Samira is the latest addition to the League of Legends champion roster. Samira is from Shurima where her home was destroyed as kid. She would find herself in Noxus and embrace the true culture of the empire. Samira would build her reputation as a wild daredevil doing mercenary work to the highest caliber with her dual pistols and a custom blade. In game, Samira is a very mobile AD Marksman with one of the most unique set of abilities that I have seen. She thrives in extended fights with her goal being to keep moving and combo her abilities so that she may unleash her devastating ultimate on her enemies. The community has been calling her the AD Katarina. I can see why they call her this, but Samira's skill ceiling might be something only the best players can reach. In this guide, we'll take a look at how to use Samira to her fullest ability.

Samira, The Desert Rose

Video Courtesy of Riot Games

Abilities

Passive - Daredevil Impulse

Non-repeating abilities and basic attacks increase Samira's Style rank from "E" - "S". Every rank of Style gives Samira bonus movement speed to help her keep up with her enemies.

Samira's basic attacks vary between ranged and melee depending on your range to your opponent. If you are far away, Samira will basic attack her enemies with her pistols. If you are close range, Samira will attack with her sword and it deals magic damage. On top of that, Samira can knock up immobilized enemies for a short duration to continue the crowd control. However, this cannot be spammed on the same champion, so do not think you can juggle your opponent forever!

Q - Flair

Samira will fire a single shot in the direction of her choosing and it deals physical damage to the first enemy hit. If the target is right in front of her, Samira with slash with her blade in a cone damaging all opponents caught in it.

W - Blade Whirl

Samira will swing her sword around her two times dealing physical damage to anyone around her. The best part about this is ability is that it will destroy any enemy projectiles. This includes (but is not limited to) Ezreal ultimate, Sivir Q, and Jhin ultimate or W, all threats you may encounter in the bot lane.

E - Wild Rush

Samira dashes through her opponents or allies, slashing her enemies dealing magic damage gaining attack speed. On kills or takedowns, Wild Rush resets its cooldown. If Samira casts her Flair, she will deploy explosives along her path which detonate upon the end of the dash, dealing the same damage to enemies within the covered distance.

R - Inferno Trigger

Samira unleashes a torrent of shots from her guns, shooting any nearby enemies dealing physical damage to them. Each shot can critically strike and it has full lifesteal effectiveness! However, to be able to use this ultimate, Samira must reach the "S" style rank. You must combo your abilities during the teamfight to be able to use it. The other catch is that this ability can be used more than once as long as you reach the "S" style rank again.

Skill Order

Q > E > W

Q is going to be your main damage dealing ability that is why you want to max it first. When you max this ability you will increases its damage and it will have such a short cooldown that you will be able to spam it. It utilizes both your range and melee attacks allowing you to deal physical and magic damage.

E is the next ability that you want to max! Not because of its damage, but because of the attack speed that you get from leveling this ability. You also decrease the cooldown on this ability which allows you to use it more and you could even have a better chance of getting your reset off for this ability.

W is the last ability you want to max because the cooldown on this ability is so long and its purely for utility. You will not be using this ability to damage enemies, but you will be using it to stop the enemy projectiles to protect yourself and your teammates.

R is going to be maxed when you can.

Primary Runes

Conqueror or Fleet Footwork

Conqueror is the main rune that you want to run on Samira. This rune allows you to get stacks of Conqueror from your abilities and auto attacks. Each stack grants you bonus AD or AP. Auto attacks from ranged champions grant 1 stack, but auto attacks from melee champions grant 2 stacks. Abilites will always grant 2 stacks. Upon reaching full stacks, ranged champions heal for 8% of the damage they dealt and melee champions heal for 15% of the damage they dealt. Samira has no problem stacking this rune at all because she can combo her autos and abilities so well for fast stacks.

Fleet Footwork is the other rune you would run if you feel like you are in a losing match up in lane. If you are going to be poked out and need the sustain, this rune will help you stay in lane longer for the gold and XP. Samira is very mobile and will be able to charge Fleet constantly.

Presence of Mind or Overheal

Presence of Mind is another good rune to have on Samira. Presence of Mind restores 20% of your maximum energy or mana after takedowns. You also get +100 maximum mana on takedowns that stack up to 5 times. As Samira, the last thing you want is to run out of mana during your all-in. This rune eliminates that worry.

Overheal is a rune that gives you a small shield after receiving more healing even though you are full on health. This rune being paired with Fleet Footwork can push you over to have this Overheal shield. This can make the difference between ignoring damage to stay in lane longer or having to take a bad reset.

