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Choose Champion Build:
- Standard AD
- Hypercarry
- Full Support
- Tank
Recommended Items
Runes: All-Rounder
+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor
Spells:
Flash
Heal
Items
Ability Order
Absolution (PASSIVE)
Senna Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Thresh
Be very wary of thresh's chain cc combo off of his hook. If you get caught, you're essentially dead in the water.
Caitlyn
By far one of the most disgusting botlane duos in the game. If you both play at your maximum range, there's very little your opponents can do aside from sitting under tower. Look to combo your W with her W.
Caitlyn
By far one of the most disgusting botlane duos in the game. If you both play at your maximum range, there's very little your opponents can do aside from sitting under tower. Look to combo your W with her W.
Champion Build Guide
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ABSOLUTION (Passive) |
Senna has a three-part passive, all of which are integral to how she plays.
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This is Senna's engine for her gameplay. Part of her strength is her infinite scaling in her Mist (Souls). Senna will passively get souls in lane while her ADC farms, or off of a heavy leash. Where the bulk of your souls will come from, though, is from double-tapping enemy champions. We'll talk about the best ways to farm souls, but it's important to familiarize yourself with the timing on enemy champion between souls. Senna needs mist in lane or she will begin to fall off, since she is the only champion in the game that does not gain Attack Damage per level, similar to Thresh's inability to gain armor per level. Note: winding up an auto attack on an enemy champion with mist will extend the timer if the mist is about to decay, so you'll never miss collecting it if you auto attack to pick it up. Senna has the longest auto attack animation in the game at 0.5 seconds at level 1. This is partially why Senna doesn't really build attack speed, because her base AS is so abysmal. However, on top of her Attack Speed scaling per level, her auto attack windup is reduced by 0-30% based on level, non-linearly. This means Senna gets a subtly larger amount of Attack Speed per level compared to other champions. This is especially important when you consider that Senna's auto attacks deal 120% damage, even on non-crits, thanks to her Relic Cannon passive. Also worth noting is the fact that Piercing Darkness applies on-hit effects, such as Grasp of the Undying and Muramana. consider using the longer range (13 Teemos) to proc important effects from a safe distance. |
PIERCING DARKNESS (Q) |
After a brief delay, Senna fires a spectral laser in the direction of target unit, healing herself and allied champions for 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 / 120 (+50% bonus AD) (+40% AP) (+160% Lethality) in a line, and dealing 40 / 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 (+40% bonus AD) physical damage to enemy minions and champions in a thinner line. Enemies hit are slowed for 20% (+10% per 100 bonus AD) (+6% per 100 AP) for 2 seconds.
Upon being struck, enemy turrets, wards, Mist Wraiths, and any other attack-interactive units are considered basic attacked once, while champions and turrets take on-hit effects. Basic attacks reduce Piercing Darkness' cooldown by 1 second on hit. |
As Senna, this ability is your bread and butter. Whether you're building normal AD, full support, hypercarry, or tank, you will max this ability first. It is a versatile heal and damage attack with insane range. Notably, both your heal and damage scale with AD, giving you strong healing even if you focus on AD only, and the AP ratio on the heal makes Moonstone Renewer a more palatable buy, even without the passive. This is also a key part of farming souls, as it picks up all souls hit and works well as a combo after an AA or Last Embrace. |
LAST EMBRACE (W) |
Senna throws a globule of Black Mist in the target direction, dealing
70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+70% bonus AD) physical damage and sticking to the first enemy hit. After a 1 second delay or if when the target dies, the Black Mist spreads out of the target, rooting them and nearby enemy champions for 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 / 2.25 seconds. |
Last Embrace will usually be the second ability you max. It's an extremely powerful trading tool during the laning phase as the range is deceptively long, and it scales very well with AD. Most of the time, you'll follow up on the root with an AA or a Piercing Darkness to steal a soul. Remember, you get the root after 1 second or if the target dies (this includes minions). Use this to 1-shot low-health lane minions for an instant AOE root and a great engage or easy getaway. |
CURSE OF THE BLACK MIST (E) |
After a 1 second delay, Senna surrounds herself with an aura of mist and gains camouflage for a duration. Senna's basic attacks and abilities briefly remove the effects of camouflage.
Allied champions who enter the mist gain Wraith Form equal to the remaining duration. WRAITH FORM: Gain camouflage. Enemies will gain obscured vision of the wraiths moving outside of the mist. Performing a basic attack or casting an ability removes Wraith Form, which cannot be regained for 2 seconds. Senna and allies camouflaged by Curse of the Black Mist also gain 20% (+1% per 20 AP) bonus movement speed. |
Curse of the Black Mist is perhaps Senna's most complicated ability. Firstly, there are two different types of stealth in the ability, camouflage, and Wraith Form. Senna and allies in her radius are fully camouflaged and can't be seen. If Senna's allies leave the radius, they become visible as wraiths. Importantly, they are still unselectable/untargetable and their identities are masked. If you keep your allies in the mist's radius, your opponents won't know how many people you have. Use this the bring surprise multi-person ganks into other lanes. You and your allies can be seen and identified with true sight. Beware of control wards |
You'll primarily be using Curse of the Black Mist as a disengage tool because of the movement speed and untargetability. In lane, use it to protect your carry and make them untargetable, but keep in mind that they will become vulnerable if they attack or use abilities. However, that doesn't mean you should avoid using it mid-fight. Your allies still gain the movement speed, even if they break stealth, so long as they stay in the aura around you. This can mean a lot if you have an ADC like Draven, so stick near them to give them an easy out or an aggressive in. Later in the game, use Curse of the Black Mist to obscure your team in fights. Once an ally enters the radius, they become a wraith for the full duration, even if they leave. Use it to keep the number identities of teammates with you obscured when scouting objectives or entering a fight. |
DAWNING SHADOW (R) |
Senna fires two beams of spectral light in the target direction, the center beam deals 250 / 375 / 500 (+100% bonus AD) (+70% AP) physical damage to enemy champions hit and afflicts them with Mist.
