Hey everyone. I'm JPlayah and this is the Singed zone. Welcome.

This guide is meant to be quite comprehensive, and includes plenty of pro tips to help you use Singed effectively for everything from serious gameplay to trolling. This means that it is a longer guide than most. It's meant to help you go from lol what is a Singed? to Yeah, I am a Singed master. For players familiar with Singed, this guide presents tips and tricks to expand your knowledge.

Important things are highlighted for your convenience. Optional sections begin with *(This section is optional reading)* and end with three green asterisks ***. These sections are for players who want to go more in-depth and gain some advanced Singed knowledge.

In short, you won't become a master of Singed just by copying the runes, masteries, and items at the top of this guide (it's a guide, not just a single build), but if you read through the basics, you will definitely get the hang of playing him. Have fun!

Your feedback is both welcome and appreciated! Let me know if I've missed out on anything. Credit will be given to those who provide tips that I've missed. :)

Thank you.

12/20/2012: Started guide. Wrote intro and ability sections.

12/21/2012: Wrote sections for spells, runes, and masteries, began early game section. Mobafire keeps glitching and cutting off half of the intro section's title, giving me Undying Rage.

12/22/2012: Finished early game and mid game sections. :D

12/23/2012: Wrote section on items. Started late game section. The guide is finally starting to come together!

12/24/2012: Made general updates throughout the guide to improve clarity and better explain what super AP carry tank Singed is all about. Wrote section on roflstomping. Finished late game section. Wrote section on how to kill Singed (I told you it was comprehensive! :D)

1/3/2013: Beginning overhaul of guide to summarize key points while retaining the in-depth sections.

1/27/2013: Added a brief section before the early game section to explain how to use that part of the guide.

2/2/2013: Made minor updates to improve readability. Added a section on teammates.

3/18/2013: Updated guide in response to Riot removing cc reduction from Singed's ultimate.

6/2/2013: Started section on dealing with Singed's worst enemies.

8/15/2013: Updated items in response to Runic Bulwark being removed from the game.

11/18/2014: Finally decided to update this rust bucket and clean it up for modern gameplay.

Picture this: You play League of Legends. You've probably tried quite a few champs. But maybe not all of them fit your style.

Maybe you find running at the enemy and autoattacking to be dull and boring.

Maybe you're sick of having no damage output when you're the tank.

Perhaps you're looking for a little more freedom of choice, and an opportunity to play without being confined to the role of CARRY or TANK or SUPPORT. Maybe you don't like being told what your champ is and isn't.

If this sounds like you, I present Singed, a champion who stands apart from the rest of the pack.

And if this doesn't sound like you, you should try Singed anyway because he's awesome. :D


WELCOME TO

Singed

Singed is first and foremost, a really tough AP champ who builds naturally into a tank due to his passive Empowered Bulwark. He performs best as a disruptive bruiser, and he can do this in addition to taking on other roles.

Singed's kit as a whole is quite powerful because of how well his abilities synergize with each other. The engine that drives Singed is his ability to run around, disregarding soft cc and ignoring damage that would make other champs flee. This is what allows Singed to close in, deliver his abilities, and catch enemies even while being attacked.

Singed is not overpowered, though. It takes a special kind of build to accomplish this and unlock his true potential, and it is that build that I present in this guide. By capitalizing on Singed's mobility and cc reduction, the doors are opened to making a tough, tanky platform that can support a wide variety of item options. Here's an example: You can make him deliver tons of damage by making his AP really high . You want a number on that AP? 600. Why is that significant? Because he can also have 3500 health.

In general, super AP carry tank Singed is fast, tough, and effective at almost anything you want to do with him on the battlefield. He can be a carry, tank, support, or fill a combination of those roles. He can scout, escape, and even facecheck when needed (aka when someone forgot to BUY WARDS sight ward). It is this versatility that makes super AP carry tank Singed so fun to play.

PROS

:: Can be built as both an AP carry and a tank,
with room for support items if desired.

:: Can ignore substantial amounts of damage and
crowd control unless focused.

:: Can farm like a boss.

:: Can pretty much go where he pleases and
do what he wants.

:: Plenty of room to adjust item build after
core items are done.


CONS

:: Vulnerable to hard cc and being focused.

:: Has difficulty escaping from well-coordinated ganks.

:: Mana hungry early on

:: Requires fairly strict mastery set-up to allow freedom
when choosing items.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember with any champ is the mentality to have while playing that champ. Here is the Singed mentality:

Run around, poison people, trick them into chasing me, slow them so they can't escape, fling them back into my tower/team, farm like mad.

This mentality is the driving force behind this guide. It's what led me to make the item choices in my main build and the rune and mastery choices to support what I believe is the greatest potential Singed can reach. It's what drives my thought processes and decisions in-game. It's the essence of what I enjoy about playing Singed, and leads to the reason why I wrote this guide: To share this fun and exciting build and experience with the rest of the League of Legends community.

Basic summary

What are my goals with items and the pregame setup?

You want Singed to be fast, tough, and able to disregard crowd control as much as possible (particularly slows). This is what enables him to succeed. Once you finish your core build, feel free to customize Singed however you want.

What are my goals with my behavior in-game?

Singed is very capable of manipulating situations, so look to see where you can take the most advantage of whatever is going on. If enemies are being stupid, bait them into tower diving you and fling them into your tower. If your allies are getting jumped nearby, get in there and disrupt your opponents. If you're being chased, use your poison trail.

Almost any time you have manipulated your opponents into doing something (whether it was intentional or not), you can find a way to turn it to your advantage. In general, you can easily save allies, lock down enemies, disrupt your opponents, and tank damage if you are in the right place at the right time. Singed is a powerful force when built properly, and opponents who underestimate him often find themselves dead.


Next:
Abilities
Core items
Runes and masteries
Summoner spells

Abilities

Singed's abilities are described in detail in the next section of the guide, but here's a quick overview in case you got auto-locked with Singed and you need to know what to do.

Empowered bulwark
Build mana to get bonus health.

Poison trail
Toggle on to leave poison as you run. Get enemies to walk through poison for damage. Try not to burn through your mana with it early game. Max first.

Mega adhesive
Throw where enemies are to slow them. Max last.

Fling
Throw people behind you. Useful for disrupting enemies. High damage but high mana cost. Max second.

Insanity potion
Activate when entering team fights. Improves most stats for 25 seconds.

Core items

Super AP carry tank Singed needs the following items to succeed:

Boots of swiftness

These boots make Singed go fast and the new passive reduces the effectiveness of slows on Singed.

Rod of ages

This makes Singed tough, gives him mana which works with his passive Empowered Bulwark, and gives him some AP.

Tear of the goddess

This gives Singed plenty of mana and mana regen, gives him bonus health through his passive, and builds into the awesome Archangel's Staff.

What next?

Singed can go in any number of directions from here. He can focus on carrying, tanking, supporting, or a combination of roles. For more information on items, see Defining your build.

Runes and masteries

These sections are covered later, but I'll give a quick summary here. For runes, you want a fairly tanky setup. I take magic penetration marks, flat armor seals, magic resist per level glyphs, and flat mana quintessences. And yes, I just read all that in Phreak's voice as I typed it :P. For masteries, go 9-21-0, focusing on magic penetration in offense and crowd control reduction in defense.

Summoner spells

Get Ghost. Singed should always have ghost. Singed shouldn't take Flash because there are better options for him. If you find you need it, you're probably being too aggressive or careless. I like Teleport. Some people like Exhaust or Ignite. Everything else is up to you, but few spells are as good on Singed as the ones I've recommended.

So you went to your lane and picked your E skill . Now when should you use it? For that matter, when should you use any of your skills?

Passive: Bonus health

Singed's empowered bulwark gives him bonus health equal to 25% of his mana. This allows him to build like an AP carry and still be a tank, and is the reason I have included Rod of Ages and Tear of the Goddess in the core build. Remember, mana = extra health when playing as Singed.

