Singed Build Guide by Anastasios

Introduction

Hello everyone, and welcome to my second guide on Mobafire. My first guide, Malignant Malzahar, had a decent score, so i decided to make another one.

In this one, as you guessed, we will be focusing on Singed. But not tank or tanky AP Singed; we will focus on pure AP Singed. You might think Singed is unable to go pure AP, but it is suprisingly successful, and i use it quite often. More on when and why pick AP Singed is discussed below.

-Intrigued?
-You're flinging, flanging right i am!

Good! So let's move on to the good part!

Singed, The Mad Chemist

Singed is a 1350 IP / 565 RP tanky AP fighter. He can deal heavy and continuous AoE damage with his poison, and can disrupt the enemy team with an amazing slow and his Fling.

Pros:

+ Totally sick skillset
+ Amazing AoE damage with Poison Trail
+ Very good disruptor with one of the best slows in the game and Fling
+ Huge stat boost from his ultimate, with a good duration as well
+ Quite durable even without pure defense items
+ Piece of cake to get assists
+ OP laugh

Cons:

- Not the juggernaut a tanky build makes him
- Needs to be in very close range
- Weak early game, until you hit level 6
- Tends to get CC'd a lot to prevent a Fling
- Expensive build

Summoner Spells

I find Ghost to be an absolute must for Singed. The speed boost is amazing paired with his ultimate, allowing him to escape or catch up to anyone.

A very good choice, used by most solo top champions; helps Singed get in the middle of the action to help his teammates from anywhere on the map.

Extremely useful for escapes through walls, also finds use in a surprise Flash+ Fling, leaving no time to react. A tricky combo, however, as you need quick fingers to pull it off. You can take it instead of Teleport.

If you want to troll more, pick this. Another heavy-hitting DoT will make people rage, but i take it only against champions like Vladimir, Swain, and Dr. Mundo.

Always a useful spell, it can shut down people and give you the upper hand. However, there are better alternatives, since you already have a slow, and this usually goes to AD carries.

A particularly useful spell on Singed, as he is often the target for hard CC. Paired with your ultimate and tenacity, CC is absolutely nothing to you.

This spell has seen a boost in Season 2, not my favorite on Singed, but if you like it i'm not going to stop you.

Any other summoner spell is pretty much useless on Singed.

Masteries

As you can see, i go 21/0/9.

In the Offensive Tree we pick:

• Summoner's Wrath for the improved Ghost.
• Mental Force (3 points) since this is the most useful for us, providing AP.
• Sorcery (4 points) for the CDR.
• Arcane Knowledge is a fantastic mastery. 10% magic penetration from this one.
• Havoc (3 points) for some extra damage. It is not as much as you'd think, but it's ok.
• Blast (4 points) for some more AP.
• Archmage (4 points) for an awsome 5% increase in AP!
• Executioner for a very nice damage increase to low-health targets, this is awsome for your poison, ensuring a kill even it the enemy runs away.

In the Utility Tree we pick:

• Summoner's Insight for the improved Flash/Teleport, if you happen to pick one of them.
• Expanded Mind (3 points) for the increased mana, also synergising with your passive.
• Improved Recall is a mastery i absolutely love. It has saved me countless times, when every fraction of a second counts. However, feel free to swap it with Good Hands or Runic Affinity , although you probably won't get jungle buffs often.
• Swiftness (4 points) is essential, since speed is very importand on Singed; also synergises well with your ultimate.

Singed is very versatile, and he can run a 9/21/0, a 9/0/21 (viable for AP Singed), and 0/21/9 and 0/9/21 (better on tank Singed, as you are missing damage).
The particular mastery setup described here is for maximised damage, but depending on your and the enemy team's composition, you can swap to defense or utility. However, i believe you MUST have 9 points in offense, for the improved Ghost and the Magic Penetration.

Runes

For runes, i pick:

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration for the increased magic penetration, since all of Singed's abilities deal Magic Damage. No alternatives here.

Greater Seal of Armor for the increased armor, helping a lot early game.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist for the increased Magic Resist.

