Greetings to all League of Legends fans out there reading this guide, hope you'll find it helpful. I am Madalin and I play this game in the EU Nordic and East region. This is my first champion guide here on MOBAFire, so go easy on me, although constructive criticism is always appreciated. I have no pretension that my guide is the best or anything like that, or that Shyvana should always be played like this. In fact, this guide does not cover jungling(which is very popular for Shyvana), it does not address the Dominion mode(in which my experience is a little limited) and has not been properly tested in competitive games, as I am more of a casual LoL player.

Many might say that, if I don't play competitively, I should not be making a guide, but I imagined these builds and seeing the destructive power that they gave me in most games, I thought I'd share them with the rest of the world, especially after I saw that the vast majority of guides here on MOBAFire seem to focus on Shyvana being a hybrid tanky-DPS, something with which I cannot agree, even though that's the way Phreak suggested to build her in the champion spotlight.

Shyvana needs to be tanky, sure, just like other melee fighters(and some assassins) in this game( Garen, Jarvan IV, Irelia, Riven, Wukong, etc), but she does not need AP, so this guide is also a little form of protest against building AP on Shyvana :).

Ever since she came out I fell in love with Shyvana. She is a very interesting champion for multiple reasons. One of them is that even hough she is an off-tank, she is much more auto-attack oriented(as opposed to others like Riven, Garen or Renekton). Second is the fact she has an aria of effect spell around her which still allows her to attack, which is unusual for a tanky DPS(take Judgment or Cyclone) and more common on a tank( Despair, Tantrum, Northern Winds, Soaring Slam, Puncturing Taunt and Defensive Ball Curl). She also has a modified auto-attack which resets her timer, like many other tanky DPS champions, a skill-shot nuke(like mages) and a very, very unique ultimate which grants both offense and defense. What actually struck me about her was how well all these abilities have been designed to work together. Such synergy I have only witnessed in Jarvan IV and Xin Zhao, but I think she outweighs even them. She is also one of my favorites because she was created to promote aggression and offensive, active-aggressive champions are my favorites. I am a player that does not play tanks.

Unfortunately, starting the 1st of February 2012, Riot did an awfully horrible thing and for this reason the old version of my build was not possible anymore. What they did is completely change an item on which my entire Shyvana philosophy was based. I'm talking about Zeke's Harbinger. Now instead of 40% attack speed and 20% life-steal it gives just 20% attack speed and 12% life-steal. The addition of the 250 health does not help whatsoever for me. This change made this item become completely unusable to Shyvana(or so I thought initally), becoming more of a tank item. Sucks, I know... The new figures just weren't enough for her needs. Since I could not(and would not) give up on life-steal because Shyvana is an auto-attacker after all, I thought a lot and came to the conclusion that Bloodthirster is the only way to go. But the fact that it gives no attack speed, just damage was really a problem. It was the fact that made switch to Zeke's Harbinger in the first place. I don't know about other people, but for me Shyvana's most important stat should ALWAYS be attack speed. Without the usage of Zeke's Harbinger, I felt it useless to use Atma's Impaler on Shyvana, as I didn't need that much AD anymore to compensate and also I didn't need to use Warmog's Armor and Trinity Force, when Frozen Mallet was so much better(a slow every time you hit someone rocks). So, I just reverted to my original build for Shyvana, the one that included Sunfire Aegis and was cheaper. Only problem with it is that it had an ATS bonus of just 70%, bringing the final ATS number to about 1.4, which isn't bad, but isn't a hole lot either. That's just it, a bonus of 110% in ATS isn't very easy to achieve anymore, since I feel that Phantom Dancer is not exactly a very good item to use on an off-tank. But, when I started using that build again it jut didn't feel right< i always felt that I wasn't anding blows fast enough. The high AD(which in turn made Burnout hurt people more) coupled with the aura from Sunfire Aegis, weren't as potent as I remembered. Also, Wit's End didn't offer the same extra-damage on it's own, without the wonderful Trinity Force.

For these reasons, I have thought a lot about a balancing the stats by the use of other items and thus created another build for Shyvana, because I have understood now that she just doesn't do he job without enough attack speed. Problem with this build is that it's extremely expensive, 600 gold more than the now obsolete build that used Zeke's Harbinger which was pretty expensive as it was. This is why I gave it a second thought and kept working with the old build to see if there wasn't anyway to still use Zeke's Harbinger after all... Then it hit me, if I lost 20% ATS from it I'll just have to get it from another source. So I just replaced Trinity Force with the much cheaper Ionic Spark(which gives exactly 20% more ATS) and went back to Frozen Mallet instead of Warmog's Armor. So, this way, Shyvana with Atma's Impaler still works and it's extremely cheap, having just one item that costs more than 3000 gold. Both these new builds give excellent attack speeds, so in the end, it's just a matter of preference or whether you can afford the more expensive one or not.

