Hello, my name is Mr. Nyahr, and I'm a long time player on the North American server. I've been playing League of Legends since just before the start of Season 3, and I've played my fair share of every role, and of most champions in the game. As my former main, Shyvana is one of the champions that I've always been drawn to the most, for several reasons. First of all, she's badass, and you feel like a badass when you play her. I mean you're literally a dragon, and you trample over people like the peasants they are while you go 19/0/4. Her playstyle is fairly aggressive, with exceptionally fast jungle clears and surprising damage for a tanky bruiser, so she can make for a very fun pick in nearly any matchup. She can provide a lot to a team with her presence alone, and is a wrecking ball when used properly, being capable of easily 1v2ing enemies. I'll explain my reasoning behind the items, spells, runes, etc. as the guide goes on, so let's get started!

*AP/Hybrid build coming soon!*

Pros
+ Fairly simple, easy to learn.
+ Exceptionally fast jungle clears and movement with Burnout.
+ Very good duelist due to her on-hit damage from Flame Breath.
+ Nearly unmatched Drake kill potential.
+ Deceptive amounts of burst from Flame Breath and Twin Bite.
+ Fury of the Dragonborn makes you passively more tanky as you secure Drakes.
+ Amazing engage and escape tool with Dragon's Descent.
+ Superb sustained damage and tower killing potential.
+ Dragon's Descent can be used to peel for your carries.
+ You're a F****** dragon.

Cons
- No CC before completing Frozen Mallet.
- Slightly weak against duelist champions very early.
- Inability to tower dive before level 6.
- Requires a proper tank and CC on her team to work to her fullest potential.
- Requires practice to understand your limits.

Shyvana has a very big weakness that you need to address in champ select, and that is her lack of cc, and the fact that she's not the best primary tank for a team. I've made a list of which champions I think are the most compatible due to their tankiness or CC:

Tanks:

+ Alistar has great engage, and is tanky enough to take quite a beating while you do your thing. He also carries some pretty solid CC in his kit.
+ Leona is also another excellent tank with amazing CC potential. She can lock down a huge area with her Solar Flare.
+ Galio can be very handy. With his Hero's Entrance and Shield of Durand, he can engage from a decent distance and CC the majority, if not all of the enemy team.
+ Maokai has beautiful single-target lockdown potential with his Twisted Advance, and Nature's Grasp is arguably the best CC ability in the game.
+ Nautilus is literally all CC. Everything he does in some form or another screws with the enemy. Pretty solid pick, but very immobile when his anchor is on CD.
+ Malphite's Unstoppable Force can single-handedly win fights for your team.
+ Ornn, similar to Nautilus, is a mountain of CC. Very, very good to pick with.

Non-Tank/CC:
+ Janna's Howling Gale can be massive if landed, and her shield is beautiful for engages.
+ Nami can divide, push back, or lock down the enemy team with her Tidal Wave and Aqua Prison, as well as keep your team alive with her strong heals from Ebb and Flow.
+ Annie. If she lands her Summon: Tibbers on a few people or even just 1 good target, the fight usually ends shortly after.
+ Lissandra is a decent mid pick, as her Ring of Frost and Frozen Tomb can be absolutely devastating.
+ Orianna can group the enemy team very nicely with her Command: Shockwave and set you up for a clean fight in combination with her Command: Dissonance. Her Command: Protect is also a useful shield for you when you go in.
+ Lulu can be pretty solid with her single-target CC, poke and utility, but mainly for her insane ult. If you get Lulu ulted, your engage is much cleaner and easier.

Honorable Mentions:

+ Skarner, Amumu, Jarvan IV, and Sejuani all have game-changing ults, but are all pretty much exclusive to jungle, so you shouldn't have them on your team as jungle Shyvana. But if you happen to have them on your team for one reason or another (as top laners for example), they make for some great engage.

Press the Attack is the most impactful rune you can take for Shyvana, as you'll be prioritizing Attack Speed and on-hit effects for most of your damage. Triumph will provide you with some much-appreciated sustain during teamfights, as you'll likely be taking a large amount of the damage during engagements. Legend: Alacrity is also taken due to the fact that Shyvana runs on Attack Speed, so the more the better. Last Stand is very powerful if you play correctly, as other than your tank, you are the front line for your team. This means that you will be taking more damage, and this rune will help you secure kills as the fight progresses. I'm currently using Coup de Grace instead though for the execute damage on ganks, though it is largely personal preference.

For the secondary tree, both Celerity and Waterwalking provide a large increase to our movement speed and combat effectiveness, especially while in the river. This is more impactful than you might imagine, since you'll be crossing and standing in river for Baron and Drake, and to set up ganks and counterganks. You could argue that Gathering Storm is a solid replacement for Waterwalking, but I find that when you take it, you pretty much have no rune for the first 20 minutes of the game.

