Hey All Kazega here with a guide to one of the most interesting and versatile champions in the League of Legends: Shyvana, the Half-Dragon. She is probably the most versatile Champion that Riot has released yet. Seriously, there are literally 4 items in the entire inventory that She cannot use. A lot of your standard AD and Hybrid Rune sets work with her, and she can mix masteries like drinks.

Anyway I took to Shyvana like a moth to the flame: I have a natural affinity for Dragons. I've always loved them and now that there is a Dragon, well Half Dragon Champion I am going to play her like there is no tomorrow.


I'm going to Explain one of the Cons real quick: "Difficult to Handle at First." I say this not to try and deter new players, but to warn them that Shyvana isn't built like a Recommended Champion that has a lower Skill requirement. While she isn't the most difficult champion to handle, her handling is focused primarily on her pre-game setup (Runes and Masteries) and her item builds. while she is very versatile, most of her set-ups have to be very specific to what you want out of her. That being said it will take some Trial and Error to get a handle on your concept of a good Shyvana build. Most of this will involve the build portion but if you are patient with her, she can easily be one of the best champs in your line-up.

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Fury of the Dragonborn Shyvana's basic attacks are enhanced by or adds benefits to all of her abilities. Shyvana's attacks grant the following: Twin Bite: grant a .5 second cooldown reduction of reach basic attack Burnout: Extend the duration by 1 second for each basic attack, capping at a 6 second increase Flame Breath: 15% of the spell's total damage is added to Shyvana's Basic attacks on debuffed targets Dragon's Descent: add two point to Shyvana's fury meter

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Twin Bite Shyvanna's next basic attack attacks twice, with the second attack dealing a percentage of her total Attack damage. Each basic attack you perform while Burnout is on Cool down reduces the Cool down by half a second. In Dragon Form Shyvana's attack will do AOE damage in the area immediately in front of her

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Burnout Burnout engulfs the area around Shyvana in fire dealing Magic Damage and boosting her movement for 3 seconds. The duration of this spell is extended for every basic attack up to 6 seconds. In Dragon Form the area affected by Burnout will stay lit for a short period of time, damaging enemies that stand and move through it.

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Flame Breath Flame Breath fires a Skill shot missile that hits a single target. The Target hit by this ability will have its armor lowered and basic attacks will deal a percentage of damage as long as the debuff is active. In Dragon Form The missile is a coned shockwave.

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Dragon's Descent Shyvana leaps a short distance transforming herself and clearing walls, any enemies along her path are dragged with her. Her basic abilities are enhanced. Shyvana stays in Dragon form until her fury meter runs out. Passively Shyvana gains bonus Armor and Magic Resist. These bonuses are doubled in her Dragon Form. HSyvana can only Use this ability with a full fury meter.

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Ignite Ignite teams well with Shyvana as a duelist and putting a mastery into Summoner's Wrath will allow you to gain some always welcomed ability power and AD while it is on cooldown

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Ghost I use this instead of Flash. I've always liked Ghost better than Flash and with Shyvana it allows you to stay in melee range easily and it even boosts the use of Burnout

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Exhaust Another solid choice on Shyvana. This spell is great for chasing and dueling and augments the use of Flame Breath with a mastery in Summoner's Wrath

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Promote Shyvana is an excellent Pusher in all stages of the game. Taking Promote to augment her pushing abilities will definitely help out the team when it counts.

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Surge I am pretty much repeating myself with this one but you take Surge for the same reasons you take Promote: Shyvana pushes and this will help her push.

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Garrison I am seriously starting to sound like a broken record here. This spell will help you get at champions intent on camping a point. conversely it will help you stay on a point that the other team is going after.

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Flash A very useful tool for setting up Dragon's Descent, chasing, and jumping into fights with Burnout. Flash is a core ability on any champion but I feel Shyvana can make better use of other abilities. It is still good though

This is a basic Skill sequence for Shyvana. I take a point in Twin Bite at level two and max it second because it has some great starting damage. I max Burnout first to maximize the AD scaling, enabling much better dueling and damage output in team fights. I max Flame Breath last because I only need its on-hit effect of armor reduction.

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Greater mark of Desolation

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Greater Mark of Desolation This is a standard mark on any AD Champion: boosting your early game by allowing you to cut through most early game armor.

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Greater Mark of Alacrity A passive ability that Relies on attack speed allows Shyvana to make great use of these marks. I run these to help take advantage of that.

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Greater Mark of Insight These marks are useful for most of Shyvana's abilities: Burnout, Flame Breath, and Dragon's Descent all do Magic damage. I would suggest that you don't take 9 of these because you can't really commit to a full Mage Shyvana; do take a handful for running Hybrid builds

Greater Seal of Vitality

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Greater Seal of Vitality I run these seals. With how unpredictable the bottom lane of Dominion can be, I take these since the armor runes will seem like a "hit or miss" type of rune. I might switch it up once ranked play hits, but for now, I will stick to these.

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Greater Seal of Resilience Armor seals to help out in those fights that happen very often in Dominion. Investing in these will allow you to put more focus on non-defensive items early on.

