Hello Folks!

My name is Sinny435 and I am fairly new to League of Legends (only started a week or two after season 3 came out). Anyway I have been playing a lot of hours and have come to love a lot of different champions throughout my time from level 1 normals to level 30 ranked.

First off let me say that this guide will not be perfect no matter how much i update it and all, but I hope to craft something that will help players wanting to play this fun champion. Granted that I will probably make a mistake here or there in the guide and I welcome any comments, changes or pictures to flesh out the guide. Also if you like this guide plz vote a thumbs up, helps introduce this guide to more people :P

Shyvana is one of my more favorite champions to play, mostly in top lane or jungle. Her kit doesn't make her one of the best lane gankers in the league however her counter jungling is amazing, maybe even close to Nunu but less hated by everyone.

I have seen a couple other guides for Shyvana and most seem outdated or random and don't play into the strengths that Shyvana brings to a team. Because of this I have spent a large amount of time perfecting my experience with Shyvana and figuring out how to best play this amazing Champion.

Thanks to Item Sets and a few lucky meetings with a godlike Shyvana player or two, I have found a pretty solid way to go about playing Shyvana the way it was supposed to. Hope you all can find this guide helpful :D

Pros: [+]Fantastic Counter Jungle [+]Quick Jungle Clear Times [+]Surprisingly Tanky mid-late game [+]Fantastic Brawler [+]AoE dmg in Dragon Form

Cons: [-]Somewhat squishy early game [-]No hard CC [-]Melee ranged [-]Difficult to lane gank [-]Item Dependant

Optimal Summoner Spells:

Smite when jungling, no other option.

Exhaust is more useful for Shyvana just because of the fact that her kit doesn't have any CC in any capacity. Since Shyvana has her Ult more a little more frequently than some depending on auto attacks and such, Shyvana can use her ult as a pseudo flash (but longer distance, and well flashier :D)


Flash is useful in lane for escaping early ganks and more slipperiness in team fights. Recommend swapping out with ignite since swapping out for Exhaust will leave you with even less CC which is always helpful.

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Optional Summoner Spells:

Ignite can be swapped with exaust when laning if you really want more damage for those last kills or when playing against a lifesteal or spellsteal centric champion or Voli/Singed Passive. However it is better to have exhaust in most situations

Teleport is useful when laning against someone like a Shen or counter split pushing and all that since Shyvana pushes a lane pretty fast.

Same thing with Flash, ghost can be swapped with exhaust but I wouldn't suggest it.

Shyvana is already pretty tanky, more so in late game so not really effective however can be used depending on the player or if new to Shyvana.

One of the more non-seen summoners, however if the enemy team has a BOATLOAD of CC it can be chosen if you want to get in the thick of it as Shyvana

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The No-No Summoner Spells:

You really shouldn't be dying as Shyvana, so a waste

Let us see...SHYVANA NO HAVE MANA...end of discussion

Not even supports get this spell anymore, neither should you

Lifesteal...get it, not Heal

Runes are pretty simple in my opinion, but can be swapped based upon preferences.

Quints:

Attack Damage Quints are what I use almost all the time for more damage when ganking and faster clear time.

Can be swapped out for Greater Quintessence of Armor PenetrationArmor Penetration or Movement speed depending on team comp and/or situation.

Yellows:

Flat Armor is always good for any rune page since it helps reduce damage from jungle monsters and AD champions as well as regular attacks throughout the game.

Can be swapped out for Health but I wouldn't suggest it.

Reds:

Hybrid pen reds are paramount since Shyvana usually doesn't have the luxury to build armor pen items since Shyvana benefits so well from tanky items. Another good reason to have magic pen is since Shyvana's W, E, and R deal magic damage but scale off of AD.

Can be swapped out for Atk Spd or Atk Dmg reds however Atk speed isn't that incredibly important.

Blues:

Magic per level blues are always the best for almost all bruisers, they give less magic resist early game compared to flat magic resist but more late game when you need it.

Can be swapped out for more armor for those all AD teams but a lot of champions deal some magic damage in one form or another so not really changed often.

Offensive Tree:

Attack speed and Magic Pen in Offensive tree, assists in clearing large camp creeps faster plus getting that one or two extra Auto Attacks. I sometimes enjoy CDR however after thinking about it for a while I realized that Shyvana's Cool downs are already pretty low and it doesn't help get dragon form any faster. Also Shyvana's W, E and R deal pure magic damage so the magic pen is slightly better than the Armor Pen.

