I'm Still Furious about Sejuani.

I hate what they did to Sej, so much.

Not only did they change the flow of how she played, making her into the single clunkiest "tank" in the game, to the point where I, a Sej Main from before her changes literally can't even play the champ I loved anymore. Nobody even touches her.

From a design standpoint the changes make no sense, especially for someone of her class.

Sejuani was a strong engage "utility" tank, in the same class as Maokai and Zac who were both worked on during the midseason 2017 patch.

However her changes don't work, at all. You shortened her ability dash and made it less effective, gave her a passive that doesnt work in combat, on a champion who was designed to moshpit and fight for extended periods (SHES A TANK YOU GUYS DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?)

Even her very first iteration, her key component in her kit was her ability to lockdown and maintain control in a fight that dragged out over time, providing a strong frontline for her team.

Were gonna skip over O.G Sej here in favour of the newer Sej, and compare her directly to her post "Tank Update" iteration which is, pure and utter garbage.

Before: INNATE: Sejuani gains 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 bonus armor and 10 / 15 / 20 / 25% Slow Resist for 2 seconds upon damaging an enemy with an ability or a basic attack (stacks up to 3 times for a 6 seconds maximum duration, afterwards refreshing with further damage applications)

Ok. So what this says is that once Sejuani enters a fight, she gets stronger and more able to deal with her opponents, which fits her character perfectly, modelled after her brutality and tenacious nature, her desire to push to win fights and brawl it out to the bitter end. It fits her warlike and oppressive personality and thematics flawlessly as well as play an important role in what makes her work as a tank.

After: FROST ARMOR: Sejuani receives Frost Armor if she hasn't taken damage from large monsters and enemy champions in the last 12 seconds, lingering for 2 seconds after taking damage.

Sejuani Frost Armor Frost Armor engulfs BristleSquare Bristle in True Ice, becoming immune to slows and gains 20 / 70 / 120 (+ 100% total armor) bonus armor and 20 / 70 / 120 (+ 100% total magic resistance) bonus magic resistance.

What this means is outside of battle Sejuani gets a boost to her resistances and slow immunity. That also means that, due to the way it works, on paper she can hit malphite levels of tank stats! Great right? But none of it matters because as soon as she enters combat by any means (Read: what a tank is supposed to do) she loses it. That means if an Ez hits a Q or Ult or anything across the map? Even if she's doing nothing and minding her own business, now she has to wait 12 full seconds before she can engage again. Completely removing her ability to tank for her team if she doesn't burn everything within those 2 seconds, and then after they're up? She's a sitting duck with no means to do anything because she blew everything. Her cooldowns are massive. Also, Sej isn't stoic? She shouldn't be sitting outside of battle unfazed by the world. She's a powerful angry woman who goes out for blood, not someone who sits and accepts the world going by. Thematically misses the point completely.

But we're not done yet, Riot in their chase towards more damage, added a third part into her kit. ICEBREAKER: Enemies stunned by Sejuani are Frozen. Sejuani's basic attacks and abilities against Frozen enemies consume the effect to deal 10 / 15 / 20% of their maximum health as bonus magic damage, capped to 300 against epic monsters.

Let me repeat that one more time. "Deal 10 / 15 / 20% of their maximum health as bonus magic damage."

Why does a pure utility tank like Sej need this? Its damage is also capped against Monsters so its not useful for farming in any capacity. Only good for champ damage. She's a jungler and you made it so she has a tool thats only useful against champions, and does way too much damage for what a tank does.

Her old damage output was fine where it was, why did she need to have assassin levels of burst added in? She's literally a tank! This was the TANK UPDATE.

Next is her Q, all you did was reduce its damage and effectiveness, and made its cooldown longer.

Ok great, her star ability nerfed to a point where its now a lategame only utility spell, FORCING you to max it out and stack cooldowns for what amounts to a mediocre knockup that does nothing.

Moving on.

W! This one is literally the worst and I am still ripping my hair out over it.

Before: Flail of the Northern Winds RANGE: 350 COST: 40 / 35 / 30 / 25 / 20 MANA COOLDOWN: 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 / 7

**FIRST CAST: Sejuani's next basic attack deals bonus magic damage to all enemies around the main target (capped at 300 against minions and monsters) BONUS MAGIC DAMAGE: 4 / 4.5 / 5 / 5.5 / 6% (+ 3% per 100 AP) of target's maximum health

SECOND CAST: After landing the enhanced attack or upon reactivation, Sejuani rotates her flail about herself for the next 4 seconds, dealing magic damage to nearby enemies every second.**

So this does two great things. Sej can buffer this with her q to land an instant auto attack or use it for a quick reset, to allow her to apply her passive quickly in a scuffle and take camps more quickly and effectively.

