Hi, my name is Matt and I'm here to show you what I have learned about the beautiful beast that is Shyvana. I currently while writing this guide am mastery 6, with 130K experience with her. She is my second most played champion and if you follow my guide I promise you will see just how powerful she can be if played correctly.
I was inspired to play Shyvana a few months ago after playing a ranked game with friends and seeing a Shyvana play different than any other I have ever seen. The Shyvana I played against ended up getting a penta and carrying her team to victory. After that I read multiple guides and tried tons of different builds and found the ones in this guide to be the most useful and most efficient.

Because Shyvana is very basic, and rarely played or banned, it makes her a safe pick in ranked. She can build tanky (Not my recommendation) or she can build bruiser and deal tons of damage. I will provide in depth explanations within my mind on what I build, what I max, my jungle routes, and everything else. This guide will continue to be updated as I receive feedback and learn new things as well as changes are made to the game.

Thanks for viewing my guide and enjoy.
"By the blood of my father, I will end them."

The runes that I use are rather odd, yet I have found them to work perfectly and come in clutch far too many times. I believe that an extra 5 armor or magic resist really doesn't help you all that much in the long run. Here is how my page is set up.

The lifesteal gives you 6.5% with your mastery page. It doesn't seem like a lot, but on jungle camps and close 1v1's it shows. The critical chance seems weird and to be honest I used it for Yasuo and then with Shyvana I got some perfect crits on the enemy carry and melted them.

Any runes that you want will work, cooldown, armor, MR, anything honestly. This is just my personal preference.

These are the masteries I always use for Shyvana. Because we are building her with Attack Speed, (Bloodrazor), the Fervor of Battle mastery works well for her. As for the questionable ones, I chose Fury because the more attack speed the better. I chose Vampirism because the extra lifesteal can come in EXTREMELY clutch at times. The biggest questionable choice on here was whether to choose Bounty Hunter or Oppressor . After playing games with both and doing more research I found that Oppressor is the better choice, because we have the Frozen Mallet that slows enemies, we constantly do 2.5% more damage to them. Then the first two in cunning are obvious choices for jungling, and then I chose Merciless because as Shyvana you're diving their backline and you want that extra damage before their carry or fighter can lifesteal off you.

Itemization is the biggest flaw I see with how many players build Shyvana. I am going to break this down into a step by step process of the build. Going into depth on how to build her in my opinion and why you should get each item and what it does for you.

Starting

Always Start with the Hunter's Machete, I have seen too many people start with the Hunter's Talisman and I just don't understand it. Shyvana runs off of Fury, not mana, making the Hunter's Talisman useless.

First Back

After finishing the first clear of the jungle, Shyvana should be rather low on health and you should have just enough for your Stalker's Blade and Boots. Get back to base, pick those items up and head back for a second clear. (Check out the jungling section for my jungle route and tips on where to go.)

Bloodrazor

The new Stalker's Blade - Bloodrazor item makes Shyvana even better than she was with the sated devourer. Although the extra hit feature was removed from the item, the stacks requirement allows you to have your full item around eight minutes or less if you clear correctly. This is huge as Shyvana has insane survivability and sustain in the jungle allowing her to go rounds and rounds around the map clearing camps and ganking lanes. Get this item as quickly as you can. Once you get Shyvana's core is when you can really start doing damage to the enemy team.

Boots

Boot choice comes down to the situation you're in. Look at their team comp and see who is fed and who isn't. If they only have an AP mid, and that player is 0-2, I would say get Mercury's Treadsfor the MR and then don't worry about any more MR later on. If they have two or more AP champs, get the Mercury's Treads and also plan on getting more MR later on. The only time I would get Boots of Swiftness or Ninja Tabi is if they are all AD or if you're building full tank and need to be able to keep your burnout harass on their team by staying next to them.

Core Items

This is where Shyvana gets insanely powerful. It's the items that you choose to build after the Stalker's Blade - Bloodrazor that can make or break you as a Shyvana player. I have come to find that Frozen Mallet is the go-to item.

The Frozen Mallet allows you to gain 650 Health, 40 Attack Damage, and the passive on the item allows your basic attacks and your Q to slow enemies by 40%. Not only does this allow you to stick to enemies, do more damage, and soak more damage, the mastery that we set earlier allows us to do bonus damage because of the slow passive that we gain from this item. For 3100 gold, this item is very strong and should be built every time.

The next two items have great synergy with Shyvana and can be bought in either order, depending on how far ahead or behind you are. (More ahead go with Titanic Hydra, more behind go with Sunfire Aegis first). The reasoning for these items are as follows: Sunfire Aegis gives you 50 armor and 500 health. Both great for your survivability. The best part of these items are the passives. The passive on the Sunfire Aegis is literally extra damage to your W and works perfectly, maximizing your AOE damage on enemies making you good for 2v1's or for teamfights. The Titanic Hydra also works great, with 35 AD, 450 health, 100% health regen, and the passive/active, this item is a must. The cone attacks that is given from the Hydra works perfectly with your ulted Q move giving extra damage to your AOE output.

Final Item

This final item is extremely important as well, I have listed the following items as options.

Black Cleaver

The Black Cleaver is a good choice for Shyvana for a couple reasons but is only a smart choice if you're far ahead of everyone because of the lack of Armor or Magic Resist. The 50 Attack Damage, 20% CDR, and 300 health make this item good all around for Shyvana. The unique passive, Rage, also goes well with your Frozen Mallet because of the gain in movement speed, allowing you to stick even more to enemy champions.

