This item now builds from Kindlegem, making it a lot easier to build than any Giant's Belt item. It's gold-efficient and now provides CDR instead of armor, meaning you should work in an early Chain Vest in a lot of cases, building into one of the big health-armor items, Sunfire Aegis or Randuin's Omen.

Sejuani rework

A somewhat boring passive, but anyway, her clears are pretty solid now. No more near-death experiences at the red buff every game anymore!


This can be maxed first or second now, though I prefer second since it's too expensive to waste on jungle camps. % max health damage per level makes this scale pretty well, where it used to be primarily a mobility tool. Throw in the new knockup effect and now it's now very satisfying to level this and not have it be just for the cooldown.


Conversely, you can now safely level this skill last. It now has a flat BONUS health scaling instead of TOTAL health PER LEVEL. Meaning if left at level 1, it gains power as you buy items more rapidly than if you had left the old W at 1. It's still a strong DPS skill to level, but it is more reliable to level your burst damage first: E and Q.


I usually level this first. Using W (which now applies Frost) and then E is the cheap and easy way to clear camps, with Q no longer necessary except for when you want the absolute quickest clear.


Not much to say here. You have to aim better now!

Rework reason 1 - health/resists balance

When I first posted this build, I was taking the new S3 items into account, but I was not yet used to the rebalance of gold vs resists in terms of gold value. Additionally, Warmog's has the old Force of Nature regeneration passive, giving it self-synergy that used to be impractical to obtain most of the time. Throw in Northern Winds and its health scaling, and it's a rock-solid pick mid-game.

In short: in S2, Warmog's was suicide, and in S3, Warmog's is raw pwnage. Hence the reworked build.

Old core:


These are all fine items, but the health/resists balance is way off. In particular, it's very hard to fit Frozen Heart into any build on any character these days, because health is so much more gold-efficient. Also, Spirit Stone essentially solves mana problems, CDR isn't strictly mandatory, and the strong synergy of Spirit Visage with Warmog's Armor makes Kindlegem a strong choice for CDR anyway.

Rework reason 2 - Overemphasis on Liandry's Torment

Liandry's Anguish is a fine item for Sejuani, but it does not have to be rushed. First of all, the way the passive scales makes it the most gold efficient at 18. If you want to damage carries, then Haunting Guise is all you really need for that, as a Giant's Belt will make you just as much of a threat to squishies while making you tankier.

It may be worth getting Liandry's Anguish a little earlier, like around 12 or 15, if the enemy team is extremely bulky or has an overfed Darius or something like that. Otherwise, it's a late/luxury item, or an item to get in really wacky games where you have no choice but to try to carry.

Rework reason 3 - Sightstone slows the build down too much

After further play testing, I find that Sightstone is simply too suicidal. You may want to buy a ward or two when you can, or even a Vision Ward to complement the support's Sightstone. But Sejuani absolutely needs to get fed, tanky, and healthy because of the way she double scales, and the way she plays. Generally you should probably spend less on wards and make them really count. (Also, I don't think it's worth getting Crystalline Flask, and the utility mastery machete/flask opening doesn't work anymore anyway. An early Spirit Stone is plenty of sustain, and a mid-game Warmog's Armor is what you really want.)

Sejuani is good in S3. Really good. The only reason word hasn't spread is that Amumu is very similar, and he's currently one of the most broken champions in the game. However, Sejuani is never banned and has a 52-53% win rate at the moment. I'm anticipating FotM and then nerfs in the coming months, but who knows.

First of all, Hunter's Machete makes her first shopping trip an easy and meaningful experience, and the Tenacity upgrade, Spirit of the Ancient Golem, is useful but not necessarily urgent. But most importantly, Northern Winds benefits greatly from the S3 stats-per-gold rebalance: health has gone from a junk stat to a dominant stat, and health scalers of all stripes are reaping the benefits. Warmog's Armor is just great now.

Optionally, Liandry's Anguish puts Sejuani's initiation over the top. It seems to have been designed with her in mind, what with her having slows on three skills and her auto-attack, and a W that keeps re-applying the Liandry's passive. The only thing that would help her more would be more health rather than AP (actually, such a change was patched in recently!). The synergy with Abyssal Mask even makes Sorcerer's Shoes an appealing choice where it hadn't been before.

Pros

* High win-rate champ currently, thanks to the dominance of Health as a defensive stat in early S3
* Strong initiator
* Great against squishies
* Enough MPen to cut through all or most MR on a typical carry
* Great mid-to-late game
* Nice mobility, making great plays with some combination of Q, R, and Flash
* Getting one solid RQWE rotation in a teamfight can result in a win even if she dies soon after
* Optional Liandry's Anguish to severely weaken tanky enemies late-game
* Jungle clears post-rework are solid now! :)
* Arctic Assault scaling helps keep her more relevant when underfed than before. That is, she's a more consistent champ.

