There's a lot of confusion over how useful the latest champ, Sejuani actually is - and what kind of build to use for her. We're seeing some great AP-centered, and health-stack centered guides floating around already - but I've had some luck playing her with a mix of health and AD. Hopefully this guide will explain a bit of why, and how, this works.

I've opted for AD-centric runes, building the usual Greater Seal of Armor and Greater Glyph of Magic Resist in for natural resistances early game. Dropping Greater Mark of Attack Damage and Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage onto Sejuani means even at level 1, she can do a decent amount of damage.

Early damage potential is key, as otherwise her early game means she's relegated to supporting a ranged carry like most tanks, or jungling. I've never opted to jungle with her, since that's not my game; so powerful laning is important.

Again, I'm building for damage potential here. Since Sejuani is likely to run up against other pseudo-tanks like Warwick, or offtanks like Riven in lane. Sejuani's natural CC capabilities means normally she can lock these AD champs down and chew on them for a while - but being able to out-AD another champ (especially as a tank), requires some further support.

Your goal with these masteries is to augment your abilities with cooldown, armour penetration - and backup some of your regen with lifesteal. This makes outlasting heavier champs much less chancy.

The core here really relies on getting Ninja Tabi and Warmog's Armor as soon as possible. This is your base - for both straight up health, and defence.

Moving from Frozen Heart through Randuin's Omen and Atma's Impaler is where your damage potential really comes into force. With the high amount of health you've built early game.

I'm sure there are other options for final items, or trade-offs, but Sej will need some solid play time before we know what those really are.

"But wait," I'm sure someone will say. "What's with Frozen Heart and Frozen Mallet when Sejuani has so much built in CC?

Frozen Heart slows incoming attacks - which is an entirely different effect than her Frost passive. This is a tank addition, and it becomes rather important in the late game. It's also got a significant armour bonus, and cooldown reduction - something Sejuani needs quite a bit of to remain viable in team fights.

Frozen Mallet has a significantly higher speed reduction than Frost does - 40% compared to 10% - which helps lock down your target, whether you permafrost or not. The slow is shorter duration, but far more effective, in between Permafrost strikes. Mallet also has a decent health bonus (which stacks on top of your Atma's Impaler and some additional AD. It's a good item on most melee champs, for different reasons.

Alternate Builds

I've seen successful Sejuanis use the Rod of Ages / Atma's Impaler combination, as well as focusing entirely on AP with Rabadon's Deathcap and Luch Bane. I may give these a more thorough look in the future, but for now the high AD tanky build is working better than AP-centered builds.

This is a first run only at this champ - having seen her potential, and had so much fun playing her, I know there will be revisions as her playstyle becomes better understood.

I chose to focus only on items, runes and masteries here because skill combinations need more examination. Again, updates will come.

Comments are most welcome! Please let me know what you think of Sejuani, and if you've had any better experience playing her with an AD-centered build.

Thanks for reading!