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[S14] LordGrox High Elo Rek'sai Guide
Build Guide By LordGrox
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Rek'Sai Build Guide By LordGrox
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Rek'Sai Build Guide By LordGrox
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Recommended Items
Runes: Conqueror with Inspiration
Precision
Inspiration
+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+10-180 Bonus Health
Spells:
Flash
Smite
Items
Default Options
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Starting Items
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Bruiser Build
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Good Items
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Alternative Items
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Ability Order Q max
Fury of the Xer'Sai (PASSIVE)
Rek'Sai Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Threats
Synergies
Extreme
Major
Even
Minor
Tiny
Show All
None
Low
Ok
Strong
Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Gragas
Almost unplayable matchup thanks to his E which has no effective counterplay. Avoid direct confrontation unless ahead, be careful not to over-chase, as he can easily turn situations around.
Rek'Sai
It's important to note that the best way to achieve synergy in a game is to play with people you know, rather than relying on specific champions. However, if you're looking for some tips, champions that provide crowd control are good for ganking. Additionally, champions that give you shields, health, or movement speed can be useful in other situations.
Synergies
Ideal
Strong
Ok
Low
None
Rek'Sai
It's important to note that the best way to achieve synergy in a game is to play with people you know, rather than relying on specific champions. However, if you're looking for some tips, champions that provide crowd control are good for ganking. Additionally, champions that give you shields, health, or movement speed can be useful in other situations.
Hello! My name is LordGrox, and I am a huge fan of Rek'Sai. I have been playing her exclusively in high elo EUW SoloQ for the past 9 years and have developed a deep understanding of the champion. In this guide, I will share some of my insights and strategies with you.
THE GUIDE IS CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION WHILE I WORK OUT THE CHAPTERS FOR THE NEW SEASON! SOME INFORMATION WILL BE OUTDATED - PLEASE EXCUSE IT!
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I stream on twitch from time to time! Give me a follow to get notified when I go live! |
If you want to talk about this guide, feel free to join the Rek'Sai mains community Discord!
Special ThanksWHO AM I?ChangelogThere are 3 important keystones to choose from.
If you want to see detailed rune pages and explanations, please refer to the in-depth section!
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CONQUEROR Conqueror provides bonus AD, which is incredibly strong thanks to Rek'Sais bonus AD scaling on all abilities. As it does not provide any Attack Speed, your combo will have to be well trained in order to utilize this rune to the fullest.
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HAIL OF BLADES Hail of Blades is the attack speed rune from the Domination tree. It speeds up your combo and allows you to quickly hit a fully rage stacked E, making it excellent in burst scenarios. Do note that this rune provides no additional damage and does not scale, making Rek'Sais already existing scaling problems worse.
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ELECTROCUTE Electrocute is another bonus AD rune. This one scales with bonus AD (40%), and provides great burst damage even on small combos, making it yet another burst rune. The key difference to Hail of Blades is that it will deal bonus damage on top of your combo and that it scales into the mid/late game decently well.
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PERSONAL TAKE |
BEST RUNE: CONQUEROR Conqueror is a vastly supreme rune. While Hail gives higher initial DPS, Conquerors effect lasts until the fight is over and will outshine Hail in raw Damage output. If your combo is clean you will not need Hail in order to one-shot people, making this the better rune as it can not only one-shot people but also provide extra power for skirmishes / extended fights. How does Conqueror compare in raw stats you ask?If one wants to try out the runes in practice tool it will become quite obvious. Conqueror does less DPS in a combo than Hail of Blades, but will have a higher amount of damage. This leads to the conclusion that if you sacrifice a bit of DPS, you will gain raw damage - a worthwhile trade in my eyes.
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Why are other runes not mentioned?
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Go visit the "What not to pick" Section in the In-Depth Runes section for more information on other keystones! |
If you want to see itemization, please refer to the builds section at the top!
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BRUISER
+ Strong survivabilty + Skirmishing potential + Helps with playing as a semi-frontliner + High Sticking power - Lower damage output - Expensive items Currently the only viable build. You can squeeze in more damage with item's like Eclipse, but there are no other real alternative builds. |
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Now that you've chosen a build (not like there's much choice at the moment) let's delve into the items.
