Hi MOBAfire! This is my second guide here, and it's on Shyvana. In this build, I will emphasize aggressiveness(like my last build) and teach you how I play and build Shyvana. There are currently multiple ways of playing Shyvana, and I will tell you the 3 most common, AD Lane Carry Shyvana(my build), AD Lane Offtank Shyvana(common build), Jungle Offtank AD Shyvana. I will attempt to go very in-depth with this guide and explain everything with the greatest detail, so if you random-autolocked Shyvana, look at the TL;DR at the bottom.

So, again, welcome to my extensive guide to Shyvana. In this guide, I will be covering:

• An introduction to the aggressive play-style.
  
• The super-aggressive play-style of Shyvana, and WHY she should be played that way as opposed to playing passively.
  
• Pros and Cons of playing Shyvana.
  
• Masteries and Runes. Boring stuff first.
  
• An introduction to the builds presented on this guide.
  
• Skill Order, Sequence, and why I chose to level up the skills in this particular order, as well as using the skills to their maximum effect.
  
• My item choices and situational items, as well as why some items may be better than others.
  
• Why Shyvana should, under no circumstances, TANK.
  
• A TL;DR and conclusion.

Nautilus Patch

Bug Fixes. Yay.

Ziggs Patch

Stark's Fervor

• Renamed into Zeke's Herald
• Base Attack Speed removed
• Lifesteal Aura reduced to 12% from 20%, no longer reduces Armor
• Now gives 250 Health
• Unique Passive: +15% Cooldown Reduction

This supposedly transformed it into a support-oriented item. May or may not be good on Shyvana anymore. I think it can help with a 'Cdr Shyvana', but I don't know.

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Emblem of Valor and LIS

More like tank items now, Shyvana should not tank, but can add durability to your laning phase. The active doesn't seem too bad though, it really helps your turret diving.

Many of you may know of an aggressive play-style. Even more may think that it's a bad way of laning in League of Legends, as it forces you to overextend, push lanes, and make you very vulnerable to a jungler's ganks. Well, you probably played with a player who is terrible in aggression. The truth is, this path Shyvana players must walk down is a dangerous and difficult one. To master this play-style, you must have every intention of scoring a kill as early as possible against your lane opponent, while being conservative enough to avoid and deflect jungle ganks, and scoring last hits at the same time. If done correctly, add zoning to your 'To-do' list and you have one hell of play-style to master.

At early summoner levels, the most aggressive champion of them all was Xin Zhao, the scrub buster. Why and how can one play Xin and still succeed, while being aggressive? The answer lies in his skill kit. Challenge allows him to restore health, incredibly rapidly since at lower levels no one cares about last hits, that is lost while trading blows with the opposing champions. Three Talon Strike gives a massive damage output and a knock-up, giving him good harass and makes them think twice about dueling, thus making enemies back off. Lastly, he has Audacious Charge. This makes getting away impossible unless you stay out of exp range of the minions. Even better, low mana costs let Xin Zhao stay in lane almost infinitely, while he farms to full health and deny the opponents exp and gold, giving him a large advantage. This is the ultimate goal you want playing an aggressive champion, to be able to farm in peace while your lane opponent can't do anything about it.

So what's needed to fit an aggressive play-style?

1. High damage output. This makes them think twice about coming close to you.

2. Sustainability. Whoever has more sustain in a lane wins, even if you happen to be winning at first. If you end up too low after a mini-duel, you'll just get ganked by the jungler and end up as food, switching the pressure onto you. Staying at full health discourages jungle ganks, especially if your health is significantly higher than the jungler's and your opponent's.

3. The ability to chase and the damage to kill. High damage means nothing if they can get away. Therefore, the ability to chase and kill is highly valued on aggressive champions. Being aggressive is all about the money, and being denied kills hurts your income.

And lastly 4. The ability to zone. This is actually more innate and psychological than given out in a set of skills. You must pressure the lane opponent to be too scared to run even CLOSE to you, so you can safely deny and safely farm.

Being aggressive isn't always the best, however. Some champions who can't deal with it early on, or dont have the proper skill set, will be completely crushed in terms of damage and sustainability. Also, being aggressive is difficult, and dangerous. If you do it incorrectly, you will die. If you do it poorly, you will die. If you do it with a sense of mediocrity, you will not have the proper deny you should be using against your opponent. However, when mastered you will have a piece of art, and you can begin bending your opponent to your will.

I saw a passive Shyvana. It made me cry.

