Singed Guide: Runes, Items & Matchups for Patch 25.19

Minishcap1 Singed Spreadsheet Guide

Table of Contents

• Runes
• Starting Items
• Items
• Boots
• Conqueror & Runes Overview
• Phase Rush & Other Keystones
• Summoner Spells
• Matchups & Strategy
• Notes & Tips
• Video Examples

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Runes

I am Minishcap1! I've played League since 2010. I became a Singed one-trick in 2013 and have mained him ever since. I have achieved Challenger rating in seven separate seasons, with a peak rank of 44 on NA.

The goal of this guide is to be an ongoing project that I can easily update with the most current Singed information on how to win with Singed. Singed can use many keystones/runes well. It is possible to use runes situationally to react to individual games. However there will generally be 2- 3 keystones that are superior to others in terms of overall usability. I will first go over the major keystones, and then follow up with more situational keystones. Runes in GREEN = Standard/Major keystone options, Runes in BLUE = Situational/Optional

Updated For: Patch 25.19 With Riot removing AP from items and runes over the last 18 months, I have felt that higher AP builds are more important. Deathcap is a consistent item for me currently, because outside of Liandry's I feel like there is no better way to increase your damage output, and thus your solo carry potential. I still play lower-AP builds when my team has a lot of damage and needs frontline, but in general higher AP builds are more important than before.

Doran's Ring - Most stable starting item. Buy this vs most melee matchups. Provides good mix of stats. Starting with 2x health potions also gives the most possible sustain before first recall.

This start means you spend extra gold on a refillable potion, and extra gold on the 2 hp potions, so consider that you will be down 250 total gold compared to dark seal + refill, but you have better combat stats early game, which can help with lane.

Singed is one of the most versatile item users in the game. He has a huge number of options to build, so learning which items to build and when is key to success.

For best current builds, see "Builds" section. Generic item order when you don't know what to buy is Liandrys item 1 or 2 > Rylais item 1 or 2, depending on whether you need damage from Liandrys or CC from rylais. Then you go Deadman's 3, Bloodletter 4, Deathcap 5. You buy t2 boots either by rushing them first or finishing them after item 1 is complete. Besides Liandrys, most items are situational and I vary them often. Singed's only true core item is Liandrys, everything else is situational.

Generally I only buy one tank/non-AP item per game but you can buy 2 tank items if you need to provide more frontline to your team. Remember that Singed is a Damage over time champion, which means that often simply living longer = more damage. However, not buying enough AP will cause your DPS to drop, even if you live longer. As a general rule, f your team has a lot of damage but no frontline, then stack 2 tank items and play for the win, but NEVER buy 2 tank items if your team lacks damage. Many games I will opt for a full AP build if my team has sufficient frontline and I am in a position to comfortably deal damage.

Boots of Swiftness - Generically best boots on Singed. Movespeed synergizes with your passive + ult, and the slow resistance is good because you will always get focused as Singed. Buy these when enemy team comp has a mix of damage, cc, and AD/AP and you think that Mercs or Tabi will not excel in that game.

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Starting Items

Doran's Ring - Most stable starting item. Buy this vs most melee matchups. Provides good mix of stats. Starting with 2x health potions also gives the most possible sustain before first recall.

This start means you spend extra gold on a refillable potion, and extra gold on the 2 hp potions, so consider that you will be down 250 total gold compared to dark seal + refill, but you have better combat stats early game, which can help with lane.

Dark Seal - Greedier starting item. You can buy this if you are confident in your matchup and early game skill. You save 150 gold compared to Doran's ring start because you start with refill and don't purchase 2x hp potions. Stats are good but not as good as Doran's ring. Lack of mana regen can hurt if you are not used to playing Singed and conserving mana early game. Buy this when you are confident that you can use the +150 gold saved in order to secure a lead in top lane, or you are confident that enemy laner will not be able to punish you for having lower stats than Doran's ring start.

Liandry's Torment - Singed's only true core item, purchased 1st or 2nd every game. Liandry's is your single biggest damage spike for the entire game, especially vs tanky champs. Generally I build Fated Ashes first, and then haunting guise second, since I value the waveclear, but you can build haunting guise 1st if you need to fight your enemy laner a lot.