Cons
* Still very item-dependent. Needs Liandry's Anguish to do much damage at all to tanks or bruisers.
* Not as innately tanky as some other tanks.
* Item dependent: Can't really afford to ward that heavily and still be useful. (But she can ward hard-to-reach places with ease when it matters)
* Slightly less best-case scenario damage (well-compensated by burstier and more reliable damage overall, and better jungle clears)

Basically, she's halfway between a tank and a magic damage bruiser. It used to be that stacking health was the only real way to boost damage, and then you had to get Abyssal Mask and Sunfire Aegis to do more damage. Further, the damage used to drop off dramatically against any non-carry. She used to blow up if you stacked health, but now you can rush Warmog's Armor right after Sunfire Aegis and be tankier than you would have been with Abyssal Mask, the latter now being situational rather than core in my opinion.

Further, Liandry's Anguish optionally keeps her more threatening against more enemies in the late game, at the cost of some tankiness. The old tank Sejuani who was a threat to carries and was very hard to kill just by mobility and sheer itemization... she's still the best way to build Sejuani in generic games, and she's stronger than ever before thanks to the current state of health/resists balance. The difference from S2 might sound subtle, but play enough, and you'll see that it's actually dramatic in practice.

The only thing you should worry about is Leroy Jenkins syndrome. If you try to err on the side of protecting your carry rather than diving and killing, then you're more likely to be an asset to your team. Sometimes you can do heroics and dives just fine, but I've found that intentionally erring on the side of restraint makes me more likely to win games, personally.

Starting Items

Five Health Potions let you clear all camps for 500 gold to complete Spirit Stone. You could get counterjungled, in which case you may have to buy something else like boots.

Sustain

If you don't have 500 gold due to counterjungling, then Crystalline Flask is an option, especially if you die and lose the blue buff and have no Spirit Stone to show for it.

Mid-game: Build some health

It's important to be tanky. Health is much stronger in S3 than it was in S2, and it scales with Northern Winds. Spirit of the Ancient Golem is effective and easy to build. You may skip or postpone Haunting Guise if you want to be tankier, but I've grown to be a fan of it. Sunfire Aegis is a nice, balanced item with damage added.

Shoes

Stacking flat MPen works well on Sej. Health will be more important than AP, so any AP I advocate here will be a useful side-effect.

Warmog's Armor

This is a very strong pick as the game stands now. If you get ahead on gold, Sunfire + Warmog's will make you do a lot of damage and be very hard to kill. In this case, just don't get focused *too* hard and ride the sustain to victory. Watch out for Blade of the Ruined King, which can be countered by Warden's Mail to some extent.

Liandry's Torment

This is essentially the Rabadon's Deathcap for Sejuani. But you don't need to rush it, necessarily, as it is weak defensively and scales primarily with enemy health when dealing damage. The 70 AP is a luxury that makes Sejuani a bit burstier. You may rush it if your team isn't putting out enough damage, though.

High-end items for the late game

Spirit Visage is a lot stronger than it used to be, has strong synergy with Warmog's Armor, gives CDR and health, and provides MR to Sunfire Aegis's armor. It is absolutely the best generic item after Warmog's for Sejuani in my opinion. Abyssal Mask is great if you have a fed AP champ on your team.

Some strong choices

Runic Bulwark is good for teamfights vs AP, but the regeneration aura is wasted in the jungle, so an early Aegis of the Legion seems questionable. But it can be essential in some games, and you're a good candidate if the support declines.

Frozen Mallet is a nice luxury item packing a lot of health, but Permafrost should be enough slows if you use it well. Consider carefully whether you can get enough out of your kit first, and consider something tankier than the Mallet if so.

Frozen Heart provides a huge chunk of luxury CDR and an anti-AD aura (note that Sejuani's kit does NOT have an AS slow!). The mana is also overkill, but some games, you really need this aura.

Randuin's Omen has nice stats, but Sunfire Aegis is probably better generically. If you're taking physical damage too rapidly and/or are up against Blade of the Ruined King, then Randuin's Omen is a better defensive pick. Sunfire Aegis is great for being a threat to carries, if you're confident that you won't blow up too soon.

Flat armor yellows (especially strong for the first jungle clear)
MPen reds (MPen is stronger per point the more you have)
MR/lvl blues, or maybe even CDR/lvl blues
Move quints

Tankiness, MPen, and the ability to stick. That's really all that Sejuani needs.

2-6 points in Offense for minion damage and possibly CDR

The rest should be in the defense tree. There isn't really enough in the Utility tree to bother with, even if the move speed is nice. The tenacity effects in the defense tree will probably help more anyway.