Meanwhile I just tried her out. Went 4/3/6 the first game, still getting used to her kit. But still win, force a surrender.
Second game go 16/11/23, play to victory at their Nexus.
I tend to play a lot of champions that rely on knowing when you can go in and when you need to hold off. Gnar, Nocturne, Volibear, Hecarim, those sorts of guys. Where there's a breaking point you have to just sort of be able to feel from glancing at your current build and at two enemies and just knowing whether walking up to them means a double kill or your death.
Rek'Sai felt right at home for me. Better even than a lot of the champions I'm used to as she made counter jungling, one of my weaker points as a jungler, a breeze, and allowed me to dart in and out of fights as I saw fit. It was too easy to maneuver, too easy to land CCs, too easy to help teammates watch out for enemies on the other side of a wall.
For me, Rek'Sai just flowed. I needed one practice match and after that I had her well within the reins. But not every champion is for everyone, and as much as it might suck to hear it's possible Rek'Sai just isn't for you. There's nothing wrong with it, and that's not to say you can't learn how to utilize her better, but she clearly isn't a natural fit for your playstyle. She might just take a bit more practice. My advice would be not to try and mess around with different builds, play her the way Riot has listed her to be played at least until you get her down a bit more solidly.
It'll come, just give it time. She has a style of movement that is unlike any other champion, and it will take some more getting used to than for others.
Just to help you get started, my runes were AD quints, AS marks, armor seals, MR/lvl glyphs.
I took 9/21/0 masteries for the second match since I almost died to raptors on my first match. Didn't have any issues second go around.
I went straight off of her recommended build. Didn't even bother with the Triforce, only damage items I had were Devourer's and Hydra until I built a Frozen Mallet right at the end and I was still eating people alive. Her damage output is insane after you get a rank or two in her ult because of that passive attack speed increase building her fury up. Learn when to disengage, and how best to do so if you get caught out. Flash over one wall, then dig under another, and no one can follow you. Or if you flash over one, wait for them to hop to you if they have a blink or a dash and just juke back under the same wall. Her Q may not scale off her AD, but it has a solid range, does some good poke, but most importantly it helped me pick up so many assists. It's also great for rushing in to deal a beginning burst of damage just before you knock someone up and start ripping into them unburrowed.
Focus on the Stalker's Blade. It helps her get in close to enemies without having to use her tunnel to gap close, that way you have it up if they try to get away over a wall, or simply to tunnel ahead of them and cut them off while trapping them between you and your laner. The little extra bit of true damage actually netted me a few kills when the enemy Hecarim or Yorick would go in on me and try to run away. Several times it got me the kill I wouldn't have been able to get after they bailed.
Her first clear was kind of tricky, and I still had to back after getting raptors. After that it got easier, but I found her damage a bit lacking in the early game. I found it much more beneficial to use her early game to set up kills for laners instead, and racked up assist gold until I got a Tiamat. After that her damage ramped up like it was going out of style. With a Hydra finished I was clearing camps, my own and the enemy jungler's, could 1v1 anyone, and was an absolute terror in teamfights. Then just go tank (perhaps an IBG in place of the Triforce for that AoE slow?). A Spirit Visage kept me at full health almost constantly between Hydra's lifesteal and Burrow's healing. Randuin's Omen gave another powerful slow that kept people right where I wanted them. Then a Frozen Mallet for a little extra damage and a lot of extra health, and a slow on hit that let me 1v1 with impunity in the late game.
Leave tunnels everywhere. It's free to cast, and if you aren't about to be in a teamfight you can safely use it to just dig around. Sure, if an enemy finds them they can get rid of them easily enough, but there's no guarantee that they will. And if you lay down enough they can't find all of them. The most useful places I found were the Dragon/Baron pits, lining it up so that the Dragon tunnel opened up in the bushes near bot lane, and the Baron one opened up in the bushes near top. Once we got inner turrets I started laying tunnels out farther into their jungle. I was able to back and buy items only to rejoin my team again moments later at full health and with more power. Her mobility is off the charts, so use it to your advantage. Always be thinking about how you can move around, or even through, an enemy.
When chasing someone through a minion wave, try not to rapidly right click. She pops up on her own if you choose to auto attack something so if you accidentally click a minion she'll stop everything and unburrow, wasting a knockup and making you wait 4 seconds for her next burrow to try and catch back up.
Learn her Tremor Sense. Oh my god did I have fun with this. The ability to sit in a bush in the enemy jungle and see where people are moving around me was not only fun, it was invaluable. Several times I found myself setting teammates up using the extra vision I had that they didn't: pinging where they needed to be, targeting where enemies were going to come in from, warning nearby allies at low health when someone was coming in on them. I really felt like I was hunting, but more than that like I was constantly doing reconnaissance.
If you get the ball rolling and make it to the late game, I found that she was an absolute terror. Her AoE damage in teamfights is insane between the knockup, the Q, and the Hydra. Her mobility lets her be anywhere on the map almost, and at one point I pushed the bot inhib before ulting to a tunnel near their top inhib and pushed that one just as they were running towards me near their newly destroyed bot inhib. Then I burrowed, ran away, flashed over one wall and then dug beneath another after letting them chase me a bit.
Then went back in after they split up on my Tremor Sense to pick off the lone enemies.
Her kit is definitely unique, and I think it's a ton of fun. Hopefully with enough time and practice so will you!
