Many know the story of Arthas Menethil, his reign of terror alongisde the Scourge, and the thousands of lives he took in his wake. Ranger-General Sylvanas Windrunner was no exception. Leading the armies of Silvermoon, Sylvanas was able to counter Arthas' march every step of the way, as he tore through what is now known as the Ghostlands.

Arthas finally arrived before the gates of Silvermoon, and there he ended Sylvanas' life and resurrected her as a banshee. Filled with rage and vengeance, Sylvanas vows to avenge her life and the many others that Arthas took. She later recovers her body and becomes a beacon of hope to the Forsaken, and others like them who seek to end the Lich King's reign. Following the fall of the Arthas, Sylvanas eventually takes up the mantle of Warchief of the Horde, and currently leads their efforts against the Alliance.

Talent Tier Choices

Since her rework, Sylvanas has more team fight potential while keeping her unique presence in lane, with her ability to disable towers and forts. She now has the chance to win fights with her incredible burst and can be seen as a viable damage dealer in your team. So, what does this mean in terms of talent choices? I will be walking you through just how differently she works, and how her kit plays out throughout a game.

Level 1

At level 1, we get the option to choose between optimizing Withering Fire (Q), Shadow Dagger (W), or her new Trait, Black Arrows (D). The first option here is Might of the Banshee Queen, which gives her Attack Speed and Spell Power when using Withering Fire that can stack up to five times over the course of six seconds. You will find your damage spiking towards the end of a teamfight, when you're able to get off more of your rotation. This talent requires you to be up close and personal with your target, and while Sylvanas has better damage than before, she can still be burst down easily. When facing a high mobility enemy, like Genji or Lucio, you won't be able to use this proc to its highest potential unless you chase them and inevitably end up in a dangerous situation.

Our next option is Unfurling Shadows, a Quest that increases Shadow Dagger's damage 0.5% each time you use it against an enemy with three stacks of Banshee's Curse. This talent offers a lot of damage as the game goes on, but you will find yourself doing very little unless you're able to keep up with your stacks. When using this talent, if you aren't able to stack quickly, it can prove difficult to keep up with your team.

The final and best option of this tier is Overwhelming Affliction, which optimizes on Sylvanas' trait. Enemy Heroes that have three stacks of Banshee's Curse will be Slowed, and all of Sylvanas' Basic Attacks against Slowed enemies will deal damaged based on maximum Health. This alone is extremely strong in her kit, not to mention the synergy with other Heroes that slow, like Jaina and Fenix. This will keep the more mobile Heroes closer to you for longer periods of time, allowing you to get your burst damage off before they escape. Overwhelming Affliction also helps Sylvanas burn through the enemy's frontline.

Level 4

For level 4, we are given some unique ways for Sylvanas to manipulate Minions and Mercenaries. Unstable Poison is usually going to be your best option, for it makes Minions that die under Black Arrow or Banshee's Curse explode and deal area damage to non-Heroic units. This gives you exceptional wave clear and allows you to push through a lane quickly.

Next, we have Mercenary Queen, which I have used very situationally. This makes nearby non-Elite Mercenaries deal 60% more damage and allows Sylvanas to stun and deal increased damage to Mercenaries with three stacks of Banshee's Curse. First off, I think this talent is particularly fun on Alterac Pass during the objective, and overall it gives Sylvanas an advantage when capturing early Mercenary Camps, but it doesn't contribute as much as Unstable Poison can throughout the course of the game.

The final talent on the tier is Possession. This talent provides Sylvanas with three charges, each of which will convert an enemy minion and make it fight for your team; catapults, however, will take the full three charges to convert. Possession is a unique talent that both bolsters your waveclear (as instantly converting an enemy minion effectively eliminates it) and your pushing power (as you have more minions to push with you). This effect is perhaps most useful if you happen to be solo laning: the three additional minions are comparatively more impactful if you’re pushing solo and/or are against one opponent. If you’re in the 4-member squad, however, the additional minions pushing with you will have less impact against the enemy’s waveclear, and Unstable Poison will, in general, better serve your team’s waveclear and pushing needs.