STARTERS
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RED / BLUE SMITE Only these 2 smites are currently a viable choices. Choosing one comes down to personal preference. The smites section contains more information! |
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HEALTH POTION Not required, but getting 1 pot can help you out if you struggle with your early clear. Alternatively also a good choice as a backup HP source in early skirmishes. |
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STEALTH WARD The default trinket for every jungler. While you can buy Oracle Lens in anticipation of the enemy warding one of your jungle entrances (killing a ward at level 1 and sharing the exp with top or mid will give them level 2 on the first wave), it is usually better to take the Stealth Ward and either play it for the next 5-10 minutes or place the ward and swap to Oracle Lens before 1:30
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TANK ITEMS
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Now before you look at these items, here's a SMALL DISCLAIMER: While Rek'Sai top excells by building HP and abusing the passive HP% based healing, this isn't great for jungle. Your role is a lot more active and as such you do not have the option to farm Fury against minions to heal mid-fight. While these items can definitely be built later into the game, I would still not recommend them personally. |
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RANDUIN'S OMEN A pretty nice tank item. While tank items are not optimal, this can be a great item against teams with heavy AD / onhit damage. |
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DEAD MAN'S PLATE Decent value against AD heavy comps and provides you with some additional movement speed. The hit now also scales with base AD (since 11.13), so that's kinda cool. |
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SPIRIT VISAGE A decent item if your team has a healer, as it increases the heals you gain, as well as the bit of healing Conqueror provides. A decent choice against AP heavy teams. |
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Resistance Boots are currently meta. Pick them depending on the situation. |
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↗ Plated Steelcaps Strong resistance oriented boots against heavy AD teams. Also provide damage reduction against auto attacks which is useful against ADCs and AA heavy champions. |
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↗ Mercury's Treads Strong resistance oriented boots against AP and CC heavy teams. Also prodive tenacity, which is useful against CC heavy teams (even if they are not full AP). |
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→ Ionian Boots of Lucidity Offensive boots choice similar to Berserker's Greaves, that instead capitalize on Ability Haste and Summoner Haste. While the stats they provide are great for snowballing etc., they leave you very squishy.
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→ Berserker's Greaves While they are playable, Berserker's Greaves will leave you too squishy with little benefit. If you want offensive boots, you are better off with Lucidity Boots. |
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↘ Other boots Other boots aren't viable, due to the stats not benefiting Rek'Sai as well as the ones mentioned above. Movement speed is good, but Rek'Sai relies on combat stats, which these don't provide. (and no, you don't want to build AP, trust me) |
Please note that personal preference can impact your choice and that all smites are valid options.
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↗ Scorchclaw Pup The damage route. This smite "only" provides extra damage, but it does so decently well. Especially against tankier compositions this smite can shine, as it burns for max HP% damage. |
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→ Mosstomper Seedling The defense route. You usually don't really want to pass on the offensive/utility capabilities of the first 2 smites, so I don't recommend this. Suited for defensive players who seek more survivability. |
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↗ Gustwalker Hatchling The speed route. This smite offers pretty decent movement speed bonuses on bushes and monster kills. This makes it faster to clear your jungle as it reduces the time you spend moving from camp to camp, but it will also be a great tool to get from A to B fast. Weave bushes into your walk paths and you will out-move everyone. |
In the upper section, I show 2 different maxing orders. Let's look at the advantages of either one of them.
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↗ Q MAX INTO E MAX Best in slot after the 13.11 buffs. The Q cooldown at level 5 together with ability haste items is insanely low and the sooner you hit it the better. While you sacrifice some E cooldown, the combat strength you gain is massive. |
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↘ 3Q INTO E MAX While tunnel cooldown reduction is greatly appreciated, on current Rek'Sai you really want to have your Q maxed as fast as possible, due to the fact that not only the cooldown decreases but also the %-based scaling increases. With it's low cooldown, your Q will be your main clearing + consistent damage dealing tool. |
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TIME TO TAKE A LOOK AT REK'SAIS KIT!
As you may already know, Rek'Sai is a shapeshifter, similar to champions like
Elise or Jayce, meaning she can swap between 2 forms. For Rek'Sai this change of forms is triggered by her W, which unlike the 2 champions above has to be skilled.I encourage you to read the ability descriptions yourself first to get a general understanding of what each ability does. This will help you make informed decisions about how to use them in-game.
Now let's delve into her abilities!
