As of 4/19 PBE, Syndra's MYMU is poised to make her worse and unhealthy
Hi, I main Syndra. The current MYMU details available do not appear to answer Syndra's problems, and may potentially make her unhealthy as a champion for future concerns. Here's why.
At the moment, the two chief changes are Syndra's Q damage, and then her sphere life timer mechanics.
As we approach her Q, it has the following:
>NEW: 50 / 95 / 140 / 185 / 230 (0.70 AP) >OLD: 50 / 95 / 140 / 185 / 230 (0.60 AP) + [15% damage to champions, Rank 5]
This is an immediate nerf to the damage of her Q, with only a marginal increase in damage for Ranks 1->4. At Rank 5, it is an immediate loss in damage in any appreciable, realistic way, due to the (-34) damage from no longer having [+15% damage to champions]. You can realistically expect to have [5-10] extra damage from the new ratio Ranks 1-4. It will take around 300-500 AP for her new ratio to recover the loss of the (34) flat damage Rank 5 onward. This is functionally detrimental with no meaningful benefit. ###Edit: I will append, the current mechanic is ((230+0.6 AP)+15% damage to champions) = total damage. The 15% modifies total damage, just not the base. This is actually more damage than cited above, see this comment for detail. ###
As we approach her life timer mechanics, it has the following:
>NEW: Dark Sphere's Rank 5 passive increases Dark Sphere life timers to 8 seconds (from 6). >NEW: Force of Will's Rank 5 passive will now grab up to 2 additional (max of 3) Dark Spheres around its target.
The tempo mechanics that define her kit have been completely shot out of the window.
For levels [1-8], Syndra's tempo mechanics are the same as they are on current live servers (patch 6.8 and backwards). After level 9 and Rank 5 Dark Sphere, the accessibility of her ultimate's tempo completely distorts. In all appreciable situations, her first ramping moment (that is, when she's building a new set of dark spheres) matches the current live server. However, afterwards, it becomes different.
Now that all spheres possess 2 extra seconds, two things happen: the Window of Power (WOP) for her 6 sphere ultimate is extended by around 2-3 seconds, and her 7 sphere ultimate is now immediately accessible at around 20% CDR. The spheres will last long enough for her 7 sphere ultimate to be regularly accessible with just this change alone. However, once level 13 is achieved, and Rank 5 Force of Will unlocked, Syndra's WOP on her ultimate extends to ludicrous proportions.
- In the case of 6 spheres, this means Syndra can exert the pressure of her 6 sphere ultimate's threat from its usual [1-3] seconds, to over 8+ seconds, depending on CDR. In fact, with Blue Buff and the new Elemental Dragon buff, Syndra can maintain a 6 sphere count functionally indefinitely.
- Her 7 sphere ultimate, a rare high point that is one of the best single target nukes in the game, has its WOP increase from [0.5-1.5] seconds to around [3-5] seconds. Due to the fact that she can infinitely maintain her 6 sphere count, her 7 sphere ultimate's window's only downtime is as long as her 4th sphere's cooldown.
All timing mechanics required to monitor her spheres, understand when to ramp count, or when to plan for those very small WOPs, have effectively been flattened. It is now extremely easy to maintain the highest sphere counts of her ultimate, which means the full accessibility of her ultimate's damage is extremely common and reliable. It was never designed to have that in mind.
As is currently, this will make Syndra unhealthy because of how accessible her ultimate is now. It will have to receive damage nerfs to bring it in line, which will leave her worse than her prior version before the MYMU of 2016.
The multi-sphere throw of her W is funny, but not functionally appreciable. There are use situations where the W+Q->E stun, as it seemingly wants to reinforce, are suboptimal to use. The W+Q->E combo is inherently slow and not a wise choice to use when fast stuns are required. It is not optimal to use in team fights because of the flight time of the spheres, either. In order of priority, it would not be unsound to consider this combo to be her third or fourth choice in utilizing her stun.
The multi-sphere throw also does not increase W's effective damage radius appreciably. At best, it appears to rectangularly improve the hit box by about 15% in both directions. Refer to the suboptimal use cases mentioned earlier for her stun; otherwise, it's a conditional improvement to W's hitbox that is ... questionably desirable.
The Q changes are a straight damage downgrade, though easy to rectify by simply improving the base damage of this skill.
Her E's cooldown being lowered is a straight buff, admittedly.
Her ultimate will be easily accessible with little thought or planning required, mandating it to be nerfed to compensate for the extreme amount of damage it will do. This will ultimately lower her functional contributions as a damage-oriented carry, and the addition of 'multi-throw' does not appreciably increase her CC or AoE utility to compensate for that.
I would consider a serious re-evaluation of what your goals are for Syndra in the MYMU, because touching her sphere's life timers radically alters how her kit behaves. I cannot perceive this as a possibly healthy direction for, if her ultimate's damage is nerfed in anyway, it will be markedly worse utilizing her than before the update. This is to speak nothing of the massive reduction in her skill floor, skill ceiling, and the rewards for having an expertise in those, due to the extreme ease of using W's multi-throw refresh mechanic.
Unless that is the desired outcome?
I was excited for the update... Now I'm scared.
, and I don't think Riot will automatically nerf it. The counterplay is to kill or CC her before she can get into range of a high priority target; the ult itself doesn't have to also be unreliable or require tons of setup. She doesn't have the dive potential of an Ahri or Zed.