Greater Quintessence of Health for the increased Health, since your early game is weak, especially without defense masteries.

This rune build aims at fixing your decreased defense, but is by no means binding. An AP-oriented runepage can also work, but i believe that you would sacrifice a lot of survivability.

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Alternative Runes:

• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist for increased early-game Magic Resist, if you are facing a hard AP like Kennen or Vladimir.
• Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed is probably the best alternative. Movement speed is core on Singed, and these quintessences work perfectly with him.
• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power for increased AP, a decent choice, but i prefer defensive runes.

Skill Explanation

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Increases Singed's health by .25 for each mana point he has.

A pretty straightforward passive, 25% of Singed's mana is turned into health. It has amazing synergy with Rod of Ages, and with this build it offers about 435 HP; not as much as other, tankier builds, but still a good amount. This is also good for helping us with situational items (see below).

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Toggle: Singed lays a poisonous trail which lasts for 3.25 seconds and deals 22 / 34 / 46 / 58 / 70 (+30% of ability power) magic damage per second to enemies for 3 seconds.
Range:20

Your signature move and what everyone hates about you. An AoE, DoT togglable spell with minimal mana cost (just 13 mana/second). It has a 30% AP ratio, which is not bad at all, considering that late-game our AP will be about 600. We will see some math about the damage later on.

We max this skill first, since it is our main source of damage.
Leave this on at all times during teamfights and when being chased!
-Tip: If you enter a brush, your poison will become invisible to the enemies, just like Nunu's Absolute Zero.
-Tip: When low on mana, you can release the poison in small puffs instead of a constant trail, having the same effect, but with much less mana cost.
-Note: Singed's Poison Trail is most likely Iodine. Iodine is an element that is solid in normal state, but it sublimates into a purple-ish gas. Therefore, Singed can keep large amounts of solid Iodine, slowly allowing the fumes to escape, forming the characteristic trail. Also, he probably uses the radioactive isotope Iodine-131, that is highly carcinogenic in small quantities and in high quantities destroys tissue over time (all because of radioactive beta decay).

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Singed throws a vial of mega adhesive on the ground causing all enemies who touch it to be slowed by 35 / 45 / 55 / 65 / 75% for as long as they are in the adhesive and for 1 second once they are out of it.
Range:1000

One of the best CC in the game, this slow is uncleansable, unlike Nasus' Wither or Karthus' Wall of Pain. You can use this skill to cut off escape routes for fleeing enemies, or stop them from chasing you or an ally.With a very good range and area of effect, it has unlimited potential.

We max this skill last.

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Singed flings an enemy over his shoulder, dealing 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 / 300 (+100% of ability power) magic damage.
Range:125

This is an amazing ability, that shines even more with an AP build. It has an 100% AP ratio, which makes it a very mean nuke, and is also invaluable as a disruption ability. A well-placed Fling of an enemy inside your team means almost always certain death, unless if they have some sort of blink or dash ( Deceive, Shadow Dash, Riftwalk).

You have to be carful when using this abilty, since you can cause damage to your team if yoy fling someone towards a wounded ally, or out of range in a safe escape route. You must also be careful of who not to fling:

• Tryndamere: You just doomed your team. Endless Rage!!!
• Wukong: His ultimate can disable your entire team, giving the enemies time to tear you apart.
• Garen: Usually very tanky, and his Judgment deals considerable AoE damage.
• Amumu: If you fling him in your team, consider the teamfight lost.
• Galio: Same as Amumu, he will destroy your entire team, and you will have helped him.
• Alistar: A whole bunch of CC to f**k up your positioning, and 75% damage reduction. Not a smart choice.

Fling also has huge potential in teamfights as it cancels channeled abilities. This means you can save it, and use it on the right moment to peel people off your carries, or stop those nasty AoE ultimates:

• Nunu's Absolute Zero
• Malzahar's Nether Grasp
• Warwick's Infinite Duress
• Fiddlesticks' Crowstorm, both while channeling to cancel it and after it to throw him away of your team. Works against Drain too.
• Katarina's Death Lotus
• Karthus' Requiem, as well as to throw him out and deny damage from Defile

We max this skill second, for the increased damage.