Q: Trolling gas

Singed's poison trail starts off pretty weak, but develops into a powerful ability as you build more AP. The poison hangs in the air for a few seconds and an enemy that comes into contact with it will take damage every second. The damage will continue as long as the enemy remains in the poison and continue for a few seconds after they leave. Because of these effects, you can use the poison in the following ways:

1. You can toggle your poison on, use Singed to draw a "line" through and around enemy minions, then turn it off to conserve mana. The poison will continue to damage the minions for a few seconds before you need to repeat the process. A Singed player who uses this effectively in the early-mid game will be able to farm for much longer before needing to recall than a player who leaves the poison on between passes.

2. You can run away from an enemy while damaging them, weakening your foolish opponent as you run.

3. You can run circles around the enemy team in a team fight, constantly resetting the poison damage timer.

4. You can sometimes finish off an enemy that has killed you when they would have otherwise escaped.

*(This section is optional reading)*
Pro tips:

Singed's poison costs 13 mana per second at all ranks. If you are out of mana in the early game, you can continue farming by waiting for your mana to reach 13 and turning your poison on as you run through an enemy minion wave. You can also use this to help secure a kill on an enemy that is tower diving you.

Make sure that your poison is on while you are attacking an enemy or being chased (unless you want to save mana for your fling in the early game). Your poison can do a fair amount of damage over time and can kill glass cannon carries in a few seconds late game. Once a fight is over, turn your poison off again to conserve mana.

If you really want to harrass enemies in the laning phase, try moving in when your minions are near the enemy tower, then double back and draw a line of poison for a second or two. Your enemies, who are likely feeling pressured by the minion positions, may lash out as you move forward, only to fall for your bluff and take 50 to 100 damage from poison and your minions.
***

You should max your Q first for epic farming.

W: Slow things

Singed's mega adhesive places a pool that covers a circular area nearby and lasts for a few seconds. Enemies that walk over the area are slowed. The slowing effect continues for a moment after an enemy leaves the area. You can use the super glue in the following ways:

1. You can stop people from running away from you. The slow only lasts for a couple seconds at best, but it can give you enough time to catch up to an enemy champion and fling them back into your team.

2. You can make it more difficult for enemies to escape when they try to back out of tower diving you. This opens the opportunity for a fling and might give your tower that last shot it needs to secure a kill.

3. You can stop enemies from reaching you or your teammates. This is especially useful in the jungle, where enemies are less likely to have the option of sidestepping the adhesive.

*(This section is optional reading)*
Pro tips:

When using your W to escape, make sure you use it before the enemy has actually reached you. Singed has to stop moving while using this skill, so using it when the enemy team has already caught up to you just gives them more opportunities to hit you.

When trying to catch up to an enemy using this skill, make sure the enemy is well within your W's range. Again, you have to stop moving while using it, so it doesn't do you any good if you catch the enemy at the far edge of the pool and they escape because you couldn't catch up or the slow only lasted half a second.
***

You should max your W last in favor of your other skills.

E: Throw people

Fling is a powerful crowd control ability that throws an enemy you are facing behind you. It has a range slightly greater than melee range. Because it is targeted, Singed will chase down the desired 300 gold-on-legs and throw it the instant he is within range. The ability is also quite strong, dealing a high base damage plus 75% of your ability power, but it is also expensive. It is important to control the direction you approach from, since that will determine where the target will go. You can use fling in the following ways:

1. You can throw people into your turret. This is the reason I recommend taking fling at level one. When an opportunity shows up that will allow you to send a low level enemy flying into your turret's range, you should always take it. This situation is described in more detail later.

2. You can separate enemy champions from their team. Throwing enemies into your team is a sure way to rack up kills and assists. The use of fling in team fights allows you to pick an enemy team apart, stripping them of their carries and supports which are vital to winning a fight.

3. You can increase the effectiveness of other forms of crowd control. A slow or stun that might have allowed an enemy to escape becomes deadly when it gives you enough time to catch up to that enemy and fling them. Your team can do the rest.

4. You can fling enemies that you are chasing onto your poison trail. This can also cut off escape routes. If you haven't used your adhesive yet, this is a great time to do so and ensure that you can run up to the enemy's new position and continue poisoning them.

5. You can save allies from being chased. If your W is on cooldown or you can quickly catch the enemy, a well-placed fling can get an enemy off your ally's back.

*(This section is optional reading)*
Pro tips:

Watch your position carefully when flinging an enemy who is near a low-health ally. You want to send the enemy into your team for a quick kill, but you definitely want to avoid bringing the enemy closer to a weakened ally unless your team can secure the kill within a second or so.

If an enemy looks like they might chase you back to your tower in the early game, watch your mana and try to avoid dropping below 100. This is a situation where it's more important to be able to fling an enemy than poison them while they chase you. If you're being chased with your poison on, turn it off when your mana is at about 120-150. This gives you enough mana to fling the enemy into your tower and poison them after.

Be careful when flinging tanks into your team. This is not to say that you should never fling a tank back (your team may well have enough damage to kill them), but be aware that some tanks like Rammus or Galio have abilities which can seriously hurt a group of surrounding enemies. Know what you're flinging before you throw it. In any case, you generally want to focus on carries or support champs rather than tanks unless you're dealing with a highly disruptive champion like Sejuani who you need to take down in order to win the fight.
***

You should max your E second for extra damage.

R: Do everything better

Singed's Insanity potion increases his ability power, armor, magic resist, movement speed, health regen, and mana regen for 25 seconds. It has a reasonably short cooldown, allowing it to be used in nearly every team fight. This is the core of Singed's mobility and tankiness in fights, and building on the power it gives him through items, runes, and masteries allows Singed to truly not care what his enemies are doing unless they are hyperfed or have tons of cc.

Activating this ability gives Singed an edge on his opponents that can be used to bait them, to draw them away from their allies and to kill them when they have twice his current health. It allows Singed to ramp his speed up so much that he can ignore many slowing effects, or escape even after being feared.

There's only one ideal time to use Singed's ultimate: When entering fights. The ability usually lasts long enough to get you through an entire team fight, and the combination of stats it provides is ideally suited to that situation. Using it simply to recover health or mana is a waste of the ability, and can deprive you of its power in an upcoming fight, which could kill you.

It's usually appropriate to activate the ability a few seconds before entering combat. The burst of speed might help you save an ally or take advantage of an enemy's poor positioning.

You can also use Singed's ultimate for cleanup. If multiple enemies are fleeing from a battle, the insanity potion can give you the power to catch up and push through any crowd control that enemies might use to slow you down before you fling them into your team.

The final use of the insanity potion is to escape. This is considered a last-ditch effort to get away from enemy champs (possibly the entire enemy team that you stumbled into) and is only to be considered when all your other skills and your ghost are on cooldown or have been used and were inneffective. If you have used your other skills and you think that you have escaped, save your ultimate.

*(This section is optional reading)*
Pro tips:

If an enemy team is intent on killing you and you have been forced to activate your ultimate to escape, activate your poison while you run. Your ultimate will boost your AP, and the combination of the poison's damage and enemies with tunnel vision might just allow you to turn around and secure a kill before your enemies realize how much damage they have taken.

Coordinate with your allies to lock down disruptive enemy champs so that you can get into the fight and land more successful flings.
***

You should upgrade your ultimate whenever you can because it's your ultimate and it's awesome.

Ghost

Ghost is an excellent spell for Singed. It increases his mobility, adding to that engine that allows him to get around the map, move in and out of team fights, chase down enemies, and escape from ganks. It helps him be where he wants to so that he can land his abilities and deal tons of damage. Singed excels when he can control the distance between himself and his opponents, and ghost helps him do that.

