She can poke you from level 1 and is extremely hard to lane against if she is good. Also doesn't help that her Ultimate isn't very good to take as you cant place the ball as Sylas. From my experience if both laners are evenly matched or if the Ori player is better, she will win. However if you are better than the Ori player and she doesn't know how to tether properly, you have a lot of kill threat on her as Ori is immobile. When fed as Sylas against her, she can't play then game (like most matchups when fed as Sylas). So this matchup is quite feast or famine but most of the time famine. The only reason she isn't, a 5 is that it is actually very hard to play for her if you have a high threat jungler like Zac.
Azir
Similiar to Orianna in the idea that it is very hard to farm early in the game, He does have a good Ultimate to steal however the all in against Azir is very difficult if he is good. Azir's range is so high that you have to use E1 and LAND E2 to even get onto him but once you are on top of him he can just R you back into his turret or back where you came from, negating all of your ability and allowing him to potentially kill you. Again, like Orianna, outscales you in front to back teamfights later onto the game as well. Is more extreme compared to Orianna since he can actually escape ganks with his E or R against a high threat ganking jungler.
Cassiopeia
Her W is the thing that makes this matchup hard and her R depending on skill levels of players. Her W disables your W and E1, which are both of your defensive abilities and allow you to duel. If you get caught in one of these the trade will always go bad unless you are extremely fed and even that doesn't look too good. To counter her W, try E1 before her W and pray you land the E2 onto anything that isnt on the W preferably her. Post 6 you can also use her ult when she W you to give you time to walk at her and unleash some combos onto her face. Despite this, she is an extremely difficult champion to face as her DPS levels are much higher than yours in an extended fight. You can burst her when fed but being fed against her is unreliable.
Zed
Like most of the assassin matchups, it is more of a skill difference than a champion difference. Minigame of can Zed land Q's early and W combos pre 6. If so he has kill threat onto you which allows him to manage waves in his favor and overall just have tempo on you which he can use to roam and impact side lanes. If you survive until 6 however it becomes almost like a Zed vs Zed blind pick matchup where you try to make the most out of the Zed R while he does the same. Whoever gets ahead in the matchup should in theory run away with the game but at the end of the day there is always a chance of outplay between these champs. From my experience however your abilities are just easier to land than his so you win most of the time.
Yasuo
Yasuo is an even matchup which obviously favors him early but as the game goes on you have more agency to outplay. You can steal Yasuo R and use it in tandem with teammates abilities but more importantly with your E2. This can catch them off guard and provides unexpected burst and CC if they aren't aware. Just play around his windwall and your E2 accordingly. His windwall halts Sylas' Q onto the windwall but if Yasuo is on top of his windwall he will still get hit. Keep the wave on your end when possible to minimize his E's effectiveness.
LeBlanc
This matchup is quite tricky especially vs good Leblancs. When she uses W onto you try use W on her. If you do it right you will come out on top of the trade. She can just never W into you and use her Q and E to poke you out. Thing is she can just use her abilities reactively if you want to trade aggressively. Pretty rough matchup, but if you can survive early and match farm, you do kind of outscale.
Malphite
Malphite gifts you one of the best Ultimates in the game. He also just doesn't have enough damage to beat you 1v1 on a side lane unless he goes full ap in which if he doesn't os you, you kill him very easily as he is squiushy.
Ornn
Never has kill threat onto you but you always do on him. Max W and just outsustain him in 1v1's. He thinks he can just farm and play for late teamfights but if you do the same you can have the exact same impact as him since you can steal his ultimate. Commonly Sylas is used as a counterpick vs Ornn for this reason.
Akali
Is a skill matchup that Akali is favored in the early game. Sylas must minimize through dodging of her Q's and E's during the lane. If both farm evenly, once you hit level 7 and onwards you are slightly favoured and should trade aggressively with W whenever she uses Q on the wave. Disengage when she uses shroud.
Fizz
If you can survive levels 1-3, you just win. He can never trade aggressively into you since you can just chase him with your abilities and heal with your W. You can dodge his E with your E and then reengage once he comes back down. If he Qs into you, you can just W and the trade is winning. Bone plating is key in this matchup though.
Ekko
Ekko needs to farm with his Q against Sylas, since he can't walk up to aa them. If he uses Q, it will be pushing automatically to you, which is what you want in melee vs melee matchups. Also he used his main damage and trading spell on the wave so now you can zone him off with your superior trading and damage. Rinse and repeat (essentially perma freeze).
Irelia
If you are able to play around her E and passive you should just win. Never fight her if she has fully stacked passive and save your mobility to dodge her E or R and you should be ok. Once she misses E those are your opportunities to look for trades.
Katarina
Is similar to Ekko where she has to use her Q to farm and you can hold the wave on your side essentially permanently (assuming no jungle intervention). Only issue is that she can shunpo onto her dagger if you misposition and can threaten kill easier than Ekko. Also has the threat of roams if you constantly just hold waves.
Malzahar
The lane vs Malzahar is quite boring (like all Malzahar lanes) but it does allow you to scale pretty nicely into your core spikes. HIs ultimate is great to take and as long as you farm relatively well, you outperform him in skirmish scenarios. Can take First strike against him as he never has kill threat onto you solo.
Ryze
Is ranged and can bully you early game with it. Ryze also scales very well into the game. Hard to trade into him, especially if you miss your E2. Only reliable chance to win this lane is through jungle ganks as apart from flash and phase rush (which not all Ryze players take), he doesn't really have any way to escape them.
Qiyana
Very similar to the Fizz matchup. Can't really trade into you since you can always return with W and potentially chase with Q and E. Also has a great ultimate for you to steal.
