Sylvanus - I AM GROOT! Detailed ranked guide

This is a detailed guide about Sylvanus - The guy who smokes a lot of shroom.
This guide is currently WIP, based only on casual stuff and currently only covers the support role, so it's not reeally a ranked guide now. Note this is guide is for Ranked play mainly, although it also covers some casual.

I do not have much of masteries on Sylvanus, however I am an experienced player that knows how to build on pretty much all gods (Some of my guides may be outdated however). This guide covers a lot about gameplay and has some very neat and actual game changing tricks.

Health: 510 (+90)
Mana: 190 (+34)
Movement Speed: 360
Attack Range: 40ft (+15ft AoE radius)
Attack Speed: 0.8 (+0.6%)
Attack Damage: 38 + 1.5 (+ 20% of Magical Power)
Attack Progression:None, deals AoE damage and ground target instead of projectile.
Physical Protection: 19 (+3)
Magical Protection: 30 (+0.9)
HP5: 8 (+0.8)
MP5: 4.6 (+0.4)

Pros
-High Defense
-High Sustain
-High Crowd Control
-Can heal allies
-Great Teamfight influence.
-Great early game as well as a great late game.
-Can cause early kills before minion kills with his 3.
-Can keep you in place for over 4.5-5s with his abilities and passive.


Cons
-Low Damage
-Low Mobility, tough time rotating
- Verdant Growth's MP5 is minor and only useful early game.
- Wrath of Terra barely benefits from leveling, only increasing in 200 damage from lvl5 to lvl20.
- Nature's Grasp has a very long cooldown before leveling it.

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

An awful passive which can root every few seconds, although it's quite unlikely. His real passive is his AoE AAs.

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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, exploding and releasing poisonous spores that reduce protections of nearby enemies.

Ability: Ground Target, Deployable
Affects: Enemies, Allies
Range: 55ft
Damage: Magical
Damage: 80/100/120/140/160 + 35%
Root: 2s
MP5: 6/10/14/18/20
Protection Debuff: 5/10/15/20/25 for 5s
Cost: 60/65/70/75/80
Cooldown: 12s

This is a deployable, which grants a bit of MP5 which isn't anything amazing, and deals damage+root+debuff to enemies if they destroy it in range or it hits them. You'll most likely find yourself using it mostly for the 2s root and the long debuff.

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Wisps

Sylvanus releases wisps that seek out nearby allies and enemies. Allies are healed and protected while enemies take damage over time.
Ability: Area
Affects: Enemies, Allies
Damage Type: Magical
Damage per 1s: 10/15/20/25/30 (+10% of your magical power)
Total Damage: 50/75/100/125/150 (+50% of your magical power)
Healing per 1s: 25/35/45/55/65 (+15% of your magical power)
Total Healing: 125/175/225/275/325 (+75% of your magical power)
Protections: 5/10/15/20/25
Protection Duration: 5s
Cost: 60/65/70/75/80
Cooldown: 18/17/16/15/14

This is Sylvanus' core damage/healing ability, which you should max first. Since it is a 5s DoT, it as well as Sylvanus' ultimate makes Gem of Isolation mandatory.

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Nature's Grasp

Groover launches his rooty hand out in front of him. The hand stops at the first enemy god hit, stunning them for 1s and pulling them back towards Sylvanus.

Ability: Pull
Affects: Enemies
Range: 70(?)
Stun: 1s
Cost: 70/75/80/85/90
Cooldown: 30/27/24/21/18s

Old Arachne players are wetting themselves already. It's pretty much Arachne's old ultimate however it has far less cooldown if you upgrade it.

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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 get damaged every 1s for 5s.

Ability: Ground
Affects: Enemies
Damage: Magical
Damage per 1s: 60/70/80/90/100 +25% of your magical power
Total Damage: 300/350/400/450/500 (+125% of your magical power)
Cost: 100
Cooldown: 90

This is Sylvanus' ultimate. It doesn't deal a lot of damage and has a neat knockup in a big AoE. Since it only increases by 50 per level, you may just level it once at lvl5 and then level the other abilities which massively benefit.

