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Recommended Items
Runes: Safe/Your team stacked DMG
1
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Inspiration
Domination
+8 Ability Haste
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor
Spells:
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Standard 95%
Flash
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Caitlyn
A cait that knows to trap a stunned enemy will make you love this lane.
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Caitlyn
A cait that knows to trap a stunned enemy will make you love this lane.
Champion Build Guide
Who am I?
You don't care.
Build Everfrost if your team has enough damage and needs pick facilitation or utility/peel, build Luden's Tempest if you are sole AP or if you team needs more AP damage, then focus on completing items with Luden's for pen passive or choosing antiheal/CDR/hourglass with everfrost.
HOLD your ****ing E until the opportune moment, if you miss it (especially after these cooldown nerfs) your usefulness drops HARD. You can solo win any even 2v2 if you use this ability correctly, use your midwit brain cells.
TL;DR
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Build Everfrost if your team has enough damage and needs pick facilitation or utility/peel, build Luden's Tempest if you are sole AP or if you team needs more AP damage, then focus on completing items with Luden's for pen passive or choosing antiheal/CDR/hourglass with everfrost.
HOLD your ****ing E until the opportune moment, if you miss it (especially after these cooldown nerfs) your usefulness drops HARD. You can solo win any even 2v2 if you use this ability correctly, use your midwit brain cells.
Why are you picking Syndra support in my ranked games?
+ Insane pick potential + Most consistent, very long range stun on a mage + E displacement is amazing peel + High damage and amazing at 2v2's + Late game your team gets another carry + Versatile kit molds to your team composition |
- Falls behind hard - Target for flame if team is losing - Missing stun is horrible - Low range for combo - Poor positioning and mechanics are punished hard |
Syndra has some unique strengths in her kit that benefit her more in a 2v2 lane as opposed to a 1v1 lane. These advantages mainly manifest in her E, Scatter the Weak. While other supports like Bard, Lux, Morgana, Xerath etc. have restrictions on their main CC tool (namely unit penetration and missile speed) Syndra has a very fast AOE stun that can hit as many units as are in the way of her fat balls.
This ability is not only skill-expressive and fun to use, but extremely powerful and can be the strongest pick tool available to a support in many situations. Thanks to her ult, this stun can also be near guaranteed to hit multiple people. Her kit isn't extremely versatile when her main job is to one-hit people, but as a support the jobs of engage/peel/poke can be readily filled by her kit better than other champions traditionally slotted for the support role.
Hover Xerath before locking in Syndra, it works for some reason.
THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS GUIDE
THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTS OF SYNDRA SUPPORT WILL BE IN PURPLE FOR SKIMMERS
IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE
1. HIT THE STUN
2. DON'T DIE
3. ITEMIZE CORRECTLY
4. DON'T AUTOPILOT Q-E
5. STACKS MATTER A LOT, DONT LAG BEHIND IN XP
The BEST way you can help your team as a Syndra support is to hit your stuns while NOT dying for fights. On many supports it can be easy to fall into a cycle of dying over and over for engages, while convincing yourself it's fine because you're the support anyway. "Worth, Worth, Worth," over and over again. On Syndra, these deaths do matter. If you fall behind you will become unable to zone/engage for your team due to being a non-threat and as a result become less useful than other supports in your situation.
NEVER SAY WORTH, IT'S NOT.
The enemy must always be wary of 1. Getting stunned and 2. Getting >=50% of their health deleted. If either of these elements are not present your usefullness starts to drop. Your job is NOT to try and catch their ADC alone and 100-0 them, your job (in an even, fair game) is to SUPPORT your team by delivering safe and cozy kills spoon fed to them while getting fat off the Mejai's Soulstealer assist stacks. If you die for the engage all you have accomplished is starting a coin flip fight you have zero control over. Syndra support falls behind hard and your value increases a LOT when you start stacking that Mejai's. These 2 facts mean that avoiding death is a TOP priority for a Syndra support. Any engage you die for better be well worth your death by a wide margin. Basically any suicide engage where you don't get >=50% of your Mejai's stacks back after dying is not worth, barring any 1000g shutdowns or barons or whatever.
