I’ve played close to 4000 games with the Banshee Queen across 3 accounts and currently have a 61% winrate with her. Sylvanas is in a very healthy spot right now and is versatile enough to play on any map that contains enemy players, minions, and especially pushing objectives like the immortal on BoE and Haunted Mine(RIP).
Alas, even though I have played many games with Sylvanas and tried most of her builds, I am not the be-all end-all authority on the hero. This is all just my educated opinion. I will cover all of her talents in this post as well as a couple builds I like and when to use them.
Firstly, there seem to be 2 main build styles for her. Most people will mix different talents but they will generally follow the same theme.
1. Mage build: Unfurling Shadows, Unstable Poison, Festering Wounds, Wailing Arrow, Cold Embrace, Life Drain, Bolt of the Storm.
With this build, you focus on stacking your Shadow Dagger quest from level 1 and deal as much damage to as many enemies as possible. I typically don’t use this build because even though it can have huge damage stats, it doesn’t secure as many kills and therefore carry as many games. I would suggest using it if you have a Genji or a Greymane or some other single target damage dealer on your team that can take advantage of the blanket damage you deal, or if you are the only ranged assassin on your team and your team just needs those numbers in team fights. This is also a much easier build to perform safely in if you are not confident that you can fight on the front lines.
2. Dueling build (I call it this): Overwhelming Affliction, Possession, Barbed Shot, Mind Control, Windrunner, Evasive Fire, Dark Lady’s Call.
This build focuses on taking a single enemy out of the fight as quickly as possible. I usually use something similar to this build since if you get a kill and survive afterward, you can then force teamfights where the enemy is outnumbered. With this build, you take every talent that lets you chase and burn down a single target, while also becoming hyper mobile and letting you get away after making ballsy plays. This build performs best on maps where there are multiple objectives that encourage teams to split up like Dragon Shrine and Braxis Holdout. I wouldn’t suggest this build to new players since it is more challenging and is very high risk for very high reward.
Rarely will you use all the talents in either of these builds since Sylvanas also has a variety of other options that excel in different situations. This is just a quick summary of all her talents.
Level 1
Might of the Banshee Queen- Lowest skillcap talent at the tier, reliably increases your spell and attack damage regardless of your build.
Unfurling Shadows- If you can stack it up, it will be very strong in the late game. Works best if the enemy team clumps up.
Overwhelming Affliction- Is strong if your team doesn’t have a lot of CC but also compliments the rest of your team’s CC. Use against high HP enemies and for chasing kills.
Level 4
Unstable Poison- The fastest way to clear minions and any other non-heroic units in the lane. Decent counter to enemy teams that get a lot of mercenary camps and the zerg waves on Braxis.
Mercenary Queen- Great for taking and marching with mercenaries, but also increases the power of merc turrets and the mercs that explode against buildings if you stay close to them.
Possession- Great for splitpushing lanes, bullying enemy laners, letting you stop buildings from shooting while your trait is on cd, and letting lanes push on their own while you go do objective.
Level 7
Barbed Shot- Only good in 1v1 skirmishes and burning down single target mercenaries and monster objectives. Unreliable in teamfights.
Lost Soul- Decent in 1v1s as well as increasing your blanket damage if you can stack your W quest without Festering Wounds.
Festering Wounds- Makes stacking your W quest much easier, while also immediately applying the slow and %damage of Overwhelming Affliction at level 1. DO NOT use your E for damage unless it is to secure a kill or you can do it safely without getting ganked.
Level 10
Wailing Arrow- Generally accepted as the more reliable heroic, fantastic if you can hit multiple enemies at once in a teamfight, also powerful in a 1v1, but DO NOT use it only for damage unless it is to secure a kill.
Mind Control- Much more niche heroic used if you are already winning and your opponent keeps running away, to peel for your team against divey heroes like Butcher and Genji, or on maps where you will be doing a lot of 1v1s.
Level 13
Cold Embrace- Empowers your team in focusing down a single target and also combos well with Lost Soul at level 7.
Windrunner- Doubles your E’s while tripling your Q’s. Great for dipping in and out of combat and burning down a single target.
Remorseless- Let’s you poke more safely and stack your W quest from a distance. (this is my least tested talent so I’m sure someone else can tell you more about it’s uses)
Level 16
Evasive Fire- Makes you move at mount speed at all times while in combat. Let’s you chase and flee more effectively. Use against teams with many skillshots.
Life Drain- The only sustain talent Sylvanas gets. Effective against sustain damage dealers and if your team doesn’t have a healer, useless if you are getting burst down.
Will of the Forsaken- Most effective against high CC enemy teams. You can use it against Diablo, Butcher, and Chromie’s Rewind heroic, but don’t forget that Sylvanas already has UNSTOPABBLE with her E ability if you can time it right.
Level 20
Deafening Blast- Upgrades your arrow’s silence to 5 seconds if you can hit people with the middle of the blast. I don’t need to explain how strong that can be.
Dark Lady’s Call- Let’s you spam your heroic and also blind them temporarily. Generally what I take at 20 if I took Mind Control since it is a huge upgrade.
Withering Barrage- If you didn’t already take Windrunner at level 13, this lets you fire off many more Q’s. Combos well with Remorseless at level 13.
Bolt of the Storm- “Get out of trouble quick” talent. I find it to be overkill if you are using the hyper-mobile dueling build, but strong on the mage build.
A few tricks I’ve learned while playing Sylvanas:
- Sylvanas deals a lot of damage. In plenty of situations you can trade with other ranged assassins like Tracer(hide behind minions to block her pulse bomb), Valla(if she hasn’t already charged up her Hatred), and Genji(wait for him to use deflect, stop attacking, then hit him with everything at once after deflect expires. Also works against Mediev). I would not suggest trying to 1v1 trade into Tychus, Raynor, Zagara, or any melee assassins that can charge you like Varian unless you know what you are doing.
- Don’t be afraid to roam. I see a lot of people get mad at me when I try to roam, but if you are able to invade another lane, gank the enemy that was soaking there, and then push, you are getting structure damage value. Also if your team is struggling to win teamfights, you can push another lane and force the enemy team to split up their deathball to deal with you.
- Always keep an eye on the minimap. Sylvanas is a very high priority hero and often the target of ganks and roams. Also if you can’t win a lane, ask your team to switch to another lane. Sylvanas can get huge value if she is allowed to push, and she is wasted if a hero like Zagara won’t let you get close to enemy buildings. (curse that hydralisk!)
- Be ready to switch up your build. It is easy to get used to one set of talents(I am guilty of this) but Sylvanas has a lot of options. Her 2 main builds are strong in different situations, learn when to use each one and don’t take her talents for granted
- One of my favorite things to do is to dive enemy buildings. Sylvanas is the queen of fighting under enemy towers since her trait can turn them off, Possession distracts them, and Windrunner and Bolt of the Storm let her jump back to safety after getting the kill.
- Learn how to stutterstep(move-autoattack-move-autoattack.) Plenty of Sylvanas’s damage will come from her autoattacks. I see too many Sylvanas players that will just run around while holding Q or only attack if they can get some more points of their W quest. If you are only doing ability damage, you are playing Sylvanas wrong
So that is my in-depth opinion on Sylvanas. If anybody has questions or I forgot to mention some huge important thing, leave a comment.
