Shyvana is one of the tankiest offtank champions, if not the tankiest offtank champion, in mid game so far. Her ultimate's passive is incredibly powerfull, and the reason why people are shouting at their full lungs to nerf her. She's incredibly powerfull in lane because of it, unlike (another personal favourite of mine) who's tankyness comes from being in the middle of the enemy team ( ).

My build is meant mostly to counter tanky teams, teams with high amounts of health and medium/high defenses.
She works the best in mid game as I build her. I'll explain why in just a few seconds.


Enjoy the guide.


(I am too lazy to do those pretty and shiny guides, ahah.)

You should pick Shyvana if you're looking for a champion with:

1. High mobility. With your W ability, which gives a 50% (!) of speed increase, you can "slowlock" your enemy with in hand, making difficult for enemies to escape you. Your Ultimate adds to her mobility as well, allowing you to pass through walls, if you need to chase or escape from the enemy;

2. Incredible defenses without too much items. Her Ultimate's passive, like I stated before, gives her a big flat amount of Armor and Magic Resist;

3. Outstanding early and mid game. It's where I think she shines the most. In mid game she is an incredible bully. She can towerdive to some extent, do a pretty decent amount of damage, chase forever an enemy, and even side jungle without a problem (with );

4. Pressure the enemy carries in teamfights. Since she has high mobility and high defenses, she can jump into the enemy team, pressure their carries or chase them away, and come back out to help her team's carries. This is extremely important!


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My core build is: + + .

Why ? The reason is quite simple. I'm sure you have allready lost games in which your team was winning by a large difference, and somehow in mid/late game, things start to turn around. This usually happens because the enemy team started building tanky (maybe 3 or 4 of them good amount of health and Armor/Magic Resist) making hard to counter it in just a couple of minutes. I say usually because it ain't allways like that. It depends on all sorts of things obviously. Some teams composition work better in lane, while others function better in teamfights. However, with in hand, you can counter 2 things: the enemy team offtank (which some tend to rush ) and their AP carry holding a .


Check the Items section for more information and explanations about the items.

Since I focus on the offtank role, my job is to bear as much damage as I can while adding medium damage. Defensive masteries synergizes even better with her massive defensive stats. Your damage will be only on the steady pace, but it will be enough to pressure the enemy carries while defending yours.

(In the upcoming Patch, the defensive three will be ever better for her, since a lot of skills I'm gonna pick are percentage ones, and give her even more utility and tankyness.)

Standard runes I use with most of my favourite champions. The Armor Penetration runes are great for lane harass. Your basic attacks will almost go completely through the basic armor of enemy champion and your Q ability will hit like a beast. By having the Armor yellows and Magic Resist blues you give Shyvana even higher defenses, which is the reason people complain so much about nerfing her.

This are however my personal choices for runes, you can take whichever you are most comfortable with. Some Health Regen might be handy too.

So, you're going solo top lane, but what should you take?

I usually buy my starting items accordingly to the enemy solo top.

.Is he AD? = + 5 x

.Is he AP? = + 2 x

.Is he... well... you're facing 2 champs for some odd reason? =


On your first way back to the base, grab and for better sustain and harass. If you don't have the money to rush fast the item, grab for side farming the jungle and sneaking the Drake fast with your jungler.

Once you get the Mallet, the path to victory opens. In mid game, this item gives an awesome amount of health, making you tanky enough even to towerdive at some extent. The slow it gives is almost impossible to escape, along with the CC your team should have. Learn to play with this item, and you will love it.

Now, your big damage item: .

This item synergyzes perfectly with Shyvana's passive with the Atk Speed increase. Not only that, it allows to counter big health-pool champions, like Nasus, Renekton, Garen, and other champions who like to build Atmog's, as well AP carries (like I said before) with . You might say that you will lack some damage. I say you don't need more damage. Simply because most carries (which are your targets) don't grab defensive items, meaning you don't need more damage in order to take 'em down. The damage from the Mallet and Razor's are sufficient (both items give a total of 50 AD, 5 more than a ).

is an obvious choice. If you need more Magic Resist.

Now, in the late game, things start to get complicated. If your team was fed early game and mid game, you have a much higher chance to win. HOWEVER things turn around sometimes. Because of that I have my last 2 items. At end game, the carries usually buy Armor or Magic Penetration items ( or ) which kills completely your defensive stats. Because of that I buy AoE support like items.

: Less attack speed, less damage. Since buying simply more armor won't be as much help, as the carries have those said ArmorPen items to counter it, slowing down their attacks speed will help much more.

: Lowers the enemies armor while giving your team a good amount of life steal and life regen. Ow, and don't forget the more attack speed you get.