The broad beam shields Senna and allied champions hit for 120 / 160 / 200 (+40% AP) (+1.5 per mist) for 3 seconds. Dawning Shadow also collects any Mist Wraiths in its path. |
Dawning Shadow is easily one of the strongest ultimates in the game. Being able to turn teamfights from across the map is incredibly powerful. Of course, this means you'll have to be keeping your eyes on the map and your allies' healthbars post-6, much like Soraka. Even if you don't land the damage beam, the shield could mean the difference for an ally in trouble. Dawning Shadow's cooldown is excruciatingly long (160 seconds at rank 1), so try not to 'waste' it, but don't use that as an excuse to be too conservative. If you see an enemy recalling with near-0 health, ult them. Of course, the best application of Dawning Shadow is in teamfights. If you're in the backline (where you should be), it's easy to hit every teammate and most enemies with your ult. Your ult also consumes or applies mist from enemy champions. |
Jump to secondary runes.
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Only recently have these runes been seeing much play on Senna, but they've skyrocketed in popularity. They can help sustain you vs a poke-heavy bot lane and can give you some much-needed presence in lanes where you aren't getting much. These can work in any game but I like to take them if I know my ADC will need some help, but where I also want more freedom late game. |
Font of Life is an important part of your sustain kit with these runes. It allows you and your carry to heal when you land a Last Embrace, giving even more healing than you already have and working well with Revitalize. You can consider Demolish if you're confident in yourself in your laner, but it is less safe than Font of Life.
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Second Wind keeps you healthy through occasional poke, allowing you to go for riskier trades and coming out healthier. However, if you're facing extreme poke, I recommend switching this to Bone Plating to keep you healthy in burst trades.
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I love Revitalize as the final rune here. Not only does it synergize with your Piercing Darkness and Dawning Shadow, but also with the other runes you take. In rare occasions, I can see Overgrowth, but I think the bonus heals and shields are better then the extra health.
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These runes are specifically for a botlane matchup you think you can easily bully. Senna can easily get Dark Harvest stacks with help from her ADC, as her AA -> Piercing Darkness combo can quickly double-tap someone below 50%. The damage potential is insane and turns Senna into a scaling beast and a force to be reckoned with late game. If you don't get ahead early, though, things aren't going to get better for you. I recommend these runes if you think you can aggressively poke your opponents without putting yourself in too much danger. |
Taste of Blood can make lane trades almost one-sided when combined with the healing from Piercing Darkness. Cheap Shot is also a fine choice for this section, comboing with Last Embrace. I'd recommend it if you have an ADC like Ashe that can slow them for you.
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Zombie Ward is incredibly powerful mid-late game with Umbral Glaive. You can easily break 100 vision score with these two. Another option here is Eyeball Collection if you think you can snowball takedowns quickly.
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The last spot can go one of two ways. My personal favorite is Ultimate Hunter, giving you utility for frequent cross-map Dawning Shadow's to help your team and decide duels more often. Alternatively, you can take Ravenous Hunter. Personally, I find it a little greedy, but it's a strong choice that scales well off of Dark Harvest.
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These runes are what I'd normally suggest for someone just starting out on Senna, and I see them frequently on the rift. Aery is good at reliable damage and protection, but doesn't really excel at either. Your job here is to bea jack of all trades, healing your ADC and damaging enemies with your Piercing Darkness. |
Manaflow Band is crucial to stack the mana you'll need to focus-heal your teammates. As long as you can land 10 Piercing Darkness or Last Embrace early, preferably before first back, you can heal your carry with impunity.
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Transcendence is a slow burner. Although it doesn't give you anything in lane, your Piercing Darkness will be so spammable mid-late game that it won't matter. Plus, when you're full build, you can scrape some extra adaptive force. Absolute Focus is also a good option but requires great positioning, so I wouldn't recommend it for new Sennas.
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Lastly, I like to take Gathering Storm. The scaling AF works great with your heal and ult, and it ensures that your infinitely scaling booty gets all the way to late game. You can take Scorch, if you're finding that you just don't do enough damage in lane, but with Summon Aery, you don't really play as a lane bully as much as, say, Dark Harvest. Your job is to keep your carry alive and peel for them, and Gathering Storm makes that easier.
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These runes have a very situational purpose on Senna. I almost exclusively take these into poke-heavy matchups where I need the extra healing. The movement speed helps with quick in-and-out trades onto your laners, and can let you get mist without putting yourself in danger. |
Presence of Mind is a fantastic rune on Senna. It rewards you for poking in lane, something you will be doing consistently and can do without mana. The extra mana on takedown is nice, though not always super helpful. You can take Triumph here instead, but I think Presence of Mind outshines it here because of its consistency.
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Legend: Tenacity is a great rune for staying alive and avoiding lockdown cc. I would recommend it most of time you'd be taking Fleet Footwork. A lot of people take Legend: Alacrity, but Senna's attack speed ratio and base AS are incredibly low, so the attack speed never really ends up being useful. I prefer the tenacity.
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Coup de Grace gives you extra pressure the longer you keep your opponents in lane. It's also good when you want to execute someone with Dawning Shadow. However, if you anticipate that you will be shoved under your tower and you need extra damage when they engage on you, Last Stand is also an option, but is antithetical to where you should be aiming to position.
