Well that didn’t take long.

Called it. This time, my guesses as to what to expect from a champion teaser were on the money. In the teaser that I wrote about in my last post, I guessed that the new character would be someone suited to the jungle, and that it had something to do with the Void. I was correct on both accounts. Go me.

You can check out the whole reveal page for Rek’Sai, the Void Burrower over on the official site, but I’m going to break down the abilities and such here.

Passive: Fury of the Xer’Sai

Rek’Sai gains fury whenever she attacks her enemies. Burrowing consumes her fury, briefly regenerating her health.

This passive sounds really cool, though it’s unclear if she will be untargetable when burrowed. You can move about after burrowing, and the health regen is mild but could help for sustain in top lane.

Q: Queen’s Wrath/Prey Seeker

Unburrowed – Queen’s Wrath

Rek’Sai lashes out, dealing damage to all enemies around her with her next three basic attacks.

Burrowed – Prey Seeker

Rek’Sai fires out a pulse of void energy in a straight line skillshot that detonates on the first enemy struck, damaging, and revealing the target and all nearby enemies also hit by the missile’s explosion.

Having an AoE damage ability is nice for a jungler to help clear those camps faster. The video on the site just shows her standing still though, so I’m unsure if you can move without cancelling the remaining attacks. Rek’Sai has one of those kits that has different abilities dependent on what form she’s in (burrowed/unburrowed) so each will have its own pros/cons. Being burrowed and using Q gives you a skill shot instead of AoE, but your field of view is cut down while burrowed, so you would have to quickly shoot it off right after going underground. Then after a hit you’d at least know where your target was.

W: Burrow/Unburrow

Unburrowed – Burrow

Rek’Sai burrows underground, gaining Tremor Sense (a unique mechanic that shows Rek’Sai all enemy movement in a wide area around her) and increased movement speed at the expense of vision range and access to her basic attacks. She ignores unit collision as she moves around.

Burrowed – Unburrow

Rek’Sai bursts out into the open, knocking up and damaging all surrounding enemies.

Ok, so more is explained here. When burrowing, you can’t see, but you do get a little sonar of sorts that shows nearby enemy movement. She can also use this as an escape with the increased movespeed and ignoring unit collision. Having a knock up when unburrowing will be useful for chasing.

E: Furious Bite/Tunnel

Unburrowed – Furious Bite

Rek’Sai bites her target, dealing increasing damage based on her fury, or true damage if she has a full fury bar.

Burrowed – Tunnel

Rek’Sai digs toward a target location, creating a pair of long-lasting tunnels at the two ends of her path.

Here’s where jungle ganks come into her kit. Being unburrowed, she has a nice damage attack, but while burrowed, she can created tunnels meaning she’ll be able to gank from the other side of walls without having to burn flash. The tunnel lasts a little while too, so it could also double as an escape tool (use it, get under wall, when enemy burns flash to chase, just go back through tunnel).

R: Void Rush

Passive: Rek’Sai gains attack speed.

Active: Rek’Sai channels briefly before burrowing and dashing towards any of her tunnels, briefly gaining significant movement speed once she emerges.

Ok, so it’s  unclear how long those tunnels might last. However, this means you’d be laying down tunnels quite a bit, or else you wouldn’t have access to your ult very often. Good for a gank, and it appears global, however some what limited compared to other ults. Not sure what to think about this, will have to wait for full champ spotlight or patch notes to get a better idea about it.

Riot has basically pegged her as a jungler, as described here:

Jungling

Rek’Sai is a mobile menace at all stages of the game, creating tunnels throughout her own jungle to help her dart from camp to camp. But she doesn’t just burrow quickly; she kills at speed, too. Queen’s Wrath brings mass carnage to each camp’s monsters, dealing solid area of effect damage to every enemy around her, while Furious Bite deals powerful single target damage. Monsters will fight back, but Rek’Sai – once she’s generated enough fury – can sustain through the slaughter by burrowing, which restores her health and speeds her toward the next camp. And once her jungle’s empty, it’s time for Rek’Sai to turn toward the enemy jungle.

Tremor Sense is central to Rek’Sai’s counter-jungling runs, which focus on killing enemy camps while her counterpart’s away rather than dueling directly. By checking for movement in her intended direction, Rek’Sai can at least understand where her opposing jungler isn’t, then use that knowledge to burrow in and steal camps, effectively starving her opponent out of their jungle and forcing them into premature ganks, or worse yet, into Rek’Sai’s lair. Pity those who dare stray too deep into the burrower’s home: her tunnels offer incredible mobility, and with good vision control, Rek’Sai can easily coordinate her allies as she hunts down wandering targets.

Then there are her ganks. Rek’Sai’s relative lack of burst damage means she thrives best when she ganks for her high-damage allies, using her considerable utility to slow and stop her target’s escape. Most crucially, Rek’Sai’s tunnels give her unique angles of attack into enemy lanes, from which she can damage her mark with Prey Seeker before unburrowing beneath them. The knock-up provides a strong enough window for most assassins to secure their kill, but even if her enemy’s still alive, Rek’Sai can turn to her own abilities – Queen’s Wrath and Furious Bite in particular – to add extra damage into the mix.

Overall she sounds like a fun champion. Look forward to trying her out.

#leagueoflegends #reksai #champion