But the real star of this ability was the 4 second Sunfire effect that scaled with her primary build stat, Health.

「 MAGIC DAMAGE PER SECOND: 10 / 17.5 / 25 / 32.5 / 40 (+ 1 / 1.5 / 2 / 2.5 / 3% maximum health) (+ 15% AP) 」

So on her first attack she got a total of 6% (up to about 30% if she went full AP) max health damage against her enemy target, and then got to burn them and their team.

This all fits into her prolonged fighter identity and utility as a tank perfectly, while allowing her to safely farm and clear her camps.

After: Winter's Wrath TARGET RANGE: 600 COST: 65 MANA COOLDOWN: 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5

**ACTIVE: After a 0.25-seconds delay, Sejuani swings her flail in a cone in the target direction, dealing physical damage to all enemies hit and knocking back minions and monsters.

PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 (+ 20% AP) (+ 1.5% maximum health) She then lashes out with her flail after 0.75 seconds in a straight line in the same direction, dealing additional physical damage and Slow icon slowing all enemies hit by 75% for 0.25 seconds.

PHYSICAL DAMAGE:» 30 / 65 / 100 / 135 / 170 (+ 60% AP) (+ 4.5% maximum health) Sejuani can move freely during Winter's Wrath. Both swings will strike in the cast direction, but their hitboxes follow Sejuani's movement.**

So... its the exact same ability as Xin's new W, and the new Rengar Q that got reverted recently.

It doesn't fit her thematically outside of being an attack with her flail (But it doesn't look like it), but now gives her something she never had before in such a wide quantity.

Mixed Damage.

The cooldown is also longer, its a hard to aim and use skillshot that feels awful, clunky and unrewarding.

But the real clincher to why new Sej Sucks? Well remember that passive thing they added? 20% instant max health damage for free?

Well now its a core component of her E and Ult.

Her new E is a two part spell, built around her passive.

Permafrost TARGET RANGE: 750 COST: 20 MANA + 4 Frost Stacks, COOLDOWN: 1.5

So, lets get this straight here.

PASSIVE: Winter's Wrath and both Sejuani's and nearby allied melee champions' basic attacks apply Frost to enemy champions, epic, large and medium monsters, super minions and siege minions for 5 seconds, stacking up to 4 times.

This is basically on paper, identical to Braum's passive. Except only melee champs can use it meaning unless her team has a melee diver she's out of luck to use it unless she's on top of someone permanently. But now she can't do anything because she has no means to slow her opponents, meaning she has to burn her Q, or her W and hit it perfectly on an enemy to get the effect of this passive spell, locking her out of play for most players who aren't good at using her new clunky W.

**ACTIVE: Against an enemy with 4 stacks of Frost, Sejuani consumes all stacks to deal magic damage, knock them back and stun them.

MAGIC DAMAGE: 20 / 35 / 50 / 65 / 80 (+ 60% AP) STUN DURATION: 1 / 1.1 / 1.2 / 1.3 / 1.4 Enemy champions stunned by Sejuani cannot gain Frost for 10 / 9 / 8 seconds.

Permafrost resets Sejuani's basic attack timer.**

So, she has Braum's passive but its weaker and more difficult to apply and effectively use, but also now has to hit an additional key while theyre still in range to apply a knockup and stun.

But because of her new passive, that 80 damage, with a 60% AP ratio is guaranteed to also basically do 20% of their max health as immediate damage.

Lets see Sejuani's old E shall we?

Permafrost RANGE: 1000 COST: 55 MANA COOLDOWN: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 PASSIVE: Sejuani's basic attacks, Arctic Assault, Flail of the Northern Winds, and Glacial Prison apply Frost to enemies hit for 4 seconds.

Ok, thats reasonable! Frost was, if you dont know OG Sejuani's original passive, and Frost as it was was a small debuff that applied a 10% slow.

**ACTIVE: Sejuani consumes Frost on all nearby enemies, dealing magic damage and Slow icon slowing them for 1.5 seconds.

MAGIC DAMAGE: 80 / 105 / 130 / 155 / 180 (+ 50% AP) SLOW: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70% Frost cannot be reapplied on the same targets until 3 seconds after Permafrost's duration ends.**

Wow! A slow that's inline with her motif, Not to say that freezing people solid isn't in her motif as a freljord champion but wasn't that more Lissandra's thing?

