Pick your poison...

Hello Mobafire, welcome to my first guide evar. It's on Singed (duh!), mainly because I was asking myself: "Which champ is the rarest one in-game?" Then it hit me. Singed.

Singed is an amazing champion, whom I'd classify as an offtank. Why offtank? Let's take a look-see at his pros and cons.

• EDIT: Our beloved Rod of Ages got a buff! Scroll on down to the items section to take a peek!
  
• EDIT NO. 2: I've recieved a response from Searz on the forums where I asked for a guide review. I'll be making changes accordingly, mostly to runes, masteries and items. Lemme know what you think.
  
• EDIT NO. 3: THANK YOU VERY MUCH jhoijhoi I LOVE YOU FOR HELPING ME.

Pros Able to deal tons of damage. Incredibly fast. Can take the brunt of an attack. Can save yo' teammates' azz. Later on, superb farmer. After purchasing Catalyst the Protector, can lane almost indefinately.

SPACE

Cons :( Can't take a lot of damage, and if you build him straight up HP/Armor/MR, you waste a lot of his potential. Once his ulti and ghost have been used, you will notice the slow-down. Only one CC spell. ( Mega Adhesive)

So okay, one would say: "No wai dud u gota bulid him liek tnak lol trollz".
Yet I say nay. You gotta mix it up. So items like Abyssal Mask and maybe Rylai's Crystal Scepter are awesome on him. No, they don't give mana to be turned into HP, but they DO give the resistances and HP that you need to survive, plus they add AP to you.

Another note on only one point into Mega Adhesive on level 4, I usually put it there and leave it mainly because your speed (ulti + ghost combo) and Fling will be enough to chase down almost anyone. Except Kassadin, lulz. If your team requires more CC, feel free to throw in a point or two on levels 7-9. This is simply a way that I play Singed, you are not obliged to follow in my steps.

Ghost!

• Man, I love ghost so much. It saved my azz countless times. Doesn't it annoy you that you have to smack your way through mob waves to chase down that Heimerdinger who has only 10 HP left?
  Now with Ghost, this doesn't happen. Simply pop it up, and watch that Ashe look at you in terror, as you Fling her so hard she'll lose all her teeth.
  
  Now imagine your cute little Boots of Swiftness and your Ghost + your Insanity Potion. Oh yeah, ~600 Movement Speed, here I come!
  
  NOTE: Does not work on chasing down Kassadin

Cleanse!

• Now this is something, more or less, you'd call your "Oh sh*t" button. If you remember to use it, that is. Again, one of the summoner spells that I really like on Singed, though not as much as Ghost. Though it may help out against CC heavy champs, such as Nunu & Willump with his perma slow via Ice Blast, or maybe Kennen. Remember, use Cleanse once the initial round of CC has been applied. I swapped this out for Flash, because Cleanse is a game of russian roulette. If you manage to ****ing nail it, you'll devour the enemy. If you cleanse out of a wrong stun, kiss your killing spree goodbye.

Ignite!

• This MUST'VE happened at least once to everyone. You're in your lane, merilly owning creeps and that shenanigans. You see the enemy Veigar is out of mana, and he overextends. You run up to him with your trusty sidekick Gangplank ready to Parrrley the living Hell out of the enemy. You Fling Veigar, and unleash the fury of yourself and your teammate, but oh noes! You failed to notice that Veigar the Unstoppable has Flash! :O So he gets away with 10 HP. Rage.
  With Ignite, this is almost guaranteed NOT to happen. Also, reduces the incoming healing and regeneration of the target by 50%. Dr. Mundo is sad. This spell was suggested to me by Footyballs, check out his build, it's awesome!

Flash!

• Uh-huh, Flash. This is an awesome mobility spell, though it was nerfed a while ago, so it doesn't pop projectiles anymore. Flash is best used to blink through walls in the jungle. Flash also has an offensive use. You can Flash near an enemy carry, and Fling him/her/it back to your team. Pretty nice, I swapped Cleanse for this, because this is way more reliable for positioning and/or chasing. Keep in mind, if you take this spell, pull out a point from the Utility Mastery and chuck it into the Blink of an Eye mastery.

Exhaust!

