Singed Build Guide by Xenasis

Introduction

Dyrus has been playing jungle Singed a lot recently, and has an 80% win ratio in ranked if I remember correctly. After testing Singed out a bit myself, he has inspired me to play him. He truly is a hidden gem that's only just being discovered.

Since I'm not the biggest Dyrus fan in the world, I started jungling as Singed out of sheer curiosity into how Dyrus got it to work, which turned into me realising how good Singed actually is when he's placed into the jungle. I was more than pleasantly surprised.

He's a very potent jungler, actually. Easy to snowball and snowballs HARD. If you don't snowball then they can hardly chase you around the jungle all day long.

Hard ganks, fast speeds, and all around good jungler. I was surprised myself, but honestly, give it a whirl!

Here's an example of a recent (recent when I was writing this guide, though nothing has changed to change his viability since then) tournament hosted by CLG, where Dyrus played jungle Singed. Surely that proves his viability!

Woah, Hold Your Horses, Why Would You EVER Jungle as Singed?

Calm down there, viewer. There's a lot of very valid reasoning behind it. It isn't just like throwing Cassiopeia into the jungle when she's fine anywhere else.

No, the reasoning behind this is actually surprisingly simple. The only reason people question jungle Singed is because, well, he sucked in the old jungle. The new jungle, however, proves the "When one door closes, another opens" mantra, and Singed is very potent in it. His sustain issues are fixed, and the fact he's AoE really, really shines in the new jungle.

Some relevant facts about Singed you probably already know -

• Singed snowballs extremely hard.
• Singed is shut down very very easily in lane due to the fact he has no ranged damaging abilities - he HAS to commit to an attack.
• Singed is REALLY dependent on farm. He is easily shut down in lane, however, and getting that can be a problem.
• Chasing Singed is pants on head ******ed.
• Has an extremely strong ganking kit that is otherwise unused. He has THE strongest slow in the game ( Nasus's Wither isn't AoE!), that you can't even cleanse out of.

So how are those points relevant? I'll go through them, in the same order, addressing why this means he should jungle.

• Junglers gank. Getting off one or two good ganks or kills on the enemy jungler means you'll dominate for the rest of the game.
• You can't be harassed in your jungle.
• Can't be shut down since he isn't in a lane. He can freely farm. His item dependency is no problem in the new jungle.
• This one is harder to spot. If you're being counter jungled by an enemy, well, you can't be. The jungle has unlimited room and you can run around all day long. It's extremely hard to counter jungle a Singed. If a Singed is seen in your jungle you can't really chase him out, either.
• Quite obvious. If he ganks, he utilises his kit far more than he does laning!

What's Different About Jungle Singed to 'Conventional' Junglers?

You might have stumbled upon this guide thinking "Ah, jungle Singed is well and good, but do I really want to play a champion that might be abhorrently different to every other jungler I'm used to?", as jungle Singed doesn't exactly seem like the most standard pick.

Well, in all honesty, not much is different. It's not like you're running around the jungle unable to take any minions without dying, it's not like you're constantly out of mana (though he does have high mana dependency, I'd compare his need for blue buff to Skarner's, though it isn't essential, it's very helpful), and it's not like he can't kill creeps fast enough and has to gank permanently to keep up.

Singed, I'd imagine, will be seen as a standard jungle pick not long from now. By the time you're reading this he might already be so. I think the only thing that's really unique about him in the way he plays is the fact that he has to aim Mega Adhesive behind/in front of people then time Fling properly (though he shares that with Volibear nowadays).

Honestly, don't expect anything less than a 'normal' jungler when you're rolling with Singed, I was pleasantly surprised, as I hope you will be, too!

Jungle Route (With Screenshots!)

As a quick note, you should never ever stick to a set in stone root as a jungler. You should be looking for ganks all the time. If this is your exact route in all of your games then you're doing something wrong.

Start at Wolves. You can kill these before blue buff spawns. Get some extra damage from team mates if you can, it always helps!

Get to blue buff after that, you'll get there at about the same time as it spawns. Get a leash here if you can. Pulls really help.

