For the past week and a half or so, I’ve been playing Singed, the Mad Chemist.

Singed is a melee, off-tank disruptor based primarily off ability power. In the current meta game, Singed would normally be played either solo top or middle lane on Summoner’s Rift. However, I am going to focus on Singed in Twisted Treeline, as that map is where he really shines.

For an extremely long time, I used to hate Singed. If I were to name a list of champions I hated the most, Singed would always be #1. Even when I started playing him a little bit on Summoner’s Rift, I still didn’t like him very much because I felt as if I wasn’t being very effective at using him.

After browsing some websites and forums, I saw a consistent theme that Singed was extremely overpowered on Twisted Treeline, and should always be banned in competitive ranked play. He seemed to be a strange champion to be overpowered; I understood that he was basically a bulky ability power bruiser, but I didn’t see what made him more special than other bruisers. But, of course, I love playing overpowered champions so I can get easy wins and confuse my opponents as to why they feel so weak compared to me, so I set my mind to playing Singed for at least 10-20 games and really finding out why he was so effective on Twisted Treeline, then exploit those advantages.

After playing a few games, I realized that Singed is unlike any other champion I have played before. In most of the disruptor champions I play, I have to actively scan my opponents pick off weak targets, and try to deal as much damage as possible within a short period of time while still surviving the fight. This places me in an edge-of-my-seat, aggressive state in team fights, as I am basically out for blood. When playing Singed for the first time, I entered the game with a very similar mindset. After playing him for a few more games, I realized that not only is Singed a different type of disruptor, but he needs to be played with a completely different mindset.

Singed players should always have a “trololol” attitude in the back of their minds when playing. They should never get too aggressive or try to deal nukes of damage. Instead, they should play in a relaxed manner and run around, enjoying the scenery. Singed’s primary damage output is damage over time, so if you are not patient and not relaxed, you will start overextending and playing Singed incorrectly.

So you can get an idea of what Singed is able to do, we’ll start by going over his abilities.

Singed’s passive ability is called Empowered Bulwark. This innate ability allows Singed to receive 25% of his mana as health. This allows Singed to build ability power and utility items, and still become extremely bulky and tanky without having any straight defense items. There are some good items that go along with this passive that I will mention later when I go over my build.

Singed’s Q and his primary damage output is Poison Trail. By spending 13 mana per second, Singed leaves a trail of poison clouds, each with a radius of 20, that deals magic damage per second. Enemies entering the cloud will take damage for the next three seconds; remaining in the cloud will continue to renew the duration of the damage over time.

Singed’s W is Mega Adhesive. As the name suggests, it produces a puddle of glue on the ground that slows enemies walking over the glue by a significant amount. The speed reduction lasts for one second after enemies leave the radius of the puddle. The placement of the puddle has a relatively long range of 1000, which allows Singed to be able to catch up to enemies even if they are a good distance away. Mega Adhesive is an extremely powerful instant slow; at level 5, it slows enemies by 75%.

Singed’s E is Fling. This unique ability throws enemies over Singed’s shoulder and places them a short dis­tance away behind Singed. This is different from Volibear’s flip, as Volibear’s enemies land immediately behind Volibear. If used properly at the right angle, Fling can be used to throw opponents over walls (which is an extremely effective strategy on Twisted Treeline that will be discussed later). Fling also deals magic damage on impact.

Singed’s ultimate is Insanity Potion. Upon activation, Singed enhances his ability power, armor, magic resist, movement speed, regeneration, and crowd control reduction. Basically, it turns Singed into a more powerful, bulkier version of what he was before. I have read in various locations that it essentially the equivalent of instantly temporarily increasing your level by 2; I’m not sure how accurate that is, but nevertheless, it’s still extremely powerful.

All of Singed’s abilities work extremely well together. For example, an enemy might approach you to attack or harass. Turn on your Poison Trail so when they come into range, they get poison and start taking damage over time. Once you begin running away, if they decide to chase you, they will constantly be refreshing the duration of their poison, and consistently be taking more damage over time.

Once they realize they are suffocating and are effectively killing their own self, they will probably disengage from the fight. This is when you turn the tables and start chasing them. Landing your Mega Adhesive will slow them enough for you to catch up to them. They will most likely keep on running away; when they reach the edge of your glue puddle, wait one second, then fling them back into the puddle to extend the duration of the slow and land them back into your poison.

At this point, while your slow and fling are on cooldown, keep chasing the opponent, either by running slightly ahead of them or right next to them so they are constantly exposed to your poison. If they are too fast, activate your ultimate for the movement speed boost and to finish off your opponent more quickly with increased damage on your poison. Keep on running around them until they realize they have no chance of getting away and decide to fight. When they start attacking you, run away and make them chase you again through your poison. Repeat this process until they are dead.

Yes, you just won a fight almost exclusively by running around like a headless chicken.

There are some other strategies on Twisted Treeline that are extremely effective that make Singed over­powered, especially against champions who have no ways of dashing through walls. Singed should usually be played in the top lane. When enemies come close to you, angle yourself with your back against the wall to the dragon’s den and wait for them to close in on you. When your opponent reaches within the range of Fling, throw them back into the dragon den.

