[Champion] Shyvana

Wetty

Australia419 Posts

November 05 2011 17:06 GMT

Shyvana, the Half-Dragon.

+ Show Spoiler [Patch Notes] +

Patch 1.0.0.136: Fury of the Dragonborn: Updated tooltip to more accurately reflect actual values in game. Burnout: Fixed a bug that caused it to last longer than intended. Dragon's Descent: Passive armor and magic resist bonus reduced to 10/15/20 from 15/20/25. Several item changes affecting Shyvana - life steal nerf (on scepter, wriggles and BT) and a new item added to build from Hexdrinker - Maw of Malmortius.
Patch 1.0.0.134:Fixed a bug where Flame Breath could shred the armor of shred-immune units ( Dragon, Baron Nashor).
Dragon's Descent allied ultimate HUD indicator will now go grey immediately after using.
Patch 1.0.0.130 No Shyvana champion changes. Jungle remake, health potion changes and wriggles proc damage reduced.
Patch 1.0.0.129 No Shyvana champion changes. Item change: Wriggle's Lantern lifesteal down to 15% from 18%. New masteries introduced. Various summoner spell tweaks.
Patch 1.0.0.128 - Shyvana released.

+ Show Spoiler [Stats] +

Health: 435 (+95)
Health Regeneration: 7.2 (+0.8)
Attack Damage: 54.5 (+3.4)
Attack Speed: 0.658 (+1.7%)
Attack Range: 125
Movement Speed: 325
Armour: 17.6 (+3.4)
Magic Resistance: 30 (+1.25)

+ Show Spoiler [My take on Shyvana] +

Shyvana is a champion that I have enjoyed incredibly since release. She’s awesome fun, has great graphics, a sweet dance and turns into a dragon! She’s a threat to anyone and a great addition to most teams. An all-around solid pick that can be played in several different and fun ways.

I play Shyvana mostly as a solo top, and a tanky dps. Her role is to get up in the enemies face, and focus down a single target in a team fight. She can take some punishment, and makes a good pusher.

I always find it funny when people say things like “Oh Shyvana is bad, don’t pick her” or “I’ve yet to see a decent Shyvana” I haven’t had a bad game with her yet, farm well and you’ll be in a strong position no matter what.

The aim of this guide is to lead you through her abilities and their subtleties, itemisation focusing on the why of items and the core build that I’ve had success with, her play style, including laning, team fights and other general information, a look at where Shyvana fits into the team and wheither or not you should be a jungle Shyvana.

Abilities:
+ Show Spoiler +

Passive:

Fury of the Dragonborn: Twin Bite: Each auto attack reduces the cooldown of Twin Bite by 0.5 seconds. Burnout: Each auto attack extends the duration of Burnout by 1 second to a maximum of 6 extra seconds. Flame Breath: Each autoattack that hits debuffed targets will deal 15% of the ability's damage as extra magic damage. Dragon’s DescentEach of her autottacks will generate 2 Fury. This will allow for Shyvana to prolong the duration of Dragon Form by attacking.
Things to know about your passive:
+ Show Spoiler +

None of the effects work on towers.

Twin Bite (Q):
[image loading]

(Active): Shyvana next autoattack will strike twice in one swift movement. The second attack will deal physical damage equal to a percentage of her total attack damage. Both attacks will trigger on-hit effects and Fury of the Dragonborn effects.
Dragon Form: Twin Bite will damage all units in front of Shyvana when she uses her next autottack instead of just her target. Each unit hit will be dealt on-hit effects and grant Fury twice.
Scaling:
+ Show Spoiler +

Cooldown: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 seconds
Second Strike Damage: 80 / 85 / 90 / 95 / 100 % of attack damage

Things to know about your Q:
+ Show Spoiler +

It proc’s items, like Wit’s End and Madred’s (both). It resets your attack timer. It works on towers. It cleaves in dragon form. The cleave counts as 2 hits per target, synergising with your ult, giving rage for each, and increasing the timer for W.

Burnout (W):
[image loading]

(Active): During the next 3 seconds, Shyvana will deal magic damage each second to nearby enemies and her movement speed will be greatly increased. Shyvana's movement speed bonus itself will be reduced multiplicatively by 15% for every second that passes.
Dragon Form: Shyvana now scorches the earth where she walks, leaving a trail of fire for 5 seconds that will continually deal magic damage to enemies that pass over it.
Scaling:
+ Show Spoiler +

Magic Damage Per Second: 25 / 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 (+0.2 per bonus attack damage)
Initial Movement Speed Bonus: 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 %

Things to know about your W:
+ Show Spoiler +

Remember the speed buff fades faster than the damaging effect and that it fades over time. Your Q gives you 2 attacks worth of time increase from your passive.