Teleport

Teleport is just a good spell to have. It helps you cross the map in seconds. It can bring you from base back to your lane in the early game, saving you 30 seconds of walking time and often gaining you a level in the time it would have taken you to walk back, giving you an edge on your opponents. You can gank with it. You can score a pile of enemy creep waves with it. You can enter team fights with it and spam your skills at everyone. Teleport gives you powerful map control all game, and is definitely worth considering if not taking by default on Singed.

Other spells

Exhaust

Exhaust is another great spell to have on Singed. It improves your ability to catch up to escaping enemies, lowers their damage output, and thanks to your masteries, decreases their armor and magic resist to help you get clean kills. Exhaust should be taken with Ghost (since Singed should always have ghost). If you want to improve your catching power, try exhaust instead of Teleport.

Ignite

I don't take this but some people like it. It's a good spell for shutting down that fatty Mundo's health regeneration and it's useful for securing kills if you find that your enemies are just barely escaping you.

My rune choices are pretty standard for a tanky AP champ. I take the following:



The one thing that might stand out is my choice of quintessences: Flat mana. Why these quints?


Morello*: "Well, super AP carry tank Singed is a fun champion, but one of the downsides to playing him is that he often runs out of mana in the early game. We wanted to address this issue, and we were able to do that by giving him these quintessences."

Thank you, Morello.

*Not actually Morello

*(This section is optional reading)*
Your runes are somewhat flexible (except for marks. You need dat magic pen). Other acceptable runes include mana regen seals, ability power glyphs, or percent health quints. It all depends on how you want to build Singed. I use the more defense-oriented selection above in my AP focused build to cover for the lack of armor and magic resist in my item selection.
***

Out of all the components of your pre-game setup, your masteries are the most important part of preparing to become a super AP carry tank.

In most builds, masteries are somewhat flexible and you have plenty of options for changing them. You can swap out part of a tree and still get the job done. Not so with super AP carry tank Singed. When building this kind of Singed, your items take the place of masteries when it comes to personalizing your build.

Why are these masteries so important? Because they lay the ground work for building the engine that carries Singed around. The defense tree helps Singed tank damage, but it also helps him avoid a lot of damage. Some of the most important components of the defense tree are damage reduction and cc reduction.

*(This section is optional reading)*
You'll see that I put a point into reducing the effectiveness of slows on Singed with Swiftness , and I augment this even more with the passive on Boots of Swiftness. Out of all the forms of soft cc that might hinder Singed, slows are some of the most common and some of the most devastating to him. My goal was to focus especially on slows and to nerf their effectiveness on Singed into the ground.

With most slows (except Exhaust) having little effect due to masteries and boots, you've just cleared out at least a third of the problems you'll face from cc, which helps you run around your enemies and not care about their disables. Slows aren't the only form of cc that you'll face, which is why I put another point into reducing the effectiveness of all enemy cc with Tenacious . Apart from that, I focus on extra armor, magic resist, and health. It is this combination of masteries that allows Singed to run around and ignore what other champs can't, which is important when he needs to close in on enemies.

In the offense tree, I put 4 points into Sorcery, partly because it makes me a MOTHER****ING SORCERER and mostly because it's better than the alternatives for Singed in the first row. From there, I tech my way to Arcane Mastery to get some extra AP.
***

Well, that's pretty much it for the setup. Now let's get to the awesome part: PLAYING SINGED!

The next three sections cover what to do on the battlefield in more depth. I've chosen to organize the information by when it is most relevant during a game, in either the early game, mid game, or late game sections.

This style may seem unusual. The reason I have divided information up in this manner is so that I can not only give advice, but also provide context for when each piece of advice is most important. This makes it easier for me as a writer to go in-depth and talk about situations that might otherwise be hard to discuss in a guide, and hopefully makes it easier for you as a reader by walking you through an imaginary game, presenting you with the situations you have learned (or will learn) to encounter, and explaining how to deal with them as Singed.

Bear in mind that while some things may be obvious to you, they aren't obvious to everyone. I have written this guide to help somewhat inexperienced players as well as those who know their way around the battlefield.

The beginning of the game is an exciting time. It's an opportunity to meet new people, check out new starting builds, and see how many kills you can rack up before the first tower falls. :D

Your goal in the early game is to get your farming off to a great start so you can buy the essential items that make up your core build.

This section focuses on early game farming.

As a reminder, the starting items I recommend are:

Sapphire crystal

x3 Red sodas

(Listed as "health potion" in the item shop)


The items you should start building in the early game are

Boots of swiftness

Rod of ages

Tear of the goddess

*(This section is optional reading)*
You might want to get this item earlier depending on how your early game is going. If you find that enemies aren't engaging you, consider getting this on your first trip back to base to help you with your mana pool. If you are being attacked and poked a fair amount, get catalyst the protector first to increase your survivability, starting with Ruby Crystal if you're having an especially difficult time. Thanks to Driredeath for helping me think about the usefulness of Tear of the Goddess.
***

The basics

Farming your lane

As described above in the skills section, an effective way for Singed to increase his farm speed is to turn his poison on, make a quick pass through the enemy minion wave, and turn it off again. You want to save your fling. Don't use it for farming unless you're securing a siege minion. Use your basic attacks to last hit. Once you get good at using Singed, you'll be able to last hit some minions with your poison, and you'll learn when to avoid turning the poison on at all in order to time your basic attacks better. Using poison to last hit generally isn't effective until you have 2-3 ranks in it, but it can certainly weaken a minion wave over time and set the creeps up for your basic attacks.

Even in the early game, Singed can afford to take risks that other champions can't. You can make a pass with your poison through a minion wave even though you'll be right next to the enemy champions for a moment. The reason you can do things like this is that Singed is a highly mobile champion. You're walking up to the enemy, but you won't stay there. Heck, you were already planning to leave. This technique of moving forward and back forms the basis for all of Singed's deceptive maneuvers.

People who are unfamiliar with Singed might mistake you for a noob player or think that you're being stupid. You're not, you're just using your abilities to their full potential by poisoning as many enemy minions as possible. Despite this, players can still mistake these maneuvers for lack of skill, and can be quick to jump on or chase after a Singed that pushes too close to them, especially if he has half his health or less. This is what leads to the technique of baiting, which you can use all game to secure kills, make enemies do some VERY stupid things, and generally give your team a good laugh.

Singed generally does best in the top lane. It's a fairly peaceful lane which is visited less frequently by champs in other lanes, making it easier for you to focus on farming. Singed can also play support when paired with certain champs, but this is generally more difficult to do.

Pro tip: One great way to ensure safety in the top lane is to put your trinket ward in the bush at the end of the river. You'll see ganks coming and be able to get to safety before enemies get a chance to jump you. Keep in mind that before level 9, you will only be able to have your ward up half the time. It takes about 1/4 of the trinket's cooldown to walk back from base to lane. To take advantage of this, try waiting until your trinket vanishes to recall and buy items. You'll spend the time walking back to lane without missing out on vision from your trinket.

*(This section is optional reading)*

Early game situations

In the early game, any of the following things might happen:

You might get ganked.
You might get the opportunity to gank.
You might get tower dived.
You might die.

Getting ganked

Suppose that you're farming away, unconcerned with silly things like melee damage and Tryndameres, when suddenly you look at the chat window to see "mid mia," but the call came too late. Or perhaps you're in the middle of making a pass through the enemy creeps with your poison when the enemy jungler charges in through the bushes. How can you make the most of this situation? Do you always need to back off?

Besides using common sense and backing off when there are multiple full health enemies running at you, there is one thing to keep in mind: A gank can be countered if your enemies get in over their heads. When the enemy shows up yelling "Surprise!" check both your health and the enemy health. Players can get overconfident when they outnumber you, even if their combined health is only somewhat greater than yours. If you know you can make it back to your tower safely, don't sweat it. Last hit a creep on the way. Poison the enemy if you have plenty of mana. And above all, if your enemies chase you back to your tower, fling someone in.

