Syndra's ultimate doesn't miss and the balls don't stop flying.
Most burst mages give you something to dodge. Syndra gives you a point-and-click button that arrives at 675 range and takes your whole health bar. Being told to dodge better isn't advice. Knowing that she can't move at all, on the other hand, is.
Check out our top Syndra counters below for more information on how to beat her!
Counter Guide
How to Beat Syndra
Syndra's ultimate doesn't miss and the balls don't stop flying.
Most burst mages at least give you something to dodge. Syndra gives you a point-and-click button that lands at 675 units and takes your whole health bar. She's one of the mid laners people learn to respect the hard way, and you'll find her on our solo queue tier list. Telling you to dodge better isn't advice. Knowing that she has no dash, no blink and no escape of any kind, on the other hand, is.
Yasuo- A way to block projectiles, or the magic resist to survive the combo without one
- Mobility that closes 675 units faster than she can set up Scatter the Weak [E]
- The discipline to fight when her ultimate is on cooldown rather than when it isn't
Syndra Overview
Strengths: What Makes Her Dangerous
- Unleashed Power [R] is point and click at 675 units, throws every sphere around her at once, and executes low health targets once it's upgraded.
- She covers the whole lane, not one spot in it. Her spheres hold charges, so there's rarely a patch of ground that's safe to stand on.
- Scatter the Weak [E] stuns anything a sphere is knocked into, which turns one missed dodge into her entire combo landing.
- She has a follow-up with no setup at all, because she can pick up a sphere or a minion and throw it for damage and a slow.
- She gets stronger on a schedule you can't interact with. Her abilities permanently upgrade as the game goes on, and the upgrades are real rather than cosmetic.
Weaknesses: Where You Get In
- She has no mobility whatsoever. No dash, no blink, no movement ability. Reaching her is the entire game plan and nothing in her kit prevents it.
- Everything except the ultimate is a projectile or a delayed zone. That includes the stun her whole combo needs.
- Scatter the Weak [E] is 15 seconds at every rank. It never gets cheaper, and without it her burst has no setup.
- Mana. Dark Sphere [Q] and Force of Will [W] spam early is expensive and she pays for it in the levels where she's supposed to be safe.
- Her burst lives on a 120 second cooldown at rank 1. Between ultimates she's a control mage with a slow and a stun.
Countering Syndra
Based on the strengths and weaknesses above, beating Syndra comes down to champions who can accomplish at least one of the following:
- Block the projectiles. Dark Sphere [Q], Force of Will [W] and Scatter the Weak [E] are all projectiles, which makes any projectile blocking tool a near-complete answer to her setup.
- Cross 675 units in one motion. She can't move, so anything that arrives in a single dash or blink arrives before she can reposition the spheres.
- Count Scatter the Weak [E]. It's a flat 15 seconds. The window after it's used is the window where her ultimate lands for a fraction of the damage.
- Buy magic resist. Her damage is entirely magic and there's no physical component in her kit to punish a lopsided build.
If you're already locked into the matchup without any of those tools, these strategies still work:
Playing a Bad Syndra Matchup
Stand away from her spheres. The spheres are the stun, and the stun is what makes her lethal rather than uncomfortable.
Farm from the back of the wave. Dark Sphere [Q] is a placed zone rather than a homing missile, and the extra 100 units of spacing costs you nothing.
Track her ultimate rather than her health bar. A Syndra who has used Unleashed Power [R] isn't a threat for the next two minutes and your team should be taking something during them.
Buy a Null-Magic Mantle on the first back if you're behind. Her whole plan is that the combo adds up to exactly your health bar, and 25 magic resist is often enough to make it not.
Best Syndra Counters
Three ways to beat a point-and-click burst mage with no legs: block what she throws, ignore what she throws, or kill her before she throws it.
Yasuo Walls Off the Spheres
Wind Wall [W] blocks all enemy projectiles for its full duration, and Dark Sphere [Q], Force of Will [W] and Scatter the Weak [E] are all projectiles. That's not a partial answer, it's the whole setup half of her kit deleted for four seconds on a champion who has no way to walk around it.
Sweeping Blade [E] then closes the distance through minions on a fraction of a second cooldown, which is exactly the gap Syndra can't afford to have closed. Way of the Wanderer [Passive]'s shield covers the poke on the way in, and once he's on her, a champion with no dash has no plan at all.
Kassadin Shrugs Off Magic Damage
Void Stone [Passive] reduces the magic damage Kassadin takes, and every point of damage in Syndra's kit is magic. Null Sphere [Q] adds a magic shield on top of that and interrupts channels, which means the poke war she's built for is a war she's losing by default.
Riftwalk [R] drops to a 2 second cooldown at rank 3 and it's a blink rather than a dash, so there's no travel time for her to react to. Once he's level 16 the matchup isn't a lane, it's Kassadin choosing when to appear next to a mage who can't move.
Zed Kills Her First
Living Shadow [W] gives Zed two positions to work with, so the sphere placement Syndra needs for Scatter the Weak [E] is aimed at a target that keeps not being where the sphere is. He also throws Razor Shuriken [Q] from both bodies, which wins the poke exchange outright at level 3.
Death Mark [R] makes him untargetable during the dash, which is the one thing that answers a point-and-click ultimate if he times it into hers. After that it's an immobile mage in melee range of an assassin, and Shadow Slash [E]'s slow means walking out was never an option.
Itemizing Against Syndra
Syndra's damage is entirely magic and it arrives in one combo rather than over a fight:
Banshee's Veil is the best item in the matchup because the ability it eats is usually Scatter the Weak [E], and without the stun the rest of the combo is survivable. Mercury's Treads shortens that stun when it does land, Maw of Malmortius gives a carry a lifeline that triggers during the burst rather than after it, and Kaenic Rookern lets a frontliner walk through her zone control entirely.
Where Syndra Actually Sits Right Now
Counter picks age with the patch, so check the current numbers before you trust a matchup:
- League of Legends Solo Queue Tier List, updated every patch
- Tier List Changelog, for what moved and why
- How to Beat or Counter Series, for every other matchup guide
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