Go over to wraiths now and make sure you take down the big one first. Fling it!
IMPORTANT -
As a quick note, if you want early ganks, I'd HIGHLY recommend moving to red buff at this point rather than killing wraiths, then proceeding to gank immediately whilst double buffed. You don't necessarily need to get your Mega Adhesive here, because of the fact red buff has a slow and of course, Fling moves them backwards, and I myself don't, but if you're ganking bottom, it might be a good choice. You can continue your jungle after that where ever you are nearest to, not necessarily on this same route.

Go back to wolves, and make sure to kill the big one first.


This is the sort of time you start looking for ganks, if one's ripe, take your Mega Adhesive and show that lane who's boss! If not, take your Q and continue your jungle by taking red buff.

Continue to wraiths now, taking down the big one first, naturally.

Lastly, kill the golems. If you get here then laning likely hasn't been very eventful. Kill the big one first.

Finally, go back to base. Pick up your boots (you might even be able to straight out buy Ninja Tabi) and return to the jungle. Look for ganks. Red buffed Singed ganks are extremely potent.

How To Jungle Effectively As Singed

Well, I think the most important thing to point out is the fact that you don't need to keep your Poison Trail on all the time. The fact of the matter is, you can tick it on and off and have the same effect.

As for Flinging jungle creeps - I wouldn't really recommend it due to the high mana cost. If you are going to Fling creeps, make sure you only ever fling buff monsters. Anything less isn't worth it, in all honesty.

As Singed, you honestly counter jungle and defend from counter jungling as you would with anybody else. If you get into any trouble for either one, throw down a Mega Adhesive and turn on Poison Trail, they'll die if they chase you, so you're sorted. Hopefully, if a team mate comes over to help, you can turn around and Fling them, too!

Other than this, Singed is a really normal jungler. He goes a standard route, ganks at standard times/levels, has stronger ganks with Insanity Potion, and everything else you'd expect for a jungler. He jungles well without any items, which is worth noting, and you don't necessarily NEED any items to keep up with jungling as him (because of Poison Trail), and as such, counter building, if the situation demands it, should be favoured!

Team Fights - Your Job

As Singed, you have a general priority system as to what to do in team fights. You honestly do with most people but Singed has a lot of stuff to consider. You'll pick this up as you go along, but assuming you're a beginner at Singed, tanks in general, or would like to refresh your knowledge, then this section is for you.

Going from high to low priority of things to consider -

1. Has the team fight actually started yet?
2. Are you low on health relative to the enemy team? (E.G. if you're on 20% and they're all running away with 10%, you're fine)
3. Is an enemy carry/high priority target alive?
4. Are there lots of enemies grouped up?
5. Is your carry/high priority target in danger?

So, now you know what to consider in a concise "priority", what should you do in each situation?

1. If the answer is no, then you'll be one of the ones to start it. Of course, if you have an Ashe or someone with similar expertise, you should leave the initial initiation with them, and after that, charge in with Insanity Potion and Ghost on and Mega Adhesive the important carries. If you don't have someone to start it, do it yourself! If the answer is yes, move on!
2. Well, this situation is easy. Run away! Make sure you have Poison Trail on and that you put Mega Adhesive between the enemies that are chasing you and you. If you put it on them, they'll only get half of it, if it's on you, they can avoid it far easier, and there's a larger time frame for them to reconsider chasing you.
3. If the answer is yes, run straight at them, slap a Mega Adhesive near/on them, and Fling them right into your team. Carries are made of soggy wet paper so they won't last long if you get a good Fling. Worst case scenario will be you pop a Flash, but even so just keep Flinging them and running at/around them until they're dead. Far too often you see Singed players Fling champions like Amumu into their team because it's the first champion they see.
4. Now the important target is dead, you should be looking to stop and CC large groups of enemies. Mega Adhesive the most logical position near the group. If they're running away, put it behind them, if they're running forward, put it in front of them, for example! The reason this is above protecting the carry is because doing this indirectly protects the carry and more!
5. This is relatively simple too. If they're in danger, Fling the attackers, put Mega Adhesive near/on/around them, and try and distract them and stop them hurting/disrupting your carry by any means necessary!