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Flash is the most self-explanatory summoner spell, you'll always take it. It supplements Senna's immobility by giving her better engage and escape tools. It's cooldown is 5 minutes without Ionian Boots of Lucidity, and 4 minutes 30 seconds with them. | |
I prefer Heal over Ignite if you can get your ADC to take Ignite or Exhaust. Heal doesn't require you to move closer than your auto range to be effective, and it's the most useful for yourself and your carry. Heal's cooldown is 4 minutes without Ionian Boots of Lucidity, and 3 minutes 36 seconds with them. | |
By far the most popular option, Ignite is the standard for supports. However, I'm not a huge fan of it on Senna because of its 600 range; Senna starts with 600 range, and it doesn't take long for her to get to 620 and above, in which case Ignite requires you to step closer than your auto attack range, something that you want to avoid when positioning. But, into heal-heavy botlanes, it's a good companion to Executioner's Calling. Ignite's cooldown is 3 minutes without Ionian Boots of Lucidity, and 2 minutes 42 seconds with them. | |
Barrier is the safest summoner spell to take on Senna. Being an immobile marksman makes her susceptible to dives and CC, and Barrier helps protect against that. However, you do lose the pressure that a combat summoner spell like Ignite, Exhaust, or Heal provides. I normally only take this into a poke heavy botlane like Caitlyn / Lux. Barrier's cooldown is 3 minutes without Ionian Boots of Lucidity, and 2 minutes 42 seconds with them. | |
If I want to take a combat summoner spell and my ADC refuses to take something besides heal, I opt for Exhaust instead of Ignite. Exhaust's 650 range negates the early-game problem with Ignite, giving you more room to position at the edge of your attack range, and giving you an upper hand in a skirmish if you Exhaust their ADC. Exhaust's cooldown is 3 minutes 30 seconds without Ionian Boots of Lucidity, and 3 minutes 9 seconds with them. |
Jump to Starting Items, Mythic Options, Core Items, Situational Items, or Boots.
STARTING ITEMS
Spectral Sickle Type: AD Starting Item Cost: 400 Gold | |
UNIQUE Passive - TRIBUTE: Grants a charge every 10 seconds. If an allied champion is nearby, damaging abilities and attacks against champions and buildings consume a charge, up to one per attack or cast. Consuming a charge grants 15 gold. | Spectral Sickle Is what you’ll take in most games. It offers a decent chunk of flat AD and lets you exploit your 600 base attack range for gold. I’d recommend this over Steel Shoulderguards in almost every situation. The 2 AD boost over Steel Shoulderguards may not look like much, but that gap widens later on. Plus, this gives much-needed early game mana regen, letting you heal more and stay in lane longer. |
Steel Shoulderguards Type: AD Starting Item Cost: 400 Gold | |
Although Spectral Sickle is superior most of the time, there are some scenarios in which Steel Shoulderguards are the better option. For example, if you’re against extreme poke (e.g. Caitlyn/ Xerath) and you need a way to get gold without putting yourself in danger. Or, if you are unfortunate enough to be lagging past a playable state, these can help you get through laning phase. However, you will lose out on the mana regen from Spectral Sickle, leaving you weaker early on. |
UNIQUE Passive - SPOILS OF WAR: Grants a charge every 45 seconds, up to 3 charges. Basic attacks can consume a charge to execute minions. Ranged basic attacks execute minions below 30% of their maximum health. Killing a minion by any means with a charge grants you and the nearest allied champion kill gold.
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MYTHIC OPTIONS
Divine Sunderer Type: AD/Tank Mythic Option Cost: 3300 Gold | |
UNIQUE Passive – SPELLBLADE: After using an ability, your next basic attack within 10 seconds deals 3% of target's maximum health + 125% base AD bonus physical damage on-hit, with a minimum damage equal to 150% of base AD and a maximum damage against monsters equal to 250% base AD. If the target is a champion, heal for 81.25% base AD (+ 1.95% of the target's maximum health). (1.5 second cooldown) MYTHIC PASSIVE: Empowers each of your other Legendary items with 3% armor penetration and 3% magic penetration. | This iten was a large part of tank Senna during late season 11 and early season 12, but it was gradually nerfed down to no longer work with her. As of the 12.13 changes, this item has become significantly worse for Senna, with it moving away from scaling off of target max hp into scaling with base AD (which Senna does not scale thoughout the game, making this item worse as the game goes on). If this item sees no reverts or changes, it will likely be removed from this guide. |
Duskblade of Draktharr Type: AD Mythic Option Cost: 3100 Gold | |
This is my preferred mythic item for a standard AD build. Duskblade of Draktharr gives a nice chunk of AD and a hefty amount of ability haste, which is incredibly important for a caster ADC like Senna. The on-hit damage steroid is also appealing as it scales decently and can be used multiple times in a teamfight, with the added benefit of giving you an easy out if you need it. I prefer this to Eclipse for most of my games. |
UNIQUE Passive – NIGHTSTALKER: Basic attacking an enemy champion deals 55 (+ 25% bonus AD) bonus physical damage on-hit. (15 second cooldown) Champion takedowns within 3 seconds reset this effect's cooldown and grant you invisibility for 1.5 seconds. MYTHIC PASSIVE: Empowers each of your other Legendary items with 5 ability haste and 5 movement speed. |
Eclipse Type: AD Mythic Option Cost: 3100 Gold | |
UNIQUE Passive - EVER RISING MOON: Hitting an enemy champion with 2 separate attacks or abilities within 1.5 seconds deals 3% of target's maximum health as bonus physical damage and grants you 15% bonus movement speed and a 75 + 20% bonus AD shield for 2 seconds (16 second cooldown). MYTHIC PASSIVE: Empowers each of your other Legendary items with 4% armor and magic penetration, and 5 movement speed. | Many Senna players build this as a mythic most of the time. Generally, I prefer Duskblade of Draktharr as it gives more utility and provides some escape potential. However, in cases where you need raw power and sustain, you can do far worse than Eclipse. I especially like Eclipse into tank matchups, as the armor penetration it provides is nothing to scoff at. However, no ability haste means this is first and foremost a damage/healing item. |
Locket of the Iron Solari Type: Tank/Support Mythic Option Cost: 2500 Gold | |
Locket of the Iron Solari is an interesting item. It allows you to share some of your survivability with your team, giving all allies nearby a massive shield. I tend to neglect this item a bit on Senna but it's really useful in certain situations. If the enemy team has lots of AOE damage, or if your team is routinely bad at positioning, this item really shines. For example, if the enemy team keeps trying to combo Unstoppable Force into Bullet Time to annihilate your team, consider picking up a Locket of the Iron Solari to give your team a fighting chance. |
UNIQUE Passive - CONSECRATE: Grant nearby allied champions 5 bonus armor and 5 bonus magic resistance.