IF AHEAD, YOUR TOP PRIORITY IS TO NEVER DIE. DO NOT COIN FLIP FIGHTS WHEN AHEAD.
Hitting Scatter the Weak is of extreme importance on this pick. You will decide every fight in botlane and every skirmish in the river depending on how you use this ability. Because it is so important, it should be held until you have complete information of the situation (make sure you don't piss away your stun on an adc a screen away up river when there's a Leona behind that wall) and until you can use it to at least 2/4 of it's maximum value (4/4 would be stun 2 people, push 2 people). Ideally you would both stun and push both opposing laners with your Q-E, but this is not feasable to set up in every fight. Often you will use your Scatter the Weak to stun one target and push the other or interrupt an important ability. Think of a Leona walking up to use Zenith Blade on you and a Samira following short behind. You can use Scatter the Weak to completely dictate this situation and destroy thir engage. Scatter the Weak by itself will cancel out Zenith Blade (you must time it to where she is mid dash AFTER hitting the ability) and push her to the tip of your E cone, and you can use your Dark Sphere stun to stop the Samira advancing on you and allowing your ADC to either engage onto her or to kite back and attack the Leona. This is the kind of situation you should plan out before the fight happens, so you know what abilities you need to counter and when Scatter the Weak will get the most value.
IDENTIFY WHAT YOUR E WILL BE USED FOR IN THE MATCHUP. DO NOT WASTE SUCH A POWERFUL ABILITY ON A SINGLE TARGET 1.25 SECOND STUN IN EVERY FIGHT.
Your priority for itemization should be hitting your Mythic spike as fast as possible. We take some gold focused runes to help facilitate this like First Strike, Treasure Hunter, Magical Footwear and Future's Market. You can pick and choose all or some of these runes depending on our preference. Syndra wants early Mythic to stomp 2v2's and river skirmishes, this is an important win con you should try and play towards. Below is a little chart to help your thought process.
In terms of item/rune synergy it goes
1. Luden's/First Strike = Everfrost/Glacial
2. Luden's/Glacial = Everfrost/First Strike
Luden's/Glacial is still very good! Identify what keystone you should take based upon your personal playstyle and what goals you need to achieve for your team. Everfrost/First Strike is a powerful hybrid supportive build with burst damage, gold income and CC.
RULE OF THUMB: BUILD Everfrost/ Glacial Augment WHEN YOUR TEAM NEEDS LOTS OF LOCKDOWN/SETUP, BUILD Luden's Tempest/ First Strike IF YOUR TEAM COMP LOSES TEAMFIGHTS, YOU ARE SOLE AP, OR YOUR TEAM LACKS DAMAGE.
IF YOU ARE SOLE AP, ALWAYS BUILD Luden's Tempest/ Mejai's Soulstealer, AND YOU CAN CHOOSE KEYSTONE BASED ON TEAM COMPOSITION.
IF GOING Everfrost/ Glacial Augment, YOU CAN ELECT TO SKIP Mejai's Soulstealer AS LONG AS YOUR TEAM HAS ENOUGH DAMAGE, THOUGH YOU WILL NOT BE A THREAT.
