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Singed Build Guide by g07h4xf00

Tank [S6] Welcome to Singed City (6.10)

Tank [S6] Welcome to Singed City (6.10)

Updated on May 24, 2016
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League of Legends Build Guide Author g07h4xf00 Build Guide By g07h4xf00 60 5 3,250,050 Views 59 Comments
60 5 3,250,050 Views 59 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author g07h4xf00 Singed Build Guide By g07h4xf00 Updated on May 24, 2016
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Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Teleport

Teleport

LoL Summoner Spell: Ghost

Ghost

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Introduction

About Me (g07h4xf00)



I am currently in Season 6 a Diamond V (~2250 elo) Singed player who has played 90% or more ranked games as Singed. I started playing LoL in summer 2012 but didn't start playing Solo Queue Ranked until after the start of Season 3 (winter 2013).

I was first placed in Bronze I, but since then I have slowly (and painfully) grinded my way to Diamond 3 playing primarily Singed. I went through several champion phases before I decided to make Singed my main.

I've dabbled with mostly top lane and jungle champions, and a few mid champions. I finally decided that Singed was the champion for me, the one that best reflected my play style. I still enjoy playing the aforementioned champions in Normals and lately I've had a lot of fun playing Maokai.

Having played Singed for so long and literally crawling my way from the depths of Bronze ("elo hell") to Diamond III, and then to where I am today in Diamond V ("elo hell"-ish) I feel like I am comfortable enough with him to say I have "mastered" playing him. I still have a ways to go and more divisions to climb, but I have enough experience and know enough of the theory of how to play with him that I thought I would write this guide to help other players struggling to get out of Bronze or simply want to learn a new powerful top lane champion.

Here are some stats I've had while playing Singed in Ranked (I once was 15 ranked wins in a row):








If you still doubt me, check my stats and compare it to any other Singed player or Singed guide author. You can also check my ranking in lolskill.net relative to all other Singed players in the world.

To learn Singed, I started by reading a guide written by InvertedComposer, a long time Diamond Singed player. I respect him and think his guide is really good, but I feel like it's a bit outdated, and its language seems to be targeted towards players who already knew a lot about the game, like how to play and how the meta works. In this guide, I touch upon many things that I felt were lacking in InvertedComposer's guide and use a more down-to-earth language when talking about certain aspects of the game.

This guide is in no way a rip-off of InvertedComposer's guide. Having played Singed for so long, I've developed some differences in opinion with him on how to play Singed
and I also want to build further upon playing Singed. However, you may find a few similarities between my guide and his guide, and I am acknowledging right now that I learned a lot from learning his guide and borrowed a few elements.

I hope this guide will not only make you a better Singed player, but also a better LoL player in general. Feel free to add me as a friend on the LoL client but be warned, my friend list is quickly getting to its limit so I may have to remove some people to accommodate you. You can also send me an email at g07h4xf00@gmail.com if you have any questions, or simply want to practice in a custom game.
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Summoner Spells

Split n' Gank: Map pressure Style (Advanced)


Troll n' Bruise: Aggressive Style (Intermediate)

  • Don't feel like being a team player? Like the feeling of a top lane island? This spell is for you!
  • Use this to get kills. If you don't get kills, it's kind of a waste to have this since you might as well have Teleport.
  • It is highly recommended that at least one person on your team have this spell, ESPECIALLY if the enemy team has a high healing champion like Dr. Mundo Vladimir Soraka Zac Aatrox.
  • Use this with your all-in if your opponent has 50% HP or less.
  • This summoner spelll is for intermediate Singed players because it means you understand his damage output enough to be confident in your laning and all-ins

Bait n' Peel: Defensive Style (Beginner)

  • Don't feel comfortable against your lane opponent? This spell is right for you!
    Use this to stop enemies from getting kills. Having this up in top lane will make you virtually ungankable.
  • If you are getting ganked, opt to use this on the jungler if they are an AD fighter/assassin type like Jarvan IV Vi Lee Sin.
  • It is highly recommended that at least one person on your team have this spell, ESPECIALLY if the enemy team has a high burst or assassin champion like Zed Talon Master Yi LeBlanc Riven.
  • Use this immediately if you think your opponent is about to all-in on you, this typically happens if you are 50% HP or less
  • This is especially effective if an enemy tower dives you
  • Use this to peel for the ADC in team fights
  • This is for beginner Singed players because he's a champion that is very unique and plays differently than most other champions you may be used to. If you are switching to him for the first time, run Exhaust so you can get a better feel for his play style.

Run Really Fast (Beginner)

  • Singed scales extremely well from movement speed.
    It's great for engaging, disengaging, and synergizes well with his runes, masteries, and ultimate.
  • Combine this with your ultimate and you can catch pretty much champion.
  • Also ignores unit collision, so in team fights you can run directly at the enemy ADC to Fling them back into your team.
  • This is not as strong as it was last season, its numbers have gone down.
    It's also not as good anymore because of buffs to Heal that enemy carries are taking, but AP utility scaling which was added to many slow abilities make this summoner spell more and more obsolete.
  • This is for beginner Singed players because it synergizes well with his kit and increases his ability to troll. It's also more forgiving for newer players who are not experienced with his play style.
  • I'm going back to running Ghost instead of Flash because Turbo Chemtank got nerfed and initiating team fights / engaging in this tank meta is more important. Also, Ghost benefits well from Enchantment: Distortion.


Expert Juking (Advanced)

  • Ever since nerfs to Ghost last season, this is looking like a lot more viable.
    The Enchantment: Distortion boots upgrade makes this more viable because it also grants +20% movement speed for 1 second after use which can be great for catching enemies (like a mini free version of Ghost).
    Also makes it nice for tunneling through (dodging) annoying abilities that get in your way like Dark Binding, Death Sentence, Hexplosive Minefield, Glitterlance slow, and other skillshots.
    Slightly more useful than Ghost for surviving ganks in lane phase
    This is for advanced Singed players because unlike Ghost, it's an instantaneous cast. Since Singed is a sustain damage tank/fighter rather than burst, it is very important to know exactly when to use Flash for making clutch plays, picks, kills, etc. You need to be very experienced with his numbers and comfortable with his play style to pull off using this spell effectively.
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Runes

Seals: Flat Armor

  • This is preferable in most cases now in Season 6 because you can no longer get 5-8 flat armor from masteries anymore.
  • Puts your starting armor at 31 (from 22) which gives you 31% additional survivability against physical damage.
  • Definitely get this if your lane opponent does a good deal of physical damage Renekton Riven Darius
  • Nerfs to armor, defensive masteries, and buffs to AD champions in S6 make this a must-get again vs AD laners

Seals: HP/lvl

  • Intersects Flat HP seals at level 6.
  • Is better to get than armor/lvl because effective HP is a multiplier that increases survivability from both physical AND magic damage.
  • These seals are useful against both AD top lane opponents AND AP opponents.
  • In late game these grant you about +5.5% survivability against magic damage for no more than -1% survivability against physical damage trade-off.
  • These are better than armor/lvl seals now because the build involves double armor items Thornmail and Randuin's Omen.
  • These also directly mitigate true damage taken from Ignite and other sources.


Glyphs: MR/lvl

  • These glyphs give you 27 MR at level 18, which is about equivalent to the MR given by Mercury's Treads. Having these with Mercury's Treads is almost as much MR as an additional Banshee's Veil.
  • Scaling MR runes are better than flat MR runes. Most champions don't start with AP without runes or masteries, so most magic damage is done in the latter part of the game because that's when AP items are most prevalent and AP numbers are highest.
  • The highest amount of MR any one item can give you is 55. This is much lower than armor, so you need as much MR as you can get.
  • Always run these against an AP top laner.
  • Singed now has scaling MR! :) You should still always get these because they are the best glyphs for a tank.

Glyphs: Flat AP

  • These glyphs are more worthwhile in Season 6 due to massive meta changes.
  • Games are faster and early-game snowballs matter a lot more, so the extra +11 AP these give can tilt the lane in your favor and help you snowball.
  • Goes extremely well with the new starting items Dark Seal and Corrupting Potion, and can snowball your lane.
  • Get this against a strong AD lane opponent Renekton Riven Darius
  • With these, you HAVE to get some early kills in lane to make it worthwhile, otherwise it scales much much worse than MR/lvl glyphs which you could have gone instead.

Marks: Magic Penetration

  • Gives you 3 more magic penetration than hybrid pen marks
  • I've decided to switch to these because throughout the course of a typical game, Singed's damage is about 94.6% magic and 3.8% physical (from auto attacks)
  • This scales better into late game than hybrid pen marks.
  • Singed benefits more from this because the buff to his Fling (6-8% max HP target damage) means he will hurt more and benefit more from these marks.

Quints: Movement Speed

  • This is kind of a no-brainer for Singed.
  • Starts Singed at 366 movement speed (413 with upgraded boots) which will allow you to catch most opponents in any situation.
  • Singed's kit is heavily reliant on movement speed so these quints are essential.
    Champion.gg shows about a 6.5% increase in win rate for Singed players who have these quints vs Singed players who do not (vs AP quints).
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Masteries

Ferocity (12)


Resolve (18)

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Abilities

- Passive Empowered Bulwark ("Free HP")

  • Singed's passive which gives 25% of your mana into HP
  • Despite this, you should not fully invest yourself into building mana items
  • Mana is a stat that doesn't directly help you in a team fight.
  • Whether you have 1k mana at the start of a fight or 4k mana will not directly impact your ability to kill someone or survive. This passive adds some survivability, but not that much.
  • Without any mana items, this passive gives 256 HP at level 18.
  • This gives you 200 additional HP from building Rod of Ages and 100 HP from building Frozen Heart.

- Q Poison Trail ("Gas")

  • Singed's signature ability and primary source of damage
  • Get this at level 1, and max it first
  • It is deceptively powerful, has a 90% TOTAL AP scaling. Each poison tick has 30% scaling, and enemies are GUARANTEED to receive 3 poison ticks upon exposure. The longer they stay exposed, the more poison ticks.
  • It costs 13 mana per second, don't leave it on for too long before getting Doran's Ring or Catalyst the Protector because it really burns through your mana bar.
  • The first tick is applied almost instantly so combine this with a single auto-attack for great harass and last hitting minions.
  • In team fights, this should pretty much always be on. Don't get caught in a team fight with your Q off!

- W Mega Adhesive ("Goo")

  • Don't get this until level 8, you won't need it until then and it's extremely mana hungry to use so early.
  • Use this to help catch up to enemies or run away from enemies.
  • This can now be used to snare someone if you use Fling to throw someone onto it. A full 1 second of hard cc is a big deal because you can use it to trap someone under your tower in lane phase or guarantee a kill for your team.
  • In team fights, place this between your ADC and the enemy front line to make it harder for them to catch your carry and makes it easier for your carry to kite.
  • Pretty long duration so excellent for sieging and team fighting.
  • I max this second because the scaling slow % is extremely useful in team fights for helping to engage or disengage.
  • You max this second now since Fling got buffed.

- E Fling ("Flip")

  • The only time you would ever level this skill at level 1 is if your team is fully committed to invading the enemy jungle for a kill.
  • Your primary fight-starting and peeling ability. Use this after the enemy front line uses their gap closers to get to your ADC, then fling them away from your ADC and so they will be helpless and useless.
  • Can be used to cancel channeling ( Death Lotus, Stand United, Teleport, etc).
  • Is a form of Hard CC, use it wisely because it has long cooldown (10 seconds).
    Use this to initiate a trade. Attack-move the ground immediately after flinging an enemy to land a mid-air auto-attack on them. I personally like to hotkey attack-move to my Mouse3 Button (press the mouse wheel).
  • Can be used to flip an enemy over a wall, if positioned properly.
  • Can now be combo'd with Mega Adhesive for more hard-CC (1 second snare) which is great for locking down kills.
  • The best way to combo is to use your Mega Adhesive first while chasing your enemy or at the spot behind you when you're fighting them, and then Fling them into it.
  • Max this last now because 5.6 buffs gives it 6% target max HP damage now so at level 1 you can do 33 bonus damage to champions with 550 HP and up to 240 bonus damage to champions with 4000 HP
  • The base damage and 0.5% max HP increase isn't worth leveling this past 1 so soon anymore

- R Insanity Potion ("HAM")

  • Turn this on when a fight starts.
  • Turn this on when your opponent goes HAM on you.
  • Turn this on when you want to go HAM on your opponent.
  • Turn this on if you need to catch someone.
  • Turn this on if you need to run away faster.
  • Extremely powerful, gives you super stats for 25 seconds and has a relatively low cooldown.
  • This ability has the potential to deal 332.5 / 475 / 719 magic damage with just the AP part (25x Poison Trail/s + 2x Fling).
  • Has been buffed so it now gives 80 in stats across the board, up from 65. This is another reason that led to change in build back to focusing a bit more on HP and less on raw defenses.
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Items


Standard Build vs Balanced Team


An enemy team is considered an "balanced" if two of [top/jungle/mid] are AP.

-> -> -> -> -> -> ->

Standard Build vs 4AP Team


Run this build against an "AP Team" in which all of [top/jungle/mid] are AP.

-> -> -> -> -> -> ->

VS 3 AD Build


Run this build against an "AD Team" in which two of [top/jungle/mid] are AD.

-> -> -> -> -> -> ->

VS 4+ AD Build


Run this build against an "AD Team" in which [top/jungle/mid] are all AD.

-> -> -> -> -> -> ->

"I'm Really ****ing Fed" YoloQ / AP Bruiser Build


There are exactly TWO situations you should run this build: 1) you get EXTREMELY FED from lane phase (like 2-4 kills), and 2) your team needs magic damage damage (you are the only AP champion on your team besides your support) and there are already 2 other tanks on your team (your jungler and support) so you don't have to be as tanky. The reason I'm making this build an option is because every single one of Singed's AP items got buffed in 5.13 (except Abyssal Mask but there is a buff incoming to that in a future patch).

Note that Rod of Ages is the first major item.

->BlastingCatalyst The Protector -> -> -> -> ->

Compared to the final standard SoloQ build, this build gives you about +40% DPS at the cost of -14% survivability (if we unfairly assume you take an equal amount of physical damage as magic damage). Note that the reason we don't always go this build is because it's easy for many ADCs to kite Singed so having the extra defensive stats are very important. This build is amazing against low-mobility team comps that can't kite or poke/range harass very well.

"**** My Team" YoloQ / Split-Push Build


Ever have those games where it feels like you lost at champ select? Does the enemy team comp out-class yours in team-fighting? Is your team really good at winning fights 4v4 or 4v5 (aka never needing you to do anything)? Do you just not want to deal with other human beings? Do you prefer a PvE experience? This is the build for you! Get this only if you are fully committing to split-pushing or a split-push comp.

-> -> -> -> -> -> ->

Zz'Rot Portal and Warmog's Armor have excellent synergy now (since 5.16) because voidlings now increase in damage with your max HP. It makes it so that you can heal yourself to full HP in a matter of seconds while out-of-combat (which you would be most of the time). Additionally, the movespeed boosts from Dead Man's Plate and Zz'Rot Portal should allow you to either run away from collapsing enemies or quickly return to lane for further splitpushing. Use the Dead Man's Plate passive to deal 100 extra physical damage to towers. Make sure you let your team know you are committing to this strategy.

