Smitefire logo

Join the leading SMITE community.
Create and share God Guides and Builds.

Create an MFN Account






Or

Vote received! Would you like to let the author know their guide helped you and leave them a message?

Banner for Janus guides

DEITY Janus Mid

Mid Conquest
4 1 1,045
7.4
by Ragna_smite updated November 5, 2025

Smite God: Janus

Build Guide Discussion 0 More Guides
Ragna_smite's Featured Video
Show
Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Janus Build

Starter Build

Notes Sands of Time gives us good cooldown and mana regen for early game, this added to Mana Tome gives us close to infinite mana for the early game.

Aegis of Acceleration great relic for Janus as we have Through Space and Time for CC inmune, but not a way to tank huge damage abilities.

Notes

Sands of Time gives us good cooldown and mana regen for early game, this added to Mana Tome gives us close to infinite mana for the early game.

Aegis of Acceleration great relic for Janus as we have Through Space and Time for CC inmune, but not a way to tank huge damage abilities.

Build Item Sands of Time Sands of Time
Build Item Mana Tome Mana Tome
Build Item Health Potion Health Potion
2
Build Item Bifrost Shard Bifrost Shard
Build Item Aegis of Acceleration Aegis of Acceleration

Full build

Notes Pendulum of Ages, gives us a great amount of cooldown, one of the most important stats from a mage.

Necronomicon, one item that if we manage to stack would make us to deal crazy damage, if you already have a lot of stacks, try to play a bit more safe as if you die you will lose most of your stacks and damage because of that.

Chronos' Pendant, gives us a great amount of cooldown from stats and passive, this helps us to have our skills so often to scape, atack ....

Book of Thoth, this item will increase totally our amount of mana and because of his passive we will keep getting more inteligence for the rest of the game.

Rod of Tahuti, core item for every mage build, his passive increases a lot your damage.

Obsidian Shard, core item for every mage build, this item gives us enough penetration to be able to kill tanks.

Soul Gem, the reason for this item to be the last, apart from the stats that gives, its the damage we get from his passive being the maximun if we take it as the last item.

Notes

Pendulum of Ages, gives us a great amount of cooldown, one of the most important stats from a mage.

Necronomicon, one item that if we manage to stack would make us to deal crazy damage, if you already have a lot of stacks, try to play a bit more safe as if you die you will lose most of your stacks and damage because of that.

Chronos' Pendant, gives us a great amount of cooldown from stats and passive, this helps us to have our skills so often to scape, atack ....

Book of Thoth, this item will increase totally our amount of mana and because of his passive we will keep getting more inteligence for the rest of the game.

Rod of Tahuti, core item for every mage build, his passive increases a lot your damage.

Obsidian Shard, core item for every mage build, this item gives us enough penetration to be able to kill tanks.

Soul Gem, the reason for this item to be the last, apart from the stats that gives, its the damage we get from his passive being the maximun if we take it as the last item.

Build Item Pendulum of Ages Pendulum of Ages
Build Item Necronomicon Necronomicon
Build Item Chronos' Pendant Chronos' Pendant
Build Item Book of Thoth Book of Thoth
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti
Build Item Obsidian Shard Obsidian Shard
Build Item Soul Gem Soul Gem
Build Item Aegis of Acceleration Aegis of Acceleration

Situational items

Notes If you consider this build doesnt have enough cooldown you can change some of the items for one of these.

Spear of Desolation instead of Necronomicon for more early game damage.

Staff of Myrddin instead of Soul Gem for even more late game one-shot probabilities as if you use it with your ult you would have two Unstable Vortex.

Gem of Focus, if you want to have more cooldown and movement speed than the main build change Soul Gem for this item.

Notes

If you consider this build doesnt have enough cooldown you can change some of the items for one of these.

Spear of Desolation instead of Necronomicon for more early game damage.

Staff of Myrddin instead of Soul Gem for even more late game one-shot probabilities as if you use it with your ult you would have two Unstable Vortex.

Gem of Focus, if you want to have more cooldown and movement speed than the main build change Soul Gem for this item.