Runes
TL;DR
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First Strike - DOUBLE NERFED AS OF 13.21 WHILE GLACIAL STAYED UNCHANGED.This rune just gels with Syndra's kit, and if you take it will be a good source of midgame income and can help you shave a minute off your Mythic. This rune is very valuable for a support as gold is comparatively rare, and Syndra can use it well. Unload your combo on someone midgame and get a free 150g for your troubles. Items are the ultimate form of scaling, and this rune should be taken if you scaling into midgame is a genuine win condition for your team. DON'T take this if your damage will not be a win condition for your team. If you have champs like a Diana jungle, Riven top and Viktor mid your job is NOT to deal damage. You must recognize that this team needs an actual support champion who prioritizes her teammates over herself. If you have champs like a Lee Sin jungle, Darius top and a Lissandra mid you really SHOULD take first strike and go Luden's as your damage could be the deciding factor in a fight. KNOW WHEN YOUR DAMAGE IS NEEDED OR IRRELEVANT. |
Electrocute - Evil lane rune you take when you need to stomp the enemy lane. First Strike gives you gentler scaling runes and some gold for mid game, but if your team's win condition will be snowballing before their kassadin kayle vayne can do anything this is the keystone you should go. Electrocute and ignite with cheap shot will make you far more deadly in lane, helping you snowball the game away. When you take this rune you say this game is in my hands, so go Luden's Tempest into full burst penetration build. |
Perfect Timing - This rune is pretty much even with Magical Footwear if you are a great Zhonyas user. You need to make sure that having 1 early stopwatch will out value faster mythic and 10 perma movespeed. Take into swingy games where one dive botlane level 5 determines how the whole game will go. Also can be very helpful in the kind of lanes where you feel like you need boots asap, maybe into Pyke/ Blitzcrank/ Nautilus as the same characteristics that make you want boots also increase the value of having an early hourglass. |
Cosmic Insight - This is the only really useful one in the third slot besides ?maybe? approach velocity (not really), but this will give you far more value in the average game. Makes trading flashes that much more worth it, puts ignite on a very short CD and synergizes with Ionian boots if you build them. Also puts Everfrost on a slightly lower CD, but you would need to play 100 games for this to matter once. |
Cheap Shot - Don't take secondary. Free damage in lane. Procs on E and W. Helps you win lane through burst damage. Surprisingly strong. |
Taste of Blood - Don't take secondary. This rune can help in lanes where you need to snowball but there will be unavoidable damage, perhaps a Senna support where you need a little help against her attrition. |
Ghost Poro - Fun fact, this has been one of the highest winrate runes in the game for a long time. Skewed farther into the early game, this rune is amazing for even lanes botside. The ghost poro often doubles the value of your early wards, and midgame can help you maintain a wide spread of vision across the map. The AP stacks much faster than Zombie Ward, and 30 AP is absolutely nothing to sneeze at midgame, especially on a support's item spread. Blueside having a Control Ward in tri bush and a Ghost Poro ward in the river is insane vision value, basically making your lane unapproachable to junglers who can't jump over walls into bushes.In VERY high elo Zombie Ward is probably better because of the relentless vision war between the supports, but you probably aren't in masters lets be honest. Automatic danger ping is also handy for when you are tunnelvisioned on a close fight and don't notice a Jarvan walking down river to turn the 2v2. |
Treasure Hunter - This rune allows you to get that early Mythic and can help snowball the game out of control. Again, gold income is very limited on support so anything to increase your GPM can help you win more games. Only take if sole AP and you'll be building Rabadon's Deathcap that game. |
Relentless Hunter - A strong choice for any support, also one of the highest winrate runes in the game, this rune will never let you down in its utility. Out of combat movementspeed is one of the best stats in the game for a support, as your job involves long stretches of running around the entire map helping your team and securing vision. As Syndra is a low base movespeed champion as well, this rune can really help her get across the map and get stuck into those early/midgame 2v2's that will help decide the game. VERY good with Magical Footwear, as the out of combat movespeed helps make up for the fact you cant buy boots early like most supports would. A double kill botlane grants you 21 movespeed out of combat, 4 short of t1 boots. Gives you 96g worth of stats every kill, meaning you get similar gold value to [treasure hunter]] in theory, though Treasure Hunter allows you to put that gold towards a deathcap, and not boots. |
Normal Shards - 8 CDR is far more important to a support Syndra than 9 AP. Obviously change defensive shard if you're against some AP botlane or something. Depending on your build CDR can actually be pretty scarce, just remember to try and use your Q on cd as much as possible in fights to get value from this rune early.Taking double adaptive force used to be more viable when Dark Sphere was on a 4 second CD and you cold use it to bully hard early, but now Syndra loves CDR a lot more than she used to. |
Scaling/Mixed Shards - Fun fact, HP runes match in gold value at level 5, then get better from there on. Take if you know the lane will be insanely boring. Also remember to only take into even phys/magic comps. Increasing your max health by a certain % is only comparable to armor/mr if your team has low healing and your champ doesn't heal or have high hp regen, as armor/mr makes every individual point of HP more valuable, so healing 100 hp is worth 10% more into physical damage if you have 10 more armor. This is why taking defensive runes and Conditioning on Sona is so powerful by the way. |
Items
Your itemization will decide what role you play for your team and will be decided by your team compositions and win conditions. You should know when you need to be a pick and CC support with secondary damage, or be a more typical Syndra with kill pressure on squishy enemies.
