Lich Bane on Sylas – Super Saiyan Build! (Full Guide S13)

Many players recommend you to not include Lich Bane in Sylas’ build because his auto-attacks (thanks to his passive) already deal great damage.

However, you can always build Lich Bane Sylas to increase this damage and make your basic attacks hit even harder.

It’s simple – most players don’t build Lich Bane on Sylas because they play him like a bruiser. On the opposite side, Lich Bane does burst damage, and that’s why it’s constantly built on assassins.

So what do you sacrifice by building Lich Bane on Sylas?

In most cases, you’ll need to swap Mejai’s Soulstealer for Lich Bane since that’s one of the most recommended items for Sylas in the mid game.

The rest of the build can remain the same, so you aren’t losing all that much.

But why should you build Lich Bane on Sylas? And does it really work?

Sylas’ entire ability kit is designed around his auto-attacks. His passive, Petricite Burst, increases the damage of his basic attacks after every used ability, which is the same as Lich Bane.

These two effects stack together and can overwhelm your opponents.

Simply put, Sylas does a lot of damage with Lich Bane! And the build is better for assassinating enemies and solo-carrying games.

Lich Bane Sylas – Runes

Here are my recommended runes for playing the Lich Bane build on Sylas:

• Conqueror – is an absolute must-have keystone on Sylas because it increases his damage and self-healing while in combat.
• Presence of Mind – replenishes a portion of your mana on every kill and assist, which is crucial since Sylas is a very mana-hungry champion. 
• Legend: Tenacity – allows you to quickly get out of stuns, roots, sleeps, and fears so you can heal yourself and continue fighting.
• Last Stand – increases your damage while you’re below 60% HP, which actually happens a lot when you’re playing Sylas.

• Taste of Blood – is a reliable rune for self-healing in the laning phase because it only has 20 seconds cooldown.
• Ultimate Hunter – puts your ultimate on a lower cooldown which allows you to use it more often.

Keep in mind that most players like to take Inspiration as a secondary rune page for Sylas. And most specifically, they go for the Biscuit Delivery and Cosmic Insight runes. 

However, I’ve found that Taste of Blood is the best choice for my playstyle because I like to be aggressive on Sylas. So, the extra healing really helps, especially early on.

Also, remember that you can always swap Presence of Mind for Triumph if mana management isn’t a problem for you.

However, the more Ability Haste (a key stat for Sylas) you have, you’ll use your abilities more and more frequently. And you’ll spend more mana too! So, Presence of Mind is a great rune to have in all games!

• Read Also: Lich Bane On Akali – Why It Works: Complete Build Guide!

Optional Runes

Here are other runes that I like to take on Sylas:

• Bone Plating – a fantastic defensive rune that helps you survive all-ins against assassins. 
• Revitalize – buffs all your healing by 5% permanently and 10% when you’re below 40% HP.
• Transcendence – gives you 10 Ability Haste and is pretty helpful if you aren’t building Cosmic Drive.
• Gathering Storm – is a great rune for the late game because it passive increases your AP.
• Cosmic Insight – gives you Item Haste, which is very useful to Sylas because of Everfrost.

Lich Bane Sylas – Items

Here is the complete item build you should run on Sylas with Lich Bane:

• Everfrost – is the best mythic item for Sylas because it grants all beneficial stats (Ability Power, Ability Haste, Health, Mana), and its active can freeze enemies, making it easy for him to land his Q – Chain Lash.
• Lich Bane – empowers your auto-attacks to deal significantly more damage and is the key item in this build.
• Cosmic Drive – is another must-have item for Sylas because it grants bonus AP and movement speed.
• Zhonya’s Hourglass – is always beneficial for Sylas because he fights in melee range and needs to dodge at least some damage.
• Morellonomicon – helps you secure more kills by reducing all healing of your enemies and making them more vulnerable to bursts.
• Ionian Boots of Lucidity – give you 20 Ability Haste in the early game, which is fantastic.

In summary, you should always purchase Everfrost as a first item and Lich Bane as a second. 

Everfrost is just too valuable on Sylas because of his Q mechanic. Chain Lash does more damage when it explodes, but it’s not easy to land it if your targets aren’t stationary.

So, Everfrost helps by freezing your enemies, allowing you to aim your Q on top of them for the explosion.

On the other hand, Lich Bane does more damage if you have more AP, so it’s not the best first purchase by far.

You could even buy it after Cosmic Drive, just to make sure you have enough Ability Haste and Ability Power first.

Morellonomicon can also be swapped for Rabadon’s Deathcap or Void Staff if needed.

Optional Items

Here are all the items you can build on Sylas together with Lich Bane:

• Rabadon’s Deathcap – a massive damage booster in the late game.
• Void Staff – a must-have item against tanks and enemies with a lot of Magic Resist.
• Spirit Visage – is an excellent anti-mage item that increases your healing.
• Mercury’s Treads – increases your Tenacity and helps you escape crowd control faster.
• Sorcerer’s Shoes – gives you Magic Penetration and can be purchased instead of Ionian Boots of Lucidity.

Read Also: Lich Bane Teemo Build Guide

Summoner Spells and Ability Order

Sylas is a pretty simple champion when it comes to choosing Summoner Spells and ability order. Follow these

The Best Summoner Spells for Sylas:

• Flash + Ignite – generally the best.
• Flash + Teleport – recommended for games in which you won’t be able to 1v1 your lane opponent (or you’re Sylas top).
• Flash + Exhaust – pretty useful against assassins.

And the best ability order for Sylas is:

W > E > Q > R

Lich Bane Sylas – Guide

The first thing that I want to clarify here is how Lich Bane actually benefits Sylas.

I mentioned already that it’s similar to his passive because it increases the damage of his auto-attacks after he uses an ability. 

But let’s see how these two effects work individually and together to get a better perspective.

1. Petricity Burst does 130% AD + 25% AP magic damage.
2. Lich Bane does 75% base AD + 50% AP magic damage.

If we take Sylas on level 11, for example, which is his mid game point, we can see that he has 87.33 base damage. He’s also expected to have Everfrost and Lich Bane completed too. Both of these items grant 155 AP in total. So, what does this mean?

1. Sylas deals 140+ magic damage with his passive on level 11.
2. Sylas deals 180+ magic damage with Lich Bane and Everfrost on level 11.
3. Combined, Sylas deals extra 320+ magic damage with Lich Bane and his passive combined on level 11.

As you can see, 344 bonus magic damage isn’t a small number in the mid game. You can use it to surprise and overwhelm your opponents with your auto-attacks.

But you can also use it to quickly push turrets when you’re split-pushing in the side lane.

Read Also: Lich Bane Evelynn Build Guide

Conclusion

Lich Bane works great on Sylas. I definitely recommend this build if you’re struggling to deal damage with Sylas’ Q. Auto-attacks can’t be avoided, so it’s an easy way to deal damage.

But Lich Bane fits perfectly into the entire playstyle of Sylas because it’s always there, buffing his basic attacks. And every 2.5 seconds, Sylas can combine it with his passive to deal extra magic damage.

So, definitely try it out!

I recommend you check out Sylas’ burst damage with Lich Bane in this YouTube gameplay.