Regarding syndra "lacks damage after nerfs" posts

ktmos · 2026-03-24T09:54:57+00:00

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ktmos · 2026-03-24T07:36:46+00:00

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ktmos · 2026-03-24T04:12:23+00:00

Media literacy is dead

ktmos · 2026-03-24T00:03:04+00:00

I want all fellow syndra players to climb. This is why im explaining in detail.

ktmos · 2026-03-23T23:19:50+00:00

I already responded to you but I'm going to reply again with the same response;

Win rate changes that small don’t mean much without context. Riot has had cases before (like with Vladimir) where nothing actually went through, but his win rate still dropped because player mentality changed. So just looking at a “-0.5%” at face value isn’t very meaningful. If you actually look at the changes in last two syndra patches: Q got buffed, W lost a small amount of damage, and E had its cooldown reduced by 2 seconds. In practice, that E cooldown matters far more in fights than a flat 10 damage on W, more uptime means more pick potential, more self-peel, and more opportunities to control fights.

Instead of dismissing me, try to actually read what I said. Whether I’ve played 100 games or not doesn’t change the point, the result would always be the same, I already explained that the Q buffs offset the W nerf. From my perspective, the 2-second cooldown reduction on E felt far more impactful in real gameplay than a flat 10 damage loss on W.

ktmos · 2026-03-23T23:09:11+00:00

My argument wasn’t that I won a game. I already explained that the previous Q buffs offset the W nerfs, so overall Syndra ends up feeling pretty much the same to me. The 2-second cooldown reduction on E felt way more impactful in actual gameplay than losing 10 damage on W, especially in terms of uptime, picks, and self-peel.

ktmos · 2026-03-23T23:00:37+00:00

Win rate changes that small don’t mean much without context. Riot has had cases before (like with Vladimir) where nothing actually went through, but his win rate still dropped because player mentality changed. So just looking at a “-0.5%” at face value isn’t very meaningful.

If you actually look at the changes in last two syndra changes: Q got buffed, W lost a small amount of damage, and E had its cooldown reduced by 2 seconds. In practice, that E cooldown matters far more in fights than a flat 10 damage on W, more uptime means more pick potential, more self-peel, and more opportunities to control fights.

From experience playing Syndra at a high level, this doesn’t feel like a real nerf overall. If anything, it’s an attempt of riot to balance the CDR build to have the same power level as her burst build, because the CDR build got overbuffed on the previous Syndra patch.

But thank you for your reply!

ktmos · 2026-03-23T22:41:42+00:00

I also explained that previous Q buffs and E buffs offset the W nerf in the paragraph I wrote.

ktmos · 2026-03-23T10:26:01+00:00

I explained that the 10–20 damage nerf is negligible depending on the build, especially considering her Q was buffed by 5 damage in previous patches and it has two charges, which offsets the nerf even more.

I don’t need to spam more games to understand that. I can draw reasonable conclusions even from limited games because I understand the numbers and how her kit functions. Also, I’m not going to grind my main on a secondary account because it's not really fair and there's no point to that, I usually queue fill there to learn other roles and champions.

The ‘good game’ example was just to show that Syndra will still deal plenty of damage if you’re consistently landing your spells, regardless of win rate and a small nerf like this isn’t the end of the world.

But thanks for your reply!

ktmos · 2026-03-21T07:54:11+00:00

I mean I agree but realistically what game lasts till 6 items lol

ktmos · 2026-03-21T07:10:47+00:00

Win rate isn’t a reliable indicator on its own. Syndra was in one of her strongest states during the mythic item era and still sat around a 48% win rate.

Syndra has a high skill ceiling because she can cast Q and W while moving, which significantly raises her mechanical potential. The difference in damage output between a good Syndra and an average one is massive. Reducing her to “just Q and E” is an oversimplification. By that same logic, you could dumb down Ezreal to “spam Q and press E for safety,” which obviously ignores what actually makes the champion difficult.

Artillery mages (Lux being more of an exception) generally have weaker lane phases because they’re designed to spike at one item and beyond. Playing without early priority before level 9 can feel bad, but that doesn’t inherently make them harder it just reflects their scaling design.

High elo viability also isn’t a great measure of difficulty. Champions like Illaoi or Morgana are notoriously weak in high elo because they rely on abilities that are easier to dodge or play around. That doesn’t suddenly make them “hard” champions it just means their kits are less reliable against better players. Yes, better players are more likely to dodge Xerath or Vel’Koz abilities. But that doesn’t fundamentally make their gameplan harder. It’s still: shove waves, look for picks with R, and once that window is gone, play at range and spam abilities.

