Smite Janus Build Guide: Janus, The 2-Faced Bastard

MFN

God Build Guides for Smite Play

MFN

Join or Log In

To Top

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

Account Login

Create an MFN Account

Social Login

Social Register

MOBAFire WildRiftFire CounterStats DOTAFire HeroesFire VaingloryFire RuneterraFire FarmFriends ForzaFire LostArkFire

Create Guides
- Create a New Guide
Guides & Builds
Gods & Database
Community
- Forums
- Blogs
- IRONMAN
- God Concepts
- Videos
- Streams
- Social Channels
  - Discord
  - Twitter
  - Facebook

Not Updated For Current Season

This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page

Vote Vote

by updated

Smite God: Janus

Choose a Build: Mid-Lane

Mid-Lane Builds Used By Pros

Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Janus Build

Start - Chronos' Pendant Rush

Notes helps with waveclear, while the potions are for sustain. will be upgraded to .

is a very useful item that provides a decent amount of magical power and high CDR. Great on any mage.

Mage's Blessing

Lost Artifact

Healing Potion

Mana Potion

Build #1 - CDR Rush

Rod of Tahuti

Chronos' Pendant

Shoes of the Magi

Soul Gem

Obsidian Shard

Soul Reaver

Build #2 - CDR Rush + Anti-heal

Rod of Tahuti

Chronos' Pendant

Shoes of the Magi

Soul Gem

Obsidian Shard

Divine Ruin

Situational Items

Notes gives extra CC, as he has very little in his kit. Replace for this.

provides extra penetration and CDR. Sell for this.

is useful if the enemy team has a lot of hard CC. This replaces .

counters slows. If there are enemy gods whose kits rely on slows, purchase this. is replaced by this.

Gem of Isolation

Spear of Desolation

Magi's Cloak

Winged Blade

Relics

Purification Beads

Aegis Amulet

Consumables

Notes *Shoes should be sold for and a situational item

Healing Potion

Mana Potion

Ward

Potion of Magical Might

Elixir of Power

Elixir of Speed

Janus's Skill Order

Portal

1 X

2 8 11 12 14

Unstable Vortex

2 A

1 4 6 7 10

Threshold

3 B

3 15 16 18 19

Through Space and Time

4 Y

5 9 13 17 20

Janus Threats

Tap each threat level to view Janus’s threats

Max

Major

Even

Minor

Tiny

The Beginning

is one of the most widely worshipped gods, having multiple rites and temples to his name. He's a utility mage with high damage and a strong teamfight presence. is mostly known for his s and an ultimate that can go through the whole map. He has two faces to represent his duality, although it's shown but not in a very noticeable way; which in my opinion is a waste.

Pros and Cons

Pros

High Utility
Can teleport the entire Team
Good Waveclear
Very long-distance ultimate
Can snipe enemies across the map
Can go through walls

Cons

Relatively low-mobility
Unstable Vortex has an odd aiming-thing
Squishy

Abilities

Passive: Passages

Makes abilities deal more damage than usual. If you want to activate it use . Save for something else unless necessary.

Portal

Use this to help allies escape through walls, set up kills, or escape. This skill is like 's . This means if you place the on the ground and go through it while someone tries to deal damage to you, it would be avoided. This takes timing and practice of course.

Keep in mind that it takes time for the portal to be placed and you to get in it. As Hi-Rez has said before, every ultimate ability has a sound effect that will allow you to predict what will happen.

An interesting fact is that some gods like , , , , and others can go through portals while using their ultimates. This provides a high gank potential. It also means that in arena you can pair up with an to ult and drag enemies into based. Don't forget to spam laugh. Non-ultimates like 's can as well.

You can find the full list of what can and can't here.

Unstable Vortex

This is your wave clear and main source of damage. Its easy to miss due to it's curvature. Try to get both energy balls to hit the target. It'll deal a lot more damage. When aiming for a moving target, keep in mind that is relatively slow. Always account for speed and distance. If hitting a minion wave ahead of you fire the ability when the minions are roughly 1.5 es away. Late game this has the potential to wipe out half of an enemy god's health.

Threshold

Use this to slow enemy gods or buff yourself to activate . It'll make your abilities easier to hit in addition to dealing more damage. Also useful for escaping with your team and making lane minions go faster. Use this to activate your passive so you can save for another day.

Through Space and Time

Deals a lot of damage from quite a far distance. Aiming and timing is hard. Use this to get your entire team across the entire map. Or, save an ally who's being chased by the enemy team. Beware though, there's a 1 second delay before the ultimate is fired.

Another use for this is ganking another lane to help out. Try to aim for the enemy god. IF you didn't hit him/her, that's fine. Why? The damage was just one part of why you did it; teleporting over there to help secure a kill therefore putting that said teammate slightly ahead is another part to the equation.

Ability Combos

You might want to go over first to activate your passive. Place a on a spot where you think the enemy will step into. When they fall back down from the portal use on them, but wait for the delay. Try to get both energy balls hit.

Health Threshold: Any

This one's a bit more difficult. As soon as the target falls in the immediately begin charging . Aim and fire.