Champions with dashing abilities will have to wait for their dash to come off cooldown to return into the lane. If they are out of mana or energy, they will have to spend precious time stuck in the dragon’s den before being able to return to the lane and continue getting last hits on minions. If they don’t have a dashing ability all together, they will have to walk all the around the outside border of the dragon’s den through the jungle to get back in lane, wasting tons of time (only to have you do it to them again). If they are smart, they will stop trying to harass you in fear of getting thrown over the wall again; this means you have effectively created a situation where you are free from harassment while you get minion kills.

Another important strategy on Twisted Treeline is to always capture and secure the Wraith’s buff, which gives +20% movement speed. The Wraith’s buff is found in the inner two zones of monsters in the top jungle; it should not be a huge problem to monitor and get these buffs, as you should already be laning in the top lane anyway. Keep in mind that this buff only exists on Twisted Treeline, and not on Summoner’s Rift – this is one of the reasons Singed works better in Twisted Treeline than in Summoner’s Rift.

As you saw in the example above on how to get kills with Singed, the most important stat you have is movement speed. This will allow you to prevent anyone from getting away from you when you chase them, and prevent anyone from catching you when you are the one being chased. This massive movement speed buff will make you so threatening that people will start to avoid you all together; when they see you nearby, they’ll start running right away to get a head start, and if they are near walls, they will Flash over them just to prevent you from initiating a fight.

Finally, the last overpowered strategy that I was able to come up with (for now) is to always drag team fights into the jungle. The jungle lanes are very narrow, and Singed’s Mega Adhesive is relatively wide; throwing down your puddle of glue will essentially block off an entire jungle lane for five seconds. Because of the large range on Mega Adhesive, you will be able to throw your glue down across the concaves and convexes of the jungle, allowing your team to catch up without having to run in circles around walls hoping to predict your opponent’s jukes. Your adhesive will not only prevent opponents from getting away, but it helps your allies disengage from the fight when they are low of health without having someone chase them.

I build Singed primarily with straight ability power and utility items. My starting item is always Sapphire Crystal – not only does it give me mana, it also gives me extra health and durability due to my passive. I also occasionally grab a health potion to help out with the initial first blood level 1 team fight that usually occurs at the beginning of most Twisted Treeline matches.

For boots, I am usually split between Boots of Speed or Mercury’s Treads. I get Boots of Speed a majority of the time because, as mentioned before, movement speed is very important for Singed. Note that I get Boots of Speed and not Boots of Mobility, because the extra movement speed bonus on Boots of Mobility only works when you’re outside of combat, and the most important time when you need extra movement speed is when you’re in combat kiting opponents. However, if my opponents have heavy crowd control effects (such as stuns, silences, and disables), I get Mercury’s Treads for the tenacity.

The first two items that I build unconditionally are Rod of Ages and Rylai’s Crystal Scepter. Both of these items work well for turning Singed into an off-tank, as they both give good amounts of health. Remember that Rod of Ages works nicely with Singed’s passive, as, not only does it give health to begin with, it also gives bonus health because it gives mana. Rylai’s Crystal Scepter allows Singed’s poison to have a slowing effect as well. Even though it’s only 15% for area-of-effect abilities, that is usually enough to make kiting your opponents easier, or making it possible to even kite them at all. And of course, both items provide ability power boosts, which increase Singed’s damage output. I always get Rod of Ages first before Rylai’s Crystal Scepter because Rod of Ages has a passive stacking ability that provides more stats the longer you have it (up to a cap, but the sooner in the game you get the stats, the better).

The fourth item I get depends on how the game is going and who my allies are. If I have at least one ability power ally, or if the game is going relatively normally, I get Will of the Ancients, which provides an ability power boost and an aura that gives surrounding allies ability power and spell vamp (remember, auras also work on yourself). Because almost all of Singed’s damage is based off abilities, the spell vamp will significantly help you increase your sustainability. Frequently, an opponent will start chasing you when you are low of health and they are full; by the time they have chased you for several seconds, you will be back up to about half health, and they will have lost about half of their own health – you are quite literally leeching off their health.

If the game happens to be going one-sidedly in my team’s favor, or if my allies are building a lot of heavy defense items, I will get Rabbadon’s Deathcap instead of Will of the Ancients to make sure our team can continue dealing out heavy damage. If I get Will of the Ancients fourth, I usually end up getting Rabbadon’s Deathcap as my fifth item anyway; its ability power boost makes your poison a lot more threatening.

Although it is very rare to have a game with Singed go on long enough to get your sixth item, it’s important to consider what items to get if it ends up happening. In the games where it happened to me, I usually resorted to getting a straight defense item, as, by that time, my opponents were also dealing pretty heavy damage. Three straight defense items that I like to get are Force of Nature, Thornmail, and Guardian Angel.

Force of Nature not only gives you health regeneration, but it also gives you movement speed, making Singed even faster. Thornmail works well with Singed because, with the build mentioned above, Singed will have a lot of health; this means he’ll be able to return a lot of damage to most champions based on attack damage, and can frequently defeat many AD carry champions passively by standing there without even attacking them back. Guardian Angel is more or less a troll item; it’s annoying enough to kill Singed once, but then he respawns, spews out more poison and glue, and is fast enough to run away before you can kill him again.

Reiterating the most important point as mentioned earlier, if you have the proper “trololol” mindset when playing Singed, he is definitely a fun champion to play, especially when you think about how badly you are annoying your opponents. Although it’s not likely to ever see a Singed in competitive ranked play, as he is banned in most games, if you want to try him out, you can play him on some normal games and watch your win/loss ratio skyrocket.