PASSIVE: FURY OF THE XER'SAI
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Our newly buffed passive goes hard. The base healing without items can already go as high as 400HP from full fury. Once you add items into the mix this can easily heal 600HP+ at lvl 18. Greatly helps with sustaining during clears and even in combat. |
UNBURROWED FORM
Q: QUEEN'S WRATH
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Her Q will add extra AD damage to your auto attacks. Now here's the juicy part: It will act as an auto attack reset. This means you can quickly strike twice in a row by auto-attacking once, pressing Q, and then quickly auto-attacking again. This is integral to every interaction you will have, so remember it! |
W: BURROW
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Her W is a shapeshifting ability. The burrow does nothing aside from changing your form! Wait, I lied. You may have realised that while burrowed, your vision gets obscured, with a large circle AOE around you. That is your TREMOR SENSE! Inside of this AOE, every moving object gets revealed by a small ping every 1.5s. This is a huge advantage because it gives you vision outside of where you should be able to see! |
E: FURIOUS BITE
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Her E is a great tool against any target, but deals most damage against those with more HP. You always want to use it with max fury, as without you will lose the %-based damage! This ability no longer deals true damage. |
BURROWED FORM
Q: PREY SEEKER
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Want range in your melee kit? Here you go! Her Q will send a missile flying towards the enemy, revealing them for 1.5s (while burrowed!). The range of this ability is similar to the AOE you see around yourself from being burrowed. Use it as a range indicator! Amusingly enough this ability scales with AP. |
W: UNBURROW
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Her burrowed W is still a shapeshifting ability, but this one is important: it's your knock-up! 1 target gets knocked up for 1 second, while everybody else inside of the AOE gets knocked back. The knockup can be triggered by pressing W or using an attack move on a target. (This is important for later) |
E: TUNNEL
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The bread and butter of Rek'Sai, her E will allow you to place a reusable tunnel on the map. This will take you through terrain and creates unique paths only you can take. Be aware that enemies can destroy these by standing on them! |
R: VOID RUSH
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Rek'sais finishing move: Void Rush. Apply any damage on an enemy and you will see them marked with your fin. Now, whenever you feel like it, using R on a marked target will burrow you in the ground for 1.5s, during which you become untargetable. After the initial timer, you will pounce on the enemy in a range of up to 1750 units (that's a lot), dealing missing HP% damage. This makes her R a great execution tool! |
CLIPS ARE CURRENTLY BROKEN - I WILL FIX THEM WHEN I HAVE TIME.
Now that you've had a good look at her abilities let's look at Rek'Sais combos, as well as some special interactions her kit provides!
Let's start with the basics.
Auto Attack Reset
The classic Auto Attack Reset
Every single time you attack something, you should do an Auto-Attack Reset (assuming your Q is up):
Order:
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Auto Attack
- Queen's Wrath
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Auto Attack
This should be used against every single target in the game. Learn to utilize this everywhere, as it provides extra damage and speed.
Basic Combo
The most basic combo, usually used against jungle camps and champions
A simple combo you also want to use against most single targets in the game. This should be your bread and butter against champions and jungle camps. This combo can always be executed and does not rely on large cooldowns.
Order:
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Alternative Order:
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Advanced Combo
The advanced combo. This is the full combo, it relies on all possible cooldowns (aside from summoner spells)
The most advanced combo. Used against champions for maximum burst. Be aware that this requires all cooldowns to be up in order to be fully executed. Of course, this can also be done without
Scorchclaw Smite.To help with understanding the combo, here's a slow-mo version:
WARNING: This combo still contains old
Prowler's Claw. This combo is still valid, you just need to scrap the prowler's part.Order:
- Prey Seeker
- Prowler's Claw
- Scorchclaw Smite
- Unburrow
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Auto Attack
- Queen's Wrath +
Auto Attack <-- Conqueror stacked
- Furious Bite
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Auto Attack
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Auto Attack
- Void Rush
Step 6. is simply an
Auto Attack, but it uses Queen's Wrath for a quick Auto Attack reset.
I want to spoil some Rek'Sai main secrets I've learned over the years, so let's list them here:
Manual W and toggles
One of your most valuable tools in a gank/skirmish/anywhere is your W
Unburrow. Hitting the knockup on a key target is of utmost importance. Here are things you should know:
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Problem: the enemy is covered by minions. If you manually press W Unburrow, you are likely to miss the target and knock up a minion Solution: manually right-click the enemy champion to guarantee a knockup |
Right click toggle
Expanding on the problem shown above, you will notice that it can get hard to right-click an enemy champion properly. Luckily, riot provides tools to fix that. Enable these 2 settings:
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Set a keybind for your champion toggle. (Whatever key you are comfortable with)
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Turn it into a toggle instead of a button that needs to be held
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With these 2 settings you can now toggle "champion only". Right clicks will no longer work on anything else, meaning you can no longer miss your knock-ups!
WARNING: This does not work with Auto Attack Move, only right click!
Auto Attack Move
Once again adding onto what I already said, you should learn to utilize "Auto Attack Move". For me this is bound to the key 'A'. It allows you to quickly perform AA's without having to hit a target with right-click. While I do trust you in that you are the absolute gaming golem, right-click master and a general high-end gamer, I recommend you get used to this. Having to hit right clicks is unnecessary when Auto Attack Move exists.
Do note that this does NOT work together with the champion only toggle!
The ult dodge
Let's look at 2 clips first to see what I'm talking about:
Dodging a dangerous Orianna R
Dodging a Qiyana R
Your R
Void Rush makes you untargetable for 1.5s. Additionally, you will disappear from the map for a short period of time. This allows you to dodge all kinds of nasty damage and CC! Aside from being untargetable, this can also be used to dodge an ability predictively.Here are some examples of abilities which are beneficial to dodge:
- Jax E Counter Strike - Stun
- Darius Q Decimate - Damage & Healing
- Ahri E Charm - Charm effect
- Aatrox 3rd Q of The Darkin Blade - Damage & Knock-up
- ...