Flame Breath (E):
[image loading]

(Active): Shyvana unleashes a fireball forward in a line that will hit the first enemy it hits, dealing magic damage to it and debuffing them by reducing their armour by 15% for 4 seconds.
Dragon Form: Flame Breath engulfs all units in a cone in front of Shyvana.
Scaling:
+ Show Spoiler +

Cooldown: 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 seconds
Magic Damage: 80 / 125 / 170 / 215 / 260 (+0.6 per ability power)

Things to know about your E:
+ Show Spoiler +

Pretty standard, you want it up if you’re fighting someone mostly for the armour pen. If your zoned from your minions for some odd reason, you can use it for last hitting. You can poke with it too, but tbh it’s not particularly damaging if you’re following the skill order I take.

Dragon’s Descent (R):
[image loading]

(Passive): Shyvana reinforces her scales, increasing her armour and magic resistance. These defensive bonuses are doubled while in Dragon Form.
(Active): Shyvana transforms into a dragon and dashes to a target location. Enemies along her path take magic damage and are pushed toward her target location.
This ability has no cooldown but to use it Shyvana needs 100 Fury. Shyvana generates 1 Fury every 1.5 seconds while in Human Form. While in Dragon Form, she will lose 6 fury every second and once the Fury bar is empty she will return to her normal state.
Scaling:
+ Show Spoiler +

Passive Armor and Magic Resistance Bonus: 10 / 15 / 20
Magic Damage: 200 / 300 / 400 (+0.7 per ability power)

Things to know about your R:
+ Show Spoiler +

You carry people a set distance, so sometimes flying the maximum length isn’t the best idea. Learn how far you carry someone and aim to land with them (In most cases). You can use it to chase over walls (obviously) but it has a longer range than flash so it can make chasing over walls etc very easy.

You can use it to completely shutdown a chase. If the enemy team is chasing yours, sometimes the best thing to do is carry them all away from your team. Using it to escape: You can fly one wall, flash the next or visa versa and make some huge distance. Combine this with your W and it makes you very hard to catch. If you take flight with your W active, you’ll leave a trail in the area you’ve flown over.

When you hit level 6, you instantly gain 100 fury. Also, your fury builds up whilst dead, and dying doesn’t reduce it to zero. Dragon's Descent has a minimum duration of 16,66 seconds if no auto attacks are made. With an attack speed of 1, the maximum duration is 25 seconds. With 1.5 it's 33,33 seconds. With an attack speed of 2.5, the maximum duration is 100 seconds, assuming that she is constantly attacking. These calculations do not take in account, that Twin Bite doubles the amount of Fury gained and can hit multiple targets in dragonform.

Skill Order:
+ Show Spoiler +

R>W>Q>E, taking one point in E at level 4 is my preferred order. W scales the hardest with level rank, and also the increased movement speed you get from levelling it is nice. Taking Q second to reduce the cooldown and increase the damage is better than E because the E is mostly for the armour debuff.

Summoner Skills:
Masteries:
My preference is an offensive mastery build:

Other masteries work too, depending on your role. What is very important is taking Arcane Knowledge, as your W, E and R deal magic damage. This magic pen increases your damage significantly. The thing with the new masteries is that there are many different combinations that would work. This is just a basic one thats built around offense, you might want to change it for the movement speed and buff duration from util. or for some extra health from def. Experiment and find which masteries work best for you.
Runes:
I play with a very aggressive rune setup, and my item choices allow me to do this. I use:
Quints: 3.33 ARP x3
Marks: 1.7% AS x9
Seals: 1.08 health/lvl x9
Glyphs: 0.64% AS x9
You could choose to use scaling AS runes, armour yellows or flat health yellows too.

Summoner Spells:
+ Show Spoiler +

Flash: Yes. Almost always flash is the best choice of summoner spell, Shyvana is no exception. You don’t really want to be using your ult as an escape, so having flash lets you use your ult, and flash away for some very strong intiates and other situational play.

Ignite: Is usually my second summoner spell of choice. The ability to shut down the healing of another is very strong (especially in those tanky dps fights) and the burst of ignite can help you secure some kills in lane that otherwise wouldn’t happen.

Exhaust: A strong second choice to ignite, and something that you should definitely consider if nobody else on your team is taking it. As Shyvana your usually all up in people’s faces, which means you can exhaust almost anyone at any time in a team fight, and that can make a critical difference.

Teleport: A good choice. I don’t like teleport because it locks you into a “passive” lane especially if your enemy has an aggressive summoner spell (ignite/exhaust) in its place. Teleport is a very good choice for a solo top lane, as it allows you to assist your team in dragon fights or pushing lanes. It gives you much better opportunity to farm, but in my opinion is not a particular good spell in solo Q because it’s much harder to co-ordinate a good teleport.