Health Threshhold: Medium to Low

Playing in the Mid Lane

Early Game

You should always leave base before the first wave of minions spawn. At level 2 after activating your passive through , should deal around 35% of the enemy Mid Laner's health. Sometimes, your jungler may want to play aggressive. If so, try to adopt to his/her play style.

After leaving base head to the Speed camps with your jungler. Cast unstable votex on the camp, with the two spheres intersecting on the target. The jungler will eventually come for the Damage camp. Clear it with him for the exp. I suggest you ward because has a difficult time escaping ganks.

Mid Game

This is when Mid Laners like begin to blossom. Be careful of ganks from the enemy jungler. Counting to buy wards. Don't forget to look left and right. Why? If your Duo Laners or Solo Laner has weakened the enemy to low health, a well-aimed and well timed will finish them off. At around 20% health is when they can be instantly killed. Quite satisfying.

If the enemy Mid Laner exits lane call MIA. If the enemy tower is at low health and they rotate take the chance at finish it off. With the help of minions of course. If the tower is at high health you can either choose to damage it more or help your allies.

Sometime, your teammates may want to secure objects and may need your help. You should go help them unless the enemy Mid Laner is putting pressure in your lane.

Late Game

Place a on the Fire Giant if someone hasn't already done it. By now, your team should have a few towers down. If there are remaining towers or weak pheonixs group up to push the remaining towers/phoenixs.

If the enemy Titan is weak tell your teammates to group up. Use and aim it at the enemy Titan. You should've traveled more than half the map. Ward behind you to warn you of anybody. There may be some players defending. Ward on the lanes as well so you can see if anyone is trying to backdoor the Titan.

Map for Warding

Ward North-East and North-West of your T2 Tower for early to mid game. This is to prevent early ganks, which can easily put you behind. Later in the game ward the Fire Giant if no one else has done it yet.

Changelog

23/6/2017 - Guide created, Removed Book of the Dead
20/1/2018 - Updated for S5, Replaced starter items, Removed Rod of Tahuti from main build
4/7/2018 - Added pro builds
1/9/2018 - Shifted items chapter into items notes, Updated builds, Updated pro builds, Rewrote introduction, Added change-log, Reformatted pros and cons section
24/11/2018 - Swapped item positions of Divine Ruin and Spear of Desolation in Build #4, Updated description for Build #5
23/2/2019 - Changed name of gameplay stages, updated playing in the mid lane, removed Start #2, removed all stack based builds, updated Builds #1 and #2

The End

End of the guide. I will update it as often as I can. In the "Builds Used By Pros" section, please be aware that what may be viable in the SPL wouldn't necessarily be viable in normal ranked conquest. Feedback is appreciated. Feel free to ask me for any specifics.

Thanks to Kriega1, Branmuffin17, and Gulfwulf for their feedback.

You need to log in before commenting.

Collapse All Comments

(143) |

You haven't mentioned and boots replacements.

(143) |

"Updated May 11th" - no mention of .

(17) |

Sorry - must've slipped my mind.

(17) |

Season 6 is gonna kill me

(143) |

Why is that?

(17) |

A lot to update

Load more comments (5 more replies) →

(81) |

You'd better get started then.

(17) |

No u better start then

(81) |

Start what? I never said I was going to update this guide. :P

(17) |

Hey that's means I can say it to Bran

(394) |

I don't get it...

(143) |

Swap the order of divine and deso in build 4.

Also for build 5, I don't think you should build magi's on Janus most of the time, unless it was like Ares + Da Ji + some1 else to burn beads. Im pretty sure banish on the ground can save you being pulled in as well.

Also add some pro builds from here: https://smiteprobuilds.com/Builds?p_filters_page=1&p_filters_search=&p_filters_god=1999&p_filters_pro=~&p_filters_opponent=~&p_filters_role=~&p_filters_league=SPL&p_filters_sort=~

(17) |

Will do, thanks!

(143) |

I would really not get Bancrofts, pythags, or warlocks on Janus. Ethereal Staff and Doom Orb are trash items on him.

Book of Thoth isn't awful on Janus but I believe the Chronos' Rush build is still best on him, especially due to that earlier cdr.

So what I would build: , , , , and lastly either or .

(And obviously start is mage's blessing, lost artifact, 2 health pots and 2 mana pots, though you could also go with tier 2 boots, lost artifact and a multi or mana pot)

If you really wanted Book of Thoth (not much point) then im thinking: , , , , , .

(Start is same as you shown but get 2 mana pots instead of 2 health pots).

I would also remove the Wlfy build because ethereal staff is no longer relevant on Janus.

(17) |

wrote:

I would really not get Bancrofts, pythags, or warlocks on Janus. Ethereal Staff and Doom Orb are trash items on him.

I'm guessing that this is due to how lifesteal works. Agreed, will remove those as options.

wrote:

Book of Thoth isn't awful on Janus but I believe the Chronos' Rush build is still best on him, especially due to that earlier cdr.