EVEN MORE ABILITIES!This list could go on for quite a while, and I may get around to adding more Abilities. Fact is: Incorporate dodging key abilities into your playstyle.
Ult Dodge 2: Sleepy boogaloo
Now ignore the joke title, because this one is important:
Lillia with Lilting Lullaby and Zoe with Sleepy Trouble Bubble can apply the drowsy status effect, which will put you to sleep after a short timer. This can be dodged by ulting a target while still drowsy!Ult reveal
Very situational, but an unexpected trick. Some champions can go invisible in combat. Stuff like Akali
Twilight Shroud, Kha'Zix Void Assault or Shaco Deceive. These will usually stay hidden until they reveal themselves. Here's the important part: your R Void Rush reveals enemies! This means that if you use your R predictive on the enemy invisibility, they will stay revealed no matter the circumstances. This means you can reveal the enemy for your team to kill, making tools like Akalis Shroud useless.The W landing ult
See how you land burrowed? You can instantly knock up again after landing!
The trick with this is to spam your W
Burrow while you are in the air during your R Void Rush. It can be hard to pull off and isn't always doable since your W needs to be off cooldown. It does give you the advantage of landing ready to knock your target up, making it a decent engage tool.The 1-way tunnel
A simple spell, but quite unbreakable. A 1-way tunnel outside of the drake pit. It can be used from the inside, but cannot be destroyed from the inside.
These tunnels are called 1-way tunnels because they are only really useful from 1 side. Please note that these are really useless. Don't waste your time doing these in a ranked game!
These can be placed at any thin wall in the game. Usually, you would want them from a side where it is harder for the enemy to break them, meaning your side (eg. Blue side places them from Blue side territory)
I covered some Interactions, now let's look at some dangerous interactions you need to watch out for!
STATUS EFFECTS
Grounded status effectGrounded effects make it impossible to use your E
Tunnel, R Void Rush and Summoner Spell Flash. Getting grounded means you will be helpless, so avoid the effect as much as you can!Champions that ground you are
Cassiopeia, Poppy and Singed.Silence status effectA usual silence is always a danger, as it keeps you from using your abilities/Summoner Spells/Items. A special case that you should know about is
Sorakas E Equinox. Standing inside of it means you can still auto-attack while burrowed, but you will not knock up! Remember this, as you can still abuse the situation to get some quick AAs in.Nearsight status effectAs with Silence, this is also a common danger, but it is enhanced by Rek'Sai being burrowed. This already reduces your sight radius by a ton. If you get the Nearsight effect while burrowed, your sight radius will get so small that it gets almost impossible to find targets.
Be aware of this against
Graves, Nocturne and Quinn!Blind status effectOnly the devil
Teemo himself can apply this status effect to you. While blinded, auto-attacks will not grant any fury! Try not to waste your Q while blinded, as deal no damage and lose your procs.CHAMPIONS
Let's take a look at some nasty interactions you should watch out for:
Dangerous Champion InteractionsI've explained the basics of the kit so far, now let's talk about tunnels. Rek'Sais burrowed E
Tunnel allows you to place a tunnel at a fixed range. This tunnel is your main form of engage and also your greatest ganking tool.There's no big secret to tunnels. There's no hidden image Rek'Sai mains keep to themselves on where to tunnel. Use them in the jungle to get to camps faster but be wary of the large early game cooldown - you still need them for ganks.
WARNING: I currently do not have a proper image of the map from the top. As such, I can't provide a good image. Generally, tunnels should be used whenever you need them - dont hesitate to just place some down for convenience, especially once you have some more cooldown reduction.
Before I go into the details, let's clarify what pathing even means. Pathing defines the path you take while going through the jungle. It gets changed by the camps you take, the order you take them in and the ganks/invades you do in between.
Not that we got that out of the way, let's get concrete. Usually, you want to start at your red buff. This allows for more oppertunites, as Rek'Sai is stronger at level 3 with red buff rather than blue buff. Additionally, this can help fend of enemies trying to invade you.
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Alternatively, you can start with your bot-lane regardless of side if you feel more comfortable. (This is however, generally the worse start and not recommended)
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These 3 should always be the first 3 camps you take. You will be level 3 afterwards. From here on out the possible paths will split up, and you need to decide for a proper path of action:
OPTION 1: GANK
A common approach is to force a gank at Level 3, utilizing one of the tunnels described earlier or just by normally walking on a lane. Pulling Summoner Spells like
Flash from the enemy has great impact, and you can even use your own Flash in order to secure the First Blood.