Mythic
Luden's - This is Syndra's best flat damage mythic. If you are sole AP you can abuse this item as well as its Mythic passive. It is also an amazing poking tool, and if you identify that role will be filled by you for your team then it is worth considering. Remember that Everfrost deals equivalent damage in a single all-in combo, so consider Luden's when you'll be able to freely poke the enemy to maximize its potential and not pick it when champions like Thresh, Blitzcrank, Amumu, and other engage champions can easily punish you for mispositioning. Support item counts as a Legendary item for Mythic, so you can quickly build Ludens > Mejais > Sorc shoes using the gold boosting runes like Treasure Hunter, Magical Footwear and Future's Market to stack Luden's passive and get a ton of flat penetration, making you a nasty midgame damage threat. |
Boots & Mejai's
Sorcerer's Shoes - Take in 90% of games. Best in slot if teamfights end in less than 8 seconds, as you won't be able to get a second E off regardless. Great into squishy teams and if you are sole AP. Insane early damage spike if you manage to get them, either by not taking Magical Footwear or by getting kill-accelerated into having early boots despite the rune. |
Legendary Options
You get ONE (1) Legendary item choice alongside Mejai's and Wardstone.
Wardstone - Wardstone should only ever be purchased after Mejai's Soulstealer, your mythic item and boots. You then have a choice of getting wardstone (usually if behind or vision will end up being just that important in your game) or starting to build your legendary item. Wardstone by itself is gold efficient for the stats, but the upgrade is only efficient if you have a good amount of Mejai's Soulstealer stacks. . |
Cosmic Drive - If you are a good Syndra, this item will make you untouchable. Take into heavy skillshot teams or extended fights, you will be unstoppable with the CDR and movespeed. Build after Luden's Tempest if you aren't already snowballing Mejai's Soulstealer stacks. |
Rabadon's Deathcap - Horrible build path for a support, expensive as all hell, but sometimes it's exactly what the doctor ordered. If you need one last spike to win the game, this item is it. Take if you're carrying the game, as it will be a huge shift in your power level. Never purchase while behind, unless you suck up a huge enemy shutdown, in which case you definitely SHOULD build it. The simple fact is that Syndra ****ing LOVES AP. |
Imperial Mandate - I haven't been able to play with this item a whole lot, since I took a break since patch 3.10 when it was changed to a legendary item, but it seems perfectly usable on a Glacial Augment build. The cheap cost at 2300g makes it viable for a support to build, and it synergizes well with Luden's Tempest mythic passive, but remember that as a full item it carries 5 less ap than a 1250g Needlessly Large Rod. As a champion with good AP ratios and a kit centered onburst damage, be wary of building this soft item when you're carrying. Appropriate to build after your mythic if you're going a very supportive build or are very behind. The ability haste is very very nice too. |
Zhonya's Hourglass - This item is best built if you have some Mejai's stacks or if it thematically answers the enemy's win condition. Can give you some needed safety on the Luden's build. If you are in danger of getting dove it is usually a good option as many times without it you will end up as the sole casualty of a teamfight. Plus perfect timing is a fun rune. This has singlehandedly won me games against champions like Zed and Nocturne when I was the biggest threat on our team. |
Shadowflame - PLEASE NEVER BUILD THIS OVER COSMIC. THIS ITEM IS DESIGNED FOR MIDLANERS, NOT A SUPPORT'S THIRD ITEM. IT IS GOOD ON SYNDRA MID, HORRIBLE ON SUPPORT. |
Warding Spots
Ghost Poro spots, these can get a lot of value from the ward and then the poro spawned after the ward dies. The Ghost Poro can cover the river if you place it right, though be careful since if you misplace it the enemy jungle can skirt around the edge and bypass your vision. In general good ward spots will be good Ghost Poro spots, though it is worth adjusting your ward position to account for the poro. For example, instead of placing a ward on scuttle spot in river, placing it closer to your lane as pictured above will mean your ghost poro can cover the river for TWICE as long.
