Overview
Sylas is a powerful and versatile champ in the League of Legends game. He is an assassin-mage type of champion who can maneuver easily through the battlefield and take out his opponents with ease. Sylas possesses an excellent set of skills that makes him a formidable opponent to deal with.
In this article, we will provide you with an overview of Sylas, his abilities, and how to use him effectively in the game.
Lore
Sylas is a champion from the game League of Legends, created and developed by Riot Games. He was released on March 27th, 2019 as part of the Rising Tides update.
Sylas is a young mage from Reviews Island, who has the petrified remains of the magical city Ionia embedded into his skin. After a tragic accident took both his parents away, he was taken in by one of Ionia’s mages and learned their ways in order to better understand himself and his own powers. As an adult he quickly gained attention due to his incredible aptitude with magic and was given leadership over one of Ionia’s many magical factions.
Rising to power rapidly also stirred shadowy forces which sought to manipulate him and use him to further their goals – only too late did Sylas realize that these same forces were behind the death of his parents years before. Fueled by anger, he resisted these influences and has become an archmage on mission for justice and retribution for all who have wronged Ionia in any way shape or form. Now he rushes from place to place seeking out injustice of all kinds, wielding ancient magical powers to mete out judgement – until justice is done for Ionia once more.
Abilities
Sylas is a mobile mage champion that relies on short burst of damage to take out enemies. He can easily traverse the map with his passive, Unleash Chains, which enables closer deployment and tactical repositioning.
His first ability, Tempest, damages enemies and reduces their attack speed. His second ability, Chain Lash, damages multiple nearby enemies while also damaging himself in the process. His ultimate Ability, Abscond / Abduct, allows him to dash away from trouble or even launch an enemy champion into an unfavorable battle situation.
Along with these powerful abilities is Sylas’s trait Hijack that allows him to take an allied or enemy ultimate for himself. This powerful combination of mobility and burst damage make Sylas a dangerous enemy in any fight and can easily turn the tide of battle in his favor.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Sylas, the Unshackled is a highly versatile champion that has multiple viable playstyles. His strengths come from his kit, which is full of options that can be used to create and take advantage of unexpected openings in a match. He has four Dash/Blink abilities, as well as two utility spells that affect himself and his enemies. His ultimate is also an incredibly potent tool for taking team fights, breaching towers, and creating massive advantages during the mid and late game phases.
When it comes to weaknesses, Sylas can be particularly vulnerable early on to more experienced players. If his basic attacks fail to land or if he’s caught out of position without flash, then he can quickly become punished and put himself at risk of dying in a clash. Additionally, due to Sylas’ reliance on using mana for most of his abilities, it’s important for players to pay attention to their resource management skills in order for him to be fully effective throughout an encounter.
Playstyle
Sylas is a strong and adaptive champion in the ever-changing League of Legends landscape, who can play in a variety of ways and can adapt to any team composition. His playstyle involves leveraging his innate strength to be able to secure kills early on, while his ultimate is capable of providing an impressive gamechanging moment. With his ability set, he can effectively play both in the mid lane and in the jungle, while also being able to roam.
To maximize his potential and secure victory, it’s important to understand the different playstyles and strategies he can employ:
Early Game
Sylas’ early game is characterized by low mobility and survivability compared to other champions in LoL, however he makes up for it by having strong poke and crowd control abilities at his disposal. His W ‘Kingslayer’ gives him a good amount of health back upon a successful hit on an enemy champion, allowing for some much-needed sustain in lane. Trading with Sylas in lane should be done with caution as many of his abilities can quickly take down an enemy’s health bar if the player isn’t careful.
In team fights, Sylas should focus on using his E ‘Abscond/Abduct’ to disrupt and displace enemy champions while using W ‘Kingslayer’ and Q ‘Chain Lash’ to poke enemies from afar. Most importantly, engage with caution – as he is much easier to burst than most other champions during the early stages of a game. Utilizing these skills will help Sylas obtain control over lane throughout the early game phase.
Mid Game
Mid game is when Sylas starts to come into his own. He has a strong ability kit that allows him to excel in this phase of the game. Sylas is a great mid game team fighter due to his abilities’ crowd control capabilities. He can also naturally push waves of enemies away with the pull from Unleashed Power (R).
Sylas can easily cover side lanes with just one ability by taking advantage of the increased range on Chain Lash (Q). He is able to easily punish enemy carries by locking them down and providing burst or sustained damage depending on what kind of items he’s building.
