THE BEST SHYVANA GUIDE FOR S13 - AP, AD, AND TANK! (PICK YOUR POISON, THEY ALL WORK!)
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Recommended Items
Runes: AP Shyvana Runes
+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+65 Base Health
Spells:
Flash
Gustwalker Smite
Items
Threats & Synergies
Nunu & Willump
If they are good they will put a TON of pressure on the map while you are stuck farming. You need to be extremely efficient on getting to lvl 6 ASAP, because a good Nunu will make sure your team is ready to FF by the time you hit your powerspikes. Late game if you get ahead you can shred him, but if you're behind he will eat your E damage and walk it off like nothing. DO NOT TEAM FIGHT HIM IN PHYSICAL RANGE, you will get perma CC'd and die. Make sure you kite around the chaos of the fight and keep a safe distance.
Malphite
Great top laner to play with, they usually allow their laner to overextend making ganks easy. Their ult is an amazing tool for you to hit a free dragon from E on the enemy team. In my opinion Shyvana plays best with tanks who can CC and distract the enemy. You Do NOT want to be the tankiest member of your team.
Malphite
Great top laner to play with, they usually allow their laner to overextend making ganks easy. Their ult is an amazing tool for you to hit a free dragon from E on the enemy team. In my opinion Shyvana plays best with tanks who can CC and distract the enemy. You Do NOT want to be the tankiest member of your team.
Champion Build Guide
Why play Shyvana? This is a very important part of the guide because the mentality of a Shyvana player is important. If you don't want to carry the game and you are not a "clicky" player this champion is probably not for you. Shyvana requires a lot of quick clicks to move in a way that makes her effective. You need to find the right angle to shoot Flame Breath, kite melee champions, and most importantly dodge skillshots successfully. |
Shyvana is kind of a mix of many champions put into one. Because there is no single way to build her, this champion is very versatile. You can choose to build her full damage AP, bruiser AP, full tank, or AD Tank depending on your team comp / the enemy team comp.
Shyvana Pros & Cons
+ Scales very well + Has the ability to solo dragons early + Can be built according to team comp/enemy comp + One of the best power farming junglers + She has easy mechanics + No mana! Yay! + Can split push & waveclear quickly in dragon form + Low pick & ban rate, so you’ll get to choose her almost anytime you want |
- NEEDS to farm to get strong - Weak pre-6, meaning unreliable ganks early & prone to invasions - Can be kited easily - Shyvana has no utility whatsoever - Ult-reliant to be useful in teamfights - Can be frustrating when your teammates don’t understand how your fury mechanic works |
Ability Overview
Passive: Dragonborn
Dragonborn gives Shyvana 5 bonus armor and 5 bonus magic resistance. Additionally, this passive lets her deal 20% more damage to dragons. Every drake her team gets gives her an additional 5 bonus armor and 5 bonus magic resist. While getting drakes is important for any champ you play, it is even more important for Shyvana. If the game goes on and by 20 minutes your team still doesn't have a drake, you essentially have no passive. |
Q: Twin Bite
Using Twin Bite empowers Shyvana’s next 2 auto attacks gaining 40/45/50/55/60% attack speed. The first attack has increased range (25), deals 100% AD/35% AP & causes another attack shortly after that deals bonus attack damage. The second strike applies on hit & on attack effects on top of being affected by crit modifiers. It also is an increased auto attack reset, so always make sure to auto attack before using Twin Bite to get the most out of this ability. Auto attacks on champs and monsters reduce the cooldown by 0.5 seconds. In Dragon Form, Twin Bite turns into an AOE attack where she cleaves all units in front of her while granting double Fury. In both human and dragon form, Twin Bite applies on-hit effects while in dragon she is incapable of critting. |
W: Burnout
Activating Burnout deals magic damage (+0.2 per bonus attack damage) to nearby enemies and gains increased movement speed that decays over time. During the spell duration, each autoattack deals increased damage and increases the duration of Burnout as well (up to a maximum of 4 seconds). Dragon Form increases the range of Burnout. |
E: Flame Breath
Flame Breath is your main damage dealer when playing AP Shyvana. This spell scales greatly with Ability Power and marks all enemies hit. Basic attacks against marked enemies deals additional magic damage equivalent to 3% (+1% per additional 100 AD) of their maximum health. This is capped at 150 health when used against monsters. In dragon form, Flame Breath explodes upon colliding with an enemy champion or reaching the end of it's path. What's left behind is a flame zone that deals magic damage per second (up to 4 seconds) and marks enemies with the same passive. |
R: Dragon's Descent
Passive: At level 6, Shyvana's basic attacks grant 2 fury in both human and dragon form. While in human form, fury will generate passively per second. Active: When activated, Dragon's Descent lunges Shyvana towards a target location. Enemies she collides into take magic damage and are pushed into the direction she's lunging. Upon transformation, Shyvana gains bonus health and attack range. Her dragon size also increases per rank. Fury is lost at a rate of 5 per second, so auto attacking in dragon form will help the duration of Dragon's Descent last longer. Once all fury is lost, she returns back to her normal state. |
