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Runes: Glass AP backline












+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor
Spells:


Chilling Smite

Flash
Items
Ability Order Skill order
Threats & Synergies






Dr. Mundo
This guy's a 10 not for the early game, but for what he turns into later on. He's designed to be a MR tank, and that's exactly what he does. Aside from always building Spirit Visage, he gets free MR on his kit and too many free numbers to ever fight. He is the ultimate stat check. You will not be able to do anything to him lategame, no matter what you build. You need to make sure that your botlane does well, as a fed ADC is required to deal with this meatball. Avoid him entirely unless your lanes have priority and are rotating. His Q gives him too much control and if he lands one, you will need to ult/flash a wall or die at all stages of the game.






Talon
Absolute BS solo queue nightmare terror. Walls mean nothing to him, so he can easily roam for free kills while you cover mid. He can also be anywhere he wants in the blink of an eye, and can keep you safe from invades just by being in the game. One of my favorites, and I would say that he's the absolute best mid laner you can have.








Champion Build Guide
Why hello there (again) |
I go by Veralion and I’ve played Shyvana obsessively since she was released back in Season 2. I've put many thousands of games on her over the years and currently have over 4 million mastery points between my two main accounts (Veralion and RAWRARAWRAWRRAWR). I jungled her playing standard to Diamond V in seasons 7 and 8, so after Riot buffed the AP ratios on her


I peaked Diamond I in season 9 playing both jungle and mid (which, yes, worked quite well at the time). Since my mid strats took a big hit I've been jungling a lot more, and thought it made sense to have a separate guide for each role so things don't get over-saturated and confusing. I'm usually ranked in Diamond II-III.
Season 11 will be very different, but not much is changing with regards to the jungle itself. The only things of note are the changes to Gromp and Krugs. Krugs are back to being the most valuable camp by a mile, appropriate since it is the most out of the way and takes the longest to kill, and Gromp now gives 20 fury, great for getting your ult back quickly after a gank. The heal from scuttle crab has also been moved onto Gromp so that it is less decisive to take. Camp timers and overall income are intact, favoring carry junglers as before. CDR has also been replaced with a new stat called Haste. Full builds will still have ~40-45% CDR, but it will take longer to achieve.
The real meat of the changes, of course, are the new items.







Taken together, this places

Finally, though AD/bruiser/on-hit

So if you too wish to become Fire and Death, incinerating entire teams in the blink of an eye, read on and learn well!
And with that, let's get into it! |
+ Fantastic objective control, ![]() ![]() ![]() + EXTREMELY flexible, can build around 3 different Mythic items on AP alone + Manaless, can stay on the map indefinitely and gain incredible value per outing + Capable of very early 100-0 burst potential + Extremely strong, safe siege with empowered ![]() + Very high structure damage through AP scaling and ![]() + Significant splitpush and backdoor threat + Easy objective steals with either ![]() ![]() ![]() + Great waveclear while transformed to safely stop enemy pushes + Mulches super creeps; one inhib down just means more money for you + Snowballs LUDICROUSLY hard and is downright unfair if significantly ahead + Low pick and ban rate means extremely high availability in draft, great choice to main or one-trick + Is a motherf***ing dragon. Rawr XD. |
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- Pathetic levels 1-2, weak until first recall, difficult or impossible to contest early invades and first scuttle - Can made useless for the entire game if put behind early, removal of catchup XP prohibits comebacks in the jungle role without help - Pure damage champion, brings absolutely no utility - Very poor ganks before level 6, gives weak mental teammates an easy scapegoat and excuse to give up - Reliant on ![]() - Requires team to know how to play with you (Not killing things when you need fury, not fighting when you cannot ![]() - Extremely weak to MR stacking, tanks, and bruisers - Countered by ![]() |
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1. Your composition: strong front line, reliable initiation, AoE CC, reset mechanics |
You really love anything on your team that can reliably initiate and lockdown priority targets to give you a strong setup for your









Even as an AP bruiser,



2. Enemy composition: As squishy as possible |
You want to be shooting soft, squishy, immobile champions who can’t stand up to your firepower. You bring heavy burst to the team and have very little in the way of sustained damage for beefy targets. A bruiser or tank will shrug off your one big chunk/combo and proceed to make life very difficult for you if your team can't cover that weakness.



3. A good matchup |
Since





Avoid playing










I've got pages of notes on how to handle every common matchup under the threats section above. Anything ranked even and below you can learn to play against and do quite well into. Anything higher... Godspeed.
4. Mid lane priority |
A follow on to the above, but a little bit more important. Since you're defenseless early, you really want a strong early mid with priority to let you win crab battles by default and defend you from any cheeky invades. A suitably attentive winning midlaner can turn one of those bad matchups into a payday if they try to mess with you. Killing the enemy and snowballing isn't necessary, only that they maintain control and zone out the opposition so that you get to play the game. Most ranged into melee matchups accomplish this, so look for those. Though champions like


Mid priority also allows you to invade the enemy fearlessly with an aggressive setup.

