Introduction Top
Sylvanas is an extremely mobile and agile character, although she is a specialist she can fulfill the role of an assassin no problem.
Sylvanas resembles
Valla quite similarly as they both have high mobility and high damage. Although one specializes in hero damage and another specializes in Siege damage, they both can fill either role anytime. However, due to the high damage and mobility she has, she is not particularly tanky and is very squishy. Therefore, she has to stay at the back and support her team from there but, when the enemy is at low health, she can quickly dash to the front and take them out. This makes her an extremely reliable character to have in any game.
Abilities Top
Sylvanas has a multitude of abilities that complement her kit perfectly. She has an escape granted by
Haunting Wave as well as many kiting options and damage options coming directly from her abilities. Not to mention
Haunting Wave can also be used to catch up to enemies making her an almost perfect assassin, agile, mobile and able to dish out a lot of damage. In this sense she is very closely related to
Valla another agile, high damage assassin. Here are
Sylvanas' abilities:
(Q)
Withering Fire is one of
Sylvanas' damage abilities. It can dish out a lot of damage as it costs no mana and has low cool downs. Even better is that for every minion or hero kills this ability also gains stacks (max 5.) and also starts out with 5 stacks. This is
Sylvanas' main harassment ability and is easily spammable annoying many opponents. This ability also helps capitalize on
Sylvanas' nobility allowing her to kite opponents from a range. This is kind of your 'bread and butter' ability.
(W)
Shadow Dagger is another one of
Sylvanas' abilities, great at harassing the enemy. Since this ability can be tossed from a range it is great for harassing multiple enemy heroes grouped up or just to clear minion waves. Usually you can use this ability and
Withering Fire to kill an enemy before they escape or get the last hit out on them.
(E)
Haunting Wave is the ability that gives
Sylvanas the most utility and mobility. Using this ability she can basically
Vault to wherever location she chooses, however she will be vulnerable when waiting for the wave to travel. This ability has dual purposes as it acts as
Sylvanas' AoE damage as well as a
Vault mechanism. Usually when you're low on HP you use this ability to safely get out of harms way, likewise if you need to catch up to an opponent you use this ability to
Vault to them.
(R)
Wailing Arrow or
Possession are
Sylvanas' heroic abilities. Both of these abilities have different uses. While
Wailing Arrow is primarily used to disrupt an enemy team in an assassin build,
Possession is used to quickly turn an enemy lane against them giving you a lane advantage which would lead to pressuring the enemy team to defend, thus giving your team an advantage in objectives or camps. Although
Possession looks a bit lackluster right now, If used right both of these abilities can be extremely devastating.
Black Arrows is
Sylvanas' trait. Although her trait is not particularly suited for an assassin build (mainly for a laning build) it is still vital in supporting the team as it can freeze towers and forts allowing it to be taken down much more easily. Her trait also allows her to freeze minion waves lowering the damage the wave inflicts on your character thus allowing you to chase enemies without taking extra unnecessary damage.
For the first talent I would pick
With the Wind.
With the Wind is the best talent on this tier as it gives your no mana quick cool down talent a buff. Since,
Withering Fire is also your main damage dealing ability having extra range goes a long way. The extra range allows you to kite your enemy while preventing their shots from hitting you. It also helps to catch enemies that are at low health and trying to escape. This talent can be the difference between securing a kill or not, so it is extremely valuable in an assassin build. Not to mention
Lost Soul is useless as the 2 sec cool down is too minimal to be of any use, while
Barbed Shot and
Corruption are also better used in a laning build.
Envenom would be my choice for the second ability. It is an extremely good talent allowing you to get the kill on the opponent even when they have ran out of your range.
Envenom also has synergy with both
Sylvanas' mobility as well as her
Withering Fire ability. An example of this is when
Sylvanas is retreating or kiting, you can then spam your
Withering Fire ability and pop
Envenom on your opponent quickly turning the tide of the battle. Since, none of the other talents are as useful as
Envenom in an assassin build,
Envenom is the go to choice.
For the third talent, I would pick
Follow Through. Normally I would not recommend
Follow Through in any assassin build as there are other much better choices, however in this case all the other choices are mediocre and
Follow Through seems to be the best choice.
Follow Through also has good synergy with
Withering Fire, as
Withering Fire has no mana cost and low cool downs. This means you are constantly spamming this ability at your enemies. Therefore, instead of 1 or 2 shots that have a 25% increase damage almost every shot you fire will have an increased 25% damage. This is significant as it gives
Sylvanas an extremely high damage output bonus and is very valuable in an assassin build.
Wailing Arrow is the better ultimate for
Sylvanas in this build, as
Possession does not really hold any value in an assassin guide. However,
Possession may be useful in a laning guide, but even in a laning guide
Possession currently looks very underwhelming and
Wailing Arrow outperforms it in every way.
Wailing Arrow gives a long range silence and damage ability to
Sylvanas which is great for team support (Stopping channels like
Triple Tap and
Ravenous Spirit) as well as AoE damage especially when the enemies are clumped up in a group.
For my level 13 talent I would pick
Evasive Fire. The reason for this is
Evasive Fire provides you with a tremendous amount of utility. This talent can help you escape from your enemies as well as help you catch up with them. Even better is that the speed boost stacks, helping you gain up to 30% movement speed (Which is insane as
Sylvanas already has high mobility). With this talent almost no enemy will be able to escape you and makes your life a lot easier when you are trying to escape. For the icing on top of the cake this ability also synergizes well with
With the Wind.
Blood for Blood is the best choice in this scenario as it helps you slow your enemy, so you can catch up with them, as well as help
Sylvanas regain some of her lost HP. That is extremely good considering
Sylvanas is very squishy with a low HP pool.
Cold Embrace is also an extremely good talent as making multiple enemies take increased damage is extremely potent (Kinda like
Northern Exposure), however after experimenting for a while I found out that the decreased range on
Shadow Dagger puts
Sylvanas extremely close to your enemy and leaves her in a very dangerous position. Therefore,
Blood for Blood is the better choice.
For your final talent, I would personally go for
Deafening Blast as the damage increase on
Sylvanas' ulti is increased significantly (50%). More importantly the duration of silence is also increased allowing your team to take control of any team fight that you may take.
Bolt of the Storm is also a good talent, however due to
Sylvanas' mobility and escapes already granted by
Evasive Fire and
Haunting Wave I believe
Deafening Blast to be the better choice.
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