Sedna Strategy Guide

By Ralsar on February 19, 2009 10:53:45 AM from

Ralsar

Join Date 02/2008

** ATTENTION NEW PLAYERS **

This guide sucks, it just looks great. While a lot of work went into it, it is sorely out of date. The guide below is not a good indication of how to best play Sedna. I will update it as soon as I can. Sorry it wasn't ready for release.

*Update will take place after 3B is released this week. After tons of testing I want to change a lot of what I have below. Lots of poor suggestions on builds down there, but I am learning as I go.

Beta 3A is out and has some significant changes that affect Sedna. I will have the guide updated for 3A as well as further changes available sometime next week.

Sedna Strategy Guide
*** Information based on Beta 3 ***

Character Stats

Base Movement Speed: 6.0

Level	Health	Mana	Armor	Damage	Experience Needed
1	1600	884	380 (13.2%)	147 – 163	0
2	1710	984	402 (13.9%)	154 – 170	200
3	1820	1084	424 (14.5%)	161 - 177	500
4	2219	1184	446 (15.1%)	167 – 185	900
5	2040	1284	468 (15.8%)	174 – 192	1400
6	2150	1384	490 (16.4%)	180 – 200	2150
7	2260	1484	512 (17.0%)	187 – 207	3025
8	2370	1584	534 (17.6%)	194 – 214	4025
9	2852	1684	556 (18.2%)	200 – 222	5150
10	2978	1784	578 (18.8%)	207 – 229	6400
11	3105	1884	600 (19.4%)	214 – 236	7775
12	3231	1984	622 (19.9%)	220 – 244	9275
13	3358	2084	644 (20.5%)	227 – 251	10900
14	3484	2184	666 (21.0%)	234 – 258	12650
15	3611	2626	688 (21.6%)	240 – 266	14525
16	3737	2384	710 (22.1%)	247 – 273	16525
17	3864	2484	732 (22.6%)	254 – 280	18650
18	3990	2584	754 (23.2%)	260 – 288	20900
19	4117	3086	776 (23.7%)	267 – 295	23275
20	4243	3201	798 (24.2%)	274 – 302	25775

Abilities

Pounce I (1), II (4), III (7), IV (10)
400/525/650/775 Mana 9yd Range
0.3 Seconds 10 sec. cooldown
Sedna commands her cat to pounce on an enemy, interrupting them and dealing 350/550/750/1150 damage.

Inspiring Roar (15) Requires Pounce IV
Instant
When Sedna uses Pounce, her army’s Movement Speed is increased by 15% and their Evasion is increased by 15% for 5 seconds.

Inner Grace I (2), II (5), III (8)
Instant
Sedna focuses her divine grace.
+5%/+10%/+15% Movement Speed
+10/+15/+20 Health Per Second

Horn of the Yeti I (1), II (4), III (7), IV (10)
550/750/950/1150 Mana
0.5 Seconds 20 sec.cooldown
Sedna summons 1/2/2/4 Yeti to defend her.
She may have 2/2/4/4 Yeti active.
*Each level of Horn of the Yeti produces stronger Yeti

Wild Swings (15) Requires Horn of the Yeti IV
Instant
Sedna’s Yeti strike with wide swings, damaging nearby enemies for 75% damage.

Healing Wind I (2), II (5)
Instant
A soothing wind washes over nearby allies.
+10/20 Health Per Second Aura
*Healing Wind II also increase healing power of nearby priests

Counter Healing (8) Requires Healing Wind II
Instant
Sedna’s presence counters enemy healing. Enemy priests are unable to heal when they are near Sedna.

Silence I (5), II (10), III (15)
600/775/950 Mana
Instant 30 sec. cooldown
Howling winds erupt around Sedna, preventing enemy Demigods from casting in the area for 2/4/6 seconds.

