Sylvanus - Gotta Grab 'em All!

Passive: Nature's Protection
Enemies that successfully land a melee basic attack on Sylvanus have a 25% chance to be rooted for 1s. This may only happen once every 12s.

This passive is quite a useful one to give to sylvanus as this allows him to root someone for about 3s if he times it great with his first ability Verdant Growth. It also is useful if someone is chasing you whilst you're running away, getting a second to gain some distance between you and the enemy.

Ability 1: Verdant Growth
Sylvanus throws a seed to a target location. If it hits an enemy they will take damage and become rooted. If the seed lands on the ground, after 10s 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: Ground Target
Damage: 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+35% of your magical power)
MP5 Increase: 20
Protections Reduced: 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25
Protection Reduction Duration: 5s
Root Duration: 1.25s
Radius: 10
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 12s

This is going to be your main form of locking someone down and making sure you can get a secured pull maybe into tower or into a very dangerous situation such as a Vulcan ult. The passive MP5 granted off of the little buds is nice to have as a generous way of sustain in lane.

Ability 2: Wisps
Sylvanus releases wisps that seek out nearby ally and enemy gods. Allies are healed and protected while enemies take damage over time.

Ability Type: Ground Target
Damage (per Tick): 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 (+10% of your Magical Power)
Damage (Total): 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 (+50% of your Magical Power)
Healing (per Tick): 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 (+10% of your Magical Power)
Healing (Total): 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 / 175 (+50% of your Magical Power)
Protections Gained: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30
Protection Duration: 5s
Radius: 30
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 18s

This is...I guess your main damaging ability but you're barely going to be using it for the 30 damage +10% magic power unless you've built Gem of Isolation I'd say use this ability when casually doing GF or FG and make sure some form of CD is built.

Ability 3: Nature's Grasp
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: Projectile
Stun Duration: 1s
Range: 60
Cost: 70 / 65 / 60 / 55 / 50
Cooldown: 20 / 19 / 18 / 17 / 16s

I love this ability so much I can't even describe why, it's a pull meaning you're bringing your enemy towards you which can be great for setting up kills. Make sure you use Verdant Growth to secure this or do what I do and randomly hit an invisible Loki from no where whilst trying to grab someone else.

Ultimate: Wrath of Terra
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: Ground Target
Damage: 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 (+25% of your Magical Power)
Damage (Total): 300 / 350 / 400 / 450 / 500 (+125% of your Magical Power)
Radius: 35
Cost: 100
Cooldown: 90s

Sylvanus' ultimate isn't one worth gloating over as being high damage since it's not, it's DoT that can harass many players and is what normally secures kills in some cases. Get this when you can.

OFFENCE!

R.I.P Sylvanus Solo. Trust me with Telkhines being changed we no longer get the insane wave clear that Sylvanus had for a guardian using nothing but AA's. Now this is a meh trade off with being able to have sustain whilst throwing pods like a mad man. If you want more damage go for the Demonic Grip instead.

Now last build we shoved this in all the time due to Sylvanus being so DoT heavy. But this season we're being a true support. If you still want to bring hurt and make sure nobody escapes from you then switch Stone of Binding for this.

Anti-heal is being picked up more and more often now so this is really probably your best bet to counter it. I recommend trading either Stone of Binding or Gauntlet of Thebes for this depending on how early they're building anti-heal. Apart from that the in combat healing is great for sustained fighting potential

This has been a good choice for most guardians and Sylvanus is no different. Pick this up instead of the other items if your team needs the Magical protections along with the MP5. Though if you get into an Assault....PICK THIS UP FIRST ALWAYS ALONG WITH Sovereignty.

A new item in S4. This is a very worthy pickup for physical stacked teams by reducing their power. It's kinda like a Magical Void Shield which is very nice.

Oh my...Spectral armour got a little kick up the rear as it's now a very worthy pickup on anyone really that needs some form of CC. When any hunter hits you or if a warrior gangs up on you then you instantly fear them for 1s. Really nice thing to have.

Season 4 really changed a lot of items and Witchblade is no exception. Attack speed, physical protections and movement speed combined with the ability to negate hunters Auto attack by slowing their AS by 20%! But alongside that you're able to apply anti-heal to anyone who gets hit by you for a max of 45% anti-heal against one or more targets.

TIP #1: EAT MY PUNY DoT!
As Sylvanus, al of your damage is going to be over time and it's constantly going to be annoying to fight against you. Abuse it! Make sure you're spamming wisps against enemies when you can and making sure that their health is never, ever full!

TIP #2: GET OVER HERE!
Nature's Grasp is one of those abilities that is very useful but requires some form of luck/set-up to get the most use out of. I'd recommend making use of this whenever you can and on the off occasion throw it through a wall to see if you can take anyone by surprise.

TIP#3: EARLY BIRD CATCHES THE GANK!
Considering you've got little to no movement, if you're planning on a gank make sure you're the first out of the lane or at least try and catch up. If you're going against an Athena then as soon as you see her ult I'd run like your phone is on 1% over to mid and maybe even solo. You've got a 4.2 secound headstart which is little but it's enough to get you going.