League of Legends Syndra rework rewards you for being a bully

The League of Legends Syndra Mid-Scope update has hit the PBE, introducing a new passive, tweaking the dark spheres ever so slightly and adding a functional to her ultimate ability. As mid-lane mage hasn’t been seeing much play in Riot’s MOBA as of late, these changes could be enough to bring Dark Sovereign back into the meta.

The changes to Syndra currently live on the PBE are plentiful, and while they won’t change the overall playstyle of the mage, they will affect how players go about their business early on. The new passive ability alone means that pressuring your opponent to hit combos will pay dividends, and enable you to snowball games much easier than before.

Syndra changes

transitive (passive)

1. Syndra collects up to 120 splinters by damaging enemy champions and gaining levels. Splinter of Wrath empowers Syndra and her powers
2. Syndra recovers 20-215 (levels 1-18) mana whenever she collects a splinter from an enemy. He can acquire Splinter by:
   1. Damage to an enemy champion with two abilities within four seconds will grant Splinter (1/2/3 at levels 1, 11, and 18) an eight-second cooldown per target.
   2. Leveling up grants Cindra five Splinters of Wrath
   3. Killing a cannon minion grants a Splinter of Wrath
3. At 120 splinters, Syndra gains 15% total AP

Dark Sphere (Q)

• Cooldown: 4s > 7s
• Mana Cost: 40/50/60/70/80 > 40/45/50/55/60
• Sphere duration: 6s > 6.5s
• At 40 Splinters of Wrath, the Dark Sphere can store two charges

Desired power (W)

• Sphere pickup radius: 400 > 450
• Prevents non-spherical units from dying for a short period of time when picked up
• At 60 Splinters of Wrath, For of Will deals an additional 15% (+1.5% per 100 AP) true damage.

spread the weak (e)

• Magic Damage: 85-265 (+60% AP) > 75-235 (+55% AP)
• Scattering angle: 34 degrees > 56 degrees
• Cooldown: 18-14 seconds > 15 seconds
• Stun duration: 1.5s > 1.25s
• At 80 Splinters of Wrath, Scatter the Week’s cone increases from 56 degrees to 84 degrees and slows enemies by 70% for 1.25 seconds (applied after initial CC)

Unleashed Power (R)

• Gives Dark Sphere an additional 10/20/30 haste ability
• Damage per sphere: 90/140/190 (+20% AP) > 90/130/170 (+17% AP)
• At 100 Splinters of Wrath, Unleashed Power executes champions before 15% mech health.

While nothing has fundamentally changed other than Cyndra’s passive abilities, her kit rewards players with these changes in different ways than before. Because players will gain Splinters of Wrath by hitting combos on opponents, and those Splinters are directly tied to Syndra’s abilities, this now allows for lane aggression. It’s almost like Kaiser’s evolved ability, only instead of buying items to update your kit, you throw the ball at the opposing team.

Cindra’s ultimate damage reduction can be frustrating at first, but once you hit 100 splinters and can make it work, it can potentially be much more powerful than before – especially on tankier targets.

The changes are currently live on the PBE and are subject to change, but the kit seems to be fairly well put together in its current state – we’ll update this article if any changes are made before the official release. For the latest live additions to Rift, you should check out the League of Legends 12.18 patch notes. If this Cinder rework piqued your interest and you want to start your journey on the Rift, this guide on how to play League of Legends will give you the head start you need.