Hi there!
This is LordGrox, I've been an avid Rek'Sai OTP ever since her release. I am currently sitting in EUW SoloQ high elo playing only Rek'Sai, and I want to share some of my ideas with you.

Guide is semi-updated for 12.8!

The matchup-encyclopedia has been temporarely removed, as it needs some updates before I can unleash it again.

If you want to talk about this Guide, feel free to join the Rek'Sai mains community Discord!

Let's take a look at the very basics of Rek'sai. We're gonna pick runes, look at the itemization and go into her maxing order.

There are 3 important keystones to choose from.

If you want to see detailed rune pages and explanations, please refer to the in-depth section!

CONQUEROR Conqueror provides bonus AD, which is incredibly strong thanks to Rek'Sais bonus AD scaling on all abilities. As it does not provide any Attack Speed, your combo will have to be well trained in order to utilize this rune to the fullest.

HAIL OF BLADES Hail of Blades is the attack speed rune from the Domination tree. It speeds up your combo and allows you to quickly hit a fully rage stacked E, making it excellent in burst scenarios. Do note that this rune provides no additional damage and does not scale, making Rek'Sais already existing scaling problems worse.

ELECTROCUTE Electrocute is another bonus AD rune. This one scales with bonus AD (40%), and provides great burst damage even on small combos, making it yet another burst rune. The key difference to Hail of Blades is that it will deal bonus damage on top of your combo and that it scales into the mid/late game decently well.

PERSONAL TAKE

BEST RUNE: CONQUEROR Conqueror is a vastly supreme rune. While Hail gives higher initial DPS, Conquerors effect lasts until the fight is over and will outshine Hail in raw Damage output. If your combo is clean you will not need Hail in order to one-shot people, making this the better rune as it can not only one-shot people but also provide extra power for skirmishes / extended fights. How does Conqueror compare in raw stats you ask? If one wants to try out the runes in practice tool it will become quite obvious. Conqueror does less DPS in a combo than Hail of Blades, but will have a higher amount of damage. This leads to the conclusion that if you sacrifice a bit of DPS, you will gain raw damage - a worthwhile trade in my eyes.

Why are other runes not mentioned?

Go visit the "What not to pick" Section in the In-Depth Runes section for more information on other keystones!

If you want to see itemization, please refer to the builds section at the top!

LETHALITY + Insane Damage output + Huge Catch potential + Excellent to shut down carries - mistakes are punished harder - low HP and resistances - hard to skirmish Focused on heavy damage by getting close to 0 HP and instead opting for damage items only. The point of this build is to kill whoever faces you before they can even react. Will leave you insanely squishy and weak to skirmishes.

BRUISER + Strong survivabilty + Skirmishing potential + Helps with playing as a semi-frontliner - Lower damage output - Can be negated with items Similar to the lethality build but focused more on survivability. With this build, you can still engage into multiple enemies without having to fear getting one shot. Item's like Sterak's Gage will save you from dangerous situations and allow for more skirmishing.

PERSONAL TAKE

BEST BUILD: LETHALITY I love AD. I love one-shots. I play the lethality focused build because it helps me with one-shotting anyone that dares to come close. While this does leave you really squishy, with the right mindset this build elevates you to play almost like an assassin, allowing for some insane plays!

Now that you've chosen a build (not like there's much choice at the moment) let's delve into the items.

HAILBLADE Chilling Smite is the default choice for Rek'Sai. Play this with Conqueror, Hail of Blades or Electrocute. It gives 2 stacks of Conqueror and additionally also enables you to close in on enemies, making it harder to kite you.

REFILLABLE POTION The default choice to go along with your smite item. There is not much debate here, 3x Health Potion gives you 1 more potion before the first back, but you will not have any healing after that. Refillable will remain in your inventory and can be sold for key items.

STEALTH WARD The default trinket for every jungler. While you can buy Oracle Lens in anticipation of the enemy warding one of your jungle entrances (killing a ward at level 1 and sharing the exp with top or mid will give them level 2 on the first wave), it is usually better to take the Stealth Ward and either play it for the next 5-10 minutes or place the ward and swap to Oracle Lens before 1:30

If you wish to know more about other Mythic choices on Rek'Sai, explore the In-Depth Mythic Explanation!

PROWLER'S CLAW The key item for Rek'Sai in the current season. While it has been nerfed in patch 11.13, it still reigns supreme. One of Rek'Sais main drawbacks is her inability to gap-close after using Tunnel or Flash. This item fixes these issues and makes Rek'Sai obliterate any target thanks to the 15% damage increase. Its stats will also provide large amounts of damage. It will also provide 2 stacks of Conqueror.

EDGE OF NIGHT A great versatile item after Prowler's Claw. The stats are efficient and a good fit to the general playstyle, while the spellshield enables you to go for more plays. This includes normal engages and also ganks against targets that can lock you down with CC. This should usually come as the 2nd item.

DEATH'S DANCE Great item to help you survive skirmishes while still dealing decent damage. If you struggle in the mid-game you can think about skipping this, as it's a very expensive item. Great when combined with other sustain items, like Maw of Malmortius or Black Cleaver.

GUARDIAN ANGEL A decent item to help with all-ins when required. Stopwatch is a great component, meaning you get the effect "twice". Has the issue that the stats are bad and will leave you with little gold value after the effect has been used.

CHEMPUNK CHAINSWORD (EXECUTIONERS CALLING) This and Executioner's Calling have been nerfed heavily. Right now it's barely viable against very heal-heavy teams, but I would not build this item right now. Leave it to your support or other ap champs to build Chemtech Putrifier or Morellonomicon.

