I am honestly nobody, just a low rank player on the NA server, but other people introduce themselves so I'm just following the trend.

I have noticed a distinct lack of in depth Sett guides, and I feel he deserves to have one so my aim is to make one. Sett is a very interesting champ that I love playing, and although I may not be insanely good at the game I do know a lot about playing Sett.

I am mainly directing this guide towards newer players, both because I think Sett is a relatively friendly champ for new players to learn, and because in-depth guides about champions I like are how I first got into playing League. That's not to say that more experienced players can't get anything out of this guide, but the overly wordy notes on everything are more for people who are just starting out.

Sett is, very simply, an AD Fighter (or Bruiser, whichever you prefer). His kit is good for both dueling and teamfighting, and is fairly simple to boot. He has a unique resource with his Grit on his W's passive so no need to worry about mana, and his R - The Show Stopper is a literal Showstopper in teamfights.

Conqueror

Conqueror is extremely useful on Sett, allowing him to survive in duels considerably longer than he would have any chance of surviving without it. This combined with DBlade allows him to duel very well early (as long as you go in while it's up) and can keep you alive in teamfights as well. It also provides some nice extra Attack Damage as well. Conqueror really just is the Fighter rune.

Triumph

Triumph will keep you alive. Whether that be a close scrape during a duel in lane, or multiple procs in teamfights that keep you going. Especially in teamfights a good The Show Stopper will give you assists on everyone who dies in the fight, and will therefore proc Triumph for every kill your team gets in that fight. That's a lot of healing.

Legend: Tenacity

You may see other people running other Legend runes here, but for my money Tenacity is the only way to go. Sett struggles a lot against crowd control, both hard (roots, stuns, etc) and soft (slows), so having this bonus Tenacity to remain more mobile is invaluable. Combined with Mercury's Treads you should be able to shrug off just about anything.

Last Stand

You're going to be fighting at low health with Sett a lot. Between his Grit mechanic and his passive regeneration you'll be getting the maximum bonus damage from this rune often.

Resolve Secondary

These are definitely the safest and most overall useful runes you can run on Sett. I run these in roughly 90% of games and find they work out the best.

Demolish

Really useful rune that allows you to get some extra plating early or burst down towers quickly later in the game. If you're worried about survivability you can trade it out for something else in the resolve tree, bu the extra plating money makes this rune more than worth it in my eyes.

Bone Plating

This rune is incredibly useful against ranged champions, but is also just very useful in duels. As long as this is up you can trade much more safely than without it. You can definitely trade it out for Second Wind if you feel you will be poked much more often than Bone Plating is up, but I feel Bone Plating is more useful in most games.

Domination Secondary

These runes are super useful for an extra bit of lifesteal, but Sett's kit works a bit better with mitigation and regeneration so I typically go Resolve.

Taste of Blood

Really good rune for survivability. It heals you. Not much more needs to be said.

Ravenous Hunter

Again, it heals you. But honestly this is very useful if you are going for a lifesteal build. Keep in mind that for full effectiveness, like other Hunter runes, you must have a takedown on each member of the enemy team.

Sorcery Secondary

These runes are specifically for if you decide to run Ghost over Teleport and absolutely should not be used in any other case. Even then they may not always be beneficial with Ghost, and other secondary options atill may be more optimal even with Ghost depending on the game.

Nimbus Cloak

Synergizes really well with Ghost giving you some extra movement speed, but more importantly gives you a bonus mini-Ghost after casting Flash that goves some bonus move speed and retains the ability to pass through units.

Celerity

This rune just soups up your Ghost even more by making it an extra 7% effective. It also has the knock-on effect of boosting any other move speed bonuses, so it synergzes well with supports like Zilean, Lulu and Yuumi as well.

Passive - Pit Grit

Sett's Passive, Pit Grit, is split further into two passives.

