The tone I use here is a bit...spicy at times. Not super spicy. Like on a scale of ketchup to ghost pepper, this is about a honey BBQ sauce. Mmm...BBQ sauce...anyways...if you can't handle minor cursing, don't read this. I mean, I'm not dropping F-Bombs all over the place (or even at all), but I've met people who run away squealing like a pig when you say the word "hell" to them. Just sayin'.

Hello everyone!This is (obviously) a guide for Shyvana, who is apparently played as a jungler, according to the guides I saw earlier today. However, to be frank, I hate jungling. It's...let's just say I don't quite enjoy it as much as laning, which is the main way I play, as I will show you in this guide. Plus, Shyvana just excels at laning, whether solo or duo. As long as it's not mid. Before you read this, I'm warning you. I went a bit overboard with the BBCode formatting for Items. Thought it would be useful, but it's a bit of a clutter. PLEASE leave a comment telling me what to improve if you downvote, or even if you vote up. I'm open to suggestions, especially on runes and masteries. Anyways, back to the guide!

Ah, runes...my least favorite subject. Honestly, runes and I don't get along too well, but I've found that having AS marks, armor seals, MR/level glyphs, and AS quints works out decently. However, I'm not saying they're the best, and as I said, I will be open to suggestions and edit this guide as frequently as possible.

Oh god, I know these alone will get me flamed for weeks to come. But maybe if I explain my reasoning, you seasoned veterans and skeptics out there will see a method to my madness. Basically, I put 16 into offense solely for the speed and armor penetration. And you need that cooldown. However, if more than one person comes to me and says, "Hey Alt, that masteries page...get rid of the CDR, 3% doesn't matter that much," I'll change it. Which was what I had intended to do originally.

tl;dr : If you want something changed, say it. And if enough people want me to, I'll change it. Simple as that. Anyways, enough of my rambling and trying to make jokes. ON TO ITEMS!

WOOO! ITEM TIME! My favorite. I particularly like this setup because from what I've seen, nobody else uses it. There's multiple reasons for that. Probably because it's squishy at first, and everybody seems to want to treat Shyvana like a tank. By the way, she's not. In case I was unclear. However, let me walk you through it first so that I'm not just shouting things at you and expecting you to obey without question. I start with a Doran's Blade because it's a nice, solid starter item. Enough said. The next item is where there was a lot of debate for me personally.

Ah, the age-old shoe debate, now ported over to your favorite RTS game for your pleasure...not really a pleasurable experience though. If you go with Berserker's Greaves, you do more DPS and your ult lasts longer. If you go with Mercury's Treads, you get that beautifully useful +35 Tenacity, with the somewhat lacklustre but nonetheless useful 25 MR. And if you go with Sorcerer's Shoes, you're just an idiot. Sorry. Anyways... Mercury's Treads will win the argument in most cases, due to the fact that there are so many champions with CC nowadays that the Tenacity is a necessity. What changed my mind was going up against Ashe, Cho'Gath, Ryze, Taric, and Warwick. Simultaneously. Yeah. See what I mean? And yes, if you're wondering, I did alphabetize those. Because I'm OCD. Anyways...I ultimately went with the Mercury's Treads because it's just safer, even though I absolutely adore Berserker's Greaves.

On to the rest of the items. Enough with the damn shoes. Wit's End is pretty standard. It gives good attack speed, bonus magic resist... you can't really go wrong. Zeke's Harbinger for the Life Steal and Attack Speed mostly. The 30 Hp5 is amazing, and the 20 armor reduction on nearby enemies will make you cry with joy at times. Just AWESOME. Frozen Mallet because I don't like being squishy as hell. Madred's because the on-hit effect will obliterate any tanks that get in your way. The final item is situational. Purely situational. I just find myself wanting more AD by the end, so I go with Infinity Edge most often, or Force of Nature/ Atma's Impaler depending on the situation. You could use Guardian Angel as well, or if you're a badass go for Guinsoo's Rageblade or Sword of the Divine. Possibilities are endless.

Why not Trinity Force, you ask? Because I don't like it. And Frozen Mallet is 100% slow chance, compared to 25%. However, putting it in the last slot might not be a bad idea, so try it out and let me know. I think the build is much better served as is for the first five, but I didn't much consider Trinity Force for the last slot until now.

tl;dr: Go with what the guide says. Do not question. Only obey...

