Rek’Sai changes: New guide and what’s different in 7.11

Since her release, Rek’Sai has had a power problem. Her kit is so damn strong on its own that she is either oppressive or nerfed into oblivion. The queen of the Xer’Sai has never had much of an identity either. Is she a farmer? A ganker? An assassin? Or a tank? At her strongest, she is all four at once.

This new update aims to change Rek’Sai’s balance problems. The goal here is to turn her more into an assassin than a tanky, all-purpose, CC having monster-lady. Almost all of her abilities are changing slightly and her ultimate is completely different.

Passive - Fury of the Xer’Sai

Fury generation is no longer separated into different amounts for different actions. Now, all attacks and un-burrowed abilities give Rek’Sai a flat 25 fury. Total health regeneration from Fury while burrowed has gone down significantly in the late game in order to counter how easily attainable Fury is.

Q (un-burrowed) - Queen’s Wrath (Max first)

Queen’s Wrath is getting a small buff to its AD ratio and a small nerf to its late-game damage.

Q (burrowed) - Prey Seeker (Max first)

Prey Seeker now also partially scales off of AD as well as AP. The damage that Prey Seeker puts out is now physical instead of magic.

W (un-burrowed) - Burrow (Max third)

Unchanged.

W (burrowed) - Un-burrow (Max third)

The base damage of Un-burrow has been lowered significantly in the late game. The major change to Un-burrow is that it no longer knocks up all targets around Rek’Sai. Instead, the primary target (presumably the closest to the center of Rek’Sai’s body) will be knocked up for one full second. Additional targets hit by Un-burrow will be knocked back.

The immunity to knock-up now only applies to the primary target. However, the immunity lasts for 10 seconds regardless of W’s rank. As an additional quality-of-life improvement, Rek’Sai can use plants while burrowed.

E (un-burrowed) - Furious Bite (Max second)

Furious Bite now does flat damage in addition to scaling off of Rek’Sai’s bonus attack damage. Fury no longer adds to the damage of Furious Bite. That being said, Furious Bite will do double-damage if Rek’Sai is at full fury. All of this should help Furious Bite feel less like just another auto-attack reset.

E (burrowed) - Tunnel (Max second)

The overall cooldown of Tunnel has been lowered by a few seconds. The re-entry cooldown, meaning your ability to enter a tunnel you just went through, has been lowered by quite a bit in the late game as well. This guarantees that Rek’Sai will get more and more slippery as the game goes on.

(NEW) R - Void Rush (Level when available)

Void Rush has changed completely and will no longer just be the “farm alarm.” Instead, Rek’Sai will now mark any target that she damages. Damaged targets remain Rek’Sai’s “Prey” for five seconds.

Rek’Sai activates Void Rush by targeting an enemy marked by Prey. She will then burrow after a short cast time and travel towards her Prey very rapidly. Once she reaches them, she will leap out of the ground and attack them, dealing damage (both flat and scaling AD) as well as a bonus based on the target’s missing health. The range is a massive 1500 units.

This new ability not only turns Rek’Sai into much more of an assassin than she was before, it also presents new opportunities to engage with the enemy. There was always a strange disconnect between the old Void Rush and Rek’Sai’s very active kit. This single change should help Rek’Sai finally find the identity that she has been looking for.

The Build

With new Rek’Sai, we want to look at building her as a bruiser. As such, we are going to pile on the AD as well as a few defensive stats here and there.

These are great starter items on Rek’Sai:

• Hunter’s Machete
• Refillable Potion

This is a great build on Rek’Sai:

• Warrior
• The Black Cleaver
• Maw of Malmortius
• Dead Man’s Plate
• Gargoyle Stoneplate
• Mercury’s Treads