earthenthoughts

[earthenthoughts]

Demacian Lore Update: Shyvana

A Familiar Face, But Unfamiliar Eyes

Shyvana, the Half-Dragon, ranks at the top of my favored characters in League of Legends. I often do not have the means to play her, as I despise the jungle and she doesn't exist in top lane anymore, but when is available, I do enjoy it. Thus, with great interest, I turned my attention to her lore update for Demacia and … found myself looking at someone unfamiliar. I tried to convince myself it was the same character, but, ultimately I cannot. I've been prodded to my reasoning why, and here we are.

  In original lore, Shyvana is the product of a dragon father and human mother. Though not stated implicitly, I've often perceived this as a very loving union of two sapient beings crossing the boundary of species. A controversial idea to be certain, but one ripe with meaning, societal commentary, and a heap of other thought provoking ideas. What follows is Shyvana's brutal rejection by both worlds, and her struggle to not only survive, but find a meaning and place in life. An older dragon, offended at her existence, is ultimately responsible for the death of her parents, but their conflict is what leads her to Jarvan IV and Demacia. Together, through battle, they forge a friendship (arguably, even a kinship), and Shyvana finds someone who may open the door to the belonging she'd long to find. The struggle remains, of course, as the world at large still wants to tear her down.

A half-breed born from the union between dragon and human, Shyvana searched all her life for belonging. Persecution forged her into a brutal warrior, and those who dare stand against Shyvana face the fiery beast lurking just beneath her skin.

Dragonkind considered Shyvana's impure blood an abomination, and she spent her youth pursued relentlessly by one cruel drake. Constantly on the run, she and her father, an outcast dragon, never knew a lasting home. A brutal reflection of countless battles, Shyvana grew hateful and savage. After years of strife, her father finally fell to the other dragon, but not before gravely wounding his foe. Furious with grief, Shyvana pursued her father's murderer as he fled north to recover. There she encountered a group of humans on the trail of the same drake. Though the men looked upon her in fear, their leader approached Shyvana peacefully. He introduced himself as Jarvan IV, the Prince of Demacia, and offered to aid Shyvana in her quest for vengeance. Together they hunted down and confronted the vicious dragon that had slain her father. Shyvana did not expect the men to survive, but in the clash of fire and steel, Jarvan and his men fought with strength she had never believed humans to possess. The ironclad warriors drove their foe into submission, and Shyvana struck the final blow, tearing the beast's heart from its body. Inspired by her ferocity, Jarvan offered her a place in the ranks of his elite guard. Shyvana could still see fear in the eyes of his men, but she longed for a true home. Trusting Jarvan's word, she accepted his offer and now serves as a Demacian warrior. Though her human allies admire her power, they keep their distance. Shyvana strives to repay the prince's kindness with the power of the dragon within, but she cannot help but wonder if the humans are right to fear her.

''I have proven my might to dragonkind – what challenge shall humans pose?'' — Shyvana

  The new lore, for the most part, mirrors almost all these details with a dragon nemesis, finding Jarvan IV and Demacia, etcetra … except the very, very beginning, the very foundation. The thing that really makes Shyvana a 'half-dragon' and a dragon-woman caught between two worlds. In this version, Shyvana isn't the product of love of two sapient beings, but rather, the corruption of a full dragon's egg by a human mage.

  The interminable mysteries of dragons confound and elude all theories. Those who study the subject speak of ancient, elemental runes split between dragon bloodlines, fractions passing from female dragons into their firstborn daughters. These shards instill the dragon that bears it with potent magic of wind, earth, water or fire.

One such dragon egg nested deep within an equatorial volcano, pulsed with the faint echoes of a fire rune. Drawn by its power, a daring mage attempted to extract its runic magicks, only to be interrupted by the dragon mother’s return. The mage fled, having unknowingly infused the egg with his own mortal magic in the chaos. The dragon mother, Yvva, marveled at the fiery energy swirling beneath the shell, oblivious to the alloyed magic within. She and her mate planned to name their progeny Shyvana to honor Yvva’s legacy.

The blood moon of autumn gave way to winter and the egg finally hatched, revealing a human infant with violet skin. As the child took her first breath and began to cry, her body shook and rippled, taking the form of a dragon. Yvva recoiled at the hybrid abomination and sought to kill her child – she would not allow such an unnatural thing to pollute her bloodline. But her mate could not allow Shyvana’s murder, and after a ferocious battle, Shyvana’s father fled with the newborn in tow.

For years, Shyvana and her father flew from place to place to escape Yvva’s vengeance.

As Shyvana grew, she struggled to control her tempestuous emotions and volatile power.

Her father helped temper her dragon side, which unleashed a ruthless fury she had inherited from her mother. While in her humanoid form, Shyvana suffered numerous self-inflicted burns as she learned that life could be fragile and not everything could be set aflame without consequence. Occasionally, her dragonfyre activated the runic echo within her, an echo that was intrinsically linked to her mother.

As Shyvana’s power grew in strength, Yvva was able to sense her daughter’s presence from afar. She found the child alone and taunted Shyvana with tales of her origin, revealing that her true father was a feeble human who had twisted her noble draconic lineage into a disgusting perversion. Her mother would undo what should never have been brought to life, and attacked. Young Shyvana defended herself, but suffered many wounds before her father arrived to save her. He fought with savage fury to give Shyvana time to escape, showing no mercy or restraint to his former mate.

Ultimately, he succumbed to the heat of Yvva’s dragonfyre and was slain.

As Shyvana grieved, she fled in search of a strange land her father had told stories of – a place awash with petricite, stones of nullifying power that diminished any nearby magic.

When she reached the outer territories of Demacia, she knew she had discovered what she sought. The land itself felt heavy and oppressive, making it difficult to wield her runic powers, and Shyvana found it easier to remain in human form. Here, she hoped she could mask her magic enough to hide from her mother.

While hunting for fresh meat, Shyvana followed the scent of blood and came upon an injured warrior named Jarvan near death in the wilds. Though her predatory instincts told her to finish him, her human side recognized that he needed her help. No one was likely to find him in the remote hills of greater Demacia, and he would die without aid.

Shyvana carried the semi-conscious Jarvan to the nearest town, despite her fear that she’d be met with the same disdain she’d encountered all her life. To her surprise, the locals welcomed her to their town and thanked her for helping the soldier. She saw how the villagers pulled together to nurse Jarvan back to health, even though he was a stranger, and Shyvana observed something she’d never known: comradery. Demacians looked out for each other, she learned, and the more she saw of the community, the more she longed to be part of it.

For months, Shyvana lived in peace, hunting wild boars and white elk by day, and returning to the village with her spoils to share by night. She learned that Jarvan had been a prisoner of a neighboring realm and escaped his captors, but felt unworthy of returning to his life in the capital.

One evening, Shyvana heard the sound of leathery wings beating in the distance, and knew her mother had come for her once more. The great dragon ravaged the land in search of Shyvana, burning towns and fields with her flaming breath. Jarvan led the panicked villagers to Castle Wrenwall, a high-walled stronghold where they could shelter behind its stone walls.

Knowing her presence would only harm those she had come to care for, Shyvana decided to return to the wilderness. Jarvan confronted her as she prepared to leave, and she ruefully admitted that she was a half-drake, and the root of her dragon mother’s furious wrath. Jarvan refused to let her leave – she had saved his life, so he would lay down his to defend hers. Jarvan proposed they fight Yvva together. With the support of the local villagers and Wrenwall’s soldiers, he was convinced they could defeat the monster.

Moved by his concern for her safety, Shyvana accepted his offer.

After Jarvan had trained the townsfolk to fight alongside the soldiers of Wrenwall, Shyvana entered a nearby ruin built from ancient petricite, shivering as the nullifying stones suppressed her powers. The soldiers and villagers hid themselves nearby as piercing horns grew from Shyvana’s forehead and she erupted into a scarlet-winged drake. She roared, shooting plumes of fire into the sky to lure her mother to the ground.

Shyvana heard the telltale beating of ancient wings as Yvva approached. Upon her mother’s arrival, soldiers loosed volleys of arrows tipped with petricite to weaken her.

The great dragon retaliated with tearing claws and roaring torrents of flame that roasted scores of soldiers in their armor. At Jarvan’s command, the villagers continued their barrage of attacks as yet more nullifying arrows pierced the dragon mother’s flesh, anchoring her to the ruins below.

Shyvana stood before her mother in proud defiance, but Yvva only laughed; she had always underestimated her daughter's wrath. Tooth and claw tore flesh from bone as the two dragons clashed in a titanic battle, crushing the foundations of the ruins to dust.

Shyvana ripped Yvva's wing from her back, but her mother locked Shyvana's neck between her razor-sharp jaws. Blood streamed from Shyvana's collarbone, and she collapsed into her human form.

As Yvva loomed over her daughter, ready to end the life she had begun, Shyvana channeled all her grief and fury, and summoned the power of the fire rune within her blood. She dug her claws into her mother's flesh and tore the living heart from her chest.

As Yvva’s lifeblood drained, Shyvana felt no mercy, and roared in triumph.

Before the entire village, Jarvan honored Shyvana’s bravery, declaring that she would always have a home in Demacia. For the first time, Shyvana knew she belonged to something greater than herself, and, thanks to Jarvan, understood that Demacia’s strength was its unity of purpose. She was humbled, and in turn swore her service to Jarvan, offering to fight alongside him no matter his path.

With the great dragon destroyed, Jarvan’s faith in his ability to lead was restored, and he felt he could return to his home city. Shyvana returned to the capital with him, and they bore her mother’s skull as a reminder of their incredible triumph. Shyvana knew Demacia could be dangerous for someone as magical as her, but she had never felt a greater sense of belonging.

In the capital, Shyvana remains in her purple-skinned humanoid form as she defends her adoptive home, though every so often, she escapes into the wild to spread her wings. She proudly serves Demacia, but knows that someday she must answer the runic call that burns within her heart.

  Hence, when reading both, you'll find a lot of overlap (and a lot of development on many details), so almost everything is 'good to go', except the little detail at the beginning. The implication from the writing team is that Shyvana is still, somehow, a half-dragon by virtue of her embyronic self becoming corrupted by a human's (unwitting) influence. In essence, she is more literally a direct abomination, as the implication of crossbreeding by humans and dragons is gone. Under this light, one can understand her dragon mother's perception of her dangerous existence–Runeterra is a land of magic, so what foul forces have mutated her child beyond recognition? When the likes of the vast undead, and an empire hellbent on global conquest with all sorts of dark sorcery, it's not unimaginable for dragons to be afraid of their own powerful selves being bent to serve such evil ambitions.

Thus, the answer to her story dilemma is not 'decide on her place in the world', though Riot writes like it is, but rather, to 'purge the corruption within'. Shyvana herself may operate under the idea she has a place to find, but the shadow of that reality will almost always hang over her and the story she is in. The end results of this appear the same between the old lore and new lore, but the functional reality is a league apart from each other.

  Thus, I don't get it.

  I literally don't understand the purpose of taking this incredibly unnecessary turn around to who she is, to somehow try and match what she was, but change such a significant detail like it's nothing.

A fear of the implication that a dragon and a human banged? I mean, we could point fingers to the number of actual real-life mythologies and articles of fantasy that has this stuff in spades. Sure, a lot of it's horrible, but there's a lot of good, as well. Does this fact somehow make it significant enough to turn to a corruption theme? I struggle to see it so, but perhaps.

Otherwise, I draw a blank to the usefulness of this idea. Maintaining her prior family status (you could switch the mother or father as the dragon, her voice over will have to get updated regardless) is … perfectly fine. You can quite literally write it like this:

  The interminable mysteries of dragons confound and elude all theories. Those who study the subject speak of ancient, elemental runes split between dragon bloodlines, fractions passing from female dragons into their firstborn daughters. These shards instill the dragon that bears it with potent magic of wind, earth, water or fire.

In normal ways, these runes pass through the eggs of the mother dragon, as it always has. Yet, this is not the only way. For one dragon, Yvva, she would stumble upon this secretive truth through the blinding guise of love. A human in a village near her den, the once-Chieftan's son, now himself the chieftain, caught her eye with his wondrous art and joyful personality. Though their first meeting was quite the fright, Yvva would come to visit the human much, share with him her vast knowledge of lands, and he would entertain her with his own charming devices. In him, she found a fiery soul that gave her a companionship unlike any other dragon.

A yearning to be closer drew them ever together, and Yvva entertained magics she had once left behind. Through the arcane, her towering form shrunk and twisted, adopting the guise of a human … for however much dragon still showed. The boiling tension between the two of them finally found its release, and the love between them stunned even the village. A child would come from this unlikely union, and confined to her humanoid-form to bear it, Yvva and her human mate lived in seclusion. He would suggest a mixing of names as humans did, and they choose Shyvana to honor Yvva's legacy.

The blood moon of autumn gave way to winter and the child was born, revealing a human infant with violet skin. As the child took her first breath and began to cry, her body shook and rippled, taking the form of a dragon. Though frightful of the strange child, the parents calmed her eventually, finding pride in their newborn. Yet, with such a birth came the unwitting cry of the fire rune within, and another dragon would answer it's distorted call.

Fomgoul, old and wise, took to the skies, and by the month had found the two and their abominable offspring.

A terrible battle was fought, destroying the village Yvva and her human lived in. As she brought the elder dragon to a standstill, Shyvana's father would bid Yvva and their child to escape. Wielding powers, however dim and fractured they were, he learned from Yvva, he bought the two time enough to escape before succumbing to dragonfire.

For years, Shyvana and her mother flew from place to place to escape Fomgoul's hatred.

As Shyvana grew, she struggled to control her tempetuous emotions and volatile power.

Her mother helped temper her dragon side, which unleashed a ruthless fury her mother and her mother's mother carried within. While in her humanoid form, Shyvana suffered numerous self-inflicted burns as she learned that life could be fragile and not everything could be set aflame without consequence. Occasionally, her dragonfire activated the runic echo within her, an echo that was intrinsically called to dragons.

As Shyvana’s power grew in strength, Fomgoul was able to sense her presence from afar. He found the child alone and taunted Shyvana with tales of her origin, revealing that her true father was a feeble human who had twisted her noble draconic lineage into a disgusting perversion. He would undo what should never have been brought to life, and attacked. Young Shyvana defended herself, but suffered many wounds before her mother arrived to save her. She fought with savage fury to give Shyvana time to escape, showing no mercy or restraint in the wild fight for her child.

Ultimately, not even she could overcome the elder dragon, and Yvva was slain.

As Shyvana grieved, she fled in search of a strange land her mother had told stories of – a place awash with petricite, stones of nullifying power that diminished any nearby magic.

When she reached the outer territories of Demacia, she knew she had discovered what she sought. The land itself felt heavy and oppressive, making it difficult to wield her runic powers, and Shyvana found it easier to remain in human form. Here, she hoped she could mask her magic enough to hide from her mother.

While hunting for fresh meat, Shyvana followed the scent of blood and came upon an injured warrior named Jarvan near death in the wilds. Though her predatory instincts told her to finish him, her human side recognized that he needed her help. No one was likely to find him in the remote hills of greater Demacia, and he would die without aid.

Shyvana carried the semi-conscious Jarvan to the nearest town, despite her fear that she’d be met with the same disdain she’d encountered all her life. To her surprise, the locals welcomed her to their town and thanked her for helping the soldier. She saw how the villagers pulled together to nurse Jarvan back to health, even though he was a stranger, and Shyvana observed something she’d never known: comradery. Demacians looked out for each other, she learned, and the more she saw of the community, the more she longed to be part of it.

For months, Shyvana lived in peace, hunting wild boars and white elk by day, and returning to the village with her spoils to share by night. She learned that Jarvan had been a prisoner of a neighboring realm and escaped his captors, but felt unworthy of returning to his life in the capital.

One evening, Shyvana heard the sound of leathery wings beating in the distance, and knew Fomgoul had come for her once more. The great dragon ravaged the land in search of Shyvana, burning towns and fields with his flaming breath. Jarvan led the panicked villagers to Castle Wrenwall, a high-walled stronghold where they could shelter behind its stone walls.

Knowing her presence would only harm those she had come to care for, Shyvana decided to return to the wilderness. Jarvan confronted her as she prepared to leave, and she ruefully admitted that she was a half-drake, and the root of her dragon mother’s furious wrath. Jarvan refused to let her leave – she had saved his life, so he would lay down his to defend hers. Jarvan proposed they fight Fomgoul together. With the support of the local villagers and Wrenwall’s soldiers, he was convinced they could defeat the monster.

Moved by his concern for her safety, Shyvana accepted his offer.

After Jarvan had trained the townsfolk to fight alongside the soldiers of Wrenwall, Shyvana entered a nearby ruin built from ancient petricite, shivering as the nullifying stones suppressed her powers. The soldiers and villagers hid themselves nearby as piercing horns grew from Shyvana’s forehead and she erupted into a scarlet-winged drake. She roared, shooting plumes of fire into the sky to lure the elder dragon to the ground.

