Hello, fellow DotA fans from around the world. This is my first guide in this community, and there can be no other hero to begin with than my favorite of all time: Syllabear. Let's get to it!

INTRO:

I have read two Sylla guides with very little to differentiate one from the other. Both went jungling, both went Spirit Bear / Synergy and both used True Form as early as level 6. They stated that mid-game they were owning everyone, but then late game they were less effective. I have been playing Sylla for almost 5 years, and I can count only a handful of times where I was less effective later on in the game. Most of these involve a bad team with feeders all over the place and good players on the other team. And even then I put up a hell of a fight!!

There was this one game that I lost in which I was playing with 2 of my clanmates and 3 of the other team heroes had left the game, so I switched over and single handedly managed to hold the game for an hour against a full-build Slark, a very tough Batrider and a really noob Phantom Lancer. I was playing with a retarded Pudge and an even more retarded Leoric on my team. Eventually, they managed to end my beyond godlike streak and then destroy our base before I could respawn. I took a chance by not leaving enough gold to buy-back and completed my butterfly, cuz I really needed the evasion against the Slark player, but then they managed to kill me by pushing all 3 while my 2 suicidal teammates were dead. Even then I killed the Batrider and took half of Slark's life too.

Regardless, I digress. I have to say this: "SYLLABEAR IS THE HERO WITH THE MOST LATE GAME POTENTIAL IN THE GAME". That said, there are heroes like Mortred and Faceless Void that have just the right skillset to screw you bigtime in the later portion of the game, but that is due to the nature of their skills and how they counter your strengths rather than late game potential. You are basically a hero with 12 item slots, and if that in itself is not enough to convince you, you have a tower-wrecking/item-carrying/damage-dealing/entangling meat shield in your bear. If an Ursa Warrior needs only to have Vladimir's offering to solo Roshan, you need even less. Just 11 levels, a full HP level 4 Spirit Bear and a finished cooldown of the Summon Spirit Bear skill. It doesn't even matter what items you have, you'll solo Roshan easily!!

Anyway, against the Phantom Assassin and Void heroes, you have an early game advantage, and an infinitely superior farming potential, both of which you should use to prevent them from growing early and mid-game and to be always ahead of them in terms of items. Basically when Mortred is finished with her Battlefury - Dominator or the Faceless Void with Madness and Battlefury, you'll have Skadi - Maelstrom, Power Treads and 2 wraith bands in your hero, and Power Treads, Basher and even possibly a Hyperstone for your Bear. Yes, that's possible, and even likely if you know what you're doing.

SKILLS:

If you want to get into the specifics of each skills, go to DotA Heroes and click on the Lone Druid. I will use this section of the guide to give you my insight on the skills rather than to describe what they do. Here we go:

SUMMON SPIRIT BEAR - This is your jack-of-all-trades signature skill. The bear serves as a meat shield, chicken, disabler, and as a tower destruction machine. It's a little tricky to master controlling the bear and your hero independently, but once you get the hang of it, you'll be all set. Recently, it has been reworked so that if you already have a summoned bear and use this skill, it will FULLY HEAL your bear, which is AWESOME!!!!!

At level 1 the bear has no special abilities (none that matter anyhow), the second level of the skill yields Recall, which is an AWESOME addition, then the third level gives it Demolish (extra damage vs buildings) and finally the last level gives you the famed Entangle, which has been nerfed in one of the recent updates. As of now, entangled units can still attack and cast spells, which sucks bigtime for you, since they used to not be able to move, attack or cast spells in the old days.

RABID - This skills allows you and your bear to move faster and attack even faster. It's really good for survival early on and for wreaking havoc later on! It used to be a target skill, but recently it was changed so that when you cast it, it automatically buffs you and your bear. Another AWESOME upgrade :P.

SYNERGY - The single most useful and wonderful skill this hero has. Underestimated by most because it's a passive skill, except me and all that read this guide, hopefully . It gives the bear +40 damage and movespeed, and increases the duration of Rabid by 400%, and if you're into True Form (which I'm not), gives you lots of bonus life!