Conqueror, is also a strong pick for Shyvana, as you'll be able to refresh it very easily, resulting in tons of extra true damage.

Take attack speed, adaptive force, and armor to further improve your clear speed.

Flash is the quintessential Summoner Spell, and will be taken by pretty much every champion in every role in every game. There's no reason not to run this, although it is technically an option to run something else due to your Dragon's Descent being a strong escape tool.

If you're jungling, you will absolutely always take Smite as one of your spells. It is used to secure objectives such as Baron and Drakes, and can be used to provide sustain while jungling.

Since Shyvana is a manaless champion, machete is the only choice between the two starting jungle items.

Refillable potion does exactly what the name implies; it's a potion with 2 charges that refill every time you base. These greatly increase your clearing efficiency thanks to the added sustain.

Always start with this trinket, as you will always need wards as a jungler, especially in the early game. If vision becomes a non-issue alter on, you can always swap to Oracle Lens.

An absolutely incredible item for Shyvana, regardless of build. It gives you a respectable amount of health and AD, as well as a LOT of CDR. The passive makes it so that your ultimate grants you a massive boost to attack speed, while reducing your cooldowns. With this item, your ultimate effectively makes you the strongest duelist in the game for 6 seconds, especially if combined with Challenging Smite if taken.

The most common jungle item for Shyvana, the slow provided gives you a lot of extra sticking power when chasing an enemy, or a peel to escape danger or save a teammate. Can be swapped for Skirmisher's Sabre if you value the extra dueling power more than the slow. Take Enchantment: Bloodrazor for AD builds and Enchantment: Runic Echoes for AP builds.

If you're going for an AD build, this will be a massive part of it, as it will provide 90% of your chasing/peeling power. You attack speed means that the slows will be permanent so long as you're not CC'd, and the health makes you a lot harder to kill.

This is the Frozen Mallet for AP builds. Lots of AP, a good chunk of health, and a slow that will re-apply from every tick of your W. As with mallet, it is the majority of your chasing/peeling power, but this time it's AoE.

While not strictly mandatory, I always build this if I'm playing AP Shyvana, as I think the on-hit damage from your AP is too much to pass up. Probably the single largest increase to your sustained damage that you can buy.

If you need even more sustained damage and attack speed, this is your go-to. Gives you a ton of ramping sustained damage, which is great in combination with the Spear of Shojin you built earlier.

You'll only take this item if you're against a high-damage comp and don't have much of a frontline besides yourself. The HP, tenacity and shield make you dramatically harder to lock down and kill, and it provides a sizable increase to your damage.

Your AD build go-to item against comps that are stacking armor, or have a very problematic armor tank like a Malphite. You will absolutely shred people with all the increased damage this gives you, and the rage passive gives you greater chase potential.

If you have to be the front-line tank for your team, I'd strongly consider this item. The armor and health are obviously nice for survivability, and the passive makes your first hit after engaging with ult (which also procs your Spear) connect for a LOT more damage.

Easily the best MR item for you. It gives you the HP and MR you need to survive fights, as well as massively increased health regen and healing received, which greatly boosts your sustain, allowing you to stay active on the map for far longer.

A very strong AP item at all stages of the game, giving you both AP and HP. It also provides magic penetration and a healing reduction to help you shut down champions like Vladimir, Garen, and Soraka.

The strongest single AP powerspike item in the game. Take this when you're already nearly finished with a build and need raw damage. Not as effective unless you already have some AP items for the passive to boost. Stupidly powerful later into the game.

A surprisingly overlooked item by most players, but very, very effective if used correctly. The passive movement speed bonus in conjunction with the active ability means that it will be nearly impossible for an enemy to escape you, leading to a lot of free kills you otherwise wouldn't get. Gives a good chunk of damage as well. Also very useful as a scouting tool when you're setting up for Drake or Baron.

A relatively good item, but very situational for Shyvana. Use this to survive certain death if you've already engaged and killed a target or significantly weakened the enemy team. The passive armor is always a nice bonus, however.

Good AP, good CDR, and good MR, mixed with a shield that can turn a fight in your favor very easily. Take this if you're against a super cc-heavy comp, or against champs like Nidalee who are capable of poking you down really hard.

A solid choice in any build, as the armor prevents a lot of damage from jungle camps, and really stops ADCs from punishing you in drawn-out fights. Generally the boots I take every game.

Very powerful against CC-heavy teams, and/or against teams that have lots of AP threats. Less survivability in jungle, but much more useful in teamfights.

