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
 * Cooldowns of items are bound to the items themselves, and not to the units. This means when using an item, putting it on cooldown, and then giving it to the Spirit Bear, it is on cooldown still.
 * However, when an item went on cooldown due to a shared cooldown (e.g. going on cooldown because of  getting used, or when having multiple ), it is not on cooldown when given to the bear, since the item itself was not used to proc the cooldown.
 * When having on cooldown, and giving it to the Spirit Bear while it already has a Town Portal Scroll, its cooldown is based on the cooldown of the scroll which the bear already had.

Gem of True Sight
 * The Spirit Bear gets a courier version of Gem of True Sight, means it not reveal invisible units when held by Spirit Bear.
 * Spirit Bear still drops it on death.

Aegis of the Immortal and Cheese
 * Spirit Bear cannot pick up the Aegis of the Immortal, but can attack (destroy) it. It can pick up and normally use a Cheese though.

Runes
 * Spirit Bear can activate any rune. When activating Bounty Runes, Lone Druid gains gold and experience from it. When activating the Illusion Rune, nothing happens, since only heroes can have illusions of. All other runes work normally and fully for the Spirit Bear. The Spirit Bear can also attack runed to deny them, like other units.
 * Spirit Bear can also bottle runes like heroes can and normally use them. Its bottle also gets refilled when doing so.
 * The team chat message displays "Lone Druid", and not "Spirit Bear" when it uses runes.

Divine Rapier
 * Divine Rapiers on the Spirit Bear work exactly like how they do for heroes. They can normally buy a Rapier and drop it manually from their inventory. It is muted when given to allies.
 * It is possible to swap an original Rapier between Lone Druid and the Spirit Bear, it is not muted like how it is for allies. When picked up by an enemy, it turns into a free Rapier as usual.
 * The Spirit Bear can pick up free Rapiers. But just like heroes, it cannot drop it from its inventory manually. This means free Rapiers cannot be swapped between Lone Druid and the Spirit Bear like an original Rapier.
 * Divine Rapiers carried by the Spirit Bear drop on its death.

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".