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Welcome everyone !

This is a guide about building a competitive Sylvanas for Hero and Team Leagues.

The builds showcased here fit a certain meta and should not be followed blindly. If you have the time to read this guide you will understand when and how to tweak the builds. A simple example: Bolt of the Storm is only useful if you're up against players that focus you down. If you're not playing against such players, you don't necessarily need Bolt of the Storm. Perfect example of a meta difference and why you should not follow this blindly.

These builds have been primarily tested in Rank #1 Hero League and Rank #25 Team League. Almost always with a party up to 4 players for Hero Leagues.

The playstyle and talent choices are focused over getting low risk for efficient rewards. Cautious playstyle is often synonymous of competitive playstyle. We don't want to be creative or innovative, we want to identify the strongest choices and understand why they are the best to play with and under what circumstances.

We're assuming the opponents you're playing against are as good as you.

The builds are agile. This means talent choices are flexible and must be adapted to the current situation of your game.

We want the build to be efficient through the entire game, giving us a significant impact amplification at each talent choice. This is something people tend to forget when building synergies in their build. It's great to build synergies, it's better to make sure to have a power spike when hitting a level.


So what's up about the builds?

The first one is the most balanced build and is played in most competitive games. The interesting thing here will be to determine why and how to tweak this build. This is a well-rounded, versatile Sylvanas build. Not the most specialized.

The second build is the strongest possible push build that doesnt give up on key teamfight utility. It is not often used in competitive games as it is very specialized. When used it usually wins games alone. Note: I recently see more and more pro players going for Barbed Shot (06/20).

The last and third build is about optimizing Sylvanas hero damage potential. It is the most difficult build to play but also a needed build to know and masterize if you want to play Sylvanas with the best efficiency in every games.

That's it for the introduction, you can read a little about me just below or directly switch to the Sylvanas' Role section.

If you feel like you're missing any information, feel free to ask in the comment.

Last thing but not least, I'm not an English native so please, excuse all the mistakes you might and will notice.

About Me (you can skip this part, there is no strategy tips here)

I'm Yun, an European hardcore Moba player.

I've been playing competitive video games since I was 15. I'm now 24 and still brawling into the battlefields of Heroes of the Storm. I wrote a lot of in-depth strategy guides about the games I played and I'm now up to do it for this amazing Blizzard game that is Heroes of the Storm.

I reached rank #1 pretty quickly in the Beta and arised at top #300 EU according to HotS Logs. I build a team with 4 friends and we try to play as much as possible but we're only up to Rank #29. We'd all like to play more but our work (in Video Game Industry !) keeps up all quite busy.

Description

Sylvanas is a ranged damage dealer with a strong built-in push potential.

Her role in a team is to provide a high push potential and sustained or bursty damages in teamfights.

Her talents can either amplify this pushing power or grant her an extra layer of hero damage potential.

You are supposed to take down turrets early in the game. You're better at pushing when you can and you're more efficient in really short or long teamfights (<10 seconds or >60 seconds) depending on your build.

Aside from pushing, you are very strong in skirmishes (small fights spread on the map) because of Haunting Wave's mobility and sustained Withering Fire damages.

Your team rely on how well you use Wailing Arrow for successful teamfights.

You are a Ranged Damage Dealer.

Note: I've seen people still seperating Ranged Specialists like Zagara and Sylvanas from Ranged Assassin like Valla and Jaina. There are no differences in the role they are supposed to fulfill in a team. We want them to have push capabilities alongside teamfight capabilities and damages. All of these heroes have a different hero damage and push potential but they all belong to the Ranged Damage Dealer category.

When to pick Sylvanas?

Before the Wailing Arrow / Envenom / Blood for Blood nerf I would say all the time. Now it is a little bit more tricky to determine if Sylvanas is a strong pick in your current draft session.
First of all you need to identify if your team and the map demands a push master like Sylvanas can be. If not, they might need a powerful interrupt like Wailing Arrow to prevent their Uther to protect someone. Sylvanas basically have three major uses: strong pusher, skirmisher or utility teamfighter. Identify if you need one (or several) of these aspects in your game and go for her if she fits :)

Why?