TRUE FORM - A useless skill that makes you a melee tank instead of a ranged agility destruction machine. If you go for True Form early, don't even bother reading this guide, as it renders all the item combination that I employ practically useless.

LEVEL UP ORDER:

1- Rabid
2- Synergy
3- Synergy
4- Rabid
5- Synergy
6- Rabid
7- Rabid
8- Summon Spirit Bear
9- Summon Spirit Bear
10- Summon Spirit Bear
11- Summon Spirit Bear
12- Synergy
13 to 22 - Stats
23- True Form
24- True Form
25- True Form

Now onto the reasoning behind these skill choices. Basically, in a game where there are even average players, you'll have problems jungling, either because you get ganked early or because your "lanemate" will be outmatched.

Basically, you need to live with the fact that you SUCK until you get level 11 and play accordingly. You can last hit and deny like hell, because Sylla's axes are quite fast and his attack range is very good too, but don't bother trying to kill anyone unless a clear opportunity presents itself. You're better off just farming for these first few levels. That's why you don't bother with the bear early. It's a good harassing tool, but you'll have no gold to buy items or speed to flee if your enemies try to focus your hero. Your goal early on is only one: SURVIVING, and there's no better skill for that than a long-lasting Rabid. Well, I suppose farming is a top priority too, but that's the easy part. Thanks to Rabid, you'll also be able to keep moving back and forth to last hit or deny a creep without risking yourself too much. At level 8 you could take Synergy, but the cooldown of Rabid is already the same as its duration, which means you already have perma-rabid, so the bear is more useful from then on. At level 9 you should have been able to farm up a decent amount of gold, so you can send your teleporting bear back to base to pick up the stash, then instantly bring it back when you're done shopping. Try not to get too involved in the team fights up until level 11, because you're not really all that useful yet, but don't worry, your time will come!

ITEMS:

A mistake I see many people making is that they put too many items on the bear and leave the hero practically itemless early on in the game. Remember that the bear is only a tool, and it has no use if you are dead. Therefore the top priority here is to create a very strong hero before focusing your efforts on the bear. You start out with 2 Circlets of Nobility and a Tango, then go to the side shop to buy a Slippers of Agility. If you are soloing mid, you get 2 slippers and one circlet instead. If you got lucky and landed as Sylla with a -random, get 2 slippers and 2 circlets and 6 tangoes.

The first item you want to get is a Boots of Speed after that, and if you're not soloing mid or getting your butt kicked in your lane, you should be able to do so without too much trouble on the side shops. If you can, finish Power Treads and get another Slippers of Agility all from the side shops, then finish your wraith bands by level 9 through your bear, just try not to expose yourself too much, because you'll have almost no life regeneration.

****You need to know what you're doing in order to hold out a lane with only 3 tangos, if you're a noob, odds are you'll need more than that. Actually, if you're a noob, go play an easier hero like Drow Ranger or Dwarven Sniper to get the hang of things; start from the beginning, will ya? Sylla is for more advanced players, as are all other multiple-unit heroes, such as meepo, chen, visage, etc...****

Once you reach level 9, send the bear to the shop. If you still have a tango, go kill some neutrals while you shop. If anyone tries to gank you or if you have few HP left, flee back to base.

Your build will go as follows:

Power treads, 2 Wraith Bands, Maelstrom for the hero (you should have Mael by level 12 if you manage to farm properly). Then you may get Power Treads and a Basillus for your bear. Then you get the 2 Ultimate Orbs for Eye of Skadi. You do that because you don't have all that much HP, so you need to be covered ASAP. After you have Maelstrom you're already clear to get involved in team fights, just stay behind and attack, don't try to tank, it's not your job. With 40% increased attack speed, you'll be surprised at the shocking number of Lightning Bolts will spawn out of your attacks!

