So, here's an overview of all the possible summoners you can take on Syndra. You should always run Flash & Teleport for numerous reasons. Then we also have the situational option that you can go for - Ignite, against far easier matchups.

Slot 1		Slot 2
Always		Of Course		Situational

Let's you focus your gold on other items rather than to buy boots that you do not immediately need.

Grants 3 different elixirs at level 3, 6 and 9. Two of them are average, the last potion gives a free +1 skill point.

Gives you a lot of extra sustain and survivability if you're in a lane that is very rough to play.

Gives you haste & adaptive for different stats, useful in builds that varies from just AP.

Another underrated rune. This rune can be important because of how well Syndra is able to utilize Flash, Teleport and even her Unleashed Power. Being able to reduce these spells, especially on a champion that's very reliant on ultimate, is very beneficial.

Can't stress enough how good this rune is. Amazing for mana sustain especially for early mana struggles.

If you're opting to scale, this can be very strong for that extra needed free ability haste.

Provides healing and any necessary sustain you'd require during the laning phase in order to survive.

If you're against matchups where sustain isn't needed, you can go this for more offense.

Gives you necessary adaptive force. This is essentially just a damage boost and the best choice in this slot.

Good for lowering your ultimate even more. Quite crucial since your ultimate is your most useful ability.

Her most common standard item as it provides a lot of durability and overall laning power since Syndra is quite squishy. It's just an overall good purchase to survive the lane and should always be opted for no matter what.

This is the most common potion to go together with Doran's Ring. It'll always be able to give you enough health back to sustain yourself during the laning phase and isn't really ever a terrible buy no matter what you decide to do.

The usual starting trinket. It helps with getting early vision and will always be a generally good choice. It'll be able to provide vision for you throughout the early stages of the game in order to help you avoid ganks by the enemy team.

If your team as a whole is behind, it'll be hard to deny or gain vision for an objective etc. if you can't contest it to begin with. In such cases, get Farsight Alteration instead as it provides long range vision and does help you overall when you're not able to face-check anything.

If you're having a real bad time, you can opt to buy this for 400g to get some damage to work with.

Will provide you with some great early ability haste for 250g that you'll be able to use.

Will provide you with some great stats if you really believe you'll be able to snowball your lane.

Early boots will help with dodging skillshots. It will also make it a lot easier to move around the map.

Don't forget to buy extra potions for more sustain in cases of where you absolutely need them to survive.

If you have 75g left, buy one to use for vision in bushes or to prepare for an important objective.

I'm a big fan of these boots and I essentially build these in 100% of my games. These are just a very comfort type of a pick to choose from as it gives you that necessary magic penetration to really start dealing some huge amounts of damage throughout the game.

This is the current strongest damage dealing item that you can run on this type of a control mage. Luden's Companion provides Syndra with anything she'd ever require, whether that be ability haste, raw AP or just lots of mana.

If you're looking for early magic pen and damage and is unable to truly snowball the game, you can opt to buy this item. The significant damage increase if champions are below <40% maximum health is very beneficial here to get damage going without sacrificing too much.

If you believe you can snowball your entire lane, isn't in need of any defenses and can carry the game, you can buy this item. You'll find yourself having huge increases in damage and 1shot potentials, sacrificing said defenses you'd have from other items.

This item will give you a big boost of AP once you build it and is essential to your build no matter what due to how incredibly strong it is for mages. Get it as your third or fourth item to make the most efficient use of the passive.

This item is a must-have 2nd item against AD matchups that can immediately kill you (e.g. Zed / Talon / Yone). It's also a worthy item to use against ultimates that could otherwise be problematic to dodge (e.g. Chum the Waters).

A very good item to pick up to stack some very early armor against matchups that are extremely annoying to play around + an early zhonya usage.

Is a great item if the enemy team has an AP assassin, burst mage or another (fed) AP champion (e.g. Annie / LeBlanc). The spellshield can also help you with engaging (safely), as you won't get interrupted by CC immediately after you go in.