Defensive Tree:

The reason why I choose to not pick the Tough Skin + Bladed Armor or Unyielding + Block masteries is just because the points are better put into other areas of the defensive tree. Shyvana like most champions who are melee range dependent with no hard CC or gap closers are subject to a lot of kiting. Having points in Relentless and Tenacious help immensly to reduce that kiting potential that some champions have over Shyvana (ie Ashe). Another reason why I choose not to get the Jungle points is because Shyvana already clears the jungle so fast that the jungle creep don't really attack her long enough to be worth the 3 points.

Now I have been asked (yelled at) a lot of times why i choose Legendary Armor as Shyvana despite my builds usually having 2-3 technically damage oriented items rather than full tank items. For any other champion I would agree with those comments however Shyvana is the exception and I will explain why.

First off Shyvana in patch 3.9 passive makes it all the more simple to see why Shyvana benefits so heavily from Legendary Armor . Shyvana's new passive Dragonborn gives her BONUS armor and magic resist as she levels (5/10/15/20).

Secondly Shyvana's ultimate Dragon's Descent DOUBLES the passive resist that she gets from Dragonborn.

Thusly because of both Shyvana's passive plus having to build items that give bonus Armor and Magic Resist all are boosted by Legendary Armor , not to mention that it is even more increased when Shyvana is in her dragon form.

As for what to skill first and all, despite the patch changes there isnt any difference between skill priorities. For both jungle and top lane Shyvana I max Burnout (W) first, Twin Bite (Q) second, Flame Breath last, with Dragon's Descent at 6, 11, and 16.

Maxing Burnout first gives Shyvana a lot of utility in the movement speed as well as damage while moving. In the jungle it allows Shyvana to travel between red side and blue side jungle more quickly as well as enter and exit the enemy jungle faster on top of Burnout's quick camp clear.

In lane Burnout allows for Shyvana to move in for damage trades, becoming even more devastating with Twin Bite that makes it very difficult for the opposing laner to out trade your damage.

However it is possible to level Twin Bite over Burnout in lane for more single target harass without messing up Minion CS.

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Dragonborn

Shyvana's passive basically gives free bonus Armor and Magic Resistance starting at 5 then up to 20 at level 16.

[~] Gains 5/10/15/20 Bonus Armor and Magic Resist. These bonuses are doubled in Dragon Form.

[~] Start at level 1 with 5, then gain 5 more bonus Armor and Magic resist at level 6, 11, and 16

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Twin Bite

[~]Twin Bite is an Auto Attack Reset, meaning right after a basic attack you can cast Q to have Shyvana automatically cast Q, essentially giving you the damage of 3 basic attacks within the time you Shyvana could basic attack twice

[~]Twin Bite is technically Shyvana's regular basic attack with another basic attack damage on top of it that scales based on the how leveled the ability is.

[~]Twin Bite now damages all enemies in a cone in front of Shyvana

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Burnout

[~]Burnout is an AoE magic damage circle around Shyvana

[~]The range of burnout is slightly larger than Shyvana's basic attack range

[~]Burnout duration can be increased by 1 sec every time Shyvana basic attacks, up to 4 secs

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Flame Breath

[~]Flame Breath is a line skill shot that hits all enemies in the path, debuffing them for 5 seconds

[~]Deals Flat amount of magic damage

[~]Hitting debuffed targets now deals magic damage for 2% of their maximum health

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Dragon's Descent

[~]Only Shyvana ability that interacts with her rage bar

[~]Costs 100 rage to cast

[~]Line cast that Shyvana jumps across dealing damage to enemies hit and pushing them slightly in the direction the ability is cast

[~]Can interrupt channeled abilities like Master Yi's Meditate

[~]Passively gains fury when not in dragon form by 1/2/3 per 1.5 seconds

[~]Fury drains by 5 per second while in dragon form

Trading/Jungle clear:

Start by hitting the champion/largest jungle creep with Flame Breath, followed up with Burnout to close the gap. Try and Auto Attack followed up with a quick Twin Bite giving Burnout an extra 3 seconds on its duration then go back before hitting turret range, going too deep, or before they can trade back.

(This combo lets you quickly apply the debuff from Flame Breath, move quickly in and deal damage based on auto attacks plus the damage from Twin Bite while also triggering the passive 2% magic damage based on maximum health from Flame Breath from every auto attack)

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Going for the Kill:

Start off with the combo above, if they try to flash you can immediately Dragon's Descent to both deal damage and gap close/push them towards your side of the map as they run. Even if they run under turret depending on how much health you have and they have you can take a turret shot or two and secure the kill before getting out with Burnout/ Flash.

*Remember that Dragon's Descent gives Shyvana a LOT more tankyness and a lot of burst damage that many people underestimate early game which can lead up to first blood pretty easily.