A passive Shyvana can pretty much do nothing about a super-aggressive one. The more aggressive of the two (abbreviated A for simplicity.) will simply out-damage the other, catch the other off-guard, and end up with a multitude of kills while the passive one (abbreviated P) will be able to do nothing about it. The main cause of this is that Shyvana doesn't have the kit to play passively. Burnout is used primarily for chasing, and running if the going gets tough. Twin Bite refreshes it's cooldown while you hit things. Flame Breath emphasizes hitting things to reach it's maximum potential, and the more you hit things, the faster your ult, Dragon's Descent comes back up. Let's take a real life situation as an example:

Shyvana A and Shyvana P both have a level 1 duel. Due to the nature of being passive, Shyvana P will most likely back off after the duel, even if they are both at the same health. This is when the situation snowballs out of hand and Shyvana A is rolling that snowball. Shyvana A will hit things more. Twin Bite will come back off cooldown faster, giving more and faster harass than Shyvana P, who is afraid to come close to Shyvana A. After the second exchange, Shyvana P will end up with lower health, because of the lack of Twin Bite during the mini-duel. This will force more passiveness, and more deny, until Shyvana P finally dies of being denied.

The same situation could be used with any other champion. Because we are leveling Flame Breath first, we can exchange ranged pokes with the other champion without being at a health deficit. Not having to worry about mana, combined with the lifesteal of Wriggle's Lantern, you can stay in the lane indefinitely, and win most 1v1s with other champions your level.

So like all champions, Shyvana has good qualities, and bad qualities. I will explain what makes the Good Qualities good, and what makes the Bad Qualities bad.

Alright, so let's start with the pros.

She's an excellent farmer. Who doesn't want to be good at farming? Shyvana has a quick auto-attack animation, and Twin Bite to assure last hits.
Can win lanes against most Melee Champions. Most solo tops and junglers are melee. This means 80% of the time you have an edge in combat.
Naturally tanky, very strong duelist, and high base stats. This means she's not so item dependant, so if you get behind a bit it's no big deal, you can still come back.
Hard to counter with the right build. So the enemy has to build BOTH Armor and Magic Resist to counter you, in some cases. This makes you extremely dangerous.

From this, we can tell Shyvana is a very tanky, dps style champion. Let's look at the cons before we start to build anything on her, k?

Kited easily by anyone with any CC or ranged skill. This is BAD, many champions have CC. To fix the problems with CC, we add Mercury's Treads so the CC won't affect us as much. It's not the perfect solution, because if there was one Shyvana would be op.
Some melee champions can still beat you in 1v1. Nothing we can really do about this. Some champions, like Lee Sin or Akali are just op...
Kind of weak late game without items. Alright, being behind is different than being in late game. The main problem with Shyvana's late game is that Twin Bite scales poorly while you rank it up, Flame Breath scales with AP so it's kind of useless, and Burnout has so small range it's hard to use it to kill because of your kiting problem. This can be fixed, however, by having a good early game, or by carefully selecting items that aid in damage or survivability. I fix this by having room for 2 situational items.
No CC. Can be half-fixed with Phage, but this is an incredibly big pain in the a**. Sometimes, when you want to kill someone, you just wish for them to be slower so you can finish them off. Shyvana has no such ability, so she is item dependant in this form.

Utility Tree for Flash and buff duration, or
Defensive Tree for increased health, Smite, extra hp, etc.

I will explain which mastery tree to go into, to help you pick either the Defensive Tree as opposed to the Utility Tree, or vice versa. Let's go into what the Utility Tree offers for Shyvana first.

The are the Summoner Spell choices. They are arguably the strongest utility skills in the game, but they come at the cost of a long cooldown.

In each of the sections below, I will offer 3 choices in different tier levels. The spell in the middle is the most optimal spell in that tier level, and should be taken in consideration first if you decide to pick someone in that specific tier.

Shyvana doesn't have the hardest kit to use, but there are some ways to make her more effective. Learning those ways seperate the ****py Shyvana players from the good Shyvana players, to the great ones.

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The important thing to know about Twin Bite is that it resets your auto-attack timer. Nothing too hard here, just attack once then click Q to strike again. Another thing is that when you have this skill procced, then attack it counts as 2 attacks, not 1 with bonus damage. This means it applies on-hit effects twice. An example is Madred's Bloodrazor. Instead of Twin Bite hitting 4%, instead it does 4% + 4%.

Another thing is that you can use it for a quick burst of hp through lifesteal. Although it is lessened because Twin Bite in Dragon Form is AoE, the range is pretty big and a quick burst of health can be what you need to survive.

what the hell is this space supposed to be for?

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Nothing hard about this either, but don't be fooled, it's difficult to use this skill correctly. Many people forget that the longer you stay in Burnout, the slower your movespeed bonus becomes. Thus, they will use it at 1000 range and expect to get close enough to hit someone just as it's about to expire.

When using Burnout, it's important to know how fast your opponent will move in relation to how fast you move. The most accurate formula for determining this is ((Movespeed(yours)*( Burnout multiplier*(elapsed time*.85)) - Enemy Movespeed)*3. But who has that kind of time or patience to do that? Even more, this doesn't take in account of enemy direction.