Level 7

At level 7, we focus on Withering Fire, Shadow Dagger, or Haunting Wave (E). Our first choice is Barbed Shot, which grants a bonus of 350% bonus damage on the 5th charge of Withering Fire, given all previous charges hit the same enemy. This does do a lot of damage, but it's only valuable if you're in a 1v1 situation. In teamfights, you are not guaranteed to land all charges of Withering Fire on the same target, potentially giving you no bonus damage.

The second option is Lost Soul, which makes Basic Attacks against enemies with three stacks of Banshee's Curse reduce the cooldown of Shadow Dagger by 1.75 seconds. This talent makes for an interesting match-up with level 1's Unfurling Shadows, but again, you don't usually want to go that route, especially since it'll quickly eat up your Mana.

Lastly, we have Festering Wounds, which makes Haunting Wave deal 25% more damage and apply three stacks of Banshee's Curse. This is going to be your best option, as it synergizes very well with level 1's Overwhelming Affliction and level 13's Windrunner and will be your most reliable damage output. With an instant three stacks of Banshee's Curse, this makes for a great engaging tool to help you burst down your target.

Level 10

First off, we have Wailing Arrow, the classic area Silence that Sylvanas is known for. Silencing an entire enemy team can be so effective, but it can also be very situational if the enemy team doesn't clump together, or if your team can't follow-up on the Silence. However, it can make the enemy team scatter when hit, and help your team shut down key targets. This talent is a very powerful choice and should be considered in most situations, especially for teamfights.

With the rework, Sylvanas has a very different Mind Control, that is now an even bigger game changer. This ability is now a skill-shot that activates on the first enemy Hero hit; the said Hero is not only Silenced but is also Slowed and forced to walk towards Sylvanas. During this time, Sylvanas and her team can focus a key target (like a Healer) down and remove them from the fight entirely. This is optimized by level 1's Overwhelming Affliction, and other Heroes that benefit from Disabled effects, like Raynor. This is going to be a viable option but doesn't always work well in teamfights and is more useful while laning.

Level 13

With level 13, we have talents that optimize either Shadow Dagger, Haunting Wave, or Sylvanas' Basic Attacks. First off, we have Cold Embrace, which causes Shadow Dagger to lower the armor of the target it hits and any target it spreads to. Of course, lowering armor is a very effective tool, but it works best when going a more 1v1 route, rather than a teamfight route.

The best option of this tier is Windrunner, which allows you to cast Haunting Wave a second time for no cost, while also giving you a reset on Withering Fire when reactivating it for the teleport. This synergizes effectively with level 1's Overwhelming Affliction, level 7's Festering Wounds, and level 20's Withering Barrage. Together, these talents will grant you insane burst with the ability to stay on top of your target.

Finally, we have Remorseless, which increases Sylvanas' Basic Attack range by 1, and if the target has 3 stacks of Banshee's Curse, it will fire an untalented Withering Fire. As much as this can synergize with level 1's Overwhelming Affliction, choosing this will lose out on the mobility and extra damage given to you by Windrunner.

Level 16

This talent tier brings some interesting survivability opportunities for Sylvanas. The first choice is Evasive Fire, which makes Withering Fire attacks against Heroes grant Sylvanas Movement Speed, and all Basic Attacks will reset the duration. It indeed gives Sylvanas a lot of mobility, but she will already have this mobility with level 13's Windrunner and all the slowing she will do to her targets with level 1's Overwhelming Affliction.

Secondly, we have Life Drain, which will heal Sylvanas for 15% of damage done to targets with three stacks of Banshee's Curse, doubled against Heroes. This isn't a bad option for Sylvanas, as it gives her a lot of sustain during fights, but keep in mind, that she will only have this sustainability when damaging her enemies, and it won't protect her from Stuns or Silences. However, this talent will be powerful in 1v1 situations if you're planning on split pushing the lanes and want to combat enemy ganks.

