1. Liandry's Anguish
Deals magic damage based on the enemy's maximum health, perfect against tanks.

Applies damage over time (burn), which is great for extended fights.

Synergizes well with champions who stay in combat for a long time.

2. Riftmaker
Deals magic damage and healing based on damage dealt, which helps Sylas survive.

Has a passive that increases damage as the fight goes on.

Essential for turning Sylas into an AP bruiser with sustain.

3. Bloodletter's Curse
Contrary to popular belief, this doesn't heal Sylas.

What it does is apply magic resistance reduction to enemies as you deal magic damage and accumulate stacks, making it easier for you and your team to deal more damage.

Gives health, AP, and ability haste, which help Sylas use more skills and become more resilient.

Its focus is on amplifying your damage and that of your team, not directly providing sustain.

Why is this combination strong?
Liandry's and Riftmaker provide damage and sustain (damage healing), ensuring Sylas can endure long fights.

Bloodletter increases overall damage, gradually chipping away at enemies' magic resistance.

With these three, Sylas becomes a hard-to-kill champion, healing heavily mid-fight while also dealing constant damage.

This build works especially well in metas and comps where fights last a long time and champions need sustain and gradual damage.

''Where does Shojin fit into this?''

Shojin also increases the damage of Sylas skills, making W heal more and the passive of his hits also deal more damage. In testing, he deals more damage with Shojin than building another AP item first. That's why we use Conqueror alongside Shojin, because Shojin is a "Conqueror 2.0."
The meta for bruisers: Shojin + Conqueror.
The meta for mages: Three Masks.
No problem, Sylas can follow both metas at the same time, making him unstoppable.

And if you think his Powerspike is a full build, you're very wrong! In fact, this build is a snowball and is also good for lasting the game. You can play very well regardless of how many items you have. From Shojin onwards, you'll already be very strong in the match, so you can just go for it.

With this rune, using the sorcery secondary is crucial, as Sylas won't build mana items. The Manaflow Band will do that for us.

Sylas is a champion focused on prolonged fights, where he can exploit his healing on W and cooldown reduction with items like Shojin. His rune choice reflects this perfectly:

🟥 Conqueror
Sylas needs time to scale his damage and healing during trades. Conqueror is perfect because it stacks quickly with his AoE skills (Q, E, and borrowed ult) and, when fully stacked, increases damage and provides extra healing, making him much harder to kill in long fights.
Furthermore, the Conqueror paired with Shojin is a perfect choice, as Shojin is a "Conqueror 2.0," which is why many champions build Shojin + Conqueror. Sylas is no different.

🟨 Presence of Mind
Sylas has a high mana cost, especially in the early game. Presence of Mind helps maintain mana after kills or assists, allowing him to keep fighting without worrying about running out of resources.

🟨 Legend: Haste
This choice synergizes directly with the Sword of Shojin. Sylas benefits greatly from Ability Haste, as the faster he uses his W, the more he heals and deals damage. It also helps him have more E (engage/escape) and use stolen spells more frequently. In "triple mask + Shojin" builds, this skill spam becomes a nightmare for the enemy.

In games without much CC, some players prefer Legend: Spontaneity (Haste) for increased attack speed, which synergizes with the Sword of Shojin and allows for more frequent skill casts.

🟨 Last Stand
This rune shines in extended fights. When Sylas gets low on health, he gains adaptive damage, which perfectly suits his fighting style: getting in the middle, using everything, healing with his W, and staying alive longer than expected.

Sylas often choose to max W (Kingslayer) first when going for a build that includes Shojin and the triple mask combo (Liandry's, Bloodletter, Riftmaker). The reason is simple: it massively amplifies his skirmishing, healing, and consistent damage output in extended fights.

W is Sylas’s core trading and sustain ability. When maxed, it drastically reduces cooldown, increases healing, and improves damage. Combined with Shojin’s passive, which grants ability haste and reduces non-ultimate ability cooldowns after autos, Sylas can spam W much more frequently, becoming almost unkillable in close-range brawls.

The triple mask setup adds constant DPS and true damage burn (Liandry) and ramping healing (Riftmaker). This synergizes perfectly with W max, as Sylas can stay in fights longer, healing for more and outputting insane sustained damage over time. Without a fast W max, Sylas can't fully abuse the healing and Shojin resets that this build enables. Furthermore, Shojin also increases the damage of Sylas' skills, making W heal more and the passive of his hits also deal more damage.

In short, W max complements both the damage over time from the mask items and the cooldown abuse from Shojin, turning Sylas into a durable, high-sustain AP bruiser that thrives in drawn-out fights.

Sylas's Fun Facts
The "Magic Stealer"
Sylas is known for his unique ability to steal enemies' ultimates during the match. This is practically exclusive to the game, and requires great skill and timing to fully utilize.

Dark and Political Origins
In the lore, Sylas is a revolutionary prisoner of Demacia. He was born with magic, something forbidden in Demacia, and ended up imprisoned for it. He is a figure who represents the fight against oppression and prejudice against magic.

Visual Style Inspiration
Sylas's appearance is somewhat reminiscent of an anarchist/urban rebel, with chains wrapped around his body—a reflection of his history as a prisoner and revolutionary.

Voice and Personality
Sylas's voice is full of resentment and suppressed anger, which perfectly matches the idea of ​​someone who has been wronged for a long time. He is ironic, sarcastic, and has a strong personality.

Synergy with the Chain Theme
His abilities revolve around using chains—he uses these chains both to attack and to move quickly around the map, reinforcing his theme of "imprisonment" and "liberation."

Sylas and Interaction with Other Champions
In lore and gameplay, Sylas has interesting relationships with other champions:

With Lux, the magical princess of Demacia, he has a strong rivalry.

With Garen, he represents everything Garen and Demacia seek to suppress.

Lesser-Known Curiosities about Sylas
His relationship with chain magic runs deeper.
In the lore, the chains Sylas wears are made of pure magic and are part of his curse and prison, but he can use them as a weapon and even to heal himself. In other words, he turned this limitation into strength.

Sylas has a secret interaction in the lore with Viktor.
The two have different ideologies, but both represent forms of repressed magic and transformation: Sylas wants revolution, Viktor wants evolution through technology. Some texts hint that they could be allies or rivals in the future.

The voice design has changed several times.
Before release, Sylas had a more "angry" and "brutal" voice. Later, the creators decided to give him a more calculating and somewhat ironic tone to give him more personality.

Sylas originally had a different ability.
During development, his W (chain that pulls enemies) was intended to work differently—with more control and less damage. This ability has been refined to be more versatile and aggressive.

Sylas was designed to be an "anti-mage."
The idea was for him to be a character who would disrupt the traditional mage meta, stealing their ultimates and turning the tide of battle. That's why he's strong against champions who rely heavily on their ultimates.

Thanks for reading this far! I hope you try this build and see how strong it is!!