Incredible item to buy due to the immense early magic resistance and generaly defensive stats it's able to provide for you.

If you get ahead, you have a stacked dark seal and you believe in yourself, you can take this gamble. If you do manage to keep it stacked you'll be able to do a disgusting amount of damage and you even get extra movement speed on top of that.

Good early buy if you're looking to snowball your lane. It's a gamble so if you believe in yourself and pray, you can definitely try this.

Get this when the enemy team is starting to build a lot of items that give magic resistance. Try to watch out for items like Null-Magic Mantle. Void Staff is a more gold-efficient item than anything else if and only if the enemy has AT LEAST +50 Magic Resistance.

A decent purchase to go for if you're just looking for some very early magic penetration to deal with the enemy and their magic resistances.

An incredibly common item to buy at this point just due to how often healing champions are picked & life steal items are bought (e.g. Vladimir / Soraka / Dr. Mundo / Aatrox / Bloodthirster) whilst also providing some offensive damage that you can work with.

Good to buy early if you just really want something to deal with the healing early on. You should sit on this item and only upgrade to Morello last item.

Gives her a lot of necessary stats that all benefit you such as ability power and ability haste. It also provides movement speed which for a champion as immobile as Syndra - is quite beneficial to have depending on who you face. The only downside is that you'll be very squishy.

A lesser equivalent to Void Staff and cheaper. Void is an overkill item if the entire enemy team is stacking plenty of magic resistance, this item however is very useful to buy if they are stacking MR but not nearly as much. It also provides your team with healing overall.

Game Phases

Combos

Midlane 101

Roaming

Laning Phase

Teamfighting

Jungle Tracking

Tempo

Wave Management

Warding

A decent start for the early stages of the game.

Key points:
- Attempted to shove Anivia in
- Did overextend and got ganked by Kha'Zix
- Kha still managed to missplay my E and I managed to get a kill anyway
- Now I can back for a big gold advantage in base

Know when to trade and when to farm! In the earliest stages of the game it's all about competing and trading with your opposing laner. You'll be looking to both farm and trade with your opponent, either by harassing the enemy as they're walking up for minions or just last-hitting your own minions.

Make the wave push towards you! If possible you almost always want to make the wave push towards you, but not into tower. You want to find the middle ground where the wave is almost at your tower - this is because it lets you farm safely whilst removing yourself from getting ganked by the enemy jungler since you're so vulnerable without passive stacks.

Set-up good ganking options! Further elaborating on the previous point, by allowing the enemy laner to push the wave towards you, whether intentionally or unintentionally, it'll give you the ability to freeze it at your side of the lane and thus opens up a lot of really good ganking opportunities for your own jungler.

Objectives, objectives, objectives! - Yes, kills and dragons are still important. But not more than towers. Taking down towers not only provides you gold but also cracks the map wide open. It gives your entire team a lot more room to play with. Always aim to assist your teammates when taking dragons, and try to take down the first midlane tower before moving onto a sidelane to take more towers.

Roaming! Never forget! During the mid game is where you really start to shine, try to look for any ways to roam to either sides of the map and help your other teammates. The further ahead you can get other lanes, the easier it'll be to contest objectives and thus the easier it'll be to win the game.

Sidelaning! One very important part about playing Syndra is that most people tend to forget that she's incredibly good at sidelaning. With your waveclear, you should ALWAYS be sidelaning if there is not an immediate objective or teamfight/skirmish occuring in order to get stacks for your Transcendent. This is where you'll be gaining most of your gold/exp and you should always aim to be safe when sidelaning.

Decent portrayal of what to do during the mid stages of the game.

