Shyvana Build Guide by Torukkmakto

Introduction

WADDUP ya'll, if you want an easy-to-learn, quick guide to pro Shyvana playing, this is here the Guide for You!

I made this guide back in 2012 of Season 2 with all sorts of mistakes and had a pretty decent overall rating for the guide, and over the past year I believe I've gotten much better as a player in general and gotten to know Shyvana a little better for myself.

Now, as I intend to share my knowledge with all you Summoner's, Lets Get Started!

Counter Picking

I wasn't going to go in depth with this chapter but it's too much information to cover without not putting a few paragraphs in.

I'll rate the possible enemy junglers and solo top with ★☆☆☆☆ being hardest to ★★★★★ being your best counter pick.


First i'll explain a few Top Lane champs against Shyvana.



★★★☆☆ Akali- Your Q will deal equivalent damage to her's and you'll be able to continuously damage her with Burnout even with her in Twilight Shroud.

★★★☆☆ Cho'Gath- He's passive in-lane but pretty tanky, you won't be able to kill him, but neither will he. Just dodge his Rupture, be aggressive and out farm him until you get a gank.

★★★☆☆ Darius- Catch him out of his combo, and fight small scrimmages. His Hemorrhage and Noxian Guillotine will hurt you more the longer you fight.

★☆☆☆☆ Elise- If she misses her Cocoon and your minions are pushing, harass her. She'll be annoying until you buy some MR, until then wait for ganks.

★★☆☆☆ Fiora- Don't fall behind against her, engage with Burnout to bait her Riposte, then activate your Twin Bite. Care for her level 6.

★★★☆☆ Galio- Just like Cho'Gath, farm lane and dodge his Q's. After he burns his Q, run in to harras or go for the kill if you run Ignite.

★★★☆☆ Gangplank- DO NOT let him get ahead of you, he will Parrrley mostly only minions. When it goes on cooldown, harass and/or go for the kill. His passive+ Exhaust+ Cannon Barrage will be deadly so watch out for that.

★★★★☆ Garen- He is strong early level but after 4 or 5 your Burnout will match his judgement, also you can attack while spinning and he cannot. Don't get overconfident while his ulti is up.

★★★☆☆ Irelia- Deny her creep kills, Shyvana is stronger than Irelia early game so shut her out and watch out for ganks.

★★★☆☆ Jarvan IV- He is a bit tankier than shyvanna. After he jumps to you, his skills are basically on cooldown. Like Darius, catch him off his combo and destroy him.

★☆☆☆☆ Jayce- He will be annoying with his range, if he gets too close, use that advantage and harass, otherwise last hit and hug turret and ask for ganks. You will win duels with him, but he will just knock you back and harass again, so watch out for that.

★★☆☆☆ Jax- He has the burst to harass you, but as long as you stay at about half health, you'll be fine. If you duel at low health he will win, but if he wastes his stun then go in and fight.

★☆☆☆☆ Kayle- She'll harass you and there's nothing you can do about it. Just farm with your E and ask for ganks. You shouldn't be playing against Kayle with Shyvana anyways.

★★★☆☆ Kha'Zix- Avoid his W and stay away from your minions when he casts but care for his passive. After level 6 buy health and armor, you should be able to duel.

★★★☆☆ Lee Sin- Don't fight him when he Cripple. You can win small trades but don't let him heal up with ironwill. Also, fight him under minions, as he will have nothing to jump to.

★★★★☆ Nasus- Like Irelia, deny his farm. In my opinion, at level one, just kill him. He won't be able to slow you, nor will his Q have 'any' farm. Especially after patch 3.6 his Wither wont be as effective anyways.

★★☆☆☆ Olaf- Try not to duel at low health, he will attack faster and his Reckless Swing will finish you. Don't overextend, and wait for level 6+ to trade hits with him.

★★☆☆☆ Pantheon- Another harass champ who will be chucking spears all game. Be sure to buy pots or grab Teleport because he 'will' push you out of lane. Farm as much as possible and kick his *** mid game.