Shyvana heard the telltale beating of ancient wings as Fomgoul approached. Upon the elder dragon's arrival, soldiers loosed volleys of arrows tipped with petricite to weaken him.

The great dragon retaliated with tearing claws and roaring torrents of flame that roasted scores of soldiers in their armor. At Jarvan’s command, the villagers continued their barrage of attacks as yet more nullifying arrows pierced the dragon’s flesh, anchoring him to the ruins below.

Shyvana stood before the elder dragon in proud defiance, but Fomgoul only laughed; his own arrogance proved his greatest enemy, not her. Tooth and claw tore flesh from bone as the two dragons clashed in a titanic battle, crushing the foundations of the ruins to dust.

Shyvana ripped Fomgoul's wing from his back, but the elder dragon locked Shyvana's neck between his razor-sharp jaws. Blood streamed from Shyvana's collarbone, and she collapsed into her human form.

As Fomgoul loomed over her, ready to end the half-breed's miserable life, Shyvana channeled all her grief and fury, and summoned the power of the fire rune within her blood. She dug her claws into the elder dragon's flesh and tore the living heart from his chest.

As Fomgoul’s lifeblood drained, Shyvana felt only the thrill of the kill, and roared in triumph.

Before the entire village, Jarvan honored Shyvana’s bravery, declaring that she would always have a home in Demacia. For the first time, Shyvana knew she belonged to something greater than herself, and, thanks to Jarvan, understood that Demacia’s strength was its unity of purpose. She was humbled, and in turn swore her service to Jarvan, offering to fight alongside him no matter his path.

With the great dragon destroyed, Jarvan’s faith in his ability to lead was restored, and he felt he could return to his home city. Shyvana returned to the capital with him, and they bore her mother’s skull as a reminder of their incredible triumph. Shyvana knew Demacia could be dangerous for someone as magical as her, but she had never felt a greater sense of belonging.

In the capital, Shyvana remains in her purple-skinned humanoid form as she defends her adoptive home, though every so often, she escapes into the wild to spread her wings. She proudly serves Demacia, but knows that someday she must answer the runic call that burns within her heart.

  I question the whole 'mothers pass power to their first born female child', but I guess that's some great mystery detail in the background they made. Nonetheless, adjustments are easy and repair her lore to its original self while also updating the context of her story significantly. Literally most of the work I just did was the first 4 paragraphs, and switching out Yvva for Fomgoul (or any choice of dragon here) as the main conflict bad guy. I debated making her human father the one to try and teach her, but that ultimately would promise to change too much of her thinking later, I believe. Still, this should sufficiently demonstrate the tonal changes and implications in the lore. In this edited version, her true half-breed status remains, along with all the potential and conflict behind it. The corruption plotline is gone, and … well, what do you think is lost by that fact?

Demacian Lore Update: Shyvana was originally published on Earthen Thoughts

[earthenthoughts]

My side project for story/lore updating Syndra

Envisioning a Sovereign

I legitimately thought I put this on my blog at some point, but evidently not. Some months ago I started a side project centered on updating Syndra's Lore and Voice Over, chiefly to correct the flaws I saw with her and build upon her strengths. An Art update is somewhat planned for, but as I'm still looking around for a suitable artist, that is much more out of my immediate control. You can find my public documents in their second draft iteration below. Third draft is currently being worked on; I'm largely happy with the Lore section, but the Voice Over may/will need a magnitude more work spent on it. It's worthwhile to point out that as I go on to describe this project, there will be a great intermixing of my views, ideas, and overall goals with the current existing canon. So, if you don't read it on Syndra's Champion biography, it's very likely that is something I've changed or influenced in some degree and not a Riot change.

  Lore: Here

Voice Over: Here

  Also, it helps if you read, or at least have the Lore section open, as the below is written from a design perspective rather than directly pointing to individual lines and the like.

Painting the picture of this project is a bit of a jumble as there are so many moving motivations involved with it. The core idea that would setup for the others, however, was my intense dissatisfaction with how much Syndra is portrayed in the fan community. For the vast majority of work you might see, Syndra herself was often portrayed as: crazy, insane, megalomaniacal power hungry, a girl-child in a woman's body, and various other de-empowering, dehumanizing, or outright demonizing characteristics. I do not mean exaggeration when I say it is hard to find any pieces that actually treat Syndra as a character and not a useless archetype.

My grievances with this problem rose to the point that some of my followers asked, 'Why not show us what you want, then?' and so, I did.

  Small beginnings, greater endings

The immediate plan was to keep as much of her original personality intact as possible, but reshape it in a more humanizing way. Core principles I identified consisted of: extremely personally motivated, disregarding of 'oppressive' cultural norms, separated from the world with her unfathomable magic, haughtily arrogant yet not foolishly or idiotically so. As I worked on the story, I looked for ways to inject 'humanity' into the equation to make Syndra more a person than a Dungeons & Dragons sheet of features and personality quirks. Where does she begin to get where she is now?

One idea that arose above the others as the 'most relatable, with potential', was crafting Syndra as a peasant-born farmer. She has a few brothers, is the only daughter, and is the youngest child, and her entire family is mundane. No royal blood, no 'rulers in hiding', no ancient prophecies or godlike machinations. Thus, her birth, and the incredible magic she arrived to the world with, stunned everyone, and all of them her believed that she was some sort of great sign. This sky rocketed her family into prominence in her village when she was still less than a year old, and this great fortune would come to play a heavy burden on her throughout her traditional life.

Now, let's look at her homeland, Ionia. Built upon Asiatic principles, I often view the massive island continent with a vague feeling of pre-Imperial China. Capable, and with a mastery in some arts foreign even to the Valoran city-states, Ionia never really formed a strong central government. Their pacifist ways and pursuit of spiritual enlightenment motivated closer, more regional styles of governance where individual schools of thought may come to dominance. One of the few global ideals that would arise between all Ionians, however, was the pursuit of 'Balance'. In simple terms, a life in absolute harmony with the elements and world, with excess in either direction cut out. While it would be crude of me to say, you would find analog concepts in Buddhism and Taoism.

Where does this land Syndra in such a world? Undoubtedly while her magic would be seen as a gift, such cautious people would be quick to temper it however they could. The whole of their nation believes in Balance, and so Syndra would inherit that thinking like any other. She may even be harder on herself than others because she has that gift, and see it as a personal burden to bear. It would still be used, but always under scrutiny and scorn, on top of all the other normal womanly concerns that would befall her. After all, being a family's only daughter, and with such a prestigious tag attached, desirable suitors would do well to securing her family and herself for life.

And with this framework, we have our extraordinary-trying-to-be-ordinary Syndra, facing a childhood of profound dilemmas no one would eagerly embrace. All the while she's trying to keep a grip on things, the world around her is weighing heavier and heavier. Her magic is always growing, always finding new heights as an athlete training day-after-day would. In this, I make a very targeted and specific rule. Syndra's magic is powerful, but it is a part of her–it is not some thing, some other identity. She is seamless with it, and it is always in her control. At no point anywhere in her life does her magic not behave as she would want it to, even when in the deepest fits of rage, sorrow, or happiness. By implementing this rule, we establish that at no point is her personal agency ever in question. One does not get to make her a victim of herself just because she is 'all powerful'.

What's the powder keg for her? With her great power, and the weight of her culture upon her, it stands that something would push her to explode, even just once. And so, as she grew into young adulthood, and suitors came for her, the once wild and hardworking Syndra found herself being chased after. She didn't care for such things, for she is far too busy working and helping others, and most of her suitors fell off as a consequence. One particular man, however, simply never gave up, and one could imagine his pursuit turned into dogged chasing. Her family, elders, and what few 'friends' might even pressure her into accepting him, though she never would at all. Does she make the sacrifice for the greater good?

In a fresh design, this kind of 'chaos point', or period where anything could happen, is often subject to greater design concerns. In most of my small writings, I'm quite fond of using dice rolls to decide where any particular point goes from a list of possible outcomes. However, as we need to fit Syndra into her rebellious older self, this one is kind of determined already to have a 'bad time'.

She doesn't, and eventually his increasing pressure finally boils her stress over. I'm specific in mentioning that while the man doesn't die, he'll come out of the first 'offensive' use of her magic rather crippled for life. The event, and rejection of a 'normal marriage proposal', kicks off her village elders into a frenzy. They're all very afraid Syndra has finally done the unthinkable, has become too deviant or wild, or some other 'all consuming concern'. Through their own work, they find a tutor capable of teaching her magic 'properly', something that Syndra herself is quite glad to finally have.

This is another small, but critical detail, I strive to maintain. Syndra is a good woman–she wants to help her family, village, and lead a good life with the gift she has. The world around her, however, is constantly stabbing and needling at her every day. She's stressed in ways no one would want ontop of a full, 24/7-no-days-off workload. Thus, she's very glad to have a teacher who can help her become 'proper', at least in a way others might finally stop fearing/hating her so much. We are, at this point, still dealing with a normal person with an extraordinary gift. Those of you with any familiarity to the X-Men series may have an appreciation of what this angle entails.

With mixed feelings, Syndra leaves her small village life with her newfound tutor, and journeys to a monastery in the mountains. Here she learns, becoming quite educated in not only mundane arts and knowledge, but magical as well. She has her ups and downs, magic certainly comes easier to her with her innate relationship to it, though. Other teachers come and go, but for the most part it's almost exclusively Syndra and her one teacher, who I often call the 'Old Monk'. Over the years, they work and train together, and the raw peasant girl that was Syndra is shaped into a lady of considerable teaching and capability, all with that spitfire personality bubbling beneath the elegant restraint she learned. And yet, there was always this uneasy feeling with her, and as the years progressed, Syndra's health began to deteriorate.

Life is peachy and everything is going well, at least, as far as her duties are concerned. Yet, the start of what would catalyze Syndra into who she would become began on the very first day she arrived at the monastery. The truth would not come for many years, and that alone would drive the deepest dagger into her heart.

When her health hit its critical point, Syndra pressured her teacher into helping her. He would reveal to her that he had been siphoning her magic away for years, trying to keep it contained/under his control while she trained. This revelation utterly stuns Syndra, as he demonstrates in a simple conversation what years of (literal and emotional) agony have wrought on her. He never trusted her, despite saying so, and would go as far as invade her very person because he believed it right of him to do. An emotional battle of words follow with Syndra pleading her case, and the Old Monk never budging on his position. The end of the discussion comes with his ultimate threat: to strip the magic out of her completely, forever.

While the severity of 'magical severance' can be argued up and down, I often equate it to a sort of soul destroying experience. The body may be alive, but the person–particularly a mage–will never be wholly functional again, as so much of them will simply be 'gone'. Thus, such a threat might understandably be seen as a fate worse than death and characterize Syndra's horrific fear. Let's frame that, now. 'Hardworking, always trying to do what others say' Syndra is being told to bend the knee or get magical lobotomy done to her by the one person she came to trust the most. On top of years and years, almost her entire life in fact, of emotional and physical abuse and exhaustion. Nothing physical, mind you, she isn't beating beaten or tied up or anything, but the people around her are certainly fine with her working herself to death every day for no thanks. The Old Monk isn't some monstrous villain, at least as one might imagine a demon or other simple idea. His position will become clear in a little bit. Let's go on a joy ride, kids.

Unwilling to give in or let anyone else threaten her like that again, Syndra finally boils over completely, and she annihilates the Old Monk. In one fell stroke, she destroys the one person she trusted so much, all her faith in Ionia, all the dreams she had for her village and family–everything. She stands alone, apart from the world she grew up in, for the first time. Her health restores itself as her stolen magic returns, all but rejuvenating her to greater heights she would've obtained without the interference. With some thinking, and realizing she had nowhere else to go, Syndra draws upon her power and tears the entire monastery from the earth. The whole place, plus most of the mountain it was on, and lifts it right up into the sky.

This transition probably sounds a little sketchy or absurd, but it is a fun and strong detail for Syndra. If we frame her now floating fortress with the sort of mindset Ionians would have, she might even appear 'divine'. After all, how many people, save the Gods/Goddesses, could lift such a massive piece of land into the very Heavens? This'll play an important part later, but let's get back to the ride.

Furious and fraught with the pain of such betrayal, Syndra goes searching for answers. Pillaging her mentor's old study and hidden spots, she finds enough information to locate other monasteries. To her horror, they sound all too much like her own in their secretive, prison-like nature. She ventures forth, and over some years, investigates these monasteries, finding other people like her. While none of them came close to her in sheer power, they all possessed magical talent of some sort, and all their teachers kept them under invisible shackles. I leave it to others to decide what Syndra did to these teachers and the monasteries, but she ultimately ended up freeing many, many mages she ran across.

Here's an important part that helps characterize Syndra's behavior. She frees a lot of people, but notably doesn't free everyone. I often prefer to think of her finding people who are literally too dangerous to let out. Either because they are quite dangerous, as a person, or their magic is so unstable/problematic that the prison is the only way they can survive. This distinction builds a very potent gray morality, as it indicates Syndra can agree with the imprisoning reasons some of the time, but not all of the time. Consequentially, this also establishes the Old Monk as a sort of 'jail warden', responsible for keeping dangerous magic users under control. How or why is a point of intrigue that will drive her story later on, but the Old Monk did not make his magical severance threats because he himself was malicious. He was simply doing his job.

  The Sovereign of Ionia

As Syndra frees these wayward mages, she takes them into her floating fortress, granting them safety in the upheaval of their liberation. Her growing attacks gain her renown over the years, making these monasteries fear her as much as disparate villages petitioned to take their own mages to safety. The loosest form of her rulership begins to establish, largely on the fact Syndra is simply the greatest mage (in both power and often teaching) amongst her followers. This turns into a pivotal moment for her, as Syndra, while distant from the mages she saves, feels an inkling of kinship born of their mutual plight. A new dream starts to form, one of a place where people like her are free to be themselves. Free to be and trusted, each of them understanding of how the other works. No more hiding what they can do, no more longing for someone who knew what it was like.

Syndra's motivations in her original canon are lacking, in simple terms. She pursues her own power and sees the traditional leaders of Ionia as her natural enemies. Otherwise, she has no real relationship with the rest of her nation. There's no cause to fight for but her own, no rule or government for which to be called a 'sovereign'. Saving others who suffered as she did, however, and with the educated teaching to lead (if lacking in the experience), the first formations of a new power emerges.

With the grip on their lands somewhat secure, Syndra and her mages turn inward, building their own arcane schools and philosophies without the burden of Balance. Aware of the dangers of magic, perhaps better than anyone else, they construct seemingly bizarre rules and customs, but these ultimately facilitate safe usage of their natural gifts. Migrants are attracted somewhat freely, though many adhere to Balance, the chance to work and live with magical lands proves a lucratively tempting offer. Notably, Syndra exerts much of her early rule expunging undesirables, especially criminals and other problems that seek to use magic in terrible ways. She and her people suffer for this early on, but perseverance pays off.

I specifically include Syndra's curation of people in her lands to demonstrate her own understanding, and willingness, to police (magic). She is not suddenly throwing off the rules of all her life and pursuing great gifts with wanton abandon, but she is certainly open and willing to giving it a try. Just because one is a rebel does not necessarily mean they forsake literally all the values that helped to shape them as a person, and I do imagine even Syndra has some lingering fear over what she can do. She wants to use her magic in its totality but cautiously so, because it could do so much if she doesn't keep it in control. Thus, even though from a design perspective Syndra never loses control, one of her human fears is that she might. This in turn tends to rationalize much of her other actions and behaviors.

As her grip solidifies and her concerns with the rest of Ionia take a back seat, Syndra hears word of invaders from beyond the oceans. Noxus' great black ships, sick silver steel armor, and terrible smoke-spewing machines slam upon Ionian shores. With the many martial schools and other skilled arts, she brushed off these supposed invaders, finding the normal Ionian Guard sufficient for handling them. Freljordian raiders were not unheard of, nor the pirates from Bilgewater, however foreign they may be. The months dragged on, and what she thought would be a simple problem turned out to be far worse. Refugees started flooding into her lands, and the many councils of Ionia, once reluctant to talk with her, now sent emissaries with frightening messages and pleas.

By design, I often paint Syndra and her political faction having their lands somewhere in the north, north-eastern, part of Ionia. While there are some greater cultural contexts for this, a large reason is that this puts her away from the south-western part of Ionia that Noxus would invade later. Thus, in the early stages of the war, Syndra is reclused and generally unaware of the extent of what is happening for quite a while. This in turn dramatically changes the political playing field she arrives upon, and influences the future she sees.

Through crude, yet effective, political maneuvering, Syndra secures the councils' recognition of her rulership. She artificially constructs her heightened position, 'the Sovereign of Ionia', and assumes grand political control over Ionia. Despite this, the support she receives is only in fighting the war, and virtually all the lands outside of her own resist her decrees and influence where possible. While the war is going, they won't openly rebel as Noxus is the greater threat, but Syndra's rule is not solidified. This picture takes a bit of a turn as the peasantry gradually warms up to her and her work, even as the ruling class continues to stand against her.