Sylvanas and her Black Arrows is the best way to make sure your team has a huge experience lead by the end of early game by taking down early turrets. You can basically free-push a lane with 2 other teamates helping you. This is one of the main reason she is so strong at the moment and played in roughly 100% of the pro games.

Her Haunting Wave ability makes her a really safe hero and the silence of Wailing Arrow also gives her a strong utility in teamfights.

In other words, Sylvanas is a beast to generate early experience and the utility of her ability kit makes her really versatile in middle and late game.

[Q] Withering Fire

Press to use, throw a low damage arrow to closest enemy, prioritizing heroes. Does not stop your movement.

When to use?

- Always
- Killing minions when laning
- Poking and damaging enemy heroes in lane or in teamfights
- Trading in lane

Mechanics

- Hold shortcut to quickly release all remaining stacks
- You should be spamming, it's mana-free
- It always prioritizes heroes, and closest possible target in sight
- You should never be at 5 stacks
- Get use to the Withering Fire / Auto Attack combo if you want to optimize Remorseless
- Find the right position spot to release all stacks at once to quickly trigger Unstable Poison on every nearby minions
- Use while chasing / escaping
- Releasing 4 or 5 stacks on a vulnerable ( Cold Embrace, Hunter's Mark, Northern Exposure) target is bursty
- Remember to actively use the movement speed bonus from Evasive Fire to reposition yourself in between auto-hits or to dodge incoming skillshots
- Stun a turret with your Auto Attack and a second one with Withering Fire

[W] Shadow Dagger

Target to use, throw a dagger that deals low damages and some damage on time on your target. The damages spread to nearby targets.

When to use?

- Pushing minions when laning
- Harassing opponent when able
- Applying Cold Embrace in teamfights
- Stunning structures from afar when pushing with teamates
- Canceling opponent's mounts thanks to its range before or without Cold Embrace when able
- Killing the enemy fleeing afar with 1 hit points thanks to the long range before or without Cold Embrace
- Making a Fort, a Keep or the Core vulnerable with Cold Embrace when pushing
- Canceling an enemy hero's action before or without Cold Embrace if needed

Mechanics

- Use on the caster minion to make sure the spell spreads properly to all minions
- Use on an enemy hero close to enemy minions for the spell to spread to them if you want to harass and push at the same time
- Use on the gate to stun incoming minion wave when it arrives (look at your own minions to find the right timing)
- Use on the gate to stun both turrets
- Only kill enemy minions from afar only if you do not need the Regeneration Globe
- Try to synchronize your Cold Embrace procc with your teamates' abilities or at least your own Wailing Arrow when possible
- Sometimes it's risky to get nearby enemy heroes in order to apply Cold Embrace, but on the other hand, a single procc might win you the teamfight if synchronized with other spells, try to keep a clear mind

[E] Haunting Wave

Press to cast a slow moving ghostly wave in a line. Press again to teleport to the position of the wave.

When to use?

- Escaping a tough situation
- Pushing when behind your gate
- Damaging enemy heroes when escaping won't save your life
- Repositioning in teamfight
- Dodging incoming damages
- Applying Black Arrows to several buildings when protected by teamates or safe
- Canceling an enemy hero's action if desperatly needed

