League of Legends Senna Champion Guide

Senna, the Reedemer, is a unique champion which is the very first to intentionally made to be both a Support and Marksman champion. With that said, her kit has been especially made to create a play style that is not intended to be that of a traditional AD Carry, but is heavily leaned towards being some sort of support carry. While this creates a very confusing path on how this champion should be played, this Senna Guide will help you understand what it means to play and master this champion in no time at all.

Senna: History and Gameplay

Senna has long been introduced as a character in the League of Legends lore as a major figure between the Lucian vs Thresh drama. This has led to the fans wanting the character of Senna being introduced in the game as a playable character and surely enough, in Riot’s 10th Anniversary announcement, Riot Games released an epic trailer which shook the community to its core.

Even though Senna was released to be a support, her role as a marksman urged players to play her as the main ADC, which was heavily abused by the player base due to her ability to stack Black Mist regardless on whether she killed a minion or not. With this, Riot Games slowly gave her multiple nerfs to emphasize her roles as simply a support carry (similar to the design of Pyke). This Senna guide will further expand on how players can fully unlock the potentials of this champion in-game.

Senna Guide: Skills and Rotations

Passive: Absolution

Weakened Soul – Senna’s basic attacks apply Mist on the target for for seconds. If Senna applies Mist again to the same target, she resets the targets stacks and applies 1-16% bonus Physical Damage to the target.

Innate – Enemy units which die near Senna have chance to spawn Mist Wraiths (minions which are not killed by Senna have a significantly higher chance to spawn Mist Wraiths) which Senna can destroy gaining 3 Gold and a stack for each. Each stack of Mist Wraith gives Senna +0.75 AD, for each 20 stacks she gains 25 bonus Attack Range and 15% Critical Strike Chance.

Whether you’re playing Senna as your main ADC or a Support Carry, you should always prioritize NOT hitting enemy minions to secure getting a stack of Mist Wraiths. You should always be accompanied by an ally champion so it’ll be faster to farm stacks to reach 100% Crit Chance and gain AD and Range.

Q: Piercing Darkness

Senna shoots a beam of light and shadow in a line after a short delay. Allies which are within the inner and outer range are healed while enemy targets within the inner range are damaged and are applied Mist. Piercing Darkness’ range increases per stack of Mist Wraiths.

Piercing Darkness requires the player to be wary of positioning. It’s best that you hit as many allies and enemies in the attack range as possible. Additionally, it’s best that you immediately get an Auto-Attack in after hitting an enemy with Piercing Darkness to maximize damage dealt with the Mist stacks.

W: Last Embrace

Senna shoots out a blob of Black Mist which deals damage and sticks to enemy units. After 1 second or after the unit dies, the mist spreads out and roots all nearby enemy units in place.

Try to hit high-priority targets with Last Embrace so your allies can follow up with the damage or a chain CC. It’s also a good idea to hit targets who are close to another enemy champion so that you’ll be able to get as many champions as possible.

E: Curse of the Black Mist

Senna surrounds herself with the Black Mist which camouflage herself and allies within the mist gaining bonus movement speed and making them unselectable for a short duration of time. This effect is removed when Senna uses another ability or basic attack.

This ability works best when your team is charging forward or when you’re trying to avoid single target abilities from hitting you. However, AoE abilities will hit Senna and her allies within the mist so be careful when you’re going to use this ability when facing specific champions.

R: Dawning Shadow

Senna fires a global railgun with an inner and outer range revealing the area where the shot passes through after a short delay. Allies within the inner and outer range gain a shield which gets stronger for each stack of Mist Wraith collected. Enemy units within the inner range take damage and gain Mist.

This ability requires the player to have a sense of Map Awareness and good prediction abilities. It is good to note that targets which are farther away will have longer time before the ability hits so that the targets won’t just walk through the ability. Additionally, prioritize using this ability during a fight, not when an enemy has low HP (be a team player not a KDA hog).

Item Builds

Whether you’re playing Senna as the main ADC or as a support carry, she will always have the same item path which makes it easy to build around her. What you need to take in mind though is that she’ll build slightly slower than most carries since she won’t be taking minions as much as possible.

Starting Items

Spectral Sickle – Spectral Sickle is probably Senna’s most important item. It allows her to gain Gold after landing an ability on an enemy champion. This means you’ll be throwing out your Piercing Darkness and Last Embrace as often as possible to get Gold and stacks.