Sure is painting the picture for a civil war, isn't it?

With the vast array of magic and mages at her command, as well she herself, Syndra enters the war theater, and her contributions prove punishing in shoving back the once unstoppable Noxian hordes. Where it goes from there, anyone could say, for the war is still being waged …

Here we arrive to the 'present time', all caught up. Syndra's efforts have snowballed into a place of potential power greater than just her magic. No longer constrained to just her lands, the fervent pleas from the rest of Ionia has handed her the keys to possibly reshaping her entire nation into something she desires. Whether or not she will succeed in doing so, whether or not Noxus is repelled, and an ever growing list of other problems, all stand to her as questions to be solved. These earthly concerns are only the first problems she has to attend to, after all …

  Faith, Humanity, and Transcendence

One of the key design points I base a lot of my considerations on is Syndra's humanity. Absolute/ultimate power, by itself, is intrinsically boring. You can copy+paste that type of idea ad nauseum and not see much of a difference between characters. But, take that idea, and mix it with very human concepts, and suddenly ordinary questions carry unbelievable weight to them. What does she do when she's angry? How does she handle it? What kind of force does she leverage in conversation? Is she more disrespectful of others or not? If so, why? We have yet to even touch upon grander ideas, like Syndra saving (or not) a village about to be flooded. The choices she makes tells us the story we want to read. That's where all the interesting, juicy bits come from. Suddenly, you can take this 'infinite power' idea, and every character you put into it will give you a different story.

  Faith

The order of Heaven and Earth is a very Asiatic concept, often a guiding one that can be found in many of their religions/philosophies. Given Ionia's steep belief in Balance, it stands to me that such a similar 'natural order' would be in place. Mortals do not interfere with the Goddesses, and the Goddesses deign to intervene as they see fit as the world falls out of order. Spirits may flirt around between either, seeking to tempt people and the world one way or the other. Ionians, I suspect, would have a more uniform interaction with their world, the afterlife, and mysticism than we might in ours. Magic, ethereal as it is, is a tangible force and through it the doors of many secrets could be opened. Whether or not great powers like Goddesses would be magical, or something else, is a question answerable in a different design document … but, magic might bring humans close to it. Or even surpass it.

For Syndra, she would be born and grow up in a rural/semi-rural farming village, concerned with the temperaments of the Goddesses and weather. Bountiful harvests, or ruinous rain, might spell the end of many things in her life at that point, and so faith in ritual and belief would be paramount. Would she pray to them as any other would, burdened by her gift? Would she seek out in her faith to find a Goddess or spirit that understands her plights? Does she hold them in contempt or reverence as they interfere with life and the lives of those around her? To me, I would see that she has a reverence to them in her early life, perhaps even believing herself challenged by the Gods to bare the burden of her magic. Yet, as she would grow up, this belief would change.

If the Goddesses her younger self trusted did nothing for her, would she abandon them, or come to realize of their more exacting nature? Might she fashion herself as a divine being, able to do what they do with such frightening ease? It doesn't strike me as wholly believable she might immediately consider herself god-like, but certainly more powerful than those around her. As her capabilities grow, Syndra will struggle to find her actual place in any world as an increasing divide drives her away. Atop her mountain of power, alone, would she seek the Goddesses to find a refuge from the lonesome existence such a thing might beget? What parts of her soul would she keep, or throw away, as the world(s) bent to her ever growing power? Would she seek the faith of others to still retain a purpose of her own to keep?

In this, especially for a culture steeped in tradition and mysticism, Syndra resolving the discrepancy in her faith(s) will color the grandest extent of her ambitions. She might stop before, at, or after a Goddesss' level of power, depending on the answer she finds.

  Humanity

From humble beginnings to an existence beyond even our own contemporary understanding, Syndra is on a troubling road. She might very well eat, bathe, dress, and conduct herself as you or I do, yet everything is framed by the power all others have scorned her for having. The ordinary life she tried to have never worked, and the people she wanted to trust her never did. In the end, only her magic was still there, the very thing all others hated her for. And so, she took it, made it her own, gave herself to pursuing it whole heartedly so that all her suffering would mean something in the end. If she didn't, all her life might very well have been for nothing, as far as she is concerned.

How does she conduct herself, then? Does her magic flow freely? Does the slightest argument with someone make her 'lean' on them with her awesome presence? What of the peasantry she very well lords over? In this series of questions, we figure out how Syndra brings herself to the human social contract. She simply will not let her power take a back seat, and all her interactions with others will gravitate around that fact. The lowly might worship her as much as they fear her, while others will cautiously tip-toe around her as one would a great lord. Indeed, I can see her leveraging great influence in all the things she does with her magical might, yet tempering it just enough to only be threatening. For, if she wanted to harm or destroy, she could do so easily, and perhaps even struggle not to because it is so easy.

Where others might pursue diplomatic and political recourse, Syndra forces her will above all others. The world and its people will have to bend to what she wants, but reality itself often sets issues not even the most subservient people can sidestep. Would she care about that at all, or keep pressuring to get her way? Is she kind or considerate, and if so, in what ways? Perhaps she gives more to the peasantry than any other, oft remembering her own upbringing and the people she worked with. Indeed, I would say she might scorn the ruling class particularly hard, especially where they inadequately take care of 'her people'. The political game is uninteresting to her, though she can play it as one plays Chess with the board sitting on the barrel of a shotgun.

What of love and family? Could she content herself with any mere relationship, or scorn the idea in its entirety? What of the afterlife, and a soul as powerful as hers? Can she proclaim friendship with anyone when she is so very different, even if she desperately wanted such a thing? Would she care, or be content to her solitary existence? How would she stand up to her parents and family, after all she had done and will do? Would she even want to see them, or care to, at the end of her life?

In this, as the stress of leadership and her own life ever wears on her, I think Syndra will be burdened by what choices she can make. Her awesome power will not always be the correct answer–often, one could say. How far is she willing to play the human game in pursuing mundane problems before wielding her true might? What will she gain, or lose, as she does so? How will her rulership change as Syndra delves into her power, gaining more and more and diverging farther and farther away from the rest of humanity (or, perhaps, closer)? I would say a very real fear of hers would be what she could become, and what might happen on the road to that.

  Transcendence

What would Syndra do, with the very nature of her humanity in question as she reaches ever higher?

Spiritual enlightenment is seen through many different lenses and eyes, though all of them seek a change within regardless. For some, it's the harmony of all their parts summed up together. For others, it's divining a new state of existence with unflinching clarity. Others might seek the answers to impossible questions through a singularity of the soul. You will find that for as many examples as there might be, more will crop up, for enlightenment is a fundamentally subjective idea. Yet, they are all seeking a higher state, something greater than themselves, be it in the answers they find, or else.

Martial artists, warriors, monks, and all sorts of professions have their own ways of pursuing this. For Syndra, the very real reality of something totally unknowable stands before her. Her endless magic responds to her will, and as her capability increases, more power comes to her. At what point does she become simply so powerful the ordinary rules of reality no longer apply? Might she become immortal, even by accident, in reaching further and further? Where does the distinction of being 'human', and becoming 'other', occur?

I might think her to be as excited as terrified of the prospect.

Who could she turn to for guidance, if she wanted any at all? Where does she see herself at the end of the world … or, at least, as far forward as she could see? Would she dare step into the realm of the divine, or go beyond it? The unknown is a terrifying prospect, even with one's own searching questions. The tragedy of her early life might almost recklessly compel Syndra forward, seeking more of what she could be to justify all she had been through. To look deep inside, to find a peace of mind she struggles to have otherwise, perhaps in simply realizing what her 'true self' is. Yet, in doing so, what would she possibly lose as much as gain? Would she take the leap for the next step, knowing that very same step might be one she can never come back from?

I speculate many questions, for this is a truly open ended idea. Transcendence is in the eye of the seeker, and any answer you or I might find is as valid as the next. I can only wonder aloud what might be the most 'interesting' story to tell. Or, at least, the most workable one. For now, I cannot divine which way this road will take her, but the journey will be a great struggle for Syndra to reconcile who and what she is, and where she will be going. One might imagine she could very well 'stop', and be satisfied with what she has, and that is the end. She may never stop, and the human Syndra as we know her will cease to be one day.

One does not simply seek more powerful for the sake of having it. It is always used for some goal or idea, so what is the one you would say is at work here?

  Closing ideas

With this rambling writing, I hope to paint the framework I've approached Syndra's character with. Overall, I found the largest appeal with the tagline 'an ordinary woman, pushed to extraordinary lengths'. By contextualizing this idea with her incredible power and the strict, arguably 'oppressive' Ionian culture, she's set for the stage of a revolutionary, though not one that even remotely imagined doing so as a child. The world constantly pushed, demanded, and decreed with her, and she tried giving it what it wanted. It was never enough, no matter how she tried, and there is only so much any person can take with that kind of abuse.

I considered, at some point, various archetypes relating to royal blood, ancient prophecies, and other 'grander than life' type affairs, but it all felt uncanny and damaging to her character. "Why," I asked myself, "in a world of fantastical possibilities, there's never anything starting with an ordinary person?". I suppose you say her being born with incredible magic is itself entirely uncommon, but if the magic is simply there as a product of indiscernible 'chance' … well. Ordinary people do win the lottery, for nothing more than the fact they did. This is a concept I've gone back and forth with quite a number of people on, though I feel the direction I've chosen has tenable merit. Whether or not it's friendly to the market or consumers at all is far beyond my skill to see at the moment. I wouldn't be at all surprised to walk into a group design session and then get mass voted off the table for proposing it.

Still, the effort should be made. I'm supremely leery of putting any kind of influence on Syndra's magic other than 'it is there', because it risks seriously invalidating her entire character. The moment a higher power, or anything, is capable of influencing her in that way, her personal agency is almost entirely stripped away. The only option a story writer can pursue is Syndra 'rebelling against their control', but that is already being done against Ionian culture as a whole. Throwing another rebellion ontop of that just dilutes both ideas into a weaker presentation. Otherwise, if you don't have Syndra be her own person, she ends up a useless tool of whatever controls her magic, so her character is functionally dead. Coincidentally, this is why I laugh my face off every time I see one of these 'Syndra gets shackled with an anti-magic plot device'! It's not interesting. It's just short circuiting her character that you might as well create a Faceless Goon to fulfill.

Now, putting the stress of her moral and ethical thinking into the equation where the seeming answer might be 'dont use her magic', you start to build intrigue. Maybe she does, maybe she doesn't. The choice she makes, and the consequences she must learn to live with, is where all the good stuff happens. As a final thought, while this exposes the design thinking, ultimately I refer to the Lore/VO as written to demonstrate them. Theory is great and all, but if you can't get your idea to translate on paper for others to understand, the whole thing fails.

My side project for story/lore updating Syndra was originally published on Earthen Thoughts

[earthenthoughts]

The New Year's New Look: Post Patch 6.9, and Syndra.

The Crystal Ball is Wild and Dangerous

It is with no small distaste I look back upon my predictions and see how they have come to fruition. For the first time in many years, Syndra found herself thrust into the spotlight in a way that can only be described as 'damaging'. Clocking in a 97% ban rate at Worlds 2016, and earning the World Casters' bristling ire, her solo queue performance achieved around a 50-70% ban rate depending on any day's given temperament. Now, as we stand in the twilight of 2016, the world is looking pretty different for her.

My predictions back around August didn't play out as I thought they would, but ultimately did come true. Upon the landing of the Patch 6.9, Syndra's kit broke with a couple different bugs that would remain until Patch 6.12. Namely, her ultimate no longer detected spheres correctly, so if any of her abilities modified a sphere, there was about a 1-2 second window her ultimate wouldn't see the sphere. The net result, quite often was something like a 6 sphere ultimate only firing as a 4 or 3 sphere ultimate in turn. In all my time in playing her, it was the single most frustrating thing to deal with, and that's a pretty tall statement in over 5 years of League of Legends with her.

As Patch 6.12 landed, however, and these bugs were corrected, Syndra also received some AP ratio help, bumping her damage even further with the Patch 6.9 changes. This rode upon the back of many other different champions, many of which were the S-list and A-list competition she had to deal with, getting nerfed. The net result was a near meteoric rise to the top in competitive play and the world at large gleaning what would happen in a meta where Syndra is handed the queen's seat on a silver platter. This isn't entirely new to her, as Syndra's last rise to the top saw some stiff nerfs to her complete lane domination some years ago.

In the course of Patch 6.12 to Patch 6.24, much of the lukewarm reputation Syndra possessed was pretty much destroyed. Any notion of skill involvement disappeared as the roving bands of mob mentality paid their seasonal visit with her in their sights. I didn't really expect her to survive it any better than the rest, though I do find myself irritable nonetheless over the matter. My own personal misgivings aside, it was quite the useful learning experience, as it ever is, in watching how powerful public perception is. After all, when the man on the television preaching to you and millions of others that a champion has, "Absolutely no counter play", why wouldn't you believe him? Certainly not when no defense or counter argument is given in favor of the problem, of course.

  A New Year, and More Patches.

As we step out of the shadow 2016, and the clock turns over, the future is looking interesting for Syndra. The nerfs are on the horizon, and they aim at correcting what is arguably the biggest problem in her kit currently. Her W, Force of Will, is (as of the last PBE I looked at), being changed to something like this:

AP Ratio reverted to 0.7 from 0.8. Base damage reduced by 10 at all levels.

Old: Force of Will grabs 2 additional spheres near the target.

New: Force of Will now deals 20% bonus true damage.

The developers are fairly confident it will ship 'as is', but as ever, the Crystal Ball is dangerous. They may post something different tomorrow and explode this entire blog post like a destroyer in Battleship.

Notably, her new Q passive (+2 seconds to Dark Sphere life timers) and E changes (+0.1 AP, -2s base CD) are being retained. The rest of her kit, otherwise, remains untouched or considered as far as I'm aware. I find myself quite welcoming to these changes, as they will largely return Syndra to her prior playstyle and with easier-to-tune levers. An instrinic problem of the multisphere W is that it has no way to be balanced–your only recourse is to reduce the grab targets from 3 to 2, and this opens up other issues. The natural throw pattern would be a V-shape, which would ironically make it so awful to level you'd intentionally avoid it, as this would destroy her stun pattern. As a designer, you're forced to adjust it so one sphere is center mass and … where does the second go? Then you have to argue how it throws, and so on. As her kit is designed currently, the idea just opens more problems. Just looking at it can make a new problem appear out of thin air, seemingly.

Damage, however unimaginative it might be, is easy to tune. You make it go up or down, and if damage as a mechanic is undesired, you visit the project when you have more time. In this regard, although Syndra's W having a considerable amount of true damage (that's BONUS true damage, not a conversion. Her W overall has more damage), it's simple to change. From a gameplay perspective, it definitely empowers her skill route for W second max, as level 13 is when the mid-game/team fighting phase happens. Being true damage, she'll hammer all targets equally, though squishy ones will fear her W throw the most as they have less over all HP to absorb true damage with. Magic Resistance rushers, particularly those favoring Abyssal Scepter and Maw of Malmortius, will get stung pretty heavily by it and relieve some of Syndra's crippling issues with fighting those build paths until Void Staff is complete.

Her tank killing prowess will enjoy a slight increase, though out of all her targets, I imagine she'll still feel very cramped against them. Flat true damage is not necessarily an elegant way to kill tanks, but it does help.

The only problems I can foresee with this is squishy carry champions getting slammed particularly hard by Syndra's W sniping. However, lacking the multi-sphere throw now, she can no longer infinitely maintain her ultimate or a stun wall as large as a lane. Whether or not that's a fair trade off, time will tell, but if the true damage is a problem (in being too weak(?) or strong), a quick number change is all it needs. It is certainly a much better alternative to the multisphere mechanic and her original W passive.

  In Defense of the Multisphere Mechanic

I'll take this moment to kind of step aside and try to frame the vitrolic I have around this idea. So, standing in defiance of my past remarks, let's be a little different. On its own, the principle idea of manipulating multiple spheres with Syndra is a thematically interesting idea. It also has potential for zone control, power ramp, and everything her kit is based as an idea. As Syndra exists, however, it's inclusion destroyed safety levers many parts of her kit relied on to permit the power she has. Notably, her incredible team stunning and nuking power went from 'very timing sensitive' to 'whenever I want because I can'. The core idea itself can work, as experience has shown, merely not with the iteration Syndra herself currently exists in.