Heal I (1), II (4), III (7), IV (10)
375/500/625/750 Mana 20yd Range
0.5 Seconds 12 sec. cooldown
Sedna heals a friendly target for 600/900/1200/1500 health.
*Heal III & IV also removes negative effects from target.
*Heal IV also damages nearby enemies for 200 damage.

Life’s Child (15) Requires Heal IV
Instant
The forces of life guard Sedna. Whenever she is under 30% health, her Health Per Second increases by 50.

Magnificent Presence I (5), II (10), III (15)
Instant
Sedna’s presence inspires nearby allies. Ability cooldown time reduced by 5%/10%/15%.
+100/+150/+200 Minion Health
+5%/+10%/+15% Minion Attack Speed

Morale I (2), II (4), III (6), IV (8), V (10), VI (15)
Instant
Each level taken adds the following, I believe it is culmative
+50 Minion Health
+0.5 Minion Health per second
+2% Minion Attack Speed
+50 Minion Armor
+4 Minion Weapon Damage

Builds

I am not an expert Demigod player by any stretch of the imagination and I doubt I ever will be. This guide is provided to guide players new to Demigod and/or new to playing Sedna. Take the following builds as templates to consider when playing Sedna. The size of the map, number of opponents, type of opponents and general flow of battle will throw kinks into any planned build. And you won't be reaching level 20 every time you play a game. I've had games where I've barely made level 10 and others where I was at level 20 for a long time. You need to be able to think on your feet and adapt to be competitive. These builds will give you an idea of different ways to play Sedna, but please take them as advice rather then strict rules.

Rogue Sedna
Rogue Sedna is a shadow that announces her presence in a torrent of pain. This build is all about speed and quick damage. No matter how you build your Sedna, you aren't made to survive an extended fight against other Demigods. However, that doesn't mean you can't deal damage with the best of them. By being paitent and in control your Sedna will be feared by your enemies.

It is important to pick and choose your engagements. You are looking for targets that you can finish off in a burst of damage. Or, at the very least, cause them to flee in the face of your attack. Your ability to heal yourself combined with your increased speed will allow you to follow a fleeing opponent into their territory in order to get that last Pounce in for the kill.

A good way to find your moment is to stick with your teammates. Keep them healed while they soften up the opposition, as well as putting your interrupt abilities to good use. Be prepared to strike when the time is right.

Speaking of interrupts, remember that you have the ability to interrupt with both Pounce and Silence. This, even lasting a couple seconds, will annoy and/or confuse other players. Don't underestimate the usefulness of interrupts. An interrupt stops whatever ability your enemy was casting and prevents them from starting a new ability for a specified amount of time based on what skill you used. Pounce is a single interrupt while Silence works for 2-6 seconds depending on the level. Interrupt also works to stop and prevent item usage.

There are many favor items that are useful for this build like Staff of the Warmage or Swift Anklet, but the one that works best is Cloak of Night. It fits this build perfectly by giving you a short range teleport that also does 200 damage to everyone in the area. Opening with Cloak of the Night, then a Pounce followed by a Silence will give you a good amount of burst damage followed by a few seconds of breathing room to get out if you need to. Your opponent will be left with only normal attacks while Silence is active.

See the Equipment Guide below for suggestions on how to further strengthen this build.

Once you reach levels 15-20, you are hopefully attacking your opponent's buildings and moving in for the win. There are a couple paths that you can take to finish off your build at this point.

(Horn of the Yeti I-IV + Wild Swings) Your Yetis can be very useful when you are reaching the end game. Surrounding yourself with a squad of these furry beasts will keep enemy reinforcements away from you and provide good damage against enemy structures. Supplemented with idols you can finish the game with a sizable army. Just don't expect other players to waste their time killing your minions, they are coming for you.

(Healing Wind I&II + Counter Healing) The final stage of the game usually involves much of your army focused on the enemy citadel or defending your own citadel with everyone fighting in close quarters. I've found the health aura you get to from Healing Wind to be more useful than the Yeti line since you probably haven't spent your ability points or money on minion boosting items. The health aura isn't much at this level, but it helps. More importantly is the benefit given by Counter Healing which negates the healing of enemy priests.