VS ADC Build


This is a standard build you run against a Mordekaiser ADC. Note that having a Thornmail (previously core) is no longer necessary since you'll be taking less basic attack damage and more spell damage.

-> -> -> -> -> -> ->

This build focuses primarily on HP and has a good amount of defenses. It also helps mitigate a lot of spell damage and lets you heal up between poke sessions.

Primary Item Descriptions


- Super Sustain Start

  • Crystalline Flask gives Singed amazing sustain and lasts until Mid Game. It's FREE HP+mana potions every time you recall, it's an essential starting item.
  • Don't leave lane to buy unless all 3 charges of Crystalline Flask are used up or there's nothing to do.
  • Singed is extremely mana hungry levels 1-5, hence the Crystalline Flask.
  • Stealth Ward gives early vision to guard against ganks. Careful, because the ward lasts 1 minute and the trinket has a 2-minute cooldown. Place it if you don't know where their jungler is. If you see their jungler bot lane, maybe hold off on placing the ward.
  • You should typically be selling your Crystalline Flask around the time you need to build your 3rd item.
  • Additionally, the early Stealth Ward makes you more likely to see incoming ganks. Singed is highly vulnerable to the first gank from the enemy jungler's path so use this to avoid giving first blood or an early kill.

- Forever Vision

  • This pays for itself if it remains on the map for 4 minutes.
  • Buy this early and place this in either the Baron brush or tri-brush (only if you're purple side) accordingly.
  • Most junglers walk by the baron brush but don't face check it, so it can stay on the map for upwards of 20 minutes (it's happened to me on multiple occasions).
  • It's great because warding the Baron brush early helps you and your mid laner see jungler ganks in topside jungle sooner. Also, it helps see jungle invades.
    In mid-late game, buy this and place it if you do not have one on the map.

- Super Laning Power

  • These 5 items are enough to make you a damage threat during lane phase and also help you sustain.
  • Together, this is 70 AP, 210 HP, and mana regen for keeping your poison on.
    All of these items except Doran's Ring build into something useful later in the game.
  • If you Teleport bot with these items for a gank and your Insanity Potion and/or Ghost/ Flash then it's a guaranteed kill.
  • The mana regen from Doran's Ring synergizes allows you to sustain longer in lane.

- Singed's Favorite Item

  • You should rush this as your first item every game. This item is absolutely core on Singed and should be built every game
  • It has everything Singed could want, for only 2900 gold!
  • It is gold efficient, its gold value is 3242g not counting the passive.
  • 400 HP helps you live longer, 100 AP helps you kill faster, and the passive procs with every tick of Poison Trail for 15% slow, or 35% slow if you Fling them.
  • As long as you have this item and your Poison Trail is on during a team fight, you are technically peeling. It gives you perma slow on their entire team potentially. It's also good for chasing people down.
  • Build in order Blasting Wand-> Giant's Belt-> Amplifying Tome-> Rylai's Crystal Scepter.
  • Buffed in 4.13 so it gives +25% more damage at the cost of 20% HP. It's overall stronger and about 168g more efficient now
  • Always buy this item
  • After patch 5.13 huge buff because it now gives your Poison Trail a 40% perma-slow (up from 15%).

- Every Top's Favorite Shoe

  • Gives Singed 25 MR which is a lot because Singed has 30 base MR and gains 0 MR per level.
  • Tenacity combined with the Tenacious mastery gives you about 42% total tenacity which is great for absorbing cc, which is what Singed (but tanks in general) are good at.
  • Get this most games, especially if the enemy team has a lot of CC. If the enemy team is primarily AD with lots of CC, this should be your only MR item you need.

- Most Underrated Shoe Ever

  • I cannot begin to stress how amazing this item is.
  • At first purchase, it increases your physical damage resistance to about 43% (from about 33%).
  • Its passive (block 10% of basic attacks) is equivalent to ~20 additional armor when you first purchase it, ~34 additional armor at level 18 with your ultimate off, and ~41 additional armor at level 18 with your ultimate on.
  • Its passive is immune to armor penetration, and the block is applied before armor calculation.
  • Only buy this item if AT LEAST two of [top/jungle/mid] are AD or the enemy team has little CC.
  • If the enemy top is AD and enemy jungler is AD, then they will have a really hard time killing you in lane.
  • In mid and late game, the AD carries determine the outcomes of team fights, so having these boots means you survive longer and can do your Singed thing longer.

- "Please Hit Me Harder" Armor

  • Great against auto-attacking champions ( Aatrox Tryndamere Master Yi Xin Zhao Yasuo) and ADCs.
  • Strong enough to allow you to 1v1 duel the enemy ADC easily.
  • I now get this as the second major armor item because enemy ADCs are hitting their power spikes earlier because Infinity Edge is being built earlier.
  • This item guarantees you will have over 300 armor by late game without your ultimate on.
  • Always buy this item.

- Anti-AP Scepter

  • Ever have those games where the enemy team has like 3-4 Squishy AP carry champions in various roles ( Teemo Annie Zyra Evelynn Kennen Morgana Akali)? This is the item for those games.
  • Great against low-HP enemy teams that do a lot of magic damage (you'd be surprised how common those are).
  • Gives solid AP and MR stats, but also the passive is like an AOE 20 magic pen on the enemy team that your entire team can utilize.
  • Getting this in place of Spirit Visage as primary 6th item after MR/lvl buffs in 5.13
  • Get this now as a 6th item vs 4-AP team comps

- Singed's Most Dangerous Item

  • It helps Singed to insane amounts of damage with poison and synergizes amazingly with Rylai's Crystal Scepter.
  • Passive offers 400 AP to Singed's Poison on enemies that currently have 3000 HP (120 damage/s or 60 damage/0.5s), 200 AP vs enemies with 1500 HP, 100 AP vs enemies with 750 HP, and basically 0 AP vs enemies with 1 HP.
  • This item allows you to 1v1 pretty much any enemy but especially ADCs since the magic penetration means your Thornmail deals more damage.
  • Has many stats that Singed benefits from: HP, AP, and magic penetration.
  • Imagine you have this item and you are peeling for your ADC in a team fight. The enemy team's front line (tanks or assassins) are trying to catch up to your ADC and this item is simply shredding through their HP while your ADC chunks them down with auto attacks. This item is definitely a worthwhile purchase.
  • Build in order Amplifying Tome-> Haunting Guise-> Liandry's Torment. Unfortunately this build path is really bad, so this item was moved back into the 4th/5th item slot.
  • See the calculation at the end of this section to determine true value of this item and why it is superior to other AP items on Singed.

- Run Directly At Them And Win

  • Since the Bilgewater event, this item was introduced into actual Summoner's Rift.
  • Buy this in place of Randuin's Omen, it gives 15 less armor but 100 more HP.
  • Its passive is extremely useful on Singed because it allows you to build up to 60 movement speed in "momentum"
  • Auto-attacking discharges all your momentum, so avoid doing this unless it's against a target champion you've managed to Fling them.
  • This is great for comboing with your Sky Auto Attack because it adds an additional 100 physical damage to your burst and slows your target by 75% for 1 second.
  • Utility is too good to not get, but it is strictly a less tanky item (gives less survivability) than Randuin's Omen, unfortunately.
  • Should provide a good alternative to Turbo Chemtank for initiating since Turbo Chemtank was nerfed into absolute uselessness (and will be nerfed even more next patch in 5.16).

- 5.16 TANK RAGE

  • Released as a bruiser item, but really good for tanking
  • Good on tanks who tend to have high base AD because it increases your AD by 25% base.
  • Gives 500 flat HP and the passive gives +30% max HP shield which is about 1200 HP if you are a 4K HP tank, for 8 seconds! This is insane!!
  • Great for initiating fights and expecting to get bursted down.
  • Increases the damage of your Sky Auto Attack bursts

- UNSTOPPABLE FORCE

  • Get this if you are full build and have nothing else to buy, but still have money to spend.
  • The elixir is amazing on tanks, and with it you can have up to 59% tenacity if you also have Tenacious and Mercury's Treads.
  • You can get Elixir of Iron before your build finishes if you think your team will need one final push or team fight to end the game.

- END THE GAME ALREADY

  • Get this if you are full build and have nothing else to buy, but still have money to spend.
  • Get this over Elixir of Iron if you have Mercury's Treads
  • It gives you 250 HP which complements your build nicely and puts you comfortably over 4000 HP.
  • Gives your nearby minions +15% attack speed so it's great for late game when you're trying to finally win and finish off your opponents.

- Mini Sight Stone

  • Upgrade this around the time you upgrade your boots (before your second major item), it's only 250g.
  • This provides you up to two wards at a time so it is almost as good as Sightstone but as a trinket.
  • Upgrade to this if your team already has 3 players with Sweeping Lens.

- Vision Denial


Item Alternatives



- Best Tank MR Item

  • Great MR item for Singed since he doesn't have very much base MR.
  • The HP and regen you get is pretty solid and great for survival.
  • This is now preferable to Banshee's Veil.
  • Gives 50 less HP than Banshee's Veil, 10% more CDR, and the enhanced healing passive.
  • The passive increases your HP/5 stat. If you are max level Singed at full build with your ultimate on, the passive gives you 155 hp/5. This is equivalent to +31 HP per second which is a lot. If you survive for 25 seconds (the entirety of your ultimate), then you regain 775 HP throughout the course of the fight which is about 18% of your max HP.
  • Unless you're against a 4-AP team, you don't really need this until your last item.
  • Get an early Null-Magic Mantle or Spectre's Cowl if you need some quick MR.
  • Definitely get this against teams with 4+ AP champions
  • Replaced by Abyssal Mask since 5.13 MR/lvl buffs

- Zzzzzzzz

  • Got buffed a little bit over several patches, looks more viable now
  • Is best bought when committing to a split-push strategy
  • If you are committing to a split-push strategy, buy this in conjunction with Warmog's Armor
  • Can also be bought for a seige/teamfight comp but only if you use the trick described below.
  • If bought as a 7th/8th item, using the following trick: have some extra gold? Sell your 6th item and buy this. Place the portal near your enemy's base. Recall, sell this item, then re-purchase your 6th item. Repeat this every 2 minutes.

- Armor of Infinite Regen

  • Since patch 5.16, now heals you 3% max HP per second out-of-combat.
  • This is an insane amount of regen, and is good against comps with heavy amounts of poke
  • Really good to buy if you are committing to a split-push comp or strategy.
  • Buy this in conjunction with Zz'Rot Portal for maximum synergy and effectiveness

- Renewed Rod of Viability

  • One reason I would get this again is because the 80 AP at full stacks increases your damage output by about 10% late game.
  • Since MR itemization in the game is really bad, I like this item because of the 812.5 HP it gives which grants +7% survivability against magic damage.
  • More and more teams have magic damage now because of changes in meta.
  • Top laners and ADCs that rush Blade of the Ruined King are less common and less viable now after many changes to the meta in Season 4.
  • If you do build this item, you have to rush it first.
  • In the current meta, team comps are more pokey so the sustain from the Catalyst the Protector passive is more useful now.
  • In a team fight, if you have your Insanity Potion active, a Catalyst the Protector level-up, and drinking from your Crystalline Flask, you basically have a Maximum Dosage effect for about 8 seconds which is great for fighting and surviving. The longer you survive, the more damage you can do and the less you have to recall.
  • I'm no longer getting this and instead I prefer to get Turbo Chemtank because of its active.
  • I would get this over Turbo Chemtank if my team lacks damage or has plenty of hard engage tools.

- Frozen In Season 2

  • Similar to Thornmail but slightly more annoying.
  • Great against auto-attacking champions ( Aatrox Tryndamere Master Yi Xin Zhao Yasuo).
  • You can buy this item as a 6th item in place of your major MR item if the enemy team has 4 or more AD champs (top, mid, jungler, carry).
  • The 20% CDR is pretty nice, puts your Fling at an 8-second cooldown instead of a 10-second cooldown.
  • Its passive is really good and can STACK with Randuin's Omen passive, imagine how annoying you'll be to their ADC now!
  • A cheaper alternative to building Randuin's Omen (400 g cheaper).
  • This item is more than 150% gold efficient on Singed because the mana gives him 100 free HP due to his passive.
  • However, buying this in place of Randuin's Omen means you're more likely to be kited. Also, you won't have the Randuin's Omen active to use for peeling or catching people.
  • Buying this in place of Randuin's Omen means you'll be able to withstand more physical damage but less magic damage. You can make the judgement call based on the enemy team composition and how much of each kind of damage you are taking.
  • This is more appealing now since nerfs to Randuin's Omen in 4.10
  • Should probably get this as your 3rd item if enemy ADC is Vayne.

Face of the Mountain - Face of Underrated Tank Items

  • This is such an underrated item for a tank. It costs 2200g and gives some pretty decent stats.
  • You get 500 HP, 10% CDR, a 10% max HP shield (larger than a Giant's Belt late game), and allows you to share farm gold with nearby allies.
  • If you can't afford the entire item, start with Kindlegem and build from there.
  • Good to get as a last/late game item after your core is complete
  • Get this if you want to build more of a utility tank (see above)--its active can definitely save your carries from otherwise certain death

- OVER 9000!!!! Movement Speed

  • This item you should get rarely, it's highly situational (you'd be giving up boots with resistances).
  • You can get this if you're ridiculously fed (like 4/0 or more) and it'll really annoy the enemy team making it harder to run from you and catch you.
  • You should get this if the enemy team has a lot of perma-slow ( Ashe Sejuani Frozen Mallet).

- Silly Embrace

  • It doesn't give as much HP as Rod of Ages and the active is too situational.
  • This is no longer a core/must-build item on Singed because it is not item-slot efficient, but if you do build it, make it your 6th and final item.
  • Not tanky enough, but good against teams that have a lot of %HP damage or true damage

- Suckerer Boots

  • Singed does not do high enough magic damage to warrant this item.
  • Sacrifices utility and tankyness for more damage. This is similar to buying Rabadon's Deathcap and Zhonya's Hourglass on Singed, it's just not worth it.
  • Singed gets the same amount of magic penetration from Liandry's Torment which is superior in every way.
  • The absolute only time you would buy this is if you're trying to shutdown a cheesy champion in solo queue like Master Yi.

- Staff of Too Much MR

  • Get this against teams that have a lot of MR (like 2-3 MR items per person).
  • Sometimes Liandry's Torment Abyssal Mask isn't enough because flat MR is good against low-MR targets, but you need Void Staff for lots of MR targets.
  • This will typically be needed if your team has a lot of AP champions or the AD champions on your team aren't doing too hot
  • Get this as a 5th or 6th item

- RIP in Patch 5.16

  • A 15% attack speed reduction is equivalent to reducing the enemy AD champion's damage output by 15%.
  • Not as good since patch 4.10, so consider building Frozen Heart. However, the 500 HP and the active is still pretty appealing so you should still get it if they have a decent amount of AP.
  • Buy this alongside Frozen Heart against heavy-AS teams.
  • No longer part of standard build after 5.15 introduction of Dead Man's Plate
  • This item got destroyed in patch 5.16 I'm not sure when you would want to get this over any other armor item. Maybe if enemy team has both Yasuo AND Ashe? Or vs an all-AD team?
  • I never buy this item anymore.

