I'm agusmanquin, Diamond 2 LAS Support main and of one the best Senna players in the region (at time of writing). I started playing this game in season 5 but only began playing ranked seriously since season 8. I play a lot of Veigar and Evelynn but Support, and especially Karma, happened to be the role that fits me the most. And since Senna came out I CANT STOP PLAYING HER. I love this champion so much i wanna help you learn everything about Senna that i know! Also i'm lazy and won't be prettying up the guide more than absolutely neccesary.

I'll update this guy every now and then as new strategies and builds are discovered.

Cause she looks cool, she is fun as hell to play despite being on the simple side mechanically and she can be picked in almost every game. She has a lot of tools to help your team and feels really satisfying when you get those clutch heals, daring escapes, long range CC picks and cross-map snipes. I also didn't realize how much of the Marksman playstyle of staying on the edge of danger while still dealing damage appealed to me until Senna was released.

She has a good mix of utility and damage She has a global ultimate to impact the entire map She is rather easy to pick up Can be a serious damage threat even as a support

Frail and immobile Not the best champion at playing from behind Is sometimes a serious liabilty to your team composition

You probably know what her kit already does. If not, just take a trip to the wiki, since i'll only talk about the nuances of her abilites and how to use them.

-Think of Senna's slow basic attacks as another low damage cooldown ability, always paying attention of wether you need to attack an enemy to finish them off or apply Glacial Augment to multiple enemies to keep them from catching up to you. -Any two instances of damage from Senna's kit (NOT active items like Blade of the Ruined King) will trigger the bonus damage and collect Mist from a champion (Q+AA, Q+W, W+R, R+AA, etc...) -You can leave Mist from fallen minions on the ground to quickly reduce the cooldown of Piercing Darkness after using it during laning phase or sieging. Especially important for laning phase so as to not push the minion wave and make yourself vulnerable to ganks.

-If you both deal damage to an enemy and heal an ally with this ability Summon Aery will always shield an ally. -You can hit plants from the jungle but only if you have vision of them. -Use fallen Mist to target distant enemies. -Dropping a ward to extend the range of Piercing Darkness not only lets you finish off limping enemies but also engage on them by applying Glacial Augment and heal allies outside of your target range safely as well. Go into practice tool to get used to it.

-You can flash during the animation to change the direction of the abilty mid cast to catch enemies off guard. Flash forward for a suprise engage or to the side to hit someone hiding behind their ally. -This ability has the lowest cast time out of all your kit so using it at the beggining of a combo, if you know that its going to hit, is almost always preffered. Example.

-Never use it in the middle of a fight, wasting time trying to cammouflage your ally who will break it inmediately by attacking, when that time can be better used for attacking the enemy and killing them or reducing the cooldown of Piercing Darkness.

-If you have trouble using this ability to help your teammates (especially during laning phase) use this method: 1)Look at your teammate's icons on top of the minimap while you are in a safe position 2)If they are on low health move your camera to wherever they are 3)If there is an enemy nearby and they are also in low health then be prepared to ult them -Always press the spacebar after using Dawning Shadow across the map, so you can quickly resume your task after it goes off and the cast time is finished.

SUMMONER SPELLS

Do i even need to explain why you should take Flash at this point? I guess the most relevant thing i can say is don't waste it, but don't save it too much either.


Ignite gives you more kill pressure and ruins healers' lives. However because it has a smaller cast range than your basic attacks and Piercing Darkness you may find it more awkard to use than usual. If that is the case then i reccomend...


Barrier! Since you will be drawing a lot of aggro from the enemy with your poking shenanigans Barrier lets you survive any attempts made at your life, which means it gives you more time to pump out damage and maybe edge out the win in a close fight.



RUNES

Glacial Augment is hands down the best rune choice. Thanks to the long range of her basic attacks and Piercing Darkness as well as how her passive works with taking short trades to buff herself up it is the best Keystone for Senna.

Magical Footwear is the best choice in this part of the tree. Especially nice on supports so they can start building their first item right away and not let their precious gold go to waste.

Biscuit Delivery lets you play more aggresively in lane so you can stack EVEN MORE Mist.

