Seraphine ability guide - Piltover's superstar answer to Sona

With her insane ultimate skin already teased as part of the upcoming K/DA event - and what a release skin that is poised to make - we know more about Seraphine’s alternate skin line persona than the base champion herself. That seems set to change, as the League of Legends EU Twitter account recently leaked her abilities. 

LoL EU tweeted Seraphine’s preview but deleted it pic.twitter.com/dmuRUivVnQ

— Spideraxe (@Spideraxe30) October 12, 2020

all skills pic.twitter.com/KFbzDnRx0S

— Santoryo 🌼 (@SantoryoLoL) October 12, 2020

The tweet has since been deleted, but not before some fast fingers saved the tweet. Here’s how Piltover’s popstar is set to make waves on the rift:

(Note: these abilities are currently leaks. It is more than possible that elements of Seraphine’s kit have been missed or will be changed).

Seraphine Ability Guide

Passive - Stage Presence

“Every third basic ability will echo, casting it again. Casting an ability grants a Note to an ally, for each Note, Seraphine’s next basic attack gains additional range and magic damage.”

(Picture: Riot Games)

The crux of Seraphine’s power and playstyle. Stage Presence feels fairly similar to Sona’s Power Chord passive (there are a lot of similarities between the two), with the Piltovan idol’s take on it allowing her to double cast basic abilities after stacking the passive. Q is the obvious choice to focus on - double-casting your main damage spell will always go down well - but her W and E both have great bonuses to being double cast, so a certain level of critical decision making will serve you well rather than looking for blind damage every time.

The second part of her passive sets her up well either as part of a bot lane duo, or for extra oomf in teamfights, adding additional damage to her own auto-attacks for every ally with a Note granted to them by casting her abilities near them. Sticking close to your allies in teamfights to rack up the number of Notes for a mega-auto is certainly an easy ploy for maximum damage. While it might be a touch cheesy, and away from potential utility/poke builds, consider a Lich Bane buy to really amp up the auto-attack burst. 

Q - High Note 

“Deal magic damage in a targeted area, damage increases depending on enemies’ missing health.”

(Picture: Riot Games)

Guaranteed to be your first max in mid or as a carry in bot. This spell is your poke, waveclear and main source of damage outside of your passive-infused auto-attacks.

High Note hits in an AoE, so a little like Neeko’s blooming burst, you can use it to attack both minions and enemy champions foolish enough to be standing too close. Pay attention to when champions look to cs to really make the most out of this.

It also does increased damage to enemies the lower their HP is, making for easier wave clear and a deceptively dangerous execute. Look to prioritise High Note when using Seraphine’s echo passive to really put the hurt on - double-casting a damage spell with an execute amp will really sting.

W - Surround Sound

“Shield all nearby allied champions and grant them a movement speed buff. If Seraphine is already shielded, nearby allies receive a heal based on their missing health.”

(Picture: Riot Games)

If her passive screams Sona, Seraphine’s W screams Karma. Surround Sound mirrors Karma’s empowered E, Defiance, offering a shield and move-speed buff to nearby allies with a bonus heal if Seraphine is already shielded.

It’s easy enough to guarantee the heal by double-casting the ability via Seraphine’s echo passive, which can be a massive boon during teamfights or to turn around trades in lane. If you really want to double down, then have someone else shield Seraphine then double-cast Surround Sound for a massive heal.

• Read More: League of Legends item system set for complete overhaul - here’s what’s coming 

For that reason alone, a duo lane of Seraphine Karma or Seraphine/Lux could be absolutely brutal: strong early poke and wave-push, sustain, shields and heals, and some dangerous kill combos with enough roots and damage landing could prove brutal.

E - Beat Drop

“Deals magic damage and slows to enemies hit. If the targets are already slowed, they are rooted instead.”

(Picture: Riot Games)

A more awkward Lux binding or Neeko E. There are two ways to play this: set up the root yourself with a double-cast or have someone slow your opponents so Beat Drop roots on a single cast. Junglers out there, abuse red-buff slow on autos!

This is another ability that opens up strong synergies in the bot lane with Lux and Karma: Lux’s Lucent Singularity slows, and Karma’s empowered Q Soul Flare does the same. Remember as well that this spell can hit multiple targets, so while it may be awkward, hitting a multi-man root in a teamfight with some slows courtesy of your team can be extremely powerful.

