The reason Tiamat is exceptional and mandatory for Shyvana is that its bonus damage effect is exponential. If you were to hit 3 targets for 60% bonus damage each that is 180% bonus damage...however that bonus damage is applied to all of the targets which translates to 540% bonus damage in total. The problem is that one instance of attacking can only target a single target, so it won't be 540%, it will be 180% (unless you are Shyvana and use the Dragom Form version of twin bite which applies an auto attack to every target in a small cone, TWICE) This is very powerful, just know that you do much more damage when hitting 3 or more targets. 2 is still decent.

Shyvana playstyles tend to concentrate on a bell curve. If you are inexperienced you may find that health allows you to do better and that offense tends to become obsolete, whereas a mildly experienced player will find that a mix of offense and health will provide better results. However, very experienced players will find that in almost all instances where you would use health, you instead use proper positioning and concentrated timing/combinations of input commands (combos) to more than make up for health. A mildly experienced player will just not know why they sometimes dive into the team and get completely wrecked by lets say a very fed and experienced tristana. Or even ultimate blocked by a good Draven's 0.25 second displacement ability. An experienced player has seen probably every single situation that can cause you to be interrupted and lose the game and knows exactly what to avoid and when it is safe to do what you need to do and be where you need to be. If you are at the point where you typically go for 3 or 4 defensive items and 2 or 3 offensive items, and are finding yourself winning most games but ultimately losing some games against particular champions, or at a particular time in the late game when certain items are being built, then this is where you will ultimately end up at...The high level of play where it is almost unanimously accepted that all 10 players get 6 offensive items with the exception of things like wards, guardian angel, banshees veil, stopwatches, zhonyas, etc. As a typical rule, you can turtle with your team as 5 in your base. You have 100% visibility there and the hard games that you must carry will be more easily won there.

https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/EbsXd9bm-combo-wards?show=nested

Hello board. I recently came back from season 4. A lot has changed but one thing has not(sort of): wards.
One key component to my climb through that which is called hell (encompassing all of ranked levels of play) was my ability to discover the true power and benefit of wards.
Let me explain a little
1. 2 wards nearby to each other typically are better than a single avoidable ward. For whatever reason.
Placing wards in the enemy territory will tell you more about the enemy team, more frequently than those in your own jungle.
Well placed wards 'can' allow you to safely do things like split push(is this still viable?), baron, un-turtle into your own jungle, see when the enemy team splits up to farm. Etc.
Generally, from my own limited expertise there are roughly 2 sets of good combo wards to place. One set is in the enemy red-buff side and the other is in the enemy blue-buff side.
For red-side I place one ward in the bush that precedes raptor, the other in the bush attached to the opposite side of the tree "wall" from there. So it would be the bush directly north is the enemy starts on baron side, or directly south if they started dragon side. This allows you to see way more than it should as the enemy has to come through the middle 'cross' section to be unseen as your minion waves if pushed out will reveal them at some point if they take either of the two neighborong lanes.
The blue-side, while I believe is typically inferior to the red-side wards still allows you to see someone grabbing the blue buff and also can pay off when considering dragon/baron as it is very easy to "catch" them in retreat and not find yourselves 'caught' while you pursue them (should your team choose to). These two wards are placed roughly as follows. One by the blue bush, typically slightly out of it so it can see down the long path towards their base but still able to see slightly in the direction of the Wolf camp. The other ward is placed in the bush between the Wolf camp and their mid-outer turret. The one closer to their base.
With these ward sets you should find several frustrating strategies to be futile against you and your unconscious team of zombots. One, you won't all head to baron/dragon and then mysteriously get baited into an ace. With these wards, never. Two, if you are turtling and not sure where it is safe to farm because they all left your teams vision for a supposed baron/dragon then I would reccomend checking this set of bushes with wards on your side. I have found many a garen hanging out in my red-side bush (the second one that is farther from raptors). Typically one or two are waiting behind while the others head off to farm various things and if they catch you guys coming out, they head straight back to your base for more gold.

just practice the twin bite timing. I always spam 'Q' after I do an auto attack. If you Q on the right frame it will be technically a triple attack and can pop enemy flashes etc.


once you have that down... You need to Fireball the enemy as they run toward you. Immediately use Burnout while charging them, and auto attack their face. Follow with the fastest Twin Bite 'Q spam' you can do (just spam it RIGHT AFTER your auto makes contact, visually watch your Shyvana's hand smack their face, and THEN spam Q)and then use your ultimate to land right behind them (in most cases). at this point if it was close, it shouldn't be and you can secure your kill and continue farming whatever you want. By the way this strategy is typically best executed from a bush. If you know good ways to set up bush ganks, this is a good champion for you.

at 100 rage, stay in human form. When you get within flash range of a squishy target, quickly flash onto them and perfrom your main combo, minus the fireball. So auto attack into spammed Q, then ultimate right behind them and finish. At this point you may or may not have fireball, Blade of the Ruined King, Youmuu's, Storm's Edge, and Burnout ready. If you do have some of those things, that's wonderful you can now eat the rest of your meal.


/game