I feel that in a future VGU, or whenever the idea of a radical redesign for Syndra is in mind, it can be revisited. The concept of multiple sphere management is powerful enough you could redesign her whole kit with it in mind, and emphasize a lot of her unique strengths in the process. But, I fear it would be necessary to no longer consider Syndra a Burst Mage in that iteration. Her single target nuke ultimate as it is right now would not play nicely with that idea, so it would have to go. The multiple sphere ability (Force of Will, in this case) may even evolve into becoming her ultimate in such a world. Where it would go, or do, is a matter of speculation. You run the very real risk of making Syndra the best AOE nuke mage in the game, rather than a powerful single target problem remover. That's a wild ride of speculation and theory design I've played with for a while, but, no matter what, we'd have to fundamentally redefine a lot of who and what Syndra is.

So, the idea is good, the game just doesn't allow for it as it is. I'd be very curious to see how it'd play out on a theoritical design in testing with a bigger scope of work in mind, though.

  The World At Large

Assassins got their update and promptly fell on their face (except for LeBlanc, as always), as many of the current mage mid laners are quite comfortable against them. I'm honestly not certain if Assassins will find a happy existence, as their class entails a range of fundamental assertions that are problematic for the League of Legends environment. The largest one is the 'always losing until they're winning' one. Assassins do not have fallback mechanics in exchange for their incredible target selection and maneuverability. Thus, this means a stalwart defense and neutral farming playstyle can put them into a 'losing the game' position by just simply ignoring them. The onus to succeed is on the Assassin, and they must pursue an almost dangerously reckless degree of gameplay to stay relevant, then to win.

This in turn means player agency is a bit more suspect, as the Assassins are given–by design–the tools to out play, out manuever, and defeat their opponent. If they cannot do this reliably enough, they will simply never exist in professional League of Legends unless they're a wild card pick. Regular play will see them more convincingly, as skill and play style varies wildly there, but the class as a whole won't be regarded with some modicum of seriousness. I ponder if this is an issue of how League of Legends, as a game, is designed, and whether or not this problem can be answered by tuning the Assassins directly. Time will tell as Riot's attention goes to stepping down on the mage mid laners and giving a boost up to the Assassin class, and everyone gets to fight Fizz again(again).

Tanks are prowling around quite happily right now, and a fair number of other classes who shouldn't be, with the new Courage of the Colossus mastery. Word on the street is that will be getting slammed, so hopefully that draws that array back in line. Overall pleased with tanks having a menacing presence, though the damage available to them is brow raising. I suspect new mechanics unique to them would help give them more 'tank' and less 'tank by damage threat'. Reworking Taunt, for example, has interesting potential. Imagine if Taunt made it so a targeted enemy can only auto attack or use targeted abilities to the tank taunting them, but the target was normal otherwise (so no pseudo-stun lock mechanic). This means some of the existing tanks would either have to gain a Taunt effect, or some sort of item for them alone to use. It's one idea that comes to mind, anyway.

As is tradition, the entire jungle role is once again on fire as the new year of 2017 and Preseason 7 comes. The whole place is on fire, in a very literal way.

Bot lane is currently a whipping post as the ADC(marksman) role is finally contested after 7 years of League of Legends. That is, marksmen as a class are finding themselves constantly stepped on, smacked around, and new picks coming to contest their relevancy to the game. I find this particularly interesting to watch as, while I don't want a whole class to disappear, they're unique in that they have always 'been there'. The entire history of League of Legend metas is defined by 'Marksman+X', where X is the flavor of the month. It got to the point you had marksman in all 5 roles, though that got nerfed down. They maintain a presence in jungle and midlane, and the occasional terror pick arrives in toplane (to every top main's insatiable ire). To find a playing field open up where there are viable and desirable team compositions without marksman is a breath of fresh air in the potential of the game.

What the marksman bring to the table will still always be there, but I wonder if it will no longer be the mandatory must-have it has been. A team that could field no marksman, and make a dangerous yet viable choice in doing so, is not often considered nor held in any regard except 'I'm being trolled'. Mordekaiser as a marksman was arguably the first foray, however awkward, into this idea. The execution of that plan kind of exploded like a transformer on a power pole when the bristling hate mail came down the line … but still, it had merit in testing. Yasuo, amusingly, was somewhat envisioned as a potential marksman replacer, but he does every role. Now, we have Ziggs showing up in bot lane, not even as a marksman, but as a siege war waging machine whose unique strength is one of the few virtues the marksman class is built on. Where the marksman will end up after the dust has settled, I think, is a very telling point in how League of Legends could evolve.

If they're put back into their mandatory position, then it's reasonable to assume a degree of 'this is how it is, period'. If they're not mandatory, then it's reasonable to assume a greater degree of fluidity in design.

In what ways I can remember, I'd be historically inclined to say 'Riot will pursue a rigid method of design'. The ever changing balance team seems open to new approaches, though. I'm hopeful they'll experiment in this regard, though I live with an ever traumatic fear of what happened to Zyra, The Stolen Mage. Nonetheless, positive thoughts are better than anything else.

But, I'll be here, playing Syndra like I always do.

I'm a Syndra Main, not an OTP guys.

Seriously.

I'm serial.

staph calling me a one trick

The New Year’s New Look: Post Patch 6.9, and Syndra. was originally published on Earthen Thoughts

[earthenthoughts]

Patch 6.9: Why Syndra's changes frighten me

  I main Syndra and this is where I try not to sound like I'm pretentious.

  So, let's get to the nitty gritty. [Edit: Updated on 4/25, new information on Syndra’s mana economy.]

First up, we have the following changes:

Syndra Passive: Her W and Q's passives have changed, E and R remain the same. Q now extends all life timers to eight (8) seconds, and W will now grab up two additional objects around its primary target (total of 3).

Syndra Q: AP ratio increased to 0.75 from 0.60, all other stats unchanged. New passive adds +2 seconds to the life timer of active dark spheres.

Syndra W: Stats are unchanged. New multi-throw passive does not stack damage per each thrown object, but slightly increases AoE radius per thrown object (due to how they clump upon landing).

Syndra E: Cooldown reduced in the early levels 1-3 (16/15/14 instead of 18/16/15). Levels 4 and 5 identical.

Syndra R: Now notes it specifically hard caps up to 7 spheres, all other stats unchanged.

Our two chief areas of concern are how her Q and W are being changed, and how these will affect the rest of her kit. We'll start with Q, then go to W.

New changes to (Q) Dark Sphere

There are two components to this in the form of how her damage is being altered and how much extra life time her spheres get.

In damage terms, there is a slight buff, steep nerf, and steep buff potential, accordingly. For levels 1-4, Syndra's Q will receive marginally more damage due to the enhanced AP ratio. When I mean marginal, at 100 AP (a usual level 6-8 AP range), her new Q will deal +15 more damage over the old ratio. At around 50 AP, her Q will do 7.5~ additional damage over the old ratio.

Thus, in strict terms her level 1-4 is improved (the efficacy of which can be debated), but our real attention is on her Rank 5 Q.

Syndra's original passive effect is [Rank 5 – Deal 15% increased damage to champions]. This is significantly more than the ratio bump of [0.60->0.75] as of the 4/21 PBE. For those interested, here is the comparative math formula:

((Base damage + 0.6AP)+15%) = Damage

(Base damage + 0.75AP) = Damage

Currently, Syndra's new Q would have to hit around 575~ AP to hit the literal break even point. At around 350-400 AP, the damage differences are 'functionally insignificant'. After the 575 AP threshold, she will begin to out damage her old Q's stats. Thus, for all practical purposes, Syndra's Q has been nerfed for the time periods of around 10.00->25.00 minutes, depending on how much AP she can acquire in that threshold. Or, in other words: early game buff, mid game nerf, possible late game buff.

All things not being in a singular vacuum, I am viewing it more as a shift in her power economy. This is solely because of the prospect of (W) Force of Will becoming her new second maxed ability, rather than (E) Scatter the Weak.

There is a philosophy we need to look at for our analysis of Q and W. While most will see W's lowered base damage compared to E's (by literally 5 and 10 at rank 4 and 5, respectively), they do not often address the cooldown difference. In all practical engagement windows, where W second max and E second max are compared, W will be up available frequently – to the tune of 2, 3, or 4 additional spell casts.

This means that between the two, W second max is a stronger DPS-centric build (as a higher AP ratio skill is being used more frequently). E second max has been her traditional build due to the importance of faster cooldowns on her stun combo, as well as being the standard 'sniper Syndra' playstyle. W second max has also had a historical problem with mana – not even Athene's is sufficient for it, but raw mana pools (Rod of Ages, Archangel's, etc), can be for practical engagements. With the transition to a mana pool based mage eco-system in Patch 6.9, this means that W's second max build is also freed of its traditional weakness compared to its sibling. Whether or not to choose it, however, is a point of contention: faster stuns, or faster DPS?

In many ways, W's new passive effect is what will overshadow its sibling by leagues.

New changes to (W) Force of Will

In all practical scenarios, until level 13 (when a second ability hits max rank), Syndra's performance is 'side graded'. Not much will have changed except the emphasis on her W as second ability, which some will note will alter their play styles. Chiefly, those who are used to 'throwing away W' as a sphere refresh mechanic (and often not doing damage with it) will experience the most trouble with this shift in styles. It will also mean the enemy has more windows for reactions, due to the fact Syndra's W is a horribly slow skill when it fires at long range.

Level 13 is when things get stupid funny.

Upon hitting her W's new passive, Syndra's Windows of Power (WOP), or the time frames in which her ultimate is at its full capability, become massively distorted.

We will entertain a scenario in which Syndra is stacking her spheres for the first time, so, an ordinary combat/poke situations.

   For the purposes of this rotation, the CD's are done at 20% (or, a Morellonomicon with no other CDR).

 Syndra's Q CD is (3.2), while her W CD is (6.4). Sphere life timers are (8) seconds when (re)fresh(ed).

 To achieve a 6th sphere ultimate, Syndra must expend (9.6) seconds on her Q. Presuming human error, we can round this up to 10-11 seconds. Depending on how you use her W, the total ramp period to her 6 sphere WOP is about 11-12 seconds. The rotation will look similar to this one:

{[Q1 (8s)] -> [Q1 (4.8s) + Q2 (8s)] -> [Q1 (1.6s) + Q2 (4.8s) + Q3 (8s] -> [W->(Q1+Q2+Q3)]} -> 3 spheres permanently available. Alternatively, do not use W, and straight fire her ultimate with a 1.6 second WOP available. If W is used, you can constantly rotate the first 3 using W, so for as long as you pay the 100 mana cost, there is no further ramp required.

 As an extension, because of what W does to her rotation, this means her 7th sphere ultimate is available within 3.2 seconds after using W. This pushes the total ramp window to about 14-15 seconds, if done at 20% CDR. If you're a mechanical savant, the total ramp window is (in literal time) 12.8~13 seconds.

 For those interested in what a 40% CDR build will do (via Morellonomicon plus other CDR itemization):

 Syndra's Q CD is (2.4), while her W CD is (4.8). Sphere life timers are (8) seconds when (re)fresh(ed).

{[Q1 (8s)] -> [Q1 (5.6s) + Q2 (8s)] -> [Q1 (3.2s) + Q2 (5.6s) + Q3 (8s)]} -> W grab, 3 spheres permanently available. Total ramp time: 7.2 seconds (8~ seconds with human error).

 For those of you at home keeping track, you might see something funny here:

{[Q1 (8s)] -> [Q1 (5.6s) + Q2 (8s)] -> [Q1 (3.2s) + Q2 (5.6s) + Q3 (8s)] -> [Q1 (0.8s) + Q2 (3.2s) + Q3 (5.6s) + Q4 (8s)]} -> 7 sphere ultimate, WOP of 0.8 seconds, total ramp time of 9.6 seconds (human error not permissible).

 Her ramp time is even faster by about 0.6-0.8 seconds if used with a 45% CDR build, by the by.

  Here are some videos you might find a little amusing: Example 1, Example 2.

In general, you may notice that because of Q's new passive, W can actually be 'ignored' to achieve higher sphere thresholds. This puts immense strain on one's sense of timing, but it is possible at thresholds as low as 20% CDR. If, however, W's multi-grab is used to refresh 3 spheres, you achieve WOP nirvana with Syndra's ultimate.

For as long as you are willing to maintain 100 mana every 6~8 seconds, you can permanently keep Syndra's 6th sphere ultimate active and ready to use. Her 7th sphere will be available on demand after the Q3's cooldown is finished so Q4 is available.

Let's put that into perspective: Syndra's Q cost is 80 mana at Rank 5, her W is 100. For about 340 mana, she pays the time+mana cost of her ultimate and in return receives one of the following: a single W refresh making her WOP about 8 seconds, or a permanent WOP as long as the toll is paid. So, every 6~8 seconds is the toll time.

Let's contextualize that: the new mage eco-system is becoming mana based. It is very likely Syndra's new builds will either be Rod of Ages/Archangels and Morellonomicon. This will, at around level 13, put her mana pool somewhere between 2000-3000 available mana.

For the low-low price of about 1,340 mana, Syndra can keep her 6th sphere ultimate (with instant access to 7th) available for over a complete minute. This does not account for any secondary mana regeneration effects like Meditation, Blue Golem Crest, or any new mana regeneration from Elemental Dragons. Blue Golem alone will make her mana stable, allowing for Syndra to infinitely maintain access to her 6th and 7th sphere ultimate.

[Edit: Tear and Archangels will have a new clause in 6.9, as of current PBE, where ‘25% of mana spent on cast’ is refunded. So, her Q’s mana cost is now 60 and her W is 75. The total expenditure for a 6th sphere ultimate availability is actually 255 mana, not 340. This in turn means that for a complete minute’s mana expenditure costs would be 1,005 mana instead of 1,340. Any secondary mana regeneration effects will easily overcome this toll expense window.]

For context, in League of Legends Patch 6.8 and backwards, Syndra's 6th sphere ultimate had a WOP of 3-5 seconds, and her 7th had a WOP of 0.5-1.5 seconds. This meant her 7th sphere's theoritical high point was often never reached, or required extremely particular planning. Her 6th was her most often reached point and usually constrained enough it could be unstable to pull off in team fights.

"But Forte, that seems reasonable because of how difficult it sounds to do," you may be thinking to yourself.

Now let's talk about the damage Syndra's ultimate does. We're gonna hit the numbers straight and hard here with some comparsions to Patch 6.8 Veigar and LeBlanc.

 (APR = AP Ratio)

7 sphere ultimate

Level 6 R (effective at 9): 630 + 1.40APR

Level 11 R: 945 + 1.40APR

 For study's sake,

6 sphere ultimate

Level 6 R: 540 + 1.20 APR

Level 11 R: 810 + 1.20 APR

 Veigar and Leblanc are the following:

Veigar

Level 6 R: 250 + 1.0APR + 0.80APR Target's AP value

Level 11 R: 375 + 1.0APR + 0.80APR Target's AP value

Leblanc (Using Q+R combo, her highest single target)

Level 6 R + level 3 Q: (R = 100 + 0.6APR) + (Q = 104 + 0.4APR + 2x) = 316 + 1.4APR. [This is actually higher if a 3rd ability is used to complete (Q+R)’s mimic’d purple sigil]

Level 11 R + Level 5 Q: = (R = 200 + 0.6APR) + (Q = 155 + 0.4APR + 2x) = 510 + 1.4APR [This is actually higher if a 3rd ability is used to complete (Q+R)’s mimic’d purple sigil]

  For those of you busting open spreadsheets, you might notice Syndra's ultimate does a ridiculous amount of damage.

That damage was permissible because her WOP windows were so constrained. Now they are being relieved of that strain, to the tune of over 3 times the prior amount or straight up infinitely.

Ramifications

Consider this: Veigar's ultimate is usually constrained by how much AP he can acquire, often via his own Q's farming (which increases AP). Bluntly speaking, his ultimate can have trouble against anything that is not an AP user until he has an obscene amount of AP available. He generally makes up for this with his powerful E stun cage and semi-ultimate nuke on his W.

LeBlanc, in return for being better equipped to dealing with any squishy, has to commit multiple abilities to the same target. This comes at a price of being generally poor at team fighting – she often dashes into her enemy, dumps her combo, and then becomes useless until its up again. It can be quite easy to catch her as a consequence, if the proper counter picks are used.

Thus the two of them are relatively binary in how they achieve their success.

Syndra doesn't have that problem.

With her assortment of long range spells, triple-AOE abilities, best-in-game single target nuke, and 1,300->1,400 unit reaching stun, Syndra is extremely capable in team fighting and 1-to-1 combat. She can dynamically switch between the two comfortably and fill a versatile damage role almost no other Champion can.

The price for this is two things: her fragility and her ramp time.

Syndra is very squishy and has no optimal durability builds. This can make her beyond dangerous to use in most team fights and it isn't uncommon to get taken out by stray AoE damage, let alone focused. She's often forced to kite at the farthest reaches of her range and dodge virtually everything that comes her way, where as some others can quite comfortably take several hits to the face.

