Shyvana, the Half-Dragon

I INTRODUCTION

Shyvana is an extreme jungler. Shyvana differs her jungling style, her plays in the jungle and her jungle route than most of the other junglers out there in League of Legends. Shyvana is extremely viable in both ranked ladder and the competitive scene. Shyvana was „introduced“ to us not far ago, in the latest League of Legends participating IEM GC – Kiev, Ukraine. She was literally the first pick for (back then) the newcomers to the LoL competitive scene Moscow Five (M5) who presented their Shyvana to the entire world, as their literally instant first pick, and their most confident choice. (Also known in solo queue as "instalock")

Shyvana is a jungler who is characterized by various methods of jungling, strategizing and extremely high mobility as well as jungling speed. She brings in an extreme methods of counter-jungling, never seen before in League of Legends. Shyvana is, in the long run, a champion you want to avoid reaching the late-game teamfights, in which, unless she is hardly chain-CC'd, she's pretty much an unstoppable force and an auto-crusher of the entire enemy team. She really needs a plan to be dealt with during the teamfights, or she'll just go ahead and melt the target she outlined.

II ABILITIES

(Passive) Fury of the Dragonborn: Shyvana's auto-attack enhance the cooldown and damage of her abilities, as well as generate rage which is used for her Ultimate ability. Great steroid which increases her agility and mobility.

(Q) Twin Bite: Toggles an auto-attack when used. This has to be used right after another auto-attack for maximum damage output. I max this ability second.

(W) Burnout: Shyvana surrounds herself in fire, damaging all nearby enemies, for up to 4 seconds. Auto-attacking refreshes the duration of Burnout, up to maximum of 6 seconds. (Total 10 seconds of Burnout). The core of Shyvana's mobility and fast jungling/counterjungling. I max this ability first.

(E) Flame Breath: Shyvana unleashes a fireball which damages and shreds the armor of the first target it hits. This ability is mostly useful for its armor shred. I max this last.

(R) Dragon's Descent: Shyvana transforms into dragon, gaining increased Armor, Magic Resist and her abilities utilized for even more AOE damage. A must during the teamfights. As with most of the Ultimates, I take this whenever possible – at lvl 6, 11, 16.

III Jungling

Jungling phase of Shyvana is where she brings her full potential and where she comes to shine. Basically, half of her jungling is spent in an enemy jungle. Shyvana is surely one of the fastest junglers in the League of Legends, therefore you want to use that potential of hers to the maximum. Personally, I've seen thousands of people moaning about Shyvana not ganking their lane. And I agree. I agree with those people because, in my opinion, Shyvana is (being a non-CC Champion) probably one of the worst gankers in the League and that's not where you should be looking to build your advantage at.

That's why, playing Shyvana you'll want to focus on clearing your own jungle as soon as possible, and then paying a visit to your opponent's jungle. When counterjungling, you should always leave 1 monster alive, so the camp will not respawn until that 1 monster is cleared (until your opponent comes and clears it). That way, you leash some of your opponent's XP and gold, while denying him his own. This basically works like denying creeps in the lane (DotA, HoN).

Another thing to note down, is that you should always time the enemy blue-buffs and red-buffs. Although dependant on an enemy jungler, if you estimate their jungler starts at the blue buff, then you should go for their second blue buff without a doubt. Their blue should, for a second time, spawn somewhere between 07:00 and 07:30, if they've done it immediately it spawned the first time. You should also attempt to contest an enemy red buff whenever it is possible. All this time though, you should be on watch for your own buffs, and should pick them up/give them out as soon as they spawn. So, adequate timing between the jungling and counter-jungling when playing Shyvana, definitely is necessary.

Shyvana tends to build her advantage, not by ganking lanes and scoring kills (in which she is rather not preferable), but in the speed of her jungling capabilities themselves, as well as denying an enemy their own resources.

My preferable jungling path with Shyvana is:

-> enemy wraiths (leave 1 alive);

-> my own blue buff;

-> wolves;

-> wraiths;

-> red-buff;

-> invade an enemy jungle

Etc.

IV Runes & Masteries

For runes, I personally prefer two main pages for jungling Shyvana.

The first one;

Marks: 9x Attack Damage (FLAT);

Seals: 9x Armor (FLAT);

Glyphs: 9x Attack Speed (FLAT);

Quints: 3x Attack Damage (FLAT);

This page is aimed at giving me the maximum damage potential, increasing my threat by a huge level, as well as increasing the jungling/counter-jungling potential.