So how can we find the most optimal time to Burnout? The answer is simpler than you think; activate it at around 500-600 range of chasing. As long as you don't use any wasted movements, it should be good enough to land a hit with Red Buff so you can at least make them burn Flash. If you're at 6, and your laner is at full/almost full, dive them! Dragon's Descent makes you tanky enough to survive 6 or 7 turret shots, use that to your advantage!
The image above demonstrates approximately how close you should be to use Burnout during a gank. Be sure to intercept their path to their tower, as Shyvana has no strong gap closer except her ult.

what the hell is this space supposed to be for?

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Flame Breath is actually, by far, the worst skill shot I had to learn to use. I hated how slow it went, how easy it was to see coming, and the mediocre damage it did. I hated that to be effective with Shyvana you needed to use this before you did anything else. I hated that...well, you get the point. This is a slow slow slow fast slow slow slow skillshot, rivaling Lux's in slowness and rivaling Evelynn's in damage output. Therefore, aim farther than you actually should when you're attempting to hit with this.

Using Flame Breath in Dragon Form is actually one of the most satisfying AoE attacks in the game. The damage, like Annie's Incinerate, is instantaneous, and can be used to catch runners who would have otherwise gotten away. The only difference is, the range is much bigger than Annie's.

So to use this as effectively as possible:
Use it before everything! It increases your damage by a LOT. 15% may not seem like much, but if you're going against a 300 Armor Malphite, that's 45 Armor REDUCTION. Your whole team benefits from it, and you can actually feel the difference.

what the hell is this space supposed to be for?

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Dragon's Descent is basically like Tristana's Rocket Jump in that it can jump over any thick wall. I believe it can jump every wall in Summoner's Rift. Anyway, here are places where you can jump. Note that I don't include anywhere you can Flash over, because it would take too much space and pretty much common knowledge to those levels 15+. Also note that it's in Blue Team perspective.The above is probably my most favorite. Tower hugging enemy? Fly over the wall and burst that guy down. Then walk out without even a scratch on you.
OH HAI DER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These are the walls where neutral minion camps are. You can use your ult to jump right over them and damage anyone trying to take the camps. VERY useful when you know they are taking a buff, as you can just fly over, Smite, and kill them while they go "O_____O DAFUQ".Also note that you can do it the other way around. Use the element of surprise, people!

Core Build

Believe it or not, there isn't one. That's right. Shyvana is one of the few champions that benefits from almost every stat. This allows her to build in a wide variety of ways and still be extremely effective. The most common builds are Offtank and AD Carry. AP Shyvana, on the other hand, is unrespected and unused. I'll introduce these builds to you over the next chapter, common core builds, and situational/optional items.

The above items represent certain items that give stats you should have in every.
Obviously, you need boots unless you're Xerath or Lee Sin.
A slow is a must so you don't get kited.
Attack Speed is a must, you have no steroids like Tristana or Master Yi.
Life Steal helps you survive in fights.
Again, you have no steroids, so AD is necessary.

Offtank Shyvana: Core Build

In no particular order:

Pretty simple core build. Get a lot of damage and a lot of survivability. This is Build 2 on the Cheat Sheet.

Mercury's Treads. The best boots in the game, providing Tenacity and Magic Resist.

Now this may confuse some people. Phage is a must because Shyvana has no CC, and a slow really helps you catch up to anyone trying to get away. But this doesn't mean you just get Phage and work on the next item. With this, you can opt for either Frozen Mallet or Trinity Force. As Offtank Shyvana, I usually go for Frozen Mallet because you should be there to soak up some damage while brawling inside the battle, instead of being a bursty melee-type with Trinity Force. Plus, the extra health synergizes with Atma's Impaler, one of the core items in your build.

A good item that benefits Shyvana, although less than it appears. At full stacks it gives an incredible 50 Magic Resist, but when you can't hit certain ranged AP champions it doesn't reach its full potential.

You have HP from Phage or other items, why not make good use of it? Converting 2% of your max hp is actually a TON of damage. Think about it; most champions average around 2000 hp at level 18. 2% is 40 AD, and you get Armor and Crit Chance, all for 2335 gold. Worth it, I think so.

Another confusing icon, you have Atma's Impaler, so why not get survivability and damage at the same time? You can use Giant's Belt to upgrade your Phage into a Frozen Mallet, or grab a Warmog's Armor.

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AD Carry Shyvana: Core Build

For a while, I was pretty satisfied with Offtank Shyvana, but then after a few games, I noticed something. I started getting a negative KDA, with my assists skyrocketing up. The same thing happened when I was playing Ezreal. Both these champions had the tools of a killer, yet I was getting nowhere with the current build. Sure, I was tanky and barely died, but the only thing I was achieving was being ignored. So I devised up a way to change this and, imo, to play Shyvana up to her full potential.