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The green arrows show possible ganking paths. Utilize tunnels for good ganks. This can be mirrored for red side! |
After a gank, you should focus on the follow-up pathing:
- Get a Crab
- Go back to farming your jungle
- Roam to another lane and attempt a 2nd gank
- Invade the enemy jungler
Before you attempt this, here's a few things you should consider:
- Is the lane you are trying to gank warded?
- If the enemy jungler can also gank at level 3, do you win a 2v2?
- Is the lane in a position to be ganked?
Run down this list before you attempt a gank. If you find that the odds are against you, go for one of the other 2 options!
OPTION 2: INVADE
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The green arrows show invade paths. Note that the orange line is a rather risky path, and fast clearers like Karthus will already be at Krugs. This can be mirrored for red side! |
Invade the enemy jungler, who should either be doing their 2nd buff or be on their way there. If they are, you can 1v1 them, steal the buff and maybe even kill them. Your level 3 is superior to most other junglers, and as such, you should have no big trouble fighting.
After an invade, you should focus on taking remaining enemy camps and getting at least 1 crab that spawns at 03:15.
Issues that could arise are missing lane priority from your side, meaning enemy laners will come to aid the enemy jungler before your teammates can help you.
OPTION 3: FARM
If none of your lanes are gankable, and you don't feel like invading this is always a safe play. This option means you will take your blue side camps in the following order:
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ALTERNATIVELY:
(If you are fast enough)
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You should to be done by 03:30 to take Rift Scuttler! (not a key requirement, but the faster you are the better!)
Rift Scuttler! (not a key requirement, but the faster you are the better!)
SUMMARY
These are the most common early game paths you can take. Try and follow them, as they provide a solid basis for newer/inexperienced junglers.
Please note that as of now I will not be going into great detail on later pathing. Pathing is a very difficult construct and is best learned through experience or through other sources. I do not think a written guide will do a good job in explaining these high-level concepts, and as such I will merely advise you to seek help on other platforms, such as Youtube or on dedicated Jungle Main Discord Servers.
Rek'sai is a champion that excels at ganking, diving and skirmishing in the early game. In this section, I want to go into details of how a gank should look like and what to watch out for when picking a lane to gank.
PICKING A LANE
Picking a lane to gank has multiple facets. Let's start with the basics:
1. Win Condition
Picking by win condition is usually a good idea in a more meta-gamey way.
Consider the following:
- Which lane can carry your game to victory?
Think of Hyperscalers like Kassadin or Kayle, think of people with really good win rates on their champions and OTPs. In the current meta is also usually a good default to play for your adc / bot-lane, as they can usually carry the game once ahead.
- Which lane enables you to get objectives?
For the early game, this will usually be bot lane. They can help you get Dragon and even help you contest Rift Scuttler. You can also consider other lanes for help with Rift Herald.
Additionally, you can think use these lanes to cover invades.
- Which lane can you kill to get a lead yourself?
While Rek'Sai isn't the best scaling champion, getting an early lead in kills and lane tax can give you a significant advantage over the enemy jungler. Think about lanes that can be killed for free: CC on your side, no escape on the enemy side.
- Which lane is playing good/bad?
While theory is great, press Tab and look at the scoreboard. Is a lane feeding? Vastly behind in CS? Think about "Never gank a losing lane" and then decide whether it's worth it to put effort into this lane.
While these points can serve as a general framework, don't decide too early on what to gank. Games don't follow set patterns and neither should you. Go with the flow and don't cast away a lane in champ select!
2. Lane states
Warning: the content in this section is outdated and needs a revisit. I have removed it temporarily, so as to not spread misinformation.
3. CC, Escape tools and self peel
Consider champions on both sides:
- Do they have engage/disengage tools?
Think about mobility. Stuff like Camille's E Hookshot, Ezrael's E Arcane Shift. Many champions have similar tools. Either wait for them to be used or find a situation where using them still puts them into kill range. Consider if your teammate can help you out by using a similar tool!
- Do they have CC tools?
Can they stop your gank? Can your teammate set up a gank? Think about abilities like Lissandra's W Ring of Frost or Malzahar's R Nether Grasp. Be careful with enemies using them on you! Watch out if your teammate has recently used their CC tools!
- Can they self-peel?
Can they help themselves avoid damage? Will it be easy to escape your W Unburrow? Think about abilities like Vladimir's W Sanguine Pool or Fizz's W Playful / Trickster! Either wait for them to be used or find a situation where using them still puts them into kill range.
I want to explain some more details about the current rune choices on Rek'sai.
THE MATH
Let's take a look at some numbers to give you a better idea of what we play and why:
How this graph was createdThis graph needs some explanation, so here we go:
- This graph tells you how much damage particular runes add to combos.