Mechanics

- Run the other around of your Haunting Wave in order to increase the distance between you and the ghost. If your opponent decides to hit you, he won't be near your teleport point. If he decides to run to your teleport point, he won't be dealing damage to you since you're moving the other way around, in any case it increases your survivability
- Don't get controlled when Haunting Wave is travelling if you want to be able to Haunting Teleport before it is too late
- Using Haunting Teleport on a really short distance can save you from getting controlled during that framerate or can make all the difference against a skillshot ( Hook or Call of the Wildhammer for instance)
- If someone is about to control you, don't panic Haunting Wave, just wait for the CC to fade before doing so
- You can safely cast Haunting Wave before a CC hits you if you know the duration of this particular CC < the travelling time of the Haunting Teleport, but you need to be sure there won't be any chain CC
- Your best course is to position and reposition yourself in order to avoid getting CCed at all
- Try to use it through walls or natural barriers if it does not cut you from your teamates
- You can dodge incoming damages by using the Haunting Teleport's invulnerability frame
- Some people will try to use their skillshot at your Haunting Teleport's current position at the exact second you will teleport to it, try to delay the moment you use it by bit and you will make them waste their control
- In a really tough 1v1 situation using Haunting Wave for a little bit of extra damage can make you win the fight or dodge an important enemy spell or grant you the invulnerability frame you desperatly need

[R] Wailing Arrow

Press to throw an arrow at mid distance that silence and damage an area. Explodes when reaching max range or when pressing R again.

When to use?

- Helping your tank going in
- Silencing an enemy support
- Silencing several opponents while fighting the others
- Killing a fleeing enemy (usually you should have used it before that happens)
- Chaining CC's with other teamates
- Wombo Combo with other teamates for MOAR DAMAGES
- One shoting an enemy hero in 1v1
- Silencing enemy heroes coming to gank you
- Protecting an allied hero about to get ganked or killed
- Interrupting a key enemy ability being channeled

Mechanics

- Be careful not to get controlled while Wailing Arrow is travelling if you want to make it explode at a chosen location
- If an enemy hero is ganking you in the middle of all minions and you have Unstable Poison, you will deal tremendous damages to him by exploding the entire minion wave with Wailing Arrow
- Sometimes you only need to silence one key enemy hero ( Rehgar or Uther for instance) to give your team the upper hand in the teamfight
- Don't panic Wailing Arrow if your team is not able to follow up because it is a key element for your victory. If a teamfight occurs after the enemy team has recovered from the damages and when Wailing Arrow is on cooldown you will be lacking a huge utility tool
- In a build with Envenom and Blood for Blood make sure to open with Wailing Arrow when you try to 1v1 someone. The burst from the talents submentionned is huge and being silenced prevent your opponent from trying to save his life, you can one shot almost anything that is not a Warrior in this situation
- Opening a teamfight with the Wailing Arrow silencing two or more enemy heroes can be a good solution to help your tank getting the engage rolling
- Using Wailing Arrow after a Mosh Pit or a Devouring Maw to chain CC is another good use
- When fighting a part of the enemy team, if you can kill them without using Wailing Arrow, it can be better to use it on the other part of the enemy team to make it unable to help the first part
- The more skilled your opponents will be, the more aware of the Wailing Arrow threat they'll be. Such opponents will try to use their reposition skill ( Metamorphosis or Bolt of the Storm to dodge your Wailing Arrow. Make sure to identify these enemies and to punish them after or before their dashing abilities come into play

[-] Black Arrows

Automatically stuns minions, buildings and mercenaries on Auto Attack and ability hit.

When to use?

- Early hard push
- Mid and Late forced push
- Mercenary cleaning
- Defense against huge enemy minion waves

Mechanics

Build Pros & Cons

Balanced Build

Pros

- Balance between Hero and Siege damage - Bursty Phase - Overall efficiency through the game

Cons

- Lack sustained Hero damages - Lower efficiency in mid-duration teamfights

Details

The most common path that we're going to follow because it offers a huge balance between both push and teamfight capabilities. This allow our Sylvanas to be really versatile and fit into most regular team setups. This gives a fair amount of pushing power coupled with a bursty phase in teamfight that needs to be fully optimized.

Full Push Build

Pros

- Push Master - Momentum Generator - Bursty Phase

Cons

- Lowest Hero Damage potential

Details

This build focuses on getting the fastest minion clean possible. It's good if your role in the current game is to maintain a high pressure on the map. This becomes worst if you start fighting around with the enemy team. You can surely apply hero damages but you have only one burst window ( Wailing Arrow, Envenom into Blood for Blood) and after that you're almost as good as dead. It's up to you to time your teamfight well and to optimize your pushing potential.