SERPENT'S FANG An amazing item against any shield supports (think Karma or Lulu for example) and Immortal Shieldbow or Sterak's Gage players. Raw stats provide huge damage and the anti-shield effect makes it possible to obliterate most champions. Will leave you squishy if you build it very early. It can still be worthwhile to get this early since it still ruins most squishy champions that rely on their shields in order to sustain fights (Think Yone for example).

MAW OF MALMORTIUS Can be a decent fit against full AP team compositions. Its core component Hexdrinker can be a good item to keep against heavy AP compositions, even if you don't plan on building Maw of Malmortius immediately.

THE COLLECTOR Are you crazy and want damage? If you are the sole carry and feel that you need to unlock your inner Super Saiyan, this might be the item for you. Will leave you incredibly squishy but gives you a large amount of damage, plus allowing you to crit. Don't build this in a normal game.

LORD DOMINIK'S REGARDS Are you crazy, but the enemy picked some tanks? This is the item to get some insane damage on high HP targets. Note that this has anti-synergy with items that provide bonus HP, as you will lose parts of the % dmg bonus.

BLACK CLEAVER Decent choice these days. Armor shred gives decent damage against anyone tankier, the movement speed gives you sticking power and the HP does a decent job at keeping you alive, especially together with items like Death's Dance. Can be combined with Serylda's Grudge for even more insane armor-shred.

SERYLDA'S GRUDGE A decent pick against a very Armor heavy team, additionally allowing you to slow enemies with your Q. Suffers from the fact that it does not provide any meaningful defences.

KNIGHT'S VOW Very rarely seen, and I hope you won't ever need this. If you threw away jungle and have no hopes of getting back into the game, consider getting this and putting it on a carry. Play peel-bot for them and pray they carry you because you won't carry anything with this.

Now before you look at these items, here's a SMALL DISCLAIMER: Tank Items are not all that great. In the current meta, your job is to go very hard, almost like an assassin. Tank items provide little defence if you build them alone and will only take away from your damage. Going Full tank or for more tank items than 1 is very bad, as Rek'Sai purely scales with bonus AD. However, you can consider these as the last item if you feel that your damage will suffice to end the game.

RANDUIN'S OMEN A pretty nice tank item. While tank items are not optimal, this can be a great item against teams with heavy AD / onhit damage.

DEAD MAN'S PLATE Decent value against AD heavy comps and provides you with some additional movement speed. The hit now also scales with base AD (since 11.13), so that's kinda cool.

SPIRIT VISAGE A decent item if your team has a healer, as it increases the heals you gain, as well as the bit of healing Conqueror provides. A decent choice against AP heavy teams.

ABYSSAL MASK With pre-season this has been changed and as such it will no longer increase your true damage like Prowler's Claw. This can still be ok as a tank item if you have a lot of AP champs in your team.

Resistance Boots are currently meta. Pick them depending on the situation.

↗ Plated Steelcaps Strong resistance oriented boots against heavy AD teams. Also provide damage reduction against auto attacks which is useful against ADCs and AA heavy champions.

↗ Mercury's Treads Strong resistance oriented boots against AP and CC heavy teams. Also prodive tenacity, which is useful against CC heavy teams (even if they are not full AP).

→ Ionian Boots of Lucidity Offensive boots choice similar to Berserker's Greaves, that instead capitalize on Ability Haste and Summoner Haste. While the stats they provide are great for snowballing etc., they leave you very squishy.

→ Berserker's Greaves While they are playable, Berserker's Greaves will leave you too squishy with little benefit. If you want offensive boots, you are better off with Lucidity Boots.

↘ Other boots Other boots aren't viable, due to the stats not benefiting Rek'Sai as well as the ones mentioned above. Movement speed is good, but Rek'Sai relies on combat stats, which these don't provide. (and no, you don't want to build AP, trust me)

↗ Chilling Smite Currently, Blue Smite is the best choice, as you do want the extra damage and movement speed. This works well with Conqueror and gives you a mark for your R. It will also bring you into range to use your Mythic.

↘ Challenging Smite While the damage reduction sounds nice on paper, you do need the movement speed of Chilling Smite. Picking Challenging Smite means you will get kited, making you an easier target! Outside of that it also does not provide Conqueror stacks.

In the upper section, I show 2 different maxing orders. Let's look at the advantages of either one of them.

↗ 3Q INTO E MAX Nerfed in 12.1, but still completely fine to play. This path will allow for more utility thanks to a lower E Tunnel cooldown in earlier stages of the game. Why max E after level 6? E is a damage + utility source. Maxing it increases the true damage AND greatly reduces the tunnel cooldown and the re-use cooldown of tunnels. This provides utility and gives you a lot more play-making potential.

↗ Q MAX INTO E MAX As an alternative, you can max Q. While lower on the utility size, with the nerfs to E this evens out in damage output. It also helps more with clearing camps, as you use Q more often due to its lower cooldown (of course the AOE also helps)

The chapters above explained the very basics: Runes and Items. These alone are a good basis to start playing a champion, but I haven't explained anything about the champion itself yet. Let's take a deeper dive into Rek'Sais kit and her jungle playstyle!

TIME TO TAKE A LOOK AT REK'SAIS KIT!
As you may already know, Rek'Sai is a shapeshifter, similar to champions like Elise or Jayce, meaning she can swap between 2 forms. For Rek'Sai this change of forms is triggered by her W, which unlike the 2 champions above has to be skilled.

I implore you to read the ability descriptions yourself first, to get a small understanding of what everything does.

Now let's delve into her abilities!