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Greater Seal of Evasion Teams well with Ninja Tabi. Having a few auto attacks simply not count can be very useful in a duel. the seals team well with Ninja Tabi

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Greater Glyph of Focus I run these to help with Burnout's duration. Since I don't normally invest in CDR items these coupled with Sorcery provide enough Cooldown Reduction to keep Burnout consistent while fighting.

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Greater Glyph of Shielding Scaling Magic Resist is always a good thing. It will help keep mages away long enough to build up your Magic resist items, and it teams nicely with Greater Seal of Armor

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Greater Glyph of Potency These are must haves on Hybrid Shyvana. Flat AP will give Flame Breath a great early game start until you can build into more AP items. On the other hand, if you wait until later to max Flame Breath, Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power might serve you better.

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Greater Quintessence of Alacrity If you don't run Greater Mark of Attack Speed then run these Quints. They really help out Shyvana for previously stated reasons

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Greater Quintessence of Fortitude These augment the use of Greater Seal of Vitality by providing some good early game health and allowing to focus your build elsewhere in the early game

Greater quintessence of Desolation

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Greater Quintessence of Desolation These runes will definitely help you if you run AS marks instead of Armor Pen, or you can use these to augment your Armor pen. Either way the added damage is always welcome.

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Greater Quintessence of Swiftness One of the most underrated runes around. A small boost in you move speed goes a long way, especially when it comes to Dominion

Shyvana is very versatile when it comes to her items and builds. I can only think of 4 items that won't do her any good in any situation. So I won't go into all the items, I'll just give you some of the more prominent items.


Wait... why are these items "Core Items" when they aren't even a completed item? Well the short answer is this: Shyvana can work with so many items in different combinations that is is very hard to list out what is and isn't a core item. So instead, I list these three basic items because, they work, they are cheap(ish), everything that these three items build into works on Shyvana. Recurve Bow is great, it is much better than Dagger, albeit more expensive, and more versatile in Dominion with items like Kitae's Bloodrazor and Ionic Spark. Everything that Phage becomes, Trinity Force, Frozen Mallet, and Entropy, are all amazing on this champion, and Chain Vest provides an essential bit of armor every brawler needs and its builds are equally as enticing. There almost no way you can go wrong with these three items.

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Shyvana's game play is pretty simple in Dominion. As a fighter you should play her as such and use her to farm minion waves and push points. She is also good at defending points as well with her off-tank builds.

In the opening I like to take Shyvana to the bottom capture point: it enables her to farm, and she is an excellent duelist. By pushing quickly and effectively, you can take champions away from windmill and enable a fast Three-Cap. If they don't pull a champion, then Shyvana's superior pushing abilities will more than likely earn you the other bottom point. While pushing any point it is important to control the inside section of the lane: this enables you to grab the Health buff whenever you need it. Be very careful against mages early on. Shyvana's early game magic resist is very low and most mages excel at keeping fighters away.

Shyvana also has a great role in Team fights. With Burnout active she can do steady damage to every enemy in range which makes her a great contender to rush the Windmill with the team. While fighting you should work on focusing a single champion: preferably the weakest link. Always cancel their attempt to take the points, either by attacking them directly or by trying to take it yourself. Trying to take a point while enemies are taking it will cancel out all attempts to capture the point.

The mid game starts when the dust settles from the initial Windmill fight. Never stand still without a good reason. Even if your team has three points go for a fourth: it will help keep the opposite team off balance, and if they do end up capping your third you take it right back. A good reason to stand still is if you have their bottom point: you have no real reason to go further and it encourages multiple team members to get at you, while you have a solid retreat path. Shyvana is a great asset when she has the Greater Relic Buff from the center of the map. Since she is prone to getting into trouble having the Greater Relic will really help out in those moments.

The Late game is where it all matters: this is the part where one or both Nexuses have less than 100 health. Just like in the Mid Game Shyvana should never stand still. in fact this is the point where Shyvana should be pushing points like an angry dragon (*snicker*). Take a teammate, farm a wave and cap a point. do this constantly unless another point needs to be defended. In time you will find the balance between pushing and defending and with a good team that knows how to play Dominion Shyvana can really excel at doing what she was built to do.

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Shyvana is truly one of the best Champions, both in concept and in design, that Riot has released yet. It will be hard to top this one but that is a part of the fun when it comes to champion ideas. I will still keep up with this guide: Shyvana is a champion I will probably stick with for a while. Have fun with her and find some cool new ways to build her. As always Comments and Critiques are welcome, Upvote if you found this guide useful and I will try to answer any questions in the comments below.

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Version Info....

Version 1.00 Nov 04 2011
-Initial Publishing

Version 1.01 Nov 09 2011
-Expanded on a few concepts
-Added Details to the Items chapter: namely on Phage
-Changed up the cheat sheet to match what I use for her now

Version 1.02 Nov 10 2011
-Added some notes
-worked on some formatting
-added some color to highlight key points

Version 1.03 Nov 13 2011
-Added items to the item's list
-added a set of Youtube Videos

Version 1.04 Nov 16 2011
-Rewrote the mastery section due to the new masteries
-Edited the Items section to make a couple points
-Edited some of the builds and added one

Version 1.05 Nov 27 2011
-Updated a few things thanks to Beeswarm's Review

Version 1.09 Nov 29 2011
-made a few minor changes

Version 1.10 Dec 6 2011
-Edited the Format in a couple sections
-Fixed some wording