Sylas is the king of the mid lane… but don’t tell him I said that. This champion is a powerful unit that has stayed relevant throughout many patches due to his innate value that makes him a huge threat in the pick and ban threats. Many fear Sylas and adjust their compositions around him. Let’s take a look at some Sylas tips and tricks that should give beginners a better idea on how to start improving when using this champion in their games.
The Best Sylas Tips and Tricks
Sylas hates the idea of leaders who dictate the rules but this champion follows his own set of laws in his playstyle. While he has the freedom of using any ultimate that’s available on the enemy team, he can’t just do anything he wants when playing the game. With these Sylas tips and tricks, players will be able to master the proper way to use his abilities so that they can have a higher winrate when picking this champion.
This champion likes to play in the middle of the fight, which can be a difficult task when playing as a full damage carry. He builds a lot of HP but that doesn’t make him tankier overall. Instead, he relies on healing and disrupting the enemy to survive in the teamfight. He works extremely well in the different types of team compositions. We’ll be tackling all of these points with our Sylas tips and tricks. Let’s take a look at how his abilities should be used efficiently in combat.
Stack Up the Passive!
Sylas’ passive is his primary source of AoE damage and can really help him dish out the hurt on the enemy team. Whenever he uses an ability, he gains a stack of Unshackled for 4 seconds, stacking up to 3 times. This is why it’s a good idea to have at least 1 stack available before you engage onto a fight to maximize your damage output once you start fighting an enemy champion with your dueling capabilities.
Players can generate a stack simply by using his E ability – Abscond – to dash towards the enemy. All of his abilities generate a stack so you don’t really have to manage or keep it in mind when trying to fight. However, it’s a good idea to continuously consume your stacks since Sylas can only hold up to a maximum of 3 at a time. Using this for auto-resets may also help in dealing damage because even if it’s just a small amount, it can mean the difference between life and death.
Mind the Sweet Spot
Sylas’ Q ability – Chain Lash – is a very underrated ability that casual Sylas users don’t really put a lot of importance to when executing his combos. However, using Chain Lash is an important source of DPS for Sylas as the explosion deals a good amount of damage as well as slowing the enemy champions when they are damaged by the initial shot. This is why players need to properly position the sweet spot of the Chain Lash ability to an area that will ensure the enemy gets hit.
When using this ability, most casual players simply place the sweet spot on top of the enemy’s current location. This works just fine against average players but higher ELO users know that they need to move around to avoid getting hit by the explosion to avoid the additional damage. If your enemy does this, it’s a good idea to place the sweet spot in a place where they’ll most likely run towards so that they’ll be forced to take another route or stay within your kill range.
His Healing is Insane!
Everyone knows that Sylas’ healing is insane. However, those who play Sylas for the first few times don’t really have the confidence to take advantage of his powerful ability to take over a fight despite being dangerously low on HP. Keep in mind that Sylas W ability – Kingslayer – has the shortest cooldown among his abilities so he can keep himself healthy for the majority of the fight so there’s no need to be afraid when he falls down to a lower HP percentage.
Sylas can turn around a fight even if he’s down to 5% HP. Newer players need to trust this champion’s capabilities more by staying in a fight for as long as possible and spamming his W whenever they can. Although, a common mistake that most players do when using this champion is simply spamming W whenever he’s low on health and completely ignoring his other abilities which causes the champion to lose out on a huge chunk of potential DPS.
Don’t Just Dash Blindly
Sylas’ E ability – Abscond/Abduct – is his primary mobility skill that he can use to close the gap between him and an enemy champion or run away in dangerous situations. Know which direction to dash is often a skill that players need to understand, especially when playing this champion because getting caught out of position after using a dash can mean instant death for you.
One of the most common Sylas tips and tricks that you’ll receive when playing this champion is don’t always use this ability to move towards an enemy champion. Advanced players mostly use this ability to stack up his passive. Unless you’re committing to a fight you can surely win, it’s best to throw out your E abilities to the side so that it never hits anything. You’ll often see advanced Sylas players throw his chains to the side and that’s actually a great strategy to avoid misposition in a fight and getting punished as a result.
Make Your Ultimate Count
Sylas can take one ultimate at any time for a short duration. One of the first Sylas tips regarding his ultimate is to only steal an enemy’s ultimate once the fight begins. Preemptively taking an enemy’s ultimate is a complete waste because they can simply wait it out, leaving Sylas with a huge cooldown. In teamfights, you can steal an ability before the fight begins to threaten the enemy team to play cautiously.
Another tip is to choose which ultimates to get. Not all ultimates are great so don’t steal anything that doesn’t have any teamfight value or you don’t know how to use. The best ultimates to acquire are heavy teamfight ultimates from champions like Ornn, Gnar, Galio, or Kennen. You can also get defensive ultimates that make Sylas harder to kill like those belonging to Alistar, Olaf, Soraka, or Taric.