In the cheat sheets I only put in the full builds, the six complete items, not their components or the building order, but don't worry I will detail all of this in the "Items" chapter so have patience.

For Shyvana in general

Pros

*High damage, both burst and sustained
*Good mobility
*Like most tanky-DPS champions, she's the bane of all squishies
*An AoE spell that still allows her to auto-attack
*Very versatile, not relying completely neither on her abilities or her basic attacks
*Personal opinion, but she's the most awesome looking champion in this entire game, even without a skin
*She turns into a f***ing dragon, how cool is that? :)
*No mana or energy(free spells)
*She's from Demacia :)).
*Extremely powerful late-game
*Great farmer

Cons

*No CC(hell, even Garen has a silence)
*People(smart people) will consider you a high threat and WILL hunt you down
*A little weak early-game, kind of like the carries
*Relatively high cool-downs
*Can be very easily harassed by ranged champions, be them carries or supports
*No natural sustaining mechanism(like Irelia, Garen, or Xin Zhao)
*Doesn't wield a big, sick weapon like the other demacians :D.



Build #1

Pros

*A little higher ATS
*A little higher health
*Sick on-hit magic damage
*Tank buster
*On-hit slowing effect that always applies
*Spell-block bubble
*More life-steal
*A LOT more AD(possibly 60)

Cons

*Extremely expensive
*No critical strike chance whatsoever
*Less armor
*A LITTLE less magic resistance
*You pay for a useless stat(mana)



Build #2


Pros
*More armor
*A little more magic resistance
*Tenacity
*18% critical strike chance
*On-hit slowing effect that always applies
*Hell of a lot cheaper(2600 gold)


Cons

*A little less ATS
*A little less health
*A LOT less AD
*Less Life-steal
*No spell-block aura

Greater Mark of Desolation

Standard marks for any AD champion. Some of you might want to take alacrity like Phreak says in the champion spotlight. Not a bad choice, but I think that the items in this build give enough ATS. One thing I've noticed with this build is that Shyvana deals almost as much magic damage as physical damage(probably because of the use of Wit's End). On that line of thinking, insight marks might not be a bad choice either. Anyhow...I just prefer these. It is my guide, therefore it's my choice... :).

Greater Seal of Vitality

Very good runes for a melee champion, defensive runes for late game, I like them a lot. Of course, any other defensive seals like armor seals can work. You might even want to try alacrity here, if you really want to.




Personal preference, I know they're not very standard runes to use, and Shyvana's auto-attacks modify her two great damage abilities, but I still think that these runes can do only good. Best alternatives are the Greater Glyph of Magic Resist or the Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist. Alacrity not recommended here, because the value is much lower than with the marks(even though Phreak uses them).




Taking desolation quints seemed a bit redundant and so these were the next logical choice for my goal, which is to improve our girl's early-game performance. If you don't like them, then, by all means, take some more armor-pen, it'll probably make you do true damage. Alacrity is not a bad choice here either, especially if you've taken it in marks too.

I know, 21/8/1, not exactly the most common setup, but I play Shyvana as an offensive attacker/chaser/killer so it's very logical for me to pick 21 in the offense tree.

The life-steal mastery might seem a bit odd, but since she has no sustain mechanism, like most tanky fighters, the introduction of Vampirism in the recent patch was something very welcome IMO. It allows me to start with Doran's Blade and not Vampiric Scepter.
I gave up Deadliness and Lethality, as critical strikes are not what Shyvana is about.

I took Arcane Knowledge, as even though I build her as an auto-attacker, she deals pretty heavy magic damage too(especially from Burnout) so this is very useful. Sorcery was not only needed for taking Arcane Knowledge, but it also comes in handy too, synchronizing perfectly with my glyphs. I'm just sorry I couldn't take Sunder, but I couldn't just invest all my points in offense, now could I?

The defensive masteries are there to offer some additional protection, since I set Shyvana pretty offensively, and she is an off-tank after all, so I shouldn't neglect her defense either.

I took that one point in Utility because I use Flash as a summoner spell, but since Shyvana has no mana and I don't use her to jungle, she pretty much has no use for these masteries.

Best, most useful summoner spell there is, at least IMO. There is no champion that does not benefit from this. Some might say that her ultimate, Dragon's Descent is practically a built in Flash so this is redundant, but an ultimate is an ultimate and it should preferably be used in the optimum way, which is entering team-fights and raining fire down on the heads of your opponents. Flash, on the other hand, has many more uses, it's a summoner spell like no other.