Sustained Hero Damage Build

Pros

- Best Hero Damage Build - Efficient in any teamfight configuration - Wombo Combo Enabler

Cons

- Lowest Push potential - Lower Burst potential - Lower 1v1 potential

Details

The more hero damage oriented build. This makes Sylvanas a threat for the entire duration of a teamfight. As long as she lands Cold Embrace and optimize her Withering Fire // Remorseless she will be poking the enemy team hard. This is also the more risky setup as you gave up push power to improve your teamfight efficiency. If you die at the beginning of the fight you won't have much more impact than a regular push build without the momentum gained from it.

What build to go for?

It's the beginning of the game. Should I go for a push or an assassin build?

This section is about finding out the answer to that question. I will break the reflexion I'm following myself to determine what build I'm going for. Usually, this question comes into play at level 7, when we need to choose between Remorseless or Unstable Poison. Sometime you also need to answer this question earlier, when choosing between Barbed Shot and Withering Fire.

Always keep in mind that your build must help you answer your team needs and fulfill your overall role as a ranged damage dealer.

- do you have another possible strong pusher? will he actually go for a push build?
Basically if you have a Jaina or a Zagara on your team, you won't probably need push power and therefore, running an hero damage build might be wise.
If you have no other ranged damage dealer in your team it's the contrary, the full push build become really handy, especially if you tell your teamates to play around your pushing power.

- do you have enough damage output in teamfights?
Do they have a particularily beefy team? Do you lack damages? You should look carefully at both team setups and try to anticipate how teamfights are going to work. Will you be running around, engaging hard, defending hard or counter engaging? If the teamfights are going to be long, a sustained damage build might be an efficient way to play your Sylvanas. On the other hand, if you have a really all-in setup with a Tyrael and an Illidan you might go for a regular competitive build to help bursting down your first target.

- are there likely to be huge waves of minion stacking?
On Tomb of the Spider Queen and at the top of Blackheart's Bay there might be huge minion waves. The full push build make you able to clean everything in matter of seconds and generate huge momentum for your team. But even if you find yourself on such maps, you should really consider the other questions I pointed out here because you might still need to fight for Coin dominance and your push build won't help you much in these situations.

- what is your team good at? pushing, sieging, teamfighting or skirmishing?
You need to understand what is your team good at. As I previously stated, your team might be good at engaging hard or better at sieging. Check what are the strengths and weaknesses of your team and find out what your team needs Sylvanas to be doing.

- did you setup a plan when picking your heroes with your team and what was it about? pushing or fighting?
If you have a proper plan before the game even starts because you are playing with your friends or in Hero League it might be requiring you to pick particular key talents to succeed. In these cases it's up to you to build the most efficient Sylvanas for your situational game.

Note: you should never pick a talent without thinking about it. With the experience, you will start tweaking your build because the situation demands it. Don't be afraid to pick Cold Embrace in a particular game whereas you've went Full Push build. Be clever in your decisions and always try to think about efficiency and team need.

Labels

Competitive Talent Benefits Description

Situational Talent Benefits Description

Under Efficient Talent Benefits Description

With the Wind + Poke + Remorseless Synergy + Evasive Fire Synergy The most common choice among Sylvanas players because it allows you to poke enemy heroes while in lane or maneuvring around a teamfight. Since Lost Soul and Corruption are rather weak talents (view below) the only competition here is between this and Barbed Shot. The choice rely on how much push damages you need in your team for the map you're playing on. You usually prefer the poke capability of this talent over the push capability from Barbed Shot because without the range you usually land less Withering Fire and consequently deal less damages in teamfight.