Normally, if there's an enemy hero that relies on invisibility, such as Gondar, Rikimaru or Clinkz, I get a gem right from the start and feed off of them before they get strong enough to cause me trouble, and since Sylla is normally hard to catch, I usually get away with it for long enough to cripple them permanently. It's worth noting that the bear CANNOT HOLD THE GEM. They have recently reworked it so that as long as the gem is with the bear, it's labeled COURIER EDITION and rendered useless. You must put the gem in the hero's inventory.

When you finish Skadi, you're officially strong. Maelstrom makes you even more effective in farming, so it's not that long before you can finish Skadi. Then you need a Basher for your bear, and then a Hyperstone to finish Mjollnir. What I usually do if the game is not over by then is the following: I get the Hyperstone and then put it in my bear. Then I farm another hyperstone to be able to finish Mjollnir with that second one, leaving the first one with the bear for a later assault cuirass. Then it all depends on the game. If you're getting disabled, go for Linken's or BKB, if you're getting bashed, get Talisman of Evasion and Butterfly, if you're doing OK, get a Radiance for your bear. I don't remember getting to the point where a game is still going on and I manage to get a full build, but in an ideal world, here's what it'd look like:

Syllabear: Power Treads (Agility), Eye of Skadi, Mjollnir, Butterfly, Linken's or BKB and Buriza.

Spirit Bear: Power Treads (any), Basher, Radiance, Assault, Vladimir's Offering and Buriza or Divine Rapier.

PLAYING IT OUT:

You start off playing very conservatively, using Rabid to move back and forth in time for last hits and denies. This is where I really excel, as it seems that this hero's attack timing and distance are like second nature to me after 5 years. Don't get too "chuck-norris"ly confident or you'll screw up your own game. Remember, farming is more important at this stage than killing heroes.

Once you get Maelstrom, you may begin to get involved in team fights. All you have to do is know what your job is. Leave the tanking to the tankers and attack from afar while using the bear to try to entangle fleeing enemies.

What I do is organize my hotkeys to maximize control and playability. I use Control 1 for Sylla, Control 2 for the bear and control 3 for both. Then you can do things such as attack with both (3, right click), then run with your hero (1, right click on minimap), then switch control to the bear (2) and teleport the bear to your hero(R) and attack (right click) heroes that are chasing you. You have no idea how many times I got an Entangle or bash that saved my life. Countless, really. Just a pointer, every time you upgrade the Summon Spirit Bear skill, you will have to redo your control 2 and control 3 hotkeys, because of the way it works. It unsummons the previous version of the bear and instantly summons another identical unit with the improved stats as soon as you select the skill from the level up menu. It's a little annoying, but come on, you just gotta do it 3 times, it's no biggie!

Basically you let yourself become more offensive little by little as the game progresses so that from level 16 on (which is around the time you'll finish Skadi) you're absolutely unstoppable. needless to say you'll walk around permanently buffed with rabid.

However, you're a Carrier / Pusher, so you will need the help of your teammates to grow in the game. And unless there's a meepo, you will probably finish first on the scorecards. As long as you keep reminding yourself that the important thing is not to die excessively in the beginning, you will almost certainly be the strongest hero when the game is over. This Sylla build is one of those cases where you're better off not trading a kill for a death. In other words, if you see a hero running away and have a chance to kill him at the cost of your own life, just let him go, because odds are you'll make much more of a difference later on if you're able to farm properly.

One more thing: this build is designed for 5x5 or 4x4 games. With less players involved, it might be worth switching mjollnir with Satanic, as in my experience it becomes less effective to have thousands of lightning bolts coming from your attacks when there are fewer players with consequently more items. Also the farming upgrade given by Maelstrom is less effective if the heroes of the other team have better starting items.

Anyway, Syllabear is a very fun hero to play, and in my opinion should be played as a ranged agility carrier/pusher rather than a melee tank/pusher. He is not a supporter, he is a KILLER. Period. Now go be all you can be with him. I hope this guide helps out all those who take the time to read it.

Take it EZ!