Ok last question post on forums for a while. Sylvanas tips? I know people dont like her q build but that’s probably what ill stick with so any suggestions around playing her within that build would be appreciated.
So I’ve been playing her quite a bit when Raynor is picked or banned and I’m in the ranged slot. I have had good success with all three of her major builds, so I’ll just give some perspective on when I pick which.
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Auto attack build is very good when you have a solid frontline (2 tanks or tank + beefy bruiser) and against enemy teams that don’t have very high mobility. This build plays very much like Valla and is great when your flex damage is a mage.
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Her quest build with armor shred is amazing when you want to kill the enemy tanks and you are not as worried about getting blown up yourself. Play this style on 2-lane maps against enemy teams that cannot threaten you very well. This is especially good on the Angel map when the enemy team does not have much dive.
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Windrunner build is very strong when you are on a dive team and can exploit her high mobility against an enemy team that cannot handle a fast moving offensive attacker. Great against a team that is mostly melee or that has limited lockdown. Good on larger maps. Great against enemy team comps that will naturally spread out. Don’t play this against deathballs.
If you need specific talent choices for he above, let me know. My win rate is very high in ranked games on Sylv (80% on Asia, in the high 60s on USWest).
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Yes please talent suggestions and a replay if you have one. What do you think of q talents? That’s general what i play bc it allows me to focus on other things such as autoattacks and is good in solo lane.
Auto Attack Build:
-1) Overwhelming Affliction
-4) Map Specific
-7) Lost Soul
-10) Mind Control
-13) Remorseless
-16) Life Drain / Evasive Fire (pick if you need mobility or survivability)
-20) Dark Lady’s Call
Shadow Dagger Build:
-1) Unfurling Shadows
-4) Map Specific
-7) Festering Wounds
-10) Wailing Arrow
-13) Cold Embrace
-16) Will of the Forsaken
-20) Deafening Blast
Windrunner Build:
-1) Might of the Banshee Queen
-4) Map Specific
-7) Lost Soul (yes, it is better than Barbed Shot usually)
-10) Wailing arrow
-13) Windrunner
-16) Evasive Fire
-20) Deafening Blast
For your level 4 talent, you pick that based on the map and how much wave clear your team has. On 2-lane maps, you usually want to go with Mercenary Queen or Possession depending upon how good the mercs are on that map. On 3-lane maps (especially if your team has low wave clear) you usually want to go Unstable Poison. The good thing about your level 4 talent is that no build really enables any of them, so they are purely to enhance your ability to complete tasks on the map.
I’ll see if I can come up with some decent replay clips to explain the general mechanics of how you are supposed to move and attack. It might require me to make a video… All three builds position themselves very differently, and engage enemies very differently after level 13.
Edit: I should also mention that Blink is a fine level 20 choice if you are having significant mobility problems. Generally you get more value out of the improved ultimate, but never discount the power of Blink. I pick it in maybe 10% of my games…
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Good info thanks.
A few questions.
Can you explain your choice of heroics? For example, why do you pick Wailing arrow with shadow dagger build? (I usually burst a target, then when they start to back off, mind control them back towards me to take out a target 1 vs 1)
Can you explain the reasoning for merc. queen on 2 lane maps?
The slow synergizes with the aa talent at 1 and it has high single target dmg so the isolated target is more effective than the group targeting of arrow. The unstable poison is most useful when you double soak lanes and with two lane maps they are too big to rotate in this way/no point to do it bc your team has lane covered. Merc queen allows for pushing which can be powerful on maps like braxis.
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Shadowmare is pretty much spot on, but I’ll add some perspective.
With the Shadow Dagger build you are fighting a large frontline and/or death ball. You want burst damage, preferably AoE. For late game team fights, you are basically targeting the closest grouped target, throwing your wave over as many people as you can, daggering the frontline, auto attacking them once for it to spread, and then arrowing the stack. Done properly you throw out about 3.2K damage to 2-5 targets in about 2 seconds. This lets you win team fights.
I guess it makes sense. Though I often finish targets with Arrow 1 vs 1 too so not much of a diff. on that front.