Guardian Angel

GA is a very good choice, especially if you're one of the strongest on your team. The 60 Armor and 45 Magic Resist comes in handy against any team comp, making you harder to kill and the passive makes it annoying having to kill a dragon twice (;

Randuin's Omen

Randuin's is only a smart choice when you're going against a crit champion such as Yasuo because of the Passive. (Only if the player who poses a threat has crit, a 0-10 Yasuo doesn't matter enough to get this item because of him.)

Thornmail

Very rarely will you use this item, but I would have it in mind if a team is ever uncooperative enough to go all AD, not only is your damage output high, they assist in their own death!

Spirit Visage

Spirit Visage is a good item if they have a Katarina type champion who is going off. I would only recommend this item over Banshee's veil though if you have a Soraka or something so that her heals are increased.

Banshee's Veil

Great item, blocks one enemy ability every 40 seconds, has a ton of MR, and adds health as well as regen.

Dead Man's Plate

Solid item if you're looking for more Armor and Health. Would take this over Randuin's any day if they don't have a crit carry.


Make sure you choose your last item very situationally. Take a look at my example Shyvana item set. I would take a few minutes setting this up just like I have, makes buying much quicker and simpler.

Shyvana has one of the best clears in the game. Her insane AOE damage allows her to clear camps insanely quickly and has lots of survivability.

My clear goes as follows from Top side:
Gromp(Smite)> Wolfs> Scuttle Crab @ Dragon> Raptors/Chickens> Red Buff(Smite)> Krugs(Smite)> (Recall)> Blue Buff.

**The reason for skipping blue buff is that Shyvana does not have mana making blue buff rather useless for her. I usually take the first blue buff for the early gold before giving it to my AP teammate. It's up to you if you want to give away the first one or not. **

My clear goes as follows from Bottom Side:
Krugs> Red Buff(Smite)> Scuttle Crab @ Dragon> Raptors/Chickens>Wolves>Gromp(Smite)>Blue Buff

Below is a photo of my jungle route. Hope this helps.

The importance of dragons in this patch is completely insane. As a jungler, you need to have complete control of the dragons and try to be one step ahead of the enemy jungler. Communicate with your teammates about setting up for dragon around 20-25 seconds before it appears. Shyvana can melt dragons throughout the game. As soon as you get the bloodrazor (~8 Minutes) you are able to solo the dragon, of course this is risky but if you have vision and some support from your mid or bottom you can start chaining dragons.

Dragon priority goes as follows:
Mountain
Inferno
Ocean
Cloud

If you see a mountain dragon, you better be preparing for that. With the five minute preview of the dragon to come, getting the mountain drakes is a necessity. If you're able to get 2 of those drakes before the Elder rotation appears, your team will have 20% increased damage to turrets and large monsters *Cough* BARON *Cough*. I can't tell you how many games I have won because we had mountain drakes and we were down in kills. Get those drakes, push your turrets, and win games. This isn't Call of Duty, it isn't team deathmatch. If you get those turrets and inhibs I promise you will see an increase in your win rate.


BARON/RIFT HERALD
Rift Herald can be done by yourself as soon as you have your bloodrazor and Frozen Mallet. With help from your top laner, you should be able to get it rather quickly.

Baron is an important part of ending games or applying extreme pressure onto your opponents. The biggest mistake I see when it comes to baron calls is the timing. The only times you should do baron is
1. You have at least one inhib down.
2. You just ACED them or killed their Junglers and Carries.
3. You just grabbed a 2nd or Third mountain drake and all lanes are pushed.

YOU SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE VISION FROM THE ENEMIES BASE TO BARON. IF YOU DON'T, EITHER PUT SOME WARDS DOWN OR BACK OFF BARON.

If you are blindly doing Baron with their Jungler or Carries MIA, you're asking for trouble. Be smart, make good plays, and win games.

Team work is one of Shyvana's strongest suites. Early off if you're in solo que, try and get off to good terms with your lanes. Let them know you're going to farm until six and to play safe. If they can do that, either staying 0-0 or getting an occasional pick, you're set.

Shyvana does very well when it comes to teamfights. Most Shyvanas that I have watched play before don't use their ult as an engage but rather as a last minute kill secure or an escape. This is absolute garbage.. Use your dragon to flank or engage a teamfight. Go straight for their ADC- You have the ability to stick right? Frozen Mallet? Black Cleaver? Get onto their adc and even if they flash or use an ability like Lucian's Dash or Ezreal's flash move, you have your flash to get right onto them and finish them off.

The best part of Shyvana's team fighting is that once you get their carry down, you usually have a large amount of health left and are often a low priority target because many players view shyvana as a "tank" and don't go for her. Take advantage of this.. Get the squishies and then shred those tanks with your E.

There is one part of Shyvana's Kit that many people, including myself at first, overlooked. Her E, Flame Breath, is the secret as to why Shyvana makes shreding tanks possible. Flame Breath does the following with the mark that is applied to any enemies hit- "Shyvana's basic atacks against marked enemies deal bonus magic damage equal to 2.5% of their maximum health."

This ability doesn't sound very impressive, but when put up against someone with 3000+ health, that extra ~75 damage or so per hit can come in very clutch especially because it is activated by your Q as well (your Q is a double hit so the mark actually does ~150 damage). And because we built bloodrazor, your attack speed is fairly high allowing you to melt anyone who confronts you.. :)

Here are some screenshots of my games and me as a player, I don't play enough to climb into high elo and I am still learning the game as I have been playing since late season 5. Obviously I have lots to learn and that is why this guide will continue to change. If you have any feedback, tips, questions, or anything feel free to leave a comment here or message/add me on league @ Gucci Fam.

Thank you!