Hi, my name is Fuzzmonkey. I've been a League of Legends player since pre-season 4. I've mained Mid lane since season 5 and Syndra has always been my second main. I peaked Diamond 1 at the highest in Season 10, but always hung around Mid Diamond since then. My goal at the moment is to hit Masters on EUW, and will be updating this guide regularly to show you guys that even you yourself can get to where you want to be in SoloQ with her.



I am currently Diamond 3 on EUW. I stream everyday on my Twitch channel where I teach my audience how to play LeBlanc and League in general. I also upload to my Youtube channel as well. Feel free to come over and ask me anything! I'd be glad to answer any questions!

Syndra is a long range mage who focuses on creating and controlling spheres to damage and displace her enemies. Once she's played to perfection, she can easily take out opponents without even taking damage. Her CC is fantastic for teamfights as it can easily turn the tide of games. Positioning is absolute key on Syndra since she is immobile and is prone to getting jumped on. Poor awareness and positioning will cost you.

Syndra was my first ever mid lane champion that I played. I would recommend her to anyone who is looking to play a high-burst, semi-high skill cap one shot machine.

PROS:

+ Long-range poke (great for laning phase)
+ Insane burst damage
+ Versatile
+ Fantastic waveclear
+ Great AOE CC
+ Fun to learn!

CONS:

- Bad positioning = very easily punished
- Skillshot reliant
- Squishy
- Semi-high skill cap
- Hard to carry with

Here you can find some short montages and highlights on my Youtube channel.

You can play Syndra passively or aggressively, mainly depending on what the mid/jungle synergy is. For example if you're playing against a Shyvana jungle and Cassiopeia midlane then you can pretty much play aggressive the whole time since Shyvana won't really be able to do anything pre-6. On the other hand, if you're against a Zed mid and Elise jungle, you'd want to try and poke as much as you can but not overextend since you'll most likely get caught. You should always take Flash. Syndra is extremely immobile and you'll need this as an escape route.



If you're target isn't all-inable because they counter you or they've got just as good of waveclear as you have, I'd highly recommend taking this. You can get a good push, back and quickly return to lane without getting behind on gold or xp. It's also great if you need to side lane during mid game and suddenly need to get to a teamfight. Again, this can be an alternative especially when the "aggressive" playstyle doesn't suit you in lane.



Another great option if you're really not down to play against Assassin's like LeBlanc, Zed, Talon. This will help prevent high-burst champions from 100-0'ing you instantly. It will give you a little chance to fight back and has a much lower cooldown than Heal.



Another great summoner spell to take after the above. As an immobile mid laner, you're prone to getting CC'ed a lot by junglers like Rammus, Elise and Sejuani. Even mid laners that have CC too. It also saves you from having to waste money on a Quicksilver Sash.

Below, you will find the runes that I particularly think are the best runes to run on Syndra. Towards the bottom of this section I have added an Alternative runes bit in case you want to try a different set of runes.

With any burst type of mage/assassin, Electrocute will be your bread and butter rune. With Electrocute you'll need to hit all of your pre-6 abilites in order for it to proc. At level 2 you will need to add an auto attack after hitting a successful Q + E combo for Electrocute to proc.

Since you're a long range mage this'll be a perfect rune to help you sustain in lane. Enemies will also struggle to trade with you if they have no gap closers, since you'll be able to out range them and heal yourself.

Again, you need all the power you can get early-mid game, so that you're a monster late game. Syndra is pretty decent at roaming since you can hard push waves. Try to roam as much as possible to maximize the potential of this rune.

Since Syndra has a point and click ult, you're going to want this ability to be off cooldown as much as possible, especially since it executes.

You're going to be poking your enemy a lot, which is going to use quite as bit of mana in lane especially if you're going to have to use mana on minions a few times. This rune will help you so much once you've poked your enemy a bit in lane since it gives you more maximum mana every time you damage an enemy champion. Poke as much as you can. Be careful you don't miss a lot otherwise this will leave you vulnerable.

Personally, I like to take Transcendence on Syndra due to the fact that, if you're not running Ultimate Hunter then you'll always have some backup ability haste for your abilities.

A common swap would be from Electrocute to First Strike. Now with the Inspiration tree, you'd then run > Magical Footwear > Minion Dematerializer > Cosmic Insight. This build is mainly on players who want to passively farm up the extra gold via. First Strike and dont want to play agressive to snowball. It is still better in my opinion to run Electrocute since burst mages/assassins snowball extremely well.