A ton of damage output early game, as well as late game. Also, a lot of survivability in a team fight, and can barely be kited. Just barely, people like Ezreal with blink can still do it damned well, though.

So the first item I get is Wriggle's Lantern. As you should be soloing top or jungling anyway, this is an awesome item for a ridiculously cheap price. And, you get free wards. If you solo top, you can't be ganked ;)

While playing AD Carry Shyvana, assess how you're doing in the game right now. Are you getting stomped on? Or are you doing the stomping? This is important to know your next few item choices.

Set Items:

If you're doing well and are in no risk of getting killed/you can sustain yourself in fights with lifesteal.


If you're getting killed way too often.

Help! I'm getting killed a lot!
If you're in this situation, it's better to go defensive with the items. Luckily, Riot made Frozen Mallet, that gives you massive survivability and a permaslow. For this situation, I recommend you get a Recurve Bow for the Attack Speed, then get Frotma( Frozen Mallet and Atma's Impaler.) This gives damage and survivability. Also, Avarice Blade gives extra income you might not get.

Who should I kill next? Heheheh...
You're completely facerolling the other team. The jungler and mid comes to gank you only for you to get more money. Obviously, you should go for Black Cleaver and Youmuu's Ghostblade. If you're facerolling the other team, all you really need for fights are Tenacity and damage. Continue the faceroll, then become so tanky that you can never die.

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AP Shyvana and Hybrid Shyvana

Removed and moving to Humor Section due to unpopular demand. Look at it here, along with more Troll Builds.

Ahaha, there is no solution. Chaining 5 Exhausts and 5 Ignites is 100% guaranteed to put him down though.

Wait! That's not what this section is about!

Alright, you completed your core build or there's a fed someone on the other team. The items here are good finishes to your build, but some are completely situational, so they don't belong in every game, but when the call arises, they will help you more than the Core Items.

First, let's look at Starting Items and Boots.

Starting Items and Boots

Starting Items

My recommended starting item is the Cloth Armor. This gives survivability, and 5 Health Potion you can use to stay in lane or jungle longer, and it can be built into Wriggle's Lantern later on. I would take Doran's Blade if I feel extra aggressive, or if I know my lane opponent doesn't do any damage. Boots are nice too, for dodging skill shots, but I feel squishy with it, and most of the time in top there are no skillshots. Vampiric Scepter is for jungling only, and get Doran's Shield if you think you'll have trouble in lane.

If I'm facing someone who is skillshot heavy, like Cassiopeia or Karthus, I would opt for boots instead, because I can take no damage instead of lessened damage. I'd also take it if I feel I'll have an easy lane without the extra Armor.


Next, let's look at Offensive Items, shall we? I have organized these items into Tiers to help you decide what to get. Tier 1 items are obvious, the benefits are great and they tie into the build well. Tier 2 items are, despite being in Tier 2, as good as Tier 1, but excluded because of several problems. Tier 3 items are basically all AP items, really meh, and pretty much only used in Semi-Legit Troll builds.
You should be building some Health on Shyvana to make the best use of her ultimate, and now with this item that Health will really pay off. Even if you don't build Health, Shyvana has 2145 at level 18. 2% of that is 42.9 damage, which is almost as much as a b.f. sword. Not only that, you get some Armor and Crit Chance.

The biggest movespeed, crit, and attack speed bonuses, all in one item. It's fantastic on all dps champions.

You've come to the point where Wriggle's won't sustain you in a fight anymore. This is the PERFECT replacement for it, sacrificing Armor for damage.

Another replacement for Wriggle's, sometimes I get this over BT, hell if I'm fed I get both. This isn't core because it made the build ****ING EXPENSIVE.

Dat Crit. Trinity Force proc + this crit + Twin Bite + 300 AD. This will f***ing HURT when you use your Q. Not to mention it's AoE damage.

This adds a lot to your burst, and with Dragon Form's empowered Twin Bite, the proc applies to every unit hit. It gives great AoE damage in teamfights.
Another permaslow. Why am I putting this here? Well, sometimes it's good to have a ranged slow so you can actually catch up to people who run away, in order to deal more damage. I would get this as a last resort. Nevertheless, it's a completely overlooked item on Shyvana, I'm just thinking outside the box here.

For Karthus, early game only. This item is quite useless late game, and should be switched for a Banshee's Veil.

If you desperately, desperately, ABSOLUTELY need an Ignite. Other than that, good early game item.

Great item for Shyvana, but I don't like it because the proc is pretty much only good early game, and to make good use of this item you need even more Attack Speed in this build. Couple this with an Attack Speed item.

So why isn't this item Core on AD Shyvana? The damage is small. That's the only reason. If I wanted Magic Resist I'd rather pick something from the Defensive Items. Don't be confused, it's still a good item, there are just better alternatives.
Blocks 1 negative spell every 45 seconds. Good if you're initiating, but you really shouldn't. Other than that, the stats are pretty nice, even if you waste the mana.