Bonus points for a heavy roaming midlaner like



5. A strong, winning bottom lane |
Lastly, you want a winning bot lane to make taking drake as safe as possible. Early power is the name of the game; look for champions like






If your bot starts to pop off on its own, empowered


Again, you only need 3 of the above in order to make the build work. If you've got all of them, then AP



Shyvana Drakeshredder. 20% increased damage combined with your


Auto reset which hits twice and synergizes with the on-hit damage from her




Unlike most auto resets, it gets no bonus range and has an animation that is tied to your attack speed. Landing an auto-Q on a fleeing target is thus very hard unless you are moving significantly faster than they are. Make sure

Keep in mind that both hits of






AoE damage and speed buff. Phenomenal for clear speed, as it continually applies the burn damage from the jungle item to everything around you and saves you many auto attacks to finish off little krugs and baby chickens.
Though its movement speed decays over time (for reasons that are no longer valid in the current state of the game), this ability hastens your movement around the map and helps you get in range to apply red buff to gank targets in the early game. Activation timing is key; you want to take full advantage of its gapclosing potential while not letting it expire before you get to your target and extend it. In the mid to late game once you have a few points in, it will help you position in fights, chase people down, and make your

It does literally nothing special in dragon form. It just gets a little bigger to match your larger size.
God forbid it do something useful and exciting like the rest of her kit, like grant slow immunity, or at the very least not decay over the duration.
I miss my fire trail. If you aren't going to give her some love, give me back my fire trail at least, Rito.
Basic medium speed skillshot which passes through creeps and stops on the first champion hit. Though initially on a long cooldown, the ginormous amount of damage its mark does to big monsters makes it the most important part of your clear.


Some key things to remember about dragon form





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If you are getting hit by two melee champions from opposite sides, you will only be able to hit one of them. If you’re being hugged,



Second, do NOT press E at all while you are flying in



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Besides that, if you land












In patch 10.18 the flame patch and indicator on


There is a bug which will make your shots pass through a target if fired from a very specific range. It happens at something close to half of your max attack range and is thankfully extremely precise and tough to replicate. It seems to have something to do with that minimum cast distance I was talking about. You’ll probably never see it happen in a real game, but just know that it’s a thing. Rito pls.
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There is another much more pleasing bug with




Objectively the coolest ult in the game. Unstoppable dash with a 1.0 ratio limited only by fury generation, having an extremely low effective cooldown with just a little bit of attack speed. Though it hits like a truck, it is fairly slow and allows your target to juke you easily or simply run back if cast from max range. Close distance with



Cloud drakes are broken AGAIN. It took months for them to fix this drake the first time they changed it. Now that it's coded as 12 ability haste,

Never use





DO NOT EVER ATTEMPT TO HIT





After reverting to human form, gaining fury is your first, last, and only priority. If action is likely in the near future, go straight to the closest available minion wave or jungle camp and begin hitting it. Do not use



If cast with your cursor at the midway point in a medium thickness wall,




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The knockback effect also behaves strangely; along most of its path it will knock targets back a short way as intended, but for whatever reason at the very end of her travel path it pulls back and clumps all enemies in front of her. It's basically a vortex effect like


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Oh, and make sure to buy Championship Shyvana next Worlds and spam recall every free moment you get. It's, uh, required to do well. Honest.
Not much to say here. Pretty standard stuff. I don't have to tell you to take