PASSIVE: FURY OF THE XER'SAI

The passive won't need much explanation: While burrowed you consume any Fury you have over 3 seconds, healing you based on your level. This is a great passive that gives you sustain in the jungle and can save you from the dots like Ignite

Q: QUEEN'S WRATH

Her Q will add extra AD damage to your auto attacks. Now here's the juicy part: It will act as an auto attack reset. This means you can quickly strike twice in a row by auto-attacking once, pressing Q, and then quickly auto-attacking again. This is integral to every interaction you will have, so remember it!

W: BURROW

Her W is a shapeshifting ability. The burrow does nothing aside from changing your form! Wait, I lied. You may have realised that while burrowed, your vision gets obscured, with a large circle AOE around you. That is your TREMOR SENSE! Inside of this AOE, every moving object gets revealed by a small ping every 1.5s. This is a huge advantage because it gives you vision outside of where you should be able to see!

E: FURIOUS BITE

Her E is the key ability that scales with Fury. If you are at a full Fury your E will deal TRUE DAMAGE! Now if you ordered damage, that's where you get it. This bad boy scales with 170% bonus AD and has up to 180 base true damage. Careful though! If you use her E without full fury, your damage is not only halved but it is also dealt as normal AD damage!

Q: PREY SEEKER

Want range in your melee kit? Here you go! Her Q will send a missile flying towards the enemy, revealing them for 1.5s (while burrowed!). The range of this ability is similar to the AOE you see around yourself from being burrowed. Use it as a range indicator! Amusingly enough this ability scales with AP.

W: UNBURROW

Her burrowed W is still a shapeshifting ability, but this one is important: it's your knock-up! 1 target gets knocked up for 1 second, while everybody else inside of the AOE gets knocked back. The knockup can be triggered by pressing W or using an attack move on a target. (This is important for later)

E: TUNNEL

The bread and butter of Rek'Sai, her E will allow you to place a reusable tunnel on the map. This will take you through terrain and creates unique paths only you can take. Be aware that enemies can destroy these by standing on them!

R: VOID RUSH

Rek'sais finishing move: Void Rush. Apply any damage on an enemy and you will see them marked with your fin. Now, whenever you feel like it, using R on a marked target will burrow you in the ground for 1.5s, during which you become untargetable. After the initial timer, you will pounce on the enemy in a range of up to 1000 units (that's a lot), dealing missing HP% damage. This makes her R a great execution tool!

Now that you've had a good look at her abilities let's look at Rek'Sais combos, as well as some special interactions her kit provides!

Let's start with the basics.

Auto Attack Reset


The classic Auto Attack Reset

Every single time you attack something, you should do an Auto-Attack Reset (assuming your Q is up):

Order:

1. Auto Attack
2. Queen's Wrath
3. Auto Attack

This should be used against every single target in the game. Learn to utilize this everywhere, as it provides extra damage and speed.

Basic Combo


The most basic combo, usually used against jungle camps and champions

A simple combo you also want to use against most single targets in the game. This should be your bread and butter against champions and jungle camps. This combo can always be executed and does not rely on large cooldowns.

Order: Prey Seeker Unburrow Auto Attack Queen's Wrath + Auto Attack Furious Bite Auto Attack <-- Conqueror stacked

Alternative Order: Prey Seeker Unburrow Auto Attack Queen's Wrath + Auto Attack Auto Attack Furious Bite <-- Conqueror stacked

Advanced Combo


The advanced combo. This is the full combo, it relies on all possible cooldowns (aside from summoner spells)

The most advanced combo. Used against champions for maximum burst. Be aware that this requires all cooldowns to be up in order to be fully executed. Of course, this can also be done without Chilling Smite or Prowler's Claw.

To help with understanding the combo, here's a slowmo version:


Order:

1. Prey Seeker
2. Prowler's Claw
3. Chilling Smite
4. Unburrow
5. Auto Attack
6. Queen's Wrath + Auto Attack <-- Conqueror stacked
7. Furious Bite
8. Auto Attack
9. Auto Attack
10. Void Rush

Step 6. is simply an Auto Attack, but it uses Queen's Wrath for a quick Auto Attack reset.

Note that I do 2x Auto Attack before using Void Rush, as I want the maximum benefit from Prowler's Claw enhanced damage effect. Your ult will never benefit from the bonus, as the cast time is too long to still hit inside of the 3s time window.

I want to spoil some Rek'Sai main secrets I've learned over the years, so let's list them here:

Manual W and toggles

One of your most valuable tools in a gank/skirmish/anywhere is your W Unburrow. Hitting the knockup on a key target is of utmost importance. Here are things you should know:



Right click toggle

Expanding on situation 1 shown above, you will notice that it can get hard to right-click an enemy champion properly. Luckily, riot provides tools to fix that. Enable these 2 settings:

Set a keybind for your champion toggle. (Whatever key you are comfortable with)	Turn it into a toggle instead of a button that needs to be held

With these 2 settings you can now toggle "champion only". Right clicks will no longer work on anything else, meaning you can no longer miss your knock-ups!
WARNING: This does not work with Auto Attack Move, only right click!

Auto Attack Move

Once again adding onto what I already said, you should learn to utilize "Auto Attack Move". For me this is bound to the key 'A'. It allows you to quickly perform AA's without having to hit a target with right-click. While I do trust you in that you are the absolute gaming golem, right-click master and a general high-end gamer, I recommend you get used to this. Having to hit right clicks is unnecessary when Auto Attack Move exists.
Do note that this does NOT work together with the champion only toggle!

The ult dodge

Let's look at 2 clips first to see what I'm talking about:


Dodging a dangerous Orianna R


Dodging a Qiyana R


Your R Void Rush makes you untargetable for 1.5s. Additionally, you will disappear from the map for a short period of time. This allows you to dodge all kinds of nasty damage and CC! Aside from being untargetable, this can also be used to dodge an ability predictively.