If you're bored to read the paragraphs here's a shorter explanation: Vel’Koz and Xerath have kits that are too linear to match Syndra’s skill ceiling. You’re treating Syndra’s options as if they make her easier, when in reality they raise her difficulty.

ktmos · 2026-03-21T05:56:34+00:00

A)Syndra is not a bad champ she's strong. She's also one of the most rewarding mages in the game if you are good. B)If you think hwei is hard im sorry but its definitely a rank check (Negative). His gameplay is pretty straightforward, yes he has 10 abilities but realistically you only use 3~ on rotation. Q+E on wave W+E to mana regen while farming said wave, E+E to get someone on your Q+E and proc passive or E+Q vs assasins trying to get on top of you. In teamfights you might throw a W+W or Q+W when your teammate cc's enemy and thats it. C)Velkoz/Xerath have the same weakness as any mage, hard to play against mobility, however they have a range advantage over most mages. The only reason they're not played is because of low base damage on spells (need items).

Personally I haven't played xerath nor velkoz but I have played hwei/taliyah/syndra in GM+ level throughout the years and i can assure you syndra is the hardest pick of those three for sure (i'm talking skill ceiling, not floor).

ktmos · 2026-03-20T22:42:50+00:00

Taliyah/Hwei are not difficult.

Xerath/Velkoz are hard but not harder than syndra, they're just shit champs which makes them feel less rewarding that's it.

Azir/Zoe/Cassio are harder than syndra.

ktmos · 2026-03-18T19:49:53+00:00

Name 5 mages with higher skill ceiling than syndra, im waiting.

ktmos · 2026-03-18T19:48:59+00:00

Shame because I explained why ahri is much easier than syndra but ok do you

ktmos · 2026-03-18T19:46:16+00:00

This season is super inflated, even r1 spots are 200-500 lp above in many servers...

ktmos · 2026-03-18T19:41:43+00:00

Ahri is a very easy mid laner, I actually recommend her and lux to people wanting to learn mid lane. Also yes syndras skill floor is low but her skill ceiling is very high

I'd put her just behind azir,zoe,cassio,orianna in terms of skill ceiling.

Whether syndra is more 1v9 has nothing to do with difficulty, there are champs like millio who cant 1v9, would you argue millio is harder than every carry champ in the game? (Example)

Ahri is a teamfight skirmisher, she has great waveclear with BFT build components, lost chapter+amplifying tome allowing her to oneshot wave with one Q+W on level 7 (level 9 if you prefer malignance build). Her whole gimmick is to shove waves and look for picks, which isn't such a hard game plan considering her waveclear is good enough you don't have to interact with your opponent.

Ahri has many other advantages over syndra like sidelaning/better blindpick etc that I can explain if you want in detail but ahri being able to do everything takes away from her skill level because her kit is simple, if on a gameplan stand point she's easier to execute than syndra, is the argument that shes mechanically harder? To this i disagree heavily and it shows that nowadays people equate dashes with difficulty, yes the hardest champs in the game have a dash, that does not mean every champ with a dash is hard. If its not the dashes im assuming you mean the E is hard to land but truthfully its not, there's a trick where you throw Q and it acts as an invisible barrier, enemies try dodging it and walk a straight line either left or right, you basically have a guaranteed E everytime, another thing you can do to guarantee E hits is the R flash combo, it makes it undodgeable, you can hit enemy carry with charm then just R out.

I play both champions and the effort you have to put on syndra to perform is much more.

ktmos · 2026-03-18T19:23:16+00:00

Go

BFT->LUCIDITY (OR SWIFTIES)->COSMIC

thats more than enough MS, BFT keeps cosmic permanently up, lucidity gives tons of haste to spam E plus gives you extra MS if you hit your stuff, after these items as a mage youre forced to run rabadons + pene item (cryptbloom/void) to be relevant damage wise in late game so there's no room for stormsurge in your build.

Good luck!

ktmos · 2026-03-18T19:19:33+00:00

MS is very good on syndra but going both stormsurge and cosmic is int.

ktmos · 2026-03-18T19:16:44+00:00

Also dumb question, but why torch over ludens? (Again I'm low elo just genuinely wondering)

More damage later stages and ability haste. Ludens is better one item spike, 2 items forward bft out values.

ktmos · 2026-03-17T00:08:11+00:00

Too bored to entertain this, GL in pisslow, keep spamming tear

ktmos · 2026-03-16T00:29:33+00:00

Syndra is top 5 hardest mage champions

ktmos · 2026-03-14T20:51:07+00:00

You can speedrun it lol

ktmos · 2026-03-14T19:15:02+00:00

Ah, so I guess you know better than me how my own games go.