I have seen countless ganks ruined because two players forgot that they needed to surround someone (or at least get close) to get a clean kill and became overconfident, thinking that a 2v1 automatically gave them an advantage. I've also seen players run away from situations that weren't really a threat to them, missing out on gold and experience from farming that they could have gotten. It's not the number of people that matters. It's about what those people can do to each other and what they can absorb before falling. Two enemies surrounding you might be able to kill you when you all have the same health. An enemy who has been separated from his partner and thrown under your turret is going to have a much harder time doing so.

It's fine to run away if your attacker is at full health and you're not, but don't run further than necessary. Stay close enough that you can get experience from dying minions if you can. If you can intimidate your enemies with your poison and other abilities and get them to back off, that's better. You can continue farming without fear if you're able to show your opponents that they can't boss you around.

Ganking

Getting the opportunity to gank doesn't always happen, but when it does, you should take it. Junglers aren't the only things in the game that are allowed to get the jump on laning champions, and you can really help a teammate out by showing up when they're in trouble. So, when should you gank?

Ganking is difficult in the early game because of how easily a target can slip away from you. In order to do it properly, all of the following things need to be true:

1. You need to have ranks in all of your first abilities: Poison trail, mega adhesive, and fling.

2. Your lane needs to be clear, or at least there should be no risk of your tower being pushed while you're gone. The exception is when your opponents are at about half health, which is explained in more detail below. A good time to gank is when your laning opponents have just recalled or are farming under their turret.

3. Your target needs to be level with your side of the river or closer in, and specifically this needs to be true when you arrive. This is so you have enough time to actually do something before they can walk away. If you see your teammate retreating at low health and their opponent is chasing them (also at fairly low health), that's a great time to go. Ask an ally to hold your lane if they're nearby and run for your mid lane. Mid is the best lane for Singed to gank, since it will always be the nearest lane to the one he's farming in (unless you're jungling with Singed, in which case I can't help you with this guide anyway).

Once you are at the desired lane, throw down your adhesive, fling the target back (preferably into your tower and not into a position where they can kill your ally), and run in front of them, poisoning them until they die. If the target is at the tower when you arrive, save your adhesive until after the fling if possible. Your primary goal is to ensure that your fling puts the enemy well within your tower's range.

Don't be afraid to activate your Ghost as you enter the lane. The speed it provides might be what it takes to reach your target before they can get away and any time left on the ability will help you return to your lane faster.

The one thing that can really foil your ganks is Flash. If an enemy uses the spell and jumps out of your range, the gank is usually over. You might be able to catch an enemy after a poor flash, but most of the time they will have escaped. Don't worry about it and head back to your lane. You did the best you could. Keep an eye on the enemy, however. If they present themselves in a position to be ganked again within the next 3 minutes, they won't have their flash to escape with this time. Hurry down to the target's lane and flip that 300 gold pancake like the pro chef you are.

There's one more technique that's good to know when ganking: Return ganking. After ganking a lane, you may find that the enemy has in fact pushed your lane. The reason why it's okay to gank when enemies are still in your lane at half health is that as you return, those half health enemies might be next to your tower.

There's a reason to only allow this when your enemies are near half health. If their health is much lower, they'll simply push their minions to your tower and recall to avoid retaliation. If their health is much higher, they'll push your tower with impunity and escape before you can kill them. A slightly weakened enemy might stay in the lane, not realizing the danger they are in as you approach from the river.

As you return to your lane from ganking, provoke the enemy into attacking you if possible and fling them back into your tower, using your poison and adhesive to secure the kill. This technique is even stronger if you time your return to match up with that of an ally who is entering the lane, allowing your teammate to secure whatever you've just thrown their way.

Pro tip: Singed's strength lies in his ability to control the situation he's in, whether he's chasing, being chased, or ganking. By concealing that strength, you gain an advantage over your opponents by making them think they have more control than they actually do. When the moment is right and you suddenly move to take control, enemies who are less familiar with Singed or less aware of what's going on will be unable to avoid your trap. Against smarter opponents who know what Singed is capable of, you need a different approach. If your enemies are consistently stopping the chase before you're in a good position to fling them or trap them, adopt the opposite behavior. Bully them. Start from your tower and push out. Use your adhesive on occasion if you have plenty of mana to spare, even if you're not going for a kill. By intimidating opponents who are already on the lookout for your abilities and tricks, you can alarm your enemies and make them back off, sometimes more than they need to. From here, you can farm more effectively as your opponents keep their distance.

Getting tower dived

"I can kill Singed!"
-The thoughts of some Tryndamere player who, as it turns out,
was definitely NOT able to kill Singed

If your health gets to that perfect area between about 150 and 300 and you're close to the enemy champs, they might decide to chase you back to your tower. They probably think they'll get a clean kill.

(Hint: This is where you get free gold)

Baiting is the technique of intentionally taking damage or standing near enemies at moderate to low health in order to lure them into dangerous situations. It's not recommended for anyone who is unfamiliar with their champion or the enemy champions. In fact, successful baiting relies on you being more aware of the situation and what people are capable of than your opponents are. Overall, it's a dangerous and risky thing to do, but it sure makes for great videos when done right.

Singed excels at baiting for two reasons: He can be deceptively difficult to kill thanks to his tankiness and abilities, and optimal use of his poison while farming really makes people want to attack him (maybe they think you're going to initiate on them under their tower or something XD).

People won't usually chase you into the turret's range on their own, but they will often stop a little outside it, which is usually close enough for a fling to cause the tower to start shooting at them. Even better, when an enemy makes a point of chasing you that far down the lane, it usually means they are sure they can kill you and that they aren't concerned about having minions under the tower to draw the initial fire. This is often a huge mistake. If you have baited an enemy into chasing you in the laning phase and you have at least 150-200 health, double back just outside your tower's range and send the fool over your shoulder before they can reconsider.

Note: I put a lot of emphasis on killing enemies by tricking them, but you shouldn't expect those opportunities every game. Rather, it's a guide to how to react when those situations do occur, because Singed has a lot of potential to take control of them and pull a kill out of what an enemy thought would be your death.

Dying

Getting killed early game isn't pleasant, but it happens. Maybe you were too aggressive. Maybe you were ganked at a really bad time and got stunned before you could retreat. Maybe you were pushing an enemy back and that Teemo came out of stealth. It's important to reflect on what caused your death, as well as what you could have done to avoid it and how you can prevent more deaths in the future (like buying wards, herp derp).

After that, the most important thing is to get back to your lane as quickly as possible so that you don't get behind on farming. This is an excellent time to use Teleport, especially if it's close to the beginning of the game. It would have been better to avoid dying in the first place, but at least you're avoiding returning to your lane two levels behind everyone, which can definitely ruin your game.
***

Summary: Be an opportunist. Know your abilities and your limits, and pay close attention to all combatants in order to gain an advantage when your opponents make mistakes.

As towers start falling and players get their ultimates, the mid game comes rolling in. What should you do in the mid game? Everything.

Your goal in the mid game is to finish up your core build and farm everything you can while determining what items to finish with.

This section focuses on mid game farming and team fights.

Again, your core build consists of Boots of Swiftness, Rod of Ages, and Tear of the Goddess, which you will eventually build into Archangel's Staff.

*(This section is optional reading)*
Pro tip: Having Singed's poison on will trigger the unique passive on Tear of the Goddess every time its cooldown resets, which is every 3 seconds. Whenever you recall, turn your poison on and leave it on while you shop. You'll increase your maximum mana while you browse through items.
***

The basics

Farming

Having a successful mid game is about balancing two important tasks: Farming for gold and being with your team. As Singed, you can use your speed (enhanced with items and spells) to cross about a quarter of the map in no time. If you position yourself well and keep track of your teammates and opponents, you should be able to join in on team fights early enough to make a difference, even if you're farming when you see the teams begin to gather.

The mid lane is where most team fights occur, but it's tough to farm in an area where other people are already scoring the creeps. So how can you farm while remaining somewhat close to your team? The answer: Hit the jungle.