I know, I know, many will call me a noob for using this spell. I never knew why people consider this a bad and useless spell. It's certainly better than Revive or Promote. For this particular reason I chose to go for Ignite as my original choice when I first made this guide. Still, the games I've played with it were not satisfying. Heal is good on Shyvana(and most off-tanks in general), as it offers sustainability in lane and, coupled with the early life-steal from Vampiric Scepter, it eliminates the need for health potions. This spell used to lose it's value a lot late-game, but with the recent buff that problem has been eradicated(ok, not exactly eradicated, but decreased anyway). It can work on anybody, not just supports, and it can turn the tides in 1 on 1 fights(not that Ignite doesn't, it's just a matter of choice). This is the spell I use along with Flash in my games. Hope trolls won't dis me just for that... I leave you with this sentence: whoever says that someone that uses Heal is a noob is actually the only noob there.

Optional choices



A good choice at any time if you don't like Heal and don't mind spending money on health potions. It'll give you that extra nuke to help you get the kill early-game, as her damage output isn't exactly OP yet.

I won't go into a list of other summoner spells, which are decent choices and which are forbidden, as anyone that has ever played LoL knows that Promote and Revive are completely useless, Clairvoyance is for supports, Smite is for junglers, and Clarity is only for champions with mana(which, in case you didn't know, Shyvana is NOT). Any other spell except these can be a legitimate choice, it's just a matter of preference, just make sure to modify the masteries accordingly.

I won't start detailing the effect of each ability she has, as I am sure everybody that wants to play her has already red somewhere else about them, possibly even here, in the MOBAFire database, so I'll just justify the choice for the order in which I max them and state a few of my opinions regarding these abilities.



One of the best passive abilities I've ever seen, it makes it worth for Shyvana to basically never stop attacking people as long as she can. With high ATS, and the CDR from the runes and masteries I use, you'll basically always have Burnout on, you'll spam Twin Bite like crazy, you'll shred all the targets hit by Flame Breath and you will more often than not have Dragon's Descent ready for use.

It's not exactly something dramatically OP like Garen's Perseverance or Orianna's Clockwork Windup, but it's a skill that offers tremendous utility, and it's the main reason why you can never have enough ATS on Shyvana.




A very, very powerful nuke, the reason why it's important to build AD and not AP. If, by any chance, it crits, it's one of the biggest burst damage abilities in this game. If the target was hit with Flame Breath first, this is basically hell on earth. DON'T mess with the double attack of the dragon-lady. I choose my first point is this ability because it's very good for last hitting minions, but choosing Burnout as the first to invest in is not a bad idea either.




Shyvana's main ability, her signature move. It's awesome for two reasons: first one is that it scales with AD and not AP, even though it deals magic damage. This removes any need that she might ever have for AP, so you only have to concentrate on AD, a very good thing for an auto-attacker. The second reason why it rocks is that you can auto-attack while using it, which means that it's damage is independent and completely free of charge. That means that, even though it doesn't have godlike damage like Garen's Judgment, it's more than enough, as it's just an added bonus. It makes Shyvana be a threat simply by standing near her or chasing her( like Singed), it's just an amazing skill. Not to mention that the extra-movement speed is invaluable for a melee fighter. It's really self-explanatory why I max it first, even if I prefer taking my first point in Twin Bite.




This ability is not as important because of the damage it does, but for the effect is has on the target it hits. It scales with AP, but the ratio is very low for someone that is not completely reliant on AP (mages or magic damage assassins such as Katarina and Fizz). This means that even if you build her as a hybrid, you'll never have enough AP to make this thing worth it's weight, so there's really no need to try. Besides, it's a skill shot, so it's much too unreliable to ever count on it for more than an optional precursor for your Twin Bite. This is the reason why I max it last, it just doesn't offer the same benefits as Twin Bite and Burnout.




An ultimate like no other, not just for the damage or the utility, which are both there, but for the wonderful animation and the sheer awesomeness it brings to this champion(she turns into a dragon, for God's sake :d). It has multiple uses and it modifies Shyvana's other abilities especially to fit well in team-fights, on multiple targets. This is the reason why, unless you absolutely have to, you should mostly use it as a way to enter a team-fight. But even that isn't an absolute rule, as it's an ultimate which can be used much more than others during a match.

And here we are folks, the main course, the heart of every champion guide, the biggest reason why I made this little "work of art". I'll split this chapter into two separate sections, as I have two different builds. They both pretty much serve the same purpose, but the means with which they achieve it are very different.


