND TRANSITIONS





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

Pros & Cons

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
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

Skills





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

Tips and Tricks
  • Before teamfight, you might want to use Portal/ Threshold beforehand. But make sure the skill is not in cooldown when it begins
  • Early in game, when 1vs1 somebody, when using a portal to damage enemy, you should enter it too to make your 2 also affected by your passive
  • The passive is best when used with 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.

Tips and Tricks
  • You can use a Portal to escape or to engage or even damage. Use it wisely because it has a long cooldown
  • Have a bit of delay and is very small. Put it where the enemy is walking instead of where they are currently standing
  • Downward Portal is much more useful than anyone thought. A special chapter is written below
    [*} You can put portal to the jungle, making enemy thought that you are going elsewhere, but instead, an ally come to gank the enemy. SURPRISE!!!




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

Tips and Tricks
  • It is almost impossible to use both vortexes to clear a wave. Use each vortex to clear the melee or the ranged.
  • Sometimes, if you are chasing an enemy, it is better to aim him with one vortex only, because if you try to aim both, it can miss more easily since the projectile is slow
  • You can use downward 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

Tips and Tricks
  • If you are chasing enemy and out of Portal or enemy is too far to be slowed, use it on yourself since it will boost you up and activate your passive
  • Try to hit it to all enemy so your abilities will deal more damage
  • Can be used for running too by using it on yourself and slowing enemy




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.

Tips and Tricks
  • If a teamfight occurs a bit far from you, use this to possibly damage enemy and to use the portal to enter the teamfight faster
  • If an ally is running away, you can aim it at them so your ally can use it to move home faster
  • Can be greatly used for splipushing or to gank other lane in a second from mid lane. Just don't use it when visible to enemy laner, so they can't warn their ally


Combo



The usual combo start with 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.

If the enemy hasn't die yet with that combo, you can try hitting them with Through Space and Time since it now still enable you to move.

If you want to deal lower damage because lack of mana, you can start with Portal and follow up with Unstable Vortex.

If you are chasing an enemy, a Threshold can be used for you only and you can use Portal to close the gap as Unstable Vortex already deal ton of damage.

Finally, in lane Unstable Vortex can be used both for clearing waves as well as poking enemies.

Items

Starting Items

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

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.

Sprint 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




Core

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

Shoes of the Magi

This 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

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

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

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

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

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

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




Situational

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.

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

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.




Actives

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

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)

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

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

Gameplay

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.

Support Guide

This is a small section to supporting as Janus

Support Janus Guide

Portal Guide

In 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)


Red


orange



yellow



green

Ending

Thank 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


Change Log and Credits

change log


credit

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Collapse All Comments

1
FemFatalis (15) | June 2, 2015 11:47am
However, Ares can go through Portals while channeling No Escape, as can Sobek while channeling Lurking In The Waters. Just a little tip for some cheese ultimates. :)
1
LazyFlow | June 2, 2015 11:37am
Ares' ultimate cannot be avoided through Portal, I've tried many times :-/ Great guide :D
1
Lordomi | May 16, 2015 10:57am
you forget Thanatos ult dodge. Frist time I played Janus i dodged Thanatos' Hovering Death with downward portal, so it didn't killed me.
1
ronanmcdean | April 23, 2015 2:55am
thats wrong (@ 2 posts up), obsidian shard doesnt work that way.
"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."
1
Fenek74 | February 16, 2015 5:45am
very good guide
1
xXObsidiaNXx | December 14, 2014 2:16am
Hey RazeMage great guide but i would just like to point out that the Obsidian Shard is almost pointless on the example build as it is just a power item in that case because: It gives +33% pen, however, since you are not using Shoes of the Magi, you have 0 pen, therefore you are gaining no penetration, as 33% of 0 is 0. Otherwise a great guide, will upvote. :)
1
yoavsnake (5) | October 12, 2014 10:38am
Why is Book of Thoth not here? It's fundamental for Janus with his extremely high mana pool and high scaling.
1
TheGamerVil777 | August 15, 2014 6:20am
You can't miss Ares ult if you portal yourself. I tried. I was banished and I wasn't even falling from the top portal and the ult pulled me in.
1
InfinityPvP (4) | June 30, 2014 5:58pm
Dear Mr. Raze
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 Gem of Isolation because Threshold already gives you 40% slow when it is maxed. But overall this is an amazing guide. +1
1
Pentargonite (62) | June 26, 2014 9:53pm
So since you updated it, I quickly looked over it again, and the one very important thing I'm missing is a combo section. Rest is fine :P
1
RazeMage (58) | June 23, 2014 11:21am
Thanks everyone, i will try my best to update this guide
1
LeonardMcCoy | June 23, 2014 11:01am
A few spelling/grammar issues aside, this is as much an exhaustive god guide on Janus as one can hope to get for both beginner and the more advanced players. I hope it gets updated regularly as we move along.
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