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How to play Sylas optimally?

XieXie
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Posts: 155
Member
edited December 17, 2016 in Sylas
I'm not a Sylas main but I'm kind of curious on how to play Sylas optimally.

Plus, I have some questions.
1. Is it optimal to spam Sylas's fourth smash over and over again? For some reason, I feel as if that's not optimal and there's more to it than that unless if I'm wrong.

2. To maximize Sylas's damage you kind of have to play him as no hit right? You get additional damage from every dagger you get but if you get hit, those daggers are gone, along with the additional damage, and you'll have to take the time to build up the daggers again.

I guess I wanted to see if my thoughts are correct.

Thanks in advance for answering.

Comments

  • TradespotTradespot
    Vindictus Rep: 1,795
    Posts: 132
    Member
    edited December 17, 2016
    Xie
    Xie said:

    I'm not a Sylas main but I'm kind of curious on how to play Sylas optimally.

    Plus, I have some questions.
    1. Is it optimal to spam Sylas's fourth smash over and over again? For some reason, I feel as if that's not optimal and there's more to it than that unless if I'm wrong.

    2. To maximize Sylas's damage you kind of have to play him as no hit right? You get additional damage from every dagger you get but if you get hit, those daggers are gone, along with the additional damage, and you'll have to take the time to build up the daggers again.

    I guess I wanted to see if my thoughts are correct.

    Thanks in advance for answering.
    The first point,i have seen different opinions on it.Many are saying that they only rely on the Cyclone Saw wich is not the case for me.Then again,some of them might do it because they have very high speed.Last week i had the chance to get the speed buff in Havan from chaining someone and it felt like i had more room to exploit Cyclone Saw in a beneficial way.

    But ya,the way i see it is that,as you said you will loose a lot of dps if you get hit in the process of building your smashes.I'd say that you should always in average release a big minimum of 4 shards per combo and to really maximize the damage i would say 5-6.Releasing the most shards will also directly enhance your stamina regeneration so if you rely on the smashes only,the damage output will be low and the stamina management will be difficult as well.

    Also it's good to gather the shards,but they also need to be released on the boss as quick as possible.Tecnichally,Cyclone Saw+Illusion Fist combined with 6 shards is what does the most damage in term of combo,but it's good to be able to recognize when you will have the time to land it or not without being hit,because the build up of it is fairly long and than it might be better using Cyclone Edge+Cyclone Crash to still get decent damage versus loosing the time you took to build a combo+ all the damage.

    Spectral Sting by itself can hit about half a Cyclone Edge+Illusion Fist with lucky crit rolls,wich is very good,so i use it as soon as the cooldown is done.Some people don't use Phantasmic Slash but it's still a very good additional damage if you can learn how to keep the boss in it for all the duration.If you can use it efficiently on cooldown it helps a lot too.Some situations where you can use it for all the duration are less obvious,but some are more like for example you can use it right after Eochaid gets his parasite broken or while someone is using a lockdown skill ect.

    For Extinction Roar,i try to collect 20 shards as quick as posible and use it,so i dont necessarely use Illusion Fist or Cyclone Crash once i activate it,i just unleash the shards as fast as i can to reset the cooldown.If the timer of it goes out before you unleash it,it won't go on cooldown but it's somthing you'd want to prevent because you still use the required SP and you have to build your shards over again wich results in a big loss of damage.

    Ideally,you'd want to succeed:

    -Spectral Sting(If you can use it from the quickslot instead of holding R-click)
    -Phantasmic Slash(If you can use it from the quickslot instead of holding R-click)
    -Extinction Roar

    right on the cooldowns with the less delay possible.
    ------------------------------------------------------
    For the rest i usually use:

    Cyclone Saw+Illusion Fist(6 Shards)
    Cyclone Edge+Cyclone Crash(5 Shards)
    If i have 1 shards and i have to dodge i transfer into Spirit Rend Cyclone Edge and than Cyclone Crash
    If i have 3 shards and i have to dodge i transfer into Cyclone Edge and than Cyclone Crash
    If i have 5 shards and i have to dodge i can sometime release them with Wraith Slash or Phantom Shooter depending on the situation

    Anyhow,what i try to not do is go over the 6 shards limit thus releasing them before i can potentially get over 6.

    The only smash that i find counter performant and that i dont use is Wraith Shot(Left-Right-Right)


    The shards can be collected at a good distance and i often see some staying away and collecting 4 shards only with the 4th normal.They basically do the 1st-2nd normal in the air and than close up and hit the 3rd-4th normal.It's safer yes, but being able to hit the 2 first normal and collecting 6 without getting hit will make a differance,because it's 4k damage every time.