- Burninatin' the Jungle

  • Get this if you are jungling
  • Need the ranger's trailblazer to clear camps quickly and sustain your HP and mana
  • Need the cinderhulk to increase your DPS (equivalent to about 100 AP on your poison) and 25% bonus HP

Please Don't Get These Items



These are items that you really shouldn't buy as Singed. They're either obsolete, out-classed by other items, or just plain dumb. I can't tell you how many Singed players I see getting these items and ruining their potential.

- Destroyed Insignificance

  • The active is essentially an On The Hunt effect but with a Randuin's Omen active attached to the end of it.
  • Use this item to lead your team to victory. It gives about 75 HP less than Rod of Ages and the same amount of sustain from the Catalyst the Protector level-up passive.
  • It's getting nerfed next patch (5.13) pretty significantly so it's no longer a core item.
  • Got nerfed too hard and is getting nerfed even harder in 5.16 will become a support-only item.
  • Such a good item completely ruined and destroyed by Rito.

- Doran's Barrel Lid

  • The absolute only time you should ever get this item is if you are super behind in lane in both farm and kills and the enemy top or jungler are making it hard for you to stay alive and farm. Basically, they have to be consistently killing you under tower.
  • Don't get this otherwise, the stats aren't that great and it delays more important items.
  • I personally don't like purchasing items that I'm going to sell later, unless it's Crystalline Flask because it pays itself off.
  • Very mediocre

- Not As Good As Anything You Already Have

  • The stats on this item aren't that impressive, you get more HP armor and damage from all other recommended item.
  • 42 magic damage/s is equivalent to 140 AP for your Poison, which sounds like a lot but it's not because it's a SINGLE tick of 42 magic damage guaranteed on contact.
  • Does not linger, unlike your Poison Trail. Poison Trail has guaranteed 3 ticks so 42 magic damage/s is really only 47 AP "improvement" to your Poison Trail.
  • This item requires you to STICK to your enemies to deal damage. As Singed, you have to be running around a lot spreading your Poison Trail and Flinging people around. You can't be sticking to ONE target unless it's their ADC and it's a 1v1.

- PLEASE STOP BUYING THIS

  • What's wrong with you, why would you buy this?
  • Its stats are garbage, yet I see this on Singed every now and then.
  • ****ty AP, 10% CDR not worth.
  • Spell Vamp is 1/3 as effective on damage-over-time abilities. If your Poison Trail does 70 damage per tick, you will heal 4.67 HP per tick. You're better off getting ANY other item.
  • Just use Crystalline Flask it's all the heal and sustain you need. You also get sustain from your other items.

- You're clearly Trolling

  • You'd be surprised how many Singed players get this. Not worth it, please don't get it.
  • Burns through your mana too quickly, as does your poison.
  • Relies on you auto-attacking a lot, which you shouldn't be doing THAT much in late game.
  • Stacks HP and Mana which is good on Singed, and arguably it synergizes with Seraph's Embrace, but it's too damn risky.

- Monty Python and the Holy Fail

  • Gives Singed little magic damage, your enemies won't even notice it.
  • Insanity Potion also gives huge mana regen boost during team fights, so this passive becomes irrelevant.
  • 25 MR is nothing on Singed, and certainly not worth 2600 g. You're better off getting Banshee's Veil.
  • Don't be fooled into getting the 20% CDR. Insanity Potion will be up in EVERY single team fight with 0% CDR. Also, his Poison Trail will always be up. The slight increased frequency of his W and E is not worth an entire inventory slot.

- Morellolwhocares

  • This item is worse than Athene's Unholy Grail because it doesn't give Singed a single defensive stat.
  • 80 AP is no better than literally any other AP items you can buy.
  • Same argument for CDR as with Athene's Unholy Grail, not worth it.
  • Its passive is not as good as Ignite, so why take up an inventory slot with it?

- Zhonya's Sourglass

  • This item was designed for squishy AP carry champs who do a lot of damage but don't want to get blown up right away.
  • The best part about this item is the active, which you shouldn't be using as Singed because it means you STOP MOVING for TWO WHOLE SECONDS. You should never do this.
  • The 120 AP is nice, but that's about all that's nice. The 50 armor isn't very much considering how much he gets from just his ultimate and other items that give more armor.

- Move Faster And That's About It.

  • The only good part about this item is its ability to make Singed move faster and catch enemies trying to escape him.
  • This item doesn't even give MR anymore.
  • The AP stat is mediocre at best, not enough additional damage.
  • Getting this item would just delay all your better items, and it's not worth getting as a last item.
  • A better item would be Lich Bane, and even that's pretty ridiculous.
  • Don't buy this, it's never a good idea.
  • Seriously, don't.

Most Damage



A lot of people don't realize just how much damage Liandry's Torment actually does.
For the sake of argument, let's compare building Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Liandry's Torment vs Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Rabadon's Deathcap. In late game, Liandry's Torment does more damage than Rabadon's Deathcap and also it synergyzes well with your Rylai's Crystal Scepter. Liandry's Torment also gives you 300 HP and 15 magic penetration which is nice. We can do some quick math and I will show you why Liandry's Torment is better.

With Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Rabadon's Deathcap, we have 286 AP total, but let's add 80 to that because of Insanity Potion, so 366 AP. 366 AP is 110 bonus damage / second from Poison Trail and 275 bonus damage from your Fling. Fling has a cooldown of 10 seconds, so that means your dps from Fling is 27.5 bonus damage/second. This means a total of 137.5 dps.

Now let's look at Liandry's Torment. With Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Liandry's Torment, we have 230 AP total which is 69 BONUS damage / second from Poison Trail and 173 bonus damage from your Fling. Fling has a cooldown of 10 seconds so that's 17.3 bonus damage/second. This means a total of 86.3 dps.

So far Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Rabadon's Deathcap is winning. But now we have to consider the magic pen from Liandry's Torment, the %hp damage, and the HP.

The following graph shows how much % additional damage you do from 15 more flat magic penetration against varying amounts of magic resistance. The y-axis is % increase in damage. The x-axis is the amount of magic penetration your target has.

Vs low-MR targets like ADCs and mages, Liandry's Torment adds about 12.5% more damage. This scales the 86.3 bonus dps to 97 bonus dps. Note that magic pen also scales base DPS, but we are disregarding it in this calculation. Against tanky targets at 100 MR, it's 8% more damage (93 bonus dps) and against tankier targets at 150 MR it's 6.5% more damage (92 bonus dps).

Now let's look at the enemy's HP. Suppose your target starts the fight with X HP. Every second, Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Liandry's Torment does 4% of the target's current HP. So for Liandry's Torment to be worth it over Rabadon's Deathcap, we say that 1.125*(0.04 * X + 86.5) > 137.5 against squishy targets. Solving this equation, we get X > 893 HP for squishy targets. Similarly against tanky targets, 1.065*(0.04*X + 86.5) > 137.5. Solving, we get X > 1065 HP. That means that against squishy targets greater than 893 HP, Liandry's Torment will do more damage than Rabadon's Deathcap. Against tanky targets greater than 1065 HP, Liandry's Torment will do more damage than Rabadon's Deathcap. At level 18, even the squishiest targets on the enemy team have at least 1800 HP at the start of the fight, so overall I think this worth it and it's clear to see that Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Liandry's Torment is a better pick over Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Rabadon's Deathcap. This calculation doesn't even take into account the increase in BASE damage from the 15 magic pen which can be quite a significant factor as well.

Also, Liandry's Torment gives you 300 HP more than Rabadon's Deathcap which means you can live longer which means you can leave your Poison Trail on longer and do more damage over the course of the fight. I don't have to try it out in the game to know which is better. A bit of math goes a long way.

Here is a graph in which I compare the damage of a single Poison Trail exposure from a level 18 Singed (with Insanity Potion) with Rylai's Crystal Scepter Seraph's Embrace Rod of Ages vs Rylai's Crystal Scepter Seraph's Embrace Liandry's Torment. I did this calculation back in Season 3 when I used to build 3 AP items on Singed. I plot total damage over time against an enemy with 100 MR and varying starting HP since Liandry's Torment scales with current HP. Note that rrs = Rylai's Crystal Scepter Seraph's Embrace Rod of Ages build and rls = Rylai's Crystal Scepter Seraph's Embrace Liandry's Torment build. Also note that on the final (third) tick of Poison Trail, the passive from Liandry's Torment is renewed for another 3 seconds and the passive from Rylai's Crystal Scepter is renewed another 1.5 seconds. This calculation assumes you have 5 magic penetration from runes in either build.


Notice how much more damage the Rylai's Crystal Scepter Seraph's Embrace Liandry's Torment build does? To adjust for varying MR (50, 150, or 200 MR) simply shift the graph vertically so the damage is different, but relative to each other they are about the same.

Now we have to look at how much Liandry's Torment is actually worth in terms of gold. Are we getting the best bang for our buck? If we look at just the regular stats (300 HP and 50 AP) you get, that in itself is worth 1888g (source). We measure how much the passive is worth (+15 magic penetration and the HP burn passive) by simply taking the above graph and subtracting from each function the damage that Singed would do if the passive was NOT taken into consideration. The remaining damage should equal the damage solely from the passive. Once we do this, we get the following graph:


At the end of the 6 seconds of damage, Liandry's Torment passive has done a total of (162.5434249,215.6276857, 268.7119466, 321.7962074, 374.8804683, 427.9647292, 481.04899) additional magic damage against a champion with initially (1500, 2000, 2500, 3000, 3500, 4000, 4500) HP. Note that the reason these numbers are so high is because it is assuming we also have a Rylai's Crystal Scepter which doubles the damage from the HP shred passive.

We can convert these damage amounts into AP values by simply dividing all the values by 0.90. We do this because Poison Trail has 90% total AP scaling from a single exposure and it is this ability that we are using as a reference. This gives us AP values of (180.6038054, 239.5863175, 298.5688295, 357.5513416, 416.5338537, 475.5163657, 534.4988778).

We now convert each of these AP values into a gold value by multiplying it by 1088/50 because it is 1088g per 50 AP. We then take that value and add it to the 1888g base value of Liandry's Torment. This gives us an average gold value of 6759g. Holy cow that's a lot! Talk about bang for your buck! The damage from magic penetration and HP shred is quite noticeable and not given enough credit. I got this average by converting (0 AP + 534.4988778 AP)/2 into a gold value.

Note: The value of magic penetration changes depending on the MR of the enemy. If we re-calculated all of these values assuming the enemy has 200 MR instead of 100 MR, the final numbers will be slightly less. However, for a worst-case, conservative estimate, you get a gold value for Liandry's Torment to be no less than about 4400g which still makes it totally worth it.

Stats and Build Calculations


For more information on computing builds and calculating stats on Singed, use the following spreadsheet I've made.
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Glossary of LoL Terms

