Rek'Sai Guide - by dignitas/Brokenshard
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Rek'Sai |
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INTRODUCTION
Rek’Sai was released on December 11, just before the start of the NA and EU Spring Split. In the first EU LCS game, she was banned. In the first NA LCS game, she was first picked. Throughout the rest of the first weeks of both regions, Rek’Sai was either picked or banned in every game without fail. Her ability to turn and disrupt the enemy team on a dime makes her invaluable for ganking in lane as well as in later game teamfighting. This guide, made by our EU jungler Ram 'Brokenshard' Djemal, hopes to explain why Rek’Sai has made an impact in competitive play, and how you can claim the jungle as your own with her.
Rek'Sai is currently what I would consider a Tier 1 jungler. She is an incredibly versatile assassin/tank with very high clear, great mobility and strong in both solo queue and competitive play.
Why you should play Rek’Sai - Rek’Sai’s greatest strengths are her immense burst and tanky interference. She has very few counters in the jungle and her ability to be in the right place at the right time as a jungler are unparalleled. Because her abilities have multiple effects depending on whether she’s burrowed, she can be ready for nearly any variable in a game. Queen’s Wrath/Prey Seeker [Q] and Furious Bite/Tunnel [E] bring reliable burst damage to fights on top of poke and mobility. Burrow/Unborrow [W] bring a unique strategy in Tremor Sense, as well as her main purpose in team fights; tanky disruption. Void Rush [R] opens up a myriad of options for players. It can be used to quickly get back to farming the jungle, flanking the enemy or backing up an ally in a countergank. When you’ve engaged, your purpose is to free up your carries to deal damage, or hassle and prevent their carries from doing so.
Why you shouldn't play Rek’Sai - Rek’Sai’s greatest weakness is quite small. There are very few instances where she has a bad matchup in the jungle. In those cases, rather than having a rough game, it’s just that she doesn’t roll over her jungle opponent. Of course like any jungler, falling behind early game inhibits Rek’Sai from acquiring the necessary gold to stay a relevant bulwark in fights. You also want to be careful and adaptive about your build path. Because you’ll be taking quite a lot of the damage, you want to tailor your items to precisely deal with the threats you’re up against.
RUNES
To fill out your reds, you'll want to go nine Greater Marks of Attack Damage. As an AD champion, these runes are fairly self-explanatory. Though Rek'Sai is chiefly a tank, you need to be able to dole out some damage to effectively clear and to pose a threat in fights, not just as an aggro dummy.
For your blues you're going to go with six Greater Glyphs of Cooldown Reduction and three Greater Glyphs of Magic Resist. As Rek'Sai operates on Fury and not mana, it's not a big deal to use abilities as soon as they come up. In fact, some of them should be used whenever possible, but more on that later. The Magic Resist is, of course, for some tankiness in fights.
Your yellows should be nine Greater Seals of Armor. You'll want more Armor over Magic Resist (in your runes) to help deal with the damage you take in the jungle, as well as diving for those pesky AD Carries.
Finishing off the page, your Quintessences should be three Greater Quintessences of Attack Speed. Rek'Sai's damage comes from her ability burst and attack speed, as well as how fast she can clear camps. Faster camp clear means more gold and in turn stronger ganks.
These runes dip into the benefits of Cooldown Reduction, Attack Damage, Attack Speed and tankiness, but it's completely viable to opt for more tank in Magic Resist, more Cooldown Reduction for more uptime on your abilities, or greater attack speed for jungle clearing time. It depends on your preference and what your team and the opposing team is.
MASTERIES
For the masteries, I recommend a 21/9/0 page. While jungling Rek'Sai you'll want the traditional Butcher mastery, but not Feast. Just like in your runes, you'll take Fury and Sorcery for the Attack Speed and Cooldown Reduction. The rest are traditional masteries that you want to fill out the AD mastery page.
Over in the Defense Tree, you'll want two points in Tough Skin so you can come out of clearing some camps ready to gank. Then to help reduce a tiny bit of damage, fill out Block and Unyielding while investing the last four points in health from Veteran's Scars and Juggernaut.
From this Mastery setup, you can clear camps effectively as well as contribute damage to ganks and teamfights when necessary.
SUMMONER SPELLS - Flash and Smite
Flash is nearly always needed, even with Rek'Sai's access to tunnels. You need it to be able to juke or escape a bad situation and keep the opponent from racking up kills, or perhaps to make a Flash play by saving an ally with a surprising knock up. Numerous plays in the LCS have been made by Flashing to engage and knock up your enemy.