UNIQUE Active - DEVOTION: Grant nearby allies a 230 − 385 (based on target's level) shield that decays over 2.5 seconds (90 second cooldown). MYTHIC PASSIVE: Empowers each of your other Legendary items to increase Consecrate's bonus resistances by 2. |
Moonstone Renewer Type: Support Mythic Option Cost: 2500 Gold | |
UNIQUE Passive - STARLIT GRACE: When affecting champions with attacks or abilities in combat, heal the nearby allied champion (excluding yourself) with the most missing health for 70 (2 second cooldown). Each second spent in combat with champions grants 6% heal and shield power, stacking up to 4 times for maximum of 30% MYTHIC PASSIVE: Empowers each of your other Legendary items with 10 heal for this item's passive effect, Starlit Grace. | Senna, ideally, spends her time in the backline, dealing consistent damage and simultaneously healing and shielding her team. Moonstone Renewer gives you an additional, automatic healing outlet in teamfights. Since you don't need to play around your mythic item if you build this, you can instead focus on providing utility for your carries and poking down enemies. |
Frostfire Gauntlet Type: Tank Mythic Option Cost: 2800 Gold | |
This item has been popular recently as a mythic item for tank Senna, as it mimics some of the strength of Frozen Mallet from season 10. Iceborn Gauntlet's snowbind passive has a decent slow on a relatively short cooldown, that you can proc from a safe distance. The immolate passive doesn't apply that often, but can do decent damage if you get jumped. The mythic passive here is actually very useful, giving you health and bonus size (which increases your auto range). I'd recommend this mythic if your team is diving frequently and needs to pin down a slippery target. |
UNIQUE Passive - IMMOLATE: Taking or dealing damage activates this passive for 3 seconds. Deal 12 − 30 (based on level) (+ 1% bonus health) magic damage every second to enemies within 325 (+100% bonus size) units, increased by 25% against minions and 150% against monsters.
UNIQUE Passive - SNOWBIND: Basic attacks create a frost field for 1.5 seconds that deals 20-100 (+0.5% max health) magic damage to all enemies in the area. Enemies that move across the field are slowed. (6 second cooldown ). MYTHIC PASSIVE: Empowers each of your other Legendary items with 100 bonus health and 6% increased size. |
Kraken Slayer Type: Hypercarry Mythic Option Cost: 3400 Gold | |
UNIQUE Passive - BRING IT DOWN: Basic attacks on-attack grant a stack for 3 seconds, up to 2 stacks. At 2 stacks, the next basic attack consumes all stacks on-attack to deal 60 (+ 45% bonus AD) bonus true damage on-hit. MYTHIC PASSIVE: Empowers each of your other Legendary items with 10% bonus attack speed. | Kraken Slayer, since the beginning of season 11, has blown up in the Senna meta, and it's easy to see why. The raw AD this item offers, along with its attack speed mythic passive and tank-killing passive give Senna a lot of damage. The only problem I encounter with Kraken Slayer is the cost. 3400 gold is a lot for a support, and it often puts me behind trying to afford it. That said, it is incredibly strong and lets you backline effectively. Just remember that Guinsoo's Rageblade's additional on-hit does not proc Kraken Slayer's passive. |
CORE LEGENDARY ITEMS
Ardent Censer Type: Support Core Item Cost: 2300 Gold | |
UNIQUE Passive – SANCTIFY: Healing or shielding allied champions enhances you and them with 10% − 30% (based on target's level) bonus attack speed and 5 − 20 (based on target's level) bonus magic damage on-hit on basic attacks for 6 seconds. | Ardent Censer is a fantastic second item if you're building support, because of its extremely powerful passive. The attack speed is important for a lot of team comps. Remember when building this to build the Forbidden Idol first as Amplifying Tome's AP is negligible when compared to the 10% Heal and Shield power and 50% mana regen from Forbidden Idol. |
Black Cleaver Type: Tank Core Item Cost: 3300 Gold | |
Black Cleaver fills an interesting role for tank Senna’s build. It gives a modest amount of AD, a decent amount of health, and an hefty 25 Ability Haste. This item allows Senna to take worse trades and still come out on top, still being able to heal with Piercing Darkness more often. Black Cleaver offers the stats tank Senna wants more efficiently than almost any other item. And though the Carve passive can be tough to stack, tank Senna can survive for long enough to brute force the armor shred. |
UNIQUE Passive - CARVE: Dealing physical damage to an enemy champion reduces their armor by 5% for 6 seconds, stacking up to 6 times for a maximum of 30%. Enemies with 6 stacks are Shredded.
