Since Syndra’s release in 2012, she has been a popular mid lane mage in League of Legends. Professional players often pick her to carry their team to victory. However, Syndra has had a strange balance history, oscillating between being too powerful or too weak. Recently, Riot Games adjusted her kit to bring her back into the meta, resulting in a successful small rework that enhances her gameplay and allows for more skill expression.
If you’re looking to master Syndra in your solo queue games, you might struggle to find the best rune and item combinations for her new version. With her increased scaling, her setups for power spikes have changed. To help you quickly adapt, we will discuss the most popular builds for Syndra in League.
Runes
First Strike Syndra
First Strike: The reworked Syndra differs slightly from the previous version in terms of power scaling. She now has lower early game damage but becomes significantly stronger in the later stages once she acquires items and stacks her passive. To capitalize on this, First Strike is the ideal rune for Syndra. It allows her to gain extra gold during the laning phase, synergizing perfectly with her combos and burst.
Proccing the rune is easy for Syndra due to her range advantage in most matchups. You can quickly follow up with the rest of your spells to amplify the gold earned. You’ll notice a significant difference in the mid game, where throwing your full combo on a target can earn you 70+ gold with the rune. Repeat this a few times throughout the game, and you’ll be far ahead of your enemies. Once Syndra reaches the two and three items spikes and stacks her passive, she becomes a threat to squishy targets.
Magical Footwear: This standard rune saves you 300 gold, which would have been spent on Boots of Speed. It allows you to focus on rushing your Mythic Item. Magical Footwear also grants an additional 10 movement speed, which is beneficial for an immobile mage like Syndra. Alternatively, you can opt for Perfect Timing if you’re facing a lot of burst damage and need the Stopwatch.
Minion Dematerializer: This underrated rune can help Syndra during the laning phase. Her spammable Q ability has significantly reduced damage in the early game, making it challenging to clear waves quickly compared to other mid lane mages in the meta. Minion Dematerializer helps her overcome this weakness and ensures she gets the cannon minions for passive stacks.
Cosmic Insight: Among the available options, Cosmic Insight is the best choice for Syndra. Lower cooldown on summoner spells is always preferable, and the Item Haste granted by this rune allows for more frequent item activation.
Sorcery
Manaflow Band: Like all mage champions, Syndra relies heavily on mana. Her spells can quickly deplete her mana pool in the early stages of the game. Having an extra 250 mana throughout the game is invaluable for Syndra. With her long-range Q ability, she can easily stack Manaflow Band and prevent mana depletion in the first three minutes of the lane.
Scorch: This rune was buffed this season and serves as additional poke for Syndra. It increases her damage output in the early game.
Bonuses: +10% attack speed, +9 adaptive force, +8 Magic Resist (+6 Armor when facing physical damage champions)
Items
Doran’s Ring is the usual starting item for Syndra and currently the best choice. While you can start with Tear of the Goddess, it significantly reduces your early game damage.
For Mythic Items, the recommended choice for the majority of the time is Luden’s Echo. It provides a great spike in wave clear, mana, damage, and ability haste. Pairing it with Sorcerer’s Shoes grants enough magic penetration to eliminate any target in the mid game. Ionian Boots of Lucidity can also be viable, but consistent spell hits are necessary to match similar damage output. However, Crown of the Shattered Queen can be a suitable alternative against team compositions with heavy burst damage.
After rushing the Mythic Item, Shadowflame is the best second item for Syndra as it further amplifies her damage. Zhonya’s Hourglass can be built against AD mid laners, but it often delays Syndra’s power spike and is not recommended in most cases.
If you’re considerably ahead of your enemies and they aren’t building significant magic resistance, Rabadon’s Deathcap is a solid choice. Otherwise, Void Staff offers more value and can be purchased earlier in the game due to its lower cost.
Most of the time, you can only choose one of the following two items: Banshee’s Veil works best against magic damage compositions, providing a spell shield that can be a lifesaver in certain situations. Morellonomicon is strong against sustain compositions, making it the ideal choice when facing enemies with multiple sources of healing. If your primary objective is bursting an enemy, focus on building as much ability power as possible. Below is a typical standard build for Syndra, which offers the best combination of ability power and magic penetration to annihilate enemies while also providing enough defensive stats to survive.
Syndra, League of Legends, mid lane mage, runes, items, Mythic Items, Luden’s Echo, Sorcerer’s Shoes, Shadowflame, Zhonya’s Hourglass, Rabadon’s Deathcap, Void Staff, Banshee’s Veil, Morellonomicon, ability power, magic penetration