Shyvana Build Guide by Legendarsreign

Introduction

___Wait? Did you say "Carry?" Most certainly yes! Shyvana has wonderful comeback ability with this build if your game isn't going well, and it gets worse for the enemy if your doing well. I've played her from the moment she came out and the more I play her the more I realize that she seems to take on the role of Carry with this build more often, and this build as won me a lot of games I would otherwise think were nearly impossible. I have added jungling sections for Shyvana although with the jungle changes I am no longer certain of how practical the build is, I prefer to solo top with her. Due to Hahano's definition of a jungler: "a jungler is someone who can reliably perform the duties of a jungler without altering their item or skill builds." jungling items are the same.

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Recent Patches and Updates

Shyvana

Pros Spectacular damage output. Very tanky and can be built tanky DPS. Extremely fast clear time. Great dueling skill set. Is more badass than most of the cast. Turns into a dragon. A DRAGON, PEOPLE!

SPA

SPA

Cons No CC at all. Only gap closer is her ultimate. Pretty much has to run Exhaust Can be kited harder than Udyr.

Difficulty:

Jungling Speed:

MMMHoly goodness. This lady clears ridiculously fast. Combine Udyr’s Phoenix Stance with Trundle’s Rabid Bite and slap Skarner’s passive on top of that and you have the fastest clearer (on par with Phoenix Udyr) the league has seen. She clears the jungle so fast that counter jungling her isn’t an option, everything is already dead always.

Jungling Sustainability:

Ganking:

MMMI went there. Take Master Yi and remove a gap closer and viola, you have Shyvana! Or how about you take Warwick and remove his move speed steroid and you have Shyvana! Her ganks are so naturally bad that she needs to run Exhaust to make up for the lack of both a reliable gap closer and CC. Just as with Master Yi, if she has red buff, Phage or CC from the lane, her ganks are pretty strong. This doesn’t really matter to me, though, because when you have to slap conditions on things in order for them to perform to a level that someone else does without them, there is a problem. Anyone who has played her has the same experience of people just flashing or walking away and you’re done. You have to blow both summoner’s AND have red buff to maybe kill someone who isn’t super super extended. Damage output means nothing without ability to deal it.

Ability to Deflect Counter-jungling:

Ability to Counter-jungle:

MMMNot quite as ridiculous as Shaco, but damned close. Everything said about her above holds here, she can get in and clear your camps before you realize it and kill you if you’re not prepared for her. She doesn’t get a 10 because she has absolutely no escape without her ultimate and using it as a Flash just to steal some wraiths is not so great.

Post Jungling:

• As Phreak said, her Q is an auto-attack reset. It also procs all on-hit effects (hello Wriggle's Lantern). Use this to your advantage in the jungle.
• Your ultimate is like Skarner’s in that the more you attack, the faster it comes back. This helps a lot when you’re going to perform a gank and can then clear the jungle for a fast cooldown. Where this starts to hurt is in the later game where there is not much to attack, so use it wisely late game and liberally early game.
• When going to gank, use Burnout after you’re very close to the enemy. It is your only movespeed buff and lasts longer when you are hitting someone. This also gives them an opportunity to blow Flash early, letting you flash after them, Exhaust and activate for the full damage and speed available.
• Use your ultimate to surprise people! If you’re counter jungling and have seen the enemy jungler through Clairvoyance or a sight ward, fly over the wall at them. This will not only make them **** themselves in panic, but gives you damage right off the bat.
• Red buff is infinitely more important than Blue buff on her. Give blue away as often as possible, but never give away your red and never let it get taken from you. Shyvana without red buff is a joke most times, but with it is completely scary.