• Alrighty, Exhaust is pretty good for Singed if you plan on dealing mostly with AD carries. Not to mention the chasin/escaping potential this spell brings. Do kindly take note, that it's way more useful to Exhaust an AD carry in the middle of a teamfight as opposed to Exhausting an AP carry, simply because of the fact that the damage reduction from this spell is greater on autoattacks than on abilities and items. You might also want to take out a point from Strength of Spirit and put it into the Cripple mastery.

Alright, major edit here. Got a suggestion for these from Searz, thanks man!

So I went for 0/9/21 masteries to pump up your armor and MR via tier one Defensive masteries, and those are Resistance and Hardiness .

• Resistance gives 6 MR, and Hardiness gives 6 Armor! Pretty nice early game, these might just save you from that unsuccessful First Blood attempt.
  
  
• Next is the Strength of Spirit , which pumps up your HPregen by 1% of your max mana. Let's say you have 2,5k mana. That would be 2500 * 0.01 = 25 HP/5! Nice, huh?

• First off we've got Good Hands . These reduce your death timer by 10%. A lifesaver in longer matches where you could respawn just 6 seconds earlier to fend off an Inhibitor assault.
  
  
• Next, in the same tier we've got Haste for uber speed! NO ONE CAN RUN FROM YOU LOL!
  
  
• Awareness is what we need in the next tier! Increased EXP gain is secksy! It's your own mini Zilean and his Heightened Learning!
  
  
• In this tier we've got Greed - a point dump -, Meditation for slightly increased mana regen to help in laning, and Utility Mastery , in case you grab an enemy blue/red.
  
  
• Quickness is invaluable for Singed. Since you rely so heavily on MS, this is a welcome boost. Makes it easier to get that first blood or to Fling someone back to your team.
  
  
• Now, Intelligence , for reduced CDs. You've got a natural 6% CDR all from this baby. Pretty nice.
  
  
• The icing on the cake is Presence of the Master . You need Ghost as much as possible. It is one of the most importnat spells you can have. Summoner or otherwise.

MARKS: 9x of Greater Mark of Magic Penetration give the most damage amongst all runes. These null out almost all of the MR early game that any of the heroes have, without runes and/or masteries. Since both your Fling and Poison Trail deal magic damage, this helps. A lot.

Don't swap these, marks are purely of offensive nature, switching them wouldn't give bonuses noticable enough.

SEALS: 9x of Greater Seal of Armor take care of all of your armor needs. You are an offtank/tank. You need armor, simple as that. These are great help against physical carries in case you get paired up against one.

• ALTERNATIVE #1: Greater Seal of Defense, in case you prefer per level seals as opposed to flat ones. If you can play conservatively and carefully enough, these will outgrow flats at around level 6, if I'm not mistaken.
  
• ALTERNATIVE #2: Greater Seal of Evasion. Good enough, I suppose, but I feel they're kind of a waste since we don't spec into dodge from the Defensive tree. Plus they're the most expensive seals out there, coming in at a price of about 810 IP, if I'm correct.

GLYPHS: 9x of Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist take care of your relatively low early game magic resist. It's almost pathetic, but paired with these babies, not even Ryze will be able to harass you hard with his ******** Overload.

• ALTERNATIVE #1: Greater Glyph of Magic Resist. I'd recommend these in case you know you'll be taking solo top if you're playing in high ELO, unlike me. Searz pointed out the new "AP solo top" metagame, and since Singed is, and I quote Searz on this, "solotop material", these glyphs will help you survive and endure any and all harassment attempts.

QUINTESSENCES: 3x of Greater Quintessence of Health take care of your "low" HP pool at the start. With these, you'll face harassment like a boss and your enemies will piss themselves scared when you say "F*ck you!" and Fling them to Hell and back. Also, these make harassing with Poison Trail a bit easier, although you shouldn't do it if you know it won't end well.

• ALTERNATIVE #1: Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed. Not much to say, movement speed is nice, especially on Singed. You'll be running at Mach 4 in no time.
  
• ALTERNATIVE #2: Greater Quintessence of Vitality. Nice runes, especially if you're the kind of player that plays defensively early/early-mid game. If you can last through it without giving up a kill or two, these will definately pay off.

EDIT: Patch Notes v1.0.0.115
Insanity Potion

• Fixed a bug where the particle lasted longer than the buff.
• No longer gives attack speed or attack damage, but now gives magic resist and crowd control reduction. (10%/20%/30%).
  