Deadman's Plate - Most Standard armor item for Singed, HP + MS + Slow resist + Armor, everything he needs except Damage. Solid 2nd or third item if enemy has fed physical damage. Never buy this before Liandry's, only after, or you will have ZERO waveclear. Worse than Zhonya's vs true damage, but cheaper + higher mobility.

Mercury's Treads - Only buy this when the enemy team has a mix of Magic Damage + CC to the point where you can judge that it would be stupid to go Swifties or Tabis.

CONQUEROR

Triumph, Legend alacrity, Last Stand, Nimbus, Celerity. Can take absorb life or Legend haste if you prefer those runes. Should take standard shards for highest early game AP, but can take Greedy if you're comfortable.

Boots - You can start boots + refill as the ultra-greedy starting option if you are VERY confident in your early game. You have no AP and no HP to start with, but you do save 150 gold on your refill and 300 gold on boots for a total of 450 gold saved. Buy this start ONLY when you are very confident that you will not lose farm or tempo in the early game (which is usually never going to be the case for 99% of games) but if you are a god/psycho you can make this start work for a good start. Boots level 1 isn't that bad on Singed either, but you do lack combat stats/waveclear with this start until you recall.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter - Good stats, good slow effect. Low price. Makes you hard to gank since you perma cc anyone chasing you. Very good vs champs with no gap closers, such as Darius/Nasus and ADCs/enchanters. Lower damage than Liandrys, but provides you and your team with big value in the form of CC. Buy this item 1 or 2 most games, but you can delay it until item 3 or 4 if you need other stats first. Singed is one of the best Rylai's users in the game. However, most games where my team has a lot of CC already, I skip this item depending on matchup and comps, because I think that Rylai's damage just doesn't scale that well for DPS.

Jak'Sho - Very good item for mid-late game in terms of pure defensive power, but gives zero damage and is expensive for a tank item. Buy this only when you really need to frontline vs mixed damage (AD & AP) and buying more AP is not an option. The majority of this item's power is locked behind getting it fully charged up and getting the bonus resistances, so you are still vulnerable at the start of a fight to getting bursted since you don't have a reliable method to charge this before the start of a fight. The exception is if you have Liandrys + rocketbelt, you can use Liandry's from rocketbelt to start charging this up before you go in.

Plated Steelcaps (Ninja Tabi) - Buy these when the enemy team has 3+ AD threats + autoattack threats, otherwise Swifties are better.

✅ Best 5v5 damage & good laning phase damage ✅ Best vs tanks for extended damage ✅ Scales well vs melee comps but falls off HARD vs ranged comps

⛔ Difficult/useless vs ranged comps ⛔ No utility/mobility in runes ⛔ Can be hard to stack lategame

Doran's Shield - I almost never start this item. It's main use is when you are trapped under turret vs a ranged top laner and can only last hit with auto- attacks. If you are in this position as Singed, you already lost IMO, so you should not look to buy this item unless it's a last resort IMO. I would rather skip a creep wave and run through jungle to look for a proxy instead of staying under turret to farm, while getting chipped for HP and eventually dove.

Bloodletter's Curse - Best anti-MR item for Singed most of the time. If you are solo AP, then Cryptbloom or Void Staff are better, but you will very rarely be the solo magic damage threat for your team. Good stats, Good cost, but you need to have other damage items such as Liandry's for this item to be higher value.

Unending Despair - Good mixed-resist item for a good price, but requires conqueror to gain full value IMO since the damage proc aids Conq stack generation. Is outscaled by Jaksho in terms of pure tankiness, but the lower cost, higher damage, and sustain make this a great Singed option if you need 1 item to give mixed resistances.

Symbiotic Soles (Baron Boots) - Good option to splitpush with, but not as good as they used to be since you now have to evolve them to gain the 4 second recall. Useful in games where your team is hard stomping the enemy, or where your team is getting hard-stomped in laning phase, because in both cases you can try to splitpush instead of group.

