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Owl is the real MVP

0 1 12,302
by Edane updated October 1, 2014

Smite God: Sylvanus

Build Guide Discussion 2 More Guides
Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Sylvanus Build

Start Items

Build Item Watcher's Gift Watcher's Gift
Build Item Hand Of The Gods (Old) Hand Of The Gods (Old)
Build Item Multi Potion Multi Potion
Build Item Ward Ward

Core Items

Build Item Midas Boots (M) Midas Boots (M)
Build Item Wrath of the Gods Wrath of the Gods
Build Item Greater Blink Greater Blink
Build Item Sovereignty Sovereignty

Late Game

Build Item Magi's Cloak Magi's Cloak
Build Item Stone of Gaia Stone of Gaia
Build Item Witchblade Witchblade

Consumables

Build Item Mana Potion Mana Potion
Build Item Ward Ward
Build Item Sentry Ward Sentry Ward

Sylvanus's Skill Order

Verdant Growth

1 X Y
Verdant Growth
1 8 11 12 14

Wisps

2 A B
Wisps
2 4 6 7 9

Nature's Grasp

3 B A
Nature's Grasp
3 15 16 18 19

Wrath of Terra

4 Y X
Wrath of Terra
5 10 13 17 20
Verdant Growth
1 8 11 12 14

Verdant Growth

1 X
Sylvanus throws a seed to a target location. If it hits an enemy they will take damage, lose Protections, and become Rooted. If the seed lands on the ground, after 5s it will grow into a flower providing MP5 to nearby allies. The pod can be destroyed by Basic Attacks (maximum 3 pods), exploding and releasing poisonous spores that reduce Protections of nearby enemies.

Ability Type: Circle, Root, Damage
Damage: 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+50% of your Magical Power)
MP5 Increase: 20
Protections Reduced: 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 (+5%) for 5s
Root Duration: 1.5s
Range/Radius: 45/10
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 / 11s
Wisps
2 4 6 7 9

Wisps

2 A
Sylvanus releases wisps that seek out nearby allies and enemies. Allied gods are Protected and all allies are Healed while enemies take damage over time.

The initial wisp heals allied gods and damages enemy gods for twice the normal amount. This ability does not create seed pods when hitting minions.

Ability Type: Target, Heal, Damage
Damage: 14 / 20 / 26 / 32 / 38 (+10% of your Magical Power) every 1s for 5s
Heal: 10 / 14 / 18 / 22 / 26 every 1s for 5s
Protections Gained: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 for 5s
Minion Effectiveness: 35% Healing and Damage
Radius: 30
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 14s
Nature's Grasp
3 15 16 18 19

Nature's Grasp

3 B
Sylvanus's treant launches his rooty hand out in front of him. The hand stops at the first enemy god hit, stunning them and pulling them back towards Sylvanus.

Ability Type: Line, Grab
Stun Duration: 1s
Range: 60
Cost: 70 / 65 / 60 / 55 / 50
Cooldown: 14 / 13.5 / 13 / 12.5 / 12s
Wrath of Terra
5 10 13 17 20

Wrath of Terra

4 Y
Sylvanus's treant slams his large trunks into the ground causing large thorny roots to break out of the ground around him. Enemies hit are knocked up and poisoned.

Ability Type: Circle, Knockup, Damage
Damage: 60 / 75 / 90 / 105 / 120 (+25% of your Magical Power) every 1s for 5s
Radius: 35
Cost: 100
Cooldown: 90s

Introduction

Hi there, so I heard you want to know how to play Sylvanus ey'? Sylvanus is a great god. He's got everything you want a support to have, with a kit that greatly mixes utility and sustain together for a fantastic blend. In this guide I'll try to explain all you need to know in order to perform as best as you can, without too much prior knowledge. I'll try not to write too much, however, if you'd like me to elaborate some topics then feel free to leave a comment down below. Thanks for taking a look, and have a good day.

Pros / Cons

Pros:
    High Defense
    A lot of CC
    Has a heal
Cons:
    Low Mobility
    Long cooldowns

Items

As a support you need to itemize in order to counter the other team. Do they have a lot of slows? Buy Winged Blade. Strong physical carries? You'll need Witchblade. The build above should help you deal with most teams, so I can fully recommend it if you're just starting out and don't know what to buy yet. Below I'll list why you pick those up, along with a couple of other good items, which should be good in various situations.

This item is everything you could want for a support, it immediately helps you gain gold along with some key sustain, allowing you to take poke. Midas is without a doubt the best support boots you could buy. It might not give you CDR, but it helps you get into the mid and late game properly. The sooner you get this online, the better. It'll give your team an edge in battle. Only drawback is the price, but even that's about it.


