Shyvana Build Guide : Shyvana - I Will Dance In Their Ashes (In-Depth by Byakuya)

Updates (Patch 3.9)

Patch 3.9 for :

We're repositioning Flame Breath as a core tool for objective control and faster jungle clear, while also emphasizing its use as a “burn down” ability to be followed up with auto attacks against tankier fighters. We've also fixed a long-standing bug with Shyvana's Burnout where it wasn't scaling with attack damage while in Dragon form. This fix - along with her increased fury gains and reduced fury decay – will help her in late game teamfights. Lastly, we've moved the descriptions of her previous passive effects to their new ability tooltips to help centralize information.

- Remade. All Fury of the Dragonborn effects have been moved to their respective abilities.

Dragonborn - Gains 5/10/15/20 Armor and Magic Resist. These bonuses are doubled in Dragon Form.

No longer reduces Armor by 15%
Now passes through all units hit instead of stopping at the first
Debuff duration increased to 5 seconds from 4
Damage reduced to 80/115/150/185/220 from 80/125/170/215/260
On-hit magic damage to debuffed targets changed to 2% of the target's maximum Health from 15% of Flame
Breath's damage (12/18.75/25.5/32.25/39 + 0.09 Ability Power).

Fixed a bug where Burnout wasn't scaling with attack damage when Shyvana was in Dragon form

Passive Armor/Magic Resistance component removed
Passive Fury Gain increased to 1/2/3 per 1.5 seconds from 1/1/1
Fury decay while in Dragon Form reduced to 5 per second from 6 per second

Introduction

Hello im Byakuya and welcome to my guide of The Half Dragon. I have been playing her since I started playing LoL almost a year ago. I always felt that she needed more attention and I have seen very few good guides of her but never one that really caught my attention so this is my contribution to players and Mobafire.

is a manaless champion which means her skill spamming is only limited by cooldowns, she is incredibly mobile and has an insane damage burst with a really nice speed steroid and her ultimate which transforms the cute lady into a beastly dragon that can be used both offensively giving her much more tankyness and more AoE on her attacks or defensively as an escape mechanism. She is also very well known for being one of, if not the fastest jungler in the game.

Up until now everything sounds nice right? But as any champion she has her weaknesses.

has no natural CC or sustain which can be a pain in the *** most of the time making her ganks harder to pull off and making her somewhat less durable early game. Also as time has passed she has been getting many small hits like reducing her extra duration, her armor bonus and indirect nerfs like wriggles lantern changes.

But in this guide ill do my best to show you how to make those cons little problems.

Pros/Cons

Pros

+ Very mobile champion
+ Insane damage output early,mid and lategame
+ Even if you build her tanky she still deals a lot of damage
+ Even if built offensive she is naturally tanky
+ Fury based champion = spam spam and spam!
+ Built in spammable speed steroid
+ All her skins are sexy is the best <3)
+ Ever tried slaying a dragon?
+ Very fun to play

Cons

- She has no natural CC appart from the small push on her utimate
- No natural sustain so she isn't that durable early game and can be kited hard
- Her ganks aren't easy to pull off and take a while to understand (red buff/item dependant)
- Hard to play at high levels and master.

Runes

Precision

Fleet Footwork

Phase Rush

These are standard and the best runes for Jungle

: These will give you more damage for faster jungle clearing and early extra damage in your quest to kill the enemy jungler.

: Less damage from minions and enemy champions

: In the jungle you're less likely to take magic damage so take these for better magic resistances later in the game.

: Since attack speed synergizes so well with her passive it is a valuable stat, not to forget that it helps to dish out more damage to enemy champions and faster jungle clears.

Runes

Sorcery

Phase Rush

These are amazing for Solo Top Shyvana, since her damage is Hybrid this will enhance your power a lot at all stages, also if youre laning against someone with good Hybrid damage as well like then take instead of scaling.

Masteries

Solo Top

Tanky Jungle

Full Hybrid

Summoner Spells

Ignite

You probably won't see a game where this spell isn't used, perfect to finish off low hp enemies but only take it if you're laning.

Exhaust

My favorite spell on since she has no CC. This spell can do wonders for her since it doesn't just lower enemy speed but their armor and damage as well.

I can't count how many times this spell has given me 1st blood on top lane or ganking!

When playing Solo Top you can take this vs enemies who rely on basic attacks such as that don't have a reliable way to get away from you but using which will make you win desicive trades.

Flash

Another spell you will never miss to see in a game, it has tons of uses mostly to secure a kill or to save your ***, but when jungling I prefer over this since can serve as an escape method but you shudn't let yourself be in a bad position in the 1st place!

Smite

A MUST FOR JUNGLING, it gives you faster clear times and much more control over buffs and the extra gold with each use can get handy early game.

Ghost

Serves the same purpose as flash but you can't go through walls with it, the speed boost of this with is insane but its a bit too much.

Teleport

If you're laning and want to have more map presence this spell is just perfect since you can go back to your lane instantly or countergank others with this.

Exhaust vs Flash in the Jungle

Sometimes this may seem like a dilema on either getting as a 2nd escape mechanism or to compensate your early lack of CC.

