Personally the only way I like to play support is to go in and constantly fight to get a lead. What's the perfect champion to do that you may ask? Well the Pit Boss himself, Sett. Recently, Phase Rush Sett support has been taking off and let me tell you, it's extremely fun to play, as well as extremely good when being played correctly.

Runes


Primary: We’re taking Phase Rush to help make up for our lack of a gap closer. We’re using runes to increase our speed and chase down potential once the fight has been initiated. So we’re also taking Nimbus Cloak (for a burst of speed after using our Summoner Spells), Celerity (to further increase our movement speed bonuses) and Waterwalking (to increase speed and damage when in the river).

Secondary: Because Sett doesn’t have his own form of gap closer, we’re looking to augment his kit with the next best thing - Hexflash. Hexflash allows you to use a “worse” version of Flash when your Summoner Spell is on cooldown. During this time you can perform a 2 second channel and then cast a blink in a target direction. The final rune could be Future’s Market (to allow you to buy items more quickly and on a Support’s salary) or Approach Velocity (increases movement speed toward movement impaired enemies) if you have a lot of Crowd Control on your team or are laning with an AD Carry such as Ashe.

Overall, when playing Sett support you’re looking to abuse Hexflash and Phase Rush to run down your lane opponents at every turn. When using Hexflash, you’ll receive the Nimbus Cloak and Celerity bonuses - meaning this short blink will act as a small gap closer and let you run at them at mach 10. Then once on top of the enemy, Phase Rush will kick in and their chance of escape without flashing or hard Crowd Control is very low.

Abilities


The order that you’ll level your skills will be E (at level 1), W (at level 2) and Q (at level 3). Then you’ll max W first, E second and Q last; Taking your ultimate point at levels 6, 11 and 16

Knuckle Down (Q): Active - for the first 1.5 seconds Sett gains 30% bonus movement speed towards enemy champions. Sett’s next two basic attacks within 5 seconds each deal bonus physical damage (consuming an attack will refresh this timer).

Knuckle Down is Sett’s built in chase down ability, as he has no real gap closer. Our rune choices make it so we move even faster when activating Q - so we can punch our enemies in the face quicker. As Support Sett, we’re not concerned with the damage of this ability (although it will hit like a truck in the early game) and more with the bonus movement speed it gives.


Haymaker (W): Passive - Sett stores 100% of post-mitigation damage taken as Grit on his secondary resource bar (Sett doesn’t use mana) up to 50% of his max health. Each instance of Grit decays by 30% every second after 4 seconds. Active - Sett blasts the area in the target direction, dealing physical damage to enemies hit. Enemies in the center take true damage instead. Sett will also gain a rapidly decaying shield for 3 seconds equal to the Grit Expended.

Haymaker is what makes Sett such a good champion in general. You get rewarded for fighting and getting hit. Haymaker deals massive damage on its own, so even this Support version of the champion can be deceptively strong. To properly use this ability, you’ll want to try and hit the enemy with the center for the true damage bonus. But, you’ll also want to wait as long as possible to use this ability (or at least until your Grit bar is full) to get the maximum shield amount.

Facebreaker (E): Active - Sett pulls in enemies at his front and back (really the targeted direction and its opposite direction), dealing physical damage and slowing them by 50% for 0.5 seconds. If Facebreaker affects at least one enemy on each side, all enemies are stunned for 1 second upon landing.

Facebreaker is a decent Crowd Control tool overall. It’s a nice ability for Sett because it has a range of 490, which, while small, is better than nothing and brings enemies closer to him. Ideally, you’ll want to grab enemies on both sides of Sett to get a stun, but normally the act of merely bringing them into range of your fists is good enough. Facebreaker is a fairly quick ability, so unless the enemy is really reacting quickly they’ll have to Flash before the ability or Flash after taking damage. However, if they’re late to react, most of the time you’ll be able to run them down with Phase Rush.


The Show Stopper (R): Active - Sett suppresses the target enemy champion and dashes unstoppably to a fixed distance toward and past the enemy, attaching the target to him when he reaches them and carrying them for 1.5 seconds before slamming them into the ground. Enemies within the impact take physical damage, reduced by 40% at the edge and are slowed by 99% for 1 second. (Walls that cannot be dashed through will end the dash).

Show Stopper is an amazing ability, it suppresses an enemy (meaning they have no escape, not even cleanse), launches Sett into them and can even bring Sett into the enemy team. This ability also has a short range, meaning Sett doesn’t have to be on top of the enemy to use it and can instead start fights with this ability. You can use this ability in two ways. The first way, bring an important target into your team. Or the second way, dunking an enemy into their own team for the damage and slow. Show Stopper also deals bonus damage based on the target’s bonus Health - meaning slamming tanks/front line champions into the backline will do more damage.

Laning Phase

You’ll want to start looking to Flash on your opponents as early as level 2 if they’re both squishy, ranged champions and level 3 if they have a tankier, melee support. In a ranged lane, you’ll want to avoid being poked down too much, but abuse Flash/Hexflash and the bonus movement speed to stay in their faces. Usually in these lanes, if you can get on top of at least one of the enemies quickly enough, you’ll win the fight.

In melee matchups, you can sit back and wait for the enemy to be the aggressor or do the same thing with Flash/Hexflash. Just make sure your own AD carry isn’t getting too beat up by their support, in that case focusing the enemy support first may be the smarter idea.


