Sejuani received a kit overhaul not too long ago that changed how she is played either on a minor or major scale, depending on the playstyle you had adapted from her previous kit. Her old kit allowed you either to be this hulking tank that played around the mass crowd control of her ultimate and her area of effect slows or play a glass cannon mid-laner due to her obscurely strong AP scaling. This all changed with her rework, and the AP heavy style of old has since disappeared. This has more or less established her playstyle as the previously mentioned hulking tank chock full of crowd control, but because of her ultimate rework, which is not an AoE stun associated with 1:1 AP scaling, you can’t play the same way. In this guide, we’re going to breakdown the finer points of Sejuani and how this tank’s rework turned her linear (or outrageous) playstyle into something far more engaging and interesting to play.

(Passive) Fury of the North:

Frost Armor: Sejuani receives Frost Armor if she hasn't taken damage in the last 15/12/9 (Lvl1/Lvl7/Lvl14) seconds, lingering for 1/2/3 seconds after taking damage from enemy champions.

Frost armor? That makes sense for a champion covered in armor that fights in the mountains. Sejuani’s passive alone basically informs the player that you are going to be doing two things: Ganking and diving. Having a passive that allows you to absorb more damage that you should be taking from turrets, champions, and minions tells you that you’re the one who should be taking the brunt of the initial damage – because it’ll be significantly reduced. Now let's look at how Frost Armor helps Sejuani.

Frost Armor engulfs Bristle in True Ice, becoming immune to slows and gains 20/60/100 (Lvl1/Lvl7/Lvl14) (+100% total armor) bonus armor and 20/60/100 (Lvl1/Lvl7/Lvl14) (+100% total magic resistance) bonus magic resistance.

To put things into perspective – Sejuani, because of her baseline armor, magic resist and combining that alongside this passive – has 47 armor and 52 magic resist. That’s an obscene amount to have with her passive up at level 1. Traditionally, Sejuani (and tank) players in general tend to take armor and magic resist runes, further adding to this number. Once Sejuani’s full range of abilities have been unlocked (level 3) the passive scaling only goes up, making you even more of a threat at the early levels.

Icebreaker: Enemies stunned by Sejuani are Frozen. Sejuani's basic attacks and abilities against Frozen enemies consume the effect to deal 10/15/20% (Lvl1/Lvl7/Lvl14) of their maximum health as bonus magic damage or 400 against minions and monsters.

The other side of Sejuani’s new passive – Icebreaker, which usually packs a decent punch, even at the low levels. This also gives her a significantly easy time with her jungle clear, as 400 damage is a metric ton at the early levels. Starting her “E” (Permafrost), and not activating it right away to keep your bottom lane leash aiding you for a little while is a great way to stay healthy in the jungle early.

(Q) Arctic Assault (Range: 650, Cost: 70/75/80/85/90 Mana, Cooldown: 13/12.5/12/11.5/11 Seconds):

Active: Sejuani signals Bristle to dash forward, dealing 60/90/120/150/180 (+40% AP) magic damage and knocking up for 0.5 seconds all enemies he passes through until the charge ends or upon colliding with an enemy champion.

Sejuani’s “Q” was the only thing that didn’t change from her past rework, but the value of a dash and knock-up hasn’t changed. Her “Q” inflicts magic damage, allowing the mixture to deter one form of defense. That being said, Sejuani’s Q is typically the last to get leveled, as her “W” (Winter’s Wrath) scales off of health and her E (Permafrost) is essential to her gameplay. The range of her “Q” is surprisingly long, despite the range indicator, and traverses almost any wall in the map including the larger ones such as the wall between Dragon pit into tribush or Baron pit into river.

(W) Winter's Wrath (Target Range: 600, Cost: 80 Mana, Cooldown: 9/8/7/6/5 Seconds):

Active: After a 0.25-seconds delay, Sejuani swings her flail in a cone in the target direction, dealing physical damage 20/25/30/35/40 (+1.5% maximum health) to all enemies hit and knocking back minions and monsters.

She then lashes out with her flail after 0.75 seconds in a straight line in the same direction, dealing additional physical damage 30/65/100/135/170 (+4.5% maximum health) and briefly slowing to all enemies hit.

Sejuani can move freely during Winter's Wrath. Both swings will strike in the cast direction, but their hit boxes follow Sejuani's movement.

The main source of Sejuani’s damage, this skill got a total rework and functions pretty different from the old set up. Instead of pulsing AoE damage and an initial burst of damage, Sejuani’s new “W” is a one-two combo. Following the same hit box pattern as Taric, where once the direction is chosen the hit box remains the same but allows her to move as normal, which synchronizes well with her “Q”. The first swing does a decent amount of damage, but the real punch comes with the second strike. Because of the ridiculous scaling of 4.5% maximum health, stacking health on her is a no-brainer. The range on her “W” is pretty long too, allowing you to pick off players at a distance. Sejuani being able to move freely while casting allowing you to tag unsuspecting players as well, so they can perceive you heading in one direction and then attacking in a different one at the same time.

