Sett champion guide: showing everyone who’s boss

With patch 10.1, Sett, the Boss, enters the arena. Sett is a bruiser who lets his fists do the talking. Sett thrives as a top lane bruiser with the ability to be played in the jungle. I’ll be focusing this guide on top lane Sett, but much of what is said here can be applied to jungle Sett.

Sett’s Skills

Passive - Pit Grit

Image: Riot Games via Polygon

Pit Grit is a two-part passive. Heavy Hands makes Sett excel in short trades, where you can auto attack more often than your opponent, and in extended fights, where you’ll have a high chance of dishing out more DPS than your combatant.

Heart of the Half-Beast allows you to take even or unfavourable trades and come out with a health lead due to having higher health regen. Heart of the Half-Beast also makes it easier to sustain against ranged opponents, which are quite popular counters to melee bruisers in the top lane.

Q - Knuckle Down

Image: Riot Games via Polygon

You should always try to use Knuckle Down as an auto attack reset when scrapping with your opponent. Activate it instantly after Heavy Hands’ right punch to chain together four fast punches. The movement speed allows you to chase down targets easier and force them into taking extended trades.

W - Haymaker

Images: Riot Games via Polygon

Try to save Haymaker until you have a lot of Grit. The more Grit you have, the bigger the shield granted and damage dealt is. Holding out until near-max Grit will give you a massive shield and make it difficult for anyone to fight and kill you in both small skirmishes and full-on team fights.

E - Facebreaker

Images: Riot Games via Polygon

Facebreaker can stun an opponent as long as you hit any enemy target on the other side. This includes minions and jungle monsters. Remember that Facebreaker also interrupts dashes. This can help you secure a kill that would otherwise get away.

R - The Show Stopper

Images: Riot Games via Polygon

The Show Stopper is a point-and-click ability. Sett is unstoppable for the duration, meaning that crowd control won’t affect you while ulting. It could be best used to yeet the enemy’s tankiest member into the rest of the team to deal the highest amount of damage, but you may need to use it to take the carry out of a fight, or you could use similarly to a Lee Sin Dragon’s Rage to drag the opponent out of position and into your team.

Skill Sequence - Q>W>E

Max Knuckle Down first. This is your biggest trading tool and you want it to deal as much damage as possible on a lower cooldown. You could make an argument on what to max second, but I found Haymaker to be the stronger option. The additional damage and lower cooldown on the ability that makes you bulkier in fights feels a lot stronger than being able to pull people in more often. This leaves Facebreaker to level last.

Runes

Conqueror works well with Sett as you can stack it fairly quickly due to your quick double autos and auto reset with Knuckle Down. Take Triumph, Legend: Tenacity, and either Last stand or Coup De Grace. You can take pretty much anything you want as secondary, but I’d suggest trying Resolve with Bone Plating and Revitalize.

Item Build

Starting items

• Doran’s Blade OR Doran’s Shield
• Health Potion

First Back

• Tiamat

Core Items

• Trinity Force
• Sterak’s Gage
• Titanic Hydra

Situational Items

• Spirit Visage
• Adaptive Helm
• Dead man’s Plate
• Randuin’s Omen
• Guardian Angel
• Thornmail

If you think you’ll have an easier time in lane and want to win trades, opt for Doran’s Blade. If the opponent is ranged or a lane bully that you think you’ll lose to, grab Doran’s Shield instead.

An early Tiamat helps you with waveclear and trading power as you can use the active as an auto attack reset. Trinity Force is a staple bruiser item that provides every stat you want. The attack speed is particularly good for Sett as it makes your right punch come out a lot faster. Sterak’s Gage works well when combined with Haymaker’s shield making it quite tough to burst you down from low health. Titanic Hydra is recommended as you’ll be building a lot of health on Sett and you want the added waveclear and auto reset.

Grab some situational items depending on what you’re facing and who is the strongest on the enemy team. An early Spirit Visage can pair well with the Heart of the Half-Beast passive, amplifying your health regen against a heavy ability power based team. Deadman’s Plate can aid you in closing some distance between you and those pesky poke champions who stay half a screen away at all times.

If you want a fun build that revolves around split pushing and being able to win any duel you take, try out this full attack speed Sett build. You can stick with Conqueror or take Lethal Tempo as your keystone of choice. Your core items will be Blade of the Ruined King, Berserker’s Greaves, Gunisoos Rageblade, and Phantom Dancer. After Phantom Dancer, take Infinity Edge for more crit, but you can get some defensive items instead if they are necessary.

Sett’s Counters

Anyone who can outright duel you or stop you from crowd controlling key targets will make your life difficult. If you want to stop an enemy Sett from steam rolling the game, pick up one of these champions.

• Morgana
• Mordekaiser
• Darius
• Fiora
• Sivir

Sett’s Synergies

Sett likes having allies who can follow up on his engages, or engage with him. If you have a Sett and want to have some strong synergy, consider picking any of these champions.

• Galio
• Orianna
• Jarvan IV
• Miss Fortune
• Leona

Conclusion

Sett is your traditional Bruiser champion with some uniqueness to his kit who looks quite basic on the surface, but has some hidden depth to him. If you are the type of player who loves getting up close and personal with your opponents then try out Sett.