    One last thing to take in consideration is that you will have situations where:

    1-Cyclone Saw will hit only once or twice(the attack as 4 hits)

    2-The shards that you release won't get in contact with the boss because he is moving too fast or teleporting


    I basically try to look at the Hp bar while im playing to identify when it's better to use Cyclone Saw and when it's not.If i do it and the damage is like the third of what it's supposed to do,it's not because of a crit or balance roll,it's because you have shards and hits that misses the target.



    Finally to go back to the first question,i don't think using Cyclone Saw over and over is optimal,however it's definitely the smash you would want to use the most.The full combo hits around 24k with my actual stats.With the speed and the additional damage of a +14-15 i would say that a knowledgable Sylas would be extremely powerful as you probably have more openings to use the Cyclone Saw combo safely as well as the shards that you can release from distance would hit significantly harder.

    The features i use in sum are:

    -Cyclone Saw
    -Illusion Fist
    -Charged Illusion Fist
    -Shards collecting and releasing
    -Traveling Phantom shooter
    -Stationary Phantom shooter
    -Cyclone Edge
    -Cyclone Crash
    -Charged Cyclone Crash(Rarely for now)
    -Spectral Sting
    -Phantasmic Slash
    -Wraith Slash(few times but i still use it)
    -Extinction Roar
    -Illusion Sheild for party heals
    -Soul Drain for personal heal(very good) or duo heal(it's difficult to heal more than 2 people total with this skill)
    -Impulse zone(You should see how much faster a boss Hp bar goes down when a boss is locked down and you use this skill around party members that are not atack capped)It also reduces the damage taken by 600 when it's maxed,it can be handy in some situations.

    There is basically only 2 features that i don't use:

    -Wraith shot(the hit box of it would needs a rework)
    -Vision Trap(but that might just be me who didn't figure where it can be useful i don't know)
    Niahsel7thRoninXie
  • XieXie
    Vindictus Rep: 2,115
    Posts: 155
    Member
    edited December 25, 2016
    @Tradespot

    After playing Sylas for a while I realized that I tend to use Cyclone Saw as my main smash. But I also mix in other moves depends if I have the time in between boss attacks and how often the boss aggroes on me. If the boss I'm fighting doesn't give me a lot of time windows for me to use Cyclone Saw, then I tend to use Cyclone Edge as my alternate. But I will also try to use his offensive sp moves as soon as they're off cool down with the exception of Phantasmic Slash depending on situation. I don't have a lot of speed (34) so I guess this might not be a bad way to play since I can't always use Cyclone Saw fast enough.

    I guess I'm doing something right on the not-getting-hit part. I keep hearing complaints about his damage being low but my Sylas seems to be doing pretty well in most raids except in Lionotus where I keep getting hit by Verafim's projectiles. I just wanted to confirm because I figured not getting hit played a big part in his damage output. I don't think he's like the other classes where getting hit does not really effect their damage output. I'll also keep in mind to try and release between 4 - 6 shards.

    I see Spectral Sting as similar to Kai's Hollow Shot with, I think, a longer cooldown. But I will only use it if I have some spare sp and my other skills are still on cooldown. I don't use Phantasmic Slash as often either especially if the boss moves or teleports a lot though I've been trying to find more situations where I can use it more often,

    ... I think I've been using Extinction Roar wrong this whole time. I did not know that I can stack up to 20 shards to increase its damage. That, and I also forgot that Soul Drain exists. I've been using Illusion Shields as my main heal all of this time. I think it's nearly impossible to die as Sylas with all of his heals and defense mechanisms. I also have this bad habit of forgetting that I can play at a distance with Sylas and often get too close to the boss because I'm used to playing at Lann's range. Unfortunately, this is the main cause that gets me hit and makes me lose my shards sometimes. Haha, at the same time, at least my shots will rarely miss because I'll be at point-blank half the time.

    Alright, thanks for the reply. Looks like I've been playing him mostly right, with a few exceptions. I'll keep what you said in mind!
  • NiahselNiahsel
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    Posts: 26
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    the amount of detail trade has on Sylas is actually scary, good scary but scary none the less. imo after the patch his lll>r>r / charge > r / vision dash > r is much more viable than ever before because you get more shards now if you time it right. his 4th timing normal is easy as heck now but his 3rd new timing is a bit tougher to get it right, it's for sure stricter but the damage pay off is noticably worth it