Shyvana Build Guide by CrushingIce

Introduction

Hello everyone, I'm CrushingIce and I will show you my Shyvana guide. It is my first guide, so if you have any ideas what I can do better, just post it.
Why did I choose Shyvana to make a guide about her?
Well, Shyvana inspired me, she can transform herself into a Dragon with her Utlimate Dragon's Descent, she can do so much Damage and she has got so much mobility. I just wanted to buy and to play her.

I play Shyvana as a tanky DPS fighter with a little bit AP.
This guide will allow you to dominate mid and late game. You will also be able to do TONS of Damage and still be tanky enough to survive that Teamfights.

Note: Please excuse me if I have any grammatical errors. Because I am German, my English isn't the best. If you find any mistakes, please tell me and I will fix them.


Explanatation:
CDR: Cooldown Reduction = decreases the Cooldowns of your abilities

CD: Cooldown = The time your abilities need to refresh

ATS: Attack Speed = It determines how fast you can auto attack

ArP: Armor Penetration = It ignores the Armor of your enemys a little bit (depends on how much
Armor Penetration you have)

AOE: Area of Effect = Skills, which deal damage in an area

AA: Auto Attack/s = Your norm hits, you can do them with right clicks of your mouse

MrP: Magic Penetration = It ignores the Magic Ressist or your enemys a little bit ( depens on how much MrP you have)

MS: Movement Speed = Determines how fast you can move and walk

CC: Crowd Control = You need CC to control your enemys. Examples for CCs are: Stun, Fear, Slow, Suppress and many more ...

Pros/Cons

• Great damage output and burst damage
• Can take Squishys down in a few seconds
• It is funny to play her and she is an interesting Champion
• Has got a lot of AOE
• You can transform yourself into a big DRAGON :D
• Great Mobility
• Very strong mid/late game

• Not the best escaping abilities
• Weak untill you're lvl 6 -> You have to play very carefully if you don't want to die
  (An alternative way is to jungle with her, I will explain that later)
• No natural CC
• Can be easily kited by Ranged champions like Caitlyn or Vladimir

Masteries

For Masteries I take 11/0/19 for the utility and the damage output.
I take Summoner's Wrath for maxin Exhaust, Brute Force for more AD, Alacrity for more attack speed. Weapon Expertise gives me 10% ArP.
I put the rest into the utility tree, because Awareness and the others help me much in laning phase. Swiftness gives me more movement speed for chasing and escaping, Intelligence gives nice CDR and Good Hands reduces the time I am dead.

In my jungle build I took the utility tree for better jungling. And I took the defensive tree, because it helps me mid and late game, but it makes jungling easier, too. I wanted to play more deffensive, so I don't take the offensive tree here.

Runes

For Runes I take:

Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed OR greater quintessence of desolation
I think ATS is good for Shyvana cause 3 of your abilities benefit from it.
Every AA reduces the CD of your Twin Bite and your Burnout and your ultimate Dragon's Descent can be hold longer if you AA a lot.
The Reason I don't like to take ArP Runes is , that most of my Damage in this build is magical Damage. But if you really need them, you can take them.

Note: Now, I have tested MrP Runes and I have to say, that they aren't as nice as the others.
Your Magic damage will be higher, but your Damage output is not as strong as with more ArP or ATS. Because of that, I do not recommend to use MrP Runes.

Greater Mark of Attack Speed OR greater mark of desolation
Same as the Quints ;)

Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction OR Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist
These runes give me CDR and this is nice. You will be able to spam your abilities more often and kill them faster. Otherwise you can pick the MR Runes. They work fine with the passive of your Ultimate Dragon's Descent. I usually don't need more Magic ressist, but if you think you need it, take Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist instead.

greater seal of vitality Or Greater Seal of Armor
With more Hp, you can stay in your lane longer, without going back. For my jungling guide, I take Greater Seal of Armor instead. Since the monsters in the jungle deal normal damage, the extra Armor is very nice. It helps against heavy AD teams, too. Again, it is your personal choice what you take.