Here are some examples of abilities which are beneficial to dodge:

• Jax E Counter Strike - Stun
• Darius Q Decimate - Damage & Healing
• Ahri E Charm - Charm effect
• Aatrox 3rd Q of The Darkin Blade - Damage & Knock-up
• ...

This list could go on for quite a while, and I may get around to adding more Abilities. Fact is: Incorporate dodging key abilities into your playstyle.

Ult Dodge 2: Sleepy boogaloo

Now ignore the joke title, because this one is important: Lillia with Lilting Lullaby and Zoe with Sleepy Trouble Bubble can apply the drowsy status effect, which will put you to sleep after a short timer. This can be dodged by ulting a target while still drowsy!

Ult reveal

Very situational, but an unexpected trick. Some champions can go invisible in combat. Stuff like Akali Twilight Shroud, Kha'Zix Void Assault or Shaco Deceive. These will usually stay hidden until they reveal themselves. Here's the important part: your R Void Rush reveals enemies! This means that if you use your R predictive on the enemy invisibility, they will stay revealed no matter the circumstances. This means you can reveal the enemy for your team to kill, making tools like Akalis Shroud useless.

Edit: We're back!!! This once again works as of 11.24


The mid-tunnel knockup


A classic knockup against another champion


A more useful approach: knocking up a plant for free vision control!


The mid-tunnel knock-up is rarely useful against champions but is very useful on other things: Vision plants, Blasting Plants, Small Krugs and Small Raptors. Using this trick to pop plants while tunnelling reduces the time needed to burrow again after popping a plant. Alternatively use it to execute the aforementioned small jungle creeps while already tunnelling to your next destination.

The W landing ult


See how you land burrowed? You can instantly knock up again after landing!

The trick with this is to spam your W Burrow while you are in the air during your R Void Rush. It can be hard to pull off and isn't always doable since your W needs to be off cooldown. It does give you the advantage of landing ready to knock your target up, making it a decent engage tool.

The 1-way tunnel


A simple spell, but quite unbreakable. A 1-way tunnel outside of the drake pit. It can be used from the inside, but cannot be destroyed from the inside.

These tunnels are called 1-way tunnels because they are only really useful from 1 side. Please note that these are really useless. Don't waste your time doing these in a ranked game!

These can be placed at any thin wall in the game. Usually, you would want them from a side where it is harder for the enemy to break them, meaning your side (eg. Blue side places them from Blue side territory)

I covered some Interactions, now let's look at some dangerous interactions you need to watch out for!

STATUS EFFECTS

Grounded status effect

Grounded effects make it impossible to use your E Tunnel, R Void Rush, Prowler's Claw and Summoner Spell Flash. Getting grounded means you will be helpless, so avoid the effect as much as you can!

Champions that ground you are Cassiopeia, Poppy and Singed.


Silence status effect

A usual silence is always a danger, as it keeps you from using your abilities/Summoner Spells/Items. A special case that you should know about is Sorakas E Equinox. Standing inside of it means you can still auto-attack while burrowed, but you will not knock up! Remember this, as you can still abuse the situation to get some quick AAs in.


Nearsight status effect

As with Silence, this is also a common danger, but it is enhanced by Rek'Sai being burrowed. This already reduces your sight radius by a ton. If you get the Nearsight effect while burrowed, your sight radius will get so small that it gets almost impossible to find targets.

Be aware of this against Graves, Nocturne and Quinn!


Blind status effect

Only the devil Teemo himself can apply this status effect to you. While blinded, auto-attacks will not grant any fury! Try not to waste your Q while blinded, as deal no damage and lose your procs.


CHAMPIONS

Let's take a look at some nasty interactions you should watch out for:

I've explained the basics of the kit so far, now let's talk about tunnels. Rek'Sais burrowed E Tunnel allows you to place a tunnel at a fixed range. This tunnel is your main form of engage and also your greatest ganking tool.

There's no big secret to tunnels. There's no hidden image Rek'Sai mains keep to themselves on where to tunnel. Use them in the jungle to get to camps faster but be wary of the large early game cooldown - you still need them for ganks.

Now while there's no secret to tunnels, I can recommend some common tunnels used for ganks:

I've explained basic ideas for Rek'Sai, as well as proper setups. Now I want to focus on her main role: the jungle.

Please take note that I will not cover off-meta roles like top or mid.

Before I go into the details, let's clarify what pathing even means. Pathing defines the path you take while going through the jungle. It gets changed by the camps you take, the order you take them in and the ganks/invades you do in between.

Not that we got that out of the way, let's get concrete. Usually you want to start your clear with your bot-lane, as their leash is better than top-lanes:




These 3 should always be the first 3 camps you take. You will be level 3 afterwards. From here on out the possible paths will split up, and you need to decide for a proper path of action:

OPTION 1: GANK

A common approach is to force a gank at Level 3, utilizing one of the tunnels described earlier or just by normally walking on a lane. Pulling Summoner Spells like Flash from the enemy has great impact, and you can even use your own Flash in order to secure the First Blood.


After a gank, you should focus on the follow-up pathing:

• Get a Crab
• Go back to farming your jungle
• Roam to another lane and attempt a 2nd gank
• Invade the enemy jungler

Before you attempt this, here's a few things you should consider:

• Is the lane you are trying to gank warded?
• If the enemy jungler can also gank at level 3, do you win a 2v2?
• Is the lane in a position to be ganked?

Run down this list before you attempt a gank. If you find that the odds are against you, go for one of the other 2 options!