This guide is for players of all skill levels. I don't want to make any assumptions about how much of the game you already know, so here is a list of common terms or abbreviations used while playing League of Legends that are not strictly obvious.
  1. AA - Auto-Attack aka Basic Attack - What every champion does when you right click an enemy in range. It's the most basic way to deal damage in the game. All auto attacks deal physical damage. Ezreal mains are incapable of doing this for some reason.
  2. AD - Attack Damage - a stat that increases AA damage and certain abilities. AD Champions are champions that primarily build AD or deal mostly physical damage. Everyone's favorite type of champion, for some reason.
  3. AFK - Away from Keyboard - when a player stops playing the game because they left, disconnected, or simply stopped controlling their champion. Probably report. Only ever happens on your team.
  4. AP - Ability Power - a stat that increases strength of spells. AP Champions are champions that primarily build AP or deal mostly magic damage. My personal type of champion.
  5. ARAM - All Random, All Mid - a 5v5 game mode played on the Howling Abyss where there is a single lane, all players go into that lane, and all players have a random champion.
  6. AS - Attack Speed - a stat that determined how fast you attack, usually good for AD Carry builds or builds that rely a lot on on-hit ability procs.
  7. B - Back, or Recall - Get back from where you are, or use the 'b' hotkey to make your champion recall to base.
  8. Bait - To urge enemy champions to follow, attack, or engage on you to lure them into a trap like being outnumbered or ganked by your team. Salty opponents say this in all chat as a justification for why they died.
  9. Big - When a champion is strong from having a lot of money from farming or kills, relative to everybody else.
  10. BF - B. F. Sword I'm pretty sure this stands for Big ****ing Sword.
  11. Blue [Buff] - The 3-minute buff granted by slaying the Ancient Golem on either side of the map. Exclusively belongs to your mid laner after 2:30. If anyone else takes it your mid laner can justifiably AFK for breaking the rules.
  12. Blue Build - any champion build that relies on 'blue items' that involve on-hit abilities, increase CDR, or increase mana pool / regen on champions. Made popular by builds on Ezreal. Sample Blue Build items: Iceborn Gauntlet Sheen Last Whisper Manamune Muramana Tear of the Goddess Blade of the Ruined King Ionian Boots of Lucidity Essence Reaver. Usually the #1 reason why your carry does no damage.
  13. BoTRK - Blade of the Ruined King.
  14. BRT - Be Right There.
  15. Brush - Bush, same thing. Garen's natural habitat.
  16. BT - Bloodthirster.
  17. Buff - A boost in ability given in the game by items or objectives. Also, Buff could refer to a balance change in the game due to a recent patch that made a particular champion or item strong relative to other champions or items.
  18. Build - Order of items purchased or the primary item composition of a particular champion. Most players get this wrong .
  19. Carry - To be the primary reason for winning fights, objectives, or the game. Always expected of you in every game.
  20. Camp - Usually when a jungler or allied lane champion heavily favors ganking or staying near another lane to help that lane with fighting. This will happen to you 100% of the time.
  21. CC - Crowd Control - Any ability that impairs or debuffs champions' abilities or basic controls (like movement). What your team always lacks and your opposing team has infinite amounts of.
  22. CDR - Cooldown Reduction - stat reduces cooldowns on abilities, increasing the frequency of when you can use them again.
  23. Comp - the composition of a team. It's always better for the enemy team.
  24. Creep - any enemy that is not a structure or a player character.
  25. CS - Creep Score - the number of enemy minions or jungle monsters you have killed (last hit) since the beginning of the game, denoted by the number at the top right of the screen. This number is always higher on the enemy ADC than your own.
  26. Dcap - Rabadon's Deathcap.
  27. Deny - Prevent an enemy champion from last hitting or farming by being an active threat to their lives because of long-range attacks or abilities. Also known as "ruining the fun."
  28. DFG - Deathfire Grasp. RIP.
  29. Disengage - Avoid a fight by some form of impairing ability, CC, or simply running away. What ******* do.
  30. Dive - When a champion quickly enters an area of high danger (like turret range) to kill an enemy champion and leave before there can be retaliation or they themselves die. What real manly men do.
  31. Dodge - Leaving champion select before the game starts to avoid playing, usually results in a time penalty. Always happens when your team has an amazing comp and never when your team has a garbage comp.
  32. DOT - Damage-Over-Time - abilities that inflict damage over a set period of time rather than instantaneously.
  33. DPS - Damage Per Second - The damage output capability of a champion.
  34. Drake - The incorrect term for Dragon used by European players and other people who don't know how to play the game.
  35. Duo Q - Duo queue is when two people queue for ranked together. It's also how people hold champ select hostage and your team's ability to FF.
  36. ELO - The pre-Season 3 way of determining relative skill and rank overall. The higher your elo, the better you are ranked in the game. Divisions correspond to ranks now (Diamond 1 ~2.5k elo, Plat 3 ~ 2k elo, Plat 5 ~ 1.8k elo, Gold 5 ~1.5k elo, Silver 5 ~1.2k elo).
  37. Elo Hell - See Solo Q, below.
  38. Engage - Having both teams commit to a fight usually by initiation. What manly men do.
  39. Face Check - To physically send a champion into a brush under fog of war to gain vision on the area of that brush. What you should never ever do. Use **** like Scrying Orb if you really want to know what's in there.
  40. Farm - as noun: kills on creeps that give you gold; as verb: to kill creeps to obtain more gold for items.
  41. Fed - Adjective form of 'feed'.
  42. Feed - to give many kills to a champion thereby making them strong due to them being able to purchase more items, may be intentional or unintentional. Everyone on your team does this except you.
  43. FF - Forfeit - To surrender the game after the 20 minute mark by typing '/ff' in chat. Your team never knows the correct time to do it.
  44. FFS - For ****'s Sake - Usually said when team refuses to cooperate or help each other, or when stupid things keep happening.
  45. FH - Frozen Heart.
  46. Flip - To land a flipping ability to displace a champion backwards like Fling or Thundering Smash.
  47. Focus - having multiple players on your team target a similar enemy or commit to the same strategy. Never happens in Solo Q.
  48. FotM - Flavor of the Month - The most recent most popular champions to be played based on the latest patch or balance changes.
  49. FP - First Pick - The first person to pick in Champion Select. The "God" player of your team who bans the wrong champions and will instalock their main and immediately get countered.
  50. GA - Guardian Angel.
  51. Gank - When a jungler goes to a lane unbeknownst to enemy champion(s) and helps the allied lane champion(s) to win a fight by outnumbering them, usually resulting in a kill. Always happens against you, never happens for you.
  52. HAM - Hard as a **********er - Going all-in or balls-deep committed into a fight or engagement. What manly men do.
  53. Hard CC - Any form of CC that completely disables a player's control over their champion for some amount of time (stun, knock-up, displacement/knockback, fear). What your team always lacks and wastes on useless targets.
  54. Hook - To land a disabling skillshot like Death Sentence.
  55. IE - Infinity Edge.
  56. Initiate - to start a fight, usually by some spell or CC ability, encourages the other players to engage in the same fight.
  57. Invade - When a team goes into the opposing jungle area at the beginning of the game to either steal a buff, kill an unsuspecting enemy, or startle enemy champions enough for them to waste one of their summoner spells. Always gives the enemy team first blood no matter who invades who.
  58. KDA - Kill/Death/Assist - The score of how many kills, deaths, and assists a player has. Getting this really high is the only way to win games, who needs to kill Nexus when you can kill champions.
  59. KS - Kill Steal - to purposely wait to last-hit an enemy champion for the kill thereby denying allied champions the kill gold. Basically what every player on the team does who is not the ADC.
  60. Lane Gank - Ganking through the lane brush, taking advantage of fog of war and minion wave positioning.
  61. Leash - To assist the allied jungler with killing jungle creeps, usually the large monsters.
  62. LoL - League of Legends.
  63. LW - Last Whisper.
  64. Map Awareness - Having good knowledge of what's going on in the game outside of your own field of few or particular lane. This usually relies on checking the minimap often. What nobody on your team has.
  65. MIA - Missing in Action - When an enemy champion is no longer in vision and may be roaming, when enemies are not located warning your allies to be careful of where they may pop out. It usually means you need to stay the **** back because you're about to get ganked. What your mid laner forgot to say about his opponent.
  66. MMR - Match Making Rating - A number used internally by the LoL client to pick teammates and opponents to play with, is similar to ELO but not quite. It's always higher than everyone's actual rank / elo, apparently.
  67. MR - Magic Resistance - stat used to reduce magic damage by percentage. The formula for determining the final damage amount is damage × 100/(100 + MR).
  68. MS - Movement Speed - stat for determining how quickly your champion moves.
  69. Nerf - a balance change in the game that makes a particular champion or item weak relative to other champions or items in the game. Always happens to FOTM champions and other champions you like playing.
  70. NL - Needlessly Large Rod.
  71. Objectives - Anything ranging from enemy structures, jungle creeps, or major boss battles (Baron or Dragon) that give the team a direct advantage from a gold bounty to a temporary buff. What your team is allergic to getting.
  72. OMW - On My Way - to where your allies may be or where they want you to be.
  73. OP - Overpowered, something that is unfair or imbalanced about the game and its design. Typically a champion on the enemy team that has a lot of kills. Or the champions that are always picked/banned in every game. The excuse everyone makes when they die or lose.
  74. PD - Phantom Dancer.
  75. Peel - Keeping an allied carry or squishy champion alive by using some sort of CC ability on them or the enemy champions pursuing them. What nobody ever does for their ADC.
  76. Ping - The delay between your computer and Rito's servers. What you complain about and despise all the time if you play on the East Coast.
  77. Poke - Abilities (usually in the form of skill shots) that may be done from long range and damages enemies without fully engaging or necessary retaliation. The least fun aspect of the game since it can be done from entire screens away with little to no counterplay.
  78. Proc - Trigger an effect, like Liandry's Torment Rylai's Crystal Scepter Sheen Lich Bane Trinity Force passives that need to meet certain conditions before activating.
  79. Pull - To land a grabbing skillshot like Rocket Grab. Also means to aggro the Dragon and have him chase you towards the edge of the Dragon pit.
  80. Rambo - When a champion unnecessarily gives away a kill by running into enemies while clearly outnumbered and overwhelmed.
  81. Red [Buff] - The 3-minute buff granted for slaying the Elder Lizard on either side of the map. What exclusively belongs to the ADC after lane phase.
  82. Rito - Pls.
  83. RoA - Rod of Ages.
  84. Siege - When multiple team members stay outside of an enemy turret range trying to poke down their enemy champions or attack the turret without taking much damage themselves.
  85. Soft CC - Any form of CC that partially disables a champion for some amount of time (slow, silence, root).
  86. Solo Q - When one person queues for ranked 5v5 by themselves. The most anti-fun and frustrating experience that every player needs to suffer through if they want to be recognized by high-ranked teams. Aka the real Elo Hell, where everyone you get matched with is terrible and toxic.
  87. Split Push - To split up the team and push all lanes in an effort to either avoid team fights or re-group later in one lane while applying pressure to the other lanes.
  88. Squishy - The opposite of tanky, a champion with low amounts of HP or defense that is relatively easy to kill.
  89. SR - Summoner's Rift - the primary 5v5 map in League of Legends.
  90. Tank - To soak up or block most hits from abilities or attacks by having a very defensive or healthy build.
  91. Teeto - Satan - Teemo.
  92. TF - Team Fight - To engage in a (usually full) 5v5 fight between the two teams. Could also be Trinity Force, the most slot-efficient damage item in the game.
  93. Tower - another name for a turret.
  94. Toxic - When a player has a negative attitude, verbally abuses other players in chat, or actively uses swear words or racial slurs which hinder the enjoyment of other players. Toxic players should be reported after the game. See Solo Q.
  95. TP - Teleport - Using the Teleport Summoner's Spell or a global teleportation ultimate like Destiny or Stand United.
  96. TT - Twisted Treeline - the 3v3 map in League of Legends.
  97. Wave Clear - The ability of a champion to quickly kill a wave of minions, usually via AOE abilities by a mage. Your team always lacks this so you lose quickly and the enemy team always has this so you win slowly.
  98. WOTA - Will of the Ancients. Don't buy this item ever it sucks, unless you're Vladimir then it's just stupid.
  99. XX:XX B or XX:XX D - The objective timers for when the next major objective (Baron or Dragon) will be up. B is for Baron, D is for Dragon.
  100. Zone - Preventing an enemy champion from properly positioning by posing as an active threat to them in a particular area.

Summoner's Rift


Become familiar with the geography of Summoner's Rift, the 5v5 map. Note the use of terminology and the particular area of the map it corresponds to.
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Forgive Me Father, For I have Singed

Okay, so you may be thinking "what the hell are you thinking playing Singed in Season 5?" Despite the relatively low appearance of Singed in Solo Queue and Ranked play, he is actually a pretty strong pick. Let's do some analysis!


The Current Meta


Singed, in my opinion, is among the best top lane picks for the current meta. Call me crazy, but I will explain it and analyze why in this section.

The strongest team comp right now is as follows:

Tanky AP Top Lane ( Maokai Singed Nautilus), AD Bruiser/Tank Jungler ( Rek'Sai Jarvan IV Hecarim), AP Sustained-Damage Mage Hypercarry ( Azir Cassiopeia), AD mid/late game teamfighting carry ( Sivir Jinx Ashe), and high-CC tanky Support with Disengage ( Nautilus Alistar Thresh).

The reason for this is Itemization Trapping.

Itemization Trapping

  • This term means to trap your enemy into itemizing (buying/building) certain types of items which will determine the flow of the game.
  • Suppose our enemy top lane is a Renekton and we decide to run an AD top laner, say Riven.
  • Because Riven is such a strong AD champion, the Renekton will most likely build Ninja Tabi Sunfire Aegis Warden's Mail in lane phase because these items will allow him to out-trade Riven, farm minions, and essentially win his lane.
  • Because he built these items, any AD jungler on your team that tries to gank top will have a hard time.
  • Now suppose lane phase ends, and teams start grouping for a fight. Our ADC (say, Jinx) is in the back line trying to do as much damage as possible and survive being dove by Renekton. She's going to have a hard time. Why? Because Renekton itemized for armor. Jinx's attacks will merely tickle Renekton.
  • Additionally, suppose the enemy team decides to tower dive and sends in Renekton first, so he starts taking tower hits. Their Renekton has so much armor that he can survive tanking the tower (because it's PHYSICAL damage) and that helps them win the team fight.
  • Additionally, while Riven may still be able to kill the enemy back line, she will be underfed because of her lack of kills and farm from lane phase.
  • Now suppose instead that against Renekton we ran Singed top lane. What is Renekton likely to build now? It is more probable that he will build items like Mercury's Treads Hexdrinker Spirit Visage in lane phase. Why would he build these items? Because he wants to not lose lane against Singed and be able to out-trade him in fights. If he doesn't build these items (or some of these items), he may end up losing lane phase and giving Singed the advantage.
  • Since he is building these items, an AD jungler on your team will have an easier time ganking Renekton. Most junglers rely on successful ganks during lane phase in order to thrive and do well in mid to late game. If the jungler is an AD (itemizing first for damage) then he should be able to burst down Renekton before he has a chance to completely escape.
  • What does this mean for team fights? For one, our ADC (say, Jinx) will have a much easier time picking off and kiting against Renekton because he has NOT itemized for armor so her attacks will chunk his health.
  • Additionally, Renekton will take a greater risk tower diving because towers will chunk his health more since he's delayed purchasing armor items.
  • Because we ran an AP Top Laner against Renekton, we trapped him into itemizing for MR instead of armor. This puts your team in a logistical advantage.
  • What if the Renekton is smart and decides to build armor items anyway? If this is the case, then the AP top laner ( Singed) will have an advantage in lane and end up being better at peeling and doing damage in team fights.
  • The same logic applies to AP mid laners and AD mid laners. If we run an AD Zed against an enemy AP Orianna then the Orianna will likely rush Seeker's Armguard which will help him lane better and prevent Zed from bullying or 100-0 him.
  • The Orianna will also more likely survive ganks by AD junglers more because of this armor itemization (which ALSO gives him AP).
  • Additionally, building an early Seeker's Armguard means he can survive being hit by an ADC in team fights longer, tank tower hits if necessary, and will lead to an earlier Zhonya's Hourglass which is even more armor.
  • Alternatively, if you run an AP mid (like Xerath Ahri LeBlanc), then the Orianna will more likely rush Chalice of Harmony into Athene's Unholy Grail which will make it easier for him to be killed by your AD Jungler, your AD Carry, and towers. Also, it will delay his Zhonya's Hourglass which is a pretty annoying item in general, especially because of its active.

Itemization Trapping is extremely powerful and it's one of the reasons why Asian teams are so much better than NA teams, because most ranked players there know about this. In Ranked Solo Queue (or even Ranked 5s) on NA server, if you take advantage of itemization trapping you will see a substantial increase in your win rate. It's a logistical advantage that you should be aware of and take advantage of, because your enemies likely won't. In champ select, always encourage your team to pick an AD assassin jungler and an AP Mid.

Armor Penetration vs. Armor

  • Overall: having two carries on your team that do different types of damage is a better comp. If both carries (Mid and Bot) both do physical damage, then the enemy tank can simply stack armor and shut both of them down with one or two item purchases.
  • Stacking penetration won't save the team in this scenario, because not every champion builds Last Whisper Black Cleaver and the ones that do haven't "shut down" or "countered" armor. It's a two-way street, armor shuts down armor penetration as well.
  • Calculations.
    5 stacks of Black Cleaver and Last Whisper vs a simple Chain Vest:
    These two Black Cleaver and Last Whisper (total 5300g) will reduce the 40 armor rating of Chain Vest (750g) to about 9 effective armor. That looks like a large reduction, doesn't it? At about 100 armor, a champion buying a Chain Vest will only increase their physical damage reduction from 50% to ~52% reduction, which isn't a lot. However, this is an unfair comparison because it's not a fair comparison of values.
    Let's try 5 stacks of Black Cleaver and Last Whisper vs a Randuin's Omen and Thornmail.
    The cost comparison is now 5300g vs 4950g, not quite the same but close. The penetration items will reduce the 170 total armor rating of Randuin's Omen and Thornmail to 73 armor. At about 100 armor, a champion buying Randuin's Omen and Thornmailwill increase their physical damage reduction from 50% to about 63% (vs 73% reduction without penetration) which is a significant improvement. Additionally, there aren't really more penetration items that can be purchased whereas armor can be stacked further with items like Sunfire Aegis and Frozen Heart. Also, it is important to note that Randuin's Omen gives an additional 500 health and its passive reduces damage output of an auto-attacker by 15%. This means that a 2000 HP champion now has 2500 HP, so the damage that the tanky champion takes is actually further reduced because now each attack does a smaller % of HP in damage. Before, a 200 damage AD attack did 10% of the target's HP. Now, it only does 6.9% of the target's health, a large reduction. If it's an auto-attacking champion against Randuin's Omen, then attacks will only do 5.8% of the target's max HP per attack.
  • In summary, stacking armor and HP always out-scales stacking armor penetration so having two carries on the enemy team relying on primarily dealing physical damage is magnitudes easier to shut down.