Skill Progression

Level	Ability
1	Pounce I
2	Inner Grace I
3
4	Pounce II
5	Inner Grace II, Silence I
6	Heal I
7	Pounce III
8	Inner Grace III
9
10	Pounce IV, Heal II
11	Heal III
12	Silence II
13	Heal IV
14
15	Healing Wind I, Silence III
16	Healing Wind II or Horn of the Yeti I
17	Counter Healing or Horn of the Yeti II
18	Horn of the Yeti I or Horn of the Yeti III
19	Horn of the Yeti II or Horn of the Yeti IV
20	Horn of the Yeti III or Wild Swings

Yeti Master
Despite the focus of the previous build, Sedna is a general, not an assassian. Generals have the ability to summon multiple minions to assist them while on the battlefield. The Horn of the Yeti line combined with Morale and Magnificent Presence will provide you with the ability to surround yourself with a formidable squad of furry beasts. You can also, and you should, expand your personal army through the use of Idols. See the Equipment Guide for further details.

A common mistake with any minion focused build is to buy only the abilities that benefit your minions. My first attempts at this build did just that and it worked wonderfully against the AI. However, against other players the build started to crumble. Kill a Yeti and one Yeti dies. Kill Sedna and all the Yetis die. In a multiplayer game your opponents know this simple fact very well. Sedna needs to be able to do more than just kick back while her Yetis do all the hard work.

The key is to make sure to incorporate Silence and Heal into the build. I have yet to find a successful build, no matter what the focus, that doesn't include both of these abilities. They are Sedna's claim to fame. I've also taken Pounce I for its interrupt ability. The Yetis provide enough additional damage so it isn't necessary to go beyond Pounce I. We just want it for the interrupt.

Again I like Cloak of Night for a favor item. When you teleport, you bring your whole army with you. The same can be accomplished with a Warpstone minus the extra damage that the cloak brings. You may also wish to consider other favor items like the Pendant of Grace for its +10% Dodge and +15% Minion Dodge or the Tome of Endurance for its +400 Health, +5 Health Per Second and +130 Minion Health.

See the Equipment Guide below for suggestions on how to further strengthen this build.

Skill Progression

Level	Ability
1	Horn of the Yeti I
2	Pounce I
3	Heal I
4	Horn of the Yeti II
5	Silence I
6	Heal II
7	Horn of the Yeti III
8	Heal III
9	Magnifiecent Presence I
10	Horn of the Yeti IV
11	Magnificent Presence II
12	Morale I
13	Morale II
14
15	Wild Swings, Magnificent Presence III
16	Morale III
17	Morale IV
18	Morale V
19	Morale VI
20	Heal IV

The Healer
The focus of this build is to be the best healer that you can be in the shortest amount of time. Your job is to keep your teammates alive. Because of this I also included Silence and Inner Grace. Run through the battlefield keeping enemy Demigods silenced and your teammates at full health. A well played healing Sedna is everyone's best friend. Follow a Rook around and you can practically make him invincible.

However, as with any healer in these type of games, there is little glory to be had at the end of the day. You won't have a high kill count and your damage score will be next to nothing. Don't let that bother you. If you end up dead because you were going for a kill all you do is take yourself out of the game for 30 seconds. It's not worth it and your teammates will not be happy.

I like to use the Diamond Pendant for my favor item with this build. The -10% to ability cooldowns is useful when you are throwing out heals. The Staff of the Warmage (+1000 Mana, +15 Weapon Damage) is also a viable choice. Mana becomes a huge issue with this build. You need as much as you can possibly get to so equip yourself with as much mana boosting equipment that you can get your hands on. Leave the citadel upgrades to your teammates. As long as they aren't complete tools they'll understand. See the Equipment Guide below for more details.