When engaging in team fights, Sylas should be looking to capitalize on individual pick off opportunities while still working towards objectives as a whole. One of Sylas’ best tools for pick offs is Abscond/Abduct (E) + Chain Lash (Q) combo, allowing him to escape as well as provide an additional stun for his team if necessary.
Being able to maintain pressure over multiple areas of the map simultaneously makes him an invaluable asset for any team composition. Both Abscond/Abduct (E) and Kingslayer (W), offer very good wave clear, so he can start an objective without too much worry about wards or getting ganked by enemy junglers.Syal’s ultimate Unleashed Power (R), is less potent in mid game as it typically serves more meaningful purposes later in the game, however it’s still very powerful in certain situations such as catching out enemies or countering Baron Nashor attempts.
Late Game
Sylas is best at his strongest points of the late game. Here, you’ll want to spend a lot of time roaming around the map with his 4-dash kit and splitpushing with his Mark of Whimsy ability. Using Mark of Whimsy, Sylas can easily turn the tide in fights by using it on an enemy carry to keep them distracted while your team takes them down. That should leave you with enough time to take objectives or turret dive without getting crushed.
In teamfights, Sylas should focus more on crowd control than damage due to his frailness and ability to be easily destroyed in a matter of seconds. With King’s Tribute and Chain Lash, Sylas is able to disable enemies from attacking him or attempting the same tactic onto an ally. When it comes down to dealsyals big ult Unleashed Power, try to save it until multiple enemies are stacked up for maximum efficiency. Sylas does have surprisingly good waveclear capabilities which makes him a great sieger for taking down objectives easily as well as catching up in gold deficit by farming lane minions on towers quickly with either Chain Lash or King’s Tribute whilst pressuring turrets safely with increased mobility from Abscond and Abduct outside objective initial spawn points so your team can get ahead quickly and dominate the game before it slips away from your grasp.
Itemization
Knowing the right itemization for Sylas is essential to mastering this champion. The itemization options that Sylas has available depend on the role that he is playing in your team composition. Sylas can either be a damage dealer or a tank, and both of these roles require different itemization.
By understanding Sylas’ itemization, you can maximize his effectiveness in the game.
Core Items
The core items to include when itemizing are all necessary costs and expenses associated with the purchase or delivery of goods. These are usually broken down into categories, such as materials and labour, which makes it easier to account for expenses accurately. When itemizing, relevant taxes should also be included.
Core items typically include:
- Cost of materials and/or services
- Cost of transportation
- Tax related to the purchase or delivery of goods
- Any special fees or charges that are incurred
- Applicable labour and/or installation costs
It is important to be accurate and detailed when itemizing in order to ensure that a proper accounting of all relevant cost categories is maintained for a given purchase or transaction.
Situational Items
Building the right items for your champion is a key part of success in League of Legends. Every champion has different strengths and weaknesses that can be greatly affected by the build. Sylas is no exception – ensuring you have the right situational items tailored to each game can mean the difference between carrying and feeding.
When building items on Sylas, there are some guiding principles to consider first: Ability Power, Magic Penetration, Cooldown Reduction or Tenacity (resistance against crowd control). However, there are a few specific items that are valuable additions based on the game mode and opposing team composition:
- Abyssal Mask: If facing heavy magic damage in team fights, this is an ideal pick up as it grants increased resistance to magic damage output and reduces any magic damage inflicted on your team members in a certain range around you.
- Hextech Protobelt-01: This item works great with Sylas’ ultimate allowing him travel quickly into position or out of an unfavorable situation. Furthermore, its passive provides additional locked magics spells when low health granting stronger burst potential.
- Zhonya’s Hourglass: An excellent item for bursting down enemy champions during team fights with an active that stops all incoming damage while enemies can’t target you while active form.
- Rylai’s Crystal Scepter: This item gives tremendous utility to your kit when coupled with a percent health slow from ability casts – especially useful for locking down priority targets in fights or flanks during gank attempts and objective takes like Baron & Dragon.
It should also be noted that these situational items may change based on your game mode as well as opposing team composition/build so it is important to be mindful of what is needed in each situation!
Tips and Tricks
Sylas is a versatile champion that scales very well with AP and offers a lot of power in team fights; it’s important to understand all his strengths and weaknesses before playing him. Here are some tips and tricks you can use to maximize your potential as Sylas:
- Maximize the mobility of Sylas by using his kinetic form ability to quickly move between lanes, jungle camps or contested objectives.