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1. If your team is in dire need of magic damage, then you should go AP Shyvana. Her AP scaling is pretty insane & the Flame Breath AoE can get off TONS of damage in teamfights. 2. The enemy team is really squishy? These are fun games for AP Shyvana, especially when she gets ahead. Like I said, her AP damage scales really hard. A squishy team will have an extremely hard time not getting 1-shot by your Flame Breath in dragon form. This works even better if they’re immobile too. 3. If the enemy team has 2 or more tanks and you still want to go with AP Shyvana, then you should consider going for a more AP bruiser build with Riftmaker and Cosmic Drive (& other AP + HP items). 4. AP Shyvana is best when her team has a reliable frontline, crowd control, & engagement. This gives you guaranteed Flame Breath one-shots & some form of protection from being engaged on from the enemy team, which you don’t want if you’re building glass-cannon. 5. High-priority Mid and/or Bot lanes. Ideally as AP Shyvana you have priority in both Mid & bot-lane so you can secure drakes with ease. |
1. If your team already has 2 champs who deal primarily magic damage, then the AD Tank playstyle will help give your team a more balanced composition. 2. When your team is squishy and has no frontline, it’s much better to go with AD Tank over AP Shyvana. Without a frontline, your team will get destroyed in teamfights as long as the other team has an established frontline. Having no frontline is pretty troll. (This is why we tend to dislike Teemo toplanes...) |
Pre-Level 6
2. Get whatever farm you can without dying. Like I've mentioned a million times, Shyvana's early game isn't the best. Most games you'll be able to do a first full clear without too many problems. But if you find yourself being invaded at your second buff and your laners being pushed under turret, it's not the worst idea to avoid fighting & retreat safely. It really depends on the matchup, what runes & summoner spells you have, and whether your teammates are roatating to your aid. Also, don't be afraid to punish the enemy jungler for showing themselves on the map by invading their jungle. Just make sure you know where they & their teammates are before entering their jungle.
3. Sneak the first Dragon when you have bot and/or mid prio or when the enemy jungler dies or shows top side. Shyvana's Dragonborn passive makes her able to solo Drakes quite fast. Just make sure to use your Oracle Lens, have your Smite ready, and ping your teammates that you'll be prioritizing the dragon even if you won't be requiring their help. Dragons are so important for Shyvana - so getting as many of them as you can is a top priority!
4. IF POSSIBLE try to help your team and gank when the opportunity arises. While early game Shyvana is pretty weak, it doesn't mean you should completely ignore your team. Is the enemy bot lane extremely pushed up with low health? You may want to consider dropping by for a gank. Your mid lane mage has hard CC and can help set up a gank? Go for it! Early game Shyvana is still capable of getting kills! And even if you don't get a kill, you can get some early stacks on Dark Harvest.
Early Human Form
FARM UNTIL YOU GET 100% RAGE
That's it! If you farm every time you don't have rage then look for a gank when you do, you will be extremely efficient. You should almost never gank without 100% rage because Shyvana is only 1/2 a champ without her dragon form.
Obviously think about the current situation, but that concept should be the main thing on your mind. You are not useless in human form at this point of the game, but you are not strong either. You are "below average". The way you fight as human form Shyv at this point in the game will depend on whether you're building AP or AD Tank & the matchup.
Early Dragon Form
How to Dominate With Early Dragon Form
2. Like I said, you are tankier than you think during this period, especially if you use my build. Beat them up, make them fear you, steal their farm, and take every objective you can.
2. Always have your Oracle Lens on cooldown while making sure to save it to prep for objectives. Since you'll be running Zombie Ward if you use my runes, you'll want to have as much vision control as possible. Always sweep when you're running around the jungle & clear wards at record speed with auto attack + Twin Bite.
3. Farm, farm, farm! Shyvana is one of the fastest power farming junglers! You should basically NEVER fall behind in farm. In fact, you should bascially ALWAYS be ahead in farm if the game hasn't completely fallen apart! Take all your camps when they're up, catch some lane minions wherever you can, & invade the enemy jungler when you know you can do it safely or you are with your team.
(jungle camps, minions, & even champs IF you must)
How to Play AP Shyvana in Teamfights
You can launch Dragon's Descent into the enemy team under these conditions: the enemies have already used their cooldowns & your team has multiple enemies crowd controlled. Your ultimate does allow you to be unstoppable, so you can actually do a ton of damage by ulting into the enemy team & throwing your Flame Breath at them immediately after. If you have Flash or Hextech Rocketbelt (or both), then I highly recommend you use it to safely reposition yourself away from the enemy team after ulting into them and then throwing Flame Breath after.
( Dragon's Descent + Flash + Flame Breath + GTFO OF THERE & THROW ANOTHER Flame Breath)
How to Play AD Tank Shyvana in Teamfights
As AD Tank Shyvana, you can protect your carries by chasing enemies away with Burnout or using Dragon's Descent into anyone trying to engage on your ADC/carry. Also, you don't always need to use your ultimate straight away. A good way to bait the enemies cooldowns is by running towards them with Burnout as a gap closer & save Dragon's Descent to become immune to their crowd control.
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