On a two lane map, I would usually get a merc camp pre objective, and then go to obj with my team. Like on BoE . Though I wouldn’t pick Sylvanas there. I pick her mostly on Volskaya and Alterac.
Whenever I would not go unfurling shadows, I just pick a different assassin.
I would argue that BoE is one of her absolute best maps. Merc queen is very strong pushing with spear throwers, and also lets you easily solo the summoner camp even when your D is down. Her singletarget damage is great against the immortal, and her ability to shut their fort off lets you maximize damage when pushing with the immortal.
I would rank her best map to be the punisher map, and then BoE after that.
As far as her other builds, I think she is very competitive compared to other assassins. She is my go-to pick if Raynor is not available as I find her less dependent on having a carry support than Valla, and safer in team fights than Fenix.
She is one of the better designed heroes in that you can draft her early and flex her build around the draft after you get in game. There are no maps she is bad on and nothing hard counters her.
I like this build but with the quest at level 1 when I’m in the scenario that you described; solid frontline on team.
You can really get some sick stacking on quest going when you got the level 7 and 13 talent and have the oppurtunity to consistently AA enemy heroes.
I had a match in Brawl, where our team did not have a healer, but was crazy tanky, and the enemy team was crazy tanky, and neither teams had much damage, allowing me to stack crazily.
I already posted this one in a different thread, but them stacks were craaaaazeeeey.
What about running with the other level 7, which name I cannot remember, “Haunting Wave has 25% damage and applies 3 stacks of curse”?
When I use windrunner build I go for that one to apply a extra burst and to be able to instantly make use of 3 stacks of Curse when I go in.
I usually go for windrunner build when I expect my fights to be more mobile and shorter and as such I don’t expect that I’ll be able to AA the same target +3 too much where E upgrade synergizes with double E at 13.
The reason for the level one talent is how the slow works combined with the 1%. I’ve tested both in many games, and the stacking quest doesn’t benefit you enough to overshadow the damage and control of the other talent unless you are doing the burst AoE dagger build.
And for the wind runner build, you are using your wave for mobility and attacking as fast as you can between teleports. You end up doing way more by staying on the enemies flank. Going festering at level 7 means you are getting less damage out overall, and it doesn’t let you use wave for mobility since you are trying to hit targets with them.
You might have a point.
I’ll have to try out Lost Souls instead and try it with your strategy.
But when I do festering windrunner, I try to E through them, so I end up on the other side. Then using the movement speed from the level 16 talent and you’re pretty difficult to catch, then use E towards a safe area when it’s necessary.
I’ve had pretty good success out of this, but I’ll try your way just to see how it feels and works. (nothing better than personally experiencing something y’know?)
I’ve found using the wave purely on the flank for mobility and then running the other level 7 lets you get a second W off in a single “teleport rotation” which actually equates to more damage, while also being safer.
It ends up working very similar to how you team fight with Leoric from a mechanical standpoint (obviously with a very different purpose).
Only when you have cold embrace no? Other heroes, (Raynor, Valla, Lunara, Greymane, Zul Jin) have better damage output on it. Unless I’m missing something? My personal best map for her is Volskaya. You can stack W like crazy, and you get extra large turrets. (Does merc queen increase the hit box or is it just visual?)
It does, BUT NO ONE REALIZES THAT, SO THEY GO SOLO LANE WITH SYLV. DURING THE IMMORTAL PUSH AND THEY ACCOMPLISH NOTHING!.
Why infernal shrines?
Honestly, I think Valla sucks right now.
Infernal Shrines map objective benefits the most from her D trait. It lets you be super aggressive and protect your punisher when it jumps. The main tactic to kill the punisher now is to jump it over the wall and drag it behind your fort—Sylvanis can counter this very well.
Also, her wave clear and rotation potential works very well on that map, in addition to the way that team fights tend to be deathballs where her AoE build dominates.
And the Valla+Morales combo is still the strongest 2-hero combination in the game. Don’t listen to the haters on Valla. She is niche, but still dominates in her role. Two seasons ago I went 18-2 on Morales with Valla allies in Hero League from Platinum up to Diamond. It is still just as good.