The overall best option for this tier is Will of the Forsaken, which is an activatable ability that will grant Unstoppable and 40% Movement Speed for three seconds. This will help Sylvanas quickly escape a bad situation or protect her from incoming crowd control, something that Sylvanas can easily be shut down by. This talent helps ensure that even if her mobility from Haunting Wave fails her, she will have another chance to escape and survive the fight.

Level 20

With level 20 brings the usual Heroic Ability optimizers, and then two other options. First off, we have Deafening Blast, which increases the damage of the center of Wailing Arrow's explosion and increases the Silence duration. If you went with Wailing Arrow earlier on, you still might not want this talent, because you won't be spamming Wailing Arrow as often as you'd like and you might not benefit from this as much as the other Storm talent options.

Next up we have Dark Lady's Call, which will reduce the vision of your target and reduce the cooldown of Mind Control. Both of these are useful boosts to this Heroic, and it isn't an awful choice. You can throw this out to fish for the enemy team, much like a Stitches' Hook, to help you make quick plays to decide the final teamfights.

The talent that guarantees you the most reliable advantage is Withering Barrage, which will reduce Withering Fire's cooldown at insane lengths during the final teamfights, allowing you to dish out more and more burst damage. You're going to want to go this option more times than not, especially if you went with the recommended build.

Finally, we have Bolt of the Storm, which is a small activatable teleport. This is a useful ability overall, but with Sylvanas being able to teleport using Haunting Wave with level 13's Windrunner and level 16's Will of the Forsaken, she will already be escaping danger at great lengths and doesn't require that much more mobility. It's not often that you will need this increased mobility, but don't be afraid to choose it if you do feel you need an extra boost.

Synergies and Counters

So, what are some team compositions that the Dark Lady goes well with? Following this talent build, Sylvanas can synergize well with Heroes that can slow the enemy team, like Jaina and Arthas, Heroes that can also benefit from Disabled targets, like Raynor, and Heroes that can CC the team to allow Sylvanas to apply her Banshee's Curse stacks. As mobile and bursty as she is, Sylvanas doesn't have much survivability and requires a good frontline to protect her from those who want to single her out of the teamfight. Even after her rework, she can still push lanes effectively, and now she can put up a fight when the enemy comes to deal with her.

She can be easily countered by Heroes who can keep up with her mobility, like Genji, or Heroes with large amounts of crowd control, like Anub'arak. Sylvanas has the disadvantage in the early 1v1's that involve high sustain Heroes, however, she can burst them down extremely hard throughout the course of the game.

Sylvanas can still solo early Mercenary Camps and can clear waves very effectively. When faced against solo laners like Yrel and Fenix, she might struggle during the early levels, and plays better with other allies in lane in most situations. She can perform extremely well on Braxis Holdout or Dragon Shire when holding an objective on her own, due to level 1 talent, Overwhelming Affliction, when the more tankier Heroes try to hold the point against her. She succeeds in most 1v1 situations, while still bringing a huge boost to teamfights.

Playstyle

When playing Sylvanas, you want to be able to push lanes, while still being an important member in teamfights. She has been given a stronger damage output, so you no longer have to be afraid of 1v1 situations, but you still want to make sure you can escape with Haunting Wave when needed. Her Trait is an on-use ability, and you want to use this when you aren't threatened by nearby enemies, so you get its full value. When attacking enemies, you want to apply your stacks with Haunting Wave and burst them down with Shadow Dagger and Withering Fire.

Wailing Arrow can be used to isolate a key member of a fight, an enemy in lane, or even to disable the entire enemy team during a fight. You want to make sure you can disable a target before going in, so that you can apply your stacks, making Wailing Arrow or even Mind Control a convenient engage. You want to position behind your team's frontline so that you can't be isolated and taken out of the fight, because the enemy team will want to focus you due to your damage. Overall, you will want to balance your presence in lane, and in fights, to ensure that you get the most value out of her kit.

To Summarize

Sylvanas has gone from a laning Specialist to a Ranged Assassin and can stay on top of her enemies with a high amount of burst damage. She gains an insane amount of mobility throughout the game and can use this to either disengage or engage on her target. After her rework, she can still push lanes very hard, solo Mercenary Camps, and apply a large amount of map pressure.

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