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Singed drinks a potent brew of chemicals, granting him 10 / 15 / 20% crowd control reduction and 35 / 50 / 65 ability power, armor, magic resistance, movement speed, health regeneration per 5, and mana regeneration per 5 for 25 seconds.

Amazing ultimate, absolutely amazing. Once you hit level 6, the insanity begins. You can use this skill for sustain in lane, since it has a relatively low cooldown; always use it in teamfights, since it gives superb defensive stats and offensive boosts. Insanity Potion + Ghost will allow you to catch up to anyone, and give them a good beating.

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What should i max first, Mega Adhesive or Fling?

As AP Singed, your goal is to deal huge amounts of damage. While Mega Adhesive can unarguably help you when chasing someone, more points in Flingare generally better. While laning, when you engage the enemy, usually both are commited to the fight. In such a case, the much higher damage from Fling can help you win more easily, plus helps more with teammates who have hard CC ( Fiddlesticks, Taric, Malphite, etc).
Of course, if you prefer the increased utility from the harder slow, or have junglers with no CC ( Master Yi, Shyvanna, etc), feel free to rank up Mega Adhesive first.

When and where can you play AP Singed?

This is a very important question. You cannot just call dibs on top lane Singed regardless of your team.

You can play Singed in 4 roles:
1) Solo top: The most common lane for Singed.
2) Jungle: Jungler Singed is a rising star, but we will not cover him in this guide. If you want to jungle as Singed, i recommend Dyrus Inspired Jungle Singed by Xenasis.
3) Bot: Singed can fuction as an unorthodox support with his Fling and slow, but he needs completely different itemization than this one, and therefore will not be covered. However, i might write another guide for him.
4) Mid: Singed can go mid, but only against specific opponents.


This means that we will only talk about top and mid lane.

Top:
To play top as AP Singed, you will need:

• Only 1 AP champion, in mid lane
• Tanky jungler to balance your lack of defense ( Olaf, Rammus, Shyvana, Malphite)
• Not an AP-heavy support ( Taric or Leona, but not Lux or Blitzcrank)

This means that there is a balance between magic and physical damage in your team, and the enemies won't just stack MRes to counter you.

Mid::
You can only play in mid against specific opponents. Your lack of range restricts you to close-range champions such as Fizz, Akali, Katarina, and Sion, all of them being very easy opponents for Singed (from personal experience at least).

If you go mid, prefer a physical offtank for top lane and a mage in jungle (e.g. Olaf + Fiddlsticks), or vice versa (e.g. Rumble + Riven).

Starting items

A very good choice for a starting item, giving you a serious amount of mana, plus 50 HP from your passive. Helps you get that early Catalyst the Protector as well. Get 2 Health Potions with this.

A good starting item, gives you extra mobility, helping a lot against enemies with a lot of skillshots. Get 2 Health Potions and 1 Mana Potion or 3 Health Potions.

Some HP, armor, and HP regen. A solid, tanky starting item, but it doesn't upgrade to anything.

Get this only if you are facing a heavy AD champion like Gangplank, along with 5 Health Potions, or a Mana Potion as well if you are not good at managing your mana.

Core Items

You will find this in most Singed builds, and for a reason. It gives you a good chunk of AP and HP, plus it gives you the most mana (except a stacked Tear of the Goddess). Overall, it has amazing synergy with Singed.

This will boost your AP sky-high. However, it does not give you any defensive stats, so you must take it later in the game.

Viable Items

This one gives you a big amount of HP, some AP, and a very good passive. It will allow you to escape much easier, as you leave a highly damaging and 15% slowing trail behind you. It will also allow you to stick to targets trying to escape.

Another fantastic item, gives you Magic Resist, some more AP, and an aura that helps you and your team immensely, especially since your 2 damaging abilities are point blank range.

A very good item, gives you some armor, a good amount of AP, and a fantastic active. As AP Singed, you will be sometimes focused in order to prvent getting in close range for a Fling and poison, and this item can help you get out of the focus. Overall, synergises nicely with the concept of AP Singed.

