Sylvanas

This is from the Warcraft universe.

“

The Dark Lady watches over you.

”

(6/10) (7/10) (7/10) (5/10)

Sylvanas is a Ranged Specialist Hero from the Warcraft universe.

She has a stoic, but arrogant personality.^[1] As Ranger-General of Silvermoon, Sylvanas is a leader of her people and a powerful force for good against the undead scourge that seek to overthrow the elven race. Her deadly accuracy is legend across Azeroth.^[2]

Background Edit

In death, Sylvanas still considers herself one of the foremost protectors of Quel'Thalas, and repeatedly offers assistance in the form of supplies and troops to the blood elves. This may be due in some part to the fact that the Dark Lady still grieves over her failure to protect Quel'Thalas from the Scourge invasion during the Third War, when she fell in battle.^[3]

Gameplay Summary Edit

Sylvanas a Specialist with powerful sustained damage, waveclear and mobility, featuring very balanced attributes. She is unique as her trait, Black Arrows, allows her to shutdown enemy minions and structures, essentially stunning them permanently as long Sylvanas hits them with Basic Attacks or Abilities.

Overall, Sylvanas fits into most team compositions due her very potent kit capable to destroying structures by herself if left alone, all while being capable of handling quite well in teamfights. Her versatile mobility also makes her quite difficult to take down.

Strengths Edit

Very high sustained damage for a Specialist Hero, rivaling or surpassing even some Assassins.
Formidable solo laner.
One of the strongest waveclears in the game.
Can easily solo Mercenary Camps.
Considerably low mana issues.
Black Arrows allows her to stun all enemy Minions, Mercenaries and Structures save for Bosses and Cores.
Withering Fire is an auto-target ability that provides very high burst and is great at pressuring opponents as Sylvanas can use it while moving, and can be used with Basic Attacks without cancelling them.
- It is also absurdly potent during teamfights that happen in lanes, as it'll recharge with each Minion killed.
Shadow Dagger is a very potent tool for spreading Black Arrow and shutting down as many Minions as possible.
Haunting Wave is a very versatile escape tool due its range.
- It is also very useful for chasing down opponents.
Wailing Arrow covers large radius and can shutdown the entire enemy team if properly timed.
Mind Control is a versatile Heroic Ability that can be used either to take down key-targets or to push away dangerous threat.

Weaknesses Edit

Very low healthpool.
Extremely bad in bursting heroes.
Struggles against heroes who can catch up to her Haunting Wave (such as Illidan).
Bad duelist.
Besides Haunting Wave, she has almost no solutions to break stealth.
Hard to master.
Weak against burst assassins (like Nova).
Considerable weak in the early game.
Poor teamfight power after using her Heroic Abilities.
Susceptible to stuns and silences, which prevents her from escaping with Haunting Wave.
Can struggle when fighting for lane domination against other Specialists (i.e. Zagara).
Withering Fire offers poor targeted damage as it can often hit enemy minions instead of Heroes.
Haunting Wave has a small delay, which requires proper timing.
Mind Control leaves Sylvanas completely vulnerable and open to retaliation.

Abilities Edit

Sylvanas specializes in DPS and siege damage.^[4]

Traits Edit

Heroic Abilities Edit

Talents Edit

Tier 1, Hero Level 1 Edit

Tier 2, Hero Level 4 Edit

Tier 3, Hero Level 7 Edit

Tier 4, Hero Level 10 Edit

Tier 5, Hero Level 13 Edit

Tier 6, Hero Level 16 Edit

Tier 7, Hero Level 20 Edit

Talent Builds Edit

Balanced Build: focused on providing Sylvanas with a healthy blend of damage, utility and mobility. This build allows Sylvanas to maximize her effectiveness in teamfights while still further improving her waveclear and sieging.
- If the map features a lot of strong Mercenaries (such as the ones in Braxis Holdout and Volskaya Foundry), taking Mercenary Queen at level 1 can greatly improve Sylvanas pushing power in the late game.
- If the enemy team features a very dangerous Assassin or powerful Support, Mind Control can be more useful instead to quickly eliminate those key targets.

Tips Edit

Withering Fire cost no mana, and their stacks refresh quickly, specially when waveclearing. Use them freely to speed up the laning phase.
Try hitting Shadow Dagger at a target that will more likely spread Black Arrows to as many enemies and structures possible.
Do not use Haunting Wave for waveclear; it should be used solely as a escape tool, or in other scenarios, to secure a takedown by chasing opponents.
Do not use Wailing Arrow preemptively; save it for when opponents are more likely to unleash powerful cooldowns to maximize the shutdown. It is great for interrupting channeled abilities.
Positioning is key when using Mind Control, as Sylvanas will be left vulnerable for 2.5 seconds.
- When controlling an enemy Hero, try putting them at a favorable location for the allied team to take them down.
While Sylvanas is a formidable solo laner due her ability to shutdown Structures, she becomes even more powerful with another Hero with high siege damage (i.e. Azmodan, Probius).

Matchups Edit

Pairings Edit

While Sylvanas pairs well with the majority of the cast, she truly shines when fighting alongside high-burst Assassins that complement her damage. In addition, having other split-pushers is a great way to create additional map pressure.

Azmodan is an incredibly strong solo laner and sieger, given the right circustances. This, combined with Sylvanas's Black Arrows.