I would only use this build during teamplay. It is purely a support build and probably best for a pre-made team. It just isn't very effective as a solo build.

Skill Progression

Level	Ability
1	Heal I
2	Healing Wind I
3
4	Heal II
5	Healing Wind II, Silence I
6	Inner Grace I
7	Heal III
8	Counter Healing
9
10	Heal IV, Silence II
11	Inner Grace II
12	Inner Grace III
13	Magnificent Presence I
14	Magnificent Presence II
15	Silence III
16	Magnificent Presence III
17	Horn of the Yeti I
18	Horn of the Yeti II
19	Horn of the Yeti III
20	Horn of the Yeti IV

Equipment

Finding the balance between purchasing citadel upgrades, equipment and consumables can be difficult and there is no real set path for your spending. You are highly encouraged to spend time experimenting with all that the shops have to offer you to find the equipment that best suits your playstyle. All the same, the following is general advice on equipment.

At the start of the game, before you are getting Demigod kills, gold comes slowly. On normal settings you'll start with 1000g that will slowly rise and won't buy you much. If you want equipment right away, Banded Armor (550g, +400 Health, +5 Health Per Second) and Scaled Helm (550g, +750 Mana, +6 Mana Per Second) will provide a solid benefit for the cost. However, the Monk Idol can be a better purchase. See the idol guide below for more details.

You'll also want to make sure you have at least a Combat Health Potion (275g, Heal 750 Health) and a Scroll of Teleporting (250g). The potion provides an obvious benefit and the scroll provides a quick getaway when things go sour. If you aren't using Cloak of Night then you'll want to buy a Warpstone (2500g, 30 yd range, Use: Warp to nearby location). Also, until you build up your Mana and Mana Per Second, you would benefit from using a Combat Mana Potion (200g, Restore 1000 Mana).

Outside of these initial purchases you'll want to buy equipment that supports your chosen build.

Rogue Sedna

You'll want to boost your mana and damage for Rogue Sedna. Your favor item, Cloak of Night, provides +400 Mana and +6 Mana Per Second which is a good start. I like to add the Plenor Battlecrown which adds +2250 Mana and +100% Mana Per Second for 1500g. It is a great value for the price. This should be more than sufficent in most cases.

For damage I would buy the Wyrmskin Handguards for 1500g. These gloves add +35 weapon damage and have a 20% chance on hit to eviserate the target dealing 100 damage and reducing their Attack Speed and Movement Speed by 25%. Keep in mind that this increases your damage for normal attacks and does nothing for your Pounce. You won't be spending a lot of time with normal attacks, but you will do it enough to make these gloves worth it. The special ability is fantastic when chasing fleeing Demigods which you'll hopefully be doing often.

Once you build up even more money, get yourself a Mage Slayer from the Artifact Shop for 8000g. This ridiculously powerful sword has +30 Weapon Damage, +20% Attack Speed, +15% Life Steal and a 40% chance on hit to stun the target for 0.2 seconds. As if your interrupts weren't annoying enough...

Yeti Master

A Forest Band (1250g, +200 Minion Armor, 15% on attack to heal your army for 250 health) and a Hauberk of Life (1750g,+600 Health, +10 Health Per Second, +200 Minion Health, +3 Minion Health Per Second) make great, inexpensive purchases for this build.

The Bulwark of Ages (16000g, +1000 Health, +20 Health Per Second, +1500 Armor, +250 Minion Health, +375 Minion Armor, All damage reduced by 25%) is a fantastic, albeit expensive, artifact for this build. Though a Godsplate (10000g, +1050 Health, +1200 Armor, +20 Health Per Second, +275 Minion Health, +300 Minion Armor) is probably good enough.

The Healer

Put on a Plenor Battlecrown (1500g, +2250 Mana, +100% Mana Per Second) right away. Supplement that helm with a Vinling Helmet (3300g, +1500 Mana, +100% Mana Per Second, 3% chance on being hit to restore 350 Mana) and you won't have to worry about your Mana very often.