(When you want to kill in lane after level 6, when the enemy champion is equalish health to yourself or a tad lower)

Now for the Items, for one I believe that Items are paramount in determining the play style of most any champions as well as how well the items can work with the champion.

For Shyvana, items are very important in determining your ability to counter jungle, gank and team fight.

As for my core item choices, Locket of the Iron Solari With the changes in the most recent 3.0.10 patch, some magic resist items have been revamped, changed, or removed entirely. One such item was the old Runic Bulwark, which was core on almost all junglers. Now however they have made Aegis of the Legion build into Locket which has most of its old stats and abilities (including the active) but now also give the Legion aura to all allied champion.

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Phage is one of the more core items on Shyvana, the time when you get the item however depends on if your laning or jungling. Generally if your laning it is better to get earlier to stick to champions more easily and later or when needed as jungle Shyvana. Combining phage into a Trinity Force allows Shyvana to stick to champions so much easier, expecially combines with either Frozen Mallet or Blade of the Ruined King.

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Now that the Frozen Mallet is separate from the Phage, it is much more useful for Shyvana to build this item in conjunction with another item that allows for Shyvana to stick to a champion that much better.

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For most tanks, Randuin's Omen is almost always picked up for both mixed team comps, AD heavy team comps, and even some AP team comps that rely on attack speed. There are many good features to this item which makes it a very good buy for most top lane bruisers and tanky junglers. For one Randuins gives a decent amount of armor which helps reduce damage from all Auto Attacks plus physical damage. Randuins is also a tank item which provides a good amount of health. The best part about the item however is the passive in which reduces the attack speed of any champion that attacks you, giving a large advantage in a brawl. Lastly the active which provides a AoE slow is fantastic for both sticking to champions and even for getting away from a bad situation.

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Wit's End is a deceptively fantastic item for Shyvana. For one it gives a LARGE amount of atk speed (42%) which helps out her damage as well as gain rage, lower Q CD, and give more overall damage to her kit. Especially now that Wit's End steals MR, it allows your W, E, and R to do more damage to the target (They do magic Damage). Lastly Wit's End gives base Magic Resist which is amazing for her Dragon Form.

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Blade of the Ruined King is one of the items that I find myself building almost every game instead of another tank item. For one it gives Lifesteal Sustain while jungling or in fights. The damage while being slightly low is still helpful. The attack speed greatly increases Shyvana's damage with both her Twin Bite and Flame Breath. Auto Attacks also take out 5% of current health which combined with Wit's End makes your attack speed crazy. Lastly the Active chunks down 15% of the targets health and slows!

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Maw of Malmortius Before patch 3.9 Maw just really wasn't worth the gold in all situations, used mostly for top lane when against heavy burst AP or a Karthus. However since the patch the Maw has been buffed to give more AD and MR stats plus more AD per missing % of health (2% now I believe). Now Maw is more viable in certain builds. For most champs however Maw still requires one or two items that give a sizable amount of health like Warmog's Armor, Randuin's Omen or Sunfire Aegis. Any of these 2 items with bulwark is generally good to get maw if against 1-3 AP damage sources on the other team.

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For tank items I like to pick up Sunfire Aegis for Shyvana over something like Thornmail for several reasons. For one the item gives both health and armor, and while Thornmail gives more than double the amount of armor, the passive from it wont be that effective if you don't have the health pool to take a couple hits from the enemies carries. The passive from Sunfire Aegis also does passive magic damage which also is doing more damage to enemies from hybrid pen runes and mabey Wit's End.

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This item is a tad difficult to fit into Shyvana's kit. It really depends on your team composition as well as the enemies. If the enemy team has a more mixed source of damage and tanky and carry team than it makes it more difficult to get this item. However should there only be one semi or full tank on the enemy team it is viable to swap Ravenous Hydra in place of Blade of the Ruined King since Shyvana can stick to champions with both her kit and possible Frozen Mallet.

As for your own team comp, should Shyvana be the only tanky champion then you don't have much luxury to build damage items too much since initiating fights later on will be important. However should there be a tanky jungle and support/mid then it allows for Shyvana to be more Off-Tank.

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This item was one of the few I had been skeptical to build on Shyvana at first given that Shyvana does not have a mana pool, also Shyv could build into a Madred's Razors for the armor. However after experimenting a few games I found that the stats despite the mana regen make this item much more useful for Shyvana than Wriggle's Lantern. For one the Tenacity lets you build either armor or movement speed boots over the slightly less cost effective Mercury's Treads. The 500 health, Health Regen, plus 10% CDR makes Spirit of the Ancient Golem a fantastic buy for Shyvana jungle.

