Bot Lane/Support Sylas | Weird Pick #158 | Runes Items Build Guide

In his current state, Sylas is gaining some popularity as support with over a 1% playrate in solo queue, putting him on par with some lesser played supports like Taric and Galio. While this might just be an influx of autofilled mid laners, he actually works quite well as an all-in support or as a farmer alongside either an all-in support like Leona or a poke champion like Xerath.

So how does this work anyway?

Guide to Playing Bot Lane/Support Sylas

In his current state, Sylas is gaining some popularity as support with over a 1% playrate in solo queue, putting him on par with some lesser played supports like Taric and Galio. While this might just be an influx of autofilled mid laners, he actually works quite well as an all-in support or as a farmer alongside either an all-in support like Leona or a poke champion like Xerath.

So how does this work anyway?

How to Play Bot Lane/Support Sylas

Abilities: E, W, Q then prioritize R > W > E > Q

Summoner Spells: 

Starting Items: World Atlas + Health Potions (Support), Doran Ring + Health Potions (Farmer)

Strategy: All-in constantly when conditions are favorable

Core Items: Zak'Zak's Realmspike, Sorcerer's Shoes, Stormsurge, Shadowflame, Zhonya's Hourglass, Lichbane

Sylas Bot/Support Runes Setup

Primary: Electrocute, Sudden Impact, Eyeball Collection, Relentless Hunter

Secondary: Transcendence, Scorch

How It Works

Powerful All-In Trades

As a high damage champion with low-cooldowns and excellent crowd-control, Sylas excels in killing enemy marksmen before they can get strong enough to scale. By continuously pressuring them in lane in what should be an "easy" lane to beat, Sylas throws off enemy rhythms through continuous fighting. 

Insane Sustain

One of Sylas's trademark moves is his Kingslayer [W] that leaves even mid laner players facepalming at how much it heals despite having gone up against it a multitude of times. Bot laners that have less experience playing against Sylas early game are even easier to catch unaware, especially since it scales at lower health.

High Outplay and Dive Potential

The amount of mobility and dive power Sylas has is borderline criminal and allows him to take out enemy marksmen with ease under turret. In the current meta with the amount of roaming enemy supports do, this both gives him the freedom to do it to his own lane or any other lane.

Potential Pitfalls

Snowball Reliant

As a support, Sylas does tend to be more snowball reliant since he can only effectively CC one target at a time. This means that if he can't burst down his initial target and get out safely to wait for his cooldowns then he becomes a bit of a sitting duck. He will need to rely on being an off meta pick and catch enemies unaware.

As a marksmen his level will be a bit lower than others and his team may be lacking a ranged constant DPS stream depending on what his mid lane picked. On the other hand, if his team is rocking Tristana mid or Vayne top then things can work out perfectly fine.

Support Sylas/Bot Sylas Conclusions

Sylas support/bot is quite strong and definitely works well in the right hands with the right team composition. It's definitely manageable and can snowball/scale into mid/late game quite easily but if it's a dull game with little action he can feel a bit lackluster, especially if his lane partner plans to play super passive.

Suggested Tier: Tier 2

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