Cleanse. 'Nuff said.

Movespeed and the biggest about of Magic Resist you can get from a single item. A must-have vs a AP heavy team.

Dat HP. Frozen Mallet usually does it's job, but if for some reason it doesn't, get this instead.

The passive and active can help in chasing and escaping. It is also incredibly useful against DPS heavy teams, as you can lower their AS and MS at the same time.

Suited more for Tank Shyvana, so not that great. But combine this with Randuin's Omen and you have 55% AS reduction. I'm pretty sure you can't be 1v1'd anymore...

Never get this item. Lifesteal goes right through it.

You get a second life, but your revival stats are pretty useless, as you lose your AoE Lifesteal from Twin Bite, but it has its uses.

Snowball item for tanks. Again, you aren't a tank, but 15% damage reduction is DECENT.

Health and Armor, as well as synergy with Burnout. Not a bad item, but it isn't good either.

JK! The active is nice though.

Let me know if I missed any items! Just went through a revamp, so there are probably a lot of mistakes.

So when Shyvana first came out, no one knew anything about her. People leveled Burnout over Twin Bite, over Flame Breath. Then it was Twin Bite over Burnout, over Flame Breath. Also, they thought she should be a tank.

So, why shouldn't Shyvana tank? Isn't she built for it? No, she should never, EVER tank, not even if you're solo queuing with ******s who expect you to. She has none of the specific requirements of making a good tank. The following is taken from A Manual for Tanks, and it helped me learn how to do something I just can't :p



So, which of these CRITERIA does Shyvana meet? Two. Just two, Initiation and Shields.

First of all, can a Shyvana with no damage be ignored in a fight? Tanks aren't built for burst damage, and Shyvana is practically half burst( Flame Breath > Twin Bite). So Yes, you are easily ignored in a fight, meaning you take no damage. What good is a tank that doesn't take damage?

Next, do you have any HEAVY disables? Slows from items DO NOT count, Silence DOES NOT count, your knock-back DOES count, but it is your initiation, and that CC is wasted the first second of the fight.

Do you affect whole teams? Maybe, with your AoE. But look how small that damage is. You hit Vayne for 200 damage? She'll just lifesteal it off from your squishy teammates in 1 hit. ONE hit, with 2.5 AS.

Do you have a shield? Yes, it's a passive shield giving you the highest base Armor and Magic Resist, but you are ignored in a fight, meaning it's USELESS.

So Shyvana should never, and never was able to, TANK. Good luck trying, it ain't gonna work.

Lane Shyvana: Solo Top or Duo?

I usually go solo top as Shyvana, but lately I've been reconsidering with my AD Carry build. A Top build is generally more tanky, and more high-impact late game. Yes, you still get tanky(more than other Carries, that's for sure), and you become high-impact late game by being impossible to kill, but I've been told top is more for Offtanks and Tanky Dps. In contrast, the bot duo lane is usually a ranged AD and a support. If so, where does Shyvana fit?

One might argue that she belongs in a jungle, and she does a tremendously terrific job at it. But her ganks are terrible, so that's too team reliant. You need laners with a strong lane presence, so ganks aren't required as ofter and you can farm away in your jungle. But that also pretty much binds you to the Smite Exhaust summoner spells.

Well, so where does she go? The best guess is the Jungle or Solo Top Lane. In this section, I will cover both.

Solo Top

My favorite lane, very chill, you just afk-farm all day until teamfights start and you show your late-game dominance over the enemy team. Nothing too much to say here, just follow this guideline:

• Farm
• Farm
• Harass
• Farm
• Farm
• Kill

Seems pretty simple right? At least, that's what a normal top-laner does. But Shyvana is not normal, because most top laners play passively. Shyvana is Aggressive, so be prepared to have top as crazy as mid lane and bottom lane combined.

Alright, the guide to playing aggressively was shortly introduced after the intro in this guide, lemme just rephrase it down here. To play aggressively, you have to have high damage output, lane sustainability after duels, and the ability to chase and kill. Zoning however, is psychological, so I won't go into that yet.

Does Shyvana have high damage? You bet. Twin Bite and Flame Breath is enough to burst down a huge portion of their hp in literally half a second.

Does Shyvana have sustainability? Pots and Wriggle's Lantern fixes all sustainability problems, pots being before you get the lantern.

Does Shyvana have the ability to chase and kill? Hell yeah, 400 Movespeed at level 1, no boots ftw!

Oh, forgot to mention one thing, Aggression is easily countered by ganks from the jungle. So you have to be able to 2v1, or escape at the very least. Shyvana can 1v1, but 2v1 is a tiny bit more difficult(and by tiny bit, I mean tiny bit). You have great defenses from Dragon's Descent, escape from Burnout, and if fed high damage to 2v1. So what's there to be worried about?

