A quick guide on what runes you should take, and what to build.
Items
Hybrid
Pure Damage
Support
Kraken
Rune Pages
Pick your poison.
Fleet Footwork
First Strike
Grasp (Off-tank)
Ability Order
Standard
Senna
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Intro:
I am cinnamintRoll and I currently have 240k Mastery Points on Senna. I enjoy theorycrafting and optimizing builds. So here I am, presenting this to you.
Enough about me, let's talk about [Senna, The Redeemer].
Senna is a highly versatile champion that has went through numerous meta builds.
From the classic 'Lethality Senna' on her release date, The Tanky 'Frozen Mallet Senna,' The On-hit 'Kraken Slayer Senna,' the return of another tanky build in the form of Iceborn Gauntlet, and with the recent AP Scaling buffs-- enchanter Senna is more powerful than ever.
Which makes her fit many different playstyles and can easily be blind pickable in solo queue lobbies. Through this guide, you may find the optimal build and possibly find the
Senna
that fits your playstyle the most.
Senna's Versatility Limitation
To prevent
Senna
from being TOO versatile than how she already is, there are some limitations on her kit that will prevent you to just close your eyes and pick up a random item.
Low Attack Speed Scaling
- this prevents her from building like a traditional ADC. Attack Speed's value is automatically lower when bought for her compared to other ADC's. She is also unable to utilize on-hit items because of this.
Low Critical Damage
- Paired with her slow attack speed, she has lower Critical Damage modifiers compared to other ADC's. This is to balance her since she scales Critical Strike Chance via her passive 'Absolution.'
With this in mind, what is good for Senna?
Lethality and Armor Penetration
-
Senna
already scales with Attack Damage, giving her Lethality will provide her with explosive damage and even more healing as her Q increases with Lethality.
Ability Haste
- Having more access to your heals, CC, MS, and a large beam of damage and shields means you're being useful for the team. And possibly getting more stacks for your damage.
Health and Resistances
- Not dying and being able to do more aggressive plays can net you more souls in the long run, and for a squishy champion like... a few hundred HP can mean life and death for her and her team.
If this is true, why was Kraken Slayer a build for her?
- Kraken Slayer Senna rose to popularity back in the day when she received an attack speed scaling buff back in the day whilst she was identity issues whence the Season 11 item rework came. It was the best Senna had, and as people learned to adjust to Season 11, we eventually strayed away from it.
Runes Breakdown
Fleet Footwork
First Strike
Grasp of the Undying
Fleet Footwork
First Strike
Grasp of the Undying
- Fleet Footwork is easily utilized by Senna due to her long range.
- It also helps her get through laning phase with the heals and extra bursts of movement speed provided by the rune.
- The movement speed also lets her collect souls from enemies, helping her scale faster.
- Helps in kiting in the late game.
Presence of Mind
provides
Senna
with extra mana since she is incredibly mana hungry. Alternatively, you can take
Overheal
.
Overheal
can replace PoM when planning to build
Moonstone Renewer
and/or
Redemption
since these items solves your mana issues in the mid to late game. This will help you survive burst. And
Senna
can easily apply
Overheal
to herself.
Senna
scales badly with Attack Speed from
Legend: Alacrity
and she already heals herself making
Legend: Bloodline
a bit redundant.
Legend: Tenacity
can help her get through some crucial situations that may help save your life just by one Q. Alternatively, you may use
Legend: Bloodline
when enemies don't really have any CC, The second best option will be this rune.
Senna
has one of the lowest HP in the game, when not planning to build tank items, you may gain lots of value from this rune. Even mages in Season 11 get a good amount of HP in their items nowadays. Alternatively, you may use
Coup de Grace
, it is a standard keystone, everyone gets low HP sometimes
thus-- will be useful at least a couple times in game.
Nimbus Cloak
was once a staple pick for ADC’s two seasons ago. When games actually lasted long for
Gathering Storm
became useful.
Nimbus Cloak
was there for survivability. That burst of movement speed when flashing in for a kill and healing for safety was extremely useful.