You have more leeway when running a



















Ashes to Ashes: Dragonfire Scaling |
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Dark Harvest![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Sudden Impact Though you can't make truly great use out of this rune since ![]() If you are worried about being invaded or think early skirmishes are likely, you may take ![]() |
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Eyeball Collection Eyeball gives 2 AP per takedown and a solid 30 AP after 10, and we love us some free AP. I don't like to take sweeper since I heavily prioritize objectives over ganks so ![]() ![]() |
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Ravenous Hunter Ravenous is now a shell of its former self after repeated nerfs and now does almost nothing until stacked. Still, almost nothing is still better than nothing, and every point of health is crucial in the early game. ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Secondary Runes |
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Transcendence Haste is vital to making the build work since your only source of real damage is your ![]() ![]() ![]() This rune is MANDATORY. Because haste is much harder to come by in season 11 and we can't just cap on Runic and Nashor's, no other rune is worth considering. |
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Gathering Storm![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Nullifying Orb If you're against an AP champion like ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Fang and Claw: Frontline Bruiser |
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Press the Attack This is your go-to choice versus squishy champions and aggressive junglers. Paired with a rushed ![]() |
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Conqueror Conq still has a place against extremely beefy enemy teams. The healing once fully stacked has been cut from 15% to 9%, but it's gained a bunch more adaptive force to compensate, and ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Triumph Good old ![]() Maybe ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Tenacity Draintanks need to drain to tank, so CC is our mortal enemy. Since we get plenty of AS from ![]() ![]() |
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Coup de Grace Mo damage mo money. ![]() ![]() |
Secondary Runes |
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Ravenous Hunter Draintank gotta drain, and 11% more omnivamp helps a lot with that. This brings us up to 36% omnivamp vs monsters, making solo Baron a VERY real possibility at as little as 3 items + boots. However, if you have multiple heavy-healing champions or those who like to build lifesteal/omnivamp on your team and it is certain you will be playing into 3+ grievous wound items, you may wish to take a rune that is not going to be so easily countered. I play with my ![]() I don't have a strong preference for the second rune to pair with it yet. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Conditioning The scaling defensive option for games that look like they're gonna go slow. This rune gives about 3-4% damage mitigation, more if penetration is at play, and amplifies your high base resistances + drake stacks. It won't do a thing for you early, so if you take this against a ![]() ![]() |
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Bone Plating This is just a damn good rune. Mitigating 90+ damage is a LOT early. That's like 10% of your entire life bar. 180 isn't too shabby later on into the game, either, though ![]() ![]() |
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Unflinching Again, CC bad, Tenacity good. If you run this with ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Core build |
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Starting item Again, start ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() DO NOT START WITH ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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First Recall: Recurve bow Unfortunately, though the ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() I can't even begin to tell you how nice it is that we get to rush this item now. ![]() ![]() |
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Second Recall: Dark Seal For some ungodly reason that I cannot wrap my head around, ![]() ![]() DARK SEAL IS NOW CORE. Buy one early in EVERY game, no matter what, PERIOD. It also lets you get a head start on a ![]() Use your remaining money on ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Fury generation, objective pressure, dueling power: Nashor's Tooth![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Though its CDR has been removed, the on-hit proc synergizes with your ![]() |
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Boots: Sorc shoes![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Heal Cut: Oblivion Orb Orb is still practically core, but for different reasons. It, and ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() If you can afford to delay picking this up until after your Mythic, do so. But if you see ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
From here, builds diverge based on keystone and mythic selection. There are two builds to go over focused on backline nuke launching and one that is based on early power and drain tanking as an AP bruiser.
Haste-focused Backline |
This build is the closest we can get to Season 10 Shyvana. It will take longer to get to similar amounts of CDR, but ends up being much stronger and tougher to punish once allowed to scale up.
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Mythic: Night Harvester This item is a very well-rounded power spike. It has 15 haste with 5 additional added per completed item for a total of 35. A typical full build can give you as much as 48% CDR by the old standard. With a blue buff on top of this, ![]() 300 health is quite a bit and lets you take an extra hit or two, on top of the proc making you very hard to chase down and punish. Though its proc damage was just nerfed substantially, down to literally half of what it launched at, it is still much stronger than Runic Echoes and will give you even more chunking power than we had in season 10. |
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When popping off: Mejai's Grab yourself a ![]() ![]() Though a bit more expensive now, the extra health it now gives is well worth it, as it makes it that little extra bit tougher to drop your stacks. Mejai's is also considered a legendary item, meaning that it gives a mythic stat bonus for 1600G. If you do manage to die, you may wish to attempt to restack the item once or twice before selling it to maintain this bonus. If you have a fully stacked book, a ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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For MR: Void Staff You’ll need to pick up a ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() If this does happen to be the case, the good news is that now we can build a mini void staff as a component! It only gives 15% pen, but that's a hell of a lot better than doing no damage for 8 minutes while we desperately try to scrounge up the full cost of the item. |
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Haste, haste haste! Cosmic Drive If neither emergency option is required, then go right for the Drive. This is your ideal 4th item (if stacking isn't working out, that is). 30 Haste is the most on any item in the game, and this is where we'll be getting back to our comfortable levels of CDR. It procs for a good amount of movement speed on spell hit, has 200 more health on it, and combined with ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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It's time to stop! Hourglass In another inexplicable and completely insane move, Riot decided to buff ZHONYA'S HOURGLASS of all things, cutting its cost by 400G to only 2500. I don't know how a champion like ![]() ![]() The strongest item in the game is now incredibly easy to obtain. If you're against reliable dive ( ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Once you have access to stasis, tackling a team with ![]() ![]() |
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To ruin people: Deathcap![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() It's been nerfed rather heavily, losing 5% AP amplification and being 200G more expensive. Build this item 5th or 6th, never 4th. |
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If against heavy AP and high threat spells: Banshee's I almost never buy ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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For game deciding fights: Blue Elixir The blue soda has quite a kick. Not only is 50 AP nothing to sneeze at with your 1.0 ratios (probably even more because of Infernals and Deathcap), it adds 25 true damage to every hit on a small per-target cooldown. And that cooldown is... 5 seconds. Almost exactly what your ![]() Make sure you have one running for Baron/Elder fights, Baron pushes, and last-ditch defenses. It's close to 75 damage per target per hit, and it could very well be the difference between winning and losing. |
Power-focused backline |
Sometimes, if your team has a ton of setup and CC and your opponents are relatively immobile, you just need to hit as hard as possible. This build trades safety and haste for raw power, letting you instantly delete priority targets.
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Mr. Penetrator: Luden's The new Luden's is not something to be slept on. Though the 600 mana on the item is completely wasted on us, the Mythic bonus more than makes up for it. As you already know since the old oblivion orb was basically core, flat pen = tons of damage, and now a full build gets us to 44, much more than the 33 we were stuck with last season. This is enough to get a carry down to 0 MR, turning your ![]() ![]() ![]() It was just buffed to 20 haste, making it much less risky to use and a serious challenger to the more consistent ![]() The build path is extremely bad, however, so try not to get stuck on a ![]() ![]() The proc also doesn't care what it procs on and will help you with clearing camps and waves, which is nice. Though ![]() |
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Poke master: Horizon Focus A brand new item, Horizon is the best friend of long range artillery mages, which is exactly what we are. It just has 100 AP, but upon landing a spell on a target 750+ range away, it gains 10% damage, gives you that bonus regardless of distance for 6 seconds, and reveals them. Think of this item as a mini ![]() 750 range is about 2 steps closer than your max ![]() Horizon goes exceptionally well with ![]() ![]() If other items take priority over this match made in heaven, ![]() ![]() |
Consider the same situational options as above:











