GUIDE REVAMP DONE

I hope...

Everything here is final, for the most part.

Shyvana is a jungler who excels at power clearing and bullying the enemy jungler. She has incredible raw damage at almost all stages of the game which allow her to completely decimate weaker junglers or even some of the best. However, she brings very little utility to a team, and as a result she falls off if she gets put too far behind.

Although with Season 3 indirectly nerfing Shyvana with itemization (Attack Speed and Health nerfs), a jungle focused more on single target clearing (Shyvana is primarily AoE), and meta shifts of what makes a jungler good (Ganking and teamfighting as opposed to annihilating carries), Shyvana still remains a strong but niche pick in my opinion.

space

Pros +Best base stats in the game (OP) +Very mobile +Incredible damage output +Very fast clear +Strong late game +Is a freaking DRAGON

space

space

Cons -No real gap closer until 6 -ZERO CC (Ult shouldn't be used for CC) -Probably easiest champion to kite -Bad at ganking -Falls behind if not farmed -Underrated

filler

As a counterpick to weak early junglers. As a jungler, Shyvana helps her team by relieving enemy jungle presence through constant pressure.

Shyvana can absolutely decimate any weak early jungler because of her raw damage output in the early levels. Champions who cannot duel at all, such as Nautilus or Maokai, are more or less free food for you.

However, if you have weak early laners who will most likely rely on you to gank for them, then Shyvana might not be the best choice because of her awful ganks. This can be fixed if your teammates have hard CC though.

Lastly, don't pick Shyvana against teams with strong disengages, such as Janna or Jayce. Your only initiate is Dragon's Descent, and because you won't constantly be hitting anything late game (Baron/Tower standoffs OP) it's on a relatively long cooldown. Chances are if you fight without it, you won't be able to sit on enemy carries or pump out as much damage that well.

I use Attack Speed Marks, Flat Armor Seals, Mr/Level Glyphs, and Flat AD Quintessences.

Shyvana scales very well off Attack Speed, and Flat AD Quints will slightly bump up your jungle time. You can exchange any of these with some Armor Penetration for a stronger late game if you'd like.

Greater Seal of Armor are mandatory in the jungle, without them you would be too squishy and the jungle camps will tear you apart especially since you have no natural sustain.

I take MR/Level Blues because you won't be dealing with a lot of early magic damage as all jungle creeps deal physical damage.

You're a jungler. No exceptions. If you don't have Smite, you aren't jungling. Against half decent players, you will get EVERY DRAGON, BARON, and BUFF stolen, as well as jungling a lot slower because you're missing out a nuke that does up to 1000 damage.

Flash is better in most circumstances, as it's generally safer when you have an additional escape. However, Shyvana does have a free dash with Dragon's Descent, and a speed boost from Burnout. With all that mobility, it's viable to forgo Flash and run Exhaust to duel better instead.

Flash for normal circumstances, Exhaust if you want to be a better duelist OR if you want to gank better.

How well you gank with either Flash or Exhaust is debatable.

Anti-Carry Items

Thornmail is a good item if their AD Carry is especially fed and if it's your job to kill them. With this, they either have to ignore you and take a huge beating, or try auto-attacking you and take huge amounts of damage with the reflect.
Very strong on Shyvana. You have high base AD to abuse Spellblade, the Phage proc lets you stick to targets, and it also gives you a bit of everything. Also, all the stats are useful in some way to Shyvana, except for the mana.
If you didn't get Tenacity from Mercury's Treads, then this is a good 4th or 5th item. It gives a load of attack speed and movement speed, and tenacity too.
Until this gets buffed so that it procs twice on Twin Bite (it currently does not), don't buy it. You don't usually stack a lot of AD, so the splash doesn't hurt, and because of that using an item slot for a purely offensive item which doesn't do a lot of damage isn't worth it.
If you absolutely need the 100% chance to slow a target to stick to them, or if you need to peel for your carries. In any other cases, don't buy this item, as there are better options for Health and/or damage.
If you're against a double AP Team composition (AP Mid and AP Top). No other exceptions.