Heavy Hands

Sett's basic attacks alternate between a left and right punch, Sett always begins attacking with his left, then very quickly follows up with his right. If he attacks with his left but does not follow up with his right then he will default back to starting with his left after 2 seconds.
Sett's right punch has 50 bonus attack range, attacks at 8 times his attack speed and does 5 - 90 (based on level) (+50% bonus AD) bonus physical damage.

Heart of the Half-Beast

Sett regenerates .5/1.0/1.5/2.0 (based on level) health for every 5% of missing health.

This is very good for keeping Sett alive at low health, allowing him to outlive things like Darius' passive bleed or Teemo's poison where other champs would not.

Q - Knuckle Down

Active: Sett empowers his next two auto attacks within 5 seconds to do bonus physical damage and gains passive Looking for a Fight. The two empowered attacks are guaranteed to be a left then right punch and casting Q acts as an auto attack reset, even cancelling the cooldown time after a right punch.
Passive - Looking for a Fight: Sett gains 30% bonus move speed when moving toward a visible enemy champion within 2000 units.

This ability is good for chasing down enemies, but won't catch up to someone who has dashed away. The empowered attacks do a lot of damage early and scale very well to remain potent. Casting this ability immediately after completing a basic left and right punch can give a surprisingly fast burst of damage, and is a great tool for quickly clearing control wards without much attack speed.

W - Haymaker

Passive: Sett stores 100% of his post-mitigation damage as Grit on his resource bar, up to 50% of his maximum health. Each instance of stored Grit decays by 30% every second after 4 seconds.

Active: Sett immediately gains a shield equal to his expended Grit for 3 seconds. decaying after 0.75 seconds, and indicates an area in the target direction.
After the cast time , he unleashes a blast, dealing physical damage to all enemies in the area, and true damage to enemies in the center.

This ability has two main purposes for Sett, those being shielding from damage when Grit is full and/or dealing huge true damage to targets in the center of the skill. Many new players use this ability to poke, as it his Sett's only ranged ability, but that is a huge mistake. The only time you should use this ability without a large accumulation of Grit is if the target you are dueling tries to run away and you know you can kill them with the Grit you have accumulated. When dueling it can be hard to remember that you need to take a considerable amount of damage to be able to dish out a kill. This is Sett's highest damage potential ability, the damage combined with the shield can easily turn the tide of a duel, but only if Sett's Grit is accumulated. It also has a fairly high cooldown and definitely won't be able to be used multiple times in a typical duel, so don't use it at the wrong time. If you use this ability to poke expect to be jumped on, it is a large ability that many other top laners will know to abuse.

E - Facebreaker

Active: Sett pulls in targets in front and behind him in the target direction, dealing physical damage and slowing them by 50% for 0.5 seconds.
If Facebreaker affects at least one enemy on each side of Sett then all enemies are stunned for 1 second when landing after the pull.

Facebreaker is another very useful tool in Sett's kit. It has four main uses, the first being an engagement/poke tool in the laning phase. It can easily be used to poke, as you can cast it between your enemy and their minions to stun them then cast Knuckle Down to do a quick burst of damage and walk away before they're able to react. The second use is during a duel, it can be used once you have full Grit to stun the enemy you are dueling and guarantee you hit the true damage in the center of Haymaker. The third use is simply to pull back an enemy that is running away. If you are anticipating winning a duel in lane and want to secure a kill, consider saving Facebreaker to pull them back if they try to run instead of engaging with it. Its final use is for big teamfight crowd control after jumping in with The Show Stopper. This is extremely useful as with good positioning you can stun most or potentially all of the enemy team after jumping in.

R - The Show Stopper

Active: Sett instantly suppresses and reveals the target enemy champion and dashes with displacement immunity a fixed distance toward and past them, attaching the target to him when he reaches them and carrying them for 1.5 seconds before slamming into the ground.

Enemies withing the epicenter of the slam physical damage. Enemies outside the epicenter take physical damage , reduced up to 75% at the edge. All enemies hit are slowed by 99% for 1 second.

The dash will prematurely end upon reaching a wall that cannot be dashed through by Sett.