As long as you don't have a jungler who's still making passes through the area, feel free to take down camps as you transition from one lane to another. You might move from bot to mid, clearing the wraiths as you do so. From there, you could take down some minions before clearing the wolf camp and scoring a couple of creep waves in the top lane. Farming in the mid game is all about spotting gold and taking it. This doesn't mean it's okay to steal camps from your allies. Don't be an a**hat . You should focus on unattended lanes and jungle areas, or farm a lane with a teammate. However, when you see those 15 enemy minions gathering in the top lane with no champions present, your goal should be to get there and farm them.

As the game progresses, your poison becomes more and more deadly and you'll have more mana to keep it going. Use a farming approach similar to that used in the laning phase. Run through the enemy minions with your poison on before turning around and last hitting with basic attacks. This time, you can let your poison last hit minions further down the lane while you focus your basic attacks on taking out the ones that are fighting your own minions. You can also use your fling more often. You still want to turn off your poison between creep waves, but it's less critical to do so between passes on the same wave.

*(This section is optional reading)*
Pro tip: The 13 mana trick from the early game is much less effective in the mid game. If you run completely out of mana while farming and you don't have a blue buff, recall to get more. At the same time, keep track of your experience. If you're close to leveling up, it might be worth it to stay in lane, since the unique passive on catalyst the protector will trigger and refill a moderate amount of health and mana. Your catalyst will continue to help you throughout the mid game by increasing your farming time.
***

Place a ward in the river from time to time so you can farm more safely and spot enemies coming. By the time they reach the lane you were in, you'll already be back in the jungle, farming another camp. If enemies seem to be on the hunt for kills, make note of it but don't let it stop you. Instead, simply transition to another area. Buy a couple more wards if you see enemies in the jungle so you know when they're lurking nearby.

In general, any time that nothing is happening is a good time to farm. When things do happen, however, you need to be ready to react to them.

Being a team player

One of the interesting things about Singed is the unique role he can play on his team when everyone heads to the mid lane. When you see the teams gathering, it's time to stop farming and head over there. There's a special job for you to do.

*(This section is optional reading)*
Pro tip: There are situations when you know a big team fight is coming, but you've just farmed up several thousand gold and you're not sure if you can recall to buy those big items you need and still make it to the team fight on time. If your Teleport is up, this can be a great time to use it. Recall back to base, get your items, and teleport onto a minion right in the middle of the battlefield. You can throw the enemy team off-guard with both a surprise initiation and a massive increase in power from your new purchases.
***

*(This section is optional reading)*
Scouting: Singed's special role

One of the challenges that teams can face is knowing where the enemy team is. You might sense them gathering, but you don't know how far down the lane they are or what condition they're in. Singed can solve that problem through advance scouting. While your team stands in place or edges forward, cautiously run down the lane. If you sense a trap or a gank prepared for you from the sidelines, back away.

If the enemy team is indeed gathering, you will of course see them at some point. Be smart. Now is not the time to initiate, but you can provide your team with a ton of information simply by standing a safe distance from the enemy team and gaining vision of them. If they lunge forward, move back. If they fire skill shots, move sideways to dodge them. Continue to watch the enemy team and see what they do while maintaining your distance. This is an area that Singed excels at. With his high mobility, he can safely scout the enemy team without fear of getting caught, provided that you are able to anticipate the use of crowd control abilities by your enemies.

This kind of scouting is a high skill level technique and you don't need to get within attack range for it to be effective. Just standing a little bit in front of your team gives all of you more vision of the lane. If you just keep an eye on the edge of the enemy team, that's usually enough to tell where people are. If you feel uncomfortably close to your enemies, back away. You don't have to do this if you don't want to. It's just a useful technique for Singed players to know about.

If you do decide to scout, keep an eye on dangerous targets like Blitzcrank, Elise, Dr. Mundo, and Sion. These champions and several others have powerful crowd control abilities that can lock you down and turn your scouting into a free kill for their team, which will probably result in your team calling you a feeder and a noob. If you do get caught in cc and you think you can still escape, activate both your ultimate and your Ghost and run away at 500+ move speed. Keep in mind that this situation was caused by you either not being cautious enough or fast enough and that you should be more careful in the future. Burning your ultimate in order to escape is sometimes necessary, but it's never something you want to to do.
***

When you reach your team, feel free to take a few steps towards the enemy team and taunt them if you feel like being a troll. If at any point, the enemy team surges forward and chases you, simply run back to your team, activating your poison to soften the enemy team up. Eventually, you will want to turn on your ultimate in preparation for the upcoming team fight. Now it's time to show both teams just what you can do.

How to fight

Your goal in a team fight is to deal as much damage and be as disruptive as you possibly can. You want to shake the enemy team in a way that they'll never recover from. You're no assassin, but you can still spread quite a lot of damage with your poison. The first devastating thing you should do, however, is fling someone. If possible, push your way past the enemy tanks and throw the nearest enemy carry into your team. Use Exhaust on their ranged carry or their assassin if you picked that spell. Run circles around them with your poison. Try to make everything you do affect as many enemies as possible. As long as you aren't being focused, you can rain hell on your foes. Physically block their path. Stand in the middle of them when they try to regroup. Run up the side of the lane and throw their support into the bushes. And when they all turn and run, drop your adhesive in their path and fling them back into your team.

The great thing about Singed is that even if the battle turns against his team and he is forced to retreat, he can still shake up his enemies. Maybe the enemy team got your superstar carry and you all started running back towards your base. Continue fighting even when you have your back turned to your enemies. Zig-zag accross the lane with your poison on. Force them to walk through it. Drop your adhesive in front of their carry and prevent him from reaching your low-health ally. Fling their squishies into your tower. Stop as if you're going to make them fight you under your tower, then drop your adhesive and continue running. Juke back up the lane and into the jungle to draw half of them away, poisoning them as you lead them on some crazy path that will eventually take you to safety. Move in little measured increments to make your enemies think you're slower than you actually are and trick them into keeping up the chase. Activate your Ghost, then do a u-turn and run by them again with your poison. Kill anyone whose health gets low enough with your adhesive and fling. Above all, keep the enemy team as disorganized, disrupted, and confused as you possibly can, and you'll give your own team a chance to recover and regroup.


*(This section is optional reading)*

Mid game situations

In the mid game, any of the following things might happen:

You might want a buff for yourself or a teammate.
You might get chased by an enemy.
You might find that your enemies are moving in a pack.
You might be asked to stop farming and join your teammates.

Getting buffs

Maybe you're feeling low on mana too often and you want a blue buff. Maybe your teammate wants some extra firepower to be more effective. Whatever the case, there are some things to know about securing buffs with Singed.

Singed can solo buffs around level 8-9 with a nearly complete rod of ages. You also want full health and full mana. Singed takes a fair amount of time to kill monsters with buffs, so you want to make sure there aren't enemy junglers in the area.

Maybe you're thinking about getting a buff, so you start to head over to your blue... but wait! Why take your blue buff? Why not take the enemy blue buff? :D Go on, what's stopping you??

A lot of players don't consider taking an enemy buff simply because they don't know what's there. True, the enemy jungler might be there, or the enemy might have someone else who's going to get it, but that's what teammates are for, right? Bring an ally, place a ward where enemies are likely to approach from, and help yourself to their blue while they're not looking!... and maybe their wolves while you're at it.

If the enemy lacks a jungler or just isn't paying attention, you can hit both halves of their jungle from the river and take everything. With your abilities, you can slow enemies that show up unexpectedly and with your allies' help, you might even secure a kill for your team. If you notice that the enemy team is largely ignoring their own jungle in the mid game, feel free to clear their camps multiple times, perhaps even setting up a jungle route that takes you across both sides of the map in order to get as much gold as possible. You're certainly not invicible, but unless the enemy is in a position to flank you, you should feel confident about your ability to escape an encounter with one or even two opponents.

