Syndra Build Guide by UnrulyKnight

Introduction

Hello and this is my second guide. This time, it's for the champion Syndra. She may be AP but she's very squishy. I'll be trying to help today on how to make her not so squishy. Syndra is like Vladimir, you have to build tanky in order to sustain and not die as fast. This build may not work for everyone but it's a great start. I hope it helps.

Note: This guide isn't for everyone. I think it's best for those time when you just can't sustain and push people away from your tower without taking too many hits that bring you down to nothing.

OMG! I broke her meta! :O

Pictures!!

Pros / Cons

Runes

Here are my suggestion of runes. You don't HAVE to use them unless you want to.

9 Greater Mark of Magic Penetration This is for magic penetration. It's to add some AP.

3 Greater Seal of Armor Just a bit of armor, to help a little bit. It may not help much but you don't have to get this.

6 Greater Seal of Replenishment She's a bit mana hungry so this will add some mana regen.

9 Greater Glyph of Magic Resist To add some magic resist, it will help especially if you are midding.

3 Greater Quint of Potency For more Ability Power to help do a bit more damage.

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Other Options:
If you think you aren't putting your orbs down fast enough to where you have three on the field. I suggest cooldown reduction. Since it seems like she severely needs it (since she is a burst champ). What I mean is if you can't keep them on the field long enough with your Scatter the Weak and Force of Will.

Items

Now, on to the items! As you can see I start out with . It's to help sustain the lane so you don't have to go back as much. Since she is very mana hungry. If you don't like to start out with this item, you could always use boots for speed.


Ionian Boots of Lucidity Cooldown reduction to help cast spells faster of course

Force of Nature Health regen, great magic resistance, bonus movement speed

Rabadon's Deathcap Great AP bonus to help with damage

Frozen Heart Gives 100 armor, gives CD reduction and reduces enemy speed by 20%

Athene's Unholy Grail This also helps with magic resist, you'll probably need a lot of it like you need a lot of Armor. Also helps with CD reduction.

Archangel's Staff This can be a great item for all mages, since it grants AP based on your mana and great mana regen since you are a very bursty champion

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Boots of SwiftnessIf you have max 40% CD reduction, this would be best to increase your speed so Ionian Boots of Lucidity isn't taking up space.

Warmog's Armor This is a good item to have if you like more health and health regen as you get kills/assists

Abyssal Scepter Yes, the range was reduced but it is good when enemies are always so close, trying to get into your face. Also good magic resist

Void Staff +70 AP and 40% Magic Pen, which is good if they are building Magic Resist and you think you don't need Abyssal Scepter

Sorcerer's Shoes 20% magic pen, this is good if you don't have Void Staff yet.

Summoner Spells

Main Choices:
Flash It's to escape when Scatter the Weak is on CD.

Ignite If you took the mastery Summoner's Wrath, it'll increase AP and AD by 5 while on CD and it's good to use on a champion that's escaping and you know you'll get a kill with this.

Other Options:

Teleport If you think you'll leave your lane a little too much or if you think a lane will need help, this is another good choice.

Ghost If you think you can't get away from a champion because they'res always minions in the way this would be a good choice.

Exhaust Eh, if you think your enemies run away too much then you should get this. But I wouldn't really recommend it.

Clarity This is good for the beginning, especially if you have to spam your spells a lot.

Vladimir Vs Syndra

The comment I made in the introduction about Syndra is like Vladimir. There is a good reason why I have said this.

Vladimir, from what I have seen, is one of the squishiest champions I have ever played. He doesn't have much of an escape unless you count his Sanguine Pool. Yes, I have played Vladimir. If you build things like Warmog's Armor and Force of Nature, you could dominate (along with some AP of course) with 30/6 if the enemy hadn't surrendered yet.

Vladimir doesn't need much AP to do well on the team. What I mean by this is, he needs a lot of armor. Not a lot of people play him tanky because they think he needs a lot of AP to be useful. That's not the case, he's made to be a tank AP and can carry the team well at being a bit tanky. Syndra doesn't need a lot of AP either to help the team. What she needs is armor and Mana regen to sustain. Also you should build Zyra a bit tanky as well since she's also like Vladimir. They weren't made to do tons of damage, they WERE made to sustain, poke and help in team fights. So, more armor means more sustain which also means you aren't feeding enemy team.

Yes, Ahri is squish too but she has more range and could escape quickly with her ult and flash unless she was slowed/stunned.

Champions Against Syndra

Very Easy:
LeBlanc She could be pretty easy to kill. Just poke her with Q.
Sona only if she is midding against you. I've seen one Sona mid before and she was AD.

Easy:
Vladimir He should be easy for you. I don't know what else to say about it. xP
Zyra She can be easy, her ult may give you a bit difficult time. She may try to pull a combo on you like E>W>Q and maybe R if she has it.

Veigar The only thing you'd have to worry about is him getting minion kills with his Q. It builds up his AP.

Somewhat Difficult:
Teemo Don't say he's quite easy because he can give everyone a hard time especially his poison. He's not difficult and not easy, he's in the middle.

Morgana She can be somewhat difficult if the person is playing her right. I would stay clear when she casts her Tormented Soil because she'll also try to throw her snare at you as well at the same time. If the person doesn't know how to play her then she can be quite easy for you.

Difficult:
Swain is difficult, especially if he jungles with Teemo midding. When he snares you with Nevermove. You'd want boots and be extremely careful since he'd gank at anytime since you're food to him until you get to level 9. Also if you lane against him you'd want boots to move quickly to get out of Nevermove before it goes off.

Xerath can be difficult because he can out-range you with Locus of Power. Against him, you'd want boots to moved a bit quicker to stay clear when he uses Locus of Power + Arcanopulse.

Diana I think would probably be in the middle of difficult and very difficult especially of her ranged Q + her ult.

Lux She's difficult because of her snare/ult combo. She takes a chunk out of your health if you can't get away in time.

Draven His Stand Aside pushes you and slows you, making it difficult to get away OR get close to him depending on your health and/or his.

Very Difficult:

Summary

Syndra is like a poke and run champion, always stays at a distance and can sustain lane. She can throw minions, monsters, Annie's Summon: Tibbers, and even Heimerdinger's turrets with Force of Will. If built correctly, she could dominate and help her team get kills. If you're able to keep all three of your Dark Sphere's on the field and able to cast your ulti, you'll do your ulti's maximum damage. Able to use Scatter the Weak on the orbs when there's team fights and able to stun them if they hit.

So, build her tanky and she'll be able to take more hits than what she could do without tank items. If you want to build her a glass-cannon then this guide isn't for you. But I hope you enjoy.

Basically, if you build her straight AP, everyone will jump on you because they think you're too weak; and because you haev no defense at all.

This build is still in the making and will change later on.

Updates!

Publish Date: September 14, 2012 - 5:25 PM

Update: Added Void Staff and Sorcerer's Shoes. 7:19 PM

Update: Added Pictures September 15, 2012 - 11:55 AM

Update: Changed the build around a little bit September 20, 2012 - 3:44 PM (Thank you so much lazysushi!!)
Update: Added Draven to the List of Champions September 22, 2012 - 1:26 PM

Update: Updated the masteries with the modern ones December 8th, 2012