This ability is also likely to push Glacial Augment to be extremely powerful as a Keystone on Seraphine. Guaranteed slows on autos and with an easy buildpath into Hextech GLP first item (prior to the item rework, anyway) make Beat Drop that much deadlier.

R - Encore

“Deal magic damage and charm enemies hit by the spell. Spell extends whenever it hits an ally or enemy champion.”

(Picture: Riot Games)

…Do you want more? Jay-Z puns abound. Seraphine’s ultimate is once again reminiscent of Sona: think a slow moving Crescendo that deals magic damage and charms enemies that are hit by it.

Much like Crescendo, it is fantastic CC, but unlike Crescendo its travel time makes it significantly harder to use as a flash-engage tool. What does set it apart however, is the fact that its range is extended every time it comes into contact with a champion - ally or enemy. Let someone else head in first (take Leona, for example), then use your ally to extend Encore’s range and follow-up safely from the back-line.

Sona, is that you? Serpahine’s R draws a lot of parallels with the Maven of the Strings. (Picture: Riot Games)

While it’s not confirmed, the leaked preview video of Seraphine’s abilities showed Encore granting a full stack of four Notes to allies hit by her R. If you can tag multiple allies and enemies, then auto-attack the enemy ADC, they can kiss their health-bar goodbye.

Play Patterns and Combos

First things first, Serpahine is likely to be played mid or bot (in either role), similarly to the likes of Lux, Karma and Sona. Her item build and ability max order will also likely be just as situational, but a safe bet will be to max Q as a carry and either Q or W as a support.

The real nuance in getting the most out of Serpahine’s kit will be critical thinking about how and when to use her echo double-cast of a basic ability courtesy of her passive. In lane, a standard poke combo probably looks like W to close the distance, E for the slow/root, then Q for the double-cast of High Note before backing off or looking for the kill. For an escape combo, try E into an easier set-up for Q, then using empowered W to run away and heal.

(Picture: Riot Games)

In teamfights try and think about how Karma or Sona would play out the situation: poke is always good, but so is empowering your other carries with a double-cast Surround Sound. Getting multiple allies primed with Notes for your empowered autos via your ultimate and basic abilities is also going to be a priority. Lastly, want to guarantee an easy gank set up for your jungler? Make sure you have your passive charged for Beat Drop to get that root set up.

Regarding Runes, there are a number of ostensibly viable options for Serpahine. Electrocute for poke has always had potential on mid-lane mages, but with her utility edge Aery is likely a better option either in mid or bot. Spellbook is probably a strong contender in mid - easy access to the Inspiration tree, a raft of defensive and offensive summoner choices, the option to Run TP then switch it out - but Glacial Augment looks particularly dangerous on Seraphine.

It synergises very well with her E, meaning you don’t have to use your passive to empower it and can focus on damage and run-down potential with Q and W.

• Read more: Seraphine will arrive on October 13 on League's PBE boasting an amazing Ultimate skin 

That feeds in well to what to build on Seraphine. Short answer? Quite a lot. If you do run the Glacial route, build like you would Veigar or Neeko doing the same, i.e. Hextech GLP into Twin Shadows with a Zhonya’s or Deathcap third. Another option is to run the carry Sona route of Seraph’s Embrace into Lich Bane to prop up your  mana costs, add some survivability, and then level your enemies with Note empowered auto-attacks.

(Picture: Riot Games)

Outside of these two choices, a standard midlane poke build of Luden’s and spell penetration will definitely be an option, but so too would a utility build of Athen’s Unholy Grail and Ardent Censer ala Karma or Lulu solo lanes (something that also functions well as a support build with Spellthief’s Edge starting item).

Of course a hybrid of the two builds also works, starting with Luden’s into a more utility oriented build.

In short, Seraphine looks fairly flexible. If you are a little lost, have a look at how Karma, Lux or Sona are currently building, and you probably won’t go too far wrong!

Seraphine’s release date is yet to be announced, but is set to be a part of the upcoming K/DA All Out event towards the end of Worlds in the next few weeks.

She will be on the PBE server from 13/10.