User blog:HeresyHorus/Syndra, a tale of a lost potential

Note : for some reason i have been unable to log on to LoL forums and it doesnt look like that it will be fixed soon so please if you find my suggestions good enough you can post them in the forums so that the developers there might see them and implement them if they too find them good - hopefully not Morello the Nerf Niagara cuz he will grab his nerf bat and nerf bash her along with anyone i named here to the bottom of nerf abyss XD - just joking btw cuz i dont know why he gets that much hate as i find hes changes very reasonable

Syndra is one of those champions in LoL that Riot did a wonderful and creative job with them by means of an outstanding visual design, powerful lore and a distinctive as well as a characteristic ability design theory but unfortunately when it comes to the ingame ability machanics, actual numbers and  strategic usage, Riot somewhat failed to make them come full circle with the positives mentioned above due to the following :

1 - her passive is completely nonexistent until level 8 which puts her in a huge strategic offensive, defensive and utlilty disadvantage against anyone with a passive that supplements 1 or more of these aspects ( Among mages think of Ahris passive which combind with her q - multi / pass through targeting mechanic and low cd for quick stacking it - and her w - high total base damage, high ap ratio, multi / single target proc spellvamp and low cd for a large amount of sustain - makes for a great offensive / defensive passive that scales well throughout the whole game, and think of Brands passive which can guarantee the kill for him with its DoT effect pre level 6 even without ignite ( in case you were able to deprive your enemy of his / her healing potions with a simple calculated offensive approach - and thats Brands trade - since most mid lanes start with dorans ring / shield + only 2 / 1 potions ) and of its bonuses to his spells along with it being scaled of the targets maximum health which both make a littile delay in casting against a tank quite rewarding, enhancing his immediate burst with his w and r against a squishy as well as adding a stun to his q - which helps in a lot more offensive way than defensive as i like to think - and making his e an AoE spell - which worths the risk of its low range as it synergies well with the rest of his kit by applying the passive to the whole enemy team sometimes - thus making for a quite offensive passive that grants Brand his title as the Burning Vengeance, and the list goes on with other great passives that scale well throughout the game either in a defensive way - Anivia, Xareth - or by providing a good utility approach - Ryze, Heimerdinger - and thats among mages only as things well get even worse for Syndra ( and even for most mages but Syndra is our main point here in this blog ) if we are about to compare how well the passives of assassin, adc and - to some extent - fighter classes scale with thier kits and roles throughout the game.

2 - even at level 8 when your q - your main and trademark skill - hits max level ( and thats just your q as the rest or your kit still get nothing and probably will not because the bonus on w is so neglectable and e will not benefit from your passive since it will be the last skill to level because of w damage superiority in bursting and its rarely nowadays for a game to last that long as most losing teams will surrender before you reach Syndras fake supposed potential ) the damage gain isnt rewarding at all  - 34.5 base damage + 9 per 100 AP is just lame as it is the only real bonus given by her passive to her other spells - and especially when compared to other damage boosting passives like Quinn - 95 ( scales with level ) + 50 per 100 AD + her actual AA at level 8 every 3 seconds - for example.

3 - her w does the same amount of damage and have the same effect either if tossing a minnion or a dark sphere ( which even in the fantasy settings that LoL world is based upon it makes no sense that getting hit by a minnion is the same as getting hit by sphere of energy that shatters the earth around where it has been conjured ... it just breaks immersion ) and that along with its somewhat long cast range makes it easy to abuse in a contradiction to Syndras difficulty rating of 10

4 - her e in terms of damage and difficulty suffers the same as w ( while the difficulty impact is lesser because it tends to make using w harder because of the knockback effect and if there is nothing else to toss but i think its somewhat a rare occasion ) but it has a good synergy with her trademark spell that is q thus adds to the immersion and making it more appealing to use them in conjuction with each other ( while the stun effect may sounds nice but it has a diminished effect as an offensive approach because of the knockback thus making it more ideal for knocking away targets from the champ that is being focused by you or your team )

