Board Thread:General discussion/@comment-5419934-20121223143249/@comment-1920550-20140208060549

Here's the thing about Syndra and the reason's why she isn't picked: her skill cap is absurd, it's all skill shots in a nutshell, and tricky ones at that, her cap is perhaps higher than LeBlanc's. Second, she's slow as a snail. Third, her stun and slow are only semi-reliable becuase they only work in combo. Fourth, she CHUGS Mana.

While that may sound like a bad champ, you can do certain items and builds to counter that and play to her strengths: Athene's gives you mana and CDR, which fixes most of her mana issues and makes her combo a bit easier since you can spam the Q's easier. Zhonya's helps with defenses and that awesome active to survive, not to mention the AP increase. Deathfire Grasp is just brutal, offensive-wise. Not just the stacks (massive AP, and good CDR) but the active increases her insane burst to nuclear levels, that can help against tanks. Rabadon's (no need to talk about that). Void Staff and Boots for the Magic pen. Just the CDR from Athene's and DFG (better before nerf) helps you put around 3 spheres, 4 max (very hard though) which is great for the AoE's and ult, and the damage is just...scary...nuclear. She has other options, but in terms of melting down enemy champs this was the best i saw...so far, that is.

The thing with champs like Syndra is that people are scared about her skill cap...she can tear her enemies apart, and do lots of stuff...but you have to work her...a lot...so alot of people think: "Why would i take something like this, which will take all 5 buttons to get the job done, when i can take another champ, with 2 buttons and get the same job done?" As such, people won't care about the awesome stuff Syndra can do. You can poke, bully, dis-engage, farm decently, burst down, steal Blues/Reds (funniest thing ever)...She's extremely OP, has an awesome and fun kit...but you're gonna have to work extremely hard to use her to her fullest...she requires and deserves alot of dedication.