The Flexible Tail of Serqet

*Please note there are 3 builds in one*
You can select the different build options from the dropdown (default is "Balanced") below the blue Build Guide button at the top.

Balanced Build
This is the most flexible build of the three and it is sort of a standard Assassin build, with the exclusion of any AA-based items such as Stone Cutting Sword or Hydra's Lament. These items aren't very good on Serqet as she does not chain auto attacks often and is the one assassin you do not want to auto-cancel your abilities with as her passive, Catalyst, rewards you for stacking the poison for your first, second, and ultimate abilities before auto-attacking to detonate combined poisons for %health damage. Landing basic attacks in-between abilities consumes the poison and nullifies her passive.

All-in Build
This build is designed to 1-shot squishies by abusing the fact that Serqet's first ability, Deathbane can hit up to three times and can critically hit.
Due to the all-in nature of the build, Deathbringer brings the best 1-hit potential due to the +40% crit damage, but Malice is a more well-rounded crit item (has cdr, passive also helps with CD's). Malice helps Serqet be more well-rounded, able to use her mobility and ult more often, but Deathbringer maximizes the combo's damage. Rage on the other hand supplies the highest %crit of any single item. Feel free to interchange the crit items as needed.

Support Build
Serqet, for reasons explained in more depth below, can be built as and played as a support. In short, she has great CC, her ult does True damage, and her non-cc abilities act as incredible mobility for finding and isolating targets. I've added notes on the build paths to try to clear up any confusion with respect to build order, relics, and alternative build items.

Serqet's strengths lie in single-target lockdown and her incredible mobility. It makes her hard to catch or gives her strong chase potential, depending on the situation. This opens the door for her to be a great Assassin or Support depending on build. I try to utilize the strengths of the god with each build, so for Serqet I try to include items that further boost mobility and CDR.

Another reason Serqet makes a good Support is she has two hard CC abilities that are sure to force beads if not set up a kill. Once you get used to aiming her taunt ability, it can be almost as strong as an Athena taunt. Serqet also deals True Damage with her ultimate ability, Last Breath, which allows the damage to be rather consistent regardless of build. Her Passive, Catalyst, does %hp damage which also helps in this department.


Tips

A good general rule when playing Serqet that I was taught early on thanks to Reddit, is that you live and die by Cobra's Kiss. When you miss this ability, or when the enemy cleanses the CC from it, you should disengage most of the time. This is mainly true when playing Serqet as an assassin. It sets up your damage and disables the enemy. If you use it and get the enemy's beads, especially on a solo gank, count that as a win and disengage, knowing you will now have a window of opportunity to gank them again when they don't have beads. If you miss the ability, you are at a severe disadvantage as your Deathbane becomes harder to land and your opponent can continue to deal damage to you.

When using Serqet's Ultimate ability, similar to Mercury's Special Delivery, you ideally throw the opponent into a nearby wall to lessen the distance gap you need to close to follow-up as a melee character. The exception to this of course is when you have an opportunity to throw the enemy into the middle of your team. Additional note on Last Breath is choose your spots carefully, especially when built like an Assassin, as jumping on the back of an opponent also CC's yourself in place and nearby enemies can freely attack you during the animation.

Combo

Serqet's damage is based around her 2 ability combo, which can be made into 3 with the Ultimate ability. You use Cobra's Kiss to taunt the enemy towards you, and then Deathbane to triple-hit them while they're CC'd, completing the combo with a basic attack to detonate your poisons (from Catalyst). If intending to use the ultimate ability, Last Breath, it is best to open with it so that you can follow-up with the Taunt to pull the enemy back to you. With the Deathbane targeter, you can use it short range and hit the target up to 3 times. This ability can also critically hit, which is why I've supplied an All-in Build option - with Crit you can easily 100-0 a squishy target with this combo.