Lone Druid

Sylla the Lone Druid is an adaptable and versatile ranged or melee agility Hero, who summons a Spirit Bear, which has its own set of abilities and can equip items, as his ally. With the help of his Spirit Bear, he can carry, jungle, and push lanes effectively. Because of these, technically speaking, the Spirit Bear and Lone Druid himself, are two available heroes at once. The Lone Druid himself is mostly played as the aura giver, while the Spirit Bear is played as the main damage dealer and tank. When he activates his abilities, it will not only buff him but the Spirit Bear as well. Lone Druid is versatile as he can change from a fast ranged warrior to a tough and mighty melee bear himself. Together, they can push the lanes effectively, farm Neutrals in a clinch, and can take down Roshan by themselves if equipped with the right items. Due to the Spirit Bear, Lone Druid can have up to 12 items making him extremely formidable as he scales into the late game.

Various mechanics
Item cooldowns
 * Sylla and Spirit Bear cannot bypass an activatable item's cooldown by passing one from one to the other.
 * In other words, once an item is activated, the cooldown does not change upon moving the item to the other inventory.
 * You also cannot use an item that would normally share cooldown with identical items (such as Town Portal Scroll) on Sylla, then pass a second copy of that item from the bear. The second copy will show the same cooldown as the first once it enters Sylla's inventory.

Gem of True Sight
 * Gem of True Sight does not reveal invisible units when held by Spirit Bear.
 * Spirit Bear still drops it on death.

Aegis of the Immortal
 * Spirit Bear cannot pick up Aegis of the Immortal, but can attack (destroy) it.

Runes
 * Spirit Bear can destroy runes, as can any other unit. Spirit Bear can only use invis, haste, and regeneration runes. If the bear picks up an Illusion rune, no illusions of it are created and the rune is wasted. If it picks up a Double Damage rune, Lone Druid and his illusions within 450 range of the Spirit Bear upon picking it up get the double damage buff, the Spirit Bear itself does not. If it picks up a Bounty rune, the gold is granted, the experience is not.
 * Spirit Bear can bottle runes normally. Bottled runes follow the same rules as stated above. Invis, Regen and Haste fully work, Double Damage does not apply on self, but in the AoE, Bounty only grants gold. Spirit Bear cannot use normal bottle charges.

Skull Basher
 * Spirit Bear can carry a Skull Basher that works independently from any carried by Lone Druid himself.

Divine Rapier
 * Lone Druid can freely swap a Divine Rapier between him and his Spirit Bear while both of them are able to profit from the damage bonus. If Spirit Bear dies carrying a Rapier, it will drop as if any other hero carried it.

Tips

 * Due to the bear's very high health, he can be used to tank neutrals and jungle early game, or provide good lane control with harassment and last hitting, with very little risk of dying.
 * Do not let the bear die to enemy heroes too often. It gives 300 gold and exp, and if is on cooldown, then you will be left helpless for a few minutes.
 * The bear benefits greatly from attack speed items as they make entangle more reliable.
 * A double mask of madness and basher allows you to perma bash any heroes without evasion.
 * Items that provide some kind of aura are a good choice as they benefit both Lone Druid and his Spirit Bear.
 * Because Lone Druid focuses on aura and support items for his bear, he can get two level 1 necrobook quickly (one for the bear since it has mana) then upgrade them, they will benefit from the aura. They will also get each of them +100 damages and 15 armor from Battlecry, allowing to increase your damage by 600 (6x100). Lone and his bear will also benefits from the aura movement speed and attack speed of the archer.
 * Take note that due to the fact that the Spirit Bear's stats are static if the game goes too long he falls short against an enemy hard carry. Lone Druid is usually picked in push heavy line ups to be able to push into the enemy base using his bear's bonus damage against buildings long before the enemy carry has had time to farm. If this fails you should begin planning on itemizing Lone Druid himself.
 * In a team fight if your bear is about to die you can make Lone Druid the main damage dealer by transferring the bear's items to your main hero.
 * Lone's True Form gives him the highest amount of HP of the game. This means a cloak is a very cost efficient pickup on him, as it increases his ehp against magical nukes by a large amount.

Trivia

 * Lone Druid's original name was "Syllabear", a pun on the name of Syl-lab-le, one of the developers who worked with Guinsoo. Before retiring, he created this hero. It has now been shortened to "Sylla".
 * Lone Druid, while on True Form, used to have a second sub-ability called One, it equally distributes the damage taken by Sylla and the Spirit Bear, allowing them to endure more damage and live longer.