Nimbus Cloak
provides
Senna
with extra survivability to stay alive as a champion with one of the lowest base HP in the game. Combined with
Celerity
, you have access to a an even larger boost in movement speed for those clutch plays.
Celerity
provides Senna extra movement speed that can help collect souls safely, roam faster and kite better. Her kit has synergy with
Celerity
, as her passive provides her 10/15/20% of the enemy’s movement speed.
Curse of the Black Mist
also provides her with 20% extra movement speed. Combined with
Fleet Footwork
,
Nimbus Cloak
and
Black Cleaver
on the
mid-to-late game, you’d be hard to catch with your high range and your quick
footwork. Just makes sure to kite properly…
- Recommended against Short-ranged matchups and/or Opponents with weak early games. You can easily poke them and cash in via First Strike.
- Works well with the Lethality build as this is a Burst Rune.
- Helps you scale into late game via gold generated. Which can be crucial as a support.
Allows Senna to reach her powerspike earlier. Not needing to spend 300G on Boots can be crucial for a support that does not receive much gold from CS. It also gives an additional 10 movement speed that can aid Senna’s kiting-heavy playstyle.
Biscuit Delivery
provides early game sustain for
Senna
, allowing her to back on optimal times.
Senna
can also easily convert the mana provided into HP for her and her teammate through
Piercing Light
allowing both to have optimal back times. This rune is especially useful against Poke Champions.
Future's Market
is also a great alternative if you don't need the extra sustain. In lanes where you can easily bully your enemies, or when they are playing extremely safe. This can help you gain access to items quicker for faster power spikes. This rune provides you with lots of value so long as you’re not excessively going in debt. Aim for 150+ gold debt or when you’re buying an important item like a Mythic, Legendary, or in some cases a component like
Serrated Dirk
which may provide you a significant powerspike in lane.
provides
Senna
with extra mana since she is incredibly mana hungry. Alternatively, you can take
Overheal
.
Overheal
can replace PoM when planning to build
Moonstone Renewer
and/or
Redemption
since these items solves your mana issues in the mid to late game. This willhelp you survive burst. And Senna can easily apply
Overheal
to herself.
Senna
of the lowest HP in the game, when not planning to build tank items, you may gain lots of value from this rune. Even mages in Season 11 get a good amount of HP in their items nowadays. Alternatively, you may use
Coup de Grace
, it is a
standard keystone, everyone gets low HP sometimes thus-- will be useful at
least a couple times in game.
- Outdated but still usable. Recommended to use with tankier builds.
- Works like Fleet Footwork but instead gives you a little bit of HP and extra damage.
Font of Life
grants your teammates additional heals whenever they attack an enemy you slowed with
Piercing Light
or immobilized with
Last Embrace
. This is the best option you have in slot, since you cannot trigger
Demolish
without getting into an awkward range and
Shield Bash
as you only gain a shield from
Dawning Shadow
or possibly
Locket of the Iron Solari
.
Bone Plating
allows you to survive lethal combos from enemie This is the best in-slot option since
Second Wind
usually has better value for champions with higher HP stats, unlike
Senna
with one of the lowest base HP, and she already has healing, so surviving burst with
Bone Plating
with be of more value. And she won’t have much value with
Conditioning
either considering resistances scale with HP, which she does not have much of—and will only activate at 12 minutes when laning phase is nearly over.
Revitalize
provides an additional 5-10% healing and shielding power which will always be useful for a healer like Senna.
Presence of Mind
provides
Senna
with extra mana since she is incredibly mana hungry. Alternatively, you can take
Overheal
.
Overheal
can replace PoM when planning to build
Moonstone Renewer
and/or
Redemption
since these items solves your mana issues in the mid to late game. This will help you survive burst. And
Senna
can easily apply
Overheal
to herself.
Since you’re planning to go off-tank, Tenacity will be of more use since you can escape CC without instantly being killed. This can mean life and death through some crucial situations wherein you can save the life of yourself or others with one Q.
Why Double Defensive Shards?
- Senna is incredibly squishy, this helps you survive laning phase.
- You can stack AD via souls anyway, so you don't need another Adaptive Force shard.