UNIQUE Passive – BUTCHER: Basic attacks on-hit and damaging abilities against fully Shredded enemies deal bonus physical damage equal to 5% of their missing health, reduced to 2% of their missing health for damage over time effects (0.5 second cooldown ). |
Manamune Type: Hypercarry Core Item Cost: 2400 Gold | |
UNIQUE Passive – AWE: Grants bonus attack damage equal to 2% maximum mana. UNIQUE Passive – MANA CHARGE: Grants a charge every 8 seconds, up to 4 charges. Consumes a charge on-hit and whenever affecting an enemy or ally with an ability to grant 3 bonus mana, increased to 6 for champion targets, up to maximum of 360 bonus mana. Transforms into Muramana at +360 mana. | I hesitated on calling this item a "core" item, but I've come to the conclusion that I build this often enough, and almost always as a first item, to give it that title. Unlike the other core items, with the ones you buy being dictated by your role in your team, whether or not you buy Manamune is dictated by your performance. I will almost never build a Tear of the Goddess while behind. If my ADC or I get killed early, and we need to play passive for the rest of the lane, even if I have Dark Harvest, I will forgo a Manamune. You need to be able to play aggressively with this item (something you want to do anyway) to get stacks. But, if you get an early kill or can go even in lane, this item will give you ungodly stats and let you carry. |
Staff of Flowing Water Type: Support Core Item Cost: 2300 Gold | |
I consider Staff of Flowing Water an alternative to Ardent Censer for a team that craves AP rather than attack speed. I generally end up building both, as the move speed on heal is good in and of itself, but be sure to consider which one your team needs first, and whether they even need both. |
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Umbral Glaive Type: AD Core Item Cost: 2300 Gold | |
I think this is one of, if not the best item for Senna. The blackout passive letting you one-shot wards saves so much time off of her abysmal attack speed, and combos fantastically with Zombie Ward. The haste makes this a great second item. The raw AD could just not be on this item and I'd still build it, but it works great for Senna's scaling and auto attack passive. Simply put, unless you're building tank, build this. Even with a support focus, it offers so much utility for 2800 gold. |
UNIQUE Passive – BLACKOUT: When spotted by enemy wards or traps, gain Blackout over a 400-unit radius for 8 seconds (50 second cooldown). You disable surrounding wards, as well as expose and reveal stealthed wards and traps. The effects linger for 2 seconds after you walk away.
UNIQUE Passive: Your basic attacks deal double damage to wards. |
Youmuu's Ghostblade Type: AD Core Item Cost: 3000 Gold | |
A perfect second or third item for Senna's AD build, Youmuu's Ghostblade offers similar stats as Umbral Glaive, but with a great set of passives to go with it. The out-of-combat movement speed lets you sweep objectives and get back to lane faster, allowing for easier roams and more flexible recall timings. It also give 18 Lethality, more than most lethality items, which help you damage output. Most importantly, though, the active of this item can mean that you're never pushed too far up and gives you a slipperiness that Senna just isn't meant to have. |
SITUATIONAL ITEMS
Axiom Arc Type: AD Situational Item - Snowball Cost: 3000 Gold | |
Axiom Arc is a very greedy item. You'll want to pick this up if you crushed laning phase and need an extra boost when entering your mid-game. Senna's ultimate has a very long cooldown, so the partial refund on takedown that this item gives is very useful. On top of that, it gives a good amount of ability haste and lethality, both of which Senna wants a lot of. |
UNIQUE Passive – FLUX: Whenever an enemy champion dies within 3 seconds after you've damaged them, refund 20% of your ultimate's total cooldown.
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Death's Dance Type: AD/Tank Situational Item - Delay Damage Cost: 3300 Gold | |
UNIQUE Passive - DEFY: Champion takedowns grant you 30% bonus movement speed for 2 seconds, remove Ignore Pain's remaining damage, and heal you for 50% BONUS AD over 2 seconds. | I view Death's Dance as serving a similar purpose to Guardian Angel, giving you protection if you get focused, and in this case, giving you time to reposition. However, this is a replacement for Guardian Angel; the utility of other items you miss out on is substantial. I build this instead of Guardian Angel if I'm ahead. The healing passive can keep you healthy very easily, and works great with Spirit Visage if you're building that. The bonus AD scaling on the Defy passive makes it simply better on Senna than on most champions. |
Edge of Night Type: AD Situational Item - Anti-Burst Cost: 2900 Gold | |
Similarly to Guardian Angel, this is an item that, while I call it a situational item, I build very frequently. The survivablity this item gives you is small, but the lethality, combined with the 50 raw AD help scale you pretty well. But the real reason to buy this item is the spell shield passive. Being able to negate any CC or burst ability is invaluable, which is why I build this even when the enemy team is not fully stacked with immobilizing effects. |
+10 Lethality
UNIQUE Passive – ANNUL: Grants a spell shield that blocks the next enemy ability. This shield refreshes after no damage is taken from enemy champions for 40 seconds. |
Executioner’s Calling (Mortal Reminder) Type: Situational Item - Anti-Heal Cost: 800 Gold | |
| A fantastic counterplay item that you’ll often grab on your first back depending on your lane opponent. ADCs often don’t want to spend their gold itemizing against the enemy botlane, lucky you. But you get the Grevious Wounds item that only costs 800. Buy this early if you’re into a Yuumi, Soraka, or Nami to make the lane much easier. Hold onto Executioner's Calling and build it into Mortal Reminder or Chempunk Chainsword as a final item later on, whatever your matchup depends on. |
Guardian Angel Type: AD/Tank Situational Item - Anti-Assassin Cost: 3000 Gold | |
This is an incredibly strong item on any ADC, but it thrives especially on tank Senna. Normally, Senna wants to play behind her team, but tank Senna can afford to step into the fray more often, and risks getting bursted in the process. That’s where Guardian Angel steps in, letting Senna’s team punish the enemy’s cooldowns in fights while she revives. The main problem with Guardian Angel on most ADCs is that any well-positioned carry dies last, making the revive camped and pointless. But with tank Senna, I like this item enough to give it a slot here if you need a second chance. |
UNIQUE Passive - REBIRTH: Upon taking lethal damage, resurrects and restores 50% of base health and 30% of maximum mana after 4 seconds of Stasis icon stasis (300 second cooldown).