Tips: Conqueror is the most "standard" keystone choice on singed, since ability power is valuable on him for damage. I normally take this vs tanks in lane, but it is also playable vs most melee champions because they will be eating poison trail damage in trades/fights. Poison gives 1 stack every 4 seconds Standard conqueror combo is Poison > fling > auto. You can also get stacks with items like Rocketbelt and Unending Despair, both of which synergize well with this rune. Proxying is fine with conqueror but be aware that your mobility is much lower so risk of death is higher. If you are ahead and enemy laner is playing safe, you can try to fight enemy jungler after you farm a proxy wave.

https://youtu.be/4IEA6BB0uSI?si=6qm2sIAymKnSPkkK

https://youtu.be/fnxmcvjZs5Q?si=zWfYuYEsa1teNoHQ

Cull - You can buy this item on 1st recall vs farming matchups, such as tanks top or easier bruisers/fighters (Maokai, Ornn, Sion, Mundo, etc) where you're going to be able to farm a lot. Don't buy this vs matchups where combat stats are more important. Do not buy this at the start of the game since you will have adaptive force AD which is bad for poison. Cull is quite good on Singed to be able to generate extra income since if you are uncontested you should be able to farm a lot. Singed doesn't use the stats of this item but he can stack it quite fast. Good greedy option.

Rabadon's Deathcap - Very good 2/3/4/5th item on Singed. Synergizes with your ult to give extra AP on top of the normal amount. Poison trail AP scaling is good for Dcap and Fling hitting harder can help kill squishies as well. This item is more important to buy in the Season 15 meta because so much AP was lost throughout item nerfs + ult nerf, that having deathcap is the only way to deal big damage as the game goes later.

Force of Nature - You can stack this with Deadman's plate for 2x tank + movespeed combo, but remember that buying two tank items will lower your damage. However if you need the defensive stats (Magic resistance, HP) from this item, and your team can provide damage, then it is a solid choice due to synergistic stats with Singed.

Sorcerer's Shoes - I almost never buy these, but Season 15 is probably a better time to try them than ever before since AP was cut from almost every AP Bruiser item and damage is a commodity resource now. They may be good, but I need to experiment more before I recommend them.

PHASE RUSH

Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm, secondaries vary. Can take Conditioning+Overgrowth for tankiness, Deep ward+Ultimate Hunter for ult cooldown, Can take Standard or Greedy shards.

Riftmaker - Scaling option, you buy this for the 8% damage amp since the omnivamp healing is not noticeable/irrelevant. Lower damage than deathcap but more HP, cheaper cost. Honestly this item feels like bait to me, it used to give 12% damage amp but now only gives 8%. Deathcap will give you more damage, more AP, and unlocks splitpushing for only 400g more.

Randuin's Omen - Please only buy this if enemy team has multiple crit damage champs, otherwise skip it.

✅ Very good scaling/Good blind pick ✅ Useful (mandatory) vs slow-spam matchups (Darius/Olaf/Nasus) ✅ decently slippery early game/Good teamfight mobility ✅ Great for proxying

⛔ Low damage early game ⛔ Takes time for gathering storm to scale

Zhonya's Hourglass - Best defensive item vs %max hp true damage (vayne, camille, fiora) or vs giga lockdown (camille/jarvan) since the invulnerability + large AP will damage enemies as they clump on you when you are focused and pop zhonyas. Buy this item when you need armor + AP instead of the armor + MS of Deadman's. Lategame you can sell Deadman's for Zhonya's because the AP is more valuable lategame.

Locket of the Iron Solari - Disgustingly overtuned item, stupidly cheap cost and teamwide shield on active button. Should be nerfed into the ground IMO but as long as it's not you can abuse it for a cheap mixed-resist item at a very low cost. Gets outscaled when you are full build, but can let you win clutch fights when you need resistances fast.