- Every Rune gets a MAX and MIN value, which depends on the factors you can see in the image: Combo length and Runes.
- The only exception from this rule is Hail of Blades, where MAX equals 1 extra auto attack and MIN 0 extra auto attacks (so 0 damage)
To give you a better idea of how combo-depth matters, here is a fully plotted chart for
Conqueror vs Electrocute:
THE TAKEAWAY
Conqueror is the king of damage IF you have the mechanics to pull off a decent combo. This results in what we see in the graph: up till about level 10, Conqueror will deal more damage. (For an early-game champion this is better).What this graph cant share with you: Conqueror will keep its bonus damage for the entire duration of the fight. If you fight beyond the first combo, Conqueror WILL outperform every other rune.
If you value the upfront burst potential of quick engagements more,
Electrocute or Hail of Blades will likely be better, as it both deal their damage regardless of your combo.
WHAT NOT TO PICK
Earlier I mentioned that other keystones aren't really played. If you are interested in the reasoning, expand the spoiler below:
Other Keystones and why we don't play them
PRIMARY TREES
Let's pick the primary rune page first:
PRECISION
Let's take a look at the main rune tree for Conqueror: Precision. I will explain the best rune picks in this tree, and explain which ones are good and why.
| CONQUEROR |
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Conqueror is played for the massive bonus AD it provides, which has great synergy with Rek'Sais kit as she scales with bonus AD. While the rune does provide some healing, the healing can be mostly disregarded. It is widely supreme to Press the Attack, because PTA will not give any extra damage to your true damage E.
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Meaningless effect as you are never healing enough to actually build up the shield this minor rune provides. |
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ROW 1
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Triumph
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The best Row 1 rune, as it provides extra HP and extra gold. Useful in saving you in clutch situations thanks to the HP you obtain from kills. |
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Will be swapped to Triumph in-game. (You don't have a mana/energy resource) |
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Legend: Alacrity
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The most commonly used rune from the 2nd row. Provides Attack speed which enhances not only your clear speed in the jungle, but also your combo speed. |
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ROW 2
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Legend: Tenacity
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A less commonly used rune in the 2nd row. Useful against heavy CC teams, as too much CC can lock you down from getting any engages. With this, you will have to sacrifice clear/combo speed! |
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Not played, as lifesteal is not necessary on Rek'sai. The other 2 runes are simply better. |
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Coup de Grace
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A commonly used rune in the 3rd row. It provides a flat %damage increase on low HP targets, making it a generally decent pick. Note that this does not increase the true damage of Furious Bite.
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ROW 3
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Not played on Rek'Sai as you usually build items that provide HP such as Edge of Night or Sterak's Gage. This negates the effect against any target that will not build max HP tank, making it useless.
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Last Stand
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Similar to Coup de Grace, this will instead give you a damage increase based on your own HP. While a good pick, this does not synergize well with runes like Absolute Focus, which rely on your having high HP%. Note that this does not increase the true damage of Furious Bite.
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DOMINATION
Another tree to consider is domination.
| HAIL OF BLADES |
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The meta keystone in Domination. Will provide fast auto attacks, speeding up your combo by roughly 0.6 to 1.2 seconds (estimates, depends on how good you are) compared to Conqueror. Does not provide ANY bonus damage. Usually easier to play for newer players.
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| ELECTROCUTE |
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A less commonly played Keystone. I currently believe that this is the superior choice over Hail of Blades on decently skilled players, due to the bonus damage it provides. It will still deal insane burst damage but has normal attack speed similar to Conqueror.
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Cheap Shot
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The usual pick for the first row. Provides a little bit of extra damage, more than Sudden Impact. Is triggered on every knock-up (if off cooldown).
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ROW 1
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While some extra sustain isn't bad, getting more damage in an offensive tree such as domination is usually a better idea. As such this isn't needed. |
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While this does provide damage, it's simply less than Cheap Shot. While better with Prowler's Claw, it is usually triggered by your tunnels.
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Zombie Ward
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A good rune for vision control. Use this in combination with Sweeping Lens to gain free vision and AD.
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ROW 2
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While this also provides vision control, it is not picked due to junglers requiring a Sweeping Lens, meaning you can no longer proc the effect.
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Eyeball Collection
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If you are less focused on vision control and more on gaining flat chunks of AD, this is your rune. Get free AD on kills, which can help with snowballing. |
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Treasure Hunter
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Great rune for snowballing early leads into significant gold advantages. The best rune in this row currently. |
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ROW 3
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Decent rune to reduce cooldowns of items like Edge of Night, Galeforce. Keep in mind that there isn't a really much use of this right now, as you mainly build items with ~45s cooldowns, where the reduced cd is relatively insignificant.