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Hexdrinker (Maw of Malmortius) Type: Situational Item - Anti-Mage Cost: 1300 Gold | |
| Sometimes, you’re playing against a double AP botlane; recently, Ziggs has been seeing a lot of play as an ADC, mixing up the traditional damage types seen in the botlane. If that’s the case, or a majority of the enemy team deals magic damage, consider purchasing an early Hexdrinker. It’s extremely gold-efficient, and the passive can save you in situations where you facing large amounts of magic damage. As with Executioner's Calling, there’s no need to rush building this into a Maw of Malmortius — focus on your core. |
Infinity Edge Type: AD Situational Item - Bigger Crits Cost: 3400 Gold | |
Some people consider this a core item, but I disagree. Senna does not build crit because her critical strikes do reduced damage and she gets crit chance over time anyway. Since this item functions at a lower capacity before you have 60% crit chance, it doesn’t do much for you early on, given that you don’t really build crit. However, once your passive plus IE gets you to 60% critical strike chance (120 souls), I think it’s a great choice to scale your damage. |
UNIQUE Passive - PERFECTION: Gain 35% bonus critical strike damage if you have at least 40% critical strike chance.
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Knight’s Vow Type: Tank Situational Item - Damage Redirect Cost: 2300 Gold | |
UNIQUE Passive- SACRIFICE: While your Worthy ally is nearby, redirect 10% of the damage they take to you and heal for 8% of the damage they deal to champions. If they have less than 30% health, redirect 20% of damage they take to you instead. UNIQUE Active - PLEDGE: Designate an allied champion as Worthy, forming a tether between you and them. Champions can only be designated as Worthy by one Knight’s Vow at a time (60 second cooldown). | Senna, being an ADC, can do her fair share of carrying, but this won’t happen every game. Sometimes, it’s better to funnel your resources into your carry instead. Enter Knight's Vow, a solid stats item for tank or support Senna that lets you peel for your carry without having to do anything. If they’re doing their job, you should heal more than you take with this item. Just remember to stay with your partner to maximize both of your survivabilities. |
Last Whisper (Serylda’s Grudge) Type: AD Situational Item - Armor Pen Cost: 1450 Gold | |
Just like Executioner's Calling and Hexdrinker, Last Whisper is a great early situational item on Senna, specifically into tankier matchups. Although this would be a fine buy if you’re just worried about a tanky support like Tahm Kench or Sett, I usually only buy this if I’m into a team with at least 3 tanks. If I load into a game and see a Ornn top, Trundle jungle, and Alistar support, I tend to buy this as soon as I can. |
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Mikael's Blessing Type: Support Situational Item - Anti-CC Cost: 2300 Gold | |
Because ADCs will only buy a Quicksilver Sash when absolutely necessary, you can use this item as a roundabout way to clear CC off of your carry. If the enemy team keeps gunning for your ADC so they can Nether Grasp or Last Breath or whatever, you can peel for them and keep them safe. Plus, the 20% heal and shield power doesn't hurt your ability to heal your allies. I'm also a fan of how this item doesn't waste your gold on AP, and instead gives you haste and MR, two stats that can be actually useful. |
Quicksilver Sash (Mercurial Scimitar) Type: Situational Item - Anti-CC Cost: 1300 Gold | |
Adjacently to Mikael's Blessing, sometimes the one getting focused with lockdown CC is you. This item is great if you're being constantly run down by a Mordekaiser trying to fight you in his Realm of Death. Just like the other early situational items, though, hold off on upgrading it until you've finished your core build. |
UNIQUE Active – QUICKSILVER: Removes all crowd control debuffs from your champion (90 second cooldown).
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Rapid Firecannon Type: AD Situational Item - Extra Range Cost: 2500 Gold | |
UNIQUE Passive – ENERGIZED: Moving and basic attacking generates Energize stacks, up to 100. UNIQUE Passive – SHARPSHOOTER: When fully Energized, your next basic attack deals 120 bonus magic damage on-hit. Energized attacks gain 35% bonus range (+150 range maximum). | A lot of Sennas build this item as core. I disagree, but it does have its uses. My main problem with Rapid Firecannon is that it falls off. The crit chance will eventually be overshadowed by Senna's built in scaling, and the attack speed doesn't scale that well. However, the +150 range is very useful if you need to play back or chase, and the crit chance helps a bit during the early game. Ultimately, I'd only build this if I was ahead, and I'd probably sell it later on for something like Infinity Edge, but it provides a nice boost early. |
Redemption Type: Support Situational Item - AOE Heal Cost: 2300 Gold | |
Support Senna is a build focused around peeling for your teamates and enabling them. Often, this is purely based around Piercing Darkness's heal and Dawning Shadow's shield, but sometimes you need a way to impact the game outside your of your abilities. Redemption gives you the utility that Senna doesn't have built-in, allowing you more teamfight pressure than you'd normally have. Build this if you find your team skirmishing often, or if you need extra pressure to turn big fights. |
UNIQUE Active - INTERVENTION: You reveal the target area for 3 seconds. After a 2.5 second delay, a beam of light strikes the ground. Allies within the area are healed for 200 − 400 (based on target's level), while enemy champions take 10% of target's maximum health true damage (90 second cooldown). Can be used while dead.
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Spirit Visage Type: Tank Situational Item - Healing Amp Cost: 2900 Gold | |
Although it packs quite a bit of Magic Resistance, I don't really think of Spirit Visage as an MR item. I mean, I wouldn't build it into an AD-only team, but I don't hyperfocus on countering magic damage with it. Instead, I buy Spirit Visage for its passive. With just this item and Piercing Darkness, your self-heal is increased drastically; if you have another healer on your team, this item starts to quickly pay for itself. It hardly even matters that it has CDR and 450 bonus health. Pick this up if the enemy has some AP and you need more sustain. |
Bramble Vest (Thornmail) Type: Tank Situational Item - Anti-AA Cost: 800 Gold | |
Bramble Vest is the poster child for anti AD, anti-healing items, giving a good chunk of Armor and a passive that heavily disadvantages ADCs like Draven and bruisers like Fiora. You should know that Bramble Vest should only be built when you need to counter an ADC's slef-healing or a fed bruiser, and I'd generally recommend another armor-heavy item like Frozen Heart to counter fed AD champs more. But, against self-healers, it's a great item that doesn't require you go out of your way to counterplay. |
UNIQUE Passive – THORNS: Upon being hit by a basic attack on-hit, deal 3 magic damage to the attacker and, if they are a champion, inflict them with 40% Grievous Wounds for 2 seconds.