- Syal’s Kingslayer ability can be used offensively or defensively, depending on the situation. Use it to quickly close the gap between you and your target, or help an ally escape an uncertain situation.
- Unleashed Power offers high AP damage based on your ult’s cooldown time; use it wisely and make sure you don’t waste this powerful ultimate!
- Keep in mind that Sylas has no dash/blink abilities so positioning and timing are crucial for success. Always try to predict where enemies may be and hover until they appear on your screen.
- Wit’s End turns Sylas into an efficient damage sponge which dampens heavy burst damage from enemy champions; make sure you capitalize on this defensive tool when agroed by multiple champions at once!
Teamfighting
With his kit and his strong ability to team fight, Sylas has the potential to be one of the most powerful champions in League of Legends. His ability to engage, escape and reveal his enemies during fights makes him a deadly opponent. He is also a great initiator with his Unstoppable Onslaught, allowing teamfights to start with him in the lead.
Let’s explore more of the ins and outs of Sylas’s teamfighting potential.
Positioning
Positioning is a crucial part of teamfighting with Sylas. You must both stay alive while dealing damage to the enemy. Your priority is to keep yourself safe, so when engaging in a fight, the most important thing you can do is survive the initial burst. To ensure your safety, it’s important to find positioning that puts you out of reach of enemy abilities and burst damage. This means positioning behind walls or using terrain for cover when engaging in fights.
When fighting against multiple enemies, try to position yourself closest to the furthest target from you, as this will give you more time and space between yourself and any incoming threats. Having a good sense of where your allies are at all times can also help ensure that they are providing enough peel and protection for you. If there is no safe space to place yourself in, then try to get near an ally who’s capable of shielding or healing so they can provide assistance as needed.
Finally, make sure to adjust your positioning depending on how the fight develops. If your team gets pushed back too far it might be necessary for you to switch targets or find a more optimal position in order for you make an impact on the fight without putting yourself at risk from enemy abilities or crowd control effects from multiple enemies at once. In these situations, don’t be afraid to retreat if necessary – often it’s better to live and fight another day than take unnecessary risks!
Target Priority
When Sylas is teamfighting, he needs to focus on chopping away at enemies with his sustained damage. However, there are certain targets he should prioritize over others. Below is a list of the most important targets that Sylas should be targeting in a teamfight:
- High Level-Power Spike Squishy Champions: Focus on these champions first and foremost since they usually pose the biggest threat to your team by having strong burst potential and/ or threats like CC or an ult that can win a fight for their team.
- Frontline Champions: Sylas can easily maneuver around an enemy frontline, dealing damage while avoiding being easily targeted by his opponents’ abilities. Focus on these tanky opponents who will soak up damage from your teammates, allowing you to progress further towards enemies squishies.
- Casters and Mages: These enemies have often have powerful abilities which thus need to be shut down as soon as possible due to their burst and crowd control potential.
Sylas’ basic gameplan in teamfights should be focusing high power spike/squishy targets first like other assassins as well as using crowd control abilities such as Chain Lash properly during the fight. In addition, if he is near low health enemy tanks and bruisers, try and finish them off quickly with empowered auto attacks or abilities if it means you can get closer to safely damaging priority targets within the fights!
Crowd Control
Having the right Crowd Control (CC) can be essential for winning teamfights as a Sylas player, allowing you to choose which enemy you want to focus and possibly setting up a great wombo-combo. Sylas has access to some of the most powerful and versatile CC abilities in the game. His Q, Chain Lash, is an excellent all-purpose CC since it’s is an instant CC on its own and can also be used again right after its stun duration runs out. His W, Abscond/Abduct, is an enchanting root that replaces his Q while his ult Unleashed Power gives him access to any ability in League of Legends.
Using these abilities in combination with others or with the ults of your teammates can produce devastatingly powerful ultimates that will almost guarantee you the victory in your next teamfight. Knowing how to time and chain your crowd control effects based on whether it’s Damaging+Stun or Root+Stun for example can take your teamfighting prowess to new heights. When approaching a teamfight start by assessing what CCs are available from both sides and try to brainstorm how combining them together could create an explosive wombo-combo moment.
Tips and Tricks
Playing as Sylas in League of Legends (LoL) can be daunting for those that are just starting out. However, with the right strategy and some tips and tricks, Sylas can be an incredibly powerful champion.