First, there is some mechanical information about The Show Stopper that is important to address. First, Sett's impact point is always the same distance behind the target (unless stopped by a wall Sett cannot dash through) much like Katarina's Q - Bouncing Blade. The distance of the jump and slam are NOT affected by the distance between Sett and his target when the ability is cast. The jump always goes in a straight line from where Sett cast the ability, meaning that if your target is very close to you the jump can potentially go in an unexpected direction.

The Show Stopper is the teamfight engagement ability, but also is surprising useful for one-on-one duels, so don't only save it for teamfights. The damage scales with the bonus health of the target so when engaging it is important to go for the enemy tanks, as they will yield the most damage output. The huge slow for anyone inside the impact zone is incredibly useful for securing a stun off of Facebreaker and makes it very easy for your team to follow up on your engagement. It is important to remember that even though this is a very powerful ability, it is NOT a 1v5 tool and is next to useless unless you are very fed or, more importantly, your team is there to follow up.

Why Upgrade in This Order?

Upgrading your abilities in Q - E - W order is fairly logical. Q is the only ability that gains any great benefit from upgrading, its cooldown will almost halve between levels one and five (going from nine to five seconds) and it will do considerably more damage. E and W both don't gain much outside of shorter cooldowns when leveling up, and since W's lowest cooldown of 12 seconds is still never goign to be enough to use it multiple time in one fight upgrading E second is more logical, as a 10 second cooldown is slightly more likely to be able cast multiple time in a fight, and at level five it does a surprising amount of damage. W is upgraded last because the cooldown will never be low enough to cast multiple times (and that's assuming you could even build up your Grit again in a fight) and it will always do big damage if you hit the center with full Grit regardless of its level.

Combos

Not a lot needs to be said about Sett's combos, as they're all fairly simple, but there are a few useful ones to know.
E - Q - AA - W:
This is your basic engage/poke combo in lane. If you just want to poke stop after the empowered autos off of your Q, if you plan to duel auto attack them until you have enough Grit to make casting W worth it.
Q - AA - E - W:
This combo is for if you can bait the enemy into a duel without using your E first. You want to just use Q and auto attack until you have full Grit then stun them with your E to guarantee that the full blast of true damage from your W hits them. If they aren't dead at this point then your shield should allow you to finish them off without dying.
R - E - W - Q - Goredrinker:
This is your big team fight engage three health bar combo. Once you jump in with R you want to try to stun as many enemies as possible with your E then attack until your Grit is full, although it will likely be full just from jumping in. Then while your shield is up attack whoever you can with Q and auto attacks until just before your shield is gone, then use your Goredrinker's active. If your team hasn't won the fight by the time all the health stolen from Goredrinker is depleted then you've done all you can.

Early Game - Lane Phase

In the early game you really want to focus on making money, and denying the enemy laner income. That means having good cs, getting kills where you can without giving up kills, and pushing tower for plating, especially if you took Demolish. Top laners have very little early game impact as they're on the opposite side of the map from the dragon, but a couple things you can do for your team early is pull pressure and give your team first turret money. If you are absolutely trouncing your opponent you can potentially draw the pressure of the enemy jungler, allowing your jungler to much more easily secure Drakes. Also getting first tower provides a lot of income for both you (especially if you can pull it off before plating goes away) and your team. Money is your largest focus so when the time comes for you to transition into mid and late game you can start snowballing your game with the lead you've cultivated in your lane.

Mid Game - Roaming or Pushing

The general rule of thumb is that mid game begins for you once the first tower in your lane is destroyed, and that is mostly true. There are fringe cases but overall once either yours or the opponent's tower is destroyed it is time to enter the mid game. As Sett you have two choices when it comes to the mid game, you can either group with your team to help them transition to mid game and/or secure objectives (top lane is generally the earliest lane to begin transitioning), or you can continue to push your lane in an attempt to draw pressure from other points on the map. Both of these choices are very viable, although with Sett I typically choose to go help my team as The Show Stopper is so useful for larger teamfights, and your help can really turn the tides of a lane that's having a hard time. Split pushing definitely has its power however, especially if you are able to draw pressure from other lanes and allow your team to take towers and begin transitioning to mid game as well. Generally I don't recommend split pushing if anyone on your team is hard losing their lane, as you will likely get destroyed if the fed member of the enemy team comes to help stop your push. In that instance it is much more useful to go help your team try to shut down whoever it is that's fed. On the flipside, if all of your lanes are winning definitely splitpush, as your presence in another lane would just dilute the amount of income and experience your team is getting and could potentially halt your team's snowball.