Magi's Blessing
You might be wanting magical defense at this point, but you need the passive from this item to take gold fury safely, and not have it stolen. An amazing magical defense item. It's great even if you don't struggle with their mages as the passive helps you stay around if you're needed. At this point their auto attackers should be hitting really hard, and you need this to help out yourself, and you team, deal with those gods.




Other items



The same key items are in every supports build, but you might want to know which one's you could branch out to if you'd like to try out new things, so let me help you out. Below I'll list items for each of these categories, so just look for what you need to know:
  1. Boots.
  2. Physical Defense.
  3. Magical Defense.
  4. Misc.

Also note that if you have something you're curios about or something you'd like to add, feel free to leave a comment down below

Boots



Reinforced Greaves might be good for beginners, but that's about it. You should be above to avoid lethal damage early, so the defense isn't too useful, the movement speed is great, but the boots are too expensive to make it worth the buy.

Midas Boots is pretty great. No boots are really efficient for supports, there are much more important items to get, heck, you even need gold to buy wards. Midas Boots helps you transition into the mid-late game, an that's why you should buy them as support.

Shoes of Focus is alright. They let you do more, with more effectiveness. More magical power, shorter cooldowns, more mana. I still think Midas are better, but if you're far ahead, or really confident in your play, then try them out and see what you think.

Physical Defense



Sovereignty This item gives you a lot of protections. There's the physical protection and health it already gives, as well as 20 def/m.def through the aura. Health is the best protection stat early on, and that's why you'll see every tank get this item after boots in competitive play. It's great.

Breastplate of Valor is great for new players, or anyone struggling with their mana consumption. If you're having trouble surviving without meditation then this might be the item for you. 550 extra mana for this cheap of an item is great!

Witchblade is an amazing item. Not only does it give you physical defense and more movement speed to get around with, the passive also reduce the damage from the biggest late game threat in the game; hunters and assasins. Plus, it helps you tank up objectives!


Magical Defense



Stone of Gaia My personal favorite when it comes to magical defense items. You don't need much more than this in terms of magical defense. It lets you stay on the battlefield for a long time, and not having to back risking objectives being taken while you're back at base.

Pestilence It's important to shut down healers in SMITE, and although Pestilence isn't the strongest and most efficient way to do this, it still does it's job. If the enemy team doesn't have a healer, then the rank 2 of the item Silver Talisman is good enough for defense alone.

Hide of the Urchin is a good all around item. You'll probably have to buy it before Magi's Blessing just to get the stacks up. This is raw defense, no other passive, but it's a lot. It costs some too, but it'll do the trick if you don't need anything else.


Misc



Winged Blade is a really solid item, and gives you a little of everything. Buy it if you don't need more defense, and already got magi's blessing. You can buy it early, after Sovereignty if you're having major trouble with enemy slows.

Rod of Asclepius is actually not too bad on Sylvanus. He might be the only god in the game I'd buy this on. If you're ahead, and you have a healing comp (say Ra or Aphrodite on your team), then it's pretty useful.

Soul Reaver if you don't need more defense then soul reaver is your best bet for a good chunk of power. Opponents don't usual calculate the sudden soul reaver into how much damage they're about to take, which makes it a good late game pick up.

Actives

Sadly there isn't too much room for customization when it comes to which actives to buy on support Sylvanus, You have to buy blink and hog in order to get proper objective control, below I'll explain how to use these properly.

Blink is great for a numerous reasons. It lets you, a low mobility guardian cover a great distant in a moment. It lets you escape from bad situations, and it also lets you initiate teamfights. Most importantly though, it gives you the opportunity to steal gold fury or fire giant.

Hand Of The Gods is your early game tool for assisting in taking buffs, and clear the lane if you're left alone. Mid-Late game you should use it to secure the Fire Giant and Gold Fury. Also, very important. Make sure you've upgraded to Wrath of the Gods by the 9 min. mark or so.

Skills

nature's protection

Sylvanus has just about anything you could want in his kit. He has sustain, damage, cc, protections, it's just a really good kit. It's a lot to take in at once, but I'll try to explain how to use it all as easy and understandable as possible.


Basic Attacks aren't skills, but Sylvanus' basics are different than others. They're aoe, big enough to fit the 3 melee, or the 3 archer minions in its radius. Basic attacks knock minions away so make sure you don't screw up your lane partner's initial clear with whatever skill he's using, however, after that you should help out.

Nature's Protection is an amazing passive. Early game it's still too risky to take too many auto attacks, but late game it's a powerful tool when bodyblocking for your teammates, as with it comes the possibility of saving a life, or possibly get a turnaround against one god.