The other summoner spells have situations that they can be a useful pick in, but it would be up to personal discretion to decide that based on the game. Flash + one of those 3 is very standard, and there is little reason to vary from that.

Pros and Cons:
+ Show Spoiler [Pros] +

- Strong laner (Good early game damage/flat damage)
- Can be played as a dps or tank, with several builds and styles available for each
- Ult is good at moving enemies for the benefit of your team -> to setup others ults or to move someone away. Can also be used to break enemy ults, such as Malz or Kat.
- Fast jungle
- Good pusher and farmer

+ Show Spoiler [Cons] +

- No cc
- Late game damage is high as other auto attack champions (Although it tends to be a lot higher than similar tank dps)

Items:
+ Show Spoiler +

Open with:
Cloth + 5 pots
Core:
+ Show Spoiler +

Wriggles
Berserker Greaves
Trinity Force
Guardian Angel

Final slots:
+ Show Spoiler +

Wit’s End – A good “all round” choice, adding significantly to your damage and giving some survivability.
Madred’s bloodrazor – The strongest “offensive” choice, but still gives some armour, continuing along the “tanky dps” path.
Frozen Mallet – Adds a fair amount of health, a strong slow (incase tri isn’t enough?) and has good synergy with Atma’s
Atma’s Impaler – A great choice against any heavy physical team, and a strong choice if you build a health item to go with it.
Bloodthrister – Gives the most attack damage of any item in the game, and a huge amount of lifesteal. This will add significantly to your damage output and increase your survivability.
Black Cleaver – A good choice of item as it gives more attack speed, and some useful armour pen, in a form that synergises well with what you have (quints + masteries)

So this leads to several different build around the same core:
Fully offensive:
+ Show Spoiler +

Wriggles + Beserkers + Triforce + Guardian + Madred’s + Black Cleaver -> Swap your Wriggles for Bloodthirster very late game.
This build will give you insane damage, with a good amount of survivability. A perfectly viable way of playing.

Slightly more defensive:
+ Show Spoiler +

Wriggles + Berserkers + Triforce + Guardian + Wit’s + ?? Pick based on your game

Defensive:
+ Show Spoiler +

Wriggles + Berserkers + Triforce + Guardian + Giant’s belt + Atma’s -> belt to a warmogs or mallet depending.

A note on some other items:
Ghostblade:
+ Show Spoiler +

is a very good item. The reason why I don’t use it is because I want my triforce asap. I take wriggles as the one “intermediate” item before triforce as it gives HUGE sustainability, survivability and pushing power.
I see Ghostblade as an item I’d want to have as early as possible, yet I don’t want to divert from triforce to get it. It’s a brilliant item, and good on Shy just like many others. Its stat’s synergise well. If it’s something you use regularly, you could fit it in after triforce, if you don’t feel the need for an immediate Guardian, or possibly before if you don’t mind waiting for the CC, burst and movement triforce provides.

Malady
+ Show Spoiler +

Similar reasoning to ghostblade. It’s a good item, not nearly as good as ghostblade, but the magic pen is not to be underestimated. Personally I can’t justify building it before triforce or instead of wriggles. When I’ve tried taking it early, its good, but losing the sustain of the wriggles you’d have hurts.

Void Staff
+ Show Spoiler +

As already mentioned, a large amount of Shyvana’s damage is magical, AP isn’t completely wasted on her, and if you have a large number of proc items (Madred’s especially) you’ll notice the extra damage. I haven’t done the maths on it to see when its viable, it’s a reasonable choice, but personally one that I don’t consider.

Sword of the Divine
+ Show Spoiler +

Shyvana scales very well with attack speed. Yet this isn’t my item of choice. Sure the proc is great, but it doesn’t synergise as well with your Q as say, Wit’s End. Also, it provides no other stats of use, just plain attack speed. Personally I’d take Wit’s End over this any day.

Hextech Gunblade
+ Show Spoiler +

isn’t a terrible choice of items. The spell vamp/life steal are both good stats, the AP isn’t wasted either. My biggest problem with this item is the cost involved in getting one is large. After the recent nerf, it doesn’t give as much attack damage as one might like as Shyvana. Shyvana already wants such expensive items, maybe this is something you could build as a last item, but its hard to justify it over other items or building it earlier.

An attack speed proc build?
+ Show Spoiler +

Sorcerer’s shoes + malady + wit’s end + Sword of the Divine + Madred’s bloodrazor + Hextech Gunblade -> swap malady for a voidstaff.
This build would give you a very mixed damage source, and a lot of damage at that. The reason why I don’t like it is because to maximise your early game damage you want shoes + malady first, but this doesn’t leave you with much sustainability or survivability, especially in comparison to a wriggles opening.

An attack damage build?
+ Show Spoiler +

Berserker’s + Wriggles + Bloodthirster + Guardian + Infinity Edge + Last Whisper -> Swap Wriggles for Bloodthirster
This build would give you straight up insane damage. You’d be doing a lot of burst damage with your Q and your W would be leaving a trail of death more so than usual. A viable build, but really ignores the synergy of your abilities with attack speed.

A full tank build?
+ Show Spoiler +

Building 100% tank on Shyvana isn’t the best idea. She doesn’t have much CC, and as such needs some damage to pose a threat so that you’ll actually be somewhat focused and therefore useful in the role of a tank. Doing something like:
Ghostblade + Wriggles + Merc treads + frozen mallet + Atma’s + Force of Nature or
Frozen mallet + Atma’s + Warmog’s + Force of Nature + Wit’s End + Merc treads
Gives you the amount of damage you need to maintain a threatening nature, whilst making you an incredibly durable tank.

Whats the most damage I can possibly do?
+ Show Spoiler +

Berserker’s + Blood thirster + Bloodthirster + Madreds + Black Cleaver + Tri force
I haven’t done the math on specific builds, there would be other builds that beat the damage output of this build *at certain stages in the game* but late game, this would wreck pretty much everything.

Wriggle’s lantern explanation:
+ Show Spoiler +

In most cases you’ll be fighting a melee champion top lane. The extra armour from wriggles makes it a strong choice. Even against a non-melee champion, the armour makes a difference at low levels if you’re fighting them (auto attacks + minion damage adds up quickly). Wriggles give you a free ward – something never to be underrated. Shyvana pushes the lane a lot when farming, especially if your using your abilities.

Having river warded 100% of the time means you’ll never die to ganks. Later on the ward can be incredibly useful as you team begins to run out of space to carry them, and in the usual way wards are useful as the game progresses. The sustainability of wriggle’s is never to be overlooked. In a team fight, it will keep you in there much longer than your enemies will antipiate. The sustain it provides in lane is awesome.

Last but not least is the control it gives you over the jungle, dragon and baron. It allows you to ward these, but also to do any of them a lot quicker than expected. Your Q can “double proc” wriggles meaning you can waste dragon/baron. The proc also increases your lane pushing speed making you an even stronger tower threat.

Guardian’s Angel explanation:
+ Show Spoiler +

Guardian adds a good balance of armour and magic resist. Combine this with your passive armour/mr from your ult, and then the increased amount you receive from Dragon form, and your suddenly a lot more tank than most expect.

The guardian also has an odd effect on a lot of player’s where they would prefer not to focus you, because the rez punishes them for doing so (assuming your team is hot on your heels). Should you die in dragon form, and get rezed by guardian, you continue to be in dragon form, which means it synergises even better than anticipated.

For the price, guardian’s provides a solid amount of stats and a rather nice passive effect that you can take strong advantage of. The ability to initiate with your ult and have no second thoughts is great, knowing that even if you get bursted to nothing, you’ll end up rezzed in the middle of their team, and angry dragon with your team all of them and in a great position (assuming your ult was a good decision!)

All things considered:
+ Show Spoiler +

I use my core build for several reasons:
- The ability to deviate into several different pathways late game
- Synergy with Shyvana’s abilities
- Synergy with my rune choices
- Cloth + 5 pots opening allows you to win every solo top lane, unless they also start cloth and pots, and you make a critical mistake
- A balance – survivability, damage and sustainability in a perfect balance. Gives you a powerful 1v1, team fight capability or a sustainable lane

Jungling as Shyvana:
+ Show Spoiler [Old Jungle] +

Jungling is quite possible as Shyvana. You’ll need to take smite, and it’s something you should be taking as a jungler anyway. The way I go about jungling with Shyvana:
Swap your yellow runes to flat armour
Take Offensive Mastery and Plentiful Bounty in offense tree (+ dmg to minions and improved smite)
Start with a vamp scepter
Same skill order, starting at wolves. Ask for a leash
Proceed to wraithes, smite the blue one.
Mini golems then return home. Buy cloth armour and a pot.
Proceed to blue, offer it to your mid lane. Clear the smaller camps, and return home.
Buy boots and potions, kill red and clear a few smaller camps. Start looking for a gank, you’ll be 6 with a red buff.

The reasoning behind this route:
+ Show Spoiler +

It’s the most efficient use of gold. It’s a great sustain route, which means you can be available to assist in lanes at almost any points. So if someone is fighting it out for first blood, head on over. Or if someone needs help, gank with the intent of forcing the enemy to back up somewhat.

Shyvana is a strong jungler once she gets a few levels in her (basically 5 onwards). Sub 6, her ganks aren’t particularly strong, which is why I leave off red until I’m ready for it. With Shyvana your ganks are about your strong damage, and your ult, rather than any CC you offer like some other junglers. Farm the jungle and be in the right spots at the right time.

Choosing Shyvana as a jungler isn’t the best decision and it isn’t the worst. You’d jungle as Shyvana if: You’ve already picked and nobody else takes a jungle. Your team could specifically use Shyvana, and a jungler. Your team is happy enough having a high damage, low cc jungle that is better at controlling the jungle than ganking or has some strong cc to assist in ganks. If you’re thinking about using Shyvana as a jungler, carefully consider why, as she is definitely better as a solo top. (She makes great use of the farm, and can beat down most people pretty easily. She offers great ganking opportunities to her jungler if she is in a top lane, as she has strong damage to go with any cc they offer.)

+ Show Spoiler [New Jungle] +

Simply stated Shyvana is a beast in the "new" jungle. The new jungle rewards clear speed incredibly, and allows you to adjust your routes so you can be in different places than you may have previously been. Ive been opening boots + 3 potions, with a bit of help on blue you can do wolves -> blue (Use your first potion as you start this, depending on your leash) -> wraithes -> red -> wolves -> wraithes -> golems. The benefit of this route is it puts you all over the jungle, meaning if someone is looking to be having trouble, or getting ganked, race there! If not, finish your route, buy a vamp scep + ward(s) + potion and continue to jungle quickly looking for good ganking opportunities. Shyvana can farm the new jungle well, and ganking doesnt cost her as much as other junglers because she is such a fast clearer.
Typically I end up between the mid and duo lane in terms of levels, if you get some successful ganks, you'll be higher than mid. The most important thing is to not overcommitt to ganks, you don't want to die in a gank (more so than before) because of the respawn rate on the jungle. Previously it was "ok" to trade down a kill in a 1v1 lane, where you'd take an assist + kill compared to an assist, but now I feel that it's better to retreat and continue farming the jungle.

Playstyle:
+ Show Spoiler +

Farming:
+ Show Spoiler +

Shyvana is a VERY good farmer and it is incredibility important to capitalise on this fact. Having a wriggles allows you to stand in a minion wave and AoE them down quickly with W. If someone gets near you, you can threaten them with death and continue to farm!

Forging an advantage by making use of your amazing farming abilities is what will set you apart as a great Shyvana. I’ve had CS well into the 200’s by 25 minutes. If you want to scale ridiculously into the late game, farm your lane well early on, and don’t stop farming as the game progresses.

In the lane:
+ Show Spoiler +

Early on:
+ Show Spoiler +

Level 2 is the earliest you want to be deliberately aggressive. If you push the wave the right amount level 1, you can hit level 2 and be aggressive with a solid minion advantage between waves. This means you won’t take too much damage from the enemy minions and if they fight back and chase you, they’ll take a lot more damage than that might expect. Wait for them to come in for a last hit, activate W, catch up, hit them once, Q once and see how they react.

That combo is a significant amount of damage and they might feel the need to either run straight up, or trade. Should they choose to run, you can let them go, avoiding minion damage etc. and just repeat the harass when cooldowns and minion position permits. Or you can chase hitting into their back, letting your W do more damage.

Should they respond by attempting to trade, the best answer is to drop back behind your minions. They’ll commit some effort to trading back, then as the minions aggro onto them, turn around and fight, using a potion and your ignite. If you do this correctly, you might score a kill, if not you’ve got a very strong advantage already.

Level 2 through 6:
+ Show Spoiler +

Similar play to above works well here. Get the feel for your opponent, poke where you can. Stand in the minion wave and last hit, if they try and stop you, activate W, hit, Q. Starting with 5 potions should give you complete control of the minion line in a war of attrition. Try to avoid fighting someone straight up if they have started Doran’s and have a similar health level to you. Focus on last hitting and whittling them down.

Level 6 and onwards:
+ Show Spoiler +

Become more aggressive. Your ult allows you to: escape if necessary, burst them should a fight start, close a distance to start that fight, carry them into a gank, carry them into your minions, carry them up against their tower for a dive and generally push them around.

Wriggles:
+ Show Spoiler +

Once you have your wriggles, sustain yourself, and be aggressive in between. Don’t let up, win control of the farm, force them off the farm under the tower if you’re doing particularly well.

1v1 fights:
+ Show Spoiler +

Save your ult! Its burst and movement can be useful for initiating the fight 1v1, but usually it’s better to save it for that moment when they try to get away, or to carry them in an unexpected way, or to give you that last little bit of burst. It’s also useful for closing a flash distance, leaving your flash open to get out from under a tower if need be. Remember your ult makes your W leave a trail, so if your low and they are too, backing up can be a good idea, as chasing you gets them punished.

1v More than 1:
+ Show Spoiler +

Don’t give up! Shyvana is very strong at taking on multiple champions at a time. Her ult gives her fantastic AoE damage which you can use to your advantage. You Q will suddenly be giving you a lot more lifesteal than you expect, for example 2v1, 4 hits lifesteal anyone?

Under a tower, running away from your tower then ulting those diving you back towards it is very strong. Use your W to move away from them, forcing them to chase in the fire, then before it fades turn to Q, boosting the duration and maximising your damage. Remember that you can get away from a large number of situations with a flash or flight and then a W speed boost, or even doing all three.

Team fights:
+ Show Spoiler +

Don’t be scared to initiate, especially once you have GA. Your ult allows you to go right to the back and turn on the team, killing the AD or AP carry and AoEing the team as you do so. You can play a more passive role if you team has a tank, using your ult to peel for your team. Your role in team fights is to focus down a single target then move on.

As such, choosing your targets is important. AD carries tend to be the most vulnerable, followed by supports and AP carries. Use your ult to get to your desired target and make a mess. It’s important that if your target does legitimately give you the slip, you rapidly switch to the next appropriate target.

Being in the centre of an enemy team requires that you keep up the lifesteal to sustain such a play. Your ability to chase down people is high, due to your W and triforce slow. Make use of it, it’s not just your ult that makes you a strong chaser. Get the hang of when to use your ult and when to save it for that moment. Remember that in a losing fight, Shyvana’s ult can be the difference between the enemies getting an ace and only 2 kills. Remember that your Q offers a significant amount of burst lifesteal, so running into a bush on low HP to bait enemies and turning for an auto + Q can give you a sudden burst of health and cost your enemies a large amount of time. Shyvana can maximise damage in team fights by constantly attacking, extending the duration of her ult. Then, by making fully use of that ult, by keeping as many targets as possibly in front of her.

Most of her AoE dmg is frontal (Q and E) so by trying to keep several targets close, and in front it maximises damage and allows for an easier time switching targets once your desired target is dead. Remember, constantly attacking gives you sustain from your lifesteal and a longer ult and W duration, these are all important so don’t chase someone faster than you through the middle of an enemy team.

Pushing:
+ Show Spoiler +

Shyvana is a fantastic pusher. Having Wriggle’s allows you to push waves, her Q allows you to push towers very well, and you’ll have a reasonable amount of AD and a pretty good AS. Her W AoE’s waves very quickly at higher levels. Make use of your amazing pushing ability by frequently pushing out lanes to the tower in midgame, and pushing the tower with Q if the opportunity presents.

The best thing about Shyvana as a pusher is her ability to escape. She moves incredibly quickly with her burst movement from W. Having a Wriggle’s allows you to have decent vision nearby and you can always use your ult to further your escape. You can 1v1 almost every champion reliably which means you needed worry about over extending unless several people are coming to punish you for it. Pushing in the mid game allows you to get some heavy farm, draws the enemy to your presence and allows your team to punish them for that.

When to play Shyvana/Why to pick Shyvana:
+ Show Spoiler +

When your team needs a strong solo top, Shyvana is a great choice. She fits into a role of tanky dps, or can be played as a full tank. She does very good single target damage, and is great a picking out and sticking to a target. She offers good AoE damage and the movement component of her ult can give your team a strong edge. Shyvana is good against the vast majority of solo top lanes which makes her a stable pick.

I feel it’s too early yet to talk about what heroes she specifically counters at top and those she is countered by. To be honest I feel that she doesn’t have any direct counters top, which is why she’s a strong pick. Olaf can be tricky to deal with for the first few levels, whereas Jax is quite easily dealt with and might be an example of someone Shyvana counters.

Cheers for reading my guide. Feedback below would be appreciated as it’s the first I’ve done.
My little brag:
+ Show Spoiler +

In the first few days of playing her, managed to fill up the match history with Shyvana wins :D

TL:DR? Shyvana is a fun champion, play her and find out for yourself!

EDIT: Updated for Patch 1.0.0.129 and added a new masteries layout reflecting the changes to masteries and put a limited discussion to go with it
EDIT: Updated for Patch 1.0.0.130 and added a discussion on the new jungle, and how I've been going about it.
EDIT: Up to date for Patch 1.0.0.136 with latest changes listed

MoonBear

Straight outta Johto18973 Posts

November 05 2011 17:11 GMT

While your effort is appreciated, all guides in the LoL Subforum need to follow this template.

Also, since you need to be in people's face to get your AoE Dragon spam on, any particular reason you go Greaves>Mercs?

TheYango

United States47024 Posts

November 05 2011 17:19 GMT

It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to run GA as your single defensive item in builds where you're only getting one--you get natural resists from you ultimate and its HP/healing that you're lacking. Defensive stats are multiplicative off each other, meaning you want to buy the defensive stat that you're LACKING, not stack the ones that you already get passively. If you need a single defensive item, it should be either Warmog's or Mallet.

iCanada

Canada10660 Posts

November 05 2011 17:22 GMT

Have you thought about building a Sunfire Cape?