BUILD #1



I have tested this build in a few games and it seems to work fine. The on-hit magic damage you have is insane. Put Burnout on top of that and Shyvana is like a hybrid champion without actually having any hybrid items. She'll be like a "melee Teemo". The main problem with it is that it's so darn expensive and many times you won't get to even come close to finishing it. Also, you'll experience some ineffectiveness mid-game. It doesn't give any critical strike chance either, but the horrendous magic damage from Ionic Spark and Madred's Bloodrazor combined will be a great compensation, especially with having an ATS of over 1.7. That's the nicest thing and it's what made me come up with it. You'll also get some more health, but it's almost not worth mentioning(100 HP more). Unfortunately, after the change on Zeke's Harbinger, 4k health Shyvana is no longer worth it. But let's see how we go at it:



A good starting item. I use it on most of my tanky DPS champions, it sure beats Doran's Shield.


and
Basic boots for not moving like a slug anymore and the initial 12% life-steal to help sustain yourself in lane.


In the old build I used Mercury's Treads, but I just had to change to these. It was the only way I could come up with to give our girl more ATS, now that the old Zeke's Harbinger is gone.


Awesome item. Can't begin to express how glad I am this thing has been inputed in the classic mode. That Chain Lightning may not do as much damage as 4 combined procs from Wit's End, but the fact it it can hit 4 targets at once is the most awesome thing ever. It'll be very useful for farming, and with an ATS of 1.8 even more useful in team-fights. Works well with her dragon form, when her spells also hit multiple targets. You'll usually buy Recurve Bow before you buy it. It may not give magic resistance, but it does give some health. It's also 300 gold more expensive than Wit's End, but its worth it...


Not much to say, you get it a lot earlier, because you need damage right away and an item like Madred's Bloodrazor is best to get very late in the game. You'll most likely get B. F. Sword first and then build into it.

[
Enough with the offense already. You have NO magic resistance. Get some!!!


Also no armor at this point. Not the best armor item in the game, but it'll have to do since you need it for Madred's Bloodrazor. I usually find it enough as Shyvana's armor is naturally bigger than her magic resistance.


You sell Doran's Blade and buy this. It offers the same bonuses, only bigger, and it's what you'll need for Frozen Mallet.


About time you get it. Must-have item. ANY build on Shyvana should have this(or at least a Trinity Force).


You get this "little" trinket now, very late in the game, when it's damage is overwhelming, since most people stack health(some even on carries). It's expensive as s**t, but it's worth it, especially for the 40% more ATS.


Some more health and the infamous "spell-block bubble"...awesome. Sure, the mana is wasted on her, but I still find it more useful than Force of Nature.Besides, having that awesome spell-block aura is just priceless, as, let's face it, no one wants to get caught in spells like Infinite Duress, Nether Grasp, Primordial Burst, Demacian Justice, Crescent Sweep, Javelin Toss / Takedown, Enchanted Crystal Arrow, etc.


Optional items

Just one, if you don't like Banshee's Veil just get a Force of Nature in it's place.


Enemy team heavy on AD:

Just change Banshee's Veil with one of the following:
* Randuin's Omen - a lot of armor and quite a lot of health. It'll definitely help against those pesky carries.
* Sunfire Aegis - if you think that a 70 armor bonus is enough, get this. It's always a good item for Shyvana. Gives more health too.
* Thornmail - Only if the enemy team has more than one crit happy sicko like Tryndamere and Master Yi. Otherwise, I would never, ever recommend it over the two above.


Heavy on AP:

Only thing possible, if you still want the high ATS, is to change Madred's Bloodrazor with Wit's End. End of story. You'll most likely NEVER do this, I mean let's be serious, has anyone ever seen a team made up of 5 mages, or even 4 mages and 1 tank?



Build #2


Like I said, this build is based off of my old Shyvana build, only items replaced being Warmog's Armor and Trinity Force. Main problem with this build has is that it gets your Ad to only 212, which isn't very satisfactory, since no matter how much magic damage she does Shyvana is an AD off-tank after all... sure you also get 18% critical strike chance, but that's not a whole lot and it's still just relying on chance. Plus this build seems to have all the disadvantages of the old one without any of it's advantages(like the movement speed bonus from Trinity Force, it's passive effect or the almost ridiculous 4000 health bar). On the bright side, though, being 2600 gold cheaper than the other one, you'll most likely be the first on to finish your build out of the 10 players in a game on almost every occasion. How much will that actually help you remains to be seen. I will test it out more and return with some more info.



Same as before.


and
The same pattern as the other build.



Attack speed item, enough said



These boots are much more defensive. The Tenacity will help you quite a lot.



Some more magic resistance and some extra-damage which will keep you going until you'll have Atma' Impaler, which won't happen until later in the game.



You need it this early because you don't have any kind of AD


Frozen
Since you have Phage, might as well turn it now.



More ATS? Yes, please!



This is when you get your bread and butter AD item which will make you HIT hard. You can get it earlier if your feel you're not satisfied with your damage. Of course, you do have to sell Doran's Blade for it.



So now you turn your Vampiric Scepter into this. I really find it disgusting what they did to this item, but since we have Ionic Spark instead of Trinity Force and now it gives some more health, I guess it can still be useful...