So how about we see the Pros and Cons of each?

Pros:
-Another escape mechanism
-Gap closer
-You can follow enemies using as well
Cons:
-High cooldown
-The lack of CC will hurt
-You can't really prevent enemies from getting away at all

Pros:
-Shorter cooldown
-Disables enemy champions and it can either get you a kill or save an ally
-Strong CC spell
-Allows to gank easier
Cons:
-If you don't have your ultimate after an enemy uses and you already used you won't be able to catch fleeing enemies most of the time
-No escape mechanism till level 6

As you can see both of them have different uses and different purposes as well, if your plan isn't ganking but going after the enemy jungler you can try this with :

Ask for a smiteless Red Buff and go to the enemy jungler Red Buff bush and wait some seconds till he appears, wait till he uses his abilities and are on cooldown (In example, wait after uses his shield and ) then when hes close to killing the lizard he will be low on health and theres where you jump and start attacking with + and he will try to escape with so use yours if needed and with your combo and your Red Buff you can secure an easy 1st Blood.

In the other hand if you try this with after the enemy uses your and Red Buff will get you close to him again and will end up in 1st blood unless he es through a wall which isnt the case normally since they are dead before reacting anyway

Spoiler: Click to view

As you can see both can help in your counter-jungling but when it comes to ganking > so its up to what you plan doing/playstyle.

If you ask me, I run most of the time but its up to preferences.

Items

Now lets start with one of the most important parts of the guide, I will explain each item and the pros/cons so you can know how much benefits from them.

General

These are the best boots for and if you get you should sell them later for these, they give you Tenacity to reduce CC and extra magic resistances.

Ok I have seen this item on other guides, here is my answer. Don't buy it.

Since the latest nerfs to it and buffs to I don't believe it to be that good anymore, first off they nerfed it so you can't proc it twice with and doesn't lower enemies armor anymore to compliment the armor shred.

Get or if you wanna shred enemies appart.

Why wouldn't you get this? Appart from fancy clothing it is the item that gives the most HP in the game and gives a good amount of HP regen, after you have enough resistances this is a good 4th-6th item.

I simply love this item, the passive gives you a second chance to live and a good mix or armor and magic resistance for a good price, still though our plan isnt dying as

The best item for at the moment as it gives you EVERYTHING you would want for her, the passive deals 5% of enemy current hp in magic damage and can proc it twice making the damage kinda vulgar, not to mention that the active deals 15% of target maxium HP and heals you for the same amount, also it steals your enemies movement like does.

It gives a good amount of speed and magic resistance/magic damage that stacks up, the buffs to it make it a nice option for since it will be stealing the enemy magic resistance in each autoattack, what does this mean? Simply that your and will be dealing way more damage.

Good amount of stats especcially speed and tenacity, get it if you're sticking with other boots and you're ready to sacrifice some survability.

Wonderful item! It gives a good mix of all the defenses and is very well team oriented, not to mention you will be the one initiating fights most of the time.

I tried this a lot on and it turned into an amazing item for her, very cheap price for the stats it gives and the active benefits your whole team giving a shield to every ally around you, I normally prefer to ask supports to build this while i get but it's up to your liking/team needs.

Another good defensive option with a good mix of armor/HP and the passive works so well with , get it if enemy team is AD oriented and it fits your playstyle. I get it as a bruiser Solo Top item most of the time.

The item that gives the most defense in the game for a cheap price and the passive can make AD champions QQ hard, still though it's an item only for you and won't benefit your team much at all like a does.

Another one of my favorite items in the game, a good mix of magic resist, health, cooldown reduction and the passive synergizes so well making your heals even stronger and very cost effective, id'll get this vs a Top/Mid AP composition.

Having troubles with heavy AP teams? Buy this and you may have 99 problems but APs wont be one :), not to mention it gives you more AD depending on your missing health.

in a sword, gives some nice attack/magic resistance and can save you if aren't enough but the only problem is that is quite expensive...

We spoke enough about this item so lets take a look at it? First off it will give us 70 armor and 500 hp, then with its passive everytime you're hit by a basic attack you will reduce the enemy attack speed by 20% (Sorry ADCs) and their movement by 10% but the best is the active since you will slow all the surrounding enemies speed by 35% for 2 seconds increasing by 1 second for each 100 armor or magic resist and with our build the active will go up to 5 seconds!

Believe me you can turn the tide of teamfights with this and shutdown ADCs hard.

Still such a good option for being the item that gives the 2nd most HP in the game with some AD and a passive that will permaslow enemies since they won't be able to get away from you. Being built from you have another option which is but I will dedicate a special section for this.

Beautiful and a luxury item, our dragon lady benefits from every stat it gives but it is the most expensive item in the game, has incredible base stats which makes it a very strong pick for her maximizing your damage output but we will see when to pick later on.

Main Jungling Items

Beautiful item for junglers, giving armor and speeding up your jungle times, we are not upgrading it since it will allow us to rush faster our main items.

These boots never called my attention but after I tried them my success in ganks and counter jungling speed increased by A LOT and for a cheap price, I don't really understand why this item isn't often used by players but mixed with you go from buff to buff and lane to lane like nothing. Sell them for later.