Her ramp time means she has a huge window of vulnerability to almost everything fast in the game. Assassins in particular will execute their entire ability chain at around 1.5-4 seconds. LeBlanc, in this case, puts out a phenomonal amount of power in a very small, very fast window. Talon, Zed, and some others will easily do the same. Any team with hard engage (e.g, Alistar, Leona, Nautilus, etc), can force a fight in this ramp window, making Syndra's life much more difficult.

Thus, do we arrive at what troubles me the most: modifying Syndra's ramp window in turn modifies her accessibility to damage, and thus how she can engage the enemy.

Nothing in these changes alters the original ramp window of (9-15) seconds, but it is after the first time the price is paid do we encounter such a strange power dynamic. Rather than hitting a peak, then going to a valley, Syndra will hit her peak and stay there as long as the toll is paid. There are distinct abuse cases where the toll price becomes irrelevant, so the player has a 'somewhat' strained permanent access to her high power ultimate.

Imagine for a moment she stacks her spheres, refreshes those spheres, then walks into you with a 6-7th sphere ultimate from the get go. You either die to her or run away, and in either case she will win – because if you're by a tower or dragon and choose to run, she gets that objective. Also, throughout this entire time period, her spheres never go away, so by the time she's about to hit half drained on mana, everything to fight over is already done.

Her ultimate is so powerful because it was designed to have that ramp/crash heavy constraint on it. Take that away … well, things get silly. We've seen how quickly they can get silly, too.

In conclusion,

Playing Syndra is stressful. I've played her for thousands of matches and she's one of the most stressful champions in the game to me. There is a lot you have to do to make her work, and often times, you put in 3 times the effort that most others champions put in to get the same results. The pay off for this is her extreme versatility, which is only allowed from the skill cap her kit demands.

This is generally thought of an 'effort/reward' curve. The more effort, the more reward. When effort is reduced, but reward is the same as previously, you get more reward for less effort. Syndra's powerful ultimate demands a lot of effort, but gives great rewards. Modifying her sphere management, as the 4/21 PBE changes suggest, disproportionately warps this relationship.

In exchange for a modest amount of effort, you get a metric ton of reward.

I can see the direction these changes want to go in, and some comments from Rioters confirm the direction. Having access to a 3-sphere throw on her W would do wonders for her stun's power levels (hello 5 man team stuns), and that's a whole different bomb I'm not even certain about yet. They want to make her sphere management easier/more interesting, but I feel that anything relating to her ramp window is intrinsically dangerous. The more accessible her ultimate becomes, the greater justifications there will be to nerfing its damage potential.

Things such as 'lowering the damage per sphere', or 'lowering damage per sphere but increasing sphere cap' will result in problems. The first is a straight downgrade, the second directly increases her ramp window while also lowering immediate damage. In the second's case, you may ironically end up reducing accessibility because she has to maintain even more spheres than before – in addition to the permanent 3-sphere W refresh.

This in turn leads to harder questions, such as the reward value of her 3 normal abilities, and what to with her ultimate. If no additional power is inserted to compensate for a potential ultimate nerf, she will be in a strictly worse position than she was before the MYMU. Easier to play, arguably, but numerically worse and will struggle to maintain parity with her competition. Those same Assassins whom execute full champion kills in 1-4 second windows? They're only concerned about her ultimate, and the lower it goes, the easier it becomes for them. It's disproportionately difficult trying to hit 3 different AoE skill shots against enemies with multiple movement spells, let me tell you.

Unless, for reasons beyond my comprehension, Riot believes it permissible for her ultimate to be so accessible and not be nerfed.

The logic is not totally alien to me as I look at some of the other mages in the MYMU. In their own ways, they represent a strong departure from prior balancing considerations given that they possess massive explosive potential (hi, Brand, Vel'koz) in what they could do.

Maybe that is the kicker at the end of the day, that a fundamental shift in effort/reward is being made. I'm not certain it's a good one for Syndra. From all my experience, I can only see it leaving her in an unhealthy, dangerous-to-touch situation where it'd be easier to nerf and forget her until a full 'throw out her kit and make a new one' rework comes along.

I believe there is potential to give her more sphere interactivity that doesn't necessitate a multi-throw/refresh (I like Q's timer change, for example, in that it's relatively non-volatile). One might begin to entertain amusing ideas like her W throw making dark spheres bounce off each other, not unlike Teemo mushrooms. I think, however, we will save those speculations for another post.

For now, the PBE changes for 6.9 concern me and I cannot tell if this will end for the better or not 5 patches down the road when the dust has settled.

Patch 6.9: Why Syndra’s changes frighten me was originally published on Earthen Thoughts

[earthenthoughts]

Snow Day Syndra

Snow Day has once again come to the Rift, bringing with it plenty of fluffy textures and cool color schemes. And for the Snow Day skin series this means three new entrants, including The Dark Sovereign herself, Syndra.

Syndra joins the series as its sole female, and Riot is quick to continue their long history of ill treatment to her character, even within the confines of a light-hearted holiday skin.

Surprisingly, it isn’t her outer wear that causes any problems (besides the curious manner by which her sweater appears to be vacuum sealed to her breasts) – she’s wearing the sort of clothes an affluent young woman in any moderately cold city might wear. What stands as problematic is her pose, Which is consistent with the posing she’s endured in the past. Body first, character (or in this case, good humored fun) second. She isn’t even all that expressive, another commonality among women in the League. The skin looks good in-game, so there is that. It’s just unfortunate that these same problems with her splash stubbornly follow Syndra even in light-hearted holiday themes.

[earthenthoughts]

Delving into Syndra's lore

I've received a few requests on my thoughts about Syndra's story and character recently. So, let's all take a journey through the wonderful world of Ionian social revolution. At the center of that maelstrom sits our ever lovely sovereign herself.

Starting from the top, we'll be looking at Syndra's canon lore.

I will not be citing anything from the Champion Q&A thread(s), as at this point in time it is impossible to determine if they remain canonical or not. Without further ado, here is Syndra's lore:

Born with immense magical potential, Syndra loves nothing more than exercising the incredible power at her command. With each passing day, her mastery of magical force grows more potent and devastating. Refusing any notion of balance or restraint, Syndra wants only to retain control of her power, even if it means annihilating the authorities that seek to stop her.

Throughout her youth in Ionia, Syndra's reckless use of magic terrified the elders of her village. They took her to a remote temple, leaving her in the care of an old mage. To Syndra's delight, the mage explained that the temple was a school—a place where she could develop her talents under his guidance. Though she learned much during her time there, Syndra no longer felt her power growing as it had in her youth. Her frustration grew, and she finally confronted her mentor, demanding an explanation. He revealed that he had dampened Syndra's magic, hoping to help her learn control and restraint. Accusing him of betrayal, she advanced on the mage, commanding him to lift the spell that was holding her back. He backed away, telling her that if she couldn't control herself, he would be forced to nullify Syndra's magic completely.

Furious, she summoned her power and dashed the old man against the walls. With her mentor dead, Syndra felt the rush of her unbounded potential for the first time in years. Though she had won her freedom, she refused to return to the society that had tried to steal her gift. Instead, Syndra decided to claim her former prison as a stronghold. Pushing the boundaries of her magic, she tore the structure from its foundations and raised it into the sky. Free to delve further into her art, Syndra now aims to grow powerful enough to destroy the weak, foolish leaders of Ionia—and anyone else who would dare shackle her greatness.

    "Power belongs to those who can wield it."     ― Syndra

And let's go a step further to include her champion dialogue from inside the game:

Upon selection

     "So much untapped power!"

Movement

     "I am in control."      "By force of will."      "Let them try to stop me."      "My potential is limitless!"      "A whole world to toy with."      "More! I can be so much more!"      "People fear what they cannot understand."      "This power is mine to command."      "Easily."

Attacking

     "Imprisoned no longer."      "Jealous fools."      "I will not be restrained."      "This is what I live for."      "Run, playthings."      "They are nothing to me."      "Such power!"

Joke

Syndra lines up her three floating spheres as stepping stones and climbs.

     "And they said I lacked balance. Ha!"      "See? Absolute control."

Taunt

Syndra throws her three floating spheres to the ground with force.

     "Immense power is fun! You should try it sometime."      "A legion couldn't stop me. What chance do you have?"

Laugh

Syndra whirls her three floating spheres around her in a circle.

     Syndra laughs.      Syndra laughs.      Syndra laughs.      Syndra laughs.

When Dark Sphere Dark Sphere reaches rank 5

     "Barriers exist to be broken."      "Power without limit."

When Force of Will Force of Will reaches rank 5

     "I love to watch them fly."      "I will not hold back."'

When Scatter the Weak Scatter the Weak reaches rank 5

     "They won't even come close."      "I am untouchable."

When Unleashed Power Unleashed Power reaches rank 3

     "My potential is limitless!"      "I will not be restrained."

Courtesy to the Leagueoflegends.wikia for it's compilation of material. We'll be investigating Ionia after our breakdown in the next few pages.

  Perhaps the most problematic idea I run into regularly is the idea that Syndra herself is 'crazy'.

Deranged, mentally unhinged not unlike Jinx, nothing more than a pubscent child with too much power. To be frank, I find the notion deeply disturbing and all too much disingenious to her character. Let's start in the second paragraph, which begins her 'life long story' portion of the lore.

Throughout her youth in Ionia, Syndra's reckless use of magic terrified the elders of her village.

We establish Syndra was a troublesome in her youth by virtue of being reckless. For context, Ionia (her homeland) is a conservative society and to them anything not following 'balance' is universally perceived as 'bad'. This can mean a range of things for Syndra herself, from simply not listening to others and doing what she wants, to actively causing mischief or deliberate harm.

They took her to a remote temple, leaving her in the care of an old mage. To Syndra's delight, the mage explained that the temple was a school—a place where she could develop her talents under his guidance.

Be it out of the kindness of their hearts or fear of her, the respected leaders of her village tried to solve 'the problem'. The second sentence here is important: Syndra was delighted at the opportunity for education. This suggests her relationship with the village wasn't terrible – she didn't immediately presume it was a place to keep her locked up or punish her. Her willingness must be kept in mind as we go further.

Though she learned much during her time there, Syndra no longer felt her power growing as it had in her youth.

Time elapses, enough that it suggests Syndra is no longer 'in her youth', since she speaks of it in past tense. It is safe to presume a number of years are spent learning under the Old Mage, as we'll call him.

Her frustration grew, and she finally confronted her mentor, demanding an explanation.

For one whose magic is so innate and apart of them, to cease growing is a sobering and frustrating realization. Somewhat similar to being stuck in Bronze 1 trying to promote to Silver 5 – you know you can do more, but for some reason it's not working. So, Syndra goes to her mentor – the man she spent years studying under and learning magic with.

He revealed that he had dampened Syndra's magic, hoping to help her learn control and restraint. Accusing him of betrayal, she advanced on the mage, commanding him to lift the spell that was holding her back. He backed away, telling her that if she couldn't control herself, he would be forced to nullify Syndra's magic completely.

Now imagine the duo partner you've been playing with in ranked told you he was actually deliberately throwing games to 'help you get better'.

Here is the mentor for which years she spent with revealing that he was stopping her magic. Taking a very real part of her away without her knowledge or consent in order 'to help her'. That wasn't in the deal of their arrangement, so Syndra demands her piece back – demands the part of her that is being denied by someone else. The Old Mage wouldn't have that, for one reason or the other, but he doesn't suit for a simple denial or gentle reprimand.

He threatens to take that part away from her – to rip the magic out of a natural born mage.

Suffice to say, if one of your parents or trusted love ones threatened to rip out your eyes, or your tongue, or maybe cut out something very important, really, what would you do? Do you bow to their whims, desperate to do anything but lose those parts of you? Or do you rise up against them because you won't let them hurt or take control of your life? Is it worth the fall out?

Furious, she summoned her power and dashed the old man against the walls.

When words are done and swords are drawn, we can only act in our own interests.

With her mentor dead, Syndra felt the rush of her unbounded potential for the first time in years. Though she had won her freedom, she refused to return to the society that had tried to steal her gift. Instead, Syndra decided to claim her former prison as a stronghold.

Betrayal is a blade that can cut the deepest of wounds with a festering edge. The mentor she trusted had not only lied, but threatened her, and Syndra fought to survive and to be free. In those twilight moments, it's understandable to see she wouldn't be able to trust anyone else again. Were her village elders involved? Did everyone know what was happening to her? Would anyone care, now that she killed the man threatening her?

Who would believe the truth of what happened? An old mage, undoubtedly respected as a teacher of magic; her, the upstart, reckless woman everyone feared?

Pushing the boundaries of her magic, she tore the structure from its foundations and raised it into the sky. Free to delve further into her art, Syndra now aims to grow powerful enough to destroy the weak, foolish leaders of Ionia—and anyone else who would dare shackle her greatness.

Syndra took the place she lived for years – her home – and made it hers in all senses. Thus was her flying Celestial Fortress born with a mission goal of destroying Ionia's leaders. The self-same leaders of which her village elders are apart of. The people who would send others after her, for both justice on the murder of the Old Mage, and to stop her once and for all.

    Thus do we arrive at my primary position: Syndra is a great mage, whose hatred and rebellion from Ionia is born of a deep betrayal.

From that do we see her character inside the game itself and her dialogue: callous, condescending, and lording over the weak. She disregards everyone as beneath her, mere things to be used for her enjoyment, such is her confidence and relishment of her own power.

It is all deliberate.

Perhaps this speaks of an innate personality trait, but we can draw a clear line of reasoning for who she is and what she does. It's reasonable to presume some sort of social conformity once in her life – our upbringings have powerful impacts during childhood. She wanted, or at least enjoyed, the idea of tutelage and furthering her own control. The world, however, showed to her, in her eyes, that it wouldn't ever trust her.

I imagine Syndra to, at this point, install herself in a position of power so great that she cannot be removed or easily attacked. Secure some advantage, create a point from where you can stand your ground unflinchingly. Rulership has this funny habit of making people with great potential rather influential. Even if they are not well equipped to do so, someone in such a position must at the least be recognized and be made wary of. In a world of medieval technology and ideas, those with power both in representation and capability, often are those who rule.

The mage Syndra, in her flying fortress, thus becomes the Dark Sovereign. Ionia's renegade ruler, someone with command over all she sees. Most importantly, someone with the capability to back up such claims. Now you may wonder, what would Ionia do with such a rogue element? For certain a unified country of balance and peace would never tolerate such a thing …

  … were it still such a unified country.

  Ionia is changing.

An island nation, Ionia is oft considered a secluded, nigh-utopia of ever peace loving people, fueled by their need for enlightenment. They eschew conflict and violence, preferring decorum and diplomacy in the extreme – their negiotators are considered second to none the world over. Any art of war is pursued out of the strictest necessities, and perhaps at most as a means of further self control. We can glimpse such truths in great detail, once again, through the wiki over here. Those who only pay attention to the surface might not see the powder keg the small nation is sitting on. There are two major, distinct ideas running in tandem here, so bear with me. We're about to reach very far into some big concepts really quickly.

    The first concept: Peace in the face of war mongers.

Noxus and Demacia are two of the historical superpowers warring across the continent of Valoran (the mainland for League's lore setting). Wars flare up between them every so often, an eternal struggle that has defined both their cultures to their extremes. Demacia sits as the totalitarian monarchy, its citizen molded into a well oiled machine that the royal families sit atop of. Noxus on the other hand, is defined by a singular trait: strength, in all its forms, is all that matters.

To the Noxian mind, any concept of peace is weakness – to believe strength must be set aside for any other idea is heresy. Thus do they expand, exercising their philosophy through war and violent expansionism. Demacia does well to resist, but Ionia was never prepared to face the brutality of what Noxus was willing to do. The Ionians believed diplomacy and political machination could keep Noxus at bay, right up until the black legions started treading their gardens.

The Noxian invasion of Ionia began as a slaughter, nothing more than a scythe through wheat. Some Ionians were equipped to resist the invaders, those such as Varus or Master Yi, but they were few in number and paid terrible prices for their efforts. Day by day the invaders pushed, the Ionians learning they must resort to similar extremes or face their complete destruction. Thus arose the changing convictions of people such as Karma, who realized their peaceful ways wouldn't survive. While what be could said of the Ionian military fought, the people found the horrors of war all too real. Tradition as many understood it had failed to protect them and in the aftermath of the war, when Ionia barely managed to stalemate Noxus, did the wounds begin to fester.

    The second concept: Enforced peace is not peace at all.

People are different and prone to spontaneous and unexpected change. This concept alone has been the bane to any central controlling government since time immemorial. Ionia prides itself upon its pursuit of enlightenment, but what goes unspoken is the sacrifices of those who do not buy into that dogma. What of those who resist, or resent, such ideas – perhaps not enlightenment itself, but the people 'in charge' of it? What of those who simply do not care, seeking to walk a different or darker path for their own sakes?