The top end of this build is absolutely absurd. I've already hit a Nami for over 1400 damage without a fully completed build, AND she had

AP Bruiser frontline |
Finally, we get to the exciting part. Long neglected, Season 11 finally added many options for AP bruisers to make their mark on the game. Again, I view this build as the perfect marriage of both styles of

Since focusing less on





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Riftmaker Our long awaited AP bruiser support is finally here! This item is basically old ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Flexible boot choice I still like going ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
At this point, we are going to need a strong defensive option as our 4th choice. AP/Health items are great and we will be rounding out our build with them, but you end up being made out of paper without any resistances. It's just not viable without an insane lead. I've zeroed in on three options to consider depending on the enemy damage profile.
If you're killing it,

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VS Heavy AP: Spirit Visage Though it lost some stats and the healing amp has been nerfed to 25%, ![]() If you have a ![]() ![]() I prefer Visage to ![]() ![]() |
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VS Even damage profile: Gargoyle's Now that it no longer reduces your damage dealt, Gargoyle's is a fantastic one stop shop for resistances against a balanced composition. It gives you 60 of both, up to 70 in a fight, and has a great active that plays well with our upcoming AP/Health options. This item effectively doubles bonus health in a fight. We will only have 150 bonus health when we pick this up, making it a bit lame at first. Consider building the ![]() Conveniently enough, all three of the above options have haste on them as well, further securing them as the frontrunners for defensive itemization. |
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The Holy Trinity And I suppose I will present this concept here. If you find yourself with a 20/0 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
And for aforementioned offensive options, we have:
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Sticking power/Peeling: Rylai's Freshly buffed back to a 30% slow, Rylai's is a very strong option to frustrate melee champions and control fights. Your flame patch becomes a slow field with this item. It will also let you stick to and finish off any squishies that you manage to dive onto. Importantly, it builds out of ![]() ![]() |
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A final Aggressive option: Lich Bane This is your ultimate greedy 6th buy. For season 11 its AP ratio was cut in exchange for DOUBLING the base AD component on the proc. Since Shyvana's base AD is pretty high, this ends up being a great trade for lower AP, non-Deathcap builds like this one. Do not consider building this until you are coming up on level 18, as we need ![]() |
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For critical moments: Tank pot Most of the time I prefer to buy brown pot with ![]() ![]() |
Early game (0:00 to 14:00) |
Potential level 1 shenanigans |
A few rules of thumb for level 1 strategies. Champions with long duration roots and hook abilities like



Wait to skill your first ability. If you find an isolated target, skill




If you pick up first blood, immediately recall and buy a


If you were forced to start


You may also choose to invade topside with your top and midlaner to attempt to 3-buff your opponent. I would only attempt to do this if your solo lanes are significantly more powerful at level 1 than their counterparts, as

If nothing ends up happening, spotting whichever buff you aren't starting at is a great use of your first ward. Place it in pixel bush at 1:10. This should catch any steal attempts. Some champions like

