[2.2] Singed Guide - Singed Carry Guide - In-Depth Analysis

ITEMS

1-Rod of Ages: first item, always. Gives us HP, mana, and AP, a perfect combo of starting stats. Ideally you should have this completed between 3 and 4 minutes into the game to be "on pace".

Always start with the Amp Tome for damage, and get Blasting Wand immediately after the 2nd wave. Just back and get it, there's no point sitting around getting poked off of minions by your opponent. You'll be shocked how often you grab 2 waves, back for Blasting Wand, and return to lane to pick up an easy kill with Flash-Fling. Opponents don't respect your damage output at all!

Don't expect to stay in lane for long amounts of time before completing RoA. Just back and pick up pieces as needed. Pre-RoA is your weakest point in the whole game. Grab a wave or two, and back to buy more pieces. Repeat until it's completed. Most enemy laners have ways to poke you out, and sitting in lane greeding for minions will cause you more harm than good.

Note that when you complete the Catalyst Of Aeons portion of RoA your sustain increases substantially. But still, as soon as you can buy RoA, back and do so IMMEDIATELY. Remember, it takes 5 minutes after buying RoA for its stats to fully stack, and you want this to happen as early as possible. I can't tell you the number of times I stuck around on Blasting Wand/Catalyst for "one more wave" and regretted it. Get RoA asap, that's your priority.

2-Boots...mostly. We don't fully complete our boots just yet, but we want to get the first 2 tiers of boots here. Getting the move speed button is essential, not to mention the other stats based on our boots choice.

Which tier2 boots you choose is the one bit of our item build that changes from game to game, and there's essentially 3 options to choose from.

All things being equal, Plated Steelcaps are our best option. These are the armor boots, and our first choice. Not only will these help aid us against enemy AD threats, but it will significantly reduce incoming minion damage (which we will take a lot of due to poison strats).

IF the enemy team has significant AP threats, or multiple dangerous forms of hard CC, instead opt for Mercury Treads. These will give us MR and also reduce hard CC durations. See lots of stuns and roots on the enemy team? Grab Merc Treads. NOTE: knockups are a fixed duration, thus Merc Treads won't help you against these.

Finally, IF the enemy team has multiple dangerous slows, go with Boots of Swiftness. The notorious example is Nasus' Wither, although this alone may not warrant getting Swifties over Steelcaps. Basically, if the enemy has 2 or more heavy slows, these may be your best option. Otherwise, the tankier options above will do you better. Treat Swifties like a luxury that you can afford when the enemy's slows are scarier than their damage.

If you are unsure which to get immediately, it's okay to sit on tier1 boots for a little while and start building your next item instead. Sometimes this early in the game, you're unsure which enemy will be the biggest threat, so waiting to decide can be beneficial. You really want to make the right boot choice! When in doubt though, default to the Steelcaps.

3-Morellonomicon. This is where our build really starts to diverge from the norm. This ain't a full-tank build, we are trying to carry games with our ludicrous damage. Most builds will have you build Rylais here, but we wait, for reasons detailed in our Rylais section. Instead, we opt for Morello's, the hidden beast of a high-damage Singed build.

What do we get off Morello's? Well first, we get AP and HP stats. Remember, our ult will give us armor/MR, so the HP is nice to have. More importantly than the raw stats though are 2 important factors: Magic Penetration and Grievous Wounds.

With MPen and Grievous Wounds, our damage instantly goes from "okay" to "melt your face off!". With only two items, RoA and Morello's, we are surprisingly beefy, both in the tank and the damage departments.

By this point in the game, we're already looking to group with our teammates to make some big plays. Trust me, they'll appreciate the Grievous Wounds you're bringing! Think about in a team fight how spreading your poison will cut the entire enemy team's healing while your teammates pile on the hurt.

When building the parts of Morello's, get 2 Amp Tomes if possible, then the 2nd tier parts. 2 Amp Tomes for 1000g is more damage than 1 Blasting Wand for 900g. The pre-buy shop won't recommend this, you need to manually go into the shop to get it.