If none of these apply, basically run around poisoning everything with Poison Trail, Flinging escaping enemies and putting Mega Adhesive near random enemies. Seriously. Likelihood is they will apply, though!

Runes

I listed a lot of alternative runes in the rune section of the build. The only two runes that are "locked in", per se, would be your Greater Mark of Magic Penetrations, and your Greater Seal of Armors.

Question -
"Well having choice is well and good, but as a new player, I don't know what to pick! What would you pick, Xenasis?"

Answer -
I'd run with these runes myself -

would be picked for their general all-round benefits for Singed. Faster jungle, better late game presence, the works. There isn't any good alternative, in my opinion.

would be picked because to put it bluntly, you're jungling and need armour. These scale well into late game on Singed because he's generally a tank/off tank sort of champion, and as such, will want to be taking the hits for the squishy champions.

now these are really questionable in a lot of people's eyes. Seemingly, I've looked at Empowered Bulwark thought "LOL MORE HEALTH" and chosen those. Though Singed's synergy with mana is definitely a perk, the reasoning itself is a little more in depth. The fact that Singed has very high mana costs for jungling is worrying. Blue buff gives you mana based on your max mana, making the use of these runes threefold. For one, they give you more mana even if you don't have blue. For two, they give you more MP5 with blue. For three, they give you free health. What's not to like?

are taken because everything about Singed LOVES movement speed, especially in percentages. He escapes/chases faster, giving more damage on Poison Trail, they scale with the flat movement speed on Insanity Potion, and he has no gap closer so more speed is always good!


A few 'alternative' or 'second best' sets, in my opinion, would be -
Though in all honesty, if the rune is in the build at the top, then it's viable, in my opinion!

Masteries

I went with a standard 9/21/0. They look like this -

The points are, honestly, in very, very standard places. I doubt you'll have any qualms or queries regarding where they are placed. These masteries capitalise on transitional jungling, and tend to be the best for a late game Singed.

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However, if you want to capitalize on your jungling rather than a transitional mastery set, then a set of masteries that looks like this is equally as viable -


Both are as viable as each other in complete honesty. It's all down to preference and play style. If you want to be slightly better at the jungling aspect, go with 10/11/9, if you want to be slightly better at the team fight/late game aspect, go with 9/21/0.

Skill Sequence

Going left to right in priority, my skill order is -

This is pretty simple when you break it down.

is taken top priority because, well, it's an ultimate and the best skill you can get.

is taken second because this is pretty much your ONLY source of REAL continuous damage. Sure if you get Fling you have a big burst, but what then? This helps you a LOT in and out of the jungle, and levelling it up doesn't even increase mana costs!

is the only real controversial skill to be taken where it's taken. Traditionally, it's taken last. This is no traditional Singed, however. Traditional solo top Singed doesn't gank, and wants a big burst as they are the only damage that the enemy laner will take without a gank. As jungle Singed, you have a laner to help you deal damage as you gank, and wow, have you seen how much this skill slows by when it levels up? A 75% slow you can't Cleanse out of whilst you're taking damage from two sources is godly for a jungler. As such, you'll want to get this as soon as possible, without delaying your damage. It's only natural you get it second.

is taken last because of the reasons stated above. It's cooldown stays the same at every rank so the only reason you'd level it up is for damage, which as I've said, isn't nearly as needed as a solo top Singed.


The only possible change you might want is taking Mega Adhesive at level 3 for an early gank. This is purely situational though, and if a situation you need to doesn't arise, take it at 4, and don't take it early just for the fun of it.

Summoner Spells

The two summoner spells I've chosen for Singed aren't really that debatable, unfortunately. I'll briefly go through why here -

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What You SHOULD Get -

Smite is a summoner spell that is practically required for junglers. If you don't have this spell, you will be destroyed both in the jungle, and later on, too, since you cannot secure Dragon, Baron, your buffs, jungle slower, etc, among other reasons. Do yourself a favour and take it!

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Singed is all about running really really fast. This improves that! If Singed's Poison Trail and Insanity Potion didn't have such great synergy with percentage based movement speed - Flash would be taken here.

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What You CAN Get -

If your team doesn't have an Exhaust, this can be a very good way of shutting down those pesky AD carries.