AP Buffs and AD Nerfs


Alternative AP Top Laners

  • Other AP Champions can certainly fit the meta but, in my opinion, but few others are as strong as Singed or stronger.
  • Squishy AP Top laners like Kennen are strong but not tanky enough. The top lane should be tanky so that you have a strong and scary front line in team fights. An AP top laner is not as effective at assassinating their back line like an AD Jungler assassin is, so let the jungler be the assassin and the top lane be the tank.
  • Sort-of-tanky top laners like Ryze Rumble and Vladimir are powerful laners and very useful in team fights, but are not as tanky into the late game as Singed.
  • Dr. Mundo fits as a tanky AP top laner, but because of his kit, pretty much has to rush either Spirit Visage or Warmog's Armor to remain relevant, but that is poor itemization because it delays armor too long. Also he lacks CC. He's still somewhat viable, however.
  • Cho'Gath is tanky but is a poor laner and will lose most top lane match ups simply because his kit isn't built very well for long-term fighting.
  • Shen is a tanky AP laner, but no one will take his magic damage seriously enough to trap your opponent into building magic resistance.
  • Malphite is a very strong and viable choice and a great pick because of the amount of utility and tankyness he brings into a team fight. However, he will have difficulty winning most lane match ups and his magic damage is pretty low to warrant the enemy to build magic resistance.
  • Jax and Shyvana are no longer as strong as they use to be. They use to be amazing picks but because they do hybrid damage the enemy top laner may be confused and itemize for armor anyway. Also, their kit usually forces them to delay getting tanky items until later in the game. They are viable, but I think Singed is better for the role.
  • Overall, I think Singed is a great pick because he is naturally tanky (because of his passive and his ultimate), can dish out a LOT of damage if left unchecked, and brings a lot of CC and peel to the team.
  • Maokai and Nautilus are pretty strong top laners and get tankier than Singed but does not deal as much damage. I would pick Maokai and Nautilus against more kitey comps and against ranged champions as the tons of CC and hard engage help lock down kills quite nicely and shut-down mobility.
  • Sion has become quite a viable top laner. Sion is technically AD, but if you analyze his matches he actually does as much magic damage as physical (if not more). Most of his early game damage is magic. This is primarily due to him maxing E first, followed by W, both of which deal magic damage. His build path typically involves him rushing Sunfire Aegis which is another reason.

Skeptical Teammates

  • Suppose you are in Champ select, and your team mates start hating on you for picking Singed.
  • Tell them it's a strong pick and have them look up itemization trapping. I'm not the first person to talk about it or come up with the idea, so they can read up about it on Google.
  • Also show them the overall Singed win rate in solo queue and your high Singed win rate and assure them that they have nothing to worry about.
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Playing Top Lane

General Player Tips


These tips should help you be a better player overall, regardless of your role. These are tips that every summoner should follow and should overall improve their gameplay experience and their win rate. I've played enough games and went through a lot of changes to know that a lot of these work.

Be positive.



Nobody likes a toxic player. If an allied champion ****s up, don't start raging at them. Say encouraging things like "aw so close" or "you'll get him next time." You've been in their shoes before, don't pretend like you haven't. Everybody makes mistakes, forgive each other for these mistakes because a single mistake doesn't throw a game. Creating tension between your team and pressure or a negative environment between your team mates does. Sometimes people feel bad after making a mistakes, though they may not care to admit that they did. A little bit of reassurance goes a long way to making players feel better.

Kiss ***.



On top of being positive, kiss a little ***. Tickle some balls. Make your teammates feel better about themselves. YOU can't control what they do in the game, but you can keep them in a better mood and make them more likely to listen to you if they are in a good mood and like you. Anything good they do (take dragon, kill a tower), give them a simple "good job!" If they do things like make clutch plays resulting in an ace, a double kill, or a nice gank, say something a little more like "wow so pro." People like getting their balls tickled, it makes them feel good about themselves and they may start coming to your defense if you make a mistake or rallying to you if you do something good for the team.

Don't rage.



You're aren't a Challenger player. You aren't the greatest player ever. Sometimes you outplay your opponent. Sometimes players on your team are annoying, toxic, or bad. Don't fuel it! Apologize if something goes wrong with a play or a team fight. Even if you don't mean it, it shows that you don't want to let the pressure or negativity get to you and that you are capable of conceding but keeping a level head when things get heated. Sometimes opponents outplay you and then proceed to **** talking you. Don't engage in **** talking. All the time you spend typing in all-chat is time you don't use getting objectives or pushing minion waves. It's time you don't use paying attention to the mini-map or planning your next move with your team. Ignore people who are bothering you and don't fuel the rage. If they keep talking and are straight up distracting you from the game, simply mute them and report them after the game.

Report Toxic Players.



I'm pretty sure this is part of the summoner's code. People would report you if you try to have fun by trolling or swearing or using racial slurs, so why should they be pardoned? You don't want to get banned because you follow the rules, but you also don't want to play with people who don't. Report them after the game. Sometimes threatening people with a report is enough to make them get their **** together and focus on the game, or straight up improve their performance. I've done this so many times, it works.

Don't get cocky.



Just because you win your lane or got the first two dragons or aced their team once doesn't mean that the game is over and you can start ****ing around. I've seen teams come back from worse, and it's all based on whether or not you understand how the game changes between early game, mid game, and late game. If you are ahead, don't start trying out weird strategies you saw on LCS because you might end up throwing. Don't start trying to tower dive them 3v5. Perhaps a single ****-up is all the other team needs to get their **** together, or vice versa. Champions scale differently at different points in the game, and this can completely change the tide of battle once more items are built.

Top Lane Tips



This section talks about the fundamentals of top lane and what it means to be "top."

You are not a Carry.



As a top laner, doing well in lane or stomping your lane opponent does not guarantee victory for your team. You can help carry or give your team a huge advantage, but most LoL games come down to the performances of either the Mid Carry or bot lane AD Carry champions. If you are ahead, start roaming to other lanes and help get your carries fed. There's no point in you yourself going 4/0 top if your ADC is 50 cs behind and down 3 kills.

Peel or dive. Commit to a strategy.



Your job is not to kill every champion on the enemy team. That would be nice, but don't make that your primary goal in life. Depending on the nature of your champion, you will have to be doing a few things during fights that will depend on what kind of champion you play.

If you are tanky, you should be in the front lines of your team during all fights. Run towards the enemy back line and either absorb hits, spells, and CC while your team cleans up or ZONE the enemy carries. If you have CC abilities, run back towards your carry and use your abilities to PEEL enemy champions off of your carry. Carries are typically ranged, whereas enemy front line champions are typically melee. Use this to your advantage! Help make the enemy front line's job harder to get to your AD Carry and he will be able to clean up quickly.

If you are an assassin type, you should be in the front lines of your team during all fights. Dive the enemy carries (AP carry or AD carry). Simply killing one of them is a huge advantage to your team, even if you don't get out alive. Remember, most fights are won by the carries (primary source of your team's damage) so make sure you focus all of your abilities on them. There's no point in blowing all your cooldowns on their tanky frontline because it doesn't really get your team very far.

Switch up your strategy sometimes.



Sometimes you just have to swap roles with people. If you have a tanky top and your assassin jungler or mid aren't carrying their own weight or aren't doing the job of diving the enemy backline to kill their carries, you may want to swap roles. If you are confident or doing well, you yourself can help dive the enemy backline to try to lock down those kills. You'd be surprised how many tanks can 1v1 an enemy carry.

Sometimes you have to swap lanes in early game. If you are doing really well and winning your lane but your bottom lane isn't doing so well, offer to swap! Your bot lane will have a much easier time laning top against a single (most likely melee) champion who isn't doing so well to begin with. If you are confident in your ability to farm against a duo lane bot, offer to swap so your AD Carry will have an easier time farming and locking down kills. Swapping can also force the enemy jungler to stay top to keep their top lane alive, which is an advantage for your team. The same logic applies to your mid lane. Swap if someone is behind.

You Are On An Island.



Top lane is extremely far away from everything for the first 20 minutes of the game. As a top laner, you likely won't be participating in the first couple Dragon fights unless you run Teleport, which every top laner should be doing now. Use this to split push and regroup with your team when they ned you.

If you are really ahead, roam mid to help push those minions or help get your mid carry a kill. Don't be gone for too long if you think your opponent might be pushing too hard or threatening objectives. If mid is away or buffs are up, invade the enemy jungle and take his creeps.

Regardless, as a top laner you should still be aware of what's going on in the rest of the map. The geographic isolation discourages this, but you should always be ready to leave lane if the team needs it.
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Champ Select

For Ranked 5v5, the game begins at Champion Select. There is a lot of strategy during Champion Select, and as a player you need to know them and use them if you want your team to be at an advantage. As a Singed player, there is a particular strategy you should be following.

Bans


his is a list of the most ban-worthy champions currently.

Vayne Irelia Riven Elise Nidalee Evelynn Kayle Shyvana Skarner Garen Mordekaiser Fiora

In all cases before banning, make sure to check with your teammates to see if there is a particular champion they want to play so you don't ban them. Take advantage of non-banned FotM champions to grab one or two of them on first pick and trade with your allies. These champions are all performing extremely well in solo queue.
  • My personal preference for the 6 bans if I got to choose all of them: Vayne Irelia Riven Elise Mordekaiser Skarner in that order
  • Vayne Irelia Riven have extremely high win rates and pick rates in solo Q. After the 5.16 changes, armor got nerfed so it's harder to itemize against these, and the new AD Bruiser items can make problematic.
  • Elise Nidalee Evelynn are probably the top 3 junglers and are extremely annoying. They have high popularity in SoloQ and can make early game really frustrating.
  • Kayle Shyvana honorable mentions because Enchantment: Devourer is still broken.
  • Skarner is pretty broken right now after his 5.16 rework he's sitting at about 63% win rate in Diamond.
  • Garen and Mordekaiser are in really weird spots.
  • Fiora is strong right now because armor is nerfed. I wouldn't personally ban her since Singed can counter in lane.

Champions Singed Likes


These are champions that Singed synergizes really well with. You should definitely encourage your team mates to pick these if possible.

Jungle: Volibear Nautilus Udyr
Mid: Orianna Ziggs Zilean Lulu Cassiopeia
Support: Janna Thresh Lulu Zilean Morgana Karma Nami Tahm Kench
ADC: Sivir

What do these champions all have in common? They usually have a movement speed buff, a shield for tanking, or are really good at chaining CC abilities with Singed.


Strong AOE Teams ("Wombo Combo")



These champions are especially strong for picking in Ranked 5v5s. This is because they have lots of AOE or a strong AOE ultimate that can be chained with others. They can also be picked in Solo Queue, if the team is coordinated enough. Some of them really require team coordination and can be incredibly powerful.

Jungle: Jarvan IV Wukong Hecarim
Mid: Ziggs Orianna Annie Kennen Vladimir Karthus Anivia
Support: Sona Leona Thresh Zyra Annie Nami
ADC: Draven Ezreal Miss Fortune Jinx Kalista


Who does Singed Counter



Singed counters a number of champions in either lane phase, team fights, or both. The rule of thumb is that Singed counters melee champions that can be kite or who's all-in can be completely shut down or nullified by Fling. The following is a summary of such common champions.

Champions Countered in Lane Phase

  • Fiora is very easy to kite, has no escapes, and unreliable kill potential (basically needs Ignite to kill you). If you survive the levels 1-3 cheese all-in attempts it should be easy for you. Just spread your poison in front of the minion she's about to last hit and if she gets to about 50% HP you can go all-in on her.
  • Malphite shove lane against him and he will be forced to last hit at tower, something is he terrible at before he buys his Sunfire Aegis. You can easily proxy farm against him and will be way ahead in farm.
  • Sion is completely hard-countered by Singed. He should never be able to actually kill you. Walk around with your poison on and dodge all of his skillshots. Stay away from him when his shield is about to explode.
  • A poison + auto attack is usually enough to break his shield. A Fling can completely cancel his Q while not refunding the mana or cooldown. You can dodge his ultimate by simply walking around.
  • Maokai has a similar problem as Sion because he is big and slow and easy to dodge his skillshots. Maokai will have trouble sustaining in lane because his passive procs heal him only when spells are cast, but Singed rarely casts spells, he just toggles his Poison Trail.
  • Jax has a similar problem to Fiora, but is actually weaker in lane. If he ever turns on his E to stun you make sure to Fling him away right before he re-activates it or as soon as he jumps to you with Q. Put your poison right in front of the minion he wants to last hit so he will be forced to take damage.
  • Wukong probably gets countered the hardest. There's not much he can do against Singed, except possibly ult you while you're under his tower (don't let this happen). If he dashes to you to harass, you immediately Fling him away. If he goes invisible, your Poison Trail can still hurt him. Very easy lane.
  • Garen has a similar issue as Wukong. If at any point he tries to get near you to silence you or spin-to-win, just Fling him away and kite him with your Poison Trail.

Champions Countered in Team Fights

  • Sion and Maokai have similar problem as in lane phase, if they dive your backline or use their one ability to get in the middle of your team just Fling them away and they will be sitting sucks.
  • Jax and Irelia have a single gap closer ability with a relatively long cool down that they use to get to your carry. Since they are auto-attack reliant champions, they won't necessarily burst your carry immediately so a single Fling can shut them down.
  • Nasus Renekton and Cho'Gath are most dangerous when sticking to your carry. If they get anywhere near your carry, Fling away immediately and throw your Mega Adhesive to make sure they stay away. Wait for Slice and Dice to be on cooldown before flipping him away.
  • Garen and Wukong is best to Fling them away from your team while they are spinning, and try to root them with your W so they become useless.
  • Gnar in team fights can be a big problem for your team once he is MEGA Gnar. If he is, try to Fling him away from your team before he starts his chain cc so that he won't be able to use them or his ultimate. He is very slow so if he gets in the middle of your team then his gap closer will be on cooldown.


Picking and Trading

  • At the beginning of champion select, always call your role politely. Say something like "top pls" or "I would like to top, I'm not very good at other roles" and maybe add a ":)." People tend to respond poorly to cocky players who say things like "top or feed" or "let me top for free elo."
  • As a Singed player, you want to pick last whenever you can. Ask for a 3-way trade if you have to.
  • Ask your allies to trade with you, because otherwise you may get countered. By "countered," I mean have the opponent top lane pick a very annoying champion for Singed to deal with like Lissandra.
  • These lane match-ups are not impossible, but will be annoyingly difficult and tedious. Why should you have to deal with that?
  • People don't normally pick Singed, so trading will help your allies get their pick sooner (they probably want a more popular champion so it'll help them lock it down).
  • Also, picking Singed will take the enemy team by surprise. Most people don't have much practice playing against Singed, others will think you are a troll.
  • If people ask, you are not Proxy Singed. Never Proxy Singed (that is, fully commit to a proxy strategy).
  • This is what I think to be the idea pick order for your team:

    Blue Side. Grab the jungler first, then the support and ADC, and finally the mid and top lanes.
    Purple Side. Grab the jungler and support first, then the ADC and mid, and finally the top lane last.
    Make whatever trades necessary.
  • The two solo lanes are most likely to be susceptible to counters, so always pick them last.
  • Lock down the ADC and Jungler first because they have the smallest pool and there are champs in really high demand for both ADC and Jungle.
  • If somebody bans Singed for whatever reason, you could just dodge (3 LP penalty) or if you're confident or comfortable, play an alternate top lane.
  • NOTE: IF YOU DON'T GET YOUR ROLE AND YOU'RE NOT COMFORTABLE PLAYING ANOTHER ROLE, IT'S OKAY TO DODGE (IN FACT, IT'S PREFERABLE FOR THE REST OF YOUR TEAM).
  • Worst Case Scenario: Someone on the enemy team picks Singed so you have to pick someone else. In this case, I prefer to pick Maokai or Nautilus, but if you're confident, comfortable, or experienced enough you can go Gnar Rumble Vladimir Lissandra. Know how to beat yourself.
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Early Game

How to Start

  • Early Game corresponds to Lane Phase, and lasts roughly the first 15 minutes of the game. Champions that excel at early game are champions that have really high base damage abilities and can rely on one or two of their abilities to be really effective. Champions strong in early game include LeBlanc Lee Sin Draven.
  • At the very beginning of this phase, you should buy your starting items ( Crystalline Flask Health Potion Stealth Ward Stealth Ward).
  • Talk to your team right away to find out if they want to invade the enemy jungle or not. If your team does decide to invade, level your Fling first, otherwise start Poison Trail as you would in most cases.
  • If your team invades and you get in range of an enemy champion (who will likely see your invade and try to run), Fling them back into your team. They may try to flash, which is fine because the displacement from the flash can be cancelled by your Fling.
  • Invading jungle paths shown below, for blue and red side invading.