A very good defensive item, you can take it if the enemy casters are giving you a hard time. Swap Rylai's Crystal Scepter or Zhonya's Hourglass for this, depending on your preferences.

A huge boost to your armor and mana, and some CDR for a more spammy ultimate. Take this when you are facing a hard AD team instead of Abyssal Scepter.

Gives you a good bit of all-around defense, and its signature passive gives you a second chance. Swap this when you find yourself dying a lot against mixed teams. Swap it with Rylai's Crystal Scepter, Abyssal Scepter or Zhonya's Hourglass, depending on the situation.

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I haven't seen this a lot on Singed, and personally i don't use it, but i have heard it works miracles. You can take it early, and ignore Rylai's later on.

This will give you a HUGE amount of HP, and since you are an amazing farmer, it should be easy to charge it up. Swap it with whatever you find less useful at the moment (Rylai's, Abyssal, Zhonya's)

A fantastic item, gives the most magic resist in the game, plus insane health regeneration, and some movement speed. It's drwback is that it doesn't offer any offensive stats. That being said, you can take it instead of Abyssal Scepter or Banshee's Veil in the defensive build described below.

Depending on your enemies, pick the most suitable. Boots of Swiftness are not an optimal choice imo, but you can always go for them if you like them.

Items that i do NOT recommend:

This might seem a good choice, and is actually reccomended by some other guide writers, but i don't think it is one. It will take a huge amount of time to charge up, and if you take it early it will cripple you, since you will lack defense.

It offers no defensive stats, and we have more than enough magic penetration from Sorc shoes, Abyssal, and runes.

Even though you will have a lot of AP, and this item does give some mana, magic resist, and movement speed, i feel like the passive will go to waste. You shouldn't waste your time with autoattacks, and toggling Poison Trail won't proc the effect.

Full Builds

Build #1:: Full AP build

This is against a balanced team, without enough damage to threaten you. You will deal massive damage to everyone, but you will be tanky enough to discourage them from focusing you.

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Build #2:Defensive builds

The first build is against an AP-heavy team.
The second build is against an AD-heavy team.

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Build #3: Heavy defense

This build is when you get your *** kicked pretty hard. Not as much AP, but a ton of HP and good resistances. You also have GA and ZH to save you from tight situations.

Early Game Phase

Pick your starting items, depending on your opponent, get a point in Poison Trail and head to your lane. The reason that you don't pick Fling is that in a level 1 fight, almost everyone can beat you. After you fling them, you have no more damage. And not many players will get close enough for you to fling them in your turret. Start farming carefully. Don't rely on your poison just yet; last hit with autoattacks.

You are now level 2. Get your first point in Fling. Try to get a gank from your jungler, if he has potent early game ganks ( Shaco, Lee Sin). Otherwise, keep playing carefully. If you are winning your lane, you can try to push back your opponent, but be careful for the enemy jungler.

When you have farmed enough, go back and get a Catalyst the Protector, and boots if you can. Once you get catalyst, you have a significant advantage. You can now afford to trade damage, since you can heal up from the passive; but don't overdo it. You should have also bought at least one ward.

You are now level 6. Insanity Potion will allow you to out-sustain almost anyone (bleh, except Vladimir), and you can get very aggressive. This is probably when you will start to get kills. If you get ganked, evaluate the situation properly and you might get a double kill.

Don't forgget to call MIA/ss!

Mid Game Phase

The top lane is usually isolated, far from the teamfights and key objectives. Luckily, Teleport allows you to quickly and efficiently get in the action to save your teammates and turn the tides of a teamfight in your favor.

Try to push your lane with Poison Trail, and then wander off looking for ganks. Maybe even invade the enemy jungle, you can steal some buffs and walk away.

The fist teamfights will be starting, so try to be there for your allies. You are probably one of the tankiest in this phase of the game, assuming you have at least your Rod of Ages, so you are the initiator, unless if you have someone better ( Ashe, Rammus). Fling the carry in your team, slow the enemies with Mega Adhesive, poison everyone, and generally f**k up their positioning. Use Fling to get the melees away from your carries, and in the aftermath, chase the survivors with Ghost + Insanity Potion.