Ok after this item got buffed the question is...still worth it? My answer would be no, don't take me wrong, I actually believe this item gives you faster clearer times but the buffs to makes this item look like a poor option, it may give good sustain but the price still doesn't convince me and it delays the rest of your items, not to mention you will be stuck later in the game with it. If you want sustain get an early which also offers a slow.

The so famous spirit items, at the start they didn't convince me honestly but after the buffs to they speed up clear times amazingly because of the 30% damage amplification to jungle creeps which will allow you to take objectives like early dragons with ease and giving some decent sustain.

will allow you to keep and will add true damage to all your attacks but after all the nerfs I prefer .

The only cons I can find to them is that you will have to stick all the game most of the time.

Frozen Mallet vs Trinity Force

As I promised here is a special section dedicated to 2 of the most interesting items for

We will see the Pros and Cons and when to pick these items.

Pros:
-Cheaper(3300 gold)
-A strong slow on each hit which won't let enemies get away
- in Dragon Form applies the on-hit effect to all enemies in front of
-Eliminates all lack of CC on
-The 2nd item that gives the most HP in the game
Cons:
-Gives a poor AD amount
-Passive may look overpriced
-By the time you get it, laning phase will be over most of the time
- already offers a single-target slow

Pros:
-Amazing stats
- takes advantage of everything this item offers
- is more likely the best champion to use the SpellBlade passive
-Is built from good items on her so you won't have problems building it
-Maximizes 's damage output, awesome for taking objectives.
-Squishies are dead in seconds
-ALSO offers a slow
Cons:
-The most expensive item in the game
-Does not give any resistances but HP
-Luxury item, which means you either have to be fed or well farmed
-Takes a while to build so you will delay your defensive items
-The slow isn't as reliable as

is cheaper so if you're behind it is a good option but also if your main aim is to be tanky then the 700 HP it offers will be a good option, not to forget that you will be slowing enemies down and you will be able to peel better for your ADC and APC.

is more expensive but the difference is just of 543 gold and if you think of it it isn't that expensive, just a bit more than a and with the damage it offers, you can perfectly be in the frontline and aim for the enemy ADC or APC bursting them down easily.

In other words the orientation of these items is mainly:

Defensive: <-> : Offensive

Addapt to the situation!

Skill Explanation

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Your beautiful passive, will gain 5/10/15/20 armor and magic resist for each point in her ultimate. These bonuses are doubled in Dragon Form.

This is part of why is so tanky and makes up for her lack of early sutain since she is more durable.

Twin Bite (Q): Strong ability, and you will be spamming it all day long! will attack twice on her next attack with the second hit applying 80/85/90/95/100% of your total attack damage and both attacks apply on-hit effects, each basic attack will reduce this skill cooldown by 0.5. I prefer maxing it last since the damage increase per level isn't as significant as because we won't get more damage than needed.

Dragon Form: This skill is even scarier in dragon form since it gets an AoE effect allowing to hit everyone in front of her and applying on-hit effects to all of them.

Burnout (W) : Amazing skill that's all I need to say, it is an AoE attack that deals 25/40/55/70/85(+0.2) of your AD BUT in magic damage to surrounding enemies which makes our damage hybrid, not to mention its a spammable speed steroid perfect for chasing enemies/escaping/ganking and will be your main clearing tool in the jungle/lane so it should be maxed first.

Dragon Form: While you're in dragon form you will leave a trail of fire in your way that will constantly deal magic damage to enemies standing on it, most people doesn't realize this and if they keep chasing you, especcially with low HP they can kill themselves.

Flame Breath (E): This skill should always be maxed second, now that it got buffed it compliments your hybrid damage so well. It deals 80/115/150/185/220(+60%) of our total ability power in magic damage passing through all enemies and applying a debuff for 5 seconds which will make your autoattacks against the target deal 2% on each hit. All i have to say is that this skill is amazing now, it works as poke, WAY faster jungle clearing and TONS OF DAMAGE.

Just think of it: + AA + + AA = 8% of enemy hp gone in 1-2 seconds, and if we mix it with our DPS goes through the roof.

Dragon Form: Shyvana gains AoE and engulfs all the enemies in front of her in flames.

Dragons Descent (R): Beautiful ultimate transforming the cute lady into a beastly dragon gaining 1/2/3 fury each second and this is what makes what she is, a "Half-Dragon. It has a lot of uses both offensively and defensively. Some examples:

Offensively: You can initiate teamfights, gap closer and chasing enemies down.

Defensively: You can use it as an escape method since you can go through walls, the knockback can help you pushing someone away from a teammate.

As a bonus gains passively 10/15/20 bonus armor and magic resistance which doubles when in dragon form, her knockback has a wide hitbox but takes a while to get used to aim it corectly. She deals 200/300/400(+70%) of our AP in magic damage to all enemies on her path.

Also must have 100 Fury to use it and she loses 5 fury per second after casting it till her fury bar is empty, then she will return back to her human form.

When in a fight your combos must be something like this:

Initiating teamfights: -> -> ->

Engaging 1 v 1 : -> -> and if the enemy runs.

