I don't want this to be a "omg best way to build him is x you're dumb if you think otherwise thread". I see people build Wildsoul with no items on bear and treads + sny + whatever on the hero, which I think is equivalent to playing Chipper without rockets in terms of efficiency. Instead of farming on lane, people in HoN I've seen almost always go jungle on him, limiting his farm and not taking advantage of great laning presence. Additionally, people don't even get in ulti and stay in ranged form, sacrificing a potential +60 dmg and +1500 hp to gain a ranged attack and like 10 bonus movespeed. It seems weird to me because I think the most obvious way to play the hero is like this:

Start with tangos + salve + 3x totem + shield (on bear)
Go solo easy lane or solo mid, easy lane preferably
Max bear/ passive first
Get phase boots on both bear and hero as first items. This should be quick since you have great attack animation, good base damage, and a summon which also has good dmg / attack
By the time you're lvl 10 or so and mid game is rolling around, just go into melee form. With both phase on your + bear and a level of the buff, you'll be able to chase people down and root them easy. Also, you'll be very hard to kill
Rush mock on bear, need to get this by like 25 mins
Start pushing / teamfighting or whatever, but keep farming for a Daemonic which you should get by 35 or so

From then on its pretty GG, you can push towers within seconds. Get a heart/astrolabe/butterfly/ whatever you feel like really, just start making the actual hero more tanky as bear becomes worthless late game.

I've won pretty much every game I've played like this, including both publics and inhouses (eg http://www.adotaparser.com/dota-replay/123321). You can basically tank / carry / push / disable at the same time, and you can really fuck most carries over because you don't have to run from them you can just maul them down with your huge damage + hp. Its also so hard for the enemy to stop you because its almost like focusing an Moraxus or something who you know you should kill but you also know that it'll take forever and in the meantime the enemy team will slaM you.

So, does anyone have any argument as to why jungle + range form + frostburn build is better? I'd love to hear it really, since I never understood the logic behind it

you can't have a picnic without the woods

jungle will open up an extra solo lane and leave you to cruise the map with supe rfast bear speeds pushing towers and ganking all 3 lanes as needed whilst jungling / warding the map out

i used have fun with him in beta i dont know how good he is now a dayz

he's a top tier hero imo, just nobody uses him properly in HoN. in DotA there's like a whole other tier of heroes way above HoN heroes in terms of being "overpowered" but Syllabear is still a frequent pick by pros. I think if played right in HoN he could also be a top pick, just people need to lane / build him correctly

im not that good at laning in hon yet so ffffff

you haven't played HoN in 2 months so how would you know if anyone plays him properly?

i'd say all the noobs still use the frostburn build, while 1800+ players use the booboo build

i used to go alch bones, but after the nerd i dont like it.

my build is:

hatchet shield and 1x rev ward as starting items

then boots on hero and bear

finish enhanced marchers on bear, then go straight to mock.

after mock i just vestments for hero. then demonic and game should be over after i get the warpcleft

skill build is :

3 in bear
4 in passive
4 in +atck mvsp spell
skill until whenever available

are you having a picnic?

See thing is i get steamboots on my bear just so he has perma haste and a nice attack speed while decking myself out for damege so he can root and damege. also you jungle while ganking the lane to help a bit yes everyone has their own way of playing him but i don't know i just cant stand stacking the bear it just does not work for me in the 1700-1800 MMR

nerfd +20 second cd on alchemist bones