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Decent because it helps you roam the map faster, but has not use outside. Since we build Youmuu's Ghostblade now, there's not really a reason to get this.
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Not picked as your ult already has a decently low cooldown and this rune has diminishing returns. Other runes are simply better |
SECONDARY TREES
Now that you've picked your Primary tree, it's time to select the secondary. There are multiple viable options, and it's up to you to decide what to play. Note that you can't play the same tree twice.
Meta Combinations:
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Precision
+ Domination + Sorcery + Inspiration |
Domination
+ Sorcery + Precision ⠀ |
PRECISION
For secondary runes, I will not go over every single choice but instead, list the best ones. Select the ones you like the most and try out which runes fit you!
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Triumph
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The standard rune for precision. Always a good pick thanks to the health and gold. |
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Legend: Alacrity
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The most commonly used rune from the 2nd row. Provides Attack speed which enhances not only your clear speed in the jungle, but also your combo speed. |
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Legend: Tenacity
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A less commonly used rune in the 2nd row. Useful against heavy CC teams, as too much CC can lock you down from getting any engages. With this, you will have to sacrifice clear/combo speed! |
SORCERY
For secondary runes, I will not go over every single choice but instead, list the best ones. Select the ones you like the most and try out which runes fit you!
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Nimbus Cloak
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A strong secondary keystone for anyone that likes closing gaps. Will only provide 5% movement speed increase when using any Smite, but will give 25% movement speed increase with Flash. This makes Flash a gap closer which does not need to instantly connect with the enemy. Has been nerfed in patch 11.13.
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Absolute Focus
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A flat bonus AD increase whenever you are healthy. Should have almost permanent uptime in the jungle thanks to Refillable Potion and Fury of the Xer'Sai. Will also provide AD for most ganks, as you usually engage the enemy at high percentages of HP.
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Waterwalking
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Great help with roaming through the river as it provides MS and bonus AD. Will support you in contesting the river objectives Rift Scuttler, Dragon and Baron Nashor, while also aiding any skirmishes you might have.
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DOMINATION
For secondary runes, I will not go over every single choice but instead, list the best ones. Select the ones you like the most and try out which runes fit you!
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Zombie Ward
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A great 2nd Row rune for vision control and obtaining bonus AD. Get's better the more you play around vision and Oracle Lens, as it provides great counter vision on the enemy without having to use your own wards.
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Eyeball Collection
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As an alternative to Zombie Ward this is a good pick for anyone that has less focus and vision and more focus on just killing. Will also provide decent bonus AD, but loses the benefits of vision control.
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Treasure Hunter
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Provides you with a ton of bonus gold that can be used to snowball your already strong early game. Will help you get your key items before your opponents. |
INSPIRATION
For secondary runes, I will not go over every single choice but instead, list the best ones. Select the ones you like the most and try out which runes fit you!
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Magical Footwear
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If you are going for Inspiration you are pretty much forced to take these 2 runes. While free boots with extra MS are cool, the rune will delay your boots, which can be a struggle |
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Cosmic Insight
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The other Inspiration rune, helping out will all of cour cooldowns, including the nerfed Prowler's Claw.
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MINOR RUNES
Minor runes are pretty basic, but I still want to explain the reasoning behind the choices:
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Adaptive Force
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Viable choice, but with Conqueror and Electrocute you usually prefer Attack Speed due to the fact that you already have enough damage as is. You can consider this if you play Hail of Blades.
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ROW 1
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Attack Speed
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Currently, the best minor rune from ROW 1, as the attack speed enhances your clears and makes combos smoother |
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While ability haste isn't all that bad, the other options are simply better. Do not take this. |
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Adaptive Force
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The best choice in ROW 2, as you still want bonus AD to enhance clears and overall damage. |
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ROW 2
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A bad choice as you don't require large amounts of defence. You are better off getting more AD from Adaptive Force. |
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A bad choice as you don't require large amounts of defence. You are better off getting more AD from Adaptive Force. |
These come down to personal preference. Go with whatever you want.
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Health
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A good choice against any team. HP helps against all damage types, so there is no need to choose between armor or mr. |
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ROW 3
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Armor
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Best choice against AD heavy teams and enemy junglers. Has the benefit that it makes you slightly tankier against jungle creeps. |
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Magic Resistance
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Best choice against AP heavy teams and enemy junglers. (Note that 2 AP heavy champs in the enemy team already make this viable, it does not have to be a full AP team!) |
At multiple points in this guide, I've mentioned the importance of bonus AD in Rek'Sais kit, and the significance of runes like
Conqueror in increasing your damage. Let's take a quick look at what I mean:|
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(+ 25% bonus AD) x1 time |
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(We assume Q is level 5 for simplicity) (+ 50% bonus AD) x3 times |
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(+ 100% bonus AD) x1 time |
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(+ 100% bonus AD) x1 time |
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(Auto Attack) (+ 100% bonus AD) x4 times |
These are the damage sources in 1 Combo. All of them scale with your bonus AD,
adding up to 775% bonus AD in total scaling.