Note: Ghost Poro DOES work through bushes, aleritng if an enemy is inside, but DOES NOT give you permanent vision inside the bush. This doesn't matter since if it gave vision it would be used up anyway once a champion entered the range, so it literally only means Control Wards aren't countered by the rune.
Some useful but more complex wards that are used in the bottom side of the map. The dragon ward into the red buff bush across the wall is easy, the gromp/bluebuff ward is actually pretty precise (VERY easy to get only blue OR gromp in vision), the over-the-wall into redside tribush is difficult to learn but consistent when learned, and the tree ward into blueside tribush is dead ****ing easy, wood division could get it. These spots are again enhanced by Ghost Poro's utility, except for blueside tribush which is often pinked/swept/poro might not cover all paths.
Note: Ghost Poro DOES work through bushes, aleritng if an enemy is inside, but DOES NOT give you permanent vision inside the bush. This doesn't matter since if it gave vision it would be used up anyway once a champion entered the range, so it literally only means Control Wards aren't countered by the rune.
Some useful but more complex wards that are used in the bottom side of the map. The dragon ward into the red buff bush across the wall is easy, the gromp/bluebuff ward is actually pretty precise (VERY easy to get only blue OR gromp in vision), the over-the-wall into redside tribush is difficult to learn but consistent when learned, and the tree ward into blueside tribush is dead ****ing easy, wood division could get it. These spots are again enhanced by Ghost Poro's utility, except for blueside tribush which is often pinked/swept/poro might not cover all paths.
Ability Tips
P - Transcendent - Farming passive stacks will allow you to gain powerful ability upgredes for midgame skirmishes. Seeing as you can't farm cannon minions, you should try and make use of the fact that you have double the amount of champions to farm splinters from in the bot lane. As long as you get your Q upgrade at level 7 you are doing fine in passive stacks, things beyond this are luxury snowballing advantages for Syndra support. You should be aware that
Scatter the Weak gains a slow after 80 stacks, increasing your pick and peel potential further. But in general, passive stacks will come to you through time and hitting Q-W's in the bot lane. The more the better obviously, but do not fall into the trap of using Q-E over and over to farm them in lane as you will be punished for greeding that CD for a passive stack. FARM THESE IN LANE UNTIL 40, THEN PLAY NORMALLY.
Q - Dark Sphere - Bread and butter baby. Massively updraded at ~level 7 when you get two of them. Hit Q's to win games, but before 7 be careful as the CD is decently long and if you don't have Glacial your E will be useless for 7 seconds whenever you use it. If you cycle your abilities on cooldown you will be hitting Q-E, waiting 7 seconds, Q, then in 7 seconds your QE is back. You are vulnerable when Q-E is down so make sure you don't overextend for Q poke in a way that will get you killed without the Q-E stun.