Verdant Growth has two sides to it. Firstly there's the MP5 regeneration side of it, and secondly there's the damage+root side. Before the match starts you should plant a seed under the middle and duo lane towers, this'll allow you and the middle lane to catch easier back up if you fall behind. Aside from this you mostly need it for the root at any other time. It's also essential for setting up for Nature's Grasp.

Wisps is pretty great. It can help clear the lane early, just make sure you don't take too much minion damage if you happen to hit enemy gods. Aside from that; it's more important to use this as a heal+protections gain for your allies than it is to use it for damage. Ideally you'll want to hit as many targets as possibly, but always priorities allies before enemies.

Nature's Grasp is really really hard to hit. It has a small hitbox, and is relatively slow moving. The best way to land it is to first get a hit with Verdant Growth, rooting the enemy in place for an easy hit with Nature's Grasp. Also, do remember that it can hit through walls, making it possible to catch people by surprise. If you didn't use Verdant Growth to set up, then you can use it to lock down after pulling.

Wrath of Terra] has to be one of the most straightforward skills in the game. You knock up people around you and apply decent dot damage. It's the best follow-up skill if you are to initiate a team fight with [[blink. This is also a great skill to use after blinking in to steal objectives, as it's impossible to get out of knock ups.

Team Work

Laning Phase, blue side



Being on the blue side means that you don't have to help out with mid camps, meaning you'll get to lane faster than the enemy duo lane. When doing your own blue buff, make sure not to use Hand of the Gods, switch the aggro around so neither you, nor your laning partner takes too much damage. When you get into lane see if the enemy duo is there already. If they are then use Hand of the Gods on the melee minions. This should give you level 2, and allow you to possibly pick up first blood with a combination of either Verdant Growth + Wisps or Verdant Growth + Nature's Grasp.

Of course, whether you get a kill or not depends on who you're laning with. If they're not there however, then just hold onto your Hand of the Gods for now and use it on the next wave instead. The point is to use your push advantage. You can also steal the enemy red buff if you're heavily outpushing them.


Laning Phase, orange side



At the start of your game group around mid camps with your laning partner and mid laner, when mid furies spawn, make sure you auto attack them once before going over to blue buff (note: make sure the mid or adc attacked first or yours won't count). Start the blue but make sure not to use skills when doing it, when your laning partner comes over, use your Hand of the Gods. It's important that your partner gets as much farm as possible so we shouldn't do it sooner. Going into lane you should be level 2, making it hard to kill either of you.

Be careful during the first wave as they'll have a push advantage, also beware of the possibility that they might have saved their Hand of the Gods. Going into the second wave your push should be alright, and who has the stronger push depends on which gods you're playing. Use basic attacks effectively and add Wisps in there to help clear the lane. Your kill combo is Verdant Growth into Nature's Grasp, and it works great whether you're playing from ahead, or from behind, as pulling people into your tower is a possibility if the enemy are pushing hard.


Mid and Late game



After dropping the second mana buff on the duo lane (spawning 4:20'ish) your goal should be to assist your team by giving pressure to both mid and duo lane. You should also join your jungler when he's ganking for greater chance of a kill. Remember that you have a heal, so having a presence in a lane means more than just damage and cc, it's also about the sustain you've got.

It's also very important to keep an eye on where the enemy support is. For example, if you see the enemy support on the solo lane going for a gank, make sure you try to rally an attempt at the gold fury now that you have number and Hand of the Gods advantage. Only do this if you're effective with your wards though, if there's enemy coming to stop you, it's usually the right call to leech and go for kills instead. If the number are even you might want to just run.

Make sure you don't wander about too much doing nothing, you need to keep gaining experience, but don't leach off of the same lane all the time. Spend some time in duo, some in mid and join the jungler in doing his small camps now and then. Try to do something when you come into lanes, and make sure you don't last hit as you'll have Watcher's Gift anyway.

Late game it's all about going for fire giant, gold fury and towers after getting kills, if you're behind then play defensively and try to catch people out when they're not with their team, or gank lanes when enemies backed etc.

Summary

That's about all for now. I'll probably expand on this guide later after a bit more play testing. Again, if you have any questions or if there's something you disagree with, then feel free to leave a comment down below. Thanks for reading.

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1
Edane | January 14, 2015 7:12pm
yoavsnake wrote:

Neat guide, although Gem of Isolation is essential for him.


Late reply but, no. There's no room to build a Gem of Isolation on any support in the current meta. Well, you could do it for funsies, but it's in no way essential.
1
yoavsnake (5) | October 5, 2014 7:01am
Neat guide, although Gem of Isolation is essential for him.
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