Or you can try -> -> -> if enemy has no escape method and you have the urge to get close to him.

Jungling

Now we will go in depth to the jungling section!

First off before we start there are some things you must always have in mind to be a good jungler and should always be ready for.

1. Map awareness: This is probably the most important skill that a jungler requires, map awareness is the base for all the plays like ganking, counterjungling, counterganking, taking objectives like or , etc.

You should keep track of the enemy jungler as much as you can, if you see him heading to a lane either alert your teammates so they can go back while you counter-jungle or gank another lane without much worries. Ward coverage is also part of the junglers job but EVERYONE should buy some since they are a TEAM item and they give you map control which wins games as well.

A tip would be buying 1-2 wards everytime you go back, this way you will prevent your lanes of getting ganked a lot and helping your counter-jungling. s also do wonders since you can take vision from your opponents and take advantage of it or if you wanna give them a syndrome just buy an

2. Team communication: This is crucial if youre planning on ganking or making a play, you can save your allies just by alerting/pinging them to secure a kill, know if a lane is warded, etc.

3. Timings: A good jungler must know creep spawn times (which we will see soon), these will allow you to take the maxium income possible from your jungle AND is the base of counter-jungling, this is important because it lets you be in the right place at the right time, i cant count the times i stole the enemy jungler buffs just 2-3 seconds before they noticed it just dissapeared or being able to catch me.

Ok now that we covered this lets start with the routes.

Jungle creeps spawn times

-Wraiths: First spawn at 1:40, respawns after 50 seconds.

-Wolves and Double Golems: First spawn at 1:40, respawns after 1 minute.

-Ancient Golem(blue buff): First spawn at 1:55, respawns after 5 minutes.

-Elder Lizard(red buff): First spawn at 1:55, respawns after 5 minutes.

-Dragon: First spawn at 2:30, respawns after 6 minutes.

-Baron Nashor: First spawn at 15:00, respawns after 7 minutes+ 3 minutes(buff duration)

Jungling routes

Green dots are the suggested places for Sight Wards and purple for s (Paint skills ftw)

does not need a jungle route exactly since you should be counter-jungling as much as possible, simply start with one of your buffs and steal the enemy buff or start both and try to gank, remember that they are worth more experience now so stealing one from enemy jungler will set them way behind.

Ganking

First lets see what has to tell us about this.

She may be in a bad humour when they ask her about this but disregard people believes she isnt bad at ganking, they just take more positioning/timing.

has no CC so her only way to slow her opponents early on somehow is and the Red buff but and can allow her to get close to her opponent pretty fast and all she needs is to hit the enemy a bit to secure a kill. After 6 you will get which will let you gank even from behind the walls and a knockback to secure a kill or save a teammate, not to mention you can charge your fury bar pretty quickly at your jungle.

One thing you should be careful of is not taking every kill on your ganks as has some excess strenght, remember that your ADC/Top/APC need the kills too but if you see them having enough kills you can take some as you will be the tank and can get your main items faster.

Try to have a good equilibrium between jungling/counter-jungling/ganking since if you spend all your time farming creeps your allies will have a bit of a hard time in the lane and if you spend most of the time ganking and you dont have success you will fall off hard and wont recover easy.

As last tip just keep communication with your allies, this will allow you to gank easier and know if a lane is warded.

Counter-jungling

s specialty, her ability set gives her an amazing counter-jungle potential.

First off what would we take as "counter-jungling"? It can be simply from stealing your enemy jungler small creep camps like wraiths or wolves to taking his buffs, but...how does it benefits you or your team?

Easy question. If you are constantly taking the enemy jungler camps he will lose gold and experience which will weak him a lot later on, especcially if hes some kind of initiator/tank while you gain that exp/gold, and if youre taking his buffs lets say the Red buff you will weak his ganking potential and if you take his Blue buff you will benefit your team too because if hes blue dependant for his abiliy spamming he will have to go back to base earlier or use them less like or or give an advantage to your mid lane and team because the enemy AP wont have that amazing cooldown reduction and mana regeneration while you give your blue buff to your mid laner.

Now serious thing if the enemy jungler is equal or above your level by 10-15 minutes you are doing something wrong or you have a hard matchup.

and or and will be your best allies in this duty giving you a lot of movement speed and increasing your clear times.

Just keep remembering to balance your counter-jungle/ganking times, you can even clear a camp and head straight to gank a lane or viceversa, ALWAYS keep track of the enemy jungler.

We will now see our jungle opponents but before that i want to clarify that when i mean "dueling" is because when countering youre more likely to find the enemy jungler, especcially early and has a lot of bursting potential so if you know their route you can even catch them at one of their camps, disable them with and get an easy first blood.

Jungle Matchups!

Alphabetical order:

Alistar

Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Starts at: Blue buff

Easy matchup. may not be able to fight with you but he still has some good ganking tools, he is VERY blue buff dependant early since his abilities have high mana costs so abuse this and time his buff times correctly and being you can do it with no problems. Just try not to be too overconfident if he tries fighting back since his allies may be coming your way.