Key points:
- Our bot tower is down
- My botlane went mid instead
- A skirmish breaks out mid but my team does not need me
- I farm the waves arriving on botlane because otherwise they're lost
- Make sure they're pushed to tower before I do anything else

Level 1 Trade

Quick Trade

Standard Trade

5-ball Ult

6-ball Ult

7-ball Ult

In order to proceed with the laning phase, you must know where the enemy is located to plan out what you intend to do. After all, you cannot kill a laner that is safe and you can't push a wave that isn't in your favor. For this concept to work, you'll need either proper vision set-up and/or even foresight of the enemy jungler & their pathing.

Vision set-up is when you ward camps in advance before the game starts in order to know ahead of time when the enemy jungler will pass by that camp. For example you can ward their Red to see where they start or Wolves/Raptors at 1:30 to check if they pass by it later, limiting where they could possibly be.

Foresight is when you already know the enemy jungler's pathing and where they'll start. To know their pathing, you must think like the enemy jungler. If you were them, where would you start & what would you do? For example, Twitch will mostly always start Red & proceed to get a gank off in a lane afterwards.

There are rare situations to these concepts, which is any high-AoE jungler such as Kayn & Zac, that can start a variety of unpredictable clears. Or there are junglers who likes to steal camps immediately as fast as the first camp such as Nunu & Willump or Ivern. There are also junglers who are fine with starting from either side and doesn't have a specific kind of clear.

It's another term for lane dominance. It's decided by whoever is able to gain control of the lane and aggressively shove it in their favor, basically meaning whoever has the winning lane that can sufficiently waveclear, we can use Vi as the example on the left.

Why does this matter? When your jungler moves into enemy jungle territory or simply contesting scuttle crabs, they're at risk of getting collapsed on by the enemy lanes. However, if you have lane priority, you can effectively back them up first & give them help on their invade. You lose nothing in return for aggressively pushing your lane in your favor whilst the enemy has to choose between losing a minion wave of exp & gold to tower or giving you an advantage such as killing the rival jungler, stealing camps or getting tons of vision for your team.

The things your jungler can do on the map is somewhat of a blockage by the strength of their solo lanes. If the laners can back them up, they can safely proceed with anything they want to do and achieve significant gains & leads with minimal risk of any disadvantages.

Having this said, getting collapsed on when they're in enemy territory does happen way less in lower elos compared to higher elos where both junglers and laners are more knowledgeable.

A win condition are a set of goals that you’re trying to achieve because they represent the best path to attain victory. It guides your thought process & can change as the game goes on. Try to think of it as your Plan A > can lead to Plan B > C and so forth. Achieving these doesn’t always guarantee victory as your opponents will also fulfill their own win conditions. In general, if you follow your win con, you’ll have a higher chance of winning.

Example, you have a Riven that's getting roasted up top whilst your Lucian & Braum is winning their lane at bot. Your win condition is playing safe and getting bot further ahead and continuing to snowball even harder. You should not die or roam top period. She won't get back into the game with ganks alone & you're putting yourself at risk of dying as well. Riven will have to accept that she's weak side, whilst you're making the strong side even stronger and vice versa. Just accept one lane is going to be weak and gank the stronger side instead.

Seeing the win cons in champions is another factor. For example, Draven who is fully centered on dominating the early game into a victory is completely different from a Vayne who is weak and would rather play safe & farm early instead of fighting and wasting time. Seeing these win cons will come with time but it's good to keep in mind.

Getting objectives such as a tower/dragon can also be a very important goal. It'll never guarantee victory but it'll be able to give you a higher chance of reaching it.

Good example of how to utilize "slow pushing", to start up a potential lead.

Key Points:
- Make sure to last-hit minions
- While the minions are slowly killing eachother I'm able to ward
- Barely miss any minions
- Next wave comes exactly in the middle of the lane
- The lane is now slowly pushing, I have 10 minions while they have the standard 6.

The art of slowly pushing waves towards your opponent's tower whilst harassing the enemy in the process. Slow pushing is mostly used to create big waves and apply pressure - especially against midlane matchups that cannot contest it and risk the chance of losing multiple waves of minions in the process.