First clear |
Your jungle path is always going to be a full clear. Currently, I think that always starting red buff is best when possible. This lets you clear the super-valuable krug camp twice before drake spawns and lets you easily move from gromp to crab to contest at level 4 with most of you life bar intact.
If you're playing backline and your counterpart likes to level 3 invade (






Low elo junglers lose entire minutes over the course of a game to little inefficiencies that build up over time. Move between your auto attacks in the direction of your next camp. This saves you travel time and can reset the camp’s auto timer, giving you some extra health.
Whether you








Don’t mark your targets at max range. You have just enough time for 4 autos at this point before it expires, so applying your mark too early will cost you a big chunk of damage.
When doing Krugs second, kite the medium krug around the big one so that it doesn’t hit you. You need to be looking to save every point of life during your first clear, as

Auto a little chicken to aggro the camp and walk back a bit so that they line up for your



Wolves are much more generous with their resetting and can easily be brought to the blue bush before they leash. Drag the blue over to gromp between auto attacks,


You can clear your entire jungle by 3:20 or so and be level 4 for the first scuttle crab. Use the vision plant before stepping into the river to make sure you don't round the corner right into an


A bruiser setup can be much more assertive here, and it's one of the major reasons why I love the build so much.





First gank window |
Once the crab is dead, it should be around 3:40. This is your first gank window. Quickly glance at adjacent lanes for open targets, but don't waste too much time, as your Krugs will have already respawned. More often than not, side lanes will be a better target than mid. Without a dash or hard CC,

By contrast, many people will simply not ward top yet, not expecting




A few words about post-gank wave management. This is always crucial to keep in mind, but it goes double for top lane. If the enemy has


If he does not have

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Regardless of if a gank is available or not, I like to leave my second ward behind in the enemy tribush while I'm in the area, especially topside. Top laners have this annoying habit of overextending, being ganked, and spam pinging you as if it's your fault. This makes it marginally less likely.
If your top is kicking *** and shoving in, lying in wait for the enemy jungler who doubtless will have noticed this and is heading over is a great strategy. Shyvana with a red buff can be very dangerous if facechecked, even with


If the enemy jungle early ganked the far side lane, use this time to steal away his opposing jungle if no gank opportunities present themselves. Many early gank focused junglers use red-blue-gromp or blue-gromp-red pathing in order to rush level 3 for early pressure, so you can safely assume that everything else is up in this case. Look to steal chickens in particular. They are easily accessible, worth a lot, and

Early counterganking |
Occasionally you will have the opportunity to countergank. As you lack any sort of gap closer or CC before level 6, this is usually the only way for you to impact the early game. Backline builds are weaker than most junglers at this stage in the game, but you are still able to do a respectable amount of damage so long as you identify the correct focus target and land your

Knowing if it’s a good idea to go in and assist comes down to game knowledge and experience. Some champions like



In any case, try to start your recall no later than 4:00. Don't waste too much time waiting for "maybe" plays. You have somewhere very important to be. Buy



Taking first drake |


If bot scuttle is already dead, that's actually great for you. The blast cone behind drake pit conveniently spawns anytime between 5:00 and 5:30. Clear your botside first, cone over, slap your ward down at the entrance to the pit, and kill the dragon. You should be left completely alone as the crab will give the other team a false sense of security. This works just fine on both teams, though blue side obviously makes it easier. If not and you can approach from the front, make sure you ward the cone over the wall so that you can be ready for any potential steal attempts.
It is possible to pull and kill the drake from the front while remaining outside of the crab's vision range, but this is very precise and tricky to pull off, and potentially disastrous if you mess it up. It also puts you in vision range of either the pixel bush or the bot river bush. Still, it's cool to know, and if you are confident in your pulling skills, go for it.
Unless the enemy team responds immediately, the drake is already yours. At level 5, you kill the thing in about 18 seconds. You can get your first auto-





Drakes have 21 armor and 30 MR (except for mountain, which has 41/50). If you see a steal attempt coming, make sure you time



If a fight breaks out during this time, (say, enemy jungler ganks bot right as you blast cone over), prioritize the drake. You offer very little in a skirmish before level 6 and are not likely to be useful. The higher percentile play is to make sure you secure drake. Most of the time you will kill it before the enemy team can finish fighting and go for it.
Finally, drake type slightly impacts how you approach them. Mountain and Infernal are boring and don’t do much DPS, just point them away from any teammates in the area. Mountain takes a little longer to kill than the others. Cloud does a high amount of single target DPS, and you may be forced to