★★★★☆ Renekton- Buy a Wriggle's Lantern and you should be fine. Buy Ninja Tabi and he won't do anymore damage. Out-level and shut him down before he becomes a tanky threat to your carry late game.

★★★☆☆ Riven- Pretty even match up. Both will deal equivalent damage, just use Burnout when she activates Broken Wings. In my opinion, this lane will come down to the better player.

★★★☆☆ Singed- Harass and deny farm. When he comes to Fling, hit him with everything and that'll set the tone against your lane. Beat him early, don't let his farm get out of hand.

★★★★☆ Sion- Deny farm, harass. Easy and simple lane to play. Small ganks will shut him down, after that just free farm.

★★☆☆☆ Trundle- He has more sustain early game so focus on farm. His ult will take away from your Dragon's Descent passive, so ask for ganks or harass when you can and stay farmed.

★★★☆☆ Vi- Early games she'll be pretty strong and Vi does fairly well mid-game, but Shyvana farms better and has better fights in longer duels with her Burnout.

★★☆☆☆ Wukong- He will definitely win lane if you aren't careful. Play carefully aggressive early game to burn his mana and ask for ganks to shut him out. He won't have any escapability by then.

☆☆☆☆☆ Yorick- Buy sustain early on and hug turret if you have to. He will out-harass and out-sustain you so ask for ganks and farm as much as you can.

★★★☆☆ Zed- Pretty good match-up, careful for his level 6 when he goes all in. Buy armor and try to out farm and push him out of lane. Attack back when his moves are on cooldown.

Pros / Cons

PROS ☺ High mobility and damage output with Burnout ☺ Powerful Burst Damage with Twin Bite ☺ Dragon's Descent Passive allows her to Defensive stats ☺ A very productive and effective farmer/jungler ☺ OOM! ☺ Potential for chase and escaping are high with Burnout and Dragon's Descent

CONS ☻ Lack of Crowd Control for ganks or securing kills ☻ Susceptible to being kited by ranged champions ☻ Completely out-classed by new champs and balanced champs (ex. Lee Sin, Wukong, Jayce etc.)

Masteries

•19/11/0

As Jungle Shyvana, I go heavy in the Offensive tree for fast clearing and strong early ganks. Grabbing Tough Skin and Bladed Armor will slightly help with last hitting in the jungle.

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•21/9/0

When I take Shyvana top lane, I go full in on the Offensive tree with just a bit in Defense allowing for a stronger early start.

• It's also viable to switch to a tank style-play by going full into the Defensive tree.

Runes

For Top Lane Shyvana, I use Greater Quintessence of Armor Penetration and Greater Mark of Armor Penetration. This allows Shyvana to be stronger towards mid-late game. Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist for late game and Greater Seal of Armor accents Dragon's Descent's passive very well.

• The reasoning behind armor pen is the nerf prior to season 3 on armor pen, and this allows Shyvana to deal with tanks and hefty champions without sacrificing damage.

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As Jungle Shyvana I put up Mark of Attack Speed in place of Armor Pen. for faster jungle clearing, it also increases DPS later in-game. I keep Quints, Seal, and Glyphs the same as before.

• Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage is also a good choice, along with Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed for easier ganks and increased jungle speed.

Summoner Spells

I recommend this to any beginner playing Shyvana. Exhaust helps with securing kills in duels and chases, while buying you time to Dragon's Descent outta there if you're in a tight spot.

Helps Top lane Shyvana in dueling 1v1, helps in securing kills, and also very good against passive champs who has survivability like Lee Sin, Dr. Mundo, Olaf.

A great Summoner Spell for when you need to make plays or escape. Shyvana, truly, only has one initiation skill which is Dragon's Descent so if you take Flash, use it wisely.

Skill Sequence/Ability Explanation

- Twin Bite's: cooldown will reduce by .5 seconds.
- Burnout: extends the duration by 1 second per attack, for up to 6 seconds.
- Flame Breath: ignores 15% of the target's armor.
- Dragon's Descent: regenerates 2 fury per attack, and increases duration of Dragon's Descent while active.