Optional items

The Bloodthrister instead of Zeke's Harbinger, if you think you can live without the 20% ATS bonus and the 250 health(personally, I would think it's a fair trade).

Enemy team heavy on AD:

Just switch Mercury's Treads with Ninja Tabi and Wit's End with ANY attack speed item you can think of. Anything from Phantom Dancer to Nashor's Tooth can work(except maybe Zeke's Harbinger). I would recommend getting Black Cleaver, because it would solve this build's AD problem and the on-hit armor reduction effect is awesome. Of course, if you feel you need more armor get Madred's Bloodrazor.

Enemy team heavy on AP:

Again, highly unlikely, but if it does happen all you can do is switch Atma's Impaler with Infinity Edge. If you get a magic resistance item in it's place you will completely ruin your damage output and make this build completely unusable. So DON'T. Don't replace Wit's End with a more powerful MR item either cause you lose ATS, and again, Shyvana NEEDS ATTACK SPEED.

Shyvana needs to farm very much, especially with these builds, which are quite expensive. Fortunately she's one of the best farmers of all the tanky-DPS champions, since she can scorch them with Burnout and last hit them very well with Twin Bite, not to mention she has a high attack speed and that is always a good thing when farming.

My recommendation is that, if you have to go duo-lane with her, you choose a ranged partner, ideally a support, as with a carry you will kind of compete for the CS. This is not actually a problem for Shyvana, as, with her last-hitting capabilities, she can out-farm almost any carry. Problem is you steal their gold, and carries need it just as much as you do. Farming with a mage is good too, especially is he has high CC, someone like Cho'Gath or Swain for example(yes I know, Cho'Gath is melee, but his spells give him sick range and he can harass like crazy).

Laning alongside another melee fighter is very counter-productive, as in the beginning you're much squishier than others( ex. Garen) and if you face someone ranged you will get heavily focused and harassed like crazy, so much you won't be able to do anything, but hug the turret. If you don't farm properly, you're basically screwed.

Anyhow, if the team has a jungler, going solo-top is the best thing, but if on the other side there are two guys in the lane, you have to be extremely careful. Hugging the turret will not be a bad thing, but the recommended one. Obviously the game will be harder, and if the jungler isn't a competent one it will NOT end well.

You might say that's true for most people going solo-top, but with Garen I managed many times to do pretty much ok in the lane 1 vs 2 without much help from the jungler. You just cannot do the same with someone like Shyvana, as she was built primarily for team-fights, although she can do well in duels too(but 1 on 1 duels, not uneven ones). This brings us to the next chapter.

If you lane with a ranged guy, all you do is let him do the harassing and step in to protect him if he's in danger. It would be ideal for him not to be an idiot and put himself in too much danger, so when you step in, you don't just die in his place. You just get on with the farming, and if one of the opponents tries to get in your way, you punish him swiftly and mercilessly with a "Trial by Fire".

In team-fights is where Shyvana really shines, because all her abilities change to hit multiple targets. With Shyvana, it's always better to enter the team-fight last, even if late-game she may be tankier than most. Your job is not only to pull aggro for your team(that's what the tanks are for), but also to unleash hell on your opponents.

You enter the fight last, because in a big crowded pile-up of champions from both teams, is where Dragon's Descent can separate friends from foes. You swoop in with it and thus, you push everyone away from your guys. After that you immediately activate Burnout, but you do not stay in one place, you start moving around to scorch the earth and make them burn. You position yourself, so that Flame Breath engulfs as many people as possible.

You either start the auto-attack frenzy on the enemies, if they don't bother with you, thus cleaving them all with Twin Bite, whenever you can, or, if they all pile up on you, you make a tactical retreat, leaving a trail of fire for them to follow on. This will allow your teammates to attack them while their hunting you, thus spelling all doom for them in that team-fight. Obviously, things will not always go so smoothly, but the fact remains, Shyvana is a champion that disrupts the natural course of a team fight, not with CC, but with raw damage, sort of like Vladimir or Fiddlesticks.

Ok, I won't pretend I'm an expert LoL player or something like that. Like I said, didn't sink my teeth too much in ranked play, but here are some useful things I learned when playing with Shyvana.

First of all, I said it before, but I will repeat it, even if it's made for entering team-fights, one should not hesitate to use Dragon's Descent to escape a nasty situation, if, by any chance, Flash is on cool-down. It might just be my personal opinion, but when playing LoL, I value survival more than hunting for kills.

Of course, same rule applies in offensive situations: you worked on bashing a foe to a bloody pulp and now he runs with less than 20% of his health and you either don't use Ignite or have it on cool-down. That just sucks, doesn't it? Well, just fry his a** with your ultimate and you score a kill, why the hell not, since all you have to do is get inside a minion wave and it'll be back on-line in less than a minute?