Post-drake |
Once drake dies, it should be between 5:30 and 5:45 if you went unmolested. You’ll be beat up a bit and still level 4-5, so unless someone is int-pushing you’re going to want to finish your clear. This will give you level 6 at around 6:30 if everything went well. If you picked up a kill or a couple of waves, you’ll have your ultimate even earlier.
By this point, your lanes should be making their first recalls. Be aware of this and try to swing by to snap up any crashed waves on your side of the map. They are well worth going out of your way for. Your camps will still be there when you’re done, and it’s a big chunk of XP and gold for you, especially if it’s a canon wave.
Second gank window: going RAWR! |
At long last, you are ready to impact the map. Target selection is critical; since you can only really make a meaningful gank with









Ambushing enemies who are taking turret plates is a phenomenal use of your ult. You’ll end up right on top of them so that they can’t juke your



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All river bushes are commonly warded. Avoid these and ult over walls which are unlikely to have coverage for best results. For example getting into bot lane to gank blue team through the drake pit and mid lane through the enemy chicken coop works well. Hanging back in fog and letting your laner start a fight to bait the enemy forward is a great tactic. If you must cross a warded bush, ult over it from fog to give your prey less time to react.
DO NOT GANK list |
I don't really know where exactly to put this since when a champion is too threatening for
























Take Rift Herald |
Ideally you kill one of their solo lanes with your ultimate right away and use the pressure to secure Rift for free regardless of vision. This also lets you get


Using Rift Herald |
Now you have 4 minutes to decide how best to use Rift. You can’t go wrong with immediately running mid and dropping it. Mid lane turret is the most important turret on the map, as it offers your team the most freedom of movement once it goes down and your midlaner will appreciate the extra gold. You can drop it over walls if you hug them before pressing the button, so there should always be a chance to make this happen. This will get you at least 320G, potentially even 480G if a plate only has 300 life left. Not a bad return for a 20 second investment! Retreat immediately afterward; you will get the gold regardless of distance.
Alternatively, you may choose to hold onto it for a better opportunity. This is what I do most of the time. If one lane in particular is getting smashed and the turret is already at half life, path over there right away and gank. If successful, you will probably be able to get 2 charges off and get most of the inner turret as well, yielding higher value. If unsuccessful, just drop Rift and secure the first turret bonus of 150G for your team. This will unlock your best laners to make plays across the map, hopefully starting a snowball rolling from the spillover.
If you’re feeling selfish, waiting for an opportunity to drop it by yourself for solo plate gold is also a great choice, especially if it gets you solo first turret bonus gold on top of it. If your top laner gets solo killed for instance but managed to rough up his opponent in the process, cleaning up afterward can easily get you 3 plates plus first turret gold all to yourself, equaling 880G.
Since we are rushing

Whatever you decide, make sure to use it before 14 minutes for turret plating if you were delayed in taking it, and don’t hold onto it for so long that you become unlikely to find a good chance to use it. Trust me, watching Rift slowly tick down and expire while dead feels very, very bad.
Taking Rift nice and early also gives your team plenty of time to take the second one once it spawns 8 minutes later. A second Rift with a lead usually results in an inhibitor taken, making Baron setup a breeze to casually close out the game. You also want to take Rift off of the map before second drake spawns at 10-11 minutes so that you leave no opportunity for an objective trade.
Once you can buy

Take second drake |
From this point you will have to adapt to the state of the game and things become less certain. The most important thing to worry about is second drake. Be on time with full fury and a




If your team throws beforehand, stealing it with




A word on elemental maps |
Once the second drake dies, the map will transition to elemental state and you will know which Soul buff you’re working towards. Two are great for you personally, one is great for your team, and one is less desirable than the others. Order as such:
Cloud > Infernal > Ocean > Mountain |
Cloud is by far the best for


Infernal’s second best. 4% AP isn’t a whole lot, but the Soul is just broken. The proc added on to your


Ocean’s alright. You shouldn’t be getting hit enough to make effective use out of it, but it’s great for your team as a whole. The Soul offers a frankly absurd amount of in-combat healing, and is strong enough to guarantee victory if the enemy foolishly did not itemize healing reduction. This may be the best Soul with a

Mountain is dead last. You appreciate extra resistances into a hyper mobile assassin or an





Target remaining plates |
After second drake you should have a few minutes to target any remaining turret plates before they despawn. Now that you have



Mid game (14:00 to 20:00) |
Treat fog of war with respect |
By this point lanes will start resolving and the group and roam phase will begin, with any mistakes leading to full-scale engagements and picks leading to objectives being taken. This changes how you think about the game and play in fights. What you don't know becomes quite dangerous, as getting caught by so much as a high magnitude slow around more than one person in this damage-creeped modern meta is almost certainly lethal. Always keep in mind who you see and who you don't see, where they can be and where they can't. Remember that you are unstoppable while in