• Run! Shyvana is really nasty when she can hit you and runs into trouble with that part. A well timed or placed Flash or Ghost will get you out of trouble fast.
• Keep in mind her damage output and tankiness. When she is in dragon form she will most likely kill you way before you kill her.
• She is really hard to counter jungle, however her ganks aren’t amazing. Take advantage of this by ganking lanes and securing victory there.
• When positioning for a teamfight, remember that she does really well when a group stands and fights. Try to put together a team comp or strategy where you will bait out her ultimate and then have the resulting fight elsewhere.
• She has no sustain and no ranged poke. When laning against her or gearing up for a teamfight, remember that she can’t do anything but literally fly into your team.

MMMShyvana is pretty easy to throw on a team. Overall she wants CC in the lane and most importantly, not an enemy kiting team. >Example Team: Udyr (top lane), Gragas (mid lane), Shyvana (jungle), Taric / Graves (bot lane).
This allows for CC in every lane and a really strong teamfight with Shyvana soaking up a lot of the damage. Gragas helps against kiting comps by blowing them back at you and Taric helps immobilize someone.

>Good against: People who like fighting her
>Bad against: People who don’t like fighting her.

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This section was taken from Hahano's guide Who is your jungler and what does he do?, however, the banner was created by me :)

Summoner Spells

═════IDEAL SPELLS═════

__________ Flash
Exhaust

MMM Flash and Exhaust allow you to close the gap between enemy players as she has no way of slowing down fleeing champions until she gets Frozen Mallet as well as slowing down enemy's who are chasing you.

OR

Flash __________
Ignite

MMMThese are the previous spells I used to use, mostly because who needs to chase them down when ignite will kill them on there way back, however due to the improved Heal spell I find this alternative less useful, I do however find that it improves my chances of First Blood.

__________ Flash
Smite

MMM Flash and Smite will be ideal if you plan on using my jungling build for Shyvana, you do lose some CC without Exhaust, but if you really need a jungler then this is the route to go.

═════"MAYBE" SPELLS═════



Promote

MMMOn Summoner's Rift, I wouldn't recommend it over other spells, she really needs Exhaust to help with her "No CC" issues, however, I used this spell on Dominion and found it to not be a bad choice.

Teleport

MMMThis is a spell that if you replaced Flash with it, it could provide an extra hand in ganking if you happen to have some Sight Ward down.

═════DON'T GET THESE SPELLS═════



Clarity

No mana = No Clarity



Surge

MMMI've tested this a few times. In both Summoner's Rift and Dominion game modes, this spell isn't really viable, the cooldown is too long and you already have a speed boost with a shorter cooldown from Youmuu's Ghostblade.

Clairvoyance

There are just better spell choices than this.



Cleanse

Once again.... there are just better spell choices than this.



Ghost

Burnout is her Ghost basically.



Heal

MMMYou get 3 Health Potion at the beginning so she doesn't need it early game, and when you finish Zeke's Harbinger you'll have plenty of LS.

Revive

Runes

Main Runes

Greater Mark of Desolation Greater Mark of Desolation Originally I played Shyvana with Greater Mark of Attack Speed, but I feel that ArP is a more efficient rune choice. Greater Seal of Resilience I changed this rune from Greater Seal of Attack Damage because I felt she needed more survivability, because a dead DPS character = No DPS

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Greater Glyph of Warding Since her MR is soooo low, I use these glyphs to help defend against heavy AP teams. Greater Quintessence of Strength More AD = More kills = "/dance"

Optional Rune Adjustment

I've played Shyvana enough times to know that sometimes even with the MR that she has, sometimes, it's just not enough. So, if you want some more survivability grab this instead.

Greater Quintessence of Warding
For the MR.

Masteries

Masteries
1/5	3/5	4/1	2/5	1/1	3/5	3/1	3/1	1/	3/5	3/1	3/5

_____Since Shyvana is a carry, re-enforcing this with her masteries is extremely beneficial. Have you ever had those games where you felt like you were always being defensive the whole game and one by one your towers fell, you lost zone control, and suddenly you realize that your team has only taken one tower? Well, I'm here to make sure that the team suffering from the "try to save every tower" syndrome is your opponent. This doesn't mean you should never defend. It means that pressuring your opponent in one lane hard enough means either they lose their tower in the lane OR they lose a tower in a different lane because they came to defend top/bottom/mid.

