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 this, 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, and then pass a second copy of that item from the bear. The second copy shows 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. It can also activate any rune. When activating Bounty Runes, Lone Druid gains gold and but not the experience from it. When activating the Illusion Rune, nothing happens, since the Spirit Bear cannot have illusions of itself. All other runes work normally and fully for the Spirit Bear.
 * Spirit Bear can bottle runes normally. Bottled runes follow the same rules as stated above. The bear can activate bottled runes, but cannot use the Bottle's own 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 drops 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 are 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.
 * Since Lone Druid focuses on aura and support items for his bear, he can buy two level 1 Necrobooks (one for the bear as it has its own mana pool), and then upgrade them. This has a great synergy with Battlecry which affects all units under your control, including the Necronomicon summons. For example, a level 3 Battlecry grants each of them +150 damage and 20 armor, increasing your total physical damage output by 900 (6x150). Lone Druid and his bear also benefit from the movement speed and attack speed aura 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 in the game. This means a cloak is a very cost efficient pickup on him, as it increases his effective HP 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".