Early Ganks

Early ganks at level 2 gives both an HP and Damage advantage over you, and so despite all this talk about being aggressive, stay passive for the first 2 or 3 levels. Only harass when you are sure the other laner won't retaliate, or Shyvana will lose the lane. Guaranteed.

So who should I watch out for?
Needs testing, PM me in-game.
Dodge his Rupture and you'll be OK for the most part. Build Phage ASAP, so you can hopefully withstand Feast.
Dat Crit. And it's ranged, with a slow. Everything Shyvana hates, but if you can sneak up to him through the bush, you can maybe burst down enough damage to be on par with him.
Ranged, needs testing.
Don't facecheck. Never facecheck. Q_Q If he can't get you with Judgment you win. If you think you can outdamage Judgment, you lose.
Pretty sustainable, but easy to kill since most Irelias don't level Equilibrium Strike first, meaning if you get stunned it's no big deal.
DEMACIAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!! <- Actually, you want a 1v1 where no one else can interfere. Exhaust usually helps you pick up a kill in that situation.
He hurts, but you can outdamage him. Most of the time he will Empower> Leap Strike then run. Whenever he does that, Flame Breath, Burnout, then Twin Bite, followed by 1 or 2 auto-attacks. I can guarantee you will do more than him.
Needs testing, but DAT STUN. Pretty ironic I don't know how to deal with one since he's my main.
He does everything. Just don't die or you lose the game.
Best poker in game, Sapling Toss has crazy range with crazy damage. If he does decide to Snare > Sapling you, try to regen it all back with pots, and he'll run out of mana quickly. I highly recommend taking Teleport over Flash for him.
Meh, the shield is annoying, but that's about it. Most of the time you have enough damage to break past it.
Whenever he comes in to farm, Flame Breath > Burnout > Twin Bite him.
Difficult lane, he sustains better than you, and maybe does more while being on the safer side. Idk actually never laned vs him as Shyvana before.
No extended duels. Doing Flame Breath > Twin Bite quickly is key.
Well, idk. Her shield screwed me over a lot of times though, and her damage output is about the same as yours. The difference? You do magical damage, so you actually do slightly more than her.
He outdamages you. Get Boots and poke him quickly, then run out before you trade blows.
Fling! Actually Shyvana's worst enemy, he can kite you then throw you into his tower. Don't chase him. Ever.
May the best Shyvana win!
OMGWTF 2 sec STUN OP NERF PL0X
Ignite shuts him down, replace Flash with it.
Dat Crit. Like a melee version of Gangplank, but I can usually outdamage him if I'm lucky or he's unlucky. The lane could go either way.
Nothing really to worry about, the shield and lifesteal is small, so you can definitely win. Be wary of coordinated ganks though.
Idk, he's underplayed.
Isn't he usually jungling? But there's an excellent solo top build here. PM me if you want to test.
After his Nimbus Strike > Crushing Blow, he's pretty much useless :p Don't get confused by Warrior Trickster though.
Well, he's your aggressive counterpart :p except he has more CC.
Don't lane vs. him. Ever.

Annndddd...that's about it. Usually a mid carry might go top, but that's under rare circumstances.

Playstyle for Solo Top

So...most of the stuff was explained twice already so...
1. Last hit
2. Be Aggressive
3. Harass
4. Zone

The topic here I have yet to cover is Harassment. As Shyvana, you have no ranged poke, and when you actually get it it's weak until levels 6-12, then gets weak again. But it doesn't matter, it's still harass :p

So how do you harass? Easy, just E > W > Q. Land Flame Breath, Burnout up to them with Twin Bite ready, and hit them. It shouldn't be too hard, even without boots. If they're hiding behind minions, an easy way to get them open is to Burnout up to them first to scare them out of the crowd and them follow up with Flame Breath > Twin Bite. If for some reason you're not level 3 yet, just Burnout > Twin Bite. Most of the time they'll run back, allowing you to basically get a free hit or so, but if they do want to fight, remember you outdamage them since Burnout is up. ONLY RUN if you are sure you're going to die and they won't(i.e you're at 200 health and they just Healed.)

To kill them, just do the same, except use your ult. Burnout > Dragon's Descent > Flame Breath > Twin Bite usually get's the job done if they're about half health. Also, due to the nature of Shyvana's AoE, you can pull off some impossible double kills this way :3 Use this if they're about 50% health. When using your ult, get close enough so that you can fly over them so that they have to walk around or through you.

Jungling

Coming soon.

Passive Jungle Route

Pictures coming soon.

The most common route now is Wolves -> Blue -> Wraiths -> Wolves -> Golems -> Red. It's ok to be passive in this route.

The route is designed to take advantage of faster jungle respawn times so you can clear it and get to level 4 faster. You can just go Blue -> Wolves -> Wraiths -> Red -> Golems, but it won't be as fast.