Amumu

Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Starts at: Blue buff

Easy matchup for , hes banned in ranked most of the time so you wont get to see him that much. He has a strong ganking kit especcially after 6 but hes blue buff dependant early so the more buffs you deny him the slower his ganks will be, his clear times are average but try being careful since if he catches you and you are in a bad position he can contain you enough for his allies to come and chase you down.

He cant duel with you and most encounters should end like this ^_^

Cho'Gath

Difficulty: Medium
Starts at: Blue buff

U will see him in a good amount of games, his ganks are average since he needs to hit his , he isnt that much of blue dependant and you can win him early easy but the thing is that after 6 his ultimate will make him way harder to kill as he has very good sustain in the jungle and gets his stacks easily with jungle minions. Also have in mind that has strong scaling into lategame with just farming and you 2 are the main tanks so beating him in jungle phase will benefit your team a lot so time your jungling/ganking times correctly.

Diana

Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Starts at: Blue buff

With the recent nerfs to her she became less popular but i believe shes still as dangerous, has decent clear times and a SCARY ganking set especcially after level 6 since she gets her powerful gap closer

Theres one thing about in the jungle since if she doesnt get enough successful ganks/farm she will scale poorly into lategame but if she does she will snowball hard and become an issue to ur team.

Early on she cant duel with you but only fight her if you know that you can win, otherway once she catches you, you wont be getting away easily.

Dr. Mundo

Difficulty: Hard
Starts at: Red Buff

"Mundo goes where he pleases!" Ever heard this phrase? Now you will know why it is so famous, sometimes counter-jungling this guy isnt even an option since he can clear as fast as you.

Mundo will build mostly HP since his does up to 25% of your current HP in magic damage and gives him up to 100+ AD wish is the same as a fully stacked .

Your main aim here will be to win in ganks and to not get counter-jungled, early on he doesnt have much sustain since his abilities cost HP and he cant spam them much so ABUSE this and if you can shut him down early you already won this phase. My recommendations would be warding your jungle entrances so you can know where he is exactly, take his income and coordinate with your team to catch him and ask your AP to build a to cut his regen powers to half and save the s for him.

You can still counterjungle but you will have to time your/his camps better than in other matchups.

Elise

Difficulty: Medium
Starts at: Blue buff

Probably the only sexy spider lady u will see, she may be fragile without items and not have fast clear times but her ganks are solid especcially with / as a gap closer/initiator.

Your main aim here will be her blue buff, just keep good track of her and clear his camps as much as you can since shes kinda farm/gank dependable, early on you win trades easily but later on avoid her stun as it sets up the rest of her combo and dont fight her with low hp or her will hurt you real bad.

Evelynn

Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Starts at: Blue buff

Recent nerfs hurted her bad especcially her ultimate, you outrade her at all stages of the game, the only problem is that u wont be able to see her till shes close to you which is what makes her ganks so strong, she isnt blue buff dependant because her passive also gives her mana regen.

In this specific matchup u will want to get as much s as possible to help your lanes to not get ganked as she is gank dependant and snowballs very fast. Dont hesitate if you encounter her early since if you shut her down she will scale poorly lategame.

Fiddlesticks

Difficulty: Easy
Starts at: Blue buff

This poor thing wont be able to contain you even a bit, even with his high CC set he cant win trades vs you as you can burst him down in seconds and can stop his easily so dont hesitate and counter him HARD especcially taking his blue buff since laughs at his clear times. His gank potential isn't much really, he needs his ultimate for ganking mostly and positioning it is hard so just keep track on him and help on the warding and he wont be much of an issue.

Hecarim

Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Starts at: Blue buff

Hecarim turned popular recently since S3 powered him up, i main him too so i can help some more on this matchup.

First off has a weak early game/average clear times/average mana costs but his snowball potential is huge so winning this phase is important for your team, he may be a tier 1 jungler but as you dont give a flying ****, this is one of those matchups where i like waiting him to be about to finish red buff in the near bush and when its low enough, then jump out of the bush and him for an easy kill and first blood, after that you won the jungling phase. If you dont kill him just keep pressure and youll eventually kill the cute giant pony.

Pay attention to his location because hes a very fast ganker with his and combo that even sometimes it doesnt matter if your team has wards, will be there faster than they can react.

Jarvan IV

Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Starts at: Blue buff

OMG JARVAN I LOVE YOU PLEASE MARRY ME YOU ARE THE MOST HANDSOME/STRONGEST WARRIOR IN VALORAN AND PLEASE LET ME HAVE YOUR...*cough*ehem...ok now that we had a look at s thoughts on this matchup lets see how to win this.

is a decent duelist and has a good ganking kit especcially with his as a sure kill most of the time if you dont have or any escape mechanism. The thing with him is that his clear times aren't the best and hes mana hungry, just like you he gets armor passively but it won't stop 's hybrid damage, he will stack defenses mostly and building almost no damage so he won't have a chance beating you. Keep track on him or his ganks will hurt your team a lot.

Jax

Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Starts at: Blue buff

is one of the best 1v1 duelists which is why he is one of the best solo top in the game but luckily in the jungle he is weaker. He isn't buff dependant so your aim vs him will be to reduce his income in the jungle and not to lose in ganks vs him since builds are somewhat expensive and he will rely on ganks to get enough money and scale well lategame. Keep track on him as much as you can since hes very scary when fed.