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Watchful (Vigilant) Wardstone Type: Situational Item - Vision Control Cost: 1100 Gold | |
UNIQUE Passive - ARCANE CACHE: This item can store up to 3 purchased Control Wards. UNIQUE Passive - BLOOMING EMPIRE: Reaching level 13 and completing your support item quest into Vigilant Wardstone. | Thanks to the patch 11.11 changes to this item, I consider it a must-build 3rd item for almost every Senna build. Once it transforms into Vigilant Wardstone, it gives you 5 extra ability haste, along with a bonus 12% to AD, AP, Health, and Ability Haste. At 3rd item, nothing gives you as many stats as this does for only 1100 gold. Not to mention it enables a much stronger vision game, which will indirectly help your team. Almost always buy this as it stands right now. |
Guinsoo's Rageblade Type: Hypercarry Situational Item - On-Hit Damage Cost: 2600 Gold | |
Even after the v11.5 changes, Guinsoo's Rageblade remains an incredibly strong item on Senna. Because of your innate crit scaling, you can get ever increasing amounts of on-hit damage (which also applies on Piercing Darkness). Even if you don't build other crit items, this item can be a powerhouse late-game, which is usually when I pick it up. |
UNIQUE Passive – WRATH: Convert every 1% critical strike chance into 2 bonus physical damage on-hit, capped at 100% critical strike chance, for a maximum of 200 bonus physical damage on-hit. This damage is affected by critical strike modifiers.
UNIQUE Passive - SEETHING STRIKE: Basic attacks on-attack grant a stack for 6 seconds, up to 2 stacks. At 2 stacks, the next basic attack consumes all stacks on-attack to trigger a Phantom Hit that applies on-hit effects to the target at 100% effectiveness after a 0.15 second delay. |
The Collector Type: AD Situational Item - Execution Cost: 3000 Gold | |
UNIQUE Passive - DEATH AND TAXES: If you deal post-mitigation damage that would leave a champion below 5% of their maximum health, execute them. Champion kills grant you an additional 25 Gold. | Sometimes, you leave laning phase as the fed one. That's great, but Senna's weak mid-game still rears its head. When you need to keep your lead strong, The Collector works perfectly to keep you snowballing over your opponents. It has pretty good raw AD and lethality, which is what we look for, and the execution passive gives you a bit more dominance in picks. |
BOOTS
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About Berserker's Greaves
Some Sennas build Berserker's Greaves instead of Ionian Boots of Lucidity when they’re ahead. I generally disagree. In the early game Senna is a caster ADC, not a crit ADC — her power comes from her Piercing Darkness, and having that more often is more important than poorly scaling attack speed. Even with Piercing Darkness lowering its cooldown on attack, the value you’ll get from Berserker's Greaves is purely damage, whereas Ionian Boots of Lucidity is damage and peel. Here's a demonstration of each boots' effect on Piercing Darkness' cooldown:
Where Berserker's Greaves shine is at the point where your auto attacks do enough damage to offset the efficiency of your ability rotations. If you're fed early and want strong boots, I'd opt for Ionian Boots of Lucidity most of the time. You can always switch over to Berserker's Greaves later if you find yourself needing an extra boost to your DPS.
One of the most crucial but least talked about parts of playing support is warding. Wards can keep your team safe, help your jungler counterjungle, and contribute to securing objectives. Knowing where to place your wards and what wards to place are both essential parts about playing in the bot lane.
Get to Know Your Options
There are a lot of options in the vision toolbox on summoner's rift, and it's important to know the value of types of vision from situation to situation.
Stealth Ward | The standard ward. 3 health, 10 gold bounty, comes in for free, stealths after a second. These are best for short spurts of hard-to-detect vision, such as before objective or protecting river from ganks. Careful not to place more than 3, or you will waste vision. |
Control Ward | Control wards are a situational form of vision. They have 4 hit points compared to Stealth Ward's 3, and deny vision in an area around them, but cost 75 gold and give a 30 gold bounty. They're important, and I buy a few every game, but they're not to be wasted and need to be played around. |
Oracle Lens | Oracle Lens replaces your trinket and gives you a way to clear your opponent's vision without wasting Control Wards. However, I would almost never recommend starting an Oracle Lens on supports as the early vision of Stealth Ward is far stronger. However, I almost always switch over to it when I reach my first support item quest. |
Farsight Alteration | Farsight Alteration is a corner-case option. It allows you to place a ward from much, much further away, but it has 1 health and doesn't stealth. I recommend this if the enemy team is very good at controlling vision and the jungle is dark, or if you have low mobility and can't afford to go into the jungle to ward, or for easy deep vision. |
Your First Ward
Your first ward serves only one real purpose: to catch the enemy jungler on a level 2 gank. You'll be placing it at between 1:30 and 1:45, so you can get early vision on the enemy jungler. If you're on blue side, I recommend warding in the middle of river above the bush, near the on-ramp to red side's blue jungle. If you're on red side, I recommend warding blue side's tri-brush to catch their jungler. These wards are especially important if you're against a strong early jungler like Twitch, Jarvan IV, or Shaco. Of course, don't be afraid to use your first ward to push or defend against an invade if it's advantageous to your team. |
Quick side note: you can't force your ADC to ward, a lot of them just haven't mastered warding yet in favor of wave control tactics. You just have to play around this, get a feel for how and when they ward, and use their wards to your advantage.