Summoner Spells
Breakdown
It's basically standard to have Flash in every game. It is valuable as a tool to make plays, chase down, kite away, escape, ruin a gank, etc...
Senna
is incredibly squishy, especially in the early game. When your ADC already runs
Heal
, you may run
Barrier
. You can heal both of you so long as you're alive.
Heal
is great for 2v2's. Movement speed, escaping, and as well as saving yourself and your ally. Very useful to take if your ADC wants to use another spell.
A really good summoner spell that reduces the movement speed and damage dealt by an enemy champion. Especially useful against burst champions like
Zed
and
Katarina
and Hypercarries like
Yone
,
Vayne
,
Kog'Maw
, and
Master Yi
as it can reduce their damage dealt by 40% for 3 seconds. In lane, this is useful against all-in champions like a
Samira
/
Leona
or
Kai'Sa
/
Alistar
Duo or ganks from champions like
Kha'Zix
and
Rengar
which can mean life and death for you and your ADC. However, Senna has incredibly long range, especially in the late game. Which may make it a little bit less useful for her.
Abilities
Breakdown
WEAKENED SOUL and ABSOLUTION:
Senna
applies a stack of mist on an enemy wherein if the enemy is hit twice by
Senna
either with an Auto Attack or an ability, will deal additional damage and grant
Senna
a soul. Aim to hit an enemy twice when trading.
Souls also drop from minions, jungle, and epic monsters.
Absolution grants
Senna
with stats that are granted for every soul
she redeems.
RELIC CANNON:
Senna
attacks slowly, but deal extra damage and grant her movement speed.
This can allow
Senna
to kite more efficiently and deal good damage despite
her slow Attack Speed.
Piercing Darkness
is
Senna
‘s main ability that damages enemies and heals
allies in a straight line, whilst slowing enemies on hit. Its damage scales
with Attack Damage. Whilst the heals scales with Attack Damage, Lethality, and
AP. Allowing Senna to have multiple options for her builds.
You can target wards, towers, plants, and minions with
Piercing Darkness
which can allow you to hit enemy champions even when not in range. Follow it up with an Auto attack or
Last Embrace
whilst they are slowed for a quick combo and another soul redeemed.
Last Embrace
is an ability that roots your enemies after a few seconds hit. You can easily hit this along with
Piercing Darkness
‘s slow
instead of throwing it immediately. Another tip I can give is you auto attack your
enemy before casting
Last Embrace
, [Auto Attack > reposition >
Last Embrace
can grant you a better chance at landing this ability.
Curse of the Black Mist
is a good ability to both disengage and
engage in fights with the extra movement speed and the camouflage. The
camouflage is also useful against point-and-click abilities as you are untargetable.
Dawning Shadow
is a powerful global ability that deals damage on a large area, and provide you and your allies with a shield on an even larger area. It can turn around fights from lanes away that might as well have been lost.
It is also a powerful tool in teamfights as it can hit multiple enemies and
shield multiple allies in a large area.
Purchasing
Axiom Arc
can grant you more access to
Dawning Shadow
as it is easy to get takedowns from this braindead easy-to-hit global ability.
Item Breakdown
Mythics
Core
Boots
Situationals
A personal favorite of mine. Senna is very squishy and can often be bursted by anyone especially in teamfights. The Resistances, Ability Haste, and Health along with the Shield Active provided by this Mythic can be crucial in surviving fights which in turn, can help you heal more, deal more damage, and help you stack faster.
The game plan here is just to not die and stack souls until you hurt WHILE being durable.
Good in almost any situation, but best against burst champions.
- Cheap Support Item
- Increases survivability
- Good against Burst Comps
- "Supportive" (Got honors just because I didn't build a damage mythic)
The best lethality item for Senna, as Duskblade and Hunter's Claw are better for Melee Champions. This Item also provides a bit of survivability because of its passive shield and movement speed. However, the passive is extremely weak for ranged champions as it has a 16 second cooldown along with the nerfed shield.
Best built when ahead to snowball and/or against squishy champions.
- Senna utilizes lethality well.
