Season 12 First Strike Build

Recently Sylas has become quite popular in high elo and pro play with a new build: First Strike with E or Q max.

There is an interesting upside to this build I had not considered, Sylas' Q and E have STATIC mana costs meaning their mana costs do not INCREASE or DECREASE with level. This frees you up to go Protobelt over Everfrost as mana issues are not as heavy. In default Sylas builds W max reigns supreme but the mana cost inflates to 100 at max making early mana almost required. At max rank Q costs 55 and E costs 65 while at rank 1 W costs 55. These low mana costs make protobelt a stronger buy. Proto was norm pre mythics and its an incredibly fun item.

Beifeng shows off incredibly mechanics with it (as well as just Sy in general) here: Play Video

SEASON 11 CHANGES

I'm still a huge fan of Bruiser Sylas and it still works. Tested out the good old conqueror/sorcery page today in Clash and it was a success. Lianry's + Demonic Embrace + Spirit Visage + Zhonya's made me very tank while preserving damage nicely. Presence is still very good on him, I realized that it still does give mana back on takedowns which is invaluable. I still have yet to try out the more burst oriented builds or rune sets.

For reference my runes were: Conqueror|PoM|Tenacity|Coup De Grace|Manaflow|Transcendence|Ability Haste/Adaptive Damage/Magic Resist.

Full Build:
Liandry's Anguish|Demonic Embrace|Spirit Visage|Zhonya's Hourglass|Dark Seal|Mercury's Treads
If I had lost Dark Seal stacks I would probably have changed to Either Rabadon's Deathcap, Lich Bane, or Cosmic Drive.

Arcane Comet Sylas Arcane Comet
I've seen some buzz around the community about Arcane Comet Sylas. My personal opinion is that it works but sacrifices some versatility. Arcane Comet hurls a comet that deals damage based on level plus adaptive damage that scales with both AD and AP. This adds a nice amount of damage to Sylas's combo but that is it. It is just for damage, the benefit is you can take Transcendence, Gathering Storm, and something like Manaflow Band which is strong for Sylas. However, the other side of the argument is Sylas really doesn't need the extra damage. Arcane is very good for lane bullies that like to force opponents out of lane with quick burst damage (similar to Electrocute) and it scales into the late game well enough. Sylas is not a lane bully and he deals enough damage in most stages of the game without Arcane Comet. This is why Conqueror is preferred on Sylas because it gives him adaptive damage when stacked as well as healing. It also provides him with strong late game stats because of the stacking properties of it's sub-trees. I believe it is not worth.

Electrocute Sylas
Sylas was originally a champion that would take Electrocute quite a bit but with his mini rework in season 10 I believe that Electro is no longer an optimal rune to take on him. Much like Akali with Electrocute. Conqueror scales very well into the late game with its adaptive damage and healing. Additionally Sylas benefits well from Conqueror sub-trees such as Presence of Mind, Legend: Alacrity/Tenacity, Coup de Grace, etc more than the sub-trees of Domination. Sylas has a lot of damage for sure but Sylas is a strong late game champion that can both burst down champions and be a bruiser. Sylas can already one-shot squishies very well and doesn't need the extra damage from Electrocute. Versatility is strong on Sylas.