OPTION 2: INVADE



Invade the enemy jungler, who should either be doing their 2nd buff or be on their way there. If they are, you can 1v1 them, steal the buff and maybe even kill them. Your level 3 is superior to most other junglers, and as such, you should have no big trouble fighting.

After an invade, you should focus on taking remaining enemy camps and getting at least 1 crab that spawns at 03:15.

Issues that could arise are missing lane priority from your side, meaning enemy laners will come to aid the enemy jungler before your teammates can help you.


OPTION 3: FARM

If none of your lanes are gankable, and you don't feel like invading this is always a safe play. This option means you will take your blue side camps in the following order:







If you feel up for the challenge, here is an example clear on how to full clear by 03:15:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BU1DInle2c (Credits to Phylaris!)



SUMMARY


These are the most common early game paths you can take. Try and follow them, as they provide a solid basis for newer/inexperienced junglers.

Please note that as of now I will not be going into great detail on later pathing. Pathing is a very difficult construct and is best learned through experience or through other sources. I do not think a written guide will do a good job in explaining these high-level concepts, and as such I will merely advise you to seek help on other platforms, such as Youtube or on dedicated Jungle Main Discord Servers.

Rek'sai is a champion that excels at ganking, diving and skirmishing in the early game. In this section, I want to go into details of how a gank should look like and what to watch out for when picking a lane to gank.



Picking a lane to gank has multiple facets. Let's start with the basics:

1. Win Condition

Picking by win condition is usually a good idea in a more meta-gamey way.
Consider the following:

• Which lane can carry your game to victory?
  Think of Hyperscalers like Kassadin or Kayle, think of people with really good winrates on their champions, and even OTPs

• Which lane enables you to get objectives?
  For the early game, this will usually be bot lane. They can help you get Dragon and even help you contest Rift Scuttler . You can also consider other lanes for help with Rift Herald .

• Which lane can you kill to get a lead yourself?
  While Rek'Sai isn't the best scaling champion, getting an early lead in kills and lane tax can give you a significant advantage over the enemy jungler. Think about lanes that can be killed for free: CC on your side, no escape on the enemy side.

• Which lane is playing good/bad?
  While theory is great, press Tab and look at the scoreboard. Is a lane feeding? Vastly behind in CS? Think about "Never gank a losing lane" and then decide whether it's worth it to put effort into this lane.

While these points can serve as a general framework, don't decide too early on what to gank. Games don't follow set patterns and neither should you. Go with the flow and don't cast away a lane in champ select!


2. Lane states

The theory is done, let's get it. You wanna gank, I'm here to tell you if you actually should.

Champion position

Look at the lane and consider where the enemy is positioned. Is the enemy sitting beneath their own tower? Or are they pushed all the way up to yours?

Let's look at an example. You are playing from blue side:

✖️ Bad position. The enemy is relatively safe and has a short escape path	✔️ Good position. The enemy has a long path to safety, making escape hard.

Wave position

The next thing to watch out for are the minion waves. This topic is rather complex and matters more the higher elo you go, but there are some general ideas you can still use in your games.

1. If there is a huge wave your teammate needs to catch, don't force a gank
2. If your teammate is helplessly frozen in lane, clear the wave and break the freeze

Here are examples of what I mean. You are playing from blue side:

✖️ Bad position. There is a huge enemy minion wave crashing into the tower. Ganking here means either losing a ton of exp and gold or having to fight the laner on your own.	❓ Situational! Has your laner been stuck in this position for ages? They may be frozen in lane! ✔️ Help break the freeze by pushing the wave, saving your laner from engages and ganks!

3. CC, Escape tools and self peel

Consider champions on both sides:

• Do they have engage/disengage tools?
  Think about mobility. Stuff like Camille's E Hookshot, Ezrael's E Arcane Shift. Many champions have similar tools. Either wait for them to be used or find a situation where using them still puts them into kill range. Consider if your teammate can help you out by using a similar tool!

• Do they have CC tools?
  Can they stop your gank? Can your teammate set up a gank? Think about abilities like Lissandra's W Ring of Frost or Malzahar's R Nether Grasp. Be careful with enemies using them on you! Watch out if your teammate has recently used their CC tools!

• Can they self-peel?
  Can they help themselves avoid damage? Will it be easy to escape your W Unburrow? Think about abilities like Vladimir's W Sanguine Pool or Fizz's W Playful / Trickster! Either wait for them to be used or find a situation where using them still puts them into kill range.

This chapter will explore some more detailed information about Rek'Sai.

I want to explain some more details about the current rune choices on Rek'sai.


In the early chapters I mention Conqueror vs. Hail of Blades. These 2 are the mainstream rune choices people play. Additionally there are a few people playing Electrocute, primarily on EUW. Let's look at the current statistics:


As you can see, Conqueror is the most played rune. From a current standpoint, it is an amazing rune, due to the bonus AD scaling Rek'Sai has. Smooth combos allow you to one-shot people without additional attack speed from Runes or Items. Additionally, you gain a lasting benefit, thanks to Conqueror providing its bonus AD until you are out of combat.

Meanwhile Hail of Blades and Electrocute are more burst oriented runes, giving high DPS on a combo but no benefits after it has been dealt.


Conqueror 11.24 Update

In Patch 11.24 Conqueror got buffed:

ADAPTIVE FORCE PER STACK 2-4 (based on level) ⇒ 2-4.5 (based on level) BUFF DURATION 4 seconds ⇒ 5 seconds

Let's take a quick look at what this actually means for Rek'Sai:


As we can see, Rek'sai loses up to 29 damage in a full combo when compared to the pre-nerf values of patch 11.21, but gains the equal ammount in the recent buff of patch 11.24.

