Shyvana Build Guide by Aztareth

Lore

There are those few dragons in Runeterra who have mastered the intense magical energies that course through their unique anatomies, evolving into an elusive Celestial Dragon. These powerful and enigmatic creatures spend most of their time hidden away from the lands of men. However, there are those who find themselves drawn to civilization and who take on human forms to immerse themselves in the world of humans. Occasionally, one finds itself drawn to the spirit of a human and they have relations. Sometimes, in the slimmest of odds, the union will bear fruit and that offspring will be one of the few half-dragons to have graced Runeterra. Shyvana is one such creature, born to a simple Demacian farm-girl and her Celestial Dragon father. Left to be raised by her mother, her oddities were something that couldn't be hidden from her community, though she was protected by her family. Once her family had perished in disaster, she was left alone for the first time – truly alone. Shyvana quickly became an outsider and it wasn't long before the community's fear began to put her in danger. Facing mortal danger at the business end of an angry mob, she was rescued by the traveling noble, Jarvan Lightshield " Jarvan IV. The noble was a man who strangely knew exactly what she was and took her under his wing. It wasn't long before she was offered a chance to use her natural skills in the service of Demacia, as Jarvan IV initiated her as one of the elite guard. Following Jarvan IV into the League of Legends was only natural.

Shyvana is a fierce warrior, with the blood of one of the most powerful magical predators in all creation flowing through her veins. Unlike some of her fellows, she is a subdued personality – somber, cool, and collected. However, when the moment strikes, her draconian heritage manifests and there are few that can stare her in the eyes and not feel the primal urge to flee.

Trivia

Shyvana was designed by Coronach.
Shyvana name and concept is a possible reference to the Shivan Dragonfrom the card game Magic: The Gathering.
Shyvana animation in her dragon form may be a reference to Tigrex from the Monster Hunter.
Shyvana appearance bears some similarities to Alexstrasza's humanoid form in World of Warcraft.
Shyvana ultimate, Dragon's Descent, is possibly inspired from the Dragon Knight's ultimate in Defense of the Ancients. Shyvana ultimate is the only non-toggle champion ability in the game that is not cooldown based.
Shyvana is the third champion, the others being Nidalee and Swain, that can transform into a different creature.
Shyvana dance is possibly from the music video RIVER by the Japanese idol group AKB48. A side-by-side comparison of the two dances can be seen here:
Shyvana shares a quote with Fiddlesticks: "Fear me."
Shyvana quote "The quiet before battle." is similar to the popular idiom "The calm before the storm."

Shyvana Ironscale skin is a reference to the Scale Armour worn by warriors of different cultures.
Scale armour is often associated with dragons in various fantasy genres. This is most likely due to how the individual metal scales are overlapped with each other, resembling the scales of a dragon.
Shyvana Boneclaw skin may possibly be a reference to the shapeshifter Flemeth from the Dragon Age series.

Introduction

So, finnaly Riot Games bring us to the League the unstopable power of a Dragon, so get ready to show up this mythological power to the summoners rift!

After leeching guides from Mobafire, im finnaly making my first guide, though I'm not a newbie. I've been pouring many hours of my life into League of Legends since 1 year ago, I watch a lot of streams, read a lot of guides, and save my own builds for champions I play very often.

I have tried several effective builds and have narrowed down the build that works almost all the time, regardless of enemies. Not to sound arrogant, but I rarely lose when I'm playing Shyvana (in a premade w/ all on vent). Follow my guide, find a decent and solid team, and you should be able to dominate your opponents as well.

Let's just say this Shyvana build will result in an extremely tanky melee dps who still throws out crazy damage and a cap of armor and magic resist of 190-210. Let's get down to the details shall we?

Pros / Cons

• Great AOE (Area of Effect) damage and burst damage.
• Faster Farmer.
• Awesome Mobility and speed.
• Unstoppable when feed.
• Natural Tanky.

• Can be easy pushed if solo lane against Ranged
• Cant do much in Team fights without Dragon's Descent.
• Weak to CC (Crowd Control).
• Has no CC (Crowd Control).
• Gets extremely focused.

