Sett is the first champion in League of Legends to be given to all players for free. Well, kind of.

A mysterious “Sett’s Calling Card” started to appear in players’ loot inventories in December 2019. This got the LoL subreddit wondering how to obtain it and what it’s used for.

Screenshot by: u/bobthetalkin

Eventually, through trial and error, the community figured out that there was a hidden mission available where players who obtain ten or more first bloods across PvP matches (excluding Poro King) would “impress Sett” and earn his calling card.

After his release on January 16, the calling card unlocked Sett as a permanent champion for these lucky summoners. This mechanic of obtaining a champion is a first for Riot Games, and an indicator that Sett is beginner-friendly with room for mastery. 

Comparing him to recent releases like Aphelios, Senna and Qiyana, Sett is more straightforward in terms of spells, but challenging when it comes to positioning, timing and cancelling animations.

Sett Ability Tips

If you’re still new to the champion, here’s an overview of Sett with some quick tips to get you started.

Passive – Pit Grit

Sett’s basic attacks alternate between a Left Punch and a Right Punch, always opening with a Left Punch. Attack speed increases the speed of both punches.

  • Left Punches deal normal damage.
  • Right Punches come out faster and deal bonus physical damage.

Heart of the Half-Beast: Sett gains additional health regeneration for each 5% missing health.

  • Typically, in League of Legends, skills are used after a single auto attack. With Sett however, you want to cast skills only after he throws out two punches i.e. two auto-attacks.
  • The additional health regeneration works with runes and items. Hence, Conqueror is a highly recommended keystone.

Q – Knuckle Down

Active: Sett itches for a fight, gaining 30% movement speed for 1.5 seconds while moving towards enemy champions.

Sett’s next two basic attacks deal bonus physical damage, plus a percentage of the target’s maximum health.

  • Use Knuckle Down to maximize damage after Sett’s punches (AA -> Q -> AA -> Q). However, this depends on how much attack speed you have.
  • It also works great to chase down fleeing enemies.

W – Haymaker

Passive: Sett stores 100% of damage taken as Grit, up to a cap of [+50% of Sett’s max]. Grit decays quickly 4 seconds after the damage was taken.

Active: Sett winds up a giant punch in a direction, expending all Grit to deal as true damage to all enemies in the center line. Enemies not in the center line take physical damage instead.

Sett also gains a rapidly decaying shield equal to Grit expended for 2 seconds.

  • When playing Sett, it’s vital to keep an eye on your secondary Grit bar under your HP.
  • When using Haymaker, always aim to hit enemies in the centre line to deal true damage.
  • You can buffer Haymaker after Facebreaker for a guaranteed hit.

E – Facebreaker

Active: Sett smashes enemies on either side of him into each other, dealing physical damage and slowing them by 50% for 0.5 seconds. If Sett grabbed at least one enemy on each side, all enemies are stunned for 1 second.

  • The hitbox of Facebreaker is very similar to Thresh’s Flay. If you’re not used to it, manual cast this skill to practice.
  • It works on enemy minions and neutral creeps too, so be on the lookout for opportunities.

R – Showstopper

Active: Sett grabs an enemy champion, carries them forward, then slams them into the ground. All enemies near the impact take physical damage, plus a percentage of the grabbed enemy’s bonus health and are slowed by 99% for 1.5 seconds. Enemies take less damage the further they are from where Sett lands.

  • Similar to Vi’s Ultimate, Assault and Battery, Showstopper is a suppression in which Sett travels with the target.
  • Use it on high health targets like tanks because its damage scales off the opponent’s bonus health.
  • Position well in team fights to send tanks into the backline to deal lots of damage.

General Sett Tips

For beginners, the best part of Sett’s kit is that taking damage is an inherent part of it.

Haymaker [W] stores 100% of damage taken in a secondary bar under his HP. When active, it turns into a shield equal to that amount and deals true damage to enemies in the centre of the line.

Even if no one is hit by the true damage, the shield gives you a lifeline.

Plus, since Showstopper [R] is a targeted ability, Sett players will prove useful in teamfights. Even though it has half the range of Vi’s ultimate, he is tankier, has more health regen, and has the chance to hit multiple targets in the backline.

You can also control the direction of Showstopper. This includes pushing enemies over terrain, or into turrets.

Tips for playing against Sett

Like other melee fighters, Sett is vulnerable to being kited. While Kuckledown [Q] gives a bit of move speed when chasing enemies, he does not have any true gap closers except for his Ultimate.

So when playing against Sett, remember to keep your distance and be aware of your positioning because your tank might just fall on your head.

In particular, take note of his Grit bar. In this current patch, the strength of his shield is directly proportional to the amount of Grit stored so it can get pretty thick. Sett also glows at 60% Grit, which should give you enough warning to back off.

The second point to note is that Haymaker has a significant cooldown at early levels (W cooldown: 16 / 14 / 12 / 10 / 8) and Sett can be punished if he misuses it.

Remember to side step the centre line to avoid true damage, and wait for the shield to decay before reengaging.

Lastly, Sett’s only crowd control is his E – Facebreaker. For him to land a stun, enemies need to be on both sides of him so it’s best to stay out of its 490 range, or risk handing him the perfect pull.

READ MORE: FunPlus Phoenix’s DoinB picks Malphite for Worlds 2019 skin because of his wife