Ward Dragon and Baron! You can even use Vision Wards to deny enemy map awareness.

Keep farming a lot, it is very easy for you; you don't have to autoattack, Poison Trail will do the job for you.

Late Game Phase

As the game drags on, the respawn timers get longer. You have to be very careful, since a mistake can cost you the game. Don't roam alone, stick with your team; you might be tanky, but you can't handle 5 enemies at once.

At teamfights, Fling the main damage dealers, it will take out a big chunk of health with your AP, and leave them oppen for your team. Poison all the enemies, and save your carries. Try to save them even if it meant your death. Your poison will do your job for a while after you are dead, and your team will thank you for allowing them to win the teamfight.

Keep farming and pushing, do objectives like Baron Nashor and Dragon. Keep their respawn times (7 and 6 minutes respectively), and ward the map.

Math

We will now do some math to see the damage dealt from Poison Trail and Fling. All information about magic resist and magic penetration were taken from the League of Legends Wiki
The damage is calculated assuming we use the Full AP Build shown in the "Full Builds" Section.

Our AP at level 18: 662,85.
Our MPen at level 18: 10 from Abyssal Scepter + 28,55 + 10%

Poison Trail:

Unmitigated damage: ~268,8 / second

Damage at 30 MRes: ~206,8

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0 MRes with MPen: ~268,8

Damage at 50 MRes: ~179,2

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10,31 MRes with MPen: ~243,7

Damage at 100 MRes: ~134,4

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55,31 MRes with MPen: ~173

Damage at 150 MRes: ~107,5

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99,31 MRes with MPen: ~134,8

You can see that even against heavy tanks (150 MRes), we deal some pretty heavy damage. And this is all without taking into account the 65 extra AP from your ultimate, or any auras like Will of the Ancients and Dread, or spells like Spell Flux and Starcall.
You can also see that if carries do not buy any magic resistance, they will take true damage.

Fling:

Unmitigated damage: ~962,8

Damage at 30 MRes: ~740,6

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0 MRes with MPen: ~962,8

Damage at 50 MRes: ~642,8

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10,31 MRes with MPen: ~872,3

Damage at 100 MRes: ~481,4

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55,31 MRes with MPen: ~619,1

Damage at 150 MRes: ~385,1

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99,31 MRes with MPen: ~483,1

Fling shouldn't be used on tanks, unless if they are at low health and trying to escape; you can see that against carries with low MRes it deals a huge amount of damage.

Lane Matchups

Nasus This is heavy in Singed's favor. Nasus needs to be in close range too, so you can harass him a lot and deny his much-needed farm. Try to avoid getting hit by his Siphoning Strike, and run around a lot to make it harder to aim his Spirit Fire. He has decent sustain from his passive, and you shouldn't underestimate his ultimate. DO NOT LET HIM FARM as late game he will wreck your entire team.

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Rumble This is a pretty even matchup, Rumble has his Flamespitter that allows for good harass and farming. Play aggressively, but carefully. He has no sustain until his Hextech Revolver, and even then he just can't heal enough. He has no mana, but the passive can work towards your favor.

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Mordekaiser He can be dangerous. He has a powerful ranged harass, and his shield is so frustrating it just makes you break your keyboard. However, his abilities cost health; early on, this can help you. Let his health drop a bit, let him push (he is a really hard pusher), wait for his shield to go down, and take him down in one burst. With the help of your jungler he shouldn't be that hard. Be more careful when he gets some spell vamp and his ultimate; if he uses it on you, just back off, unless if you know 100% you can take him.

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Lee Sin Woah, back off. This guy is such a hard counter it's not even funny. A shield with lifesteal to recover from your poison, a huge slow and a powerful knockback to stop your fling, a gap closer, his mobility is just insane. He can just harass you all day long and recover easily. He uses energy too, and his passive just keeps him full at all times. If you see a Lee Sin, pick something else. If you have already gotten Singed, stick behind minion to block his Resonating Strike, and ask for help. Play defensively, bait a towerdive near a level up to survive from Catalyst the Protector's passive while getting a kill with Fling and Mega Adhesive.