Tips: Save your phase rush during trades/dont use it randomly when trading. Save it for when you need to actually disengage. Phase rush movement speed increases per level, cooldown decreases per level. Helpful to escape during proxy when you are ganked. In teamfights, can proc on frontline to zoom through backline. If you don't know what rune to take, Phase Rush is always safe. Proc combos are: Poison > fling > auto, Poison > w > auto, Poison > auto >auto

https://youtu.be/3ULl6ZBqCAU?si=RavRQ9E-nPmh8Mfu

Cosmic Drive - Really good 1st item if you need movespeed + low ult cooldown to spam for safety in order to force push + proxy every time you're in lane. Really good to avoid a bad matchup since you can force push/proxy and then just run away. Decent 3rd/4th item as well for MS+AP later on. Normally I buy this either 1st, or later into the game after I finish Liandrys and other items as a way to gain lower cooldowns in a high-action game (lots of fights)

Frozen Heart - Decent Armor item if you need a large amount of armor on one slot and enemy team is building attack speed/AD Caster.

UNSEALED SPELLBOOK - Cash Back, Biscuits, Cosmic Insight, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity. Can take Standard or Greedy shards depending on comfort.

Hextech Rocketbelt - Decent item 1 or 2 with the 2650 gold cost. Good AP and Good CDR. Decent HP. The active allows Singed to have a gap closer, which is very useful vs ranged champs. You also can use this to reliably pop enemy spellshields, if you are unable to do it with W since W can be clunky. Buy it when enemy team comp has many ranged champs and you cannot simply walk up to them to fling. Gives a conqueror stack as well as 1 out of 3 procs for phase rush.

Abyssal Mask - Good MR item if you want to continue to amplify your damage, but you need to have damage before you buy this for the % amp passive to actually be useful. It's a damage+MR hybrid item that gets outscaled in raw stats by other defensive options, but is still good on Singed because Singed likes damage.

✅Good scaling ✅High utility/versatility. Singed uses most summoners well. ✅Can have a summoner up every fight

⛔ Most difficult rune to master ⛔ Low damage early game

Cryptbloom - Buy this or Void Staff instead of Bloodletter's if you are solo AP threat on the team. Cryptbloom is most useful when you know you will gain a takedown early into a fight to pop the AOE heal and snowball the rest of the fight by healing yourself and your team

Warmog's - If you need a huge amount of HP in one item, then this is useful. The regen passive is good vs splitpushers. I would only buy this if i can feasibly buy Zhonya's + Banshees as my Armor/MR items, since this is an expensive item and you always need to think about your damage output as Singed.

Tips: You basically don't have a keystone before 6 minutes, so be aware of your lower damage. At 6 minutes, you get your first swap. You can swap one of your summoners to Ignite and look to kill enemy laner or jungler. Alternatively, you can swap to smite and try to steal a camp/push cannon faster, or swap to Teleport if you did not take it in champ select to reset your lane. The rest of your swaps for the rest of the game are situational.

-Heal always > barrier

-Flash/Ghost swap are huge value for teamfights

-Cleanse good if you need to tank CC

-Never swap Clarity unless you don't need anything else and just want to 6-stack your spellbook faster.

SUMMON AERY

Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Scorch, Cheap Shot, Ultimate Hunter. Can take secondary Absorb Life/Last Stand as well. Shards are ONLY 2x AP 1x Flat HP. ✅ Highest early game 1v1 damage. ✅ Good when you have to bully enemy laner/snowball kills early ✅ Can use to surprise ranged top laners for cheese kills w/ ignite

⛔ Low scaling ⛔ You need to try and snowball

Summoner Spells Builds Standard AP-Heavy Movespeed / SHTF

Ghost + Flash - Most "standard" Singed summoner spell setup. In most elos, Singed is a bit less reliant on TP early game than most champs, since he can proxy a wave and recall behind enemy turret. This means that you can take Ghost + Flash in order to fully unlock his mobility for teamfights. This summoner setup is the strongest at teamfighting as well as the safest early game. I would recommend this setup to most Singed players, and beginner Singed players. Strongest pickoff potential on fed enemy carry due to flash + Fling combo. Be careful about falling behind though, if the enemy top is good at blocking your proxy + reset, or if you are having trouble finding proxy due to enemy jungler pathing for top. This can lead to extended laning scenarios without TP, which can be hard, since you have to recall for resources at some point, since Singed has no built-in sustain. Also vulnerable to splitpushers in mid-late game since you need to be able to clear a wave behind them before rotating to a teamfight.