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_____ Tier 1: Summoner's Wrath reduces MR and Armor when you Exhaust your enemies, this synchronizes well with Frozen Mallet to help kill enemies quicker when you catch up to them. Brute Force simply adds to your AD. Tier 2: Alacrity , I will repeat this many times... Shyvana needs AS, it improves her passive giving her multiple bonuses. Sorcery improves her CDR, the faster you can get your abilities back, the faster you can kill your opponents, which.. HEY! That goes well with a champion who's passive improves her CDR and gets better when she has more AS.. XD Tier 3: Weapon Expertise gives +10% ArP, combine this with Youmuu's Ghostblade, Greater Mark of Desolation, Summoner's Wrath , AND Sunder and you have a heck of a lot of ArP. This forces your opponent to grab some Armor or enjoy walking around with no armor or sometimes going negative giving you increased AD. Havoc gives you increased AD :) Tier 4: Vampirism gives you more LS, since you don't have any at the beginning I throw this in there to help give some more survivability early game. This also gives you 23% LS with Zeke's Harbinger by mid game. Tier 5: Sunder :) See Tier 3 Tier 6: Executioner gives more AD but it's more helpful than that, when they drop below 40% health you do 6% more AD! This helps reduce the time you need to be near your target to kill them. REMEMBER that when attacking champions, even if your both low, you will start dealing more damage towards the end.

Tier 1: I threw in Resistance to give her some more MR on top of the Greater Glyph of Magic Resist. Hardiness is there to give her more Armor. Since Shyvana is a built to be aggressive, I want to make sure she is alive long enough to be aggressive. Tier 2: Vigor gives her increased HP5 which adds to the LS we gave her, that way in those moments while your traveling or backing off for a moment, you will be ready for the next battle.

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Primary Items

The build up top is my standard build for her, and I'll explain why I picked the items I did and some possible alternatives depending upon the composition of the enemy team.
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EXPLANATION FOR 3RD BUILD ALTERNATIVE

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___I recently experimented with replacing Mercury's Treads and Youmuu's Ghostblade with Ionian Boots of Lucidity and The Black Cleaver. Okay, first off this build essentially keeps in most of the same stats, you lose the active and critical strike chance from Youmuu's, but gain more AD and ArP. If your facing a bunch of tanks, take this build instead. I also use Wit's End instead of Madred's Bloodrazor to make up for not having any MR items.

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___At the beginning I grab boots and 3 Health Potion for some increased speed which synchronizes with Burnout to keep up with enemies which is it what usually leads to me getting First Blood and many other early game kills.

For jungling I grab Cloth Armor and 5 Health Potion, you'll be using Burnout to farm creeps.

OR OR OR
Mercury's Treads
NOTE: ONLY GRAB IONIAN BOOTS OF LUCIDITY IF YOUR USING MY 3RD BUILD
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___I used to use Berserker's Greaves for the increased AS, but I found 70% of the time I need more CC and MR so I switched to Mercury's Treads. Her Burnout gives her movement speed so she doesn't need Boots of Swiftness or Boots of Mobility, only grab Ionian Boots of Lucidity if your using my 3rd build. Another viable alternative is Berserker's Greaves if they don't have much AP. Recently, I found that on occasion I play against 3 or more AD characters, if this is this case grab Ninja Tabi.

OR
Madred's Bloodrazor
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___While Wit's End is her suggested item, I usually choose Madred's instead for several reasons. First off, they both have 40% AS but Madred's provides more AD and MD as well as some more Armor to help her squishyness early game. However, once again... if they are going AP heavy I choose wit's end to add some more MR.