In my opinion every rune in this last part... sucks, but personally Approach Velocity sucks the least so that's what i take. You can't go wrong with any of them really. I also like the icon.

Revitalize is the best rune ever. It makes any shielding and healing for you and your allies stronger. It really scratches my supportive itch.

Lots of aggresion going on in botlane, especially for Senna who needs to harass the enemy if she wants to get the most out of her kit. Take Bone Plating to hopefully not die.

Second Wind will outperform Bone Plating in lane against heavy poke champions like Ashe, Zyra, Vel Koz, etc. So don't forget it.

Ok i really changed my mind about this rune. Presence of Mind just straight up solves your mana issues (if you get enough kills/assists to max it out). Take it every time you use the precision tree.

Cut Down provides a good chunk of damage against beefier enemies, which are all enemies since you are a squishy marksman. Unlike Coup de Grace this always procs so long as your enemy has a certain amount of maximum health above yours, so it generally outclasses that rune. The only time you wouldn't run this is against teams that are squishy and don't build any health either, which is rare, but it happens. In that case i find Legend: Alacrity to be the superior rune choice.

As for the stat shards: usually you will go double Adaptive Force + Armor as the most cookie cutter option, but best used against weaker opponents that you can kill or seriously injure. However switching them for 1 Adaptive Force + Double Armor (or even Armor + Magic Resistance) if the enemy has a more threatening all-in than you or, when taking the enemy jungler's ganks into account, leaves them with a lot of physical or magic damage, is a good option to keep in mind.


Oh and you can run a more typical enchanter rune setup with Summon Aery and all that jazz if you want. Its alright, but i think its underwhelming compared to the strenght of Glacial Augment.

Supports are the ones that do the heavy lifting when it comes to vision control, so it's important to pick the right item and get wards as soon as possible. Spectral Sickle is best taken against enchanters or other champions which you can trade freely with, where as Steel Shoulderguards is better against lanes in which you can die very easily (such as most hook and engage champions).

Umbral Glaive is the perfect first item for Senna. It gives you AD and Lethality to hit harder, CDR for your abilities and a fantastic ward clearing effect to establish vision. I rush this item every single game. Its just too good.

Every boot is useful in some situations. Mercury's Treads is used for Magic Damage threats and CC, Ninja Tabi vs Physical damage and especially those coming from basic attacks, Ionian Boots of Lucidity to quickly hit 40% CDR if you feel you don't need a more defensive boot choice, Boots of Swiftness for better kiting and map presence and Berserker's Greaves for a bit more damage. Yes, attack speed does help Senna's damage but not so much so as to dedicate more than 1 or 2 item slots to it.

Athene's Unholy Grail is a good choice of a second item if you need more healing. The mana regen is appreciated, but being able to pump up your heals even more by damaging enemies is even better. However if you find yourself in a match where trying to charge it is very dangerous due to being able to die really easily to an assassin or long rage threat, Redemption is a good alternative to still affect fights without putting yourself in danger. Its extra shield power and health are welcomed to last just a bit longer on a fight. Ardent Censer has very poor synergy with Senna due to you not having any spammable healing or shielding to apply it. Only build it if you have multiple champions that can benefit from it (for example if you have Jax, Yasuo and Vayne in the same team)

If you think killing is the best type of assistance, then more Lethality items are the way to go. They are much cheaper than the crit items, you can build them easily since you just need to stack Long Swords and they synergize better with your kit. Get Duskblade of Draktharr for more damage, Youmuu's Ghostblade for kiting and Edge of Night for deterring assassins.

Honorable mentions for Mortal Reminder and Lord Dominik's Regards. These items really make a difference against targets that build one or more dedicated armor items.

Guardian Angel and Infinity Edge are two very expensive items to get as anything other than a last item. They are still very nice though, so chose appropiately wether you need more damage or if you need to stay alive.

BUT ALWAYS STAY AWAY FROM THESE ITEMS

Manamune only works on ADC Senna where you have a higher income thanks to farming minions. Takes way too long to come online on Support. You are also a Support so your team probably needs some other form of assistance other than damage, especially in SoloQ.

