Welcome to my (working) take on everyone's favorite dragon.

not to mention only dragon, and the one in sr doesnt count

I build Shyvana as a off-tank dps, this dragon has tooth and tail!
I have tried several builds with her and find she is best played re-actively to your enemies.
Since purchase shyvana has replaced all meaty dps I own, and well.... all of my attack speed champions exempting a rare teemo. I main her and shaco for dominion, and I nearly always fall in the top 2 win or lose.
A quick note about her dragon form, always try to aim your abilities and attacks at the highest concentration of enemy's as her damage is focused forward.


My username Ingame is deathofbarney, I now play exclusively dominion.

Marks

- Flat Attack speed runes shine on shyvana, it lets you get your rage completely charged before hitting level 6 and lets you first purchase phage to give you a little more sustain in the beggining game.

Seals

- Flat armor helps counter the overwhelming amount of ad champs in domions, giving your dragon some scales.

Glyphs

-Cooldown reduction is great on shyvana especially seeing as her abilities are free. It works well with some MR split in there too, to give you that early game crunch.

Quintessences

- I choose two health quints,and attack speed quint again to benefit you early game. Feel free to sub flat damage or pure aspeed as you like.

Masteries are pretty logical for shyvana. While she can go ap I prefer to take her ad, its a little easier to bullt other champs that way.
It is important to grab the attackspeed in the damage tree, early game she really needs it with the purchase of phage being the priority. Make sure however to shift points when taking alternative skills.

Shyvanas movement speed ability when paired with ghost and boots of movement 5 is fantastic early game. She can beat pretty much anyone up top, with exemptions such as rammus.. (Ive beat a rammus before though). Pair this with a couple health pots and oracles if they have stealthies.

First return you should build

Phage

and evaluate the build of the enemy team.

Mostly Ap

- Before finishing phage build wits end, this is a fantastic item for fighting a strong ap team. After purchasing wits end purchase a vampiric scepter.

Mostly AD

- Build a stark's fervor, a fantastic item on shyvana.

After choosing you first Attack speed item finish frozen mallet.

Your next purchase item will depend on how you are doing and the enemy team.
If they are mostly ad next purchase will be thornmail.
If you are destroying purchase the alternate attack speed item from earlier.

Late game options

Atmas Impaler

- Works well with this build, possibly paired with a sunfire cape if you really need to be the tank of your team. Good but not great.

Force of nature

- Really good counter for a strong ap team.. Other items such as hexdrinker may be appropriate when fighting a singly strong ap person ( aka ap shaco is raping your team)

Sunfire Cape

-Works really well on shyvana paired with her aoe abiltity, burn them twice as fast!

Aeges of the legion

- pretty solid all around just to give yourself and your teamates a boost.

Kitaes blood razor

- really good for when fighting those heavy health teams... you know the ones the alistar rammus maoki teams XD

Shyvana with this build is primarily suited to guard and protect top. Her secondary duty is to break up and throw enemies who are assaulting other points into chaos. The strategic use of her ult can completely disorient the enemy team.
She is an excellent minion farmer and can easily push to take mid, however you must watch the map at all time and not risk sacrificing you points with the exemptions of completing a quest.
Because she has a decent chunk of health shyvana is a good initiator, i prefer to pop her aoe spell directly before ulting in so its on fast cooldown and enemies you are now standing on are directly damaged. If you build re-actively to their team you are guaranteed to do decently.
If needed shyvana can replace or join a struggling teammate bottom. She is decent at pushing but will not being able to handle some ranged champions until late game.

Pros-

-Your a frigging dragon!
-Great survivability
-Lifesteal paired with the attack speed gives great battle sustain
-Very high movement speed
-Your ultimate can be used for aggression or for escape
-Aoe farming skill
-Skill shot ability that is great for interrupting captures
-Did I mention you are a bloody awesome dragon of greatness?
-You can bully short range champs no problem
-High health you can shrug off some cc

Cons

-If you succeed to well people will target you
-Not a overall high damage build ( find another one)
-You may counterbuild but your team may not
-People may counter you with thornamil, causing you to spend gold on mr.
-No range
-Getting to the top first can often end in you being first killed