Sett’s W will allow him to tank much more damage than the enemy may realize and when activated will return a lot of punishment back to them. Be sure to fill that bar as much as you can before using it, even in defensive situations, as you’ll get a larger shield.


Once you’re level 6 and have access to Show Stopper, you can look to engage fights in two ways. Slamming either enemy into your tower range, most likely using Flash/Hexflash to get behind them first. Or by using the enemy support as a weapon against their AD carry (in the double ranged matchup, using either champion as a weapon is fine).

Mid-Late Game (End of Laning Phase)

You’ll want to play like typical supports do, helping your jungler get vision and roaming to aid your teammates/look for picks. While you lack a real gap closer, Sett can still be very good at punishing enemies that are out of position. Paired with a champion that has any form of Crowd Control will surely net a kill or at least a blown Summoner Spell. The movement speed augments we've taken through runes make roaming through river especially good as you'll gain bonus move speed and AD while there.

During teamfights you can assume two roles, starting fights or peeling the carries. If your team needs someone to start fights you can play them similarly to how you did during the laning phase. You can slam an enemy carry back into your team or slam a frontline champion into the enemy team for the damage and slow. Either way, your team should be able follow up for some kills and you’ll be able to survive because of the Haymaker Shield/tank items.

If your backline carries are having a hard time with an enemy assassin or tank running through your team, they'll be counting on you for peel. You just need to wait for the enemy to try and get onto your carry, then you can take that champion right back to their team with Show Stopper. This is essentially the same thing as playing for engages, but you won’t be starting the fights - just reacting to the enemy.

How To Build

Support Items


Like other AD melee supports, you’ll want to start with Steel Shoulderguards, pots and a Warding Trinket. You’ll be able to generate gold by last hitting minions with the Shoulderguards' passive and still get some bonus AD from your item. After you’ve earned 500 gold from Steel Shoulderguards and can begin to place wards with the item, swap out your Warding Trinket for a Sweeper's Lens. Be sure to keep a Red Ward on you at all times for vision control around objectives.


Boots of Swiftness are the primary choice for Support Sett, the movement speed and slow resistance are amazing for him. Due to the fact that Sett primarily runs directly at enemies, you're bound to get hit with some slows or other Crowd Control, so reducing their effectiveness is always a plus. However, if you think you’ll need more armor or magic resist, Ninja Tabi or Mercury Treads are worth looking into.

Core Items

Outside of your support items there are three things that will make you feel strong, while also supporting your AD carry and team.

Dead Man’s Plate: This item will grant you bonus movement speed and damage when charged. Another tool to help you get into fights easier and deal more damage to your targets. You’ll also get armor and health to increase your survivability and the amount of Grit you can store will Haymaker also increase as your maximum health does.

Gargoyle’s Stoneplate: When finished this item will give you both armor and magic resistance, that increases passively if 3 or more enemy champions are near you. Additionally, this item has an extremely strong active - Metallicize. When active your maximum health will increase by 40%, your champion’s size will increase and if near 3 or more enemies, these bonuses will be increased to 100%. Your damage dealt will be reduced to 60%, however because you have more maximum health Haymaker is stronger regardless. This item is a pure tank item and will let you be a menace after ulting into the enemy team. It has the added bonus of using a stopwatch in its build path, so you can really play aggressive for one fight with that item in you inventory.

Knight’s Vow: This is purely a supportive item for your AD carry, because at the end of the day you are still a support. You’ll get health, armor and cooldown reduction from this item. Actively, you can choose an ally to be your partner; which passively gives you an additional 20 armor and 15% movement speed towards them. Additionally if your partner is nearby, you’ll heal for 12% of the damage your partner deals to enemies and you’ll take 12% of the damage your partner takes from enemies as true damage. So even if you’re not actively peeling for your lane partner you can help them survive by taking some hits for them and they’ll return the favor by healing you with their damage.

Unless you’re getting stomped in lane, Knight’s Vow will probably be the third item you build towards. Dead Man’s Plate and Gargoyle’s Stoneplate are too strong of items to not get them first or second. You can’t go wrong with building either first, that’s situationally based. If you feel you still need more movement speed build Dead Man’s, if you think you just need to be tankier right away build Gargoyle’s.

Other Items


As a support, unless your games are going really late, you probably won’t make it to other items. However, other basic tank items are always welcomed after your core build. Things like Locket of the Iron Solari, Warmog’s Armor, Thornmail, Spirit Visage, or Adaptive Helm are all good choices to increase your survivability.


You could even buy a Black Cleaver or Trinity Force to do more damage by yourself - assuming your team is ahead, you have your core items, and have the gold to spend on them.

Final Tips and Tricks

• You can use Knuckle Down (Q) to reset your auto attacks, by auto attacking twice and using Q you can then auto attack again immediately. This allows for a lot of damage assuming your target stays melee range.
• While not an ideal use of Haymaker (W), you can use it to block incoming damage even when not charged as you’ll gain a slight shield.
• If you hit an enemy with Facebreaker (E), you should have enough time to run behind them and ult them away from their team or towers. If not, you can quickly activate Phase Rush by autoing or Qing them to do so.
• Sometimes you don’t even need to Hexflash from fog of war or a bush. If you do it in lane, the enemy will most likely back up but either won’t respect the movement speed bonus or won’t be ready for it, allowing you to still get an engagement off.