Only taken for AP builds in matches where you really need the damage, and don't feel threatened enough to take the other options. The magic penetration can be very helpful, especially if the enemy stacks MR.

Only purchase elixirs once you're either full build with spare gold, or you absolutely need the power spike in that moment and can't afford a full item. I take Elixir of Iron for every build, as the tenacity and speed trail make it dramatically easier for your team to follow up on your engages.

Vision is king in this game, and control wards give you a lot of pressure for both securing objectives and tracking enemy movement to stop ganks. Use these both to clear enemy wards and to establish lasting vision over Drake or Baron pits.

Shyvana does bonus magic damage to dragons and gains Armor and Magic Resist. As Shyvana and her allies slay more dragons, she gains more bonus Armor and Magic Resist.

This ability gives you a surprising amount of survivability once you've downed a few Drakes, meaning you have to build fewer tank items in order to survive fights. You also take Drakes faster than just about anyone else in the game, so you can sneak early Drakes as early as level 4 or 5 if done correctly.





Shyvana strikes twice on her next attack. Basic attacks reduce the cooldown of Twin Bite by 0.5 seconds.
Dragon Form: Twin Bite cleaves all units in front of Shyvana.

This is one of your primary damage sources, and I like to max it second, following Burnout. Using this ability properly to reset your auto attacks will give you significant damage output during both jungle clears and champion fights.





Shyvana surrounds herself in fire, dealing magic damage per second to nearby enemies and moving faster for 3 seconds. Part of this damage is applied again when Shyvana basic attacks an enemy with Burnout active. The Movement Speed reduces over the duration of the spell. Basic attacks extend the duration of Burnout.
Dragon Form: Burnout grows in size.

This is Shyvana's mobility tool and a massive source of AoE damage, and I max this ability first, in addition to it being the first skill I get. Attacks during this effect will deal bonus damage, so you should always have this active when fighting. Do not waste this if you will need it again extremely shortly, as it is, in combination with Frozen Mallet, the reason people struggle to escape Shyvana's onslaught.





Shyvana unleashes a fireball that deals damage to all enemies it encounters and leaves cinders on the target, marking them for 5 seconds. Shyvana's basic attacks on marked targets deal a percentage of their maximum Health as damage on-hit.
Dragon Form: Flame Breath explodes on impact or at target location, dealing bonus damage and scorching the earth for a short duration.

I take this ability second, but max it last, after I can no longer level up Twin Bite or Burnout. The reason for this is that the damage is fairly weak, but the important aspect lies in the 2.5% maximum Health damage on-hit to targets affected by your cinders. Once you are confident that you won't miss, use this ability to start your attacks. Also useful to pull jungle camps to you more quickly for speedy jungle clears.





Shyvana transforms into a dragon and takes flight to a target location. Enemies along her path take damage and are knocked toward her target location. Shyvana passively gains Fury per second and gains 2 Fury on basic attack.

This is Shyvana's most iconic ability, and for good reason. Just from the cast, enemies take 150/250/350 (+70% AP) damage and are knocked toward your target location. This gives you a massive lead in a fight, and can take a large chunk out of squishier targets. Additionally, You gain 150/250/350 bonus health and your auto attack range is changed to 175/190/205. (You also get progressively bigger with more points in Dragon's Descent). Finally, while in Dragon Form, all of your abilities are empowered and have additional effects. You must have a full Fury bar to activate this ability, and while in Dragon Form you will lose 5 Fury per second. After your Fury reaches 0, you will revert to your Human Form again. This is your Super-Saiyan button, and the difference in and out of this form is tremendous. You become incredibly deadly and slightly harder to kill, and can single-handedly turn fights in your team's favor.



Ability Management & Usage

- When you go to fight someone, you may be tempted to use your Flame Breath from a distance to get early damage. However, this is not the correct way to use it. Wait until you are comfortably in melee range of the target to ensure that you land your Flame Breath, as it is a large and important part of your damage.
- Do not waste your Burnout to get to a fight if it would leave it on cooldown when you begin fighting. You always want to make sure that you have Burnout active during engagements in order to both maximize your damage and reduce the chances of enemies escaping.
- Keep in mind that your Twin Bite is an auto attack reset. This means that you can AA>Q>AA very quickly for a burst of damage. Use this technique in combination with AA-resetting items such as Ravenous Hydra to maximize your damage output. Try to save your first Twin Bite for right after your first auto attack on a target so that it cannot be wasted. (Occasionally it is acceptable to use Twin Bite preemptively, such as when a target is on very low health and you are sprinting to kill them before they can flee).
- Always keep an eye on your Fury meter. You should have your Dragon's Descent before every major fight, and it's a good idea to maintain a full Fury bar as often as possible for surprise skirmishes. You can do this by simply doing your jungle camps or pushing minion waves that are uncontested.
- Your Dragon's Descent should not be used to start a teamfight, as you are (hopefully) NOT the team's tank, and you will die relatively quickly when focused. Try to wait until a tank engages or a large CC such as Sejuani's ultimate is cast before engaging with Dragon's Descent.
- Dragon's Descent knocks enemies in the direction you aim it, so you can use this in a manner similar to Azir's ultimate to displace the enemy and attack the squishies or remove them from the safety of a tower at the start of a fight.
- While chasing a target, use your Burnout to maintain speed, and walk slightly ahead of them while constantly auto attacking to ensure that you are consistently damaging them as they try to flee like a coward.