W - Force Of Will - This ability used to be a ball repositioner and chip damage, but now it is a great damage skill usable to apply slows to gurantee Q-E. The damage and range is insane, and when you hit 60 splinters you'll be able to damage people you catch out with Q-E from a very long range. Old Syndra players must get used to actually using this ability, lmao.
Also you definitely CANNOT steal scuttle crab and wedge it into the midlane towers, making it untouchable by the enemy jungle. You definitely CANNOT put bottom crab behind redside tower, top crab bekind blueside tower, and all crabs into redbuff pit where it will run into the wall for 30 seconds straight.
E - Scatter The Weak - This ability is your main ability on Syndra support. The proper usage of this ability will decide whether you hard carry or feed so hard you get reported. You used to max it first when the CD scaled down, but now it's a one point wonder. One thing about this ability is that you will SOLO LOSE ANY FIGHT BY ****ING IT UP! In case you didn't hear me, YOU WILL SOLO LOSE ANY FIGHT FOR ****ING IT UP. But you can also solo win any fight by not ****ing it up. HOLD it as long as you possibly can, wait for the perfect moment and you'll win 2v2's like crazy.
Early game beware of hitting max range E's if your jungle isn't ganking that very second. Since you no longer max E the damage is low, the cooldown is long, the stun is kinda short and without Glacial they can just re-engage or walk away when it's over. You max Q, so hitting max range E's before level 7 is you starting a fight with your MAIN ABILITY DOWN. If you want to start a 2v2 you actually intend on winning, either hit a quick Q-E or simply hold your E for the oppurtune moment and fight using your Q and W instead.
Midgame is when hitting Syndra Q's is the hardest as you are likely in a 2v2 or 3v3 scenario and 1. Your opponents will be trying very hard to flash/dodge/CC immune it and 2. Missing it will likely get you jumped by >=2 people and get you killed, probably losing the skirmish. I cannot stress enough to you that skirmishes are quite literally always in your hands, and the way you press E on your keyboard in these fights will decide your winrate.
Lategame hitting E's either gets harder or easier, depending on your team. If you aren't the primary engage for your team then hitting E's gets way easier, as you can use it to either follow up on or disengage from certain priority targets that likely have too much happening ontheir screen to reliably dodge it. But if you are stuck with the burden of starting a fight, you almost never want to do it in a straight 5v5 midlane ARAM scenario. Waiting for pick oppurtunities will likely be your best chance if your team's primary engage is a Syndra support, kind of a comp difference at that point. You are amazing at finding picks and !disrupting! fights, you are far less competent at starting fights and 1v1ing late game carries withing your Q range.
R - Unleashed Power - This ability is usually the one-shot star of Syndra's kit but largely takes a backseat in normal support gameplay. Early game it is used to secure kills just like normal, although used early to reduce KSing. Late game this ability will be basically split in half depending on the situation. In deathball fights it will probably be more useful for its utility than its damage, essentially acting as a way to get a guaranteed stun on 1 target + a stun field that can rock a whole frontline and reach to their backline, setting them up to get engaged on, combo'd, or simply to get stunned for your team to escape. With her rework though it can be an applicable short-term Elder dragon buff against a single enemy, which can be very powerful against some low-health superstars that usually operate on the knife's edge. Ult the person diving your team when they get low and watch them get dumpstered. Obviously if you're picking off someone in the jungle or something your R is used for damage, especially if you have 100 splinters achieved. Just don't tunnelvision on using that 15% execute every time, especially the later the game goes on. 15% hp is less than a late game ADC autoattack on most targets, so only use it for damage in 1v1's or if that Irelia MUST DIE RIGHT NOW GOD OR WE LOSE.
Q - Dark Sphere - Bread and butter baby. Massively updraded at ~level 7 when you get two of them. Hit Q's to win games, but before 7 be careful as the CD is decently long and if you don't have Glacial your E will be useless for 7 seconds whenever you use it. If you cycle your abilities on cooldown you will be hitting Q-E, waiting 7 seconds, Q, then in 7 seconds your QE is back. You are vulnerable when Q-E is down so make sure you don't overextend for Q poke in a way that will get you killed without the Q-E stun.