  • If your team does not invade, find out which buff your jungler is starting. Most junglers this season start on the bottom side of the jungle for better leash.
  • If your jungler starts in top side, make sure to help them leash. I typically leash by leaving a single little Poison Trail cloud in the middle of the camp at 1:54 and auto attacking the large monster a few times. If your jungler has strong level 1 clear like Shaco Warwick or Maokai then you don't really have to leash, unless they really want you to.
  • If you leash, you will get to your lane in time for the first minion wave, maybe missing a minion depending how long the leash was. Your jungler should Smite his first buff so don't stick around too long so you don't leach experience from them.
  • If you are not leashing, you will have two options to choose from: 1) level 1 proxy, or 2) guard your jungler's buff.
  • If you choose to guard (or your jungler specifically requests it), you should guard blue buff if you are on the blue side and your jungler is starting red. You should guard red buff if you are on the red side and your jungler is starting blue.
  • Red guarding paths and blue guarding paths shown below.

  • If you choose to level 1 proxy, immediately follow the proxy paths shown below.

  • Most of the time you want to level 1 proxy between the enemy's inner tower and inhibitor tower so you would take the darker paths shown above.
  • Sometimes if you know the enemy team warded you may want to take an alternative route shown in lighter colors above.
  • If your enemy team invaded and your lane opponent goes to lane late, it may be too risky to proxy between inner and inhibitor turrets so you may want to opt to proxy between outer and inner turrets.
  • You should be able to proxy 2 waves for level 2 and then execute yourself on the inhibitor or inner turret and Teleport to YOUR outer tower as soon as you respawn.
  • If you are greedy and/or lucky, you can try to proxy a third wave so you can guarantee buy a Doran's Ring before returning to lane. You will likely execute on the third wave because you start with no AP but that's okay because you should be able to Teleport back to lane in time to finish off that wave and get level 3.
  • If you see the enemy top laner coming towards you, try to use your vision advantage to avoid them and stall them from farming minions as long as possible.
  • If you see 2 enemies going toward you to stop your proxy, immediately execute on the inhibitor or inner turret once they get close enough.
  • Executing is faster and safer than recalling most of the time, and the death timer is short enough that it shouldn't matter.
  • Do not proxy if the enemy jungler starts in the top side of the jungle OR if the enemy top jungle is well-defended / warded.

Item Purchase Order


Basics of Laning

  • Lane phase focuses heavily on farming and building up your first few items.
  • Farming is arguably more important than getting kills, diving towers, roaming, or Teleport bot for ganks.
  • Most of the time if you can get away with proxy farming, do it because it basically guarantees perfect CS. ONLY PROXY if it's absolutely safe, warded, and your opponent cannot stop you.
  • It's very important that you have map awareness. Check your mini-map as often as you can, either between every last hit or when nothing big is happening with you (no trades, harasses, maybe you are buying, etc).
  • Place wards in anticipation for the enemy jungler. You should always have a Stealth Ward but it has a low duration at low levels and a high cooldown. You should purchase a Stealth Ward at least one every time you recall before upgrading to Greater Stealth Totem and also buy a Vision Ward if you do not have one on a map. If you don't have enough money or inventory slots, prioritize Vision Ward over Stealth Ward.
  • The figures below show the optimal warding locations during lane phase. Wards highlighted in red are for red-side warding. Wards outlined in blue are for blue-side warding. Wards that are not outlined or in a purple field of vision are good regardless of side.

  • The orange yellow trinket ward shown above are for situations in which you suspect the enemy jungler may be lane ganking.
  • Lane ganking is one of the hardest forms of ganking to avoid. You should suspect the enemy jungler is lane ganking if he hasn't been seen in a while and you've been pushed to your tower for a while.
  • Note that these warding spots are deep, but cover the perfect choke points that you should be able to see most ganks coming from a mile away. If you spot the enemy jungler in any of these spots, play safely / defensively. I roughly sketched the field of vision provided by each of the ward spots.
  • If you are too scared or you think it's risky to go that deep into the enemy jungle, move the ward line up a bit which means you'll detect incoming ganks a little later.
  • Note that enemy junglers with high mobility or some sort of jump or teleport ability ( Vi Lee Sin Aatrox Jarvan IV Elise Kha'Zix Shaco Fiddlesticks Rek'Sai Sejuani Gragas) may bypass some of these wards. Additionally, Evelynn can easily get by most of these so play safely against her every time.
  • You have to be smart about when to place your wards to make the most use of their timer. Don't place a ward right before leaving lane or recalling. Don't place a ward top if you have vision of the enemy jungler bot. Wait until you are in lane and no one has seen the enemy jungler in a good while.
  • When you are deciding between placing Stealth Ward or Stealth Ward, always place the Stealth Ward in the higher-priority spot (river brush, enemy buffs) because they last longer.
  • Most ganks occur through the river or tri brush. If you are blue side, you have an advantage because you are less likely to be ganked from the tri brush (unless you are really pushed). This means you can save up on purchasing wards, or used your purchased Stealth Ward to guard against lane ganks.
  • Be careful when pushing out away from the turret, and if you're unsure then place a ward in the edge of the brush closest to your turret.
  • Enemy junglers are least likely to be hiding in the middle lane brush because it is less convenient for lane ganks.
  • Although you probably don't need more than a single Stealth Ward with your totem, sometimes your jungler will leave you a free ward for you top at which point you can use your wards to get vision of the lower-priority spots.
  • Pay attention to what buff the enemy jungler starts. If your lane opponent arrives late in lane, that means they likely leashed for the jungler either red or blue. If this is the case, then the jungler will then go to the opposite side of the map to do the other buff and will likely gank mid or bot first. Use this knowledge to your advantage and play more aggressively since you know you won't be seeing ganks from their jungler so soon.
  • However, if your lane opponent did not arrive late to lane, then the enemy jungler started on the opposite side of the map. Expect the jungler to gank either top or mid first, so play safely and more defensively, focus on last hitting and stay near your tower until you verify the enemy jungler's position.
  • If you do get ganked any time during lane, don't just make a straight path directly back to your tower. If the enemy jungler relies on a skill shot to successfully gank or apply their CC on you ( Lee Sin Dr. Mundo Elise Jarvan IV Nautilus), focus your eyes on their jungler and try to walk in zigzags and behind your minions to juke their abilities. If you can juke their primary skillshot ability, it will be easy to survive the gank.
  • Some junglers become extremely dangerous once they hit level 6 and obtain their ultimate ( Skarner Vi Warwick Jarvan IV Nautilus Pantheon Fiddlesticks) so once you know they hit 6, play more defensively and don't push too far out without warding. This is when warding really becomes important.
  • If you take down your enemy's outer tower early and it's still lane phase, use the diagram below for warding when deep pushing the enemy inner turret past their outer turret. By the time you're this deep you should already have Greater Stealth Totem upgraded.


How to Win Lane

  • Winning lane means to net positive over the following three areas: farm (cs), KDA, and towers killed. If you are about equal to your lane opponent in CS, but have one kill over them and take their tower first, then you won lane. If your opponent has 20 or more cs than you, took your tower, and has one or so less kills than you, then they won lane.
  • The easiest thing for Singed to do is farm. However, this can become difficult depending on your lane opponent (see Matchups section). Just running through minion waves and an auto-attack here and there is all it takes. You can completely ignore your top lane opponent and their tower if you just sit at yours and spread your poison when the minions come. By the end of the game, you will probably have the highest CS of all your teammates because of how easily you can clear minion waves.
  • Unfortunately, it is difficult for Singed to actually kill towers. He has a slow attack speed and not very much AD. However, if you focus on killing your lane opponent and farming, then towers will naturally follow.
  • The hardest thing for Singed among these three tasks is to kill the enemy. If you focus on this and are successful, you will win your lane and snowball your team to victory. Some top lane opponents are easier to fight than others. Check the Champion Matchups section for specific information on each champion.
  • The key to killing most enemies is to out-trading them in lane. Whenever you get the chance, try to poison them, fling them, or auto attack your enemy while avoiding being hit by them and their abilities. This is the toughest part and takes practice. Remember, a single exposure to your poison gives them 3 ticks which is more damage than most auto attacks. Combine your poison with auto attacks and you will pack a punch.
  • Utilize your minion wave. Minions do a lot of damage during lane phase, especially before level 6. If you engage or trade with your top lane opponent with significantly more minions than them, you will win the trade.
  • If your enemy laner hits level 6 before you, STAY BACK especially if they have powerful ultimates with all-in potential ( Darius Riven Renekton). Wait until you get your level 6 before being a bit more aggressive.
  • Additionally, be careful to not stay too long in the middle of the enemy minions so you don't soak up unnecessary damage.
  • KEEP TRACK OF CHAMPION LEVELS. This is extremely important and so many people make the mistake of not paying attention to this. Champions of higher level naturally do more damage and are harder to kill (more HP and defense). If your enemy hits level 2 before you do, they will try to go all-in on you early game. Avoid engaging until you are equal in level or higher than them. This is even more important at level 6. Avoid being near your lane opponent if they hit 6 before you do.
  • Your Fling is your best friend. It is an amazing source of CC. Use it to throw your enemies into tower range. Freeze the minion wave right outside of your tower range (use auto-attacks and single poison ticks to last hit) and bait your opponent to go in for a last hit (this works best against melee champions). If they try to go in to last hit, fling them into your tower and start attacking and poisoning them. If they get low enough, go all in with Ghost or Flash. If you are skilled, you can throw down your Mega Adhesive first to root them under tower (this takes practice).
  • You can also use Fling to throw the enemy top lane into a large cluster of minions, where they will be focused. You can use it to throw them over walls. You can use it to throw them at your jungler. You can use them to throw them away from their own tower if they are trying to play defensively and farm under their tower. There are so many uses for this. Watch my video in the later section to see how to best utilize Fling.
  • Bait the enemy jungler. Try to get them to camp you. The more time the enemy jungler spends top, the less time they spend elsewhere. Try to become a serious threat top against their top lane champion and pressure their tower to bait their jungler to come top. Try to keep them top as long as possible. Also, if you have to choose between killing the enemy top laner and the enemy jungler, go for the enemy jungler every time if their HP isn't much higher than the enemy laner. Killing the enemy jungler increases map pressure for your entire team because they can't do anything while dead in terms of objectives and ganking.
  • At level 6 and beyond, you should be using Insanity Potion for all your all-ins and fights. Your ultimate is so powerful and at level 6 it is ALMOST equivalent to having additional Chain Vest Negatron Cloak Blasting Wand Boots. Don't start fights without it! It lasts for 25 seconds and has a relatively low cooldown (it will be up pretty much every time you need it). In most matchups you can use your ultimate twice between a single cooldown of your opponent's ultimate.
  • Once you take the first tower, be more careful with warding. You should be near the end of lane phase at this point. Stay top and keep farming if you are under 100 cs, try to get 135-150 cs before leaving top to go elsewhere.
  • If the minion wave is pushed to the enemy's second tower (inner turret), invade the enemy jungle and take their red or blue. At this point you should be warding at the bush next to the buffs, so take it when it comes up to screw over the enemy jungler.
  • If you are fighting against a tough lane opponent, like someone ranged that can kite you ( Teemo Vladimir Jayce Kennen) then you should be utilizing the top brushes to hide yourself. Those champions won't dare go into the brush while you're in there because you out-trade them in melee range, except for maybe Kennen. Come out of the brush to clear an entire minion wave or to go all-in on your opponent.
  • Ideally, you should aim to finish early game / lane phase with the following items in your inventory:
    Rylai's Crystal Scepter Mercury's Treads - Distortion Doran's Ring Doran's Ring Greater Stealth Totem.

When to Leave Lane

  • This is extremely important because there are too many players who will just stay in lane forever. If you are doing well, you need to spread your love to the rest of your team so you can win the game.
  • You should leave lane if you took the first tower and have AT LEAST 120 cs.
  • You should leave lane if you are 4/0 over your lane opponent and mid or bot is having trouble or is tied. Roam mid or bot to help your team lock down some kills. Also if you are this fed, you can easily go help do dragon.
  • You should leave lane if your team is doing poorly. If every lane is losing, it's time to start grouping early and end lane phase as soon as you can. You guys need to start winning fights and making picks to catch up.
  • You should leave lane (but come back after you buy) if all your charges on Crystalline Flask are used up, you have no more Health Potions, and the minions are pushed so that there is no risk to your towers.
  • You should leave lane and return after buying if all your charges on Crystalline Flask are used up, you have no more Health Potions, or your top lane opponent or their jungler can tower dive to kill you. It's better to let the enemy take your tower than to give them a free kill.
  • You should leave lane if anyone on your team wants to lane swap (more on that later).
  • You should leave your lane if your team wants you to group.
  • You should leave your lane if you see plays being made mid, or the enemy team is grouping mid to push or take towers.

Lane Swapping

  • I really dislike lane swapping, but it's something that you're going to have to do or deal with now and then.
  • Sometimes the enemy bot lane might come top. If this happens, try to get your bot lane to swap with you as soon as they can.
  • Sometimes your bot lane will be so behind and so underfed that you should offer to swap with them so that they have an easier time farming against a solo champion.
  • Sometimes your mid lane will be so behind and underfed that you should offer to swap with them so that they have an easier time farming against a melee champion (they are most likely ranged).
  • Sometimes you will naturally have an easier time laning against the enemy mid champion ( Zed Jarvan IV Pantheon Yasuo Riven Lee Sin Fiora Wukong) than you will against the enemy top lane champion ( Rumble Teemo Vladimir Kennen). In this case, ask if your mid lane will swap with you. If they don't mind swapping, go mid so that you can farm better and possibly shut down some of those snowball-y AD champions that won't be able to 100-0 you because you are much tankier than your squishy mid laner.
  • Laning mid is about the same as top, except you can't utilize the brushes as well, the lane is shorter, and also you are expected to roam bot to gank and help them get them kills. Also, you will be more pressured to have to ward because mid lane has more access points for the enemy jungler to gank you.
  • Here is a sample video where I lane swap mid: http://www.twitch.tv/g07h4xf00/c/4753482

Proxy Farming

  • There are four good times to proxy farm:
  • 1) You are super ahead and even if your top lane opponnt and jungler comes for you, you can still get away from them and possible 1v2 (poison is strong).
  • 2) You are being super denied farm by a pro kiting champ like Ryze Lulu Cassiopeia Nidalee Lissandra in which case you really need to proxy farm. Build damage early to clear waves faster, and grab a Stealth Ward or two when you recall). Ward enemy blue / red buff (depending on your side) as well as tri-brush.
  • 3) Your opponent is really bad at wave clearing and is always farming at their tower.
  • Remember, if the enemy jungler comes for you, that means they aren't going mid or bot which is good because those are the lanes that will carry the game.
  • 4) At level 1 so you can get 2 free waves of farm and hit level 2 reliably.
  • Also, if you build early damage you can kite with poison and if needed, turn on them for a kill.
  • If you have the option to kill their jungler in exchange for a death, ALWAYS take that trade because the enemy jungler not being on the map means your own jungler (and team) can pressure lanes and secure objectives like dragon. I know I've said this before but I can't emphasize this enough.
  • Proxy farming is good because it positions Singed such that he has easy access to the enemy buff. You can try to steal their red/blue or help your jungler steal their red/blue.
  • Switch up your positioning a bit. Don't always proxy farm between outer and inner turrets. Sometimes go between inner and inhibitor turrets, they usually don't expect that.