This is the list of the items you should get, as for the support role. Important items are bold.

Watcher's Gift: A must have for supports, get it in the beginning of the game. Sell it later in the game and buy another item instead.

Wrath of the Gods: A must have active for supports, get tier 1 in the beginning of the game.

Ward: also a must have consumable for supports, get 2 in the beginning of the game, quickly put them near enemy mid camps and enemy duo blue buff, and return to base before the game starts to get consumables. Get those also over the game.

Midas Boots (M): Also a must have for supports, get it as the first item after Watcher's Gift. After you finish your build, sell it for Shoes of Focus

Hide of the Urchin: An extremely good item, get it after Midas Boots if there are 3 or more enemy magicals. If there are 3 or more enemy physicals, get Sovereignty. If there are 4+ enemy magicals or physicals, don't get it.

Sovereignty: Also a very good defensive item. Get it unless there are 4+ enemy magicals.

Gem of Isolation: A must have item for Sylvanus, since he has 2 5s DoTs, so you could slow enemies by 25% for 7s with Wisps or Wrath of Terra.

Bulwark of Hope: A nice defensive item, usually good to get, unless there are 4+ enemy physicals.

Stone of Gaia: Get instead of Bulwark of Hope if the enemies have high sustain and mostly magicals.

Divine Ruin: A situational item only, get only if your enemies have A LOT of sustain. You can reduce enemies' healing by 40% for 13s!

Breastplate of Valor: A great item for Sylvanus, get it unless there are 4+ enemy magicals or there are 3+ enemy magicals and some of the physicals are tanky.

Magi's Blessing: A great item, get it if the enemies have a lot of hard CC.

Celestial Legion Helm: A situational expensive item, get it only far late in the game and there are 3+ enemies who have crits.

Witchblade: A situational item against attack speed gods. Especially good against Bakasura, Xbalanque, etc.

Ethereal Staff: I usually don't get it because gods with healing don't really benefit from health, but get it if enemies have a lot of penetration. Especially effective against Bakasura.

Rod of Aesculapius: An eh item with a bit of health and a bit of magical power, it can be great if your allies have some healing.

Telkhines Ring: A situational item that... I actually don't really know when to buy it, since it's quite awful, although better than usual with Sylvanus' auto attacks.

Spear of the Magus: An item that's only viable if your enemies have a lot of magical protections, and most of your allies are magical.

Wrath of the Gods: Essential for support in conquest, always get it no matter what. Remember, Wrath of the Gods, not Fist of the Gods.

Blink: A neat active for Sylvanus, you can blink then use Wrath of Terra, to catch enemies while they are grouped up.

Heavenly Agility: A situational item, great against gods with high DPS like Zhong Kui, Bakasura, and other gods, mainly AA oriented.

This part covers gameplay with Sylvanus, tactics and phases.

Combat/Combos

Sylvanus usually initiates combat by either blinking and ulting,or pulling an enemy, or using heavenly agility and rush onto the enemies.

If you succeeds hitting Nature's Grasp, you, should then cast Verdant Growth on that enemy and then Wisps. If that enemy doesn't have a leap/dash and you have a decent player with you, the enemy will most likely by dead in 4 seconds. If that god gets away, try to ult him.

Also to easily hit Nature's Grasp, you can cast Verdant Growth first, or ask an ally to hit them with an ability that keeps them in place.

While fighting with another ally, it's pretty obvious that you would root the enemy, heal your ally and damage enemies, pretty simple. Note Nature's Grasp also stuns so it's useful mid-combat as well.

Early Game

Start by buying 2 wards and quickly going to ward near duo, at the enemy blue buff and enemy mid camps, then return to base to get the rest of the items.

If you're on Chaos side you'll do the blue buff, while the ADC and mid do the mid camps, and then go to lane.
If you're on Order side you and the ADC will do the blue buff and go to lane.