If you want more insight into this, you can look into the spreadsheet.


SO HOW DO I PICK?

Here's the important part: I and others will recommend all kinds of runes. While these may be decent baselines for you to discover what to play, at the end of the day you need to figure this out on your own. Play all viable runes, see what suits you the most and stick to it.
DO NOT swap between Conqueror and Hail of Blades every few games. Both runes have different combos, and you won't master them if you keep swapping around. Stick to 1 playstyle and learn to execute it as well as possible.


Earlier I mentioned that other keystones aren't really played. If you are interested in the reasoning, expand the spoiler below:



Let's pick the primary rune page first:


Let's take a look at the main rune tree for Conqueror: Precision. I will explain the best rune picks in this tree, and explain which ones are good and why.

CONQUEROR

Conqueror is played for the massive bonus AD it provides, which has great synergy with Rek'Sais kit as she scales with bonus AD. While the rune does provide some healing, the healing can be mostly disregarded. It is widely supreme to Press the Attack, because PTA will not give any extra damage to your true damage E.

Overheal

Meaningless effect as you are never healing enough to actually build up the shield this minor rune provides.

ROW 1

Triumph

The best Row 1 rune, as it provides extra HP and extra gold. Useful in saving you in clutch situations thanks to the HP you obtain from kills.

Presence of Mind

Will be swapped to Triumph in-game. (You don't have a mana/energy resource)

Legend: Alacrity

The most commonly used rune from the 2nd row. Provides Attack speed which enhances not only your clear speed in the jungle, but also your combo speed.

ROW 2

Legend: Tenacity

A less commonly used rune in the 2nd row. Useful against heavy CC teams, as too much CC can lock you down from getting any engages. With this, you will have to sacrifice clear/combo speed!

Legend: Bloodline

Not played, as lifesteal is not necessary on Rek'sai. The other 2 runes are simply better.

Coup de Grace

A commonly used rune in the 3rd row. It provides a flat %damage increase on low HP targets, making it a generally decent pick. Note that this does not increase the true damage of Furious Bite.

ROW 3

Cut Down

Not played on Rek'Sai as you usually build items that provide HP such as Edge of Night or Sterak's Gage. This negates the effect against any target that will not build max HP tank, making it useless.

Last Stand

Similar to Coup de Grace, this will instead give you a damage increase based on your own HP. While a good pick, this does not synergize well with runes like Absolute Focus, which rely on your having high HP%. Note that this does not increase the true damage of Furious Bite.

Another tree to consider is domination.

HAIL OF BLADES

The meta keystone in Domination. Will provide fast auto attacks, speeding up your combo by roughly 0.6 to 1.2 seconds (estimates, depends on how good you are) compared to Conqueror. Does not provide ANY bonus damage. Usually easier to play for newer players.

ELECTROCUTE

A less commonly played Keystone. I currently believe that this is the superior choice over Hail of Blades on decently skilled players, due to the bonus damage it provides. It will still deal insane burst damage but has normal attack speed similar to Conqueror.

Cheap Shot

The usual pick for the first row. Provides a little bit of extra damage, more than Sudden Impact. Is triggered on every knock-up (if off cooldown).

ROW 1

Taste of Blood

While some extra sustain isn't bad, getting more damage in an offensive tree such as domination is usually a better idea. As such this isn't needed.

Sudden Impact

While this does provide damage, it's simply less than Cheap Shot. While better with Prowler's Claw, it is usually triggered by your tunnels.

Zombie Ward

A good rune for vision control. Use this in combination with Sweeping Lens to gain free vision and AD.

ROW 2

Ghost Poro

While this also provides vision control, it is not picked due to junglers requiring a Sweeping Lens, meaning you can no longer proc the effect.

Eyeball Collection

If you are less focused on vision control and more on gaining flat chunks of AD, this is your rune. Get free AD on kills, which can help with snowballing.

Ravenous Hunter

A great rune for sustain. As with all Hunter runes, you want to kill everyone to maximise the effect.

ROW 3

Ingenious Hunter

Amazing rune to recude cooldowns of items like Edge of Night, Prowler's Claw or even Predator boots. At maximum stacks, this will reduce the cooldown of Prowler's Claw from 90s to 60s!

Relentless Hunter

Always a good pick on junglers thanks to the MS letting you roam faster. Does not provide any combat stats!

Ultimate Hunter

Not picked as your ult already has a decently low cooldown and this rune has diminishing returns. Other runes are simply better

Now that you've picked your Primary tree, it's time to select the secondary. There are multiple viable options, and it's up to you to decide what to play. Note that you can't play the same tree twice.

Meta Combinations:

Precision + Domination + Sorcery + Inspiration

Domination + Sorcery + Precision ⠀

For secondary runes, I will not go over every single choice but instead, list the best ones. Select the ones you like the most and try out which runes fit you!

Triumph

The standard rune for precision. Always a good pick thanks to the health and gold.

Legend: Alacrity

The most commonly used rune from the 2nd row. Provides Attack speed which enhances not only your clear speed in the jungle, but also your combo speed.

Legend: Tenacity

A less commonly used rune in the 2nd row. Useful against heavy CC teams, as too much CC can lock you down from getting any engages. With this, you will have to sacrifice clear/combo speed!

For secondary runes, I will not go over every single choice but instead, list the best ones. Select the ones you like the most and try out which runes fit you!

Nimbus Cloak

A strong secondary keystone for anyone that likes closing gaps. Will only provide 5% movement speed increase when using Chilling Smite, but will give 25% movement speed increase with Flash. This makes Flash a gap closer which does not need to instantly connect with the enemy. Has been nerfed in patch 11.13.