Late Game - Group and Take Objectives

Sett's ultimate is too strong to try to use him to splitpush the whole game, you're not playing Tryndamere or Nasus. Your team needs The Show Stopper to help secure key objectives like Baron Nashor, the Elemental Drake Soul and Elder Dragon, so don't splitpush in the late game until after you've helped secure objectives. There's nothing wrong with splitting once you have the Baron buff, but if you know a fight is about to break out you need to be with your team. At this point in the game Sett does the best when fighting in large groups and his dueling potential falls off a bit, so it is best to leave stopping splitpushes and isolating enemy targets to other champions while you stay with the team and help with larger fights. Use your strong engage to be proactive in fights and use those victories to take objectives.

This is not an in-depth overview of all of Sett's match-ups, it is just some important things to know about particularly common or annoying match-ups in the top lane.

Darius - This is an incredibly common match-up, many players, especially new players, ten to gravitate towards Darius. Sett is very strong in this match-up. Facebreaker can close the gap on Darius' Q - Decimate and Haymaker's shield can block lethal P - Hemorrhage damage. Otherwise Sett just outscales Darius and has more teamfight value, especially with a few early kills from Sett's better early duel potential. This is not a free win however, you have to play smart and not get hit by all of Darius' abilities to win.

Garen - Another very common match-up, especially for new players, Garen is a very annoying match-up, but not necessarily hard. It is very challenging to secure a kill onto him between his general tankiness and P - Perseverance, but it is also hard to lose lane without picking bad fights. Sett's teamfight usefulness is more than Garen's so just try to focus on cs and outscale Garen.

Renekton - Play safe early. Renekton starts off very strong but falls off very hard very quickly, so as long as you don't let him take an early lead you will be fine. If he dashes behind you with his E - Slice (or E - Dice) you can often get a free stun with Facebreaker so be ready for that to turn his engagement on him. Otherwise you definitely outscale so just try to focus on cs and pull the wave back to your tower.

Tryndamere - This is really the only match-up where you may want to consider starting with Haymaker over your other abilities. Tryndamere usually goes hard for a duel at level one, and using Haymaker's large shield can potentially save you from a level one death. It can also lead to a very early kill if you are able to hit the true damage in the center as well. He will try to splitpush so definitely take Teleport in the match-up and make sure to keep an eye on the minimap and stop him when he is pushing.

Nasus - DO NOT LET HIM FARM. Nasus is a very challenging match-up for me personally as I really do not like his scaling mechanic. Just know that regardless of how hard you stomp him in laning phase, if you leave him alone at any point in the game he will outscale you and be able to break towers in seconds. To mitigate this you HAVE to deny him from as much cs as possible in the laning phase. You win duels so use that power to keep him bullied off of lane. Stand behind his minion wave to make it so he can't walk up to the wave and cast Facebreaker to stun him if he tries to walk up.

Pantheon - There is not a ton to be said about this match-up, as it is fairly simple. If you're not confident you can dodge his Q - Comet Spear then start DShield, otherwise start DBlade for the enhanced dueling potential. You are definitely tanky enough that he can't burst you down so just wait out his kit then retaliate, the worst thing you can do is send a fully charged Haymaker right into his W - Aegis Assault.

Malphite - This is a pretty annoying match-up with very minimal kill potential as he is so tanky. Start DShield to guarantee he wastes all his mana trying to whittle you down with his Q - Seismic Shard (he can cast it exactly four times at level one, and with DShield you can survive considerably more than that). Once his mana is gone you can bully him off the lane and essentially have free cs until he Recalls and comes back with mana again.