To get a buff for yourself, run in with your poison on and start auto attacking the monster. Use your fling whenever it is available. Toggle your poison to conserve mana, releasing a puff every 2-3 seconds. After what feels like a long time, the buff will be yours. The thing you must avoid is running out of mana, because without mana Singed will have only his basic attacks left and the monster will eventually kill him. This is why I recommend securing buffs only with a mostly full mana bar.

To get a buff for an ally, follow the above process but keep an eye on your poison and on the monster's health. It is far too common for your poison to score a last hit on a buff you were trying to give to an ally. Since your poison will hurt the monster for 3 seconds after you turn it off, make sure you stop using the ability some time before the monster will be dealt the killing blow.

Getting chased

Perhaps you're in the mid lane fighting an enemy, when they hit you for quite a bit of damage and start chasing. Obviously you want to kill whoever is chasing you. Can you do it?

When being chased, there are a number of factors you want to consider when determining if you're able to turn the tables. Important things to consider are damage, health, crowd control, and lane position. Ask yourself: If it came to a straight up fight, who would win? Consider whether you could win if you were able to throw them under your turret. Check how close you are to your turret and determine how committed the enemy is to chasing you. Are you at low health but not about to die in one hit? Maybe at least 4 or 5 hits? Or maybe your health is at about 15-20% of its maximum value? These are all signs that the enemy probably thinks they can kill you. Don't turn your poison on too early, but activate it shortly before you reach your tower. From here, use the classic tower kill combo: Fling the enemy back, activate your poison, and place your adhesive blocking their escape path. Run around under your tower to avoid the enemy's attacks while your poison and tower get the job done.

Dealing with a pack of enemies

It's one thing when there's an enemy roaming around looking to pick up a kill, but when the whole enemy team starts doing it, you need to stop the farming for a bit and deal with it before the opposing team gets up 10 kills and is unable to be stopped.

If your enemies start roaming in a pack looking for kills, this is a good time to buy a Sightstone and upgrade it when you get the chance. Encourage your teammates to do the same if they have the gold. A roaming pack of champions is deadly, but nothing shuts it down quite like a coordinated team warding effort. If you keep key areas consistently warded, your enemies will waste their time hunting while you and your allies earn gold and experience, moving to new areas whenever the enemy team gets close. The best places to ward are in the center of each river section near the jungle entrances and in the bushes where the river meets a lane.

Staying with your team

Sometimes, you'll be asked to stop your farming before you want to. This is a sign of someone taking charge and giving the team directions. Maybe it's time to go kill the dragon. There might be a tower ready to be pushed. The enemy team might have a champion farming alone that you're all in a position to gank. Whatever the reason, it's important to listen.

If you're very close to having enough gold for an item, communicate. Let your team know. Ask if you can get that last 50 gold, or if you can recall to buy and refill health and mana. A smart player will listen to reason if you say something, so use the chat rather than continuing to farm without giving a response. Whatever the reason may be for grouping up, it's your job as a team member to finish up that camp or minion wave if there's time, refill health and mana, again if there's time, and go meet up with your team.
***

Summary: Get as much gold as you can, but keep an eye out for what's going on across the map and be ready to move when your team needs you.

Teams move together by default (at least you hope yours does). The word "baron" starts appearing in chat. It's time to determine who will win the game and who will announce "My team are all noobs. Report my team for feeding and unskilled" even while they insult their teammates and lower their confidence in the team chat.

Your goal in the late game is to rally your teammates and encourage them by tearing the enemy team apart.

This section focuses on being a good teammate and preparing for victory.

The basics

Finishing your build

Choosing your items requires the same skills that every league of legends player needs. Throughout the game, you need to be checking what your allies and enemies are building. You need to see who's feeding and who's getting fed. From there, you can decide what will compliment your team and give you the best chance of winning the game.

Is the rest of your team made of AD champs and is the enemy focused on building armor? Build more AP items and tear through your opponents. Is your whole team getting swamped by damage? That Runic Bulwark should help. Can't kill the fed Mundo? Try a Morellonomicon. Is the enemy team catching you off-guard? Place wards using your Ruby Sightstone and warn your team about chasing enemies into bushes.

Whatever the situation, you can adapt and overcome if you farm hard enough and react to problems early enough. You can find lots of ideas for building Singed in the next section, Defining your build.

Teamwork

If it's been a more or less even match so far, the outcome of the game will be determined by whichever team is more coordinated in the late game, 100% of the time. Something every player can do is encourage their team to be more coordinated, to lead by example by always staying with a teammate, and to communicate with their team so that they know not just what everyone is doing now, but what their goals are.

Why does that Renekton keep splitting off to farm the jungle? Don't just yell at him. Ask. Does he really need the gold? Perhaps it's a good time for everyone to go farm a little. Be clear and specific when taking a leadership role if you choose to adopt one. Instead of letting teammates drift off, specify when you'll all meet up again and push a lane. Maybe the game clock reads 34:17. You'll all meet in the mid lane at 36:00, and you'll make sure that you've gone back to base to get items before then so you'll be on time. If anything goes wrong before then, you'll agree to ping the minimap and use the chat.

Encouraging teammates to communicate their own thoughts and concerns is very important. It makes everyone feel like they're working together with every comment in the chat and every ping on the minimap. It keeps the team together and raises morale. It turns "Someone's pinging. Maybe I'll head over there in a little bit" into "Awwww yeah, time to WRECK THAT TOWER!" It turns a group of people randomly assigned to spawn at the same base into a team.

In short, the team that spins together wins together. Or something like that.

Team fights

As you should expect, the team fights that start in the mid game will continue into the late game. Use the same information from the mid game section to help you succeed.

In the late game, it becomes far more critical for you to avoid dying because the respawn times become so long. If you have a Ruby Sightstone, use it to ward bushes on either side of the mid lane, and place another ward in the mid lane towards the enemy base to help you spot the enemy team moving in and out of that lane.


*(This section is optional reading)*

Late game situations

In the late game, any of the following things might happen:

Your team might be attacked while getting baron.
You might spot an enemy run suspiciously into a jungle bush.

Baron interruptions

It's always fun to flip 300 gold pancakes, and what goes great with pancakes? Bacon, of course! When your team goes to get bacon, the battle isn't always so smooth, and sometimes you will be interrupted by as many as 5 pancakes at once!

Now, as exciting as it is to have so much food delivered to you, 5 pancakes is a lot to eat at once, and with bacon on top of that, it's really just too much to handle. You have to make decisions. In times like this, you need to step away from the tough bacon and deal with the pancakes. Remember that super AP carry tank Singed tends to take down big monsters slowly, and this is especially true here. Pancakes go down more easily, and your teammates probably know it. By working together on the meal, you and your teammates can cut the pancakes into bite-sized pieces that are easy to swallow.

You can make this situation much easier to react to if you know it's coming. Place some wards in the surrounding bushes and jungle, and ping your team to gather in the small bush on the mid lane side of the bacon if pancakes approach. Get off to a great start by being ready for the incoming food.

Avoiding enemy traps

Suppose an enemy that you are chasing is running into a jungle bush and you haven't seen other enemy champs in a while. Where is the rest of the enemy team? Inside the bush, of course. This is a classic trap that any experienced League of Legends player should recognize. It's used to pick off one or two enemies so that a team can steamroll its way through the rest of the opposition without having to face them all in a team fight at once. However, since your enemies will react when they see the behavior they expect from you, perhaps you can spring their trap and turn it into one of your own... If you're clever, that is.

Springing an enemy team's trap is somewhat dangerous, and requires a fair amount of skill to do properly. Don't try this if you know the enemy team has hard cc like stuns or Blitzcrank's grab available to them. To spring the trap, run towards the bush where you think enemies are. Then, when you are a fairly short distance away, drop your adhesive on the bush and do a u-turn. The adhesive is to slow enemies that might come charging out and help you put some distance between them. If it works (and it often does), turn your poison on as you run away. Your enemies will continue chasing as long as they think they can catch you, so move in short-moderate increments if it helps and try to match their own movement speed. If you've coordinated with your team (which you should have), you can lead the enemy team right into your own team's trap where you can finish what your poison has started.