The fact that it has no actual cool-down, and when you use it, depends only on your aggression, is what makes this ultimate so perfect. I mean, let's face it, if you're not an aggressive player there is no reason to use Shyvana.

When playing as Shyvana your primary targets are the dangerous and squishy ones. Crit happy ranged AD carries first, then mages and then AD melee carries(if there are any). Do NOT engage in duels with tanks. These builds give very good damage, but Shyvana is not a tank destroyer. Guys with high health like Dr. Mundo or Malphite will be a real pain. Someone building all armor, like Rammus might look like a more attractive target, but no, stick to the ones that you can kill very easily.

Since Shyvana has no CC, when you get caught in a focused OP ultimate like Absolute Zero or Death Lotus you must assess your situation and do it fast. Your magic resistance and really high health will let you survive something like this rather easily. But you might be really low on health already, if they use it towards the end of th fight. If you think you might not survive get the hell out of there(you're not the tank, just the off-tank, so you don't have to die for your team every time). If u most certainly can, stay there, tank it, and hit the channeling bastards. Getting the 4 stacks of Wit's End might not seem like much, but it helps in reducing the sick damage that Nunu & Willump and Katarina do.

Since you'll be so awfully powerful late-game, you most likely will be tempted to engage in 1 on 1 duels. By all means, do as you please. Just make sure that the guy that you're about to face isn't just bait for an insidious 1 vs 5 trap. **** like this happens, this is not a fair, gentlemen game, although, being so tanky, most of the time you will pretty much escape nasty situations like these without actually dying.

Still, you should be careful who you duel. Shyvana can pretty much kill anyone late-game, but there are some exceptions. While AD carries and mages will melt in less than 2 seconds, you might want to think twice before engaging a tank. Not only you will not kill him easily, but you have no reason to actually kill him, even if you could. Unless, of course, he's someone like Amumu. Believe me, you DO NOT want Amumu unleashing his ultimate. If by chance you've bought Madred's Bloodrazor and you have a tank that doesn't give a **** about MR( Malphite or Rammus), then please, punish his amateurism... :)).

Also, an AD melee carry could give you a nasty surprise. They don't melt as fast as the ranged ones and most of them have incredible damage output( Master Yi, Gangplank, Tryndamere, Xin Zhao, Nocturne), which means very annoying life-steal too. A particular nuisance in this category is that filthy barbarian, because just when you thought you got rid of him...ooooopss....he just has 6 more seconds of life, in which he scores all criticals and has 50% more AD then he started with(not cool huh?).

Possibly the most important and interesting duels you'll have as Shyvana will be with other off-tanks. You outweigh most of them in terms of both offense and defense, but you will still have to be careful with some, especially early-game, as you will most likely meet them 1 on 1 in solo-top. Here are some opponents(off-tanks or not) which you will be likely to face solo-top and some advice about facing them:



Pretty easy opponent in lane. Just like Shyvana she shines more late-game, but early she's even weaker than her. She'll try to farm as much as possible with Bladsurge. Deny her the CS and she'll fail the lane. Kill her if you can. If not, wait for a gank. Only thing you have to watch out for is her Equilibrium Strike when you get her low on health. Late-game she'll be a much greater threat, but if you shut her down in lane, not so much.



She has a stun and a good damage output early-game, plus a nice shield. She can trade blows head to head with Shyvana and win. I recommend you avoid conflict and just farm, waiting for the jungler to gank. She does have a problem though, she's completely spell-reliant, so if she blows them, punish her hard, cause her cool-downs are really high early-game. Late game she's not as much a threat like others, but can still be dangerous.


Very annoying harass, if you can catch him, kill him. If not, call for a gank ASAP. If you stay too much in his lane, he'll continue to harass you until you're low enough for him to kill you. Or worse yet, he'll call his jungler. Then you're really screwed. Late game he is one of the targets you should aim for. Watch out for his Rake, both in lane and in team-fights, it does more than decent damage. He has low cool-downs too. Really annoying. Don't let him win. Prove that Demacia is tougher than Noxus :)).


He's tanky, but not so much early game. His passive is annoying cause it lets him recover after poking him. That's why you have to bully him in lane as much as possible. Shyvana starts dealing higher damage earlier, so you have to take advantage of that. Try to kill him, so you can deny him CS. If he does farm with his Siphoning Strike he'll become one of the most dangerous things on the battlefield late-game, while being tanky as hell. Believe me, you DO NOT want that. A fed Nasus with a farmed q is devastation on two legs. His damage NEVER stops growing. Try not to fight him inside his Spirit Fire or when he has Fury of the Sands active.