Tanky Items

If you need to be more of a 'team player' rather than an assassin (aka "I'm short on gold and can't kill carries"), aura items such as Locket and Aegis are good choices. They aren't that great when you're alone, but in teamfights the value multiplies for each teammate using the aura.
It's a lot of health to synergize with your Ultimate's free resistances, but that's it. Not much to explain, it just straight up makes you tankier than any other item.
Gives a decent amount of both Armor and Health, and the free AoE damage synergizes well with your Burnout. This rewards you well for staying alive and staying close to the enemy team because of the constant burn damage.
Only if you are a huge threat (aka fed) AND if you're the first to die every fight. Otherwise, no. The stats are no longer good enough to make it an every game buy.
Wit's End is a very good item on Shyvana. Twin Bite procs it twice, meaning you will gain MR twice as fast and do twice as much damage. It also gives a decent amount of attack speed, which goes very well with Shyvana.

Alright, the game has started, and you bought your choice of starting item. You place a point into Burnout and...now what?

Because Shyvana has zero dependency on Blue Buff, high mobility, super fast clear speeds, and is capable of very strong invasions, she can go on a large variety of jungle routes. Every game you will be faced with decisions on what YOU want to do.

Do I want to steal the enemy Red?
Do I want to steal the enemy Blue?
Do I want to gank lanes?
Do I want to invade?

There's a right time and place for everything, though. You can't necessarily 'steal' Red Buff 5 minutes in, as it's probably already gone.

In this section I'll teach you about the possible beginnings of routes Shyvana can take, as after you finish your first clear of the jungle, jungling is pretty much free-form.
asd

---

Normal Clear, Blue Buff Start

The standard route that every jungler knows. It's fairly straightforward.

• Wolves (Get help here so you can clear it before you get to Blue)
• Blue (Get a leash)
• Wraiths
• Wolves OR Golems
• Red
• Go back to base (as Shyvana, you're kind of low on health here if you started with boots.)

And that's it! Just clear the closest thing that spawns to you, and you're set~

And when you start getting low, go back to base so that you don't die to creeps (embarassing, I know :C).

Or, you can go gank lanes. All up to you.
asd

---

Heavy leash Blue, Steal enemy Red

A route to steal their red, then gank with it. It's kind of ironic that they're getting ganked with their own Red buff :3

• Start Wolves. Get help so you don't take as much damage.
• Take a heavy leash on Blue and SAVE Smite!
• Run directly to their red and take it.
• Run to the most over-extended lane that's close by, and gank it. It doesn't matter if you get a kill here or not, applying pressure is fine.
• Run to your OWN Red Buff and secure it so the enemy jungler doesn't take it in your absence. Or, donate it to your AD Carry!
• Then do whatever you want :3 Preferably invade again, or gank more.

This is a high-risk, high-reward play. A lot of times this works in low elo because the other team doesn't ward their buff camps early on, but in a higher level of play warding it is common and may result in you being killed. Additionally, the other jungler may decide to secure his buffs early, and catch you doing his red at a bad time, probably killing you right there. Proceed with caution!

In this route, you steal their red, but because top/mid lane is difficult to gank, you're going to stay in the jungle and beat the **** out of the other jungler. In short, you're looking to fight.

You don't have to go directly to red, catching them at Wraiths, or doing their golems then catching them at their red is a good choice as well. This is my preferred route as if it goes well you can potentially permanently cripple the enemy jungler.

Again, this is high-risk, high-reward. Caution is advised~
asd

---

Start Red, Normal Route

Just a normal route for starting at your own Red Buff.

• First, take Wraiths. If your team gives you decent enough help, you can potentially clear the camp without taking too much damage.
• Then, take a leash at red, and clear it.
• Next, take either Golems, or go to Wolves.
• Take Blue if you took wolves, or wolves first then blue if you went golems.
• And you're done!

This is exactly as it is: a normal route starting at your Red Buff. It allows for slightly faster clears because you will have a DoT from Red Buff, and also earlier ganks because of the slow.
asd

---

Start Red, Steal Blue

This can only be done under certain circumstances.
1. The enemy MUST start at Red ( Lee Sin, Rengar, etc) and sometimes might not have a mana resource.

And 2. They must most likely go for a level 2 gank (again, think Lee Sin). If you see a level 2 gank at top, go to Blue immediately and TAKE IT!

A preferable 3rd circumstance would be that their Mid laner has a heavy reliance on Blue Buff, like Anivia.