Summoner Spells

The good ones


I take Flash for escaping, chasing, and lots of other things. Flash my prefered Summoner Spell, because it is very viable.


I usually don't take Cleanse, because of my Mercury's Treads. With Mercs I am not soo liable to CC, but if you take some other Boots, Cleanse is a good choice.


I use all my abilities to shut down this AD Carry, but unfortunetely he/she trys to escape with Flash or Ghost. NO WAY !!! Cast ignite and burn them into dust :D


Exhaust is another good choice for your Summoner Spells. Shyvana has got no natural cc and this slow will help you a lot in teamfights or at chasing their carrys. Or if you focus that fed Shaco or Ashe, she won't do that Damage anymore and it is very easy to kill him/her.


Take it if you are going solo top. It will help you controlling your lane and gives your team Map Awareness, which is very important.

The OK ones


I took Ghost into the Ok ones, cause Shyvana doesn't benefit much from it. She has her great mobility and Movement Speed so Flash is a much better Summoner Spell for her.


I wouldn't take it. You won't have HP problems, because you have your Wirggle's Lantern, that has got Life Steal and your build, which gives you enough survivability.


Only take it if you are going to Jungle.

The bad ones


You aren't the Tank or the Supporter


Don't take it, the CD is toooooo high.


No Mana = No Clarity

Skill Sequence and Ability Explanatation

This is your passive and it gives you different effects, if you do AA's :
Twin Bites Cooldown is reduced by 0,5 seconds with every AA
Burnout will be casted longer for every AA you do while activated, lasts up to 6 seconds
Flame Breath Your AA's will deal 20% of the ability's damage to every debuffed unit
Dragon's Descent With your AA's you will get 2 Fury for each AA. That helps you to say in your Dragon Form longer.


Twin Bite is a single target damaging skill, which works fine with Sheens proc and other On-Hit effects. This will be an important part of your damage output and it CAN and SHOULD be used to get turrets down faster.
In your Dragon Form you hit all enemys in front of you. The reason why I don't max this skill 1st is: Twin Bite hits enemys 2 times and the second hit deals 80% of your Attack Damage at lvl 1 and 100% at lvl 5.
You wouldn't benefit much from maxing this skill first.
So it is much better to max Burnout 1st. I pick this at lvl 2 and max it second.


Burnout is your Bread and Butter. It gives you nice DPS, AOE Magic Damage and increased Movement Speed. It is great for Farming, Jungling and Pushing Lanes.
The increased Movement Speed makes Chasing and Escaping much easier. It's like a Ghost with less Cooldown.
In Dragon Form this skill will burn the earth and enemys who are standing on it will take damage. Burnout has great Utility in Teamfights so I pick it at lvl 1 and max it immediately.


Flame Breath deals nice Magic Damage, if you are going to stack AP . But I don't reallly, so I pick this skill at lvl 4 and max it last. I use it to harrass my enemys and lower their armor for my Twin Bite.In Dragon Form this skill will hit all enemys in a cone in front of
Shyvana


Dragon's Descent is your Ultimate and you can only cast it if you have 100 fury points.
In Human Form Shyvana gets 1 Fury every 1,5 seconds and in Dragon Form, you will lose 6 fury every second.
It gives you 15/20/25 Armor And Magic Ressist passively and deals great AOE Magic Damage when you activate it. And it transforms yourself into a Dragon. In this Form your Abilities are AOE Spells and have bonus effects.
But I would hold it for the right Moment and I don't recommend to initiate with it.
It is a very powerfull Ultimate and I really love it. You can use it to catch up enemys who are escaping over walls with Flash or to fly away from that Singed and his Fling.
If it is used correctly, it can change a failed Teamfight into a Win.

Items

CORE ITEMS

+

AND

OR

AND


The build I showed at the top is very balanced. It has enough Armor, MR, AD and some AP for the ultimate.

I usually start with Boots of Speed and 3 Health Potion. This gives me movement speed for early game harassment. I can also build Mercury's Treads earlier if I start with Boots. You can also grab with Doran's Shield or Doran's Balde or Cloth Armor and 5 Health Potions at the beginning. Just take what you like.