Ionia did possess a military of its own, for however practical it may have been. The arts of war did exist in their island nation. These are not there for the sake of being there; at one point, Ionia had needed of them in the past. For what ends we can only speculate, but a harrowing thought lurks in the background nonetheless. What, exactly, did Ionia do to its rogue elements? What do the Elders, Ionia's respected leaders, decide on for handling those who wouldn't pursue the idea of Balance?

That a secret order of specialized people, ninja as you and I know them, exists proves their need for a heavy hand. Described as the Kinkou, and heralded by such as Shen, Akali, and Kennen, we might begin to grasp the concept of Ionia's internal policing force. Where Balance fails, they have a hand whose purpose is to re-assert order. As one might imagine, for better or worse. I must wonder, then, who exactly fell under their scrutiny, and how much did the people truly grasp the ramifications?

Consider that an entire village, as described in Karma's lore, had, and I'll quote:

When the invaders marched on the village, the elder monks rode out to negotiate a bloodless end to the battle. The Noxian general was offended by their show of weakness and slaughtered the monks himself as he ordered his soldiers to strike the village.

As the Noxians advanced, the villagers prepared to accept death, bound to their peaceful vows.

complete willingness to die to maintain their vows. Where, then, would a nation's complete willingness to repress dissenters end? What about those history hasn't spoken for?

    Societal pressures, once pushed to their breaking points, inevitably end in revolution.

Syndra's presence shadows Ionia after the war, an almost unwitting icon. In any other time she might be written off quite successfully as a rogue, but with the horrors of Noxus freshly imprinted on Ionia, some might not want to believe that. Some might see her power and defiance of tradition as a beacon to rally behind. She herself doesn't seek Ionia's downfall, per say, only the Elders, the leaders, the people with the motivation to remove her. The self same leaders who can, quite understandably, be believed to have failed the people, by the people themselves.

Her own involvement in the war is unclear as there is simply no reliable indication. One idea is that she was never involved, too busy training away in seculsion, the other that she herself was fighting in some way or another. We cannot say for certain on that regard, but we can see the opportunity she would find in the war's aftermath. A great many people might be willing to listen to her, and more that, be willing to follow her. Suddenly, that's more power than just magic – that's the power of the people.

It is worth noting for her character's sake, I don't imagine Syndra to be well equipped for rulership in the traditional sense. She is very much a solitary and selfish person, committed to her own ideas and purpose in life. What compassions she might've had would die in the wake of her teacher's betrayal and Ionia's own persecution against her. Nonetheless, to presume her moronic would be an understatement and discredit to the habitual enlightenment all Ionians are typified by. The war's end presented an opportunity, and able or not, she could exploit it quite well.

Imagine, for a moment, you could reshape the country you were born in. You could do away with the problems that threaten you, and more than that, remake it into something you desire. After so many years of being hunted and shunned, you can create a world you have a place in with absolute safety.

  To have a home we are safe in is a basic human desire. It's simplicity, however, belies the greater-than-life convictions it can inspire in people.

      In conclusion,

We can see the drama that defines both Syndra's character and her relationship with Ionia. Born someone with great potential, the world around her feared what she could do, but she wanted to improve. Her trusted leaders found for her a teacher, a man she would spend years with as his student. Yet, when she wanted to know why part of her was going wrong, he revealed to her the deepest kind of betrayal one can have with a trusted mentor. More than that, he promised to hurt her if not for her unwavering obedience, and thus showed to her the reality of the world she grew up in.

Ironically, it's entirely reasonable to presume Syndra would never have had a problem with her magic. Powerful, certainly, perhaps more than anyone in Ionia currently living. Yet her magic is apart of her, as natural as breathing, and as we see later, never once out of her grasp. Fear and balance pushed a young woman and all her potential away, when all she needed were people who understood her.

  "People fear what they cannot understand."

Delving into Syndra’s lore was originally published on Earthen Thoughts

[earthenthoughts]

8/20 PBE Syndra Buff

Syndra is getting some attention in the next PBE cycle and what’s coming has me a little concerned hella excited.

  tl;dr, Syndra’s DPS is better and Flat MRES rushers will feel the sting the most. Tanks/bruisers/etc will wither somewhat if they stay near her constantly eating Dark Spheres and their new True Damage. E’s increased cone is funny and will send people off at odd angles.

Here are the exact changes:

  Syndra

Transcendent (Passive)

Dark Sphere now deals 15% bonus TRUE damage to champions instead just increasing damage to champions by 15%

Scatter the Weak width increased up to 100% from 50%

  So, let’s paint the picture for Syndra: her level 9 power spike on Q gets a huge jump, and her E max power spike gets a bigger cone. The first one is my real concern, the second one is … just really wonky. I’ll get to that one in a minute.

  At her inception Syndra was an incredible lane bully, arguably quite overbearing at such. She lived in the camp with the likes of Cassiopeia doing so, coming out on top and dominating a lot of lane match ups against her. Thus her early game Q (Dark Sphere) damage was nerfed, significantly so, and hammered that playstyle right out of existence. You can bully with Syndra still, but every ‘meta viable’ pick can survive pre-level 6 laning phase with ease compared to her earlier incarnation.

  Now, that’s fine – I never quite agreed with it, I simply understand the reasoning. Syndra can still pull off her level 6 kill spike with proper setup unless the enemy is a Flask+Pots/Negatron/Hexdrinker, which is by design supposed to mitigate lane danger. You run into a problem where people gated by their laning phase (Talon/Zed/Diana/Fizz) come out unscathed and free to do as they please, but that’s a different discussion. Both parties typically end up walking out of laning fairly even, so we go straight to team fighting at around level 9.

  With this proposed change, 15% bonus damage of Dark Sphere becomes True Damage. So let’s say, level 9 Q + 150 AP, which isn’t unreasonable at around level 9.

That is: 230 (base) +  150 (AP) = 320 damage.

15% of that is 48, for a grand total of 368 (most of which is mitigated by resistances).

  Every Dark Sphere at that AP threshold is doing 48 True Damage. Ok, lets throw some context onto this so we can sharpen our crystal ball divination here. Keep in mind: all damage numbers expressed are post mitigation.

Your target has 1,200 HP and 90 MRES, or your average AP midlane assassin with Abyssal Scepter.

You have 22.8 Magic Penetration,  6% from the mastery, and 150 AP.

Syndra’s 5 and 6 sphere ultimate Unleashed Power do the following: 419.6 and 503.5

Q does 247.9+48 damage (or 295.9 total).

W does 129.4 damage.

E does 122.4 damage.

In order to kill your target, the following abilities must hit: Q (247.9+48) + Q (247.9+48) + E (122.4) + W (129.4) + R (419.6, 5 sphere ultimate) for a grand total of 1,263.2. You will overkill by exactly 63.2 points of damage, presuming the target does not A) regenerate, or B) recover HP in some manner. Ignite will provide any extra necessary damage in the event of A or B.

That is a full combo, you’re committing everything to killing the enemy from 100% to 0%. If you miss even one shot, it will fail and usually end up killing Syndra as a consequence. Whatever harassing you apply (for instance, landing a single Q blast, waiting, then comboing) will create a comfortable buffer zone. If you do a 6 sphere combo, you can miss E or W or Q without worrying.

Ok, so that’s Syndra after the changes – what about the same situation in the current live server? Well, Q’s damage becomes 257.3, rather than 295.9. So now her entire 5 sphere combo damage is: Q (257.3) + Q (257.3) + E (122.4) + W (129.4) + R (419.6), grand total of 1,186 damage, or failing to kill by 14 points of damage (Ignite, another ability, or auto attacks become mandatory).

  The end result is that the True Damage of her new passive adds an appreciable amount to her total burst rotation, significantly so. Overkill damage is meaningful in addressing healing, shields, or other forms of active defense, which means Syndra can kill Heal/Barrier users easier as a consequence. 48 damage, presuming her Q lands, adds up quickly when we’re talking 2 and 3 abilities landing. Hence, this is what I mean by ‘kill more’: Syndra kills squishy targets much more comfortably, especially through active defenses.

Tanks, fighters, and other hardened targets that stack both MRES and Health will feel a sting, although not nearly as much. Her main damage ability will make them respect her harass more, especially when 4 or 5 Dark Spheres have landed for over 200 extra True Damage ontop of their normal damage. Let’s not forget her True Damage scales with AP, so we’re talking upwards of 60-100 extra True Damage as the game goes on.

    Over all, this is a hefty buff. Syndra will rip into her immediate opposition (squishy mages/assassins/carries) better and have a stronger tool for dealing with tanks. Her glass cannon fragility remains, so all normal counter play options still exist, save that Syndra herself cannot really be ignored anymore. Her momentum/tempo based play style is stronger as a consequence: the longer she’s allowed to work, the greater her threatening power stacks up.

I’m not sure I’d say this is the team fighting buff I had in mind, though it’s certainly an interesting one. Scatter the Weak (E) getting a cone increase at max rank will further amplify its ability to keep people away, presuming the ability’s coding actually works. I honestly would like to see Force of Will (W) get some love, because it’s a strong team fighting ability that gets choked by its obscene mana costs (60 to 100 mana per cast). At the moment, this strongly reinforces the Q and E sniper Syndra playstyle, to the point I think any incentive on leveling W second is pretty much gone by now.

  Admittedly, I am a little scared this might be a little too strong of a buff, but I will take a wait and see approach. When one must contend with the likes of Ahri, Zed, Azir, and Viktor, you have to be up there on the power curve with them or you don’t get picked, at the end of the day.

8/20 PBE Syndra Buff was originally published on Earthen Thoughts

[earthenthoughts]

Updating the Syndra guide

I've been working on updating my Syndra guide and the first draft is out for viewing over [HERE] at solomid. In general I'm trying to fine tune item build order, build logic, and match up considerations, which are some of the big requests I've received. I'm also touching up the different areas to streamline what they're conveying so it's easier to pick up (hopefully lol).

  If you have any ideas, thoughts, or things you want to see on the guide, let me know. Mobafire and others will be updated when I get their respective codework done and this guide on its second draft iteration. You can email me at overlordforte@gmail.com for contact.

Updating the Syndra guide was originally published on Earthen Thoughts

[earthenthoughts]

5.13 Proposed Core AP Items

Warning: MASSIVE SPECULATION

Relevant thread: 5.13 Core AP Items Pass

So let's all pull out our crystal balls and do some scrying into the murky, changing tides of the future. I'll be going over item by item, then a summary/rampant speculation at the end of this post.

  Blasting Wand Cost: 860 G –> 850 G

Needlessly Large Rod Cost: 1600 G –> 1250 G Ability Power: 80 AP –> 60 AP

NLR being at such a high price / AP point means that almost any item that builds from NLR would have to have greater than 100 Ability Power on it when combined with any other Ability Power component. This proved to be a pretty huge constraint in using NLR as a stepping stone for certain items – going to retarget NLR as a smaller item. While this does have some implications on lane timing (You no longer need a double kill to get NLR first back, for example) – It was either this or inflate AP as a whole across the board.

This has some… interesting ramifications in terms of the stability of mid lane purchases.

Blasting Wand 10g cheaper, not much to say about that. Pretty much just a cost balancing thing for end recipes – since it's using a multiple of 50, easier for mental math, I guess.

  Now Needlessly Large Rod (NLR), on the other hand, oh boy. So in the current world, if you get doubles before first back – or a single+lots of prolonged farming, etc – NLR tended to be a bit of a rush item. It's 80 AP, huge powerspike for a first back, but utility stats are fragile (Mana, health, mana regen, etc). If you went this route you were banking on the obscene damage to carry you through; notable examples: Leblanc, Ahri, Katarina, Syndra, etc.

Now it's 20 AP less, but 350 gold cheaper, or 1 kill cheaper, in other words. 20 AP on say, a 0.6 AP ratio ability, is 12 damage, so while it's a bit of a sting, the price difference is the real key here. First blood/kill in midlane will matter a lot more for people wanting to blitz high burst builds because you only need the one kill + some farm now, not 2 kills and a bunch of farm. Damage will snowball MUCH easier from that as a consequence, which will mean either much more conservative/safe farming midlaners, or incredibly aggressive ones with jungler camping support. Let's put a pin in this for the moment, though, and explore the other item changes first.

  Rabadon's Deathcap Recipe Change: NLR + Blasting Wand + Amplifying Tome Total Cost: 3300 G –> 3500 G Ability Power UNCHANGED: 120 AP UNIQUE Passive: 30% Ability Power Amp –> 35% Ability Power Amp

Deathcap's change mostly revolves around keeping total final AP of the damage build the same – while being able to nerf the individual AP items to have more comparable numbers to each other. As Deathcap is the keystone I want a lot of AP item – we pushed the power here.

Now the undisputed choice for tons of damage, their changes pretty much hit this on the head. The price change on NLR, as well as the inclusion of Amp Tome, will make building into this item a lot more feasible over time (versus the current 1600 gold wall for NLR). For example, building Chalice/Athene's and Deathcap piece-by-piece so you're always seeing a bit of a jump in power, rather than hoarding useless gold until you make the big buy.

  Zhonya's Hourglass Total Cost: 3300 G –> 3000 G Ability Power: 120 Ability Power –> 100 Ability Power

Zed mains are crying because this item will come out 300 gold faster, basically. A bit of a hit in the damage department, but Zhonya's main sell was always its Armor + Stasis effect. In that regard, this is a pretty nice buff.

  Luden's Echo (Summoner's Rift) Total Cost: 3100 G –> 3000 G Ability Power: 120 Ablity Power –> 100 Ability Power Movement Speed: 7% Movement Speed –> 10% Movement Speed

Luden's is a terrifying item in terms of the general poke power it adds – Luden's probably needs a more solid identity that 'raw power' – so we've been pushing the item to be more and more about being mobility focused rather than spam spell focused.

I suspect we'll eventually need to do more to the item but it'd most likely be more of a slow burn.

The changes to Luden's and Rylai's (later down in this post) scare the daylights out of me. Luden's was never meant to compete with Rabadon's for damage (except in the kite/dodge poke department), so the AP nerf solidifies that a bit more. The terrifying part is the 10% movement speed buff. Basically, this will enable kitey mages even more, especially when combined with Alacrity/3rd Dragon Buff, where they WILL outrun anything in the game not using a movement enhancing ability (and even then).

As an example, let's look at Twisted Fate, who kind of epitomes what this item will do for non-mobility mages.

330 (base) + 45 (boots 2) + 20 (alacrity) + 1.5% (utility mastery) + 3% (Dragon buff) + 10% (Luden's) = 446 movement speed? So basically permanent Boots of Mobility plus +15 Spell Penetration or 15% Cooldown Reduction attached to it.

Yeaaaah. Now wait until we get to the Rylai's change.

  Archangel's Staff (Summoner's Rift) Recipe Change: NLR + Tear of the Goddess + 1030 G Total Cost: 2700 G –> 3000 G Ability Power: 60 Base AP –> 80 Base AP

Making more items build out of NLR in the hopes of expanding the high-tier AP space. AAA is definitely deserving of being one of the high tier AP slots, given its general growth pattern and the fact that it's attached to a quest in order to achieve maximum AP potential.

Seraph's Embrace (Summoner's Rift) Ability Power: 60 Base AP –> 80 Base AP

…For completion's sake.

In fairness to Archangels and Seraph's, its always been up there as one of the 'big AP items', but it's means of getting it has made it a bit exclusive. This kind of opens it up a little bit, while giving it more punching power in mana stacking builds (Rod of Ages + Archangels, namely). Kassadin, Anivia, Ryze, etc, will adore this change. The fundamental need to stack Tear of the Goddess, however, has not changed, so most of this item's early/mid game play patterns at the same. Specific champions benefit from this more than others …

  Rod of Ages (Summoner's Rift) Total Cost: 2800 G –> 2700 G Health: 450 Base Health –> 300 Base Health Mana: 450 Base Mana –> 400 Base Mana Passive: 20 Health Growth / 200 Maximum Health UNCHANGED. Passive: 20 Mana Growth / 200 Maximum Mana –> 40 Mana Growth / 400 Maximum Mana Passive: 2 Ability Power / 20 Maximum Ability Power –> 4 Ability Power / 40 Maximum Ability Power

Rod is currently leaning a bit too much towards favoring AP Heavies with the statline – while not really solving Mana / AP concerns for mages who want to pick it up. Going to adjust the item to more favor the Mana and Offensive statistics of this item, especially over time.

… especially because the Rod of Ages (ROA)+Archangels combo is getting MORE MANA, which means more AP from Archangels.

So this'll hit the raw defensive value of ROA in the health department, but it'll give more offensive oomph and mana options in return. Over time ROA will evolve into one of the top tier AP items at around 100 AP, so you'll feel good in your damage department as a result, rather than lagging a bit behind as is currently. Pure tanks that built this item may shy away from it due to the -150 HP total it has going on, but AP damage tanks who built it will love it more for the damage/mana return they get. Mages, likewise, will be somewhat squishier but have more punch to them in the midgame.

