Hello! I am Tyler "ecco" Spesick and I am a former LCS mid-laner. At the time of writing this guide, Syndra is currently my favorite mid-laner to play. She has one of the strongest laning-phases in the game, incredible burst potential, AoE damage, CC and is strong at all stages of the game. What isn't there to like!? She does have a fairly high skill-ceiling which can be a turn-off to players new to her but I highly suggest you give her some time on the rift.

Pros

1. Strong laning.
2. Fun and satisfying to play.
3. High skill-ceiling.
4. Large burst.
5. AoE damage and CC.
6. High catch potential.
7. Consistent damage.

Cons

1. Slow with no real escape.

The team composition I have laid out above is overall very well rounded with a main focus on catching potential. Every champion, with the exception of our lovely Syndra, is very mobile with dashes and a lot of follow-up potential. This allows the team to capitalize off of Syndra's extremely long range stuns (as well as Leona's) which punishes players for being out of position severely. 5v4 situations will then arise where you can gain large advantages from one player's minor mistake.

Although due to Syndra's kind of jack of all trades-ness she will excel in this kind of composition the most. High catch with strong engage potential and lots and lots of burst on everyone. Also, having a comp that can really capitalize on 5v4 situations (whether it is baiting an objective or diving a turret) is necessary as well. If you want to play her in a team-fight composition then she works great in that too but it really isn't using her strength to the fullest.

Ignite and flash are my summoners of choice on Syndra because they allow her to abuse her strong laning to its fullest. She has lots of kill and zoning potential so having that extra bit of damage through your summoners to either finish off a kill in your chain or to help zone a low-healthed target away from minions is very helpful.

9x 9x 4x 5x 3x

...

greater mark of hybrid penetration Greater Seal of Scaling Health Greater Glyph of Magic Penetration Greater Glyph of Magic Resist Greater Quintessence of Ability Power

I have started running this rune page on practically all of my ranged AP-mids lately. I'm only losing out on 5 magic resist to have the 8 armor pen and it really does add up in the long trades. It also helps a little bit for last hitting which is fantastic. If you are against an AP assassin such as Ahri or LeBlanc and you would feel safer running the magic penetration marks and full magic-resist glyphs then by all means you can do so. It is whatever you are most comfortable at that really matters but I suggest you try this more aggressive setup to see how you like it!

My standard masteries that I have been running for the last month or so. Not running double-edged sword is debatable but I just really don't like that summoner spell because of how vulnerable she is to getting bursted herself that I don't want to make myself that much more susceptible to it.



This is the defensive route to go for your masteries. You lose out on some important things in utility to make yourself a little bit tankier. If you are against a heavy assassin team (such as a Vi + Yasuo with something like an Irelia top) then this is something you should consider running if you feel like you'll be getting focused heavily in lane/team-fights.

The ability sequence that I have above practically never changes. The only thing that I do sometimes alter is taking a second point in your Dark Sphere level 3. I do this when the lane is just kind of blah and only farming and small poking is going on. It gives me lower mana-cost wave-clear and poking at the cost of losing kill potential and making yourself more vulnerable to ganks. In the example I gave neither of these are most likely going to be present so you really don't miss out on much.

Transcendent (Passive) Transcendent is a very straight-forward passive that makes rotating leveling up your abilities not an option. Overall it is very strong and gives her a nice power spike at level 9.

Dark Sphere Dark Sphere is an amazing spell. It is fairly long range, is AoE, short-cd, high base damage and also scales well. It is pretty much everything you need in a standard Q spell on a ranged caster. This will be your main source of damage in prolonged fights as well as your harass.

Force of Will Force of Will is an incredibly strong AoE ability that slows. Its long range makes it fantastic for poking and overall zoning. At times where you are stronger than your opponent in lane (which is a typically the majority of the time), merely picking up one of your balls/minions and positioning yourself aggressively is enough to get them to back off the minions and lose exp/cs. The small niche to this spell is that it can be used to extend the amount of balls that you have present on the field, resulting in more available balls to combo with Scatter the Weak for a stun or Unleashed Power for higher damage. This is done by merely picking up a ball that is about to expire.

Scatter the Weak Scatter the Weak is a cone that pushes back opponents and also launches any of your balls in a straight line (relative to your position), stunning enemies that it comes into contact with. It is your main source of catching and setting up your combo. For shorter, quicker stuns you typically set it up by casting Dark Sphere and timing your Scatter of the Weak to come in contact with the ball as it immediately spawns. For longer range stuns, you pick up one of your balls with your Force of Will, launch it forward, and then hit the outer edge of your Scatter with the ball. Through this method you can achieve an extremely long range stun/catch. It should be noted that currently this way of stunning can be glitchy. Through playing her recently I have had multiple instances where the ball will hit them after being launched by Scatter and it performs the slow of Force of Will rather than the stun. There isn't anything you can do about really except performing the combo a bit slower as it seems to me it happens when that combo is performed in very fast succession but this limits your options with it. I typically just play as the bug doesn't exist and then shrug it off when it messes up. Lastly, it should be noted that Scatter the Weak does stop dashes. An example of this would be LeBlanc's Distortion where if timed perfectly, you can knock her out of it and cause it to do no damage. This is very heavily weighted on having fast reaction time and strong mechanics and is difficult for even the best players to perform.