I continue with .These Boots give me MR and Tenacity. You will be focused and CCed if you ulti into the enemy team. And you should do this!! Cause you will be tanky enough to take that and deal massive AOE DMG. That's why I take Mercs.

My next Items are and .
Wriggle's Lantern gives me Armor, Life Steal and attack Damage + a free ward.
With Life Steal I can stay longer in my lane and have Armor against enemy AD Champions.
The ward allows you
Wit's End gives me MR against enemy AP Champs and ATS + Bonus 42 Magic Damage per AA.
Wit's End is one of my preffered items on an Offtank, so I take it on Shyvana, too.
I grab this 2 Items, cause I will have much balance at early/mid game.
With Phage as next item, Shyvana will have enough tankyness for the moment.

I continue with and finish it to a At this point, you start getting unstoppable. TriForce gives you CC!!(the slow), more HP, more AP, more Movement Speed ,Attack Speed and Critical Strike Chance. Everything that Shyvana needs. In my eyes a MUST HAVE .

So now I grab The Bloodthirster. Before, I always picked Hextech Gunblade, because of the spell vamp, some AP and the active. The active is still very nice, but some people really hate AP on Shyvana. I tried The Bloodthirster instead of Hextech and now I think, The Bloodthirster is the better choice. You will heal more with life steal than with spell vamp.
The big amount of AD you get from Bloodthirster is also very good since Burnout and Twin Bite scales with AD. And it costs less then Hextech. That's why I changed the item.

My last Items are and madred's.
I pick Sunfire Cape, because it gives me a nice amount of HP and some Armor. Its passive also stacks with Burnout or even more AOE damage. If you have a very AP heavy enemys, it is better to take Warmog's Armor. The Armor of Sunfire Cape is getting useless against
AP and the extra boost of HP will make you even tankier. And as my last item I pick Madred's Bloodrazor or Force of Nature. You will replace the Wriggle's Lantern with one of these items. If the enemy team is VERY AP heavy, take Force of Nature instead of Madred's.
But the Bloodrazor gives AD, some Armor and Attack Speed. But the best is its passive:
Every hit of you will deal 4% of your enemy's max HP. So Twin Bite will deal 8%.
This is a nice damage boost and after you got all these items, you can call yourself a

LEGENDARY DRAGON

Other viable Items

Who doens't like some options?

Boots

I would pick Ninja Tabi if your enemy team is much more AD and less CC heavy. These boots give you Armor and Dodge chance. They will be very usefull against AD teams.

Their team is not CC heavy and/or weak? Grab Berserker's Greaves for the nice boost of Attack Speed.

Offensive Items

The Black Cleaver is a nice item, it gives you 30 Attack Speed, 55 Attack Damage and a nice Armor Debuff.
With every Auto Attack you will reduce the Armor your enemy by 15 up to 3 times. I use it sometimes against heavy Armor teams.
But The Black Cleaver should be used in more AD based builds. I would replace Hextech Gunblade with it.

Youmuu's Ghostblade is also a good item choice.
It gives you 30 Attack Damage, 15 Crit Chance, 15% Cooldown Reduction which is very nice and 20 Armor Penetration.
It also has got a nice active which grants you 50% Attack Speed and 20% Movement Speed for 4 seconds.
Auto Attacks will increase the duration by 2 seconds up to 8 seconds.
This is a great chasing and escaping tool. But as The Black Cleaver, in my opinion it is
an item for AD based builds. I usually don't get this.

Defensive Items

Warmogs gives a big amount of HP and Health Regeneration.
It will help you a lot. You will have much HP and with the Armor and MR, you will be even more difficult to kill.
But only HP isn't enough for me. It is still a good choice, but I normally don't take it with Shyvana

Yes, Frozen Mallet is an option for Shyvana. It gives you
very much HP and a perma slow. People won't get away from Shyvana, if you hit them once.
You will slow the enemys to death. but only take it, if you don't build Trinity Force, because both have a slow and this would be a waste of your money. I prefer the Trinity, but some people don't. Frozen Mallet is a perfect item for these people.