  Nashor's Tooth Total Cost: 2920 G –> 3000 G Attack Speed: 50% Attack Speed –> 40% Attack Speed Ability Power: 60 Ability Power –> 80 Ability Power

We're also pushing more items up to compete in the 80 Ability Power range – While Nashor's is a fine purchase for people who already have strong on-hit procs – the ratio of Attack Speed to Spells favored these characters probably a bit too hard.

Nashor's should be acceptable as a niche for certain mages that can use their autoattacks well – but also have decent ratios.

The return of Teemo and Kayle. Well, maybe not Kayle, I'm still figuring her out.

On-hit characters are funny in League of Legends – they usually lean towards one stat (AD or AP), abuse it in their spells, and on-hit benefits as a side effect. 'True' on-hit builds have never really taken off as they've always been overshadowed by stat dumping ability spam in their place. The one real instance that comes to mind is Pre-rework and Post-rework Kayle, who was quite noteably a beast for her time (rest in peace). This change mostly facilities that pattern, buffing AP stat dumping while giving a bit of a sidegrade benefit to on-hit attacks.

  Rylai's Crystal Scepter Recipe Change: NLR + Amplifying Tome + Giant's Belt Total Cost: 2900 G –> 3000 G

Passive Updated Single Target: 35% Slow for 1.5 seconds –> 40% Single Target Slow for 1.5 seconds

Instant AoE: 15% Slow for 1.5 seconds –> 40% Slow for 1 second DoT or Multihit: 15% slow for 1.5 seconds –> 20% Slow for 1 second

Note: If a spell fits in more than one category – it'll generally use the weakest slow.

Rylai's is currently good in a few scenarios, namely – do you have a spammable single target spell and a train pattern – a large part of this is the fact that the AoE / DoT portions of the slow are so weak in comparison to the single target slow. Changing the tactic here to make those slows have less overall duration rather than penalizing the direct effect.

This is a very powerful push in terms of Rylai's overall power – but we'll be looking at modifying and cleaning up of the slow rules as well either now or in the near future.

And now we arrive to what scares me the most. So let's talk about kiting (and not the ones you fly in a park).

Overall the 100 AP is the same, the cost is normalized by +100, the 400 Health is the same, so its upfront stats aren't too flashy, pretty par for the course.

Now everything that isn't a DOT or Multihit(?) has a 40% slow for at least 1 second.

The AOE penalty before kept A LOT of mages gated in Rylai's revelance – 15% is not desireable in 90% of cases. 40%, on the other hand, is SUPER desirable. For one whole second you take away 40% of an enemy's movement speed from long range (Orianna, Xerath, Ziggs, Azir, Cassiopeia, Syndra, etc), quite possibly OUTSIDE their retaliation range. You're now a lot more comfortable in moving around at that same long range, pinging them with punishing damage that also tends to slow.

Anyone familiar with Syndra's maxed W is familiar with how punishing her long range 40% slow is for 2 seconds. Now give every mage that same slow for 1 second, attached to an item. Now let's just say they build Luden's, so they're 10% faster as a consequence (oh and maybe Alacrity+Dragon 3 buff is there too). You're looking at a scary kite machine that will out speed anything not using a gap closer/blink/teleport/etc.

In fact, because of perma kite (hello original Ashe), gap closers/mobility were added in League of Legends to COUNTER that game play style. The end result over the years has been the lagged death of true perma-kite, with a hefty amount of today's champions having very strong mobility skills. Rylai's being changed this way intrigues and worries me because it'll revitalize that style, and maybe not for the best. I'm very keen on how they'll be changing the game mechanics for slow because that'll dramatically affect how this item's return to glory pans out.

  Haunting Guise Total Cost: 1480G –> 1500 G

Wait for it…

Liandry's Torment Recipe Change: Haunting Guise + Blasting Wand Total Cost: 2900 G –> 3000 G Ability Power: 50 Base AP –> 80 Base AP

Liandry's Torment is designed to be able to fit as a High Health / Low Resistance shredder (hence the combination of health damage + flat penetration). However, the lower AP on the item frequently meant your kit didn't actually work. Aggressively pushing the power of this build to be able to compete with the more immediate damage type builds – like proc builds.

A tiny bit of a price hike (100~ gold) for 30 extra AP is a pretty strong buff. This'll make it much more appealing on a wide range of mages, especially ones who prefer prolonged fighting, or alternatively, those who really love early/midgame penetration builds (hello Vel'koz, Rumble, Teemo in some builds). It'll also be more comfortable to buy for its anti-tank values as a consequence.

  Will of the Ancients Spell Vamp 20% Spell Vamp –> 0% Spell Vamp New UNIQUE Passive: Your spells and abilities heal you for 15% of the damage dealt, calculated BEFORE your opponent's resistances. 33% effect for AoE Spells.

You need so many things to get a Spell Vamp build to work. You have to be resistant enough to not get bursted. You have to deal a sufficient amount of raw damage in order to heal. You probably need to be ahead to outscale the opponent's resistances. You need a ton of base damage. Therefore – this change is trying to reduce the number of dependencies needed in order to 'turn on.' You won't need Pen to heal from this item on champions. Spell Vamp builds are fairly problematic to control once they get rolling – so they tend to be pretty binary.

The hope here is that there's a lower spell vamp value and less healing generally in exchange for not needing so much to get started.

This change intrigues me with how I use Will of the Ancients (WOTA) in a non-traditional role (Syndra).

Over all, this change hammers healing a bit against minions/monsters, you're pretty much straight up losing 5% healing against them. On the other hand, you're gaining MORE healing against enemy champions (and the epic monsters). Basically, if Syndra ults for 1400 damage against 40% magic resistance, WOTA would heal off 940 damage for 20% (188~ life). Now if Syndra ults for that same amount for 15%, she would heal 210~ life. If you look at someone like Vladimir (the poster child for spell vamp abuse), you'll notice a bit of a bump in his healing potential in team fighting / single targets. It'll kick down his minion/master healing, though, so you'll find him a bit easier to poke in that regard.

It's … a really interesting change. A good step in a direction that promotes fighting enemy champions without creating 'Here is one minion wave, now I am full again' problems as in the past.

  OmNomNomicon Recipe Change: Codex + Idol + Amplifying Tome Total Cost Unchanged

Wanted to increase the number of potential purchase options at the ~1200 G level.

I'm attempting to make Codex + Book or Wisp + Book potentially attractive choices compared to NLR, especially on your first back. You'll get more interim power than the NLR – at the slight cost of strongly telegrahing what you're going to build and locking yourself into a build. It's mostly an experiment to see if players like having this kind of choice between 800 + 400 component vs. ~1200 mid-tier.

It makes the recipe a bit bloated but… yeah.

  Athene's Unholy Grail Recipe Change: Codex + Chalice + Amplifying Tome Total Cost Unchanged

See Omnomnomicon Above.

As Xypherous mentions, this is purely a build options change. It's a good contrast to the new NLR, since you'll have the option of building the parts of Morello's even cheaper if you have to go back before an NLR purchase. Or, if you're not going an NLR route early, you can piece meal build Morello's a bit cleaner. This same logic is true of Athene's, pretty much.

  Void Staff Total Cost: 2295 G –> 2500 G Ability Power: 70 Ability Power –> 80 Ability Power

Void Staff's raw efficiency is pretty high compared to some of the other items on the list.

While % Penetration will always be a great multiplier for damage for any damage oriented mage – you don't really need it to also be such a great source of Ability Power. This pushes Void Staff's efficiency more in line with some of the other items with comparable multipliers. Also adding a bit of AP to ensure that players end up at roughly the same amount of AP they did pre-patch.

Voidstaff, the murder machine of my heart.

So the price hike is pretty noticeable in hitting Voidstaff's gold/damage ratio, of which it has always been INSANELY good with. It is, however, still 1000 gold cheaper than Deathcap, so that over all ratio of comparison will remain pretty close. Deathcap's bump up to 35% will narrow the gap, so, barring my eventual dive into mathematical hell, I'm willing to say Voidstaff will probably be a better buy against targets at 70-80 MRES or more (rather than 40-50 as is currently).

I imagine (pending numbers dive) that Voidstaff will still be king of killing champions, but Deathcap will be an incredibly close contender (and Deathcap is better for farming, period).

    Tl;dr, short and skinny edition:

Rod of Ages = buffed for offensive playstyles, minor nerf to pure tanks co-opting it. AP damage tanks may love it more.

Archangels = buffed, pretty much more bang-for-buck in everyway. Core playstyle of stacking Tear remains the same.

Rod of Ages+Archangels builds = buffed, minor hit in HP for hilarious amounts of more damage and mana. Expect midgame powerspikes galore here.

Luden's = buffed for its intended role, minor nerf in damage. Kite mages will adore the 10% movement speed, especially if they play dirty and mix it together with other components (mobility skills, rylai's, etc).

Deathcap = buff, mostly power shifting. Now pretty much firmly best in slot for raw AP damage by a wide margin (possible contender remains in Voidstaff).

Zhonya's = AD casters rev up your thread making looms, because this is coming out 300 gold faster for an ignorable hit in its damage. Pretty big buff.

Nashor's = buffed for the people who use it, can be comfortably co-opted by AP mages better now (more AP, less attack speed). Minor nerf for the abuse cases.

Rylai's = scary hella buff, possibly heralding the return of perma-kite. Worth watching out for to see how it pans out.

Haunting Guise/Liandry's = straight buff, much better buy for anti-tank builds and heavy spell penetration builds.

Will of the Ancients = buff when fighting enemy champions, nerf to minion/monster healing. Power shifting for the most part.

Morello's / Athene's = item build order change, mostly easier to pick up piece by piece. Mostly an options/availability change.

Voidstaff = bit of a hit to its gold/damage ratios, very minor buff in damage. May still be the better first buy option vs enemy champions, especially early MRES stackers.

  I like the idea of Rod of Ages being more open in the damage/mana department, so mages who want to itemize a bit of survivability have a better option. The Rod of Ages+Archangels combo build will be stronger, possibly a more universal option for people angling to mid/late game (and sacrificing some early game power).

Luden's will be even stronger in the kite category, its partner in crime will probably emerge from Rylai's. For a long time, the main method of mage fighting has been ranged kite into high burst damage/hard crowd control (stuns, etc). This was largely subverted through the sheer amount of mobility available, so mages often played with a 'I have so much time to do stuff before the enemy is on me'. One or both of these items will open the door for 'If I do it right, they'll never ever get close'. I'm very leery about these changes, and will be thinking heavily on their implications further.

Liandry's getting more power will definitely benefit its current main buyers and open the doors for some others. May see a rise in pure spell pen kill builds for early/mid game on picks other than Rumble/Vel'koz.

  Over all, really good changes, definitely shaking up the mage itemization route. Weird combinations before might be stronger and more situationally viable now, with happy combinations of early, mid, or late game powerspiking. There'll definitely be an emergence of the kite playstyle, as well as more tanky/durable mages, with pure glass cannon builds taking a step back as a consequence. So, as I see it, probably about two or three playstyles being represented (kite/tanky/glass) rather than the previous glass/minor kite style we've had for some time.

I'm quite interested in others thoughts about this, so let me know!

5.13 Proposed Core AP Items was originally published on Earthen Thoughts

[earthenthoughts]

Justicar Syndra: General design/Improvement over base

So here’s an interesting splash! I want to look at this and say that it’s a Syndra who’s learned control, who grew up under her master peacefully- after all, her headdress’ design seems to echo Irelia’s, but it sort-of already does...

[earthenthoughts]

Force of Will vs Scatter the Weak

There's a funny duality between Syndra's Force of Will and Scatter the Weak.

  Way back in time, well into when I started maining Syndra, I migrated off Force of Will (FOW) into Scatter for my second ability to max (Dark Sphere has always remained first ability to max). The reasoning for this was three major components:

FOW's mana costs are back breaking.

FOW operates under an artificial cooldown limit.

Scatter has more base damage at ranks 3->5.

Thusly, for most of my career on Syndra I've largely used Scatter as part of my main damage rotation. This put me into an awkward spot where Syndra's critically valuable stun had to be used in her damage rotation, leading to a very binary state of existence. If Scatter is up, Syndra can be threatening – if it is down, she has to be cautious. The status of that ability literally defines her viability in any given situation because of its importance.

Consequentially, as part of the main damage rotation, it was down very frequently, giving my opponents more windows to counter-engage if I missed.

In an ideal world I wouldn't max Scatter second, simply because it's too important to use on a common damage rotation. FOW was absolutely awful to max second, though, because I just couldn't make it work with Syndra's mana. So the story goes, and up into platinum I climbed, then diamond, then masters, etc … Now I've arrived to the point where I'm reevaluating FOW and seeing if it can actually be made practical again. Perhaps, with the changes to mana itemization and my own experience, there's a way for it to work now, I think to myself.

    So, let's get to the nitty-gritty.

  (Syndra abilities as provided by League of Legends wikia on Patch 5.9)

Let's start with the abilities first, we'll go through them stat-by-stat.

RANGE: FOW has a generous reach, letting one apply damage quite liberally compared to some other kits. Scatter operates on a different wavelength, focusing more on a line skill shot + conical approach. Strictly speaking you'll get more out of Scatter+Dark Sphere for 'total range', but both the abilities have very effective range properties regardless.

MANA: One of the key points, you'll immediately notice how Scatter has a flat 50 mana. FOW increases up to 100 mana at level 5, effectively making it a pseudo-ultimate in terms of cost. This mana difference plays in massively to the next point.

COOLDOWN: The second key point and a big player in the entire ensemble. Scatter has a long cooldown, even when maxed it has a base of 12 seconds (going to 7.2s with 40% CDR). FOW goes to 8 seconds (going to 4.8s with 40% CDR), putting it comfortably ahead. Right out the door you will be using FOW more on cooldown, but combined with its massively increased mana costs, Syndra will burn mana much quicker.

DAMAGE: FOW wins flat damage until level 3, at which point Scatter beats it by 5, and then 10 damage, at levels 4 and 5 respectively. A small difference ultimately, but this notably means neither one really out classes the other in 'base damage' as you usually see with utility skills. AP ratios are irrelevant, since those are AP, not level, based.

CROWD CONTROL: Scatter's stun is unbelievably important – it's the very keystone of Syndra's entire kit. Her success revolves around using it correctly, all the time. Thusly, 'spamming it' as part of a damage combo makes it inherently uncomfortable to do. You give the enemy more windows to counter engage, especially when you don't follow up on successful stuns. Contrast to Force of Will, which provides an incredible AOE slow at level 5 – you can use it to keep distance without blowing Scatter's stun, in turn meaning you have much more control over your enemies.

With the working stats, the picture may start forming a bit clearly: FOW eats mana for breakfast in exchange for being available much more often. Syndra is one of the few mages effectively gated by her mana costs, she isn't Xerath or Ziggs, who can reasonably itemize without much issue. For one, she needs multiple Dark Spheres (40-80 mana per sphere, depending on level) to interact with Unleashed Power (100 mana). To manipulate her spheres, she needs FOW (60-100 mana) and Scatter (50 mana) to move and extend their life timers.

So, let's throw out a situation, like a level 6 kill combo. Ok, you want a 6 sphere ultimate, pretty hefty. Syndra has level 3 Dark Sphere (60), level 2 FOW (70), level 1 Scatter (50), and level 1 Unleashed Power (100). At level 6, Syndra's base mana without any modifiers is 532. Basic math dictates the following:

60+60+60+70+50+100 = 400 mana.

In order to execute Syndra's 6 sphere combo at level 6, you need 400 out of 532 mana, or 75% of her total available mana. If you leveled Scatter instead of FOW, you would save 20 mana, requiring 380 out of 532 to execute the combo. Realistically, that means you have 132 mana to expend for harass and 'softening up' your target. In practical terms, 2 Dark Spheres; or 1 Dark Sphere+1 FOW throw/1 Scatter shot.

    Not exactly a lot of wiggle room, is it?

If you dip below the 400 mana required, Syndra cannot reach 6 sphere combo, end of story. You're stuck going to 5 sphere then, which is 340 mana total to execute (320 with Scatter at level 2). That'll be one extra Dark Sphere/FOW/Scatter in your harass rotation. If you dip below that, you cannot use her ultimate, practically speaking. 4 and 3 sphere ultimates are so difficult to kill with it's essentially a waste, 8 times out of 10.

Now that we have an idea of her ideal combo kill window, how does she actually harass in lane? The total damage of Syndra's combo potential is among the highest in the game, letting her commonly kill at 70-80% total HP thresholds rather than 40-50% of most mages. She doesn't have to harass much, within reason, to get her target into a kill window. You'll encounter the most trouble with hardened targets, ones that rush magic resistance, and then ones that spam Crystalline Flask+Health Potions.

