Once the Ranger-General of Silvermoon, Sylvanas Windrunner was murdered by the death knight, Arthas, and brought back as a creature of undeath, as such, she hates Arthas with a Passion. After regaining her free will, she rebelled against the Lich King and the Scourge became the founder of the Forsaken faction of undead, who are allied with the Horde. She has styled herself the Dark Lady, Queen of the Forsaken, an expansion of her original title, "The Banshee Queen".

As leader of the Forsaken and the Horde on the Eastern Kingdoms, Sylvanas is a military genius. The middle sister of Alleria and Vereesa Windrunner, she was Ranger-General of the high elf kingdom of Quel'Thalas. She fought valiantly against Arthas when he invaded Quel'Thalas, but during the fall of Silvermoon, Arthas killed and raised her as an undead minion as a form of petty revenge. When the Lich King's hold on his minions weakened, Sylvanas, among other undead, regained her free will, and she led her forces against the dreadlords who had taken hold over Lordaeron, ultimately affirming her sovereignty by killing off two of the nathrezim and bending the third, Varimathras, to her will. She renamed her force of self-aware undead the Forsaken and declared herself their queen.

Under her leadership, the Forsaken have managed to not only fend off the Scourge, but also the Scarlet Crusade. She has a certain mastery of leadership, military strategy, and the bow. She is also adept at demon magic- having the ability to drain life, create skeletons, and use mind control. Sylvanas is the best archer on Azeroth- she claimed she could hit a flying bird in the eye. She wields Sunstrider's Longbow- once owned by Dath'Remar Sunstrider, it was passed on to Sylvanas when she became Ranger-General.

Sylvanas just came out today and after playing 20 or so games with her, I've decided on my optimal talent build. I figured I would post it to help people out, so they can enjoy playing the new hero. I will update this if anything changes as I play more. I've tried out most of her talents and I will try to identify where there are other viable options. I also build her a bit different if I want to focus on killing camps and pushing lanes rather that sustain and team fights. She is still excellent at that with the main build, just a bit more balanced and useful in team fights. My recommended talent will be in green, useful alternatives will be in blue, and talents that are not useful will be in red.

- With the Wind-This talent is not bad and can help you harass heroes over creep waves, or chase down heroes. However, there are better options at this tier.
- Lost Soul - W is a very important part of your build and I think this is the all around best choice. The two seconds helps a lot once you get your tier 3 and tier 6 talents. It makes the cool down 20% shorter.
- Barbed Shot - Barbed shot was the skill I first took when I started playing because 200% bonus damage sounded like a lot and 2 second from lost souls didn't sound that great. My initial thought was wrong, while this does help her kill waves and mercs much faster. She is already very good at that and taking Lost Soul makes her a bit more balanced.
- Corruption - This seems like it would be useful, and it can help a bit early game. However your trait already locks down buildings. Over all its not that useful, and I would not recommend taking it.

- Paralysis - Its not that useless, but its not that great either. I think it fits into the category of Barbed shot. It helps you kill camps better, but you kill camps with ease anyway so its not really needed.
- Overflowing Quiver - This talent doesn't give you much bang for your buck, because most of the time your quiver will not be full. There are a few exceptions, but overall not that useful.
- Ranger's Ambush - This talent is great because it gives you more burst and helps you chase better. Once you take Evasive fire at tier 5 you will be able to get an instant speed burst after porting, letting you chase or run. It also helps you kill camps and push lanes, it has great utility.
- Envenom - Envenom is always good but I think you get more utility and burst from Ranger's Ambush(it also synergies better with all your other talents). However, its not a bad choice and if it fits your play-style better feel free to take it.

