Earlier this month, Riot Games revealed the upcoming release of their new champion, Senna. League of Legends is about to see its first-ever support marksman, a unique character classification to the game. The current Public Beta Environment patch reveals Senna’s abilities and her splash art.
Passive – Absolution
Ironically, Senna’s passive behaves somewhat similarly to Thresh’s passive ability. Senna will gather stacks of Mist by witnessing the deaths of enemy minions and neutral monsters, and by attacking enemy champions in quick succession. Mist stacks passively increase Senna’s attack range, attack damage, and critical strike chance. To boot, every 35% of extra critical strike chance is converted into life steal. Because some of these stats can stack infinitely, Senna is sure to benefit from long, drawn-out matches.
And finally, unrelated to the stacking effect, Senna’s basic attacks have an extended wind-up time but deal bonus on-hit damage. Fortunately, this is the most complicated of Senna’s abilities. The rest are comparatively simple to explain.
Q – Piercing Darkness
Senna’s Q is a targeted laser that pierces through enemies, bearing a strong aesthetic resemblance to Lucian’s Q ability. This ability boasts a long-range, considerable berth and the dual purpose of healing allies and damaging enemies simultaneously. Casting Senna’s Q even heals Senna herself! And to top it off, Piercing Darkness also applies on-hit effects when damaging enemies. This ability solidly establishes the give-and-take nature of Senna’s kit; ideally, you can make use of both the healing and the damage with a single cast, but in dire situations, you’ll need to weigh your options.
W – Last Embrace
Next, Senna’s W ability. Last Embrace is a basic line skill shot that stops upon hitting an enemy, dealing damage. If an enemy is hit by the skill shot, they are marked. After a short delay, the mark detonates and roots nearby enemies, including the initial target. This is probably the most straightforward part of Senna’s kit.
E – Curse of the Black Mist
Perhaps the most noteworthy and controversial ability is Senna’s E: Curse of the Black Mist. This ability creates a cloud of dark mist which surrounds Senna, boosting her movement speed. This cloud grants Senna and her nearby allies camouflage, making it the first and only ability in League of Legends capable of applying stealth to champions other than the caster. Consequently, this ability may prove difficult for developers to balance.
Allies who leave the mist cloud are revealed but appear to enemies as unidentifiable wraiths, further adding to the ensuing chaos. Curse of the Black Mist is easily Senna’s most versatile and most volatile tool.
R – Dawning Shadow
Senna’s ultimate is wild! She releases a global laser shot with her relic cannon. Dawning Shadow fires almost instantly, damaging enemies and shielding allies in a line that spans the entire length of the map.
What do you think of Senna? Is she too complex? Or is this unique blend exactly what League of Legends has been missing? Video examples of each ability can be seen on Comicbook.com and on the League of Legends’ main website, so be sure to check those out as you form your opinion!