One thing to keep in mind with this build though is you need quite a lot of gold. Getting kills and getting fed early game is crucial for later success. Your Mallet is easy to achieve, your Madred's ain't. It has a snowballing effect. If you're doing great and fed, it will be quite hard to stop you. But if the opposite happens, it's harder to get the upper hand. Especially if the enemies got fed. In this case avoid big and messy confrontations. And as allways, whenever you're winning or loosing, change your item order accordingly. If your team is loosing in teamfights, you will need defenses. So, get defensive items listed in the build. will help a lot.

Ok, I will go from laning to late game on what your role throughout the game should be, as a single and team player.

Laning:

As you are starting in solo top, your main role is to farm. Farm. Farm. Ow, and farm some more. You should have more creep kills than your opponent allways. If you have trouble with your opponent call your teammate jungler to help. Keep in mind one thing though: your W (which is the ability I max out first) is a great lane pusher. If you spamm this ability constantly you will push the lane A LOT. Play conservative. As soon you arrive in lane, start testing your opponent. Harass him and see how he reacts and the damage you can do. If this backfires on you, play defensive. Even in this situation your W is great. Why? Because you can farm the minions with your tower suffering minimal damage.

Also, reading your opponent is crucial in this game. Find his weak spot. Allways keep your cool. Even if you can't win the lane, doesn't mean you can't win the game. Especially with Shyvana. She shines in teamfights. (I will later make a guide on the biggest weaknesses in each champion and how to counter them in lane.)

Now, you noticed I don't use teleport for solo top. In my opinion, learn to play without it. Exhaust and Flash are more aggressive. If you're in a pinch, ask your jungler to help or replace you while you go to base. Or push your lane a lot (W ability remember?) and go to base. You can recall to base and come to lane usually in 20 seconds or less. If your jungler do replace you in lane you can even gank before going to your lane again. Since your jungler is there, they probably think you went to base and coming right back. And if the ganked used his Flash, once your jungler goes to gank, he won't escape as easily as before.


Mid game and teamfights:

My favourite part. It's the more unpredictable part of the game. People start roaming, and without wards into the enemy territory, you can never know for sure where they are. By this time, with your Mallet in hand, your ganks will be frightening. The said "slowlock" is just too much. You can also wander around on the enemy jungle, before they start gathering for teamfights. Watching the position of your teammates is crucial for this though as you don't wanna get caught and just die. The important places to roam their jungle is the bush near the enemy Wraiths and the 2 bushes outside the Blue Golem. Your support should ward both this points (whenever I play support though, I tend to cover only one side with wards, usually the Blue Buff, while I save Clairvoyance for the other side of the map).

Once the teamfights start, allways have an escaping mechanism. Meaning allways have at least your Ultimate, Flash or Exhaust to escape the enemy. I find myself dieing very few times with Shyvana. With she shines in mid game. The life you get and the amount of defenses you have at this point make you incredibly hard to kill, and quite menacing. Remember to abuse the slow on the Mallet. It is terribly powerfull and impossible to escape without CC or other summoner spells.

In the middle of the enemy team, don't chase, don't get greedy. You should act as a guardian for your team. By extending too much, your team has a opening for an attack from the enemy. By staying with your team you win more battles. And even if you don't ACE, you can much better push the lanes, kill the jungle buffs and safely ward as well, with fewer enemies around.

As soon you can get Madred's, you will start to get focused. Especially if you jump in the middle of the other team. You're a Dragon, but hold your horses. Since the game has progressed, the other team has got more power too, and the item you just bought is offensive, not defensive. This makes you more susceptible to the enemy. So around this time play more conservative.

After Madred's you can again play more recklessly and tank for your team again as soon you start buying more defensive items. One advice I wanna give you is if the game isn't going great for your team, don't rush Madred's, like I said in the Items section. I tend to buy this item or at least prepare for it, because it's sometimes too late to counter a team with lots and lots of health. It's as simples as: your team is doing great? The enemy is weakened, go offensive. Your team has it's back against the wall? Play defensive and exploit the enemy mistakes.


A lot of this game is won not only by skill using the champions abilities, but by reading the mistakes of the enemy team, the weak points they have. Even if your team is winning the lanes, that doesn't mean you will win the game (and this frustrates a lot of people).


Late game:

The part I hate the most... Sometimes, if the game drags for too long, the team which is loosing might win. That is the case if the opposing team starts building all tanky, hence why I build from the mid game forward as it takes time to build it. is another item you must get, if the team starts building too much armor. Both these 2 items + should be enough to cover those messy late game teamfights. They are the best both offensive and defensive AoE support items in the game.

In this phase, any mistake is crucial. Talk to your team and think it through. Your last items should give the edge you need to win, but avoiding enemy CC and playing it smart is very important.

That is it for my (brief) guide. Some things that I have not discussed you can find them on other guides. This build doesn't work for all situations, obviously. It's biggest weakness is it's price. Some things are pretty self explanatory in the guide I guess, but if you have any questions, leave a comment.

GG.


ANY RUDE OR OFFENSIVE COMMENTS WILL BE IGNORED.


Thank you.