Learn this at level 2 and max second. Twin Bite allows Shyvana to attack twice on her next activation. This is her burst of damage that sets the tone in a duel and is also her secondary focus of damage. Dragon Form: Twin Bite does full damage in a cone in front of Shyvana. All on-hit effects will proc each champion and minion hit by Twin Bite granting fury for each champion and minion hit, twice, keeping you in Dragon's Descent for a longer duration.

Learn this at level 1 and max first. Burnout will be Shyvana's primary source of damage output. It scales with .2 of your bonus attack damage but deals magic damage. Also, don't forget to utilize her movement speed buff to increase your mobility while ganking and jungling. Dragon Form: Burnout engulfs the her path with flames, or ice, for 6 seconds, dealing continuous magic damage to whoever walks on it.

Learn this at level 4 and max last. Flame Breath shoots out a fireball dealing magic damage and debuffing the target's armor by 15%. People think this move is useless, but the debuff combined with armor penetration really takes away their defenses for you and your teammates. Dragon Form: Flame Breath emits a cone of flame in front of Shyvana dealing the 15% armor reduction to every champion and minion hit. This move is great for teamfights and ganks.

Learn this at level 6, 11, and 18. Dragon's Descent flings Shyvana forward, knocking all things she hits in her direction of flight while transforming herself into a dragon. Passively provides 10/15/20 Armor and Magic Resistance while in human form. Make sure you use her Ultimate wisely when engaging as to not let them simply Flash away as soon as you as you fly in. Dragon Form: While in Dragon's Descent, the defensive stats are doubled from 10/15/20 to 20/30/40. Shyvana will lose 6 fury every second while in Dragon's Descent

NOTE: Shyvana is not meant to tank an entire team's worth of damage. Play her as the secondary initiator or work together to engage, or you will become the main target, flying to your death.

Items

Main Items

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Why?

The reasoning behind Trinity Force and Frozen Mallet together is that they just work so well together. Trinity Force gives movement speed combined with Burnout for chasing while at the same time Frozen Mallet is slowing the enemy champion, and don't forget that Flame Breath deals extra damage on debuffed units! Also, Twin Bite proc's unreal damage with Sheen effect that has scaled AD with both these two items.

NOT TO MENTION!!
They give GRATUITOUS amounts of HEALTH!!!

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Plausible Items

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You'll want to grab this if the enemy team has an AD Ranged Carry who is real squishy. You'll end up trolololling all the way to the bank.
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Pick this up if your enemy team consists of hard AP Carries like; Akali, Ahri, Kassadin, Kennen, etc. Also, if they have high health Magic damage champs like; Singed, Galio, Alistar, Cho'Gath, Maokai, Mordekaiser, etc.
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This item is for when the enemy team includes low-health enemy champions.
Team Composition Example: Sona, Ashe, Ryze, Pantheon, Shaco
Infinity Edge deals Extremely Catastrophic blows when combined with Twin Bite and the effect of Sheen/ Trinity Force.
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Atma's Impaler is a great defensive and also offensive item, I like to compare it as a stronger version of a Wriggle's Lantern. Take this item if ever your up against medium-high health AD Melee or Ranged champs. An example would be; Xin Zhao, Kog'Maw, Udyr, Olaf, Lee Sin, etc.
NOTE: At the point you've purchased both Trinity Force and Frozen Mallet, you'd have achieved roughly about 3000 Health. I'll do the math, since everybody hates math any ways, which comes up to about a WHOPPING 60 extra AD added from Atma's Impaler's Unique Passive. How's that, for a Tanky DPS?

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Not Recommended Items

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- Well, the reason I chose to blot out these two items is because you are NOT the tank and you will lose the feel of aggression and offensive power if you choose to go this way. If you trust this guide and believe that I have even a small ounce of logic in why I choose to do this then please, build accordingly and wisely. I mean, would you rather be praised by your team on how you pwned them so hard or be raged at for not being able to do any damage? ... Think about it.