In harassing 'tough' targets, Syndra's mana constraints become exceedingly obvious. You have to frequently poke to whittle down all that extra defense, but her mana can't keep up sometimes. You'll constantly be dipping into the red zone of her combo, which means you can't kill them, which means self-snowballing becomes daunting. You have to use the right abilities at the right time to get to her combo, before the enemy heals, goes back to base, or what ever …

Now consider how much you can do with her mana costs. If you're harassing with Dark Sphere+Force of Will, you'll put out damage more often, but her mana crashes to the floor. If you use Dark Sphere+Scatter the Weak, you're dealing damage much less frequently, but hurting nearly as much. In reality, you can't really capitalize on FOW's faster cooldown that well – if you do, there goes her mana.

Recall I mentioned FOW had an artificial cooldown attached to it.

The 'real time usage' of FOW means you won't use it on cooldown, it'll be stretched out a couple seconds more. It's about the same, or more than, as Scatter's real cooldown – the two abilities practically run beside each other early game. You end up eeking out a tiny bit less damage in exchange for having a much more forgiving mana cost by prioritizing Scatter. 3 Scatter's is 150 mana, but 3 FOWs is 240 – almost 2 additional Scatters outright. Why not just spread out the damage since I'm harassing?

That's the logic that drove my migration choice the first time. Now, sitting around with all the experience I've gained, a thought crept into my head: what if I just used FOW's front loaded damage in a crash-or-kill combo? Take all my mana and just force them to die quicker?

    High vs low speed in a nut shell, essentially.

Recently, I've taken to exploring maxing FOW second again. Yes, the early game mana problems are still there, however my usage of FOW has changed. I'm particular with my harass, using more Dark Spheres and keeping FOW/Scatter in reserve. It's beginning to dawn on me this is probably the best choice: Dark Sphere harass, the other abilities kept for specific situations. You want FOW for damage, but also to reset Dark Sphere life timers for Unleashed Power. You want Scatter for damage, but also CC which can save Syndra or enable a kill on your target. Dark Sphere is just there for damage – low cooldown, generous application.

What this means is the mana crash problem I experience with FOW is much less pronounced. When it comes down to the wire, full 400 mana (or more) combo, my damage is out faster, my stuns much more selective, my mana totally gone – but the target is dead if I did everything right. Which, in the end, is all that matters the most.

With the last buff to Athene's Unholy Grail, Syndra can recover much better in team fights as a consequence. Kills/assists will actually and quite meaningfully give her mana back, enough for more Dark Spheres and FOW throws. There's incentive to crash for a kill because you will rocket right back up again if you get it. Of course not getting it is plenty awful, but that's a universal problem no matter what.

I've also begun to appreciate FOW's slow much more than I did before. The rank 5 passive upgrade is substantial, more than I used to give it credit for. Scatter's rank 5 upgrade is the worst of the 4 from Syndra's passive, frankly. A wider conical hitbox is nice, but you only ever care about 1 or 2 Dark Spheres at the end of the day. FOW's 45% slow, on the other hand, is brutal for enemies to deal with. They have to use their mobility options to get out of it, or Syndra is just gonna keep hammering them. All the while, Scatter is up to stun them – so they have to deal with that threat too.

  Syndra's tactical options open up massively with FOW as her second maxed ability – all at the cost of a much more volatile mana pool. The most meaningful question it seems is how much experience one invests in making correct calls to crash her mana …

    tl;dr

Syndra has volatile mana, Force of Will makes that much more pronounced. Scatter is viable for a less strained mana pool, but Force of Will is better for damage projection and controlling the battlefield. Athene's makes it much better to use in team fights, really letting her abuse the 45% slow it has. Just gotta be smart about mana costs a lot more when using it.

Force of Will vs Scatter the Weak was originally published on Earthen Thoughts

[earthenthoughts]

On visual design: Syndra

On the occasion I'm asked about what I think of Syndra's visual design, both her classic and alternative skins. It's something of a nuanced subject for me, one requiring explanation of the particulars. It's enough to say I like some parts, but the whole package feels under delivered; worse, catered to subject matters inappropriately. I often walk away with a sense of it not being aligned with itself, or some kind of ulterior directive that stops it just short of being 'complete'. I'll walk down the list with what I mean …

  Syndra: Classic

MODEL VIEWER

Theme: All powerful mage, despot, sovereign ruler, rebel, darkness

Presentation: Right off the bat we're impressed by Syndra's aura. She's imposing, her magic permeates the atmosphere, we have a real sense of foreboding greatness. Her head delivers on this with shadowed eyes, an ornate helm that is, in symbolism terms, a powerful statement against traditional Ionian values (hayo, lore). Ok, we're solid so far.

Now we move down to the torso and … hit a screeching halt. Armored shoulder pauldrons with a swept spike motif, pretty intimidating, looks good, matches the helm's design. Aaand now we're looking at a busty chest held up by a 2-bit bondage leather. We're talking something straight out of Evelynn's seductress book. Why in the world is this here? There's no cultural nuance, no complimentary intrigue. We're talking pretty much everything is to entice the eye sexually, especially with the huge honking boob window, rather than make a statement of power or wealth. Contrast to say, pretty much any traditional era Chinese dressing.

?? Why ??

Moving onward, we have the arms/hands, which are carried by pretty solid vambraces. Sleek, elegant, a little curious why they don't connect fully to the shoulder pauldrons, but that's fine. Hands are looking great, got some typical 'evil ruler' finger jewelry going on, which is a great way of adding regality to fantasy figures. Finger jewelery was a big thing in quite a few Asian cultures, which Ionia draws pretty much all of its inspiration from.

Arriving at the legs and hip area, we land squarely in a pretty awkward setup. The greater torso is already giving us an aura of a stripper, so the skirt comes off as a 'this is a pg-13 game' method of censorship. On its own, the skirt would be a lovely compliment to a full robe or folded shirt, especially with the side wings it has going on. No reason to go full head to toe robes, especially on a combat mage, so it frees up her leggings. We can see that's what the plan was at some point: toe to knee stockings(?) cover the legs, evocative of the vambraces in being both sleek and elegant. No shoes to speak of, but hey she's a hover mage, walking is beneath her, I can dig that. Me, I'm thinking we could do more with the legs, give a tad more style or gold filigree (we see that towards the ankles), help the visual profile, but that's up in the air.

  The root of my issue is that Syndra feels half way to a full ruler figure, and at some point the design went in totally different direction. There is an unbelievably amazing opportunity to showcase fine Ionian clothing that ends up being passed over by a large margin. The armored parts of her outfit (helm, vambraces, etc) deliver on this nicely, we get a peek at her style of Ionian armory/jewelry. Parts of the cloth design could work and fall in line nicely were the torso not dropping the ball (her skirt, those little wing things).

  Now, the mind may be wondering, especially when looking at Karma's traditional look, that the skinship is a statement of rebellion. 'Well, Ionia is a conservative country, she's obviously rebelling and showing off!', one could argue. There's … a lot of angles to approach such a position and I will try to be concise with just one idea to give food for thought.

The idea is one of cultural relativity. Syndra, up until of her learned imprisonment by the Monk (see: lore), was happy to be an Ionian. She was raised in their values, willingly went to be trained to better control herself. That's a very deep level of social conditioning. Traditional Ionian values (the concept of balance, essentially) she threw out upon rebelling, but that doesn't mean the notions of fine dressing or tales of fantasy princesses were. It'd be reasonable to presume that, upon taking hold of all her power, she decides to take hold of such 'childhood stories' and become nobility herself. You get an idea for this in the fine armor and jewelry she wears, and her self-proclaimed title.

A ruler is dressed in the finest of the finest, a raw statement of power and wealth. Skinship itself, especially in a conservative culture, can decidedly be a mark of a lower class (or questionable occupation). The equation doesn't work with itself – it's very much at odds from a story/character design perspective.

  Thusly, I close my point on her Classic design: nearly hits it home, drops the ball with a really questionable sexual torso design. On to the others!

  Syndra: Justicar

MODEL VIEWER

Theme: All powerful mage, light, agent of justice?, righteous force

Presentation: In general, the Justicar is a very clean and neatly designed skin. It's an alternate universe skin, one where a 'what if she didn't rebel?' question is posed. We get treated to a solid alternative design, a sort of 'justice is blind' type helm (or alternatively: our good friend Mind Slaver, depending on how you look at it). Over all imposing atmosphere is toned down in favor of a more sleek design with strong gold/crimson coloration. Head's done solid, the torso is excellent, we get a feeling of light/cloth based armor which is an appropriate choice for a mage. Pointed finger jewelry is still there, something of a hallmark for her, and the vambraces are now shining gold protectors. Thigh high leggings and pointed shoes (shoe heresy!) round out the legs.

I'm pleased with how the Justicar skin is designed. It's self contained, delivers its own point well, and is visually appropriate for what it's offering as an alternate universe 'light' skin. I don't quite understand the skin showing with the thighs … considering she's practically covered head-to-toe already. That's odd to me, but nothing troublesome on its own. Me, I prefer the 'original' Syndra, so I don't use this one all too much – that's pretty much a taste choice more than anything.

     Syndra: Atlantean

MODEL VIEWER

Theme: Water mage, aquatic regality, evocative of a mermaid fantasy.

This skin has confused me since I heard of its concept, let alone the fact it was actually built and put into the game. Water as a theme is antithetical to Syndra: it's subtle, nuanced, and even at its greatest heights, 'quiet'. The most powerful force of water in our world is the tsunami, a yawning breath of the ocean that towers over the land before crashing down. It's a very distinct phenomenon, one lending itself to impending catastrophe than explosive destruction. Nami gives us a taste of it, though her's is more of a tsunami's wake wave than the crashing devastation of land fall, per say.

Syndra is … explosive, kinetic, abstract. Her abilities and powers don't lend themselves to elemental typing in the traditional sense. In large part, a great deal of what she does is reminiscent of psionics and the arcane, not primordial power like Fire or Earth. She's otherworldly, something beyond animals that is terrifying in and of itself. Hence, why I find an elemental skin, let alone water, utterly bizarre for her.

Presentation: Perhaps the most striking feature we have to work with is a repetition of the Justicar helm. Visually blind, the helm's spikes are here turned to fins and accented by a gold support frame. I … don't understand why they made Syndra blind here, it's disturbingly close to Lissandra's motif, doubly so given the color palette they're close to sharing.

Traveling downward, we're greeted to a skin-tight body suit with a huge boob and belly window. The suit itself feels evocative of fish scales and diver suits mixed together, which we can gather from the layering method it uses. Otherwise there's … not much to say about it. It's a very sexually charged design, largely carrying itself on showing skin and bodily curves rather than any particular intrigue. We see this further on with the leggings and exposed hind region, which the picture doesn't convey as it does in game. The skirt fins are neat, but essentially are tacked on to keep in line with the other two skins having skirts. If you're familiar with some classical representations of mermaids (or Atlantis-like designs) in other genres, this'll feel in the same region as those.

  If I'm frank, this skin has always felt like a sell out to me. The audio/visual design of her abilities are lackluster, sounding like puddle splashes and looking just the same. Syndra loses a lot of the raw punch in her motion with this skin, but doesn't gain any sense of nuance or intrigue to counter act that fact. It's a water theme for the sake of being one, probably due to the fact Nami is the only other water-based mage in the entire game.

  Syndra: Queen of Diamonds

MODEL VIEWER

Theme: Alice in Wonderland, Queen, European Fantasy Regality/Queenship

Presentation: This skin is basically a port of the Alice in Wonderland Queen (Version 2) theme that runs around on the occasion.

For the head, we're treated to a diamond-like helm, bringing out Syndra's domineering visage. A purple skin-tight suit of sorts forms the underclothing, stretching from her head to about the hips, giving a neatly prepared atmosphere about it. The high rise collar loans itself this, and to her commanding presence, in a classical manner sometimes employed by European monarchs back in the day.

As we move downward, you'll probably need to use the model viewer for this, but we find large poofy shoulder dressings. Again, this is in line with medieval European designs, particularly around the French style (if memory serves). Long, upper arm-length gloves fitting handle the arms, rather cleverly placed diamonds atop her hands complimenting for jewelry.

Her dress itself appears to be a skin tight suit of sorts, neatly fitting to the curves and following a simple color pattern, which does help keep it visually noise-free. A crimson diamond upon the chest and back reinforce the 'Queen of Diamonds' motto. The curve ball gets thrown at us with a very large and prominent boob window … a rather odd, and again, contextually inappropriate choice. Double points so for the fact the era of clothing this skin evokes from found such displays inordinately scandalous.

Towards the bottom, we meet the familiar skirt again, this one being longer and a bit more voluminous in design. Reminiscent of the flowing robes and coat tails used by European monarchs, it necessarily keeps itself rather brisk. Oddly enough there's a third piece to the skirt this time, resting upon the hind quarters, that sort of hangs there but does add some visual depth to the area (lest it be all blotted out by the white skirt). Thigh high leggings and pointed shoes round out the legs.

  Similar to Atlantean, this skin does not make thematic sense to me, nor seem in tune with Syndra as a character. For one, several literal Queens already exist in the League setting. Chief among them, and much more appropriate for this setup, would have been Elise. One might fashion a sense of importance to Syndra, a sort of 'she has to be center stage', which this theme does not enable for her. The subtle intrigue and subterfuge, as implied by Shaco, Twisted Fate, and Mordekaiser being here, also lends the 'Queen of Diamonds' role to a manipulator, befitting of Elise again (honorable mention: LeBlanc/Lissandra).

        Tl;dr: Classic Syndra is nearly perfect, but a sexually inappropriate torso design ends up underselling her. Justicar is fantastic for what it does, Atlantean and Queen of Diamonds are thematically poor. I'm quite confused by their choices for Atlantean and QOD due to how alien and atypical they feel for her.

  On visual design: Syndra was originally published on Earthen Thoughts

[earthenthoughts]

On Hextech Syndra: The Why of Spell Vamp.

Spell vamp, or SV, has a funny place in League of Legends – it's largely regarded as a trash stat, except on certain specific champions. Generally these tend to be ones that have some kind of built in sustain/health/resourceless mechanic, as in the case of Mordekaiser/Vladimir. Rarely you will see it expanded onto mana-based champions, like Cassiopeia, who have ridiculously high single target damage.

Unlike lifesteal, which has seen adjustments over the years, spell vamp only had one major change in its existence – the limitation of AOE healing. Full SV before that change could heal someone up to full from near death off one minion wave … rather substantial, hence the 1/3rd healing rule put on it for AOE spells. From that point onward it kind of took a back seat as an option, never really being developed, only becoming OP on certain champions who they themselves were nerfed for other reasons. In the rare case it was looked at directly, it was to nerf stacking sources of spell vamp, such as multiple Gunblades or Will of the Ancients.

  So why SV on my Syndra style?

  Syndra herself is a hybrid design: control and burst. She controls the battlefield through damage projection and her powerful Q+E combo. This mannerism is her main mode of operation, and ideally, she is using her range to not be in a position of danger. Her burst pattern comes into play as a high point from her control – that is, she ramps up until her ultimate is at full power, then expends it for incredible damage. If she misses that ramp point for any reason, she crashes down and has to ramp up again.

Spell vamp specifically benefits her control play style, while providing a side benefit to her burst. When properly capitalized on, what little damage she takes she'll shrug off with the vamp healing effect. As laning phase ends, she has the option to strongly recover health and stay out in the field for a long time – a minion wave or two is enough to take her from danger to sustainable quite quickly. Lastly, the high damage from her ultimate properly returns a good deal of health by itself, in the order of hundreds, depending on how much AP she has.

Thus she has a new tool in her options that most of her contemporaries don't: health recovery. A very common problem with burst characters is their relatively static health – when they eat damage, it sticks to them. Notable exception is when you have a healer support/jungler, who can alleviate this problem. Spell vamp allows them to address this problem on their own, much as how marksman characters address it with life steal. Thusly, they can make use of their health a lot more freely and dissuade the enemy to an extent. You're much more likely to go onto a fight with an AP carry at 50% life than 100%. If you don't have the luxury of waiting, e.g, they're healing up, it forces you to make a decision, which works in their favor.

  That's the general thinking behind it: it provides useful utility and the stats of WOTA come out to be perfectly usable for Syndra. Some other components I use to explicitly reach different goals, such as WOTA's 10% CDR plus 10% CDR from runes and masteries. That's 20% right there, Athene's (or Morellonomicon) 20% makes that 40%, so I'm CDR cap permanently. That's really important for someone as tempo based as Syndra, in my experience.

It's worth noting I don't consider this build path 'broken overpowered', it is a variation that suits my needs and the specific considerations I put forth. If you're more inclined for upfront wrecking ball playstyle (where you just dive into the enemy team and force the fight), there are other considerations available for that playstyle. Hextech is best suited to control and patient execution and while it can work in 'very fast' moments, it's not ideal for it. The longer you're out there working it, the better it does.

On Hextech Syndra: The Why of Spell Vamp. was originally published on Earthen Thoughts