Got about 20 games under her now. Initial reactions? Mixed really:

1. The use of her E makes or breaks her
2. Short range
3. Low damage initially
4. Good AoE
5. Can move and cast, very smooth animations

I really think the use of her E makes or breaks you. Like...the difference between a useless Syndra and an amazing one is solely on the use and abuse of that long range stun. And no, I am not an amazing Syndra LOL.

I'm still on the fence on whether or not she's balanced in general, useful in Dominion, or needs a tweak.

IMO she really doesn't have a place top. Her damage is too low for how short her range is. She basically feels useless until 6. And even then, mediocre compared to other top mages like Nidalee, Lux, etc.

Bottom she is really hindered by the short range of her Q and R. She gets outranged by so...many...bottoms. This is where that stun makes or breaks you. I can tell it's going to take a special player to bring this champion to a strong role in Dominion. One thing that I love about it, as small as it sounds, is that you can pick up minions with her W. You can get them off points, throw away promoted minions, etc.

Once farmed and fully scaled however she can switch top and become a force. That ultimate hits...hard. Their squishies won't realize what's happening until they're dead. I also love how you can cast a few more spells while the R is going off, stacking damage on top without them noticing.

My normal build has been some combination of Sorc Boots, Guise, AUG, Rylai's. Been going with Mpen/Manaregen/Cdr/Ms runes and 9-21-0 masteries.

I think Rylai's may be core on her with how smooth her moving while casting is. You can kite very well with it. And that's kind of all you got with her.

Thoughts?

I bought and played her a little bit ago as well.

Unfortunately, I believe the quality of a champion in Dominion is highly dependent on their damage to tankiness ratio, and Syndra's is not very good. Her ratios are fairly conservative, and she has very low defense against gap closers. I had a really hard time getting people away from me after a gap closer was used.

Also, her stun has a high skill cap to actually execute. It's possibly that I'm not up to par on this, but I found it difficult to actually pull off an stun someone in the heat of a fight, once they were already attacking me. Many other APs (Ryze, Kass, AP Sion, Ahri ) can just press one button with zero chance of failure to counter an enemy champion who has used a gapcloser on you, whereas Syndra's E has a low knockback range and/or a more complex setup to actually use to get out of that situation.

In general, I don't think the amount of team contribution she brings matches up with the skill level required to make her work in Dominion. Her kit just doesn't mesh well with fast-paced, mobile team-fights that make up most of Dominion.

She's really fun AP mid in SR though.

She suffers the same as every mage on this map. They need to level and need to get a few items.

The ability to move while casting makes her very mobile. I've had success with her bottom. And I'm sure if I could hit the stun more reliably, I could do much better.

Top is a different story. I don't think she belongs there at all.

But who knows. For all we know she could need buffs anyway.

I don't know, even when she 'gets going' she seems to lack any real threat beyond her ult. One hard to use stun with a long CD isn't good enough utility. Fortunately most people seem to have come to this conclusion as well, and she's all but disappeared from Dominion for now. Just avoid playing blind pick next Tuesday and Wednesday, and that should be the last anyone sees of her unless major changes happen.

I really need to stop picking up champions on release just because I have the IP, I should really have gotten Zyra instead.

It all comes down to how well can you land her Q-E stun combo. Unfortunately on the smaller dominion map, with limited visibility, a technical, difficult to use CC is not helping her at all.

You can poke and use her W-Q combo for getting in some damage, but landing a full combo all comes down to that stun. You can use E instantly and have the ball launched before the animation finishes, it has a weird skill-cap that you have to just get used to. After that its W-Q-R-Q-E-W (or something similar along those lines). You can use her other skills while they ult is going off to continue stacking damage, then flash out an E with all those extra balls on the field for a second stun and hopefully a kill.

I think her bot game has potential. Maxing Q first for damage, then E for her post ult-orb stun scatters is important and learning how to reliably open up with a Q-E stun combo is going to be clutch.

Being squishy and having really unreliable CC, you need to be paying attention to whose up and where they are. A single roaming gank can mean you just lost bot, its very difficult to land the stun on 2 people, or even use her knockback effectively without getting simply slowed, or flashed back onto.

A lot of times, its simply safest to switch back to passive play. Even then, early to mid game, shes an easily ganked target that can be 2 shotted by burst champions, even under her own turret.

Interesting things happen when i dont record them so i just turned off the recorder and instantly had a Syndra of my team who we kinda forced to go Bot, She just facestomped the enemy Bot laner and forced 3 swaps just to facestomp enemy Laners one after another and capping the Enemy bot multiple times, first time i see someone end up 30-0-7 on a Dominion game ._. and it was a Syndra, needless to say i was happy with the results and added the player for further Syndra tips.

I've heard that her W is bugged.

first off, its already been stated (by phreak over in general discussion) that she is going to be buffed. so whatever you think she is now, she'll be better.
edit:http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/...03977#29403977

if played correctly, syndra is probably the best bot laner in game (after she's buffed)

sydra is one of, if not the only, champion that can both push AND pull her own lane with her W. if u throw a cannon minion back onto your next freshly-spawned wave, the wave will push towards your side, forcing the opponent to either overextend (and get ganked) or miss xp/cs.

the key factor is, of course, aiming your QE combo. u can learn combo's and how to push/pull lanes easily. aiming her QE takes a lot of time. you have to remember that even with all her shortcomings (of which there are many), she has amazing base dmg on her ult.


a lot of the problems i see with her are when people try to take her top. she runs into the same problem leblanc has where u burst down 1 person and thats it. after that 1 burst combo, ur kinda useless. but if u go bot, u dont run into that problem.


with reduced mana costs (they're a bit high right now) and faster travel times on her spells (it takes too long to actually throw something), she'll be very good.

Interesting, how did he build her?

Another thing I've noticed about Syndra is how ridiculous her name's pronunciation is compared to Singed. I've heard this over Vent so many times and it's driving me so crazy I fear I'll soon turn into a mad scientist myself.