It's also quite common to run the Sorcery tree along side Inspiration. You'll benefit from Manaflow Band and Transcendence to help you a long your journey. One gives all the mana you need to continue poking throughout laning phase, and the other being an extremely OP CDR rune, which gives you incredibly low CD's on your basic abilities (after takedown) past level 11.

Below you can find Syndra's abilities. I will be explaining what they do, what order to max and how to effectively use them.


Dark Sphere is Syndra's main ability. Everything she uses is based around her sphere's, this will always be maxed first.

You want to max Force of Will second. Once this ability has evolved at 60 splinters you will then deal an extra 12%(2% per 100 AP) true damage which is a lot going into late game.

Unleashed Power is always maxed third. This is Syndra's bread and butter ability. Point and click massive damage. Once you get 100 splinters this ability will execute the enemy at 15% health.

Scatter the Weak will be maxed last. This is maxed later due to the fact that, it's level 1 has more than enough CC potential to carry you though till you hit the 80 splinters mark. Can also be used to initiate and defend yourself pretty well during laning phase.

Below, I will be showing you what items you can buy and will give a brief description about why the item can be good/situational/bad on Syndra

As with most mages/AP mid lane champs, Doran's Ring is the standard starting item as it gives AP, HP, and passive mana regen. Since you'll be trying to poke a lot, it's definitely recommended to take this over Corrupting Potion so you can get free mana back from hit the enemy champion. You will also take 2 Health Potion's to help you sustain HP in lane.

Core 1st back item for most AP laners. It gives AP, mana, +10% ability haste and even a mana regen passive on levelling up, all for an incredible 1300g. This will sustain you easily through the rest of your early laning phase.

This again is a very good item to get if you ever have a spare 150g on an early back. It refreshes every time you go back to base and it means you never have to buy Health Potion's again. I would not recommend buying this past the 12+ minute mark though. Don't be afraid to sell any leftover Health Potion's that are in your inventory just to buy this.

I can't urge you guys enough to buy one of these every time you back. Wards win games and save lives as they say. Whenever you go back and you have a spare 75g, buy one and just place it somewhere around your mid area. This WILL save your life multiple times throughout many games.

This gives you a nice mana boost in lane to help out with the poking and grants bonus mana when hitting enemies with abilities. I personally build this if I know the enemy team are tanky or are going to be a very high-health based comp. When eventually built and fully stacked into Seraph's Embrace it synergises extremely well with Liandry's Torment due to the fact that Liandry's Torment has no mana.

The core of all items. It gives a lot of AP, lots of mana and +20 ability haste. As for the passive, you passively gain charges (1 per 3 seconds) and they'll proc every time you use an ability. You can hold out until it's fully charged to deal maximum damage against your target, or use for more efficient waveclear. You gain charges passively, then after 18 seconds (fully charged) you use an ability to proc the passive and shots will splash to nearby targets.

These boots are a great early purchase since they have flat magic penetration. Mixing these with the flat magic pen stats from Stormsurge and Shadowflame, will give you more flat magic penetration for the early-mid game where most people don't buy magic resist. This allows you to do near true damage because of the how much magic resist you'll be penetrating.

The perfect go-to 2nd item, it helps AP burst mages with heading into mid game with a lot of extra damage. Massive amount of AP, 10 flat magic penetration which will pair up with your Sorcerer's Shoes to do a lot of early magic pen damage, % move speed to help with immobility, and a burst passive Stormraider + Squall. The passive itself is perfect for any burst mage. After dealing 35% of a champions max health, a bolt of lighting will strike the target (after 2 seconds) for an extra chunk of damage.

If you're against a bursty/tanky composition and decided to grab Tear of the Goddess during your 1st back, you should have hit max stacks by the time you've built Archangel's Staff. Again, this item is crucial on Syndra when paired with Liandry's Torment since Liandry's Torment doesn't have a mana stat. But as shown as a build option, this item can be built to prevent burst too.

You will benefit from this item mostly 3rd, if the majority of the enemy team are not too tanky and haven't built MR. Otherwise this will be better 4th after Void Staff and Rabadon's Deathcap. The reason being that all your damage is converted to crit damage and increases by 20% when the enemy is below 35% health. If the enemy have healthy champions + mage resist you won't be able to burst your target enough to benefit from this item fully. It's situational but TL:DR - Shadowflame 3rd item against squishy teams with no MR. Void Staff and Rabadon's Deathcap 2nd and 3rd and Shadowflame pontentially 4th against enemies with magic resist.

