In this build I will be explaining how to play Syndra, the newest champion to join the League of Legends. Syndra is an AP Mage, designed for the mid lane with extreme burst if built and played correctly. I believe she is a 100 difficulty character and so playing her well can be hard at times. I have played Syndra a few times but have a good idea on how to build and play her and so, if you follow this build then maybe you can be successful as Syndra.

This is my first guide, as such, I may get things wrong and if this is the case please comment below or send me a message. Sorry about Walls of text.

This is up for interpretation. I usually start quite conventionally with Boots, A Health Potion and 2 Mana Potion. If you take Clarity as a Summoner Spell or you are up against someone with good harass then I would recommend starting Boots and 3 Health Potion. This just gives you good sustain in lane and lets you stay for as long as possible.

Once you have enough money, maybe after your jungler has ganked and forced your opponent to recall, you can recall and pick up an early Chalice of Harmony. If you can get back early enough then this is a great item. Syndra relies on harassing with her "Q" and because it is so effective, Riot Games have given it a high mana cost, meaning that you have to pick and choose your moments to use it. The Chalice of Harmony allows for more "spamming" of abilities and giving you more sustain in the laning phase. It also gives a nice bit of Magic resist if you are up against a mage.

After that, I would lane for a bit more and try to get a few kills and when you have 1600 gold, go back and get a Needlessly Large Rod which can then be built into a Rabadon's Deathcap.

For all this time, you have had Tier 1 boots which could have meant that you may have died because of it. It is important you remember this and try to play relatively defensively otherwise the whole game could be affected. As such, it is now time to pick up Sorcerer's Shoes to help with mobility and chasing in team fights etc. Another option for boots are Ionian Boots of Lucidity which give a bit of cooldown reduction and can help with placing spheres and bursting people down. You can try with Ionian Boots of Lucidity and see how it compares to Sorcerers Shoes but overall I would recommend Sorcerer's Shoes.


Now it is time to build that Chalice of Harmony into something, namely Athene's Unholy Grail. This gives a good amount of Magic Resist, Mana-Regen, Cooldown Reduction but most importantly Ability Power. All these things are very useful on Syndra and can help in sustained team fights and roaming.

If the game hasn't ended already, you might want to get a Void Staff. This gives a lot of Ability Power (along with Rabadon's Deathcap Passive which gives you more!) and also magic penetration. This is especially useful if you are playing against a tanky team that is building Magic Resist e.g. Dr. Mundo, Taric etc.


As your penultimate item, I would recommend buying a Lich Bane. This is an insane item for late game after you have built all your Ability Power because it's passive is that when you use an ability, your next basic attack will deal an additional 100% of your Ability Power (Psss...Never tell Master Yi about this item). This can be great for taking down turrets and trying to end the game because it has no cooldown, so if you spam abilities when you are attacking a turret then you can take it down in about 6 or 7 hits with your finished build (OP).

Finally, I would add a Morello's Evil Tome but it can be anything really just make sure it is AP based.

That is the end of my Item Build section of my Guide. I hope it was helpful in your quest to ame[/u]become a Syndra beast and if you have any suggestions for other items please feel free to comment. Also, if you want to try out different items with Syndra you can also do that and please comment on how it went.

I believe this is a fairly standard AP Mage Rune Page with Ability Power per-level Glyphs, Ability Power Quintessences, Magic Penetration Marks and Mana-Regen Seals.


The Glyphs are 9 Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power and give 0.17 Ability Power per level and so 3.06 Ability Power at level 18. These are very useful late game for a bit of burst that could mean the difference between a kill and your opponent escaping. It is also quite useful early game but could be swapped out for flat Ability Power runes if you want to completely dominate early game.


The Quintessences are 3 Greater Quintessence of Ability Power which give 4.95 flat Ability Power and are just generally useful for early game. Another option is swapping one or two of these out for flat Mana-Regen Quintessences which can also help early game. However, I would recommend flat Ability Power Quintessences since the other Ability Power runes in this guide are per-level and you need some early game burst.


The Marks are 9 Greater Mark of Magic Penetration which give flat 0.95 Magic Penetration. These are very useful early game before your opponent in the mid lane has built much magic resist to counter you. This could mean that you can get some early kills and immediately start to dominate the lane, shutting your opponent out of the game and setting your team up for a victory. If you want more Ability Power then you could swap these out for 9 Greater Mark of Scaling Ability Power which are Ability Power per-level however I would still take the magic penetration runes for utility.


Finally, the Seals are 9 Greater Seal of Replenishment which give flat 0.41 Mana-Regen. These are very useful for laning because it means that you can harass without having to worry too much about running out of mana and also use abilities to farm minions. You could also swap these out for ability power runes but you would probably have to take clarity instead of ignite which could hinder your chances of getting a kill early which probably isn't a good idea.

This is again up for interpretation. I personally, would take a point in your Dark Sphere first because it is very useful in pulling blue for your jungler and it is also great for harrassing because of its huge range. Even when a ranged opponent comes close to farm your caster minions it is easy to get a harrass off on them and start to build an early lead. Because of this, and the fact that is is the main damage dealer for Syndra, I would max it as soon as possible at levels 1,3,5,7 and 9.