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Shuts down healers, and can help towards those early kills a great deal. Ghost is far more recommended, naturally, but if you're against Swain, Dr. Mundo, Soraka or someone like that, you might want to consider picking it up.

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Since Flash is such a good summoner spell, it's viable on everyone. I feel that Ghost is far more potent on Singed because of the fact that he has so much synergy with movement speed, though.

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What You SHOULDN'T Get -

Clarity is a bad summoner spell to put it bluntly. You have blue buff early, and it REALLY falls off late game. He's not even that mana dependent anyway.

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You aren't laning! This skill is generally only good for laners for lane ganks or returning back to lane, you're ganking easily without this. You don't NEED this to gank from top like top laners do.

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This skill really isn't very good on Singed. All he gets out of it is the AP, and you'd be better having Ghost and doing more damage (and being more effective in general) because you're more mobile! Usually this skill is only good on champions that benefit from both sides of the skill, too, like Jax.

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This is for the supports, let them take this! You're far too good with Ghost to consider taking Clairvoyance!

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Insanity Potion and Juggernaut both give you tenacity. If you want any more get Mercury's Treads. You really aren't that bothered about being CC'd all that much because your poison still works when stunned!

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This spell is only ever good in a lane as a surprise burst of health. Since you never run onto a lane and duel people (or shouldn't) as a jungler, Singed doesn't make much use of it when jungling. You'd far rather run up to them and kill them before you need to Heal, right?

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You won't be dying often enough for this to be useful. Singed is already really really bulky, especially combined with Insanity Potion. I wouldn't recommend this at all!

Items

The items I get, why I get them, and alternatives -

I start the game off with a Cloth Armour and 5 Health Potions. Simply put, these are both to compensate for Singed's lack of sustainability in the jungle. You can remedy this later on by purchasing a Philosopher Stone, Hextech Revolver, or both!

Next we want some boots. 350g for quite a bit of speed is always good. There's no real questioning that. After that I'll be getting a Hextech Revolver for sustainability in the jungle. Being able to kill stuff and get health back rather than losing it is great. You can also nip into unmanned lanes, poison creeps, and run away with more health!

As a note - Heart of Gold and Philosopher's Stone are incredibly strong items on Singed. If you're not falling behind or snowballing and want more late game power, these items can be great. If you want to belay your Hextech Revolver (since it isn't everyone's cup of tea), a Philosopher Stone might work too. Gold per 5 items are naturally strong on anyone with a great late game, something Singed possesses.

I take Ninja Tabi because Singed already has CC reduction from Insanity Potion (and in this case, Juggernaut too), doesn't really need to not be CC'd to do damage due to the nature of Poison Trail. If you really feel like the team is heavy CC and you need CC reduction, or they are just generally low on AD damage, by all means, get Mercury's Treads. You do get a lessened tenacity effect if you already have CC reduction, however, and Singed does.


I took a Will of the Ancients after this to give AP casters a bit more potency. This also helps us out a bit, too. You can actually go for a Hextech Gunblade if you're feeling particularly jealous or evil, or if your team lacks AP for some reason, though in 95% of circumstances, Will of the Ancients is preferred.

Rod of Ages comes next. This item has so much synergy with Singed it isn't even funny. He gets sustainability, something he otherwise wouldn't have, from the Catalyst the Protector part, he gets a big damage boost from the AP it gives, and a LOT of bulk, from the health AND mana. Empowered Bulwark makes Rod of Ages especially good on Singed. 725 mana turns into a lot of health.


After this, we're going to start needing resistances. The items I've put there are only good for a standard, normal team in a standard, normal game. Naturally, if their team is full of AD carries who happen to get fed, you can belay the MR and get a Thornmail or something of the like instead. We have our health sorted for now. At the moment we're low on MR, so naturally, we take a Negatron Cloak and turn it into a Force of Nature. Force of Nature is THE item for taking repeated hits of magic, and the movement speed has a good synergy with Singed. It gives us a lot of magic resistance, something we lacked before this.