W - Force Of Will - This ability used to be a ball repositioner and chip damage, but now it is a great damage skill usable to apply slows to gurantee Q-E. The damage and range is insane, and when you hit 60 splinters you'll be able to damage people you catch out with Q-E from a very long range. Old Syndra players must get used to actually using this ability, lmao.
Also you definitely CANNOT steal scuttle crab and wedge it into the midlane towers, making it untouchable by the enemy jungle. You definitely CANNOT put bottom crab behind redside tower, top crab bekind blueside tower, and all crabs into redbuff pit where it will run into the wall for 30 seconds straight.
E - Scatter The Weak - This ability is your main ability on Syndra support. The proper usage of this ability will decide whether you hard carry or feed so hard you get reported. You used to max it first when the CD scaled down, but now it's a one point wonder. One thing about this ability is that you will SOLO LOSE ANY FIGHT BY ****ING IT UP! In case you didn't hear me, YOU WILL SOLO LOSE ANY FIGHT FOR ****ING IT UP. But you can also solo win any fight by not ****ing it up. HOLD it as long as you possibly can, wait for the perfect moment and you'll win 2v2's like crazy.
Early game beware of hitting max range E's if your jungle isn't ganking that very second. Since you no longer max E the damage is low, the cooldown is long, the stun is kinda short and without Glacial they can just re-engage or walk away when it's over. You max Q, so hitting max range E's before level 7 is you starting a fight with your MAIN ABILITY DOWN. If you want to start a 2v2 you actually intend on winning, either hit a quick Q-E or simply hold your E for the oppurtune moment and fight using your Q and W instead.
Midgame is when hitting Syndra Q's is the hardest as you are likely in a 2v2 or 3v3 scenario and 1. Your opponents will be trying very hard to flash/dodge/CC immune it and 2. Missing it will likely get you jumped by >=2 people and get you killed, probably losing the skirmish. I cannot stress enough to you that skirmishes are quite literally always in your hands, and the way you press E on your keyboard in these fights will decide your winrate.
Lategame hitting E's either gets harder or easier, depending on your team. If you aren't the primary engage for your team then hitting E's gets way easier, as you can use it to either follow up on or disengage from certain priority targets that likely have too much happening ontheir screen to reliably dodge it. But if you are stuck with the burden of starting a fight, you almost never want to do it in a straight 5v5 midlane ARAM scenario. Waiting for pick oppurtunities will likely be your best chance if your team's primary engage is a Syndra support, kind of a comp difference at that point. You are amazing at finding picks and !disrupting! fights, you are far less competent at starting fights and 1v1ing late game carries withing your Q range.
R - Unleashed Power - This ability is usually the one-shot star of Syndra's kit but largely takes a backseat in normal support gameplay. Early game it is used to secure kills just like normal, although used early to reduce KSing. Late game this ability will be basically split in half depending on the situation. In deathball fights it will probably be more useful for its utility than its damage, essentially acting as a way to get a guaranteed stun on 1 target + a stun field that can rock a whole frontline and reach to their backline, setting them up to get engaged on, combo'd, or simply to get stunned for your team to escape. With her rework though it can be an applicable short-term Elder dragon buff against a single enemy, which can be very powerful against some low-health superstars that usually operate on the knife's edge. Ult the person diving your team when they get low and watch them get dumpstered. Obviously if you're picking off someone in the jungle or something your R is used for damage, especially if you have 100 splinters achieved. Just don't tunnelvision on using that 15% execute every time, especially the later the game goes on. 15% hp is less than a late game ADC autoattack on most targets, so only use it for damage in 1v1's or if that Irelia MUST DIE RIGHT NOW GOD OR WE LOSE.