For jungle Rek'Sai Smite is even more important. Flash helps you make up for a mistake or capitalize on someone else's, but without Smite you'll be spending way too much time fighting camps to be an effective jungler. Having an engage opportunity like Chilling Smite is also a luxury you can't afford to jungle without. Don't jungle Rek'Sai without Smite!
SKILL ORDER
Rek'Sai's skill order is relatively straightforward. You want Q first to clear the jungle and deal necessary damage for successful ganks. Level W second for the the ability to burrow to the next camp, sustain as you jungle, a little extra movespeed and the ability to CC each camp with a knock up (twice in some cases). Next grab your E for your tunnel and extra damage. E will be your secondary max as it means more tunnels and more damage, W's Cooldown Reduction doesn't outweigh the potential true damage from Furious Bite. Lastly, of course, level R whenever you can.
Skill Mastery - Fury of the Xer'Sai [Passive]
Activating Burrow with Fury will grant Fury of the Xer'Sai for 5 seconds, which causes Rek'Sai's next source of Fury generation to grant 15 bonus Fury and, so long as she remains burrowed, to expend 20% of her current Fury every second to restore health. The health restored is based on the amount of Fury expended, for a maximum of (25 × Rek'Sai's level) health over 5 seconds if she burrowed at 100 Fury.
Fury of the Xer'Sai will not activate if Rek'Sai is at full health and her Fury will stop depleting if she reaches full health.
Fury of the Xer'Sai allows Rek'Sai a hefty amount of free sustain while lurking around the jungle. When she attacks or uses an ability on an enemy (neutral or player) she gains Fury, which can be used offensively or defensively. With some Fury, she can burrow to deplete it in exchange for health, or with a full bar she can dole out a considerable amount of true damage through her E. The important part of her passive relates back to her runes and masteries. We took Cooldown Reduction and Attack Speed to attack and use our abilities more often to generate more Fury.
With a hearty Fury bar, Rek'Sai can sustain in the jungle and continue to farm, handle an invading enemy jungler, or be ready to gank or countergank effectively. When and where you burrow is important. For the most part, you'll want to be burrowed while moving between camps for the health regeneration, but it does restrict your vision, so keep a sharp eye out for any tremors.
Skill Mastery - Queen's Wrath/Prey Seeker [Q]
Unburrowed - Rek'Sai's next three basic attacks within 5 seconds deal bonus physical damage to her target and all surrounding enemies.
Burrowed - Rek'Sai fires a pulse of void-charged earth in a straight line skill shot which detonates on the first enemy struck, dealing magic damage and revealing all non-stealthed enemies within X-range of the detonation for 2.5 seconds.
As shown above, you'll want to level this ability first and max it first. Auto attack, use the ability (unburrowed) then continue to auto attack. This gives you the auto attack reset and quickly generates Fury, so use it as often as you can, especially without the worry of mana or energy. It's fine to just spam it, but the most efficient way is to always use it as an auto attack reset.
Prey Seeker opens up a little more damage as well as some more strategic options. It's a great form of poke, and sometimes a finishing move if someone just barely gets away. While burrowed, you can't forget that your vision is extremely limited, so using it as a scouting tool as opposed to damage on camps can foil an invade and save you from falling far behind. To further use it as a scouting tool, throw a Q into enemy camps to see if they've been cleared, especially on higher priority objectives like blue or red. Knowing that they're still up or taken can help give an idea as to where the enemy jungler may be at the moment. In this game, information is power and knowing where you should be during the game is paramount for a jungler.
Skill Mastery - Burrow/Unborrow [W]
Unburrowed - Rek'Sai burrows into the ground, reducing her sight radius to 250 and disabling her basic attacks while gaining Tremor Sense, 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 flat movement speed, the ability to ignore unit collision and access to an alternate set of basic abilities.
Tremor Sense: Enemy champions and neutral monsters within 1300-units that move within the Fog of War have their position revealed for Rek'Sai and her allies. This does not grant sight.
Burrowed - Rek'Sai will burst out of the ground: dealing physical damage and knocking up surrounding enemies for up to 1 second, based on their proximity to Rek'Sai. Enemies cannot be affected again by Unburrow for a few seconds.
Rek'Sai can attempt to basic attack enemies while burrowed to trigger Unburrow.
Burrow and Unborrow are what sets Rek'Sai apart from other junglers and there are a few important things you need to know about the abilities. Always burrow on the way to the next camp or a gank to sustain. As you travel from camp to camp underground your vision will be greatly reduced, so wards are often a sound choice if you're worried about being pressured. The other asset from her W is the knock up. It's a great gank or fight initiator, especially if you can take them by surprise with a Flash or an unusual tunnel.
