I think Senna would be better designed as an ADC and should get less free stats

AirKingNeo·12/17/2019, 10:51:48 PM·3 votes·955 views

I understand design-wise for a support that Senna gets free AD, crit, and excess crit to LS conversion. There's a complete lack of AD support items. However, all these free stats make Senna as an ADC a really dumb design in 2 ways: 1) restricted items in the sense that Zeal items feel ineffective and 2) literally being a huge stat ball by a large margin above most ADCs.

I don't want Riot to turn Senna into purely just a support though with some dumb change like reducing Senna's crit damage further. I like Senna as an ADC. I think the design of slow, heavy hits are something unique we lack among ADCs.

Here's how I would fix Senna's passive:

1) Remove the free Crit Chance:

  • Senna's passive just gives so many stats at once. It's unnecessarily too much and allows Senna to scale like other ADs without taking the item investment other ADCs have to.

**2) Remove the excess Crit Chance to Lifesteal conversion: **

  • If the bonus crit is removed, then it makes sense to remove the excess converter.

**3) Add an effect converts bonus attack speed (before reduction) into another stat: **

  • If Senna's passive no longer gives free Crit Chance, then Senna would need to build Zeal items to obtain a similar level of Crit. The issue is that Zeal items are awful on Senna because they're completely ineffective. I believe Senna should have some kind of reason to build those items if she wants to scale, whether it converts to AD, lifesteal, crit damage, or a mixture.

**4) Reduce/Remove the Critical Damage reduction: **

  • Since the passive doesn't give free Crit Chance anymore, there is no reason for Senna's passive to reduce Crit damage.

5) Give some kind of scaling with AP or Heal/Shield Power to compensate Support Senna:

  • If Senna as a champion loses the free stats she gets to compensate for her items not giving as much benefit, those items should be made to give more benefit as compensation for less free stats.

6) Maybe make an AD Support item?:

  • There literally are no support items that really work with champions who use AD. Something that would very much suit Senna would be something with AD and Heal/Shield power.

I want Senna's potential as an ADC design to not be destroyed by the fact she becomes a stat ball with her passive. I also think her ultimate is stupid for being global range and think it will break her in pro play (and then Riot will nerf everything about her but the range), but that is a discussion for another day.

5 Comments

NTrumpWeTrust12/18/2019, 1:01:53 AM2 votes

They already said if they can't balance her for both, they will focus on her being a support. It's a pretty simple fix, just nerf w/e is making her an OP adc and give her something extra if she takes the support item.

Drezden12/18/2019, 12:32:49 AM1 votes

I mean...they made a support item JUST for Senna (who else can use that scythe like really...) And marksman isn't about the build necessarily. If it was, corki, ezreal, kaisa, etc wouldn't be considered since their builds usually aren't crit-focused. They CAN do crit zeal item builds (just like senna can) but, it isn't as strong as ... well their normal builds. Lots of examples of this.

I find when I play senna I actually do do supporting builds...just not in the standard way. I get umbrals glaive pretty much first item, and try to win the game through sheer vision control. I usually don't get ghostblade til 4th item. I try to be an asset through my team through my damage and map control rather than just raw "big heal or big damage" which I find her E is very good at.

I do agree building attack speed on her feels bad, and I kinda wish her passive had some sort of conversion, but eh thats like saying man I wish I could build more on hit on garen...it just isn't what the kit is made for ya know? If you remove crit she won't be able to build damage. Remember, she is a support, she does NOT get as much gold as the rest of the team. That is why support items are massively cheaper and AD items are some of the most expensive (IE, etc) so that is why they have the crit into her passive.

A simple nerf they can do, if need be, is just make her require 25 stacks instead of 20 for every major boost she gets...and make support senna get more stacks from minions over ad senna (well, more so than she already does). Easy to balance around that.