League of Legends Syndra rework rewards you for being a bully

Syndra’s mid-cycle update for League of Legends has made its way to the PBE, introducing a new passive, slightly changing Dark Orb, and adding execution to her ultimate. Since mid lane mages haven’t played much in Riot’s MOBA lately, these changes may be enough to bring Dark Lord back into the meta.

There are a lot of changes to Syndra on the PBE right now, and while they won’t change the overall playstyle of the mage, they will affect how players operate early in the game. The new passive abilities alone mean that pushing for combos against opponents will pay dividends and allow you to snowball the game more easily than before.

Syndra Changes

transcend (passive)

1. Syndra collects up to 120 shards by damaging enemy heroes and leveling up.Angry split enhances Syndra and her abilities
2. Syndra restores 20-215 (levels 1-18) mana when she collects shards from enemies. She can get shards in the following ways:
   1. Damaging an enemy hero with two abilities within four seconds will give the Insurgent (1/2/3 at levels 1, 11 and 18) an 8 second cooldown per target.
   2. Leveling up will grant Syndra five wrath splits
   3. Killing a cannon minion grants an angry split
3. At 120 divisions, Syndra gains 15% of total AP

Dark Orb (Q)

• Cooldown: 4s > 7s
• Mana Cost: 40/50/60/70/80 > 40/45/50/55/60
• Sphere Duration: 6s > 6.5s
• At 40 Rage Splits, the Dark Orb can store 2 charges

Willpower (W)

• Sphere Pickup Radius: 400 > 450
• Prevents non-sphere units from dying for a short time when picked up
• At 60 Fury Split, Force of Will deals an additional 15% (+1.5% per 100 AP) true damage

Dispel the Weak (E)

• Magic Damage: 85-265 (+60% AP) > 75-235 (+55% AP)
• Scattering angle: 34 degrees > 56 degrees
• Cooldown: 18-14 seconds > 15 seconds
• Stun time: 1.5s > 1.25s
• At 80 Fury Split, Scatter the Weak’s cone radius is increased from 56 degrees to 84 degrees, and it also slows enemies by 70% for 1.25 seconds (applied after initial control)

Unleashed Power (R)

• Grants Dark Orb an additional 10/20/30 Skill Haste
• Damage per shot: 90/140/190 (+20% AP) > 90/130/170 (+17% AP)
• At 100 Furious Splits, the unleashed power kills the hero before 15% of the mac’s health

While nothing fundamentally changes apart from Syndra’s passive skills, these tweaks to her skill pack reward players in a different way than before. Because players can get furious shards by performing combos on opponents, and these shards are directly tied to Syndra’s power, it’s worth being aggressive in lanes right now. It’s almost like Kai’Sa’s evolution ability, only instead of buying items to update your gear, you throw the ball at the opposing team.

Syndra’s ultimate’s damage reduction can be disappointing at first, but once you hit 100 cleave and get the execution, it can be a lot stronger than before – especially against more tanky targets.

These changes are currently live in the PBE and are subject to change, but the kit looks pretty good in its current state – we’ll update this post if there are any tweaks before the official release. For the latest live additions to the Rift, you should check out the League of Legends 12.18 patch notes. If Syndra’s rework piques your interest and you’re looking to start your Rift journey, this guide on how to play League of Legends will give you the head start you need.