Absolute Focus

A flat bonus AD increase whenever you are healthy. Should have almost permanent uptime in the jungle thanks to Refillable Potion and Fury of the Xer'Sai. Will also provide AD for most ganks, as you usually engage the enemy at high percentages of HP.

Waterwalking

Great help with roaming through the river as it provides MS and bonus AD. Will support you in contesting the river objectives Rift Scuttler , Dragon and Baron Nashor , while also aiding any skirmishes you might have.

For secondary runes, I will not go over every single choice but instead, list the best ones. Select the ones you like the most and try out which runes fit you!

Zombie Ward

A great 2nd Row rune for vision control and obtaining bonus AD. Get's better the more you play around vision and Oracle Lens, as it provides great counter vision on the enemy without having to use your own wards.

Eyeball Collection

As an alternative to Zombie Ward this is a good pick for anyone that has less focus and vision and more focus on just killing. Will also provide decent bonus AD, but loses the benefits of vision control.

Ravenous Hunter

A lifesteal Hunter rune, less commonly used due to lifesteal being relatively irrelevant for the most part. Does provide decent sustain for anyone that needs it. Outshined by Ingenious Hunter.

Relentless Hunter

A flat MS Hunter rune. Still used for anyone that wants to go through Jungle fast. Note that this is out of combat movement speed, meaning it's great for roaming but won't help you in fights. Outshined by Ingenious Hunter.

Ingenious Hunter

An item Haste Hunter rune. Has recently become a very viable pick due to the cooldown nerfs to Prowler's Claw in patch 11.13 (60s -> 90s). At maximum stacks, this will reduce the cooldown from 90s to 60s! This leaves you at the pre-nerf value! This is currently the best secondary rune, as the mobility a 60s Prowler's Claw provides is insane!

For secondary runes, I will not go over every single choice but instead, list the best ones. Select the ones you like the most and try out which runes fit you!

Magical Footwear

If you are going for Inspiration you are pretty much forced to take these 2 runes. While free boots with extra MS are cool, the rune will delay your boots, which can be a struggle

Cosmic Insight

The other Inspiration rune, helping out will all of cour cooldowns, including the nerfed Prowler's Claw.

Minor runes are pretty basic, but I still want to explain the reasoning behind the choices:

Adaptive Force

Viable choice, but with Conqueror and Electrocute you usually prefer Attack Speed due to the fact that you already have enough damage as is. You can consider this if you play Hail of Blades.

ROW 1

Attack Speed

Currently, the best minor rune from ROW 1, as the attack speed enhances your clears and makes combos smoother

Ability Haste

While ability haste isn't all that bad, the other options are simply better. Do not take this.

Adaptive Force

The best choice in ROW 2, as you still want bonus AD to enhance clears and overall damage.

ROW 2

Armor

A bad choice as you don't require large amounts of defence. You are better off getting more AD from Adaptive Force.

Magic Resistance

A bad choice as you don't require large amounts of defence. You are better off getting more AD from Adaptive Force.

Health

A bad choice, as the HP you get is rather low. Resistances pay off more in the early to mid-game and are therefore superior.

ROW 3

Armor

Best choice against AD heavy teams and enemy junglers. Has the benefit that it makes you slightly tankier against jungle creeps.

Magic Resistance

Best choice against AP heavy teams and enemy junglers. (Note that 2 AP heavy champs in the enemy team already make this viable, it does not have to be a full AP team!)

In the guide and item chapter above, I do not include other Mythics aside from Prowler's Claw. This will confuse some players, as they have had positive experiences with other Mythics. In this section, I want to explain my reasoning and talk about other viable (but ultimately worse) choices.

Prowler's Claw Why is this item best in slot? Components Rek'Sai benefits from bonus AD. Components like Serrated Dirk provide large amounts at low gold cost and build out of even cheaper Long Swords. This means that even at low gold-backports, you can still obtain bonus AD to deal more damage. Active Dash The active of Prowler's Claw ranges from 90s to a 60s cooldown if you play Ingenious Hunter. It dashes on top of targets, making it near impossible to escape the impending combo. It will follow Summoners like Flash and even dashes. This makes it trivial for you to get on top of enemies, negating one of Rek'Sais weaknesses the longer the game goes: getting kited. Damage As I've already explained, Rek'Sai is an early game champion. Your role consists of getting big leads early on and dealing huge damage but inevitably falling off in the late game. This means you want to obtain the most damage possible. In this department Prowler's Claw is king. Not only do you get good AD and Lethality, but you also deal 15% for 3 seconds. (includes true damage E!!!) This means Prowler's Claw has the highest damage output of all mythics.

I hope that this sufficiently explains why Prowler's Claw is so good.



While I do say that Prowler's is best in slot, I do not want to claim it's the only playable one. It may be better than every other mythic, but other's are still in a playable state. Let's look at them:

Eclipse Another decent Lethality Mythic. Provides decent sustain thanks to its passive and the Omnivamp it provides. Will also deal decent damage on its own, thanks to its 2-hit passive. Has no gapcloser!

Galeforce A bit of a troll mythic. The crit chance it provides is too low to get consistent benefits, but the stats still allow you to deal decent damage. The active can be used as a gap-closer and damage tool, but unlike Prowler's Claw it cannot pass obstacles.

Goredrinker A bruiser mythic consisting of rather weak components. Will enhance your AOE clear and will provide good sustain in fights thanks to its active and the Omnivamp stat. Very defensive stats which make it harder to one-shot enemies. Has no gapcloser!

Stridebreaker Another bruiser mythic, similar in playstyle to Goredrinker. It's active however allows for a bit of gap-closing thanks to the slow. Overall very weak components and weak as a complete item. It has rather low damage and provides no sustain. Very defensive stats which make it harder to one-shot enemies. Has no gapcloser!