Uh... I'm not really sure how to respond to that. Our overall damage got nerfed, but we gain MR and CC redux! Awesome, another pair of Mercury's Treads. This made us a lot more tanky, so I'll deviate a bit from my eariler "off-tank" theme. Also no more mad foaming mouth, weeee.

• Poison Trail (Q)

- Yay, exploitable! Poison Trail's cost is a two sided sword. Or sward, for all of you who played Dragon Age: Origins. Let's see, 13 mana/sec on all levels means that early game, you can forget about farming with it or leaving it on for prolonged periods of time. You'll run out of mana faster than you can say "sward". You can, however, harass with it if you feel trollish. Later on, it'll do a LOT more damage, and the mana cost will be so petty you'll laugh at it. Just don't leave it on when you got only 100 mana left. Awesome for clearing out minion waves with ease.

• Mega Adhesive (W)

- Okay, CC. That's good, right? I don't like it very much, but hey, if you like to piss off your enemies, go ahead, put more skill points in it and slow slow slow. Don't overdo it, though, or your killing power will drop, a lot.

• Fling (E)

-w00t, Fling! Now I love this ability, it has so many uses, besides kiling, lol.
Let's see, you can pop your ULTRA-DRUNK DEBAUCHERY(copyright Haelstrom)-MOVEMENT SPEED combo, run up to a tower-hugger and Fling him/her/it into the bottomless pit of bloodthirsty jaws and gut stained hands we all like to call - your team. Or you can pull a Houdini and Fling them in a manner that will break their neck in the process, and kill them. Oh yes, I'm talking about an 800+ damage Fling. Interested?

• Insanity Potion!!111!!1 OLLOLOLolololOL BLAAAARGH (R)

-So this is awesome, +65 of EVERYTHING except Mana, HP, AD, AS and stuff is just great. Awesome for chasing/turret diving/running away/getting drunk/taking turrets down/eating cheeseburgers. Just remember to use it. It has a fairly low CD, so don't be afraid to pop it for running away or chasing. This used to give AD and AS, got changed in patch v1.0.0.115; made us tankier.

• Empowered Bulwark (Passive)

-This is nice, and this is what makes Singed one of the rare tanks that benefit from Sapphire Crystal. Don't rely on it and stack mana though. You'll fail.

---

---

Okay, this section is a major work in progress, please bear with me while I list all of the champions alphabetically.

Champions here will be marked with one of the following symbols:

• L - Low threat on the battlefield, ignore them for the time being.
  
• M - Medium threat, focus them if they're doing well.
  
• H - High threat, high priority targets. Deal with them ASAP.

Low Priority - L Tanky champions that take a long time to go down, even under focus fire. Weak, support characters that aren't an imperative on the battlefield. Strong self healing champions, like Taric.

SPACE

Medium Priority - M Anti carry champions, with disruptive CC, such as Udyr. Tough, fast champions that mess with your positioning. Singed, mayhap? Strong supports with constant healing flow that makes all focus fire invalid, ergo Soraka.

SPACE

High Priority - H Hard hiting carries, like Ashe, Tryndamere, Annie. Champions with ****loads of CC, like Blitzcrank. Champions with many escape mechanisms. Some with summoner spells, some with in-built ones. Corki comes to mind. These should be taken out ASAP and shouldn't be allowed to dart in and out of battle.

Now, without further ado, let us list them!

---

Akali M/H - Every squishies nightmare. Keep her away from your carries, even if it costs you your life.

Alistar L/M - Pretty annoying, with all of his CC and his pesky Triumphant Roar. Unbreakable Will makes focusing him impossible.

Amumu M - His CC, percantage based damage and his OP Curse of the Sad Mummy make him dangerous to Fling right into your team. Be cautious around him.

Anivia H - Incredibly huge burst damage make her a high priority target. Be careful about her Rebirth, and her stun via Flash Frost.

Annie H - Anyone who has ever seen even an average Annie knows why she's high priority. When this ***** dies, world peace ensues.

Ashe M/H - High utility spells, hard hitting aoutoattacks and the infamous Enchanted Crystal Arrow mark this hoe with a medium to high priority mark.

Blitzcrank M - ****loads of CC and a team silence with Static Field make him a tad bit dangerous to Fling into your team. Also, his Mana Barrier can save him if your team doesn't have enough damage to kill him fast enough.

Brand H - Insanely high AoE burst, and the bouncing Pyroclasm make him a prioriy to deal with. He's ****ing dad of Annie's.