Enemy team: D:<
Singed: :D
***

Summary: Pay lots of attention so you can avoid dying and stick together. Teamwork will determine which team wins.

Maybe things aren't going so well. Maybe you want to see what else Singed can do. Below I present a variety of options for customizing your favorite juggernaut, as well as some full builds using those items.

AP carry Singed items

The following items will cause enemies to become dead faster.

Seraph's embrace

Really a no-brainer. Finish building your Tear of the Goddess into Archangel's Staff and enjoy your bonus AP.

Liandry's torment

I cannot emphasize enough how good this thing is on Singed. It puts a nasty burn effect on your poison that resets on every tick of poison damage, and helps you take down high-health enemies. As an added bonus, you get some nice magic penetration. Plus the fire effect that appears on burning enemies looks cool with your poison. What's even cooler is that the burn damage doubles when the target is slowed, which leads to...

Rylai's crystal scepter

This item used to be good. Now it's amazing. It gives you plenty of AP and health, both of which Singed wants, and the slow effect makes your fling and poison death traps for your enemies. With this and Liandry's Torment, your poison will burn away enemies' health like wildfire while making it nearly impossible for them to escape on foot.

Rabadon's deathcap

The obvious item for any AP carry. With this and the previous items on top of your core build, you will have over 600 AP.

Void staff

When those darn enemies start to build magic resist, void staff will help crush them. If your enemies fail to build magic resist (due to unfathomable stupidity or something), get a deathcap instead.

Lich bane

I haven't tested this item much, but it seems like it could be viable if you get plenty of AP. It will make your basic attacks hit almost like a second fling. Just hit the enemy after using an ability and watch their health drop. You can toggle your poison to reset the on-hit effect. Plus it gives you more movement speed (as if you needed more), which helps you troll the enemy team standing in the mid lane a little better.

Abyssal scepter

If you want to emphasize the tank aspect of your super AP carry tank Singed a little more, this item provides some helpful magic resist. Plus it gives you a nice shiny aura that nerfs the enemy magic resist.

Morellonomicon

What do you do when facing an enemy Soraka or Dr. Mundo that just refuses to die? You build this item! Once your team can lower an enemy's health to 40% or less, you can use your fling and poison to deliver the effect from this item, making healing and regeneration less effective on the target. This can make it much harder for healing champions to save targets that you separate from their team with fling.


Sample AP carry build:

Tank Singed items

The following items will help make enemies really, really frustrated as they attack you for days and still can't kill you.

Guardian angel

This item is helpful for finishing off an AP focused build with some armor and magic resist, plus it makes enemies have to kill you a second time before you stay dead. Always fun.
Tryndamere: "Ugh guardian angel OP herp derp stupid Singed no skill (etc. etc.)"
Singed: ":D"

Frozen heart

Another nice item. Gives you plenty of armor and mana, plus some cooldown reduction so you can fling people more often. The passive isn't extremely strong, but it can still be helpful.

Locket of the iron solari

A fantastic tank and support item that will help you be Singed even better than before. Magic resist for everyone!

Randuin's omen

A powerful defensive item. Offers health, armor, and a nifty slowing effect. Combine the item's active with Liandry's Torment to burn surrounding enemies by running a quick circle around them with your poison after using the slow burst.

Thornmail

How could we ever forget thornmail? Nothing is better for trolling an AD carry than this item. Buy it. Use it. Win.

Abyssal scepter

A great combination of AP and magic resist for when you want to be both the carry and the tank.

Rylai's crystal scepter

Helps you do everything better. Highly recommended.

Banshee's veil

Just in case the enemy crowd control gets too nasty to handle, banshee's veil will help you shrug off that first ability in every fight.

Mercury's treads

Some people call them merc treads and I call them murk treads. Take these boots when you see that the enemy team has a Swain, a Maokai, and a Sion. Nothing is more frustrating than falling to crowd control when your setup is meant to counter it. At times like these, you need to pull out all the stops.


Sample tank Singed build:

Support Singed items

When you just can't resist and want to play Super AP carry support tank Singed, the following items will help you round out your build.

Locket of the iron solari

Stop those pesky enemy mages in their tracks with this item. The shield active can also be nice during team fights.

Ruby sightstone

This item makes your team safer from ganks. If you're working on a support build, start this item in the mid game. Remember that you can only have 3 wards placed at once with this. If you place another one, a previous ward will disappear. If you're moving around and you want to keep the area around you warded, this item can be extremely cost-effective, since the wards refill every time you return to base.

Mikael's crucible

This item has a nifty active which lets you save allies who lack your amazing cc reduction. It also gives you some magic resist and cooldown reduction.

zeke's herald Zeke's herald

A situational item for providing sustain to an AD heavy team. Gotta love that lifesteal.


Sample support Singed build:




*(This section is optional reading)*

Hybrid Singed items

What?? Hybrid Singed?? Maybe the enemy team has built so much magic resist that you can barely do anything. Maybe you're just trolling them normals. Whatever the case, the following items will help you deal physical damage as Singed, as well as throw your enemies completely off-guard.

Hextech gunblade

A strong item that provides AD, AP, lifesteal, and spell vamp.

Muramana

A fantastic choice for capitalizing on your mana pool. Note: Since the mana charge ability is a unique passive, you want to build this item carefully if you're also building Archangel's Staff. The staff will continue to have the mana charge ability until it becomes Seraph's Embrace, so wait until then before you get your second Tear of the Goddess. I don't know for sure, but it seems like there might be potential for a glitch that might rob you of some maximum mana if you have two items with mana charge at once (any clarification on this would be nice). Alternatively, you could build Manamune out of your first tear, let it upgrade to Muramana, and then start Archangel's Staff/ Seraph's Embrace. Do it properly, and you should gain 2000 mana between the items, making both of them stronger and giving you a little extra health.

Zephyr

Not only does this item make you go faster, it gives you the tenacity you skipped out on by taking Boots of Swiftness instead of Mercury's Treads. Now you can cruise around at extremely high speed, hitting things quickly and ignoring even more crowd control than before.

Mercurial scimitar

This item compliments your blatant disregard for cc by getting you out of those few situations that might actually kill you. It also give you some magic resist and a large amount of AD.

Phantom dancer

It might seem strange to consider this item, but nearly everything about it is useful for a hybrid Singed. The ability to ignore unit collision lets you chase enemies through minions and makes farming with your poison very easy and efficient.

Frozen mallet

This item is the physical damage counterpart to Rylai's Crystal Scepter, allowing you to slow enemies with your basic attacks. It also gives you plenty of health and boosts your attack damage by a small amount.

Ravenous hydra

Your goal in a team fight with normal AP Singed is to affect as many enemies as possible. You can do the same thing as hybrid Singed by building this item. If you already have large amounts of attack damage and attack speed, you should be able to bring multiple enemies to their knees very quickly, flinging them back if they try to escape. Remember to spam the unique active on this item as well.

Lich bane

This item truly has potential if you have a decent amount of AP in your build. The important thing to note is that the bonus damage you deal after using an ability is physical damage, so it's great against enemies who have been neglecting their armor. It also makes it more difficult to itemize against Singed. Toggle your poison repeatedly to get bonus damage whenever you hit someone.


Sample hybrid Singed build:


***


Dangerous items

As fun as it is to try new items on Singed, not all of them work well. Below are the few items that could actually ruin your day.