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This is one tank item that was almost never built on Shyvana, however with the new 3.0.10 patch it is in fact a very viable and suggested item for Shyvana and most other tanky/bruiser champions that did not beforehand. The reason behind this is because of the passive of the old Spirit Visage gave increase to any healing from any source such as Garen's passive Perseverance. For champions like Shyvana that had no innate healing from passives or abilites, building this item was a waste. Now however Spirit Visage has more Magic Resistance, more health, and another passive that gives a staggering 20 health per second (which btw is increased by the old passive).

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The old trinity force was pretty wasteful of an item slot before the changes. The slow that you get from the passive only had a 25% chance to apply which wasn't always reliable, plus the AD and sheen passive were not that great to allow for Shyvana to spend money on it. Finally the mana that it gives is wasted on Shyvana. However with the changes to Trinity force, the passive rage combined with either Blade of the Ruined King or Frozen Mallet allows for Shyvana to practically never lose whom ever she is chasing.

Planning on creating a new chapter focused on how Shyvana matches up to other top lane champions. Have to gather a tad more information and experience with this however so this section will fill out a tad slowly.

(Difficulty 4-5/5)
Honestly, I hate laning against Darius as Shyvana. His Decimate out ranges Shyvana's Burnout so he can effectively harass without much in return. Even when going in to trade, Darius' Apprehend, Decimate then quick Crippling Strike will out damage anything that you could throw back at him. Even when hitting level 6, his Noxian Guillotine is true damage and isn't mitigated by Shyvana going into dragon form (since Shyvana's ult doesn't give her any free health). When in this match up I suggest setting up ganks and trying to prevent Darius from snowballing, play safe and farm up as best as you can.

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(Difficulty 1-2/5)
Cho'Gath has to be one of the easier lane match ups for Shyvana. Since Shyvana gets so much movement speed from maxing Burnout, dodging Cho's Rupture is much easier which is a large part of his CC and damage combo. Also since Shyvana benefits so well from Auto Attacks, Cho's Feral Scream isn't that useful but is nice to dodge if you can. As for killing Cho'Gath post lvl 6, be very careful of his Feast because it is a large chunk of true damage. However most Cho'Gaths will use their ult on a minion to get the stacks, so abuse him a lot when it is on cool-down.

While ganking is a daunting thought to anyone who glances at Shyvana's Kit. OMG no CC?! How am I supposed to gank with this champion. Well it is true that it is more difficult to gank with a Shyvana than other junglers, it is not impossible.

For one Shyvana can do a large amount of damage while moving, and her Burnout allows for a surprising amount of movement speed and damage early game. Shyvana's Twin Bite does a good chunk of damage and just the presence of a flaming half dragon can blow summoners which is always a plus.

With the changes to the jungle and how fast Shyvana can clear both red and blue buff, there are many opportunities early on that Shyvana can take advantage of when ganking. Usually I look top or mid to gank first since they are usually easier to effectively get a positive gank off. When you have both red and blue buff, Shyvana can quickly run into a lane with Burnout and if positioned correctly can pincer the enemy champion, forcing a flash. If you can manage to get off a few Auto Attacks and/or a Twin Bite, you would be surprised how much that with red buff can chunk the enemy champion forcing them to back allowing a much better laning phase for your team.

When you hit level 6 as Shyvana, your Dragon Form allows for a more variety of ganking both when a lane is pushed towards your team as well as when the enemy champion is turret hugging. When in Dragon Form, Shyvana gains a large amount of Armor and Magic Resist and can slightly push the enemy champion in the direction you cast your ultimate when you hit them. Because of this, tower diving early game is more viable when your lane can kill the enemy champion while Shyvana takes a few turret shots and deals damage before W out before dying.

Personally I found Foxdrop a while before making this guide and his jungle videos were supremely helpful and defiantly boosted my ability to jungle and help fix the small and large mistakes I was making before.

This Video is a short guide to what path you can take early in the new 3.8 Patch.
Play Video
This next video is a more in-depth guide about jungle paths overall and how you can react to counter jungling and invades.
Play Video

For more jungle videos by Foxdrop please give his YouTube channel a look at -> FoxDrop

Well this guide took a bit of time to type and create along with all the different items and such. However I hope this guide will help some players who wish to give Shyvana jungle a chance and counter jungle the hell out of millions of games. Shyvana is a champion that is strong if built to compliment her kit and is very strong source of damage and tankiness in late game.

Especially with the changes soon to come in Patch 3.9 Shyvana is going to be a very strong jungle in my opinion.

This guide is defiantly not finished and I will add or subtract to it as patches comes out and things change as well as any tips or advice given from different sources.

Lastly plz rate this guide a thumbs up if it helped you even a tiny bit :D