This will either be your 3rd or 4th item. It will depend on whether the enemy team builds early magic resist. The huge chunk of AP is definitely beneficial when paired with % magic penetration, but due to how strong Shadowflame's passive is, it gets outclassed. Only when the enemy have built magic resist early can this be a good viable 3rd item.

This should almost definitely be built the majority of games. +40% magic penetration is very strong and can easily be built when enemies have 70+ magic resist for it to be considered 'of value'. Most of the time, it will be built towards the later half of the game, but can be your 2nd item when enemies build MR extremely early.

As defensive as it gets to be honest. It doesn't have to just be built because the enemy team is full AD but it can really save your life too with only a 2 minute cooldown. It can negate things like Karthus's Requiem, Veigar's Primordial Burst and Fizz's Chum the Waters. I don't recommend building this early at all. If you are really struggling in lane against an AD mid laner like Zed, Talon etc. I would build Seeker's Armguard just to help you against their damage. Don't bother completing Zhonya's Hourglass until 2nd since you'll ruin your early powerspike. I would still say that purchasing this item even towards late game is still worth - it could save your life.

So this item negates healing to put it bluntly. Syndra is a burst mage. If the enemy team have 5 champions that all have some sort of healing, buy Oblivion Orb 2nd. Otherwise DO NOT buy this item. Champs for example would be, Soraka , Aatrox , Swain. Finish Morellonomicon last though if you do end up buying Oblivion Orb early.

This is a great item if you're afraid of being bursted down yourself i.e Fizz, Akali, LeBlanc or even Katarina. Banshee's Veil is well-known for it's spellshield passive which blocks a single ability which could potentially save your life if your opponent wasn't able to get their full combo off on you. It works great against CC champs like Sejuani, Elise, Zac, heck even Blitzcrank as it can stop one major ability which CC you to death. It also provides a nice 45 MR and 10 ability haste.

This is situational and would only purchase this item if, the enemy team were stacking hp and tankiness. This item is specifically only helpful if 3+ members of the enemy team are stacking health. A comp like, Kled, Zac, Ryze, Varus and Braum would probably be a time I'd purchase.

Another extremely situational item. Would only build if you really needed kiting potential. For instance if the enemy composition consisted of a Jayce, Nidalee, Cassiopeia, Lucian and Leona which is quite a heavy initiating comp, Rylai's Crystal Scepter would help kite these champs out.

Below you will find a short video of me breaking down Syndra's combo's and how to effectively use them.

Your playstyle on Syndra will change due to what matchup your against, and your skill level.
If you're against a good matchup, you should aim to constantly zone the enemy from farming. You have extremely long range, a low cooldown/mana Dark Sphere and you need to be stacking your passive Transcendent as fast as you can for big powerspikes.

Going in for quick trades like I mentioned in the combo video above ( Dark Sphere + Scatter the Weak ) and not taking damage in return will benefit you extremely in the long run, since Syndra has got her stacking passive Transcendent, which gives you a splinter every time you hit 2 abilities on an enemy champ. Make sure you wait for it to come off cooldown before your next initiation.

Your early game powerspikes with Syndra are: -

Your first 40 stacks of Transcendent by level 7 (8 definitely) if you've been doing decent in lane. This'll be your first powerspike, which gaurantees an easy all in if you hit all your abilities

Luden's Companion or Liandry's Torment will be your next spike around about the 10-13 minute mark. At this point you can FAST CLEAR waves. Q + W the melee wave, push the sphere back with your E to make it hit the range creeps and then finish them off with another quick Q.

Around the 12-15 minute mark you will most like hit your next powerspike being your evolved W from Transcendent.

Don't get too cocky since Scatter the Weak is your engage tool AND disengage tool. ALWAYS REMEMBER TO BUY A Control Ward WHEN YOU BACK. THIS IS EXTRA IMPORTANT AS AN IMMOBILE MAGE. Engage when you know there is no jungle nearby, and save it if you have not got a ward down and you are not sure where their jungler is.

If you're against a bad matchup i.e Fizz, Yasuo or even Ekko try to avoid pushing your lane into their turret. Reason being is, Fizz and Ekko for example have gap closers and can easily dodge your Scatter the Weak which again is your ONLY disengage tool. If this is on cooldown, you'd have to burn a Flash which isn't good since it can leave you prone to ganks. Your goal against these types of champions is to survive and then excel towards the mid/late game.

If you somehow do manage to get a kill, use this to your advantage by pushing with Dark Sphere's and Force of Will quickly, then roam. Remember, towards the late game, you outperform the majority of assassin's so play carefully.