Zhonya's hourglass

On the surface, this might seem like a great item for Singed. It gives you plenty of AP, armor, and a unique active that... Wait a second. The unique active. The active ability of zhonya's hourglass leaves you unable to move for about 2 seconds, which is absolutely deadly to Singed. It lets your enemies catch up to you, surround you, and prepare to beat your face in as soon as it wears off. As I've said before, Singed's power comes from his ability to control the distance between himself and his opponents. If he can't move, he's pretty much helpless. Zhonya's hourglass might be useful on some champions, but on Singed you're just putting a 2 second stun on yourself. If you do have a strong need for both AP and armor, you can still get this but be careful not to accidentally press the item hotkey, or only use it under very special circumstances when you have complete awareness of everything happening nearby.

If you're going to be laning with a teammate or want a good jungler, there are some champions you should know about that have great synergy with Singed.

Cassiopeia

Singed and Cass have incredible synergy that only gets better as the game goes on. First of all, Singed's Poison Trail procs Cassiopeia's Twin Fang, allowing her to spam the ability at poisoned enemies. Singed's Mega Adhesive not only makes it harder for those enemies to get away, but also makes it much easier for Cass to land her Noxious Blast and Miasma.

Nocturne

Singed and Nocturne have some of the greatest ambush potential ever. Just hide in the bushes at the beginning of the game and if a single enemy gets close, first blood is almost assured. Nocturne's Duskbringer and Singed's Fling are very effective for preventing escapes and can lock down opponents at record speeds, making this a great combo when hunting down enemies. Nocturne also makes a great jungler to have when playing Singed in the top lane.

Vi

Vi might seem like an unusual laning partner for Singed, but her short range mobility is great for securing kills when enemies push too far. A good Fling from Singed followed by Vi's Vault Breaker is difficult to recover from at best. Using Exhaust prior to this combo will weaken the target's armor and magic resist with the bonus from your offensive masteries and make it even more difficult for an enemy to escape afterwards. Like Nocturne, she makes a great jungler to team up with when playing Singed top.


A general tip when playing support Singed: Singed does well when paired with AD carries who do NOT rely on skill shots. His Fling is great for repositioning enemy champs and can make it much harder for them to escape, but it also causes allied skill shots to miss. As a result, Singed does fairly well with Vayne and Twitch, requires some coordination when played with champs like Ashe, Miss Fortune, and Draven, and should almost never be played with Caitlyn or Varus.

There are a few champs that can give Singed a particularly hard time. Here they are:

Teemo

Teemo can be deceptively difficult to lane against. He's very squishy without defensive items, but he can move quickly and he tends to build lots of attack speed. His poison darts and mushrooms can deal tons of damage and he is very difficult to escape from. His passive helps him set up plenty of ambushes early game and he can snowball like no other if he gets fed.

Advice: Try to avoid pushing forward in the lane unless you have a clear advantage. If Teemo gets too close, fling him. Like Singed, Teemo does very well when he can control the distance between himself and his opponents. A Vision Ward in the bushes might help, but try not to waste your money on them. Get only what you need. Oracle's Elixir can help clear out his mushrooms, but anyone on your team can take on that role. Just make sure someone does it if he builds AP.

Kayle

The main issue Singed has when facing Kayle is that she can increase the range of her attacks and slow you, making it difficult for you to approach her or escape.

Advice: As when facing Teemo, don't overextend and make sure that you keep an eye on your opponent's location. Kayle will harrass you far less than Teemo, which makes your farming somewhat easier, but be aware that when she starts firing off her spells, it means that she's going in for the kill. Make sure that you have enough distance between yourself and Kayle from the beginning in order to make sure you can escape, and don't be afraid to drop your Mega Adhesive if that's what it takes to get her off your back.

Ashe

Ashe's frost arrows can be a nightmare to deal with. Once she slows you, there is almost no way to prevent the next shot from hitting, keeping you slowed until you either reach the safety of your tower or she kills you.

Advice: Remember that advice from the tutorial? "Stay behind your minions!" When facing Ashe, this actually applies. Your minions do a great job of soaking up Ashe's cone of arrows. Make a quick pass with your poison and get back behind your creep wave. As always, fling Ashe if she gets near your turret. There's not much she can do to get out of that other than Flash.

*(This section is optional reading)*
Roflstomping is the highest state of being a player can reach. It occurs when you are not only fed, but your enemies are stupidly wandering alone and also refusing to surrender. When you have not only been fed by several failed tower dives against you in the early game but also farmed like a boss and ganked your enemies throughout the mid and late game, you are roflstomping. It is the state of continously finding and scoring kills as you run around the map. It's the point at which you stop seeing the enemy champions as a serious challenge and start thinking of them as piles of 300 gold on legs.

Supports can roflstomp, too. A roflstomping support is scoring pentassists every team fight, locking down multiple enemies, and setting up their opponents to be mowed down one after another by their team.

The roflstomp phase is a special phase in the game that occurs when one or more members of your team are ready to roflstomp. Rather than pushing lanes and finishing the game quickly, a roflstomping team delays the end of the game as much as possible in favor of chasing down enemy champions and facerolling. By avoiding pushing any lanes or getting baron and running for the enemy base, a roflstomping team creates the illusion that the game is still contested and thus discourages their enemies from surrendering. Why do this? Because it's fun. If you are playing with good teammates who listen and want to have fun and you're all doing extremely well, I highly recommend trying it.

Roflstomping doesn't happen often, but when it does, you'll be happy that you're playing as Singed.
***

Picture this: You're playing against Singed. Maybe you played against him last game and you've had enough. He killed your teammates, he killed you, you died to his stupid poison and fling, and then he went and locked down your teammates and threw every one of them into his team. Well, you're done with his shenanigans. You want him dead, and now you've found the guide to help you do it. It's payback time.

As I've said before, Singed's power and survivability come from his ability to control the distance between himself and his opponents. He can only react to what he sees coming. Singed excels at running away and using his poison to weaken his enemies. He's great at baiting and controlling the area around him, but he does have some weaknesses. He can't control his distance and he can't control the situation he's in if he doesn't have the time to react to it.

Ganking Singed is like ganking someone in the early game. It's difficult and requires lots of speed, prefect timing, and the ability to position yourself well at the beginning. So when you need to go and kill Singed, don't send one or two people. Send your whole team. Bring cc. And get set up.

1. Go together. It doesn't do any good if you don't have enough people to shut Singed down. He's a master of making escapes and forcing his enemies to take quite a bit of damage with his poison. A larger group deals more damage. A larger group can block his path more easily.

2. Bring crowd control. Don't just hit Singed with your 20% slow and expect it to work. Open with your stun. Then let your ally use his stun as soon as yours wears off. If you run out of stuns, snare or bind him. Exhaust him. And make sure you use your crowd control as quickly as possible. Otherwise he'll use his ultimate and start running away. Your goal is to stun him before he can reach his ultimate, so skill shot stuns or other ranged cc abilities work well for this. Try to stun Singed before anyone even shows their face to him. Mundo's Infected Bonesaw works well here if you lack stuns.

3. Get set up. Ganking Singed is a coordinated team effort. Tell your allies to all get in different bushes surrounding Singed. Before any of you go for him, make sure you are all in position blocking off every possible escape path. Then, only when you've done this, hit him with your crowd control, give your team a signal, and move in on him all at once. Surround him completely, then beat his face in.

Master chef Singed, it’s just shake and bake.
He’s ganking the lane, flipping 300 gold pancakes.
I admit that deathcap on him seems like kind of an Odd Job.
He’s scoring kills faster than a Chicago flash mob.

His moves are infamous. The gold fills up his purse.
Michael Jackson can moonwalk. Singed can dunk in reverse.
Adhesive puts you into neutral. He makes plays with power.
Gotta go fast? Go play League of NASCAR under his tower.

People don’t think when they chase. “We can kill Singed, guys!”
2000 poison damage later, “HOW THE F*** DID I DIE??”
It’s all-he-can-eat pancakes. He leaves the whole map shakin’.
He’ll break the nexus, too… AFTER his team gets bacon.