Game Stage Tips
Early
Playing Syndra support in lane involves using Dark Sphere to poke the enemy whenever possible and saving Scatter the Weak for whatever situation you have determined you need it for in this lane matchup. Force of Will into Dark Sphere is used for proccing Splinters from safety, Q-E can be used for Splinter farming in lanes where they can't immediately kill you for whiffing E. Force of Will is used to hit slows into guranteed stun or to hit a double stun with E, a feat that will get you minimum 2 honors after the game. Beware of having Q and W down at the same time as it leaves you without a stun, only the knockback which without Glacial Augment is often not enough of a disengage to survive. The laning phase will be defined by staying alive, poking the enemy, hitting opportunity stuns for burst and using Unleashed Power to win 2v2's past level 6.
EARLY GAME GOAL: FARM ENOUGH PASSIVE STACKS TO GET Q UPGRADE AT LEVEL 7.
Midgame
During the Midgame you will mostly look to create pick oppurtunities around the map for your team to create advantages and help your ADC power farm safely. A safe rule of thumb is to leave your ADC with at least a Control Ward and 1 (maybe 2) Stealth Wards for your ADC to make sure they don't get dove while you roam. You'll mostly play the midgame by ear, roaming around and making plays to accelerate you and your team. Ganking lanes is powerful but if you miss E you could just get turned on and killed, so know who can jump on you after the E stun and play accordingly. Hold the stun as long as you possibly can. Don't forget you can gank your own lane.
MIDGAME GOAL: STACK HUNTER RUNES AND ABUSE YOUR SKIRMISH POTENTIAL AROUND THE MAP.
Lategame
Lategame will be when you stop roaming to random skirmishes and instead set up full on teamfights around baron/dragon. Your kit is extremely adept at making picks using the vision control awarded to you in the support role, which can translate into objectives and unfair teamfights. The best use of your R before 100 Splinters will sometimes be on a frontliner to create a ball minefield that you can then use to make a huge stun and win the fight 70% of the time. Decide whether your win condition in the fight will be stunning the whole enemy team in an engage (usually when ahead) or using your kit to kite out a fed enemy diving your ADC (usually when behind). Peeling usually becomes better the farther the game goes along, especially with an Everfrost build! Your team has carries that aren't you! You are in the same role as a Soraka or a Braum and you should identify BEFOREHAND whether your team needs another mage or if it needs a peel support.
Before a teamfight you should assess the game state and the items/players in the match and give yourself an easily achievable goal in a teamfight. For example:
I must use my R on Akali as soon as she dives in so so I can stun her and we blow her up before she kills Vayne.
I must use Scatter the Weak on Lee Sin and not Sett to start the fight, then focus on dealing damage to their Tristana.
I must lurk around the jungle and find a pick onto their Elise so we can force baron with smite advantage.
LATEGAME GOAL: USE VISION TO FIND PICKS AND SECURE OBJECTIVES, ACCOMPLISH YOUR TEAMFIGHTING GOALS.
Bronzegame
Everyone is full items, baron has been taken 3 times already, congragulations on unlocking Super Late Game Syndra and becoming a huge damage threat and carry. You can kill squishies with ease and actually can see a tank's hp bar move when you hit them. Have fun when these games come around, but you're still best off as a secondary damage dealer and primary support, as by this time your ADC is likely nuclear in their damage numbers so yor full combo will still only be maybe 3-4 autos depending on the champ. You can solo win a game by hiding in a bush using a Support's vision control abilities and blowing up a carry. At this stage your best bet will likely be to use your R for a teamwide stun because your team mates should have more than enough damage to win beyond that point. Ideally someone dives on your team, you use R as an Elder Dragon debuff leaving balls everywhere, then you stun the whole enemy team rushing in to follow that diver's engage and you turn around and demolish them all. Real games will likely involve making compromises on the ideal case, and you'll have to decide whether damage or stuns are more important for the upcoming fight.
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