Something you could try vs him is to ask for a smiteless blue and head straight to his red buff so his gank potential early will be less, your burst damage is superior but dont engage him if he has unless you know you can win, try to lure him into using it and away from him, theres a reasonable amount of cd between the 2 skills so just engage him again and burst him quickly, after level 6 his wont make this an easy task.

Kha'Zix

Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Starts at: Blue buff

He isn't an easy matchup for any jungler, his kit allows him to gank/duel pretty well in the jungle and has very high burst damage not to mention he has 2 engage/disengage abilities +.

Early on try the same with a smiteless blue and head straight to his red buff which will weak his ganking power, his clear times are a bit better than average and has some sustain with dont engage him unless you know you can win. Don't lose in ganks and time his camps spawning times so you reduce his gold/experience income and be sure to keep track of him.

Again try to set wards on your jungle entrances since he will more likely try to counter-jungle you as he has 2 very good disengage moves and catching him won't be an easy task so know beforehand where he will be.

Lee Sin

Difficulty: Hard
Starts at: Red buff

(This***inguy.jpg) was more likely your hardest matchup before nerfs but he is still strong, his jungle clear times are good, his kit makes him a strong ganker and duelist and is one of the most used jungler in the game so u will meet him in a lot of games.

He has many ways to stick to you or disengage with / and and can reduce your attacks speed so NEVER understimate him, your main aim will be not to let him gank as much as he want, help your lanes so they don't get ganked hard and to counter-jungle him, still though if falls behind he won't recover easy so take that in advantage, wards and map awareness will be the key to win this matchup.

Lee Sin has overshadowed many junglers and i think they have some kind of grudge against him, even though hes blind...

Malphite

Difficulty: Easy
Starts at: Blue buff

Slow clear times and cant duel with early game but he is banned in a lot of ranked for a reason, his ganking power is great and gets worse after 6 since serves as a gapcloser/knockup and has a high range.

Your aim here is to make him scale as poorly as possible into lategame and help your lanes to not get ganked with map awareness, if you make him fall behind he wont do much damage to your team later in the game.

Maokai

Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Starts at: Blue buff

Arcane Smash

Weak early game, very blue dependant, high mana costs, slow clears/movement but very good ganks since is a strong gapcloser and roots the enemy for up to 2 seconds. He cant do anything on his own so mess with him as you wish in the jungle, ward his camps and you can easily kill him after you know where he is and if he falls behind he wont have as much utility for his team as you will have.

Just help your team keep track of him so ur lanes get ganked as less as possible.

Master Yi

Difficulty: Easy
Starts at: Blue buff

This matchup is silly because you can mess with jungle so easily that he will fall behind hard and start taking his allies farm, just get a smiteless blue and take his red because hes weak and cant do anything to stop you then you have 2 options either wait for him and get 1st blood or keep your way and gank, can only outduel you if hes fed.

His only way to not fall behind will be ganks so help some with the warding and he wont do any damage to your team and give you a lot of free camps. Just be careful since if he starts getting fed prepare to chase him all over the map...

Nautilus

Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Starts at: Blue buff

Tier 1 jungler? Pfft at least not for , his very slow 1st clears are the biggest weakness has, so either invade his blue buff or wait at his red buff bush and as soon as he is about to finish his red buff it and him and there you go an easy 1st blood.

His kit is full of CC so just help your lanes to get ganked as less as possible by having map awareness because as far as i know if he lands his hook its is a sure kill,take his blue buff every time possible.

Nocturne

Difficulty: Medium
Starts at: Blue buff

Nor hard but neither an easy matchup, is weak early so play agressive with the counter-jungle since after 6 its kinda hard to stop him from ganking due to his ultimate is the best ganking ability in the game and he can come from anywhere.

Try to keep up with the ganks and clear his camps as much as possible to reduce his income, you beat him in a 1 v 1 encounter but never understimate this guy. Communication will be key to keep track of him.

Nunu

Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Starts at: Blue buff

This matchup is kinda annoying, his ability set works well in the jungle since his passive reduces his mana use and got buffed hard, be very sure to time your jungle times properly so he doesn't steal a single buff, the goodpart is that even with consume buffs he can't fight you but neither will let you kill him easily.

About his ganks they are effective with all the slows/ movement buffs and he can use on an ally to make the gank even more efficient. Remember that interrupts his channel so don't let him fully charge it or it can hurt bad.

Olaf

Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Starts at: Blue buff

Be as agressive as you can early and be careful not to engage this guy after he gets some points in and since he has a lot of sustain and hes very scary when low HP. Your main aim is to slow him down as much as possible since he can be a huge threat lategame, his ganks are dependant on landing his so just alert your team if you see him heading to any of your lanes, counter-jungle as much as possible to reduce his income but be sure to time his camps correctly as he has some good clear times and gank as much as you can.

Just remember this:
You catch him = hes dead, he catches you = you're dead

Rammus

Difficulty: Easy
Starts at: Blue buff

Puncturing Taunt

Another guy you can take advantage of, he has very slow clear times so...exactly! Take the control early on being very agressive so his ganks become slow and will fall behind hard, he cant fight you at all but he can be hard to kill.