I will currently not elaborate on other mythic choices, as none of them fit Rek'Sai and as such, they should never be played. While the above mythics are viable, I do not personally recommend playing them. Prowler's is just too busted to ignore.

At multiple points in this guide, I've mentioned the importance of bonus AD in Rek'Sais kit, and the significance of runes like Conqueror in increasing your damage. Let's take a quick look at what I mean:

(+ 30% bonus AD) x1 time

(+ 50% bonus AD) x1 time

(+ 50% bonus AD) x3 times

(+ 80% bonus AD) x1 time

(+ 170% bonus AD) x1 time

(+ 175% bonus AD) x1 time

(Auto Attack) (+ 100% bonus AD) x4 times

These are the damage sources in 1 Combo. All of them scale with your bonus AD,

adding up to 1055% bonus AD in total scaling.

This is a significant value, and should not be underestimated. It is the main reason as to why bonus AD is so important on Rek'sai, and why tank builds are bad.

In this chapter, I want to talk about ways of getting good at Rek'Sai and playing her in the jungle.

Disclaimer: Opinions you will read here may not be objective. They reflect my understanding of the game. While I would never consider myself a "good" player, I think I am qualified to give a few opinions on how to get into higher Elos (namely D1 and Master).

Do you want to improve? Good. Now let's get your brain into the proper mindset. Here are some rules to follow:

1. Play for improvement, not for LP
   Stop thinking about your LP. Set your mind on getting better, and LP will follow. Dodge games that look unplayable in champ select, and don't get mad at losing some LP.
   
2. NEVER blame anyone else but yourself for losing games
   One of the greatest mistakes most players make. Yes, there are unwinnable games. But your focus should never be on your teammates, as they are outside of your control. If you ever catch yourself thinking about your teammates, focus up and stop it. You make mistakes every game. Find them, fix them.
   
3. Analyse replays
   Go into your replays. Look to find obvious mistakes. Explore different options of what to do, note the good and the bad.
   
4. Disable Chat
   Unless you are Master+ and you are confident that communication can help your games, disable your chat. The chat provides little benefit and only serves as a platform for toxicity.
   
5. Know when to stop
   Tilted? Mad? Tired? Stop playing. Forcing 10 games a day won't make you better if you can't focus on your games. Find a point to stop every day, or at least take some breaks to reset your mental and mind.

Now the points here are a bit short, but they convey the general message well enough:
Focus on yourself, and only yourself.

One of the most integral parts to actually getting good at Rek'Sai are her mechanics (the micro). While many Rek'Sai players think that they are "good" at her, most mechanics often leave room for improvement.


The Combo

Let's start with the combo. I already linked an example of a proper combo further up in the guide, if you haven't read it look here.
The first thing I usually recommend for anyone below Master+ is to train your combo in practice tool. For me, the setup looks like this:

1. Go into practice tool
2. Select your usual Runes
   
   My runes

   
3. Ingame, level to 6, fully stack runes, disable turrets and minions
4. Buy Hailblade and Prowler's Claw
5. Skip to 01:30 using Ctrl+Shift+O, use instant cdr from Ctrl+X and obtain Blue Smite by smiting 5 times
6. Set up enemy target dummies and 1 friendly dummy for vision, preferably on a lane with space
7. Start training your combo. Use Ctrl+Shift+O and Ctrl+X to reset everything between attempts

After the initial setup, it's time to train your combo! A proper combo on a target dummy should deal ~2470 Damage (If you followed the setup properly). Now the damage is secondary, the main point of this all is to obtain the maximum DPS. What does this mean? It means to train your combo until you can pull off about ~595 DPS against target dummies consistently. If you can do that, your combo will good enough and won't hold you back.

TLDR: Go into practice tool, set yourself up for combos, learn to get the highest possible DPS.


The small things

I've already listed some sneaky mechanics, most of them only known to OTP's. These are small things, but getting to know them and actively using them in-game will give you yet another small edge over your opponents. While this is a more time-intensive step, try forcing them as often as you can.


Kiting

If you've looked at the 03:15 full clear I linked earlier, you will see that kiting camps greatly enhances your clear. This is something that you need to train if you want to clear properly. Try this in practice tool, see how far you can take camps and when they reset. This is important if you ever want to properly clear, and as it's something you can train this is not limited by your elo. If you want more examples, look at replays of other high elo Rek'Sai players.

Now it's time for some harsh reality. Macro is something that can barely be thought in a guide, and I won't attempt it as the topic is vastly more complex than anything else. Jungle macro resolves around so many factors that it is best thought by playing or by a dedicated coach.

My advice for getting better macro:

Watch guides on the early game

The early game is the most linear macro, and oftentimes there are only a few good options, making it a lot easier to learn from outside the game. There are some great guides on youtube on how to master early game pathing, and I implore you to seek them out.

Play more

Yes, sounds pretty dumb but it's always true. Playing more means you can improve more, and with time macro decisions will become more obvious. This process means learning it yourself, but that is how just about everyone will learn macro at some point.

Jungle Tracking

Jungle Tracking means following the path of the enemy jungler without actually seeing them. You will have to understand the pathing of different champions and predict where they are at different stages of the game. This is incredibly hard but gets more consistent the better your enemies get.

Don't waste too much thought on this. This will come more naturally as you play the game, so as always, "play more".

Whew, you read/scrolled all the way down here! Good job! If you have any feedback, please let me know here or come join us in the official Rek'Sai Mains Discord:

https://discord.gg/BDRkeRV

Now that the important stuff is done, let's just get this over with: