Pros

• Hybrid.
• Decent early game fighting.
• Good wave pushing ability.
• High damage and defensive stats early to mid game.
• Strong initiation with Dragon's Descent.
• No mana/health based ability casting.

Cons

• No sustain.
• No sticking other than Burnout but is not CC.
• Almost no crowd control other than Dragon's Descent.
• Kited Easily
• Easily denied farm.
• No escapes therefore easily ganked if you push lane.
• Does not scale very much with anything other than resistances.
• If you play passively you will loose farm and possibly lane.

Rune Substitutes

Given that Shyvana has no sustain other than the Doran's Blade, Doran's Shield, the Greater Quintessence of Health Regeneration you could substitute the three following runes sets for possibly more sustain or trade potential.


• Trade the 3x Greater Quintessence of Health Regeneration for 3x Greater Quintessence of Life Steal.

• Trade the 3x Greater Quintessence of Health Regeneration for 3x Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage.

• Trade the 9x Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration for 9x Greater Mark of Attack Damage.

• Trade the 9x Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration for 9x Greater Mark of Attack Speed.

Overview

The 9/21/0 setup on Shyvana is the standard for a tanky top laner its a mix of heavy defencive power masteries and and bit of offensive power masteries needed for trading. You could do the setup of 21/9/0 if you want to go heavy on the offensive side. You could even go 0/17/13 if you want to get some extra gold lvl 2 for an extra health pot for some extra sustain. I personally like to go the 9/21/0 but thats my personal preference and I suck at this game so you can do what you think will work best.

Overview

Flash is the best summoner spell in the game, who doesn't want to Flash to the other side of a wall while getting chased by three enemies? Anyways I guess you could run Ghost instead but Shavana's Burnout is basically the same thing so I don't see the point.


Ignite Almost an always on any champ most supports even run this now. It gives a lot of early game kill potential and can easily be paired up with Flash for those epic Flash Ignite kill secured plays. :D


Can be used to stick to people in fights and goes nicely with Shavana's Burnout. I think it would be a better choice on Shavana in the jungle for crowd control for pre level 6 ganks.


It could be useful for sticking to enemies paired with Shavana's Burnout for a great kill potential in lane and in the jungle for ganks. Although I personally prefer Flash in the top lane for the escape and chase potential when paired up with Burnout.


Not my first choice but still can be a viable choice for the reason that you can be farming top lane all day and still be in team fights. Thats all I know about this summoner spell other than how funny it is to Teleport somewhere while someone is helplessly attacking you.

Overview

You always want to max out Burnout for the wave clear and aoe damage. Maxing Flame Breath next gives you a mark that buffs your auto attack by dealing %2 of the enemies health in magic damage its almost like having a built in Blade of the Ruined King. You could possibly max out Twin Bite and Flame Breath together if you want to go more offensive in your item build and play style which could possibly work really well but, I prefer maxing Burnout, Flame Breath then Twin Bite and building more defensively.

Overview

Laning phase can be a hit and miss depending on who you are facing. If you are matched against someone like  Dr. Mundo you will easily be able to out push him and deny him farm as long as you are able to push the lane to the tower and avoid getting killed by ganks by warding. It would be smart to start with a  Doran's Blade and a  Stealth Ward to watch for ganks and jungle paths.

If you you matched against someone like  Jax(Oh God Why) you can easily get bullied in lane as he scales harder than you. You should try to freeze the lane and out trade him before he hits level 6 or goes back to buy items. I recommend buying a   Doran's Shield and Stealth Ward to avoid ganks and watch jungle paths. You generally want to just survive laning phase if you are against unfavorable matchups If you have a favorable matchup you want to completely take advantage of laning phase and proxy, roam, etc. to get ahead early and get an easy win.



This game was perfect example of taking advantage of a favorable matchup and Shyvana's early game against a champion that does not have a strong early game or a good wave clear. I used Burnout to push the creep wave early denying Malphite farm. I started putting pressure near the top of the map leaving bottom lane able to free farm with the knowledge that my lane was pushed and the enemy Evelynn would attempt to gank me. With my early game pressure I took the tower down quickly and then roamed to bottom lane as I saw they needed a little help. Being so far ahead at this point I was able to buy a damage item Hexdrinker while still buying resistance for tanking the enemy damage. As I was saying against favorable matchups you should always be a lane bully and put the enemy as far behind as you can call the jungler for an early gank and put them far behind and give you jungler ahead. Remember that a kill and an assist is more gold than just a kill so, try to get your jungler to gank if you know you can kill your enemy laner.

Overview

Team Fighting with Shyvana can be really good because of your great initiation from your Dragon's Descent. You are almost like a Dr. Mundo getting up in the enemies face dealing tons of damage and tanking everything thrown at you. The only bad thing about Shyvana's Dragon's Descent is if you don't jump directly on top of the team you can be easily kited and killed leaving you precious squishy carries to be focused down. :( You want to avoid picking Shyvana against teams with heavy lock down, disengage, or kiting potential. ( Annie, Sivir, Ahri, Gragas, etc.) You should try to pick Shyvana when you team has all the crowd control you lack almost all the champions that counter Shyvana in team fights also work well with her on their team. Communicating when you are about to Dragon's Descent goes a long way by letting your teammates you are going to engage it allows them to prepare themselves on what they need to do before and during the fight.

Replacement Items

A great choice if you need some extra health and the enemy team is building a lot of armor and magic penetration. If the enemy team has any percent health damage you want to buy more resistances instead of health.



If you are having problems sticking to enemies then the Frozen Mallet is the item for you. Its passive is great and it gives you a decent amount of damage and health.



An okay item on Shyvana. In my opinion I think Blade of the Ruined King is better. It gives you the same amount of attack speed and the passive is great on shyvana. It also has a crazy good active and passive by doing damage for a percentage of the enemy's total health.



Banshee's is a great item to build instead of or with the [Spirit Visage]] if the enemy team has a lot of crowd control, initial burst, or just a lot of magic damage overall.



The Hydra is a good item in Shyvana in the case that you need some more damage. The Hydra also gives you an auto attack reset as well as your Twin Bite and even more aoe damage than Shyvana's kit already gives you.



If the enemy team is heavily auto attack reliant then the Frozen Heart is a great item it gives you armor, cdr, and an attack speed debuff to the enemy team. Get this over the Thornmail if the enemy team have champions who rely on attack speed based auto attacks or if they are focusing you.