I've been going Boots->Wriggles->Mercs->Sunfire and it seems pretty effective. Huge life boost, and allows her to do more AoE damage with or without your ulti up. I usually follow it up with a Mallet. More of a tanky option, allows you to find and stick to enemy carries, or peel assassins/bruisers off of your carriers pretty effectively as well.

/shrug

TheYango

United States47024 Posts

November 05 2011 17:25 GMT

On November 06 2011 02:22 iCanada wrote:
Have you thought about building a Sunfire Cape?

I've been going Boots->Wriggles->Mercs->Sunfire and it seems pretty effective. Huge life boost, and allows her to do more AoE damage with or without your ulti up. I usually follow it up with a Mallet. More of a tanky option, allows you to find and stick to enemy carries, or peel assassins/bruisers off of your carriers pretty effectively as well.

/shrug

Almost all of the combine cost on Sunfire is paying for the AoE damage passive--you basically get no stat increase over Chain Vest + Giant's Belt. Warmog's + Atmas or Mallet + Atma's are a much better way to spend your gold--more cost-effective survivability, and probably similar increase in damage.

Wetty

Australia419 Posts

November 06 2011 02:26 GMT

On November 06 2011 02:19 TheYango wrote:
It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to run GA as your single defensive item in builds where you're only getting one--you get natural resists from you ultimate and its HP/healing that you're lacking. Defensive stats are multiplicative off each other, meaning you want to buy the defensive stat that you're LACKING, not stack the ones that you already get passively. If you need a single defensive item, it should be either Warmog's or Mallet.

Adding a health item on top of a GA is a very good way to actually become tank. But the idea of a GA by itself is that it gives you a reasonably balanced amount of arm/MR to get started. With that core, you have enough health to still make use of your high resistances, but if you want to be more tanky, fill it out with some more health.

By having a reasonable amount of arm/MR it stops you from being instantly bursted to death when you fly into a large group of people. From there, your lifesteal kicks in to sustain you "enough" for a lot of fights. The other thing to remember with GA is the rez it offers. I tend to be a lot more aggressive with my initiation of fights, knowing that I'll almost certainly die for my effort, but my team will be in a much stronger position. Then, you get rezzed, suddenly in the middle of a teamfight thats going well :D

As for sunfire cape - its a great item, and a good choice against a melee centric team, but its not usually something I build with Shy, as mention above, your paying for the damage. Id usually buy a giants belt, then build an Atma's and finish the belt into something else. Sunfire would be a choice, but rarely do you want THAT much armour (ie GA + sunfire + atma's + wriggles armour)

Wetty

Australia419 Posts

November 06 2011 03:41 GMT

On November 06 2011 02:11 MoonBear wrote:
While your effort is appreciated, all guides in the LoL Subforum need to follow this template.

Also, since you need to be in people's face to get your AoE Dragon spam on, any particular reason you go Greaves>Mercs?

Yes, I tend not to necessarily build attack speed with Shy, but she works very well with it. Obviously against some teams, merc would be vital, but against most, I get away with greaves. The biggest advantage to building greaves is that they are signficantly cheaper. Which means you get them faster, and having boots 2 earlier is always good, and that it is a very efficient source of attack speed.

Against a heavy magic team with lots of cc, Merc's would always be the superior pick. But in general, I like having my boots earlier and having that bit of extra attack speed greaves offer

Southlight

United States11766 Posts

November 06 2011 07:05 GMT

For jungle Shyvana I just run aspd red blue, AD quints (might change to aspd), flat armor yellows, open cloth armor + 5 pots and then wolf -> blue -> wraith -> double -> back -> wolf -> red -> w/e you want. Wriggles -> Boot -> Treads -> HP is the way I've been building, either Funfire or Atmogs. I also don't hesitate to take an early oracles for clearing, and she's great at counterjungling because she has such great escape and ridiculously fast creep clear. The cloth+5 allows her to maintain high hp until Wriggles so she's robust, I know Stonewall has that jungle video of Vamp first but I don't like it; it's slower and more dangerous.

jtype

England2167 Posts

November 06 2011 07:37 GMT

In the Stonewall video I saw, he recommends opening boots first IIRC.

edit - here it is:

Wetty

Australia419 Posts

November 06 2011 07:54 GMT

#10

On November 06 2011 16:37 jtype wrote:
In the Stonewall video I saw, he recommends opening boots first IIRC.

edit - here it is:+ Show Spoiler +

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyESxoq9qxA&feature=feedu

I like it. The reason why I suggested starting with a Vamp is because you can manage it, and save yourself a good number of pots doing it. It is slower, but you can close that difference quite quickly with Shy.