So what I would build: Shoes of the Magi, Chronos' Pendant, Soul Gem, Obsidian Shard, Soul Reaver and lastly either Rod of Tahuti or Divine Ruin.

This seems like a good idea. As you can tell I'm kind of slow in regards to the meta lol.

wrote:

I would also remove the Wlfy build because ethereal staff is no longer relevant on Janus.

Damn you quickly changing meta.

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it

(46) |

(17) |

tanks

(143) |

Your Zyhroes and Hurriwind builds are exactly the same. Also your start doesen't need wards that early.

I would use as a starter instead: , , 2x and 2x and then go into the Zyrhoes/Hurriwind build.

(17) |

The Zyhroes and Hurriwind builds are mostly there to show the similarities between pro builds. In this case I believe that they had the same end build(?).

As for the starter, I'll add that.

Thanks!

(81) |

The problem with copying pros is that they generally have a specific strategy in mind and can communicate with each other to implement it. I'd look at pro builds for inspiration, but I wouldn't follow them down to the item purchase order.

Load more comments (1 more replies) →

(17) |

True

(143) |

Yeah purchase order for two same exact builds is pointless. If they were different builds fine, but they're not.

(17) |

Should I still merge it even though the order in which they purchased the items are different?

(143) |

I would yes. Just keep the build order of one of them between the two that you prefer.

(17) |

Thanks again!

(143) |

Don't get 40% CDR in your example build when power pot exists - that gives 10% CDR. Switch for in your build example.

(17) |

Thanks for the feedback. Didn't see yours and bran's from last month, sorry about that.

(17) |

Any feedback is appreciated, unsure what to replace with. Would do orb be acceptable due to the fact that it's relatively easy (But risky nonetheless) to build stacks?

(143) |

Replace with either: , , , , or . e.g. , , , , , . Also you don't really need wards at levels 1 to 5 in mid, just be careful and don't push too much in lane, get wards after your first back or later in the match.

(394) |

Yeah, I think is functional, but it's usually something you'd get early game (great for the T2 bridge price). You could consider it even in place of if you went that direction...similar stats (power, MP5, mana).

If you prefer for a specific match, it's less of a substitution option, since it doesn't have the survivability.

I wouldn't call it a risky item...it used to be, but now the stacks are temporary (and max stacks low). Its gameplay potential is more in line with clearing individual waves/camps and using the MS and power boost it provides to play aggressively on the enemy or get an advantage when rotating.

You'd generally replace it late.

(143) |

Good guide, though for the builds I dont think Janus really benefits from the passive of Book Of The Dead at all due to the way its activated (Not a good item on Janus) , and Bancroft's is good for the price but the lifesteal is not that relevant to to Janus (Though its ok I guess). You could also have Ethereal Staff, Soul Reaver, Dynasty Plate Helm, Doom Orb and Shoes of Focus as alternative items as they can work quite well on Janus. Finally, your start could benefit from potions, even if you have vampiric shroud, you still lack a bit of sustain, I suggest changing your start to allow you to have more gold to have a minimum of 1 or 2 health potions and 1 or 2 mana potions (Though with Sands of Time you can probably forget about mana potions).

(17) |

Thanks for the advice! What do you think I should get instead of bacrofts for lifesteal? And, aren't items like a Ethereal Staff and Soul reaver usually for guardians??

(143) |

No, Ethereal Staff has 90 power, health and a mini soul reaver passive. Soul Reaver is a high power luxury item for high burst damage with the true damage on the passive. Those items are meant for mages not guardians. To be honest, I wouldnt get any lifesteal item on Janus he dosent need the stat as all his abilities are burst abilities that dont function well with it, Bancrofts is still an ok choice though because early game its gives 100 power at a cheaper price than other high power items, if you really want lifesteal on Janus (Which you should not) then get Bancrofts like second item or third. An ideal Janus build could be: Pen boots (sell for cooldown boots lategame), Book of Thoth, Spear of Desolation, Chronos Pendant, Obsidian Shard, Rod of Tahuti. Or another example: Pen boots, Doom Orb, Dynasty Plate Helm (sell for ethereal lategame), Obsidian Shard, Rod of Tahuti, Spear of desolation.

Load more comments (2 more replies) →

(11) |

What would the best starter item be for janus?

(143) |

Probably , because is too risky on for the first couple of levels.

(17) |

Doom orb can be a replacement for book of Thoth right?

(143) |

Yes, but you can always sell Doom Orb lategame if you have leftover gold for another high power item.

(17) |

Thanks again!

(17) |

Hey @Krieg1, which items would I replace for soul reaver and ethereal staff?

(143) |

Replace either Book of Thoth or Bancrofts for Ethereal and Spear of Desolation for Soul Reaver, (though Spear of Desolation is a good item still) .

I will give 2 build examples: Pen boots, Book of Thoth , Ethereal , Obsidian , Spear of Desolation, Rod of Tahuti. Or: Pen Boots , Bancrofts, Ethereal Staff, Obsidian, Rod of Tahuti , Soul Reaver.

Of course though , cooldown boots can be good on Janus lategame, and Chronos' pendant is also very nice on him as well due to the cooldown reduction.