Syndra is getting first major League of Legends update in nine years

Isaac McIntyre
Syndra casts a Halloween Dark Sphere over the League of Legends logo.

Popular mid lane mage Syndra is set to become the latest League of Legends champ to get a major character update in Season 11, Riot has revealed, which will include “complete overhauls” for her base look and several skins.

Riot Games has slowly been working their way through their mage roster in a bid to “get these champions up to current League standards and improve clarity.”

Next up is Syndra, who was first released in late 2012.

The Dark Sovereign still boasts the same looks as she did on release nine years ago, and many of her older League of Legends cosmetics are in “dire need” of changes too. This new update ⁠— helmed by Riot Sirhaian ⁠— will focus on her iconic Dark Spheres abilities, as well as casting animations and spell clarity.

Her base and Justicar skins will be getting “complete overhauls,” while Atlantean, Queen of Diamonds, Snow Day, and SKT are all under the microscope too.

Syndra splash art in League of Legends
Syndra is finally getting a “complete overhaul” to bring her into the modern LoL age.

Riot Sirhaian explained: “Just like previous ones [Ziggs, Zilean, Malzahar, more], these updates are geared towards sprucing up the oldest members of our roster.”

Syndra has not had a visual facelift since her Sep. 13 release all the way back in 2012, when the Dark Sovereign stormed onto the Rift armed with her Dark Sphere powers. She has floated in and out of the League of Legends meta over the past decade and currently has a 47.41% win rate in the mid lane.

This VFX update will be purely focused on modernizing Syndra’s visual looks, however; Dexerto is not expecting any gameplay changes to ship.

Here’s all the confirmed Syndra updates:

  • Base: Complete overhaul
  • Justicar: Complete overhaul, should finally be readable
  • Atlantean: Minimal changes
  • Queen of Diamonds: Uses base changes
  • Snow Day: Pretty big changes, mainly aimed at mirroring base’s and cleaning up the noise
  • SKT T1: Mirroring base changes and added subtle SKT T1 logo in “E” cone
  • Star Guardian: Minimal changes
  • Pool Party: Minimal tweaks
  • Withered Rose: No changes
  • Bewitching: No changes

These updates are slated for release in League of Legends patch 11.21. That means Syndra players will be able to get their hands on the changes on Oct. 20.

Confirmation that mid laner Syndra is getting a visual overhaul comes just weeks after Dexerto uncovered similar plans for Caitlyn, who has remained the same in League of Legends for nearly ten years now.

It’s been 3,910 days since the Sheriff of Piltover was released, and since then, she’s been handed a whopping 81 different gameplay changes, ranging from damage buffs, base stats, and her number of Yordle Snap Traps. Not once in her decade-long history, however, has she been given a visual update.

That’s set to change in Season 12, with Riot already updating her art and model in Wild Rift and Legends of Runeterra. LoL will follow suit early next year.