This is a significant value, and should not be underestimated. It is the main reason as to why bonus AD is so important on Rek'sai.
In this chapter, I want to talk about ways of getting good at Rek'Sai and playing her in the jungle.
Disclaimer: Opinions you will read here may not be objective. They reflect my understanding of the game. While I would never consider myself a "good" player, I think I am qualified to give a few opinions on how to get into higher Elos (namely D1 and Master).
Do you want to improve? Good. Now let's get your brain into the proper mindset. Here are some rules to follow:
- Play for improvement, not for LP
Stop thinking about your LP. Set your mind on getting better, and LP will follow. Dodge games that look unplayable in champ select, and don't get mad at losing some LP.
- NEVER blame anyone else but yourself for losing games
One of the greatest mistakes most players make. Yes, there are unwinnable games. But your focus should never be on your teammates, as they are outside of your control. If you ever catch yourself thinking about your teammates, focus up and stop it. You make mistakes every game. Find them, fix them.
- Analyse replays
Go into your replays. Look to find obvious mistakes. Explore different options of what to do, note the good and the bad.
- Disable Chat
Unless you are Master+ and you are confident that communication can help your games, disable your chat. The chat provides little benefit and only serves as a platform for toxicity.
- Know when to stop
Tilted? Mad? Tired? Stop playing. Forcing 10 games a day won't make you better if you can't focus on your games. Find a point to stop every day, or at least take some breaks to reset your mental and mind.
Now the points here are a bit short, but they convey the general message well enough:
Focus on yourself, and only yourself.
One of the most integral parts to actually getting good at Rek'Sai are her mechanics (the micro). While many Rek'Sai players think that they are "good" at her, most mechanics often leave room for improvement.
The Combo
Let's start with the combo. I already linked an example of a proper combo further up in the guide, if you haven't read it look here.
The first thing I usually recommend for anyone below Master+ is to train your combo in practice tool. For me, the setup looks like this:
WARNING: The numbers here are out-dated. The general idea is the same regardles!
- Go into practice tool
- Select your usual Runes
My runes - Ingame, level to 6, fully stack runes, disable turrets and minions
- Buy a smite of your choice.
- Skip to 01:30 using Ctrl+Shift+O, use instant cdr from Ctrl+X and obtain Blue Smite by smiting 5 times
- Set up enemy target dummies and 1 friendly dummy for vision, preferably on a lane with space
- Start training your combo. Use Ctrl+Shift+O and Ctrl+X to reset everything between attempts
After the initial setup, it's time to train your combo! A proper combo on a target dummy should deal
TLDR: Go into practice tool, set yourself up for combos, learn to get the highest possible DPS.
The small things
I've already listed some sneaky mechanics, most of them only known to OTP's. These are small things, but getting to know them and actively using them in-game will give you yet another small edge over your opponents. While this is a more time-intensive step, try forcing them as often as you can.
Kiting
If you've looked at the 03:15 full clear I linked earlier, you will see that kiting camps greatly enhances your clear. This is something that you need to train if you want to clear properly. Try this in practice tool, see how far you can take camps and when they reset. This is important if you ever want to properly clear, and as it's something you can train this is not limited by your elo. If you want more examples, look at replays of other high elo Rek'Sai players.
Now it's time for some harsh reality. Macro is something that can barely be thought in a guide, and I won't attempt it as the topic is vastly more complex than anything else. Jungle macro resolves around so many factors that it is best thought by playing or by a dedicated coach.
My advice for getting better macro:
Watch guides on the early game
The early game is the most linear macro, and oftentimes there are only a few good options, making it a lot easier to learn from outside the game. There are some great guides on youtube on how to master early game pathing, and I implore you to seek them out.
Play more
Yes, sounds pretty dumb but it's always true. Playing more means you can improve more, and with time macro decisions will become more obvious. This process means learning it yourself, but that is how just about everyone will learn macro at some point.
Jungle Tracking
Jungle Tracking means following the path of the enemy jungler without actually seeing them. You will have to understand the pathing of different champions and predict where they are at different stages of the game. This is incredibly hard but gets more consistent the better your enemies get.
Don't waste too much thought on this. This will come more naturally as you play the game, so as always, "play more".
Whew, you read/scrolled all the way down here! Good job! If you have any feedback, please let me know here or come join us in the official Rek'Sai Mains Discord:
https://discord.gg/BDRkeRV
Now that the important stuff is done, let's just get this over with:
SKIN TIER LIST
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Twitch
[S14] LordGrox High Elo Rek'sai Guide
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