Doing this will effectively cripple their mid, as you know when their Blue Buff spawns, allowing you to take it over...and over... and over, but also destroy their jungler as you took a valuable buff worth lots of experience and gold.

• Start at Wraiths, and get help.
• Get a heavy leash on Red, so you can save Smite.
• Steal Blue. From here, you can decide to camp at the Wolf camp and kill the jungler if he comes.
• Go to your OWN Blue buff and give it to your mid laner if they need or want it.
• Free-form the rest of the jungle.

asd

---

Level 2 Gank

I don't like this. It doesn't really work because Shyvana is a poor ganker :/ But sometimes the situation calls for it.

• Wraiths (get help)
• Red (leash)
• IMMEDIATELY gank and abuse reaching level 2 faster than the laners can.

When you've played League of Legends for a while, you may have had an encounter with a certain clown that looks like this: (one of my favorite junglers btw :3)

This clown (assuming the player is good) loves going into your jungle and taking your buffs, camps, or just harassing you, and there's not really anything you can do about it if you don't know where he is.

And not just Shaco, but champions like Lee Sin, Darius, and Dr. Mundo. All of them are great invaders like yourself, and if you aren't prepared for them they can probably ruin your whole game.

What can I do against them?

There are a few methods...:3
asd

---

asd
Ward your camps, ward the entrances of your jungle, and 4 man gank them when you see them.

Against strong invaders that try to steal your buff very early, like Shyvana, it may be helpful to ward the buff you aren't starting at at level 1. This will make it so you see the other team/jungler trying to take your buff, and you can run in and steal it with Smite or punish them by killing them when they get low.

If you suspect the other team has a ward somewhere in your jungle, it may be smart to buy an Oracle's Elixir or Vision Ward to clear it first.
asd

---

asd Because Shyvana has an amazing jungle speed, she's able to run into the enemy jungle and basically 'trade' camps or Buffs. If you KNOW that Dr. Mundo is going to get your Blue, ask a teammate to interrupt him while you go take HIS. (and some of his jungle too~)

Knowing when someone will come for your buffs takes practice and mostly instinct based on a certain champion's playstyle. Just because you're against a Lee Sin doesn't mean he will start Blue, but many of them will come into your jungle just to bruise and harass you, or kill you.

Depending on whether you're farmed and/or fed, Shyvana has two distinct roles in a teamfight. The first, assuming you're relatively farmed, is to start a fight and annihilate the enemy carries.

Always look for times when both your own team is in position to follow up, and when the enemy's carries are just a bit too close to you. Then, immediately Dragon's Descent in, activate Randuin's Omen and Blade of the Ruined King if necessary, and focus on killing the enemy AD. There isn't much to say here, just focus on the squishies to disorient the enemy team.

Shyvana's second main role is to peel for her own carries. This is assuming that you're behind, and building items such as Locket of the Iron Solari or Frozen Mallet. There isn't much to explain here either, stay with your AD and use the knockback from Dragon's Descent to push people away from them, or use your item actives to slow them down.

Ask away! C:

It's possible that I've missed a lot of stuff (even after ~200 view on my own guide :P) so if you have any questions that I haven't answered, ask below in the comments~

I'll answer it as soon as possible (I usually get to them in 1-2 days, unless it's stupid to a certain degree like why don't you stack boots on shyv?), and if I get repeated questions I'll put them here.

I think this is my second guide here where I've written about a champion I have extensive knowledge on.

Thanks for having the patience to read through this and learn Shyvana PROPERLY :D

As always, I'd like to thank Jhoi for her How to Make a Guide guide.

Also, I'd like to thank Astrolia for reviewing my guide from a high elo standpoint :3 Even though there are some things I disagree on, his in-depth review greatly helped out.

Ciao~

~tehAsian

10-9-12

• Changed cheat sheet.
• Changed item section
• Added teamfighting section.

10-29-12

• Added Madred's Bloodrazor
• Changed cheat sheet masteries (credit goes to Vort for pointing these out)

11-11-12

• Changed Runes. Thanks Throatslasher for the suggestions~

12-12-12

• Updated Cheat Sheet for S3

12-22-12

• Cleaned up cheatsheet again

3-14-13

• Finished updating for Season 3. Lots of changes.