Runes

I have tested several different rune sets for Shyvana. Because of my style of early game play, I like going slightly defensive as far as runes go. I go Greater Mark of Attack Damage, Greater Seal of Armor, Greater Glyph of Magic Resist, and Greater Quintessence of Desolation. This makes Shyvana using her Twin Bite a fearly champ on the lane. I don't care who is laning against you, they won't be able to do damage to you as fast as you can to them. These slightly defensive runes will result in you being quite tanky the entire game without buying any real tank items.


Shyvana Armour is priority, remember that u are a Tanky DPS Champion who will join to the mid of every Teamfight.
Magic Resist is perfect against spammy early game champions like Rumble and others, and it will be usefull in every game.

Masteries

With the masteries I pretty much did a standard DPS setup, but instead of going 21-0-9, I went 15-0-15 picking up the second point into utility mastery and maxing quickness. Why im not making it 21-0-9??

Jebus McAzn wrote:
"21 in offensive masteries is pretty useless IMO as the damage boost is insignificant compared to lowered cooldown on Flash, extra movespeed, and extra health regen."

Archmage's Savvy - Excellent for Shyvana
Deadliness - Extra Point to Open our next masteries.
Sorcery - Cooldown Reduction
Archaic Knowledge - Our Dragon's Descent will makes lots of DMG at final lvl
Sunder - More Armor Pen to improve our Quints
Brute Force - Twin Bite will hurts in early lvls


Good Hands - Reduced death timer for 6 seconds it is a LONG TIME when your towers are being destroyed.
Perseverence - It is the key of u Health Regen
Awareness - This ensures we hit level 6 as fast as we can
Greed - 360/hour. This is equivalent to 5 wards, and that's 15 minutes map awareness.
Utility Mastery - U must control the Red Rune
Quickness - Boost for Burnout.
Blink of an Eye - Absolutely vital.

Build

We need to remember that Shyvana is a Natural Tanky DPS.. As the Title States, you need to be flexible when you tank so if u aren't flexible and don't buy items that the situation needs, u will fail..

Now lets look at some possible builds, shall we?


Boots of Swiftness These help you go fast enough to initiate chase or scape in easy way, and go well with Burnout
Sunfire Cape With this and Burnout, you will do much damage per second and it will also provide you some extra Health and Armor.
Trinity Force Just Perfect for Shyvana HP, Damage, Speed some slow for CC.
Zeke's Harbinger No words for this item on Shyvana it is not only going to give u that extra atk speed or life steal, his pasive will Reduce our enemys armor and our Dragon's Descent + Burnout will be reason of pain and suffering.
Force of Nature More magic resist, and thanks to the recent nerf to Banshee's Veil, FoN is a much better choice also givin us Movement speed and health regen.
Madred's Bloodrazor Extra Armor, atk speed and one awesome pasive agaisnt these fools with many HP


Mercury's Treads The best boots in game, givin us some extra M.Res and "Tenacity" that reduce the duration of almost all the kind of debuffs in game.
Hexdrinker Excellent start against a magic team has extra DMG, M.Res is cheap and gives 1 awesome pasive.
Sunfire Cape A very core item for any build for Shyvana, and thanks to the nerfs to Banshee's Veil, this is a much better choice.
Wit's End Some Atk speed with more M.res who also makes our normal hits do magical dmg stacking more M.res
Force of Nature Best item in game for M.res
Trinity Force Core


Ninja Tabi Some early armor to stop all the physical damage.
Thornmail We should rush for it when up against a physical heavy team, the bonuses are just too great.
Warmog's Armor Helps you survive the damage that does come through.
Sunfire Cape Core item
Atma's Impaler With all this HP we will get a nice DMG with it and more extra Armor
Randuin's Omen Gives a nice amount of armor, health and some nice CDR with one active to CC in ganks.

Skill Sequence

Fury of the Dragonborn - Shyvana's melee attacks enhance her abilities in the nxt way:

Twin Bite - Reduces the cooldown by 0.5 seconds.
Burnout - Extends the duration by 1 second to a maximum of 6 seconds.
Flame Breath - Deals 15% of the ability's damage to debuffed targets.
Dragon's Descent - Attacks generate 2 Fury and Shyvana passively gains Fury over time while in human form.

So our pasive basically says that we need to auto attack them as many time as we can, if we stop the passive effect will go off. Now when you have Dragon's Descent activated, the more abilities you use and if your abilities hit enemy targets we will be in this form for more time.