OR
Stark's Fervor
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___This one is a difficult item for me to definitively pinpoint. Wriggle's Lantern adds more to her survivability which is why it's a suggested item and a viable alternative, plus you get a free nifty ward which saves money and is sometimes the difference between getting/not getting a kill or avoiding ganks. I grab Zeke's Harbinger as it is a great support item to help your teammates, as well as it gives you a great deal more survivability than wriggle's does, and 40% more AS which meshes well with her passive.

OR
Youmuu's Ghostblade
NOTE: ONLY GRAB THE BLACK CLEAVER IF YOUR USING MY 3RD BUILD
___

___ Youmuu's Ghostblade is a wonderful item on Shyvana as it gives you more AD, CDR, and armor penetration. It's Active is great too as it relies on you being more aggressive which is what you should be doing, as well as giving more AS and movement speed for up too 12 seconds! If your using my 3rd build grab The Black Cleaver instead.

OR OR
Frozen Mallet
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___This is usually my 5th item because by this point in the game Shyvana starts needing some more survivability, and this item makes her tanky. Keep in mind I said tanky... not a Tank. The slow on this item can help keep fleeing champions from getting away, plus it gives some AD. Warmog's Armor is a great alternative if your getting smashed Late game, it turns Shyvana into an even stronger tanky dps, which is really annoying and keeps your attacks going on longer. Facing an opposing team with Tryndamere, Ashe, and Kog'Maw? Grab Thornmail.

Infinity Edge
___

___Not much too add here, I just go straight damage at the end.. Sometimes when I go Warmog's as my fifth item, I usually get the, "Why not Atma's Impaler" question all the time. Atma's Impaler gives me 2% of my maximum health as AD... well by end game with Warmog's Armor my health is around 3500.

___That's a -10 AD from Infinity Edge, and you don't really need any more armor at this point, and the Critical is hardly beneficial compared to Infinity Edge.

___If the game stretches on long enough to where you get all these items I would suggest replacing Berserker's Greaves with:

Phantom Dancer
NOTE: IF USING 3RD BUILD, DO NOT REPLACE BOOTS WITH THIS!


This increases AS dramatically and increases you critical chance thus increasing the DPS!

Also ensure to continually grab:


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Jungle Monsters - A Quick Overview

Before we begin jungling, we definitely must know the basics.

As you improve your jungling and become a better player, these spawn times are very important to know if you want to perfect your jungling and counter-jungling. Keep these spawn timers in mind when you play.

Lesser Creeps

Initial Spawn: 1:40 Respawn Time: 1:00

The Buffs

Initial Spawn: 1:55 Respawn Time: 5:00

The Big Cheeses

Initial Spawn: 2:30 Respawn Time: 6:00



Initial Spawn: 15:00 Respawn Time: 7:00

Jungling Paths

(Use Health Potion as needed, I've put markers where Sight Ward should be placed)

1) First I go to the Wolves and use Burnout on these creeps, don't use smite on the wolves.

2) Second, I head to the Wraiths, use smite on the biggest blue wraith, this should give you a level up, immediately level Twin Bite.

3) Thirdly, Go to the Golems, you are free at this point to use whatever abilities you have to kill them, repeat steps 1-3 until you have enough to buy Madred's Razors.

4) Now you have choices, either continue to jungle until level 7 and then gank, gank early if necessary, or cover a lane while your teammates back or have died.

___I have also marked areas of escape OR areas of initiation either by using Flash or by using Dragon's Descent. Be weary of using Burnout after you have casted your ult to escape over terrain as the trail of fire left behind will lead them to you.

Skills

SPACE

Fury of the Dragonborn

Fury of the Dragonborn is her amazing passive and I copied out below the effects that are given for every basic attack she does. Keep in mind her passive thrives on aggression.

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.

Twin Bite

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.

Dragon Form: Twin Bite cleaves all units in front Shyvana.

Burnout

Shyvana deals 25/40/55/70/85 (+0.2 per bonus AD) magic damage per second to nearby enemies and moves 30/35/40/45/50% faster for 3 seconds. Shyvana's Movement Speed bonus is reduced over time.