It does a decent amount of reasonable damage, and applies a strong slow, good for helping her maintain a fighting chance in mid to lategame pressure situations.

It also had way better range and took skill to use it, timing it correctly for a perfect greedy team wide slow, or singling out a specific priority target to peel for your carry or control the flow of movement in battle. Which right now is really hard to do, since everyone zips around like they're on roller-skates.

But all of this. All of this falls down to the worst part of it all.

The best, most satisfying single ult in the game reduced to a useless joke with pretty effects. That also continues to be nerfed, not because its good but because it allows her to reapply her 20% max health damage immediately, letting her combo out over 40% of someone's max health for literally no effort.

Before:

**Glacial Prison RANGE: 1175 / 225 SPEED: 1350 COST: 100 MANA COOLDOWN: 130 / 115 / 100 ACTIVE: Sejuani throws a True Ice bola in a line, shattering upon colliding with an enemy champion or upon reaching maximum range, dealing magic damage to all enemies in the end area.

MAGIC DAMAGE: 150 / 250 / 350 (+ 80% AP) Enemies in the end area are either stunned for a short duration if the bola hits an enemy champion or slowed by 30% for the same duration if it reaches maximum range. DISABLE DURATION: 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75**

A super greedy, aggressive ult which plays directly into Sejuani's core design thematics, character philosophy and playstyle.

After:

**Glacial Prison TARGET RANGE: 1300 SPEED: 1350 COST: 100 MANA COOLDOWN: 120 / 100 / 80 ACTIVE: Sejuani throws a True Ice bola in a line, stopping at the first enemy champion hit, dealing magic damage and Stun icon stunning them for 1 second.

MAGIC DAMAGE:» 100 / 125 / 150 (+ 40% AP) The bola deals increased damage, Stun icon stuns for 1.5 seconds and shatters upon collision if it surpasses 400 range, shattering aswell upon reaching maximum range, creating a storm for 2 seconds that slows enemies by 30%.

At the end of the duration the storm shatters the ground, dealing the same damage and Slow icon slowing enemies by 80% for 1 second.

MAGIC DAMAGE: 150 / 250 / 350 (+ 80% AP) The enemy hit by the bola is not affected by the storm's effects.**

So first thing first; no matter what, the ultimate only really works for you if it hits someone and ONLY stuns one person, guarenteed. Which by the way can't be done point blank anymore? It literally doesn't even do its primary effect if its within a minimum range so why bother with it? Which yeah good for picks from a distance, but so was the old one, something Ashe literally does better than her, in every way, from literally across the map. But now if you miss you have a slow field that does literally half the damage her old ult did, which requires them to stay in the area for a full two seconds to even HOPE to do any damage with it.

30% slow isnt gonna do that.

Oh oh and, the person hit who got stunned? The damage from the storm literally ignores them. Its worthless.

So you took away her most satisfying abilities. Her W is a generic flails spell that does nothing, her E is a stunbot button that's a weaker version of braum's passive and her ult was literally gutted to a point of unrecognizability.

And she continues to be nerfed even now, even though the only people who still play Sej are top tier players who pick her out of pocket.

Reminder, this is a tank who has been gutted from their original identity thematically and had their ability to do their job AS a tank, removed from effective use, for the same Generic two slap ability and a Max Health damage spike that she didnt need to stay relevant. I'm making this post because I've been playing nunu about nonstop since he was reworked and I got that same magical feeling I did when playing old Sej.

And it reignited the fire in my heart. I originally wasn't going to share this because for a year I'd been dejected and resigned to the idea nothing will ever fix her. But... it needs to be said. It NEEDS to be done.

It's like the team who worked on her didn't understand her at all. And that's cripplingly depressing.

Its almost like they saw what she could do, took it all away, added Stoneplate and Helm in as a bandaid for the damage they'd caused in her transition surgery and left her by the wayside to die and be forgotton. They took away everything that makes her fun and made it boring.

Can we get to the point now where Riot can admit fully that the class updates were just a mistake? With the exception of literally two champions ( and )out of everyone reworked during those sweeps, every single other champ in those updates was a complete failure in some way.

But the worst, most egregious abysmal mistake of all, was the absolute GUTTING of Sejuani as a champion.