Croc boy is not the toughest opponent you'll meet in lane, but he is pretty annoying because of his stun. When you see his Fury bar is red, I suggest staying away from him, cause his empowered abilities do very good damage. Otherwise, you can kill him, especially if you can land a Flame Breath. Same rules as with Nasus applies here. Don't fight him while Dominus is active. Built right, he can be a major pain in the *** late-game if his not shut down in lane.



Good harass, not as better as Talon, but can get you low, especially because he lowers your armor. Don't waste your time attacking his double. I suggest farming and not fighting him head to head. He is a potential death danger. Late-game, he's nothing compared to Shyvana, if your fed you can kick his ***, even if he is too.




Usually found in the jungle, if the one playing him is stupid enough to take him solo-top punish him bad. He has good damage, but he's so squishy you can turn him into mush just by standing near him with Burnout. Really sucks to be him. If he's anything but a top notch player you can really ruin his game if you'll be in the same lane. Late-game watch out for his ganks and his fear effect. Also, try to refrain from using Twin Bite or Flame Breath when he has his Twilight Shroud on.



Kill him as much as you can early(when he's weak), as to avoid future trouble. If he gets fed, you and your entire team get screwed. A fed Tryndamere is almost unstoppable. Stay far away from him when he uses his annoying ultimate. After it passes kill him mercilessly.



Same story, early game in lane he's Shyvana food, but DON'T let him get fed.



Also usually found in the jungle. Early game he's neither tough, nor dangerous. One of the easiest match-ups available. Enjoy your free food.



If he's solo-top and not in the jungle, he's just as dangerous. Don't trade blows with him freely. It might not end well...AT ALL. Keep your distance and just farm. You DO NOT want to feed Udyr.



Oh God, this guy is annoying as all hell. Keep your distance from him. He throws you into the tower and it might end in a disaster. Try to beat him up if he isn't near a danger zone, but if he runs DON'T chase him. It'll just result in you losing a lot of health for nothing. Late-game he becomes an unbeatable brick wall, which you must not even try to touch.



Oh, yeah, he'll try to harass you early game, but he neither has the damage, nor the defense to match Shyvana. Jump him and beat the **** out of him. He's free food too. He's one of the best pushers and farmers in the game, but it won't serve him for **** if he's dead. Only thing you have to watch out is his ultimate, used right it can be a game changer.



He plays kinda like a carry. Early-game he's ridiculously weak, but if he gets fed he becomes unstoppable. Just make sure he doesn't. He's so weak, not even his stun will stop you from stomping him if you play smart. If you don't have a clear advantage, stay clear of him when he activates his ultimate, cause it gives him ridiculous life-steal. Late game he's a big, big threat, but again, only if he's fed.



Annoying as hell and with good damage, especially from Reckless Swing. He'll try to harass you with his Undertow, so try to avoid the stupid axes. Answer him with Flame Breath. He'll be as dangerous as you late-game. Really, a balanced match-up. Will take a lot of luck and good timing to take him out. Don't underestimate him during Ragnarok or anytime his health gets low.



Shyvana's possible love interest is a very good match-up to her. He's really tanky and has good harass damage thanx to his Demacian Standard and his Dragon Strike and especially his passive. Try not to fight him too much, you might lose and that won't be pretty. Late game he focuses much more on tankiness, so he won't be the most attractive target.



Another demacian, this one much more killing oriented. He has sick burst damage early-game and continued to build it up as it progresses. Don't stay toe to toe with him in lane, harass him as much as possible and go for the kill if you have the jungler backing you up. late game you will most probably be tougher than him in every way(many people build him glass-cannon) and you'll wipe the floor with him most of the time.



This little yordle ***** is a pain in the ***. Her damage output is huge just like yours. And she has nice CC with her Heroic Charge. Oh yeah, let's not forget her tankiness, her annoying passive and her OP ultimate. Truly a foe worth fearing, she's tough early-game, and OP late-game. Approach with extreme caution,a s she's not exactly a push-over in duels like others.



Oh God, this is the worst match-up you can wish for in lane. His damage output is ridiculous early game and he's also way tankier than you. Even a mediocre Garen WILL tear you to shreds. DO NOT under any circumstances go in a duel with him, unless it's past mid game and you're really fed.




But enough about solo-top match-ups. Out of the lane don't forget about champions like Ashe, Caitlyn, Vayne, Teemo, Janna. You always have to try to catch these guys in human form. That way they'll blow they're kiting mechanisms before you use Dragon's Descent. A Vayne player will not be very happy after using Condemn to get you off his *** and you swoop in in dragon form and finish him off. That's what makes Shyvana so cool :-p.



I will end this here, because any potential reader of this guide has already seen the champion spotlight and Phreak showed many tricks there. For this reason repeating what I, myself saw there will seem like a very uninteresting, pointless and boring literature text for anyone that reads it.