After this is it truly purely situational. You might want to get your Rylai's Crystal Sceptre now if they are heavy on melee or lack serious AD damage, or your Frozen Heart or Randuin's Omen now which gives either a great team fight presence ( Randuin's Omen) which has an amazing slow on it to stop AD carries in their tracks, or a large amount of armour and a permanent attack speed debuff for their AD carry ( Frozen Heart). For an armour item, I'd take Frozen Heart for one AD carry or few sources of AD damage, or Randuin's Omen for a tankier, more spread out source of damage, for the AoE slow. Which ever item you do pick, I'd recommend the other one after it (either an armour item or Rylai's Crystal Sceptre), unless it's a special circumstance (such as their AD carry doing particularly bad). Tanky items are always built on a situational basis. I can't tell you a build and you build it every match, but I can give you one that's valid in any normal game of LoL without special circumstances.

Farming

Later on in the game, Singed can help out in team fights and when pushing lanes. If nothing seems to be happening, you simply run onto a lane that's unmanned, press Q, run about a bit, and get back into position.

What this does is gives Singed a super high cs (creep score), a lot of money to spend, pushes lanes, and makes sure that the enemy team is pressured into keeping check of their lanes, too. If they win a team fight, they might not be able to take Baron or push your turret because their turrets are being pushed by minions, and if you win, you can push two lanes at once!

It only takes Singed a few seconds to run onto a lane with Poison Trail on late game to push a lane. This can cause enemy players to be forced to the lane you just pushed. This can turn team fights into a 5v4, or in a worst case scenario, a 4v4 with you as a backup to clear up enemies afterwards.

Remember not to farm lanes with Poison Trail whilst it's still the laning phase and/or your team is still in it, though! That can really damage that laner's overall performance by damaging their gold income and XP income. You might have just given the enemy laner an advantage, and we don't want that!

General Tips and Tricks

• Remember, you don't need to keep your Poison Trail on all the time in the jungle and doing so will waste mana. You get the same effect by turning it on and off to renew the poison every so often!
• Keybind your laugh to the best key you can get it. Mouse bind it if possible. It's Singed's version of Puncturing Taunt. It's also very amusing!
• If people are moving, place Mega Adhesive just in front of them to make the most out of the ability and skill in general. It's far more potent there than right where they stand if they're on the move.
• Mega Adhesive can be used to block off certain ways of escape for the enemy, especially when it comes to fights in the jungle, there are a lot of small little path ways you can go down. By blocking somewhere off, you can force them to walk into the brunt of your damage!
• Never ever Fling tanks in team fights until the other members of their team are dead. You'll just get your team mates killed by doing that and waste your cooldown!
• Keep Poison Trail on when being chased, turning it off when it's not in use. It's very potent to damage people that are chasing you, and the golden rule is always don't chase Singed for this reason. It's mana intensive though, it really adds up. Remembering it has a very small period to turn it on and off, turn it off whenever it isn't in use.
• Singed isn't just there to do damage. Take one for the team and disrupt enemies when the situation calls for it and your AD carry is in danger! Your Mega Adhesive and Fling alone are more than enough to stop anybody dead in their tracks.
• Singed snowballs very very hard. With a few early kills, you might want to capitalise on your early lead, and after a few kills, Singed can take most people on in their own jungle. With an early lead, counter jungle and gank all day long. When ahead, get more ahead.
• It is in fact possible to Fling people over walls if you're close enough. You either have to be wary of Flinging them too far, or can Fling people far away from your escaping team mates if you can get a good enough angle. Use this to your advantage in whatever way you can!
• Fling can interrupt channels or very important spells. To name a few - Katarina's Death Lotus, Nunu's Absolute Zero, and you can even Fling Jarvan IV out of Cataclysm!

Change Log

(UK Date format)

2/1/12 - Published.
3/1/12 - General improvements to layout and general touch ups. Thanks everyone for your advice! Probably a few more updates coming soon.
5/1/12 - Fixed skill sequence. Thanks to VeeCee for the spot!
27/1/12 - Generic update, tip/trick added. Thanks to ModoTheGreat for the spot.
28/1/12 - Fixed pictures due to Ponypic.com going down.
7/4/12 - Updated and kept with the times.