Senna Gameplay Guide – Mastering Senna Support and ADC Hybrid in League of Legends

Senna, the Redeemer, is a versatile champion in League of Legends who can be played both as a support and an ADC hybrid. Known for her long-range poke, healing, and scaling damage, Senna excels in bot lane through lane sustain, harassment, and late-game carry potential. Mastering Senna requires understanding her abilities, early laning strategy, mid-game roaming and map control, late-game positioning, rune and item optimization, matchup knowledge, and team synergy.

Understanding Senna’s Abilities

Passive: Absolution

Senna collects Mist from enemies killed by her or allies, increasing her attack damage and range. Efficient passive management allows Senna to scale into a late-game threat while providing poke and utility in lane. Collecting Mist effectively enhances her sustain, poke, and damage output in trades and teamfights.

Q: Piercing Darkness

Senna fires a skillshot that heals allies and damages enemies in a line. Q is her primary poke and sustain tool, allowing her to trade safely and heal teammates during laning and skirmishes. Proper aim and timing of Q maximize its dual purpose, providing lane pressure while maintaining sustain.

W: Last Embrace

Senna launches a projectile that roots the first enemy hit. W is crucial for crowd control and setup for trades, combos, or ganks. Combining W with Q and auto-attacks ensures effective harass while securing opportunities for follow-up from her ADC or jungle ally.

E: Curse of the Black Mist

Senna cloaks herself and allies in camouflage, granting movement speed. E is key for repositioning, engaging, or escaping unfavorable fights. Proper use of E provides strategic advantages in rotations, skirmishes, and objective control while maintaining safety for Senna and her team.

R: Dawning Shadow

Senna fires a global-range beam that shields allies and damages enemies in its path. R is her ultimate teamfight tool, offering both defensive and offensive utility. Timing R for maximum impact allows Senna to turn fights, protect teammates, and contribute to damage in late-game engagements effectively.

Early Game – Laning and Sustain

Senna’s early game revolves around maintaining lane presence through poke and sustain. Use Q to heal allies while harassing the enemy ADC and support. W provides crowd control to set up trades or prevent enemy aggression. Positioning is critical to avoid getting caught while maximizing passive stacking from minions and enemy attacks. Coordinating with your lane partner ensures consistent damage and healing output, enabling lane dominance.

Efficient passive management allows Senna to collect Mist early, boosting her attack damage and range. Maintaining vision and awareness of enemy jungler paths ensures safety while applying lane pressure. Early roams and poke rotations create opportunities for lane advantages and skirmishes.

Mid Game – Roaming, Skirmishes, and Objective Control

During the mid game, Senna transitions into a hybrid carry role capable of influencing skirmishes and objectives. Utilize Q for poke and sustain, W for crowd control on high-priority targets, and E to reposition or camouflage allies for surprise engages. Roaming mid or assisting jungle skirmishes increases map pressure and ensures objectives like Dragon are contested safely.

Senna excels in mid-game skirmishes due to her range, poke, and sustain. Positioning to hit multiple targets with Q and W while avoiding enemy threat zones ensures maximum impact. Strategic use of R in coordinated fights provides shields for allies and damage for enemies, creating opportunities for objective control or teamfight advantages.

Late Game – Teamfight Positioning and Carry Potential

In the late game, Senna functions as a hybrid carry and support, dealing significant damage while providing utility. Proper positioning is critical: maintain distance to apply poke with Q → use W to root priority targets → use E strategically to protect or reposition allies → deploy R in teamfights to shield teammates and damage enemies. Focus on priority targets while staying safe from flanking or crowd control.

Senna’s ultimate allows her to influence fights globally, providing shields to allies and damage across multiple targets. Coordinating R usage with engages or retreats ensures maximum impact. Late-game success relies on consistent poke, passive scaling, and optimal positioning to provide utility and damage while contributing to objective control.

Combos and Play Patterns

• Early Trade: Q to heal and poke → W to root enemy → auto-attacks → reposition with E if necessary → continue stacking passive.
• Mid-Game Skirmish: Q-W combo → auto-attacks for passive stacking → E to reposition or camouflage allies → R to shield and damage during engagement.
• Late-Game Teamfight: Maintain safe positioning → Q to poke multiple enemies → W to root high-priority targets → auto-attacks to stack Mist → R to support allies and deal damage → reposition as needed with E.
• Objective Control: Use Q and W to poke and root enemies → E to reposition and protect allies → R to contribute to objective fights → maintain consistent passive stacking for scaling advantage.

Runes and Itemization

Senna benefits from runes that enhance sustain, poke, and scaling damage. Primary runes often include Glacial Augment for utility and kiting, Presence of Mind for mana sustain, Legend: Bloodline for lifesteal, and Coup de Grace for executing low-health targets. Secondary runes such as Biscuit Delivery and Cosmic Insight provide lane sustain and cooldown reduction. Proper rune selection ensures Senna can dominate lane trades, maintain poke efficiency, and scale into a late-game carry.

Core items include Eclipse for lethality and sustain, Kraken Slayer for consistent damage, Mortal Reminder for anti-heal, and Guardian Angel for survivability. Situational items like Lord Dominik’s Regards, Maw of Malmortius, or Rapid Firecannon enhance damage or survivability depending on enemy composition. Correct itemization ensures Senna remains effective from early poke dominance to late-game utility and carry potential.

Team Composition Synergies

Senna thrives in compositions that provide engage, peel, and follow-up damage. She synergizes with supports or ADCs who can capitalize on her crowd control and poke. Teams lacking frontline protection or follow-up damage may reduce Senna’s effectiveness. Effective synergy allows Senna to dominate lane control, contribute to skirmishes, and scale into a late-game hybrid carry role that can impact fights globally.

Matchup Tips

Against aggressive ADCs or poke supports, use Q and auto-attacks to sustain and trade safely while avoiding overextension. Against melee-heavy lanes, maintain positioning and leverage W for root setups. Late-game positioning focuses on maximizing poke, shielding allies, and targeting priority enemies with W and R. Awareness of enemy flanks and jungle pressure ensures Senna can maintain consistent impact in fights and objectives.

Closing Thoughts

Senna is a versatile hybrid ADC and support capable of dominating early trades, mid-game skirmishes, and late-game teamfights. Mastering her passive, Q, W, E, and R, along with early laning strategies, mid-game roaming, late-game positioning, rune optimization, itemization, matchup knowledge, and team synergy, ensures consistent performance throughout all stages of the game. Understanding combos, timing, and positioning allows Senna players to dominate trades, secure objectives, control skirmishes, and scale into a potent late-game threat. By leveraging poke, healing, and crowd control, Senna consistently enables her team to capitalize on opportunities and achieve victories from early lane dominance to late-game decisive engagements.