Syndra, octoball true damage wall
With the incoming W nerfs to Syndra I'm excited, for a few reasons.
- People will stop banning my main!
- I get a true damage option!
- I get the .5 second 8 ball ult window back?! (No)
- I can do some analysis!!! (0 _ 0 ) HEAVY BREATHING
Start Whining as a note, when they introduced 45% CDR it became possible to do fire 8 balls at someone's face, I did this a few times as a test when it first came out. I was like @_@ rito, bless you for the sneaky buff to my queen, then the MYMU was announced and I had the most disappointing read through of a change set. Passive Q lasts longer (I liked this one, the damage boost was an odd power spike imo) W picks up 2 additional balls (I cried, because this with q change meant 16+ ball ults possible) E unchanged (acceptable) R limited to 7 balls T~T (this one crushed me)
When all that happened, Q lost plenty of damage, they buffed it back, somewhere along the lines W got a really rather unnecessary .1 ratio buff and Syndra got picked up when all the other popular mages were nerfed. I saw that one coming a while ago, but more onto my point. The real issue I had was that it took less skill to play my champ, with maximum effectiveness. Granted what makes higher tier players better is often less mechanical perfection and decision making and risk assessment, within reason, I still had much to master on syndra (though I can consistently e -> q now) But Syndra lost the need to finesse a team fight to get the most out of her spells, cause you could always have a wall stun, always have a seven ball ult, and all for less mana.
- End Whining *
Back to now, with the revision to the W. This is a nerf to the easy team fight, a buff to the damage of W and provides syndra with a choice of what to max second. Note that you can't get a second maxed ability until level 10 (usually 13) so at some point you decide you need the E more or the W more. Now that is a meaningful choice, I can say I need true damage, or I need E cd and width. That aside, looking at combos for high ball ults, Q cd at 45% cdr is 2.2, W cd is 4.4 E is 6.6 (at max ranks) Spheres last 8 seconds. You can achieve 7 ball ult with just Q spam. 9 with W. Just what even. But R is capped at 7 balls, so, with just Q spam, you too can maintain 7 ball up time. I'm not saying this reduces how well you have to play a team fight you still have to use W and E effectively, but after a certain point they don't contribute to your R strength (outside of if you hold onto a ball with W during R but why would you do that you troll <3). But I am saying that it simplifies your ult, immensely. Pre MYMU Syndra in order to get seven balls you had to use W to refresh a ball, and if you played perfectly you could get 8 balls with 45% cdr.
My point is not that this is good or bad for Syndra and more an analysis of what actually happens to her. Firstly, Casting Q on Cooldown gets you Maximum R power. This leaves you open to using your W and E as you will, and not having to manage timing as much. This also requires that you spend the 80 Mana per cast of Q, but no required W casts.
Secondly your W deals more damage at max rank, meaning your basic ability combo does at least a little more damage, so landing a basic combo Q W W E Q will be doing at least a little more damage, especially to tanks, this I think isn't really a good or bad thing, so much as a non optimal thing balance wise, because at the point in the game Syndra gets true damage, people have MR if they are getting any, and it's an odd level for the spike in power it gives, not really great nor bad, more odd.
Third Syndra ultimate is now in a strange domain of, do you have four balls out? One shot whatever squishy is in range if yes, and spam Q more until you have 4 balls out if no. This one is interesting because, you are only windowed by having enough cdr to get Q out fast enough (34%) and having the mana to cast 4 Q and R, and being in range at the time you have that ready. Sounds complicated, but it's pretty easy to keep track of with R counter, casting Q on cd, you only have to be in range and not be oom.
This is the interesting one also because you have your W and E to assist you in getting in range, and with the mana you get from items now by the time you are at the point in the game, it is more about can I use my W and E to catch X person, or avoid Y person while I get to X. I think this paradigm of using R is the best in that, it does not feel restrictive (like having to be in W range of the first Q you cast when you cast your second Q), and it still has a clear cost, and conditional windowed power (you have to press R after the most recent Q or the first one will time out before the next Q cast) (you also telegraph a LOT with what you cast, the enemy has time to get away from you (since you can't Q spam forever) and can come back in and attack when you don't have a really strong ult)
(TL;DR) 1 Syndra is better than she was pre MYMU 2 Syndra is less crazy strong than she was after the MYMU follow up buffs P.S. 3 Syndra will still throw balls at your face and make you cry 4 Syndra is the unbridled fury of the suppressed and usurped 5 Syndra R CD is closer to what it is on TT now than ever!