Dragon Form: Burnout scorches the earth, continuing to damage enemies that stand on it.

Flame Breath

Shyvana unleashes a fireball that deals 80/125/170/215/260 (+0.6 AP) magic damage and burns 15/15/15/15/15% of their Armor for 4 seconds.

Dragon Form: Flame Breath engulfs all units in a cone in front of her.

Dragon's Descent

Active: Shyvana transforms into a dragon and takes flight to a target location. Enemies along her path take 200/300/400 (+0.7 AP) magic damage and are knocked toward her target location.

Passive: Shyvana reinforces her scales, increasing her Armor and Magic Resist by 15/20/25. Defensive bonuses are doubled in Dragon Form.

Combat Techniques

Twin Bite

Burnout

Flame Breath

Dragon's Descent

For an overview of Shyvana from LoL's creators: /league-of-legends/champion/shyvana-86

Summary

I will be revising this as new patches come out so check back!

Hope you enjoy destroying everything with Shyvana and I hope you enjoyed my guide, please let me know if you see any spelling mistakes or mechanics errors!

The game I went negative I played with aweful team-mates, the other one I lost we were just simply out-played.

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~Legendarsreign

FAQ

Q: How do you justify getting Infinity Edge with your only other critical item being Youmuu's Ghostblade? Why not swap for The Bloodthirster? -techmarine123
A: Infinity Edge gives me 50% more critical damage.

"All champions begin with +100% bonus damage on a critical strike." - Quoted from LoL Wiki

So this means I would be doing 150% bonus damage on a critical strike... basically meaning I'm doing 250% of my normal basic attack.

My max dps with this build is 282.
282 * 2.5 = 705
So I have a 40% chance to deal 705 DPS instead of 282.
NOT INCLUDING Twin Bite which I could crit on as well.

Compared to The Bloodthirster:
Now I would end up with 302 Dps base attack damage plus the LS(with all the benefits, which is nice, but I lose the 50% crit damage increase and 25% chance to deal a critical strike, so now I deal 200% damage on a critical.

Okay now let's compare with bloodthirster.
302 * 2 = 604
I have a 15% Chance to deal 604 DPS.


While 40% isn't nearly as good on me as say Ashe it is enough to make the difference in a fight. The only reason I would grab The Bloodthirster instead is if I was fighting against someone like Tryndamere or Sion.
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Q: Why Madred's and not Wit's End?
A: I see a lot of people loading up on MR on Shyvana all the time, without considering something... her passive Dragon's Descent says: "Passive: Shyvana reinforces her scales, increasing her Armor and Magic Resist by 15/20/25. Defensive bonuses are doubled in Dragon Form." Okay, so we know that her passive makes her have increased MR and Armor. I do include in my guide that Wit's End is a great alternative item if they go AP heavy, as well as Mercury's Treads. I don't discount that they are great anti-AP items, but why do I rush Madred's Bloodrazor? Okay, just for the sake of argument, let's say I'm level 8, with greaves and madred's, I played solo top this game, and I'm playing against Morgana.

Morgana's Health with catalyst at level 8 is 1391.

Shyvana's base damage at level 8 is 82, with madred's it's 112.

Okay here comes my calculations(I rounded down for simplicity's sake):

See this page: How is Armor Calculated? for how I calculated armor. Magic Resistance works the same way.

Morgana's Armor = 45 at level 8, Flame breath reduces this to 38.25

100/(100+38.25) = .72%

My AD only deals 72% of base AD because of her armor.

Her MR is at 30

100/(100+30) = .77%

My MD only deals 77% of base MD because of her Magic Resistance.


(ARMOR AND MR IS CALCULATED IN)
Very first strike: 87.84 AD + 4% of 1391HP(42.84 roughly) = 1260.32HP left(doesnt seem like much yet)
Flame Breath deals 80 MD
1260.32HP - 61.6MD = 1198.72HP
1198.72HP - 70.84 DPS(as MD) from Burnout = 1127.88 HP after one second of damage.