Ganking

  • Knowing how to Teleport gank during early game is one of the most important skills to have with Singed but also top lane in general.
  • If you Teleport gank say, bot lane, you will lose 2 waves of farm, gets kills/assists, get bot outer turret, pop the enemy bot lane's summoner spells, and secure dragon in the BEST CASE SCENARIO. This is why Teleport is preferred by top laners over Ignite.
  • In the WORST CASE SCENARIO: you die, you lose at least 3 waves of farm, and the enemy top laner takes your outer turret.
  • A good time to Teleport gank with Singed is about level 6-7 and around the time you have Blasting Wand Doran's Ringx2 because you'll have about 105 AP with your Insanity Potion on and will be able to melt the enemy bot lane if you catch them.
  • Definitely Teleport gank if your enemy laner uses Teleport bot. Follow them if you think your bot lane is in danger. If they are safe, then stay top and take tower.
  • The diagram below shows the optimal gank spots depending on which side you are on. Try to get your bot lane to ward those spots and go down there when the enemy bot lane is pushed past those points. Alternatively, you can defensively Teleport to the friendly bot outer turret if you suspect a dive is coming or if the enemy team is going to try to 4-man your bot lane.

  • Always focus the enemy ADC if possible and if they get away then try to settle for the enemy support. If all else fails, get your team to take Dragon or the enemy bot outer turret.
  • You should be confident for Teleport to bottom. Walk back to your lane when you can to preserve the spell off cooldown but use it to Teleport back to your outer turret if you are behind and REALLY need farm or the enemy bot lane is too smart to go out of position.
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Mid Game

Summary

  • Mid Game begins right after lane phase ends, so about 15 minutes in and ends at about 35 minutes. Champions that are strong in mid game are champions that hit their power spike with one or two of their skills maxed and a few items complete. Champions that excel in mid game include Pantheon Riven Jayce.
  • You can usually tell when mid game begins because some outer turrets are destroyed and lanes are starting to group (typically mid).
  • In Mid Game, objectives will be extremely important because of the global gold your team gets but also the map pressure can make enemy teams fumble and crack.
  • Keep track of dragon timers, dragon is a highly important objective and you need to rally your team to do dragon as soon as it's up. Since the Season 5 changed, Dragon gives some pretty powerful permanent buffs to the team that gets it.
  • Ideally in mid game you want to finish building Randuin's Omen Liandry's Torment. Having Randuin's Omen should significantly increase your survivability and Liandry's Torment greatly amplifies your damage output.
  • Always ward Baron. You never know when the enemy team might try to sneak it or go by it to ward it themselves. You want vision control on Baron because more vision in that area means more control which means your team is more likely to take Baron.
  • Warding is critical. Although this task is mainly the duty of the support, since the Season 5 changes the work load for warding is more distributed among the team. Use your Greater Stealth Totem and if you have any open inventory space when you recall (as Singed, you usually don't) then buy a Vision Ward to always have one on the map.

    Here is where you should be warding or encouraging your team to ward in mid game:

    NOTE: the purple zone should be warded regardless of what team you're on. Ward Blue zone if you are on the blue team being pushed against. Ward red zone if you are on the red team being pushed against. If your team is ahead or pushing against the enemy team, you can push up your ward line to the opposite color zone. If you are blue team and being really pressured, keep purple and orange zone warded. If you are purple team being pressured, keep blue and orange zone warded. Your team can place a total of 15 Stealth Wards and 5 Vision Wards, which is plenty of wards. Try to keep these specific places warded at all time. If you have a surplus of wards, you can ward other places too, WARDING IS NOT RESTRICTED TO THESE LOCATIONS. These are recommended locations that tend to be highly contested in most games and would be extremely useful for you to have vision on them.
  • Ward locations in the above diagram marked with Greater Stealth Totem are higher priority and you should aim to ward those first. Ward locations in the above diagram marked with Stealth Ward are secondary priority and should be covered if the higher priority spots are already covered. Tell your team to ward those spots or place your own wards their if the priority spots are already taken.
  • Ideally, 5 of the 6 above Vision Ward locations should be warded at all times during mid game. Defend these spots.
  • You may have to improvise depending on how the game is going.

Team Fights

  • Most team fights happen in Mid Game and most of these can completely change the flow of the game. If lane phase didn't go too well for your team, don't worry about it too much because mid game play can make a huge difference.
  • Singed is decent at initiating team fights but NOT great. You want to leave team fight initiations to your jungler ( Lee Sin Jarvan IV Elise Vi Amumu), your mid ( Fizz Ahri Zed Orianna), or your support ( Nautilus Thresh Leona Morgana Blitzcrank Nami Braum). Basically any champion that is good at gap closing (diving) and applying some form of AOE or CC such that the rest of your team can easily follow through on.
  • However, as Singed you can still sort of initiate team fights or help initiate them. The best way to help initiate a fight is to throw your Mega Adhesive around at the enemy team (try to place it between their front line and back line). This should hopefully encourage someone else on your team to harass enemies slowed by your Mega Adhesive or make them go all-in.
  • If you are bold and think you can get a pick on the enemy ADC, go HAM with Insanity Potion and Ghost/ Flash, to try to get a Sticky Flip on the enemy carry (mid or ADC, whoever is easiest to get but I typically go for their ADC) or just Fling them back into your team. Sometimes you may have to cast Mega Adhesive to catch them. Make sure your team follows you if you do this.
  • Be careful to avoid being hit by enemy CC as most of them will blow all their CC spells on you (this is fine) to prevent you from getting to their back line.
  • With your insane amounts of movement speed and tenacity, you should be able to eventually catch their carry unless they use Flash or some sort of escape to get over a wall or to safety.
  • Diving the enemy team becomes a lot easier if you already bought Turbo Chemtank or someone on your team has it.
  • If anyone on your team can give you a shield, heal, or movement speed boost for when you charge the enemy team ( Black Shield On The Hunt Command: Dissonance Whimsy Time Warp Divine Blessing Tailwind) then have them do that because it will greatly increase your success rate at initiating.
  • As soon as you Fling them back, immediately cast Mega Adhesive (if it's still up) between them and their team to make it harder for them to escape or for their team to help them.
  • If you Fling their ADC, immediately cast Ignite on them if you have it because that will shut down their life steal but also make it easier to kill them.
  • Your Poison Trail should be on this entire time so it should be doing damage to them but you should also be auto-attacking them.
  • If you need additional slows on the enemy team, use the Randuin's Omen active if you already have the item and it's up.
  • After you initiate this fight, run around to spread your Poison Trail which should CC everyone on their team with Rylai's Crystal Scepter passive making it harder for them to disengage or try to re-position.
  • AVOID DIVING TOWERS when you initiate. The only exception to this rule is if your team has Baron buff, your team is clearly stronger than the enemy team, or if your team has enough burst to guarantee a kill once you've caught their carry.
  • Sometimes, the enemy team will initiate on your team. As soon as they initiate on your team, immediately activate Insanity Potion but don't use your Ghost/ Flash until you want to dive the enemy back line or quickly return to your own back line.
  • If the enemy front line is diving your back line, immediately start focusing on PEELING. Run back towards your Carry and stick to them. Use Fling to peel enemy front line champions off of your ADC (try to do this AFTER they used their gap closer on your ADC).
  • Cast Mega Adhesive between the enemy front line and your ADC to make it easier for your Carry to kite and get kills.
  • If both Mega Adhesive and Fling are down, rely on Poison Trail + Rylai's Crystal Scepter permaslow to keep the enemy front line damaged and slowed. If you already have Liandry's Torment, this becomes a lot easier and you will see their front line / tanks quickly melt away. If you still need more CC / peel, use the Randuin's Omen active if you already have the item or it's up.
  • Basically, if you stick to your ADC you will survive (and possibly win) the engage. By simply physically being by your ADC during team fights, you can block skill shots from enemies that go toward your carry or even just make it hard for them to get to your ADC because of added threats (poison + auto attacks), zoning, and unit collision.
  • Carries do the most damage in team fights and most team fights are determined by how well the carries do. Therefore, keeping your AP Carry or AD Carry alive as long as you can or ensuring that the enemy AP Carry or AD Carry are killed quickly will greatly increase the chance of victory in team fights for your team.
  • Singed is extremely good at team fighting, so try to encourage your team to team fight as much as possible. The more team fights you win, the more likely you will win the game.

Split Pushing

  • Unfortunately, Singed is decent at split pushing but not great because his low AD makes it hard to kill towers quickly without a huge minion wave. You should not be solely focusing on split pushing, leave that to other champs that excel at it ( Nidalee Tryndamere Jax Rengar Shen). However, it is advantageous to split push if you have Teleport up and use that to join your team if they need your help.
  • However, Singed is really good at clearing minion waves. Whenever your side lanes are pushed during mid game, use the opportunity to quickly go to one of the side lanes (typically top) and push 2-3 minion waves.
  • This is a fast process, all you have to do is walk through 3 minion waves with your Poison Trail on. You don't even have to stop, just run straight through them and they will die on their own.
  • If you do take a break to split push, quickly re-join with your team and have them pressure mid while the enemy gets pressured from the side lanes.
  • If your team is not very good at team fighting but good at split pushing, don't initiate team fights and instead stick with your team and help them kill minion waves, poke down towers, and disengage from team fights as necessary.
  • If the enemy team is really good at split-pushing or has a champion with a global ultimate ( Stand United Destiny Grand Skyfall) then the best way to shut them down is to group your team as 5, go to the lane being split push, quickly kill that annoying champion, then shove that lane.
  • If you are split pushing and encounter the enemy ADC, FIGHT THEM! Singed can 1v1 any enemy ADC assuming they aren't incredibly fed.

How to Take Objectives

  • I can't stress this enough how important objective control is. In mid game, always prioritize taking towers over taking red/blue buffs and taking dragon/baron.
  • If you ace the enemy team, don't recall. Take a tower or two if you have a large and pushed enough minion waves.
  • If you don't have enough minions or waves that are pushed, take dragon or baron instead.
  • If your team has to choose between taking dragon, baron, or an inhibitor--always take the inhibitor.
  • After taking an inhibitor in a lane, stop pushing that lane unless you have the minions to to certainly take nexus towers or the nexus. Rotate to push another lane instead.
  • If you have baron buff, you must absolutely focus on taking towers because the buff doesn't last very long. Don't waste time with red/blue buff and don't tower dive unless you have a clear numbers advantage or your team poked the enemies down to half HP.

How to Baron

  • This is probably the most important section because so many games are determined by who gets Baron. I can't tell you how many come backs or throws I've seen because of teams taking Baron.
  • Baron is more useful alive than dead. Use your map control to bait fights at baron. Wait in one of the bushes outside of Baron for the enemy team to show up if you know they don't have vision of Baron.
  • In all of the following cases for doing Baron, first try to bait the enemy team to see if you can catch them in an ambush. Most of the time baiting it is more important than actually doing it.
  • You should do Baron if you just aced the enemy team and there are no immediate objectives to take (like any easy base structures).
  • You should do Baron if the enemy Jungler and ADC are either dead OR pushing bot lane and you can rally your team quickly enough. Your ADC and Jungler MUST participate.
  • You should do Baron if the enemy team has no vision of Baron and you do. Try to bait first. If they don't take the bait, just do Baron.
  • Have your team use Vision Wards and Oracle's Lens to clear enemy wards from that area.
  • You should do Baron if more people on your team is alive than their team, you have a Smite advantage (your jungler is NOT dead while their jungler is alive), AND there are no inhibitors to be taken before the enemy team revives.
  • You should do baron if your team has super minions in the enemy base.
  • If your team is behind and the enemy team is doing Baron, encourage your jungler to try to Smite steal it. In this case, you have little to lose and so much to win if you're successful.
  • You should do Baron if someone on your team is capable of early or quick Baron cheese ( Tryndamere Fiddlesticks Nunu & Willump Kalista).
  • When you do baron, you should be tanking it as Singed and make sure you keep it constantly poisoned, auto-attacked, and use Fling on it whenever it's up.
  • If the enemy team is nearby or is going to try to steal Baron, hide in one of the neighboring bushes and try to keep them away using Fling and [Mega Adhesive]] and being as annoying as possible. It is more important that you zone the enemy team if they are nearby than tanking baron.
  • If the enemy team is fully committed to trying to stop your team from Baron, turn on the enemy team if they are low or have less numbers than you, or disengage away from Baron pit.
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Late Game

  • Late Game starts at about 35-40 minutes and goes until the end of the game. This is typically the point at which most champions in the game are level 18 and builds are mostly complete or complete. Champions that excel in late game include: Jinx Tryndamere Vayne Jax Nasus Poppy Singed.
  • Singed excels in late game because he scales very well with items and also because of the diversity of his build. You should definitely be team fighting in late game, not split pushing.
  • Team fight rules don't really change, except now there are fewer team fights and an ace or victorious team fight can lead directly to a victory by pushing the Nexus.
  • Split pushing is less effective in late game because one wrong move can lead to the enemy winning the game (respawn timers are much longer, and enemies are more likely to be grouping).
  • Encourage your team to do Dragons. Singed can easily solo Dragon since you will have Liandry's Torment.
  • Baron rules don't really change, except that the buff becomes more useful in team fights (especially if everyone is already full build).
  • Your team should absolutely stay grouped at all times if possible.
  • Singed is very strong in late game because of Liandry's Torment and Thornmail, two items that scale pretty hard (the stronger the enemy team, the more damage these items do).
  • In late game you should be focusing on finishing your build with Thornmail and one of Spirit Visage/ Frozen Heart/ Abyssal Mask/ Turbo Chemtank which should make you barbarically tanky and also deal with enemy ADCs that have Last Whisper.
  • Make sure in late game you invest in either Elixir of Iron or Elixir of Ruin at about your 5th or 6th item.
  • Warding is even more important but it will be harder because there will be less available inventory slots on your team for holding wards.
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Singedful Decadence

This section contains some useful trivia and tricks you can do with Singed that aren't immediately obvious.