Build Item Spear of Desolation Spear of Desolation
Build Item Gem of Focus Gem of Focus
Build Item Staff of Myrddin Staff of Myrddin

Janus's Skill Order Notes We level up Threshold before Portal because of the scaling damage passive we apply to the enemies.

Notes

We level up Threshold before Portal because of the scaling damage passive we apply to the enemies.

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
Open a portal on a surface.
  • Hitting an enemy with both portals deals bonus Magical Damage.
  • This ability passes through and damages all enemies, and passes through walls.
Damage: 80 / 135 / 190 / 245 / 300
Damage Scaling: 60% Intelligence
Cooldown: 12s
Cost: 70
Unstable Vortex
1 3 6 7 10

Unstable Vortex

2 A
Launch two linked portals, dealing Magical Damage to enemies in their path.
  • Hitting an enemy with both portals deals bonus Magical Damage.
  • This ability passes through and damages all enemies, and passes through walls.
Damage: 100 / 165 / 230 / 295 / 360
Damage Scaling: 85% Intelligence
Secondary Damage: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Secondary Damage Scaling: 17% Intelligence
Range: 11.2m
Cooldown: 9s
Cost: 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90
Threshold
4 8 11 12 14

Threshold

3 B
Unleash a rift that Slows enemies and grants Movement Speed to allies who cross it.
  • Slowed enemies are Phased, causing your abilities to deal bonus Magical Damage. Magical damage you deal ignores 25% of their Magical Protection from your abilities.
  • Passive: You and allies also gain stacking Movement Speed when crossing the rift or passing through a portal.
Damage Scaling: 15 / 25 / 35 / 45 / 55% Intelligence
Slow: 25%
Slow Duration: 3s
Movement Speed: 15%
Buff Duration: 6s
Rift Duration: 3 / 3.5 / 4 / 4.5 / 5s
Range: 8.8m
Cooldown: 12s
Cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70
Through Space and Time
5 9 13 17 20

Through Space and Time

4 Y
Fire a global projectile that deals up to Magical Damage and opens portals for allies on any surface it passes.
  • You are CC Immune while firing.
  • Damage increases with distance traveled.
  • This ability passes through and damages all enemies, and passes through walls.
  • This ability cannot deal damage to enemies in the fountain.
Damage: 300 / 375 / 450 / 525 / 600
Damage Scaling: 90% Intelligence
Max Distance Scaling: 110% Intelligence
Distance for Max Scaling: 128m
Portal Duration: 10s
Range: 320m
Projectile Radius: 0.8m
Cooldown: 110s
Cost: 70

Janus Threats

Tap each threat level to view Janus’s threats

Max
1
Major
4
Even
1
Minor
1
Tiny
0

Janus Synergies

Tap each synergy level to view Janus’s synergies

Ideal
1
Strong
1
OK
2
Low
1
None
0

Introduction

Hi, my name is Ragna and I started playing Smite 1 on PC in 2021. I started playing in little community tournaments and after a lot of training and work I manage to play professional tournaments on Atlanta as the Smite Content Cup in 2024.

Now, in Smite 2 I have reached Deity every single split and I have competed in tournaments like Smite Vegas Qualifiers (ending in 5th position of EU) and right now Smite Prime, so Im always getting updated about the best metas on the game.

Apart from that I have a Twitch channel Ragna_smite where we play Smite 2 every single day and we do coaching for the subs to help them to improve on Smite 2, answering questions, talking about the game, etc.

Hope you find this guide as a good starting point for the midlane and helps you improve your Janus skills and knowledge.

Here are my socials:

Abilities

Janus' Abilities

Passive - Passages

Every time you go through a Portal or a Threshold, your next ability deals bonus Magical Damage. Stacks up to 2 times.

Advice: Use your Unstable Vortex or ult Through Space and Time after going through a threshold, keep your portals to scape.


Ability 1 - Portal

Unless you are on a safe spot, use it as a way to scape.

If you wanna use it as an offensive ability make sure you place it on a spot that closes one of the possible enemies scape paths.

Ability 2 - Unstable Vortex

Try to hit your enemies with both portals for more damage and use it behind a wall for more safety.