She now has 1127.88 HP

SECOND STRIKE: 131.04AD from Twin Strike + 42.84(madred's) = 953.92HP Left
ASSUMING I was able to get all 9 seconds of Burnout damage in(because of her passive) including the MD of Madred's and my base AD

8 more seconds of MD(70.84 per/s) = 566.72 Damage

953.92HP - 566.72 = 387.2HP left

130.68 per/s from base AD and Burnout * 3(3 seconds) = 392.04 Damage

Morgana dies after me being near her for 5-6 seconds, not including her shield she throws up or friendly champions attacking her, etc.


Alright now here's the same calculation with Wit's End.

She starts with 1391HP(just to remind you)

(ARMOR AND MR IS CALCULATED IN)
Very first strike: 66.24 AD + 32.34 MD(wits end) = 1292.42HP left
Flame Breath deals 80 MD(without MR factored in)
1292.42HP - 61.6MD = 1230.82HP
1230.82HP - 70.84 DPS(as MD) from Burnout = 1159.98 HP after one second of damage.

She now has 1159.98 HP(wits end), with Madred's she had 1127.72 HP(not a significant difference yet)

SECOND STRIKE: 114.19AD from Twin Strike + 32.34 MD(wits end) = 1013.45HP Left
ASSUMING I was able to get all 9 seconds of Burnout damage in(because of her passive) including the MD of Wit's end and my base AD

8 more seconds of MD(70.84 per/s) = 566.72 Damage

1127.72 HP - 566.72 = 446.73HP left

492.9 Damage from AD from 5 attacks.

This time it took me roughly 9-10 seconds to kill Morgana, which is a significant damage difference from Madred's Bloodrazor.

Changelog

11/14/2011 - Guide Created
11/14/2011 - Combat Techniques section added, Skills section changed, minor edits made
11/15/2011 - Added "LATE LATE GAME" section to Items, Intro edited, Build Name Changed
11/16/2011 - Changed Summoner spells section, switched Ignite to Exhaust, Mastery Trees Updated
11/17/2011 - Updated "Summoner Spells" section
11/18/2011 - Guide layout re-vamped, Summoner spells section re-vamped, "Legend" added to intro, video added to Combat Techniques
11/21/2011 - Added secondary Jungling build and added 3 new "Jungling" sections, added another in-depth video to "Combat Techniques"
11/22/2011 - Updated map in "Jungling Paths" section, added wards; Ninja Tabi added as alternative in both item build sections; added "Updates" section
11/24/2011 - Renamed "Pros/Cons" section to "Shyvana", new section incorporated from another guide
11/25/2011 - Updated "Summoner Spells" section
11/30/2011 - Added Personal Banner to "Shyvana" section
12/11/2011 - "Runes" section re-vamped, a couple formatting changes, "Jungling Items" section removed, secondary item build changed.
12/13/2011 - Added 3rd build alternative for Shyvana, "Primary Items" section edited, Jungle spawn timers updated, other minor edits
12/14/2011 - Added Intro Video illustrating my build, Added Thornmail as an alternative item
12/16/2011 - Changed Runes
12/19/2011 - Added a new section "Champions - Good/Bad Against"
12/22/2011 - Added a new section "Masteries"
12/29/2011 - "Champions - Good/Bad Against" section champions were edited
01/15/2012 - Added a "Recent Patches and Updates" section, updated the order of the item build, "Updates" section removed, replaced with "FAQ" section.
1/20/2012 - Removed "Champions - Good/Bad Against" Section until I finish re-vamping it, changed Berserker's Greaves to Mercury's Treads on first two builds, Wit's End replaced Madred's Bloodrazor on 3rd build, alternatives changed.
2/21/2012 - Updated Items due to "Stark's Fervor" changing to "Zeke's Herald"