While clearing, pay close attention to the monsters themselves. An automatic tendency is to try and burrow and get another knock up as soon as it's off cooldown. However, look for a circle around each creature already knocked up, only once that circle disappears can you lay down the CC again. Burrowing and trying again too soon is a waste of damage, and in turn, time spent in the jungle.
Skill Mastery - Furious Bite/Tunnel [E]
Unburrowed - Rek'Sai bites her target, dealing physical damage that is increased by 1% for every 1% of her current Fury. If Rek'Sai has full Fury, Furious Bite will deal true damage instead.
Burrowed - Rek'Sai digs in the direction of the cursor, leaving behind two connected tunnel entrances. Rek'Sai can interact with either entrances of a tunnel to traverse it. Rek'Sai cannot traverse the same tunnel again for a few seconds.
Rek'Sai's tunnels last for up to 10 minutes and can have up to 8 pairs of tunnel entrances active on the map at the same time. Enemy champions can destroy a tunnel by standing on either entrance for 1.5 seconds.
Unburrowed, Furious Bite grants Rek'Sai another source of damage, especially when she has a full fury bar. The more Fury she has, the more damage she'll deal, and with a full bar, you'll take a nice true damage sized bite instead. The late game damage from the unburrowed E can become pretty massive as you spend more time in fights. Do your best to dive onto those squishy targets to immediately knock them up and chunk them right off the bat.
While burrowed, Rek'Sai gains one of her most useful abilities. Tunnel allows you a quick escape, a way to creep up on unsuspecting enemy and a way to move around the map quickly. If you can make a tunnel, do it. It'll get you to your next camp or ganking opportunity faster, as well as every other time you take that path. One key to Rek'Sai's tunnels is taking care where you place them, though. Too out in the open and your enemy will easily take them out, but having at least one tunnel in each important area of the map will do wonders. By placing a tunnel at each lane as well as all over your jungle, you can be exactly where you need to be when you need to be there with your ultimate. Whether it be to snag an enemy's buff or to back up your teammakes in a counter gank, having tunnels everywhere is imperative.
Rek'Sai's tunnels give her many more venues to gank. Coming from angles and avenues that jungler normally wouldn't, or can't, is where she shines. Use your tunnels to suddenly appear out of a bush or behind a wall, and quickly knock up your enemies for your allies to follow up with their damage. Though you want to tunnel over walls especially, don't get trigger happy with the ability. Tunneling straight into three enemies will mean certain doom, or at the very least your Flash.
Skill Mastery - Void Rush [R]
Passive: Rek'Sai gains bonus attack speed.
Active: Rek'Sai targets one of her tunnel entrances and begins channeling. In addition to disabling effects, Void Rush's channel will be interrupted if Rek'Sai takes damage from champions or turrets. Interrupting Void Rush will put the ability on an 8 second cooldown.
If Rek'Sai successfully channels for 1.5 seconds, she will burrow into the ground and rapidly dash to the target tunnel, becoming untargetable until she reaches one of her tunnel entrances. This will not put the target entrance on cooldown.
More often than not you'll use Void Rush to just get back to farming the jungle. From all of the added mobility in her burrowed movespeed, the tunnels and a teleport straight to a tunnel, Rek'Sai spends much less time walking from place to place than any other jungler. One extra fun part about using her ultimate is from the global roar that echoes throughout every player's speakers. Though players often know that the sound means that she's just getting back into the jungle to farm, you can play a bit of a mind game with it, as they don't know for sure where you just ulted to.
Unless you're in direct voice communication with your teammates keep an eye out on the map for fights or ganks that break out near one of your tunnels. Junglers often gank or go for an objective when they know the other jungler is too far away to stop them. Normally in that situation the out-of-position jungler would have to go for something else to make up for it, but Rek'Sai has options. She can easily decide to help top push, and then ult to drag or bot to help contest the objective. This is where carefully placed tunnels help out. If you can find a bush or corner of a wall that they don't seem to walk by or have warded, place a tunnel there as hidden as possible. Jumping into a teamfight from behind them is precisely the engage a Rek'Sai wants.
ITEM BUILD
I generally like to go for the Chilling Smite. It synergizes well with Rek'Sai since you both slow the enemy and gain an extra bit of movespeed. It also adds a nice true damage nuke to combo with your E for more damage. Pick up the Hunter's Machete and two pots, the standard jungle start. Without the machete you'll have a hard time building into the jungle item, and without the pots you'll likely die a couple camps in!