(E) Permafrost (Cost: 20 Mana [+4 Proc Frost Stacks], Cooldown: 1.5 Seconds):

Passive: Winter's Wrath, Sejuani's and nearby melee allied champions' auto-attacks apply Frost to enemy champions and large monsters, stacking up to 4 times.

Active: Sejuani Freezes the target enemy champion or large monster, dealing them magic damage 40/60/80/100/120 (+30% AP) and stunning them for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds. Enemies stunned by Sejuani cannot gain Frost for 10/9/8 seconds.

This might be the biggest change to Sejuani’s kit, and gives her significantly more utility than just slows and one AoE stun. Solely because of this ability, Sejuani is a champion you want melee champions to play with, (and yes I mean even Yasuo, even more so Yasuo because his Q and Autos proc her E stacks). The more champions that enable this ability, the more opportunities she has to stun the enemy team and do significant damage on her own. Synchronizing your W (which adds two stacks, one for each swing), and your auto attacks allows for quick stacks, aiding you with your jungle clear and stunning up enemy team members.

That being said, this does slightly dictate what kind of team you want to play Sejuani with. Sejuani is no longer just a solid front line with slows that benefit everyone, to truly enable her kit you want one to two other melee champions on your team.

(R) Glacial Prison (Travel Speed: 1350, Cost: 100 Mana, Cooldown: 120/100/80 Seconds)

Active: Sejuani throws a True Ice bola in a line, dealing magic damage 100 / 125 / 150 (+40% AP) and stunning for 1 second the first enemy champion that collides with.

The bola's base damage increases the further it travels and can stun for up to 2 seconds if it travels far enough. The bola shatters upon collision or reaching maximum range, creating a storm for 2 seconds, slowing other enemies by 30%.

At the end of the duration the storm shatters the ground, deals magic damage 150 / 250 / 350 (+80% AP) and slows enemies by 80% for 3 seconds.

Unfortunately, Sejuani’s ultimate is a shadow of its former glory. Glacial Prison is no longer this terrifying, flying icicle that’ll stun you and any unsuspecting teammate caught too close to you and deal a metric ton of magic damage. It now detonates on the first target impacted, dealing reasonable magic damage and stunning them. This also gives you the proc damage you get from Sejuani’s “E” but applies the same debuff as her E, not allowing you to get your Frost stacks until the proper amount of time has passed. It is still a great engage tool, allowing your teammates to follow up and make a solid pick.

That being said, if in the unfortunate situation you miss the ability and don’t manage to hit someone, it no longer leads to memes and heckling from the community, but creates a giant ice storm similar to Nunu’s ultimate. This creates a decent slow area, still enabling you and your teammates to pick up kills, and does solid damage once the storm ends.

Glacial Prison can be used a multitude of ways, because even though it does proc Sejuani’s “E” debuff it does not affect the stun from the cast, allowing you to get your initial “E” proc and get the damage from it, then immediately follow up with the Glacial Prison. This leads to some surprisingly high damage and an infuriating amount of stun time.

Runes and Masteries:

The runes you use for Sejuani are no longer your standard tanks’ rune page. With the introduction of her new passive + “E” combo, Attack Speed reds have been the way to go. Alongside those, armor or scaling health yellows are something that are normal, alongside magic resist blues. That being said, your quintessence runes are going to be a combination of things: armor into a mainly attack damage team OR you’re running scaling health yellows or magic resist for severely ability power magic focused teams. Sejuani doesn’t benefit from much else, as something like cooldown reduction wouldn’t be fully appreciated and could be built from items.

Masteries are one of the few things that really haven’t changed for Sejuani. All three keystones including Grasp of the Undying, Courage of the Colossus and Bond of Stone are effective with her. Courage of the Colossus is great for engaging and goes off often since her entire kit is based around crowd control, Grasp of the Undying has its benefits since you are trying to auto-attack weave while ganking / fighting, and Bond of Stone is a great support mastery that works with her, as well the 5% increased health.

Itemization:

We’ll break down itemization into three parts, as it does change depending on phase of the game you’re in, and how healthy/unhealthily you got there.

