Numbers and Niches - When Should You Play Sejuani?

Welcome to Numbers and Niches, where I look at each individual element of a champion to find out exactly what makes that champion stand out next to any other champion in League. With well over 100 champions in League of Legends, why should you ever choose the Winter’s Wrath?

Frost Armor is Sejuani’s passive. Any time she inflicts damage onto enemies, she gains bonus flat armor and slow resistance. Neither of these traits are too special, given that there are champions who grant far more Flat Armor or Highlander exists to ignore slows altogether, but it does help paint what sort of champion Sejuani is. With a flat armor bonus, normally stacking armor becomes slightly less efficient than stacking health items, which when combined with the slow resistance and the Juggernaut Fighter Rework, puts Sejuani in a similar league to other health stacking Fighters and Juggernauts in the game.

Sejuani’s Q is Arctic Assault. Similar to Azir’s Shifting Sands, Sejuani dashes a certain distance and collides with the first enemy champion she hits. All units she runs into at this time are knocked up and dealt magic damage. As a skillshot, it isn’t limited like some dashes to only go for enemy units. The range isn’t as amazing however, so if you are looking for a champion that can clear fantastic distances in one ability, its mobility isn’t as impressive. It’s also rather outclassed by a certain fatman in damage, CC, and cooldown, so this ability probably shouldn’t be the sole reason why you want to use her.

Sejuani’s Flail of the Northern Winds comes in two parts; an auto attack modifier, and a self-centered AOE effect. When it comes to upfront percentage maximum health magic damage, Maokai has the first part of Sejuani’s flail beat. The second part of this ability is a bit harder to find a direct comparison to due to the mix of flat and percentage values, but the one I did find, Amumu, appears to be totally beat by Sejuani. It’s also a gigantic AOE effect for that sort of damage, which as a self centered effect, once more reinforces that Health Stacking fighter influence noted before, and potentially makes Sejuani’s damage potential with this skill rather ridiculous as you multiply its effects by 5.

Sejuani’s Permafrost is an ability with not too many parallels for what it does. As enemies are damaged by Sejuani, they receive Frost for 4 seconds. If Sejuani activates her E, all Frost within 1000 units are slowed rather dramatically and dealt flat magic damage. While the flat damage isn’t too impressive even for a potential AOE effect, the fact that you can easily reserve the ability after, for example, the enemy uses an escape if you already touched them once makes the slow especially dangerous compared to many similar abilities. And then there’s the prospect of slowing all 5 enemy members with a 70% slow with rather impressive range? For an ability with few parallels, it’s rather impressive for what it can do.

Sejuani’s Ultimate is a straight line skillshot that stuns the first champion it hits and all enemy units immediately around it. If it nearly misses, it will instead slow enemies for the same duration as it would stun. I’ll be frank, it’s not actually that impressive of a skill. There are other ultimate abilities out there that do far more damage, and there are other skills with similar or even longer ranges with extremely similar or even more powerful cc effects like Braum, Ashe, or Amumu if we also consider his Q. I guess it does have the advantage of being exceedingly fast compared to these other abilities, but ultimately it’s nothing more than trading raw power for reliability.

So, when should you play Sejuani? Sejuani carries an exceptionally powerful self-centered AOE effect, meaning if you need a strong front liner still capable of solid DPS, Sejuani will not disappoint. Furthermore, with her somewhat unorthodox slow effect via Permafrost, she offers a unique angle on AOE CC that can be used to punished immobile or movement speed reliant enemy teams. If you need that damage heavy frontliner who can impair enemy movement, Sejuani is the champion you need.

Last Article: Azir