Twin Bite - Shyvana strikes twice on her next attack.
Dragon Form: Twin Bite cleaves all units in front Shyvana.
Shyvana strikes twice on her next attack, dealing (+) physical damage on the second attack. The bonus damage is equal to 80/85/90/95/100% of Shyvana's Attack Damage.

It will Hurts with our Atk Runes and our Trinity Force this ability is your burst damage to a single target in normal way or many of then in Dragon Form.

Burnout - During the next 3 seconds, Shyvana will deal 25 / 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 (+0.2 per bonus attack damage) magic damage each second to nearby enemies and her movement speed will be greatly increased by 30 / 35 / 40 / 40 / 50%. Shyvana's movement speed bonus itself will be reduced multiplicatively by 15% for every second that passes.
Dragon Form: Shyvana now scorches the earth where she walks, leaving a trail of fire for 5 seconds that will continually deal magic damage to enemies that pass over it.

This is in my opion the best and most OP skill of Shyvana, u can cross the map and reach any point more faster than anyone, u can scape from anyone, and u can chase anyone... If you are chasing they will be taking damage but bcuz of the speed buff increase which will help you catch up to them and take them out more quickly u will also slow them with our Trinity Force and make even more dmg with our Sunfire Cape. Be sure to stay close to them and try to auto attack them it will fill our Fury bar to our Dragon's Decent and will gives more time of use in Burnout, u also can cast Dragon's Decent to chase this ability will ruin your enemies. You leave a burning trail on the ground of them they take even much damage! This ability is also AMAZING if you and your opponent are low on health and you run from them like Singed does.

Flame Breath - Shyvana unleashes a fireball forward in a line that will hit the first enemy it hits, dealing 80 / 125 / 170 / 215 / 260 (+0.6 per ability power) magic damage to it and reducing their armor by 15% for 4 seconds.
Dragon Form:Flame Breath engulfs all units in a cone in front of Shyvana.

In early game this ability is useful if you hit the shot it will reduce the armor of your opponent, making you to burst them a bit with Twin Bite. In Dragon Form, this ability will hit MULTIPLE enemies to burn through their armor giving you and your team the oppportunity to finish them.

Dragon's Descent - (Passive): Shyvana reinforces her scales, increasing her armor and magic resistance by 15 / 20 / 25. These defensive bonuses are doubled while in Dragon Form.

(Active): Shyvana transforms into a dragon and dashes to a target location. Enemies along her path take 200 / 300 / 400 (+70% of ability power) magic damage and are pushed toward her target location. Shyvanna must have a full fury bar to use this spell.

This is the key of Shyvana victory and power. The enemy champions will never know what happened until it's too late... you will gank their proximity as a flaming dragon taking them by surprise and destroying everything in your way.

Note: Your Burnout must be active before cast your Dragon's Descent, because you will leave a burning trail behind you and you'll already have them in your Burnout radius. If u land on them you will hit them for tons of damage and in same time u will knocthem for a second pushing them into a wall or a member of your team its an easy kill.

Also you gain increased Armor and M.Resist i like to said that u can dive into a tower with 2 enemys there 100% HP and if u have support of u team they will die with all and Tower.

DONT FORGET THAT U GET NEW ABILITYS ON EACH ONE OF U SKILL WHEN U ARE IN DRAGON FORM

Summoner Spells

Ignite Awesome in Early lvls and to kill these ppl who runs in with low HP, not very usefull in late game.

Flash I like to said that it must be always in our Shyvana one of the Most OP Spells in LoL awesome to Chase-Scape and is Boosted by our point in Blink of an Eye

Exhaust Another viable choise if we dnt go with Ignite we can remove 1 Masterie Point from Deadliness and improve our Exhaust on Cripple This Spell is very usefull when we are running out of HP and we need to face someone, or is a big adventage if we Cast it on the Enemy DPS in every gank.

Ghost Just awesome staking with Burnout also a good replacement for Flash for chasing and running in a sticky situation.

Team Lane

Early Game

Grab your Boots of Speed + Health Potion x3 and go to your lane. You will NOT check the bush and will not gank. The odds if it working or not are 50/50. Once the minions have spawned and no one is ganking you, just last hit the creeps and brust your enemys with Twin Bite in every chance. And DONT auto-attack the creep. Simple enough. Always keep the corner bush warded with your Sight Ward or Vision Ward depending on your enemy team.

