Sylvanas Build Guide “Let none survive!”

Sylvanas is a mobile Ranged Assassin with versatile builds and playstyles that allow her to adapt to many different situations. She has several tools to safely pressure enemies and contribute in fights. However, she is heavily dependent on completing her Black Arrows's Quest to reach full power. Once her main Quest is finished and the game reaches the late game, her damage, self sustain, and mobility are extremely high.

Strengths

• Improves the survivability of certain Map Objectives through Haunting Arrows
• Excellent waveclear with Unstable Poison
• Good pushing power with Possession
• Versatile and powerful Heroic Ability choices
• Versatile builds with strong single target or AoE damage, mobility, self-sustain and burst or sustained damage
• Provides utility through armor reduction and crowd control tools

Weaknesses

• Weak early game
• Inability to deal selective damage; often stuck having to target what is closest
• Low maximum Health; vulnerable to other, more mobile Assassins

Sustained Damage Build

Recommended

Level 1

Level 4 ? ?

Level 7

Level 10 ?

Level 13

Level 16 ?

Level 20 ? ?

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This Sustained Damage Build utilizes several Talents to accelerate or facilitate the cooldown recovery of Shadow Dagger. By constantly using this ability, Sylvanas can constantly deal high amounts of damage to all enemies during fights.

This build is particularly effective against enemy compositions with low mobility, as these can be easily kited or hit by Mind Control.

The primary Heroic choice for this Build is Mind Control. It instantly applies all 3 Black Arrows stacks while also rendering an enemy 100% vulnerable to your attacks. This synergy greatly reduces the cooldown on Shadow Dagger and marks other enemies due to Remorseless, speeding up the Black Arrows quest completion.

Burst Build

Advanced

Level 1

Level 4 ? ?

Level 7

Level 10 ?

Level 13 ?

Level 16 ? ?

Level 20 ? ?

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This build focuses on maximizing burst damage potential. At Level 13, choose between Windrunner and Cold Embrace. Cold Embrace is better when targeting melee units to maintain safe positioning. For ranged targets, select Windrunner, as you will need to use the second Haunting Wave to reach them.

While Wailing Arrow is a great part of your burst damage, Mind Control should not be ignored as an alternative Heroic Ability. Consider picking Mind Control if your main target has no mobility and the enemy team lacks cleanse to counter it. This can create several opportunities to pick off enemies for your team.

Aram Build

ARAM

Level 1

Level 4 ? ?

Level 7

Level 10 ?

Level 13

Level 16 ?

Level 20 ? ?

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This build focuses on having the best late game options available, while also providing decent damage at early levels. However, this build is very dependent on completing the Black Arrows quest, so your early and mid games should be focused on completing this quest as soon as possible.

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Sylvanas synergizes with

Sylvanas is a flexible pick whose build and gameplay versatility allow her to work well with almost any team composition. She excels when allied with Heroes that can reliably pull enemies together or keep them in place with area of effect crowd control, as she can easily burst down grouped enemies in confined spaces with Wailing Arrow and Shadow Dagger. Furthermore, she pairs well with Heroes that can quickly finish off low Health enemies, since her Talent builds can either spread damage across multiple targets or enable the team to swiftly eliminate a single priority target through Mind Control.

Sylvanas is countered by

As a fragile backline Hero, Sylvanas struggles against anything that can either burst her down or match the mobility provided by Haunting Wave. Stealthed Heroes are particularly threatening to her, as they severely limit her ability to safely stack her Black Arrows quest.

Sylvanas's stronger maps

Sylvanas's average maps

Sylvanas's weaker maps

Haunting Arrows makes Sylvanas especially strong on Maps with lane-pushing Objectives, as it greatly improves her ability to push when her team controls the Objective. Because much of her power comes from completing Black Arrows's quest, she also prefers Maps that promote frequent team fights or offer safe access to enemy Structures, where she can stack by hitting Forts and Keeps or by defending against enemy Objective pushes. By contrast, Maps such as Sky Temple and Blackheart's Bay, which discourage fighting and give few chances to hit Structures, make stacking slow and unreliable for her.

• Before completing Black Arrows's quest, Withering Fire and Shadow Dagger should be mostly used after infecting enemies with Black Arrows 3 times to quickly stack it.
• Without Festering Wounds, Haunting Wave should almost exclusively be used only for its mobility, as it deals minimal damage.
• Hold on to Wailing Arrow until you can hit many opponents or for when you need to prevent a Hero from saving another.
• If the opposing team has no good peeling tools, you can use Mind Control even on the enemy frontline to kill them.
• When Mind Control is combined with Remorseless, use it to quickly apply maximum Black Arrows stacks to your target, as the following attacks will spread the effect to nearby Heroes, making the fight much easier.
• Haunting Arrows allows you to push down Structures without Minions; exploit this especially with allies and vehicles.
• Possession can be used to quickly kill the Mage Minion to get its Regeneration Globe, just make sure it is safe to collect it.
• Possession can be used on Catapult Minions at the cost of 3 stacks. However, it should only be done after the wave is cleared, or the rest of the wave will otherwise kill it quickly.

Sylvanas offers a flexible mix of traits: safe and effective waveclear through Unstable Poison, strong Structure and Objective pressure through Haunting Arrows, and high clumped-target damage through Shadow Dagger-focused Talents. Because much of her power is gated behind completing Black Arrows's quest, she is especially effective on Maps with lane-pushing Objectives, frequent mid game fights, or safe access to distant enemy Structures she can repeatedly hit for stacks.

Her Talent tree is also very flexible. When the enemy team lacks tools to threaten her, she can opt into a more sustained damage setup with Remorseless. Against low peeling compositions, she can run a full burst build with Cold Embrace, or a dive-oriented style with Windrunner to quickly eliminate squishy Heroes.

She fits into most team compositions, but she excels with allies that can reliably group or lock down enemies, allowing her to land Wailing Arrow on multiple targets, or with Heroes that can quickly finish low Health enemies she has already damaged.