What does the new jungle do for Shyvana?

Well, first of all she's more sustained. With a Vampiric Scepter and good ganks, you can stay in there indefinitely.

Second, since the creeps got weaker, she clears ridiculously quickly.

Third, Counter-Jungling is a piece of cake.

Jungle Route w/Counter-Jungling

So why would you want to counter-jungle as Shyvana? Well, the truth is, you're not really supposed to give a **** if you get discovered by the other jungler, unless that other jungler is Lee Sin, Tryndamere or Nocturne. Tbh, aside from these 3, Shyvana can basically 1v1 any other jungle champ out there. You WANT them to come to you. The point is to completely and permanently establish the fact that you OVERPOWER them, whether they like it or not. After you reach this point of control, you can do whatever the hell you want.

After you get enough gold from your jungle(both are yours :3), grab a Wriggle's Lantern. This is IMPORTANT in counterjungling. Why? Well, first you want to ward your own jungle, not theirs, not any lane with no support, YOUR JUNGLE. Why? Well, first it's impossible to sneak past you when you're one side of their jungle. So, you ward the other :3 it's that simple. So if you catch them walking over to your side for exp, have bot or top lane teach them a lesson~

So I was thinking up of a route and found Stonewall008's Video.
Play Video
He went:

• His Wraiths (get help here)
• His Red (get help and Smite it
• His Wolves
• Enemy Wraiths
• Enemy Golems( Smite here to clear it faster)
• Enemy Red, didn't get it because Nocturne was there, but ended up with a second kill instead.
• Went back
• His wolves
• His Blue
• Enemy Jungle

Their Nocturne actually messed up in the video...so don't expect this to happen every time :p
Also, always get your teammates to call mia. One time, I went into the enemy jungle, only to get caught by Skarner, mid, and top all at once, forcing me to blow Flash to get away. But if that does happen, your lanes get free farm and harass, so it's not a lose-lose thing ^-^

Deflecting Counter-jungling

Alright, doing it is one thing, deflecting it is another. First, you don't know where they are without wards. According to above Counter-jungling tips, you should have already done it. Second, if you are underleveled and/or that counterjungler is Lee Sin, Shaco, Nocturne, or Tryndamere you're probably not going to be able to do anything about it. IF NECESSARY ask for help from your fellow laners. In the case of Shaco, it's better to chase him out ASAP or get coordinated ganks. Trust me, we all ganked Shaco once and he just blinked away. An easier way is to force the counterjungler out by forcing them to help a lane. This isn't guaranteed, but might get you a tower in return for giving out some creeps.

Shyvana is terrible at this. Absolutely terrible, even with a Phage and Red Buff someone doesn't even need to Flash to get away. Therefore, need to catch someone who is extended very far, or gank from a good position to be able to burn a Summoner Spell or grab a kill.
I showed this one before, and now I'm doing it again. Remember, Burnout close to your target so that you can extend the duration, and to intercept their path so that they have to walk around you to get to safety.
The CORRECT way to use your ult during a gank. Wait until you're behind whoever you're chasing, then ult to get in front of them. This is so if they Flash, you have something to chase them with. Plus, they have to walk around you to get to the saftey of the tower.
This is the INCORRECT way to use your ult during a gank. You put yourself too far away from whoever you're ganking, and they can Flash away to the Yellow dot after you ult, leaving you too far to catch up.
This is ALSO a correct way to use your ult. In this case, it doesn't matter if they Flash because you still land within their Flash range. Also, Shen Bot can assist me in diving(unlikely because he's a bot, but w/e :p)

This is an important part of being Aggressive, about half your kills should come from tower-diving alone.

What is Tower-Diving?

Tower Diving is the purposeful act of attempting to kill an enemy champion under his or her tower. At early levels, this should be avoided as much as possible because the turrets hit absurd portions of your Health at that time, but it get's incredibly easy later on, especially since you're tankier.

Sure, Shyvana can't dive as well as Poppy or Tryndamere, but she comes pretty close. Bonus Armor from your ult is what makes this possible.

So how do I tower dive?

Well, it's not as easy as it looks. Do NOT dive if:

• You have equal or less health than the person you're diving. Always have at least 2x
• You're diving 2 or more people alone(ignore if you're like 3+ levels above them and at full, while they're really low)
• Only dive when you're sure a FULL SPELL COMBO can kill them.
• Dive with the tower targetting minions if possible, if you're lane is too pushed it may be better to farm. ~20 minion farm is about 1 kill, so think if it's worth it or not.
• If the person you're diving has a 2 sec stun, or more, or if her name is Karma, don't dive.

Alright, that aside, let's look at what makes Shyvana a potent tower diver.
1. She has a gap closer, which can go over the tower. This is important, most of the time when you attempt a dive, the other champions run around their tower to stall long enough to hit you once and get a kill. This doesn't happen as Shyvana, as you can simply fly over the tower to instantly burst them down.