In this section, we will explore some useful tips and tricks to help you get the most out of this powerful champion:
Lane Matchups
When playing Sylas, one of the most important things to consider in the game is his matchups against other champions in the same lane. Knowing what champions he’s good against and which ones are more challenging will help you decide when it is beneficial to play him.
Considering all champions have unique abilities, strengths, weaknesses and playstyles understanding how they interact with each other is essential for making informed decisions in-game. Here are some tips on Syla’slane matchups:
- vs Standard Top Laners: Sylas has multiple ways of engaging enemies in top lane and can be effectively played against most standard top laners. His ability to indirectly burst down opponents allows him to challenge most champions without taking too much damage from them. This makes him a relatively safe pick for top lane as it decreases chances of failing horribly or ending up steamrolled by a counter pick.
- vs Mages/Assassins: Since his ult gives him access to every spell used on him during teamfights, Sylas can be played aggressively or cautiously depending on opponent’s playstyle. In matchups vs mages he should generally focus on harassing with his spells while dodging theirs, this reduces chances of having his HP bar melted away too quickly after using ult’s shield thus preserving some mana for an engagement later down the line. Outranging/outmaneuvering assassins such as Fizz or Kha’zix comes down mostly to skillshots and hitbox judging (ranges), this requires knowing enemy’s cooldowns along with being able to calculate movement orbits accurately while watching yours at the same time – something that comes with practice and experience playing Sylas (or mobas generally).
Overall playing vs certain types of matchup requires understanding core mechanics behind them while drawing strategies from your own understanding; this comes only with time spent practicing both said champion & respective matchup type – something that should happen over time throughout various games you may enter as Sylas main or one-trick player.
Counterplay
When playing against Sylas, it’s important to keep in mind that his kit allows him to get up close and personal. That said, try to stay out of his range, or avoid attacking him if he’s not already occupied. You should also be wary of Sylas’ ultimate (Hijack) ability: his core strategy revolves around stealing other champions’ ultimates and using them against you. If you see him casting this spell, try to quickly get out of the way or interrupt it with a stun or knockback until help arrives.
In terms of specific champions, Sylas will struggle against tanks who can easily draw his attention away from squishier targets. Characters like Ornn or Maokai are particularly effective in absorbing damage for their team and disrupting Sylas’ combos. Additionally, any champion with strong crowd control abilities can easily put a stop to his antics before they start; since stealing an enemy ultimate requires channeling time, champions such as Nautilus, Lissandra and Nami are all adept at shutting down Sylas’ game plan. Finally, keep in mind that all forms of healing are very effective against him since sustaining through fights is critical for success – so don’t forget about your tanky supports!
Combos
When playing as Sylas in League of Legends, you’ll want to learn how to combo your abilities together effectively. A successful combo can deal massive damage to your opponents and create a great opportunity for getting kills.
The most common combo is using your Q (Chained Strike) auto attack, followed by your E (Kingslayer) and W (Petricite Burst) abilities in quick succession. This will knock up opponents and give you the chance to get a few auto attacks off while they’re stunned or in the air. You can also choose to use Q first followed by another stun from your W. This will make it much easier for you to land your final damage with E’s huge AoE burst of damage from petricite crystals.
In team fights, try not to waste time with long combos as enemies will be able to easily dodge it or break away from the initial chain of attacks before finishing the combo sequence. Instead go for short and hard hitting ones to catch them off guard as quickly as possible. Finally, use your ultimate R (Hijack) ability when an enemy has just used their ultimate ability or a key spell, as this will allow you steal any enemy’s spells and use it against them!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How is Sylas played in League of Legends?
A: Sylas is a very versatile champion in League of Legends. He can be played as a mid-laner, a support, or a jungler. Depending on your play style, you can choose to play Sylas aggressively or defensively. His kit is full of crowd control, disruption, and damage, so he’s a great pick for almost any team composition.
Q: What is Sylas’ most powerful ability?
A: Sylas’ ultimate ability, Hijack, is one of the strongest in the game. It allows him to steal enemy spells and use them for his own purposes. He can also use Hijack to enhance his own spells, adding additional crowd control, damage, or disruption depending on the stolen spell.
Q: What are Sylas’ strengths and weaknesses?
A: Sylas’ main strengths are his versatility, crowd control, and disruption. His ultimate ability gives him access to a wide range of powerful spells, and his kit is full of tools to disrupt enemies and control the battlefield. His main weakness is his lack of mobility, as he can be easily kited and outmaneuvered by more mobile champions.