Singed's itemization order is very versatile. The only true core item for him is Liandry's. Everything else is situational. Standard build is just a general-purpose build that tries to do a bit of everything. If you don't know what do build you can generally fall back here. It's not always the best build but it should function okay vs most comps. AP-Heavy build focuses on solo carry potential. I tend to prefer high AP builds recently because Riot removed so much AP from Singed's core items, and runes. In order to deal meaningful damage, higher AP values are needed.

Movespeed build is something I like to build when my team lacks engage, or when I am falling behind in a lane that is going poorly. The purpose of this build is to give ou the ability to make plays and be annoying when you don't have gold to buy standard items.

TP + Ghost/Flash - Teleport is great to help reset your lane early game, and great for Macro plays later into the game. Teleport helps play the map. You have less mobility in teamfights, but more pressure on the map/sidelane. Try to play more aggressively in fights when ghost/flash are up, and a bit more conservatively when it is down. Better pick vs splitpushers since TP helps play the map.

TP + Ghost vs TP + Flash is up to comps, preference and comfort. If your team has no easy way to kill enemy carries, then flash gives you a gap close to catch them with fling. If enemy team has a lot of melee champs and you want a lower cooldown summoner, then ghost will excel.

The hard part about this setup is you only have one mobility summoner, but the strong part is that you have a more stable sidelane and don't need to worry about being able to join your team from sidelane.

Liandry/sRylais > Liandrys/Rylais (whichever you didn't buy 1st) > Deadman's Plate > Bloodletter's Curse > MR item or Deathcap Boots Situational

Liandrys > Bloodletter's Curse > Deathcap > Zhonya's > Situational Boots Situational

Aether wisp > Winged moonplate > Swifties > Cosmic Drive > Deadman's Plate > Liandry's > Situational

Ignite + Flash/Ghost - Generally I only take ignite when it's mandatory to try and get kills early vs a champ who will outscale you (Example: Kayle). Pair this rune with Conqueror or Summon Aery only, as those two runes help you to get kills during laning phase, where ignite is strongest. However, there are many Singed players who run ignite every single game and have great success with it, regardless of matchup. It depends if you are comfortable playing an early- game focused singed or not. Ignite will generally get outscaled by other options, and is seen as an early snowballing option when you need to be offensive.

Notes

Singed tends to get outscaled in a pure 1v1 scenario vs dedicated fighters but outscales almost every top laner in terms of 5v5, assuming you are not super behind and your team is not hard inting.

In general, you either rush full T2 boots, or your 1st item. T2 boots rush, esp swifties, is never bad on Singed but you lack waveclear rushing them. However vs ranged champs, Movespeed is important so you get harassed less and can get in range a bit more.

This Matchup section is written with the perspective of playing vs Challenger / GM players. At lower elos, you will be able to succeed more often vs the harder matchups because enemy players will not be able to pilot their characters perfectly. However, the matchup tips are still relevant for every elo.

You can swap your starting items, runes, and summoner spells based on your preference when you are more experienced on Singed. I wrote these with newer and less experienced players in mind, but also I try to present my logic for taking what I take.

Matchup Difficulty: Champion Runes Summoner Spells Starting Items Matchup Tips Video Examples

Easy Aatrox Phase Rush Ghost + Flash or TP+Ghost Doran's Ring + 2 Potion

Focus on dodging his Q sweet spots. Use phase rush right before or right after he lands W on you in order to disengage the slow-cage. Grievous wounds helps shut him down in teamfights. You can actually solo kill him at 6 if you all-in him when he's close to your turret. He has good spacing to fight you in the open of the lane, so focus on proxying unless you are getting a gank or all-inning him near your turret.

https://youtu.be/3ULl6ZBqCAU?

si=RavRQ9E-nPmh8Mfu

https://youtu.be/GW1i1PrPiqw?

si=PfnTYAE_ukbkt8KQ

Medium Akali Phase Rush / Conqueror / Spellbook Ghost + Flash or TP+Ghost Doran's Ring + 2 Potion or Dark Seal + Refill

Akali bullies you hard until level 6, and then can easily all￾in you. Early game, walk up to the wave to bait her to Q the wave and push it. If she hits Q, she will back off to activate her passive. Just stay away until she uses it. Her level 6 is stronger than yours. Rush Negatron Cloak and focus on surviving and scaling. You outscale her in 5v5.