Caitlyn M/H - One of the trickier AD carries, she has a long range execution move, called Ace in the Hole. But she's so squishy that you need only look at her wrong to kill her. Just rape her and move on.

Cassiopeia M - A spammy spellcaster that also falls under focused fire. She has a true AoE stun and huge burst with her Petrifying Gaze, so just deal with her quickly.

Cho'Gath M - A tad bit like Amumu in the respect of CC. If built like a tank, low priority. AP has medium to high, just because of his Feast. Get him away from yer carries and have your offtank deal with him.

Corki H - This is a very dangerous AD carry. Shreds squishies apart like it's noones business. Also has a build in escape move, but is fortunately very squishy. Just catch him off guard and he's scrap metal.

Dr. Mundo M - This is a special case. In case he's tanking, good luck trying to overpower his Maximum Dosage. In case he's an offtank, make it your mission to kill him whenever you see him.

---

More to come! Stay tuned!

NOTE: Patch Notes v1.0.0.118

• Catalyst the Protector's passive now changed to upon level up, restores 250 Health and 200 Mana over 8 seconds
• Rod of Ages now retains Catalyst the Protector's passive when upgraded (Catalyst passive is still unique and will not stack with Rod of Ages)

Riot gave us a big, huge "I LOVE YOU" in the latest patch. Rod of Ages retains the passive from Catalyst the Protector, meaning it's even more awesome! w00t! A huge change and a buff for Singed, albeit an indirect one.

---

EDIT: Okay, Searz, as much as I love and respect you, I must disagree on the thought that Force of Nature > Banshee's Veil. I must say that they're equals. Take it like this. When the enemy team sees some big mothahubbard surging towards them, whistlin' and screechin' like a boiling teapot, what do they do, besides ****ting themselves scared? They toss all CC they've got at the aforementioned mothahubbard. Now we've got two ways:

1. You've got Banshee's Veil: A critical stun is blocked, and you proceed to their team to Fling. You're also a bit more bulky with this baby.
2. You've got Force of Nature: You get stunned, but with your CC reduction and the speed increase, you're able to catch right up with them and Fling their carry.

I will, however, put special emphasis on FoN in the items below.

---

Then get yourself a Banshee's Veil/ Force of Nature and your core is done! Now for Armor/MR/stuff. You've got some liberty now.
We need to fill up the remaining item slots, and I usually go with:



So my build usually look like this:

---

• - 99 Armor, 500 mana and 125 HP. Sexy. Plus an AS slow on all of the enemies AAAAAND! 20% CDR. More Fling, anyone?
• - AP, for more Fling and Poison Trail damage, MR for more caster rage, and reduces surrounding enemies' MR by 20. Sexy.
• - Okay, so I will get most of the downvotes for this item. But I love it. HP, AP and a slow on all your spells... Wow. See how they try to escape when they get slowed by Fling.

NOTE: It was pointed out to me, that your Poison Trail will NOT be affected by the Rylai's Crystal Scepter slow. Haven't tested it out, so be sure to let me know how it works out for you.
SPACE
It has been confirmed, Rylai's Crystal Scepter works with Poison Trail. Have fun!
SPACE
Let me list some of the other possible items:

• - Awesome item, has everything a tank needs, plus a nifty revive. Don't rely on it too much, tho.
• - More speed, more MR, and 0.35% max HP regen per second? Destroy them casters, lol. I must put a special note on this item. In case the enemy team has a lot of bursty casters, but not enough CC to make you feel worried, take this over Banshee's Veil.
• - Dat armor. Used to make Tristanas, Yis, Tryndas and **** go commit suicide.
• - Oh sweet Jesus, this item got nerfed. It seems RIOT doesn't like Randuin, nor his Omen. It gives 75 Armor now, 5 less than the original. Also the Heart of Gold no longer gives armor. A bit nerfed, it is. But still, it's active makes it viable.
• - Now this item, this is for supporting your team if it's majority are AP casters. Sometimes better left for the support. Keep in mind, that your Poison Trail won't proc the spell vamp, although Fling will.
• - MR is nice, but it's the active that makes this overlooked item awesome. REMOVES ALL DEBUFFS FROM YOU. And I mean ALL. Even Ignite, yes. Enjoy the rage.
• - If the enemy is smart enough to stack MR, laugh at them and get this item. The more MR they have, the harder you hit, plus this item boosts up your AP. Need I say more?
• - Nice armor, nice HP, and a passive that melts minion waves like ice on the sun. But you already got your Poison Trail. Plus this item got nerfed in the patch 1.0.0.118. How, you ask? It's damage got reduced by 5, to a total of 35. Gasp.
• - Okay, listen up. This new item is not exactly the best tank item out there. If you took Boots of Swiftness, but feel like CC is too hard, take this item. You'll sell it later, anyway.