Lost Soul + Harass + Life Drain Synergy + Cold Embrace Synergy A usually bad choice for several reasons. If you want to pick this to harass your opponent, you'd better go With the Wind because it's mana-free. If you want to pick this to push it's terribad compared to Barbed Shot (700 damages with this talent versus 1200 with the other, see the maths below). Even if you're going for Cold Embrace you give up too much safety from With the Wind's range. The only situation I'd find it worth is if you're going to run both Life Drain and Cold Embrace but that basically never happens (view level 7). But the main problem of this talent is that it lacks instant impact on your power curve.

Barbed Shot + Push Damage + Unstable Poison Synergy + Splinter Shot Synergy A huge push damage amplifier. This potentially gives you 1200 extra siege damage per minute (view maths below). This also helps you clear mercenaries quicker. In other words this is the ultimate pushing tool. Unfortunately it makes Withering Fire a really specialized ability and you will have a harder time pulling hero damages in teamfights. The choice between this and With the Wind is a core choice in your build and will affect your gameplay a lot. You will need to optimize your pushing potential while minimizing the chances of a teamfight to occur, or and if it occurs you will have to make it quick and clean.

Corruption + Lane Control The worst choice here because it is a talent that can only be optimized if you sit on a lane alone for several minutes, what you're not supposed to be doing. You're supposed to sit as a two or three-man lane and start destroying the turrets, meaning they won't have the time to run out of ammunitions. And even if you find yourself in a solo-lane, amplifying your minion push with Barbed Shot is better because it gives you the opportunity to go off your lane. And if you do not need push power you're not looking for Corruption.

Note: The maths behind Barbed Shot and Lost Soul
You're casting around ~20 Withering Fire per minute.
Let's say it deals 30 (28 at level 1) damage per Withering Fire, Barbed Shot deals 90 damages every hit. 90 - 30 = 60 extra damages per hit. 60 * 20 (the number of Withering Fire shot per minute) = 1200 extra damages per minute.
You can cast up to 6 Shadow Dagger every minute (maximized). If you get Lost Soul it makes you cast 3 more Shadow Dagger every 2 minutes (1.5 per minute : 60 / 8 = 7.5). So it gives you 3 * Shadow Dagger damages / 2 per minute. Let's say Shadow Dagger deals 70 damages at level 1, Lost Soul gives you 105 extra damages per minute on a single target. Let's say it spreads up to 6 minions, it deals up to 710 damages (in the best possible situation).
Barbed Shot gives 1200 siege damage per minute and Lost Soul gives 710 siege damages. If your only purpose is to push, you know what to pick.

Note: The maths behind Lost Soul and Life Drain
You get 1.5 more Shadow Dagger per minute with Lost Soul. That gives you 1.5 times the healing from Life Drain per minute (35 at level 7 on a single target). 35 * 1.5 = 52.5 health per target per minute. If we take our previous example and say you hit up to 6 minions it gives you 52.5 * 6 = 315. If you pick both Lost Soul and Life Drain it gives you up to 315 hit points regeneration per minute (at level 7, so it's going to scale up). Which is pretty good.

Paralysis + Overwhelming Affliction Synergy Sadly this has really zero impact in-game without a synergy with other talents. And we want heavy impact talents. And this doesnt even synergize with Corruption or Unstable Poison. The first one because it is an on-hit instant effect and the second one because minions usually die quicker than Black Arrows fades. This leads us to the only advantage you can get by picking this is to synergize with Overwhelming Affliction. But you're not going for this talent either (see full explication at level 13). So there are definitely no reasons to consider this talent.

Overflowing Quiver No. This is a completly useless talent. Withering Fire is mana-free so you are constantly firing it. You should never be at max stacks. If you find yourself at max stack it'd mean you've under exploited your damage potential.