Unstable Poison - Not bad and does help you push lanes/get camps giving extra burst, but I just feel the sustain you gain from life drain is far more useful.
- Life Drain - All around great talent. It helps you take merc camps, it helps you stay in lane if heroes are harassing you, and it helps out in team fights. One of Sylvanas's major weaknesses is she is fragile, this helps with that a lot and rounds her out a bit.
-Follow Through - This is actually not a bad option on her as with how often you can cast your Q all your auto attacks can pick up the 25% bonus. If you want to max your damage and don't care about sustain then this would be the best pick.
- Mercenary Lord - Merc lord is Merc lord, there are much better skills to take on this Tier.
- Shade Form - Shade form suffers from the same thing Merc lord suffers from its not a bad talent..but its not a great one either. Its not worth taking and giving up one of the other more useful talents.

- Wailing Arrow - Wailing Arrow is really your only option on this tier, it does good damage and the silence is useful. A well placed Wailing Arrow can easily turn the tide in your favor or get that last bit of burst to finish off a hero.
-Possession - Possession was something I wanted to like. On its face it sounds cool...but in practice, its not all that useful. You can't steal Mercs until you are lvl 20, and the creep stealing is tedious, its much easier just to kill any creep wave and go take a merc camp or gank something than to sit there and try to use this ability. She is so good at killing waves, there is no need to possess them.

- Overwhelming Affliction - Not a bad talent, it slows Heroes up to 25% I prefer to gain movement speed myself from Evasive fire so I can kill a hero then chase another with the bonus, but that's just me. This talent is viable take it if you like it.
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Evasive Fire - Great for chasing it stacks up to 30% and is great for escaping as well as chasing. I prefer it over Overwhelming Affliction, because it lets you escape from multiple targets trying to chase you down, and also allows you to chase multiple targets. It also stacks to 30% (OA only stacks to 25%) and only takes 3 hits to stack it that high(OA takes 5).
Splinter Shot - Splinter Shot is a good talent for clearing waves and camps. However it does not offer the utility of Evasive fire.
Spell Shield - Spell shield isn't a bad talent, but I think its the weakest at this tier and therefore not a viable pick. If you were going for a max defensive build, you could try it out perhaps, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Windrunner - Windrunner is not a bad talent, when I first saw it visions of 15 arrow burst clips using it in combination with Ranger's Ambush danced in my head. However, in practice it rarely goes like that. It does allow you to chase and escape better, and if you do it just right a few extra Q shots. Its a good ability, but Cold Embrace is too good to pass up.
Cold Embrace - Cold Embrace is AMAZING!! it can make the entire other team take 25% more damage, it wins team fights, kills camps, clears waves, and even stacks with your healing. Its too good not to take!
Will of the Forsaken - Will of the Forsaken is not a bad talent, but when you put it on the same tier as Cold Embrace its just not going to win. It can help you chase and escape, its not bad but its also not Cold Embrace...thus we are not taking it.
Blood for Blood - As you may have noticed by now, none of the talents in this tier are red. That's because none of them are bad skills, they are all useful in their own way. However, Cold Embrace is too good not to take. You will get more bang for your buck out of it than Blood for Blood most of the time.

Deafening Blast - This talent is my choice as it double the silence and increase the damage of your lvl 10 skill. There is nothing not to like about this and I don't mind the mobility loss from not taking bolt(which is the other viable option)
Dark Lady's Call - If you are following this guide this shouldn't even be an option. If for some reason you took possession you might as well take this too. This skill makes it sort of useful, as you can possess enemy Mercs. However, you are one of the best Merc killers in the game, so you should be getting those camps instead of letting your opponents take them.
Fury of the Storm- Its not horrible, but its not great. The double silence and 50% more damage from deafening blast will help out more in team fights. At this level you should already be having your way with Merc camps and the lanes, so its not worth taking this ability for that.
Bolt of the Storm - I put this one in a dark green because its not my recommended pick, but its still a great choice and lets you chase and escape. Bolt of the storm is always a good choice, and you can take it here instead if you like.

Hope you enjoyed reading, there will be more updates and more to come! If you have any suggestions or questions feel free to comment