... (continues with matchup text) ...

Videos and examples included throughout the matchup sections

Items

Liandry's Torment - Singed's only true core item, purchased 1st or 2nd every game. Liandry's is your single biggest damage spike for the entire game, especially vs tanky champs. Generally I build Fated Ashes first, and then haunting guise second, since I value the waveclear, but you can build haunting guise 1st if you need to fight your enemy laner a lot.

Deadman's Plate - Most Standard armor item for Singed, HP + MS + Slow resist + Armor, everything he needs except Damage. Solid 2nd or third item if enemy has fed physical damage. Never buy this before Liandry's, only after, or you will have ZERO waveclear. Worse than Zhonya's vs true damage, but cheaper + higher mobility.

Mercury's Treads - Only buy this when the enemy team has a mix of Magic Damage + CC to the point where you can judge that it would be stupid to go Swifties or Tabis.

Jak'Sho - Very good item for mid-late game in terms of pure defensive power, but gives zero damage and is expensive for a tank item. Buy this only when you really need to frontline vs mixed damage (AD & AP) and buying more AP is not an option. The majority of this item's power is locked behind getting it fully charged up and getting the bonus resistances, so you are still vulnerable at the start of a fight to getting bursted since you don't have a reliable method to charge this before the start of a fight. The exception is if you have Liandrys + rocketbelt, you can use Liandry's from rocketbelt to start charging this up before you go in.

Rabadon's Deathcap - Very good 2/3/4/5th item on Singed. Synergizes with your ult to give extra AP on top of the normal amount. Poison trail AP scaling is good for Dcap and Fling hitting harder can help kill squishies as well. This item is more important to buy in the Season 15 meta because so much AP was lost throughout item nerfs + ult nerf, that having deathcap is the only way to deal big damage as the game goes later.

Phase Rush items - etc. (full content continued)

Boots

Boots of Swiftness - Generic best boots for Singed; Movespeed helps with your passive + ult and slow resistance. Buy when enemy comp has mixed damage and CC, and you think Mercs or Tabi won't excel.

Plated Steelcaps - If enemy has 3+ AD threats; otherwise Swifties are often better.

Mercury's Treads - Against heavy AP+CC lineups.

CONQUEROR OVERVIEW

Guidance on using Conqueror and Summoner Aery, Phase Rush in various matchups; synergy with Liandry's and items; general strategy notes for stage of the game and proxying.

Phase Rush & Other Keystones

Discussion of Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Gathering Storm, and other secondary picks; synergy with items like Liandry's and Rylais; build-path examples.

Summoner Spells

Standard Ghost + Flash for mobility and safety; Teleport-based variants for macro play; Ignite for kill pressure vs certain squishy lines; and alternatives.

Matchups & Strategy

Detailed champion-by-champion guidance: matchups, runes, summoner spells, starting items, matchup tips, and video explanations. The list includes Easy, Medium, Hard distinctions and notes about proxying, Liandry's rush, and itemization adjustments depending on enemy team comp. It also includes multiple video links demonstrating specific plays and splits and proxy strategies.

Notes

• Heal always > barrier
• Flash/Ghost swap are huge value for teamfights
• Cleanse good if you need to tank CC
• Never swap Clarity unless you don't need anything else and just want to 6-stack your spellbook faster.
• You can swap starting items, runes, and summoner spells based on your preference when you are more experienced on Singed.

Video Examples

• https://youtu.be/4IEA6BB0uSI?si=6qm2sIAymKnSPkkK
• https://youtu.be/fnxmcvjZs5Q?si=zWfYuYEsa1teNoHQ
• https://youtu.be/3ULl6ZBqCAU?si=RavRQ9E-nPmh8Mfu

Images

• Spreadsheet snapshot image used as a reference guide for the table in the original document. See the attached image: minishcap1-singed-spreadsheet-guide.jpg for full context.