Sett was already teased back in October when Riot unveiled its Champion Roadmap, which detailed two new champions who were making their way into the game.
The roadmap described one of the champions as a marksman whose only purpose since birth is to “to protect the faith from those who stand in the sun”, constantly training, mastering the diverse weapons of faith and swapping them through them like cycles of the moon. That champion was later revealed to be Aphelios, who stands out with his unique playstyle.
The other teased champion was said to be an Ionian juggernaut who “thrives in the centre of a brawl”, and who Riot compared to Darius due to the new hero’s accessibility and straightforward playstyle. On Thursday, that champion was revealed to be Sett.
Sett is a prominent leader in Ionia’s growing criminal underworld, where he rose to power in the wake of Ionia’s war with Noxus. His story revolves around his time in the Noxian fighting pits, where he proved his worth with his strength and his ability to take seemingly endless amounts of punishment. By climbing the ranks from a simple challenger to the champion of the pits, Sett earned his nickname, ‘The Boss’.
Passive: Pit Grit
Heavy Hands: Sett’s basic attacks will alternate between left and right punches, always starting with his left. The left punch will be a normal auto-attack, while the right punch will deal additional damage and have increased attack speed. Sett will need to attack with his right within two seconds, otherwise the cycle resets.
Heart of the Half-Beast: Sett gains 0.25 additional health regeneration for each 5% missing health (based on level)
Q – Knuckle Down
Sett gains 30% movement speed for 1.5 seconds while moving towards enemy champions. Sett’s next two basic attacks will also deal bonus physical damage plus a percentage (+1% per 100 AD) of target’s missing health.
W – Haymaker
Passive: Sett stores 100% of the damage taken as a Grit on his secondary resource bar up to 50% of his max health. Grit decays quickly after four seconds after the damage was taken.
Active: Sett winds up a strong punch in a set direction, expending all Grit to deal true damage to all enemies in the centre line. Enemies not in the centre line take physical damage instead.
Down but not out: After using an ability, Sett also gains a rapidly decaying shield for two seconds, equal to the amount of Grit expended.
E – Facebreaker
Sett smashes enemies on either side of him into each other, dealing physical damage and slowing them by 50% for 0.5 seconds. If Facebreaker affects at least one enemy on each side, all enemies are stunned for one second upon landing.
R – The Show Stopper
Sett grabs an enemy champion and dashes “unstoppably” at a fixed distance and slams the enemy into the ground. All nearby enemies take physical damage equal to set amount plus 40-60% of the grabbed enemy’s bonus health and are slowed down by 99% for 1.5 seconds. Enemies further from the impact take less damage.
Sett will be played as a damage-based melee bruiser whose abilities will have no cost, as he will take advantage of his unique Grit mechanic for his resource.
Based on Sett’s abilities and gameplay, he would most likely be a top-laner or a jungler. However, with the unpredictable and experimental LoL meta, we could see the Ionian juggernaut make his appearance in the middle or even in the bottom lane.
Where and how will Sett fit in into the League of Legends universe is up to debate, but we can expect to get more answers relatively soon now that the new addition to the Rift is already available for testing in Public Beta Environment (PBE).