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Welcome to my guide for Syndra, The Dark Sovereign. This is my second Mobafire guide so I would appreciate any and all feedback that you guys may provide. Syndra is an AP caster that relies much on the placement of her balls. *Queue laughter* Her burst can be extremely high if you place the balls right. She has a decent amount of utility, stun and slow. All of her abilities except her ult have AoE, making her very valuable in team fights and taking out the carry with her ult. Enjoy my guide, I will take whatever time I have to read comments and add more sections.

AoE: Area of Effect; an ability or item bonus that does damage in a certain area.

AP: Ability Power; most abilities scale off of ability power, basic attacks do not scale off of ability power but there could be basic attack enhancers which increase your basic attack damage.

CC: Crowd Control; in some way debuffs or interrupts your champion (knock up, slow, suppress).

MS: Movement Speed; the speed your champion moves; units per second.

MR: Magic Resist; lowers a champion's damage on an ability by the amount of damage it does and how much magic resist you have.

Pros

Great burst damage with the right ball placement.
Nice AoE stun with Scatter the Weak.
Nice harass with Dark Sphere.
LONG harass/slow with Force of Will.
Ultimate burst damage with three balls out with your Unleashed Power.



Cons

Dificult to get the balls in right placement.
Squishy.
Vulnerable to enemy CC, if not using Cleanse.
Needs either health, magic resist, or armor.

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist gives you Magic Resist against those AP mid laners.
Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration Syndra is pretty mana heavy, so she needs a good amount of mana regeneration to help her stay in lane easier.
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration gives you Magic Penetration to help cut through some of the opponent's Magic Resist.
Greater Quintessence of Ability Power give you a little more a kick for early game harrasment.

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Alternative Runes

Greater Glyph of Ability Power: You can use these runes to get that extra AP. I don't think its worth sacrificing the MR just for a little bit of AP.
Greater Seal of Armor: You can get this runes if you are going against an AD caster or a manaless champ, but Syndra is still pretty mana hungry, so I would go with mana regen seals.

: This passive gives you a little boost when your abilities reach max rank. Gives you more damage on (your Q), increased slow duration on (your W), increased width on (your E), and now longer range on (your ult). Having said this, you basically have no passive until level 9 at the earliest. It still has a cool name, right?

: This is your main harass and damage ability. It summons a dark sphere where you target it to dealing AoE damage. I take this first and max it by level 9. You need this ability to use your other abilities effectively. The damage is increased by 25% to champions at rank 5.

: This your secondary harass ability but has a longer range than Dark Sphere. When you first activate it over a minion or one of your down dark spheres; the second activate throws it on the target location. I take this first and max it second. At rank 5, this ability's slow increases by 25%.

: This is a nice utility skill with a long range if you hit a dark sphere. When you activate this ability, it shoots a decent size AoE cone in front of you knocking back any units that were just purely hit by the cone. The cone can hit a dark sphere which will go off in a long range stunning any enemies it comes in contact with and can hit multiple enemies and multiple spheres. At rank 5, this ability's cone width is increased by 30%.

: This is what Syndra is most commonly known for and hated for, her ult. This ability takes all the floating spheres around you (3) and any spheres that are around you on the ground when you use the ability and beats the targeted enemy for an enormous amount of damage if all spheres possible are placed on the ground (3). I max this ability whenever I can.

As Syndra, I max my R first so it does the most damage it can, just as with other champions. I focus on maxing my Q and W for maximum harass and damage. If they are trying to run, I can repeatedly slow and do damage simultaneously. I max my E last just because of the fact that I use it to stun and knock back and nothing else much.

: I take these just because of such a low MS Syndra has.
: I take these just like almost any other champion who starts off with Boots.

Early-Game Items

: I feel like this is a really good pick on Syndra. It increases your MR, which is handy against most mids, gives decent amount of AP, gives you 20% more CDR and it has two really nice unique passives.

: I almost always take Sorcerer's Shoes. I feel like the magic pen. on these are just much better than the CDR on boots of lucidity and the MR + tenacity on Mercury's Treads.

: Mejai's Soulstealer is a high risk/high reward item. You risk delaying another item which could help you kill the enemy faster but if you get a decent amount of kills and assists it is worth it. I don't see it as much just because of how good the other items are and their benefits even though Mejai's Soulstealer givs you 15% CDR at 50 stacks. Its just not enough.

Mid-Game Items

: Syndra isn't one to deal % damage or have terrible ratios. Instead of skipping Rabadon's Deathcap and going for magic pen. I take the deathcap. It gives a high amount of AP, than increase it with that 30% AP increase passive.

: This is a very good item against an AD heavy team. It gives you a medium size amount of AP and armor. To make this item even better they give you a unique active which makes you become INVINVIBLE! for 2 seconds but in these 2 seconds you cannot move. Its a big help when you have somehow got transported into the middle of a team fight or you are just getting focused while your abilities are on CD.

: This item is good against any team that has higher MS than you or MS increasing abilities. It gives you AP, more health, and the unique passive is that all your abilities slow anyone caught in them. YAY! Very good for chasing or even running away. While casting Dark Sphere, Force of Will, Scatter the Weak and Unleashed Power behind you while running can actually turn the tide of a bad situation into a good one.

: This item has a good amount of stats for Syndra. Health, magic pen., AP, and a nice passive that sets a DoT on the enemy based on 1% of their current health, this is doubled if the enemy's movement is impaired, (Slowed, stunned, snared, etc.).