Legend: Bloodline

Legend: Bloodline grants Samira 0.6% - 12% lifesteal once the rule is fully stacked. Samira is a very auto attack heavy champ due to her being a marksman and her weaving autos between her abilities to build Style. She benefits more from this Legend rune than the others. Bonus Tenacity does not help her because she is too squishy and you get bonus attack speed from your E ability, so Legend: Alacrity would be a waste of a slot.

Last Stand

Last Stand is the best rune to run on Samira. It allows Samira to deal 5% more damage to champions while below 60% maximum health. The percent damage is increased based on your missing health, up to 11% more damage while below 30% maximum health. This is good for her because she is going to be diving in real deep on the enemy team, drawing most of their attention. While her health dwindles, she will be dealing massive amounts of damage so that her team can clean up the kills or she can pick them up herself.

Secondary Runes

Nimbus Cloak and Celerity

These two runes go hand-in-hand to aide Samira's very mobile play style. No pun intended. Nimbus Cloak grants her bonus movement speed after casting summoner spell which can help you chase down an enemy or help you escape. Celerity is the rune you will see the value of at every point of the game. It makes all movement speed bonuses 7% more effective and it gives you a little movement speed itself. Celerity synergizes well with Samira's stacking passive!

Taste of Blood and Ravenous Hunter

If you want to be entirely self-sufficient, run these healing runes as your secondary tree. Taste of Blood heals you after dealing damage to an enemy, no matter if it was physical damage or magic damage. Ravenous Hunter grants healing to your damaging abilities. However you have to stack this rune to achieve that 14% ability healing. You get your stacks by taking down each enemy once.

Shards

For Rune Shards, run bonus attack speed, bonus adaptive force, and armor/magic resistance based on your match up!

Core Itemization

Infinity Edge

Just like any other traditional marksman, Samira is going to rush Infinity Edge as her first item. She will begin to thrive once she picks up this item. Samira's scaling on her Q has a 1:1 ratio, meaning the AD you get will be matched on this ability. Plus, her Q and ultimate can critically strike so you want that increased 225% critical strike damage this item gives!

Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads or Boots of Swiftness

Samira gets around a Berserker Greaves amount of attack speed when she uses her E. Therefore, you do not have to build those. You can put that gold into boots that provide more resistances or more movement speed. If you are fighting an AD heavy team, build Ninja Tabi for the armor and reduced damage received from auto attacks. If the enemy team is AP heavy or has lots of crowd control, build Mercury's for the tenacity and magic resistance. I believe that Boots of Swiftness might be the best option for Samira. She thrives off of movement speed and this pair gives you the best flat movement speed compared to the other boots. Plus, they also give you slow resist so that you can maintain your movement. Remember, Mobility Boots only give you movement speed out of combat so they will not be helpful to Samira.

Death's Dance

Since Samira deals tons of damage in a short time but is a squishy champion, Death's Dance provides the armor and resistances she needs to survive fights. Not only does it give you resistances, it also gives you cooldown reduction. You also receive +50 AD which goes into your Q like Infinity Edge. The best part about this item is that it allows you to heal for 15% of the damage that you deal. Samira needs this healing in order to stick around in these extended fights.

Essence Reaver

With Samira's Q ability being on such a low cooldown, her E having a reset, and her R not having a cooldown, she needs to have Essence Reaver because of its unique passive. The unique passive refunds 1.5% of you missing mana when you auto attack. Again, being a marksman, she is auto attack heavy and will benefit greatly from the mana refund so that she never has to worry about not having enough. Plus, this item gives you more AD, cooldown reduction, and critical strike chance. This item is a big power spike for her, and it will round out her core items.

The rest of the items are up to you and you build based upon the enemy team composition. If they have tons of healing, buy Mortal Reminder. If they have lots of burst damage, buy Phantom Dancer. If they have crowd control that you need to cleanse, buy Mercurial Scimitar.

Combo and Support Pairing

Auto > Q > Auto > E > Auto > W > R

To easily achieve "S" Style Rank, here is the combo you need to be able to activate your ultimate. Auto attack to start it off, Q to hit with the sword or your pistol, auto, E to dash on an enemy to guarantee a hit, auto attack will be easy to hit with your sword, W to block projectiles and hit around you, and you will now be at "S" Style and can use your ultimate.

Samira pairs well with very aggressive support picks. This can be Leona, Thresh, Nautilus, Alistar, Sett, and Pantheon. These champions have hard engage and tons of crowd control that Samira can easily follow up on. Remember, she can even continue the crowd control her supports start with her passive. This gives you more of an opportunity to stack your style rank and deal more damage before your enemy can escape.

There is no doubt that you will be able to take over entire games with a bot lane paired like this. You will be able to turn teamfights in your favor in the blink of an eye. Good luck and style on your opponents!