Unleashed Power Unleashed Power is one of the highest damaging single target spells in the game. It gives Syndra great burst potential and an overall ridiculously strong duelist. The damage of the ultimate does increase depending on how many balls are on the field which is part of the reason why cdr is so strong on her. It is possible to have three balls on the field prior to ulting which results in over 1000 damage to squishier targets in the late game. If you have max cdr and perfectly pull off extending the duration of one of your balls with Force of Will I believe it is possible to have 7 balls worth of damage for your ultimate but this is very unlikely to actually pull off in a real situation and would overall lower your damage as you'd have to be saving Force of Will for this very purpose.

This is very standard on every ranged AP caster mid currently and there's no reason to stray from it.



The core on Syndra is overall the most standard build on ranged AP mids currently. On your first back you are wanting at least 955g for a Chalice of Harmony and a couple of Health Potions and then additional gold can either go towards a Doran's Ring for more laning strength, Amplifying Tome/ Fiendish Codex to complete your Athene's asap (typically done in pure farm lanes), or Boots if you are under pressure from ganks or need movement speed to dodge skill-shots. Make sure to always have a couple of Stealth Wards in your inventory as well!

After your Chalice of Harmony and whatever secondary item you get on your first back (if any) you're then going to want to complete Athene's Unholy Grail asap. This gives you overall incredible power at an extremely decent price. You then should finish your Sorcerer's Shoes immediately after for both the movement speed aspect as well as the added damage from the magic penetration. Then, build towards completing your core with the pure damage items of Rabadon's Deathcap and Void Staff.



Once your core is completed, 99% of the time I'm going to get a Zhonya's Hourglass next. It gives a ton of AP, strong defensive stats, as well as arguably the strongest active item you can purchase for an AP champion. It makes the opposing team lose focus on you, gives you time for your cds to come back up, gives time for your team to re-position around you, and others. Your very last item is going to be situational. If you aren't getting focused and want more damage then you should build a Deathfire Grasp. It will allow you to one shot pretty much anything short of a 3000 health 200 MR mundo when you have enough balls on the field. If they have multiple AP champions diving you (such as a Fizz and Elise combo) then Banshee's Veil would be a safe option. It will hurt your damage but give you a lot of survivability in conjunction with Zhonya's. If you are getting bursted by a lot of mixed damage and consistently dying then Guardian Angel will make it nearly impossible for them to keep you out of a fight.

...

From the very beginning of your lane, you are going to want to be very aggressive with Syndra. Auto-attack harassing them while they are going to last hit as well as attempting to hit them with your Dark Sphere. Getting them to use a health potion early on and just slowly dwindling their health can result in an early kill for you or the beginning of a cs/experience lead due to them having to back early. Once you have a point in Force of Will, you can start using it to zone targets that you are a fair amount stronger than. Simply picking up a ball/minion and walking towards them should be enough to scare them back and if they are in range you can get in some decent harass damage with either just Force of Will or in combination with your Dark Sphere and maybe even a Scatter the Weak. Early on in lane you don't typically use Scatter the Weak all that often because you don't have a lot of mana available to you. Once you get a blue buff or a couple Doran's Rings and a Chalice of Harmony you can start using it aggressively. It is a very quick, long-range stun that can set you up to chunk them for a large portion of their health. Post 6 it can set you up for kills very easily. Even if you stun a low-healthed target a large distance away from you, if you have Flash available you can always flash, Dark Sphere + Unleashed Power + Ignite (+ Force of Will if their flash is down otherwise the animation is very large and should be used last) which will typically result in a kill. As for roaming, I typically don't do it often on Syndra because her mobility is so low. Getting caught out away from your tower can result in certain death if you don't have backup nearby so it is something that is very situational (such as knowing the opposing mid-laner backed and another lane is pushed). Merely going towards a lane in the aforementioned situation and relieving pressure from your lane is enough to make the action justified (just don't miss a lot of potential cs/tower damage for it!).

...

As for mid-game, your team should start trying to get picks and forcing objectives. With your Scatter the Weak you are able to punish people for being out of position very heavily. It can result in easy kills and your team then capitalizes on the situation by getting free objectives, sieging towers, or forcing a 5v4 engagement. Typically for team-fights you are wanting to stay far in the back near your adc because you are so low mobility. If you get engaged upon or cc'ed it can result in your quick demise. If your team gets a strong engagement or catch then you should position yourself more aggressively to follow-up on it. Also, don't be afraid to use your flash aggressively. Let's say sona flash ults a pile of people and you're too far away to follow-up. If you have the balls (hehe) to flash Dark Sphere + Scatter the Weak into Force of Will over their clumped team + Unleashed Power on a squishy it can be the difference between a five for nothing and you losing a team-fight. It takes a lot of confidence to make a play like this and I suggest you try to do things like this. Test you and your champion's limits so you will know what works and what doesn't for future scenarios. This will greatly improve you as a player.

...

Going past mid-game and entering late-game it isn't going to be very different except you are going to hit harder and be safer due to your Zhonya's Hourglass. Make sure to watch your positioning and Zhonya's at the proper time to make sure you secure the victory!