- Mythic Passive scales well into the late game (% Physical Penetration)
A good item close in power with Eclipse as a damage mythic option, with more survivability instead of the burst Eclipse provides. It provides Health, Attack Damage, and Ability Haste. However, the passive is also weaker for ranged champions and Senna utilizes the Sheene proc a 'tad bit worse than others because of her long cooldown.
Best built against Tanks or when you want a damage mythic that makes you durable.
- All Stats are well-utilized by Senna.
- Good Mythic Passive (% Magic/Physical Penetration).
Another supportive mythic. It provides Ability Power, Mana Regeneration, Health, and Ability Haste. Which are all utilized by Senna well. Including Ability Power, as Q, E and R recently had buffs on their AP Scaling. The passive is extremely strong especially on long fights. 35% increased Healing and Shielding along with "Starlit's Grace" healing makes it hard for you and your team to die.
The game plan here is to spam heal with the mana regeneration and scale into the late game.
A good buy overall if you don't like Solari. Best utilized when your team loves long fights/or are tanky. Or if you're playing Fasting Senna with a tank, bruiser, or a Soraka.
- Cheap Support Mythic
- Passive Healing is Extremely Strong
- Extremely good with tanks on your team
- "Supportive" (Got honors just because I didn't build a damage mythic)
I hate to say it, but-- overrated item... The passive really feels powerful with [AA>Q>AA] but the Attack Speed and Critical Chance isn't really much of value to Senna. It doesn't provide her with any utility or survivability and is also very expensive... delaying your powerspikes even more.
Best built when ahead or maybe against tanks...
- Passive is satisfying
- " I'M THE ADC HERE "
Axiom Arc
provides
Senna
with useful stats. She scales well with Attack Damage, Lethality, and Ability Haste. She also utilizes its passive well.
Dawning Shadow
a powerful global ultimate which can grant you a takedown from anywhere on the map—reducing your ultimate by 20% of its cooldown for every takedown. In my personal experience, my ultimate usually only has a 48 second downtime once I get
Axiom Arc
as long as I use my ultimate correctly.
Black Cleaver
provides
Senna
with useful stats. She scales well with Attack Damage, Health, and Ability Haste. But the passive is what’s most important here—it provides Armor Shred and Movement Speed for
Senna
, which can be useful mid-to-late game when champions start to gain armor from levels and items. This also provides your team with utility, the armor shred is not only for you, but for other AD champions on your team.
Senna
specifically has special synergy with
Black Cleaver
as her auto attack triggers two stacks of
Black Cleaver
‘s passive, instead of one.
A cheap support item that provides 12% of all bonus stats. Attack
damage, Health, Ability Haste, and Ability Power. A good efficient stat stick
for supports. It also allows you to place more wards and control wards. You can
replace this item once you have enough money for another Legendary item in the
late game.
Boots of Swiftness is a staple pick for Senna, it provides her with a good amount of movement speed that lets her kite and collect souls more efficiently.
Boots of Lucidity is another good option for Senna, as she scales well
with Ability Haste—providing her with more utility when you don’t need the
extra movement speed from Boots of Swiftness.
Rapid Firecannon has good synergy with Senna, it increases her already
long range even farther, and lets you hit your Q on a farther distance, which
you can follow up with an autoattack.
Runaan’s Hurricane has a good secret synergy with Senna, every Runaan’s
bolt proc decreases her Q cooldown by 1 second. Which will allow you to have URF-like access to your Q, however— unlike URF, you don’t have access to infinite mana and most mana items are inefficient for Senna, unless you’re an ADC that builds Muramana.
Chempunk Chainsword is a good item that provides Grievous Wounds. It
provides Attack Damage, Ability Haste, and Health which can be useful for
Senna.
Mortal Reminder is a slightly less optimal alternative because of its
stats—Critical Strike and Attack Speed does not scale well with Senna.
Youmuu’s Ghostblade is a good alternative to Axiom Arc because of the
stat it provides. It also allows you to roam and join fights faster.
Umbral Glaive is a good alternative to Axiom Arc because of the stat it
provides and is relatively cheaper, which helps in faster powerspikes. It
disables wards and allows you to kill wards faster, which can be helpful for
Senna’s low attack speed. You can also swap out your Oracle Lens with Farsight
Alteration when buying this item.