Syndra's Force of Will is a good utility tool for slowing and combined with your Dark Sphere is also good for farming. As such, I would take a point at level 2 to help with level 3 ganks from aggressive junglers.


Syndra's Scatter the Weak is another good utility tool and is good as a stun when you get to the point in the lane when you are having 1vs1's where you are starting to do quite a bit of damage to each other but is not needed at level 2 or 3 harassing. I would also take a point early, at level 4, to also help with ganks because of its knock back and max last.


Lastly, and most obviously, is Syndra's Unleashed Power (or ultimate ability), which you take points in as soon as possible at level 6,11 and 16.

I briefly discussed this in the "Item Build" section of this Guide but I will go over it again here. Normally I would take Ignite and Flash, ( Flash is a must) but it really depends on these things: whether your team has a jungler and how you start your build. If you do have a co-operative jungler (one that will give you second Blue Buff) then feel free to take Ignite. However, If you are a lower level and do not have a jungler then I would advise taking Clarity. This is because you need sustain in lane and if you do not have Blue Buff then this can be tricky until you are able to get Chalice of Harmony. If you do take Clarity then I would recommend taking Boots and 3 Health Potions because with Clarity you are not going to need Mana Potions as well (if you do then stop farming so much with your "Q").


This sounds radical but bear with me on this point coming up. Another option instead of Flash is Promote, although it is widely classed as bad it depends on how you want to play Syndra. If you do take Promote then you will have to get kills early on in the game, and good Creep score otherwise the tactic is ruined. This is because you need to get fed and farmed so you can go and ROAM. You do this by promoting a siege minion in a wave and then pull back to look like you are recalling and then p***ing of to another lane to gank and get a kill. The more you gank successfully the more fed you will get and the easier the game will become. The problem is that you can get distracted by ganking and do not notice that your turret has been taken or your opponent is getting free farm and is becoming over-levelled but Promote will help with this in early levels by making it harder for them to push and get CS. This is only a theory at this moment in time so if you would like to try it I would be very grateful to see how it turns out and whether it is an awful idea or not.

I take a fairly standard AP Mage summoner 21/0/9 page with all the usual masteries (Ability Power and Mana-Regen) that are not worth discussing in great detail. The only difference to some other pages I've seen is that I put a point in Runic Affinity . This is great if you have a jungler because when you get that second blue at around 7 minutes then it lasts that much longer and could help you change the tide of an early 1vs1 but also with harass and farming.

When Farming as Syndra you want to not only focus on last hitting the enemy's minions but also getting a bit of harass on your opponent when they try to last hit your minions. You do this by anticipating where they are going to go to last hit your minions by looking at your minions health and seeing which you would last hit. When they make a move to attack it place your Dark Sphere just in front of them so that when there sphere goes it will hopefully do damage to them. If you do this as much as possible and try to dodge their harass then you should be able to force them out of lane and start winning the lane. Other than that, just farm as you normally would and if you have Blue Buff, then you might be able to afford to land a Dark Sphere on their caster minions and then Force of Will one of their fighter minions on top which will do enough damage to kill them or if not, you should be able to last hit each of them.

Now, this is another alternative tactic that you could use. If you are playing a super competitive ranked game where you are invading their Blue, it is advisable to take your first point in Force of Will. This is because you can actually pick up the Golem and carry him over the wall for your team to attack without the enemy team being able to do much about it. The only thing I will say about this is not to do it if you already have a Blitzcrank on your team because he has an arguably more effective pull.

This section with basically explain your role in a team fight and how to carry it out. Your role is to do a lot of damage on a single target and to clean up team fights, if there is anything to clean up. At the start of the team fight you should place a lot of spheres close to their carry so that you can use your ultimate ability and kill them very easily. Once you have used it to kill their main damage dealer then I would position yourself so that you are able to Scatter the Weak and propel your spheres into the middle of the teamfight to stun most (if not all) of the remaining enemy champions to let your team-mates (and you) to burst them down and win the teamfight.


If a chase occurs there is a set sequence you should go through. Firstly, Place your Dark Sphere on top of them, if possible, and then use your Force of Will to pick up that sphere and again, if possible, throw it on top of them to slow them. At this point, your team (hopefully your AD carry) will have caught up to them and will have been able to kill them. If this has not occurred then the sphere should still be in front of you and if you're lucky you might be able to Scatter the Weak the sphere into them, stunning them and pretty much securing the kill.

Thank-you for reading my Build Guide for Syndra - The Dark Sovereign. I hope it has been very informative and helped you to becoming a beast with Syndra. If you have any suggestions on the guide or if you have tried it out then please leave a comment below on how it went. If you want me to post more AP Mage guides please leave a comment on who and I will try to do it.

Sam
a.k.a Latrinum tDt

16/9/12 - Added Titles for some of the chapters
16/9/12 - Added Images for items, characters and runes