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Olaf Another really hard matchup. Olaf scales very good with levels, at he gets the most dangerous at level 9, when he maxes his Reckless Swing. Get Rylai's right after RoA, and Zhonya's right after. He has very good sustain with Vicious Strikes, and it is very importand to note that his ultimate ignores your slow AND the fling from, well, Fling.

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Tryndamere You don't see him often in top lane, and for a reason. His early game is just pathetic. You can just run around poisoning and flinging him all over the place like a ragdoll. Late game, he has considerable damage, but you can very easily deny him a chance to kill your carry.

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Gangplank Ugh. Such a frustrating champion. You can start with a Cloth Armor and 5 pots, get your catalyst, and Chain Vest right after. However, he will be frustrated by you too, since he cant eat oranges to get out of the slow. Warn your team when he hits lvl 6, and watch out for ganks, since he has a lot of slows and a speed-up. Force him to spend a lot of mana to recall often.

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Cho'Gath Nasty laner. Very good sustain from Carnivore, and some good CC. He can easily stop you from flinging him. Get a Negatron Cloak after RoA if he is getting some ap, and rylai's right after to save you from his Feast. Tenacity works good against his silence, especially if he gets a Rylai's Crystal Scepter too.

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Garen Kite. Kite all day long. His early-game damage is huge, so don't get too agressive. He has infinite sustain from his passive, but if he gets low, he must hang back and miss out lasthits. As the game progresses, you will get stronger and stronger, while his effectiveness starts to fall off. Late game, all he does is silence, be a meatshield for skillshots, and ks with Demacian Justice.

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Warwick So much sustain. So much ******* sustain. You will need your Catalyst the Protector ASAP, and a Negatron Cloak right after, since most of his damage (passive, q, ultimate) is magical. Getting a Hextech Revolver early on might also be a good idea.

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Yorick A rare pick. Watch out for his little ghouls, their damage is not that small early on. He has good sustain with Omen of Famine, but he runs out of mana so easily. Once he gets to level 6, it can be a bit hard to 1v1 him, but if you manage to kill him, don't stick around to face the clone.

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Dr. Mundo Easy. Stay behind minions, avoid his Infected Cleaver, farm. Go for the Abyssal Scepter after RoA and win the lane for free. Leave him when he uses his ultimate, unless if you have Ignite.

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Irelia She got a nerf in her heal recently, but it didn't hurt her that much. Her CC reduction won't help her with Mega Adhesive, but she has a good gap closer to make up for it. Her ultimate also has minimal cooldown, so you might want to buy a Hextech Revolver here as well, to stay in lane parallely with her.

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Jax He is still quite strong after his rework. His stun is now much more reliable, but his dodge doesn't affect you. Unfortunately, he does take less damage from AoE abilities from his Counter Strike. You must get magic resist early, otherwise he will deal huge amounts of damage to you. Like Tryndamere however, he is more likely to be found in the jungle.

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Akali Singed is pretty good against Akali, he is tanky enough to withstand a beating and can poison her while in the Twilight Shroud. Get Abyssal before Zhonya's here as well, and you should be fine. With some ganks, she should be easy to kill.

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Shen After his buffs, he is almost unstoppable. He can be built both as an AP/tank hybrid and an offtank bruiser, so build accordingly. He has very good sustain with Vorpal Blade and the energy return fom Ki Strike. You will need some hard CC to gank him, since he has a dash and a shield.If you see him cast his ultimate, go and fling him. The shield will be applied to his teammate, but he won't teleport; this might save your allies.

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Conclusion

This is the end of my Singed guide. I hope you enjoyed it.

If you find any mistakes (typos, item-related, skill-related), leave a comment and i will fix it as soon as i can.

Check out my other guide, Malignant Malzahar!

Many thanks to:
jhoijhoi, for her guide on how to write a guide!
IceCreamy, for his guide on how to use columns!
All of you who read this guide!