Ranger's Ambush + Burst Potential + Windrunner Synergy I'm not talking about the push potential of this talent because in a push build it is such an overkill (you already clean minion waves in few seconds). So we're going to consider this as a hero damage dealing ability. The plan with this would be to use all Withering Fire stacks before going in with Haunting Wave for another full Withering Fire release on your target. This seems pretty bursty and might be interesting. But in my experience when you use Haunting Wave offensively you usually end up dying pretty quickly. Moreover if you really want to improve your burst Envenom does that better at that level. And finally, if you want that to synergize with Windrunner at level 16 it means you will give up Cold Embrace or Blood for Blood and you dont want that (more details at that level).

Envenom + Burst Potential The strongest choice here in my opinion. It gives huge power spike to Sylvanas and allow her to represent a huge threat at that stage of the game. Most of the melee heroes cannot all-in her without a risk of dying because they are not that tanky early on or they don't have their full ability kit yet (yes I'm looking at you Wormhole). And sadly most of the talents here are not really worth even if we don't compare them to Envenom.

Unstable Poison + Push Damage + Barbed Shot Synergy + Splinter Shot Synergy + Fury of the Storm Synergy At that level you have the choice to go for a hero damage build with Remorseless or a siege damage build with Unstable Poison. The choice behind that is explained in the "Build Breakdown" section. If you want push power here, the only other choice is Mercenary Lord but it's pretty weak in the current meta and especially on Sylvanas (view talent for details). So this is the only push talent here. When you get that you basically gain map control right off the bath. If you're in a balanced build, it will provide a fair amount of pushing power. But if you're going for a full push build this synergizes with many talents and will be amplified at level 13 with Splinter Shot.

Life Drain + Sustain + Lost Soul Synergy A talent that I almost never pick but that shouldn't be looked down on. Sometimes it can be really efficient in stale games. Games where both team are pretty even in push power and the first team who will be forced to recall at fountain will likely be dropping a map objective or a mercenary camp. That sort of games don't happen often as Sylvanas is the best push force of the game. So if you badly need sustain or if for some reason you have no healer you might consider this talent. It'd be nice to know in advance if you're going for Life Drain because it allows you to choose Lost Soul on first talent to increase your health regeneration a lot.

Remorseless + Damage Over Time + With the Wind Synergy + Evasive Fire Synergy + Fury of the Storm Synergy If you want to build Hero damages, that's the only talent that gives that here. Other talents are also pretty weak in general in a hero damage build (view full details on other talents description). One of the funniest talent to play with. One of the talent that affects your gameplay the most.

Mercenary Lord + Map Control Why is this weak? Because if you find yourself pushing with them, you will be with your allies protecting the mercenaries. You will be needing an efficient 7th talent to compete with the defending enemy team. If you're not pushing with the mercenaries, this talent itself is useless. If you're left alone pushing with the mercenaries, what's not likely to happen often, it might be efficient. But the action of killing the neutral camp needs time (momentum). Other talent in this tier help you generate momentum better than this one. This is basically a "put the cart before the horse" situation. You generate momentum with this talent but you need momentum first to generate that extra momentum.

Shade Form + Aggro Drop + Windrunner Synergy + Position plays I really don't understand what's the fuzz about this talent. It is average. It allows you to make some position play (assassination, juking). Fair enough. But against good players you don't have the room to play around stealth or such jukes. When you find yourself fighting against a team who actually knows how to focus, engage or gank, your Haunting Wave will be used as a regular escape tool. The stealth will do nothing more in these situations. And if you're somehow trying to make the play happen, such good players won't be fooled by your stealth (except maybe the first time you use it). Stealth is not that strong when you almost always spot a stealthed hero. Just a defensive tool against Auto Attacks. Between a risky talent to optimize (this one) and a regular efficient talent ( Remorseless or Unstable Poison) there are no doubts in my mind.

Wailing Arrow + Teamfight Utility + Burst + Multi Target Control Our one and only ultimate (view Possession description). If you want details about the ability itself, check the Ability Breakdown section.

Possession I don't know how they could come up with something that obviously weak. You can control an enemy minion every 4 seconds. Considering that you're clearing minion wave in 3-10 seconds depending on your build, I don't understand how this could be momentum efficient. I think that's the only ability in the entire game that is momentum negative.