Laning Phase
In the laning phase, your wards should aim to prevent successful ganks by your opponents, enable successful ganks by your team, and control objectives. To this extent, I recommend jungle tracking wards if you're in a place to deep ward, as they can spot the enemy jungler and allow your jungler to counterjungle or gank the opposite side of the map. |
When aggressively warding on blue side, I love the spot behind the rock in red side's blue jungle that can see both gromp and the Blue Sentinel. On the red side, the brush right behind blue side's Red Brambleback can spot the jungler whether he's ganking mid or moving into river to take Rift Scuttler or counterjungle. Of course, defensively warding important parts of your jungle or the river entrances are great options if you're worried about your opponents taking your team's jungle camps or Rift Scuttler.
Mid/Late Game
Mid and late game play out very similarly to laning phase, albeit more objective-focused. Concentrate on placing vision on objectives your team values, whether that's Drake, Rift Herald, or Baron Nashor. You should have Oracle Lens by now and hopefully at least the first quest completed on your support item. You may want to start considering alternative vision options. You may need Farsight Alteration if the jungle is too dangerous to enter, and you may need more or fewer Control Wards, depending on how religiously the enemy team is clearing them.
Make sure to ward objectives 60 to 45 seconds before the monster spawns, and not too early. Stealth Wards last between 90 and 120 seconds, depending on average champion levels, so it's important that the vision remains when the objective spawns and during any resulting skirmish. Similarly, use Oracle Lens to remove any vision set up by your opponents for the objective. Remember: it is generally too dangerous to go into a visionless jungle by yourself during the late game -- take someone with you!
Souls
TL;DR, each soul Senna collects before she hits 100 crit chance is worth 46.25 gold in stats. After that point, they fall off in value to 32.81 gold per soul. It's important to keep this in mind when you're laning. On top of whatever gold you get from Spectral Sickle, each proc of Absolution will give you more than 45 gold worth of stats, same goes for each soul you pick up manually.
This is also the reason I tend to not like crit items on late-game Senna. Her lifesteal conversion makes each point of life steal less valuable than the critical strike chance it could be, meaning that any item giving you crit chance past 100% is losing you money. Sometimes, this is worth it, like with Guinsoo's Rageblade or Infinity Edge. Other times, however, I will sell my unneeded crit items for more raw AD.
More About Vigilant Wardstone
So, for the purpose of calculating gold efficiency, let's use the following build:
and, of course,
Since the gold efficiency of Vigilant Wardstone varies based on when its built, lets assume we took no AD or Ability Haste in our runes, and we have no other buffs (dragons/passive/etc.). We'll also assume that we're level 13 and have Black Mist Scythe when we buy it so we get the bonuses.
The base stats of wardstone are worth 800 gold (400g of health [150] + 400g of AH [15]). So, at base, wardstone is 72.7% gold efficient.
With just Black Mist Scythe, the stats are worth 908 gold (424g health [159] + 400.05g AH [15] + 84g AD [2.4]).
When built second item (After Duskblade of Draktharr), the stats total to 1232 gold (400g health [150] + 496g AH [18.6] + 336g AD [9.6]). At this point, Vigilant Wardstone is already gold efficient, even without factoring Senna's passive, but let's keep going.
When built third (After Umbral Glaive), the stats are worth 1500 gold (424g health [159] + 560g AH [20.4] + 526g AD [15.6]) and is 136.4% gold efficient.
When built last (After Infinity Edge), the stats are worth 1820 gold (424g health [159] + 576g AH [21] + 820g AD [23.4]) and is 165.5% gold efficient.
TL;DR, Vigilant Wardstone is an incredibly efficient item even without Senna's passive AD or the utility it offers to your team, and you should consider building it more often.
Patch 11.10 - 5/13/2021
Senna has been very strong (and very popular) for the past couple patches the popularization of the Iceborn Gauntlet into Black Cleaver build has made her a force to be reckoned with in the current meta. That's why this change worries me slightly. Senna is still strong with guinsoo's, and this will only make her stronger. To me, this feels like a compensation buff for a nerf she has yet to receive. I expect Senna to get knocked down a peg in patch 11.11.
6/23/2020 - Guide Created
9/1/2020 - Added this changelog (Hi!). Added Synergies and Fleet Footwork runes. Updated Runes chapter and fixed Typos.
9/2/2020 - Updated Abilities chapter to include ratios and prettified the runes chapter.
9/3/2020 - Added secondary and minor runes. Added Table of Contents and started items chapter
9/4/2020 - Finished Items chapter.
9/5/2020 - Added Summoner Spells Chapter. Added custom chapter banners.
9/6/2020 - Fixed some formatting
9/14/2020 - Changed ability description to match nerf :(. Added Warding Location Chapter.
11/15/2020 - Updated main items and runes to match preseason. Chapter updates soon.
1/2/2021 - Rewrote items chapter, needs reformating.
1/8/2021 - Finished Items chapter. Began work on tips & tricks chapter
1/21/2021 - Updated to reflect 11.2 buffs
3/31/2021 - Added Kraken Slayer, Iceborn Gauntlet, The Collector, and Guinsoo's Rageblade to the items chapter and souls subchapter to Tips and tricks.
4/20/2021 - Updated about me chapter
4/26/2021 - Updated items chapter to reflect v11.9 changes
5/13/2021 - Updated items chapter to reflect v11.10 changes. Added blog chapter. Changed guide theme to PROJECT: Senna.
5/26/2021 - Updated items chapter to reflect v11.11 changes. Updated item build order for standard AD, Tank, and Support.
6/12/2021 - Added more notes in the build options section.
6/16/2021 - Added the "More About Vigilant Wardstone" section to the Tips & Tricks chapter.
8/30/2021 - Updated a backlog of information, mostly about items.
11/17/2021 - Updated to preseason 12. No more glacial augment :(
11/23/2021 - Updated some minor stuff in the items chapter.
11/27/2021 - Fixed some minor typos throughout the guide
2/2/2022 - Updated for patch v12.3
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