I also like to boost my movement speed to let me move around the battlefield quickly to heal my teammates so Boots of Speed (1000g, +10% Movement Speed), Journeyman Treads (6750g, +400 Health, +15% Movement Speed, 5% Chance on being hit to increase Movement Speed by 50% for 10 seconds) are great though I usually just go for the Wand of Speed (1250g, Use: Increase Movement Speed by 25% for 8 seconds).

The artifact you want with this build is the Stormbringer (17500g, +3000 Mana, +100% Mana Per Second, -15% to Ability Cooldowns, 100% chance on hit to gain 10% of your damage in Mana) which, combined with the Diamond Pendant favor item will give you a -25% on your cooldowns.

Idols

There are three different types of extra minions availble to Generals in the item shop. There are the melee focused Minotaurs, the long range Siege minions and the healing Priests. The idols follow the same progression as Horn of the Yeti with summon 1/have 2, summon 2/have 2, summon 2/have 4 and summon 4/have 4. So by late mid to end game you can have a total of 16 minions surrounding your Sedna. Also all of your abilities and items that boost your Yetis also boost your minions from the idols. This results in a strong, sizable army.

But is it really worth it? Idol usage has been much debated and you'll find many Generals who don't even bother buying them at all. I think they're nuts. Any of the builds above benefit from buying idols.

The four levels of Minotaur Idols cost 500g/1250g/2000g/2750g. Minotaurs are effectively about the same as your Yetis.

The four levels of Siege Idols cost 750g/1750g/2750g/3750g. These are ranged minions that fire from your back line.

The four levels of Priest Idols cost 1000g/2250g/3500g/4750g. With the ability to heal this idol line tends to be the most popular of the three.

With all the equipment, items, and citadel upgrades making you poor to beging with, spending more gold on idols is really asking a lot. For my money, I usually only focus on the Priest idols at first. Purchasing the Monk idol right at the start of the game can be a great purchase, one I make the majority of games I play.

After that, if I am getting a good cash flow, I'll continue to upgrade the Priest line and move into the Siege idols to help me deal with flying reinforcements and just provide a general boost to my damage output.

The Minotaurs I rarely get around to buying because I already have my Yetis. Plus there are still pathing problems with all your melee being able to attack a single structure. Many times I'll have melee minions finding themselves stuck somewhere being utterly useless. Or just standing at a tower or fortress watching the other minions do all the work because they can't fit themselves in. I'll re-evaluate them in subsequent patches.

Revision History

v0.1 Initial version based on Beta 2D information, builds & strategy are basic and in need of further testing against actual humans

v0.2 Guide updated for Beta 3, modifications made to all builds and all parts of the guide. Builds have received much more testing with this revision.

Special Thanks

Ke5tral for suggesting a Rogue Sedna build, I changed my similar Tiger Strike build to incorporate his suggestions.

TheBigOne for multiple suggestions and help with Sedna and Demigod in general.

Everyone in #demigod for being consistently helpful, enertaining and annoying in equal measure.

Nice guide, Ralsar. Another build for you to try:

Rogue Sedna:

Sedna and Cloak of Night were made for each other. Grab warpstone too, and maybe wand of speed. Skill up Pounce, Silence, and Heal. Ignore auras and Yetis past level 1. Buy both 2nd tier gloves and any other dps/snare items you like. This is a quick, aggressive, glass cannon build you use to either finish a wounded opponent or take half of his health so quickly that he panics and runs - letting you finish him off at your leisure. The build excels as support for a tank like Rook or a damage-dealer like UB, because you can follow them around healing them and finishing their kills.

Heal lets you follow a fleeing enemy past the first lines of his defense, but you are not a tank - you warp in and trigger your nukes before your opponent knows what's happening and hopefully he dies. If he doesn't and you need to get out again that's why you bought the warpstone ^^

Random: You never want to play a Yeti Sedna against an Oak who knows what he is doing, imo...