Secure third drake: how to approach teamfights |
Third drake should be up at around 16 minutes. Reset and arrive 30 seconds early this time and set up vision with your team. It is unlikely that you will be able to sneak this one away, as lanes will have resolved and the enemy will begin moving as a unit. You’ll probably have to fight for it, so now is a good time to go over how to tackle a big teamfight as AP

In almost every situation you should











We will still be hurting on Haste at this point, putting our

Most of the time you want to aim for the marksman; they almost never build defensively and have huge amounts of reliable, sustained damage. You will also absolutely obliterate squishy enchanter supports, who like to huddle right next to the marksman to juice them up and peel for them. Look for those double hits. If you're properly fed, you'll chunk them hard enough to take them completely out of the fight with one ability.
Pay special attention to abilities which self-root your enemies and take advantage of them. If you’re up against







Knowing when to use

If all goes well, your

Secure second Rift |
The second rift should spawn at around 15 minutes if you took it nice and early, giving plenty of time for you to swing by. Grabbing this is very important as I’ll explain below. If your drakes were delayed and it spawns well before third drake, try to make sure that it doesn’t survive long enough for drake to spawn and give an opportunity for the other team to trade one for the other. Rift is for some reason a much lower priority in people’s minds than drake, and even the second one usually dies uncontested.
If second Rift and Drake spawn at around the same time and you are in a position in which you must choose one or the other, that depends on the game state. If you’re significantly behind and have 1-2 drakes already, take Rift. Conceding one is worth it in this case so you can’t find yourself in the tough position of contesting Baron with a dead inhibitor. If ahead, take Drake since it’s unlikely the other team will get a good use out of Rift and you will be one closer to Soul, making it exceedingly likely that you will get that sweet buff. If behind AND down two drakes, surrender. Seriously though, take drake in that scenario. Buying another 5 minutes before they get Soul is more important. Better pray to God nobody gets caught for 4 minutes and you lose the inhib for it, though.
Second rift: FIGHT! |
Once you have control of the second rift, it’s time to win a big teamfight. By this point you'll be working on your 4th item, making you a huge threat to their backline. A single multi-man hit or chunk onto their most fed carry should be enough to guarantee victory. Keep in mind everything I said about fighting above and you should come on on top. Remember, you must survive in order to be able to drop Rift and secure the inhibitor. You can mow down an entire lane with that thing off the back of a won fight.
Again, remember during these larger engagements that ult availability is paramount. If a fight breaks out and you don’t have your ult, get it back up first if at all possible, even if that means you arrive late. You’re more useful using it to attempt a clean up on the back end than trying to uselessly chip away at their frontline with auto attacks.
Once you’ve killed a few enemies, pop down the Rift and take an inhibitor with your team. This will give you 5 minutes to set up an uncontestable Baron. Ideally this happens as close to its 20 minute spawn as possible, but the real world is rarely so neat and tidy.
Late game (20:00 to end) |
Secure Dragon Soul |
If you’ve been doing your job, the all-important Dragon soul drake should be spawning soon, sometime between 21 and 24 minutes. Make sure that once again you ping it like crazy and set up vision control in the bot river ahead of time. You'd better believe you'll have to fight for this drake.
If things have gone well up to this point, you will have your 4th item completed, making your

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If you just used second Rift to get that inhib, wait patiently in the mexican standoff until someone is forced to back to save nexus turrets. Then you can take it for free.
It is unlikely that the enemy team will attempt to trade it for Baron so early in the game. Not many compositions can manage it quickly enough to avoid being stopped in time. If they do, send your team to harass and contest it while you take Soul on your own. Remember, Baron is temporary and can be stalled out, especially if you manage to land a few well-placed

Splitpushing |
On paper, Shyvana makes for a fantastic splitpusher. She eats waves nice and fast,

That being said, if you do catch a turret unattended in the late game, you can push the thing over by yourself in less than 10 seconds. Just make sure you ward up and don't get collapsed on. In most cases, you should wait to split until Baron is off the table and

The all-important Baron Nashor |
Alright, so buckle down, as I have a LOT to say here. Whoever gets the first Baron is usually able to build an insurmountable lead with the amount of map pressure it offers. As the jungler, you have the most say on your team as to how to approach this objective.
Don't randomly start Baron assuming you won't be caught. This is a great way to throw your lead. If you're wrong, your whole team will be down cooldowns and down 20-30% health, which may force you to concede it and will definitely lose you vision, making it very difficult to approach the area. Or it could be outright stolen away. This is a needless risk.
Instead, always starve out vision, lie in wait, and look for picks. A little bit of patience will let you set up no-win scenarios for the enemy, making sure that nothing can possibly go wrong and you're able to close out the game nice and clean. If you got an inhibitor with second Rift, again, wait for someone to back and then start it to force a 4v5 fight. ALWAYS turn on them when they walk in range in this scenario and NEVER attempt to finish the Baron right in front of them.
The pit should always have a