The aim of the game with Syndra is to play with your team. Syndra is not a good split pusher and should never be in a lane by herself farming. It's ok to go to lanes to pick up big waves though. Syndra strengths are, getting picks, objective-control and sieging due to her Scatter the Weak being a powerful zoning tool.

You want to concentrate on getting vision when possible. That means, pushing waves as soon as possible so you can get some deep wards in the enemy jungle (whilst being with your jungler of course). Getting objective's like dragons and turret's are extremely important and again, zoning with your Scatter the Weak is extremely beneficial when doing these.

Your mid-late game powerspikes with Syndra are:-


Your evolved E from Transcendent should be around the 16-18 minute mark. This will now apply a slow after a successful hit, this should help with the Unleashed Power + Scatter the Weak combo in teamfights.


Around the 20 minute mark you should have your next Transcendent upgrade, which will be your most broken one, Unleashed Power. You now have an execute on this ability when the target hits 15% total hp or less whilst the balls are hitting their face.

Your next powerspike will be getting your 3rd item, Rabadon's Deathcap or Void Staff around the level 16 mark. Huge damage boost!

Your last major powerspike should be by the 25 minute mark. You gain an extra 15% AP
from 120 stacks of Transcendent.

Once you have hit one of the powerspikes above, use it to your advantage. Play aggressive, force objectives once you and your team have killed someone, and get vision wherever possible.

Late game teamfights are not the best for Syndra but they're not too bad either. Utilising your Dark Sphere + Unleashed Power + Scatter the Weak combo in a teamfight is a great way to stun multiple enemies and have your team mates finish them off. You can still try to one shot a carry with a full combo or, even down them to low health, which will then force them back to base and you'll be able to force objectives as a 5v4. Again, your main tool is Scatter the Weak so use it with caution. If you think someone will get onto one of your carries, use it to disengage. If you think you've got a good initiation comp, use it aggressively.

That just about sums it up for my Syndra guide. I hope you guys learnt something from this and I will definitely be adding to it very often to keep it up-to-date.
If you have any questions please feel free to post them here and I'll get back to them as soon as possible.

If you'd like to see my mid lane gameplay you can follow my Twitch channel. I stream everyday from 12pm GMT onwards! I answering pretty much any question in chat too!

I also have a Youtube channel which I upload to very often, don't forget to subscribe!

Updates to show you guys what I've added to the guide and when I did them:

22/05/2020 - Changed some errors within the guide that people have pointed out for me. Thanks guys :)

09/10/2020 - Added Yone to the match ups with detailed description. Updated Oblivion Orb details on when to buy. PLEASE CHECK THIS. Same with Morellonomicon Will be doing a full updated for when the new items come out :)

16/03/2021 - Full update to everything. I've revisited everything and taken everything which I've learnt in game and put it into this guide. I believe strongly that the core build on this guide is the best build for Syndra right now.

23/11/2021 - Update for the new season. Including the new item Shadowflame. Included new match up's Vex and Akshan.

02/09/2022 - Got a lot of questions regarding whether to build Seraph's Embrace or Shadowflame as 2nd item. This is situational since Shadowflame is flat magic penetration. Check out the latest info I've added in the item description for these 2 items. This should help you decide what you need to build when in game :D

05/10/2022 - I have changed a lot in the guide since Syndra received her mini-rework today. Changes include, her runes, her ability rundown, what items you should buy (mainly her 2nd item, since a lot of people have been asking whether it should be Shadowflame or Seraph's Embrace, how to play her laning phase differently cause of her new passive and overall grammer clean up. I will be updating this guide even more over the next couple of weeks ready for preseason. Enjoy, go spam this broken mage!

21/11/2022 - Added some more builds in transparency to the new preseason meta. Check out the Liandry's Torment and Seraph's Embrace build. Added more builds for when you're against certain match ups. Added the First Strike rune page for late game players. New way to play Syndra in both the early game chapter and mid-late game chapter. She's still really OP to play guys, trust!

07/12/2022 - Changing some of Syndras numbers since she got nerfed in 12.23 :(
Everything in this guide is still good for her now though!

10/01/2024 - Completely revamped the whole of the items section with new items and builds!

07/04/2024 - Added another item set (against burst champions)

20/04/2024 - Changed the build for when playing against tanky/hp comps. Shadowflame will not be as effective as a Rabadon's Deathcap since getting the enemy to 35% hp to benefit from the crit passive won't be as reliable.