FOTM Report: Seraphine Bot

Seraphine tops the bot lane tier list right now, and almost nobody is actually playing her there.

Patch 26.13 pushed Seraphine into God Tier as a bot lane carry, sitting right alongside Jinx and Senna at the top of the current solo queue tier list. She's still played far more often as a support, but the numbers say the bigger story is happening in the other bot lane role.

Check out the details on runes and builds below!

Guide to Seraphine Bot Lane

Seraphine tops the bot lane tier list right now, and almost nobody is actually playing her there.

How to Play Seraphine Bot Lane

Abilities: Q, E, W then prioritize R > Q > E > W
Summoner Spells
Starting Items
Strategy: Poke from max range behind your support, stack your passive off nearby allies, and look for E roots you can immediately follow up with Q and your ultimate
Core Items

Seraphine Bot Lane Rune Setup

Primary: Arcane Comet, Manaflow Band, Transcendence, Scorch

Secondary: Magical Footwear, Biscuit Delivery

Support Synergies

Seraphine's own kit doesn't care much which style of support she's paired with, since her poke and shield hold up in a long trade and her root turns a single landed engage into a full combo. That flexibility shows up clearly in the three supports below, split between sustain and all-in strategies.

Sona

Sona keeps a bot lane in an extended poke war that Seraphine is built to win. Her aura heals and shields stack directly on top of Seraphine's own shield, letting the lane sustain through trades most bot lanes can't survive, without either champion ever needing to commit to an all-in.

Nautilus

Nautilus turns Seraphine into a guaranteed combo instead of a poke tool. His hook and knockup lock a target in place long enough for Seraphine to land her own root and ultimate on top of it, converting one good hook into a kill instead of just a trade.

Thresh

Thresh offers the same all-in setup as Nautilus with more flexibility attached. His hook creates the same follow-up window for Seraphine's root, while his lantern and box give the lane a way to disengage safely if the all-in doesn't land clean.

When to Pick Seraphine Bot

Pick Seraphine bot when you want a scaling poke mage in the carry role instead of a traditional marksman, and your support can commit to either an extended poke war or a coordinated engage. She has almost no mobility of her own, so she leans entirely on the support partner covering whichever style of lane you commit to.

She's also a strong pick specifically because so few games have practiced the matchup. Most bot lane opponents default to standard marksman fundamentals against her instead of playing around her actual range and shield timing, and that unfamiliarity alone accounts for a meaningful share of her current win rate.

How It Works

Stacks Off Her Own Team

Seraphine's passive grows in power the more her allies are nearby when she uses abilities, rewarding a bot lane that groups and trades together instead of playing in isolation the way a normal marksman would.

Poke and Shield in One Kit

Her Q pokes from max range and her W shields whoever needs it most, letting her play both the poke and the peel role in the same lane without ever needing to reposition.

Team-Wide Engage From Range

Her ultimate roots and knocks up everything it passes through along a long line, giving her lane partner a real engage tool even without initiating themselves.

Potential Pitfalls

Positioning Dependent and Squishy

Seraphine has almost no way to escape a bad fight on her own, and her entire kit falls apart if she gets caught out of position. A single flanking dive can remove her from a fight before she gets to do anything.

Lobbies Haven't Learned the Matchup Yet

Part of her current win rate comes from opponents who default to standard marksman lane fundamentals against a champion that doesn't play like one. As more bot lane opponents learn to punish her lack of mobility directly, expect her numbers to come back down toward the pack.

Conclusions

Seraphine bot is a genuine God Tier threat right now, not a fringe pick propped up by a small sample size. She still asks a lot of her support pairing and her own positioning, but with the right partner she outperforms her far more popular support role by a wide margin.

Suggested Tier: God Tier (Bot)