Syndra
Recently Syndra has been the premier Mid lane pick and for good reason. Right now she is very overtuned and doesn't really have a point in the game where she is weak. If Syndra is good, it is very hard for Sylas to trade into her and Syndra also scales extremely well into the game. Only thing is she is an immobile mage so when she has no flash she is kind of susceptible to ganks but again she is just a very strong champion in general. Another thing is her ultimate is pretty bad for Sylas to take.
Twisted Fate
You win the 1v1 with aggressive trades but he can fight back with his gold card, Q into chasing with aa. He also has better gank setup with his gold card. You do neutralize one of his main strengths of his champion with his ultimate ability, since you can steal it and potentially follow him, trade sides of the map or make proactive ones yourself.
Yasuo
If the enemy team has a malphite for example or a gragas and you have a yasuo on your team you can use their ults in tandem with Yasuo's. Essentially you can have a pseudo Yasuo Malphite combo or Yasuo Gragas combo with flexibility and playing a really strong and fun champion in Sylas.
Synergies
IdealStrongOkLowNone
Yasuo
If the enemy team has a malphite for example or a gragas and you have a yasuo on your team you can use their ults in tandem with Yasuo's. Essentially you can have a pseudo Yasuo Malphite combo or Yasuo Gragas combo with flexibility and playing a really strong and fun champion in Sylas.
Hey guys I am currently a master mid player who mains Sylas with over 1k games played on him over around 3 seasons. I have over 1 million mastery points and had a 60% winrate last season on him. I play on the EUW server and will start streaming soon so if you want to check me out my Twitch stream is: https://www.twitch.tv/tortaken
If you have any questions about Sylas or even the game in general if you're a beginner to league, I'd be happy to answer any questions on my stream or message me via twitter dms @tortaker
If you want to op.gg me it is: https://euw.op.gg/summoner/userName=Tortaken
Early game and laning phase (Pre proto-belt)
During the laning phase in most matchups your playing more to survive and farm as best as you can as Sylas' laning phase is his weakest point. Only if the enemy takes very bad trades or you are playing against a champion who you can fight early do you look for solo kills pre first back. If you have control of the wave, ideally you want to push the first 2 waves into the enemy mid's turret and then ward. If you are in a rough matchup and they control the wave let them push the first 2 waves into your turret, csing as well as you can, and rush level 3 off of the 3rd wave. Because the turret speeds up your level 3 you can potentially all in the opponent if they make a mistep as Sylas' level 3 is quite potent. Once you get Everfrost, your kill threat is much higher and especially when you get 6 (depending on the enemy champions) there are windows of opportunity where solo killing is very possible. At the end of the day Sylas' playstyle is similiar to Kassadin's in the sense that you have to be patient and play for your powerspikes. Sylas differs as he spikes much quicker than Kassadin but has a weaker late late game. Just remember to be patient with Sylas as his mid game is very strong especially in the hands of a worthy player. Sylas' skirmishing is second to none so 2v2s or 3v3s in the river should definitely be attended if available.
Early-mid game
Once you get Everfrost and some ability haste under your belt you are a different beast. This is the point in the game where you aren't just the opponent's prisoner (pun intended). You will have agency in the lane once you spike with your core items and once you get some levels (levels 9+) since you can start winning trades and threatening lethals through aggression. Look to trade pretty much when you have your abilities off cooldown (matchup dependent) and win through your superior sustain.
General playstyle
One of Sylas' main advantages is that he is very flexible due to having multiple choices of ultimates. He can be your engage by stealing Ornn R, Fiddlesticks R, Ashe R, Malphite R or Gnar R. Can be the tank to buy some time and allow your carries to pop off by stealing Alistar R or Swain R. Can also steal dueling ults like Zed R, Mordekaiser R or Tryndamere R to be a massive threat in a side lane. He really can do anything. Sylas also favors a more aggressive style of play which is amazing for learning the game in the long run as it facilitates a carrying mentality which is perfect for solo queue. It also forces you to be in scenarios where you must know the limit of your champion which if you put the time in to this champion means you will be rewarded heavily.
Sylas has multi role Potential
Recently jungle was changed and basically most champions can clear fine. Sylas jungle in the past was very popular, arguably more popular than mid and rightfully so. Sylas is the king of skirmishing and junglers do that a lot. The only downside to Sylas jungle was his clearing capabilities and although it still does apply, with the new jungle that weakness is definitely less. Sylas top lane is actually pretty decent especially if you are aware of the different mathcups and are confident on Sylas in general. In tank matchups like Ornn and Maokai, they can never kill you because of your sheer sustain with maxed out W, but you can easily run them down as top lane is a longer lane than mid which allows for potential to chase. Overall, if you're confident in your Sylas play, Sylas top is also very good especially in those tank mathups.
New First strike rune page
As written in the notes within the First strike rune page, this is a relatively recent thing for Sylas. I personally, first found out about it through Nemesis (ex pro-player and current high elo streamer) and it's potential with certain ultimates. Again the main example of this rune being extremely overpowered on Sylas is when facing Karthus since Karthus ultimate and this keystone are a match made in heaven honestly. Even without a good ult to synergise with the rune, Sylas has a lot of relatively easy matchups that he can afford to not run Conqueror and use First strike to accelerate his gold income throughout the game.
Conclusion
Overall, I just think Sylas' aggressive playstyle paired with his flexibility and therefore his ability to outplay makes him an awesome champion to learn and to climb with.
Remember if you have any questions don't be afraid to message me on twitter @tortaker or on my Twitch stream (https://www.twitch.tv/tortaken) if I am streaming. Also shoutout to my Youtube as well (linked to my MOBAFire profile), right now I just have one vidoe on Sylas' ulimates and I put them in a tierlist but I will work on more in the near future. If you have any ideas on content I can make for Sylas specifically I would love to hear them. Thanks for reading :D
You must be logged in to comment. Please login or register.