In League of Legends, minions are an essential resource for most lanes, especially for ADCs. Sometimes, the minion count for this position can even surpass the number of kills obtained, making farming minions a crucial task for ADC players. However, among this class of champions, Senna is the most unique; she doesn’t need to farm, only poking enemies while remaining strong. Recently, Celebrity from Team Secret applied this playstyle and defeated the number one ADC in VCS, Slayder from Team Flash.
The reason for this playstyle comes from patch 10.3, where Senna received a significant nerf, with the soul drop rate from cannon minions reduced by 50 times. Consequently, the number of souls Senna can collect will be much lower, resulting in reduced damage, critical strike chance, and most notably, a significant decrease in her attack range.
The challenge now is that Senna can’t farm anymore, but playing as a Support is too risky due to strong champions like Nautilus and Leona. To tackle this issue, players have devised a very special strategy: Senna will no longer farm, build Support items, but still buy items like a traditional ADC. Remember that each time Senna collects a soul, she receives an additional 3 gold. With the extra gold from the Harvesting Scythe item, Senna can comfortably build items without needing to farm.
The most powerful aspect of this playstyle is that it eliminates the need for a true “Support” in your team composition, significantly enhancing direct combat capabilities. Although Senna builds Support items, her soul collection and economy allow her to remain as strong as a pure ADC. Meanwhile, her partner, usually Tahm Kench, will have the gold to buy tank items. In summary, you will have 1 ADC + 1 Tank instead of 1 ADC + 1 Support as before.
The theory is that the operation of this playstyle is fundamentally opposite to the conventional style. Senna will act as a poke champion and continuously harass opponents with auto-attacks, while her companion Tahm Kench farms as much as possible. With the affordable cost of lethality items and their construction from smaller components, you can be assured that Senna will still build items very quickly.
In the later stages of the game, Tahm Kench no longer needs to stay close to Senna; with the early farm and items, he becomes a very strong tank. Meanwhile, Senna, with her unique skills, always has a significant impact in team fights, from buffing allies to creating unexpected skirmishes with her E ability.
So what are the runes for Senna in this playstyle? Glacial Augment remains the best choice for Senna, while the other points in the Inspiration tree are almost unchanged compared to the traditional ADC playstyle. The unique aspect lies in the Sorcery secondary tree where you will choose the Energy Overflow rune to solve energy issues. This is because, in this non-farming playstyle, you must choose powerful items immediately, rather than building Manamune gradually as before.
With a companion, usually Tahm Kench or Galio, the rune choices and summoner spells are not too different from traditional playstyles. The difference lies in the fact that you can farm; you are allowed to build tank items so that your ally has an extra reliable shield, moreover, this position is very close to the Dragon pit, where fights frequently occur. At that point, you no longer need to stay close to the ADC; if you feel confident, charging into the enemy formation is completely possible.
Essentially, this playstyle is a creative adaptation by players to Riot’s updates as well as the inherent strengths of champions and items in the shop. Senna is a prime example, as she doesn’t need to farm to earn gold and build items since lethality items are cheaper compared to critical strike items, while small items can be easily obtained, usually a Long Sword priced at just 350 gold. We hope Riot Games won’t find ways to eliminate this new creativity from players.