Mid Game

In mid game what's better to do than gank? Make sure that the spots has Sight Ward, especially the dragon ward. Shyvana is a monster to gank, like ive wrote before u will land in their faces from bushes, walls and wherever they goes. Make sure that u has ur Sunfire Cape + Trinity Force or at least the Phage to start your ganks. You should be pretty tanky at this point, so always be sure that you are the one that facechecks bushes, the one that goes into their jungle first. Never let your teammates do it, unless u team has a Main Tank.

Late Game

Warding

As most of you know Sight Ward are an important part of map control which leads to winning games.

I've noticed myself though that while some players do place Sight Ward, they do not place them in good locations.

I'm not a high elo player myself but I have come to a degree of understanding of Sight Ward being a former DoTA player myself. And so I have here a simple guide to placing Vision Ward. (If you're high elo you probably know this already)

Sight ward are used to:

• Ensure important objectives are locked down (Buffs, Dragon, Baron, jungle as a whole)
• Increase overall map control
• Prevent ganks/countergank

Notes:

• You can usually use Sight Ward as a target for friendly units as well, this means you can teleport to them.
• Try to keep Sight Ward in a bush if possible, this means an enemy with oracles will have to be in the bush itself to see/kill it. Also a bonus of vision in bush as usual.

Placement of Sight Ward besides main objectives are usually dependant on the time of game, what your team/enemy team is doing. e.g you want to push, you might want to Sight Ward river (1st turret) enemy jungle (2nd turret onwards) or even both to watch out for approaching teamfights/ganks from jungle and respond accordingly, OR you want to defend, you might want to Sight Ward river/your own jungle for similar reasons.

One thing you may want to add is how Sight Ward priorities shift over time. For example your team is getting beat back, you no longer want to Sight Ward middle etc as you are mostly fighting out of your base. Important places to Sight Ward at that point are the jungle in between your lanes, specifically your red/blue buffs as your teammates will want to go into jungle to switch lanes or grab buff and get romped by other team.

Obviously you still want to try to Sight Ward baron if you can but realistically you have no chance of stopping a good team from getting baron late game when playing defensively. Especially when an inhibs down as they can see you fighting the monsters.

Conversely when you are hitting their base hard you want to start forgetting about warding things on your side and Sight Ward their jungle more. Catch their guys trying to sneak around behind you etc.

When to buy Sight Ward?
Get them whenver you can, you don't need to place it immediately, when you pass by a relevant ward spot that isn't already warded just drop it as you move along.

Basic rule of ward placement - if you leave the fountain with free item slots, more than 90 gold and no Sight Ward, you are doing it wrong.

Countering wards

- Oracle's Elixir. This of course means you will need to actively seek out Sight Ward to make it worth your while, however knowing when a Sight Ward is nearby is a great advantage, it means you know that the enemy knows you are in that particular location, meaning you are that much less likely to get taken by surprise/ambushed. Killing a Sight Ward also frustrates enemies (especially the one who placed the Sight Ward) Facechecking bushes is another matter entirely.

-Counterwarding. This means either taking preemptive measures to watch out for the enemy, or using Vision Ward (the purple wards that detect stealth) How does this work? When you suspect the enemy has a Sight Ward on an objective you want to meet such as killing the Dragon you either ward a chokepoint nearby where the enemy must pass through to get to you so you can escape before they arrive or countergank them, OR placing a Vision Ward in that very location. Vision Ward allow you to see and kill nearby Sight Ward and stealthed characters, and has vision over the area for a short time too.

Special Thanks

ShadowReign757

- For his Guide Your Extensive Guide To Tanking As Garen Your guide was the first one ive used from mobafire, and Garen was my 1st Champion of LoL, Thanks to u ive learned how to play it and how to play the Game, till the date of today i still playin him with u Guide.

jhoijhoi

- For the most extensive guide ive saw in my life! Ashes to Ashe's I must confess that when I read your guide first thing that crossed my mind was "this guy needs a girlfriend" But for reals this was and still being an amazing work, i always looked at Ashe as an useless character until the day that I met your guide.

VAIReetaws

- For the most OP of the DPS Guides ive found in LoL Guardsman Bob's way of Xin Zhao You and this guide tooks the meaning of DPS beyond the limits i just love that Guide.

Summary