Overwhelming Affliction + Single/Multi Target Control + Kiting Potential + Paralysis Synergy This talent is not weak in itself. Unfortunately, it has the same kind of utility than Evasive Fire: it increases the distance gab between you and the enemy team. But your build has usually more synergy with Withering Fire. However Overwhelming Affliction also offers a chance to use one of your area of effect spells to slow several or every enemy heroes and transform the utility of this talent into an area crowd control (and possibly help your teamates). But this is only a 5% slow and it will be hard to apply more multi target stacks of Overwhelming Affliction afterwards. Especially since you're not picking Paralysis. In other words, this talent is not bad but cannot fit in your build synergy.

Evasive Fire + Kiting Potential + Position Plays + With the Wind Synergy WOW. Sylvanas's gameplay becomes so fluent when you pick this. Awesome game feel. This is the most common talent here because it basically make Sylvanas uncatchable if you don't overextend. If you can't be caught and don't all-in, you stay alive for the entire duration of a teamfight. Optimizing your damages, no matter your build, becomes easier. This is a huge teamfight tool. Remember what I said about "cautious playstyle", well Evasive Fire grants you both safety and agressive movement capabilities. If you don't need push power or simply didnt go for the full push build and if you don't need Spell Shield at all, remains only Evasive Fire and Overwhelming Affliction, and you already know why the last one is not a valid choice.

Splinter Shot + Push Damage + Barbed Shot Synergy + Unstable Poison Synergy The only use of this talent is to find its synergy with Unstable Poison. It has no use appart from this. This will not give you any bonus advantage in teamfights considering your positionning should be between front and backline. You'll probably be poking enemy tank with Withering Fire and an enemy support or melee assassin for 250 damages with 5 Evasive Fire mini-shot. So much for hero damages. So the only use you'll find for this talent in your builds is to turn Sylvanas into a momentum generator. This coupled with Barbed Shot and Unstable Poison makes you obliterate every minion wave in matter of seconds. This is the only push talent here, so if you want push power here it is. View Full Push Showcase if you want to see it in action.

Spell Shield + Safety + Counterplay Not so strong of a talent. Against most Skillshots, Evasive Fire is better because it allows you to dodge them easily, avoiding 100% of the damages rather than 50%. The only case you could argue it will help is against a Nova: if she can't one shot you, you're going to one shot her. But appart from that particular case (that doesnt happen often in Hero or Team League), Evasive Fire is generally better in every domains (safety and versatility).

Windrunner + Mobility + Ranger's Ambush Synergy + Shade Form Synergy This is a really fun talent to play around. Unfortunately, it is at the wrong tier. Let me explain: Windrunner's utility is solely to make Sylvanas able to assassinate people at close or mid-close range. But in order to do that effiently you need Blood for Blood for the extra bit of burst on impact. And I would have definitely tempted to play builds that would run every three Haunting Wave improve, if I could pick Blood for Blood with it. Basically, ranged damage dealers like Sylvanas (assassin in general) are not supposed to go all-in on the enemy team to try to kill one target. They are supposed to sit in the back and apply as much damages as possible during a teamfight. Melee assassin on the contrary have tools and enough burst to go-in and instantly kill a target (appart from Illidan who has sustained damages). If Sylvanas could pick both Windrunner and Blood for Blood I think she would be able to match some of these melee assassins impact. Melee assassin Sylvanas looks like a pretty risky build to go for and you're looking for cautious playstyle here. I'm not talking about the possible push benefits from this talent considering you want to have a huge powerspike at level 16. Push power doesnt give you much considering most of the heroes in your team are able to push a lane, no matter what role they're playing. But the most important point is that all heroes have an impactul choice to go for at that stage ( Blood for Blood, Stoneskin, Imposing Presence, Stoneform, Benediction and such). You can't afford to pick something less impactful that will put you behind for 4 long levels in a row.