Tips

  • Know your role in the game. You are a tank and/or "AP offtank/bruiser". ALL your items better have a defensive component of some kind (armor, HP, or MR). At LEAST 3 items of your should be strictly tank items.
  • Because Singed isn't played that often, many enemies won't know how to lane against him or will underestimate how much damage he actually does.
  • Never fully commit to playing Proxy Singed, it's a sub-optimal strategy to commit to.
  • Most players will assume you are a troll, which you can use to your advantage.
  • Bind your laugh to an easy button on your keyboard like 'T' and spam it when you are running around to really aggravate and possibly bait your opponents.
  • It's not easy to carry with, you'd have to be extremely fed from lane or really farmed.
  • Singed requires a competent team that knows how to work together to do well. Don't just expect to run in to any fight with your poison on and expect things to work out. You really have to time your abilities.
  • Mana is not cheap early game, so be conservative with it. Don't leave your Poison Trail on all the time.
  • Your Mega Adhesive and Fling abilities have long cooldowns, use them intelligently because they bring a lot of CC to fights that can really decide the flow of battle.
  • You are deceptively stronger while fighting with your Insanity Potion active, try to do as much in these 25 seconds as you can. Even if you don't get a kill, force your enemy to recall or farm passively under tower. Make them afraid of you.
  • As a beginner, play using the Snow Day skin because the particles are easier to see (white poison on green background, outline on W area) and will help you get use to the range of his abilities.
  • Don't over commit. This is the biggest mistake I see with Singed players. You may be fast and tanky, but you're not God. Many champions you face will have sources of CC or escapes or gap closers that will make it so that you just can't catch up with them. It's okay. Maybe you popped their summoner spell, or one of the abilities they would have otherwise used on your carry. Don't fret, you'll get them next time! Don't give away a free kill or go Rambo into their team if it's too risky.

I got some of this following tips and trivia from another Singed guide made by Church of Tiamat.
  • Singed has 345 base Movespeed, which means you are naturally faster than every ranged champion.
  • Singed's offensive skills have the lowest cast range of any champion. Poison Trail range is 20 and Fling is 125.
  • Fling costs 100 Mana at level 1, the highest mana cost for a non-ultimate skill at rank 1. Fling ties with Valkyrie, Wall of Pain, Caretaker's Shrine and old Sion's Cryptic Gaze in this regard.
  • Singed's Poison Trail gets hidden visually if the enemy can't see him. Just like how Nunu & Willump, Pantheon, and Sion can channel their spells in bush while the enemy can't see the animation, but can see the debuff/damage on them.
  • Banshee's Veil only blocks your Fling.
  • Your Fling is a knock up. Help your Yasuo.
  • Poison Trail clouds last for 3.25 seconds, the tick refreshes each second, which makes the enemy poisoned and take damage for 6 seconds, which means a total of 132/ 204/ 276/ 248/ 420 (hue Maokai) plus 180% of your AP, at the cost of 13 mana only, given that the enemy stays in a Poison Trail Cloud until it fades away.
  • Frozen Heart aura and Randuin's Omen passive procs double damage from Liandry's Torment. It also gives you the 2% damage reduction from the Oppression mastery.
  • Fling can throw people over walls. Save people (and yourself!) from Cataclysm.
  • Rylai's Crystal Scepter slow only lasts for 1.5 seconds while Liandry's Torment debuff lasts for 3 seconds, champions which can continuously deal damage buy Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Liandry's Torment for permaslows with tons of damage. It also gives 700 HP and 150 AP, which is very nice.
  • Singed's Poison Trail can give Cassiopeia resets on her Twin Fang.
  • If you didn't build any mana on Singed, at level 18 he can keep Poison Trail on continuously for 107 seconds. With his Insanity Potion on he can leave his Poison Trail on and net gain mana over 25 seconds.
  • Surfer Singed skin will make you take 1 less damage from Leona's Sunlight passive.
  • Wish removes any Poison debuff.
  • The buffs after you increase the Insanity Potion rank are not dynamic. If you are going to level to 11 or 16 right before an important teamfight, activate your Insanity Potion after you reach that level.
  • If you level up your Poison Trail while it's on, you need to toggle it off and back on to get the updated amount of damage.
  • In URF Mode, Singed always has Insanity Potion up (which was something only shared with the old Sion), but remember to wait for the Insanity Potion buffs to expire after you rank it, or you won't have the increased stats.
  • You can Fling people while they are taking Magical Journey. You literally pull people away while they are inside a wall.
  • Your Fling can cancel enemy channeled abilities including but not limited to: Teleport, Rite of the Arcane, The Culling, etc.
  • No matter how fast you try/script, you can't cast Mega Adhesive to snare the Fling'd enemy while they are midair.

    I made a YouTube video to show some of the tricks you can do. Most of these tricks are inspired by InvertedComposer's Singed guide. NOTE: this video is over a year old (I will work on an updated one) so it displays some old item I used to build in previous seasons.

    Outplays

    http://www.twitch.tv/g07h4xf00/c/4858848
    http://www.twitch.tv/g07h4xf00/c/4894572
    http://www.twitch.tv/g07h4xf00/c/4894609

    Hard Carries

    http://www.twitch.tv/g07h4xf00/c/4913827

    Invisible Poison


    InvertedComposer's Singed guide talks about making your poison invisible by using the fact that the poison cloud grows in size as a function of time. Therefore, you can technically spawn a single poison cloud object that is infinitely small size if you toggle your poison on and off at almost lightning speed. Since this is difficult for humans, you can do this using key bindings that InvertedComposer describes in this guide as follows:

    Procedure:
    First, go to your League of Legends Folder > Config > and then open the 'input' file
    And then change the following:


    • Procedure: Go to your Riot Games folder > League of Legends > Config > input. Open up the text file 'input' and edit the following:
      evtSmartPlusSelfCastSpell1=[t] and evtSelfCastSpell1=[t] . In game, press t to release a puff of invisible poison.
    • Usage: Very useful during early game for harassing especially because your poison is invisible. Notice how "Invisible Poison" doesn't expend and has smaller radius than a visible poison. Your target has to literally "step on" it rather than just "touching" it.
    • Tips: If you barely see the Poison buff on your buff screen and your ability goes on cooldown, then you've done it right. You should absolutely see no poison in the game.
    • Difficulty: 10% (VERY EASY NOW RIGHT?)

    Personally, I bound mine to "g" since my "t" is bound to my laugh. Note that the above file you may not necessarily see that highlighted line, so you would have to add in those lines yourself. Use invisible poison in lane phase to harass your lane opponent. After lane phase, you won't need it as much but it is still fun to clear an entire minion wave with invisible poison. After all, "the unseen poison is deadliest" :^).
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

  1. Q: Why don't you build any mana? you can only Fling like twice with his default mana pool.

    A: The key is mana management. If you can manage mana properly, you don't need to spend your gold on mana items like tear or RoA and can put that gold to better use.

    I use to rush Tear of the Goddess in lane, and switched to double Doran's Ring (almost the same price) because it let me trade better. Also, don't always keep poison on. Think about it this way, a single Poison Trail "puff" costs 13 mana, and can theoretically poison an entire minion wave for three ticks of damage (also applies to champions).

    Doran's Ring make it so that when I poison / kill an entire creep wave, I get almost all the mana I spend refunded back.

    For Fling, I only use it when necessary (it has a 10 second cooldown but is super important to have up in important times).

    Examples include:
    - Flinging enemy champion away when they try to engage
    - Flinging enemy top laner or jungler away during gank
    - Flinging enemy top laner into my tower
    - Flinging enemy top laner into my jungler during gank
    -Peeling enemy front line off my ADC
    -Throwing enemy ADC into my team

    If you think about it, you only need like 1-2 Fling every fight to be effective.

    I always open Crystalline Flask and after making the switch from Tear of the Goddess to double Doran's Ring I found that I never have mana problems.

    I think the better question you should ask is, "do I need to Fling more than twice to be effective in a fight or to get a kill?"
  2. Q: Seriously though, don't you waste Singed's passive by not building any mana items?

    A: Again, no. At level 18 I still get 256 free HP from Empowered Bulwark with no mana items. If I happen to build a Frozen Heart, that's another 100 HP. But again, it's a nice little bonus but not something you should revolve your build around.

    Go to the Items section and download the spreadsheet (linked at the end). You can try playing around with the build and you'll be able to see that mana items like Rod of Ages and Archangel's Staff aren't item slot efficient, despite being gold efficient. Slot efficiency means there's a better item you could be filling your inventory slot with. Better items are any of the items I recommend in my build. They typically give more tankyness or more damage.
  3. Q: What do I do if the enemy top laner rushes Spirit Visage?

    A: Focus more on farming, but you can still use your poison and auto-attacks to harass them, but don't go all-in on them until they are much lower than you, or an opportunity presents itself (like your jungler came up for a gank or you can Fling them into your tower range. Remember, if they rushed Spirit Visage then they haven't built Sunfire Aegis, Randuin's Omen, or any other armor item that will be useful to them to tank hits from your towers or ADC. Itemization trapping ftw!
  4. Q: What do I do if the enemy I am fighting has Banshee's Veil?

    A: Most champs don't build this until mid or late game. If their spell shield is up, save your Fling for when some other spell pops it. If no one else is around to pop the spell shield, then use Fling to pop it yourself. The Banshee's Veil spell shield does not stop your Mega Adhesive or Poison Trail.
  5. Q: What would counter or shut down Singed?

    A: Enemies that have lots of slows or peels, or can kite very well. Example champions include: Ryze Kayle Lulu Rumble Kennen Cassiopeia.
  6. Q: Do you duo queue?

    A: Sure, add me as a friend if you want to duo queue. As of right now, I only duo queue with people in Diamond 5 or higher, but I may make exceptions to some Plat 1 players. My friends list is almost full, so if you can't add me then shoot me an email at g07h4xf00@gmail.com.
  7. Q: Can you give personal lessons?

    A: Sure. I am trying to promote this guide since it's new, but if you want we could play some custom games if you want to practice laning or whatever.
  8. Q: How do you play Singed in ARAM?

    A: Similarly to Summoner's Rift, but I often don't even get Doran's Ring x2. You should open Blasting Wand Boots or Catalyst the Protector Boots and build directly into Turbo Chemtank or Rylai's Crystal Scepter first chance you get.
  9. Q: How do you play Singed in Twisted Treeline (TT)?

    A: Similar items as in Summoner's Rift. Singed is an extremely powerful bot laner in TT and great in team fights. He is usually banned or in high demand. I may one day alter this guide or make a separate guide to include Twisted Treeline play.
  10. Q: What if the enemy team is winning all lanes in early game?

    A: Try to end lane phase early and focus down their carries.
  11. Q: Do you stream?

    A: Yes. I started last season so you can check it out at www.twitch.tv/g07h4xf00 I am currently not very active because LoL is crashing my computer when I attempt to stream it (but no other video game of more intense graphics does this). I will try to fix it and possible move my stream to YouTube.
  12. Q: What other top lane champions do you recommend I learn?

    A: If you like to have a diverse champion pool, I highly recommend learning Maokai, Nautilus, Dr. Mundo, Sion in that order. What do they all have in common? They are AP, relatively tanky, and bring a good amount of damage and utility to team fights.
  13. Q: Do you feel that Teemo is as hard a counter as everyone claims he is? From my experience, I generally can win the lane unless the guy is like a Challenger smurf Teemo main who can kite me into oblivion.

    A: He really isn't a hard counter. Picking Teemo ****s over your entire team, even if it is to 'counter' the opponent's pick. You just shouldn't pick Teemo.

    There are a few things I usually do against Teemos:
    -If he pushes hard, have jungler come for ganks he is one of the easiest champs to gank he is insanely squishy
    -If he pushes hard and jungler does not want to come for gank, you can catch him by surprise with Insanity Potion + Ghost + Fling and throw him into your tower. At this point, he will take a tower hit, or two, and while he is trying to run from tower you are poisoning + auto attacking him with your ult on. Basically you out-trade him at melee range.
    -If he is playing safely, hide in the lane brushes, wait for one of your minions to get low (because it's the one he will want to last hit), come out of the bush throwing a W at him. He will either stay to kill the minion, in which case you catch up to him and fling him, he will stay to attack you, in which case you will catch up to him and fling him, or he will run away from you, in which case you just poison the entire minion wave and go back into the bushes.
    -If all else fails or if he is playing super passively, just proxy farm between his outer and inner turrets.

    You completely outscale Teemo so even if you get behind by like 20 cs you will be more useful in mid and late game than him.

    Q: You said champion X was an "easy" or "medium" difficulty match-up but why am I having so much trouble?

    A: You need to practice. Simply reading a guide once won't make you a pro. This guide should give you tips on how to deal with certain situations. Champions like Renekton, Riven, or Vladimir are really strong laners, but if you get the hang of playing against them then you will realize they aren't all that bad. If you want, I can personally justify why I assigned certain difficult levels to champions if you need clarification.
  14. Q: What if I disagree with something in your guide or have a suggestion on a way to improve it?

    A: Feel free to tell me what you disagree with and why. I am not all-knowing and the best player ever, so it's possible I either missed some things or wasn't entirely accurate about something. Use the comments section on here or send me an email and I will try to address it. I am always open to suggestions, feedback, and ways to improve myself and my guide. Also please point out any typos you see! Suggestions on improving the organization or structure of the guide are also welcome!

    Q: Why is this guide so damn long?

    A: I like to be thorough and verbose. I like to relay as much information as I can so that it can be helpful. I feel that the problem with most other guides is that they don't teach you the basics of PLAYING THE GAME. They also aren't very good at telling you the best way or role for your champion or when to use them or their abilities.

    Q: I win lane and get really fed but why am I still losing??

    A: This is the most common complaint I see. Not all games are winnable, and winning your lane and getting fed isn't enough to win the game. You have to use every advantage you personally have and share it with your team. Start roaming. Get your team fed. Rally your team for objectives. It's objectives that win the game, after all. Don't be pessimistic or down about it. If you are losing too many games or are getting angry, stop playing for a while and go take a rest. You play better with a level head. You can't force your team to do well, but you can encourage them and pave the way to victory. I know how frustrating games like those can be, but you just have to move on and learn ways in which YOU could have applied yourself better or helped your team.
  15. Q: What do you think of other Singed guides who suggest different item builds than yours? Have you checked out X's guide to playing Singed?

    A: Yes, I've done plenty of research seeing what other Singed guides are out there and some of the things they recommend. Most of them suggest Rod of Ages as being core to Singed's build and suggest rushing it first. I disagree and still think that Rylai's Crystal Scepter is the best first-rush Singed item. Some guides recommend going 3-4 AP items on Singed and having only 1 or 2 defensive items. I don't agree with this right now (though, I used to build 3 AP items on Singed in previous seasons) because it's a tank meta where tank items, champions, and playstyles, are in the best position they've been in a long time. If you want to keep up and build Singed as a tank, I think this is the best and most optimal guide to do so.
  16. Q: Do you have any other guides??

    A: Technically, yes. This guide is based on my original Singed guide on Lolking: http://www.lolking.net/guides/255326 which you can expect me to update more frequently than this one (the website interface is easier / better). In terms of guides for other champions, I don't have any yet because I want to get some more experience playing those champions. If I do release another guide, expect it to be for Maokai top who is currently my second most played champion in Ranked.
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