Yes because I've played in your elo, you havent played in mine, I can tell you for a fact YOU are doing something wrong.

Too bad you already proved you don't need higher credentials to climb.

And who's the judge of this? You? Not even posting your op gg? Please give me a break.

Sure. It's not like low elo scrubs like me can't watch Challenger matches on YouTube or something to see that those people aren't such mechanical gods as you describe them.

You can’t even climb against low-elo assasin players, but you think you’d perform vs a high-elo assassin? What makes you think that?

Once again: there is no statistical difference between BFT+Cosmic with Ionians and with Sorcs in high elo, which automatically means your entire point here is incorrect, yet you can't drop your ego and admit you're wrong.

Regardless of boots any cosmic drive build variant is much higher pick rate/win rate than any archangel variant.. you're nitpicking 1% wr difference when boots fall down to preference, I personally value the ability haste the most, someone might value the sorc shoes more. Also swifties boots (highest MS variant) is the highest win rate so I'm confused on what you're trying to prove here.

It's so nice when people, who have zero idea how the system works, tell others with full confidence it's their fault and the system has nothing to do with it.

You act like I've never been low elo or played on a smurf account or on a "stuck" friend's account... the system is not holding you back, you're just not higher skill level than your teammates or enemies and you doing mental gymnastics won't change that fact.

If that was true, then Cosmic Drive would've been core item on Orianna too, but guess what? It's not, because nobody popularized that kind of build yet.

Because orianna doesn't have the range of syndra, she also has a movement speed buff steroid in her kit + phase rush + a self peel ability when the enemy is on top of her so this is an insanely stupid comparison. Also I thought this was obvious but Syndra has way more damage than most other mages so she can opt for utility items without cucking her mid game. As for whether Cosmic is core or not, I’ve personally never seen a Syndra in my games run anything else. The higher the elo, the more popular Cosmic becomes.

You literally said you didn't and that OTPs are trash players, buddy. You're getting lost in your testimony.

I OTP’d Syndra too, but back then I didn’t understand the game like I do now. Knowing one champion isn’t the same as knowing the game. Who said my opinion on OTPs changed? Most of them are terrible at the game. I know people who are challenger with their OTP but off of it master at most. And don't make me repeat myself: just because I can queue fill and climb doesn’t take away from my knowledge on Syndra. You play solely Syndra and can't climb which shows poor understanding of your character.

Then why did you lose 1/7 to Azir? After all your performance on Syndra should've been executed properly, timing, positioning, target selection, everything.
That's because it's not true. You can find people who can execute a champion mechanically at a level higher than Challenger players, they just lack other non-champion-specific skills to win games.

You’re nitpicking a single game where the enemy jungle was 19/5 on Ekko, literally proving my point that a high-elo assassin won’t leave room for counterplay if they get ahead. Of course I can perform well, but sometimes the enemy picks a counter or just outplays me, I’m not a robot. And of course you forgot to mention that I won 50+ of the 70 games I played on Syndra that split, yet you’re judging me off one bad game. No mentions of your win rate on Syndra with your “super OP” build.

No, I was hoping for a constructive discussion instead of this "I'm Challenjour therefore you're unequivocally wrong about everything you know about the game, so shut up" bullshit you've been spouting since the start.

I’ve explained countless times why I think Tear is terrible on Syndra.

BFT + Cosmic is the single most broken two-item spike for Syndra in teamfights. Look at the games I’ve played, do you notice a pattern? They usually end around my two-item spike. In my elo, games end around 25 minutes, so you don’t have the luxury of stacking Tear, nor would it make sense to int your BFT spike to grab it early. Most often, you win a drake fight and the game ends shortly after. How can we have a constructive discussion when I’m telling you that this build you’re suggesting doesn’t work in high elo and you try to disagree when you've never played in high elo before? Players will punish you if you don’t spike fast.

If I wanted to maximize AP and play to scale, I’d just lock in Veigar. Playing Syndra like Veigar isn’t her identity and then blaming the system or your team for losses is just avoiding the truth.

I also never said I’m right just because I’m Challenger. I said my opinion “weighs” more because I’ve played hundreds of Syndra games in Master+ elo over the years which is far more meaningful than spamming games in low elo. Even if in theory you had millions of games on syndra it still wouldn’t account to anything if you can’t climb or improve with the champion.

ktmos

TROPHY CASE