You're probably sick of reading by now, right? Too bad. You've got a bit more to go. Don't worry, I won't make you do my Algebra/Precalc homework. That's in the next edition of the guide. This is just about skills. The sequence is debatable, honestly. Burnout should be maxed first. Definitely. Pretty quick little blurb, shouldn't take too much time. Not even gonna bother you with the passive yet. Will add that later because I'm tired. Okay. Here goes...

Twin Bite

Oooookay... This move. Is. Amazing. You hit twice with your normal attack...maybe it's not as amazing as it seemed like it was going to be, but it's still useful. Both hits can hit a turret/inhibitor, and both trigger on-hit effects. Meaning that Madred's Bloodrazor you just bought bit a huge hole in your target's hp (and probably your wallet). Lame jokes aside, this move is useful, but not as useful as Burnout.

Burnout

OH MY GOD. NOW THIS MOVE. THIS ONE'S THE BEST MOVE EVER. Over-reacting again of course, but let's be honest here. This is THE most powerful move you have. Movement speed for chasing, a little constant damage effect for chasing/running away, and, because of your passive, a neat little 6-second extension if you auto-attack enough. Yeah. Impressed yet?

Flame Breath

Personally, I think this move is amazing. I rank it right after Burnout, but then its usefulness declines rapidly. The debuff it gives (15% armor reduction for 4 seconds) doesn't increase when it's ranked, and the only thing that increases is damage and CDR. This skill is absolutely amazing for initiating and chasing, harassing, hitting while running away, etc. Unfortunately, 1v1 chasing/harassment is pretty much all you can use it for. If your target is in a mob, you won't hit it, which is where the usefulness of this skill plummets. Personally I would recommend following the build as is, but if you want to rank Flame Breath before Twin Bite, be my guest. Just warning you though, it's not as efficient for 1v1 damage-dealing.

Ignite and Flash are your best options in my opinion. This is why:



Flash is, in my opinion, THE most useful spell for chasing with Shyvana. You could probably get away with using Exhaust instead, but then you have to do even MORE chasing, and if you have Frozen Mallet, you won't need the slow from exhaust. Flash also comboes REALLY nicely with Shyvana's Dragon's Descent. You could Flash behind them and use your ultimate's knockback to push them into your turret (assuming you're close enough), or just use it with your ultimate to get twice the transportation range. Point is, there's a lot of ways to use Flash that make it an excellent choice for usage on Shyvana.



Well, here we are. Another fire-based move. As if we didn't have a whole moveset of those, right? WRONG. This spell is AWESOME. Great for first blood, second blood, and I even got a 32nd blood with it once. True story. It reduces healing, does damage, looks cool, scares people, gives you LOLWTF factor with your ability to kill them when they think they're safe, and it stacks well with Aura items and skills. Using Ignite with the effect of a Sunfire Aegis or just using Burnout will get you insane amounts of damage. I just like it and it helps get kills, and is your only offensive summoner's spell.

I'm a bit biased on the subject here, but I hope you'll agree with me that Shyvana is one of the most potentially deadly champions on the battlefield if utilized properly. She benefits enormously from attack speed and her cooldowns become ridiculously short, making her perfect for ganking and quickly eliminating enemies in teamfights before retreating. Probably one of the only newer champions that doesn't need adjustment. Leave a comment and vote! Help the guide improve! Do something! Or not. Mostly, just have fun and mess around a bit with Shyvana and you'll hopefully like her as much as I do. </guide>

Me for writing the guide and doing a large portion of editing and whatnot.
Galladeness for helping with Runes and Items, and just generally being helpful.
ChocoIateMooCow for helping me test this with her to save my *** when something goes wrong. Which it does often.

11/2/2011: Created guide. Edited over 20 times. Told you I was OCD. Added more BBCode. Made it have extra awesomeness.
11/3/2011: Messed around with skills/items some. Added more BBCode, removed some, tried to make it less unnecessarily cluttered.
11/6/2011: Fixed a really bad skill sequence problem. Working on double-checking the skill order.