Half-Dragons are the forbidden scions of humans and shape-shifting dragons. There have been few in the world, as they are typically hunted down by their draconian relatives. The scarce and reclusive dragons left on Runeterra find it disgusting to mix their blood with the frivolous and violent lesser races. However, there are those who become fascinated with humans, such as Shyvana's father. It was to Prince Jarvan IV's surprise when his hunt led him to a legendary young half-dragon. She wept over the dead, mutilated corpse of her father, murdered for her existence. Something in Jarvan was moved by Shyvana's plight. Together they plotted revenge against the mighty dragon responsible. The assault cost the Demacian Prince many men, and nearly his life, but ultimately Shyvana and he prevailed.

The experience changed the both of them. Shyvana lost her place in the world, left alone to be hunted by those dragons who discovered her existence. Because of what he'd seen, Jarvan lost his taste for the hunt and wished to return home as protector of his people. Jarvan IV, as Crown Prince of Demacia, offered Shyvana a place as a noble warrior in the ranks of the elite guard. Out of gratitude and necessity, she accepted. Since their return to Demacia, Shyvana has proven herself to be a fierce and powerful soldier. She blends her fiery draconian blood with her adopted principles of justice. She revels in the power she now feels in the human world and there are few who do not quake before her in combat. However, by and large there remains only one place for glorious battle. When Jarvan joined the League of Legends, it wasn't long before Shyvana answered the call as well."

''I have the blood of dragons in my veins. I am fear to all who oppose me.''
- Shyvana

This chapter was not in the original version of the guide, but most people who make guides add it, so why not I too since I'm a lore fan after-all?

All I can say is that the new lore that they made for her is more awesome than the old one, as it tells about her relation to Jarvan in a more detailed and personal matter. Demacians are my favorite guys when it comes to these things and they are pretty privileged: we know that Galio went to back to Demacia following Poppy and that they are probably friends, Lux is Garen's sister, he and Jarvan IV are childhood friends, and the latter is also a friend of his father's steward, Xin Zhao. We could assume, that, as Jarvan's personal inner circle, these guys are friends among themselves and also with our lady in question, but we don't know for sure. Vayne is a demacian exception, as we don't really know is she has any ties whatsoever with the demacian military. Sure would be nice to find out more about the stories behind LoL... Hmmmmmm, maybe someday they'll make an anime show or manga about League of Legends(one can only dream)...that would be awesome :D...

Here are some screen shots I made after my most successful games with Shyvana which prove the effectiveness of this build. You can expect this chapter to continue growing in time.

This one is probably the one in which I kicked the most ***:
Not as good, but pretty good:
In this one, I got so much money I actually completed my build
In this one I died a little more than I would have wanted, but I was still the main spearhead of my team. Really sorry I couldn't make a flawless victory to share here.
If anyone has used this build and got results so awesome, give me the links in a comment and I'll expose the pictures here in the guide and give credits to the owner.

In this one I had two extremely incompetent feeders on my team, yet I carried them to victory. Notice Shaco's and Karthus' scores and how I had more kills and won more gold than Gangplank, who played as a glass-cannon melee carry.

Before I end this guide, I'll have to make some additional statements and clarifications. Anyone reading this has probably noticed that the name "Garen" is very often mentioned, for a guide dedicated to Shyvana. This is because Garen is my main champion, one of the first I bought, and by far the one I've played most. This is the reason why I situate all my other off-tank fighters in relation to him. I think the comparisons are inspired and correct, as both of them fulfill about the same role on a team.

I would appreciate that, whoever votes negatively to leave at least one reason for that vote(even if I might later consider it a stupid one). Feel free to leave any kind of feedback, even if you don't vote(even trolls). I will make the best effort to answer as much of the comments directly addressed to me as humanly possible. I sincerely hope that my guide will be at least a little bit viewed, and will make an impact(even negative) on at least a few people.

After careful reconsideration, I decided to actually put in the rule that whoever votes must leave a comment, so that trolls don't get my guide down for nothing. Forgive me for this, but it is a way to get feedback, both positive and negative, as voting is just one click away, but actually writing something requires some brains from the viewers' part.

Also, I would like to give official thanks to Palthios(the owner of the "Garen - Spin to Crit" guide), who gave me the suggestions on how to compensate my stats after I came up with the intention of using Zeke's Harbinger instead of Bloodthirster. Thank you very much for that. Also, I will give thanks in advance to everyone that will view my guide and hopefully try it, have success with it and then vote it. All support is very appreciated. As most guide owners, I will also give thanks to jhoijhoi for his "Making a guide" article here on MOBAFire. Helped me quite a lot. Hope people will like it.

This is my guide, probably in it's ultimate, absolute final form(I'll probably add a new chapter entitled "Changes", if, or more probably when, Shyvana gets nerfed). Hope you guys will like it...Cheers!!!!