Core Build

Frozen Mallet – Frozen Mallet makes Senna an annoying poke champion. This item ensures that enemy champions will always build some space around you or face getting slowed.

Black Cleaver – Being able to Cleave makes Senna fight toe-to-toe with tankier champions since she has both sustain and tankiness (thanks to Frozen Mallet and Black Cleaver). Phase also helps Senna kite enemy champions during extended fights.

Boots of Swiftness – Senna requires a lot of positioning changes to properly take advantage of her kit. These boots allow her to be able to get where she needs to be as fast as possible.

Recommended Items

Youmuu’s Ghostblade – Lethality is generally a good item for champions who make use of AD poke damage. However, the extra movement speed is the reason why this item is recommended.

Edge of Night – To further increase your lethality, Edge of Night gives a decent amount of lethality. Furthermore, it’s ability to block any incoming skills allows Senna to have a shield against CCs which might turn the tide of the game.

Duskblade of Draktharr/ Umbral Glaive – Just to further ramp up your Lethality lineup. You can choose this item to make your pokes more of a pain to deal with. This also helps you clear out wards and control vision.

Mortal Reminder – Grievous wounds is especially useful when the opponent has a significant lineup of healers or when champions with an innate heal or those that makes use of Conqueror get out of hand.

Rapid Firecannon – All marksmen should make use of Zeal items after the 10.11 update because of the increase in Movement Speed bonuses. Rapid Firecannon allows Senna to safely poke out enemy champions and apply as Mist as often as possible.

Redemption – Only build this item when you are extremely far behind, no other champion is building redemption, or when you are playing as a pure support.

Guardian Angel – Because, yes.

Best Laning Partners

As mentioned in this Senna guide, this champion is strictly limited to being a bot laner (either as an ADC or support). However, if you’re playing with a duo, these champion might make an effective laning champion to maximize Senna’s unique style.

As a Support

Aphelios – Aphelios compliments Senna’s scaling tempo. Senna players won’t have to worry going all out during the early game as you’ll both be busy trying to build towards the mid to late game before anything rash happens.

Ezreal – Ezreal is a very “in your face” opponent who requires landing pokes and is great at following up damage. Senna is able to sustain Ezreal as well as setup small fights in the bottom lane through her kit.

Yasuo – This lane prioritizes pushing out the opponent from the lane to monopolize the gold income and prevent the other bot lane duo from generating an advantage. Senna provides the needed sustain and follow up with the damage once Yasuo goes in.

Syndra – This champion provides a powerful scaling option for the bot lane duo. The chain CC can get you early kills and boost your lane extremely fast. Syndra also clears minion waves really quickly which allows Senna to farm faster than normal.

As an ADC

Lux – Lux has always been the support that has more kills than the ADC. She has an excellent scaling capability and is a good choice to give your creep waves to. This lane provides a lot of harass potential and a Level 6 lethal combo.

Maokai – Tank supports are great especially if you’re trying to build up a great wall to protect you. Maokai isn’t a traditional support but because Senna gives away her minion waves, Maokai doesn’t have to worry about building his items normally.

Ornn – Having Ornn as a support is only advisable if you REALLY want to have access to Ornn’s upgraded items in the game. Otherwise, the shared experience in the bot lane will slow down his ability to reach Level 13 faster.

Mordekaiser – Duoing with Morderkaiser means that you need to engage a fight as soon as he reaches level 6. Everything depends on whether or not he can get that Level 6 kill and snowball from there. If you’re not the type of person who likes to play aggressive, then I don’t suggest this combo.

Senna Champion Overview

Senna, unlike most ADCs in the Tier List, is still an excellent marksman. This is because she shifts the focus from herself and instead aims to scale alongside the laning partner which gives her more utility in game. However, due to recent nerfs, she has become really slow and will require more time for her to have a relevant impact in the game unlike those who are in other roles.

This champion requires you to be aggressive to land abilities to activate Spectral Sickle but will have to wait until she has 40 or more stacks until she can really pack a punch and start team fighting. In the early game, try to play the facilitator instead of an initiator to get a feel on whether your lane partner wants to go aggressive with you or not. Don’t ignore Mist Wraiths and urge your partner to get them for you as much as possible.

As mentioned, positioning is key for this champion which is why you should be able to find openings instantly as well as angles where you can abuse your abilities full potentials. If you’re only hitting one target with your skills then you are probably playing her wrong. Use your increased range, movement speed, and CC capability to seize an advantage during fights. Finally, NEVER GO ALONE or you’ll face more problems than you signed up for.