Starting boots/pots makes a fair bit of sense though, and all the points Stonewall makes about Shy's terrible ganks and control jungling are spot on. I'll have to give it a shot the way hes doing it, looks pretty beast!

Southlight

United States11766 Posts

November 06 2011 08:17 GMT

#11

Hmm, will have to try that :3 Makes too much sense.

overt

United States9006 Posts

November 06 2011 08:37 GMT

#12

I've personally found that Trinity Force is pretty garbage on Shyvana. I've also found that I need Warmog's immediately after I get Wit's End. The thing Shyvana does best is disrupt the enemy team and draw threat. You need defensive items like Warmogs, Atmas, and Frozen Mallet to not instantly die. Having Trinity as part of your core will greatly delay your key defensive items.

Imo, general build for her goes something like: Wriggle's -> Mercs -> Wit's End -> Warmogs -> Atmas/Phage -> Frozen Mallet. Sell Wriggle's for BT if game goes long enough.

Southlight

United States11766 Posts

November 06 2011 11:24 GMT

#13

Boot-first worked fine, I like it, although it does slow down jungle after the first wraith+double jack. I think you need a really strong leash to do it really safely. End-game I've been favoring Atmogs, as I feel like her scaling is too bad (on the AD-side) to itemize for it entirely. Usually the weakness of Atmog is the midgame but her midgame is so ridiculous that you can actually surprisingly get away with it.

I don't like his runeset though, primarily because I've been opening on wolf and then going blue. Been favoring AD quints, aspd red/blue and armor yellow.

gtrsrs

United States9109 Posts

November 06 2011 20:03 GMT

#14

i don't really understand the point of vamp first
no pots leaves you vulnerable and delays your razer. razer seems key on shyvana because of the double proc chance on Q
i can see why boots first is good but vamp first makes 0 sense to me br0s

i still haven't gotten a really good set of masteries/runes to work on her yet though
gonna keep trying

NeoIllusions

United States37500 Posts

November 06 2011 20:42 GMT

#15

Played Shyvana for the first time yesterday and zoomzoom dargan is pretty fun. I guess I see Caller's appeal to MS Garen but it's still spec'd horribly. I digress...

Boots first, is this build dependent entirely on your team giving you a huge leash or what's the path here? I can't imagine her doing a full clear with an opening less than Cloth + 5.

Southlight

United States11766 Posts

November 06 2011 21:48 GMT

#16

On November 07 2011 05:42 NeoIllusions wrote:
Played Shyvana for the first time yesterday and zoomzoom dargan is pretty fun. I guess I see Caller's appeal to MS Garen but it's still spec'd horribly. I digress...

Boots first, is this build dependent entirely on your team giving you a huge leash or what's the path here? I can't imagine her doing a full clear with an opening less than Cloth + 5.

I need a decent leash on golem but even with a minimal one I can generally do Wolf -> Blue -> enemy wraith -> enemy minigolem and trololol back home without a hitch.

Edit:
Alternatively you can just jack their wraiths after blue and then clear your own wraith -> minigol, after a quick level 3 gank on mid (can often force a Flash).

Synwave

United States2803 Posts

November 08 2011 02:51 GMT

#17

Im a crappy lol newb and I find her awesomely fun. Her ability to adjust itemized is bar none my fave ability in noob pub. Great article and I really learned some stuff from it. My only complaint is her suggested items are total crap and might turn people off her because if you build her the way they suggest you will suck horridly.

EDIT: to be clear my only complaint is not with the guide but with the suggested items when you play with her by riot

Southlight

United States11766 Posts

November 08 2011 05:17 GMT

#18

God her scaling is atrocious :[

sylverfyre

United States8298 Posts

November 08 2011 05:58 GMT

#19

On November 08 2011 14:17 Southlight wrote:
God her scaling is atrocious :[

Seems like ultimately, her scaling is all about spamming her Q a lot, and everything else being incidental. W happens to scale with AD, but i guess it eventually turns into mostly a movement speed buff. That aoe cleave stuff on Q is really nice though - seems like she cant possibly scale THAT poorly with something like that to rely on?

Southlight

United States11766 Posts

November 08 2011 07:04 GMT

#20

Its cooldown is too long though (6), she really needs CDR but she also needs tanky stuff because of her bizarre role of tanky DPS without really being that innately tanky :[ Really confused about how to itemize her, especially early on :[ Bruta looks all nice on her in theory but her E gives 15% armor pen so there's no real point, and almost all of her shit does magic damage so penetration itemization is bizarre. You can try to spam Q but then she needs ASPD and CDR, the former of which she doesn't put into great effect due to needing to reposition often...

I'm tempted to get Kindlegem after Wriggles but then what? :<

1 2 3 4 5 14 15 16 Next All

Please or register to reply.

[Champion] Shyvana

Completed

Ongoing

Upcoming