You would usually need to heal while nearby ally minions or if possible also the enemy melees, to help push. Auto attack as much as possible, to damage the enemies and their minions.

Note you only need to upgrade your ult once at level 5, since it only increases by 50 total damage after each level, at 200 in four levels, which is pretty useless. Upgrade your other abilities instead.

Your MP5 buff isn't very useful, but if you manage to pull someone while in lane and minions agro him, you'll quickly win the lane.

Make sure to note that duo is very unlikely to be ganked so you may want to put your wards later or in mid lane (Closer to the side of solo usually) once you rotate to mid lane or use them later on duo lane, once the jungler is around level 5/6.

Remember to rotate to mid camps earlier before the enemy guardian if he has mobility, since you don't.

Tactic: Early kill-
Max your pull first, and go along with other gods and try to snatch an enemy god from their mid camps. Especially good with early game gods. Note this will mean you won't be able to solo the blue buff.

Mid Game

Remembering to rotate, you'll often need to stay in a lane rather than gank to get kills, because your laning is much better than ganking.

Overall time mid in the game is as a normal support, with slower rotating but huge help for allies.

Late Game

Late game for Sylvanus Is quite decent. If you pull someone near another ally, he ded. You can blink and ult like Geb, however Heavenly Agility is useful as well since it helps allies and increases their healing.

You'll tank the objectives, and try to body block projectiles. Note you may not want to poke with your auto attacks since they are much less potent.

Teamfights

Sylvanus' teamfight influence is great, however you may want to try to pull an enemy and get him killed before initiating a teamfight. Sylvanus usually initiates a teamfight with blink+ult, and he can heal allies, helping winning the teamfight.

Counters to Sylvanus:

Gods who counter Sylvanus usually have some sustain, and quick movoment abilities.

Neith: Counters Sylvanus due to having sustain which is relatively rare in duo, and can easily escape his 3 with her Backflip.

Geb: A slight counter, since he can shield pulled enemies, negating most of the damage.

Sylvanus counters:

Ah Muzen Cab: If he gets pulled mid-late game, with another ally, he is almost definitely dead.

The better lane partners for Sylvanus have a fine waveclear, hard skillshots, and abilities that immobilize enemies, at least for 1 second (Easy pull).

Apollo: An average synergy with Sylvanus, if he hits his mesmerize Sylvanus has a guaranteed hit with Nature's Grasp.

Anhur: Average synergy with Sylvanus, can ult on pulled enemies and hit all spears.

Neith: Neith can have great synergy with Sylvanus, since she can add up to 5s root duration. Also because of Broken Weave + Spirit Arrow, she can have an almost guaranteed hit of it.

Artemis: Despite having a low mid game clear, you could actually push further in the lane since Sylvanus has a great early clear. She also has synergy with almost all his abilities, since she can add to a total of 6.5s rooted/stunned duration!.

Rama: Has an eh synergy with Sylvanus. He has a great clear but not much of skillshots he can land that will Sylvanus can help much with.

Ah Muzen Cab: Has a decent synergy with Sylvanus. They both have deployables, and Ah Muzen Cab has a decent waveclear, he can actually deal some damage with honey on enemies, since the enemies are rooted for quite a lot.

Xbalanque: Has meh synergy with Sylvanus, and a pretty awful clear. Not much to say about him.

Cupid: Despite having great synergy with Sylvanus, he is overall pretty awful. He can ult on rooted enemies for ensured hit, and hit his one as well, pretty much devastating the enemy, however he doesn't much on his own and will do awfully without you.

Ullr: Has a great synergy with Sylvanus, since hitting his stun will allow an ensured hit of Nature's Grasp.

Freya: Has a neat synergy with Sylvanus, if she uses Banish you can have a guaranteed hit with Nature's Grasp, however she has an awful clear.

Chronos: Has a decent synergy with Sylvanus, if he stuns an enemy you can pull him easily.

Mercury: Usually eh as an ADC, however if Sylvanus pulls someone he can pull him as well, which is pretty neat.