The second one;

Marks: 9x Attack Damage (FLAT);

Seals: 9x Armor (FLAT);

Glyphs: 9x Attack Speed (FLAT);

Quints: 3x Movement Speed;

This one tends to increase my counter-jungling threat by adding the Movespeed quints, in which an opponent should always be on the look-out for me. Especially if you start off with Boots +3 Health Potions.

The mastery page I use is the (presumably) standard one for a jungler, which is: 21 / 9 / 0

The branches look like this:

Summoner spells of my personal choice are:

SMITE + FLASH – This consists of the most basic summoner spells the junglers can use. Smite, needless to explain, a must for every jungler. Flash, as always, serving two main purposes – escaping & chasing down.

Although this is my personal choice, that doesn't mean it's the only viable. I've also seen people run Smite + Exhaust, Smite + Ghost, or even Smite + Ignite on Shyvana jungle. As reasonable as it may seem, I still deem to think that Smite + Flash serves its purpose in the best possible way.

V Item builds

Talking item builds, there's one main build which I tend to build 97% of my games.

Start off with Boots + 3 Health Potions. The reason behind this is, once again, the mobility of Shyvana itself. You are very very mobile starting off with Boots + 3 Pots, and present yourself as a real threat to the enemy jungle when shown as such. You can also, situationally, pull of a gank in case an enemy is overextending really hard.

V.I Core items

Tankiness of Shyvana herself is based on her Core Items. I build Core Items, as shown respectively underneath:

Wriggle's Lantern –> Mercury Treads -> Phage -> Atma's Impaler -> Frozen Mallet -> Warmog's Armor

This build aims at giving you the maximum potential during the teamfights, which is: sustain, damage output, and utility.Having these items, you should be extremely tanky and won't be tanken down easily.

V.II End-game/defensive items

Personally, as a defensive item choice, I see only one item as a reasonable and viable option specifically on Shyvana: Guardian Angel.

As strange as it may seem, many teams are having trouble killing / dealing with Shyvana during the teamfights. Building up that GA will just harden your team's strength and once an enemy team sees you with the GA - I'm sure they won't feel good.

VI Match-ups

Even though Shyvana seems to be so strong in the jungle, very mobile and extremely fast, there certainly are a few match-ups you should be paying attention to, and act accordingly to each and every one of them:

NOCTURNE/SKARNER - Should you find yourself opposing a Nocturne or Skarner, you should be taking two things in consideration:

1. Nocturne/Skarner jungle fast, meaning you should time your counter-jungles appropriately. What you want to do in this match-up is leash as much jungle of his as possible, because, Nocturne himself being a really really strong jungler once he reaches level 6. His ultimate is probably one of the best ganking tools, so, for the sake of your own team, and for your own safety while counter-jungling, you should aim to delay his goal as soon as possible.

2. Once they reach level 6, you should be VERY cautious. Once counter-jungling a Nocturne, you risk a lot. Supposedly, they'll have their own jungle warded, their own buffs timed, and should you appear intending to do any of the things listed above, you can get jumped on by either of them and can assume you'll also be jumped on by an enemy laner. So, for the safety of your own, you should (apart from your own jungle) have an enemy jungle warded as well, and you should avoid counter-jungling in case you don't know where Nocturne/Skarner is (or has he recalled to the base).

EXTREME GANKERS - Extreme gankers implies that an enemy jungler ganks horribly well throughout the entire course of the game, although that means (most of the time) that his jungling capabilities are not that high - meaning that he jungles slow. This includes many junglers such as Maokai, Rammus, Trundle etc. This is where you are looking to literally destroy an enemy. Considering the fact that they jungle moderate/slow, you'll be taking huge advantage of that. Once you see an enemy ganking, you should estimate your chances and see from which one you'll gain the most: Counter-jungle or Counter-gank.

SHACO - Shaco is a very strong jungler, ganker, and when it comes to preparing an ambushes for an enemy. If an enemy runs a Shaco, you should think twice about counter-jungling him on early levels, because, in case he places down a bunch of Jack-in-the-Boxes, you'll surely be melted down without even a chance to respond. You should always keep the enemy jungle warded, and should always be on the lookout for that pesky little clown!

I hope you enjoyed reading my guide, and I really hope you found it helpful and adequate. Looking forward to any kind of feedback/commentary.