Frozen Mallet has an awful buildpath (as anything that builds out of Jaurim's Fist is) for an effect that is already accomplished by your rune. Even if you are not using Glacial Augment that 3100(!) gold you are throwing for meaningless health, because you are not building resistances alongside it, could be used on a Lethality item to just kill the enemy outright. Same goes for Black Cleaver.

Essence Reaver is expensive, you can get CDR and damage more cheaply elsewhere and the crit chance is not as useful because of your passive Absolution. Not even ADC Senna builds it.

So know that we know all that, lets put it to use on an actual match and see what the average Senna experience should look like on the Rift. Buckle up.

EARLY GAME



Move to one of the marked spots in the map, according to your side of the map, in order to guard for any potential invade (and its soloQ, EVERYONE invades wether its a bad idea or not so always be prepared). Don't put any points into your abilities yet as if that invade does happen you'll want to take Last Embrace level 1. If nothing happens, help your jungler with his first camp and move to the lane. Do not stick around for the soul that the camp drops as doing that might you lose you a minion and its experience, which means you get level 2 later than your opponents, WHICH IS REALLY BAD.



Once on the lane, the fun begins. Position yourself right outside the enemy ADCs' attack range and go for basic attacks and Piercing Darkness every time they go for a minion (and the Support too, ideally). Example. . Do keep in mind the enemy Support's position if they are one of those that can kill you if you get too close like Thresh or Leona. You may also attack the minions a few times to kill them faster and get the famous level 2 powerspike before your oponnents do. Oh and don't get yourself killed for trying to get one Mist that falls just a bit too far to get safely.

After level 2, you can push the lane even more if you have a combo that can harass under turret really well like Caitlyn or Miss Fortune (in which case you can go and quickly drop a ward on the river to establish control over the Rift Scuttler ). If not, then keep the minion waves in the middle of the lane as much as possible to force the enemy to keep eating your harass or risk losing gold and even experience. Dance at the edge of your enemie's ability ranges to bait them into whiffing them and giving you an easier time to setup for kills with Last Embrace. Even though your healing this early in the game is not the best, you should still try to keep your ADC at above 40% health so they don't suddenly die if they get out of position.
Once you get your support item upgrade and wards, swap to Oracle Lens next time you shop. You should also sporadically buy some Control Wards but only if you can defend their position and you are not stuck constantly under turret due to the matchup.

When you have Dawning Shadow you can start looking to help your other lanes. I haven't mentioned roaming yet because Senna is super squishy and won't survive running into a lot of Junglers or Midlaners, so you are better off sticking to your lane. Most of the time i do give roams is when my ADC has to back (low health or mana, lots of gold to spend) and i'm almost full health and mana, giving me time to give a visit to mid or follow my Jungler to steal some enemy jungle camps or establish vision control.



MID GAME



When the Outer Turrets fall people tend to get lost as to what to do next(even me). For the most part Senna now wants to stick around teammates to siege and poke away at the next set of turrets, still fishing for basic attack+ Piercing Darkness combos or setting up kills with Last Embrace.
Your role during teamfights is akin to any other Marksman: stay safely at your maximum range while dealing as much damage as possible. If you can choose a priority target over someone less important, great! If not, then always keep hitting something. Important to consider too wether you use Piercing Darkness for healing or quickly bringing down an enemy. It all depends on the state of that particular match and the team compositions (is this their only damage dealer, is my teammate staying alive more important to the outcome of the fight, if we are gonna lose the fight what is the best coruse of action to take down as many people as possible, etc). At this point in the game Dawning Shadow is also more useful in a big fight rather than saved to fire away at a limping enemy.

With your Umbral Glaive and Oracle Lens you will be able to quickly deward an area of importance like Dragon or Baron entrances and prepare to take them if they are about to spawn. Just don't get caught out of position trying to get a ward too deeply in enemy territory and stick around minion waves to get more fallen Mist. Also, keep one or two wards at hand at all times to use that fancy ward + Piercing Darkness combo i talked about.



LATE GAME


Same as mid game, but with more tension due to increased death timers. Just stay calm and avoid facechecking bushes, ESPECIALLY those leading to Baron and Dragon. Consider using Control Wards in your own jungle so you don't get caught on your way to an objective. You can buy either Elixir of Iron or Elixir of Wrath if you are not full build yet can't complete an item fast enough for an upcoming fight.