If most of the enemy team is across the map in bot lane (say, chasing down your splitpusher), ping and start Baron immediately. Use your ult. Your fire patch will do upwards of 2000 damage to the Baron on its own, potentially buying your team the extra second they need to finish it and back off safely.
So long as your vision control is good, you may choose to duo sneak it with a suitable percent damage ADC while your team holds their attention in a lane. You must ensure neither of you are seen pathing to it and should only go for it if many people are bot side, especially their support. At higher ranks opportunities for this become few and far between, but keep it in mind if their vision lapses at a crucial moment.
If you went

NEVER 50/50 BARON unless you are massively behind and in a do or die moment. Whereas you will have your attention split between the enemy’s positioning and Baron’s health, the enemy jungler will be laser focused on the latter. Additionally, you will more often than not be tanking the thing, reducing your damage and making it much easier to outsmite you. I don’t care if their jungler is the only one alive (or someone like


If you lose control over the area and the enemy team starts it, remember that you are one of the best champions in the game at contesting Baron. The enemy team is NOT ALLOWED to do it while you are alive with a full bar of fury. You have free access to the backline while their meatballs are tanking the worm. On top of that, the geography of the pit forces said backline to clump together to do damage. This is absolutely ideal for you. If they try, you stop them, even if you are a man or two down. One massive chunk onto that grouped backline should immediately force them to retreat if you are alone or make them concede it to your team entirely in a 5v5 setting. If they don’t respect you, keep shooting and kill them all.
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If your team just got picked or lost a fight and you have to go it alone, approach from a direction that they are unlikely to have warded for best results. At higher ranks, they will have someone threatening running interference most of the time, usually a bruiser or tanky CC support, so it may be hard or impossible to find a good angle onto the soft targets. In those cases, or if you arrive too late to discourage through kill pressure, it may be worth orbiting around the area and finding an opportunity for a steal attempt.




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Baron Siege |
If the game gets to this point, it is likely already over. Your siege potential is absolutely absurd. A single hit on a soft target will make their inhibitor absolutely indefensible. Once they've been forced to back off, the AP scaling behind

If possible, wait patiently for long range CC to land then fire away on whoever was dumb enough to get caught. You can't miss a stunned target. If your team has no such ability, then you can just ult into range and look to chunk a carry or two. Look for and take advantage of clumps of enemies. It is common for people to huddle together while defending a siege if they aren't focused on something like


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DO NOT DIVE THE TURRET unless you have


If you couldn't wipe their team on this push, after you've used your ult to poke down a few targets and gotten your free inhibitor, going to split once you drop out of form as discussed previously is a great use of your time since you want to avoid fighting if at all possible. Mop up any inner turrets remaining on your retreat to prepare their base for demolition on your team's next push.
End methodically. DO NOT THROW! |
Once you start cracking inhibitors with Baron, the game is yours to lose. The most dangerous thing at this point is greed. It turns out that greed is not, in fact, always good. Greed can be wrong. Greed does not always work. G2 can attest to this! Make sure to retreat 5 seconds before dead champions start spawning to not get run down and killed by their homeguard movement speed. Don't lose the war of attrition to the fountain either and find yourselves poked to half life without cooldowns and no way out. Even a huge lead can be thrown away like this.
Play it smart. Get your ult back and then regroup to knock down another inhib. Then get the last one. 1-3-1 with Baron is a fantastic strategy with a lead that can take their entire base in one fell swoop as long as the enemy has no hard engage.
Once 2 or 3 inhibitors have been taken, Elder should be spawning soon, with the second Baron soon afterward. It is impossible to contest Elder and Baron with 2-3 inhibitors down. Even with an intact base, having one nearly guarantees getting the other. By contrast, if your team miraculously loses a fight while they're both up, suddenly it's YOU who are at death's door. Do not risk this and simply wait patiently, take them both off the map, then make your last death push. It takes talent to lose the game with both Baron and Elder. Ryoma managed it. Be better than Ryoma.
Ice and Fire: Tank |
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And that about covers it! |
After entirely too long, I think I've run out of things to say. This ended up being way more involved than my mid lane guide, no surprise as jungle is the more tactical role. As much as I said, though, there really is no substitute for experience; it's by far the toughest to master and there are way too many potential scenarios for me to ever go over. However, these strategies and timings should be a great starting point. They've gotten me to the top of Diamond II so far, so I must be doing something right! A bit less tiltyness and fewer mistakes and I'll claw up to Master this season for sure.
Anyway, I hope this guide was helpful, and hope you take my teachings and charge up the ladder with them.

Remember, kills don't matter, objectives DO.
Now get out there and absorb that Dragon Soul! |
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