Guide Syllabear the Lone Druid

Table of Contents

* Introduction
* Syllabear Breakdown
* Skill Build
* Skill Build Explanation
* Item Build
* Item Build Explanation
* Items Not to Get
* Syllabear Techniques and Strategy
* Syllabear Techniques in Action
* Game Walkthrough
* Best Allies
* Worst Enemies
* Replays
* Credits
* Conclusion


Introduction


View this guide in DotA-Allstars skin to be able to read it without punishing your retinas.

This guide is a collaboration between VerGe.Tijon and myself. Tijon is the author of the strategy section and he created the skill and item builds. I edited for grammar and added everything else. In case you don't know, verGe is usually ranked as one of the top three DotA teams in the US alongside Complexity and Pandemic. This build is proven to work in high levels of play. Dijongenie[P] from Pandemic also uses almost the same build.

This is a guide designed for an extremely high level of play. I would still encourage those relatively new to DotA to try the guide and practice with it, but beware that many of the techniques in this guide require a great deal of micro and can take a long time to master for even the best of players. If you find this guide difficult at first to succeed with, I recommend you keep trying because this build is proven to work and many of the best players use a build almost identical to this one.

This guide also has an extremely comprehensive strategy section. These are tips specific to Syllabear. I decided not to make a normal strategy section full of go to your lane, last hit, etc. ad nauseum.

I decided to name my Spirit Bear, because calling it Spirit Bear can be confusing and boring. So throughout the guide it's going to be called Pope Rocketfist III.

Syllabear Breakdown


IPB Image

Syllabear - The Lone Druid
Range: 550 | | Move Speed: 305 | Primary: AGI
Str: 17 + 2.1 | Agi: 24 + 2.7 | Int: 13 + 1.4
Damage: 46 - 50 | HP: 473 | Mana: 169
HP Regen: 0.76 | Mana Regen: 0.53
Attack Speed: 1.29 (+ 24% IAS) | Armor: 2.4

Syllabear's role in a game is to be the carry hero. Carry hero means that he will almost always be the hero taking the solo lane, and he is expected to be the big hero killer. Syllabear is a highly effective hero in lower level play and competitive play. He is a difficult hero to master, but he is highly effective if you manage to master playing him.

IPB Image Summon Spirit ( B )ear

Summons a powerful Pope Rocketfist III companion. It randomly Entangles enemies that it attacks, which immobilizes an enemy for 3 seconds, dealing 40 damage per second.
Pope Rocketfist III deals 28 - 38 normal damage.
Pope Rocketfist III will automatically teleport back to Syllabear if it attempts to attack a unit while he is more than 1500 range away from Syllabear.

Level 1 - 1400 hit points, Syllabear will lose 100 HP if Pope Rocketfist III dies. Pope Rocketfist III has 320 movespeed and Base Attack Time of 1.75.
Level 2 - 1800 hit points, Entangles 8% of the time, gains Return, which allows it to teleport to Syllabear instantly (with 5 seconds cooldown), Syllabear will lose 200 HP if Pope Rocketfist III dies. Pope Rocketfist III has 320 movespeed and Base Attack Time of 1.6.
Level 3 - 2300 hit points, Entangles 12% of the time, and has Return and Demolish. Demolish allows Pope Rocketfist III to deal 1.33 times damage to buildings, Syllabear will lose 300 HP if Pope Rocketfist III dies. Pope Rocketfist III has 330 movespeed and Base Attack Time of 1.45.
Level 4 - 2700 hit points, Entangles 16% of the time, has Return, Demolish, 33% Spell Damage Reduction, and can carry up to 6 items, Syllabear will lose 400 HP if Pope Rocketfist III dies. Pope Rocketfist III has 340 movespeed and Base Attack Time of 1.3.

Mana Cost: 75
Cooldown: 180

This is Syllabear's signature skill and his best skill. The Pope Rocketfist III is extremely powerful and can entangle heroes. The Pope Rocketfist III is also great for tanking towers and is a good tower destroyer with Demolish. One thing which you may note is his extremely high health. When Syllabear is only level 7, Pope Rocketfist III will have 2700 hit points. This is one of his greatest strengths. Pope Rocketfist III is also insanely fast with a 340 base movespeed at level 4, which is boosted to 380 base movespeed by four points in Synergy.

IPB Image ( R )abid
Syllabear can create an intense combative fury in either himself or any of his controlled unit.
Lasts 10 seconds.