2. Armor! Armor reduces the damage the tower does to you. Therefore, the risk is greatly reduced.

3. AoE lifesteal! If for some reason you don't think you may get out alive, target nearby minions and hit them with your Q. Since you should always be in Dragon Form while diving, you should have AoE lifesteal and can restore a large chunk of your HP in a single hit.

So these are the basics about tower diving. If you want, you can get your jungler to help if he's close by, but don't always ask because if one of you gets killed, it's not worth it.

Did I ever tell you how great Shyvana is in a team fight?

There's nothing too complicated about this, ult in and target the squishies. Or is there more to it than that?

There's actually something called timing your skills and positioning yourself to do the maximum damage output. Of course, on Shyvana this is different depending on what build you're using. DON'T INITIATE if you're being an AD Carry, but initiating is OK if you're the offtank. Still not recommended though.

Going into a Team Fight

Your job as an AD Carry is to destroy the other team. This means don't die, but that's easier said than done right? So, it's better to let your tank initiate, then offtanks, then you Ult in and burst everyone with the Trinity Force proc(if you decide to buy it), then AA their carry or squishies. Remember if anyone is channeling some OP skill like Crowstorm or Absolute Zero, save your ult to interrupt it, so you get to fly into a fight AND disable someone in one go. Another reason to save your ult is you never know when a .5 second interrupt can help you win a fight.

Also, a typical AD Carry shouldn't be targetting a tank, but Shyvana is one of the special exceptions, like Kog'Maw. Flame Breath lowers their Armor by 15%. Combined with Black Cleaver, you can lower it by 45 more. This allows you to debuff the tank heavily enough to switch the focus onto him and destroy him.

Last, fly into the BACK of the other team, or right at their RANGED Carry. Shyvana has no way to fight them, especially if they have a Frozen Mallet or something. Fighting ranged DPS champions is Shyvana's biggest weakness, get rid of it!

TL;DR, Ranged Carry > Carries > Tank > Offtank.

So why offtank last? Well, that's just my personal preference, because when 'Tank' shows up I immediately think of Cho'Gath :p you want to get rid of all the CC first right? So you can kill the offtank uninterrupted.

For Advanced tricks you can use. AKA "Pro" tips.

• If you know you can't catch someone before Burnout expires, look for ANYTHING nearby you can hit. This may extend the duration just long enough to chase someone down.
• Flame Breath could also be used as a finisher. Another reason to max it first.
• Dragon's Descent can fly over thick walls, like Tristana's Rocket Jump.
• Sometimes if you think you're going to be killed 2v1, try to bait them into your Burnout trail so they take enough damage. Then, attempt to burst them down! The AoE lifesteal may be enough to survive an extra hit or two. I've gotten many double/triple kills this way.
• Don't chase too far. If you're following someone for more than 4-5 seconds, you're playing Shyvana wrong.
• When ganking, save Dragon's Descent for after they Flash, so you can ensure a kill if your teammate is dedicated enough.

For those of you who auto-locked:

• Flash Exhaust or Smite
• Burnout > Flame Breath > Twin Bite to harass
• Last hit with Twin Bite if you can't without it
• Don't push
• Harass a lot
• Burnout close to them, not to close a distance
• Ult can jump thick walls or close gaps
• AP works
• Solo top or jungle
• When in doubt, Atmogs + FoN
• Don't initiate
• Don't tank

Well, that's about it. Thanks for reading, guys!

Special Thanks to:

Q_Qjhoijhoi for her Making a Guide Guide, with ShadowNet's Mastery Template.
Q_QSearz for the Graphing Program. Still don't know how to use it >:l
Q_QEhhhh idk...I guess Legendarseign for his AD Carry Shyvana guide, although never read it seriously until now.
Q_QHahano for the Jungle Section, once I get it.
Q_QStonewall008 for the Video.

1/12/2012 - Published Guide

1/13/2012 - Changed Exhaust to Flash on Jungle Build. The gap closer is better than Exhaust, as well as doubling as an escape. Also removed Rylai's Crystal Scepter and AP Shyvana build from cheat sheet.

1/14/2012 - Added a section about Tower Diving. Also finally got the graph to work! Expect more information.

1/18/2012 - Added Optional Masteries and organized situational items into Tier Lists. Added "pro" tips. Added Pros and Cons.

1/23/2012 - Changed Trinity Force to Frozen Mallet, and made changes accordingly.

2/14/2012 - Big update, added a ton of pictures, info, etc. Unarchived and stuff.

2/19/2012 - Changed slight mistakes.

2/19/2012 - Noticed the build was ****ING EXPENSIVE AS HELL(16k+) so redid the whole thing...again...

****ing zeke's herald change...

Made Madred's Bloodrazor and Bloodthirster not core.