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- To say the least, you definitely are NOT the carry, therefore there is no need to buy items to counter enemy tanks and DPS fighters. There are no particular customs in which one must follow or types of rules one has to apply if they've chosen a certain role in a Champion.
BUT! The role that I personally play as with Shyvana is a DPS Melee Fighter who soaks damage while at the same time disrupting and persistently dealing tons of damage. And I believe that including these items into the core items will disrupt the offensive and defensive balance in Shyvana.

Team Work

The role you will want to take in a team fight with Shyvana will be the DPS Damage Soaker (or whatever you wanna call it). You will be dealing AoE (Area of Effect) Damage and focusing to eliminate the enemy carries so that you and your team can push turrets and destroy the nexus.

How to Descend as a Dragon: First of all, do not waste your Ultimate Dragon's Descent recklessly if you do not need it. Use it under major situations such as; Securing a runaway kill, Damaging over half of the enemy champions in one single flight, or Escaping a team fight if your carries are taken out and you've run out of options.

REMEMBER: If you choose to use Dragon's Descent over walls as a flash to reach an enemy team fight and NOT over the "ACTUAL" enemy champions, then you are lowering the potential damage output you will be dealing.

Initiating: You are not the tank and will not be able to take many hits before you are staring at the grey screen of death. So, to prevent that, you will need to allow your tank to initiate and become the focus. Immediately afterwards, you fly in for the kill and your carries and assassins will follow your lead, picking up whoever is most liable to die first.

Jungling

☼ Start with 475 gold, buy Vampiric Scepter.

☼ Begin at Golem Camp, learn Burnout.

☼ Smite Big Golem immediately and activate Burnout right after, attacking the same Golem. Finish camp and move onto Wraith Camp.

☼ Activate Burnout focusing the Purple Wraith. You've now learned a new move!! Choose Twin Bite, auto attack until they diminish and move onto Wolf Camp.

☼ Activate Burnout and Twin Bite focusing on the giant wolf . Auto attack until they die and continue onto Ancient Golem Camp.

☼ At this point Smite will be coming close to getting off cooldown. You will have two options; Take if for your self or give it to a friendly champion nearby. Either way you will need to activate Twin Bite and Burnout and activating Smite when necessary. You are now level 3, choose Burnout, auto attack Young Lizards and move onto Wraith Camp.

NOTE: If you takeCrest of the Ancient Golem be sure to Smite when the Ancient Golem has health just below 500.

☼ Destroy the Wraith Camp like you did before using Burnout and Twin Bite, focusing the Big Wraith. Auto attack to finish and move onto Golem Camp.

☼ Focus the Big Golem with Burnout and Twin Bite, auto attack to finish. From this point you have two choices depending on the state of your health.

Choice 1: If you have high enough health to takeBlessing of the Lizard Elder, then by all means take it and gank your enemy lanes who have overextended.

Choice 2: If you have too low of health, then Recall back to home base. Go straight to theBlessing of the Lizard Elder and afterwards gank lanes who are in need of support.

From this moment on, it will be up to your moves that win you and your team the game.
My advice for junglers when takingCrest of the Ancient Golem orBlessing of the Lizard Elder, please Pull them into the brush so that you aren't ganked or stolen from by enemy junglers.

In Conclusion

Shyvana is such an unpredictable champion. People do not realize how strong she really is and that's the thing that makes her so powerful when they meet up with Shyvana on the Fields of Justice.

Please give this guide an upvote if you like it and if it has helped you in any way.

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any thoughts you'd like to throw my way.

Please tell me if there's anything I can do to improve before you give this guide a downvote, it'd be much appreciated.

And just to keep tellin' 'em,
"They have faced nothing like me." - Shyvana

Special Dedication

To jhoijhoi and her beautiful line dividers. I couldn't have made this guide without her. Everything on her guide was well said and easy to understand.

GO CHECK OUT HER GUIDE NOW!!!
It helped me immensely , thanks jhoijhoi for breaking down the complexity so that people can learn how to make guides look so nice. ;)

Change Log

• 2-24-2012 Changed "Summary" chapter to "In Conclusion" Chapter.
• 2-24-2012 Added Match History Pictue to "In Conclusion" Chapter.
• 5-4-2013 Completely Reworked for Season 3.