Level 1 - Increases attack speed by 10% and movement speed by 5%.
Level 2 - Increases attack speed by 20% and movement speed by 10%.
Level 3 - Increases attack speed by 30% and movement speed by 15%.
Level 4 - Increases attack speed by 40% and movement speed by 20%.

Mana Cost: 50
Cooldown: 30

This is a great skill. It offers a heavy increase in chasing capabilities and damage per second. Most of the time you will be using Rabid on your Pope Rocketfist III in the early game. In late game, it is highly advisable that you use Rabid on yourself because you will have more damage. Note that it only lasts 10 seconds. With four points in Synergy it lasts 50 seconds, that is why we don't get this skill early game.

IPB Image S( y )nergy
Increases the Lone Druid's synergy with his Pope Rocketfist III with each level:

Pope Rocketfist III - Adds 10 damage and 10 movement points.
Rabid - Increases the duration by 10 seconds.
True Form - Adds 100 HP per level

Mana Cost: N/A
Cooldown: N/A

This boosts the effectiveness of all of Syllabear's skills greatly. It gives Pope Rocketfist III much more damage and movespeed; it gives Rabid a huge duration boost that it desperately needs; and it gives True Form an extra four hundred health, which is always useful.

IPB Image True ( F )orm
Syllabear learns to morph himself into a brown bear. He can morph freely between human and bear form.

Level 1 - 250 bonus health.
Level 2 - 400 bonus health and has Battle Cry.
Level 3 - 600 bonus health and has One.

True Form's Mana Cost: 25
True Form's Cooldown: N/A

Battle ( C )ry:
Give Lone Druid and his units under his control within 900 AoE 20 bonus damage and 2 bonus armor.

Duration: Lasts 10 seconds
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Mana cost: 50 mana

On( e ): Links Syllabear and up to 2 of his controlled units by the soul. Damage that they take is distributed equally between 2 or 3 of them.

Mana Cost: 80 mana Duration: 35 seconds
Cooldown: About 12 seconds

This gives a lot of extra health to Syllabear which you really need. If you cast it on Pope Rocketfist III, then any damage that either Syllabear or Pope Rocketfist III takes is equally distributed between the two units. One will work on any unit that you control. I use this skill early game to escape from ganks (Note: It doesn't increase your health by a flat bonus, the percentage of health you have relative to your maximum health will stay the same. So when using it to escape ganks, turn it on before they start attacking.) And in late game I use this skill to turn my hero into a beastly tank. One is a very useful skill that you receive by leveling this up and it makes Syllabear a monster tank.

Skill Build


1. Pope Rocketfist III
2. Synergy
3. Pope Rocketfist III
4. Synergy
5. Pope Rocketfist III
6. Synergy
7. Pope Rocketfist III
8. Synergy
9. True Form
10. Rabid
11. Rabid
12. Rabid
13. Rabid
14. Attribute Bonus
15. True Form
16. True Form
17. Attribute Bonus
18. Attribute Bonus
19. Attribute Bonus
20. Attribute Bonus
21. Attribute Bonus
22. Attribute Bonus
23. Attribute Bonus
24. Attribute Bonus
25. Attribute Bonus

Skill Build Explanation


Pope Rocketfist III is your most important skill. I have seen some guides that advise not using this. However, this guide isn't a bad one. Pope Rocketfist III is obviously an amazing ability and it is by far Syllabear's best one. So if you disagree with this, don't comment, just stop playing DotA or read another guide. Pope Rocketfist III has 2700 health with makes it a beastly tank, a really fast attack speed, a 380 movespeed which is ideal for chasing, and Entangle, which is a good disable. He's pretty much awesome in every respect.

Synergy is really good because it gives your bear a shitload of damage which you need early game. It also gives him a lot of movespeed. Rabid looks like it might be good early game, but the duration is so short without Synergy that it isn't worthwhile at all. The extra damage on your bear helps a ton in last hitting as well.

I don't get Rabid early because it won't last long enough and Synergy is just far more important because it will add about as much movement speed and it will add more damage per second. I get Rabid at levels 10-13 because the extra movespeed and attack speed that Rabid can give your Pope Rocketfist III are far more important than +8 to stats. It gives your Pope Rocketfist III close to 522 movespeed and a high attack speed which will allow you to chase down heroes extremely well.

True Form is the main point that I expect to take flak from. I don't advise you to use it before level 16 because the trade-off isn't very good until that point. The extra thousand health is well worth and the access to the One ability makes this skill well worth it, despite losing your range advantage. Range is most useful in early game lane control anyway. I don't advise using this skill until you get to at least level 15 or so unless you're just using it to run away. I get level one of this skill at level nine because you can use it when you anticipate being ganked.