The only thing you should be careful of is that his ganks are in my opinion the best in the game since he can come in with and activate his puncturing taunt as soon as he hits your ally leaving him defenseless and more likely open to a sure death. Help with the warding if neccessary and lategame show whos the scariest tank here!

Rengar

Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Starts at: Red buff

has a very weak early game and takes a lot of damage in the jungle early till he gets his 3 abilities to be able to spam an empowered which leaves him badly open to counter-jungle which as we know excells at so mess with him as much as you can even or get a 1st blood easily, reduce his income in the jungle as much as you can.

Your best mates vs him will be s and be sure to ALWAYS carry one vs him as it can be the difference between a kill or death with his ultimate.

Be careful fighting in his jungle later since his passive makes him dangerous when bushes are around as he can jump out of nowhere as give you or your teammates and unpleasant surprise.

Riven

Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Starts at: Red buff

She has no sustain in the jungle and is very gank dependant in order to snowball lategame, her clear times are slow early so you shouldnt have problems counter-jungling her has an average gank potential since she needs to be close to the enemy to stun with but her ultimate can help her to make it a sure kill.

Shes weaker in the jungle than in top lane and easy to counter, you may have some fun with her and most fights should end like...this...

Sejuani

Difficulty: Easy
Starts at: Blue buff

just getting reworked wont stop you from messing with her, early lvl 2 pressure at red can get you an easy 1st blood and shutting her down, she still has a weak early game and slightly faster clear but still not enough.

She has a strong lategame so if she cant gank she will fall behind inevitably so map awareness and communication will stop her easily.

Shaco

Difficulty: Hard
Starts at: Red buff

This guy is a ****in pain in the *** and will more likely try to counter-jungle you, idll suggest starting with a smiteless blue and asking for someone to guard the red buff so you head there as soon as possible.

doesnt rely in high damage but his kit that allows him to trick people hard as you can find his even in your own jungle and get an unpleasant surprise, dont chase unless you have a and you know you can kill him , his ganking power is high since he can practically go stealth mode with walk in your lane and set a and help his teammate take you down.

He falls behind hard in lategame and can only pretty much splitpush so good ward coverage, keeping as much track of him as you can and this should set the game in your favor.

Shen

Difficulty: Medium
Starts at: Red buff

Probably the most banned champion at the moment and very well known for his game changing ultimate which gives him a lot of presence all around the map. First off hes weaker in the jungle since he doesnt have as much income, his clear times are slow and he has decent sustain but it wont stop you from killing him early so pressure a lot.

Just alert your team after hes level 6 since you cant really prevent a gank, so if any of your lanes start pushing and winning then head there since will be pretty much preparing to teleport there. Also map awareness since his ganks have a lot of potential too.

Skarner

Difficulty: Medium
Starts at: Blue buff

Energyze

Good clear times, strong lategame but weak early game. ganks are good but the problem is that he needs to be close to his objective to be able to do something vs him so map awareness should stop him from messing with your lanes much, to counter-jungle him you will need very good timings and you can shut him down early if you encounter him but dont be too greedy after 6 since if his team is close a good will hurt you real bad.

Trundle

Difficulty: Hard
Starts at: Blue buff

He got reworked but it didnt help his jungle as much as his solo laning power. What i dislike about him is that he can mess with your stats so much to set fights at his favour, in order to win vs him you need map awareness and camp spawning timings because he can be a problem if fed.

Dont engage him unless you know you can win or you will have a bad time,ward his jungle, keep ganking and take as much of his income as you can and be more useful to your team later in the game than he can.

Udyr

Difficulty: Hard
Starts at: Blue buff

Oh boy this guy can jungle as fast as you can. He has some good early damage, some CC and good sustain but his lategame is weak since he can't do much but tank and get kited.

Counter-jungling this guy isn't an even an option most of the time if he knows what hes doing, worry more about timing your own camps and ganking/counterganking and again be sure not to fight him if you know you can't win. The key will be map awareness and communication with your team and on teamfights show him how to tank/initiate.

Vi

Difficulty: Medium
Starts at: Blue buff

has jungling potential with her good clearing speed and good ganking set. My way to go vs Vi would be smiteless blue and taking her red buff as soon as possible then search for ganks since she can't gank pre 6 without it.

will take most of her time looking for ganks so map awareness and team communication will allow you to counter-jungle easier, you win early but if she gets fed she can be very scary and hard to kill. Her ultimate is perfect to initiate team fights as much as is not to mention shes an Anti-adc so if you see her jumping to your adc prepare to turn into a dragon and will be enough to disable her. Winning jungling phase will benefit your team a lot since she won't have as much utility as you.

Xin Zhao

Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Starts at: Blue buff

The right hand of and one of the best junglers at the moment, he doesn't have any real weaknesses, his ganks and clear times are good and can 1 v 1 almost any champion but not you. You know how to take his red buff and counter him as much as you can to slow him down, he has good lategame scaling so try your best to win this phase. Again warding and communication are key.