Rather than have a 'first back' item set, we'll look at what you likely want to have as we get into the game. Early games have too many variables to account for, so for now we'll assume you don't get a level one double kill. Always grab the Warrior enchant for your jungle item, as the Armor Penetration and flat Attack Damage scale well with her kit. Some may think that the Juggernaut enchantment would be better for the tankiness, but you need the AD to have any impact in your early ganks.
From my personal experience, spending the gold early on for some tenacity in Mercury's Treads helps out. When you're chasing someone down they'll use every available option to stop you. On occasion that means they'll stun or slow you, but with the tenacity you'll be able to do what Rek'Sai needs in order to be effective, sticking to your mark.
The Crystalline Bracer and Giant's Belt are there for that tankiness we've been talking about. Warmog's Armor is one of my early item choices as it keeps you in the fight longer which translates to more abilities and more knock ups.
Sometimes it's not just the AD Carry providing Attack Damage. On occasion they might have an AD mid, top or even jungle. If that's the case, pick up a Thornmail and a Randuin's Omen on top of the staple of a Warmog's. They'll allow you to not only take more damage, but the Randuin's will slow their Attack Speed and Thornmail will throw some damage back at them.
Equally likely is the scenario of facing three AP damage dealers. First on this shopping list is going to be Locket of the Iron Solari over a Warmog's. Though we definitely still want the health, the Magic Resist aura is incredibly useful for the rest of your team. Then as the game goes on, finish off that Warmog's and grab a Spirit Visage to help seal their fate. If their AD Carry goes so out of control that you need some armor, feel free to pick up a Randuin's Omen.
You've got one spot left to fill, and any of these could work. The Hydra gives Rek'Sai even more burst damage, and a little bit of Lifesteal to boot. The Youmuu's Ghostblade gives you a tad more Cooldown Reduction, Crit chance, Armor Penetration and AD, with an active that'll help you catch opponents as they run from your knock ups. If your enemies are sporting healthy builds, a Blade of the Ruined King will help you shred them down. Sometimes (against an AP heavy team) you're the one that picks up the kills in those early game ganks. If that's the case the Hexdrinker is a good way to continue to escalate that damage as well as stave off their attacks at the same time. Each of these are fine choices, it just depends on personal preference and slight variations in scenarios.
MATCHUPS
I believe that Rek'Sai has no poor matchups, but like any game, things can spiral out of your control. Here's how to ensure that you stay ahead of the jungle competition.
Avoid fighting Nidalee directly unless you get the jump on her. If you can knock her up with the help of some allies, all of your damage will expose just how squishy of a champion she is. As the game goes on your tankiness will outscale her burst, so she'll have a harder time fending you off if you want to snag something from her jungle. In order to stop Nidalee in her tracks, focus on disrupting her pounce mid jump by re-surfacing while she is over you. It'll cancel her jump, negate the damage and she'll be over extended with you on her tail.
Try to fight Vi early on. Pre level 6 is your best chance of winning in duels, but post 6 just avoid fighting her. When you guys are even in a game, she'll have more damage, but will burst you down if she's ahead. If you find yourself ahead you've got a little more room to work with if you want to skirmish.
In all scenarios post 6, counterganking means she has commited her Q and R to another target. At this point she has no escape and no damage aside from autos, so you and your allies should be able to turn and maul her. Like Nidalee, if you can get between a Vi and her target while she Q's, she'll lose a lot of her engage and power in fights.
Rek'Sai is particularly good in matchups against Lee Sin and Jarvan. Your counterganking, once they've commited, makes it basically impossible to escape. Pre 6, you can beat Lee Sin 1v1, but he has an advantage when he reaches level 6.
However, it's not just Lee Sin you need to watch out for when they hit level 6. Those with level 6 powerspikes like Jarvan, Lee or Vi have a major advantage as your ultimate doesn't provide any extra utility or damage beyond getting from point A to point B. So hold tight until level 7, and you'll be able to get right back in their faces.
CONCLUSION
Rek'Sai can not only provide a hefty amount of burst damage, but just be a tanky pain for your enemies. Even without a sneaky flank engage an Armor, Health or Magic Resist laden Rek'Sai can poke and engage from head on. Though the allure of an offensive AD Rek'Sai can be attractive, unless your team already has too much tank, you should stick to taking damage moreso than dealing it. Rek'Sai's engage can be monstrous in the hands of the right Summoners, and because you can be in a couple places at once means you need to think that many steps ahead to reach the full potential that her kit offers.
Rek'Sai is a versatile and incredibly effective jungler at all points in the game. Her ganking and teamfighting as both a tank and assassin are both very rewarding and viable. She's my go-to jungler for both solo queue and competitive.