5 - her r is great in many ways as it synergises well with her q ( although it needs something more in term of damage for a reason that i am going to tell ), blends perfectly with her lore and has a high difficlty to use but the reward for it is somewhat unjustified for that amount of difficulty putted in just one spell and that spell being her ultimate ( personally i think that the maxed out difficulty is caused by this spell as for it being a mid ranged offensive spell it has neither an instant cast nor an instant hit so that ant enemy with an ability to become untargeted or a Zhonya will have a large window to thwart all of your efforts not only if he didnt notice the cast animations of either Syndra or her scattered balls but also even if he got hit by 1 or 2 balls he still can activate his / her ability or Zhonya so a little change is needed but not in the machanics but in damage instead to keep her difficulty rating - as i hate playing easy or cheap champs like most assassins are like Talon, Yi, Nidalee, Kassadin, Zed, Fizz and such as they are all about q-w-e-r quickly while having the kit to make that as safe as possible )

now that i have listed all these things let us see how we can improve her gameplay / immersion while keep her difficulty rating and the game balanced and we start with changes :

1 - her passive affects only her q by giving it a total damage boost of 25% at max level ( anything more or less than 25% will just be unbalanced ) and that boost applies to any spell that use a dark sphere as a component when hitting a target

2 - her q remains unchanged execpt for base damage scaling ( and mana as it could cost a little more or be like w cost ) so it would be like this 80/120/160/200/240 + 60% AP ( at max rank it deals 300 + 75% AP )

3 - her w both grab and toss range is 900 ( and maybe increase the cd a little bit or make it like e but this may proof to be unbalanced ) and when tossing a dark sphere the damage dealt is that of q ( 80/120/160/200/240 + 60% AP and while q is maxed 100/150/200/250/300 + 75% AP ) while dealing half of the original total damage ( 40/60/80/100/120 + 30% AP ) when tossing a minnion or monster

4 - her e damage is treated exactly as her w when used with or without a dark sphere but it should retain it enhanced cone size at all ranks while increasing the mana cost to be 80 or scale like q and w and make its cd like 16/15/14/13/12

5 - her r mana cost is increased greatly ( no less than 150 ), its range is reduced to 650 and its damage will be 100/140/180 + 20% AP ( and while q is maxed 125/175/225 + 25% AP )

now lets see how those changes can improve gameplay while keeping her difficulty rate and not making her an over powered champ in the process :

1 - the new boost ratio in her passive makes up for her huge disadvantage that i had mentioned before during early and early-mid game and thus truley gives her potential as her lore implies late-mid and late game with proper play style

2 - her q is basically the same aside from the very slight base damage boost ( makes calculating - or to be more precise - estimating damage done easier while its compensated by the increased mana cost which i suggest to be like w at 60/70/80/90/100 to balance her q usage later )

3 - her w revolves now more around her q for a more damaging combo while compensated by having a reduced range ( to emphasize more on positioning ), longer cd and reduced damage when tossing things other than dark spheres ( to emphasize more on stratigc evaluation and thinking and making being ignorant more puvishable for ex: annies bear is chasing me or our adc and he is about to kill while at the same time annie looks vulnerable enough for me to think of one of the 2 things : 1 - i use w to garb the sphere that is left from me casting my q just before that moment, refreshing its duration and toss it back at her for greater damage and allowing me to kill her with r having an additional sphere while my e is on cd or my teammates but if judged my r damage or my teammates wrong than me or our adc is dead. 2 - i use w to grab the bear and toss it back at annie doing lesser damage for my adc to run away but at the same time risk becoming her next target while my e on cd and my sphere vanishes making my r not enough to kill her thus i should have greater reliance on my teammates and if my judge on them is wrong than i am dead making saving the adc worthless as he will be at the base and i am dead so it will be 3 vs 4 or 5 )

4 - her e balance is just like her w

5 - her r damage boost is to both punish those who didnt notice her cast animations and got hit by 1 or 2 balls before activating an escape ability or zhonya and to reward good cast timing and / or team coordination while compensated by having a reduced cast range ( Hi i am Syndra and i am closing in because i am gonna go Super Sayain on ya buddy ... its obvious with its positives and negatives i think ) and a greatly increased mana cost ( because if you missed a chance or two to cast your r while having your dark spheres up it will be unlikely that you are going to set up for your r again because you will run out of mana before setting up enough dark spheres or cast r after setting up dark spheres )