Ability 3 - Threshold

Use it on your teammates for a chase situation for movement speed or on your enemies for slow or even before using a damage ability for extra damage.

If you want to slow for more time your enemy instead of using it as an horizontal line, the enemy god would go through the line just once, use it as a vertical line, creating a situation in which if he keeps going straight forward he will be walking constantly through the Threshold making him to be slowed for more time.


Ultimate - Through Space and Time

Use it close to wall in which one of your enemies is close to, so he doesn't have time to react or even to rotate fast to help your teammates on the sidelines.

Before ulting try to realize in which way you hit more walls like that you will be able to use all the Janus ultimate potential, if you don't look for walls with your ultimate it would be like a normal portal.



Example Combos



In case you're in a safe spot: Portal -> Unstable Vortex

To engage: Through Space and Time -> Unstable Vortex

How to Play Janus

Gameplay Start / Early Game
  • Push first wave.

  • Go to your solo camps with your jungler, kill it and after that do the same with red (jungler takes the first red).

  • Go back to lane push another wave after that group up with your jungler and fight for neutral buffs.

  • From here onwards, we get more into Janus playstyle. At this point of the game, we don't have much damage, so we have to make sure to be efficient on our farm, looking always for backcamps to do, maybe invade some enemy camps and neutral camps(the most important ones).

  • Always use Portal to scape never on an offensive way and your Threshold to boost your movement speed so you farm faster, allowing yourself to reach midgame earlier than the rest of the players from the lobby.

Mid Game:
  • For a midlaner we get into midgame when we have 3 items from our build, at this point we have enough damage to kill a carry (jungler, mage, hunter).

  • We keep focusing on farm using our Portal and Threshold to use best Janus quality.

  • Apart from that we have to be always looking for rotations, maybe using Through Space and Time for crazy engages on sidelanes or even looking for solokills on the midlane.

  • Try to be always rotating (obviously while you farm) so you make teamfights easier to win because of superiority situations

Late Game:
  • At late game, as Janus we have damage to oneshot carries and besides, our kit of abilities is gonna allow us to be moving through the jungle easily making different plays like:

    • Looking to poke enemies.
    • Creating good situations to engage with Through Space and Time and oneshot some of them.
    • Trying to make them split to chase you, so your teammates can win easily the teamfight.

  • To sum up, always be behind walls to use Unstable Vortex and moving from site to site with Portal.

  • At fire gigant moment, you have to zone as much as you can with your abilities so your teammates can get a free fire.

  • If the enemies are the ones pulling the fire gigant, look for potential damage or even to steal it with Through Space and Time, remember you can easily scape with Portal.

  • At phoenixes, you have to play it similar as fire gigant situations, if you are the one sieging look to zone the enemy carries so your carries are free to take the objective, and if the enemies are the ones sieging look for a good ult, behind the phoenix wall, on enemy carries so they cant kill your phoenix

  • If you manage to master your rotations with Janus make sure, you will be a top Janus player.

How to ward as a Midlaner

Early/Mid Game



Here you can see the best spots to ward as a Midlaner.

These wards will help you to be safe during the first instances of the game, giving you the information about if your getting ganked from the solo or duo side.

Very Passive Situation



These wards will help you recover if you come from a bad spot i which maybe you are getting ganked a lot or invaded

Late Game



These wards are use to help your team on teamfight situations or fire gigant pulls, there are a lot of possibilities take those ones who you consider that suits the best to your game situation.

Siege / Defense Phoenix



For this situation there are only two main spots to have a ward, as you can see them rotating from one lane to the others, maybe you could even put one at lane to see if minions are approaching the phoenix but it isn't that important as knowing which lane they are going to siege.

As with that information you could be able to be on the right position before your enemies giving you a great advantage for the teamfight.

Regardless of the role, wards are the most important consumable you can buy, so don't forget to buy two wards after each back!

Leave a Comment

You need to log in before commenting.

Collapse All Comments

Loading Comments...
Load More Comments

SMITEFire is the place to find the perfect build guide to take your game to the next level. Learn how to play a new god, or fine tune your favorite SMITE gods’s build and strategy.

Copyright © 2019 SMITEFire | All Rights Reserved