What does it do? This form of manipulation will allow your minions to take much less damage compared to the enemy minions, and as a result, your minions will be able to slowly push the wave to the enemy tower. This is because your minions will last longer and not die quickly because they will always have the numbers advantage over the enemy.

Why is it important? Slow pushing is a term that is used in this sense of gameplay because your minions will – even with the numbers advantage, still take some time to kill the enemy minions. When you're not able to freeze the wave, you want to deny as much gold/exp as you're able to from the opponent and slow pushing waves is a great concept to accomplish just that.

A good example of how to utilize "fast pushing". Pushing waves fast to accomplish good recalls for yourself.

Key Points:
- Both me and the enemy laner is extremely low
- My Rakan roamed already to help
- With them here I can push the wave as quick as possible without losing CS
- Now I can get a good recall despite the bad lane phase

Fast pushing is a form of manipulation that is used to create immediate and attention seeking behavior that needs to be addressed quickly by the enemy. Without this, enemies could take liberty and be gone for a long time without missing much. Fast pushing is used to force the enemy to make split decisions that may not be fully thought through.

In order to push a wave fast - you need to kill all the minions as quickly as you possibly can. You should look to use your auto attacks as well as your abilities to make the wave clearing much quicker to perform and make use of.

Pushing waves requires only one thing - more minions. The more minions you have compared to the enemies, the faster and more powerful the push will be. If you're clearing every minion the enemy has and only yours remain, they'll push very quickly to the opponent's tower.

A good example of how you can utilize "freezing". Both setting up a freeze and maintaining it.

Key Points:
- I have more health than the opponent
- They have to recall
- I have more minions shoving to my tower
- I drag the minions towards the side
- I hold them there to setup a freeze on next wave
- Even though it's slightly improperly done (3 minions instead of 4-5) -- it's still a good showcase of how to set one up.

Freezing is one of the more complicated types of manipulation to perfect as it requires a lot more work because you have to constantly manipulate the wave in your favor whilst keeping an eye on your opponents. When freezing, you want to be able to zone the enemy off the farm and make them overextend if they want to get any farm.

If you want to freeze the wave - all you need to do is have at least 4+ enemy minions comparative to yours and last-hit the enemy minions at the last possible second. Sounds simple right? Well…it’s going to get a bit more complicated. Whenever the enemy damages a minion through either auto attacks or ability use outside of last-hitting, you will need to match their damage. This is because your allied minions will die quicker as they have less health and as a result, the enemies wave will be pushing towards you.

Due to having to match the damage - all the minions will die at roughly the same time which prevents the wave from pushing in either direction – thus creating the freeze. If you didn’t match the damage, or you start randomly auto attacking the minions, then the wave will not freeze and instead start pushing in a direction you may not like. Attack too little, and the wave will push against you. Attack too much, and it’ll push towards the enemy.

Welcome to the matchup section. Below is a table depicting the difficulties of the matchups. Please keep in mind that these difficulties are solely based on my opinion. Matchup difficulty also depends on your skill and the skill of the opponents.

Champion

Difficulty

Aatrox

Ahri

Akali

Akshan

Anivia

Annie

Aurelion Sol

Aurora

Azir

Brand

Cassiopeia

Corki

Diana

Draven

Ekko

Ezreal

Fizz

Galio

Gangplank

Garen

Gragas

Heimerdinger

Hwei

Irelia

Jayce

Kai'Sa

Karma

Karthus

Kassadin

Katarina

Kayle

LeBlanc

Lissandra

Lucian

Lux

Champion

Difficulty

Malphite

Malzahar

Morgana

Naafiri

Neeko

Orianna

Pantheon

Qiyana

Renekton

Riven

Rumble

Ryze

Seraphine

Smolder

Swain

Sylas

Taliyah

Talon

Tristana

Tryndamere

Twisted Fate

Twitch

Veigar

Vel'koz

Vex

Viktor

Vladimir

Xerath

Yasuo

Yone

Zed

Ziggs

Zilean

Zoe