You can evaluate the situation you're up against and build accordingly, 'cause that's what tanks are for. Right?

EARLY GAME:

Yay, early game! Grab your Sapphire Crystal and Health Potion + Mana Potion, and head for a lane. You should put a point into Fling 85% of the time, unless your team ABSOLUTELY requires you to put in a point into Poison Trail. So head for a lane, preferably duo, and start farming/last hitting. Mind your positioning, though, especially if they have a jungler. Check the enemies' Summoner Spells for Smite. Careful, tho, Shaco often jungles without Smite. Don't push too hard, unless you're absolutely sure you won't eat up an early game gank. A note on First Blood; if possible, try to get your teammate the kills, DO NOT STEAL, especially if you lane with a carry. A fed Xin Zhao is more important than you, as sad as it is.

MID GAME:

So this is where teams and team-fights start to form up. You should have your Rod of Ages and Boots of Swiftness ready by now, and you should've preferably started working on Banshee's Veil by getting another Catalyst the Protector. Just play smart, and assist in teamfights. Your job is partly to CC via Mega Adhesive, which you should throw in the middle of the enemy team. Next part of your job is rounding up or seperating enemies with Fling. Keeping enemies away from your Anivia, Ashe or Ezreal will pay off when one of them scores an ace or even a penta-kill. Lastly, turn on your Poison Trail and try to afflict as much enemies as possible with the poison, and watch their HP drop and your Kills/Assists rising. Feeling good yet? Well you should be.

LATE GAME:

Yay, late game! Okay, by now, in addition to your core items ( Rod of Ages, Boots of Swiftness and Banshee's Veil), you should have at least one more, such as Frozen Heart, two items are awesome, and if you started working on the third, good show, my lad.
Right about now you should have an HP pool the size of Mt. Everest, and a mana pool to back it up. Your armor and MR should be pretty high too. Remember, you are an offtank. You are not an ubercounter to one type of carries, such as Tryndamere. You counter everything you can, and kill on the way. Remember to stay with your team, and DON'T initiate, unless you have Kayle on your team. Have her place Intervention on you when you are about to Fling someone, but DO NOT CLICK E AND CHOOSE A TARGET. You'll have a yellow outline that is visible to your target, and they'll simply turn away and run. Instead, run in between their team and pick a target to Fling when you're near him/her/it. So, when Kayle puts Intervention on you when you get focused Fling someone and then kill. Slay. Slaughter. With your team, that is.

To summarize: Your orders are simple, it's kill or be killed, for blood on both sides will be spilled. Do not KS, do not initiate, and most of all, do not feed. Play it safe the first couple of levels, and grab an opportunity for a kill if you can escape, or if you are sure you won't die.

---

Time format: DD/MM/YYYY HH/MM; 24 HOUR FORMAT.
-07/03/2011; 11:10 : Created, saved, and published build. Yay!
-08/03/2011; 11:36 : Added Runes section, and the Playstyle section. Fixed some typos and edited "A word on Mejai's Soulstealer".
-11/03/2011; 09:33 : Updated with the Archangel's Staff version of Singed, that has a LOT more AP, but a bit less resistances. Also added Ignite as an optional Summoner Spell. Updated Optional Items section.
-13/04/2011; 14:13 : Edited some sections due to recent patch changes; removed Aggressive Singed due to the slight Insanity Potion change, that encourages tanking.
-19/05/2011; 18:49 : Updated the guide due to the new patch, added some rune alternatives, cleaned the guide up a bit.
-23/07/2011; 21:49 : Thanks to Searz, fixed some wrong rune choices, item selection and masteries. Thanks man, I appreciate the help!
-24/07/2011; 12:19 : jhoijhoi helped me with my guide! Thanks to him and THIS AWESOME GUIDE, I have made this reference a lot more aesthes... esthas... more pretty. Thanks man, you rock! Now... uh.. how about a... well *cough*vet recommendation plx*cough*