Jaina provides an effective damage output and crowd control that works pretty well with Sylvanas, specially if Mind Control is taken, allowing Sylvanas to direct her victim directly into Jaina's abilities.

In a similar fashion to Azmodan, Probius powerful damage output can devastate structures if left alone, which makes him even more effective at split-pushing if Sylvanas is focused on another lane.

Valla has all the right tools to an effective teamfighter: high burst damage, mobility and hard crowd control (if Rain of Vengeance is taken. This allows Sylvanas to even focus on using backdoor strategies while her team focus on objectives, provided that Valla ready.

Effective against Edit

The perfect Portal engage can be completely nullified if your team is unable to follow up immediately. The silence and crowd control effects of Sylvanas’ Heroic abilities are very dangerous against teams looking to make good use of Medivh's portals.

Since Varian gains more power at level 10 than most Heroes, Sylvanas’ powerful early game pushes are difficult for Varian to handle.

Effective foes Edit

Sylvanas is at her best when being able to quietly push the lanes by disabling structures. Because of that, lane bullies that can constantly harass and dive can make her life a living nightmare, specially those that have mobility on par with her. In addition, stealth Heroes can also catch her by surprise while she is split-pushing.

Diablo's aggressive playstyle can greatly limit Sylvanas mobility. If timed correctly, he can effectively prevent her from teleporting with Haunting Wave after the initial cast, essentially sealing her fate.

Nova's superior range and burst damage can get Sylvanas unguarded. In addition, Triple Tap will hit Sylvanas even if she teleports with Haunting Wave.

Zeratul's high burst and ability to stick to his targets makes difficult for Sylvanas to escape even if she teleports with Haunting Wave.

Skins Edit

The Banshee Queen (base)


The Banshee Queen	Frost	Scarlet

Ranger-General Sylvanas 100: The Ranger-Generals are the commanders of the Farstriders of Quel'Thalas. It is their solemn duty to ensure the protection of Silvermoon, or give their lives in its defense.; _{Features altered voice-over.}


Ranger-General	Woodland	Ghostlands	Sin'dorei

Warchief 100: Sylvanas never wanted to be warchief, and was never fond of Vol'jin. Nevertheless, she has sworn to avenge the fallen shadow hunter and lead their people to victory against the Legion


Warchief	Cold	Crimson

Dark Lady 100: The guise of a Dark Ranger strikes fear into the hearts of their enemies. The guise of the Dark Ranger Queen will send them running for reinforcements...


Dark Lady	Plagued	San'layn

Raven 400: Those who fight against evil are often the most affected by it. The Rogues of Khanduras learned this well when their former sister Sylvanas fell in league with the maiden of Anguish, Andariel.; _{This skin is related to the Diablo themed-skins.}


Blood	Skeletal	Banshee	Jungle

Wild

Sugar Plum 1600: Sugar and spice? Maybe. Everything nice? Not by a long shot.; _{This skin is related to the Winter Veil themed-skins. Features themed abilities.}


Sugar Plum	Snow	Sour	Sweet 2400

Lunar 600: Much has changed for Quel'Thalas over the centuries, but the Windrunner family has never stopped honoring their elders during the Lunar Festival.


Lunar	Jade	Soaring

Development Edit

Sylvanas SC2 DevRend1 — Sylvanas's "good" (left) and "evil" (right) forms

Sylvanas was conceived within the first two years of the game's development.^[5] She appeared as a hero in early builds. She had powerful ranged attacks and was deadly, easy to kill. She benefited from dexterity items.^[2] She was a powerful mid to late game hero.^[1]

As with the rest of the characters at the time, Sylvanas had a "good" and "evil" form—in her case, corresponding to her living and undead forms respectively.^[1]

Her abilities and stats were as follows:

Stats
- Life: 1
- Attack: 5.25
- Abilities: 6
- Speed: 3.75
Abilities
- Trueshot Aura
- Wild Arrow
- Frost Arrow
- Silence
- Freezing Trap
- Multishot^[2]

Sylvanas has proven difficult to balance in regards to battleground design, given her ability to disable towers.^[6]

Trivia Edit

The description for Sylvanas' "Sugar Plum" skin (Sugar and spice? Maybe. Everything nice? Not by a long shot.) is a reference to the Powerpuff Girls speech made by the narrator in the original 1998 series' opening.

Patch changes Edit

(Patch April 24, 2018) Note: Fixed an issue causing Lunar Sylvanas to play an incorrect animation on the Most Played screen.
(Patch February 6, 2018) Note: Lunar skins added.
(Patch January 24, 2018) Note: Base Maximum Health reduced from 1456 to 1425; Health Regen reduced from 3.04 to 2.97.
(Patch June 13, 2017) Note: Raven skins added.
(Patch December 14, 2016) Note: Sylvanas’ prices reduced to $8.49 USD and 7,000 Gold.
(Patch May 17, 2016) Note: The back of Ranger-General Sylvanas’ leaf earring now appears more leaf-like.
(Patch March 29, 2016) Note: Basic Attack damage increased from 74 (+4% per level) to 85 (+4% per level).
(Patch January 12, 2016) Note: Sugar Plum Sylvanas temporarily removed for the season.
(Patch December 15, 2015) Note: Sugar Plum Sylvanas added.