Cold Embrace + Teamfight Utility + Counterplay + Lost Soul Synergy + Wombo Combo Synergy Even if you're running the Balanced Build, you should consider picking this up depending on the game's situation. It is basically strong against 3 melee, double tank or double support setup. Three setups that you see more than often. Cold Embrace is strong in these situations because Blood for Blood won't be enough to kill two tanks or one guy healed by two supports. So your only remaining option becomes to go for the long teamfight and to use multiple Cold Embrace in a row to ensure a kill or more. But maybe your team doesnt have a long-teamfight setup and you will find yourself often hard-engaged and only able to cast one Shadow Dagger during that framerate. And this basically leads us back to the "What build to go for" section. Cold Embrace for huge sustained damage or wombo-combo possibility.

Will of the Forsaken + Counterplay + Bolt of the Storm Synergy It's kind of a weak talent. From the moment you get focused, to the end of your Haunting Wave, if you get stunned once, you're dead. Will of the Forsaken basically makes you unstoppable during that sequence. This seems good. But it's not for the simple reason that if you play well, you won't get stunned. It's not a matter of outplaying the opponent, it's the simple mechanic of the spell. If you always anticipate the incoming control, you can simply press E to dodge it. So you can't be controlled if you time Haunting Wave well. There's definitely no need for Will of the Forsaken.

Blood for Blood + Burst Damage + Single Target Control + Emergency Heal This gives you instant burst and extra chance to kill tough targets like Muradin or annoying presences like Illidan. This gives you the possibility to heal yourself at the last second to outplay one or several opponent's positioning. The only cons of getting Blood for Blood is that Sylvanas lacks sustained damages and Blood for Blood is full burst oriented. Picking this over Cold Embrace should always be a real choice depending on how the teamfights are going in your game. Long teamfights = Cold Embrace, short teamfights = Blood for Blood.

Deafening Blast + Burst Damage + Multi Target Control If you're a good sniper and that you're not getting focused down, you can think about picking this up. But try not to fool yourself, people will dodge your arrow. They will dodge the very little center that does amplified damage and silence. And suddenly, the level 20 talent you picked has 0 impact. That's basically the problem with this talent, they wanted to make it so strong that the area is too small and usually dodged by most skilled opponents.

Dark Lady's Call + Map Control We can't pick this considering Possession doesnt exists.

Fury of the Storm + Map Control + Burst Damage + Unstable Poison Synergy + Remorseless Synergy Push power becomes map control at that stage, because minions gives you the vision over the map rather than forts and keeps (usually). The only build you can consider picking this up is the Sustained Hero Damage build. It basically makes you as strong of a pusher as a full push Sylvanas but you also benefit from both Remorseless and Fury of the Storm procc for more hero damages in teamfights. But you don't have Bolt of the Storm for mobility and end-game play-making capabilities. In most games, you shouldn't consider picking this up, but if you find yourself in a team setup that holds his ground very well in teamfights and that you don't need to drop the enemy aggro, it might become a possible choice. If you went for a really pushy build, Fury of the Storm might be an overkill, especially without Remorseless to enhance its on-hit procc.

Bolt of the Storm + Safety + Mobility + Position Play Well, the strongest ability in the game at level 20 considering how long death timers are. It allows you to escape from every situations. Spam it everytime there's a chance you die, it will be up next time you need it anyway. This coupled with Haunting Wave can lead to insane jukes ( / / ). It's the end-game playmaker. Remember when I talked about impactful talents? Well, there's nothing more powerful than a hero who can suddenly be anywhere he wants in a teamfight or never die even when caught off guard The main reason Bolt of the Storm offers so much safety is because it has a greater range than most of the dash / blink (appart from exceptions like Judgment). That means you can usually Bolt of the Storm into Mount if you need to get away and almost nobody will be able to catch you.

Early Game

Middle Game

Late Game

Here is a video showcasing the "Competitive Push Build" and 3 minutes of Sylvanas laning phase. I will try to make a teamfight and maybe a skirmish video to give more details about her gameplay.