Early Game: Early game items are your standard Talisman and Refillable start. The mana regeneration alongside the bang-for-your-buck refillable potion synchronize up well with her kit and abilities. With Sejuani’s scaling revolving around health so much, rushing Bami’s Cinder as fast as possible is what you want to do, prioritizing it as much if not more than blue Smite and boots. Where they all benefit her pick potential and aiding her in catching someone to proc her “E”, Bami’s Cinder all around does more for her. It aids in dives, increases “W” damage, and clears camps with the AoE passive from the item. Boots are usually stuck to Ninja Tabi or Mercury Treads, as they aid in your durability. Occasionally if you’re already ahead and doing ridiculous amounts for your team already, Boots of Swiftness may be an option, but they’re not recommended.

That being said, if you are getting kills and you’re becoming the most fed member on your team, a first item Warmog’s Armor will make you near unkillable, and further enabling your kit. If you’re still getting ahead and want a safer scaling item, the new Abyssal Mask that builds out of Catalyst of Aeons is a great option. Along with health scaling, it also allows you to do more magic damage and gives magic resist, which pairs well with Ninja Tabi.

Mid-Game: As mentioned multiple times before, and even previous to her rework, Sejuani benefits incredibly well from health. Building items with resistances on them that also include health is the way to go. Randiun’s Omen, Dead Man’s Plate, Spirit Visage. These all enable her to do well. That being said, a good mixture of these items alongside support items such as Knight’s Vow or Locket of the Iron Solari helps your teammates as well. Building from this, Gargoyle’s Stoneplate is a shoe-in item as well, even though it does not directly benefit your health, the passive and active effect that come with it are incredibly beneficial. The mid-game build is often dictated by what damage is being done to your team, how fast it’s coming out, and how quickly it gets there.

Late Game: Late game is usually a place you don’t want to get to when playing Sejuani. She struggles the later as the game goes, and usually you want to switch your build (if it’s gotten to that point of full build then selling items) to protecting the late game threats your team has. Mentioned prior, Locket of the Iron Solari and Knight’s Vow are more than ideal for this scenario, alongside the potential Zeke’s Convergence (which goes hand-in-hand with your ultimate) and potentially Redemption if you have a heavy AP support such as Brand, Zyra or Vel’Koz.

Playstyle:

Finally, we’re going to touch on how to play Sejuani since the rework. Most of this hasn’t changed from her previous playstyle, but some key elements in the early game have altered because of her kit’s newfound accessibility.

Early Game: Her new “E” makes doing blue or red buff significantly easier, with both you and the support or just you getting the procs and dealing great amount of damage early to the first camp (remember, baseline damage of her passive is 400 against monsters).

When her full kit comes online at level 3, this is an opportune time to gank, and you want to try your best to cheat towards a lane that also has a melee champion. These are always going to be your favourable lanes, and combining whatever crowd control they have with yours gets you one of two things: A Flash or a kill. As always with jungling, these are the lanes you should try to abuse.

Mid-Game: Your early game went one of two ways. You’re now either gigantic, sporting a ridiculous amount of tankiness, or you’re having a rough time and may not be as fed as you’d like to be. This dictates how you build Sejuani. If you are the terrifyingly fed jungler that you strive to be, you’ll want to spend your time engaging and doing damage to anyone you can find. Aim to take fights that benefit you, mainly picks as you are better at isolating one person then trying to take on a large crowd.

If you’ve fallen behind or just have a humble score, allowing your teammates to pick up most of the kills, focus on peeling or enabling your fed members. That Yasuo you were worried about feeding early actually pulled it off? Be in there with him “Q”’ing as many people as you can and proccing your “E” to allow him to dance around unharmed. If that Jhin already is two items deep and is one-shotting people, stick with him and combine the crowd control from your “Q”, “E” procs, and ultimate to allow nobody to touch him.

Late Game: Sejuani has a tendency to be less effective as the game goes on. With Quicksilver Sashes using being purchased for one reason or another, and members of the other team usually becoming tankier, the chances of getting ideal team fights happen less and less. Most of the time this brings you back to the support role, aiding your carries in staying alive and trying to secure objectives safely. Engaging, unless one hundred percent sure of the catch, is something you almost want to avoid. Waiting for their engage usually favors Sejuani more, allowing for her to counter and stun up anyone who’s on their way in.

Finishing Touches:

All in all, Sejuani’s new kit gives her a far less linear playstyle and does allow for more playmaking avenues, taking her away from the typical “farm until 6” type of play that many older junglers were plagued with. That being said, her unique off-meta “full AP” build is now a thing of the past and it really cements her playstyle as a well-rounded tank with very good damage and great play with other melee champions. She is no later gated until level 6, and with her new kit really comes online at level 3.

Sources:

Rune Pages – NA Challenger Player “Hungry Like”

Skill Information – http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Sejuani

About the Author:

Haowii is a Platinum Player, a Sejuani one-trick, and can’t hit a Smite to save his life.

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