Camillle - Camille is fairly weak early and it is important to take advantage of that. If you can take an early lead in this lane you can essentially shut her out of the game, but on the flipside if she takes an early lead she can easily carry a game. You can potentially pull her out of her E - Hookshot with Facebreaker before it hits you, but the timing is very precise. Respect her in lane but be aware that you can bully her a bit. If you engage with a stun from Facebreaker you can finish your trade before she is able to get her P - Adaptive Defenses' shield up as it only activates on her auto attacks, so it pays to be proactive in this lane.

Irelia - This is a match-up to be careful of, as she can burst you down very easily if you choose to fight at the wrong time. Never fight her while her P - Ionian Fervor is up, do your best to dodge her abilities and walk away. If she misses her her E - Flawless Duet you can fairly safely engage on her, but if you see her swords light up then just stun her with Facebreaker and get out. The only time you should fight while her passive is up is if you're confident you can will her with Haymaker and want to accumulate Grit quickly.

Aatrox - Aatrox would not normally be all that worth talking about, but he is very strong right now with Goredrinker. Respect him once he buys this item, as he is essentially impossible to kill while in his R - World Ender if he has it. You can pull him near you with Facebreaker to avoid the damage and knock-up from his Q - The Darkin Blade (much like with Darius) but be aware that is second re-cast (the third hit) goes in the center, so walk away from him before he casts that. Otherwise it's not too challenging a match-up as he definitely wants to space out his opponents and you can fairly easily close said space.

Mordekaiser - This match-up really depends almost entirely on how good the Mordekaiser player is. A strong Mordekaiser can zone you off of almost all of your cs and leave you with no money, but a weak one can be easily get bullied out of lane. Try to get a feel for your opponent's playstyle and react accordingly, either playing safe if they're trying to Q - Obliterate you every time you walk up for cs, or by bullying them if you see them using their abilities on the minions often. IF you're having a lot of trouble with his R - Realm of Death consider buying a Quicksilver Sash, as it immediately cancels the ability and puts you back on the Summoner's Rift.

Sion - This is an example of a very easy match-up for Sett, and can be used as reference for any other champs that stack health. I chose Sion specifically because you can easily cancel his Q - Decimating Smash with Facebreaker, making the laning phases almost trivial. That being said, make sure you are aware that his P - Glory in Death can lead to your demise fairly easily if you closely scrape by on a duel. Once Sion stacks some health and the laning phase ends he becomes the perfect target for The Show Stopper. Sion especially because he will likely rush into your team with his R - Unstoppable Onslaught, then you can return the favor and slam him back into the enemy team. Any other big health stacking champs like Cho'Gath, Zac, Dr. Mundo, and Ornn, among others, are great targets for The Show Stopper and guarantee, with intelligent play, some teamfight wins.

Ranged Match-ups - These match-ups (Vayne, Quinn, Teemo, Lucian, Gangplank) are always annoying and always hard for Bruisers with no movement capability. Start DShield to help mitigate early poke, and try to stay healthy enough to all in at level 3. If you can land the stun of of Facebreaker then you can essentially confirm at least a Recall out of them. Specifically with Quinn you can potentially pull her out of her dash with Facebreaker, but the timing is very precise. Vayne's roll will always allow her extra mobility with its tiny cooldown, but with good placement of Facebreaker you can put her in a position where she can't roll out of it. Just wait out Teemo's blind before going all-in on him, as your Knuckle Down still counts as auto attacks and will be wasted if you are blind. Lucian is a relatively recent addition to the top lane, but he's pretty annoying. He will avoid your abilities if he has his dash up, so wait until you see him use it before you go in on him, otherwise follow the same rules as any other ranged top laner. Gangplank (yes he is ranged) is relatively easy as you can quickly burst down his barrels when they are at two health with your unique auto attacks.

Please feel free to contact me on Discord (Chreis#7073) or on Twitter (@Chreis_Art) if you have any questions or comments about this guide!