4-Rylais Crystal Scepter. This item synergizes incredibly well with your smoke, so well that you're probably wondering why we waited this long to get it! The answer is somewhat complicated, and largely comes down to some meta-psychology of playing Singed. But first, let's look at what it gives you.

More HP, more AP, abilities apply a slow. Very nice. The stats are exactly what we want, and the slow will be a huge boon for catching out enemies and ESPECIALLY for teamfights. It synergizes so well with our smoke, it's like it was made for us! Sooo….why wait to get it?

Singed's damage comes almost entirely from your smoke. And the best way to have your opponents take damage from your smoke is to have them chase you through it. Ideally, you don't run to them, they run to you. It's Rule#1 of League: Don't Chase The Singed.

So there is a unique problem with Rylais. You buy it, and an enemy starts to chase you. They hit your smoke, get slowed, and go "ooh I don't like that, nevermind, I'm out" and stop chasing! That's no good, especially in the early game where we want to bait as many chases as possible! Basically, Rylais gives the opponent too long to think about their life choices. Getting Morello's as your 2nd item instead will burn them before they realize they messed up.

But, as we already noted, Rylais is quite good, and we get it now because at this stage in the game teamfights are the focus. Its massive power in a 5v5 is too great to wait any longer. Plus, when paired with Morello's, our smoke is now melting the enemy's healing AND keeping them slowed. In other words, anyone who touches your smoke gets served up to your teammates on a silver platter!

Ideally at this point in the game, you will finish Rylais AND your 3rd tier boots (Ninja's Glory enchantment) at the same time, preparing you to dominate teamfights. Think of it like this: RoA gives you the stats to finally be a real champion, tier2 boots + Morello's make you a wild menace, and Rylais + tier3 boots make you a teamfight carry. At this point in the game, you have every tool you need to blow the game wide open.

5-Rabadon's Deathcap. Woah! Rabadons, on a tank? You're crazy! I hear you saying it. Listen up. Every item we've bought so far has HP. Our Ult and boots give us all the resistances we'll need. We're already plenty tanky. And we already have enough AP to make great use of Rabadon's AP scaling. Time to lay down the hurt.

This is the point in the game where you win every engagement. Your poison will SHRED entire teamfights, and your Fling (which has surprisingly great AP scaling) will straight up nuke champions. Do it. Get Rabadons. Thank me later.

6-Liandry's Torment. Suggested builds put this as 3rd item, right after Rylais. It gives us more HP and AP, and provides even more shred to our poison. So why wait?

The answer here is simple, Liandry's power comes from percent MAX HP damage. In other words, it's a tank-killer item. If you buy it too early, you don't get your money's worth. You need to wait until the enemy is sufficiently tanky before it's worth. As a final item, it's wonderful. As an early item, Morello's straight up outclasses it every time.

Always buy the Haunting Guise portion first, never the Blasting Wand portion. But frankly, most games will be in the bag before you even get here.

Other Items

I've toyed with the idea of finishing builds with Void Staff as opposed to Liandry's. It's probably a decent option. However, against squishy targets, the difference between the two is negligible, and against tanks the MaxHP burn of Liandry's is superior for endgame. Try it if you like, but I'd only really recommend it if you're far ahead and clowning, and in those situations let's be honest, you could build any damage item you'd like and it'll turn out okay.

I've said it already, but to reiterate: we are not building a tank Singed. It may seem tempting at times to substitute one of the above items for a tankier option, such as Spirit's Visage or Randuin's Omen. I assure you, the damage falloff is severe, and the tank bonuses are not worth it. You survive off your movement and your innate tankiness. If you are sitting around long enough for these full-tank items to matter, you aren't spreading your poison enough, and thus are not having a big enough impact for your team.

As a brief aside, there is a specific item I see Singed's build all the time, one which seems like it'd be a good choice, but in actuality has incredibly poor synergy. That item is Abyssal Mask. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT buy this! People see that it has good stats and reduces enemy MR, and go "perfect!" Wrong! First off, you already got a Catalyst item via RoA, you don't need a second one. Second and more importantly, the MR-shred effect of Abyssal Mask only applies while you are within a set range of the opponent. Due to how spreading your smoke works, you will often be too far away from your opponent for this effect to function. Don't. Buy. It. Ever.