Serpent’s Fang is extremely useful against comps with problematic
shielding. Although it only reduces shield by 35% for Ranged champions instead
of 50%, it is extremely useful as you can easily apply its passive to more than
one target. It also provides Senna with useful stats on a low cost.
Lord Dominik’s Regards, a good Armor Penetration item especially in the
late game. The only reason we don’t take this as core is because of Senna’s
synergy with Black Cleaver. This is most viable built as an ADC than a support.
Serylda’s Grudge isn’t a good Armor Penetration item for Senna as its
slow only applies on Ability Damage, and not Auto Attacks. Senna’s Q already provides slows, and Senna’s 3 other abilities do not easily proc Serylda’s passive.
Guinsoo’s Rageblade can be used along with the Kraken Slayer build because of its passive that lets you proc your Kraken Slayer passive more often and it converts your Critical Strike into On-hit damage since Senna does not scale
well with Critical Strike.
Infinity Edge is a great late game option when you reached 100% Critical
Strike in extremely late games.
Mercurial Scimitar, can be purchased when being focused by heavy CC.
Guardian Angel can be used for extra survivability especially when
against heavy AD comps because of the armor it provides and the Revive Passive
is especially helpful in the later stages of the game.
Randuin’s Omen is a very situational item against Heavy AD comps with a good amount of armor and HP it provides, and can allow you and your allies to survive in teamfights with its active.
Mikael’s Crucible is a very situational item as a Full Support Senna when your teammates are being focused with CC.
Zhonya’s Hourglass is a niche situational item against abilities with delayed damage like Zed’s R and Fizz’s R. The stats are not exactly a waste since Senna scales with Ability Power and Ability Haste. And the Armor could be useful against AD Champions.
Gargoyle’s Stoneplate is a very situational item wherein you are really desperate to live because you keep being bursted like a bubble in the late game.
Matchups and Tips
Catchers & Vanguards:
Against Catcher and Vanguard Supports, or simply put, support with great engage tools like
Blitzcrank
,
Nautilus
,
Thresh
,
Leona
, and even
Morgana
. Your laning phase revolves around avoiding their engages as a squishy support like
Senna
can easily die with one good engage. Stay behind minions as much as possible, and once their key ability is used—you can walk up to poke and collect souls.
Enchanters:
Enchanters like
Janna
,
Soraka
, and
Yuumi
are pretty neutral in the early game, they negate your poke as much as possible through heals and shields. And they usually have a poking ability which you can recover from with your heals. Pretty standard gameplay, try to trade whenever their shields are down, but be careful when trading against oppressive enchanters like
Lulu
and
Karma
as they can outtrade you in the early game.
When their healing and shields are becoming a huge problem, you can opt to buy
Executioner's Calling
and/or
Serpent's Fang
, respectively.
Poke Mages:
Poke Mages like
Zyra
,
Brand
, and
Xerath
are quite annoying in the early game. Especially when paired with a champion with a strong early game. Your heals might not seem enough to sustain back from their poke. My general tip to give is to just dodge skillshots as much as possible, and play around cooldowns.
Fleet Footwork
can aid against their oppressive poke.
Wardens:
Wardens like
Braum
,
Taric
, and
Tahm Kench
are the easiest to play against in lane. So long as you remember to keep your distance, you can easily poke and get free
souls.
That’s all! Thank you for reading! Have a great day, and I hope I helped you in winning more games! ✨
Changelogs:
[12.3] The Start of This Guide.
[12.4]
> TL;DR Flowchart has been added.
> Rune Breakdown has been broadened (+15 Rune Explanations).
> Items Breakdown has been added.
> Summoner Spell Breakdown has been added.
> Abilities Breakdown & Tips has been added.
> Matchups improved.
> Slightly more organized and improved clarity.
Blitzcrank
Nautilus
Thresh
Leona
Morgana
Janna
Soraka
Yuumi
Lulu
Karma
Zyra
Brand
Xerath
Braum
Taric
Tahm Kench