Well, Atma's gives 45 Armor, 18% Crit chance and the best of all: You get 2% of your Max HP as AD ! You can replace Wriggle's Lantern with it. I like this item really much.
You may ask: You take Atmas, but no Warmogs? Yes , I do. I know Atma's Impaler scales wonderful with warmog's armor]. Many players prefer getting Atmogs on [[Shyvana. I think
Atmogs is NOT a must have. There are so many ways to play Shyvana and Atmogs isn't the only one. I wanted to show you a different way of playing Shyvana, so I don't take the Atmogs combo.

75 Armor, 350 Health, 25 Health Regen, 5 % CDR and a very nice active, which slows nearby enemys .
Want to have? Yes please!

The best MR item in this game.
Gives you 76 Magic Ressist, 8% Movement Speed and some very good Health Regen.
I buy it against AP heavy teams and I love this items so much.
You get even more movement speed (you will be very very fast) and will be able to take much Damage from these casters. I replace Wriggle's Lantern or Sunfire Cape ( only if their team has no fed AD carry) with Force of Nature. Get it!

NOTE: The reason I don't play her as a full AD or a full Hybrid Champ is, that the build will cost too much and I don't want to be squishy.

Team Work

Your role in a Teamfight will be the tanky DMG Dealer. You will really need that Tankyness, cause you will and must use your Ultimate. And if you use it, usually every enemy will focus you. If you aren't tanky, they will take you down in a few seconds and a dead Dragon is not a useful Dragon. But their Focus is what we want! If you take some of the Damage, you safe your team from dying and if your team doesn't die, you will win the Teamfight.

I wouldn't recommend to initiate with your Dragon's Descent. Keep it until your Main Tank initiated or went into the fight.
Why? Well, if you initiate with your ultimate, you will die sometimes.
They will focus you immediately and if they are feeded or very strong, they will just kill you before you dealed your Damage.



But sometimes, there are situations like this one:
Your enemy team is in a formation like this: Ranged AD Carry and Ranged AP Caster behind
their Main Tank and Off Tank, the Supporter between their ranged Champs and their non-ranged Champs. You have to destroy their formation. And the best thing to do that is to initiate with your dragon’s descent. After that your team can catch up the enemy team and
you will probably win the team fight.

Jungling Section

I normally don't jungle with her, but I will explain you how I jungle with Shyvana.


I start with following items:



Since the jungle was made easier, it is better to start with
instead of
(you still can start with armor and 5 pots, but I recommend the scepter)

You can start jungling at every camp.
So there isn't really a jungle route you have to follow, because you can't do the same stuff every match. It won't work.
I would recommend to start with red buff or blue buff camp (you will need a pull from another champ). If not, I wouldn't try blue or red buff before you got your cloth armor and lvl 3.

Always watch where you can gank and which lane needs your help. This is very important for winning this game. And it is your job to gank and protect lanes.

If there is no lane to gank you should clear Golems, Wraiths and Wolves again and again, until you can gank or you got enough money to buy the next item.

An example for a route is : Wolves, Wraiths, Double Golems, go back and buy armor, Red buff,

Double Golems, Wraiths, Wolves . After the wolves you should repeat the 3-camps route, until a lane needs your help. Always repeat this 3-camps route if you are not ganking.

Summary

Thank you for Watching and Reading my Guide. If you have any ideas, what I can improve, please post it.
I hope you will understand Shyvana better now and have some Fun with her.

Change Log

2011-11-07 : Added some explanatations into the Introduction and added some more details.
2011-11-08 : Added a second build, which is for jungling. Added a little jungle section and some item options, too.
2011-11-09 : Changed Ignite with Exhaust. I tried them both , but actually, ehxaust helps me to survive more often and I got better stats.
2011-11-10 : Changed the Seals in my jungling build. Changed some informations in Teamwork section.
2011-11-16 : Added Madred's Bloodrazor as last item for even more Damage