Solo Top

Some people will probably won't take this serious since they think belongs to jungle like women to kitchen but can be a good option Solo Top because she can make such a good use of the gold/experience in the lane.

Playstyle and build:

There aren't many champions that can fight with you 1 v 1 early levels so take advantage of it and every time the enemy comes close to kill a minion use + AA + , if he tries to keep fighting then or and kill him for First Blood or just move out of the way and go in a bush so you don't take minion attacks or push the lane and keep repeating, after 6 you will get some advantage with the free armor you get from passive, just remember to aim it correctly since its part of 's burst.

After recalling you should focus on getting a first since it is the BEST possible item to get as (gives A LOT of sustain and a strong slow for chasing) or 1-2 Doran's if needed depending on how your is lane going. Your 1st major item should be since it gives us all we need and a huge lane advantage, after you get it and enemy is at a considerable amount of hp you can go all in on your opponent, the best combo is:

- - AA - - AA

I found this to be the BEST combo possible to take down your opponent after playing a lot of games Solo Top

should be your 2nd buy unless you're vs an AP champion.

After getting your 2 core items just focus on building against the enemy team, get the proper defense based on what their composition is mostly.

is great at taking objectives such as Towers or Dragons with especcially when you have your .

Your role in teamfights will be either initiating in the middle of everyone and + all of them or aiming for enemy ADC or APC since serves as a good gap closer and active will help you on your task.

When to play Shyvana Solo Top?

Whenever your team has a good amount of CC, try to get a jungler or a support like , or who can assist properly in a gank and can initiate as well to help you clear the path and aim for bigger objectives.

If your team lacks CC you will have a hard time, some others that can synergize with are: , , , , etc. Any champion that can set up a good ultimate to hit as many enemies with and -.

Also if you have the chance to pick don't play vs champions who will kite you to death such as which will make 's lack of sustain painful.

Solo Top Matchups!

Coming soon!

Video References

Here you can see Gambit Gaming in their times of Moscow 5 playing Top lane at IEM Kiev vs TSM

The matchups are both Dar1en vs TheRainMan, you can see how hard can outduel early on even with 's sustain and stun and outdueling fast and how much brings to a team.

Just as a note the itemization is from Season 2 so don't try to copy it, used to be picked even by some ADCs but now is bad, instead of that just get a which is better and just liike the lantern it helps clearing faster, same thing goes for and

Note how after being fed even with 4 champions focusing him, dar1en manages to take his target down and takes long to get taken down, making teamfights result in 1 for 4-5

Here they are:

Also

Conclusion

is a very unique and fun champion to play and master. Shes very understimated and can surprise people when you start tearing their HP bar in seconds or when they suddenly find out that their jungle dissapeared in a blink.

She can fullfill a lot of roles from bursting enemies down in seconds to being a beastly tank but she takes a while to fully understand her and her abilities, once you know how to use them properly she turns very rewarding to use.

Her lack of CC and sustain may seem a problem early but once you know how to time/position yourself while ganking you wont have any problems with that.

Wish you the best of luck/fun, now go and carry hard with !

Special Thanks to:

Jhoijhoi for her amazing guide of making a guide!
All the people wo have reviewwed my guide!
VirusNG1 for helping me with my section dividers

If you have any question or suggestion feel free to leave a comment and ill answer as soon as possible :)

If you liked the guide then vote +1 please and if you didn't like it for some reason then you can of course -1 but explain me the reason why you're downvotingso we can improve the guide together.

Thats all, thank you for reading!

Shyvana - I Will Dance In Their Ashes (In-Depth by Byakuya)

Shyvana - I Will Dance In Their Ashes (In-Depth by Byakuya)

Choose Champion Build:

Spells:

Ignite

Flash

Items

Ability Order

Fury of the Dragonborn (PASSIVE)

Twin Bite (Q)

Burnout (W)

Flame Breath (E)

Dragon's Descent (R)

Spells:

Exhaust

Smite

Items

Ability Order

Fury of the Dragonborn (PASSIVE)

Twin Bite (Q)

Burnout (W)

Flame Breath (E)

Dragon's Descent (R)

Spells:

Exhaust

Smite

Items

Ability Order

Fury of the Dragonborn (PASSIVE)

Twin Bite (Q)

Burnout (W)

Flame Breath (E)

Dragon's Descent (R)

Spells:

Ignite

Flash

Items

Ability Order

Fury of the Dragonborn (PASSIVE)

Twin Bite (Q)

Burnout (W)

Flame Breath (E)

Dragon's Descent (R)

Updates (Patch 3.9)

Introduction

Pros/Cons

Pros

Cons

Runes

Runes

Runes

Masteries

Solo Top

Tanky Jungle

Full Hybrid

Summoner Spells

Exhaust vs Flash in the Jungle

Items

General

Main Jungling Items

Frozen Mallet vs Trinity Force

Skill Explanation

Jungling

Jungle creeps spawn times

Jungling routes

Ganking

Counter-jungling

Jungle Matchups!

Alphabetical order:

Alistar

Amumu

Cho'Gath

Diana

Dr. Mundo

Elise

Evelynn

Fiddlesticks

Hecarim

Jarvan IV

Jax