Syndra Balancing

Before I leave League of Legends I would like to bring attention to a champion that has relatively gone unchecked since the beginning of Season 3 (or whenever she received her buff to re-balance her to a playable and "viable" level). Since release her skills have relatively gone unaltered beyond a visual level, and my argument is based upon her skills. In my earnest opinion I believe Syndra is one of the lowest risk, highest rewarding champions that can be selected in midlane, only to be challenged by Ziggs, Anivia, and possibly Lux. I feel that in relation to these champions, Ziggs does not have nearly the same damage output as Syndra. Anivia does not have the range that Syndra does, and Lux does not have the early damage or safety.

Syndras Kit: Q - Dark Sphere - Relatively low mana cost at all ranks with decent base damage and scaling.

The problem? A 4 second flat cdr that, given you build 40% cdr, is reduced to around 2.5 seconds. Starting with 5% cdr from masteries and rushing an athenes unholy grail gives her a skill that does ~240 AoE damage (consideirng 20 AP from runes / masteries and the +60 AP from Athenes) with limited delay (upon casting the animation time prior to damage is ~.5 seconds or less) on a 3 second cooldown before 15 minutes in a generally mid-elo game. At this time in the game, characters with no health items will be coming in relatively at 1000 hp, meaning Syndra could, given her damage would roughly be going through at around 75% (sorc boots removing 15 magic defense and bases being roughly around the 24-32% damage reduction) her Q would be doing a small, quick AoE of 200 damage. This means in theory, during small skirmishes, given her Q hits 2 targets every other Q and being able to cast one every 3 seconds, she is doing close to 100 dps with a single spell. If her auto attacks deal roughly 60 damage and she can auto attack twice during 6 seconds already removing the Q animation time, that adds 20 dps per second meaning with only her AA's and Q she is doing 120 dps around level 8. On top of it all her Q also benefits her ultimate, but we'll get to that later.

W - Force of Will - I find little problem with this spell, it has a decent mana cost that scales into the late game as it increase 10 mp per rank and cooldown at max rank is 8 seconds. The damage base and scaling is reflective of this taking into account the utility of the slow it provides (in an AoE).

e - Scatter the Weak - The issue with this spell is not the damage, cooldown, or anything like that. The issue lies that the Spheres are still not representative in animation to the hitbox they have. Too many times do I see Syndra's E stunning someone even though the orbs do not appear to be anywhere close to hitting them. This is not as much a balancing issue, but a clarification issue, which you, at Riot inc., said you were attempting to improve (thus adding timers for baron, dragon, and buffs).

R - Unleashed Power - This is the other skill that causes issues. While I do enjoy the synergy between Syndra's Q and R, it can be overwhelming in damage even at early ranks. Going off the same concepts as before (Athenes Unholy Grail, level 8, and +20 AP from runes / masteries) this skill can do at rank 1 around 540 damage, or close to half of an enemy (who has no health items) health with one spell. Given this is in conjunction with 2 Q's being used prior, this is a lot of burst damage to be coming from one spell. Given Syndra, is able to land her other skills, this is an instant kill no questions asked, and that isn't the issue. The issue lies with the fact that despite being able to miss ALL of her skills EXCEPT for her R (which is impossible to miss given the opponent cannot go untargetable) she can take more than half the health of a carry from a safe range. What I mean by safe is that Syndra's R outranges Caitlyn's attack range by 25, meaning she outranges all ADC's with her ultimate (except for late game tristana and possibly kog'maw).

My Summary: Syndra is a mage that is given the poke power of Ziggs at a smaller range but not small enough to justify her high damage. With her Q being at a range of 800, she can lay constant harass in lane, leaving little opportunities for counter-play due to the low cooldown of her Q and a misrepresented hit-box on her E stun. In teamfights, she can place consistent damage at a safe distance while being in relatively safe positioning and capable of still stunning the enemies backline with her Q>E combo. Late game her ultimate is capable of instantly deleting an enemy carry despite landing no other skills and taking a large chunk (sometimes more than half) of an enemy tanks. She has the low cooldowns of a mage with the burst potential of an assassin.

My Suggestion: Identify her role more clearly as you did with Ahri. Prior, Ahri was considered strongest as a mage, dealing consistent area damage in teamfights. But upon the trend of DFG building on her, she was quickly reclassified as an assassin and her kit was changed to represent that adequately. Syndra's burst potential is greater than Ahri's now, and while she does not have the mobility Ahri does, she has much greater area damage and control than Ahri can muster. Perhaps this is the position you want Syndra to be in, a mage capable of dishing out consistent damage and taking out high-priority target, but that would be counter-intuitive to the action you have taken regarding Ahri's kit.