Board Thread:General discussion/@comment-5419934-20121223143249/@comment-9533487-20140422191128

Willbachbakal wrote: I agree with Vistha-Kai: if there's anyone Syndra's weak against, it's not assassins. If she gets attacked at close range she can instantly peel with a Q+E combo, and follow up with a W and ultimate to easily take down squishy champions. She is, however, vulnerable to CC, and if the marksman focuses her she goes down pretty quickly. I think part of why she's not picked as much as she could be, aside from her monstrous skill requirement, is that hyper-mobile tanky champions like Vi and Renekton can easily run up to her, sustain her burst/peel and shred her while also stunlocking her, and it's these champions that tend to be picked the most at the moment. I can't say Syndra isn't weak vs assassins, personally I believe she is (though perhaps no more than most champions with poor mobility?)

I do agree with the parts about CC, marksmen, and hyper-mobile champions though. One of the biggest problems comes when something causes a number of your basic skills to miss during fights--this can happen from all kinds of things, like being too far to reliably hit anything, one of your team's abilities knocks them out of the way, etc. The reason this is a problem is because it means if you're not farmed/fed/they're so far ahead they even got some MR vs you...well, you won't be able to reliably peel them off if they get on top of you (note: reliably) and chances are very good your ult won't kill them.

The impetus this gives you in lategame assuming you couldn't really be considered fed or farmed, is to not miss a single spell, stay far back until you've landed some spells, make sure you have zhonyas (which isn't even considered core on Syndra, so it's hard to pick up) in case of emergencies...really it's a lot! At least, a lot considering there are champions like Orianna, Karma, or Lissandra who can more or less get right up in there and rely on things like shields, mobility spells, invulnerability, heals, and (typically easier to land) crowd control to stay relatively safe.