Having proper knowledge and execution of jungle routes is a major part of jungling, and luckily, Shyvana clears faster than most champions. There are a few starting routes you can take, so I'll list a few of them here:

- Route 1: Start at your side's Blue buff (with or without a leash) and then move on immediately to your Gromp and then to Red buff. (It helps to have your laner ward your Red so you can tell if it has been stolen). After Red buff is down, and if it is still alive, (It likely will be with your clear speed.) kill the Rift Scuttler in the closest river. This route gives you both buffs, the experience from Gromp, and vision of the river for your laners and yourself so that you can detect roams or ganks more easily. This is the route I take most often, and I find it works quite well.
- Route 2: In this route, you will start at your Red buff. After taking Red, clear your Raptors and then directly over to your Blue buff to kill it and your Gromp or the closest Rift Scuttler. This is similar to the first route, but the red buff will improve your clearing speed and keep you at higher health in the process.
- Route 3: The invade route. This route starts at the enemy's buff (preferably Red), after which you will retreat back to your own jungle to take your Blue buff (or Red if you stole their Blue). You then proceed to clear out the rest of your jungle as usual. This route, if done correctly, will put the enemy jungler behind in gold, exp, and a crucial buff. Be sure to have the appropriate laner ward your Buff that you are going to be farthest away from.

As for early game ganks, you're nowhere near as powerful as you are post-level 6, so be careful when you choose to gank a lane. Ping to make sure that your laner is ready, and try and gank a lane when it is pushing toward your team's tower to force the enemy to have to retreat farther back to try and avoid death. If you can get a kill advantage early on as Shyvana, you can snowball pretty hard.

As with every champion, staying ahead in levels and gold is mandatory. Being behind is manageable, but if you get to the point where you're 2 levels and half an item up on the enemy jungler in the early game, there's little to no chance that they can actually do anything to stop you, and you'll cruise into the mid game.

Mid game is where Shyvana really starts to shine. You've gotten your ultimate, you should have at least 1 or 2 items by now, and you're clearing jungle even more rapidly than before. Utilize your Dragon's Descent to catch enemies out while they are roaming, or to dive someone under tower to secure a kill for yourself or your laner. (If ganking bot lane, I usually try and give the kill to my ADC unless the enemy would escape otherwise. Having a fed ADC will more often than not win you the game on its own). Be aggressive when fighting enemies, and make sure you properly use your abilities as outlined in the "Abilities" section of the guide.

In teamfights, you're going to have a lot of responsibility. Hopefully your team will have a proper tank, and at least a few CC abilities. Allow your tank to engage the fight, and then dive in with Dragon's Descent to scatter apart the enemies and make vulnerable their back line carries. Focus the squishies, especially the ADC, and be sure to catch as many enemies in your abilities as you can to maximize the damage you do in the fight. If your team has no tank and no notable CC, you will have to be the one to engage. As before, you will use Dragon's Descent to engage. However, if you're forced to be the tank, you should have a Randuin's Omen or similar item to help suppress the enemy team and allow your carries to dish out some big damage. Try and burn enemy carries down as much as possible while zoning to keep your own team safe.

You can also, when needed, be an amazing split-pusher. Shyvana melts towers like butter, and her Burnout allows for her to go deeper than most champions and still escape in time to avoid death at the hands of the enemy team. If your team is sieging the middle inhibitor tower, for example, you can go bottom or top lane and shove in the towers, forcing them to either allow you to take objectives and push waves for free, or rotate to stop you and allow your team to do the same or close in for a teamfight in your favor. Either way, it's an advantageous position to be in if you can make it happen.

Shyvana is my favorite champion in the game, and I'm glad to see that she's been in a great spot so far in Season 8. Hopefully for the rest of the season she will maintain the power she has, but I'll still have fun with her regardless. I hope this guide was helpful, and if you enjoyed reading it, consider checking out the other guides on my profile. Thank you for taking the time to check out this guide, any and all questions or constructive criticism are welcome. I'll be working to answer questions and keep the guide updated frequently.